The Century Emerald Knight

CHAPTER 1: THE DAWN OF THE CENTURY Year: 1734 - Kansas, British America

Eric Johnson - Age 11
"Mom! Why are we hated because of our color? We were fine in Africa until the whites came."
His mother looked at him silently for a moment. She could see the confusion and pain in his eyes. "Eric, sometimes people hate what they don't understand. But you must never allow someone else's hatred to determine who you become."

"But why us?"

His mother sighed. "Because the world isn't always fair. We don't get to choose the circumstances we're born into. But we can choose what we do with them."
Eric lowered his head. He didn't understand it then, but years later, he would remember those words. They would become part of the foundation of the man he would eventually become:

The Century.

THE NIGHT THE SKY BROKE
That night, Eric woke to silence. Not ordinary silence. There were no crickets, no wind, and no distant voices. Even the sound of his own breathing seemed strangely loud.
Eric slowly sat up. "Mom?" No answer. He stepped out of bed and walked toward his mother's room. "Mom?" Still nothing.

He opened the door.His mother was gone. Eric's heart began racing. He ran outside and suddenly stopped. His entire village was gone. Where homes had once stood, there was nothing but destruction. Trees had been ripped from the earth, buildings had been reduced to ash, and the ground itself had been torn apart.

A massive crater stretched across the landscape. Almost three miles of land had been destroyed. Eric stood frozen. His eleven-year-old mind couldn't understand what he was seeing.
"Mom...?"

His voice trembled.
Then he saw it.
At the center of the crater was a strange stone. It wasn't an ordinary rock. It was glowing, a bright light pulsing from within it almost like the stone had a heartbeat.
Eric slowly approached it. Every instinct told him to stay away, but something inside him pulled him toward it. He stepped closer. The light became brighter.
He reached out.
His fingers touched the stone.
And everything changed.
A violent surge of energy exploded from it. Eric screamed as the energy entered his body like fire. His veins burned, his skin began to blister, and he collapsed onto the ground while clutching his chest.
"AAAAAAHHHH!"
His scream traveled across the crater.
Then suddenly-silence.
The energy disappeared into his body.
Eric lay motionless. His body was covered in burns. Then something impossible happened.
The wounds began closing.
The burns disappeared.
The damaged skin repaired itself within seconds.
Eric slowly opened his eyes.
He was still alive.
He didn't know it yet, but the stone had changed him forever.