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LBT Fanfiction / The Eighth Hunter
« on: September 05, 2015, 09:03:06 AM »
Prologue
"Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it." - Common saying
The moon shined brightly on the peaceful scenery below. The only few obvious signs of life were making themselves known through their high-pitched tweeting and chirping in the small forest nearby. Creatures of different types, together filling the night with their songs.
Yet, there was clearly something else there. With deliberately slow and silent movement, another creature made its way out into the open and sat down under the spacious porch.
It was only after the beams of light that the moon reflected hit parts of its face that one could have seen a pair of green eyes, outlined by black frames, carefully scanning the surroundings, adapting to the darkness all around. Time seemed to pause for this creature as it admired the beauty, tranquility and peacefulness of this dark, moonlit scenery.
With a slow but determined move of its arm, this peculiar creature stroked through its short, dark golden mane and pulled a white stick-like thing with an orange bottom from behind its right ear, put it into its mouth, and after two audible clicks, using one of the many artificial tools of its kind, finally set fire to it.
Gentle sizzling. Inhale, exhale. Wads of blue and grey smoke ascended into the moonlight.
Ahh, always hits the spot... Been a long day. The male human thought to himself, bittersweet taste of tobacco fumes greeting his delicate senses, while he looked up fascinated at the bright full moon, which didn't even seem to be so far above him. As the nicotine rushed to his brain and unfolded its effects, which caused him to experience this lightheaded feeling he was very much looking forward to, he couldn't help but feel strangely safe and in control in the darkness that embraced everything in the nighttime. Such has it been for the longest time. Darkness meant security to him, quiet and calm. A personal realm to relax and recapitulate the events of the day, shielded from any unwanted interruptions.
After exhaling another few wads of smoke, his thoughts drifted off. Into considerations that were quite usual for his kind.
That's my, uh... seventh today... Hmm, I really should be stepping down a notch... He started pondering before immediately dismissing this idea again. Oh, what the hell, who am I kidding? We all have to die one day. At least I can enjoy what I want for as long as I can. Besides, that's well within the margin. Awake for, what, 18 hours now? Tzz... Not like this one would turn my life around.
Faintly smiling now, he looked down at the red glowing tip of his cigarette, twisting it around a bit between his fingertips, which made the smoke seemingly dance in the midnight air. It would be a night just like any other. And in just a few more hours he would have to get up again, to attend to some unfinished educational stuff. But until then, he would enjoy this ritual of his and not let anything ruin that.
Or so he thought to himself. But how wrong could he have been?
Boom!
His gaze immediately shot up at the sky, startled, as soon as that distant booming sound reached his ears.
He had always been proud of his excellent sense of hearing, which helped him in understanding and solving multiple situations in his life already. That did not quite make up for his rather poor eyesight, though, he always deduced. But he was indeed a very strange specimen when it came to perception. Without his optical aids, his eyes were quite terrible, but as soon as he just wore his glasses or contacts, he had the eyes of a raptorial bird. His sense of smell, too, was what he would have described as 'above average'. However much all this really meant for a mere human, and however logical and realistic he really was about that.
But right now, all of this didn't matter a single bit to him as he asked the inevitable question out loud while leaving the porch, now standing right in the open.
"Woah... What... in the world was that?"
Everything seemed to have gone silent, even the frequent chirping from the crickets and a few birds in the forest had paused. After a few more moments, though, which felt more like an eternity to him, the sounds of life all around came back. Everything was back to normal again.
Seemingly...
"Nothing... Huh, pathetic..."
Probably just a jet or big firecracker or something... Should've known...
A sigh, then a slight chuckle left his mouth, and with a now somewhat uneasy mind he decided to finish his cigarette and soon go to sleep. He hadn't really done much over the day, but felt strangely tired and exhausted, now that he thought about it. Though that could've also been due to his much higher heartbeat, the effects of the little shock and the nicotine having mixed, culminating in a far from relaxing feeling.
One last wad of blue smoke went up into the night sky as he flicked the still slightly glowing cigarette several meters over the nearby fence and into the darkness. He would get the stub tomorrow morning, perhaps, and dispose of it properly. The climate was not even close to what he would have described as 'mild' at the moment, and certainly not arid, so he did not really feel concern about a potential fire hazard.
Already having his front turned towards the door of his home, he decided to allow himself one last look at the beautiful moon.
And it was only then that he noticed something strange. He adjusted his glasses and squinted his eyes at what appeared to be a tiny object, thousands of kilometers in the distance, which seemed to hover right next to the moon.
"Huh? What is...?"
He didn't even have time to finish his sentence as the object suddenly and rapidly grew larger. Its outlines became more clearly visible.
A blue ball of light, embraced by the blazing hot flames that the entry into earth's atmosphere caused. Petrified by the sight of this beautiful, yet terrifying object, which was seemingly about to crash right into him within the next few seconds, he never even thought about moving.
This just couldn't be. This just had to be his imagination, or a misinterpretation. This just didn't make any sense.
"But... Oh... shit!"
He merely whispered these words as he dropped to the paved ground, acting out of instinct, rolling against the hard stones of the nearby porch, eyes closed and his hands covering his head. He could've sworn seeing a bright flash of blue light, even with his eyes firmly shut and him facing the ground, his glasses firmly pressing against his nose and temples.
A quick moment of realization, perhaps. Now he started to expect a shockwave that would throw him around and probably kill him, perhaps wipe out the entire neighborhood. What a foolish decision it had been to not run inside for cover.
But nothing happened.
In fact, everything had gone silent again. Everything but his anxious breathing and the heavy pounding of his heart that resonated in his ears. This crept him out more than any horror story, game or movie could have done in his entire life, indeed filling him with honest dread and horror. He imagined the area around him dead, a wasteland of rubble, deprived of all life.
Yet, he was still breathing.
He reluctantly opened his eyes again, letting out an audible groan of pain as he rose back to his feet. Despite wearing a comfortable wool jacket, he must have lacerated both of his lower arms. Though, right now, this probably was the least of his concerns.
Carefully scanning the environment again, he couldn't help but feel even more horrified now. It seemed as if nothing had happened at all. That mysterious object, which seconds ago raced towards him with incredible speed, had just disappeared. No trace of it could be found anywhere around.
That was when he turned around and took a closer look at the small forest next to his home. Almost undiscernible, a blue light was emitted from somewhere between the large trees and many bushes. He hesitated, unsure about how to process this, but ultimately, with carefully slow movement, he began walking towards that place.
So much entranced by wonder, or perhaps an incomprehensibly powerful force, that he did not even notice all the small lights on every house around had gone dark.
There was only silent darkness, him, and the dim blue light in the woods.
Edging closer to the mysterious object, after around half a minute of time standing right in front of it, he abruptly stopped. Almost as if the force that had dragged him here let go now. However, he didn't ponder this. His eyes were firmly fixed on the stone from the sky. The light coming from that stone was now extremely bright. So bright that it hurt his eyes to look at it directly for more than a few seconds, the fresh scratches that were now on his glasses not helping much.
But, despite all this, the environment around it was unaffected by it. None of the trees around this area took on that blue hue. Neither the trees, nor the bushes, nor the lone human. In fact, not even the surprisingly small crater in which the rock stood.
How... can this be? This must've flown faster than a bullet... It's almost like... this thing isn't meant to disturb anyone who didn't see it coming down.
This uneasy thought crossed his mind two times before he finally broke out of his pondering and shook his head, muttering to himself.
"Pff! What bullshit. This is the real world. Stuff like that only happens in stories."
However, his spoken words should not reflect the unspoken afterthought in his head. Only if one could have read his mind, one would've heard an addition to that sentence.
...does it not?
Indeed, he was at a loss for any reasonable ideas. He walked around the rock for over a minute, thinking about what to do now. Technically, he was allowed to do what he pleased to do with that rock. There were a lot of rules and laws in the human society, but none of them explicitly prevented him from taking a stone which fell out of the sky back to his home. And if there were, he didn't know of any. However, as with many things in human society, there were certain exceptions. Where laws and regulations didn't apply anymore.
And this was certainly one of them. Here, common sense had to be applied.
Crap, what am I doing here? I have to call the police. Who knows, maybe this thing is dangerous? A stone shouldn't have this weird glow.
With that, he stepped back from the rock and pulled out a black, rectangle shaped device from his jeans. His concerned look quickly turned into a weird mix of surprise and serious uneasiness, however.
His cellphone wasn't working anymore. At all. Several times he pressed the only three buttons it had to no avail, even though it definitely was almost fully charged, not having been operated much over the day. He quickly suspected he broke it when jumping to the ground earlier, but the device did not have a single scratch on it. At least none that he could make out with his fingers, as it was too dark to make out clear details.
Looking back in the direction of the blue glowing rock, then slowly turning around to finally find all the lights out everywhere, a clear suspicion formed.
"Really...? An... An EMP?"
If it was actually true that a normal rock from space, more or less so, could have produced enough electromagnetic power to destroy or at least temporarily kill the electronics of an entire block, he did not know either. But that explanation seemed reasonably satisfying and the least confusing at that time. Still, this wasn't enough of an explanation for him to loosen up in any way.
But you're no normal rock, are you? Shit, what do I do now? What do I do? I can't just leave this thing here...
The stone seemed to mock him with his presence, standing there silently with its blue glow. He spent seemingly an eternity in front of the rock and couldn't think of a single thing to do.
Hesitantly, then, seeing no other option but to give in to his curiosity, he decided to inspect the rock in more detail.
Slowly reaching out with his hand and touching it, he could instantly feel a strange, warm feeling entering his body. Almost like an indescribable amount of energy now flowing through him, his every single limb, hair and cell, and then back into the stone. An exchange, not of words but far more complicated things. It was indeed a feeling impossible to properly describe, but he didn't recoil from the stone. He embraced that feeling, he accepted this 'trade'.
He closed his eyes, lost in another realm for a moment, and muttered some inaudible words.
He had always been afraid to lose control. It had happened once, several years ago, after a few drinks too many. And then never again. And while, sure enough, he tried to be popular with the friends he had and never be a killjoy, that also never stopped him from the credo he was following with his mind.
Control. Control over his own body, mind and soul. His standpoint on that matter was clear. There were numerous substances that, in his eyes, weak-minded humans would consume in excess to escape the harsh reality of a brutal world, where everyone had to fight for their place with their wits and skills. He had a strong mind, however. He always accepted what life threw at him. And though the destination of his life was unclear to him, he knew exactly on what kind of path he would always stay and never stray from.
But at that moment, as he muttered a succession of words that came from the deepest corners of his soul to the strange rock, he truly reached an understanding like never before.
He had entirely lost control over his mind.
Before he could even come up with a conclusion on what he had just done, the flow of energy suddenly stopped and the rock seemed to glow even more aggressively, now almost intentionally blinding him. For another shocked blink of his eyes, his hand seemed to be glued to the rock, as if it was unwilling to let him go just yet. At this rapid change, the human forcefully and with all his power sprung back like the scared animal he was right now, detaching himself from that malicious rock, unfortunately also tripping over a large root.
Too shocked to react, too confused to prepare, he landed on his back...
Thud!
...hitting his head with a dull sound on one of the numerous tall trees.
For just another second, the world seemed to spin around him as his body slowly, but forcefully, shut down his eyelids. His consciousness would follow. His heartbeat already decelerated. He could still make out the strange blue light changing to a deep red tone, as if foreboding his very doom, before the stone went pitch black.
Only darkness embraced his senses now as everything else slipped away.
__________
"Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it." - Common saying
The moon shined brightly on the peaceful scenery below. The only few obvious signs of life were making themselves known through their high-pitched tweeting and chirping in the small forest nearby. Creatures of different types, together filling the night with their songs.
Yet, there was clearly something else there. With deliberately slow and silent movement, another creature made its way out into the open and sat down under the spacious porch.
It was only after the beams of light that the moon reflected hit parts of its face that one could have seen a pair of green eyes, outlined by black frames, carefully scanning the surroundings, adapting to the darkness all around. Time seemed to pause for this creature as it admired the beauty, tranquility and peacefulness of this dark, moonlit scenery.
With a slow but determined move of its arm, this peculiar creature stroked through its short, dark golden mane and pulled a white stick-like thing with an orange bottom from behind its right ear, put it into its mouth, and after two audible clicks, using one of the many artificial tools of its kind, finally set fire to it.
Gentle sizzling. Inhale, exhale. Wads of blue and grey smoke ascended into the moonlight.
Ahh, always hits the spot... Been a long day. The male human thought to himself, bittersweet taste of tobacco fumes greeting his delicate senses, while he looked up fascinated at the bright full moon, which didn't even seem to be so far above him. As the nicotine rushed to his brain and unfolded its effects, which caused him to experience this lightheaded feeling he was very much looking forward to, he couldn't help but feel strangely safe and in control in the darkness that embraced everything in the nighttime. Such has it been for the longest time. Darkness meant security to him, quiet and calm. A personal realm to relax and recapitulate the events of the day, shielded from any unwanted interruptions.
After exhaling another few wads of smoke, his thoughts drifted off. Into considerations that were quite usual for his kind.
That's my, uh... seventh today... Hmm, I really should be stepping down a notch... He started pondering before immediately dismissing this idea again. Oh, what the hell, who am I kidding? We all have to die one day. At least I can enjoy what I want for as long as I can. Besides, that's well within the margin. Awake for, what, 18 hours now? Tzz... Not like this one would turn my life around.
Faintly smiling now, he looked down at the red glowing tip of his cigarette, twisting it around a bit between his fingertips, which made the smoke seemingly dance in the midnight air. It would be a night just like any other. And in just a few more hours he would have to get up again, to attend to some unfinished educational stuff. But until then, he would enjoy this ritual of his and not let anything ruin that.
Or so he thought to himself. But how wrong could he have been?
Boom!
His gaze immediately shot up at the sky, startled, as soon as that distant booming sound reached his ears.
He had always been proud of his excellent sense of hearing, which helped him in understanding and solving multiple situations in his life already. That did not quite make up for his rather poor eyesight, though, he always deduced. But he was indeed a very strange specimen when it came to perception. Without his optical aids, his eyes were quite terrible, but as soon as he just wore his glasses or contacts, he had the eyes of a raptorial bird. His sense of smell, too, was what he would have described as 'above average'. However much all this really meant for a mere human, and however logical and realistic he really was about that.
But right now, all of this didn't matter a single bit to him as he asked the inevitable question out loud while leaving the porch, now standing right in the open.
"Woah... What... in the world was that?"
Everything seemed to have gone silent, even the frequent chirping from the crickets and a few birds in the forest had paused. After a few more moments, though, which felt more like an eternity to him, the sounds of life all around came back. Everything was back to normal again.
Seemingly...
"Nothing... Huh, pathetic..."
Probably just a jet or big firecracker or something... Should've known...
A sigh, then a slight chuckle left his mouth, and with a now somewhat uneasy mind he decided to finish his cigarette and soon go to sleep. He hadn't really done much over the day, but felt strangely tired and exhausted, now that he thought about it. Though that could've also been due to his much higher heartbeat, the effects of the little shock and the nicotine having mixed, culminating in a far from relaxing feeling.
One last wad of blue smoke went up into the night sky as he flicked the still slightly glowing cigarette several meters over the nearby fence and into the darkness. He would get the stub tomorrow morning, perhaps, and dispose of it properly. The climate was not even close to what he would have described as 'mild' at the moment, and certainly not arid, so he did not really feel concern about a potential fire hazard.
Already having his front turned towards the door of his home, he decided to allow himself one last look at the beautiful moon.
And it was only then that he noticed something strange. He adjusted his glasses and squinted his eyes at what appeared to be a tiny object, thousands of kilometers in the distance, which seemed to hover right next to the moon.
"Huh? What is...?"
He didn't even have time to finish his sentence as the object suddenly and rapidly grew larger. Its outlines became more clearly visible.
A blue ball of light, embraced by the blazing hot flames that the entry into earth's atmosphere caused. Petrified by the sight of this beautiful, yet terrifying object, which was seemingly about to crash right into him within the next few seconds, he never even thought about moving.
This just couldn't be. This just had to be his imagination, or a misinterpretation. This just didn't make any sense.
"But... Oh... shit!"
He merely whispered these words as he dropped to the paved ground, acting out of instinct, rolling against the hard stones of the nearby porch, eyes closed and his hands covering his head. He could've sworn seeing a bright flash of blue light, even with his eyes firmly shut and him facing the ground, his glasses firmly pressing against his nose and temples.
A quick moment of realization, perhaps. Now he started to expect a shockwave that would throw him around and probably kill him, perhaps wipe out the entire neighborhood. What a foolish decision it had been to not run inside for cover.
But nothing happened.
In fact, everything had gone silent again. Everything but his anxious breathing and the heavy pounding of his heart that resonated in his ears. This crept him out more than any horror story, game or movie could have done in his entire life, indeed filling him with honest dread and horror. He imagined the area around him dead, a wasteland of rubble, deprived of all life.
Yet, he was still breathing.
He reluctantly opened his eyes again, letting out an audible groan of pain as he rose back to his feet. Despite wearing a comfortable wool jacket, he must have lacerated both of his lower arms. Though, right now, this probably was the least of his concerns.
Carefully scanning the environment again, he couldn't help but feel even more horrified now. It seemed as if nothing had happened at all. That mysterious object, which seconds ago raced towards him with incredible speed, had just disappeared. No trace of it could be found anywhere around.
That was when he turned around and took a closer look at the small forest next to his home. Almost undiscernible, a blue light was emitted from somewhere between the large trees and many bushes. He hesitated, unsure about how to process this, but ultimately, with carefully slow movement, he began walking towards that place.
So much entranced by wonder, or perhaps an incomprehensibly powerful force, that he did not even notice all the small lights on every house around had gone dark.
There was only silent darkness, him, and the dim blue light in the woods.
Edging closer to the mysterious object, after around half a minute of time standing right in front of it, he abruptly stopped. Almost as if the force that had dragged him here let go now. However, he didn't ponder this. His eyes were firmly fixed on the stone from the sky. The light coming from that stone was now extremely bright. So bright that it hurt his eyes to look at it directly for more than a few seconds, the fresh scratches that were now on his glasses not helping much.
But, despite all this, the environment around it was unaffected by it. None of the trees around this area took on that blue hue. Neither the trees, nor the bushes, nor the lone human. In fact, not even the surprisingly small crater in which the rock stood.
How... can this be? This must've flown faster than a bullet... It's almost like... this thing isn't meant to disturb anyone who didn't see it coming down.
This uneasy thought crossed his mind two times before he finally broke out of his pondering and shook his head, muttering to himself.
"Pff! What bullshit. This is the real world. Stuff like that only happens in stories."
However, his spoken words should not reflect the unspoken afterthought in his head. Only if one could have read his mind, one would've heard an addition to that sentence.
...does it not?
Indeed, he was at a loss for any reasonable ideas. He walked around the rock for over a minute, thinking about what to do now. Technically, he was allowed to do what he pleased to do with that rock. There were a lot of rules and laws in the human society, but none of them explicitly prevented him from taking a stone which fell out of the sky back to his home. And if there were, he didn't know of any. However, as with many things in human society, there were certain exceptions. Where laws and regulations didn't apply anymore.
And this was certainly one of them. Here, common sense had to be applied.
Crap, what am I doing here? I have to call the police. Who knows, maybe this thing is dangerous? A stone shouldn't have this weird glow.
With that, he stepped back from the rock and pulled out a black, rectangle shaped device from his jeans. His concerned look quickly turned into a weird mix of surprise and serious uneasiness, however.
His cellphone wasn't working anymore. At all. Several times he pressed the only three buttons it had to no avail, even though it definitely was almost fully charged, not having been operated much over the day. He quickly suspected he broke it when jumping to the ground earlier, but the device did not have a single scratch on it. At least none that he could make out with his fingers, as it was too dark to make out clear details.
Looking back in the direction of the blue glowing rock, then slowly turning around to finally find all the lights out everywhere, a clear suspicion formed.
"Really...? An... An EMP?"
If it was actually true that a normal rock from space, more or less so, could have produced enough electromagnetic power to destroy or at least temporarily kill the electronics of an entire block, he did not know either. But that explanation seemed reasonably satisfying and the least confusing at that time. Still, this wasn't enough of an explanation for him to loosen up in any way.
But you're no normal rock, are you? Shit, what do I do now? What do I do? I can't just leave this thing here...
The stone seemed to mock him with his presence, standing there silently with its blue glow. He spent seemingly an eternity in front of the rock and couldn't think of a single thing to do.
Hesitantly, then, seeing no other option but to give in to his curiosity, he decided to inspect the rock in more detail.
Slowly reaching out with his hand and touching it, he could instantly feel a strange, warm feeling entering his body. Almost like an indescribable amount of energy now flowing through him, his every single limb, hair and cell, and then back into the stone. An exchange, not of words but far more complicated things. It was indeed a feeling impossible to properly describe, but he didn't recoil from the stone. He embraced that feeling, he accepted this 'trade'.
He closed his eyes, lost in another realm for a moment, and muttered some inaudible words.
He had always been afraid to lose control. It had happened once, several years ago, after a few drinks too many. And then never again. And while, sure enough, he tried to be popular with the friends he had and never be a killjoy, that also never stopped him from the credo he was following with his mind.
Control. Control over his own body, mind and soul. His standpoint on that matter was clear. There were numerous substances that, in his eyes, weak-minded humans would consume in excess to escape the harsh reality of a brutal world, where everyone had to fight for their place with their wits and skills. He had a strong mind, however. He always accepted what life threw at him. And though the destination of his life was unclear to him, he knew exactly on what kind of path he would always stay and never stray from.
But at that moment, as he muttered a succession of words that came from the deepest corners of his soul to the strange rock, he truly reached an understanding like never before.
He had entirely lost control over his mind.
Before he could even come up with a conclusion on what he had just done, the flow of energy suddenly stopped and the rock seemed to glow even more aggressively, now almost intentionally blinding him. For another shocked blink of his eyes, his hand seemed to be glued to the rock, as if it was unwilling to let him go just yet. At this rapid change, the human forcefully and with all his power sprung back like the scared animal he was right now, detaching himself from that malicious rock, unfortunately also tripping over a large root.
Too shocked to react, too confused to prepare, he landed on his back...
Thud!
...hitting his head with a dull sound on one of the numerous tall trees.
For just another second, the world seemed to spin around him as his body slowly, but forcefully, shut down his eyelids. His consciousness would follow. His heartbeat already decelerated. He could still make out the strange blue light changing to a deep red tone, as if foreboding his very doom, before the stone went pitch black.
Only darkness embraced his senses now as everything else slipped away.
__________
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