Chapter 1: The Boy Who Aimed for the Curtains
The wind whispered through a sea of emerald grass, carrying the scent of blooming flowers across a land that felt eternal. Above, the sky was a piercing, endless blue, dotted with clouds as white as sea foam.
James lay in the heart of the meadow, his fingers laced behind his head. To anyone else, the sun was just a light in the sky; to him, it was a gateway.
"James!"
The voice shattered his daydream. He didn't move. He wanted to hold onto the silence for just one more second.
"JAMES!!"
The second shout was impossible to ignore. James bolted upright, his blonde hair tousled and dusted with pollen. "Yes! Is it time? Did I miss it?" He looked around frantically, blinking against the sudden glare.
A few paces away stood Allie. Her arms were wrapped tightly across her chest, her cheeks puffed out in a pout that was more anxious than angry.
"We're going to miss it!" she insisted, tapping her foot. "The Trailblazers—the Nameless! Akivili is preparing to depart. The whole city is throwing a goodbye gala, and you're out here napping in the weeds! Come on!"
James let out a long, slow sigh, the tension leaving his shoulders. "Yes, yes... I'm coming." He scratched the back of his head, offering a sheepish grin that immediately melted Allie's annoyance.
As she turned to lead the way back toward the distant spires of the city, James paused. He looked up one last time, not at the sun, but at the thin, translucent veil of the atmosphere.
'Wait for me,' he thought, his hand curling into a determined fist. 'One day, I'll be the one leaving. I'm going beyond the curtains.'
.....
"James... are you certain about this?"
The boy who once dreamt in the grass had grown into a man, tall and broad-shouldered, wearing the uniform of a voyager. Beside him stood Allie. Her pink hair, once short and messy, now fell in soft waves down her back. Her eyes, however, were clouded with a grief she was trying desperately to hide.
"Don't worry, Allie," James said. His voice was deeper now, steady and warm. "I'll come back. I promise."
He gave her a smile—the same wide, infectious grin from their childhood. It was a smile that had always made her feel safe, but today, it made her heart ache.
"Dummy," she whispered, her voice trembling. She reached out and softly slammed her fist against his chest, leaving it there for a moment to feel his heartbeat. "Just... be careful. The universe is bigger than your dreams, James."
"I will."
He leaned forward, pressing a lingering kiss to her forehead. It was a goodbye he couldn't find the words for. As he turned to join the line of pioneers boarding the gleaming silver transport, Allie stayed rooted to the spot.
In her hand, she clutched a small, crumpled photograph of the two of them. Tears of joy and bitterness finally spilled over.
'Ten years of waiting for you to notice,' she thought with a watery chuckle, 'and you're leaving before I could even tell you. You absolute dingus.'
As the heavy hydraulic shutters of the ship began to hiss shut, Allie found her voice one last time. She waved her arms frantically, screaming over the roar of the engines.
"Goodbye, you dummy! Don't you dare forget us!"
James leaned against the glass of a small porthole, waving back until the city became a speck, then a blur, and finally, nothing but a memory.
...
Driyes Avodar. That is the name they whispered in the dark. I am called the Abyss of the West, for I was born where the light of the stars flickers and dies—the jagged edge of the Universe where "nothing" is a tangible thing.
The cosmos fears me as a beast, a predator of the void. Yet, I have never asked for blood. I only ever wished for the simple grace of a normal birth. I did not choose to be a titan of the shadows.
The monotony of my eternal vigil was broken by a spark—the jagged, metallic carcass of a ship drifting aimlessly into my domain.
"You have strayed so very far from home," I rumbled, my voice vibrating through the vacuum.
I extended a massive, scaly arm, my talons gently catching the wreckage. I peered through the twisted hull, looking for the cause of this tragedy.
"Followers of Destruction," I hissed, sensing the lingering, acidic stench of the Antimatter Legion. "They call me the Destroyer, yet I crave only the quiet of prosperity. I should have been born as one of them—a human, a creature of flesh and hope—not this monolithic curse."
With a careful flick of a claw, I peeled back the mangled plating. From the debris tumbled a figure. He was small, fragile, and beautiful. Blonde hair matted with blood, and eyes the color of dying amethysts.
'He lives,' I realized with a jolt of shock.
I immediately wove a shroud of my own power around him, creating a pocket of pressurized essence so the void would not claim his final breaths. The ship was a total loss; its engines were cold, its gravity dead. Only the boy remained.
"Ugh..."
The man groaned, his eyelids fluttering. As his vision cleared, he found himself staring into my eyes—two glowing purple suns reflecting his own. He tried to speak, but the effort sent a shudder of agony through his broken frame. He was fading; the light in his soul was a candle in a hurricane.
But in that singular, desperate gaze, I saw everything. I saw the green grass of a world I would never touch. I saw a girl with pink hair waving goodbye. I saw the crushing weight of a promise he was terrified he wouldn't keep.
"Forgive me, Little Human," I whispered, my voice heavy with a guilt I did not earn. "I cannot mend a soul that has already begun to tear. I cannot revive the dead; that is the vanity of the Aeons. The best I can do... is send you home."
The man's expression softened. The tension left his jaw. A small, peaceful smile curved his lips—a look of profound gratitude that pierced me deeper than any blade.
"Thank... you..."
The words were a ghost of a sound. His eyes drifted shut, and a single tear escaped, freezing into a crystal diamond as it slid down his cheek.
He died as he lived: dreaming of the journey.
"From your ship, you are a child of the world Akivili loved," I mused, looking toward the distant shimmer of the civilized stars.
I gathered his body against my chest. Then, I unfurled my wings—vast, obsidian sails that could eclipse a solar system—and prepared to make the long journey back to a world I was never meant to see.