Scion (working title)
These are the only written excerpts, as of April 28, 2004. The first two are combined, and are either the very beginning, or the prologue itself… I am still undecided about this. Mhjar, the name of the species, is of “their language”, still unnamed, and has the rough meaning of “Those who serve Deity with unwavering honor”. Deity, by the way, is their one god/goddess, which is represented in many manifestations and has roots in almost every religion I can learn about. I’m mean like that.

And so, there was life…
There was a sun, a moon, and a planet. Some areas of this planet, so far unnamed, are disturbingly familiar to the planet we call Earth. There are still stars strung out in complex patterns upon the empty blackness that is space. Tides still cause oceans to churn and to endlessly lap upon the shores of now forlorn lands. Day and night forever chased each other on the scarred surface, heedlessly changing the very nature of this forsaken rock. The continents that still rise above deep and foreboding waters have moved, and are not anything we could recognize as our own. This planet is eerily similar to Earth, the same but a throwback to a lost time – before we humans “inherited” Earth, only to abuse our very home and eventually causing our own destruction.

Lights no longer glow haughtily into space, machines no longer spew the exhaust of fossil fuels into the precious atmosphere, and cities no longer hum with the lives of humans, but lie dormant under millennia of dirt and plants. The humans had lost their chance, along with all species of ape. Errant winds had slowly covered the ruins of a long forgotten species, and nothing had followed in their wake. Earth decided to reinvent itself, changing everything about it. Evolution had returns with vengeance, and now the flora and fauna had mutated in indescribable ways.

It was a new time, a new chapter in the saga of life.

However, this new life didn’t start completely by itself. Based upon the remnants of old, it still bears qualities of the past. You would expect this melting of species to happen on a spring dawn, basking in the glory of life, but it began to occur on an autumn midday, with a slightly acidic rain falling.

They awoke meagerly, slowly dragging inert limbs from the clinging safety of the ocean, well... the relative safety of it. Their lungs, already adjusted to the high sulfur and oxygen content of the limpid air that still exists in a damaged atmosphere, expand and contract rapidly, slowly being crushed by their own weight. Their hearts pulsated rapidly; their eyes darted with a fear unknown. This was not the usual way they lived. The oceans were becoming far too immense and dangerous for such small creatures, and they would sound become extinct if they stayed. These were the ancestors of the Mhjar. (Mhjar is a working species name. This is bound to change.)

With large eyes, clouded with a third eyelid, they gazed upon what would soon be their domain. Their limbs, not fins yet- not legs slowly pulled themselves back down into the frigid depths from whence they came. They were not yet adapted enough to become amphibious... they would suffocate before ears developed. Tail flukes and dorsal fins swished as the heavy, if not oily, water enveloped their bodies. Time would alter them, or else a new species would inherit a land rife with danger. As the group of Mhjar descended downwards to the safety of the darkness, a volcano not to far away erupted in the fiery manner that is to be expected of a volcano. Tremors made the Earth's pulse very noticeable, and trenches widened as the molten rocks spewed from the top of the cone. Ash and soot rained down upon its rocky surface, spilling into the oceans below. Lava and rock destroyed what little plant life could survive in such a desolate place, sending more smoke and ash into the errant winds. The Mhjar rose and dropped with the rising tide, thrown mercilessly upon the beach and rocks they had just visited. With flesh and bone being torn asunder in the gathering storm, the surviving few strove to find calmer berths. The Earth pulsated again, sending more lava and ash into air, and tossing it into the now choppy sea. The rocks plummeted down, occasionally crushing some creature that happened to be in its trajectory. Screams echoed in the water, carrying the sorrows of a fallen creature for miles.

The few Mhjar were swept away by the rising sea, and ended up not very far way. Battered and nearly drowned, they floated listlessly on the churning waters. Blood and flesh alike slowly undulated on the tide, luring in predators of the deep.


Excerpt three, the pivotal insanity speech… thing.
This is a dialogue, held within the main character’s mind, close to the middle of the plot line. This snippet is one of the first things I wrote, and is rather… vague at best. The character has been seeing things… Visions, dreams, premonitions, etc. One of them is of an elder Mhjar, of undeterminable origin, sex, age, or real physical being. He (or she) is the main character’s guide through her childhood, and her early “teen” years. As her mind begins to mature, she begins to realize she can see things no one else can, becomes worried, and goes to chat with this elder. Soon after realizing she’s either insane, or a prophet, she concludes the book in some interesting fashion. I still haven’t figured out how this is going to end. Ah, such is life.  (Also, I haven’t figured out how these creatures move, so there is no real action in this piece.)

It is as if I can touch things that I can't see, and everyone else dreams about. Yet- these things bring a great doom, a destructive power so great I cannot comprehend it. But, am I the key to this misguided fantasy?

I cannot know. If I know, then all shall fade and crumble beneath me. My kin, my only family... they will have to hunt me down and capture me, like the wild beast I shall become. You may think this is a prophecy of long ago, but it is not. There are no such things as "fate" and "prophecies"; there are only beings and the world around them. The way they act is the way in which their lives begin to intertwine and constrict one another. This contact with others, something they cannot imagine living without, is killing themselves. The longer they exist in this illusion of a society, the quicker their minds give into the primeval madness that dwells within their psyche. This madness, this insanity cannot be loosed upon this world again. This planet has already faced this same madness, and lost, much as you have seen in your visions. Yes, yes... I know of these, because, I am you. What you perceived to be an old hermit that lived alone in the forests was naught but your own mind, feverishly trying to comprehend itself. However, I do not know everything. I know only what you know, but you have forgotten to remember. Push back the bindings and let this knowledge return. They will die without you.

But I can't. If I do, I'll die. They will capture me in their disillusioned insanity and murder me. My own family! I can't... I won't.

But, you will exist while they perish. Is this the fate you want?

No! Do not push this upon me! I cannot be responsible for this! I will break, as the fallen sky crashes upon this broken planet! I cannot save them!

But you can. All you must do is break that barrier to release it.

But I will die! How can they use the knowledge? They don't even know what it is!

You do not know that. I don't know that. Even Deity is unknowing. The Mhjar are unpredictable. You should know that better than anyone else. You saw them before they were even born. You are their mother, and you must protect them. It is what you were created to do.

No! You are wrong! It can't be me! I can't save anyone, and I can't kill anyone. Why can't I just exist?

Because you were born with a purpose, not free will.