Part One: Gods

Prologue

Alan pulled his tired eyes open as massive shudder down his spine, waking him from sleep. He furrowed his eyebrows, and sat up. ‘This isn’t where I went to sleep.’ He thought as he looked up at the flat mass of high, bright grey clouds stretched as far as the eye could see. ‘Or…   is it?’  Alan shook his head, attempting to clear the fog out of it. Why was thinking so difficult? Looking at the landscape around him, he saw that the ground was flat, and white with several inches of soft, wet snow. Several short, leafless trees poked out of the ground forming a sparse, deciduous forest. How had he gotten here, and why couldn’t he remember anything? Suddenly registering the cold, he began to shiver violently; his sweatpants and plain white t-shirt offered almost no protection from the arctic temperatures. He looked down at the print his sleeping body had left in the snow, and saw that it was filling up fast; it was snowing, and he would freeze if he didn’t get help soon.

“You look cold.”

Alan jumped to his feet in surprise, and whipped around to face the voice that had spoken. Behind him a young man with gray hair, and paper white skin was holding out a long heavy trench coat. After a moment, Alan took the coat, ultimately unable to decipher the odd feeling of doubt he had felt at the man’s offer. The man seemed nice enough; after all, he was offering him a coat. Besides, he could hardly bear the cold for another moment.

“Th-th-thank you-o.” Alan said, still shaking uncontrollably.

The man smiled sadly.  “Come with me, my friend. There is a fire not far from here.”

Suddenly another powerful wave of that same doubt slammed into Alan, demanding that he consider the wisdom or foolishness of following this stranger, but the scattered fragments of thought refused to congeal into a decision, or follow any process. Why couldn’t he think?? The fact that he couldn’t do so disturbed Alan greatly; perhaps it had something to do with his principles, which he was sure existed, but no longer remembered. That made it worse. It felt wrong to follow and obey so blindly, but with no tangible reason to resist, that was all he really could do.

***

The journey was longer than he expected, and the other man remained silent. Alan stayed close behind the man’s long, flowing black coat, and absentmindedly admired the many patterns and symbols intricately embroidered in white. Why did nothing from the place have any color? After another while a thought struck him: why wasn’t the other man leaving footprints. He furrowed his eyebrows, and glanced behind him at the ugly trail of blemishes he had left on the otherwise perfect snow. ‘But isn’t this how things normally are?’ Alan wondered. ‘Nobody leaves footprints in the snow, right? What's wrong with me?’ Trying to reason out anything felt like swimming in molasses.

“Ah, here we are.” The man said.

Alan looked up and saw that they stood at the threshold of a large clearing, empty save for a small campfire burning in the center. He approached it eagerly, anticipating the how good it would feel to warm his hands and feet. But…     they already were. ‘How is that possible?’ Alan wondered, staring into crackling fire; it didn’t make sense. Or…      did it?

“Please, help me.” Alan said, angrily.

He had meant to communicate all his confusion and knowledge of the situation before asking if this man might be able to help him; but was unable to find the words to communicate such a relatively complex idea. Even those simple words had been such a challenge to devise that sweat was beginning to form on his forehead. This was the most frustrating thing he had ever experience in his life.

The man sat down on a stump by the fire that Alan was positive hadn’t been there a second ago, and smiled at him with what almost looked like admiration.

“Please sit, and make yourself comfortable; I have much to tell you.” he said, gesturing to the unoccupied stump on the other side of the fire, which also hadn’t been there before (or had it?).  

Alan obliged; remaining self aware was becoming exhausting.

“My name is Novis.” Said Novis. “Everything you are missing will be returned shortly. I wish there was a nicer way to do this, but there isn’t. I’m going to give you a brief explanation of a long history. After that everything will me made clear.”

Something about those words caught Alan’s attention sharply, but was quickly lost as the fog in his mind returned with a vengeance. Too mentally exhausted to resist it any longer, he capitulated his will to think, and just listened.

“Your Universe is governed by laws which you call physics, and I come from a place where those laws have been overcome. Picture your Universe as a straight horizontal line, then picture another, parallel line above it; that is where I come from. My universe is far older than yours, and it’s civilizations long ago understood all the laws of physics in their entirety, such that they were able to manipulate them. This immense power was the cause of conflict on an unimaginable scale, and it only ended when after untold millenia, when one being became the only one to possess the knowledge. He organised my universe, and it nows exists in peace.”

Alan blinked.

“But all things come to an end, and in order to prepare for the imminent, inevitable doom of my Universe, that Being isolated a star and the planet around it, and used the space to train a new generation of gods. Six were chosen to be endowed with power, but only one will remain. A sort of game has been designed, and the winner will appointed the God of this Universe.”

Novis took a deep breath. “So, with all that out of the way, let's begin...”

Author's Note

Oh my freaking gosh! I've posted some pretty dumb stuff on here before, but compared to this thing before I edited it, those other things deserved a Pulitzer (did that sentence even make any sense?). I am so sorry it took me so long to revise this; life is my only excuse; it ate my time. Sapientiam, if you see this, please come back: I'm not a horrible writer, I promise! I just posted prematurely (again).

Sheesh, what a mess.

Reviews

[Sapientiam]

This prologue is still amazing and I can tell the edits worked in your favor!

What I didn't notice the second time reading this is that Alan tends to question his surroundings, along with questioning his own mental questions. I found that very interesting and quite humorous amid a serious situation. So, congratulations on successfully employing humor within this story without sounding out of place (at least, if humor was what you were going for)!

I also love how Novis just spews out this complex history in the most brief manner possible. It really makes the reader feel overwhelmed, just like how the main protagonist is feeling. For the record, that is a good thing! I like it when authors make the reader feel the same was as the characters. That immersive feel is very much felt in this story. Also, your descriptions of the setting allows me to actually picture for myself the environment that they're in, which also adds to that immersive feel.

All in all, this prologue is absolutely wonderful! Great job! I can't wait to see how you have edited the other chapters of the story. ^ ^