Hymn of Hail

[TheThaumaturge]

Hey guys! TheThaumaturge here.

I know it seems I've been absent from the forums for a good while, but I've been lurking around for some time now. I haven't really gotten around to playing WA3 properly, as I've been distracted by other games and real life shenanigans and such. This doesn't mean I won't make a reappearance in the adventure designing community, but that won't happen for the time being.

That being said, here I leave a short story I've written in my free time. I've spent quite some time brainstorming and coming up with ideas for a much bigger story, but for now this little fragment will suffice as a prologue to it. Undertaking such a huge project at once wouldn't be as smart as honing one's writing somewhat beforehand. I hope you enjoy it!

Hymn of Hail

The wind howled, spreading its echo around the frosty peaks, bouncing off the ice and snow. The zephyr carried a storm of white, reinforcing its already perpetual presence, winding between summits that grazed the skies and reached for the stars. Wisps of color waved in the heavens, their reflections bound to the ice.

Someone gazed at the spectacle portrayed above him, absorbed in its beauty, standing beside a towering snow-clad pine and shielding his eyes from the dazzling lights above. He awakened from his stupor, grabbed the snowboard propped against the evergreen, and began trudging through the powdered ground, climbing further up the mountain.

The snow crunched under his boots and the striped scarf twisted in the gust as he ascended. White crystals seeped into his snow cap, jacket, and pants, obfuscating their color. The boy lowered his goggles, previously perched on his forehead, to protect his eyes from the relentless onslaught of snow. Even though he was covered in frost, he did not shiver, nor did his step falter. He was at ease in this environment, used to the harsh conditions of the North. In fact, he was more comfortable lying in the snow than in the warm premises of his cottage. This didn’t mean he didn’t like warmth, though; nothing would ever beat the coziness provided by a mattress, a pillow, and the fluffiest of blankets.

Before long, the boy had reached the area he was looking for. The hill flattened out for a short stretch before continuing its steep ascent towards the atmosphere. Once he stepped on leveled ground, he turned around, raising his goggles. His icy blue eyes basked in the wondrous sight before him.

A mountain range lined the sky in the distance, and then curved around until it stopped at the mountain he was on, forming a semi-circular valley. Down in the valley, he could see the faint, flickering lights of the wooden village cabins, their roofs covered in snow. Smoke billowed out of the chimneys, drifting off and dissipating into the night sky. Beside the village was a huge, frozen lake, slightly camouflaged with white powder and lined by great evergreens. The locals were ice fishing enthusiasts, but they really had no choice, since it was their primary source of nourishment.

The boy turned away from the quaint village and continued to walk. He circled the flattened land, looking for ideal territory for his purposes. After a brief moment of searching, he found the perfect place.

This side of the mountain did not descend steeply and trees didn’t populate it greatly, either. The snow was also fresh and seemed to be at plausible levels; it was neither too deep nor alarmingly thin. It was the perfect hill. He lowered his goggles once again as he walked towards the point where the hill began to decline. He strapped his boots onto his cerulean snowboard and secured his snow cap, so it did not get carried away by the wind. When he was all set, he jumped and plunged down the hill.

The boy’s hair fluttered in the strong, wintery gale, bronze strands amidst the bleached landscape. He easily weaved between the few trees that stood in his way as he gained speed. The adrenaline rushed through his body, even though it was not a dangerous track. He absolutely loved snowboarding, and was very good at it too. He’d go for any jumps he could find on his way down, too, since he loved getting some air time.
The boy let his guard down for a moment, and looked at the sky. A winding aurora streaked through, blue and green beams of light against the star-dotted universe. Its movements were almost hypnotic, drawing his attention away.

When he snapped out of his daze, it was too late. There was a drop-off ahead, one that he had not noticed when he stood at the top of the hill. He frantically swung sideways to stop his movement with his snowboard, but to no avail. He tumbled into the void, screaming as he fell toward the ground. However, it seemed like death was not looking for him just yet, as he plunged into particularly deep patch of snow, forcing the air out of his lungs but completely cushioning his fall.

The boy opened his eyes, incredulous of how he’d survived that drop. He could see a full moon overhead through the boy-shaped hole he’d made. He procedurally checked his limbs to assure they were in working order and tried to stand up. He then recalled his feet were still strapped to the snowboard.

“Hmmph,” he grumbled, as he sat up and reached for the foot straps. Even though they might’ve just saved him from flying off the board and cracking his skull open on some boulder, the things could be the most obnoxious security measure in existence.

After struggling with the straps for what seemed to be like half an hour, he freed his feet from the snowboard’s grip and stood up, brushing the snow off of his body. As he bent down to pick up the board, he caught a glimpse of the cliff he’d just unceremoniously fallen off of. He didn’t understand how he didn’t notice it before; it was a fifty foot drop-off, from what he could estimate. A fall like that should have certainly killed him, or at least caused him to break quite a few bones; yet, he emerged unscathed from the snow. The cliff unraveled the colorless stone that lay underneath the thick blanket of snow and permafrost, and, in turn, exposing it to the touch of frost and wind. Even though it was exposed to the slow working but relentless forces of nature, the face of the cliff looked like a clean cut; there were no shards of rock jutting out, nor were there any cracks on the surface. It almost looked like an opaque mirror, waiting to be cleaned.

While he was staring at the seemingly perfect façade, the planet’s moons cruised through the skies peacefully. The Twins, as the inhabitants liked to call them, orbited the planet at different paces and different routes. A crossing in their paths was seldom seen, but this night was a special one. Behind the boy, in the black void of space, the smaller Twin had caught up with its slightly larger brother, soon to trigger an eclipse; yet again, this was to be no ordinary occurrence.

As the younger Twin took its place in front of his sibling, the otherwise silver glow began to shift into a different color. The Young began to fade into darkness, while The Elder casted refracted beams of light around it. The Elder now acquired a cyan hue, and it bestowed its peculiar glow on the planet below.

The boy noticed how the snow began to gain a blue tinge, and whirled around. He saw a celeste halo in the sky, with a pitch black center. He was mystified; he had never seen this happen before. The auroras in the sky had also adapted to the now electric blue skies, adopting a much brighter, icy blue. The sight was so entrancing that the boy could not take his eyes off of it; that is, until he felt a more intense glow behind him.

Once he was facing the cliff again, he gasped. What he had thought to be a featureless wall was now etched with markings, scattered around the stone. This had not been what caught his breath, however. In the center of the surface, right in front of him, an immense rectangle glowed in the light cast by the eclipsed moons. In the center of this very rectangle was the representation of the eclipsed moons, which, at their center, harbored some kind of symbol the boy didn’t recognize.

Suddenly, the markings on the wall began to pulse, and later, emitted the bright flash of light, briefly blinding the boy. As he removed his hands from his face, he saw that the markings were no longer there, because they had emerged as a huge door carved into the wall. The boy was frightened, but his curiosity was too much for him. He grabbed his snowboard and cautiously approached the stone wall. He stood in front of the massive stone door, examining the markings that the protruding frames exhibited, recognizing none of them. What he did know was that these must be ancient carvings, probably made thousands of years ago.

He ran his hand across the symbol etched in the center of the door, tracing its shape. It seemed to be composed of a four-pointed star, which was intersected by two other stars of the same kind. His gloves didn’t seem to catch any kind of dust from the door, striking him as peculiar.

“There’s nothing that is not peculiar about this thing,” he thought out loud.

Just as he finished his sentence, the symbol he had run his hand over began to pulse with the same azure glow he had been blinded by earlier. He covered his eyes once again, expecting another blast of luminescence. That, however, did not come, and was instead replaced by the sound of grinding stone. He slowly uncovered his eyes, and he saw how the stone door slid down, revealing a dark passage. He stared into the gloom, a debate between curiosity and fear raging within his brain. Eventually, curiosity gained the upper hand again, and so, the boy grabbed his board again, and stepped into the dark tunnel that lay ahead.

After he took a few steps inside, he felt a chilly gust come from within the tunnel. He could also barely make out what seemed to be a song; one played by one single instrument, emitting a sound as clear as glass. He strained his eyes to see through the murk, but the darkness yielded no clarity.

He was about to turn back when the tunnel was flooded with light. Sconces had been hiding in the darkness, perched on the clean, stone walls, waiting to be lit ablaze with cyan flames. Stunned by the sudden appearance of light again, the boy didn’t notice the door had begun to close, and by the time he heard the stone scraping it had closed with a reverberating thump.

The boy ran towards the door and pounded it with all of his might, but to no avail. The thick slab of rock was fixed in its position and unwilling to budge even an inch. He turned his turned his gaze towards the corridor.

“I guess there’s nowhere else to go but forward,” he said solemnly as he trudged through the corridor lit by cerulean sparks, following the melody of the hymn of hail.

[StinkerSquad01]

Fantastic!
I could really picture the story in my head, which I love doing a lot. Also, I like ancient-ruin-y/civilization-y stuff too, which got me curious as to what happens next.
As for grammar/syntax/conventions/WHATEVER, I didn't find any mistakes although you probably had a spell-checker or something so peer-editing probably wouldn't help as much.
I'd love to see more!

[Koopson44]

Did you write this? Cause if so, then i think you would be perfect for writing a poetry book.

[Emerald141]

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[TheThaumaturge]

I'm glad you guys liked it!

I plan to write 6 or 7 more of these, for reasons I'm not going to elaborate on. While re-reading it, I did find some spots where I missed an "a" or maybe misplaced a preposition, but that's no biggie. I hope I can scope those out before I post it next time, haha.

And SS01, I do indeed have a spell checker, since I wrote this on Word. I try my best to spell things correctly though.

If you guys have any suggestions, please let me know what they are!