Chapter 2-Skylight of the Heavens

A Chapter by Miles W.

Chapter 2 of Vector of the Heavens

Riku walked over to the great window of souls. Every day, every hour, every second, a soul passes through the great window. As souls pass through the window, they are judged to see if they are worthy enough to move on to the heavens and be one with the stars, whether they need to go back to the earth and finish unfinished works, or if they are worthy of becoming one of the great Guardians of the world. The guardians have been watching over the many cities of the world since the age of the New Gods began. They had been tasked with keeping the world safe and collecting their prayers in hopes of opening the great gate to the golden power left behind by the goddesses. Riku was one of these souls to be given the role of a guardian. The system worked like this. When a soul is accepted to being a guardian, they are given their wings and a halo, and are sent to an academy to teach them the way of their new weapons, how to fly properly, and the history of the Guardians. The next step for the souls is that they become the squires of highly ranked Guardians. They are trained on how they are to protect their charged city, from defending it from monsters, to simply taking out the trash. They are also taught how to take the prayers from the Guardian statues. Each statue holds the many prayers offered to the Guardians every day. And when a Guardian approaches a statue, the prayers become a part of his being, and then he brings the prayers to the great Statue of the Goddesses. Legend says that once enough prayers have been collected, then the great gate to the Golden Power will open and the role of the Guardians will be complete. For the golden power allows whoever touches it to have a single wish granted. All the guardians wish for a world without strife and pain, and wish to join the great dance in the sky, as well as give a perfect world to the family and friends they left behind in the mortal world. But the universe demands some form of equilibrium. When a new Guardian is selected, a high ranking Guardian is given the gift of joining the great sky-dance. Riku only had been a Guardian for 3,000 years, and he had yet to be promoted to a full-on Guardian. His master, Aqua, was a good hearted woman, but with the strength of ten armies. She had been the Guardian of the Hylian capital for nearly 20,000 years, and was the one who taught Riku just about everything he needed to know about being a Guardian. He was only a few days away from his rise in the ranks to being the full-time guardian of Feather Falls, and was going to be given the grand tour of the city by its current Guardian. Riku was just simply gazing at the great window as he watched the souls go on to the next life. He was jealous. He longed to see his family again. He didn’t know if his son was dead yet, if his descendants were still alive. He wished with all his heart to be with his beloved in the skies. He was tired of all that he still had to do. All he did was pick up peoples garbage. There never was a time where he would do battle with anything but small, weak, pathetic monsters that would roam outside the town and possibly threaten a traveler. The Guardians were forbidden to fight in the wars of the mortals. Because then if they did, there would be factions amongst the Guardians over who would fight for who, and end up as Guardian vs Guardian rather than Guardian vs mortals. Riku didn’t care about any of that. He didn’t understand why the Guardians had to do this. Couldn’t the mortals fend for themselves? Were they that incompetent that it was impossible for them to get by without any form of guidance? He didn’t understand it at all. Everybody says it is all for the sake of opening the path to the golden power, but after the path is revealed, what then? Will it all be some elaborate prank, or will it actually help the mortals? Riku just wanted to do something other than pick up piles of manure every single day. He longed for the thrill of battle yet again. He wished to fight for a country, and defeat evil. Not run some child’s errands. As he contemplated this, Aqua walked up to him and told him that it was time. Riku looked at the soul clock and saw that three mortal days had already passed since he had first walked up to the soul window. He got up, and walked with his master. She told him to put on his ceremonial armor and polish his sword and shield. He knew what this meant. He went back to his quarters and got dressed. He then walked into the central chapel, where stood all the great Guardians, dressed in their ceremonial armor forming a path to the central stage where stood the oldest Guardian. Each Guardian had their swords drawn and held vertically with the flat side facing forward. As Riku walked forward, he approached the elder, and then got down on one knee. The elder then stated,
“As the march of time continues, we celebrate that another soul has become a step closer to the stars, and that one soul is finally joining the great dance. Riku of Xelador, do you hold the values and tasks of the Guardians to your heart?”
“I do.”
“Do you promise to never let your guard down, to always hold the peace of the village under your protection and guide the dead to the great skylight?”
“I promise.”
“Do you swear to collect the prayers of the people and to bring them back here in order for the path to the golden power to open?”
“I swear.”
“Then by the power invested in me, I now dub you the Guardian of Feather Falls. May your light shine on the people of your village, and may they be grateful to you. Now to all of you, my fellow Guardians, I will see you in the sky.” With that, the elder became a great light, and disappeared into thin air. His soul had finally moved on, and he had joined the great dance. Riku envied him more than anything right now. He rose up, and walked out of the chapel. Everybody was congratulating him on becoming a Guardian, but he didn’t care. He wanted to die. He wanted to leave this pathetic life and be with the one he loved. He walked over to the edge of the large observatory the Guardians called home, and flew down to the town of Feather Falls. As he dove down, he could see with his special powers a monster just roaming around near a mortal ranch. He drew his sword and planned on taking it down for fun with a sky-dive sword thrust. But before he could hit it, a sword drove through the eyes of the monster. Riku had to slow down his decent to make sure that he didn’t stab the mortal that had stolen his kill. Riku was upset about the fact that he was robbed of the chance for battle. He needed something to vent out on, and some blond haired kid had ruined it for him.
“Link! What happened?” Riku turned towards the voice to see a woman who seemed to be a half-elf but still have elfish blood in her running towards the victorious mortal. He looked up at the so-called hero, and was stunned by what he saw on his left ear. The earring heirloom that he had Eraqus give to his son eons ago. Riku had told Eraqus that the firstborn of each generation following must always bear the earring on their left ear as a sign of his family. Apparently Eraqus didn’t shirk his responsibilities. Riku became intrigued by this. He then wondered if it was fate that he was given this post at Feather Falls.

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© 2016 Miles W.

Author's Note

Please please PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK AND GIVE ME SUGGESTIONS! PLEASE!

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Reviews

MDShadowwing

In one of the last chapters, you put "Angel Falls" instead of "Feather Falls" it confused me for a second till I realized it was a slight error. Also, when you get a chance, go back through the book and add in the indents. Reading such length with no visible break can hurt peoples eyes, and it gives mental pauses a natural place in the story.