[FAN]Cvilization in the Sky[T]

Here's a story I wrote awhile back, I think about a year ago. It was never finished. It's really hard to explain what it's about, but there's a deeper meaning to it, I just haven't realized it yet.

Chapter One:
The Bizarre Day

Hundreds of years from now in America the streets are lined with bottles, cans, and other filth. In this time man has became completely careless and amazingly dangerous; the suburbs haven’t even been safe for years. This time I speak of is the twenty-forth century. The year is two thousand three hundred sixteen to be exact. In these wretched times robots and machines perform most everyday labor–man has become lazy.

But there is still one form of work, one job where the workers work together in rain or shine. That is archeology. Archeologists have recently found ancient scrolls in Egypt that were written long ago by stargazers.
These prophecies, as you may call them, have already been deciphered; they speak of an ancient civilization of winged people that will one-day wage war the Earth. Sadly the scroll that noted this was so old and mutilated that the rest of the paragraph had been warn off and unreadable.

Who were these winged people? Surely scientists would know about an ancient civilization of some sort. And why are these winged people going to go at it with the Earth? What has Earth done (or will do) that would offend these people so much that they‘d just attack Earth?

So many questions could be asked after deciphering these scrolls of parchment. It was a matter that Earthlings had never encountered before. But the real question is are the scrolls real? Local news and history television stations have been debating this subject ever since the scrolls have been found in the ancient tombs.

“As most other historians believe,” says Mr. John Wilson, a local historian, “I believe that these scrolls are complete nonsense. It is impossible to persuade me that there is a society somewhere that we do not know about.”

And that is where our story begins, when the local news channel twelve had broadcast that very interview with Mr. Wilson. The city our story begins in, however isn’t located in America, it is an ocean away–London, England in a crowded flat.

Our main character isn’t John Wilson either it is Dan Bentley. Dan was a middle-aged buisnessman with an already balding head and cleanly shaven face. His eyes were worn and grayish and always carried an interested look. He had a small build, he wasn’t weak or anything, he was just…naturally small.

Dan had just awoken and started his morning ritual; he had already showered and dressed. All he to do now was eat and set off for work. Early as it was, though, Dan had to leave at 7:00 AM if he wanted to get to the office on time. London’s streets were always backed up; it seemed they never emptied from 6:30 AM to 3:00 AM the next morning. Dan also wanted to leave ealy to meet his old schoolmate Dale Griffin at Starbucks.

So Dan picked up his keys off the kitchen counter and locked the flat’s door as he walked out. As quietly as possible he walked out the front door to his car and atempted to start it. It was truely a rust bucket, as some would call it; it didn’t start half the time and Dan would always end up walking to work. He sighed and pounded his fists on the hood by old marks where he had hit it before.

Just my luck he thought to himself as he started walking to work. It wasn’t too far, actually it was only two blocks away, but he drove because he never felt like walking in the mornings. Long hours at work alway wore him down. Writing papers all day hadn’t exactly been his childhood dream, but if you want a place to live and clothes on your back you need a job.

About nine or ten minutes after he left the flat Dan had reached his destination at Starbucks. Just as expected Dale was there and offered him a seat at his table. Dale hadn’t seemed to have changed much since he was a kid, his attitude and looks were still the same.

Dan picked up a newspaper as a waitress rushed over to a nearby table filling an old man’s half-drunk cup. He immediately put the paper down once he had noticed the new addition of a television in the corner of the building. The volume was muted, but Dan knew what was on; that same old interview with that Wilson guy. Not that Dan didn’t agree with Wilson, in fact he was one-huindred percent with him, but he was just tired of seeing it.

Dale didn’t say anything at all as Dan left not long after that. He didn’t even notice Dan had left, Dales’s mind must have been somewhere else.

After a long day at work Dan was walking home watching the traffic move inch by inch. It was six o’ clock many people were on their way home from work too. Dan looked straight ahead preparing to cross the road; he saw the sun behind a large skyscraper, it was already setting for it was late November.

Dan could have sworn he he saw something just that second, a shadowy figure. With–with wings? Skeptically Dan thought for a minute just standing in the middle of the road. He did see it; a winged figure dashed across the sky in front of the sun.

He shook his head, there was no way that he saw a flying human. Rubbish he thought to himself as he crossed the street the rest of the way people rudely blasting their horns as he cut in front of them. It seemed none of those drivers had noticed what he notcied, though. Maybe Dan had just been hallucinating or maybe the drivers had been paying attention to the traffic and traffic only.

But as you know each story has more than one point of view. There is the skeptic’s viewpoint and the believer’s viewpoint. The believer, of course, being the winged man. Or should I say the winged boy.

The winged boy was Blaze Kennedy. He had long flaming red hair that nearly covered his eyes and already covered his ears and ran down his neck. Blaze may seem like an odd name on Earth, but in the civilization Blaze was a common name. But don’t judge too quickly, this civilization is very intellgent. They may not have electricity or other modern day items such as a cell phone, but they are very advanced. However their is one secret. One secret that if learned by the Earthlings would surely be used for wicked purposes.

This was the secret of magic. There were three forms of magic, medicinal, sorcery, and everyday magic, which branched off into sub-categories as well. How did they perform this magic, who taught them? Magic was an inherited trait, but its users had to learn it. Though there was an occasional childhood prodigy who could do complex magic from the day they were born.

Blaze, on the other hand, wasn’t a prodigy, but from years of training his magical talents were incredible! Blaze was only fourteen years old, but his father had put him through vigorous training. His father was reaching his mid fifties, with a long gray-ish black beard, golden crown and red cape he ruled over the civilization. But Blaze was worried about him; his father hadn’t been in the greatest condition lately. He always seemed tired and very feeble. King Kennedy had been slowing down lately and his loyal supporters had been noticing.

He was affraid. It was a fear that Blaze had already felt once before, the worry of a dying loved one. His mother had died when he was eight. She had died of some kind of lung injury. The doctors couldn’t tell what it was that killed her. He didn’t know what he’d do if his dad passed away too. Not only was it the fact that he’d miss his father, Blaze would also have to take his place on the throne seeing as he was an only child.

Quickly, Blaze opened his eyes. He’d been standing on top of a skyscraper in London, England. After a minute of watching a curious set of people handing something to one another in the alley below, Blaze flapped his wings and took off in the sky. As he flew away he turned his head back around and noticed a man in the road staring at him. He didn’t care if the man saw him; the man would probably just think he going crazy and push the image out of his mind.

Flying. Either in a machine or by other means man once thought flying wasn’t possible. Everyday humans, of course, use airplanes and helicopters to fly. But on the civilization flying was a completely different thing, they used wings. Yes, wings.

But to the point flight was a great thing. It was a rush. The speed, the freeness, the wind gently slapping you on the face as you flew. It was, as Blaze decided, one of his favorite pass times.

As he flew, Blaze looked around for the civilization. However, this civilization was in a place you wouldn’t expect: it was in the Sky. It was a floating island. An island with simmilar geography as Great Britain. But where was this island? How could it possibly hover in the sky without some noticing it? These were all impossible questions to answer. The island itself seemed to disappear, as a non-magical Joe would look towards it. Alas, Blaze saw the fair-sized island not far in the horizon.
“Finally.” Blaze mumbled to himself as he landed on the edge of the island. He was in a large field of flowers. It was a stunning scene in the summer time, the flowers were a powerful shade of orange and there were some bright pink flowers as well. But as they were today, in late November, the flowers were dead. So he kept walking and soon found himself facing a gigantic log fence with two golden gates in the center. At the top of the gates there were bars shaped into letters that read Welcome to St. Cloud. This was Blaze’s hometown and city in which his father’s castle was located. St. Cloud was fairly large, with a population of 76, 200. The city was famous for having a large lumbering industry along with many pubs.

“Hello Blaze,” One elderly woman said as he passed, “How are you doing?” This was a question Blaze generly disliked. He was famous, but he hadn’t even done anything, he was just a stupid prince. It was annoying being treated specially just for being the king’s son.
Blaze kept walking down the main street of town. The main street wasn’t a street at all. Infact, the civilization had no cars at all. People usually walked or rode horses to get places that they needed to be. The main street, however, was just a dirt path with shops, restaurants, and buisnesses lining the sides. There were plenty of benches and tables going down the street because this was where everyone would go to hang out.

Minutes later he reached the golden gates of his father’s castle. The gates were huge! They were a shiny, pure gold with jewls implanted in them. Two guards were standing opposite each other on the sides of the gates. One nodded to Blaze and the two opened the heavy gates. Behind the gates was a beautiful courtyard with stone walls on each side and the castle about one hundred feet ahead. Flowers and other plants lined the walls while cleanly cut bushes surrounded a dirt path leading up to the castle. Around the castle was a crystal clear moat. In the distance a trumpet sounded as soldiers marched out of the castle preparing for training.

As Blaze finally approached the castle he saw a guard eye him from a balcony above the drawbridge. The guard promptly raced through a door and appeared later as the drawbridge came down over the glistening moat. The guard bowed as Blaze shuffled into the busy entrance hall of the castle. Along with the soldiers, tourists swarm through the castle to see the museum and stay in the castle’s hotel. The entrance hall then branched off into a lage room full of intresting things likes shops and food booths. It also branched off into a decent-sized green house and a small hallway with enormous windows.

The small hallway led up to a spiraling stair that took you up to the main part of the castle: the throne room, the soldiers’ room, a planning room, and a gymnasium complete with an olymic-sized swimming poll, basket ball court, and a weight lifting room. Simply though, Blaze could describe the castle in one word. Gigantic.

His day, though, was pretty much open, He figured he might make a quick trip down to Earth. Just to check things out and such. The Earth amazed and disgusted Blaze at the same time. He loved wtching how different people lived on Earth than the Civilization. But it disgusted him that they relied completely on technology to survive.

Blaze headed up the spiraling staircase. He reached the top, opened the dark, wooden door, and continued on. He walked down a hallway full of doors going to the soldiers’ rooms and towards the gym.

He was supposed to meet the castle caretaker Ken there. He wanted someone to talk to about the Earth. Ken was fairly tall and had a descent build. He had brown, medium-length hair and long sideburns. As Blaze entered the gym, Ken waved him over to a circular table on the other end of the gym. He really just wanted to tell Ken that he was worried about his father. But Blaze looked up to Ken. He didn’t want to admit he was afraid.