1000 C.E
Somewhere in a castle on a distant planet about one point five times the size of the Earth in a different solar system altogether, an alien boy awoke with a start in a cold sweat. Thankfully it was already morning, though it would be difficult for an Earthling to tell. As the boy with sun kissed yellow skin and very dark hair caught his breath, he peered out through an open window to see a dark purple sky. He let out a sigh of relief at seeing he was in his room rather than the fear inducing scene his nightmare took place in.
"Calm down, keep steady… It was just a dream… a horrible dream." The boy did a few breathing exercises to calm himself but found them to be barely working, a strange omen. "I… seem to be more affected than I thought… I need to consult my parents."
The boy nodded his head as he got out of bed, pausing a moment to take notice of his shaking right hand. He shook his head before dressing himself in a green shirt and purple pants. He placed a strange, thick, orange band over his head, framing his hair with it. He looked in a mirror adjacent to his bed on the opposite side of the single window of his room. A pair of black sclera, red iris and black pupil eyes stared back at him as his reflection. He was just over four feet tall, about the height of an average human teen. Satisfied, he then left his bedroom.
He went down a spiral and came to an open room. He navigated his way towards the center of the fairly modest castle. The castle not too extravagantly big compared to most castles on Earth. Eventually, he came to a large hall that doubled as the throne room. Well, there were two thrones over in the back before the north wall, upon which sat his father and mother, the King and Queen. "Cozmi, my son," called the father. He was like a muscular man, and even while sitting one could tell that he was taller than a human. He wore red pants tied with a black sash, a yellow v-necked sleeveless shirt, a red cape with white trimmed edges, and an orange crown on his head. His eyes were the same as his son's.
"You are up early," said the woman. Her hair was a color somewhere between cyan and sky blue, curiously, and the iris of her eyes was a kindly blue. Her eyes highlighted her smile. "I sense a disturbance. Is something wrong, Dear?"
The boy, now identified as "Cozmi", approached the two before crouching and looking at the floor. "Mother, Father… I had a bad dream," he said meekly. "It was… unlike anything I've ever had before."
The king got up, showing his impressive height of seven feet. He went over to Cozmi and placed his hands on his son's shoulders. "You have been largely unfocused lately. I was under the impression that something really had you going. How about we go out on a quick flight, just the two of us? I'll lend you my ear."
Cozmi looked up. "You mean it, Father?" The king nodded. "That sounds wonderful."
"Zarius, Dear, be careful out there," said the Queen. "If you pass over the desert, look out for the giant Sandworms and Scorpions."
The castle was located 30 miles west of the coastline of a large continent. To its north was a mountain range, to the south and east a rather expansive desert called the Vovilue Desert, and to the west was Vovilue City. Below the city was a huge forest. The name of the Planet was Pyra Kyradia, meaning "Thousand Stones" in English. The current inhabitants were the Zalazi, humanoid aliens characterized by a sulfur based pigmentation that colored their skin yellow, and hair as dark as outer space.
"Don't worry, Krystalia. We will be fine," Zarius, the King, replied.
"I'll tell you about my dream when we get back, mother," said Cozmi.
"Alright," Krystalia replied, her short concern giving way back to her kind smile. Her hair color was a unique case, for a reason that shall not be explained right now.
Father and son left the castle through the south main door, being saluted by the two guards at either side. There was no vehicle in sight, so if you were wondering what "a quick flight" referred to, you would be surprised by the answer. "Are you ready, Cozmi? You have been practicing, right?" asked Zarius as his body glowed with a faint orange light, his clothes and royal cape flapping in the wind.
Cozmi began to glow as well, his clothes also flapping, but not necessarily from the constant desert wind blowing against the castle. "I've got it down. I'm ready," Cozmi replied.
Not a second later, the duo began to wondrously levitate off from the ground, chuckling all the while as if it was the most natural thing; and that is because it was. You see, the Zalazi race was blessed with a strange power. It was not something they always had, and at one point it was even a curse. They did not always live on Kyradia. They had lost their original home world, Nova Plazarus, as a result of some unfortunate events, also losing a little over half of their already not to large population in the wake. The 3000 or so survivors eventually came to settle here. But that was not all there is to the story.
Cozmi laughed as he chased after his father over the desert sands, enjoying the roar of the cool wind in his ears. His earlier fears and trepidation were forgotten in favor of some fun time with his dad. He only wished he had woken up his younger sister Jadia to get in on this, although she was not as proficient as him at flying yet. Flying involved an ability called Force-Manipulation, in particular the power to effectively reduce the effects of the users own weight in order to float, and then pushing out energy from the hands and feet for propulsion and stability.
Zarius suddenly halted, causing Cozmi to almost crash into him. "WHOA!" It took everything in his power to come to a quick enough stop. "Dad, I almost slammed into you! Why did you stop so suddenly?"
Zarius turned to his son, his features set in a mixture of alertness and slight confusion. "Cozmi, do you feel that?"
"Huh? Feel what?" Now Cozmi was confused. "I don't feel…Ah!" Cozmi's eyes widened. He was picking up on it now, a foreign feeling… a foreboding one. He knew almost every other member of his race, knew a nostalgic feeling that he felt from himself. This bad feeling he was getting was alien to him. He had felt anger and sadness before, rage too, but those emotions could not accurately describe the veritable malice that permeated this current feeling. It was giving him the same dreadful vibe as his nightmare just before waking up. "No…"
"Hmm?" Zarius looked up at the sky. He felt attracted to it at that moment for some reason. Then he saw it: a short twinkle of white light, almost like a star contrasting against the purple backdrop. "What in the name of…"
"WHITE METEOR!" exclaimed a voice just before a sound like the rumbling of thunder occurred. BLAM!
"AAAHH!" Zarius was stuck by what looked like an arrow of flames and sent careening into the ground, raising a cloud of dust and sand upon crash land.
"FATHER!" exclaimed Cozmi as he was briefly blown back by a wind force. He turned his gaze away from the dust cloud to a six-foot tall pillar of white flames hanging in the air before him. To his surprise, the flames vanished to reveal a woman. She had pale white skin, snow white hair and eyes like a human's, only which that the iris was a piercing sapphire blue. Unlike his mother Krystalia's eyes, the blue of these eyes portrayed no warmth or comfort. They regarded him with visible hatred. "Who… who are you?" asked Cozmi nervously. He was quite the fighter for his age, but having seen what she had just done to his father, the current strongest of his race, he was in no hurry to receive a taste.
The woman gave a cruel smirk. "So, little Zarius is all grown up and has even done the busy work; how delightful." She was talking to herself, completely ignoring the question. "Fine, it seems I shall have to dredge up whatever amount of patience and virtue I have left in my heart for you scum."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Cozmi was pretty alarmed.
"What's your name, sonny?"
"Um… I asked you first," Cozmi insisted, with all the false bravery he could muster.
The woman chuckled menacingly. "My, you've got spunk, you little spark." She took notice of little orange sparks of electricity that were dancing in Cozmi's hair which was now standing straight; a telltale sign that the young Zalazi was afraid. "Whoa!" The woman quickly flew backwards a bit as a green pillar of light shot through her previous position briefly.
Cozmi looked down in joy, seeing his father standing there on the ground with his left hand still raised, light smoke wafting off of it. "Get away from my son!"
"Let's take this down to the ground, Little Spark. You must be a good flier. Your concentration is pretty noteworthy given how perturbed you look!" The woman chuckled as she began to descend. She landed six meters in front of Zarius.
Cozmi rushed and landed at his father's side. "Father, she knows your name? Do you know her, or what she is for that matter?"
The woman frowned. "Zarius, you've been naughty. You mean you haven't informed him of the past?" She spat on the sandy ground. "Despicable."
"The past?" Cozmi repeated. "Father, what is she talking about?"
Zarius sighed wearily as he placed a hand on his son's head. "I wish the circumstances were better, but I suppose today is the day. Cozmi, for your safety please return to your mother at once. I will explain everything to you when I return." The woman's body began to glow white. What was going to take place would surely not be pretty, or easy. "If I return… No. I will return. I promise."
"Are you going to… fight her?"
"Hold on! Let's not get ahead of ourselves!" the woman spoke up. For once, she adopted a rather neutral smile. No benevolence, no malice, just the smile that did not reach her cheeks. "There is no need for bloodshed if it can be avoided. I came here with a simple request. As one with rights to the very soil beneath our feet, I deserve to be heard!"
Despite his better judgment, Zarius kept his hand on Cozmi, a sign that he was to listen as well. "I know I'm going to regret this but… proceed, Sapharubi."
Cozmi gasped. So they were acquainted after all.
"So it hasn't been long enough, huh?" Sapharubi smirked. "I won't beat around the bush. I am the debt collector, and enough amnesty has been graciously granted. Give back everything you stole. Give us back our planet!"
"Huh? Father, what does she mean, "everything we stole"? Who is "us"? What is she talking about?" Cozmi was in a surreal position. He did not wake up today to expect having his world shatter.
"It is a long and painful story, I am afraid," Zarius answered, confusing his son even more. "Unfortunately, to answer your previous question… Yes, I am going to fight her. I have no choice. Our people are in danger."
"Huh!? Then…" Cozmi glanced at the intruder of his lovely morning flight with his dad. "Let me help. She feels really strong…"
Sapharubi frowned. You try to reason with people, and then they bit your head off. "I should have known better than to negotiate with you barbaric, emotionless, star stained scum." Sapharubi suddenly became coated in white flames, much to the alarm of father and son. Curiously, the flames were not burning her. "Fine, let us get this over with. You freaks of the cosmos are not going to extinct yourselves!"
Once again, Cozmi felt that veritable malice. But as he looked to his father, who nodded to him as he took his hand, his fear gave way to an inner conviction. Threaten the kingdom, did she? Not on their watch. They would face this adversity together.