MAEN
Maen wriggled his feet in the cool dirt, enjoying the feeling of grass between his toes and the breeze on his skin. New sounds assailed his senses and his eyes widened in amazement at all of the new things to behold. He stared around him spinning in a circle attempting to take it all in, seeing the rolling hills and blue sky, dotted with strange white puffs that seemed to float by themselves.
A concerned look flitted across his face as he realized that there was no moon in the sky, instead there seemed to be some kind of fiery orb that made his skin tingle and his eyes burn. Though it slowly seemed to be falling into a patch of colors he had never seen before. He turned away and saw beautiful pillars of some brown material that was rough to the touch, they were holding up grass.
He peered closer and realized that instead of the strange green hairs on the ground these ones were shaped in a variety of ways, rounding out at the bottom and coming to points at the top. He took one is his hand rolling it between his thumb and forefinger, exploring this new and strange world. The green object left his hand wet so he wiped it on his chest.
He looked towards a group of the strange brown pillars and saw some four legged creatures bounding across the ground, their coats look soft and warm with white spots mottling their brown fur. He started towards them but as he came closer one of them wrenched it's head towards him and bounded away, the other ones followed and soon they were lost in the vast forest. Overwhelmed by these new sights Maen sat down on the ground and stretched, attempting to collect his thoughts while enjoying the feeling of the green hairs on his bare skin.
He shook his head and looked away from the forest, first noticing that in every direction there was sprawling grasslands and wide open fields, some with strangely straight rivets in them. Weird metal objects lay scattered on some of these fields along with colorful sprouts that seemed to just come out of the ground. He looked next to one of these strange field and noticed a plume of smoke coming up from behind one of the hills, seeing nowhere else to go besides the vast dark forest behind him he set out towards it.
Approaching the smoke he caught the scent of something delightful that set his mouth watering, he sped towards it and came around the hill. On the other side he saw a hut that seemed to be made of the same strange brown pillars he had seen earlier with a rectangular section cut into the side that had a weird circular stone on it, the top of the hut had a stone tube jutting out of the top that seemed to spew forth smoke.
The delicious smell was coming from inside the strange hut, he walked up to the rectangular section in the wall and touched it. It was smooth with a pattern of straight lines starting from the top and going straight down, he pulled back his hand and rapped solidly on the wall. A hollow echo sounded out, he liked how it sounded as it reminded him of how the stones sounded back home.
While he went to knock for the third time the door opened wide and revealed a creature clothed in strange fabrics with what looked like pieces of straw adorning its head, the creature looked at him, it's eyes widening as it peered up and down his body. It's mouth opened and a horrid noise tore from its throat, in a strange guttural language it turned around and called for something, it's small stubby legs carrying it quickly to the back room of the hut.
When it exited again Maen was still standing still at the front door confused at why this creature was running around awkwardly, he tried to calm it saying "I mean no harm strange beast." he paused remembering a much more important question "Are you the thing that smells so sweet?"
Unhearing or not understanding, the creature charged at him this time though another creature came from the back room it had just been in, this creature was larger and more defined, it's shoulders were wider and it wore less cloth than the straw headed thing. Behind the large two legged creature stood a small one, it's squat legs and arms quivered as it made a strange squealing sound.
The small creature in the back bolted back into the room it had come from while the large one and the straw headed one charged Maen. The straw headed one had a shining triangular weapon clasped in it's hands, it looked almost like glass and just as sharp. While the large one in the back was holding a stick with four prongs on the end of it, they both looked angry and afraid. The one with the glass-but-not-glass stopped short of him and held the the thing threateningly as it continued spewing strange sounds, the large one came up to Maen and shoved the straw headed one back holding out his stick as though trying to scare Maen away.
Maen held his hand out and tried to push the creatures aside to get into the hut and towards a strange black bucket that sat over a tiny version of the thing in the sky, this bucket seemed to be the source of the smell that had drawn him here. As he shoved the straw head aside the large one lunged at him with the pointed shining stick, as soon as it made contact Maen's skin dissolved into smoke and the creature fell through him, his momentum kept his stumbling past Maen and out the door.
Maen walked towards the metal bucket and the smell became stronger, he looked inside and saw a pool of delicious smelling broth bubbling and steaming. He reached into it and scooped some into his hands, he brought his hands to his lips and drank. The boiling stew soothed his throat and left a comfortable warmth in his stomach.
Satisfied he had found the source of the smell he turned back around to see the weird creatures staring at him in fear, their awkward grunting noises becoming louder and more frantic. The large one charged at Maen again and tried to spear him through the chest, and again his body dissolved into smoke leaving the thing to stumble behind him.
Maen's ears perked up as he heard a familiar noise, he looked around frantically trying to find the soundless song that echoed through his very soul. The noise he had heard so many times, that had soothed him and kept madness at bay. He peered around panicked and confused as to where it could be coming from, as the moon wasn't there the last time he looked. He saw a hole in the wall that led out into a world with a black sky. That can't be right, the black sky is gone. The sky is blue here, with the false moon and the white fluffs..
Everything was so different here, how could it change again so suddenly, he raced past the straw haired thing and the large one, and through the hole in the wall he had come through. The air was cool and the sky was black, but this sky had points of light dotting it, thousands of them. Yet none compared to the bright and perfect moon, it's majesty could not be marred by these pretenders, it's perfect beauty still calling to him from so far away. He smiled knowing that she hadn't forsaken him, "Why did you leave me, why did you stop singing to me for so long?" he whimpered.
It's strangled song, sad and melancholy echoed through his very being, until it was interrupted as the straw haired thing thrust his stick through Maen's head. Silence. He listened closely, yet the perfect silence dragged out into an eternity. The music was gone again. He closed his eyes and turned his head back towards the moon, a red tear slipped from his eye as the silence consumed him. His sorrow turned to anger and he turned around, his green, moon crazed eyes boring into the creature behind him, "Why..." he asked "Why would you stop the music?"
Silence.
"WHY WOULD YOU STOP THE SONG?!" he roared and reached out, but not with his hand, with something deeper, something darker.
It roared inside him like a beast uncaged, it's rage unknowable and terrible. It reached out to this puny creature and crushed it in it's grasp. Yet crushing it wasn't enough, it tore deep into the things body finding where it's life beat in it's chest. It tore it out and rent it apart, spraying red liquid across his face and the grass nearby. The large creature cried out in anguish and charged, but his cry fell on deaf ears as the darkness lashed out again, grabbing the thing by the chest and lifting it into the air, it would take it's time with this one, learn all it had to know, and then tear it apart.
The dark tendril fanned out splitting into multiple appendages, each one sinking deep into the creature tearing knowledge and memories free, drinking deep on all this thing had to know. Maen decided he wanted to know what these horrid beasts thought, why they assumed they could interrupt him and his music. A word bubbled to the top of his mind, the word that this beast used to describe itself.
The creature held this word in reverence as though without it, it would be less, "Humanity" the word echoed as though it alone could define it's horrid existence. He would find out this creatures thoughts, he would understand it and all of it's kind. And he would bring them death.
It would take time, but then again, what was time to a thing as old as him.
