Chapter One
Menefer hung in the midnight sky like a gold pendent sitting on black silk. The planet was close enough that its ancient temples were visible; if one looked close enough even the larger carvings and paintings could be seen on the walls. The surface of the planet looked smooth and sandy, like the soft sand at the beach only golden.
A young man sat on his balcony, crouched over a sketchbook, drawing the planet in a very sketchy style. His large amber eyes were very concentrated on the paper, his bright red angled bangs hung in his face and his long chest length black hair was tied in a ponytail and hung down his back, his face was very sculpted and he had high cheek bones, his lips were full and well shaped, he has large deep amber eyes that look so understanding, yet eager to learn, his ears were adorned with many piercings of different kinds, there were some silver hoops, a few twisted looking earrings with brightly colored balls on each end, there was also the occasional dangly brightly colored earring, his form was slender but muscles were apparent under his smooth skin. He was dressed in a steel colored vest that had a tall collar that came up to his chin almost, he had a necklace of large bright red beads around his neck, he left the top of the zipper unzipped a bit so the top of his semi muscular chest could barley be seen, the zipper was black and went all the way down the center of the vest, he wore matching pants with two matching suspenders that hung at his hips instead of on his shoulders, his boots were a deep coal color with steel tipped boots.
He looked up from his sketch for a moment to look out over the balcony edge, by chance he had looked up just as his younger roommate was heading home, holding two large envelopes under his arm. He sighed and counted on his fingers.
3…2…1…, “SEIKOOOO!” He sighed and stood up, heading to the sliding glass door to his room. His room wasn’t too big or exciting. The walls were painted a dull shade of red, the bed spread was black with matching pillows, there was a poster or two on the walls an iron desk across the room form the bed and the door to the bathroom was across the wall form the door leading out. He headed out the door and walked down two stories to the first floor of the three story town house the two shared.
“what is it?” he asked, leaning in the doorway. “The results came today.” His roommate answered, looking up at him with excitement. His envelope had already been torn open and its contents spilled out all over the table. “I made it!” he squealed excitedly, like a little girl. Seiko nodded and took his envelope from the table and opened it.
As he had expected he had made it to another year in the Academy. The Academy is a school for magicians and warriors, not to mention the gifted. Field exams were necessary for entrance to the school, each year they got more challenging, though Seiko had passed each with ease. He looked to his young friend who was childishly over excited about getting into the academy.
The boy was a tear younger then Seiko, he had a boyish face and the charm to go with it, his eyes were a shocking gold color, like the sands of Menefer, his skin was smooth and pale, he was very scrawny but seemed to have a sort of inner strength about him, his lips weren’t as large as Seiko’s and they were a bit more feminine looking, around his neck was a tight black choker with five dim blue lights glowing in the center most part, his torso was covered only in a char coal colored trench coat that lacked pockets and was only buttoned by the fifth, sixth, and seventh buttons, allowing the top of his chest and his belly button to show, also revealing a flat fit stomach, he was also wearing matching pants, a series of chains was dangled across his right hip, his boots were identical to Seiko’s, and there was A huge boomerang strapped to his back.
“so…are you going to apply to be my big brother?” Rin, the younger boy, asked finally calming down. Seiko shrugged,” you know im only a second year its usually third or fourth years that are big brothers. On top of that I never had one myself so they might not even give me the option of taking the test.” Seiko said with a slight frown. Generally every student who wanted to be a big brother to a younger student had to do some kind of task or take some kind of test. But should a second year student wish to they must take a much harder test to prove they are worthy of guiding the younger one through the academy. “They should still allow you to take the test.” Rin said, not seeming to be worried about it. “yeah but you’ll have to take it with me.” Seiko said looking over to Rin.
“I can do it.” Rin said, puffing himself up to look a bit sturdier. “Im sure you can.” Seiko said, even though he doubted Rin’s abilities. “Well then we should go down to the academy tomorrow then and apply for a task before school starts.” Rin said, picking up his envelope and heading towards the door that led to the main hallway. Seiko nodded and Followed Rin, the two headed upstairs then went their separate ways on the third floor going to their bed rooms.
Seiko sighed and fell back onto his bed, looking up at the ceiling. So now I have to take care of Rin even more… He thought to himself slightly annoyed with the idea. Why do I have to do it? Why did his parents have to leave him on our doorstep…? He thought angrily ,then regretted thinking it at all. Rin was like a younger brother to him and he cared about him very much, but sometimes taking care of him was too much. Why is Rin so …weak…?
Seiko then found himself yawning and kicking his boots off. He undressed lazily, now only in his boxer shorts and crawled under the thin but warm covers of his bed. His eyelids grew heavy and he eventually drifted off to sleep…
There was a vast field of flowers. Seiko stood in the middle ,looking around. Where was he? And… why were there flowers there? Flowers hadn’t grown on the surface of the planet for over a hundred years. But other then that there was a statue roughly a hundred yards from him. Cautiously he approached the statue. It looked so real, so life like. The stone even appeared to be breathing. It was of a young woman, an ancient Meneferian woman to be exact. The clothing and jewelry on her body was real gold, lapis lazuli, silver, linen, and bronze. Her clothes and jewelry was very elaborate, perhaps she was royalty. He stepped closer, looking up at her. She was a tiny girl with a cute figure. He blushed when he found himself thinking about it. Slowly and even timidly he reached up and touched her hand. He jerked his hand away , alarmed when it was as soft as real skin instead of hard like stone. Suddenly the stone changed into skin and the girl collapsed into his arms. His face burned red as the sleeping girl fell into his arms. Her hair was long black and very wavy, almost curly. Seiko leaned a bit closer to her face, to get a better look. But just as he was close to pressing his lips to hers… “SEIKO!” Rin’s voice rang in his ear, bringing him back to the waking world.
Seiko opened his eyes, irritated. “What!” he was almost shouting, causing Rin to jump. The sun was shining into his room through the sliding glass door and his bedside clock said 10:00am. “we should get off to the Academy to apply for a task…” Rin said, wringing his hands a bit. “Right Right, whatever.” Seiko shooed Rin out of his room and got out of bed, getting dressed in his normal ensemble and he headed down stairs where Rin was waiting.
They set off towards the school together. The academy was a huge building that towered over the small city neighborhood the boys lived in. It appeared to be a sort of glowing yellow color it had three sections to it, two smaller ones in the back and the one large one in the center. Outside in the back of the school in-between the two smaller sections was a fighting arena and practice area.
The boys entered the school through the two huge double doors in the center of the main building. There was an older looking woman at the reception desk. “Task applicants are to go to the left through the auditorium.” She said, not even looking up. Seiko grabbed Rin before he could ask how she knew and drug him to the task application table that was set up on stage.
“Ah Seiko.” Was the greeting they got from one of the men at the table. He was an old man with a long gray beard, he was bald, with a huge star shaped scar on his head, he wore a nice suit, which didn’t seem to belong on him at all. This was the headmaster of The Academy.
“Headmaster.” Seiko gave a polite bow to the elderly man. “So have you come for a task application?” he asked, getting some forms ready. “Yes sir.” Seiko answered,” I wish to be Rin’s big brother during our lessons here.” The head master bobbed his bald head and handed each boy some forms. “Now please fill these out and bring them back to me.” He said, turning to speak with some new students who had just walked in.
Seiko walked to some auditorium seats and began to fill out his applications, he was followed by Rin who in turn began to do the same thing. Seiko filled his out quickly and finished in no time while Rin took his time and answered each question thoughtfully, making Seiko wait. Once he was finished the boys took their applications up to the head master, who took them and looked them over.
He thought for a moment before looking up at the boys with pastel blue eyes that sparkled,” You two will have your Task tomorrow, now I suggest you go home and rest your going to have a very hard task to complete.” Rin bit his bottom lip nervously. “A hard task! What if we cant handle it?” he blurted as Seiko turned to leave. Seiko cringed in embarrassment. But the headmaster laughed,” don’t worry. Should the task prove to challenging we will be on stand by, ready to come to your aid if you so need it.”
Rin smiled and nodded, giving the head master a quick bow before heading out. “what was that!” Seiko shouted at Rin once they were outside, “Do you know how much you just embarrassed me!?” Rin opened his mouth to say something then he shut it again and looked at his feet, “Im sorry Seiko I didn’t know…” Seiko sighed and looked at Rin. “Ahh don’t worry about it…” he said giving the younger boy a small smile. Rin looked up and smiled at him. “Well Im going to go to the Enhancement shop. Ill meet you at home later.” He said, with a now somewhat serious air to him. Seiko nodded and watched as Rin ran off.
Seiko went home and plopped down on his bed, closing his eyes for a bit. So now he was going to share the same school with Rin…the thought wasn’t all bad, after all Rin was his best friend, even though he did get… “Needy” every now and then. Seiko opened his eyes. The same bland ceiling was above him. Why am I so worried about Rin coming to school with me anyways? It’s not like he will outshine me or anything…will he…? Seiko rolled over onto his side and looked out the glass door onto his balcony where his sketchbook was still on the chair form last night. He got up and went out, snatching the sketch book and he turned to go back inside when an interesting bird landed on the railing of the balcony.
It was a small blue bird with red spots. Though the spots seemed random there was some kind of order to them, there was one large one on its back, two smallish ones on each side of its head, a longish spot on each wing that ran along the front of it , and three spots on its stomach in a sort of triangular pattern. The red spots gave it the appearance of looking bigger, or broken apart, giving its predators a harder time of catching it. It was called a red-blue lerk. Seiko instantly sat down where he was and began to draw the lerk. As he sketched he tried to remember where he had heard of the lerk.
History… he thought to himself with a smile. Seiko was a history major at the Academy; history was a sort of passion for him. He loved nothing more then to sit about and read history books for hours. Rin on the other hand was all about the future, there fore his major was science.
Just as he was finished with drawing the lerk Rin slid the glass door open, scaring the bird off. Seiko looked up, only to have a hand full of weapon enhancements shoved in his face. “ I got you some.” Rin said as Seiko picked few them and gave the rest back to Rin. “Thanks I needed them.” Seiko smiled and took something out of his back pocket. It was a miniature of what looked like a steel hammer. Seiko held it in his palm and concentrated, suddenly a huge hammer was in his hand, he held it by the hilt at the bottom. The hammer was very decorated I a sort of old fashion decoration, one of a historical sense. Seiko then took the little glowing orbs that were the weapon enhancements and gently pushed them into the end of his hammer, waiting for the hammer to glow in response that it had accepted the enhancements.
“How much do I owe you?” Seiko asked as he changed the hammer back to its pocket size and slid it back into his pocket. “Nothing. Consider it a gift.” Rin said with a smile, turning to go inside. “im going to go and make lunch.” He announced , disappearing into the house.
Night fell and Seiko was just getting out of the shower. Once he had dried off and gotten into his boxer shorts and a pair of pants he headed downstairs where Rin was making something to eat, “what would I do if I didn’t have you to cook for me?” Rin looked up at him with a serious face, “ You would starve.” Seiko wrinkled up his nose. “I would not!” Seiko protested. “Seiko your such a bad cook you manage to burn water!” Seiko pouted, “Im not that bad!” Rin looked up as if to say you only think your not that bad. Seiko just fell silent and waited for his meal.
Once he had eaten Seiko went back upstairs and to his room. He crawled into his bed and turned out the lights, hoping to get an early start on sleep so he could get up early the next morning so he could get his task and get it over with. But he couldn’t fall asleep. So he just lay in his bed staring at the ceiling, he found he was doing that a lot lately. He heard Rin come upstairs and go to his own room, which was just one room over. He heard him sit at his desk ad begin to type on his computer. What could he be doing on the computer this late? Seiko was sure he wouldn’t have any other friends to be talking to online and he was typing too much to just be surfing the net.
But Seiko soon forgot about Rin’s fingers tapping across the keys as his eyes began to close, did he always get tired when he was thinking like this? Did that make him stupid?
The next morning an eager Rin awaked him. “Come on! Come on! Lets go!” Rin whined as Seiko heaved himself out of bed. “Calm down calm down!” Seiko snapped, moody that he had been woken up so early on a summer day. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was only 8:00am. He sighed and went into the bathroom, followed by a nagging Rin. “Keep your coat on! Im getting dressed!” he snarled but Rin only stayed quiet for a few minuets at a time. “What are you so excited about anyways? Your acting like a little kid.” Seiko asked as he finally got dressed and brushed his teeth.
“How are you not excited? We finally get to go and do something important together! We might even get to use magic!” he chirped. “You don’t even know what our task is yet.” Seiko said as Rin urged him down the stairs and towards the door. “So?” Rin didn’t seem to care what the task was. “weren’t you the one who was so worried it would be too hard for us to handle on our own?” Seiko asked, giving Rin a skeptic glare. Rin rolled his eyes, “Stop being such a wet blanket. This will be fun!” Seiko rolled his eyes.
They got to the school a few minuets later and headed back to the auditorium where the headmaster was waiting for them. “Ah im glad to see you two got here early. This morning is most favorable for launching.” He said turning around to gather some papers off the table behind him. Suddenly Rin looked very nervous, “uhhh launching?” The Headmaster nodded, “You have to use a rocket to get to Menefer.”
All of Rin’s confidence fled him and he froze. Seiko nodded and looked over to Rin, “Are you ok?” Rin gave a sort of sporadic nod, “Im g-great! Never b-better!” Seiko sighed Oh great another weakness… The head master then motioned for the boys to follow him.
They were taken outside, past the practice fields onto a privet launch pad that belonged to the school. He then turned to both boys, “If you cant tell your task it to go to the planet Menefer and retrieve some historical documentation that belongs to them.” Seiko nodded, he was getting pumped, just the thought of getting his hands on actual Meneferian artifacts was making him excited. Rin on the other hand seemed terrified, why did they have to go there again? “I have read over some of your records Seiko and I understand that you have taken flight training, therefore we will not be sending a pilot with you.” The headmaster continued, making Rin’s condition worse.
“Understood.” Seiko nodded, he was now the eager one. “I also have a gift for you, Im not sending you two totally alone. I will be giving you the newest models of the Wizard watches. I hope you use them well, Im sure your already familiar with the functions.” Just as the headmaster finished speaking two staff members brought out the watched and the floor of the launch pad opened up as the small space jet was brought out.
Rin looked up at it nervously, his long black hair blowing in the wind. He identified it as the space sparrow, a smaller and faster version of the space hawk. It was the newest ship out on the market it was capable of long distance travel and defending its self should it need to, the most high tech ship of its class. “wow…” Rin whispered looking up at it in awe, his fear of flying forgotten momentarily. “Come now you two need to be fitted and readied for take off, we are wasting no time on this task.” The headmaster was now very serious, no traces of kindness could be found in his voice.
The boys were led to a sort of locker room where they were given two identical jump suits and helmets. “Why are they making us go to Menefer?” Rin whined once they were alone. “well on top of being a school the Academy is a research foundation as well. They send some students on missions like this to get data. Our job isn’t even that hard considering some of the other jobs that the upper classmen have to do.” Seiko answered pulling his jumpsuit.
Rin sighed and pulled on his own suit. The suit were really pointless but the government demands everyone wear them when going into space, even for short trips such as this one. “Are you nervous Seiko?” Rin asked when Seiko had fallen silent. “Not so much.” Seiko answered,” Im more excited then nervous, I have always wanted to do some research on Menefer myself.” As he spoke the dream about the young woman came to mind and he smiled and blushed, getting lost in his thoughts.
“Seiko?” Rin was looking at him weirdly. Seiko snapped out of it, “what?” Rin looked away form him,” you were smiling and blushing…” Seiko shook his head, “was not! I think your nerves are getting to your head!” Seiko then left the room , followed by a confused Rin. They were loaded on to the ship right after that then the system checks began. Every now and then Seiko would say check and push some buttons or flick some switches. Then the words that Rin dreaded came, “ready for Launch.”
The ship shook violently then a tremendous roaring sound filled both Seiko’s and Rin’s ears.
The ship took off.
Rin could feel his body sinking into the seat as an immense pressure built up, only to suddenly dissipate as they broke through the atmosphere. He was weightless. “You ok?” came Seiko’s voice as soon as he twisted his helmet off. Rin nodded wildly and took his helmet off as well. Just in front of them was Menefer, in all of its golden glory
...Until My Throat Bleeds
