Land Of No Shadows Chapter 1 (Story)

Land Of No Shadow
"Coming To Power"
By Titus Cresent

Chapter 1

In this land of war and waist, we live a life where we can either run or fight. We are split up into three types of people. First you have the Knowns, known for there intellect and there wisdom. They have it easy when it comes to learning things. Smart beyond the rest of us. Second you have the Workers, they are the ones who keep our villages, towns, and cities moving and going. Last, you have the powers, the warriors of the land, known to get there abilities starting at the age of sixteen. The abilities can range from healing, to fire balls, to heat vision, and so on and so forth.
I am Andrew James Maxillian, I am a power, I am from a long line of Generals, who have the max abilities, that range from deadly, to sly. I am to take my fathers place when I come to power, and harness my abilities and fight the race that wants to wipe us from the map. They are the Harnessed, a dark race of inbreeded mix of my people and those of creatures that rule the forest. The have a mix ability of all three, just not as heightened. They are smart, strong, evil, hard working bastards who seek to rule this land. It is up to the Powers to destroy them or keep them at bay.
We all live in Parthinian, a world that goes from lush greenery, to mechanized cities. It is beautiful, and has been around for thousands of years. Created by the god of my people, Jaspis. We Powers are thought to have been connected to Jaspis through his guardians, or as you may call them, Angels. The Powers are looked at as Angels fallen from the Heavens and intermingled with humans and then created the powers. Each blood line is connected to a famous Guardian, and that is how we say how strong we are. Again, this is all theory, some people believe there is no higher power, and that we are just as we are, surviving and evolving to be able to continue the blood line, but that is also a theory. I myself will learn on my own what my thoughts are during training this summer after I turn sixteen.
Every young adult is assigned to a group depending on what there needs are and depending on your first ability, cause as you grow older, your abilities form around the first one, the main one. Normally consists of a Healer, one who can heal and if lucky can use the "Breath of Life" to bring one back from the dead. A Striker, one who can strike from afar with fire balls, or lightning bolts, and even rays from the sun shooting from there eyes, or heat vision, and also is very fast. A Throg, one who is mainly hand to hand with the ability of strength and the ability to form weapons from thin air, like a mace, a sword, or a hammer. Last you have, what my father is, a General, one who has quick reflexes, the ability of invisibility, one who has a little bit of all the others in him. Like has the ability to heal quicker than normal, has a great feat of strength, and the ability to strike from a distance. They are known as the leader of the group, and as of right now, my fathers squad is top of there performance.
Every century though, we have one that stands out above all other powers, and they rise to what we call Elders. Normally our race of people live for a good amount of time, like two hundred years, but the elder always seems to die on his hundredth birthday. A few weeks or months later, a new elder is picked, but no one knows who it is until they prove themselves worthy in combat or on a mission that changes our very stand.
Our elder was a man named Jules, and he was the one that killed the Darkest of the Harnessed, named Zebulon Arcane. He was the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, and wisest of the Harnessed. Tall like a giant, built like an ox, dark blue skin that hid him as his people well in the dark. He had the ability to summon the dead, even after years of decay had set in, the would rise, Harnessed, Powers, Workers, and Knowns all would be under this evil spell and fight against us all. The only ones he could no raise, were the past Elders, as if there was a spell cast on them to keep evil from ensuing them.
Jules used his wit, and powers to destroy all these undead all in one swoop of power, radiating as a bright orange light from his hands. As soon as the light touched the flesh of the undead, they would crumble under its gaze upon there pale, rotted flesh. Mindless, but apparently could feel pain, for there moans of sorrow and agony could be heard through out the entire land. it even drove some people completely mad, and some to this day in my city are still as mad as a Hench. A Hench being a person who talks to themselves and does not acknowledge others around them, and screams blood curdling screams when there is nothing there that could cause it..
The funny part about this is, Jules did not know he was the Elder, and still fought Zebulon. He only fought him, cause no one else would, but he must have been the right choice for about seventeen years ago he died at the ripe middle age of one hundred on his birthday. Which did not amaze any one. The thing is, the new elder could be any one, could even be me, which, my father is hoping it to be, but I am not courageous as Jules, nor am I sure that I will get his type of abilities, I may not even be a General, I may become a Healer, not that there is anything wrong with that. Healers become our doctors, and to be able to give the breath of life into some one who has died shortly, and to see them come back to life would be amazing, and to know that I did that. I saved that life from going to the Land Of No Shadows.
The Land Of No Shadows is the land of the dead. No man has ever seen it, and no one of a sound mind who was among the undead could tell us what lies beyond life. It is a name we have called it for thousands of years. It is a place of nothingness, it is a place of vein proportions. You go there to just be, not to celebrate death, nor morn it. Again, these are all theories, like the god, or the evolution theories developed by the Knowns. They may be smart, but they are not all knowing.
"We the people of Parthinian, vow to keep life going at all costs. We will keep the world spinning, we will keep the planets soil rich. The Powers will fight with all their will, with all their might, to keep evil threatening to do harm against those of us who vow this vow. The Knowns will keep the knowledge and history of those past, present and future, and keep it contained and away from vanishing from generations to come. The Workers will do there part, and not let the world fall into darkness, and keep the cogs of our nation, our world, our universe going till the end of time. We Are Parthinians, and we Vow the Vow of our fathers, to do this till we reach The Land Of No Shadows" This is the Vow we say on our sixteenth birthday, and we say it on Pathinians anniversary of creation.
We live every day as our last, that's how we are raised. We are also raised to love for life, and we will most likely treat our spouse as we treat our parents. Which in most cases are true. Even if a Worker and a Power fall in love, they treat each others as equals, there is no bad families or rebellious acts. What we see as rebellious is normally going off on a mission or an adventure without warning our families, but we love till we reach the end of our lives.
As for our schooling during training, we don't exactly have teachers, we have a Known assigned to each squad. He is normally a year or two older than the rest, but is not there as a leader of any sort, normally he is there for useful information and tactics and planning with the Generals. He comes in handy for what plants are edible and which ones can kill in an instance. He knows the animals of the land, and even the land itself he knows.
Now, if you think we are just a squad of five people, you are wrong. We are all assigned to a Worker to have help us on our journey. They do not fight, they do not jump into plan making, they are there to help us to the best of there abilities. No, they are not slaves, this is what they are born to do, and it is like the ranks of the military. They serve with the Power, and the Known for a certain amount of time, then they live a life of luxury if they survive the entirety of the missions. All the workers at the young age volunteer to tag along with the squads, some for financial reasons, and some for the thrill of seeing some action.
One thing I should make clear, not all Workers to Elders male. There have been plenty of female Generals, and some of the greatest Elders have been Female as well. Normally they are the best Healers for there instinctive caring attributes, but that can also carry onto a General, caring for the safety and safe return of her squad.
Onto the religious portion of this book, We have many different beliefs, and many different places of congregation, but right now, the biggest ones are the Higher Power belief know as Highten, and the evolutionists are called Rockness. Normally the ones who have not yet come into there abilities, or have been dubbed the so called adulthood, need no choice, until they start there work or training, and even then it is not until a year into it that they need make a choice. The only ones that do not make a choice is the Known, cause all they do is make there own theory. The known can choose to believe as we do, or they can follow there own. Some theories are some what similar to our beliefs, and then some are so outlandish, but have a base of truth to it.
This life we have come to accept, is part of something bigger, even the Known cant explain it down to a science. Like, how does the Elder gain the power to be an elder, or how does the power gain his ability, and lastly, how does the Knowns brain do what it does? Sure, theories is all they can give. The powers get there ability through there blood line, but is it a certain gene that can be seen under a microscope, or is it some invisible magic that will never be able to certainly figure out and harness for others to use. The Known send it down the line through a sort of mental telepathy, or also, is it a magic we can not explain. Last but not least, how did the Harnessed become what they are, and keep it going without worsening the blood to where they die out. All these can be answered by an answer of faith, magic.
Questions we ask ourselves daily, like, am I going to die today? Will I get a certain power? Will I be as smart as my Father? Will I be able to follow in the Path of those before me? What does The Land Of No Shadows look like and hold within the heart of it? Questions we will not know until it is to late, that is why we live life to the fullest. That is why we live to eat, and not eat to live. We count our blessings, and forget our sorrows. We see everything as a chance to do something, then to see it as a burden. We are Parthinians, and we live till we se the shadow less land.