• (This is just the Prologue to the story. I'm uploading it by chapter, depending on the feedback.)


    The dazzling citrine of a sun sparkled in the cloudless sky, aimed directly at the sprawling city, and the scorching heat blazed mercilessly on its undeserving citizens. Complaints could be heard from behind stonewashed walls, and children rested their heated feet on the cool mosaics in the shadows of the Ulster and Water Temples.

    The endless pristine blue of the sky was only interrupted by the straggling mountains looming over the city, the same whitewashed and barren color as their buildings. The city, however, had the sense of an almost cheerful place regardless of the lack of color, and if one looked close enough, you could actually find small snatches of wildflowers, bright rainbow mosaics and splashes of pastel paint lingering on the walkways from past festivals.

    However, none of this interested General Cromaine, who although took notice of the periwinkle sky and the perfectly even cobblestones beneath his daintily slippered feet, seemed oblivious to much else.

    He was on a mission to reach the Temple located at the very center of the large city before sunset. And although he heard rumour tell that the sunsets here were lovely enough to make one’s eyes water in romantic idealism, he had not much taste for such things.

    He longed for a different sort of beauty, one that could only be found inside of the walls of the Sun God’s Temple, a darker, more sinister beauty. One that had absolutely no business even being in this city at all. And after he had his fill of that beauty, he would be taking it with him, back to his Palace of gold and stone, away from this barren land that could only push up a few tiny withering flowers at a time. He’d take that dark loveliness to a place it would seem unfit to be and yet fit in perfectly, a land of sluttishly bright hues strewn across fields, of rainbows of color that fought against the deep yellow sun beating upon them from its nook in the sky. A place where green was as commonplace as the gold, and where the fruits in the market were always alight with crystalline dew and they could revel in the drunken-like state that would ensue from such a sensory overload.

    There was nothing to stand in his way- as soon as patrons of the street noticed his flaming hair, they stepped aside. The dwellers of the desert knew the General’s hair and markings, and knew that he was a force to be reckoned with. The temple loomed overhead, blocking out the view of everything else. Inside of it was a desert jewel, a diamond in the rough. These people worshiped him as a god, even though he was all but such a being. And Cromaine, oh, he had every intention of stealing this dark diamond from the good, naive people.

    With a sharp glance at the sky and a tug on his scarf, the General marched determinedly towards the ominous shadow of the Sun Temple.