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    Shonokota


    In the land of Kennishire, a black plague scourged the lands. One evil man, a dark sorcerer, created this plague. He was exiled by his people for the act of dark magic. He vowed to allow no one to survive. Every living being, all except one, a Quintolian woman, a cat-like man-beast, was infected. She was going to give birth to the saviour of the lands.


    1500 A.D, December 5th

    Sure enough, the lady was in labour that night. She had been in severe pain for the entirety of the day. Once it was over, it had been a miracle. She held the baby in her arms, and whispered to herself, “Beautiful, just beautiful.” She paused to look at the boy, “Shonokota, you will be a survivor… I will send you out of Kennishire before the plague strikes….”

    The birth of Shonokota was the first good thing to happen to Kennishire in five years. Kennishire was a large country, bound by lords and ladies of white magic. One of the lords, Korunata, was soured by his love, Talunia being taken by another lord. He turned to black magic, still capable of maintaining Kennishires’ floating islands; he did not tell the others lords of the tainted mark of his magic. However, not knowing the spells of his black magic, he caused a storm to happen on the main Island, in the center of all of the others. Lighting struck the magic beams holding it together, and it crashed into the darkness below the islands.

    The lords and ladies exiled him, and sealed him down into darkness, and over time, he transformed it into his fortress of evil. The lady who gave birth to Shonokota was Saluna, the lady of the cosmos. Being of the Quintolian race, she was much stronger to resist the plague.

    Saluna held the baby in her arms one more time… she spoke to it softly, “Shonokota, no matter what happens, value your life… don’t play hero if you could be hurt. Saluna walked towards a large ship, with enormous white wings attached to each side. She whispered goodbye to her boy, and gave it to the ship captain, and stepped off of the boarding ramp.

    The captain gasped, at the site of the baby. He spoke slowly, “This boy…” He looked closer at Saluna. He had not noticed her cat ears and tail. Even though Saluna wore a cloak, he saw the distinct features of the quintol. He sighed, “Well… a quintol is a rare sight to see on the islands. It’s several thousand miles to the island you call home, how did you get here?” Saluna replied with her soft voice, “I walked here... It’s not so big of a deal.” The ship captain was shocked. “What in the flames of water… It would take a lifetime to WALK here! There is no transportation ANYWHERE else on the island. Quintols are not good with magic. There is no way you could get here! What determination that would take.” Saluna blushed like a rose. “I’ve walked longer distances in Streyana. Even so, quintols have a long lifetime. I’ve been alive for millions of human years.”

    The captain was even more shocked. He almost had a heart attack at the mention of Streyana. “I thought Streyana was a fairytale… A long time ago, a castle of darkness, led by a man of evil, a sorcerer, was rising from the earth from which it crashed out of the sky. Dark mist surrounded every inch of land in Streyana. He killed everyone, but those killed were given a second chance at life, once a woman, a Quintolian woman, saved….” He paused. “YOU?!” Saluna was surprised at his shout. “Yes, that was me… It was seven Quintolian ages ago. That’s seven millenniums in human time.” The captain was shocked. He was in the presence of THE hero of Streyana. The man, once infected, was lifted from his plagued state. Something about the woman’s presence lifted the curse. The captain finally said “We’re leaving now… I’ll take your baby to Streyana. Hopefully some of his own kind will be there” The man rest the baby on the large and soft bed in his chamber.

    Once the ship arrived at Streyana, the captain took the child from his blanket. He noticed a pendant around his neck. He took it off of Shonokota for a moment. Inscribed on it in tiny letters, “Streyana and Kennishire join as one.” The captain remembered something from the past. He spoke to Shonokota, “Boy, you must remember… with all of your Quintolian instincts, you are the hero of Kennishire.” The captain found a village, where only quintols lived, and gave Shonokota to a family living in a small hut.

    2000 A.D, December 5th.

    The boy now the size of a human 10 year old, was urging to find this “Kennishire” place. He inquired his supposed “father” about where he came from. The boy knew about Kennishire because of what was inscribed on his pendant. Shonokota asked his stepfather, “Dad, why don’t we live in Kennishire?” His stepsister spoke before his stepfather could, “Hey! How do you know you’re from Kennishire? You could be from Streyana!” This struck Shonokota as incorrect. “My mother doesn’t live here, Onia… According to what dad says, she lives in Kennishire!”

    His stepfather quickly spoke out before his daughter could interrupt, “Shonokota, Kennishire is cursed by a horrible plague! An evil man called Korunata cursed the lands of Kennishire. Your mother could have gotten the plague, and have died by now.” Shonokota was shocked. His mother, dead? Impossible! Shonokota, unable to control himself, he blurted, “I’m going to Kennishire!” His stepfather laughed. “Go to Kennishire? No one of the quintol race could ever fly. On top of that, only Kennishire has airships!” Shonokota thought for a moment. He ran out of the house and headed towards his friend, Kolaiwa’s house.

    Kolaiwa was a Quintolian girl, only a month older than Shonokota. She had rare qualities of the female quintol, Soft pink fur over the chest and upper torso, red ears, and claws slightly sharper than the average Quintolian girl, she often cuts down trees and builds extra rooms into her house. One thing that only she knew was why her tail looked like the wildest flames. Shonokota always thought that the fur on her tail was “specially groomed” in his opinion.

    Once he got there, he was in a state of panic. Shonokota knew that Kolaiwa had a vast knowledge on the islands of Kennishire. Shonokota ran up to the door, and slashed it down with his claws. Inside, before he could notice it ever was, her claws, tail, and ears stopped glowing like fire. “Kolaiwa!” He shouted. Kolaiwa was angered that he barged in so rudely. One thing that Shonokota inherited from his mother was his carelessness when he is working towards a goal.

    Kolaiwa shouted at him, “What are you doing?! You just came crashing in without any warning!” Kolaiwa lunged at Shonokota, and scratched him, causing him to recoil uncontrollably. “Egh” Shonokota cried. Kolaiwa was enraged; she screamed at the top of her lungs, “If you ever barge in again, you will get worse than a little paper cut!” Shonokota spoke with a hint of pain in his voice, “Kolaiwa, I need to ask you a favour.”





    CHAPTER 2
    The Temples

    Shonokota tried to make clear his requests. He informed Kolaiwa of his requests, “I need to know how I can get to the Kennishire Islands” Kolaiwa was surprised so deeply, she dropped and broke a crystal she had in her hands. “Shonokota, to get there you need to request the Lords and Ladies, or sages for short, to send their magic to the island above.” Shonokota took a step back. He spoke as he readied to run out, “Thanks, bye!” Kolaiwa raised her claws and opened her hands. Shonokota felt a burn on the back of his head. He turned around. Kolaiwa spoke to him now that she had his attention. “The six lords and ladies are in temples with puzzles, traps, and guardian beasts inside. It will take so long; all of the humans running the airships in Kennishire would have died. You won’t be able to come back, unless you jumped into the darkness.

    Shonokota ran back to his house. He spoke to his stepfather; “Dad, I can get to Kennishire.” His father laughed, and thought he’d play along. “Sure, tell me how!” Shonokota said with confidence “I’m going to go to each of the temples.” Then, tragedy struck, two shadows, one white, the other black, decimated Shonokota’s family. His house turned into a blue sphere, and swallowed him whole.

    Shonokota was teleported into an arena, a large circle platform with darkness surrounding it. Shonokota was ready to fight. The white shadow threw a bolt of light at him, which Shonokota shredded with his claws. Shonokota’s claws glowed with a white light. The black shadow threw a sphere of darkness at him, which he thought doing that would absorb the darkness too. It did, however a discharge slashed him several times with both light and darkness. The white shadow threw another bolt of light at him, and his claws absorbed it. When the black shadow struck, he decided to dodge it, and wait for the white shadow to attack. When the white shadow threw a sharper bolt of light at him, he absorbed it with his claws. A blue glow now emit from his claws. He attacked each of the shadows, and they disappeared.

    Streyana Field

    His family being dead, he had no reason to stay in the village. He immediately set off, taking nothing with him. The Streyana fields were beautiful and huge, but very dangerous at night. On his way there, he ran into a Pine Hat, a rare type of beast that flies on sharp, leafy blades that can slice and dice their opponents. This one had a weak point, unlike others. Shonokota charged forward, scratching ferociously. However, the leafy blades blocked each attack. The pine hat moved back, exposing the roots for a moment with each attacks. He scratched once more, only he rolled around the pine hat, to get behind the blades. He scratched the roots, and the pine hat exploded, sending out the heliblades like knives.


    Shonokota finally reached the first temple, the Steel Temple. Once he entered, he was immediately in a maze of metal blocks. There were bronze blocks, which he could break, and others he could not. He stepped up to the bronze block beside a small rabbit. Then, a questionable mystery occurred. The rabbit spoke to him, “Young quintol, this temple would be the only easy one you can complete as a child. Despite your agility, these temples were only made for those capable of magic. As a child, you can fit through small holes. All quintols can learn magic at an older age. So come back when you grow up if you wish to melt the steel barriers.


    At the end of the temple, there is a legendary blade, the only one that can destroy darkness. Sharper than a Quintolian claw, it will destroy even steel. Not knowing this, Shonokota came for another goal. Shonokota proceeded to slice the bronze block, and behind it there was a picture of the sun on the floor. He stepped on it, hoping it will do something. Nothing interesting happened. He noticed that there was a small window, with a mirror under it reflecting light to a mirror on the ceiling; however the mirror on the ceiling needed to be moved to be on the picture of the sun. There was a lava pit near the mounted mirror.

    Shonokota walked up to the lava pit, and dipped his claws in. The lava was disappearing, and Shonokota didn’t know what happened. As he approached a steel block, he tripped on a stack of crystals; known as “shalowans” Each shalowan could be worth a certain amount of money, if the colour is right. As Shonokota tumbled, his claws scratched the steel block, and it melted away.

    The rabbit approached from inside the room. He squeaked to Shonokota, “Inside this room, lay the spirit of Kaitone, the sword of the quintol. If you wish to continue to the chamber of the sage, you’ll need to be bigger. Come back once you’re an adult.” With that, the rabbit ran off into the chamber. Shonokota followed him.

    In the chamber, a ghost holding a sword approached him. The ghost spoke with anger, “Ye who seek the sacred sword, leave proof of our meeting here. That proof, is going to be your corpse” The ghost lunged forward. Shonokota dodged, and slashed the ghost with his claws. The ghost was unharmed. Blue torches were lit around the arena. Shonokota thought for a moment. He ran in front of one of the torches, and waited for the ghost to strike. The ghost charged forward, slashing with his strongest force. Shonokota dodged, and Kaitone ran into the torch. It consumed the ghost, making him solid. Shonokota slashed the ghost with his claws.


    A long battle with the ghost raged on, the ghost bled with every slash. Shonokota stuck his claws in the blue torches, and they absorbed some of its power. The ghost spun with his sword, slashing Shonokota several times, however, he regained his balance and blocked the sword with his claws. Blue lightning traveled up the sword and shocked the ghost, making him solid. The Quintolian boy lunged at the ghost, and slashed him one more time. The ghost’s unholy armour fell off. The last person Shonokota expected to see, was there.

    Shonokota ran to the person in the shadows. He spoke with wavering eyes, “Mother….?” Saluna looked up. “Shonokota, I must tell you… before it’s too late!” Shonokota sat down, looking at his wounded mother. Speaking softly, sauna said “Shonokota, I was under the control of an evil man. The person responsible for my attacking you was Korunata, a dark sorcerer. When the main island was destroyed, the castle on it came with it. He’s transforming it into an evil castle.

    His mother hurt badly enough, passed away due to loss of blood. Shonokota kneeled at his mother’s body. He uttered a chant, “Life and death, coming and passing. All is a part of time. The sword senses worthy grasp, and speaks to the stone. The stone releases thee, and time lets thee go. Forward to the past, and time will help you once again.” Shonokota did not know where he learned that.


    Saluna’s corpse burned in a bright blue flame. A small platform appeared in front of Shonokota. When he stepped on to it, he was raised to the chamber of the blade. He stood before the sword, and grasped the handle. Shonokota summoned all of his strength, and tugged it out of the stone. A blue light, just like the flames that turned Saluna into a spirit, engulfed him.


    When Shonokota woke up, he was in a temple with the same stone he took the sword from. He felt heaviness in his arms. Kolaiwa walked up to him and said; “Shonokota, the years have passed quickly… You’ve grown a lot. Kolaiwa lifted her claw as if holding something. Flames engulfed Kolaiwa’s fur, and she lifted her arms into the air. A red sphere appeared in her hands, and when Shonokota touched it, he felt stronger.

    Kolaiwa began to explain; Shonokota, I am the sage of fire. The girl who is the sage of Ice looks like me, but with light blue fur” She paused to light a ball of fire in her hands. “You must find each of the sages quickly. If you don’t, Korunata will consume everything.” Shonokota, puzzled, inquired what she had done to him, “Kolaiwa, what was that sphere that I just absorbed? I don’t have a slightest clue what you’re talking about” Kolaiwa explained slowly, “Shonokota… that was the power of Fire. Now you can use my flames to burn your enemies to the bone.” Shonokota stretched his arm out, as if to try to use this power, however nothing happened.

    Shonokota hated not being able to use a power. He asked Kolaiwa, “How do I use this power?” Kolaiwa laughed lightly. “Shonokota, you goofball, haven’t you even seen anyone use magic?” Shonokota sighed, “No, in the village people only use force magic.” That’s when Kolaiwa broke out in absolute laughter, “Ha-ha, its hard to believe you’ve never stayed indoors long enough to see when I come and light the fire stoves.” Shonokota was confused, “Don’t they light it themselves by rubbing sticks together?” Kolaiwa responded with frustration, “That doesn’t work with the trees in Streyana.”

    As Shonokota and Kolaiwa left the temple and started walking home, they came upon a large blastwood barricade. It was made out of trees from the Forest Temple of Kennishire. There was no way to cut this barricade, blastwood was meant to stop passage to those without magic. A blast sprout came down from the top of the large wall, “Hey you, Quintolian brats, how the hell did you get past this wall?” Kolaiwa clenched her fists at the sprouts attitude. “We’ve been sealed in the temple for the past eight years!”

    The sprout smiled with satisfaction, “Well, well. Someone is feeding us lies; we only made this barricade a year ago to stop people from destroying our blocks. It took us a full day just to make ONE block. Believe it or not we found a few of them slashed and broken. It must have been YOU who did that. At least our bronze ones which took us a week to make can’t be broken.” Shonokota was spending a lot of time being confused. “Kolaiwa, only I was in the temple when I drew the sword!” Kolaiwa looked more serious as she explained, “I followed you to the chamber of the sword, I yelled to warn you not to remove the sword… I knew you would be sealed away. However, I took a step onto the platform and the force of Time sealed me away with you.”

    The sprout took his chance to speak, “So you’ve been sealed in the Steel Temple when we built this.”
    Shonokota quickly responded, “Yes, and could you let us out now?” The sprout snapped, “No, we can’t open the barricade, its one solid piece, and if we took it down that would mean we would spend a year rebuilding it. You can rot in the temple.”

    Shonokota tried scratching the barricade down, so did Kolaiwa, but neither of them could even put a notch in it. Shonokota drew Kaitone and slashed the blastwood, and put a deep cut into the blastwood. Kolaiwa enraged herself, “Shonokota, you’ll never be able to cut a hole into this. It cuts deep, but it can only cut halfway through the block. The blastwood is impenetrable by even the sharpest sword. Let me show you my brightest flame.” Kolaiwa raised her arms straight up, and twirling ribbons of fire surrounded her. She clenched one of her fists, and pointed it toward the barricade. A red bow appeared in that hand, with her other she drew an arrow of blue fire, and let it fly into the blastwood. The blastwood burned, as the blue fire turned to yellow.

    Shonokota was amazed at the power Kolaiwa had, however he noticed her fur had turned white. The sprout drew his wooden sword and approached Shonokota silently. When Shonokota watched Kolaiwa, he saw that she closed her eyes and focused her strength into a magic emanation and then it turned to flaming ribbons. Shonokota did the same, and succeeded. His right hand had a flame like a candle in his palm. He through it at the sprout, who hit it back with his sword. Kolaiwa rolled in front of Shonokota and slashed the flames, and it grew bigger when it flew back at the sprout. The sprout was unable to guard the flame, and its hard blastwood surface was weak. Shonokota stabbed the sprout, piercing its heart.



    The Final Fatality

    They finally arrived at the village. Everything was in ruins. The undead roamed everywhere, and there was a circle of red ice in the center of the town. The blood ice, it could not be melted by fire. Shonokota climbed over the blood ice, and in the center, an evil man, Shaduta waited to confiscate Kaitone, and prevent Korunata from losing his evil kingship. The man spoke to Shonokota, “I am Shaduta, the general of Korunata’s army. I will defeat you, and remove the one key that could deliver coup de grace to Korunata.” The man drew his sword, and lunged at Shonokota.

    Shonokota drew Kaitone, and blocked his attack. He was fighting so quickly, he triggered his fire magic and imbued his sword with fire. His slice clashed against Shaduta’s sword; however its power knocked Shaduta back. Shonokota rolled around the stunned man and slashed his back. Shaduta quickly recovered and spun around deeply slashing Shonokota’s arm. Shaduta laughed with satisfaction. Shonokota charged up a small flame, and threw it at the ground. It spread throughout the entire blood ice arena. The blazing inferno hurt Shonokota badly, but hurt Shaduta worse. Both warriors gasping with exhaustion, collapsed. However, Shonokota managed to stand up, and ran Shaduta through with Kaitone. And Shonokota left the village with Kolaiwa.