Guardian

CHAPTER 1 – BANISHMENT

Tossed and thrown about the void without any sense of direction, a silver-haired man found himself completely at the mercy of whatever trickery had been cast upon him by the being who had appeared before him and his beloved just moments before. Moments? Perhaps it was more like hours. The man had lost track of the timing of his natural clock, for being in that melting void for so long had made him completely confused and made his thoughts all run together as one.

Each glance around the void was one of complete chaos. The area around him was constantly melting and changing hues, though through the madness he could make out images. Though only brief, fleeting visions, the man could tell that they were visions from his past, memories that he had.

His head beginning to hurt from the massive amount of random information flying through it through his visual gates, he clamped his eyes shut tightly and hoped that the pain may cease, but this failed to alleviate any feeling he experienced. The visions continued as though his eyes remained open.

Wishing for the torment to stop so that his psyche may remain intact at least to some extent, Eiza began writhing about in the air of the void as the assault upon his mind continued. As he began to lose hope, however, cursing the name of the man who did this to him, the world suddenly took form around him.

Laying softly on what felt like grass, Eiza sat up and looked around. He suddenly felt an odd sensation, and looked down to figure out the issue. His red clothes now hung from him like curtains, much too large for him. His white and blue armor only made the clothes into more of a trap and less of the clothes that he had become accustomed to. So, looking around carefully, Eiza fumbled about in his garments before managing to free himself from the prison cell of his garb.

Now naked, he attempted to stand up as he would normally do. However, he quickly fell backward, catching a glimpse of a long strand of silver hair flair out as he did so. Puzzled, he lay in the grass for a moment, gazing up at the stars. He began piecing together the events that had occurred leading up to that point.

“Until we meet again, Eiza Borealis and Ailain Yurusuchi, in a place and universe that I deem fit. You will remain separate until you find your way.”

And then the man in orange robes and armor who said that raised his hand and suddenly the world melted, Eiza felt himself falling, and Ailain was gone.

Blinking, Eiza pondered what the words of the man in orange and black robes meant by what he had said. How was he meant to get to “a universe that I deem fit?” He reached up to the stars, hoping to be able to grab an answer out of the sky. He was instead startled at what reached up in place of his arm.

Shocked, Eiza sat up and lifted his arms, looking at his hands. They were not hands. He could see fur coating his arms, leading down to what appeared to be dull silver hooves that had replaced his hands. What's more, he looked down at his legs, which had also taken on a similar form, but appearing to be the hind legs of some kind of quadruped.

Frantic and scared, Eiza began looking around as his breathing rate increased. A short distance away, he could see a pond lined with cattails and topped with lily pads, which he rushed to quickly on all fours. Looking into the calm water of the pond, Eiza could see his reflection in the shimmering water, one that somewhat resembled him, yet did not.

“I'm... I'm a horse?” Eiza spoke aloud to himself, “I'm a horse... I'm a horse?” Eiza continued to look into the pond as the insects and wildlife around him continued their own chirps and conversation. He took note of the new form he had taken... Lengthy silver hair, the flame stripes still present on his face, white fur in place of his skin, his necklace still present, a horn... A horn?

Eiza reached up with a hoof and felt his forehead. Sure enough, the horn he saw was there.

“So I'm a unicorn, then. That's... Better?”

Eiza continued to look at his reflection from different angles in the mirror-like pond. Waving his tail, he could see that it was in fact quite long and flashed in the moonlight just as brilliantly as his mane. Another detail caught his eye shortly after. A picture on his flank. A branded symbol? No, it was more detailed, colored, even. He recognized this one, as it was the symbol of the Geomancers. The same three mountains, the same shape, the same color, everything. Perplexed by this, Eiza grunted and turned to head back to his clothes.

Figuring that he would not need the clothes anymore, or at least until he could revert back to his former form, Eiza trotted to the pile of garments and reached out to grab them up. Trying to grab the mass of clothes was too hard with his cumbersome hooves, so he sighed and bit down on the cloth instead, dragging the pile of garments and armor to the pond and tossing it all in, sending ripples of water through the pool.

“Hopefully those will still be there when I fix my... Physical situation.”

Eiza turned back and looked around the area he was in. The grass was tall in patches due to little or no upkeep in the area, something that he didn't find surprising due to noticing that he was in the clearing of some kind of forest. The trees around the clearing were quite high, somewhere between a hundred to two hundred feet, he guessed. From the trees, he could see various vines and many different types of leaves dangling precariously from each limb. The air was cool, something that he figured meant that he definitely wasn't in some kind of rainforest or tropical area. This assumption was backed by the sight of mountains in the distance.

Feeling satisfied with his cursory examination of the area, Eiza decided to move onto the next level of examining, one that only he was capable of. Turning his gaze to the ground, Eiza focused and watched as the blue hue he had come to be accustomed to coated his vision and his sight zoomed in on the gap between a blade of grass. The vision grew larger, he could see the cells of the blade of grass as his sight intensified, each crystal in the dirt, each molecule, and finally each atom.

“Alright, let's see... Iron, nickel, copper, aluminum, carbon... Uranium? Huh. What's this... Radon? In a solid form? That's very odd...”

After looking at the composition of the ground for a few minutes, Eiza concluded that wherever he was, it was pretty much normal except for the oddly-high levels of radioactive elements in the ground. However, he knew that his powers would still permit him to manipulate the ground, that is, if this new form allowed it, so he steadied himself and focused, allowing the world to zoom out and the hue to continue covering his vision.

Slowly, chunks of dirt rose into the air around Eiza as he focused his Psi. Pleased that his powers were still at least present, he decided to see just how much of his ability remained. He focused and released more power, watching as the ground before him was torn asunder by the wave of yellow energy. A column of earth rose into the air, piercing the sky above with a violent beauty. After a minute passed and the ground ceased its shaking, Eiza stood back and marveled at the remaining ability he had. It seemed that his powers were still more than there, as creating such a huge monolith caused him no strain at all.

Sitting for a moment and looking around, Eiza began to think. Planning out what he should do to get to the next universe, he looked up to the distance at a mountain that was quite a trek from his position, but still not far enough away to hide the huge structure on its side. It looked to be something like a castle, but not a normal one that Eiza would have recognized in the past. It seemed to be hanging off of the side like a man-made cliff. Regardless, that was the only trace of civilization that he could make out, so Eiza decided, while the moon was still high in the air, to start moving to the mountain and make his way to the castle. He thought briefly about his lack of attire, but then figured that no one would bother to get upset with him for being nude in the form he had taken, since horses were just animals.

The white Unicorn stallion stood up in the clearing and began his journey through the forest and towards the castle on the mountain.