The Darkening of the Crystals

"We must be very careful these next few days," the Elder spoke to the colony, "Both the Council and I are very worried about what may be coming. We cannot foresee much more, but we know that a large battle is in store for us."

The Elder and the Councilmen had been deliberating in private for several days. Grave news had fallen upon them when one of the young Onarl returned from a day of play in the woods, carrying a darkened crystal. The young was appropriately punished, as they are not supposed to leave the boundaries of the colony due to their inquisitive nature, but that event had been given less attention due to his findings.

The Crystal Growers had no idea of how the crystal could have left the colony, or if it was from a separate deposit all in its own. The barrier had not been penetrated to anyone's knowledge, and no intruders or suspicious activity had been reported.

However, despite the lack of any unusual happenings, many of the Onarl in the colony could sense that something wasn't right; there was a strange aura lingering about in the air, and the magic surrounding it had been growing weaker. The darkened crystal was only a reassurance of their feelings.

"A few of our hunters have sensed the presence of discord within our lands. Normally, such a weak evil presence could not harm the aura of our crystals, but we cannot rule it out as a possibility. I have sent those hunters who detected its presence to investigate further, but unfortunately they have not yet returned. However, I do not wish to instill a panic, so please be assured that the Council and I are doing everything we can to investigate these matters accordingly. We will surely keep you updated with any details as they become known."

With this, the Elder dismissed the members of the Onarl colony from the meeting. The people departed slowly with looks of concern on their faces, but as the Elder had instructed, did not panic.

As time passed, no more meetings were scheduled and no new information was reported. The hunters safely returned, having found no traces of discordant activity in the area, nor any other source that may have disrupted the magical flow of the darkened crystal. The Onarl in the colony had started to calm down and forget all about the incident, but the young were more reluctant to forget, with the story being a strong foundation in their imagination and in the games they would play.

Aldren and Silvena Greenbranch were by far the most active of the children and could almost always be found at play somewhere in the outer boundaries of the village. Aldren was the one who found the darkened crystal out in the woods, and Silvena was his younger sister. They were both aspiring mystics, with primitive affinity in the projection and harmonics arts respectively. They had both just begun their training the previous season, and neither was having any difficulty grasping the arts.

"Take that! And that!" Aldren said as he mockingly concentrated his powers towards his sister.

"Ha ha! Missed me! You can't catch me no matter how strong your powers are Aldren!" Silvena hollered and giggled as she ran away from her brother.

Aldren ran after his little sister, but not only did she have a head start, but she was a much faster runner than he was. The two children ran for what seemed like hours, and Aldren would occasionally catch up to her and pretend to focus his powers at her again, only for Silvena to claim he missed and run off again. She was full of energy and determined to escape her brother, and it wasn't much longer until Silvena disappeared from Aldren's sight entirely.

"Silvena? This isn't funny anymore. Where are you? I can't see you. Silvena? I don't think we're in the village anymore. Let's head back before we get caught again."

Aldren waited for a response from his younger sibling, but he heard nothing. He was starting to get very worried that something might have happened to her, and it would be his fault because he was the one chasing her out this far. Only the hunters were supposed to come out this far from the village, and even then, they were heavily armed with a bow and a quiver full of arrows.

"Silvie? Come on, I don't want to play anymore. You win, okay? Just come out from wherever you are. Please?"

"Shh! Over here! Quietly! I see something!" called a whispery voice from within a bramble of bushes.

Aldren quietly tiptoed over to where he heard his sister's whisper, and crawled down next to her when he finally spotted her.

"Look!" Silvena pointed out over the small creek running through the forest. "There's something out there, do you see it? It's… it's not… living. I can't feel its life force like I can with everything else in the forest."

Aldren noticed the creature across the creek. The creature moved very erratically, as if it was having difficulty holding itself together. As it turned around, the two children noticed the decaying flesh oozing from the creature's face and arms. Its skin color was that of a pasty white. The undead suddenly stopped pacing around and looked directly toward the bushes where Aldren and Silvena were hiding.

"Silvena, we need to go. Now. You and I both know we're not strong enough to defend ourselves if it sees us. Even together, we're hardly a match for whatever that thing is. If the hunters couldn't find it, then it's a smart creature. We need to alert the Elder right away."

"I want to stay here and see what it does," Silvena replied.

"We're already in enough trouble being out here again. The longer we stay here, the higher the chance it will catch us, and we won't be able to warn the others." Aldren pulled his sister back towards him, trying to coerce her to leave.

As they started to turn around and head back to the village, they both collided into something. Another creature.

"Silvena, run! There are more of them!" Aldren turned another direction, only to slam into yet another creature.

"We're surrounded! Aldren?" Silvena turned around to see one of the creatures holding her brother in its grasp with its hand over his mouth, preventing him from screaming while he kicked and flailed his arms and legs.

Silvena stood in shock. Her brother had been captured because of her insistence to stay and watch, and there was nothing she could do to help him.

"Let GO of him!" Silvena shouted with every ounce of voice possible from her vocal chords. The undead stiffened and stopped moving. Aldren escaped from the zombie's grasp in time to see another one creeping up behind Silvena.

With a focus of energy, Aldren momentarily stopped the second zombie in its tracks, giving his sister enough time to notice its presence. He screamed at Silvena to run once more.

Silvena and Aldren ran as fast as they could back home. The creatures tailed them the whole way back, but neither child was thinking about how they were leading the creatures right to where they wanted to be. As they ran, more zombies noticed their presence and appeared from behind trees, within bushes, and out of holes until their numbers were far into the hundreds. Silvena and Aldren avoided them as much as they could, stunning and netting a few here and there when it was necessary.

As their village came into view, they shouted with what energy they had left to try and get the attention of the Crystal Growers, who were located near the boundary.

"Hm? What's that? Who are those children running towards us, and why were they outside the colony?" one Crystal Grower said to another.

"It looks like…" the other Crystal Grower said in response to the first, staring closely trying to identify the two children, "It looks like Aldren and Silvena Greenbranch, up to their usual mischief leaving the colony again. But it also looks like they're running from something."

"Or someone," bellowed an ominous voice, "You see, your wonderful pointy-eared offspring have led me right to your home. I couldn't find it myself with your annoying barrier concealing it from view, but with their help, I've finally found it."

The voice was heard from one end of the colony to the other, alerting all combat-capable Onarl to deal with this threat against their home. The Elder and Councilmen were the first on the scene to back up the Crystal Growers.

"What do you want? We haven't done anything to you! We are but a peaceful Onarl colony living in harmony with nature!" the Elder shouted in every direction, not knowing which way the voice was really coming from.

"The crystals, of course. You Onarl have no idea of the power these contain, or else you wouldn't let them sit here so."

By this time, Silvena and Aldren were nearing the entrance to the colony, and the undead horde was coming into view. The Elder took note of the horde, and immediately instructed the Councilmen to aid him in strengthening the barrier, in hopes of causing a long enough delay for the warriors of the village to prepare. Shortly after the horde came into view, the alert bell had been sounded and everyone was scattering about in a rush, either preparing for battle or hiding his or her children.

As the undead neared the barrier, a Terran dressed in long, flowing, black robes stepped out in front of them.

"You see? These wonderful creatures are a result of the power contained within the crystals. I need more. Hand them over or I will take them forcefully! The choice is yours."

"I cannot allow you to use the crystals for dark purposes," the Elder responded, "I don't know how you obtained one in the first place, but you will be stopped now. No matter how strong your creations may be, they do not stand a chance against our magic."

All capable mystics and warriors had appeared by this time, and the Councilmen were finishing with their ritual. The barrier changed from a transparent color to a bright translucent red. The newly strengthened barrier expanded in a dome-like shape, engulfing a significant portion of the undead horde. Many of them dropped instantly, but enough remained that the battle was not yet over. The ones who survived made it through the barrier and met up with the first line of defense: the Crystal Growers.

Already feeling betrayed in that their beloved crystals had not only been stolen, but had also been used for dark purposes, the Crystal Growers didn't hold back. They fought with all their strength and power, and many more of the undead fell, but the Crystal Growers were losing their strength and many were injured enough to not be able to continue combat with the undead. They retreated back behind the Elder and the rest of the warriors and mystics of the colony as they charged forward.

The warriors, rogues and even some psionicists of the colony were providing defense while everyone else was on the offense. The harmonicists were able to confine many undead at once using a technique often attributed to Garguth, and many of them were further into the field trying to revive the fallen Crystal Growers. A few projectionists were creating a similar effect, but many more were launching arrows into the air with great speed and aim. The remaining undead perished, and the Elder spoke:

"This colony will not be overtaken by your efforts, and you shall never get your hands on our crystals!"

With this, the Terran man attempted to flee, but found himself surrounded by the revived Crystal Growers. The Crystal Growers were red with anger, and moved in closer to the Terran. Just as the Crystal Growers were nearing, the Terran man quickly drew a crude circle on the ground with a grey powder and vanished, leaving his robes and possessions behind.

The Onarl were astonished, although they knew what had happened. Silvena and Aldren pushed through the crowd and examined the clothing. Inside one of the robe's pockets, they found more darkened crystals and a container with finely ground grey powder matching the color of the crystal.

"I don't believe we will have to worry about this man any longer for the time being," the Elder spoke as he noticed the crystals, "It appears that his source of power was left behind when he teleported, and as long as we keep our eyes open for him in the future, he should not be able to acquire any of our crystals again. The earth around me tells me that our threat has passed for now, and we may rest at ease once again. However, there is still the matter of you two, Silvena and Aldren, who led him to our village."

The Elder assigned a harsh punishment to Silvena and Aldren to serve as a lesson to them and any other young Onarl wishing to leave the village for play.

"I assure you, my fellow Onarl, that we have passed the test given to us and will be safe once more. Let us learn from our mistakes, but let us not dwell on them."

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Some scholars doubt if this story is true, because no magical essence has yet to be extracted from the crystals the Onarl harbor and respect. The story may simply serve as a moral lesson to the young and mischievous Onarl children, but this possible history is one of the few stories that survived the separation of the Onarl people after the loss of their home world.