Chapter 0: Disturbances

Thick cold air rushing between the passageways of the labyrinth of large crystalline rocks.

'Iyala, Terra Australis.'

-Gen. Matilda Foster

        

A platoon of colonial soldiers surveyed the area for a mission they knew little about. The floor was rough and pointy and reflected light it could reach. The large glowing rocks displayed a text no one understood. Looking above, they saw the majestic Aurora Australis playing with the stars. And several comets that passed through a luminous ring; connecting massive planet-like stars organised like beads covering Terra Australis.

The hidden continent displayed an ethereal prowess no man in the old continents could ever imagine. Still, the colonials had no time to address the natural formalities.

Their general had sent them to look for a structure lurking deep in this place. The general had also sent one of her finest leaders and a good friend of hers, Col. Sonia Campbell.

They were led by an Iyalaala. A floating crystal kite believed to have been the souls of people who have passed here as their pathfinder.

The platoon had marched for hours with all of their equipment inside their large bags. Their heavy boots scraped down their feet as they crossed the unforgiving terrain the continent grazed upon in exchange for unprecedented beauty.

The soldiers wore red uniforms held by bronze buttons with a white leather waistcoat that carried their ammunition, a white haversack that stored their rations, and a white helmet. Their colonel too wore a similar kit, but instead of a rifle, she sported a sabre and wore a short blue shawl.

A scout approached the marching platoon. He saluted the colonel and gave his report, Sonia stopped the march to let the scout speak.

"Ma'am, there is a fairly smooth enough place for our men to rest in for the night. It's just a few minutes from here." Said the scout.

The colonel thanked the scout and faced her platoon,

"We're almost here lads, but first, we should get as much rest as possible. Scouts will follow their usual routine on taking night watch, but please get some rest too if possible."

Her 24-man platoon acted immediately upon their colonel's orders. The scouts dispersed quickly as they took vantage points and the rest followed the previous scout to the spot. It was a frozen lake surrounded by sharp spikes of crystals as hard as diamonds.

The exhausted troops set foot on the smooth, frozen floor. Describing the texture of the ice like the marble floors of a palace, a good break from all the rough and rigid terrain they had to endure. The men laid down their thick blankets on the frozen floor to settle down, they took off their boots and letting their blistery feet stretch.

Others wrapped their blanket around them to shield them from gusts of wind that could reach negative temperatures.

One of the scouts had set up a fire with his leftover firewood in a gap between two pikes before leaving to warm his mates and heat up their cold pies.

The colonel walked around the icy floor, following the Iyalaala as she watched the fog fade away. As it got thicker, she started seeing the strobe lights of the crystals. She approached a large crystal rock, glowing just as fast as a human's breathing.

"This must be the place." She said to the crystal kite as she reached for something in her pocket, a compass.

As soon as she opened it, however, the compass started to rush as if something was preventing it from functioning. Sonia closed the compass and slid it back in her pocket.

"This must be it..." She whispered to the Iyalaala. Sonia stood up and took out a pocket watch.

She faced the crystal kite and sighed, "Should you ever regain your senses again and find me absent. Inform the lieutenant to leave immediately. I'm sure taking them all here would just increase the casualties." The Iyalaala agreed, letting Sonia know through blinking its lights. She nodded at the Iyalaala and opened her pocket watch.

It wasn't an ordinary pocket watch, however. Laced in patterns of gold and bronze held by a small silver chain. It only displayed a twelve written in Roman Numerals (XII), the gears were visible through the frame, and only showed an hour hand. She watched the fog move along as she placed her thumb on the crown, and as the colonel took one last breath of air, she pressed it.

The wheels and the hour hand started to rotate quickly as Sonia watched the fog slowly pass by, and with a single click, everything stopped moving.

Everything had stopped as soon as the hour hand reached the twelve, no one could move, feel, or even hear the sound of their own blood circulating... if the blood could even move in the first place. Everything was frozen in time, and the only one who isn't affected by this was Sonia.

'I don't need to attract unusual attention, bringing the troops in would just increase the chances of detection or even their own deaths.' She thought to herself as she followed a pathway according to a map the general gave her personally.

The suspended air got sharper, making her breathing harder as she ventured further. She started seeing small crystal fragments broken down from fragile crystals.

The path led her to a crossroads with trails leading to all directions, surrounded with sharp crystal shards.

She was walking in a storm of broken crystals somehow illuminated by the southern lights with crystals as bright as the stars seen by the naked eye. Should she ever resume the flow of time, however, she would be diced to a dire fate. The thought of it startled her a little, but she carried on anyway.

She walked to the middle of the crossroads, cautious with every step she took. She noticed a figure, but she couldn't decide on what it was. It looked like a milestone, but then she heard a crack.

In an instant, she looked behind her as she drew her sabre, pointing it on where she thought it had come from. In a span of a second, she saw a shadow narrowing down on her, she lunged away from her position, and as soon as the shadow showed its bearer, they tried to slash colonel. She managed to parry it with her sabre.

"Identify yourself!" Shouted the colonel trying to get a look at their hooded face. She jumped away as she took a good look on the attacker. The attacker was a hooded figure from a long, secret enemy.

"Damn, I guess you had to show up at some point." Said Sonia.

The attacker chuckled and raised their hand. "So you know who I am Timemara." The hooded figure said as they drew their weapon, a long retractable spear.

"How could you move in a world of stopped time!?" The colonel demanded as she stood her ground.

"Good question... but you'll just have to find out for yourself." Answered the figure as they charged full speed towards Sonia.

The two of them barely dodged each other's blows as they kept on swinging in rapid succession. No threatening injuries were inflicted yet as the two of them lunged away from each other to catch their breath.

Sonia took out her pocket watch to see the hour hand minutes away from hitting twelve. The figure laughed,

"Looks like your control over the world is almost over, eh? Soon you'll be all alone, helpless as you get swept away by the storm set as a trap for you."

The hooded figure twirled around her spear as she waited for the colonel to collect herself.

Sonia wouldn't have it. However, she knows the person is trying to achieve something judging from their decision making.

"This bellend is waiting to see if I'm actually the one. A Timemara could only stop time for a few minutes and their immunity to time lasts as the duration of the stopping of time. If it stops now, that would mean that she's going to think that the person they're looking for isn't me." Sonia whispered to herself as she felt the fragments of time slipping away from her control as time runs out.

Sonia closed her eyes for a second, thinking. Still, as the hands near the Roman numeral twelve, she started to have fewer options. She opened her eyes and with the remaining time she had left, made a run for it, dashing in one of the paths of the crossroads.

"Oh no, you don't!" The enemy mumbled. Dashing forward as they threw their spear to Sonia but was deflected by the colonel, rallying the javelin with her sabre to make it hit one of the crystal pikes.

As soon as she thought she was finally concealed by the large crystals, she suddenly felt something grab her leg. She was pulled down, hitting her head on the hard surface, hearing the crystals crack below her as her vision blurred.

The moment she has pulled back the gears of her pocket watch started to rotate, time had resumed its flow. The storm danced violently, surrounding her as the hooded figure disappeared, leaving their adversary to be swept as the storm raged around her.

Sonia closed her eyes, covering her head as the violent shards. Accompanied by the deafening screeches of the crystals hitting each other danced with no signs of stopping, she was unable to realise what was also happening around her.

As the storm carried on, she started to glow a bright golden colour, with the gears and hands of her watch rotating a lot faster than what it's supposed to.

And then, right before the sharp crystals reach her skin, a beacon of light radiated from her. The light caught the sky in a matter of seconds, and as it reached its highest point, it started to spread out, giving off a golden wave of light that wrapped around the entire continent. Then followed, a golden ray of light travelling in a particular direction.

Time stopped once again, this time for everyone except the unconscious Sonia and the light. It travelled far crossing valleys, plains, and colonies. It dashed away from the permafrost tundra to the highest of mountains, and as time resumed, it has made its way into a small village near the coastline, and there it went out. Where a young girl slept on the shoreline of the town.

The Iyalaala regained its senses and rushed to the platoon and told them to evacuate by the colonel's orders. They packed up and fell back at a moment's notice with their colonel nowhere to be found.

It had been the prologue of something. A dramatic chapter in the history of the continent. One that will determine the eternal fate of Terra Australis. A melodrama that contains all primary human emotions, love, hate, war, and, peace. Confidence and desperation; hope and despair, acceptance and vengeance.

But, just like in everything. It has to begin with one person.