An elf enters a street-race tournament to escape a corrupt city trapped in endless night.
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|| Voltyss is one of the last-standing cities caught in the Evernight, an endless night that spread across the land when the moon and stars fell from the...
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I'm surrounded by stars, which is impossible because they all fell with the Night.
But when I look up, they're all I can see.
I was once told by a stranger that each burning star had been a soul passed from this world, a solace for our wandering eyes and hearts as we remembered those we loved. He had been stumbling around, tripping on Ether as I helped him away from the speeding zoomers on the street, but his words still left their imprint on me, leaving me wondering what it meant for those souls when the Night fell and the sky became a black void of nothingness.
This sky however, is speckled with life. A sea of twinkling lights sits against the depth of the midnight sky. Are there souls in these stars? Are they watching me now? Each star is an unfathomable distance away, making me feel like just a speck—easy to get rid of, easy to forget.
I glance down to see my boots on barren ground, the same as the terrain surrounding Voltyss. But when I turn around, there is no neon city. I spin in every direction and I'm greeted with nothing but wasteland and darkness, then the familiar feeling that endlessly haunts me—loneliness.
There is no Voltyss. No strong and proud lorkins. No twisty Starfoxes, hazed Duskers, or Bounties bought on shinies. There's nothing but me and the Night.
The moon rises in the sky, casting a wraith-silver glow on the ground below. The Moon King. The brilliance of him beams over everything, lessening the inky darkness of the sky, but not so much as to dim the shimmer of the stars beyond. I should feel some sense of comfort at the light, but I feel nothing except a foreboding sense of doom creeping up my spine.
A cool wind blows, chilling my skin, sweeping my white hair across my face. The strands glow in the light of the moon, making me an easy target under a spotlight. Then the world seems to stop and take a breath and I'm engulfed in silence.
I blink and the stars suddenly seem closer. When I blink again, each light is no longer a speck. They grow with each rise and fall of my chest until it is clear what is happening—the stars are falling. I hear the blaze of fire before I see the emerald flames rippling behind each star like a tail, their roars rising in crescendo as they speed toward the ground, toward me.
I turn and run even though there is no where to go and my legs are suddenly limp, dragging behind me as if I'm trudging through quicksand. The ground is lit green as the stars fall closer and I'm stuck, running in place, a scream on the tip of my tongue.
The first star hits with an ear-shattering explosion that rips into the ground. The force of the impact sends me soaring through the air, farther than I could've run, and I land on my side in the dirt, sliding across the ground as small bits of rubble tear into my skin.
I prop myself up with a grunt, bracing myself to attempt to escape again, but I know there is no use. The moon looms nearer and nearer. The sky continues to fall like a storm of green rain, each star bursting into the ground until there's a wall of emerald fire spreading, closing in on me.
