Spiritual Beasts: Beginnings

Spiritual Beasts: Beginnings Episode 1 Act 1: Mysterious Ruins

It was a regular day at Lucid City. What was Lucid City? It was a place where people with the arts could all come together. They mostly had a focus on mythology, dreams, and art. It was intriguing for tourists to come and investigate. Of course, being its own city and place, it had its mysteries and rumors. No one was able to confirm these rumors. Well, at least not until today.

Folklore University
August 18th, 2020

Ah, Folklore University. This was where most people studied. It was prestigious, as there is a uniform. That was only during school hours, though. So even when on campus, during the weekends, they mostly wear whatever. What did they study? Mythology and the arts, though it is mostly known for its arts.

Down the halls, there was a man who seemed to be looking around. This man had brown hair, with pink bangs, blue eyes, and glasses. With his uniform, he had a red jacket tied around his waist. He was walking to what seemed to be a writing club.

"Hey Haluk, how is it going?" A student asked the man who just walked in. He had some sort of book bag.

"Ah, I am doing well. How is it going, boss?" Haluk gave a smirk. He was talking to the president. Even if he, himself, was the vice president, he chose to use formalities.

"Come on, calm down with the formalities. You know you can just call me Timothy. You don't see me calling you vice boss, do you?" Timothy bursted out laughing.

"Yeah, you're right." Haluk laughed as well. He enjoyed the company of this president. "So, what's the report?"

"Well, let's see." The president hummed as he looked through some files. "Ah, so there are these ruins.

"Ruins?"

"Yeah, they seem really suspicious. No one is brave enough to go over and see what they are about. Are you okay with going there?"

"Are you saying you are a bit of a coward too?" The man with glasses sighed.

"N-No! I just need to keep the business running down here!"

"Relax, relax! I am kidding! I can go over there." Haluk chuckled before grabbing the stuff he needed. "I will report on it after I make my discoveries." He waved the president goodbye and headed to his class.

As he was walking, he bumped into another man. He yelped and bowed. "I-I am sorry! I didn't mean to bump into you."

"Ah, save it." The other man groaned as he got up. The man had blonde hair and grey eyes. With his uniform, he had his blazer off and wrapped around his shoulders. "Why do you seem so excited, Haluk?"

"Well, it's a newspaper secret! Cannot tell you. Sorry, Ral!"

"Please, don't call me that. It's Raleigh." Raleigh sighed as he held his forehead. "I understand though. Just be careful. I don't want to be the one to patch you up."

"I understand! See you, Raleigh!" Haluk rushed off to his class.

The class itself was pretty boring. However, it was a creative writing class. To all the future authors, it was amazing and intriguing to them. The man with glasses was no exception. Haluk enjoyed every minute and every word from these classes. He noticeably frowned at the sound of the bell, but he left the class.

Once school was over, he changed into his normal clothes in his dorm. His dorm was definitely an author's dream. He had a typewriter on his desk instead of a normal laptop. Where was that laptop? Under his bed. He only really got it out for his online assignments. Those were the assignments he hated. He liked using his typewriter for his in-person assignments. He enjoyed the smell of fresh paper and the beautiful ink that he typed with.

Before he left, he got his backpack. He looked around his dorm and smiled. "One day, I will be able to write amazing stories. Maybe even true stories." He then went out of his room.

The Mysterious Ruins

He exited the university campus and drove to the supposed ruins. He looked around, whistling a bit. "Yeesh, these really ARE ruined."

He looked around then saw a female. This female had brown hair and green eyes. She seemed to go to Folklore as well, as she had the uniform. With her twist on the plain uniform, she had the balls of instead of wearing a white shirt and grey blazer, she wore a blue shirt with a black blazer. How she got away with that is anyone's guess.

"T-Tanith! What are you doing here?" Haluk yelped. At the same time he saw the girl, he saw that she was doing graffiti on the ruins.

"Ah, hey!" Tanith jumped down, chuckling. "Just making my mark."

"A-And disrespecting potential mysteries? Please stop."

"Ugh, fineeee!" She pouted as she went away.

"That woman sometimes." Haluk shook his head and went to wash the graffiti off. However, he saw a hidden button. "Huh? What's this?" He pressed it and suddenly the ground began to collapse below his feet!

He began to run from the wall. However, he was not able to make it as he fell down with the ground below him. "O-Ow...agh." He winced as he stumbled up. He then looked around and his eyes widened.

It was a cave. A mesmerizing one really. The light from above shined down on the hole. However, there was a cave in front of its new captive.

Haluk raised a brow. "What is this?" He asked himself as he got his phone flashlight and went into the cave. "This cave is definitely deserted. Looks man-made too." He spoke his thoughts out loud as he stumbled upon something...different.

At the end of the cave, there were five pedestals. On the side of those pedestals, were engraved beasts. A nature dragon, a lariosauro, a siren, a peryton, and finally, an alicorn. The engraves were painted different colors. Red, blue, pink, yellow, and green. As he looked to see what was on them, there were crystals.

"Woah, what IS this?" Haluk asked as he looked at the crystals. He noticed the pink siren pedestal was missing its crystal. "That's...weird." He walked by each of them until...he saw a certain one was glowing. The red nature dragon! He held his hand out to it.

Suddenly, it jolted towards him. It began to spin around him as he looked on in fear. What was going on? After the spinning, it took the form of a watch. It clamped onto his right wrist.

"W-Woah, is this some cursed relic?! Ral is going to kill me." Haluk was definitely worried. He then observed the watch a bit more. He saw it had the silhouette of a bow. "Weird."

He then saw something else glowing on the wall. It didn't look peaceful or friendly. It had a dark purple aura.

"This...is not good..!" Suddenly, he got blasted out of the hole and into the wall of the relic. "AGHHH!" He yelped and slowly got up. In front of him, he saw something disturbing.

In front of the man, was a purple monster. It was small. However, it had very sharp teeth! It began to inch close to him and went to latch itself.

"AAH! NO!" Haluk screamed before being surrounded by a red aura. Suddenly, he saw the monster was launched back. He looked at himself.

He was wearing a different outfit. His outfit was skin tight and had a scaley material. There were hard leather scales sticking out from the collar of his outfit. Instead of his glasses, he wore a visor that protected his eyes and allowed him to see.

"Woah, what in the world happened to me?" He asked himself before seeing a bow. Instantly, he got it out and shot at the fear eater. After that one was down, he saw plenty more coming out of the hole.

Out of impulse, he began to poorly seal the sinkhole. He sighed in relief when he assumed he got it done.

"That's done. Now, I have to get to my friends! I think I really messed up this time." He ran, hoping to get his friends over soon.

To be continued...