Kingdom Core

Chapter One: Vision, or Dream?

A young boy leaps upwards from his bed, startled, sweating, and breathing heavily.

"That dream again? What's going on-,"

before the boy could finish processing what he had witnessed for the 5th time in a row a loud screech blasts his ear.
He falls out of his bed and begins running down his houses stairs like an injured coyote running away from a hunter. The sound was almost like a car doing high speed drifts, tearing the tires, but drastically louder, it was unbearable.

"Ahh! Ahhhh!"

The boy screamed with tears rolling down his eyes, but it seemed like nobody else could hear the noise. No, it's not that nobody could hear the noise, there were no people around.

"W-Where is everybody?" the boy asked, still covering his ears.

.......

It seems the sound has stopped, thankfully. The boy walks toward the door and latches his hand onto the knob before yanking it at full force.

"Where...?"

the boy limps outside and begins walking across the street as if he's being guided by something, or someone. He couldn't tell the time but he'd been walking for about one minute, or so he thinks.

"Gahh!"

The boy feels a sharp but heavy pain is in his as if he'd been stabbed. He falls on one knee before his other leg eventually gives out. He can't help but squint and glue his eyes close.

"Huh?"

He doesn't feel any pain anymore. He opens his eyes only to be surrounded by trees. The moons full and wolves are howling...

"Where am I?" he asks.

He turns around and spots a shadow-like figure in the distance.

"Hey! Hey!!" he shouts. "What's going on!" he ends with.

He decides to full sprint toward the person...

"I-I'm not moving?" the boy questions.

He isn't moving from his current position even though he's sprinting. Furthermore it seems this person is drifting further away like a boat at sea. The figure can't be seen well due to it being nighttime and the fact they're wearing a hooded robe. The figure eventually gets up and glares at the boy, possibly ready to say something?

"Star. Wake up..."

"What're you talking about?"

"I said... wake UP!"

<------------>

"Finally," a female says. "Quit dozing off, this is supposed to be a team project."

A boy is laying on the floor, although slightly older, possibly in his high school years.

"W-What?" the boy asks while yawning at the same time.

It appears that was all just a dream and the boy -Star- just fell asleep during a project with classmates.

"Gosh, I give you one task to do and you up and go fall asleep mid way," the girl says to Star, "I was wondering what was taking you so long JUST to get a book from the library. Our club room and library are practically right next to each other. Come on Astrus" the girl continues to berate him.

Star picks himself up before stretching.

"We've been over this, call me Star. But back on track. Relax, Estra, I was just catching some sleep to make up for last night's studying,"