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In the beginning there was one piece of land. Planet Fahr was in a galaxy shaped like a crescent moon. Just like Earth, Fahr was almost entirely covered with water. The sizes were similar as well.
Plate Tectonics caused a huge eruption of change. The land split everywhere and water enveloped the land. Some of the ground fell into the surface of Fahr and some of it rose out of the ground. Two sides were then created.
After one hundred years, civilization had developed on both sides. The Phen Biens lived on the western continent and the Oremians lived on the eastern continent. They lived peacefully apart, having no knowledge of one and other. Until one day. And when that day came it was a day not forgotten.
Radcliffe lived in the outskirts of Phen Bia. He was an inventor. He lived with a man named Sirtone. They were the same age and had grown up together. Being friends they helped along many inventions together.
Radcliffe had lights, heat, and cooling systems and a telephone. No one had a cell phone.
Magic was something that was around. Fireballs and lightning bolts, and curses, the list was long.
The people that knew about these spells had to be taught about them.
Radcliffe and Sirtone knew spells but they didn’t use them that often.
Radcliff seldom went into town and Sirtone went all the time. Sirtone was definitely the more social one of the two. Sirtone was tall and thin with piercing eyes. Radcliffe was shorter and had a round face. He was about average size. He had short brown hair and wore spectacles.
Luckily enough Radcliffe met a girl and her name was Missy. She was tall with brown hair and a nice smile. He liked her very much and talked about inventions with her. She was the object of his desire. Radcliffe was afraid to show his feelings for her. So instead of Radcliffe, Sirtone won her heart. The jealous rage in Radcliffe was over powering.
On the day of the big festival people came from their villager homes and gathered on a field where a stage had been built. With music, food and drinks for all. Everyone in Phen Bia was there. About nine hundred people attended the festival. Radcliffe had gone with Sirtone to see their favorite band Hogsprocket.
When they got there Missy met them. She and Sirtone kissed. At that point it was too much for pour Radcliffe.
Radcliffe turned and left as Hogsprocket got on stage.
Some diggerdons (large hairy beasts) stood watch nearby. They were trained with magic to be obedient to humans. Calming spells was their technique mainly.
The music was loud and rocking. Sirtone turned and followed Radcliffe, but he couldn’t stop him.
He walked out the entrance and through small crowds of people. The open air theatre was filled with sounds of a guitar, keyboard, drums and bass. The band opened with a solid jam. The instruments were similar to modern day Earth. The skill of each musician was apparent. Radcliffe loved their music but he knew it was time to leave. The music had no lyrics.
Where he was going he really didn’t know. He just knew that he wanted to get as far away from Sirtone and Missy as he could.
He walked as the music got more intense. Everyone around was dancing and having a great time. Not Radcliffe. He was ready to go somewhere else for a change and he did not plan to return.
Finally as people filed into the show Radcliffe made his way to some large oak trees.
The trees were tall and high into the air.
Radcliffe walked on down the grassy hill to the valley of green grass.
The spaceship had a sense of where it was. It just hadn’t been used in at least one hundred years. The ship needed a spell and it was lost during the great land splitting. Or so they say.
When Radcliffe and Sirtone had discovered the book in a recent archeological dig they had planned to use it together as a team.
The autopilot button had been designed as a safety device. Keep in mind it was a safety device. It was red and located on the joystick.
Altar was cleaning his desk that night when Radcliffe came home.
“Altair, I’m ready, get the Ancient’s Book of Spells and meet me at the ship,” Radcliffe insisted.
Altair didn’t know what to think, he was worried about getting fired and if times got ridiculously crazy, he had to go with the flow.
“Sir, I think Sirtone has it,” Altair replied.
“No it isn’t, it’s in his desk,” Radcliffe assured him.
Altair stopped with the broom in his hand and went to Sirtone’s desk, just across the big room. He shuffled through the droors and then finally found it. “The Ancient’s Book of Spells.”
“I found it Radcliffe,” Altair exclaimed.
Radcliffe was in his room packing a bag. He grabbed some clothes and a good book.
“Ok great!” Radcliff had suddenly remembered why he was leaving. As if he forgot somehow.
“I’ll be right there,” Radcliffe said.
He looked at a picture with him and Sirtone, his life long pal. Missy had come in between them. He wanted to get away. His pace quickened and his clothes were all a mess in his bag as he strided to the the door.
“Where’s Sirtone? Why aren’t you at the music festival?” Altair had no idea.
“Sirtone isn’t going with me I’m going alone,” Radcliffe walked out the door.
Altair followed and wondered, “Hey there’s two seats, why not take someone with you?”
“I can’t, I must go alone. It’s too dangerous. No one’s used the spell in a long time. We don’t know exactly what’s going to happen,” Radcliffe paused.
“If anything happens you can just hit the autopilot and return on home,” Altair said.
“I know yeah and that’s if it actually works,” Radcliffe doubted.
They walked with a quick pace through trees and a field. In the field a huge ship docked in ruins on the grass. It was about thirty feet long and twelve feet high. Made of a material that was brownish gold, the doorway to the ship was open.
“I need some potions from my bag could you retrieve them for me Altair?” Radcliffe asked.
“Yes sir,” he answered and went to the bag on the grass and opened it. Inside were three vials and two pouches.
“Here they are sir,” Altair walked over to Radcliffe.
As he saw the potions he jumped in shock at what he was about to do.
“Thank you, and the book did you bring it?” he hoped.
“Yes it’s here, now let me go with you,” he pleaded.
“No, it’s too dangerous and I aim never to return.” Radcliffe spilled the truth.
“Well maybe I’d like never to return to this place too,” Altair said back.
“You know there’s a lot here for you, you shouldn’t say that,” Radclffe said.
“They say there’s entire worlds out there,” Altair said.
“You really believe in that stuff?” Radcliffe replied.
“Yes of course,” Altair told him.
“It needs the potion inside and then the magic words,” Radcliffe said.
They both went inside the ship. Indeed there were two seats.
“Don’t get any ideas when you’re in here,” Radcliffe warned.
“Don’t worry about me sir,” Altair said back.
Radcliffe took a vial and poured it in a hole next to the foot pedal. In front of one of the seats, a joystick sat with a red button on it.
Radcliffe looked though the book slowly and then faster. Finally he closed the book and paused.
“Is this the right book?” Radcliffe asked Altair.
“I believe so sir, the Ancient’s Book of Spells that you guys found and were hiding from everyone,” Altair answered.
“We were keeping it safe and I’m taking it with me,” Radcliffe said back.
The lights inside the ancient space ship lit up with every color of the rainbow. Blues, reds, yellows, oranges, greens even purple lights in the interior.
“Altair, you better get out of here,” Radcliffe exclaimed.
“Ok sir, safe journey,”Altair hugged Radcliffe. Altair went out the door and it closed behind him.
Radcliffe sat in the chair behind the joystick and he buckled in. In front of the joystick an alter came out of the ground. Radcliffe put the book down on it.
His eyes lit up with delight and finally he believed it would work. He looked through the book and found a page.
“This is the one!” Radcliffe exclaimed. Closing his eyes he took the joystick in his hands. He was afraid. Feeling kind of crazy he went on with it, repeating the phrase in his head: “Glorum-daku-nanu-mon…”
Finally he spoke the phrase out loud.
“GLORUM-DAKU-NANU-MON!” he yelled over the rockets beginning their flight sequence.
The font windshield suddenly uncovered and revealed the trees outside with Altair watching.
He waved to Radcliffe.
Radcliffe spoke the words again, “Glorum-daku-nanu-mon!”
The ship began to shake as the rockets aimed downward from side to side. He spoke it again this time at the top of his lungs over the loud rockets, “GLORUMDAKUNANUMON!”
The rockets blasted the ship off and into the sky.
Radcliffe held on for dear life. He flew with great speed, higher and higher.
Nearby at the music festival people saw the great ancient ship flying in the sky. The band kind of lost the rhythm and stopped playing as they all watched.
As the ship grew out of sight everyone cheered and the band kept playing.
“Could it be? Did he go?!” Sirtone asked Missy.
“He must have,” Missy answered.
Radcliffe flew through the sky until he reached outer space. Everything was black except for the infinite amount of stars and planets in the distance. The ship suddenly began to go faster as it flew from the planet of Fahr.
A colorful light pattern showed a tunnel in the path of the aircraft.
Radcliffe let go of the joystick. The autopilot flew the ship through the reaches of the galaxy.
As it exited the crescent shaped galaxy, it flew through another galaxy and then another. Radcliffe began to panic.
“Where should he go?” he began to wonder.
He entered the Milky Way galaxy and saw Pluto, sensing he was near. Finally past the other planets Jupiter, Neptune, Venus and Mars, then Earth. The blue planet caught his attention. He grabbed the joystick and flew towards Earth. He thought to himself that this planet reminded him of home.
As the descent into Earth began Radcliffe got excited. He looked out the front windshield and noticed that most off the planet was water. He saw some land and headed for it. The ship slowed down as it grew closer to the ground. He used the foot pedal to change the direction of the rockets to up and down.
It was sunset and the ship was slowing even more as it landed in a field next to some trees. The ship landed and remained lit up. Racliffe undid his seatbelt and grabbed the book off the altar and put it in his bag. He exited the craft through the side door.
Outside there was a cool breeze in the air. It was a little chillier than Phen Bia this time of year.
From his bag, Radcliffe took a small lantern and turned it on. Around him were trees and grass. No one was around. Abandoned. These woods were mysterious to him. As he grew farther from the ship he noticed a deer in his path. It froze and then ran off in the distance. Behind Radcliffe a bear walked up and growled.
Radcliffe didn’t know what to do. They didn’t have bears where he was from. They had large creatures with fur and teeth, except they were tame. People rode on their back. This bear didn’t even look as big as the creatures from home. So Radcliffe just stood as the bear approached. It growled more and ran at him. That was the end of Radcliffe.
Not far away an Astronomer named Edward was watching through his binoculars. On the deck of a telescope mansion he watched a sport utility vehicle grow closer. Finally it stopped and four girls wearing college sweatshirts got out.
“They’re college girls Ned,” Edward said to Ned sitting in a chair eating.
“Oh man you remember what happened the last time right?” Ned warned.
“No, oh wait, yeah that wasn’t my fault. I’m going down there,” Edward said.
“You should go young man this is my property,” the older man said.
“Ned how do I look?” Edward asked.
“You look sharp, go get’m,” Ned joked.
Edward gave the binoculars to Ned and went down the steps to the grass. Edward looked about medium height, with dark hair and an oval shaped face.
He approached the girls getting a campfire made.
“Michelle someone’s coming over here,” one of the girls said.
“Oh it could be someone who works at the telescope over there,” Michelle answered.
“It could be?” another girl chimed in.
“Chill out Stacy God!” Michelle exclaimed.
Edward grew closer to the girls who now wondered who he was.
“Hey are you guys partying?” Edward said.
“Yeah we’re partying,” Michelle answered.
“Where are you from? This is my boss’s yard, sent me out to check on you,” he said.
“We are from British Columbia, Vancover area,” Michelle said.
“Oh ok,” Edward just smiled.
“Want to roast some smores?” Michelle wondered.
“Yes, that would be great. I’m Edward,”
“I’m Michelle,”
“Nice to meet you Michelle,”
“Nice to meet you too Edward,” they shake hands.
“Do you girls know anything about light pollution?”
“Light polution? No I don’t,”
“In the city the street lights are too bright for the astronomers to see the night sky clearly, it’s called light pollution.
“No shit…”
“I read recently that in London, they just passed a law that made the city dim their lights at a certain time night, so the stargazers could see the stars man,”
“Wow, are you trying to say that this camp fire is fucking it up for the guy at that telescope over there?”
“No, but it is funny to think about,”
“Yeah, it is Edward. You work at the telescope?”
“I do, we basically just take pictures of the night sky,”
“Just you and that old man?”
“Yep, and a dog, he has a dog,”
“Oh cooool,”
“Yeah,”
