Book 1 : Water || Chapter 2: Ascending Into Darkness

Kaseki wandered around the city in complete awe. It was... it was glorious. He admired the great artful fountains that spat out the endless waters. The kingdom itself was surrounded by the great liquid, and the city itself poured water down the rocks. It was everything Kaseki could imagine... and more.

He wandered around the city with the great look of awe in his eyes and face. He hadn't once been stopped by a human about his appearance, nor the guests he asked to follow him. "Why, I like this place." Kaseki said as he held onto his hood. He turned to face his undead bird companion, a soldier in his army. The little one tugged at Kaseki's cloak, to which made him smile. "Alright, but only for a little, okay?" Kaseki said as he attempted to lift the baby golem. He grunted as he hurled the think upon his shoulders like a small child. He turned to the humanoid bird as he followed close behind. "Everyone seems to accept us here." Kaseki said joyfully, "Perhaps we can find someone in charge. Maybe we can stay here for a little bit. Or maybe they might allow us to live here." Kaseki thought outloud as he wandered through the streets of the empire. There was certainly something off about his travel there, but he couldn't figure it out. "Perhaps if we offer our skills to protect the city.... maybe." He said. Kaseki sighed at his pessimistic friend.

Surely they could find a home somewhere. And this Albastion Empire did seem like a friendly place.

And besides. It had water.

Kaseki loves water.

Oski had been able to travel around lots now, not having to use his UNTRUSTY carriage driver and his annoying life lessons he always rambled on and on and on about to Oski, he got tired of him real quick so Oski left him in the mountains. Oski had decided to pay a visit to Albastion and so he did, flying there on the back of his massive and rather terrifying Nether Drake, his favorite pet of all time. Though he didn't want to scare the people of the Empire and make them think they were being attacked or something so a couple miles away from the Empire, Oski dismounted Ryoushi and told him to go fly around and have fun and so he did. Oski had walked the rest of the way, deciding to take a detour through the Forest of the Water Maiden just to simply take in the environment, it was indeed beautiful.

Hour later Oski found himself simply wandering around in the Albastion Empire, loving the fountains and the people who for the most part seemed to be nice. Oski decided to sit upon the top of one of the fountains and simply watch people, most seemed rather boring unfortunately. It wasn't long however before something had caught his eye, monsters. He was surprised that he guards hadn't stopped them at the gate and told them to go hide in the woods like some of the other empires would have done, with a smirk of interest Oski jumped down and landed in front of what seemed to the the leader of the group. "Ello there, I am Oski. I couldn't help but to notice your fascination with this place... and of course," Oski's voice lowered a bit, "That you are a group of monsters yet the people here seem to not mind or be afraid of you, that's such a wonderful thing." Oski said, giving the creatures a warm grin like he always had on his face.

Kaseki faced the voice, only to found it led to the man in front of him. "Oh thank the Maker..." Kaseki thought, "He's not a child." He smiled in this confrontation of the man. "FINALLY... There's no way this human is a god too."

"Ello there, I am Oski. I couldn't help but to notice your fascination with this place... and of course," The man greeted him. He kept smiling, only his left eye illuminated with a violet light. He opened his mouth to replied with his own name only to have the man continue, "...That you are a group of monsters yet the people here seem to not mind or be afraid of you, that's such a wonderful thing." Kaseki's smiled faded away. His jaw dropped a little. "Monsters? Must everyone refer to me that way?" he thought to himself. But it was too early for him to pass judgement. This man must have been in the kingdom his whole life. Perhaps he was absent minded and ignorant, or perhaps foolish and just.. lame.

"I am Kaseki." He said. His face held no expression. He turned and pointed to the skeleton bird only to introduce him as, "This is Rightwing." He then faced Oski, with his eyes looking up at the creature on his head, "... And I refer to him as Rocky." He looked back at the man, only to wonder what brought him about to greet him. Maybe he was different. Or maybe he was The Chosen One. Oh how Kaseki did wish to meet the great hero and Uniter of Nations from the tale he heard as a kid. However that world was light years upon light years away. There was no way this man was from where Kaseki was from.

"I do believe that man... Wave? I think that was his name, referred to my friends and I as The Horde. And yes, I do like how this place accepts us much more freely than the other places." Kaseki said, the baby golem holding onto the tree's head for dear life. The one Kaseki called Rightwing held up his hand as if to correct Kaseki, only to fall short of timing. "It's Wrightwing... You pronounced it wrong.. again.." he said under his breath. Kaseki smiled as he looked back at the man with high hopes and expectations.

"So then you must be the King of this Kingdom, right?" he asked. He cast aside disbelief and his past accusations. Perhaps this was the man Kaseki was looking for all along.

Oski noticed that when he referred to the bunch as 'monsters' they didn't seem to like it much, Oski sometimes didn't know when to watch his tongue, he had never been one to watch what he said to his God brothers and sister so he wasn't use to it just yet. Oski put his hand up in a waving motion to the leader of the small group as he introduced himself as 'Kaseki' as a way of acknowledging him and as he began to introduce his friends Oski repeated the same motions to acknowledge the rest of his crew as well, Oski was in a rather pleasant mood since it was such a nice day and he had recently went to visit Rhiannon. "Ah so you've met my brother Wave have you?" Oski said, appearing to be happy about it but on the inside Oski was rather unsure about his brother Wave, they have never gotten along that well.

Oski let out a small laugh as the humanoid bird known as Wrightwing corrected Kaseki on how to pronounce his name. Oski was flattered for a moment as Kaseki mistook him for the King of Albastion, "Oh no, no, not me. I am flattered though. I am the God, Oski. It's nice to meet you Kaseki. The 'Horde' has somewhat peaked my interest I must say~ I know other kingdoms are less accepting of the Horde." Oski spoke as if he was somewhat posing a question to Kaseki, wondering what he had to say on this topic because it had been a recent topic of interest for Oski, if the Gods could accept the human on earth and let them run Empires, he saw no reason for there to not be kingdoms for the Horde as well.

"Just.... my.... luck..." Kaseki thought to himself. He eyed the man. It had to be true. He was no hero from his childish legend, he himself was a legend. He seemed cheery and full of joy. Just that sentence alone...

"Oh no, no, not me. I am flattered though. I am the God, Oski."

"The God? Kaseki thought to himself. Everything else he had said was no existent to Kaseki. He was beating himself up for coming in contact with so many deities. It was something anyone would be proud of, but not Kaseki. If gods were out of their habitat that would mean something was bound to happen. "Maybe if I kill one I can be a god too." He thought to himself.

The idea of Genesis and the rather... aggressive standpoint of views did get Kaseki's attention. But perhaps this man had other ideals. If he was a god, and he was, then what was he doing in the city? Had he been waiting for someone else? Perhaps he wished to find the Shaman that Kaseki.. or rather Kodai smashed with a tree. Yes, that was it.... he was looking for the previous leader of The Horde.

"Then who is the king?" Kaseki asked. He thought about how both the evil demons and purest of creatures seemed to listen to Kaseki. He was a bridge between the good and evil. Why? Perhaps it was that Kaseki was a kind hearted creature... and he held the most evil of spirits within him. Maybe that was why he could rule over them. One commanded with fear, while the other commanded with respect. "Oski... I'm trying to find a home where everyone belongs. It was by chance that Rhiannon allowed me to stay in her forest as well."

He felt like there was so much to say, but he was speaking to another god. One was the "Grey God", the other the "Forest Godess" so who was this god? And why did he look like a pirate?

Oski listened to what the one known as Kaseki had to say to him, posting a questions as to whom the king of Albastion was. Oski himself had actually intended to meet the king of the Albastion Empire himself at one point though he hadn't quite gotten there yet. Oski took it upon himself to make sure that within the kingdoms there was not any form of extreme corruption or insanity going on, he feared sometimes that the humans who were placed in positions of power would let it get to their heads and evil would spread throughout the world like a sickening disease which Oski had every intention of putting to rest rather quickly.

"Hmm, that's rather a good questions Kaseki~" Oski said, putting a hand to his chin to think as his eye's glanced upwards to the sky as if some sort of answer would be painted in the clouds or fall out of the sky and hit him right on the head. "I haven't yet met the one who claims to be the ruler of this fine construct of rock," Oski murmured as he referred to the castle as the construct of rock. As Oski finished talking, Kaseki brought up another point though within his voice Oski could taste a small hint of sadness within his words.

"Seeking out a home for you and your people you say?" Oski noticed that he mentioned Rhiannon, it seemed that this 'Kaseki' fellow had met more of Oski's kind than most often got the chance to, Oski figured that his meeting with Rhiannon was a lucky one since she had been such a nice and understanding God, truly a beautiful existence she was. "Rhiannon is a close and personal friend of mine, we use to travel the planes of the Gods together, searching for all sorts of special relics and other things that would be referred to by even us Gods as 'legends'. I am glad that she offered her help to you."

Oski thought for a moment though, to him it was a nice offer to allow people to live in the woods and he knew that Rhiannons intentions with that offer had been of pure heart and good nature but on the other hand, Oski thought that it was no good for a whole race of people to be forced to live in the woods as if they were Indians or outcasts. "Something is bothering me though, Kaseki," Oski began to explain as he sounded slightly troubled.

"You see, while I know Rhiannon has all of the best intentions in mind when she said she would let you and your people stay in the forest but that begs the question. Do you simply deserve to live in a forest or do you deserve better than that? If all of these humans are allowed to build these places with massive walls and roofs over their heads, which protect them from not only the elements but themselves as well, Who is to say that you and your people are not allowed that very same right?"

"Something is bothering me though, Kaseki," Oski began to explain as he sounded slightly troubled. "You see, while I know Rhiannon has all of the best intentions in mind when she said she would let you and your people stay in the forest but that begs the question. Do you simply deserve to live in a forest or do you deserve better than that? If all of these humans are allowed to build these places with massive walls and roofs over their heads, which protect them from not only the elements but themselves as well, Who is to say that you and your people are not allowed that very same right?"

Kaseki pondered the thought. It did seem like he wanted to be protected from the world, but he did not want to be a king. Kaseki only wanted to be Kaseki. "That does seem well off..." Kaseki had begun to say, "However those that chose to live in the godess's forest have chosen it as such. The rest I simply must find somewhere. It just happened that this place was closest." Kaseki spoke his worlds in pure truth. It had been just a few days since he met the other gods, and just a day since he walked out from his forest. That's all the had to their names, was the forests. The Horde existed in the forests. However, Kaseki feared that his darker brethren would take to war should his plan fail. He had to make every precaution. If this king did not accept Kaseki's offer... then they would have to reason with Kodai.

"Those that seek destruction and chaos will never earn a place to call home." Kaseki told the great pirate man, "It will be through hope of change that they will soon adapt for the new era." He looked over at the bird to his side. He bowed his head at his words. It was Kaseki that gave him a second chance. It was Kaseki that sought the light in him when he was shrouded in darkness.

His hands rested on the ankles of the baby golem on his head. He did not wish to lose the child or let him fall and harm himself. He looked inattentively at the man. There was something about him that spoke of great power.

"But..." Kaseki began to ask, ".. You know now what a tree dreams of, but what does a God dream of?"