Hey, everybody! Welcome to Savior, my first ever fanfic!

Please R&R, but do take it easy, and no flames, please. I don't guarantee this'll be amazing, but I'll do my best. Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: Journey belongs to thatgamecompany, not me)

Nascence

Slowly, I rise to my feet and gather my mind. The desert sands glow bright yellow as the sun reflects off of them. I kind of hurts to look, so instead I stare straight up at the sky. As always, it's a beautiful blue, laced with fluffy white clouds throughout.

The desert air is hot and dry, but the cloak I'm wearing protects me, and so I barely feel it. Gradually, I lift my thin, tapered legs and walk slowly but surely toward the large hill directly in front of me. In less than a minute, I stand at its peak, and before me lies a sight incomparable.

A mountain...

It pierces through the land far away and towers high, high into the sky. At its apex, the mountain glows with a spellbinding light, sun-like in its radiance yet gentle in all that it touches. This is not a light meant for hurting, no. This is a light meant for sustaining, and guiding, and finally, to those lucky few who reach the top, for welcoming.

There truly is an adventure over every hill...

Quickly, I slide down the other side, the sands tickling my feet underneath. Sprawled out before me almost as far as I can see are countless, for lack of a better word, monuments. Just barely surpassing me in height, they protrude from the sand haphazardly, some standing up straight, some bent over crooked, and some half eroded from the constant beating of the sands.

They almost remind me of tombstones...

Looking at them fills me with dread, so I hurry past them and toward a much larger, block-like monument I spy in the distance. Comprised of bricks that were probably once beautiful crimson, but now are more of a dull red, it appears to have once been part of a temple of sorts. Fortunately for me, it has ago fallen apart, and so there are strata sticking out out from its side that I can easily pull myself up with. At the top, I see a gently glowing symbol hovering in the air in front of a strange-looking shrine, and around the symbol float...strips of cloth?

Somewhat apprehensively, I step forward toward the symbol, and in response it glows even brighter before it fades into mere particles that flow into my cloaked body. Strangely, I do not feel weakened, but rather strengthened, and I looking over my shoulder I can see a small stub has begun to grow from the cloak at the base of my neck. A scarf, perhaps?

Running toward the edge of the ruin, I perform a mighty leap...and to my elation, I find I can fly, but only for a couple of seconds before gravity regains its hold upon me. Hurrying in the direction of the shining mountain far away, I run past more "tombstones," but with my new power, I don't find them nearly as frightening as I previously did. After flying past a few more hills, I stop and stare in awe at what lies before me.

A deep, circular basin, easily hundreds of feet both wide and deep, has been carved into the face of the desert. Lined around its edge are even more ruins, each filled with strange figures and carvings of I cannot even begin to determine the meaning. In the middle of the basin, at the very bottom, is a tall, thick pillar with large, desiccated reams of cloth attached to it, and separated from it by a gap lies yet another odd shrine, resting before a colossal gate.

Moving once more, I slide down the basin toward the pillar. Like everything else, the pillar has long been eroded by time, and I can easily climb up the ridges poking out from it. At the top, I can see that the old lengths of cloth are each attached to the corner of what appears to be some strange cage. I draw close to investigate, and suddenly my scarf begins to softly glow, and the cloth next to me begins to mend itself. As if by instinct (and it may as well have been), I strode slowly onto the cage, crouched down while taking a deep breath, and sang.

It was only a single note, resonating from some unknown place deep inside of me, and yet it was the most wondrous sound I had ever heard or would likely ever hear. It seemed to fill the entire space around me, replacing even the air with its magnificence. The four large cloths immediately transformed, changing from dull, shabby strips to vibrant crimson with gold trimming, more than fit for a king. The cell beneath me began to creak, and I swiftly stepped of just before it could open up. Countless tiny scraps of fabric poured out and began to float all around me, as if they were trying to thank me for setting them all free.

Letting out another loud cry, the scraps all began to shine and converge upon me, lifting me up far higher than I could have flown by myself. They graciously carried me across the wide gap and dispensed me on the opposite side, standing directly in front of the shrine. I let out a mighty howl of celebration, and suddenly the six pillars to my left and right all lit up, sending out sparkles of light that came together to form a gently shimmering circle at my feet. With my heart beating madly with excitement, I strode over and sat cross-legged in the circle, and everything went white.

When the light dispersed, I looked around to see myself standing in an endless white void. Directly in front of me, I could just barely make out the light of that strange mountain. As I began to slowly step toward the light, a tall silhouette, easily five times my size, appeared before me. Before I could react in any way, the giant being sang, filling my mind again with white, but when my sight returned, this time I could see images...

The great mountain let out a beam of light that pierced into the night sky, and strange lights – stars, maybe? - lit up, brightening the dark sky. The lights continued to fill the sky, and they were soon followed by bizarre creatures. (Were those birds? And plants?!) I could see people that looked like me, except their robes were white, whereas mine was blood red. The people gathered around a shimmering light on the ground, and before their eyes (and mine) the light transformed into a brilliant, coiled ribbon, exactly like the ones I had seen earlier. Suddenly, the vision then grew misty...

And then I was back in reality, kneeling in front of the shrine. A low, cacophonous sound filled my ears, and I looked up to see the titanic gate opening up to me. My path was clear. I rose to my feet and surged down the hallway behind the gate, toward the light at the end of the tunnel. Surely, I couldn't be alone in this world. There had to be someone else...

Like what you see? R&R, please.

Tomorrow's Hero, signing out.