Elysia.

The very name conjures up images of a paradise; I can remember every thing to the minuet detail, when I called that world my home. Every smell, every sound to the last. Now as I streak through the sea of stars upon my board, I find my thoughts going a stray. I find myself drawn to memories of a long time ago, when I first arrived upon Elysia.

It had been a bright morning day, the twin suns were just rising from their long slumber over the rolling peaks. I remember slowly skimming over the surface of a jungle like region of the world, the scenery passing by and unfolding before by eyes in a dazzling and captivating speeds. I remember taking a deep chest full of air into my lungs, I could feel my body being rejuvenated. Overhead the normal sea-green skies of this foreign world were a blazed with fire clouds, as the twin suns slowly started to rise above the rolling lush hills, for its rest was over and it had a job to do. The luster that was given off, while the first few moments of the sun's reign glistened off my form brilliantly, was truly breath taken.

Interesting, I had mused, standing slightly arched forward, my chest protruding, my arms motionless and slightly extended away from the rest of my body. The planet has a life force to it that I've never experienced before on all other worlds that I have come across in my travels. I, for a mere moment or two, closed my golden eyes and lost myself in the moment, the world's life force seeping into me, and I remember letting it pulsate within the very core of my being with not a moment of resistance.

"This was Heaven."

I allowed the world's life force to rejuvenate, and for the first time since my Shalla-Bal's death, all those years prior, I felt alive! I soared straight upward, with new life beating in my chest. I continued to soar to the point that I was entering the out most reaches of the atmosphere, only to lose myself in the moment and pummel earthward, without the use of my board. I tumbled endlessly, my eyes closed, arms extended outward, my legs spread apart, and I allowed the ground to rise up upon me. The air rushed up caressing my body, much as a mother would her newborn child.

I remember laughing!

I had never done that since my beloved's death. Yet for the first time I felt alive!

It was execrating!

I opened my eyes to see that the wilds of the jungle was only a few feet below me and as if on cue my board soared under me and I continued to blaze forward, only a few inches above the tree-line. I soared onward and watched as the thicket of the jungle gave way to flatlands, filled with lush golden wheat that had been cultivated by human hands. This caught my attention! With my curiosity piqued, I moved in closer in order to explore what else this world had to offer.

I moved over mounds after mounds of farmland and soon I encountered a small cottage made out of a fine aged wood. I moved in for a closer inspection but then I noticed that the owner of the small slightly run down home was still within the confines of their humble abode. But not all of them.

A young girl, whose name was Shaugnessy, as I would later learn over dinner that night, the name roughly translated into English as The First.  She was outside, sitting in the dirt, only a few feet before the fields of grain. She was tossing a doll up into the air and rolling around the dirt with it. At the time I would say that she was around six earth years of age, perhaps even seven, no more.

I watched her for several moments and found a smile had started to emerge on my face.

But soon that smile would fade, when the small child took note of my presence. Shaugnessy smiled and waved, then in a fashion that I had seen many earth children do, bolted into the house, calling for her mother and father in a playful tone, she had left the doll behind in a patch of soft and lush green grass.

My eyes widened. I knew I could not allow the child's parents to see me in this form, levitating in mid-air in much the same way as some holy angel. By the time the parents did emerge from the house I was no where to be seen, the parents, who I could tell were extremely loving people, asked her what she had seen, and she had told them. They stared up into the sky for a moment or two then when nothing happened, when no one appeared from the heavens they retreated toward the home, not before they dusted their child off and sent her on her way to commence her activities in the simplicity of play.

I had headed myself to the far end of the house, where I dropped into the stocks of grain and waited for the parents to return to their activities within the home. I could tell that the female was on the verge of giving birth to another child. A child who would have a great many implications to my life - but that is another story entirely.

I return, this time with much more caution, and continued to watch the child play, for some reason, still unknown to me, I felt that I needed to watch out for her!

Something was going to happen! Something that would hold dire complications for the family.

I waited and then, I saw it! It was a beast creature of sorts, I would later learn that its name would be a Ralna bull. It towered over the child and was heading toward her, the child for her part in it all was tossing the doll of her's up into the air and catching it before it would hit upon the ground, her back was toward the snarling beast!

I needed to do something!

I would later learn that the beast had followed me from the jungle, but that was of no consequence at the moment. I knew I had to do something! Anything! The beast was merely standing there about twenty-five yards away, it stomped its hoof once or twice and kicked back a gust of dirt into the air.

It would charge soon!

I soared earthward and quickly manipulated my physical form to mimic the one of the natives of this world, in order not to startle the child nor the parents. The last thing I needed at the time was frantic natives, during this crisis. Once I felt that my appearance was appropriate I charged forward, clearing the house in no time.

The beast was charging and was only a few feet away from its query.

I charged forward!

I remember leaping through the air and clearing the distance from where I was and where the child was in a matter of moments.

The beast lunged itself taking note of my presence.

I clutched onto the frightened child and lunged forward into the towering stocks of grain. The child screamed and released the doll from her hands, she reached out toward the fallen doll in the hope that she could once again cradle onto it once more. But that hope was in vain when the hoofs of the beast stomped onto the doll, tearing it apart in its claws. The child screamed, tears welling up in her wide emerald eyes.

The beast stopped and swirled around in speed in spite of its massive size.

It was going to make another pass. Blood lust burned in its crimson red eyes. I hadn't much time to act. My first priority was to see to the child's safety, my own was secondary. "Quickly, child!" I called out. "Run!" I sent her on her way toward the door of her home, and she ran toward it with all her might without a word of protest.

I watched and waited until the child was in the house, the door slamming shut behind her. Then I sprang into action. I lurched myself forward, taking up a defensive stance. Upon reflection, I realize that I had made a grave error. I had underestimated the strength and sheer ferocity of the beast. It lunged forward, claws to bare, and collided into me.

I slammed against the ground and let out a grunt of pain, the beast was on top of me, its six-inch long teeth were exposed and were reaching toward my neck. Entangled in the beast’s death grip, we rolled over one another, until finally it was on top of me! It started to apply vast amounts of pressure upon my wrist, pinning me down onto the ground where I was stretched out upon. I tried to wrestle with sheer brute strength against the beast in order to propel myself heavenward.

I noticed that the family was gathered in the window staring in sheer horror at the drama unfolding before them. This turn of events robbed me of one recourse that could have brought both the beast and the confrontation between life and death to a sudden end. For if I was to use my Power Cosmic that my master, Galactus, had endowed me with, they would know that I was more than what I seemed and in a way I would have stolen them of their innocence. So I was running out of time! I needed to act once more! For if I was to fail, and this beast was to tear into me, then the family would surely be this beast’s next meal, and I'd be damned if I'd allowed that to happened! Not if there was still breath in my chest there was still a hope, a chance!

And then it caught my eye!

It was a small gardening tool of some sort, made out of a jagged marble forged into what appeared to be something used to carve into the earth. I reached out toward it, only to find that I was only a centimeters away from the handle.

I roared in defiance. The beast was bearing down, its fangs closer and closer toward my neck.

Finally I grasped onto the handle of the gardening tool, and I quickly wielded it like a weapon. With a quick lash across the neck, blood fountained forth from the gaping wound that tore away from its neck, the thick hair smelt of blood as it rushed out of the beast's form. It roared and slashed its giant claws back and fourth in its death throws. I needed to act once again, or the beast would have for surely decapitated me and given
me a lobotomy before it breathed its last breath. I quickly thrashed my hand upward, the marble blade tore away at the side of its face.

The beast toppled over, onto the ground and then perished. Its chest heaved upward and cascaded downward violently. A faint tear rolled from its slowly closing eye. Then I looked into its eye and saw my own reflection, or rather the reflection that I now possessed as a "native" to this world.

Now that I look back, I wish that there was a way that I could have saved both the child and the beast without one having to die. After all, the beast was not evil, it was merely acting out of its nature. On hindsight I could have more than likely found another way! After all there had to be a third option! There was always a third option given time, time that I did not have.

Then the beast's chest stopped moving and its eyelids lazily closed, caving in on themselves.

I remember the parents stormed out of the house and thanked me forever for what I had done for them and that I saved their child. They said that they were forever in my dept. They promptly invite me into their home, where we exchanged formal introductions.

"My name is. . ." I paused, realizing that if I did give a name that I was committing myself to remaining on this world for the last of my days. Was I ready to give up the stars? I asked myself. And the answer was disturbing even to me, What have the stars brought me but death and sorrow? "My name is Norrin Radd," I finished.

"Norrin Radd," the mother repeated.

The father and mother turned to face one another, their eyes speaking volumes in silence. Then finally the father spoke to me. His tone was harsh and rasped slightly, but carried a friendly and loving edge to it. He rested his hand on the protruding mid-section of his wife, and said, "We shall call this child Norrin, in honor of the man who has saved my first child. As is the ways of my people."

I thought of this for a moment or two. Then said, "No. Call her Shalla-Bal."

I could tell that they were taken aback by the name, and that was the only time that I ever spoke of her or her name ever again. But they agreed without protest. "As you wish," the father said. We talked for several hours, I informed them that I was a stranger coming from the northern mountains on a long and tiring journey to find a home. They said that I was welcomed to life in their village and I accepted.

Later that night I was invited to a feast held by the village elders. This is where I was officially accepted and where I was introduced to Bahrnul.  An instant bond was forged between us. And the father of Shaugnessy told of his daughter's rescue at the hands of a stranger, as he would do until the day of his death, each time he told the story a new aspect was added into it, until the point where I even faced off with a whole horde of the beast and killing everyone of them with my bare hands.

But he did not die until he watched his son, Shalla-Bal, give birth to little Dant, a boy who would be the cause of my. . .

My thoughts are destroyed, utterly shattered when I approach Elysia.

For Elysia was on flames!

Continued in Tainting Eden Chapter Three