Hello everyone, Leon R.M. Auguste here with another Music Monday!
Today, I’ll be sharing with you another music soundtrack that really gets my creative forces flowing. This one harkens a sort of Chinese New Year inspired-theme in me. A day filled with adrenaline, the rush of new beginnings, and a kind of unknown uncertainty that captivates the soul and mind with relentlessness.
Here’s the soundtrack that inspired me: (Click me to listen to the soundtrack!). As usual, I highly recommend using headphones so that you can hear every instrument being played. And also, to make sure nobody around you hears the music. It’s not your typical mainstream one-hit-wonder, after all.
Assuming you’re listening to the music now, I’ll go ahead and describe what I imagine when I listen to this track.
The following is a “shortened” excerpt from my progress-in-work titled “Of Foretold Fates and Chosen Harbingers.”
***
A thrill, a rush of unknown fates. Tonight was a night of celebration, of festive wonders and woes. A time to reflect and a time to predict the future. It was an experience that would not go quietly into that silent night.
Among the large crowds of cheering, laughing, and jubilant villagers, a group of brave harbingers, could be seen running through the ancient streets of this village of Kin’uly.
Strangely enough, amidst the cultural festivities, these enlightened humans were after one target. A woman so secretive and mysterious, not even they were confident they would find her again.
One of the members of this group, a young woman, named Lurina Urus’don, looked around as she felt like a foreigner in a strange land. How ironic it was for her. It had been her parents who had been born here, even if she was swept away to Runisca at a young age. Yet, though she physically resembled her people, she didn’t feel connected with any of them. Instead, she felt alienated, as though she didn’t belong in a homeland that was robbed of its innocence long ago.
At any rate, as the group of harbingers were running forward, this young woman spotted something in the corner of her eye. A sight of peculiar wonder.
A hooded figure, standing with arms crossed above one of the wooden rooftops. Almost as if…
Without even thinking, Lurina bolted after this shadowy figure.
“Lurina, where are you going!?”
She turned around briefly and pointed up at the shadowy figure: “There! She’s right there!“
Lurina felt a gust of wind pass by her as she ignored her companions now and rushed into an alleyway leading up to higher grounds. She periodically bumped into other people, profusely apologizing as she ran forward with all haste. There was a flicker of urgency shinning in her eyes and ambition to find out the truth of the current situation her friends and she had found themselves in recently.
It had been too long of a time now. Too long of a time without finding any concrete answers to such unfavorable questions.
Boom!
Fireworks above began to burst out with sizzling crackles and deep resonance. The crowds of people below roared out in surprise as some began to clap with feverish excitement. There was a sense of endless possibilities now. The very balance of equilibrium was now tipped in favor of those usually less fortunate.
Lurina found herself rushing up another set of steep stairs as she kept her eyes locked onto the rooftops of the buildings to her right.
She could see the shadowy figure still standing there.
Strangely, now, the unseen person had her delicate hands outreached to Lurina. She was beckoning the young woman to follow, to hear the unknown secrets only this cloaked woman knew of.
Lurina felt her heart race even faster now as she saw a side-ladder up ahead. Lurina knew if she could just reach it and climb up the side of the buildings this way, she could catch up to this mysteriously masked woman. She could almost hear her heartbeat thudding in between her eardrums. She was close.
Strangely enough, even as Lurina looked back up at the masked woman, the woman turned her back towards Lurina now as she began to run further away.
Taking no chances for this opportunity to slip through her grasp, Lurina sped up her pace as she shook her head in denial. The mysterious woman wasn’t going to get away that easily, not without a fighting chance.
Behind Lurina, just as she reached the ladder, she could hear a familiar deep voice.
“You’re ever the persuasive and never taking no for an answer. As stubborn as a gorgeous.”
Lurina turned her head slightly right as she faced the ladder now. “I suspected you would be close behind me. You were keeping a close eye on me ever since I got back to Kin’uly with the foreigners.”
The native-looking man nodded his head slowly. “And for a good cause, look what you’ve gotten yourself into.”
Lurina smiled a bit as she shrugged. “It can’t be helped; we have nothing to lose now. Let’s go then, Zante. Follow my lead.”
With that, Lurina quickly grabbed ahold onto the bars of the ladder and began to scurry her way up the length of it like a swift fox determined to find her prey.
Quickly stepping atop this building’s heavily wooden rooftop now, Lurina scanned the sea of unleveled rooftops as she looked for the cloaked woman.
She was nowhere to be found.
“Damn it,” Lurina thought to herself as she began to jog forward with a sense of dwindling determination. But, no…she couldn’t give up now, not when the stakes were so high for saving the world.
As the man named Zante reached the top of the rooftop, luck would seem to have turned more towards their favor.
Suddenly, the very air of time itself froze.
Lurina and Zante hadn’t noticed it at first. Still, as the both of them continued to jog forward towards the sea of rooftops, Lurina stopped in her tracks suddenly as she saw the fireworks stuck in mid-burst within the night sky.
“Hmm…?” Zante grunted with a sort of disbelief unbecoming for the usually stoic and assured man.
Lurina stared at their unmoving surroundings as she felt a cold chill run down her spine. “What in the – !?”
Lurina and Zante now walked forward slowly as both Urksinians were untrusting of this new situation they had found themselves in. Yet, even as the two Urksinians moved forward with a sense of caution, Lurina spoke to Zante with a sort of peculiar fear evident in her voice. “We should turn back; something doesn’t feel right here…”
Just as Lurina finished talking, she looked over her shoulder slightly and was shocked to see Zante stuck in time now.
He was like a statue, unmoving and drained of all life now.
“Zante!!?”
Lurina moved over to him as she tried to shake him. But nothing worked. There was a strange look in his eye, filled with peculiar wonder and amazement at the same time. So it was that Lurina was in a different realm of existence altogether – far removed from her friends and allies.
But Lurina was not left alone for too long.
A woman’s voice began to break through this strange timeless environment. “Lurina…can you…can you hear me?”
Lurina jumped up with profound amazement as she looked all around herself and tried to figure out who was talking.
Oddly enough, the voice sounded as though it was coming from somewhere deep within the night sky. Or was it coming from the crowds of unmoving people down below amidst the streets of Kin’uly? Lurina wasn’t sure now.
Her eyes crazily examined the sea of people below as she tried her best to locate where the voice was coming from. It was increasingly difficult, though, almost as though every moment that passed would be a moment lost forever.
Testing out the metaphorical waters, Lurina looked up at the sky as she stammered a bit in her response. “Ye-yes, I can hear you.”
It was silent for a moment longer as Lurina continued to carefully turn around in complete spins.
As Lurina remained patient, the voice reemerged back into her eardrums as she could hear it more clearly now. “Lurina, there’s an impending doom looming over the balance of our world. Yet I’m afraid you will not be amongst those responsible for fixing this problem. Your path lies with another fate. You must listen carefully to me. The exacting continuum of this journey, and the same continuum of this world, fall upon your very shoulders at this singular moment in time and history. Do you understand the severity of my words?”
Lurina tried her best to compose herself. What in the world was going on? Surely this could not be the doing of some kind of strange technology. Lurina felt her mind abuzz with dizziness that she had never felt before. This entire ordeal was overwhelming; Lurina’s very sanity was beginning to falter into question.
But somehow, Lurina felt as though she believed what this woman was telling her. She knew she had to listen and respond in short. “Yes…yes, I understand what you’re saying.”
The voice was more readily responsive this time as this unknown and unforeseen woman spoke once more. “Time is merely a concept and reality of our minds. Do not fret, for you will succeed in this task either way. It does not require time. You see…” The voice was getting unimaginably closer now, as Lurina seemed shocked and in awe at this strange phenomenon. “There are things in this world that you will never know of, for it is we who keep it that way. Yet you will remain safe, but only if you listen to exactly what I say.”
Lurina squeezed her fists tightly now as she felt fear rapidly taking over her entire nervous system. “What…what exactly do I need to do then?”
The voice did not reemerge this time as Lurina began to look around again.
Lurina was more feverish in her attempt now. She slowly began to move forward and looked down at the sea of frozen people once again as she tried to make sense of what was going on. She felt herself gaining a little bit of reckless confidence now as she cleared her throat and addressed the unforeseen woman more directly.
“Show yourself!”
No response.
Immediately, Lurina was beginning to panic a little as she steadily felt herself stumble backward a bit out of natural fear. “Who are you?!”
Still no response.
Lurina spun around again, but this time, as she did – her eye caught it. Her eye caught sight of the strange displacement amongst the crowds below.
The only single individual who was staring up at Lurina. The only individual staring at the young woman behind a strange yet elaborately beautiful dark green ivy-colored mask.
The woman had a hood concealing her identity as well. The deep green robe that she wore was very detailed.
Strangely enough, it appeared the only human part showing of this mysterious and unknown woman was her visible chin and mouth. Furthermore, her lips were curled ever so slightly into a curious smile. It was as though the woman found amusement in Lurina’s bewilderment. Or, she found delight at Lurina’s vulnerability. Either way, this woman had Lurina just where she wanted her.
Forever in Your Debt,
Leon R.M. Auguste
Leon R.M. Auguste 