Earthborn Awakening

by Matthew DeVore

  Copyright © 2019 by Matthew S. DeVore.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical review and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Matthew S. DeVore

  Visit the author’s website at www.matthewdevore.com.

  Fourth Edition

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Edited by Kristin Scearce, Hot Tree Editing

  Cover design by Deranged Doctor Design.

  www.derangeddoctordesign.com.

  Natasha, your voracious reading and encouragement inspired me to write and finish Earthborn Awakening. Thank you.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Aleena ran through the forest, her legs screaming with pain. The day she feared had finally arrived. The Council Guard had found her.

  She’d been living in the remnants of a small town in the mountains that had become the central coordination point for the remaining Elven military. They were sending intelligence reports to Earthborn warriors scattered around the planet, but the war was ending, and not in their favor. It was inevitable that they’d be found. She, as all other Earthborn, had vowed to play her part in the war until the end, and this was the end. All that was left for her to do was run and try to survive.

  She glanced back to see three of the Guard in pursuit. The hue of her armor shifted quickly from its original dark green in an attempt to blend into the surroundings while her forest green hair unraveled from its bun as she ran. Ducking behind a tree, she focused on her hands, bringing a blue-white ball of energy into each. She rolled out from behind the trunk, propelling each of the spheres toward the two closest Guard. Both men crumpled to the ground the instant the shimmering orbs slammed into their chests, the spheres having passed clean through their bulky black chest plates. Diving to the right, she narrowly avoided a return blast that the third Guard sent screeching at her.

  In instances like this, she wished she could teleport. However, that trick required time, concentration, and a lot of training she hadn’t yet received. It’d be more dangerous to try that than taking on the three Guard by herself, which wasn’t something she particularly wanted to do either. Though, since she already took down two of the three, her chances of survival had greatly improved.

  She had to get rid of the last threat, and quickly. There was an experimental hibernation chamber set up about a mile away. It was her only hope of survival. The chamber had been built in a last-ditch effort to save her race from extinction, its creation highly controversial as the practice had been outlawed by the Elven High Council many generations ago.

  Every attempt at sustained hibernation had resulted in an unforeseen mishap. The mixing of magic and technology was like that sometimes. The first trial resulted in the death of the occupant. The second made the inhabitant lose his mind. In the third trial, well, nobody really knew what happened. Valaan Trel, the Councilor of Magic, volunteered to test the chamber. He was a member of the Elven High Council and the greatest magic wielder in a hundred generations. When the test began, everything appeared to be working correctly—that was, until the chamber and its inhabitant vanished. With the loss of Valaan, the plans were archived and the research disbanded.

  When the Council Guard began exterminating civilians, it became clear that their intention was to eliminate Earth’s inhabitants completely. Under the threat of annihilation, the Earthborn revived the hibernation chamber plans, and one last effort was made to build a chamber and save at least a few. The chamber was hidden deep under a mountain to minimize the chances of discovery, and tweaks were made to the incantations and power regulators in the hopes of fixing the previous flaws.

  Aleena had to admit that it was completely absurd to use the chamber, but since the other option was certain death, she figured she’d take her chances.

  This plan will be for nothing if the last Guard takes me before reaching the entrance. If the Guard even sees the location of the entrance, it’ll all be over. Of course, there’s a good chance the chamber itself will finish the job. Wow, today turned sour quickly.

  Another blast of energy shot past her head as she wove between trees for cover, mashing the greenery and brush in her mad dash. The sky was a beautiful blue with white puffy clouds, although it was barely visible through the tree canopy. With all the destruction across the planet, it was amazing that this forest remained relatively unblemished up to this point.

  Aleena heard the whine of a large amount of energy being concentrated into a little sphere of death behind her. Instinctively she spun on her heels, diving to the right as the energy missed her and cut the trunk of a 150-foot-tall tree clean in half. The crack of the trunk was deafening, and Aleena lay wearily on the ground, watching the tree shudder ominously as if deciding which direction to fall.

  That’s it. Focusing her mind toward her body, she began increasing her strength, feeling the surge of power move through her. She wouldn’t be able to catch or hold the tree, but if she shoved it hard enough, maybe she could help it choose a direction to fall. Jumping to her feet, she placed the tree squarely between her and her pursuer. Then with a fierce cry, she rushed the trunk, slamming into it with all her might and directing as much magic into the tree as she could muster. As soon as she made contact, the power exploded through her in a brilliant flash. She was thrown backward at least fifty feet as the tree lurched forward, landing directly on the Guard and simultaneously exploding in a flash of blue-white light and heat.

  Aleena landed on her back and quickly rolled over to protect her face from the shrapnel. She felt the heat pass over her, and it was almost more than she could stand. Once again, she reached toward the energy she felt inside, weaving it into a protective shield around her body. The heat immediately reduced in intensity as the shield engulfed her mere inches above her skin. This type of shield couldn’t protect her from everything, but it was great in instances such as this.

  The light from the blast diminished, and she began the surprisingly painful task of getting back on her feet. Her muscles were sore, and she had numerous scrapes from being thrown through a grouping of thorn bushes. It took her a minute to regain composure, as her head was reeling. For a few seconds, she thought she might fall again.

  When the world around her st
opped spinning, she looked at the place where the tree had fallen. A large crater was left in the ground, with scorch marks in the dirt radiating from the center of the blast. The grass surrounding the crater had been turned into smoldering embers, and the tree trunks bore the marks of intense heat. As far as the Guard was concerned, there was nothing left of him—which was true of most of the tree, for that matter. The only piece that remained was the thick, perfectly sheared trunk still protruding from the ground.

  Well that was unexpected. Aleena’s thoughts were sluggishly beginning to clear. A little more power than I meant to put into that tree.

  She’d been practicing her spell wielding but had yet to master the more complex fighting techniques. Personal body shields and directed energy were her go-to enchantments, and she found herself quite impressed by the effectiveness of this particular improvisation. I’ve never imparted magic into another object before. I’ve got to keep this in mind for the future—if I have a future. Fearing the blast was loud enough to alert others to her location, she turned her back on the devastation and limped as fast as she could in the direction of the chamber.

  After a twenty-minute walk, Aleena stood before the gaping mouth of a cave. She entered slowly, listening for signs of an ambush. The cave was a wonderful sixty degrees with moist air—refreshing, as she was hot and exhausted from the journey. She worked her way deeper into a narrowing tunnel, then stopped to let her eyes adjust to the dim light emanating from the mouth of the cave, which was now a ways behind her.

  The inside looked like any other cave with gray craggy rock walls. She listened to her footsteps echo as she approached the first split in the passage. Aleena had always liked this cave, its maze of tunnels leading to large caverns with stalactites and stalagmites and small coves just large enough for one person to fit inside. She knew this cave well and had even suggested it as the location to hide the hibernation chamber. Of the two tunnels before her, the left led off to a large cavern big enough to hold one hundred people comfortably, while the right led deeper into the cave. She chose the right and began the rather steep descent into the heart of the mountain. Around twenty paces down the tunnel’s slope, the remaining trickle of light from the cave’s entrance was swallowed in darkness.

  She paused a moment in silence. The scrapes across her arms and legs burned dully, but her breathing came easier now that she was concealed from the Urlowen hunters. Her right ankle hurt badly and caused her to limp increasingly as her journey progressed. She could hear the low rumble of a stream that flowed at deeper levels of the cave. After taking several deep breaths to calm her nerves, she held out her right hand, palm up, and brought a yellow glow of light into existence, hovering just over her palm. She directed the light several feet in front of her and made it rise toward the ceiling, which was now only a forearm’s length above her head. The soft glow weakly illuminated the corridor.

  Reaching back, she loosened her hair from what was left of the bun, allowing it to drop to her shoulders. As she ran her fingers through it, the color changed back to her natural blonde. She rolled her neck, stretching her muscles, then looked deeper into the cave. Got to keep moving.

  The trail was relatively smooth, with only minor uneven rock ledges in the descent. She continued into the cave, taking three other corridors similar in size and passing several small alcoves. As she moved forward, the ceiling lowered until she had to crawl on her hands and knees. This wasn’t the most pleasant of tasks due to her injuries, but the chamber was close. Finally she approached the end of the tunnel. The end of the natural tunnel, anyway. The ceiling and floor came so close together that she had to wriggle on her stomach through an opening about half a person in length. On the other side of the corridor, the cavern immediately opened into a small alcove with no visible exit. She stood and walked the five feet to the opposite side of the room, then sat with her back against the wall, watching the tunnel through which she’d just crawled.

  Aleena had arrived at last. She was at the entrance to the chamber. This location was chosen because of the natural bottleneck the narrowing ceiling provided. If she’d been followed, she could easily pick off any remaining pursuers one by one as they attempted to crawl through the alcove opening. Taking a few deep breaths, Aleena extinguished the light hovering in the center of the alcove and sat in darkness.

  She waited for others—for survivors. The chamber was designed to hold twenty Earthborn. They’d decided to take an even greater gamble than simply building a hibernation chamber, choosing to build one for multiple people. Aleena chuckled to herself as she thought of the audacity to which her race would sometimes fall victim. After all, why build an experimental chamber that’s never worked in the past for one person when you could build one that might not work for lots of people? Desperate times.

  Sitting in the dark, she contemplated what would happen next. She was tempted to simply try living in the cave, hiding until the rest of the slaughter played out. That would work for a short time, she knew, but the Guard’s ‘cleanup’ operations could take years. She’d need a food supply and would likely get caught during a hunting trip. Worse than that, at some point the cave would be found and searched. The hibernation chamber was hidden well enough, but the Guard would leave sensors in the cave that would transmit any signs of life for months after they left. If she simply hid in the chamber, she’d starve.

  “No, there’s only one choice—hibernation,” she whispered. The sound of her own voice was comforting, but it still felt like conceding defeat. The stasis would allow her to survive without the need to eat or drink for a very long time. “Not that I want to be in there very long. Maybe ten years. Surely the Guard will have moved on in ten years.”

  Aleena waited in the alcove for one day. A long, boring, terrible day.

  “No one’s coming,” she said, despairing. “I’m the only one who made it.” Slowly standing to her feet, she turned to face the stone wall behind her. She placed both palms flat on the warm surface of the fake rock wall and concentrated, letting a small flow of energy move to her hands. Suddenly, light emanated from the wall directly underneath her palms. A few seconds later, the wall vanished, revealing a long hallway made from polished white Elven metal. Lights mounted near the ceiling ran the length of the corridor. Without looking back, she passed over the threshold.

  “Ten years,” she assured herself as the door rematerialized behind her. “Just ten years.”

  Chapter 1

  Traven looked out the view shield as the transport descended toward the makeshift landing pad in the heart of Madison City. The whine of the antigravity engine was barely audible through the ship’s thick armor shielding. He preferred deep space travel to that of these small troop carriers, because atmospheric turbulence made for a bumpy ride. Though he’d never admit that to his companions.

  Most of the city was dark, with only a few lights scattered across the horizon. As per usual military occupation procedures, a curfew had been established immediately after the natives’ military forces were defeated. It made the arrival of a small detachment of the Council Guard go without notice by the population.

  After establishing a hold on a new city, a small team of the Guard was always dispatched to dispense any remaining underground threats. The Council’s military force was formidable, but the average foot soldier was only trained for direct frontal assaults against traditional military forces. Underground resistance fighters required more finesse to find and eliminate. The Guard had perfected this particular aspect of war: each member was trained in spy craft, stealth, manipulation, an entire suite of specialized weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, and even a little bit of magic.

  Magic was the hardest part of the training for every member, primarily because the Urlowen race had little propensity for it. In fact, many of Traven’s people showed no talent for it at all. They were more adept at building technological wonders and waging war by more traditional methods. Long ago, the Elves had introduced the Urlowens to magic, and the Urlowen pop
ulation had been mesmerized by it ever since. Members of the community who demonstrated even a small potential for it were held in the highest regard. Because of this, the Elves and the Urlowens traded technology and knowledge for many years, even establishing a mild trust between their respective governments.

  That was until many thousands of years ago when the first High Councilman, Malikane, united the Urlowen governments and formed the Council of Five. He alone seemed to foresee the future conflict between the two great civilizations. He began requiring a small amount of training in magic for his most elite troops, which in turn increased the population’s nostalgia for the rare talent. This paid off in the end when the Council’s forces, due primarily to the work of the Guard, annihilated the Elven population on the very planet where Traven was now deployed. Shortly after the fall of Earth, the Elven home world surrendered, afraid they would be next.

  In the time since, a new species had grown and taken over Earth, calling themselves Human. The current High Councilman, Malikyne, ordered the restructuring of Earth to bring this new species into the protection of the Council. Traven, of course, knew the real driving force behind this take-over was to increase the High Councilman’s power—in particular, the number of worlds he controlled—but such thoughts were far too dangerous to dwell upon.

  For Traven, becoming a member of the Guard was more of a family tradition than loyalty to the Council of Five. And since a short period of military service was required of all citizens, and refusal to accept an invitation to join the Guard was punished by death, the decision was pretty straightforward. On the brighter side, the position did come with a level of prestige and a place of honor in every city back home. To become a member, one had to be hand selected as showing exceptional intelligence, fighting prowess, and at least some ability in magic.

  That combination was what made the Guard so deadly in Traven’s opinion. Unfortunately, it also gave power to the so-called Earthborn Legend. Why people still believed those old fables was lost on him. It was certainly true that a single Guard could easily take on five or ten foes and return victorious, but the stories of the Earthborn were ludicrous. One such legend insinuated that a single Earthborn Elven warrior could destroy an entire regiment of the Council’s standard troops. Traven shook his head with contempt at the thought. Even worse, now that the Council’s forces had returned to Earth, the planet at the heart of the legend, people were starting to spread those stories again. And they seem to grow with every telling.