A Darkzin's Journey

Chapter 1: The Darkzins

You may or may not have heard of them. I doubt you know them well for they have only been mentioned in times on battle and even then they were not explained. They lived on the earth when the Bronze Age begun. They lived on an island that has been known to have disappeared a while ago. A century ago to be exact. You know Treasure Island? Well, that used to be the Darkzin’s home land.

They are, in a sense, like the famous Amazons. They live on a land where women are not known of. Those who happen to know women or have ever encountered them have hated them with their well known cold hearts. It was natural to hate women to them.

I guess now you must be pondering, “If these Darkzins hate women, then how are more Darkzins born?” the answer is simple and maybe not you shall expect. When an ancient Darkzin dies, his body is encircled by a dark light and his body disappears. When the light ceased, however, a young male baby takes his place. So, in a sense, they are like their sacred animal which actually originated from there. The famous Phoenix.

Now I believe you wish to know how they looked, dressed and lived. Am I right?
One question to be answered at a time.

They were quite the different sort of look that I’m sure you’re used to.
They usually had very long hair and were usually a dark colour. Like Dark Brown, Very Dark Blonde, Chocolate Brown, Dead Black and even colours that are not known to us. They kept it loose because they believed their God wore his hair loose. They were very devout and tried as much as they ever could to analyse and copy their Sacred God’s ways. In fact, their hair, when born, was longer than the regular baby’s hair. About…shoulder length. Also, an interesting point, their hair stopped growing when it was just below hip length. This occurred usually when they were in their late teens.

Their wardrobe was not so different from our own.
They were only allowed seven pairs of clothing, which they made themselves, every seven years. As I said, they tried as they could to be like their God. This wardrobe consisted of:
1. Dark shaded pants that are known to be able to store over a billion weapons.
2. Dark shaded shirts that are, length wise, down to the waist.
3. Dark shaded coats that, length wise, are down to the ankle. At the end thread, there is a hot colour (E.g.: Red, orange, yellow etc) to symbolise that they are very dangerous to deal with.
4. A silver, gold or bronze chain around the neck. It was a mark showing who they truly were and was said to have mythical powers beyond imagining.
5. No shoes. They walked on the rock hard ground of their land bare foot. It was a way to show courage.
Just for if you’re wondering, they wore the exact same clothes as the others on the island. Only the colours were different.

Now on how they lived. Picture this:
A young, newly born, boy is born. The guardians of the Darkzins take this child in and raised through the ways that men think. Through weapons and fighting. They are not taught love and are known to always wear a poker face. No matter what. When someone close to them did something to please them, they still wore their emotionless mask of stone heart. Even if that person died, they would still show no emotion. However, they would take the new born under their wing and teach them and raise them.

The subjects that were taught by the elders were of history, physics, art craft, maths, astrology, sciences and weaponry. They were taught how to live and how to hate what they believed their God hated. They were taught how to fight and, at the age of 16, they were given a weapon that they could to use with no difficulty at all.

The God that they believed in was the same God a catholic believes in. the only difference is that they believed that God hated women and regretted making them more than he did with men. This is, as it says in the Bible, not the truth. Nevertheless, they were extremely loyal to God and called him by the name of Gahwewa. This name I shall, from now on, use when speaking about their God.

Now in Treasure Island, the island was very big was it not? So I guess you might think that the Darkzins lived, not close together, but in villages. This however was not true. They were a cold hearted race, but they had other ways of expressing their closeness. Living in one city is an example. The city, as you might have guessed, was probably as big as South Africa’s Table Mountain.

Now that that’s over and done with, I believe you are ready for me to tell about our lead character. His name was Ericko. Ericko means ‘A lock which only one can open’ and he was just that. The man before him went by the name of Shogo ‘Father of the lock’. The great ruler of the Darkzins, Fro ‘Destroyer’, took Ericko because Shogo had been his brother. Mage Yaerin ‘Wisdom’s Child’ said that Ericko would be destined for great things, but would suffer greatly. But, alas, no-one ever listened to him.

Mage Yaerin was known as an outcast. First was that he wasn’t a full blood. His father had met a young woman, but unlike his race, fell in-love with her and she him. Together they had Yaerin and then both died. When his father died, however, his body turn to ash and disappeared like his lover. Mage Yaerin had deep respect for both genders, which to the Darkzins, was a sin to Gahwewa. He grew up like the others, only he showed his emotions and so the others of his youth teased about being weak. He would simply reply, “What’s wrong with the Weak?” or not reply at all.

Enough about him. Ericko, though belonging to Fro, loved Yaerin and never grew tired of being with him. This soon made him unpopular around the other youths. Except one. A youth named Mato ‘Forest Lover’ was as close to Ericko as Mage Yaerin.

Ericko was quite the unique one. His hair stopped growing at the age of thirteen and at that time, his hair was not waist length, but neck length. It was a black colour, but listen to this, the was the darkest black that there could ever be. It was darker than dead black, darker than the darkest black pit. This colour was rare to occur and it was known as “Demon Black”. He coat strip colour was blood red, “Because Master Yaerin said my father used the same colour and my father was a friend to Mage Yaerin.” His eyes were, once again, an unusual colour. It was known as the “Earth Dragon’s Fire” because it was a blood red and green colour. His weapon was a sword that was double his size, though he able to wield it without difficulty.

Though he and Mato loved Yaerin, they still wore poker faces. Mato, however, had a desire to meet a woman because he heard that women were beautiful. Ericko thought that women would be unworthy of his time. Little did he know that a young woman would make him eat his words. But that comes later.

Ericko was also quite an ‘I don’t need anyone’ kinda person. Of course he loved Fro, Mato and Mage Yaerin, but he just didn’t enjoy being a groupie. He preferred a place quiet and peaceful like the forest, rather than a noisy and busy place like the city. This leads to another trait of Ericko. The power to communicate with animals.
Ericko’s chain was Gold. That meant he was going to become great and famous. To Fro, it meant that Ericko would one day take over as ruler. That was why when Ericko was fifteen; he was stopped every time he went to see Mage Yaerin. He was kept indoors all time and Fro tried as he could to teach Ericko the ways of ruling.

Of course, this made Ericko irritable and caused him to become a rebel. He snuck out at night and slept in the wild with the other animals and then returned the next morning before sunrise. Before anyone got up. Clever boy don’t you think?

Anyway, enough about that! Am I boring you with this explaining? Hope not! If I am then I apologise. Now our adventure begins when Ericko and Mato were nineteen. Oh, and the adventure doesn’t only occur on the Darkzin’s Island. So don’t worry.