The Majestics [Volume I]

[Trying to see if (i) there's a market for distributed/community-guided storytelling on steemit (i.e., narrative trajectory will consider comments of other steemians); (ii) whether my dream of building a fantasy world (think harry potter + pokemon + wheel of time) can come to fruition with the help of this community...

Tentative summary: A modern-day teen passes away from cancer during a meteor shower, and gets reborn in a new world where bonds can be built with fantastical creatures via a sacred rite. These beasts are often able to tap onto the elemental energies and influence the physical realm in ways humans can't comprehend. The most powerful of these exist only in long-lost histories, and are known as ... the Majestics.]

THE MAJESTICS

Prologue

Roy stared up at the whitewashed walls of the hospital room ceiling, wondering how many before him have stared at this same sight before they passed on. Lung cancer, end-stage, those were the words from the doctor's mouth three months ago, and the world never quite seemed the same ever since.

Roy didn't smoke, he hated the stuff after trying it once. He ate no more unhealthily compared to other twenty-one year olds. There was no reason why he should be afflicted by disease at such a young age, fresh out of school to boot. But then again, there was also no reason why he shouldn't. Life works in mysterious ways, they say.

A bird chirped from somewhere outside the chipped window. It had one of those handles which no longer worked because once long ago, someone had been a tad too forceful when they swung it. Twenty degrees, Roy estimated--the size of the perpetual opening which allowed some brief exchange between this world of pills, sanitised sheets and random television mumbling, and the one outside. He had liked math, numbers, estimations, that kind of stuff for as long as he could remember. Things made more sense when they could be added up.

Chirp. And a tiny body peeped in through the window opening. It was a light-footed Clapper Rail. The loss of habitat and intrusion by mankind had caused the species' numbers to decline drastically, with only a handful remaining in the wild today. Roy recognised the little fella from his repository of random animal knowledge, gleaned from hours of Google surfing. That was probably the only other thing he had really liked. Birds. He had always admired their freedom to soar through the unlimited skies.

Chirp. And the bird launched itself clumsily straight towards the bed.

[To be continued (maybe... i think ... )...]