"Wishing for Hope"

Chapter 1 :
Observer

The sun was slowly letting down in the sky, casting a deep red hue across the landscape, bathing the grass, defining minute figures and softening long shadows. A fairly large lake reflected the basking sun in it's waters, almost seemingly too pure to be real, a reflection of a reflection. It could be seen as a surreal picture, soft orange swirls of land meeting up with the faceless sky, the impersonal clouds.

Watching.

The water parted and splooshed in the wake of a long, thin net. Slowly it dragged back then, spasming with it's load of fish, hopping wildly. The reddish light, being the creator, craftily decided to seem the cargo as a load of some dark, slippery beasts. Yet, it seemed as if he who was dragging in the net was an even fiercer caricature: the hair sprung from his decidedly young and muscular frame, his lips and nose a darkened feature against the sky, the loincloth around his waist a simple matter of necessity, flowing about him like some grave icon of primal comfort. The glistening sweat on his skin painted the suns reflection off of it, smoothly flowing with each of his movements. His lithe frame gave his shadow the impression of a gaunt, deathly pale boy, bowing down to some greater force as he heaved in a tangled mass of shivering bodies.

Watching.

It was man, a symbol of hope, of reasoning, of complexity. He was created solely to serve the needs of an impersonal being, now blindly striving to reach the other side, and escape his predetermined fate. These days are filled with culture, of growth, revitalization. Freedom, they call it, freedom from God. The seeds of humanity once again flourished, after those dark days, and was beginning to show the fruits of it's labor.

Man lifted up his head, looking about the flagrant sky, and somewhere, a flock of birds burst up, the flapping of their wings drowning out all sound, the silhouette of their graceful bodies disappearing into the already fading evening. He was satisfied with his catch, and would go back to share his meal, his simple ways.

A stark, white angel was watching him, it's contents deep in thought. It was an enormous machine, a Gear, six flagrant wings bursting forth from behind it's back. The man inside, Fei, was brooding. Since the seeds had begun to flourish, the whole of human behavior had been revealed before his eyes, and his soul was burning, perhaps, away, in his observations. Abandoning his companion and love, Elly, he spends his days now watching..

The angel spread it's wings and was gone. Man now served himself.