Chapter 1 of Joshua: The Rise of Airyland

He was sliding through thick bunches of large leaves. He'd reached a sharp decline and was sliding down the path when he came to a clearing of bright moonlight. He fell through the brush of the clearing and landed in a watery over ground. There were dragon flies flying about to the songs sung by the jungle, as he brought himself to his knees, fingers deep in wet leaves and soft mud.

He looked about the jungle curiously. There were colored flowers blooming from all angles arching upward. The pedals of leaves and locks of bluebells were shining wet with the moonlight to a color blue.

He was in a cool wet pond. A multicolored frog jumped by, and croaked as it came by. It was touched by a few drops from the blue moon heavens and it sprouted wings and flew off into the jungle croaking a humming song.

He could almost taste the dark sense of the moon splashing down into all the dark green leaves brisling out from the opening in the jungle. It reminded him of a place he felt very safe once before. A place of peace he'd seen in a dream. A place like no other where all was calm and weathered no more. The signs of the times no longer struck that place and it was silent yet shuttered with the curiosity and scattered thoughtfulness of a thousand dream-like ideas floating up, yet around, a touchable, like bubbles that would caress the mind.

"You there!" shouted a brightness in the jungle.

"Yes, it is I!" He replied..

"Then who are you?" Asked the being.

Before he could answer the being spoke.

"Who have you been?"

"I have been David," He said smiling. "And I have been..J-"

"You are Joshua," said the being.

Have I risen or fallen? He did not know but now he had a new name.

"My name is Joshua?"

"Well aren't you clever," said the being.

"And who you are?" demanded Joshua.

"I am Acheel," He said. "Might you remember me?"

In some hazy recollection Joshua could make out a being of light striking down from the heavens.

"Perhaps I do know you sir."

"Do you?"

"From somewhere else," smiled Joshua. "Aren't we always changing?"

Acheel laughed.

"True, true," said Acheel. "Now come Joshua. Leave these jungles behind. Go to the Draiden!"

Joshua was climbing through the tall trunks, his eyes ever struck on the hanging white city of Nolibab as it floated ominously toward the jungle sanctuaries. It was a long white metallic structure, floating over the wastelands like a giant monocle of faith and power. Joshua knew the truth of Nolibab, that they were dark and corrupt. It seemed the wastes had little interest in Nolibab, except to wonder about it vaguely from time to time.

Why did they come? Thought Joshua. Had they not done enough cruelty already?

There were heavy mists in the jungle that night. The moon hung tall blessing the jungle with silvers so bright the creatures of the night seemed like bits of shimmering dust clumped together with fairy magic, running through them as they scampered in the foliage.

After several hours the tall trunks were thinning out. His bare feet were sliding along muddy patches. He was soon entering the dead mounds. The place that had married him to the wastes of the Earth.

Clouds rolled in overhead rapidly as they often did in those uncertain times. Rain was falling fast and heavy, until a sudden storm was blazing out across the land. Joshua was quickly drenched and cold, lost and seeking shelter.

Joshua moved about the wastes in seek of shelter but found none. He wandered about for what seemed like hours in the cold rain, but only found himself more and more lost and uncertain.

He was somewhere unfamiliar now. He could not see the white city, there were too many clouds. Too much lightning was smacking into the mounds. They were smacking first to the left, then to the far right kicking up patches of mud flinging them about like clay pots. The thunder made his ears cringe.

Joshua knew not where he had dwelled but it could not be good. There were tall buildings made of broken metal as far as the eye could see. They were old and marble black. Under lightning blasts they shuttered and cracked. As electricity ran through them some of the devices came back to life momentarily. This place was old it seemed, an evolved place of human trite and invention.

There were dark things about in these black lands, thought Joshua. He could sense it. Suddenly he stopped. There was a wavering sound in the air. A Ghost-like auras floated by, seeking something, Joshua did not know what. He slipped behind a fallen crossbeam as it passed, waiting carefully.

Soon Joshua realized they were all about the abandoned city. He spotted them easily. Their ethereal forms like bright shadows were hard to miss. What is this place? I have surely gone far off my course!

Joshua could sense something in their beings, something old and worn. It seemed distant as a lighthouse is to a boat on the seas.

They were -- pained. Angry. Inescapable from the battles and sorrows they had found. Yet they yearned for release. At the same time their hatred and attachment would not allow it.

Joshua crept along the edge of a black marble wall as the rain fell avoiding the ethereal eyes of several of them. Some were tall and hunch back, floating just above the ground. They seemed to search the ruins. Perhaps for their own lost souls? Joshua did understand this, and he did not want to know anymore.

He continued deeper into the city down one of the main roads. The dark rain was ceasing. Soon in a few flashes the area was colored blue. It was a deep blue metallic color. The rain had turned to blue colored snow, slowly falling around him like winter blows in the north. It felt almost glossy to the touch, like it sparked with some unknown chemicals.

The ethereal ghosts had disappeared for now. Joshua could hear the rumbling of machinery, perhaps caught to life by the lightning.

Joshua crept further down the main road until he came to a fountain. There was dirty water in it. The spouts were rusted over. There were statues of cherubs caught dancing frozen in a small circle at the center. He drank from the rusty waters hesistantly.

Gulp after gulp the brown liquid flowed down his neck and into his belly. It tasted creamy and of oils. He nearly spat it out in disgust.

There was a sound coming from somewhere up one story near him. He chanced a look around. He was in the square of what appeared to be a collection of tall old buildings painted blue by the falling radioactive snow. He climbed one of the metallic railings. He heard the sound once again, but it was coming from down near the fountain. It sounded like the laughter of a young girl.

Just then there was a flash of light. The entire area came to life. The buildings were glowing with life. There were red lights in all the windows. People were hiding in fear. Not many remained. The little girl was standing by the fountain tossing coins into it. Suddenly a giant vicious looking device climbed over the tops of the buildings and peered down at her. With one of it's arms it crushed her little body and tossed it into the fountain.

"No!" Joshua cried out.

There was silence. He was back in the snowy abandoned city. There was no sign of the little girl or the dark machinery.

Joshua continued deeper into the city where he found an old long building full of shelves and empty cans. There was another flash, where he saw hundreds of people loading up grocery carts full of food and supplies. They seemed rushed and afraid. They were in a great hurry, and storming the lines, not paying for their supplies, rushing out the doors, in fear for their families. What had happened here? Once again he was back in the fallout. Alone.

Joshua came to a deep enclosure down a staircase where a few skeletons lay on the ground. It looked like a family all huddled together. There was another flash of light that blinded him and he fell over stunned.

A group of people sat around a roaring fire. They looked weary with time. Black smoked chugged from the fire up into the heavens. Snow fell around them. They looked bony and weak. The father was singing a song. The mother was cooking a pot over the fire. The grandmother was watching out the window, when in a moment of fright she jumped and screamed. There was the sound of grinding machinery. A young man fired a gun. Then the ceiling fell in.

Joshua turned his head, and again, he was in the empty enclosure staring at skeletons.

Something terrible happened here --

They might find him eventually. The ghosts that walked the remnants of the cities might kill him for trespassing. He would have to be quick.

Joshua climbed up from the wreckage and skeletal remains. He made his way to the center of the city. There he saw a great cylindrical device, powered by hot orange energy. It was glowing and glimmering with life, since the storm had hit.

"This cannot happen a second time," said Joshua out loud.

An explosion rippled through the great cylinder and it toppled over. Several smaller things managed to escape it's destruction. Several men in gray robs chased after them, with weapons that spouted fire, and destroyed them.

"There," said an old man in a gray rob. "We have cleared it."

"No it is not done," said Joshua.

"You there!" shouted the old man. "Do you fight with us or these devils?"

"I take no sides."

"So be it."

"We must go now, there are others to hunt in this place, where lightning strikes," said the old man, and they wandered off into the hills of debris and wreckage.

Joshua followed a trail of white dust and the smell of burnt remains, until he came to a place where several of the ghostly creatures dwelled. He could feel their pain through all the ways they had taken.

Joshua stepped out into the opening allowing the ghostly creatures to see him. They shuttered a bit and approached. The giant being sat floating in front of Joshua, with clear tentacles and a strange sternum hooked out from it's bulbous head. It did not attack. Joshua outstretched his hand to touch it's tentacle.

There was a flash. Joshua saw a great war in this broken city where millions had died, and the price had been mutual annihilation. For a second he pondered, then he realized the beings intent and desire. It simply wanted to be free of this place. It had died long ago, now it wanted to go home, wherever that might be, in peace. But it did not know how. It needed justice.

Joshua knew justice well.

He looked up at the strange being.

"Bring all that you know who still wander these parts to a meeting place in two hours, and I will tell what holds you here," said Joshua.

The being seemed to nod in acknowledgement, sputter, and fade off into the ruins.

Two hours later Joshua was standing atop a broken building staring down at several dozen ghostly beings all of different shape and form. They looked at him with weary eyes.

Joshua didn't have the words to heal them, but he knew if he only spoke true, the words would come to him anyway.

"You were once men and women of the human race, now torn apart and ravaged by war with your own children. Children you should have never had. These children were misled. They were masterminded by your own intellect. And in your finest hour they spat fire at you. You know all of this.. but what you do not know is the reason why you remain in these wastelands, in constant suffering --

You do not understand your sin. Your fathers tried to be Gods. And for this they are eternally punished; here in these wastelands, wandering you are alone. Lost children. Your sin was your anger. But you may yet be forgiven, if you ask for it."

One by one they understood what Joshua was saying. Joshua watched one of them smile, speak a few words. In an instant it's ghostly form morphed from blue to bright green and fade up into the heavens. This followed for each of the ghostly figures until Joshua was left alone in the rain splotched fields.

Joshua slept for what seemed like a great while and dreamt of a beautiful city rising up out of the ground and great light showered down upon it. It was a place of great kindness and joy. A place of family and rejoicing. White flowers foamed out of its nessles and bricks, opening up to him closer and closer -- white flowers.. white flowers -- white flowers --

"Well done," said a voice from afar.

"You woke me!" shouted Joshua. How long have I slept? Minutes? Hours? Who could say?

"There was no other way," said another voice.

Joshua climbed up to the top of the building where he had stood, brushing himself off.

"Who are you?"

"We are friends ," said a young man in a cloak.

"I'm always glad to have friends, but where have you come from?" asked Joshua.

"These times," one said.

"We will protect you while we can," said the second man. "Come, out of this place."

The three of them were rising into the sky, but not by magic. There was a rope hanging down from a great white city.

"Nolibab!" shouted Joshua. "It is over us now!"

He could barely believe it. He was stunned. The great white city hung above them. It had been on the move after all.

They were pulled up far into the sky and through the clouds, hanging on for dear life. Joshua could barely believe his eyes. Through the fogs below he was pulled, and on through the clouds. He was rising up, rising up to Nolibab. But not for the last time.

They came up through so many clouds it seemed they might have ascended to heaven itself, but it was not so. The sun was shining through arching edging of the belly of Nolibab. It was of a round shape, with a bubble at the bottom and a spike sticking straight down. From far off it might appear to be some great monolith or an ice cream drop in the sky painted red with the sun.

"Here is our entry," said the first man. Joshua had been lead to a small opening on the second bubble. It looked to be a machinery area.

In they walked, and Joshua felt as if his lungs were being torn out. The fouls smells were familiar. All around arching upward were great spires and tubing of mesh manila white pumping upward, and at the bases were glowing blue crystals, thousands of them layered at the base, and workers were made to walk on the blue crystals with giant metal shoes that crushed the fine mineral and fueled the rise of the city.

Joshua knelt down, as no one seemed to take much notice of them. He picked up one of the blue crystals and a memory flash blew through his brain. There were stars all about him. He had gone to another place, long ago.

There was another flash he remembered his labor of the blue crystals. It had been his work. Joshua let the crystal fall from his hand.

The two cloaked men with him were careful to disguise themselves, and pulled on Joshua's arms, lifting him and taking him up a flight of stairs and out of the refineries.

They circled up several flights of stairs, and must've gone up many levels. They turned down a large boxy corridor where red sunlight shined down on the white walls. Joshua was rushed through just in time, as soldiers were approaching.

The two cloaked men pulled Joshua behind a few tall basins, and Joshua climbed up onto the basins, and reached up and pulled himself onto a level just above, and held himself silent in the shadows.

There were soldiers hiking at great speed through the area searching with swords and shields below. They were fools, they did not but look up, and could not see what they searched for.

The two cloaked men pulled Joshua down and hauled him through another corridor, then up another flight of stairs, then another.

"Enter here," said one of the cloaked figures.

Joshua was thrust into a white box, and suddenly it began moving swiftly upward. It was moving at great speeds, the windows were blank white, then they opened up to the great view of the villages about Nolibab.

Joshua looked out at the glass in awe.

"How is this possible?" He huffed.

"All things are possible Joshua, you know this," said the man smiling.

It was dusk and Joshua could see the red skies all about the white tops of the city of Nolibab. The place felt familiar, like a place from a far away dream. Now it was close. It was all around him. White tops like the tip tops of ice cones plunged up into the red sky piercing it with it's presence. Red and white seemed to be hand in hand in the streets and halls of Nolibab.

The elevator stopped and doors whooshed open.

"Come this way!" said a woman dressed in turquoise as the gates were closing for the night.

They were rushed down a hallway of white hung with lighting fixtures. The red dawn was rising on Nolibab. It seemed like a cusp, to Joshua, that city might never see again.

The woman in turquoise led them to a small chamber, her home, where she said they could hide for the night.

"What is happening?" demanded Joshua as they entered.

She closed the door behind her.

"The Nolibab are searching for you!" she returned as if he was a fool.

She smiled.

"We have heard stories of you," she said. "Of David, the great warrior who unites the people of the wastes to fight the Nolibab!"

"Who is David?" Asked Joshua. "I have united no one to fight the Nolibab. I come from the tree people! I do not wish to fight anyone. I only wish to -- "

"You wish to what?"

"See peace in these lands returned!" shouted Joshua.

"So who will save us?" She asked.

The two who had came to Joshua in the wastes looked at each other.

Joshua had no reply.

"Here," said Joshua. "Take this."

He tore a bit of turquoise linen from her skirt.

She seemed appauled.

"Tie this to the doors of all that are with a kind heart, when the time is right, you will know what to do," said Joshua.

"Well done, " said the man.

"Who are you anyway?" demanded Joshua to the two who had pulled him from the wastes. They wore heavy cloaks that obscured their faces.

"Friends."

"So you said," said Joshua frustrated.

"Going by the old names of Brenan and Garigan."

Joshua fell to his feet at their knees. He began weeping softly.

"Who are you that I do not know but I should shed tears in reunion with?" asked Joshua.

They both knelt down beside him.

"We are your brothers, one in knowledge and one in heart."

The woman smiled at this sight.

"Garigan," David looked into his brown eyes. "What is your name now, if not what I remember you as, in a distant memory of the wastes?"

"I once was Garigan, below, but above, they called me Eliah."

"in the white city?"

"Yes," smiled Eliah.

"And you Brenan?"

"Your dear friend among the white city," He smiled. "You called me Bradley."

"I do not remember, these memories are like cloudy dreams in my head."

"You have no need to remember, only do not forget our love and our faces," said Eliah.

"Your journey will take you here," said Bradley. "It is called Draiden."

"Draiden." Said Joshua.

"They are the last survivors of Jacob, of Bethel," said Eliah. "You must join them with the Inre."

"Sleep here tonight, and I will take you down to the fields. Wait there, for Nolibab searches for you."

They slept soundly, like brothers for one last time, together in the same room, side by side, speaking quietly throughout the night of times past in Chartreuse and Nolibab. They were brothers that night for the last time.

They went down to the fields by ropes sown with turquoise the next morning. As they slid down they noticed ominous figures floating throughout the wastes. There were great fields, the ruins of Yurisha out there, but he was nearer to another abandoned city. A place called Cora. Joshua liked the smell of the fields, of butter and gravy. '˜

Joshua was very hungry after all.

His brothers brought him safely to the ground, then walked off into the wastes.

"Will I see you again?" Called Joshua.

"You may yet, my dear brother," shouted Eliah back.

"And I as well," shouted Bradley.

He searched around but there was no food to be found. What is this place called Cora? It smells of bread but feeds none?

Joshua sighed. It had been a long time since he'd slowed down. But he knew he couldn't slow down. There was too much to do. He breathed in heavily, and sat down on the ground, posing himself in a comfortable position. Joshua breathed slowly through his nostrils and out through his mouth, allowing peace to enter his mind.

His mind was quiet. There were no thoughts. Then he allowed one to file into his mind.

He thought on his trial.

"I've never known what I'm doing," said Joshua softly.

His voice seemed to glance along the fields where he sat. Again there was silence.

He took another deep breath.

There was a short silence.

"That is alright," said a voice softly on the air. It seemed to vanish into nothingness.

There was a question in Joshua's mind.

"What path should I take now -- that the cepter has fallen from me -- in these latter times? I don't see ?"

There was only silence.

Joshua sighed, and continued breathing, then opened his eyes.

Ahead were a few trees of fruit, the last survivors of the burnt black forests to the far north. He had not seen them before. Had they been there before?

Joshua walked up to the trees, and lifted his hand to touch the soft skin of the fruit.

He pulled one of the orange,yellow bulbs from the tree and let his teeth gush into the tender silk within.

As he ate from the fruit his confusion seemed to mist away. What taste is this?

He proceeded along the wastes and headed south into broken down suburb neighborhoods. They seemed familiar, the houses of old, where people did once dwell, and go about their toilings day by day, working and playing, and going about doing as they pleased in relative freedom. Such times were behind the wastes now.

The signs in the sky were dire. There was blackness in the clouds but no rain fell. There were only swirls of black and gray. There were occasional screams from on high that made Joshua shiver in his own skin.

He had once again found himself without a weapon or shield, and no armor. He had but soft leather shoes from the tree people that did not fight well with the wastes.

Joshua felt an uneasy force at work in this area of the wastes. The derelict buildings seemed to hold great pain and tired sources. He knew not what they were, or where they came from. They seemed to be attached to the houses and the blocks they lived on.

As he walked along there were tremors in his mind. He could presences, cold and tired, sad and weak and confused about the lands. They sought something -- revenge.. or maybe just.. justice.

He was moving deeper into the fallen suburban lands. There were homes of wood half fallen to his left and right as he made his way down a long endless stretch of them. The moon shined through the boiling clouds for a moment, and a faceless half-present form was displayed for a moment.

Then it vanished.

"What place is this?" Asked Joshua. "Who are you out here, that are so cold?"

Cold air seemed to run along his feet. Soon there was a great gust of wind and the doors and windows of the cottages and small homes were slamming open and shut, open and shut, banging loudly into the half-darkness.

Joshua was frightened, but continued forward, as dozens of doors and windows opened closed, slamming violently just as he would walk in front of the house, it would began the same show, slamming it's doors and windows violently. In the twirling winds were bits of debris being tossed about. They seemed to dance on the air.

In a flash he saw a busy intersection full of cars and a bright sunny day. The intersection flashed red and green lights and the strange vehicles moved back and forth in perfect timing about their destinations.

Joshua stumbled forward and he was back in the wastes, listening to the clanking of bells and the soft sifts of old voices on the air.

He knew what came over him next but all at once he stopped, at what seemed to be the midst of the derelict homes.

He turned in 360 degrees all about himself seeming to acknowledge the presence of each of the beings out there, whatever they were.

Come this way, he whispered in their minds. He could then hear the giggle of children. It frightened him, but he stood his ground.

He waited thirteen minutes.

It seemed he was surrounding by cold presences. They were probing him, curious and confused.

Then the moon shown down through the clouds.

He saw a hundred and ten faces standing about the ruins, ghostly figures, half in and half out of reality.

"What are you?" He asked.

There was no response.

"What is your trouble?"

Lost -- lost --

Where am I? asked one of them.

"You are amongst the fall of man," said Joshua. "These are the end times, and I say to you. Would you come out of these lands and be set free from your long sorrows?"

We would stay.. said an old haggerly woman. She seemed hooked to a house, forever..

"You may not stay, for this place will fall and be blasted into oblivion. You will fall from existence," said Joshua lifting his hands up. "Please, come from your long sorrows. Come from your pains. And rise up, as you are found, if you would only seek the light now that you did turn away from in death."

A great white light shown down from the sky. It was not the light of the moon, but some other source. It seemed to shimmer with light, and crystals of silver and gold.

"Go now, "said Joshua. "Be free. Please. Join your families. They wait for you with smiles. Leave these homes behind. Leave your sorrows behind. Pull them from your bellies and let them sift away. Then -- come this way."

It seemed for a moment none of them would leave the wastes. But then they seemed all be drawn to the light, all one hundred and ten, approaching, letting loose old chains of self inflicted wounds and the wounds done to them by others. They were horrible things to let go of, thought Joshua. They had suffered enough, and he prayed they would now go in peace, and be held by soft hands.

Somehow he knew it would be true. Slowly they each dropped their sorrows, like gray into the dirt, sifting off into nothingness, and rose into the light. They had been found again, after their long toils in places they had been trapped to by their own fixations. They were all rising up, all of them, and then the light disappeared from the sky.

It was done.

Joshua thanked the sky for the chance it gave to these poor beings, and rose up to his feet, making his way south through the derelicts, to a place he had heard he must go, a place called Draiden.

Joshua stepped through the derelicts until they broke to great yellow fields. They seemed to extend for miles. There was a misty haze about in the yellow fields, like some chemical was about in the air. Something salty, or slick.

Joshua knew he had to reach Draiden, so he headed off running into the yellow mists. He sprinted as fast as he could, hoping to stay within them for the shortest time possible, They seemed to extend forever. He was getting tired, and it was hard to breathe.

There were things approaching him. He could feel it. They were bright yellow as well.

Joshua quickened his pace, running as fast as he could. How far could it be across this yellow mist?

Soon he noticed burnt tree trunks, burnt to a crisp planted into the yellow wastes like thorns in a cake. He walked along them for a while hoping they would lead him to safer places.

The trunks were getting thicker and thicker, it appeared he was entering a dead forest. So he continued down the trail through the dead forest, as they seemed to offer a small respite from the smoggy yellow mists.

The trail was gloomy, like some ugly story book gone wrong. He wondered if people once lived in the forest. Onward he continued. His neck was sweaty. There were strange yellow soot drops plopping on his arms and legs. It was changing the tone of his skin.

Joshua was getting weaker and weaker, but still he continued forward.

At a clearing he spotted an old cottage made of burnt wood and let himself fall inside of it, exhausted.

"I'm so hungry," he huffed. "What is this place?"

I can't seem to think straight anymore. This yellow is having some untold affect. It is dangerous.. I must leave.. I must leave..

Joshua was drowsing off, his skin slicked yellow in the dead cottage, when there came a thundering sound.

Joshua heard the thunder and felt it on the ground. He was weary, eyes half shut, but he managed to peek out the window. He pulled a lump of dirt into his hand, attempting to crawl to the window.

There was some sort of giant beast standing out there, made of technological things. It stood twice as tall as a man. It had metal arms and metal legs that flexed and moved as a human would. It held gun ports, and a steel shed over a box where there appeared to be a person inside.

How could it be? Is this even possible?

Joshua hid himself in the cottage as best he could. This mechanical beast might destroy me!

There were others with it. Others in big black suits, searching through the trees.

Joshua was twisted and paranoid, he didn't know what was happening anymore.

One of them came to the cottage door.

He feared for his life.

The door opened and over stood him was a tall being in a black suit with a face mask on. He could see no human form.

Just then Joshua passed out.