The Basteon Chronicles

Chapter 1

The Judgment 

Astro started towards the damp opening before him as the fabric covering the pathway billowed from a gust of wind that came from the darkness. A smell of mustiness hit his nose as the glowing orb that had accompanied him on his journey through the shipwreck followed steadily next to him. Astro and his orb traversed through a straight wooden corridor that felt like it continued on for miles before the walls began to transition from dark, dank wood, to a glistening, rocky texture. They were in a cave.

'Am I in the cave from my map?’ Astro pondered to himself.

The cave continued to stretch on, beginning to wind in a much more natural structure than the wooden corridor he just came from. The rock itself gradually became lighter in tone, adopting a bronze hue in place of dark grey, and as Astro’s eyes adjusted, he noticed that what once was water dripping off the rocks, was now shimmering, diamond-like particles covering the walls. 
Eventually the walls widened into a larger, more circular room, and Astro’s paws, once again, felt sand beneath them, though this sand wasn’t the light, sun-bleached sand of the shores of Palkias, but more golden, with the same shimmering diamond particles as is on the walls… the walls? Astro did a double take as he saw images carved into the rock, but thought his eyes must have been deceiving him, as the drawings appeared to be moving! The beautiful inscriptions danced and moved in unison, creating new scenes and images with each other, as Astro’s eyes scanned over them with wonder. He took another step forward when a whisper that could have been mistaken for a breeze called his name, and the hieroglyphs stopped dancing, as if watching in anticipation.

"Astro, adventurer of worlds. Step forward and be judged." The mysterious voice breathed.
Before he could move, the sands beneath his paws began to tremble as a golden scale slowly made its way through the soft grains. On one side of the scale, a feather, and on the other side, a glowing shape that Astro knew was to represent his own heart. 
He hesitated, not knowing what any of this meant. 

‘What kind of cave IS this?’ He wondered.

His heart pounded heavier and he noticed the scale tip, lifting the feather up into the air, and his heart closer to the ground, reflecting his fear. The orb of light reminded Astro of its presence and gently swooped forward as Astro closed his eyes, plucked up his courage, and stepped towards the scale. He puffed out his chest with confidence, knowing that whatever may come will just be another adventure. In response, the scale slowly tipped back the other way, balancing both sides. 

"Your bravery is admirable, child, I see it in your heart and thus, I deem you worthy." The mysterious voice whispered once again as the walls of the cave began to dissolve into sunlight, revealing a rolling landscape of glimmering sands. "Welcome to Basteon"…

Chapter 2

Celeste

Astro blinked in the sunlight and squinted as his eyes adjusted from the darkness of the cave that had all but disappeared. Where the scales once stood, there now lay a brown fedora with a blue satin band on top of some worn leather boots. He dusted the sand off his paws and slipped on the boots before placing the hat upon his head. He looked around, surveying his new surroundings. It was a stunning view of towering pyramids, carved stone statues, and shimmering dunes of sand. Astro breathed the fresh, new air. 
"So this is Basteon." he said to himself, feeling a strange sense of familiarity, almost as if he had been here before, though he knew that he had not. There was a well known story that all cats of the Galactiverse descended from Basteon, though Astro was unaware how far down his lineage he would have to look to find his Basteonite relatives. 

A figure in a dark red hooded cloak was approaching and he nervously shifted on his feet. As they drew closer, Astro noticed the similarities between them and himself. They had a cat-like body with the silhouette of their ears visible under the draping of their cloak and their tail brushing the sand, swaying with their gentle steps on their hind legs. They wore similar boots to Astro, though less raggedy and tied up with gold laces, and they wore a blue silk sash tied in a loose knot around their neck.

Astro thought back to his own sash he had previously wrapped a mysterious amulet in, it was an identical shade of blue to the one this cat was wearing. 
Keeping their hood up, their face shrouded in shadow, the figure stopped several steps away from Astro, and motioned for him to walk with them. 
The sky above the horizon of pyramids and statues began to fade from blue into a stunning shade of purple and pink, as the figure hastened their pace towards a small cluster of houses. Astro kept up, wondering what the hurry was. Did darkness bring some unknown danger? Interrupting his inner monologue, the figure turned sharply into the doorway of a house made of dried mud bricks. The room appeared mostly empty and abandoned, with simple wooden furniture covered with a dusting of sand, and a rustic clay oven in the back corner. 
The figure threw back their hood, revealing their stunning fur pattern, with patches of purple and blue resembling galaxies against a white base. 
"I’m Celeste", the cat introduced herself in breathless haste, "and you have something we need"…

Chapter 3

The Jackals

Celeste stood before Astro, her blue eyes gazing intently at him, as if expecting him to know what she meant when she told him he has something we need. Who was ‘we’, anyway? Astro’s quizzical expression must have given away his confusion, as Celeste huffed in frustration. 

"Only the Worthy One may be lead to the path, the one they say can save our world from…." A howl in the distance cut off the end of her sentence and her ears flattened back, a sign of visible fear. 
"Worthy One?, the path?, and what was that noise just now?", Astro, not noticing Celeste’s changed demeanour, half asked, half demanded. If his life was in danger, he had a right to know. "Please, tell m….." 
But before he could finish, Celeste ‘shushed’ him and pushed her paw up against his mouth while motioning with the other to, ‘stay still’. 
Astro felt his heart beating as he strained to listen to what it was that Celeste’s acute hearing had picked up before him. At first, nothing, but after a few beats he heard it. Low growls, large paws hitting the sand, and panting, like a dog that had just been running. No, not a dog, many dogs. There was a pack of whatever these creatures were, stalking through the little village that Astro and Celeste were hiding in. Those distant howls had travelled fast, and the two cats needed to find a much better hiding spot, and quickly. But Celeste didn’t choose this house by chance, she was already by the clay oven, kneeling over an open trap door as she gestured to Astro to go down. He immediately obeyed, not wanting to become tonights dinner for the creatures prowling outside, and dropped down the trap door, soft sand breaking his fall. Celeste followed swiftly, maintaining her perfect grace even as she leapt through the chute and landed next to Astro. She tugged a rope leading up to the door, and Astro watched the light dissipate as it softly closed behind them.
Before his eyes had a chance to adjust to the darkness, Celeste had picked up a torch and muttered a word in a foreign tongue, lighting up the large quartz-like gemstone inset in the wood. It shed a warm glow on the passageway, which Celeste began to hastily take. 
"What were those dog things?" Astro asked in a hushed voice as he followed.
"They aren’t dogs, they’re Jackals," Celeste began to explain. "They prowl our lands at night, when the gateway to the underworld is at its weakest, terrorising villages and communities. But each night that gateway becomes weaker, and they stalk for longer and longer. The legends say the Worthy One will come from another world and save us." Celeste looked at Astro, with an almost pleading look in her eyes. "They say he will have The Key, and restore balance between the Land of the Living, and the Land of the Dead."
Before Astro could answer, the pathway came to an end, with a ladder leading up through another trap door. Astro and Celeste climbed through into a vast room that came to a point way above their heads. Astro marvelled at the structure, and realised he was inside one of the Pyramids of Basteon.

Chapter 4

The Key

Astro looked around at the vast room, his fur prickled on the back of his neck, as if he were surrounded by unseen eyes. 
"Where are we?" Astro said a little too loud, as his voice reverberated off the walls. 

Celeste shot him a glance of annoyance, "we’re in a pyramid, it’s been abandoned for centuries, but it used to host gatherings and rituals. Now it serves as a safehold for us when we are being hunted by Jackals. There’s ancient spells and curses on this place though, which seems to ward off the Jackals, but the eerie presence makes many uncomfortable, so citizens won’t come here, either."
"Who is ‘us’?", Astro asked, keeping his voice at a lower volume this time.
"We call ourselves ‘The Hidden Ones", Celeste replied as she began to lead them over to a structure Astro could only make out the shadow of. "We are descendants from an ancient order once said to have protected the gods, but were forced into hiding hundreds of years ago during The Great War, hence the name. There used to be many of us, but throughout the years the bloodline faded, leaving only a small group of us scattered across Basteon, and without our protection, something was stolen from us, the something you have." 

By now they had reached the structure, and lit by Celeste’s torch, Astro could now see it was a statue of a jade cat, wrapped with strips of linen, sitting atop a golden plinth with markings Astro recognised from somewhere he could not place. Its eyes were onyx and it had an unearthly emptiness about it, as if it had been dormant, untouched, for many years.
Celeste continued, as she brushed a paw across the golden base of the statue, disturbing several layers of dust and sand. 
"It was foretold there would be a wanderer who would be our saviour. You see, Astro, the only way you could have entered Basteon was to be chosen, and no one has been chosen since Basteon was plunged into peril and hunted by the evils of the underworld. That is how I know that you must be the saviour, you will be the one who restores the veil between worlds."
Despite the fact he had never told Celeste what it was, her use of his name was the least of his worries. A thousand thoughts rushed through Astro’s mind, but his main concern was that he had no idea what this mysterious Key was, or how he was meant to save this world from being taken over by the Jackals. None of it made sense, and the anticipation in Celeste’s eyes, staring at him, waiting for him to say something, was making him more nervous.
"I…. I don’t know how to save you…", Astro put his head between his paws.
Celeste moved over to him and gently took his paws into hers and stared into his mismatched eyes with her own of glowing sapphire. 
"Astro, I believe in you", she breathed, as she lead him over in front of the statue. "Let Amunet guide you, feel her in your heart".
She dropped his paws and stood back, leaving Astro staring up to the statue of Amunet, scanning it top to bottom, searching for a clue to his next step. 
He breathed in and silently pleaded for a sign just as a slight gust of wind kicked up the sand at Amunet’s feet, revealing an oddly shaped indentation on the plinth she sat upon. Astro walked up and blew more of the sand away, seeing that the indentation was octagonal, the same shape as… 
Astro rummaged through his satchel until he found the blue sash from Palkias. He unravelled it to reveal the strange artefact he picked up on the shipwreck Octavius and held it up, examining it properly for the first time. It had a cat head in the centre and those markings he didn’t understand must be Basteonite hieroglyphs. He squinted at the lines along each edge of the medallion and suddenly realised they spelled a repeating word, ‘AMUNET’. 
"This must be it, this must be The Key!"…

Chapter 5

Peace on Basteon

Astro glanced back at Celeste whose eyes were wide as he turned back and carefully placed The Key into its rightful place. The statue lit up, and Amunet’s once onyx eyes glowed blue, shining against the wall behind Astro. He whipped around towards where her eyes were directed, and saw a giant projection of what appeared to be the night sky. 
"This is the night sky of Basteon!" Celeste said in awe. "It depicts the constellation of Amunet, but.." She tilted her head, "it’s not quite right…" she was cut off before she could continue.
"Astro, adventurer of worlds, you have made it this far. Now it is time for your final test." Astro recognised this mysterious voice from his first moment on Basteon. 
"Test? What test?" Astro asked to the voice, but there was no reply. 
He turned to Celeste who walked up to Amunet’s plinth where Astro had just placed The Key. She touched it and noticed that it was not quite flush with its setting and could easily be rotated. 
"Maybe it’s some kind of puzzle?", she mused, as she turned The Key to the right. 
As Celeste span Amunet’s medallion, Astro watched as the sky projection shifted and changed. He stared at it intently, hoping the answer would somehow jump out at him. 

"Anything yet?", Celeste called. 
Almost as if his wishes had been granted, Astro noticed a number of carved cutouts dotted haphazardly along the wall that could have easily been mistaken for simple imperfections in the stone, but upon closer inspection, turned out to be rough carvings of star shapes. As Celeste turned The Key, Astro noticed the starry projection shift over the carvings. 
"Wait, turn it back a little!", he excitedly replied to Celeste.
The stars shifted once again but in the opposite direction and almost lined up with the carvings. 
"Okay, stop…. Nope!… Too far!!… Go the other way again!!… Slowly!!" Astro directed Celeste. 

After some finessing, finally the stars aligned with each of the carved indents in the wall. Astro held his breath, but nothing happened.
"Now what?" Astro asked in a slightly disappointed tone. 
He was so sure he had it right! He looked back to where Celeste was wearing a similar expression to his own next to Amunet’s plinth, and noticed that The Key was no longer facing upright. The cat’s head on the face of the coin was almost upside down, and still protruded from the base. He walked over to it, once more removing The Key as the starry projection wavered and flickered out. Astro turned the medallion upright and replaced it in the setting, this time, it made a loud ‘click’ and sank flush with the plinth as a grumbling and vibrating began all around them. Celeste grabbed onto Astro as rocks from high above were shaken loose and fell around them. They hugged each other, protecting their heads as the statue above them lit brighter than before and Amunet’s eyes shifted again from blue to a stunning amber colour. 
The earth beneath them continued to rumble as distant howls from all directions could be heard, and a swirling vortex of light began to spin in front of them.
"May the lands of Basteon be restored, and the veil between the land of the living and the land of the dead be repaired." The mysterious voice called out.
With one last loud rumble, and a crack of lightning through the swirling vortex, everything suddenly settled. Astro and Celeste looked up to Amunet, and this time, the voice came directly from the statue. 
"Congratulations, The Worthy One and The Hidden One, you have saved Basteon, thank you." She said to the pair. "Astro, your time here has come to an end, and there is another world waiting for you." 
A shimmering portal arose from nothing, inviting Astro to step in. 
He looked at Celeste, "come with me!" He blurted out.
"Celeste is needed here on Basteon, Astro. This next journey is yours alone."
He understood, walked over to Celeste who had tears in her eyes, and gave her one last hug as he felt the prickle of tears in his own eyes. 

"Thank you, Astro," Celeste said with a sob. "I’ll never forget you and what you did for us."
With a heavy heart, Astro started towards the portal, and before stepping through he looked back at Celeste with a wave, and managed one last "goodbye".