C O L O R.

[Aliria]

The land of Andellia. Once a happy land, now plagued with civil war. Two years ago, someone assassinated the king. King Eledor had been quite young when he was killed, only in his late twenties, and hadn't decided on an heir. After his death, two men claimed the throne. Twin Dukes Ethan and Jonathan Lenth, cousins of King Eledor, both claimed the throne. The two brothers each got half of Andellia on their side, Ethan in the west and Jonathan in the east. The two sides have been fighting for the throne for two years now, and many people want the war to end.

So somebody took ending the war into their own hands.

The sorcerer Croedus, formerly an adviser to King Eledor, decided to make a way to end the war. He created six children, one for every color of the rainbow. Each on the Rainbow Children has eyes of their color and an ability related to it. These children must now find a way to end the war and pick a new king to save Andellia.

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Red
Scarlet Cherven
Power over blood
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Yellow
Blaine Kelta
Power over light
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Orange
Sienna Taronja
Power over fire
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Green
Basil Taze
Power over plants
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Purple
Violet Murado
Power over shadows
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Blue
Indigo Nilam
Power over water
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Chapter One

[Aliria]

Red

I float a meter to the ground, surrounded by swirling red light. Red. My color. Me. I am Red. Red is me. Slowly, as I land on the ground, the light fades. I look around me at the others, their own swirls of light fading away around them. Orange, a girl, with bright auburn hair tumbling down her back. Yellow, a boy, tall and thin. Green, another boy, stocky and strong. Blue, the last of the boys, proud and graceful. And finally, Purple, the third girl, small and dainty. Each one is looking around, seeing the others new manifestations.

All at once, we see an old man, not one of us at all. Skinny, but not graceful like Yellow, the man is bony and looks to be almost falling apart, but also, in a way, he is majestic. He looks at us proudly, as if we are something he has succeeded in doing. Slowly, the old man begins to speak. His voice is as old and creaky as he looks.

"Welcome to the world," he says. "You are here to save it."

Green bursts into laughter, as if the man has made the best joke in the world.

"It's not a laughing matter," the man continues. "My name is Croedus, high sorcerer to the ruling family, former councilor to King Eledor, rest his soul. Since his death, the world has fallen into chaos. Two men claimed the throne, and have been at war for nearly two years now. It was time to take things into my own hands. Your job is to discover which man would be a better ruler, and make him one. Now, to travel in this world, you will need names. I have taken the liberty of deciding them. Red?"

I stand up, it feels the right thing to do.

"Your name is Scarlet Cherven."

I think about the name. It feels nice, and quite right for me. Scarlet. Red. Now, they are the same.

Next comes Orange, now Sienna Taronja. Yellow, Blaine Kelta. Green, Basil Taze. Blue, Indigo Nilam. And Purple, Violet Murado. Now that we have names, we are people, no longer simply concepts. It is a nice feeling.

"Now," Croedus continues, "I shall return to the capital. It is time for you to begin your quest. Choose well. Oh, and just so you know, you all have an ability connected to your color, use thanm how you want."

Orange, no, Sienna, calls for him to wait, but before the words leave her mouth, Croedus has disappeared.

"Where did he go?" asks the girl now named Violet.

Indigo loudly responds by saying, "He teleported, of course. Can you not tell?"

"Can any of us teleport?" asks Basil. "It seems to be a useful power."

"We can try," I tell Basil. For a moment, we all focus hard on teleportation. Nothing happens, and Blaine says, "Maybe you have to know your destination? We can try again once we've see more places."

"I suppose," agrees Sienna, which begins a wave of agreement throughout us.

Basil asks where we're going, and Indigo announces definitively, "That way!" and points in a direction, that, according to the sun's position, if probably northeast.

"Why there?" Blaine asks.

"Why not there?" Indigo replies. "It's not like there's anywhere better to go."

So, for no reason at all, we head on to the northeast, happily looking forward on our destinies.

[Aliria]

Orange

Suddenly, the forest thins, and sunlight shines everywhere. I quickly cover my eyes, blocking out the incredible brightness. I recover from the shock pretty quickly, and see everyone except Blaine blinking and covering their eyes.

Ahead of us, I see a flat plane of mud. I look more closely, and see that the mud isn't as flat as I first thought. It doesn't looks quite right, like something made by people, not nature. It seems like the wrong place for something man-made, as I don't see any buildings nearby, and it's the wrong time of year for a farm field to not have plants visible.

"What's that field?" I ask, pointing towards the field.

"I don't know," responds Scarlet. "Whatever it is, it isn't natural."

"Thanks, already knew that," I reply.

"Let's go closer, maybe that'll help," says Blaine.

"No," says Indigo, "We're going to stay away. It's not important, we don't need to go near it."

As Indigo is talking, me, Blaine, and Basil begin walking towards the field. Indigo mumbles something and hurries a few steps to catch up, and Violet and Scarlet follow him. Soon, we approach the field.

Blaine gasps, and a moment later the reason comes into my sight. The field is covered in the dead bodies of men. There's more than I can count, probably several hundred. I look away quickly, gagging slightly.

"Ugh," says Violet. "What happened?"

"War happened," says Scarlet coldly.

"And here we have a great example of why we're supposed to end the war," says Basil, oddly calm.

"I told you we shouldn't go here," said Indigo.

"Yeah, because it had nothing to do with the war," I say. "This has something to do with the war."

"Are you actually glad to see this?" asks Indigo.

"No, nobody is, I hope. But in a way, it's good that we did. We can't stop a war without a good reason to want it to stop," I say, working hard to keep from screaming at him.

"Why can't we? It's our job to stop the war, isn't that reason enough?" yells Indigo. Looking around at the rest of the group, he says, "You. Don't you agree with me? We shouldn't have come."

"Not getting involved," says Basil, holding up his hands in front of him.

"Indigo's right," says Violet, moving over to stand next to him.

"Well," Blaine says, "I think I speak for Scarlet in saying that Indigo is being completely ridiculous. We can't end the war without something to end it for."

Indigo grumbles something I don't hear, turns around and walks off. "Come on," he says. "We're going. Let's get away from this and get on with ending the war."

Violet happily follows him, then Blaine, then the rest of us follow.