Prologue

A multitude of fiery stars shot across the dark veil of space. No one ever knew where they came from, not even decades after their arrival. However, they were not new.

In front laid a marble of blue and green, yet as they approached, the green would reveal shades of many more colors. 

Gaia.

The stars did not crash against such a beautiful world. They passed in low orbit, tainting the night sky with a spectacle of light and fire.

One of them, however, reacted with unnatural intelligence to an unknown presence in the world, and so diverted from its kin towards the surface with no hesitation. Its fall caught even greater flames as the shield of Gaia burned its outer shell. The star did not relent and continued its fiery route downwards.

The sun had begun to shine across the horizon of that part of the world, illuminating a succession of landscapes the fireball crossed, tearing through the sky.

A desert, a large inland sea, and then... a steppe.

It was about six in the morning when the star found its target and crashed, sending a powerful shockwave across the hills and grasslands.

A sleeping young man with brown hair budged a little by the tremor but paid no heed to it and just rolled over.

The voice, however, did shake him awake...

"Find me..."

And so Arsec's eyes burst open, and he immediately sat on his futon, breathing heavily. He felt as if his very soul had been rippled by those words. They stuck in his mind.

"Find me..."

He rubbed his eyes, and then his thoughts were interrupted by something happening in his yurt, or rather, what was not happening.

"Where is everybody?" he wondered as his sight cleared, the echo of the powerful voice dwindling as he gained awareness of his surroundings. Around a warm but simmering fire were other three empty futons. 

Arsec's eyes widened, and a cold sweat filled his body as he realized...

"No... they didn't..."

The echo was just an afterthought, a divine intervention to wake him up before it was truly late.

"You're not taking the sheep away without me!" he said, as he wore his cape and shoes, storming out of the tent's warmth and into the cold morning of the steppe.

"Holy winds! This is it, they'll hear what I have to say!"

It was the year 16 of the Starfall Era, and that day, young Arsec stepped out of his longtime home for the last time, for the rest of his life.