The Legend of the 10 Elemental Masters By Nick Smith (aka "ulillillia") {{cover image}} A scene from the story - Ivan (left) and Tu (right) watch the "ball" as furry Knuckles (center) views its stats on his spell-created platform over the ocean. Unpublished Work (c) 2009 by Nick Smith All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any way by any means without prior written permission by the author. This includes, but is not limited to, photocopies, recording, filming, writing, typing, and making digital copies on any medium. The world map images (on Page 106) were originally made by the Visible Earth project by NASA. The image used has been modified in the following ways: to change the projection type, add the latitutde and longitude grid, add anything essential to the story, and convert it to grayscale using an algorithm to match the apparent brightness. The original source image is available at http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_detail.php?id=7116 PREFACE I wanted a story that combined as many of my interests as I could - RPGs, science, mysteries, and travel. I also wanted it to be reasonably realistic hence the science fiction aspects. I got the ideas from several sources. My mind game (a video game played in my mind) and the dreams I get while I sleep are my two primary sources. The party in scene 3 came from a real event and is also where the setting came from. The stats come from RPGs, to mimic them, but I include many unique concepts. I solved a puzzle to name the elemental masters. I wanted catchy names, always starting with "la" and ending with "alent". The puzzle was figuring out what goes in the middle to relate to the element. A "v", for "lava", was for fire, "lavalent". Some, like, "larockalent" and "lalightalent", were tricky to decide. Speed and Knuckles were my imaginary friends from the time. Ivan is one of my top favorite names. I use numbers in almost everything; since Tu is often the second mentioned, she gets her name from "two". Other names were randomly thought of. From writing my Web site's dream journal, with over 800 dreams, I have a habit of going into great detail describing the scenery since the scenery is often best recalled. Since I'm mathematically oriented, I describe and do things best using numbers. Describing colors and drawing are two good examples. They say a picture is a worth a thousand words. Diagrams, maps, and other images are scattered around to help. Some, often stats, were converted to grayscale from color. Normally, images darken a lot and lose contrast upon converting. Color printing is also affected. From experiments, to look for patterns, I wrote a C program to correct this based on my results. This is a fictional story. You will first be introduced to the primary protagonist, Knuckles, and dive into the story's first unusual events. Knuckles' real mission and his true power are soon revealed. He must not only solve the mystery as to what is going on in under 55 hours, but also make three ordinary humans become like him, overcoming many obstacles during his quest. I have three sources for research. The first, and primary, is Wikipedia. If I can't find anything there, then I use Google to search. If neither of these methods work, I then ask at the forums at www.howwhatwhy.com for assistance as needed. I did most of the work on my own, though the community at howhatwhy.com was of great help when it came to research. I was suggested Lulu from an E-mail, which answered my lingering problem with getting my story published. I began writing in January 1996, inspired by a dream in 1995 where I went through many states downriver on a log raft. I hand-wrote the studies in a confusing-to-read play format. This story's history goes back ten years. I hand-wrote it in June of 1999 then typed it soon after. Because it had "useless speak" (character communication with no use to the story), little action, and illogical events (like walking in neck-deep mud on Mount Everest), I rewrote it entirely from scratch during 2002. The new version was 40% as long as I completely changed the plot and got rid of "useless speak". I wanted to publish but upon seeing the $300-1200 price tags, I quickly lost interest. In early 2004, I thought of writing it for a movie since it was free outside about eight dollars for postage. My old play format was not the right format so I spent three months converting my story to the movie format. I liked this format a lot outside its strict, paper-wasting design. I had two requests. One found it to be too complex and the other, strangely, didn't arrive there. Without success, I went with books. Due to difficulties using quotes and word variety, book format was not motivating. My play format is confusing to read, and movie format was too strict. I then thought of combining the best of each. Movie format, since it flows well, is my basic design. Instead of wasting lines for actings directly affecting speech (like "one-second pause", "mumbling", or "confused"), I blended it in with the speech like my play format. Other actions and details use the book format. From 2006, I had difficulty going past scene 4; I didn't resume the day after and I had other side projects. I wrote the full story on April 10, 2008 then halted to update my Web site. It wasn't until October 30, 2008 that I resumed due to my low ambition. I continued at a mad pace until I finished on December 18, 2008 avoiding Web site updates. I waited eight months for copyright to register then released it ten years almost to the day after I first completed the story. This became my first published story. CONTENTS {{Formatting of table contents altered and page numbers omitted}} ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Acts: Scenes: 1: Unexplained events 1: The jail escapee 2: A sphere of fire 3: It's party time! 2: Meeting the villain 4: Strange quakes 5: An unexplained flight 6: Knuckles, live! 3: The real mission 7: Learning to glide 8: A large sphere of water 9: The military factory rescue 4: Monster mayhem 10: Monster outbreak 11: A large sphere of rock 12: Everest double trouble 5: Flashback 13: Studying the clues 14: Knuckles' long history 6: Answers revealed 15: A sense-proof barrier 16: The library 17: Fun time 18: The fighting arena rescue 7: Solving the mystery 19: The rescuer's great race 20: A pizza break 21: The death house 8: The finale 22: Finding the enemy 23: The final secrets 24: Finishing the mission 25: Returing home -------------------------------------------------------------------------