Eclipse
Chapter 1: Dawn

        It was as if my entire life had led up to this moment.
        No, my entire life had led up to this moment.
        Right now, the world—no, everything—was mine. I was free to make it however I wanted. The powers of creation were mine.
        Mine.
        Every tiny part of my life, everything that had ever happened to me, all added up to influence my choice in this one, cosmic decision:
        How would I make the world? How would I make all worlds?
        I closed my eyes; I knew the choice had been made in my heart long before this moment. It filled me and burst forth, flowing and shaping, drawing my will upon the blank page of the cosmos. Lights and colors burst forth, and sounds and smells were born.
        And I fell.
        I fell into this world that I had chosen, knowing in my heart that I could never have chosen any differently.

        --

        “Eclipse, wake up now.”
        My mother's voice penetrated the thick curtain of dreams that clouded my mind, parting it and dragging me reluctantly back into the waking world. I stirred, pretending to still be sleeping, though the darkness of sleep had now fled from my mind. My mother was used to this, as it composed the first half of our morning tradition. My mother forcefully rolling me out of the pile of moss and leaves that served as my bed composed the second half. This she did promptly, surprising me with her insistence.
        “You really must wake up now, I've let you sleep as late as I can already.”
        Confused, and still slightly groggy, I finally cracked open my eyes to begin adjusting them to the bright sunlight. It streamed in through the open doorway into our tiny one-room home. I could faintly smell the living maple wood our home was composed of, and I saw that my father was already absent. I idly wondered how late I had slept; usually he was still asleep when my mother rolled me out of bed. Perhaps today was some sort of special occasion...? If so, it would also explain my mother's forcefulness in waking me up. I strained my still sleep-dazed mind to remember if today was special in any way. I finally gave up when my memory returned nothing. I hauled myself up onto my paws and yawned hugely. With my gleaming silver fur covered in dust and sticking up in odd places all over, I was likely the scruffiest Eevee in the entire forest. My mother quickly set about to remedy this. I endured her stroking tongue impatiently; I was eager to escape the inevitable grooming with as much of my perceived dignity as I could manage. When she finally finished, my fur—now free of its coating of dust and dirt—shone in the morning sunlight. My mother had always regarded my brilliant coat with pride, claiming that I was “the most beautiful little Eevee she'd ever seen”. My father was always quick to stop such “nonsense” before it “got to my head”. But, though my father's efforts were valiant, my mother's pride was not lost on me. I knew she was right.
        From the top of my head to the bottom of my forepaws, I was just barely shorter than nineteen inches tall. Nearly every part of my body was covered in thick, silver fur, save for the fluffy ruff around my neck, which was instead pure white. My fur was almost always stuck out of place; the spikes of fur on top of my head were just not tameable. No matter how hard my mother tried to flatten them, they simply rose back up into position again. Eventually, she gave up and let them stay that way. But my most distinguishing feature was my eyes. They were as purple as amethyst, and they almost seemed to shine with a light of their own. I was told my mother was transfixed by them at my hatching. My father simply called them “unnatural”.
        I knew how he felt about me: he thought I was different, strange, maybe even dangerous. I don't think he ever stopped being suspicious of me. But to his credit, he did as good a job as a father as anyone could ever be expected to; I was his son, and he loved me. My mother adored me. She didn't just see me as different, she saw me as special. She always told me that I must be destined for better things than most Eevees. She said I might even leave the forest someday. I thought that was crazy. Nobody left the forest. It was dangerous outside.
        I didn't know how right she was.
        My fur still damp from my mother's grooming, I dashed for the doorway and the sunlight that announced the bright world outside. My mother had other plans for me, however.
        “Eclipse, I just spent all that time cleaning you up for when your father gets back, you can't just go outside and get yourself all dirty again. There will be plenty of time for playing after you're all done.”
        I skidded to a halt, denied.
        “But mom...” I whined.
        “Now, none of that. You haven't forgotten what day it is, have you? It's your birthday today.”
        My birthday? Was it really? Today? How could I have forgotten something like that? I sat and thought about it for a moment. I knew it was coming up soon, but...was it really here already?
        “Your father will be back soon with your present. You just be good and don't get yourself all dirty again until then, okay?”
        “Okay...”
        Dejected, I trudged back over to my bed-pile and flopped down on it. Soon, however, my mind began to wander over to the subject every child's mind wanders to on their birthday: presents. My imagination took the idea and flew with it; wonderful toys and gifts of all shapes and sizes passed through my mind until I was dizzy with excitement. What could I possibly be getting? I couldn't possibly have guessed.
        My father climbed up the steps to our tree-hollow home, carrying a dirt-smeared white bundle of silk. It wasn't large, only about the size of my paw, but my father carried it as if it was something of great value. He glanced at my mother, and I saw in his eyes that he was preparing himself for something, but I couldn't guess what it might be. It was just a birthday present, wasn't it? My mother looked back, and nodded, as if to tell him to continue. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then turned to me. He set the tiny wad of silk down on the floor in front of me, and unfolded it slowly. As the object inside was revealed, my father shifted nervously, allowing a single ray of sunlight to shine past him. It splintered into a million rays of rainbow hues as it shone upon a magnificent metal object; a pendant, with chain attached. I squinted and looked it over; it certainly didn't seem like something my parents would usually get me. The pendant itself was shaped as two interlocking triangles, and the chain was so fine that it was barely distinguishable from a single thread. Both were made of a metal that I had never seen nor heard of before; it appeared to be silver, but reflected light in rainbow colors. I blinked several times to ensure that my eyes were functioning properly, but the mysterious pendant remained the same. I looked up at my father, confused.
        “This...is my present?” I asked, fascinated by it, but a little disappointed that it hadn't been a toy.
        “It is,” my father confirmed. “I'm sorry we didn't get you something else also...this already belonged to you.”
        “It...belonged to me?”
        I was confused. What was he talking about? I didn't remember ever seeing it before, and I didn't think I'd forget something this unique. My father glanced over at my mother again, and I could tell he was hesitant to explain. She stepped forward and began to speak.
        “Eclipse...there's something we have to tell you,” she began, hesitantly. “Ten years ago...your father and I came home one night, and we discovered a strange Eevee egg that had been abandoned at our front step. It was late, and no one was around. We hadn't heard of anyone who had been expecting an egg, nor did we know of any Eevees that had come through our village. We had been wanting a child of our own, and we thought that surely its owner would come looking for it, so we took it in. Weeks passed, and no one came for it. We asked around, but no one knew where it had come from. Eventually, we decided to keep it as our own.”
        I listened a little absent-mindedly to my mother's story until I realized what exactly it meant for me.
        “The weeks turned into months, and we began to lose hope that the egg would ever hatch. I kept it warm as best I could, and prayed. And then one day, the moon rose up in the sky during the day. It crept closer and closer towards the sun, and people gathered outside to watch. Soon it began to cover the sun, blocking out light until eventually the whole world seemed dark. It was an eclipse. And then just as the sun began to reappear, when everything began to grow bright again, I heard a sound. I looked down, and I saw that the egg had cracked right down the middle. I stared as more and more cracks appeared, until finally the first piece fell away. A pair of purple eyes stared out, but not at me; they were trained directly on the eclipse in the sky overhead. As the rest of the eggshell fell away, I saw what had hatched from the egg: an Eevee with purple eyes and silver fur.”
        “...me...” I whispered softly.
        “Yes...you. You stared up at the eclipse until it was finally over, and then you first looked at me. You weren't dazed by the sun at all, and you had your eyes open already, even though you had just hatched. It was as if you had waited for that moment to finally break free. I named you Eclipse because of that moment. That day...there was just something special about that day. The sunrise was a beautiful bright gold that morning, and then the eclipse happened that afternoon. And if that wasn't enough, there was a meteor shower just after sundown that night.”
        My head spun. Absorbing all of this information was just too much for me; my mind had frozen.
        “Eclipse...I love you, and I have always thought of you as my son, but the truth is...we're not your real parents. Your father and I raised you, and I was there at your hatching, but...”
        She stopped, unable to continue. Instead, she sobbed a little and turned away, not wanting me to see her tears. My father finished her sentence for her.
        “...we don't know where you really came from. We don't know why you look the way you do, but now you know why you don't look like us... I love you, Eclipse...and I hope you don't think of us differently because of this...”
        My mother finally regained her composure, and continued on.
        “This...this pendant was the biggest mystery of all. When you hatched, you were already wearing it, though I have no idea how that's possible... We buried it behind our tree to keep it safe and secret...but it's time we finally gave it back to you.”
        I didn't know what to say. I had learned so much about myself in the past several minutes that I couldn't think anymore. I just blinked slowly, unable to form any kind of response. It was a wonder I didn't stop breathing. I sat like that for what must have been at least ten minutes before I finally was able to piece enough thoughts together to form a coherent sentence.
        “I...I'm not...your...son...?”
        My mother turned away again, sobbing quietly. I looked at my father, but he turned his gaze down towards the floor and didn't reply. Suddenly the two people in front of me seemed horribly distant. They weren't my parents...my whole life was a lie. They had raised me, and cared for me, but I wasn't really theirs... I felt cold and alone. I started crying. My mother's heart, and her resolve to keep her tears hidden, broke. She turned and embraced me in the warmest, most loving hug she had ever given me my entire life.
        “Eclipse...you'll always be my son, no matter what...I love you...”
        I melted into her embrace.
        “...mom...I love you, too...”
        We stayed like that for what felt like forever, until finally the tears stopped coming. I reached up to wipe my eyes, and my mother released me, reaching up with her paw to do the same. I sniffed, and finally trusted my feelings enough to speak.
        “You...you're my mom...you've always been my mom...it's not different now...it's still the same...” I managed to say.
        She just smiled at me. My father had his eyes firmly closed, and I realized that he was trying to keep his emotions under control.
        “You too, dad...”
        His control wavered for a moment, and I saw a tear run down his cheek before he turned his head. When nobody said anything for several minutes, I looked back down at the pendant lying on the floor in front of me. It gleamed slightly, its mysterious origin reflected in its mysterious craftsmanship. I slowly reached out and brushed it with my paw. It was cool to the touch, but I could sense something else about it, something I couldn't explain. It almost felt charged, like it was hiding untold power within it, locked away. I hesitantly picked it up, and turned it slowly in the light. It reflected the sunlight in rainbow beams, though not as brilliantly as it had that first time. I reached back and slipped it over my neck, where it hung just in front of my neck ruff. Wearing it felt...right, somehow, though I couldn't explain the feeling beyond knowing that I was born with this pendant.
        I looked back up at my parents to find them both looking at me. Their eyes were trained on the pendant. I thought about everything my mother had told me. It was true that I didn't look anything like my parents. My mother was an Eevee. Her amber eyes were bright, and her fur was a light coffee color all over, except for a cream-colored tail tip and neck ruff. My father was a Flareon with sparkling blue eyes. His fur was a fiery orange everywhere except for his tail, neck ruff, and the patch of fur on top of his head, which were all bright yellow. My eyes were a deep, mysterious purple, and my fur was a shining silver color, with a white neck ruff. The resemblance was a little lacking. It made sense that these weren't my real parents. It explained how different I was from both of them, and it also explained, or at least helped explain, my strange coloring. I blinked, and my parents looked back up at my eyes again.
        “It looks good on you,” my mother said finally.
        I smiled, and soon the smile turned into a laugh. I couldn't stop myself from laughing harder than I'd laughed in a very long time. I was just so relieved that the awkward, tense moment was finally over that I couldn't help but laugh. My parents joined in, too, just as relieved as I was, if not more.
        The rest of the day went about much like normal, though I wandered through it in a slight daze. It would take me time to understand and accept everything my mother revealed about myself, and at times I did see my parents a little differently, but it's hard to stop loving someone that you love unconditionally, especially when they raised you your entire life.
        After that day, I never stopped wearing the pendant I had received. I got several comments from the other Eevees at first; they were amazed, surprised, dazzled, etc. But after a day or two, the novelty wore off, and everything seemed to go back to normal. In fact, my whole life seemed to go back to normal. I was a happy Eevee living his happy life. But that wasn't to last. Soon there came a day that I would never, ever forget.
        A day that shattered my hopes of a normal, happy life forever.