Classes at the university ran normally throughout the day until 8:00 p.m., which was Professor Bucky Horan's dismissal time.
Professor Bucky was an environmental and forestry engineer, worked with the government as minister of the environment, and did individual projects of the same interest in his spare time.
That day, his classes were the same as always. He graded exams, checked papers, gave The company had several meetings with the director of the university's engineering program and other colleagues.
Finally, at 9:10 he arrived home after stopping at his favorite Chinese food restaurant to buy orange chicken with Chinese rice for dinner.
Professor Bucky was single, he had no girlfriend, much fewer children with a woman where he had had a night of unbridled passion so that this would have been the product of that encounter.
Bucky ate dinner in his library while he worked on his computer, writing an essay about testing a new device that would it be easier to detect when a tremor, or in the worst case, an earthquake, was coming.
He planned for that device to be a useful gadget for everyone, that people could use and understand it easily, and carry it with them everywhere as if it were an accessory to their clothes.
In his project, Bucky not only thought about the design, but also sought financial support from the U.S. government for its manufacture and circulation in the market.
Bucky had faith that he could lift himself out of the poverty and debt that his gambling addiction as a teenager had left him with by the contribution he would make to the world with his invention.
Practically, Bucky worked to survive and pay his gambling debts.
For that reason, he did not plan to waste his time having a family that would be more of a responsibility to him at this time than anything else.
But while Bucky was reviewing the last thing he had added to his project, something unexpected happened, the ground beneath his feet shook, and it was relatively strong to his liking.
In fact, some portraits hanging on the wall fell to the floor. The desk shook, and for an instant, he deduced that an earthquake was coming. Fortunately, the shaking ceased, and nothing
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nor did anyone else come out of it unscathed. That same night, Bucky was able to continue working naturally until sleep overcame him, and he ended up falling asleep on his desk.
Around 3:35 a.m., a strong, white, silent glow appeared in his library. Bucky had been too sound asleep to have noticed it until, finally, a man's heavenly hand dropped on his desk to wake him.
Exalted, Bucky woke up.
"Damn!... What the fuck was that?", Bucky said, his breath still hitching and slowly starting to catch.
A low and rather amused male chuckle was uttered, alerting Bucky that he was not alone.
"What the fuck was that, as I recall, I live alone. There's no one else at home that could have laughed like that apart from me, and, evidently, I 't!", Bucky repeated to himself. Impressed.
But then, again, that mysterious voice appeared.
"Hey! It wasn't you! It was me! Look back!" that voice sounded amused again, although Bucky wasn't liking that game.
However, he obeyed.
Bucky turned back, still sitting in the swivel chair at his desk, and when he saw him, he almost went backwards against the floor in surprise. His chair managed to wobble a little, but then, he managed to support himself, putting his feet back on the floor, steady so as not to fall.
His hands rested on his knees.
His eyes were riveted on what he was seeing in front of him.
Then, and, standing in front of Bucky, next to the highest bookshelf in the library, there, stood a majestic figure, who was wrapped in a long, impeccable cloak that seemed to be made of white light and living roots. His body was somewhere between slender and sturdy, and through him, the light was
illuminated as if, it pierced him like a dagger to the heart.
However, the density of this light was much softer to bear than the previous one, than the light that Bucky did not see at the time of the appearance of this mysterious man.
In addition, the face of this man, partially covered by a polished wooden mask, revealed bright eyes like contained magma. He had the demeanor of an ancient sage, with the
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voice of soft thunder and a gaze that seemed to contain centuries of knowledge.
"Shit, who are, what are you doing in my house, and how did you get here?", Bucky was startled again, he couldn't believe his eyes.
The man in front of him let out an amused laugh again, putting a hand over his stomach as if he, giving some warning that if Bucky made him laugh any harder, his stomach would hurt.
"What a funny guy you are, buddy. You make me laugh too much. Or, I forgot, how rude of me! I introduce myself, I am Eolhar, the Guardian of the Earthly Threshold. And I have come to give you a very special mission that you need to fulfill to the letter. I need you to accept without objection, and even if you also have to pay a price for it," spoke the mysterious man who even looked similar to the way Jesus is often described.
There was a moment of silence. For Eolhar it was not awkward at all, but for Bucky it was, in fact, as he tried to reason out those words of the mysterious and "magical" man, Bucky was going into a kind of shock. Eolhar noticed.
"Fear not, Bucky Horan," the being said, his voice vibrating with an unwavering calm. I have crossed the veils between worlds because you have called... even if you didn't know it.
"Called? What do you mean by that?" stammered Bucky, not knowing whether to scream or laugh.
"With every line of that project of yours. With every dream of saving many, and saving yourself."
"What are you, a ghost, a god?"
"No, of course I am nothing of the sort, my dear friend. I am Eolhar. And you, if you accept it, will be something more than human. But not without paying a price," Eolhar warned, for this time, he spoke very seriously, without pretending to laugh, so that Bucky would take everything he was about to tell him very seriously.
Bucky swallowed.
For the first time in his life, he felt fear, fear of something truly unknown, because in all those years of experience being an engineer in the environmental and forest area, he had come to see things that someone normal would never imagine being real. Bucky was used to that, but he wasn't used to a man like Eolhar appearing out of nowhere and ending up giving him those kinds of offers that sounded too tempting to be true.