Spread your wings. (Fan Fiction Contest)

Ok, hopefully this is open to Australian residents. [quote]The clinging red dust pounded beneath his feet as he sprinted through the streets of the Buried City. The young Warlock chanced a brief glance to his rear down the ancient avenues of the decaying metropolis. No sign of his monstrous pursuers. He took a left turn down what had once been a main road, now littered with debris from the mysterious Fall that had ravaged mankind centuries before. The causeway opened out a hundred metres ahead of him. Dim light, filtering through the dark clouds overhead, highlighted the swirling red dust that had risen up in the artificial wind created by the Golden Age terraforming process. The Warlock stopped for a moment, unsure of his location. He pressed on. He reached the large open space, and despair welled up inside him as a great gust cleared the Martian air. The skeletal remains of a wall of skyscrapers fenced the area, a sea of red-orange sand swamping any path forward. In the centre of the space, a low yellow structure squatted. The old metro station. It was as far from the Warlock’s spacecraft as was possible before one met the deep, red desert. Loud, mechanical thuds echoed within the urban jungle behind him. For the first time, he felt real, paralysing fear grip his chest. The Cabal were coming. He saw now his arrogance, his ignorance. He had completed his training and become a Guardian just one month before. How naïve he had been! His early forays into the wild outside the Wall, riding on the success of far greater Guardians, had been child’s play. Now he was alone on an enemy-occupied world, at the mercy of the Cabal. Then he knew. The grip of his weapon once more felt natural in his hands. He could fell the Traveller’s power coursing through his fingertips. This was what made a Guardian. This was his chance to become Legend. Destiny awaits. [/quote]