As I looked up above towards to sky all I could see was the clouds getting farther and farther away. Even with all the air around me I could not breathe. I felt weightless, and at this height one would think the air would be chilly. Why was my body on fire then? My name is Kasten, and I am about to die.
 
                                                                  *****
    I was merely 12 years of age when I first felt the Roil. The ground heaved, the mountainsides crashed against each other, and spouts of fire and steam shot up into the air. At that moment I knew I wanted to be outside the walls of the safe haven. Zendikar is a land of adventure, and I wanted to be out there, I wanted to experience it, I wanted the thrill, and I wanted the treasures. I practiced day in and out with a blade I crafted from stone, yet I was never as fast or as strong as the other children. Even kids as young as 8 seemed to grow up more physically fit and capable than I.
    "Well well, if it ain't Kasten" the voice was unmistakable "Hey you runt. Playing pretend again?" I lowered my practice blade and turned to see the speaker standing in the entrance to the practice ring.  "What do you want Tren?" Tren was the resident tough guy of our little community. The self appointed leader of our guards, and who could blame him? With muscles thicker than a Baloth, and about as much brain, the people who would stand up to him where few and far between. "Oh not much" he leaned against the the doorway, relaxed, but it was easy to tell he was blocking me in "just trying to figure out why you are in my training pit after I made it specifically clear I never wanted to see your damn face again"
    It had been a week past since the incident. Tren said I would never make anything but bait on an expedition and decided I was to be banned from the training area. I had been so far lucky with sneaking in and out, yet it seemed my luck had run out. "Listen Tren" I eased back towards the far end of the arena scanning for options, there had to be some way out "I am just trying to get better, leave me alone. Go away" Wrong move. "Did you just tell me what to do runt?" He quickly started to walk towards me. He was confident he had me trapped "Let me beat the insolence out of you runt."
    Quickly, desperately I scanned the area then I found it. An old winch used to haul up rocks, hay, whatever needed to get to the upper floor. I just needed to reach it. "Beat me? Come and try it Baloth brain" That set him off. He started to charge, I had to time it just right. I flung my practice sword at him and dodged left under his grasp and bolted towards the winch. When I stepped up and yanked the damn thing collapsed under my weight! There goes that plan.
    "Alright runt! Now you've gone and made me mad!" He charged at me once more and I was trapped between with my only tool an old piece of rope. Thinking quickly I dodged once more and wrapped his legs up in the cord. He stumbled wildly to the left and I wrapped his arm. We danced for another minute before I had him on the floor. Tied up. "Haha seems I caught me a Balot..." My words where quickly droned out by the blast of a horn. Then another. Finally a third. Three long horns meant a caravan was in danger.
    Running out past the gates of the encampment I saw it. A caravan tipping slowly over the edge, the Roil had opened up a crevasse, and now our only supplies where teetering over into the abyss! "Move it runt!" Tren pushed past me and immediately started barking orders "GET ME THREE PEOPLE ON THE FRONT! PULL UP THOSE HORSES! THE REST OF YOU START SHOVELING AS MANY SUPPLIES AS YOU CAN OUT SAVE AS MANY AS YOU CAN AND you runt!" He pointed at me and pushed me down into the dirt "Stay out of the way."
    I could only watch as everyone ran to and fro, either trying to pull up the horses or getting as much food out of the cart as they could, but in all the commotion it seemed everyone forgot one thing, where was the driver? I eased around and saw him flattened against the wall on a small rocky outcropping at the bottom, when he saw me he yelled "You there! Young man please! Get me out of here!" I couldn't just leave him there! I yelled back "Worry not, I am going to get you out!" Much easier said than done. I looked around, nothing was long enough to reach him, but I still had the coil of rope from the training arena, and there where plenty of rocks. A plan formed in my head
    It was mere minutes before I had everything set up. I had wrapped the rope around two large stones and draped it over a tree jutting out over the precipice. All the man had to do was hold onto one end, I would continue to place rocks on the other end, the counterbalance would bring him up. Everything was working perfectly at first, then Zendikar awoke. It was a low rumbling but everyone felt it. It was coming. The Roil. The man looked up at me, mere feet from freedom. He didn't couldn't even utter a word before the ground beneath us exploded. Zendikar shook and the man, the cart, all our supplies where thrown like a giant would a boulder. This was it, his death. I had failed, but then movement. Something shot past me, a hook tied to a rope and it wrapped itself around the man. Over the cliffside out flew a body. Pale white skin, even whiter hair, tall and lean. He reached out and collide with the man, and back towards the cliff shot the hook once more, it seemed almost as if it was a part of this individual. Then more came. More ropes, more hooks, more people all flying out and snatching supplies, horses, and swiftly climbing up the cliffs. There they stood before us. The Kor
 
 
                                                                ******
    After that event I decided there was nothing for me in the settlement so I became a nomad alongside the Kor. They took me in, albeit a little skeptical at first, but I learned much from them. They approved of my creative usage for common tools and artifacts, something the Kor relied on a lot seeing as how they traveled light, and I soon gained the moniker of "Toolbox" among them. They taught me of ropes and hooks, and I learned the art of the grappling hook. While I could never be as adept as they where, it was a skill I honed religiously.
    I left them on the eve of my 22nd name day and set of on my own. I became obsessed with artifacts and tools. I would find new usage for tools almost daily, and soon I started to join expeditions, both due to my unique skillset and for the opportunity to find new and exciting artifacts. It was then that the Valakut House, one of the most prestigious expeditionary houses came to me speaking of a tomb up in the peeks of Akoum that had been uncovered by the Roil. They spoke of a holy relic from before even the gods. My curiosity could not be contained.
    The expedition was simple, the path wide, the weather calm. It was strange, never had Zendikar been this...at ease. Soon I learned not to question the blessings. Once while climbing a narrow path we were beset on all sides by goblins, the little bastards climbed out of anywhere and everywhere. We fought long and hard, but it seemed like they where never ending. Soon fatigue started to rear its ugly, nasty head, and I found myself overrun. My back against a drop, my front facing a swarm of goblins. I fought them as much as I could, but they ended up winning, and finally over the side I went. I slipped, and I fell.
 
 
                                                                ******
 
I can't breathe.   My body burns.    Is this all my life amounts to? Death by failing? What would the Kor think of me....
Wait....the Kor.....part tool....part weapon....part of the Kor!
    The grappling hook! I carried it with my everywhere I went, it was given to me by one of the stoneforgers, to show that I had been fully accepted into their family. I reached into my pack and pulled it out, and there it was. Two hooks connected by a chain, a simple tool with a million uses. What better to represent me? "Please, fly true" I threw it as hard as I could, and as I turned I saw the ground coming quick, I closed my eyes and prayed and then PAIN! Everything was pain, I couldn't breath, I couldn't think. I was dying!!!
    I felt my arm yank, and I knew the grappling hook had found a home, I yanked hard and I felt myself fly forward! I opened my eyes expecting to see rock and stone, yet all I saw was metal!? I crashed hard against steel, and I saw my reflection staring back at me very confused, then I heard it, I heard them. Hundreds of warriors yelling battle cries all running in one direction. I looked and what I saw I could not believe. A behemoth of pure steel, tipping of balance, my hook chained around its "arm." The warriors, some growing what appeared to be steel themselves surged forward with a battle cry of "For Mirrodin!!!"
 
    Was I dead? No, I wasn't dead, but I sure as hell wasn't in Zendikar any longer.