Prologue
In a time long before nations formed, the world was ruled by chaos and power. These were
dark times. Wrought by the hands of the power hungry, dark things were created -- things long forgotten, creatures which shouldn't have been, and their names long
lost during wars in which temples and libaries burned. These creatures were locked
in a magick vault, never to set foot on the earth again. The mages still alive among those who had created the beasts realized evil could never be controlled. But
time has worn at the bond which once held the monsters wrought of hate, and
darkness and evil have returned. The only hope is a prophecy, and a band of a few
brave souls....
Chapter 1
An icy wind blew and made Aldebaren shiver. Not just the cold, but a strange feeling
of fear that it brought which she couldn't explain. It was as though the wind itself were made of
fear.
Then she heard it -- a single scream of terror and pain. It quickly grew in volume,
Aldebaren realized with a sickening jolt that it quickly grew in volume as voice after voice joined it. Flying
up to a higher perch, careful to stay out of view, she looked in the direction of the
sound. What she saw almost caused her to lose her grip on the rock outcropping. A
strange dark cloud stretched over several villages and spread rapidly. It blanketed
everything in an inky blackness Aldebaren was unable to see through.
All she could see was it growing. It seemed to be feeding on terror.
'Not just terror,'
Aldebaren realized as she glanced at the edge of the darkness and saw what had
caused the screams. Feeling ill, she observed what appeared to be an entire village
destroyed. There were bodies everywhere, littering the ground. Blood too. Some were
still moving, Aldebaren realized in horror before the blackness spread to cover the
scene. She winged her way as fast as she could to the admin's rooms, and rammed
headlong into Tserisa, who was coming to investigate the sound. The draconic admin
helped the stunned gryphon to her feet.
"You ok?" she asked. Aldebaren nodded weakly and Tserisa looked at her knowingly.
"The screams. You saw it didn't you? What it was that caused the screams." Aldebaren
nodded again. As she told Tserisa and the other admins who'd quickly gathered her story,
they all agreed an emergency meeting must be called to deal with this threat.
It didn't take long to gather everyone into the Common Room, for despite the late hour
everyone was already awake, roused by the screams, wandering around confused and
frightened. Once the last Guilder had entered the room, the meeting began. After Tserisa
introduced Aldebaren to the group, she repeated what she had told the admins, albeit
somewhat less graphically then she had in her original telling, as several younger gryphs
and gryphlets were present too.
Everyone agreed it was necessary to send a party to
stop this threat. The trouble came in deciding who would go, and who would stay. Tserisa
suprized many, particularly the newbeasts who didn't know her motherly nature, by
announcing she would lead the mission.
Illucian nodded. "If Tser is going, I will too."
Her
mate Eclipse frowned.
"Lux love, we're going into darkness. We don't know how long for. You need the sun,"
he said.
"Eclipse... I can't leave Tserisa to do this alone. Besides, I can provide light for a while.
And before you argue, what if this is some kind of demon? Who better to help fight it
then an angel?" Illucian set her face firmly and Eclipse knew there'd be no point in arguing
with his mate. He'd never win.
"Fine, then I'll go with you."
"I'm coming too!" Moonlight an Malistryx said simultaneously, joining the growing group.
"Me too!" added Seroci, moving toward the center of the room where the would-be heroes
were gathering.
"Don't forget me!" Jezamyn shouted over the commotion. Syris frowned from her spot
near the back of the room. She was sworn to protect Jez.
"If Jez goes, then count me in," the rainbow vulpegryph said, flying to the center of the
room, and wincing slightly as she landed a little too hard on the leg that had been injured
during the storms and earthquakes that had struck a few months back. It was mostly
healed, but it acted up now and then. "Besides," Syris added, "I've survived one mission, and
my fire magick might come in handy. Plus I can shift into a were gryph to handle tools most
of you can't." Realizing she was rambling, she blushed and shut her beak.
Tserisa started to
say something but she was cut off by Kah'xana, Nyx, Tath, and Kaaz tripping over each
other in their rush to come forward.
"We're coming too!" they cried breathlessly.
Ki looked at them strangely, from where he
sat near the center of the room.
"Why didn't you just fly?" she asked incredulously. "Well, those of you with wings anyway."
They looked slightly embarrassed but let it slide.
Tserisa raised a paw for silence.
"Ok, that's twelve Guilders. That's more then enough. I don't want to put too many of you
in danger." There were a few grumbles and squawks of protest, but they quickly quieted
under the firm, yet gentle gaze of Tserisa. "All right then, those who are a part of this mission
stay with me to discuss our approach. The rest of you, go back to bed and sleep as much as
you can. We may need you yet and it won't help if you're all too tired to fight." With that the
group dispersed and the planning began.
They left early dawn, just late enough that the sun illuminated everything so they could see
clearly. Those who couldn't fly had been harnessed to those who could to speed up travel.
It took a little over an hour for them to reach the edge of the blackness. Landing 100 yards
away from it they unstrapped the harnesses and walked towards the veil.
As they passed
through the darkness it was like entering another world, a world of nightmares. The villagers who
were still alive fought with each other, or ran around completely crazed, shouting nonsense
and overturning carts. Though outside the sun was well into the sky, it seemed to be the
middle of the night here. Those lanterns not smashed on the ground provided far less light
then they should have, and same with the fires that blazed. It was as though the dark was eating
the light. Another strange thing was the look in the eyes of the people. They were eyeing the
Guilders hungrily. Very hungrily. They all looked gaunt, bones showing and bellies bloated as
though they'd not eaten in months. Their hair and beards were long and scraggly. It was like
time had passed faster here.
Suddenly a crazed ax wielding man charged at MoonLight with
yells of "Fooooooooood!" and "Chiiiiiikeeennn!" MoonLight flicked him with a talon and sent
him stumbling. The people backed rapidly away. It took everyone a minute to realize that Syris caused the fear and retreat, her fire fox parts turned completely to flame. Even after
the villagers left, Syris remained a ball of living flame, her glowing green eyes looking predatory,
until Kah'xana gave her a good whack to the head. Shaking herself and returning to normal,
Syris frowned.
"What was that for?" she asked, slightly annoyed.
"You started flippin' out like one of those villagers," Kah'xana said, rather worried that Syris
seemed to have no recollection of what had just happened.
"I did?" Syris asked confused. Then a look of terror crossed her face. "I didn't hurt anyone,
did I?"
Kah'xana shook her head.
"Nah, just looked like you were about to. You don't remember?"
Syris shook her head and
everyone shuddered. What was this cloud doing?