The journal of Peter Baker, 12/26/700 ABW

The day before yesterday started out yet another ordinary early winter’s day at the very end of the semester for me, just a regular preteen with dirty blonde hair and sporting a navy blue t-shirt, khakis, and gray backpack as I walked up the steps of Warlington Middle School, accompanied by a girl my height with long hair of the exact same color as mine put up in a ponytail, wearing a long red shirt and blue jeans along with an orange backpack over her shoulder. This is my twin sister Rebecca Baker, or usually just Becky for short. I was half asleep as I stumbled my way up the steps, something that caught my sister’s notice as we walked into the school.

“Did you stay up late again, Peter? You know you shouldn’t do that.” Becky remarked.

“I know that.” I responded. “I was just up late studying.” Which was true enough, and something of a normal occurrence for me as I have a habit of reading through history books and ancient texts for hours on end without checking to see how much time has passed, sometimes related to topics being covered in class and more often than not topics that catch my own interest.

Becky simply laughed. “Just be careful, Peter. I would hate to hear that you fell asleep in class.”

“Don’t you have your own friends and classes to get to?” I asked as we walked through the doors and into the main hallway.

“I sure do; which reminds me. I promised to meet up with Kaylin and Margor before class. Catch you later, bro.

Becky ran off and disappeared from view before I had the chance to respond, which is normal when it comes to meet ups with her friends. Anyway, I made my way to my first class of the day which, fortunately for me, happened to be history which is usually my favorite class. I say usually because right now it is being taught by perhaps the most boring substitute teacher, or person in general, that I have ever met while the primary one is out. Anyway, I walked over to my desk and sat down, only getting a few moments of rest in before the morning bell rang to signal that class had begun. My boring old substitute teacher, Mr. Smith, entered the room via a door by his desk and stood before a chalkboard.

“Good morning, children. Please turn to page 296 in your textbooks.” Mr. Smith began in the most monotone voice I had ever heard as everyone in the room, myself included, flipped through their textbooks and/or scrolled through the digital version of the book on their tablets until they got to the page in question. Mr. Smith did the same as he held a book open in front of him. “As every one of you likely knows, we recently celebrated the 700th anniversary of our town’s founding which occurred less than three months after the legendary Yarlforr led a revolution that saw the death of Overlord Bardon.” Nobody, myself included, could even pretend to be impressed as this was a story most of the people in town were familiar with to some extent, even if they weren’t from around here originally. Today we will learn about a largely forgotten yet important event that took place afterwards.”

I looked down at the textbook in front of me where I glanced at the event we were going to learn about. It was one that while I had heard of it, for some reason I was never able to find that many details on it which is something I always found rather odd about it, especially considering I had found precise details surrounding events from the ancient past that not even top academics could figure out.

Anyway, I listened to Mr. Smith as he droned on and on. “This surprisingly forgotten event was one of the darkest days in the history of the entire county. It all began in 80 ABW, not even a century after the death of the Overlord.”

“Come on. Would it kill him to remain engaging longer than two minutes?” I thought, struggling to remain awake.

Mr. Smith continued on. “A mysterious being cloaked in strange garb appeared seemingly out of nowhere, claiming to be of the blood of the dark one. His name was said to be-”

I did not get a chance to hear him say the name of the mysterious visitor, nor had I encountered it in any of my readings, before I went out like a light in the middle of the sentence which led to one of the strangest dreams I ever had. As I was sleeping I heard a voice shout,

“Peter! Get up!”

There was something familiar about the voice and as soon as I opened my eyes, getting a view of a small room before looking up, I knew why. I saw the clear face of my father, Roger Baker, but he was wearing clothing that looked like it was from a time long past. I looked down at my own clothes and noticed they were in a similar style before taking a better look at my surroundings. I appeared to be in a small hut that would have been standard when the county was just being settled, and the clothes we were wearing matched with the standard garb of the era.

“I’m glad you’re up, Peter.” My dad began. “Hurry and grab your stuff. We need to get out of here!”

“What’s going on, dad?” I asked as I slowly sat up and got out of the bed I was lying on, a far cry from the desk and textbook I fell asleep on.

“The blood of the dark one has arrived. He’s already slaughtered half the village!” Dad shouted.

I had no idea what was going on but hearing words like that is never a good thing no matter when or where you’re at so I quickly grabbed a few things before I heard the door slam open, revealing the unmistakable form of my sister who was panting and trying to catch her breath, a sign that she had run quite a distance.

“Dad, Peter! I’ve found a way out of here!” She shouted.

“Rebecca! Where’s Camron?” Dad shouted the moment she stepped across the threshold.

“He’s already gone on ahead. If we hurry, we might just catch up to him.” Becky shouted.

“Really?” Dad asked. “Then let’s…uh oh.” This sounded odd at first, but it made perfect sense as soon as I looked past both of them and so did Becky as she turned around. Standing in front of the door was a group of soldiers lined up in formation on either side of it. Their armor looked really out of place for the time but strangely, they would fit right in if they were in a random science fiction film you’d find on TV, outside of looking quite strong and extremely well made. The same could be said of the weapons in the hands of most of them which looked like a variety of blasters of varying sizes. The two in front were carrying spears and holding them out in front of them.

“Get out here, filthy humans! Nobody will escape on our watch.” One of them began as all three of us were escorted outside by the two guards.

“What is the meaning of all of this?! What brings you demons here?!” Becky shouted.

“Our affairs are of no concern to you, humans!” one of the guards with a spear shouted as we were led away.

It was then that a strange, menacing voice could be heard echoing through the village saying, “Come now my soldiers. Are you having any trouble here?” the weirdest thing about it is that I could swear I had heard that voice in person before, though I have no idea how.

“The master has arrived!” the soldiers shouted as the lines parted which revealed a rather odd man, most likely a demon, who slowly walked towards us. He was clothed in red robes with a golden trim along with a strange symbol appearing to be two scythes intersecting each other with a blade on either end embroidered on the right-hand just below the shoulder, a symbol I immediately recognized from the countless portraits of the Overlord that were painted over the course of his life and since, including one or two that were painted by my brother. The demon’s skin could best be described as turquoise in tone and his hair, which went past his shoulders, was a deep blue.

As soon as the man stood before us, he grabbed both my face and Rebecca’s as he turned his head to face his soldiers. “Why are you wasting time with vermin like this? Did they attempt to escape?”

“Yes, Lord Dolmonuc! We heard them plotting just moments before you arrived.” A soldier with a gun replied.

Dolmonuc! Somehow I had I feeling that I should know that name and not just from some of the obscure ancient tomes I have resting on my bookshelf at home.

The demon shook his head as he looked between us and his soldiers. “Dear me. These children were almost passable for their kind. Such a pity that I’ll have to kill all of you now!”

The last thing I remember seeing was the flash of a knife as Dolmonuc drew one out of his robes and wasted no time as he swung in my direction as I heard the voice of Mr. Smith say,

“Peter! Peter! You better not be falling asleep in my class, Baker!” One of the few times he didn’t talk in a monotone voice, I might add.

Hearing that voice immediately snapped me out of it as my eyes flung open, the sight of the classroom being more than welcome after the dream I just had. “N-no sir! Not at all.” I stammered, not even convincing myself.

If I couldn’t convince myself then there’s no way Mr. Smith said, if what he said next was anything to go by. “Then prove it by answering this question. If not, it’s lunch detention for you! And on our last day together too.” he cleared his throat before asking, “What is the name of the being who wiped out nearly half the county?”

I only had one name running through my mind at the moment after that dream and I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out, “Dolmonuc!”

Mr. Smith stood there completely stunned for a whole minute before answering with, “Uh…that’s exactly right. I guess you were paying attention after all. Either that or you just read ahead. Either way, you did answer it and as promised, you are free to go.”

The bell rang just a few moments after he finished speaking and none of us could get out of that room fast enough. The rest of the day was uneventful outside of playing a round of my sister’s new board game during lunch where I told her about my dream, her friends Margor the orc and Kaylin the elf listening in.

“So your dream actually gave you the knowledge to answer that question?” Becky asked. “I know you’ve told me about dreams you’ve had related to the topic you’re currently studying, but someone you’ve barely even heard of? Has that ever happened before?”

“Never.” I replied. “Though now I’m thinking that I should look into this guy. What do you think?”

“Maybe, though I can’t really answer this.” Becky responded as she looked at her friends. “What do you think, girls?”

“I’m with Peter on this one.” Kaylin began. “In fact, there’s a chance that I can get my hands on some texts related to this guy.”

“Same here.” Margor smiled.

“I appreciate the help, ladies. I really do.” I said to them as we finished the game. The rest of the day was rather dull with nothing of interest occurring. That is all there is to this tale right now. Perhaps after the holiday festivities are done I’ll see what I can uncover. Until then.