Along the road to our first adventure, I had learned that the rune's name was Luca and the elf's name was Balin. Luca had picked the job from the guild's job board, people who need help come to guild with their request and the guild organises the jobs into skill levels and posts them onto the board for adventurers to choose from. The job Luca had chosen was to help a local farmer with a rat infestation. 

"The farm should be just up here." Shouted Luca, a step ahead of me and Balin, pointing towards a narrow path enveloped in trees. "Something doesn't feel right about this." Murmured Balin with a look of concern growing on this face. As we walked up through the narrow path, small droplets of rain began to fall onto the leaves around us and the gusts of wind carried the smell of burning wood.

Suddenly, Luca stopped in front of me and Balin. "Well, shit." He exclaimed as Balin stepped around the frozen Luca. Stepping around the frozen rune and elf, I took in the scene. 

What was once a small farm house, was now nothing but ash and cinders. The whole home had burned down to the ground and the belongings of the people that used to live there were scattered around the place. The field behind the home, which probably used to hold farm animals was now barren, scattered with ash and the wooden fences, some of which still stood in places, were mostly wrecked. The empty field was surrounded by trees and looked to lead on to a forest. 

"I knew something wasn't right." Stated Balin, now kneeling on the ground towards the old house, almost as if he were praying. "Surely, this can't have been because of a rat infestation?" I questioned to nobody in particular. I looked up towards the sky, it was still lightly raining but it looked like a storm was brewing.

"We should head back to the guild before the storm comes down on us." I said, motioning towards the sky. 

"Wait!" Shouted Balin, inspecting the floor closely.

"What is it?" Responded Luca as we walked closer to Balin, leaning in to see the ground below him. "It's foot prints." He announced. Upon inspection, he was right, it was foot prints, but certainly not normal ones. They were around the same size and width as my own feet, but rat shaped. "These don't belong to any rats I have ever seen, it must be a mutation or something." Wondered Balin out loud, outlining the shape in the mud with his index finger. "Look over here, it's a track, we can follow it and find the giant rat!" Shouted Luca, motioning towards the prints that appeared to from the farm house, through the field and into the trees. 

"I think it's too dangerous, we should go back to the guild." I told them, feeling nervous about the whole situation. "No way!" Retorted Luca. "It's only rats, I could take them on by myself." He said proudly, clutching at his wooden shield. I looked over to Balin for support but Balin responded "We should go and investigate at least, if this really is a giant rat it could pose a threat to the town." 

Shaking my head I stood my ground. "No!" I shouted. "We are only beginners. What if there is more than one rat? What if it's a horde? We'll die and we'll be of no use to anybody."

"C'mon, let's just have a little look." Balin replied, walking towards the field with Luca. Looking back towards the path we came through, I realised I didn't know the way back to the town without Luca's map. "Wait up!" I shouted, not wanting to get lost alone.

The tracks lead us further into the trees, the large leaves provided us with a cover from the rain, but also blocked out any remaining sunlight. 

"Looks like the tracks lead into here." Called Balin, pointing towards the entrance to a cave. The entrance was covered in vines, leaves and moss and inside was just darkness, no light could be seen. "From the look of the tracks here, whatever came in, came out again and lead in that direction." Said Balin, pointing to the trees beyond the cave entrance. "So it should be okay to go in for a quick look!" Shouted Luca over the wind, now getting fiercer. 

I tightened my hands into fists and tried to muster any courage I had left. It had been a long day, joining a guild, trekking to a farm on the edge of town by foot, and fighting with my thoughts on whether this was a good idea or not. My brain told me it was not a good idea, that it was dangerous and I was too exhausted, too inexperienced to heal anybody if something were to go wrong. But a tiny part of me was intrigued by what could be ahead, and this tiny part of me was winning. 

We ventured into the cave in silence. Luca had found a large stick at the entrance and Balin had set fire to the end of it with his elven magic, according to him, it wouldn't burn out for a couple of hours. Luca was leading the way, it had started as one long tunnel but eventually it had forked off into several path ways. I don't think there was any logic to the path's that Luca chose, but we followed him anyway. 

"Do you guys see that?" Whispered Luca, stepping to the side so we could see ahead of him. In the distance was the warm glow of a fire, the orange light bounced off the walls and the smell of the fire momentarily masked the smell of stagnant water and decay. "Let's go." Ushered Balin, following closely behind me as I followed Luca along the path. Once getting closer, we noticed the light was not coming from the end of the cave, but instead a side-path. We turned to follow it and eventually came to an opening. 

The opening was large and cold, the fire doing little to warm up the large space. In the middle of the clearing was the fire providing the light, surrounded by candles in an organised pattern. Each candle connected to another with lines drawn on the rock floor and below each line was a sigil of sorts that I didn't understand or recognise. Something inside of me told me that it was something dark and foreboding. 

"This is bad, very bad." Whispered Balin, as an elf, he had a knowledge of magic beyond myself and Luca. "What is it?" Asked Luca, circling the fire and getting a closer look at the symbols. "I don't know... an enchantment circle of some kind?" Responded Balin, louder this time. 

In the distance, we all heard a clatter, like metal hitting the rocky floor. 

"What was that?" I whispered, growing more anxious by the second. "Should we make a run for it?"

"We can't run, it would take too long to go the way we came and we don't know how far or deep these tunnels run." Responded Balin, looking nervously around the room. 

"Then we fight." Stated Luca, pulling his shield off his back and his sword off his belt. Balin took both of his daggers in his hands and I reached for the wooden staff I had taken earlier from the guild armoury. "Balin, you fight by my side, I can take the hits with my shield and armour. Clara, you stay behind me and heal us up as fast as you can if something happens." Commanded Luca, readying himself near the entrance. Balin pulled a hidden knife out of his boot and handed it to me with a nod. 

Another metal clatter. 

I closed my eyes and focused on gathering the magical energy in my palms.

Heavy footsteps.

I took a deep breath and instinctly held out my hands, imagining an magical shield around us like a bubble.

 Hissing.

I opened my eyes. 

A rat, the size of a person stood before us at the entrance to the opening.

The rat was grotesque. It stood on two legs, it's eyes bulging and as black and night, it's mouth open, displaying two large fangs covered in a pale saliva. The smell emanating from the rat itself was foul enough to make me gag, it reminded me of when I was a child and found a rotting sheep corpse on the farm. It's dark grey fur covered it's whole body, mud smeared on it in some places, blood smeared on others. 

I felt disconnected from my body as the series of events unfolded before my eyes. The rat at the entrance pushed through the shield I had conjured seamlessly, hissed towards the three of us and attacked Balin across the face with it's massive claws. Balin fell to the floor, screaming in pain and grasping at his bloody face. 

Suddenly, tens of rats flooded into the room, trampling over the fallen Balin and pushing into myself and Luca. "Help him!" Screaming Luca, holding his shield up against the onslaught of the giant rats. I looked over to where Balin had fallen and saw three rats push him into his back and tear into his tummy with their now bloody mouths. Balin's yellow elven eyes glossed over and his head fell limply to the rock below. 

I let out a scream, my hands were clutching the staff and shaking ferociously, my knees buckled and I fell onto the floor. "Dammit Clara get up!" Yelled Luca, slashing at the rats with his sword in one hand and protecting us with his shield with his other. 

Grasping the staff tightly, I pulled myself up and stood firmly behind Luca. "What do we do?" I shouted, the fear evident in my voice. The sound of metal clanging against rat claws and flesh was deafening, their squawking and hissing sounds filled the room and made my head feel numb. "I can't hold them off!" Responded Luca, continuing to slash at the rats but he was starting to exhaust himself, his swinging getting slower. 

A loud crunch filled my ears as a rat bit down on the arm Luca was holding his sword in. He screamed in pain, dropping the arm to his side, blood pouring down his arm, down his hand and onto the floor. 

Adrenaline fuelled my actions and I focused my energy into the staff. Feeling it warm lightly in my hands, I pushed the healing energy from the staff and into Luca, the warm glow surrounding him like a golden bubble. "Thanks!" He shouted, now holding the shield with both hands, the sword lost somewhere beneath the rat's feet. 

A rat jumped out towards Luca and pushed him back, he fell into me and we both landed on the floor. Luca dropped the shield and as he tried to grab it, the large rat stood on it, cracking it into two pieces, unreachable and unusable. 

It was over. We had killed no rats, Balin had died only a few feet away from us, we were outnumbered and out geared. 

"I'm sorry, Clara." Sobbed Luca, holding his arms up to his face defensively, knowing the next attack from the chattering rats would be the final blow. 

I cried out like I had never cried before, knowing these were my final seconds of this life. I grabbed Luca's healed hand and clutched it for dear life, it was warm but limp, I glanced towards Luca and he had passed out from fear, his body heavy and leaning against my shoulder.  

I was trembling like a leaf in fierce wind, my head felt like a balloon trying to fly away and my eyes felt weighted and heavy. I slouched in my spot on the floor, this was it, death.

"Draconis, Ignatius!" Shouted a furious women's voice in the distance. I caught a glimpse of a dark, cloaked figure stood in the entrance to the opening. A brilliant bright light flashed before me, followed by a burning hot heat which licked my skin and left blistering hot pain in it's place.

Everything went dark.