"Erratic footprints, seemed to have been riled up by something. Chasing prey perhaps?"

I followed the tracks in silence as I made my way through the woods. Deeper and deeper I delved as the sun began began to dim. Until I stumbled upon a new set of tracks. A familiar set of tracks that anyone could identify.

As I gazed upon the new encounter, I quickened my pace with newfound urgency. I stalked until the familiar scent of iron pricked my senses along with the shrieks and howls of creatures of the dark. I layed prone with my bow strung and waited in the dark along with an eerie silence in the air. 

With a couple of grunts and a layer of shouts the silence was once again broken bringing along the sight of eight childlike humanoids. Green with pointed ears, warted noses and dressed in cloth. All armed and all a hideous sight. On the ground was a young woman battered and bloodied as she tried to mustered her strength to face them. 

"Damnit. This has been happening too frequently."

Drawing my bow and praying my aim to be true I waited for a chance to strike off to the side. As a goblin stood over the woman to cut her off, it raised its weapon into the air with an unsightly smile. I muttered under my breath as I let loose my grip.

"God I hope this will be worth it." 

The bow snapped back accompanied with the sound of a whistle then soon after a thud. Howls and screams rang through the dim night. Angered with the death of its brethren, a goblin raced to finish off the woman while three had tracked where the arrow had flown. T

wo arrows sing a song of flight as one pierces the woman's attacker while the other finds its way into the throat of another. The others come to their senses as they follow the arrow's flight. The attention now on me I quickly back up three steps as I release another death sentence onto one of my two aggressors. 

With the last one now within striking range I let out a curse as it readies its wooden dagger to strike. Taking a solid thrust to the left side of my ribs, I gasped in a attempt to breathe as I drop my bow and fell backwards hitting the ground with a thump. The goblin exploited my fall and pounced on me trying to finish the job. A battle of strength ensued as I desperately tried to prevent the dagger from reaching my neck. 

Perhaps infuriated that I was still struggling for survival it had raised its dagger high in an attempt to break through my defense. Taking this chance I grabbed an arrow that had dropped nearby and thrust it deep into the neck of the goblin. As it backed away clutching the arrow shaft I desperately reached for my bow, drew it back once more and with one final whistle, the goblin fell with a thump. 

"Just two more till there's no more."

Hearing my ragged breathing while being assaulted by the burning pain from my side I couldn't help but collapse with a pained look. Forcing myself to move towards my pack I pulled out a bandage and needle to tend to my wounds. Grimacing with pain and anxiousness, I managed to fix my wounds albeit with much difficulty. 

"That should hold for a bit."

Realizing why I had fought goblins in the first place I quickly stood up and did a scan of the area to check on the woman's situation. To my surprise, the woman had finished off the remaining two goblins on her own. With a look of surprise and a face of weariness, I let out a sigh of relief knowing that the battle with the goblins had come to a close. Trying to regain my compsure, I eyed the woman as she, understandably, was collapsed onto the ground, thankful that she had survived. After regaining her composure she glanced around and followed the corpses to where I had stood. 

"Thank gods you came in time. If not for you I would have had to end my scouting quest as a slave to goblins."

Seeing her genuine gratitude to her life being saved, with an exhausted sigh I replied with more straightforwardness than what should have been given.

"Scouting by yourself without an experienced tracker or ranger is dangerous territory. How in the seven hells did you end up like this?" 

With a sullen look of regret and pain she began to recount what had happened.

"We were given a mission in the city of Janua"

"We?"

With slight irritation the woman looked at me angrily.

"Yes, let me finish."

I gestured for her to finish.

"Recently, people have been going missing and there has been a rise of goblins around the city. My party and I thought that these trends were related so we waited until dusk when goblins started to become active."

Nodding my head, It began to paint a clearer picture inside my head as well as to why I had been encountering more goblins recently. But it was still bugging me. 

"You mean that goblins have somehow snuck into the city, kidnapped people, and are reproducing outside the city walls? Why?"

"We hadn't gotten that far yet. We... I was only able to track the missing people to the nearby cave here."

"Hmm."

After being lost in thought and thinking that there may be more to this than it seems I could imagine why there was a sudden increase in goblins sightings.

"Where is this cave?"

"The cave is a few minutes east from here. You aren't thinking of going on your own are you?"

With her furrowed brows and the question she had asked, a throbbing headache suddenly assaulted me as I jerked up my hand to the temples of my head. My breath shortened and my vision shifted from blurry to white and then before everything went black, just over the shoulder of the woman, I saw a hooded figure holding up a lantern. 

"Hey! What's wrong!?"

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking up I saw an overlapping mirage of the woman who was just standing before me armored with a breastplate with winged ear decorations, in a frenzy. A battlefield with the skies dyed black and the ground painted with red along with my vision. Horned beasts and armored warriors littered across the ground and winged monstrosities with imp like tails in the skies diving and dropping humans with no mercy. As I gazed beyond the horizon I saw not the rising sun but only what I could call a fantasy. A humongous beast who sails the skies devouring all who crosses its path as it heads straight towards where I stood. As I saw the armored woman from before finally fall before me. A deafening roar and a heartbreaking pain. However, I could not move nor tell my own body to listen. As if bound to this place. Everything seemed to slow as the slain valkyrie had begun to fall. Only then when the face of the female warrior turned to me did time stop completely.

A voice with the likeness of ice pierced my thoughts.

"Find him..... Prince..... Divinity..... Blight..... End of curse"

As I writhed in pain from the mind imposing its will upon me all I could do was endure as I barely listened. I twisted my body, clenched my fists, even bit my tongue. Anything to rid myself of this presence. And just as sudden as it appeared, it was gone. I recoiled from the pain only to realize that I hadn't moved at all and was still frozen in time.

As my thoughts began to fade the only thing that had surfaced was a short but odd tale I had heard as a child.

Come whence, come forth,

to hear the story of a Prince in the North.

In a tale as old as mine,

a story lost to time.

Never before had the dark had come to take us all,

but it was she who took the fall.

Divinity was his curse by right,

so he sought to end this unseemly blight.

Even on this moonless night’s tale,

the crimson night he wrought I have yet to regale.

Resume your suspension of disbelief,

for the rest of the story shall not be brief.

Stories to be told and so much to behold.

She wishes for it to not be left in the cold.

Then darkness came and welcomed me with sleep

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Aria

"Hey! What happened to you! You were just fine a moment ago!"

My uneasiness grew as my savior had just experienced a intense headache, spasmed and now stood in silence as I tried to shake him awake. I searched his body for any sign of recent injuries and found that he had been stabbed and patched with hastily done work. I looked into his eyes that had a glossed look and noticed a strange rune (ᚫ) within the iris of his eyes. I pushed that thought to the back of my mind as I immediately thought to take him somewhere safe. 

"Gods damnit! I can't even get a damn break."

I pulled the man onto my back as I struggled to carry him to safety.

"Ughh, You're so damn heavy."

End of Chapter 1