Prologue

I sat sword in hand looking over the rest of my company. There were around a thousand men all armed and well trained before me. The large variation in ages would have made them look mismatched but we were all wearing the same uniforms. It made us look proud and strong. I’m sure that was the point of it. The fortress walls rose around us and most things were in shadow except for the few holding torches.
Our leader was speaking but I was so far back in the crowd of warriors I couldn’t here him. As you might imagine there was a large amount of clinks and clangs coming from all the armor everyone was wearing. Eventually his speech was over and everyone saluted, breaking of into there patrols. By that time it was almost black out.
Everyone was hungry so Damien was assigned to cook as he usually was. We all sat down and removed our armor, and began eating the chicken Damien had cooked. There was a small rumbling in the distance. “Thunderstorm,” David muttered through a full mouth. Damien looked off into the woods a worried look on his face. “What is it?” I asked.
“Nothing,” said Damien. “It was nothing.” I shrugged and went back to eating my chicken. David wiped the grease from his mouth and tossed away the chicken bones. “We should waterproof the tents,” he said, and walked off. “David’s being extra talkative today,” I joked. Damien didn’t even seem to here me. He was still looking into the woods. His eyes suddenly widened. “ARM YOURSELVES!!!” he hollered.
“What is it!?!?” I asked him as I grabbed my sword.
“I saw a dæmon,” he growled. David ran over.
“Why are you two yelling?” he asked
“Damien saw a dæmon!” I exclaimed, frantically shoving my armor over my shoulders.
“I’ll raise the alarm,” said David and he ran off. Soon we heard the CLANG, CLANG, CLANG of the alarm bell and we ran to our stations by the east wall. As I ran I could see the bright red gleam of dæmon fire through the trees and smelled the putrid smoke that rose from it. As I stood by the wall with David and Damien by my side I couldn’t help but over hear the Captain talking with a soldier. “You! Soldier, where are the scouts?”
“They haven’t come back yet Captain,”
“God help them.” Murmured the Captain.
I shivered. What were we doing fighting a dæmon? It was suicide. A loud smash to the east made me spin my head back around to the forest. That’s when I saw it, enwreathed in bright red flame walking through trees as if they weren’t even there. Wings sprouted from its back, large and skeletal. And he rose from the ground above the trees. Its massive body blocked the sun. I stood stunned and in awe as it began coming down over us. I came out of my trance and dived closer to the wall. After what seemed like a lifetime the dæmon landed on the ground the shear noise was deafening I heard a smash and the wall nearest me shook and began to crumble. My arm had a rock on top of it and was in excruciating pain. Through the stone I could hear the faint sounds of men calling out and the clang of swords. Slowly the sounds grew fainter and my sight went dark.




Chapter 1


The first thing I heard was the rumbling of rock. Slowly I slipped back into consciousness and my eyes opened. I tried to reach up to rub my eyes. But instead I was greeted by a shooting pain up my arm. I winced and everything that happened began coming back to me. Suddenly a beam of light shone on my face and I squinted to see what was making it. There was a face in front of me it looked ragged and tired, there was a wound across it’s eye and a burn mark all up the left side. I made a motion to my assumably broken arm. The man reached in and moved the rock to the side. Then he reached out to me and took his hand with my good arm. He pulled me out into what I finally realized was a beautiful summer day. But as my eye’s adjusted the scene that befell me was most definitely not anywhere near beauty bodies were everywhere the main building of the fort was almost burned to the ground. A tattered banner stuck out of a pile of rubble. I realized with horror that a dead man still clung to it.
“HEY,” said the soldier getting my attention. “There are a few more of us over the hill. You might want to come with me.” I nodded obliviously and began to follow him out of the fortress trying not to look down at the fallen warriors.
We walked trough a large hole in the stone wall. I could only imagine what made it. And I didn’t want to. As we trudged up the grassy hill I saw the flowers perfect and unscathed, a beacon of light in a desolate landscape. But I turned away from them to look over the hill because we had just arrived at the top. The sight I saw was disappointing I had hoped a hundred men or so had escaped but there were four, only four out of the thousand that had been there just last evening. One of them began walking towards me and the other soldier. Once he was close enough I could see who he was. It was Damien. He looked at me astonished. “I never thought they’d actually find you! Thank god,” I grinned a bitter unhappy grin and made a gesture towards my arm. “Oh,” He said “Hold on,” Damien walked to another man over in group and said a few short indiscernible words. The man stood up and they both started walking back to me.
The man took my shoulders, sat me down and began looking over my broken arm in silence. Damien looked down on me and said “This lad’s name is Michael. He has some healing experience.” I looked back down at my arm and it had already been splinted with black cloth. Michael made a small smile that only flashed for a second and then was gone. Damien tapped my shoulder getting my attention. “Come, let me introduce you to the others.” We walked over to them and he pointed at the first one. “This,” said Damien “is Christopher,”
“Hello.” said Christopher quietly. Damien moved on to the next one (who if I hadn’t known better I would have said was a giant) and said “This is Aton. He used to be a berserker for the King’s Men in the north.” My eye’s were drawn to his sword it of course was also massive. I could fit five hands down its hilt and the blade in it’s self was comparable to my height. “Aye that I am son,” He leaned down close and inspected my face. “You don’t look the strong sort do ya? HA, HA, HA, HA, ha…”
“Well now,” said Damien “You’ve already met Sean.” He made a gesture toward the man who had led me over the hill. “Yes,” I said.
“Well,” said Sean as he walked over. “I think we should get moving.”
“Moving where?” asked Damien.
“Tolosund, the nearest allied fortress.”
“It sounds like a plan, let’s go.” We all began to walk east towards Tolosund through the burned wood. As we went I noticed Christopher had a limp so I asked him where he got it but he didn’t answer.