Dark Haven

Dark Haven

  The moon caresses the night sky, clouds drift by the cool moonlight, casting eerie shadows upon the damp ground as they pass by.  Shadows of creatures skirt through the trees of the Forest, a rabbit dashes from the underbrush. A howl is heard in the near area, the rabbit's eyes widen as it scurries into its burrow. The figure of an overly large man steps out from behind a tree, stepping into the moonlight, saliva dripping from its chops, claws extended and flexing, bloodlust in its eyes. Its haunches are tense as if expecting an attack from an unseen foe. A crack of a branch, the creature jrks its head in the direction of the sound, a figure bursts out of the trees, and through a hail of fur the two creatures are tangled, biting, clawing, and ripping flesh. The creatures tumble around on the ground, mud clinging to their fur. The first creature stands up, blood gushing from its mouth, the other lay prone on the ground in a pool of blood. The one left alive is matted with mud and blood, its eyes still glinting red in the soft moonlight. The creature's bones start to morph; a horrid howl is heard, echoing miles around. The chops of the creature start to shrink, bone crunching to form back together into a human jaw, the haunches crunching into place, the claws retracting through the skin, the fur falling off. In a matter of seconds the beast is laying upon the ground, surrounded by fur and in a human form.

Chapter 1: The Meeting

A town, full of life and entwined with humans and non-humans, the city of Hurlock, one of the major cities of the region, the biggest commerce and governmental city. Tradesmen from the North, sailors from the East, nomads from the West, and warriors from the South are gathered in the city. Most races interact with one another, others are sold as slaves, some are naturally afraid for their lives as are  the customs of assassinations. A man in a dark blue travelers cloak is walking among a bustling crowd, his arms slightly bulging with muscles, his figure is fit and he is in good shape as he must be for an assassin. He is traveling from a little hovel not to far off from all the bustle of the town, to the Assassins Guild. A man bursts from a tavern nearby and he immediately puts his hands to his weapons, the man bumps into him, "Watch were yer goin' you lil punk" He says blatantly, the reeking odor of alcohol on his breath. A silent swish of a blade and blood spurts from the mans neck, the man walks along as if nothing had happened. A moment later, the man a couple of blocks away hears the shriek of a woman, a sly grin grows on his face, Damn people in this town, he thinks to himself. He takes a left down a narrow alleyway, cats are huddled in a makeshift trashcan, and a poorly lit lamp is hanging in front of a door marked with a rune symbol. The man speaks a few words "Harlok media morishia bantook." The door opens and the man steps in, several people are here, sitting at small oaken tables conversing with one another about another 'good days work'. The man walks to the counter; he says in a smooth deep voice to the barkeep, "Let me speak to Bieremes" The barkeep nods and walks back behind a door, closing it behind him.
A voice is heard shouting behind the door and the barkeep opens up "He will see you know" he says. The man walks behind the counter and goes through the door. A man is sitting behind an enormous redwood table; an extensive library covers his walls. The man looks up from some papers "Ahhh, you have arrived Dust" The man says with a slight smile. Dust flinches a little, "Please Biremes don't call me that within earshot of anyone else, my name is to be kept a secret,  do you understand?" Dust says with a deadly glint in his eye. Biremes nods slowly, "Sure, Sure. Your kind are always so secretive..Now for buisness." Dust nods and takes a seat in a chair in front of the desk. Biremes continues, "Now, I need you to go and...recover some property of mine." Dust nods again and opens his mouth to speak but the man interrupts. "Before you ask, you will be paid greatly, do not worry about that.
"I have the finances, as you can see" Biremes waves his hands around the room. "But…I need a successful assassin the do this mission, do you accept? The last ones I hired were.. unfortunantly…killed in the process of retrieving my items." Dust shrugs, "I am better than most in my profession." Great play the pompous know-it-all for the man, he thinks to himself. Biremes smiles greatly, "Excellent, I hope for your own sake you are better than most. But we shall find that out now won't we?" At this Biremes gives a wicked look at Dust. "I guess we shall. Now, what is it you wish me to retrieve and where is this item?" Biremes looks at the door then back at Dust, "Well…It is located in the Temple of Araldite, in the Southern region." Dust nods, noting the sweat dripping from Biremes' forehead and the quickening of his breath. "You may have to do a little fighting, nothing too hard for one of your…caliber." Dust nods and Biremes continues, "Will you accept, I will pay you 1,000 gold pieces if you bring half of the treasure and I will pay you 10,000 gold pieces if you bring the complete thing. Including the guardian of these treasures." Dust looks around the room, then to Biremes. He keeps quiet for a minute, Good; make sure there is some hesitation before accepting. "Yes…I will accept this task, what are the names of these treasures?" The man looks at him again, his heartbeat slowing down slightly, "They are called… The Tome of Marininth and The Staff of Loki" Dust looks at the man again, a little sign of shock on his face. "Fine, I shall return when I have these items." He stands up and walks out the door. The bartender nods to him and Dust exits the little meeting area. Then walks back down the alleyway toward the gate of the city.

In a small village far off from the bustling city of Hurlock a young woman lies in bed, troubled with visions that reek havoc upon her body. Making her thrash and spew words about the end of human rule and the beginning of non-human rule. The local priest tells her mother "Your daughter is wrought with the possession of a demon. I am terribly sorry, but we must perform and exorcism upon her to rid her of this.... evil." The mother, face coved in tears, her eyes swollen from crying, nods and puts a handkerchief to her eyes and dabs at them gently. The priest exits the household and walks to the monastery; he summons his assistants and tells them of the exorcism that will occur within the hour.  The priest goes into a back room and dons his scapular and his rosary. He summons his assistants to accompany him to the household. All three of them walk down the path from the monastery, the assistants a little nervous about the upcoming exorcism. As they arrive at the house, the mother greats them at the door, "Thank you so much Father Mosaus."  The Father nods, "You are welcome my child, it is my duty banish this evil."  He says as he walks up the stairs towards the young girls room.
Father Mosaus opens the door to the room, he looks at the young girl, "I am terribly sorry for this, " He says as he pulls out a dagger. Father Mosaus walks over to the young girl and places the dagger over her. The girls eyes open wide and she stares at the Father, her arms fling wildly as she tries to make him back away. " I am sorry for this my daughter, it is what must happen in order to protect this village." She clenches her fist and hits the Father in the nose; a crisp crunching of the cartilage is heard as her fist connects. She quickly gets out of her bed and runs down the stairs, tears streaming down her face, she runs out of the house. Outside the Father's two assistants are waiting; they look at her wide eyed as she runs past them. The girl stops and looks at the assistants they lunge at her and she turns and sprints out of town.
Dust is walking out of the city gates; he is traveling down a well-worn path. He dons his blue travelers cloak and stalks off into the Forest. "This is the worst job I have accepted yet, does Biremes really think that I don't know what he is trying to do?" He mumbles to himself.

Chapter 2: Fates Intertwined

Isabella is slowly walking down a path in the Forest; she notices that there are no birds, no squirrels, no rabbits, and no kind of animal in the vicinity. She stops pondering what is wrong with the Forest, she is standing at a cross road where many travelers come through.
Dust comes upon a young girl standing in the cross roads, he looks at her with a quizzical stare, and walks right by her. She looks at him, her face flushing. "Sir" She says to him in a croaking voice, her eyes tearing up. He stops and turns around to look at her, "Yes, what is it you want?" He says in a fairly kind voice, the best he can muster. The young girl looks at the dirt road then back up at Dust, "Can I ask where you are headed?" He looks at the girl, looking her up and down wondering if she is a spy or someone sent to kill him. "Well, I am headed into the Southern Region, to the mountains, why do you ask?" She takes a step closer to him, his hands fly immediately to his daggers. "I want to travel with you sir. Please may I accompany you?" He turns around and starts to walk away "This is foolish, you're a young girl, you can't fight nor are you of any use to me, so why should I let you come with me?" She starts to walk after him, "I am a healer sir, I can help you if you need."
He turns, "You're a healer? You don't look like one…" He says in a quizzical voice. "Well I am, I have been since I can remember, my old teacher, our high priest,  is the one who taught me to hone my abilities. So may I please join you?" He stops, I really wonder what her intentions are…"I guess you can join me, try anything and you are dead though, understand?" Her eyes widen as she nods slowly, "Y-Yes sir…" He shakes his head, "Call me Dust" He turns and walks down the path again. "Yes.... Dust, and you can call me Isabella" The two travelers continue off down the path, eyes watching them from the brush.   
A shadow is running through the Forest, skirting from bush to bush, right alongside the travelers. A knife is thrown from the brush towards the male of the two travelers. The male seems to hear the knife thrown and catches it in-between his fingers looking in the direction of the shadow. The shadow of the man quickly flees from the scene, leaving the two travelers in wonder.
Dust is looking into the Forest, but to no avail. He looks at the knife that has been thrown at him. His finger is sliced from the blade; he looks at the cut, blood dripping to the ground. "Damn, I caught it wrong…" He says inspecting the cut, "It wasn't poisoned thankfully" Isabella looks at his cut and places her hands over it, a faint white light emits from her hands, she removes her hands and looks at the cut, "There all good, does that prove I'm a healer?" He shakes his head, "Almost anyone with ANY magical power can heal a minor cut such as that...we shall see what powers you truely possess." She is shocked at his audacity but continues to walk. He slows down his pace to walk beside her, "So where are you from and why are you leaving? If you don't mind me asking Isabella." She looks at her feet, "I'm from a small village, I had to leave…I got into some....trouble there." Her eyes welling up with tears. "I'm sorry Isabella, I didn't mean to upset you." Dust says in a quieter voice walking faster to get in front of her. "Well, well all have hard times, I know I have" He gives a weak smile, "But we all get over it somehow, so don't fret to much on the past and think about the now." She looks up at him, tears streaming down her face, "Thank you Dust…" They continue down the path towards the distant mountains.

"I want that bastards head on a silver platter! Wait..no he is not good enough for a silver platter, I want his head staked and put in front of the pigs." says a man dressed in royal garb. Servents scurry here and there to serve their king. A man is bowing before the king, "Yes M'Lord...I will do as you wish" He says in a drone voice. The king nods and waves a hand, the man stands and abruptly turns and exits. The king narrows his eyes and points to a servent, "Come" The servent scurries to him as fast as possible, "Yes M'Lord?" He looks to the door where the man exited, "I want you to watch him close...do not let him leave your sight, if he does anything suspicious report back to me..got it?" The servent bows his head, "Yes M'Lord" he quickly leaves the room in search of the man.

Heart racing, blood pumping, eyes foggy a man dashes through the brush. He looks around wild eyed, blood streaked across his body, "Wha..Wha-wha...where am-am I.." he says in a rasping voice. He races down a soden hill, tripping over a large tree branch. He falls upon an old worn road, sending dust up into the air, he starts to cough and blood trickles from his mouth. His eyes go dark and his mind stops racing through the thoughts of what happend, he drifts into a state of unconciousness.

Dust and Isabella come across a man whom has seemed to have had an accident, "Dust, hes hurt!" Isabella blatently states. Dust bends down and inspects the man, "He is badly wounded, we should see if we can get him concious." Isabella kneels next to the man and puts her hands over his head, a bright light emmits from her hands and the man slowly stirs, he grumbles a bit but doesn't say anything coherent. "What should we do Dust?" Dust looks at her then back at the man, "I'm not sure...lets try to move him out of the road and into that clearing, hopefully we wont hurt him too bad...." He points to a small little cove in the dense forest. "We will wait there until he stirs." Isabella nods and stands up, Dust picks the man up and carries him to the clearing and sets him down gently. "I will get a fire started to try and keep him warm and fend off any predators that might decide to come and inspect the blood." Isabella nods and sets down next the man, she opens a small pack that Dust had and pulls out a flask of water, a small bowl and a dry piece of cloth. She starts to clean his wounds as Dust comes back with some dry timber, "It isn't much but atleast it will burn good." She nods and continues cleaning the mans wounds, "I wish we knew his name and what he was doing out here." Dust looks at her, "Perhaps we will know soon enough".....

Visions of death, blood and gore haunt the unconcious man in his coma like state. He rolls over as sounds become more and more coherent, the crackling of a fire, the wind blowing threw the trees and soft whispers. The man slowly opens his eyes, his vision blurry. He tries to say something but just a soft rasp escapes his cracked lips. His two unknown companions rise and step quickly over to him, he hears some mumbling and feels the warmth of a womans hands on his forehead.

"I think hes stirring Dust" Isabella says to Dust, her voice an overtone of happiness. Dust grabs a damp cloth and puts it to the mans forehead, "Yes he is beginning to stir, we might get some answers out of him soon." The man moves around a little, trying to sit up but not being able to. Isabella puts a flask to the mans lips as the man greedily swallows the contents. Dust stands up, "I'm going to go get somemore fire wood I'll be back soon." Time slowly passes by as Dust is gone, the man is making audible whispers and Isabella is marking everything to memory.

"No..N..No...Please don't, ARRRRGGGHHH!!"