Shadow Walker

                My name is Will. I am the last, all that is left of us. My mentor Charles is dead. Our leader, David, is dead. Charlene...she is gone. Whoever finds this should know that we have failed. They say that pride comes before the fall, and we were the most proud warriors in all Runtmar. Knowing that we kept the evil at bay and that we are....I suppose I should say were now...were the greatest warriors the world had ever known. How foolish we were. We ignored Master Flay's warnings of the approaching doom. We laughed at the old seer's face and told him we could keep the Night at bay. How wrong we were.
                I wonder if it gives his spirit any pleasure knowing that he was right.
                The Day had made us weak, though we did not know it. All of us believed that the Night would never again plague our lands as long as the Shadow Walkers stood strong. We made our daily raids into the North's blasted night, confronting the foul beasts that reside there, before they could make their way down south. Before they could bring the Eternal Night with them. Everything was as it should be, the Shadow Walkers guarded the South and the world stood at peace. Then it happened.
                Brock was the only one to make it back from the raid that day. He told a tale of his party being ambushed by Ravens. His raid leader, Ashor, was the first to fall as an arrow took him in the throat, knocking him from his horse. Blink was next. He ran to Ashor's aid, only to be cut down by a Raven from behind. Marlen rallied the men to him in the ensuing chaos, but it was too late. The Ravens had surrounded the Walkers and were cutting them down mercilessly. Brock somehow managed to escape the massacre, the last he saw of his troop was Marlen making a last stand on a nearby hilltop with a few men. 
                  When Brock arrived with the news, David immediately organized a rescue party. Not that it did much good. Only half the force came back, David was not with them. I saw the army that chased down our men. From the battlement I could see Ravens, Minx, Fallen, and ungainly beasts in innumerable numbers.
                  Charles took charge and told us to prepare to defend the walls. I stood at my post, Charlene at my left and Gregg to my right. When the attack came, the Fallen unleashed Night magic the likes of which I have never seen before. They blew our walls apart. I myself was thrown from the battlement. When I managed to regain my wits I saw that Gregg had landed next to me, only his head had been crushed by rock and mortar. I could not find Charlene.
                  The enemy flooded the gaps in our defense. I ran to the nearest gap to try to stem the tide. Regardless of how many fiends I struck down, more and more replaced them. Soon we had to fall back to the citadel. I ran for my life as soon as I heard the word. I am not a coward, but I feared for my life.
                  As I reached the Citadel I looked down the hill at the chaos below. Charles and some brave souls were covering our retreat. But it was futile. I saw each the men struck down before my own eyes. Charles was the last to fall, his body was covered in arrows and run through with no less than four spears. In the end I saw him overwhelmed, never succumbing to his many wounds. He was a brave man, my mentor.
                  We closed the door to the Citadel as Charles was swept away in a sea of bodies. As I looked around I saw there were less than one hundred of us. We had been close to two thousand strong before the battle. A heated debate occurred next while we tried to figure a way out of the mess we had put ourselves in. Some wanted to wait out the enemy, some wanted to have a glorious last stand. We decided we need to try to break free and warn the other Bastions of the Shadow Walkers.
                  The Citadel gate opened and we charged. I was near the front center of our wedge and could feel the blood of our men and enemies cover my face as we progressed. It wasn't long until I found my way to the front of the formation the brethren in front of me having been cut down.
                  Somehow, a few of us made it to the open. Enough of us to run in different directions to avoid even more slaughter. Only three of us made it to safety. Briggs, Brock, and myself. Briggs died of his wounds on the ten day march to Shadow Keep. When we reached the Shadow keep, we saw horror. It was gone, left a smoldering shell of its former grandeur. If the Shadow Keep had fallen, so had the rest of our Bastions. We had failed in our sacred duty to stop the Night. But it had come.
                    In all the excitement I had not noticed the change in light. The sun was waning. The Night was arriving. Brock looked at me, then the sky, then to me again. His final words were, "So it ends." With that he charged the Shadow Keep and I never saw him come out. I write this as a testament to our shame. I have abandoned all of my armor except my Shadow Cloak and Sword. To whoever finds this document, know that the Shadow Warriors will leave this plane with my death. I will wander to the furthest reaches of the Dark North. I will find the cause of this unification of evil and I will put a stop to it. Or I will die trying.