Unexpected Heroes

Thick of moisture and yet crisp like the high altitudes of the snowy tundras to the north, several breaths of cloaked figures cloud up the cramped space of the non-roofed wagon. Most of them covering themselves up from the erratically ever-changing weather with rags and scavenged fur, they sit silent and still as opposed to their neighboring caravans. However, one of them wishes to make chit-chat in the seemingly bleak tension that hangs over their shoulders.

A half-elf. Unlike the others, he dons no hood, revealing his pointy ears that stretch towards the top of his silvery short hair. He examines the room with his optimistic hazel-colored eyes as he begins to seek communion with his newly acquainted traveling mates. And finally, he makes eye contact with the one sitting across from him. A tiny halfling. Tiny is saying it politely as she hangs below the shorter side of the race. Like him, she shared the same hopeful eyes buried underneath her messy top of hair.

"Are you from Menone?" He flashes a friendly look at her.

At first, she hesitates as she was ready to break eye contact to avoid conversation, but as he already spoke the words, her kindness forced her hand. "Is it because I'm short?"

"Ah, no no… Well, yes but that was rather presumptuous to say... I'm sorry," he retracts, "I was simply looking to make—" he cuts himself off by clearing his throat and now raises out a hand to introduce himself. "My name is Levi."

Paused, she responds, "Mardo, Mardo Thistletop." She smiles at his awkwardness, and decides to amuse him by answering, "I am from from Menone, and yes, I am a halfling. But I was not raised there."

"I was about to say, Menone is quite the ways from here."

"It is."

"Are you a recruit?"

"Yes, but more as a student."

"What do you mean?"

"They have other things besides room and board. They offer knowledge, and I hope to improve on something while I am there."

"Is that something meant to be secretive?"

"Not really, but are you yourself interested in the arcane arts?"

"Magic?"

"Yeah, magic."

Levi takes a moment to think, but as he ponders, Mardo realizes she is not the only one interested in the wild magics of the world. A few peering eyes and slight fidgets of interest coming from the rest of the wagon.

"I wouldn't say that magic is an interest nor is it a disinterest. I do think it is far more dangerous than we ever thought it could be, I mean, it is what caused this whole mess in the first place, is it not."

"I guess that's true." She grasps onto her worn backpack straps tightly. In order to change the subject off of her, she flings back the same question towards him. "Are you joining as a recruit?"

"Technically, yes, but I volunteered. I lost my home, and I had nowhere else to turn. So, I wanted to take a step in helping prevent that before many end up like me."

"How noble of you," a voice beside him speaks up. "So you're another hero planning to step into the fray?" She turns to Levi with a fearsome look. Brows furrowed, her narrow eyes peer into his as they both examine each other's expressions. Her face hides underneath the veil of darkness coming from her worn hood; but upon examination, her skin is a faint violet and her hair carries a soft purplish white. Perhaps an elf as well?

"I don't claim to be a hero, I just want to put my hand into the efforts of ending the catastrophe." Instead of responding to his answer, she simply huffs and turns away from him. Confused, he tracks back toward Mardo, but it seems she used that opportunity to return to her own thoughts. At a loss, Levi finds himself looking toward the backside of the wagon and into the open air.

The caravan of horse-drawn carriages follow along a beaten-down dirt road towards a fortress they call Warden's Keep, where many people, big and small, become recruits for the Wardens of the Flame. Despite being heavily guarded with battle-experienced people who more than likely can hold their own, the ominous feeling of the tall pine tree forest made them on high alert. They were deep into goblin country now, but clearly the Flame found that practice against goblins was a sufficient way to hone their skills in the later fight against the real threat. But the real threat stands as tall as mountains in comparison to these mole hills. Regardless, the goblins are small and tiny, often equipped with daggers, clubs, and makeshift spears. They hold no real challenge; however, they act in numbers and resort to ambushes amongst their woods. If not carefully handled, a caravan could be quickly overwhelmed. As a result, nobody was at ease, and they would all simply watch the skulking forest like their life depended on it.

Luckily, the Keep was approximately a day's away. Unlike the dreary terrain around us, the keep supposedly stands at a glorious ten story high tower that reaches well above the forested region at the top of an overlooking hill. A substantial village surrounds it that aids the Wardens in their training and upholds the basic necessities. The food is good apparently. According to Francisco at least. He claims that good folk live there. But Mardo begins to ponder if his claims will be true. The company he has now is awful as she looks towards the cart that follows theirs. A dark red haired elf holds a canteen out of reach from a smaller and more innocent-looking blonde haired man. The elf proceeds to down the canteen with some wasteful splashing outside the cart.

"Hey, that's all the water I've got left!"

"Aren't we brothers-in-arms now mate? I was thirsty!"

A burly orc from behind grabs onto the innocent man's shoulder and sort've applies weight onto him to force him down onto his seat. "Pipe down, would ya? Man's was thirsty, there is more water to go around, eh?" The size of the orc has the man clammed up. Gritting his teeth, he looks down at his feet to avoid any more confrontation.

As much as Levi wants to say something to them, he instead deters his attention away from the cart. But as he focuses his attention elsewhere, he notices a glimpse of one of the lads in the cart with him. Red skin with the eyes of a jaguar in the night and teeth as sharp as blades. He looks like he could be dangerous, but for that split second of eye contact they made, Levi reads a different and much more interesting story behind those pupils. But, he can't help getting the feeling that he has seen the man somewhere once before. He decides he will approach him when the time is right. Perhaps at the Keep.

Unfortunately, the purple-skinned elf doesn't believe they will even make it through the night, let alone the keep. Something taught to her was that amongst these forests was the soft faint chirping of the southern-aldrin cricket. Unlike normal crickets, these would not chirp to attract a mate nor were they nocturnal, no, they would chirp to alert their fellow friends of safety. She attempts to listen to them, but she finds herself irritated by the loud and obnoxious gaping holes some of her peers have called a mouth. Coming once again from the rambunctious wagon behind them, they yell and holler hearty laughs like adolescent teenagers and just the moment they would go quiet, a burst of laughter interrupts the nature about them.

Grinding her teeth, she finally stands up. "Would you guys shut the fuck up for five minutes!"

"Oi! Who's you talking to, bitch!?" The red-haired elf stands up and challenges her.

"You, asshole! You're gonna get us killed if you don't shut your goddamn mouth!"

"What! You afraid of a bunch of tiny green dudes with pointy sticks or something?" an unseen lad in the back calls out.

"Gus over 'ere got a green pointy stick too if you want something else to be scared of!" the red-haired elf wheezes as the others join in on the laughter.

The banter continues as the caravan comes to a very noticeable stop. The crunching of snow from metallic footsteps approaches from the side. Emerging from out of view, a pale-looking man with a bright red nose in worn half-plate armor lifts up his face masked helmet. "Alright, das it!" He exclaims, "both of you knock it off right now or you'll be walking the rest of the way back, and damn it," he slams on the wagon with a sledgehammer fist which abruptly breaks their hollering laughter, "I mean now!" The forest goes quiet, not a bird or crickets chirping in the distance. The purple-skinned elf's eyes widen, she slowly stands and her ears twitch. But the man interrupting the drama ignores it. He looks back and forth with his wild eyes to make sure he got his point across. He nods and slams his face mask shut as he turns away.

The PWANG of a rock-shaped arrowhead bounces off his helmet, knocking him onto his ass and all the horses neigh in fright. Dozens of arrows fly toward their way from the left side of the road. Levi takes the initiative to jump out of the cart to help the officer to safety. His face looking very cross-eyed, the dazed officer clearly has no idea where he is. Levi lifts the officer's arm around his shoulder. An arrow flies his way, and DINKS. He isn't wounded. Levi looks up to see Mardo standing in his wake with a laid out spell book in the palm of her hands and the other reaching toward the fire. His mind not comprehending, her mouth gives an inaudible yell to go. He lifts the officer and hurriedly dives behind the cart.

The purple-skinned elf flings out her very own bow and scrunches up very low behind the seats of the wagon. She removes an arrow from her quiver and brings it to her bowstring. She repeatedly peaks her head over the side, but is shut down constantly by the rain of arrows coming from the woods. Exhaling every time she attempts to peek, she is brought back to reality. She can't do it. Deep exhale to control her mind, she lifts her head once more and an arrow connects into the wood beam before her. Her head dips back below the line. She can't, she can't, she can't.

A sudden firm grasp to the back collar of her jacket lifts her out of the wagon onto the snowy ground as if she was tossed like a crate. She tumbles, but catches herself by the hands and feet. She looks up and standing before her is an eight foot tall being of a woman towering in the view of the sun above.

The tall woman spits into her rough hands and rubs them furiously together. She grasps the bottom end of the carriage, then lifts. The wagon tumbles onto its side along the road. The arrows strike into the wagon's floorboards, making repeated thuds and wooden reverb. The big woman holds out her hand in front of the elf's face. "Come now, won't be able to fight with your bum on the ground like that!" she proclaims, almost like she is enjoying this. The elf exhales slowly to relax her frizzled mind, and then takes a hold of the burly hand before her.

The wagon behind them began to follow suit, but was not fast enough. Green-colored beings emerge from the brushes of the forest floor like blurs, wielding clubs high into the air and screaming some sort of gibberish nobody around seems to understand. They leap onto the back carriage, forcing Gus the Orc to drop the wagon back right-side-up. With a sickening blow, the goblin nails Gus across the face. Blood spurts and a tooth goes flying as the tall orc goes timbering down onto the gravel ground. The goblin raises his blood soaked weapon over the red-haired elf now as he screams for mercy.

"Fuck away from me!" He closes his eyes like he is ready for his fate when blood splatters across his torso. He glances at the goblins face that is now stunned and frozen in place. Its head tilts to the side, revealing an iron-head arrow protruding through its skull. It falls dead. On the other end, the purple-skinned elf with an un-knocked bowstring lowers it and stares daggers into his fearful eyes. She exhales deeply and looses tension in her shoulders. Her eyebrows furrowed, she latches another arrow into her bow and begins to release them into the forest.

Levi lifts the helmet off the officer's face, revealing his messy head of unwashed blonde hair. His eyes still dazed from the impact, Levi attempts to shake his shoulders. "Hey, come back to me!" He frantically looks around for a healer, but his eyes are met with hysteria. The elf slinging arrows repeatedly into the thicket of trees. Mardo blasting goblins with bursts of light blue rays of magic. A goblin thrusts itself into the air with a leveraged jump over the wagon, but the tall woman immediately slings a javelin through its gullet back to where it once came. Everyone was fighting for their lives, but among the chaos stood a single character, cloaked and unafraid. He remained calm in the storm.

A single flame lights up in the enveloping darkness as the goblins begin gaining momentum. His red fingers warps a bright red fire into existence from the palm of his hands. He nestles it into a fist and throws his hand back, whipping it forward with swift motion. It arcs and blows furiously into a wall of fire that stretches across the gravel ground and separates the road from the veil of the forest. Goblins scream in agonizing terror as they screech and hiss from the sheer power of magic. Like wounded and frightened pups, they wince in retreat towards the dark ends of the unreachable woods. The sounds of battle die down and the world is filled once again with a longing tension.

Levi peeks his head over the wagon very slowly. He grips the wood firmly with his eyebrows pointed upward with wonder and concern as the others follow suit in peering. Fire crackling immensely over any other sound, the group is left in awe as they see the single monster standing before them. The fire drifts weakly. The silhouette reveals this man's true distinguished features in the light. Horns as sturdy and dark as obsidian. A tail, pointy and light, swishing back and forth in the wind. Skin as red as the blood spilled today. A demon is among them.