Prologue
The ground shook and trembled as if it was falling apart. Gouts of red hot flames shooting up out of fissures created to destroy. Destroy everything and everyone in Kel´s Hill. Homes that stood for centuries lay in ruin. The once vibrant town is now just a shell of what used to be. Dark black scorch marks that outlined where a person once stood on walls that once shone with alabaster. Wagons abandoned and twisted in eye bending shapes scattered throughout the main street as townsfolk ran seeking any shelter they could find against the onslaught waged against them.
What were proud towers, that once flew bright colorful banners with a circular multicolor symbol arcing to a midpoint with a golden sun, lay in rubble. Long furrowed scratches on the stone making it seem like it was torn apart by a giant. The soot covered and torn banners laying in heaps, no longer recognizable.
Khenn´an let out a gasp of air as he stumbled and fell. Sweat plastering his dark locks of hair to his face, blinding him to the rocks in front of him as he sprinted down the narrow path. No more than a gaming trail, barely perceptible to the untrained eye and only followed by smaller animals looking to escape humans.
He picked himself up quickly, ignoring his shambled state. What used to be an almost regal blouse of deep blue and green was torn in several places by what could have been a wild cat. His once fine leather boots singed at the top but also somehow soaking wet so with every step he took they squished uncomfortably.
Forcing himself to ignore it, and the stabbing pain in his arm where a long gash was laid open to the bone, he ran along the trail picking up the pace and going quicker now, not daring to look back. He could hear the howls and screeches behind him in the distance, pushing them out of his mind as he searched for the place he heard in stories. The one place that could save him and everything he just lost.
His lungs burning with each breath, legs pounding down the trail twisting and turning like a hare being chased by a coyote. Khenn´an mind darts over the past 24 hours, each burst of memory striking him as hard as the branches of new growth rubber trees. Flashes of his family; his beautiful wife, her raven black hair bouncing around her beaming face as she smiles at him. His two boys rolling on the ground wrestling to prove to him who is stronger.
Out of the corner of his eye he sees a flash of red and black and barely is able to react before the Hell hound tears him to the ground. Khenn´an feels the hot fetid breath against his neck, the razor sharp teeth snapping shut on air as he is able to kick it away from him. He scrabbled for his short sword tearing it out of its sheath as the hound got back up and pounced on him. Pure adrenaline and quick reflexes allow him to get his sword in front of him in time to catch the Hell hound in the chest stabbing through its heart as it lands on him.
“ Get up…….Get up!” Khenn´an implores himself to keep going. Rolling the heavy horrid smelling corpse off of him, He wobbles to his feet, stumbling back onto the trail. Boom! A flash of the nightmare his life had popped into his mind. The explosion, that blinding white hot explosion that threw his precious Marie´en against the wall like a rag doll. Her slender limbs twisted and bent in unnatural ways. The horror as he ran to her side, clutching her to him; crying her name out louder and louder but realizing that her glazed over eyes no longer held the life in them that always brought a smile to his face. His 2 sons were gone in the destruction that forever took away his home. Nowhere to be found in the debris.
Tears running channels of dirt down his face, his heart aching; feeling like it is bursting through his chest but at the same time a hollow, ravenous hole that devours all his thoughts and emotions leaving nothing behind. Then a thought tugs his mind, and his body, back towards his goal. The fire of hope spreads out from that aching hole where his heart was, coursing through his body urging him on as he picks up his pace. Something in the back of his mind pushes him on, never failing in correcting his direction, always heading towards a spot that he can now feel calling to him.
Khenn´an clears his mind and tries hard to focus on remembering what he needs to do. His eyes glinting like emeralds as the sun catches those piercing green eyes, darting around and making sure no more obstacles stood in the way of his path. All branches and vines bent away from his path. Turning his head slightly to the side he hears the sounds of dozens of soldiers panting as they beat their ways through the brush not far behind him. A whisper in the wind brushes by Khenn´an as a devilish half smile slowly creeps across his face.
Almost.. he thinks to himself scrabbling up and over a hill seemingly made up of boulders that appear out of the undergrowth. The smooth stones are slick with the heat and humidity of the day, his fingers easily finding handholds from what must be centuries of weather. His muscles aching; feeling heavier as he climbs higher. As he crests the top the sun half blinds him before he can adjust. Eyes darkening as he filters out most of the light to make it easier to see. Staring out over a field of tall grass swaying as though to wind even though the air is dead still here.
Khenn´an slowly walks into the field, tense and at the ready should something rear its head up out of the grass. Listening for the soldiers that he knows must be coming up the hill he just scaled, he hears nothing. Not a bird, insect or even the falling of a twig or leaf. Silence like a void envelopes this place.
With growing anticipation that he found the right place he begins hurriedly searching for the spot, the hole in the world, the portal that was promised to be there so he can save his Marie´en and children. As Khenn´an moves through the field, he feels a pulsing at the back of his head. With each step it grows, almost like waves in the tide when he would take the family on trips to the beach.
Each wave grew stronger and stronger in him. As he steps into a clearing he feels his whole body vibrating. He shudders slightly as his eyes fall on what looks like a stone table half buried in the earth . Only a portion of it peeking out of the ground, he could see the top was not big, it could hold only a medium sized vase at best. Running his hands along a leg sticking out of the ground, seeing if can pry it out, realizing it is well and good in the ground.
He hisses, jerking his hand back and sucking on his pointer finger as blood wells up. As he scowls in pain he looks a little closer noticing that the entire surface of the table is covered in small raised spikes, barely noticeable to the naked eye, he almost missed it with his enhanced sight.
A shadow falls over him, making him stand quickly dashing to the side to avoid a strike he knows is coming. Taking in his surroundings Khenn´an sees that the soldiers have caught up and he is surrounded by twelve of them. Turning constantly to keep them in view, he prepares his magick, feeling the air molecules already heating up around him. His leg bumps into the stone table as he whirls around once more, reminding him of his purpose and why he is there. An older soldier with weathered looks but surety in his walk and movement comes forward and addressing him says,
‘There is no place to turn to now mage! This is the end of the line for you and your kin. You couldn’t hope to take us all down before we get you.’
Khenn´an sneers, pulling himself up to his full height and reaches out with his mind, feeling the connections that tie everything together. The parts that give life and the parts that make everything wither and decay.
‘I care not if I live or die! I wish only to be reunited with my love.’ Throwing his head back he pulled with all his mental might on the bonds holding life together. Laughing as the men around him started bending over in pain. The life slowly leaves their eyes as they reach for their weapons in an attempt to slay him before they themselves are slain. Khenn´an digs deep in his soul and redoubles his efforts straining as he sinks to his knees.
Please let this work! Please give me what was promised!
A slow dark laugh starts in the deep recesses of his thoughts. Joining his maniacal laugh in his head as he sees the soldiers slumping to the ground around him. Their lifeless bodies are no longer able to hold them up. He turns at a loud CRACK! The stone table splits, crumbling into pieces, the earth shaking and the once warm sunny day being replaced with cold darkness. The voice in Khenn’an’s head was no longer laughing, but a deep booming voice obliterating all thought out as it said,
‘Finally! My plan is coming to fruition and I will make this world better!’
Khenn´an had enough time for a last thought before everything went dark around him
Marie´en ! Marie´en I hope you can forgive me when I see you my love.
