Prologue
I opened my eyes to the smell of sulfur and a ringing in my ears. I lifted my head off the ground and tried to stand up, stumbling back down as I did so. I eventually leaned myself up against the rubble of a charred home, where a family might have lived, now gone, ashes in the wind. I looked around not recognizing anything about this place. In fact, I thought, I don’t remember anything before waking up, not even my own name. All I see is the blood-stained dirt, and my tattered clothes covered in blood not of my own. As I wandered through the village remains, I started to hear a buzzing in my ears. Voices whispering in my ears, leading me to a broadsword stuck in the ground. It had a midnight black steel blade with a purple shimmer to it. The voices began chanting louder, demanding me to pick it up. I hesitantly reached out and grabbed the hilt, and the whispers turned to screams, the blood on the ground turning black as I fell to my knees clutching my head. The last thing I saw before darkness engulfed my vision were purple, shadowy, hideous creatures hiding in the tree line, staring into my soul.
I was in a maroon throne room. As I walked around, I noticed that the throne itself was made of skulls. The person sitting on the throne was an exact replica of myself. A black crown sat on my copycat’s head, and its eyes were cold like winter and ice. Suddenly it began to laugh, a sick cruel laugh that sent shivers down my spine, not that I would ever admit it. The room started to crumble, the laughter continuing. Flames now licked up the sides. The voices came back too. They wanted death, violence, and a possible string of comforting words to warn me of impending danger. Then that room became black as well and I slept.
After I woke up, I realized I had to move. My being caught here in this destruction by any law enforcement would mean questions, questions I couldn’t answer. I found an old donkey in the woods surrounding the rubble, perhaps it had gotten scared in whatever had happened here. It didn’t matter now, it had a new purpose, taking me to a new village. I sat on the bareback of the creature and taking a branch off the ground I whipped it causing it to sprint down the road, to new horizons as the last embers burned out behind me.
