Zack Dark walked for hours wandering through the forest. By now it was safe to say he was lost. He sighed looking once more at his watch. "Not much time left," he said to himself. "At this rate, I'll never make it there."
Zack had been journeying to the capital of the kingdom of Seloria, also known as the magic capital, known mostly for its magnificent mages and white magic. And while his magic vehicles had sped up his journey it still took him several weeks to get there. Now he was wandering through a forest after being attacked by bandits. He pursued them deep into the forest to get back what they had stolen, His ticket to enter the mages qualification exam. The ticket was worth over a million gold on the black market, Zack suspected they knew this.
To Zack, that ticket was worth more than his own life and there was no way he was gonna lose it. So after a long three-hour chase he caught and killed them all, only to get lost after another hour. Since then he'd been walking for about four hours trying to find the road again.
Sighing in resignation he sat down trying hard to think of some way to find his way back. Closing his eyes he breathed deep hoping he could think of something. As he sat there thinking he heard a distant yet very distinct voice. At first, it was barely above a whisper, but as he listened it slowly grew in volume and he was just barely able to make out what it was saying. As he focused more on the voice the words it said became clearer and clearer, and soon he could make out one word it said. "Wrath". As he said the word out loud a shudder ran through him, as if a cold wind were slicing through his body.
A scream tore through his thoughts and all at once the voice and the coldness in his body cease to exist. He was alert in a matter of seconds scanning the area around him for any threats. Finding none he waited and listened for any type of sound in any direction. He heard nothing for what seemed a long time but was only a few moments, then he heard three snaps to the north of him and immediately took off in that direction. Not too soon after going after the noise, he heard footsteps running away from him and loud snarling in the distance he quickened his pace chasing after the sound silently praying to the gods that whoever screamed was ok.
Soon he broke through the trees into a small valley and was finally able to see just who it was that screamed and why. The one who screamed was a young girl no older than twelve or thirteen, she had long flowing black hair that just barely reached her waist. He couldn't tell much more beyond that because of a bear that was at least seven feet tall.
Zack sighed, why can't things be easy for once, he thought drawing his sword. He had no idea how he was gonna beat the bear but he knew he couldn't leave the girl to fend for herself. "HEY UGLY!" he shouted hoping to get its attention. The plan worked too well because the moment the bear saw him it charged straight at him. Zack immediately knew something was wrong, not only was the beast acting abnormally but the look in its eyes made it seem as if the poor creature was already dead.
Zack jumped out of the bears way narrowly dodging it. The bear hit a thick oak head first splitting it in two. Sudden Zack realized just how much power the bear had in its body. If he'd been hit by that attack head on it would have killed him instantly. Zack gulped audibly, this isn't gonna be easy, he thought to himself. Getting to his feet he faced the bear but as the bear turned around Zack noticed the large stick protruding from his head. Zack knew then the bear truly was already dead. "Necromancy," he said the word as if it were more a curse.
Among all the types of magic in the world, necromancy was rated as the third most forbidden magic of all destruction magic taking the second spot. Because of necromancers having to desecrate the graves of the dead they were considered to be followers of the devil king and traitors to the four gods. The goddess of wisdom Lira, the god of war Finrir and his twin brother the god of death Zerif, and the god of creation and light Diron.
Zack had already formed a plan to defeat the bear, now that he knew necromancy was involved he knew all he had to do was remove the beast head and it would know peace. As the bear charged again Zack sidestepped it then, as it passed, grabbed its fur and pulled himself aboard its back. the bear stopped its charge and bucked as if it were a horse. Zack used the bears' power against it propelling himself into the air using its back like a springboard. He placed his sword on his shoulder he spun himself as he lifted off. The rest happened faster than Zack had time to process. While spinning Zack aimed for the neck of the poor creature, extending his arm to cleave through. In an instant, it was over the bears head hitting the ground the same time Zack's feet did, bending his knees to lessen the impact.
Sheathing his sword Zack stood and turned towards the fallen bear, He breathed a quick prayer to the bear and turned to leave.
"Umm....excuse me, mister." Zack turned immediately towards the voice, hand shooting to his sword, he scanned the area for the person the voice belonged to." Down here" Zack looked down and saw the little girl the bear had been chasing. Up till now, he thought she had long since fled, looking at her he would not have blamed her. she was small and very skinny, her eyes were brown, and despite his earlier claim, her hair reached a little past her waist. she had a frail air about her almost as if the slightest thing could frighten her away.
Realizing that it was only the girl, Zack removed his hand from his sword but he didn't drop his guard realizing enemies can come in many forms even little girls. "Hello there, hows your day going so far?" he knew the question was a stupid one but he couldn't think of any others.
The girl stared at him for a moment then smiled. "My name Aria i have no last name, what's your name?" Aira's sudden friendliness caught Zack by surprise but he recovered quickly.
"My name's Zack Dark, so kid wheres your home, ill be happy to take you there if you know where it is." the kid stared at Zack for a moment as if considering whether or not he could be trusted, seemingly happy with what she saw she grabbed his hand leading him back towards the way he came.
Zack followed Aria for the better part of an hour, hoping that the girl truly knew where she was going. By the time they broke through the trees, it was well past sunset. Zack decided to make camp for the night. Somewhere along the way, he had ended up carrying Aira who had soon fallen asleep on his back. Since she only walked in a straight line Zack figured he would do the same while the child rested, only turning when an obstacle to big to jump over or walk around got in his way.
"Hey, hey kid wake up," Zack said shaking the girl. "Get down i gotta make camp." despite Zack's best efforts he couldn't wake the kid, he went back in the forest and placed the girl under a tree and began setting up camp. He used a magic lamp he got from his bag to light the area then set about making a fire. After the fire was made he put out the lamp, wanting to save what little magic it had left. After that, he set up a tent and pulled out a sleeping bag and a blanket. moving over to Airas slightly snoring form he picked her up and placed her in the sleeping bag then went and sat under the tree he had placed her under covering himself with the blanket. He closed his eyes letting the slight crackle of the fire lul him to sleep.