The sparsely cobbled road was treacherous at this hour of the night. Cobblestones were slippery and large potholes were hidden by deep shadows. The trees along the narrow path loomed, as if possessed by ancient spirits yearning for revenge.
The merchant carefully wove his cart and ox around the larger indentations in his path. This night was especially dark, the shadows woven into the dense forest surrounding the shabby road. The merchant tripped on a hidden gap in the stone and cursed under his breath.
Dull, thick clouds hung in the air, obscuring any light from the moon that may have illuminated the merchant's passage to his destination, and a thick fog obscured the majority of the faint light emanating from the lantern clutched tightly in his hand.
The lantern was an ingenious invention, a monster core continuously emanating light encased in a glass container, but right now the lantern was useless. It could only penetrate three feet in front of the huddled merchant and cast moving shadows across the trees, giving the appearance of dark creatures flitting their way through the forest, following his every move. If a monster appeared, he would not be able to react in time to defend himself. He shivered at the thought but continued to press on. He must reach the city soon, before they hear the news of his betrayal.
He increased his pace, fearing the worst. After a few hours of traversing potholes and tripping over jutting stones, the city came into view. It was a majestic city, its walls reaching over 20 feet and guard towers protruding from the top at regular intervals, beams of light shining down from each, scanning the edges of the forest. The city was also surrounded by a deep moat to prevent attack. This was one of the front line fortresses of the Heliopian Empire of the humans in the fight against the demon kingdom.
The merchant drew in a large breath and steeled himself for what he was about to do. He scurried quickly across the extended drawbridge and approached the two guards stationed at the entrance to the gate. They were large, much larger than the merchant and were extremely domineering. They wore large, thick cloaks to protect against the piercing cold of the night.
"State your name and occupation," the smaller of the two commanded in a deep voice upon the merchant's hasty approach.
"My name is Randolph and I am but a humble merchant. I request access to the city to sell my wares," the merchant said respectfully, bowing to the two guards and pointing at his loaded cart.
The guards sneered at the mention of Randolph's name. "No title I see," the large one chuckled. "How do you expect us to verify your identity?"
Randolph's face fell. The guards knew full well that only aristocrats and powerful beings had titles, how would a simple merchant have a title? They were acting especially odd for city guards. Did they know? Is it possible that a messenger had arrived at the city before him to relay the news?
"I have my identification papers here," Randolph said shakily, producing a set of documents from inside his cloak, adorned with legal seals stating his birth, race, and sex.
The small guard snatched the papers from his hand and read over them, a sadistic smile creeping onto his face as he went.
"Well, it seems like everything is in order Mr. Randolph," the small guard said condescendingly.
Randolph sighed with relief. He would be able to get into the city! From there, he could forge new documentation and abandon his name. No one would ever find out what had happened!
"Just kidding," the guard laughed. Fire sprouted from his hand and engulfed the papers, reducing them to ashes.
Randolph's face fell. They knew.
"I heard from a little bird that a merchant named Randolph had cheated the legion out of a shipment of weapons," the guard said with a hint of contempt showing through his arrogant smile. "You are going to come with us."
Randolph gritted his teeth. He was an honorable merchant; never once had he cheated any of his clients. He had been set up. Randolph had offended someone too powerful to escape from. His manufacturer, whom he had trusted for many years, betrayed him, presumably pressured by the powerful figure that wanted him dead. Unfortunately, the worst had happened. He sold the flawed weapons to the legion and some of their members had died due to the defective weapons.
Instantly, a bounty of 10 special cores had been placed on his head. His only hope was that news of the bounty had not yet reached this border city. It had. Randolph was in some deep sh*t.
Luckily, he was not a simple merchant. He was a fairly high ranked seller in the Heliopian Empire, so he was a pretty decent fighter. He should be able to at least outrun these normal city guards.
"Crap," he muttered under his breath. Randolph had caught a glimpse of golden armor from beneath the heavy cloak of the larger guard as the guards began to close in on him. The trademark armor of legionaries. These soldiers were members of the legion. Why were legionaries stationed as guards? Legionaries were all elite soldiers at least at the 10th level, so what were they doing as simple gate guards? Was this the doing of the powerful aristocrat he had offended? At this point it didn't matter, he had to get out of there. There was no chance of him winning against legionaries that had gone through years of rigorous training in a frontal fight. So he did what any intelligent guy would do.
Randolph did a 180 and sprinted towards the forest as fast as his legs would carry him. He would have to leave his precious wares and ox behind, they were not as important as his life. He was a wind mage, so using his wind magic to propel him, he was able to reach 35 mph at his top speed, almost flying over the ground.
Powerful ranged fire magic exploded around him as he weaved back and forth, quickly approaching the safety of the dark forest of Ironwood. The fire balls were barely missing him and singed his eyebrows and cloak. He was 5 feet from the cover of the trees when a burst of fire hit him square in the back and propelled him into the brush and out of sight from the guards, leaving severe burns on his back.
The guards approached the spot where the treacherous merchant had fallen in triumph. Yet, when they reached it the merchant was nowhere to be seen. They cursed and searched the area for any trace of the merchant, but he had vanished. After half an hour of searching, they retreated in defeat, dreading the punishment that would inevitably be handed out by their centurion for failing the mission.
A few miles away in the Ironwood forest, the merchant collapsed on the ground, moaning in pain from his wounds. His last teleportation scroll had been used up, and he was stranded in the forest. He would now be completely shunned from the Heliopian Empire, just because he stepped in while a noble assaulted a commoner. He sighed in resignation. It seemed that he would die here, alone and disgraced.
At that moment, a crazy idea popped into his head. The dark forest. What if he could somehow traverse his way through the demon kingdom and into the dark forest! There had to be something on the other side. Some kind of civilization. He steeled himself. If this was to be his last mission, he might as well gamble everything. He slumped down onto his knees. Right now, he needed to rest and heal. Tomorrow, he would head west, into the great unknown.