On the outskirt of a muddy small town, a blinding light appeared for a second and a young man popped out wearing blue denim shirt and short paired with a black rubber shoes while carrying a travelling backpack. He's emergence has ignited the roaring of thunders, the lightnings scattering all over the skies, illuminating the area for a couple of seconds before darkness swept all over again. After this scenery, heavy rain suddenly poured down.
In the farthest east part of the Phoenix Continent stood a majestic mountain. Somewhere in this mountain was a hidden cave at the back of a towering waterfall. Inside this cave was a feeble old man who has only a little time left in this world. Upon the arrival of the young man, the old man just smiled and didn't even move an inch as he muttered, "Perhaps you can be the only one who can stop it."
An empress of the Pegasus Continent immediately stood up from her throne while a subordinate in front of her was reading the status of her empire. The soldiers and subordinates around her looked at her with curious eyes. But after a while, she just sat down on her thrown, then she heard the heavy rain poured down.
At the edge of the Tortoise Continent, an adventurer was walking on the shoreline when he heard the roar of thunders and noticed the lightning illumination, "I hope our fate would intertwine."
In the deepest part of the Dark Forest of the Dragon Continent was an elder who appeared to be fifty years old. But this elder is actually an eccentric necromancer that was cursed, he was forbidden to associate his self to the outside world. While doing his experiment on a body, he heard the howling of the savage beasts all over the dark forest then after a while, thunders echoed and heavy rain poured down like beads. This elder was shocked upon sensing something, "Impossible! I can sense the demonic portal. That old man actually asked the help of the Evil Lord!"
Inside the hall of the Wyvern Academy, the Head Professor suddenly stood up as he turned his gaze on the window, there he saw the thunders and lightnings danced around the area. He suddenly felt a premonition, a premonition that would cause his death. The Head Proffessor became restless and one of the professors of the academy noticed this behaviour, "Head Proffessor, is there anything bothering you?"
"Shut up!" The Head Professor yelled as he stormed out of the hall. Other professors and students looked at each other bewildered.
This sudden appearance of the young man shook the experts in every continent of this world. Some became worried, some were delighted and there are some who never cared.
But before the appearance of this young man, there was a feeble old man who first appeared near the youth. He was pale and weak after activating a portal, "Ugh! It was already hard for me to travel alone in that portal, I never expected a youth to be dragged here. I will let him live for a while then I will drag him to the deepest chamber of the underworld."
After saying this, the old man turned around and left. Using his remained strength, he activated another portal and was gone after a second.
After the old man left, the young man who suddenly appeared actually has bruises all over his body and was panting so heavily. He looked so weak that he can only step one at a time. Also, added with the heavy rain made his clothes and backpack drenched affecting him to even slowly move forward. "Why did that bright light suddenly appear? And where was that old man?"
He tried to look around but the darkness impeded his sight. Despite the pain and hunger he was suffering, he still decided to walk and followed the source of the nearest light he could see in the darkness.
He stumbled a lot of times while walking but after a while, he has reached the source of the light. He could guess that it was a two-story house. The second floor was where the light source originated while the first floor was so dark but the young man could guess that it was a stable as he heard horses whining from time to time even though the rain was pouring heavily.
On fear of being discovered by people, the young man decided to stay inside the stable for the night and didn't dared to look for food. He blindly moved as he used his hands as a guide to look for a comfortable place. While he was moving, he suddenly touched a wide fabric in front of him. He took it as he wanted to use it as his blanket for the night. He then continued moving but accidentally slipped. Luckily, he fell on haystacks. Using these haystacks, he decided to use it as his bed. He then took off his wet clothes, underwear and shoes until he was fully naked. He then wrapped the fabric he found around his body and lied on the haystacks.
Being so tired, he decided to sleep but as he was about to drift off, he was disturbed by the constant neighing of horses. Lander tried to cover his ears but it was no use. As he was about to stood up he heard, "Besieged, we are being besieged! Quickly! Run! We will all be killed" Despite the heavy rain, he could still hear these shouts from outside.
'Besieged? Why would they be besieged? Did I suddenly entered a den of gangs? Maybe drug cartels? Or Mafia? But with their money why would they use a horse? A front maybe?'. Because of hunger, pain and tiredness he was feeling, he has no ability to asses the situation. But he still wanted to try.
As he was about to move, he suddenly heard the creaking sound of the stable door opening. A bald man with a white beard shouted while carrying a torch, "Only three horses are here, two in each horses."
"Master, please bring with you my granddaughter," an old man pleaded behind the bald man.
"What's the use of your granddaughter? She's just a kid, and a useless slave at that!" The bald man growled.
"Please!" The old man begged and kowtowed in front of the bald man.
The bald man got angry and kicked the old man in the face. He then pointed at the old man and the two girls beside him, "One more word from you then I will kill the three of you! If you want to survive then start running now!"
"Here you can have this torch!" The bald man continued with disgust as he throwed the torch in front of the three. After that, the bald man with three other men and two ladies rode the horses and left.
"Grandfather!" The younger girl looked at her grandfather and hugged him while tears rolled down her eyes.
"If you still want to live, then we should run!" The other girl said as she picked up the torch from the ground.
"Run? What is the use of running? In just a few minutes those imps will surely catch up to us." The old man said as he tried to stood up.
"It is better to run and find a way to survive than to just wait here for your death," the other girl said decisively and ran away.
The young man who was still lying on the haystack heard everything and was so curious about what he heard, "Imp? What do you mean imp?"
"Who... who .. who are you?" The old man was scared out of his wits and also the young girl. Because of the darkness they could not see each other but he knew that the other party was a young man because of his voice, tone and the way he spoke.
"I'm sorry if I startled you!" The young man politely apologized.
"Wha... wha.. what do you want?" The old man asked as he was still trembling out of shock.
"Nothing much, I only want to know the characteristics of those besieging this place," the young man answered.
"You don't know? Those are imps. They are demon creatures that are vile, sadistic and they love to eat human flesh," tThe old man explained while he was curious about this person whom he was talking to. Imps are common creature especially at night but this person doesn't even know this.
The young man was utterly shocked upon hearing this. Was he dreaming? He tried to pinch his arm to awaken from reality but he still felt pain. He continued to pinch until blood flowed from his arm. He now realized that it was not a dream. It was actually the reality. He was confused and asked himself, 'Where am I?' Then he asked, "What is this place?"
"Knowing won't really matter because in just a few minutes we will die." The old man gloomily said.
'So there is no chance for us to survive? But where is this place? AAARGHHH!' He was asking himself and was trying so hard to think of a way to get out of this situation but his mind won't cooperate because of his accumulated fatigue. After a moment of silence he just muttered, "Well then, hiding is also a way of avoiding death."
Then he used the haystacks around him to cover his body and belongings so he and his things won't be spotted. The old man heard the statement of the young man and also heard the sound of haystacks being gathered. He might not see what the young man was doing but based on the sound itself he fully understood.
"Well, I don't know if this works but it is better than running away and being caught." The old man said as he and the young girl also hid under the haystocks. After a while they heard a terrifying shout, "Burn everything and capture everyone!"
'No! I can't die here! I don't know where am I but I need to get out of here! I must find a way to survive! I have to go back to my uncle and my cousin.' The young man thought.
The old man became nervous and thought of a way for her granddaughter's survival. He then hugged his granddaughter so tight and told her, "Survive my dear! Follow your instinct for tomorrow will be the day for you to live alone. Goodbye my dear!"
The young girl wanted to say something but her grandfather let her inhaled a bottle of sleeping potion. The old man hugged her granddaughter once again, kissed her forehead then slowly stood up as tears rolled down his face. He then gathered haystacks to cover the young girl. "The fate of my granddaughter is in your hand young man, I don't know who you are but please take good care of her!"
"What do you mean?" The young man who was still trying to think of a way to survive was suddenly interrupted by the old man.
"My life's value is my granddaughter's survival. This is fate! The greatest thing that is irreversible. For I have sinned that I brought danger, for my life, my payment was for her!" The old man answered as he looked at the place where the young girl was sleeping.
"I don't understand?" The young man was bewildered of the old man's statement.
"You don't have to understand for you will realize soon. Anyway, what is your name my child?" The old man asked.
Despite not understanding the old man, he still respectfully told him his name, "I'm Lander!"
"Lander." The old man repeated it and went out of the stable.
**
Author's Note:
This would be my first work of writing and I would like to apologize in advance if ever I commited grammatical errors and punctuation mistakes.
If you noticed the grammatical errors, please notify me by leaving your comment so I could somehow edit it.
Also, please bare with my slow paced chapter release for I have only started 10 chapters.
Thank you in advance for appreciating my work if ever.
Enjoy!