In the Great Country of Ethax, a pitch black portal opened in the sky. From this mysterious portal a dark sombre figure walked out, eight big eggs of different colors and thoughts followed and circled around him. The figure began reciting as if reading a tale,
"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame." said the being and sent an egg flying to the cold northwest of Ethax, where the short humans lived.
"Jealousy is the tie that binds and binds, and binds." he said as another egg went to the southeast of Ethax, the Beastmen Territory.
"The gluttons dig their own graves with their teeth." he continued and another egg went to the west of Ethax, the Gale Empire.
Each time the darkness recited the tale, the space trembled and the beings inside the eggs were embedded with different thoughts and symbols.
"What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient." he said and his will sent the fourth egg, marked with the red symbol of a boar, to the center of Ethax, Eden.
"We are rarely proud when we are alone." Yet another egg, marked with the symbol and majesty of a lion flew towards the southeast of Ethax, Ennelon, where the long-eared race habited.
"Sex is the consolation you have when you can't have love" said the figure and the sixth egg, marked with a monkey, flew towards the northeast of Ethax, Nya'lona.
"To greed, all nature is insufficient." said the darkness while sending an egg, marked with a hungry hyena, towards the south of Ethax, The Jungle.
"To the eldest child of sin, sorrow is necessary." finished the being while the last egg, marked with white, flew towards the north of Ethax, The Twisted Forest.
Then, after staying floating for a while as if looking at something carefully, the pondering being turned to see the northwest.
[Have I made an error? Were my calculations incorrect? Should I have sent him to the east?]
He could feel the complex gears of fate twisting.
[What shape would you take, I wonder]
His thoughts made the space tremble.
[Maybe it wasn't a mistake]
The space ferociously shook.
[In that case, fine]
His ramblings continued and the space calmed down…
[I can't seem to wait-]
A light shone in the cold northwest of Ethax.
[Until we meet again, Wrath.]
The darkness showed a warm smile.
- - - -
In the cold mountain valley, where the dwarves lived, a squad of two gnomes and two dwarfs were scavenging a battlefield.
Goblins and Orcs had been quite suspicious the past weeks and in the early start of winter they ambushed a dwarven convoy coming back from the Gale Empire. The convoy full of food was something the dwarves were quite looking forward to, and the big size of the convoy was what made it an easy target. Orcs, along goblins ambushed the convoy and managed to destroy half of it before being repelled.
The snowy mountains were coloured red, weapons and bodies filled the forest and after the convoy managed to get to Dürandal, the dwarven officials sent scavenger groups to recollect what was savable from the convoy and to seek for survivors.
Scavenging group 54 was composed of 2 gnomes and 2 dwarfs. The members were: Gnome Xoji, Level 17 Grenadier, Gnome Corbis, Level 16 Fire Mage, Dwarf Jorrud Minebrew, Level 23 Earth Warden and Dwarf Fiona Steelaxe, Level 16 Holy Priest.
Jorrud Minebrew was well known for his skills as a level 23 Earth Warden, owner of two level 19 Polar Bears in the verge of evolution, he was the definition of a vanguard. He, along with his bears, crushed his enemies and protected his allies in the battlefield with ease. Goblins and Orcs were decimated by his great strength and skills. His healer, Fiona, was a skilled holy priest who owned a level 16 Iron-Horned Moose who helped her cover for her lack in the offensive and defensive department.
Grenadier Xoji was quite the enthusiastic gnome and his level 17 Steel-Clawed Giant Wolverine didn't stay far behind. Fire Mage Corbis had one strong tank as his main beast, the level 16 Big Ox synergized excellently with him since it delayed the enemies until he could finish casting.
These four individuals and their beasts formed Squad 54, one of the strongest squads of all 1000 scavenger squads.
The squad was currently in the cold forest of the northwest, searching for food that could be saved and items that could be retrieved.
Gnome Xoji was scavenging in the forest when he heard a small soft cry, somewhat similar to how newborn dwarfs sound. He hurriedly ran towards his leader Jorr and loudly informed him,
"Jorr! I heard someone crying! Come look! Hurry!"
"Ye be nae in yer right mind, gangler!" Jorr replied in disbelief, yet walked towards him, trusting in the hearing of his grenadier.
"I'm serious Jorr! I definitely heard something, you should trust your archer, man!" Xoji continued persistently.
"Aight, CORBIS, FIONA C'MERE" Jorr yelled towards his teammates.
Soon, a gnome and a dwarf were seen running towards them.
"What's the problem Jorr?" asked Corbis.
"Xoji's sure he found somethin'. wer taking a look." patiently replied Jorr in the common Dürandal dwarven accent, while directing himself towards Xoji,
"Lead, gangler!" he said in his casually brusque tone.
Jorr, with his 4.5ft(137cm)height, his thick long reddish beard and his stout broad body fully covered in sturdy armor.
As expected of dwarves, the gear they had was of the highest quality and in abundance. Xoji led the group while adjusting his goggles and loading his customized weapon.
As the group closed up on the newborn's cries Fiona hurriedly said,
"T-those are the cries of a newborn."
As if reading her feelings, the armoured Iron-Horned Moose quickly crouched down so Fiona could mount up and then the beast began running towards the sound.
Seeing this, Jorr quickly reprimanded her,
"FIONA ARE YE MAD?"
Fiona didn't even bother to turn her head back to give an explanation and kept going towards the cry.
The smart, yet quiet Corbis quickly mounted his Big Ox and followed her surprisingly quickly.
"What are we waiting for, boss? Hurry up!" Xoji said while mounting his Steel-Clawed Giant Wolverine and hurriedly rushing towards the sound.
Jorrud Minebrew had no choice but to call his big armoured Polar Bears and mount on them, quickly trying to catch up.
When Jorr finally found his now standing allies he saw a 2 meter obsidian egg cracked and Fiona somewhat far away from the egg, carrying an abnormally looking child.
Xoji, on the other hand, was carrying a newborn elephant almost as big as Jorr. The elephant was silently sleeping whilst the baby had recently stopped crying.
The mysterious event had left them puzzled, Corbis, the wise fire mage, was pondering right by the side how such weird creatures had gotten out of the mysterious looking obsidian egg.
Jorr, on the other hand, quickly rushed towards Fiona before stopping closely and surprisingly looking at the enormous baby. The big, fat baby was not so far behind the elephant's size, no matter how he looked at it, the baby almost reached Xoji in height. whilst the baby elephant reached him in height.
He couldn't make sense of the situation,
"By the beard of Reorx!" was the only thing he could mutter.
Corbis, after giving it some thought quickly went to analyze the egg-
"NO, Corbis, wai-" Jorr quickly tried to stop him but when Corbis touched the egg it slowly became dust that went away with air.
The smart Corbis, reached out for some of the dust and managed to store it in a pouch. The rest of the team, sadly, couldn't do more than stay astonished by the sight.
"Sandstone!" cursed the dwarf in the cold silent night.
What none of them knew was that because of their naivety, they didn't see the red glowing mythical mark of an elephant, intertwining with traces of divinity.
- - - -
Tom was in a deep sleep, after he heard an explosion in the road back home after serving his 4 military years of service. He didn't know what happened but he was angered that just when he was leaving the army, something exploded and he didn't know where he was now.
Everything was pitch black and he saw that scene for an unknown amount of time. Until light came again, Tom saw a reddish light and felt his body tightly enclosed, being barely able to move he felt slimy liquid all around him.
He heard some soft yet shockingly loud words, coming out of something that couldn't possibly be a human and then he felt himself move as if he was in a flying roller coaster.
*CRAAASH*
He felt a loud landing and saw a little hole from which light was coming from. Tom quickly regained the ability to move and open his eyes without getting them drenched in slime. He quickly noticed something was severely wrong.
His hands were small, no, his feet were small, no EVERYTHING was small! He noticed that he wasn't alone and when looking beside him he saw a little elephant. The little cute elephant with big ears was looking back at Tom with big bright eyes and a dorky smile on his face.
Tom realized they were in a black sphere of some sorts, yet there was a small hole from which the liquid was getting out from. Tom tried to, no, he wanted to try and open the sphere but he realized his movements were really limited.
The little elephant, on the other hand, quickly stood up, prepared to charge and funnily ran towards one side of the egg breaking it open with its head and falling like a dork.
*CRACK*
Tom tried to follow the elephant but to no avail, he didn't know what to do or what was happening. He just remembered wanting to get to the orphanage he lived and worked in and see the children that awaited him, see their growth and teach them about life.
While Tom was thinking about this, the little elephant came back and pushed Tom out of the egg slowly and carefully. After getting out of the pitch black sphere, Tom realized it somehow looked like an egg and that he was surrounded by snow. He didn't know why he wasn't feeling extreme cold but he realized just how terrible their situation was.
He tried to move but after realizing once again how he couldn't do anything and the elephant probably would die with him here as well, he retorted to the only thing he knew he could do.
The 22 year old soldier in the body of a baby began crying. He cried and he cried and he cried as loud as he could cry until he couldn't cry more. After recovering a little he kept crying and crying while laying beside the small elephant who was looking at the surroundings.
Surprisingly after a couple of hours Tom still didn't feel a bit of cold. He was warm and cozy beside the little elephant. After crying by what felt like infinity Tom finally saw a very big Moose and realized he screwed up. He knew there could be predators around but there wasn't anything else he could do, but after the Moose got close and knelt, he saw a little human lady get down from the big beast.
He was astonished by what he was seeing since the lady was too little to be human and what appeared to be a moose had sharp iron horns and was fully geared in armor. The lady in a cozy attire and robe, had a staff bigger than her ending in a big circle with a cross in the middle of it. Tom thought she looked like a priest of one of those games he used to play before the army.
The lady quickly hurried towards him and raised him in her small, yet soft arms. Tom was befuddled because the lady wasn't much bigger than him and from what he understood, he was a newborn! Tom quickly thought about his past life and his big hindrance of a body and thought he was cursed to be a big burden in all of his lives.
He had stopped crying long ago but when he saw a savage looking Ox rushing towards them he began crying to warn the warm lady, yet she didn't do anything. Tom soon realized that an even smaller person was in the back of this enormous Ox, he even wondered how he managed to get up there with his small looking body.
Tom quickly realized that he was in trouble. If the people of this world were this small then he would be an abomination when he grew up. As far as he knew, the human body grew for 18-21 years and as a newborn he was close to them in size, so how big would he be after he stopped growing?
Tom saw new animals coming and everytime he was astonished even more. He thought it was quite weird that the small people hadn't spoken but when the third person got here he realized that they indeed could speak.
The third little human spoke really quickly and in a language he couldn't understand. The fourth sounded really brusque and his fearsome warrior appearance made him a bit afraid so he snuggled closer to the small lady.
After seeing how the egg disappeared and praising the quick-witted gnome for his intelligence, the group mounted their beasts and rushed to Dürandal with the two new inhabitants. Tom quickly fell asleep in the soft hands of Fiona, hoping that they wouldn't reject him in this new life.