As the sun rose the sound of the birds grew louder and was quickly replaced with the laughter of children. It was 9 am on a Saturday and the market stall were setting up for a days work.
Every 2nd Saturday in Claydon travelling merchants gathers from all corners of the kingdom so the Village is very busy. Wandering through the stalls was a 10-year-old boy who was curiously admiring all the exotic goods.
He loved playing near the stalls the fragrance of foreign spices and fresh food, trinkets from all over the continent. He enjoyed being around the weapons stall the most since the owner would occasionally let him use practice swords which he could show to his friends.
He played throughout the day until Rokan approached him "Ori it's getting late it's time to come home" Ori looked disappointed that he had to leave "Goodbye guys I'll see you tomorrow" He yelled back as they walked off.
They walked through the village watching as the merchants pulled down their stalls while others simply closed them. The workers all returning to their homes and taverns.
Rokan stopped a wandered off towards a closing stall where he and the man exchanged items Rokan gave him a pouch of what Ori believed was herbs and the merchant gave him a book bound in black leather.
Eventually, they got home and Ori kept imagining what the book was so he asked "Rokan what was that book the man gave you?" Roman paused for a moment as if he was thinking of a response "It's just a book on foreign herbs I think it may help me with my work"
Ori thought it was strange because Rokan had told him many times that he knew of every herb and plant on the continent. So was that a lie or did he lie about the book? He eventually went to bed a he kept wondering what it was so he snuck out of bed to take a look.
As he crawled through the doorway and into Rokans laboratory he saw the book laying on his desk. As he approached it he could only feel a sense of dread. Ori continued to approach the book shaking as he kept moving until he reached the desk.
He reached out to touch the book but as his hand started to get closer he was overcome with fear. He noticed something dark about this book bound in black leather with an eye insignia on the centre. Finally, he touched it he felt cold as if he was at the peak of a mountain or in the depths of a cavern.
He undid the straps of the book and slowly opened the first page. He stared at the pages in confusion the writing was red as blood in a letter completely unknown to him the pages were black as coal. He turned the pages and on one of the numerous pages he got to a page with a face stared at him with a cynical smile.
As he looked into the eyes of the face all he could feel was as if darkness and cold surrounded him and terror had taken over. The eyes began to blink and the smile grew wider. He heard and screech and everything went black.