A pile of corpses beneath him lay; bloody, torn and mutilated. A silence that had never been heard before as Icarus laid his eyes on the pile of corpses a bloody tear fell as he raised his spear he was numb to his thoughts he could not hear, and his body that he could not feel. His companions his brothers, and sisters in arms that he fought alongside lay in front of him every one of them had a story a life of adventure a family even that he knew. As he was the reason they lived that life he was their friend their leader, and they lay torn apart limbs missing, bodies mutilated, raped, and tortured for unknown intentions.
Did he ask himself why? of course.
He was staring at the small mountain of bodies in front of him as a river of blood beneath flowed, and a cross in the middle held his wife.
Her body was cut open at the stomach hanging by her intestine, his child who was not yet born.
Hundreds, thousands of thoughts befall the lone Icarus, memories, and emotions attacked him, but he stood in front of the mountain of corpses hundreds lay.
Then he spoke "Why…" he mumbled Then yelled "My friends, comrades, and my wife and child lay before me like we angered the gods, but no.." his voice quieted to a whisper intensifying to madness as his mind was already collapsed into a horrid state long before trying to find the reasoning of what lay before him.
He looked up from the ground and stared at his wife's raped, mutilated body that hanged his child then he spoke in a deep voice; "I-" "I shall kill every last person till I find the one who caused this." A pressure enveloped the forest around him making every animal tremble, and freeze.
This wasn't a normal world it was one filled with oddities, magic, and monsters that are only ever heard of in books, much more mysterious, and dangerous than the one you know.
Going back a year or so in a city bustling with activity, mysterious creatures pulling carriages, some flying in the sky carrying ships of great design, music playing and stalls set up everywhere chants of merchants could be heard on every street and passage.
Scenes like that played all over the city in a tavern not so far from there with drinks being poured, there were hundreds of people with a badge of a mystical dragon eating the moon on their clothing; men, and women with beautiful swords, giant axes, staffs with symbols engraved on them, and wands with colorful crystals attached to them, laughing and drinking away while yelling for more.
This was one of the guilds in this magical world known by many as 'Lunar Rose'. Then a voice erupted loud enough for everyone to hear "Alright! Alright! I'm glad you all are enjoying yourself, but don't spend all your coins on booze" yelled a man with a clean-shaven face and black tied-up hair.
"Oh! come on Icarus enjoy yourself we haven't finished a commission this big in ages" said a big burly man about two meters tall with a braided beard and a whole barrel of booze in his hands with an ax the size of a normal man on his back.
"Keep drinking like that Ragnar and you'll need to kill a dragon to pay for your tab" Laughed back Icarus like that the day turned to night and the tavern emptied.
In this era, it was common to live life exploring uncharted lands, and fulfilling commissions by killing magic beasts as a livelihood there were a number of professions exploring the mystical aspect of the world, and thousands of years of magic texts to study so adventures were common, to say the least, but that doesn't mean that there isn't danger to the type of life lived in this world.
It was common to see adventures set off on a journey, and never return. Life was still hard for the common people even with all the mysteries that played out in the world diseases, hunger, crime, and many other problems were relevant; the world was cruel to the fortune-less for every person who died of hunger there were plenty of people in high society profiting, and even more beneath the shadow of every city.
Lunar Rose was a well-known guild for many reasons, it had countless achievements of course, but more importantly, it was led by Icarus Stonefelt a man who helped the common folk, and was a commoner with no status as well, but even without the countless resources needed to grow strong, and the status usually had to do so, he led one of the most well-known guilds in the country a beacon of hope for every adventure that heard about his tales.
Lunar Rose had years of development it started with a party of five led by Icarus, growing as the years fell, and more heard their tales many were inspired to pick up the adventurer life because of it many people all over the continent wanted to create a tale of their own so it lead to a golden age for Lunar Rose hundreds of adventures each with their own stories were apart of the guild spreading the guilds fame across the continent sometimes their legends spread further.
The years went by and Icarus married his love, one of the original five party members that started the guild.
He owned a moderately sized house in the woods, of course, he could have had a castle with his wealth, but he chose to give most of it to the common people, he know the horrors plaguing living without status or power so he dedicated his life to those who couldn't protect themselves from the cruel world.
His life was good, he followed his dreams, gained power, and finally could settle down he could adventure for many years more if he decided, but earlier today he heard some interesting news.
"Honey!" yelled a beautiful woman with brown luscious hair, wearing beautifully tailored clothes as she got out of a carriage, then a man came out of a wooden building with a tool belt with long black hair some stubble on his face with a wide smile "What's got you so exited this evening?"
Icarus was delighted to see his wife Yumi after almost a week of her going to the capital. "Well well well the troll decides to leave his workshop!" laughed Yumi, Icarus was a famed adventurer, but he also had some side hobbies he was a mysticsmith he forged magic wonders that shaped the world there was an endless amount of things a mysticsmith could make because of the magic in this world, and Icarus was deeply interested in the art since he was a child about those magic wonders, but till he had enough resources and wealth he couldn't embark on the journey of mysticsmithing.
Though for about a decade he had learned and practiced it as one of his hobbies. "Yeah yeah I had nothing better to do did I? my wife left me miserably alone for a week didn't she?" Icarus said with a grin.
"Oh really? If I remember correctly my despicable husband would leave me alone for weeks, and months on end because of his duties as a guild master" Yumi said while she shot a smirk right back at Icarus.
"Well- I- Ahem well I'm glad you're back sweetie now you mind telling me why you needed a week-long vacation?" Icarus was quite surprised when Yumi said she needed to leave for the capital alone for a week.
"Your sweet wife can't have alone time?" Yumi said with a laugh "No no I had too make sure of something let's talk inside"
Yumi waved her hand as pieces of luggage shot out of the carriage floating in the air toward their home.
Icarus sighed 'This is unlike her I wonder what she has to say for her to keep me in the dark like this' he thought as he then pressed a pin on his clothes that cleaned him, and his clothing in a matter of seconds till he was completely rid of anything that dirtied him inside his workshop.
Entering their home after his wife while the house inside completely differed from the outside the space inside seemed doubled, and there were magic devices in every part of the house, colorful crystals that radiated different color lights, and magic symbols inscribed everywhere.
Yumi walked towards a device on the wall on put her hand on it while closing her eyes, the luggage behind her disappeared. While Icarus decided to do something a bit different he put his hands close to his mouth in a cup shape and yelled "OLI!"
Some faint noises could be heard then a head poked out of a hallway the sound of wind could be heard as the creature had wings! then a tiny screech echoed as a scaly creature a little smaller than a wolf could be seen flying towards Icarus, and Yumi. It seemed visibly excited to see both its owners and flow into Yumi's chest, surprisingly Yumi was knocked back to the wall because of the weight of the creature as she struggled to pull the creature off of her as she turned towards Icarus who had a big grin on his face.
"What have you fed him?!" yelled Yumi; Icarus grinned "Oh, come on he's a dragon! I took him hunting of course" Yumi let out a long frustrated sigh. "You keep feeding him, and he won't fit in the house Icarus"
Then he spoke "If we keep him locked up in the house he won't grow right he's a beast" complained Icarus.
"Fine fine, alright sit down" said waved Yumi.
Icarus was interested after all, whatever she was about to say it seemed not simple.
"Honey I had to visit a blood mage to find out if my concern was true." Blood mages were rare, and often competent as healers when it came to the human body, but more specialized in some areas knowing that curiosity grew in Icarus
"What was your concern? is everything alright?" He said. Then he heard something he would never expect.
"We'll have a child soon Icarus".