"Ughh, fine, whatever you say, Ravenscroft ," Zion replied, putting his hands in his pockets.
As they turned into their neighborhood and started walking towards her house, a little girl happily ran towards them and jumped to hug Zion. She had the same rich autumn brown hair as Zion, but her eyes were bright blue, and she had tiny freckles all over her nose and under her eyes.
"Borother!" She screamed excitedly, "You're finally back home! You took forever, I thought you were dead for sure,"
"Hey, we weren't gone that long now, and even if we were, I wouldn't just die out in this boring old forest. You know that, Aria," Zion replied, exasperated. Aria was four years younger than Zion. She's always wanted to go hunting, but she's only six years old, and you have to be at least eight to go hunting.
"Believe what you want, let's go, our parents must be worried," Lyra said.
"Huh? Not you too, Lyra!" Zion said flustered. They started walking down the road towards Zions house. Her parents were close friends with Zions father they had known Zions mother as she was their gardener before she died last spring. Lyra had been friends with Zion for as long as she could remember.
They found their parents outside on the porch, happily chatting away about village affairs. "Daddy!" Aria screamed excitedly, running towards her father.
"Hahaha, I see you're back from your little adventure, kiddos," Draven said.
"Yeah, dad, it was awesome! I found us a rabbits nest, and I caught one all by myself!" Zion said excitedly.
"Hmp, that's nothing, I caught two rabbits, so I did way better!" Lyra replied.
"Is that so ravie?" Noah asked.
"Dad! I told you not to call me that," Lyra said, annoyed, "I'm not a little girl anymore! Call me Lyra!"
"Oh but sweetie your father's called you that ever since you were just a little pup, you don't really expect him to give it up just like that now, do you, my little ravie," Vilya insisted.
"Oh, not you too, mum," Lyra whinned.
"Alright, now, why don't we stop fighting and go cook up some rabbit?" Draven suggested.
"Yeah, I'm starving," Zion replied.
"That's fine with me. Let's go start up the grill," Noah replied.
....
....
....
Inside a dark alleyway near the outskirts of vallen.
"You caused quite a scene, didn't you, doll?" A mysterious cloaked figure asked the man standing beside her.
"Unfortunately, and did you seriously have to pick 'doll' of all things to call me?" he replied, the late evening sun glinting off his snow white hair and purple eyes, his suit looking more orange than black. He looked down at his feet where three white teddy bears were bickering about a smooth pebble they found. "Anyway, did you find anything?"
"No, I patrolled the whole area, but there's still no sign of the abyss," replied the cloaked figure.
"Damnit, so it's not here either, huh? What even is this 'abyss' that you're so hellbent on finding," he asked.
"I don't know, I just know I need to find it and stop it before it stops me," they replied.
"Well, it's not here anyway. Let's go, we've checked almost every city in the aurin kingdom. We should move onto the kingdom of shadowvale," he suggested, picking up the bears and turning towards the path that leads to the forest and out of vallen.
"Yeah," the cloaked figure replied before following after him. The evening sun had long since set, and dusk was already approaching.
....
....
"Goodnight, ravie," Noah wispered before closing her bedroom door and leaving. Silver moonlight seeped through the big window beside her bed. She turned her head and blew out the candle on the little table beside her bed. She slowly lay down and pulled her soft wool blanket closer and started drifting off.
....
She awoke to the sound of screams. Smoke beloved through her window, blocking her view and making her feel disoriented. She jumped out of bed and threw open her bedroom door. She ran down the hallway and burst into her parents' bedroom. Nothing. They were gone.
The wall was missing, and the floor was falling apart. She could see the village burning. Houses were falling apart, and people filled the streets screaming and running as if trying to escape a nightmare. She walked to the edge of the floor where the wall had been and looked down her blue eyes filled with fear. There they were. Her parents. Her mothers feet were sticking out from under the rubble, and he father's left arm and legs were missing.
"No..." she wipered, tears streaming down her face. Noah looked up at the sound of his daughters voice. Their eyes met, and there was a moment of realization. Realization that this was the last time she would ever see him other alive, realization that this was the last time she would ever have a normal life. The realization that this was the last time she would ever be a normal little girl.
Above her she could hear wings beating. Dragons. This village was doomed to die today. The knights would never get here in time. Had it been wywrns they might have survived, but Dragons were a whole nother case. They were huge and just a baby dragon would be as big as her house. "Why?" She wimpered,"why would the Dragons attack? They have been dorment since the great war ended, so why? What could we have possibly done to deserve this?"
Noah slowly lifted his head and looked at his daughter's tears, streaming down her face and despair clinged to his heart. He could feel his heart begin to slow, and his vision stared to blur. He opened his mouth and managed to say one last thing before he passed out.
"Run."