.-..-. .-- .. - .... / - .... . / -.-. .-. . .- - .. --- -. / --- ..-. / - .... . / -.. .-. .- --. --- -. / ... .-.. .- -.-- . .-. --..-- / -.-. --- -- . ... / - .... . / -... .. .-. - .... / --- ..-. / - .... . / .--. .-. .. -. -.-. . ... ... / --- ..-. / -.. . .- - .... .-..-.

"Sir, are you sure this is a good idea? They reformed days ago at this point, and I doubt anyone has tried getting past it." A knight carrying a large white object in the middle of a small group of armored men. "Quiet soldier! If it is still here, we will deal with the beast again. Our mission is nearly complete, we just need to make it back to the surface." A larger man leading the way said as he peaked around a corner before continuing upward. The knight felt uneasy, as if they were being watched, but he couldn't see anything in the dark, and his helmet did not help. The leader froze and the rest of the group stopped behind him. He had been carrying a torch, and pointed it farther up the tunnel. The knight in the middle gulped as everyone around him unsheathed their swords. The leader threw his torch forward illuminating dozens of white eyes in the dark as a large group of black fox creatures stepped out of the darkness, the light seemed to slow them down slightly. 

A low growl sounded from behind them as the beast finally made itself known. They couldn't see its body but its pupil-less yellow eye glowed in the light and seemed to pass over every man in front of it. It was hard to tell what it was looking at, at least until it was looking directly at you and you could feel it scratching through your brain. Shivers Ran down the man with the object as the creature's glare stayed on him longer than usual. Yellow smoke started seeping from the shadows. "HUMANS! YOU HAVE MERELY ONE CHANCE TO GIVE BACK THE ARTIFACT AND LEAVE BEFORE I SLAUGHTER EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU! YOU SNUCK UP ON ME LAST TIME, NOT THIS TIME!" The beast spoke. "No you beast, We shall not cooperate with the likes of you! Or any of your demon brethren!" The leader said as he turned toward it. "SUIT YOURSELF!" It said as it disappeared back into the shadows and more shadow fox's started appearing and surrounding them. "SIR! WHAT DO WE DO?" One of the men yelled as the shadows started creeping closer. 

"Stand your ground, Leroy, make a break for it the first chance you get, you're the one with the artifact, we need you out of here as soon as possible. Someone go with him to make sure he gets out!" The leader yelled to the man in the middle. As the shadows got into range, the men started swinging their swords at them, but the beasts just dodged and then lunged at them. Leroy turned just in time to see one of the other men get tackled to the ground as two of the beasts started tearing through this armor. That was it, he made a break for it. The creatures had left a gap wide open and he took it, he could hear the clanking of armor behind him as a couple knights started following. Leroy heard a growl, a thud, and then only one pair of armor in pursuit. "S*** S*** S*** S*** S***!" He said as he heard another thud. He could see light appear ahead of him. "SO CLOSE!" He yelled. Then he saw it, the beast was standing in the doorway of the cave entrance. 

"HALT IMBECILE. IF YOU DARE LEAVE WITH THAT ARTIFACT, IT WILL BE ON YOUR DEAD BODY!" The demon yelled again as Leroy got closer. "Better than rotting in prison!" Leroy yelled as he charged straight at the beast as it lunged at him. He closed his eyes as the beast's jaws locked onto his arm, caving the metal armor inward. "<•HOLY DEFENSE ACTIVATED•>" as he heard the voice, he watched as the beast's eye widened in terror before its entire head set ablaze in white flames. Leroy slammed the beast into the wall, knocking it off as he exited the tunnel and skidded to a stop. He turned and looked back at the cave, the beast let off a whine as it put out the flames in the dirt and turned back to Leroy. It growled as it exited the tunnel, revealing its full form in the light of day. Its orange fur was covered in dirt and its tails swished back and forth, one was a normal fox tail, while the other was covered in scales with 6 spikes and a leaf shaped thing at the end. Its second tail had twenty-three green rings floating on it. One of its eyes was covered with a bandage that looked old but also seemed to have a spell cast on it, the bandage had been uneffected by the flames. The beast also wore a strange pendant that seemed to radiate energy.

Parts of its fur and flesh on its face had burned off, especially around its mouth, and Leroy couldn't help but notice it made the beast look even more threatening than it would have otherwise. The beast was about to leap again when they both heard a yell from the cave entrance as the leader charged out and drove a spear into the back of the fox, pinning it into the ground. It yelped as it tried to twist back to attack the man but failed miserably and went limp. "Holy hell!" Leroy said as he fell backwards onto the grass. "You think I can take its pendant this time?" The leader said as he reached for it. "Considering the last time, probably not." Leroy said as the leader grabbed it and tried pulling it off, but it would not leave the creature's neck. "Well, we should start heading back to base, the others all died so they can deal with those again when they wake up. They know where to go anyways so let's get moving" the leader said as he pulled Leroy up. Leroy let out a sigh, "Yea that's probably a good idea prince Eros." Leroy said as he looked back at the fox demon's body, and jumped as its eye shot back open. It flicked back and forth between the two armored humans. 

"C-curses upon you humans." There was no smoke, this time it was actually speaking, producing sounds it's body shouldn't be capable of. "I will see to it that everything y-you love will be destroyed!" It said as blood dripped from its mouth, before it finally went limp and died "And I'll be waiting beast." Eros said as he pulled his spear from the ground and swung it toward the cave, sending the demon's corpse flying back into its domain. Leroy looked at his arm as a green ring formed around it. "Well, time to go, we should be able to warp back if we get a little ways away from the entrance. Let's move, do not drop the artifact, as I told you a few days ago, my dad won't be too happy if it breaks. This one object could be what wins us this war." Eros said as he started walking down a large path into the woods toward the forest kingdom of Sarcan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.-.-.- .---- ..... / -.-- . .- .-. ... / .-.. .- - . .-. .-.-.-

"There are only 3 of them, a lot less than the last few times sir." 'Who am I? What am I?' Those were his first thoughts upon waking, his eyes slowly drifting open as he felt the damp air and heard the sound of crashing waves. As he laid there on the wood floor, staring straight up, he could hear someone above him speaking, through a plank of wood. "The mist is getting weaker, it's almost winter, so soon we won't be finding any new mist breakers on that island." Another person said. 'Mist breaker what is that?' He thought as he sat up, he looked at his arms, they were covered in tiny white diamond shaped scales, and 3 green rings surrounded one of them, he tried to touch them, but his hand just phased though. He didn't think anything of it though. "What were they?" The second man said.

"There was what looked like a human, they were half formed so I had to leave them on the island. The other two are in the cells, one was a diamond scale, the other had feathers." The first man said. The second man was silent for a moment before he raised his voice. "You took demi-humans!" "Was I not supposed to? I'm sorry sir, I've only been on the job for a few months, and this is my first time going into the temple!" The first man replied. "No, it's fine, you were uninformed. We don't take demi humans unless absolutely necessary, we leave them because the mist can absorb them back into itself and then we get more human, or hell Gevonian mist breakers. Demi-humans are normally weaker and tend to be more aggressive, so we will have to make sure they can be properly trained when we get back to the base."

The diamond scaled demi-human was confused. 'Why would I need training, I can understand them perfectly, and what's this about beings like me being weaker than them?' He thought as he looked around, he was surrounded by wood walls with metal bars on one side. On the other side, there was a hole in the wall looking out to the sky. He tried to stand but thudded to the ground as his legs failed him. He guessed it was due to his body being young. "What was that?" The second of the men above him said as they paused their conversation. "I don't know, I'll go check the cells real quick." The other said as he started walking away, his steps making the boards sink slightly as he walked, dust falling from them. The scaled being did not halt toward the window though. 

He pulled himself up with one of his clawed hands to see blue. A wave licked the side of the boat and it rocked sideways but he held on, staying upright. He noticed the window was just barely big enough for him to probably squeeze through, but something told him it would be a terrible idea when he noticed land was just a mere speck in the distance. He looked down at the water, his sky blue eyes staring at the water, the fish, and the rest of the ocean life beneath them. And then he froze, the water started getting bluer, fish floated to the surface as it started to boil. He pulled his head back into the boat as water started to creep up the side of the ship and stop at his window, covering it. Then a skull seemed to form in it, a human skull just staring back at him. It did so for a few seconds before retreating back into the ocean as the man from above deck approached his cell.

 The scaled being turned around and looked at him for barely a second before the entire ship shook. "What the-" the first man started but was unable to finish before the entire side of the ship was torn off and water rushed in. He looked around for a way to escape the rapid water but couldn't see one, the man from before had gone flying into a cage across from him, and was laying on the floor, red mixing with the water. He turned toward where the wall had been as the boat started to capsize, he tried to grab onto something but couldn't before he was dragged under and everything went dark.

——

He gasped for air as he clawed his way up the beach, gagging and coughing up water. He looked around him and saw chunks of wood and debris littering the shore. Standing up, he immediately noticed the body of the man who had been with him when the ship was attacked. He turned back out to the ocean to see the thing that had attacked the ship. Before, it had just been a skull in a sheet of water, now though it had an actual form. It took on a more humanoid appearance, the upper half of a man, two glowing yellow orbs filled in its eye sockets, and flowing hair, shaped into dreadlocks. they stared at each other for a few moments before the creature in the water melted back into its domain and dissapeared. The scaled being turned back to the area around it, and walked over to the man. 

He immediately noticed he wasn't as big as him, shorter by a couple feet, so he didn't know what to make of it. He walked around some rubble to find another man, similar to the other, both human from what he could pick up. He noticed his body was also completely still, and he had an object at his side. A sharp object, it had a metal body with a leather handle, it didn't seem like much for a sword but it would have to do. As he headed farther up the beach. They had landed on a beach with a large cliff overlooking it as far, it stretched as far as he could see, but he noticed a point nearby where he could walk up a small path that looked like it would take him up into a forest. He stopped after a moment, and lifted a piece of wood. Underneath he noticed another person, he looked at his arms again, noting that he again had scales as far as he knew, but this person had something different.

Not the same as him or the smooth skin of the humans, he touched it and noticed they were soft, and came to the assumption that they were feathers. 'This must be the feathered Demi-human the men were talking about.' he thought as he flipped them over. She had creamy white downy feathers, and instead of arms like him, she had differently shaped arms as well but he didn't want to worry about that at that moment. He noticed her body rise and fall, a stark difference from the complete stillness of the humans. He lifted the smaller creature up and she gasped and coughed before slowly opening her eyes. She looked at him, her green eyes meeting his blue before she passed out again. He turned back to the cliff face and started walking again, he had a feeling that he would need to find shelter as soon as possible. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Black, Complete darkness. I couldn't move, or at least I couldn't at first. After what felt like ages I managed to move, and I could feel my crystalline prison crumble away around me. I tried to look around but I couldn't see any of my surroundings, just a light in the distance. I didn't understand how my body worked, but it did, as it dragged itself forward seemingly on instinct alone. After a few short bursts of movement, I felt the ground beneath me disappear as I launched myself off whatever I had been on when I broke out. I thudded to the ground, but my journey was not over, I kept pulling myself forward. The light got closer and closer, and then I got to it. A wall? No, it started to crumble as well, I grabbed into it, before pulling it and watched as the light grew brighter. I kept pulling at it until I felt the hole was big enough for me to fit through, and then I slid through. 

The rough texture of the narrow tunnel scraped against all of my sides, but I kept going. There was no turning back now as I pulled myself the rest of the way out and gasped as the dry air smacked me in the face. The colors confused and frightened me, but I shook my head, trying to anchor my mind. I looked around, and the first thing I noticed was the barrenness of the place I was in. A tan substance covered everything in sight, and the sky was black with white dots littering it, and a massive blue object filled it, I also noticed dark gray floating things starting to swirl in the sky. I crawled the rest of the way out of the tunnel and looked around more thoroughly, and froze as I saw something I hadn't been able to see from the tunnel exit. Something was sitting with its back turned to me, it was covered in blackish fur, the bottom half of its arms were gray. It had four large ears and two massive tails that swished back and forth, throwing up small clouds of the strange substance on the ground. 

I blinked before attempting to take a step forward, but my eight legs gave up on me almost immediately and I thudded to the ground. The thing grunted as it stood up and turned slowly,  it towered over my small body. It's 4 red eyes glaring down at my insignificant self. It opened its mouth, small blue flames covered the inside of it as it made strange noises I didn't understand. It stared at me in silence and growled as I looked at it confused. Suddenly it brought up one of its fists and slammed it down on me, I felt the life start to leave my body almost immediately as it gave off an intense roar. I felt it grab my almost lifeless body, and then in the next moment I was speeding through the air. I could still see it though, but I also could see the ground below me. Confusion set in as I both stared up at the creature, and sped for a green area, and then as I got closer toward the ground, I felt a sharp pain, and then darkness.

End of prologue.