In the dead of night, a young man with almond brown hair read by dim candlelight that painted the walls of the small room orange. As he continued to scan the page intently, the orange began to turn into a more vibrant yellow, and then a deep red. Shaun sighed and begrudgingly placed the book, still open, face down on his nightstand and heaved himself out of bed as a large bell began to toll somewhere else in the town.
By the third ring, he had snatched his powdercrystal and shot pouch off the nightstand and collected his musket from the corner of the room closest to the door, by the fourth the jagged orange crystal was secured firmly at the base of the weapon via the loading mechanism and he was halfway through forcing both a smooth, featureless ball of ironshot into the barrel and his shoes onto his feet.
Then by the fifth and final, he had his hand on the door.
It was a quick exit as far as Shaun was concerned, going to bed fully clothed was worth having to wash them more often if it meant being able to respond to an attack sooner.
But apparently, not quick enough, because when he opened the door-
"Taking your sweet time I see Shay."
His friend and colleague, a man who stood taller than him by an amount just enough to notice, well built with matte black hair and soft green eyes, Lewis.
"Lew, I was asleep."
"I can see your candle."
Both of them wearing fed up expressions on their faces, Shaun released his hold on the door and turned to snuff out the open flame, Lewis's hand replaced his, holding the door ajar.
"So, do you sleep with that thing loaded or what? You know that's a major safety hazard, please don't get this place burnt down.
"I don't, I just don't spent the first two tolls moping about, aren't you supposed to be big into protecting the town anyways?"
"I am when I'm the one doing the protecting, you saw the flares, some sharpshooter will probably blast the thing out the sky before we can even get a position."
Shaun scowled at the thought of having to mobilise for yet another attack that the garrison would put down almost immediately, but after all,
"Don't you want to get payed? Or better yet avoid ending up like your father."
The comment stopped Shaun momentarily, before throwing a glance back towards the door.
"Man, seriously?"
"Sorry, I'm just a little worried about you is all,"
Lewis muttered casting a guilty gaze down towards the floorboards.
Shaun made his way back towards the door and passed his friend, giving him a hand on the shoulder and a small smile, before gesturing towards a ladder at the end of the corridor.
"Shall we?"
***
Clambering onto the roof of the building, they observed the town below explode into action, windows were barred and the stone walls came to life with the hurried movements of sharpshooters, sorcerers who used their energy to enhance the effectiveness of firearms.
"You know, Shay, I'm technically a sharpshooter too now."
He held out his hand and towards it, shot a small iron ball from his pocket.
At a glance it seemed like the ones Shaun had on him, but upon closer inspection two sets of runes were revealed, one dull and lifeless, appearing like nothing more than an engraving, with the other glowing a faint brown colour which was quickly fading.
The currently inactive rune was the simpler of the two, it allowed an individual not skilled in sorcery the freedom to control the mass of the object to a certain degree by simply imparting their energy onto the rune, it would glow either red or blue when engaged, depending on the artisan who engraved it.
The brown rune established a connection between the object and the user allowing them to guide the object towards them, but to activate it required a level of competency in Attraction Sorcery that took some practice to get down, but being able to reuse Magishot made it well worth it.
Shaun thought of throwing another snide remark Lewis's way, but quickly opted to level his musket and aim it towards a dark patch of sky.
Scales Illuminated by the red and yellow of the flares, it hung ominously in the sky, it was hard to distinguish in the night but the body itself was also a vibrant scarlet. That shower of red was however not quite enough to camouflage the blood that seeped from wounds that peppered it's body.
It's wings flapped slightly off beat, causing the whole terrible creature to seemingly limp in the air, it's two arms and two legs seemed to sway, trying to maintain a fragile balance.
A Wyvern had crawled battered and bruised out of The Abyss in a desperate search for salvation.
But all it would find would be its end.