It is a dark and cloudy night, but in the distance a huge fire can be seen, it is the town of Tarriff in flames. Tarriff is a large town surrounded by a wall, and in the center is the Warden's Castle. Inside the castle, a group of soldiers are rushing down a dimly lit corridor. Outside the castle, the towns people are in a panic. An army of monsters has invaded Tarriff and are slaughtering every man, woman and child they can find. Some of these monsters are large beasts, and some are small humanoids with weapons, but none can be seen clearly. It's dark, and even though there is a fire, the monsters are well hidden.

Inside the castle, the soldiers have entered a huge throne room with a massive door on one end and the Warden's throne on the other. The soldier surrounds and protects the Warden of Tarriff, who is sitting on his throne. The Warden of Tarriff is an older man with a bald head and long beard. He is shaking in fear. Bang! Bang! Outside the doors of the throne room, the townspeople bang on the door, begging to come in. The warden covers his ears, he can't stand the sound of his people suffering. Suddenly everything goes quiet, the townspeople have stopped hitting the front door. The warden uncovers his ears and looks around confused. Suddenly, the front door flies open! The candles are blown out. The soldiers raise their weapons and activate their magic books.

Monsters storm in and begin to tear the soldiers apart. The Warden closes his eyes and waits to be killed. The fighting stops, and the sound of the monsters fades away. The Warden opens his eyes to see his soldiers scattered across the throne room. All the monsters have disappeared. Outside, the moon emerges from the clouds and shines some light into the throne room. In the middle of the room stands a light blue-skinned man with pointy ears, it is the Captain. He walks towards the warden. Behind the Captain are three slightly smaller blue men, they are the Captain's subordinates, the three Lieutenants. Lieutenant 1 and Lieutenant 2 pull the warden off his throne and down on to his knees. Captain stops in front of the warden and looks down at him.

Captain looks to be about six feet tall and in his twenties. He has light blue skin with light red eyes and white slick backed hair. Captain appears calm and composed. However, the three Lieutenants look like triplets. The only thing that distinguishes them is their scars. The Lieutenants are about five inches shorter, and their skin is paler than the Captain. They all have red eyes like Captain, but instead of slick back hair, their hair is short.

The warden looks up at Captain, "What do you want?"

Captain finally speaks, "Where is the key?"

The warden's eyes widen, "It's in the dining area on display!"

Captain glances over at Lieutenant 3. Lieutenant 3 nods his head and runs out of the room. He returns and hands Captain an old key. It looks like an everyday house key. Captain looks back down at the warden, "Thank you."

Captain walks away. Lieutenant 3 steps up and grabs the warden's face, and then tears off his head. Captain stops in the middle of the throne room and pulls out an old book. Captain flips through the pages and stops on one specific page covered in symbols. He places his hand on the page, and a portal opens up in front of him. Captain holds the key up one more time, "That's one key down."

Captain and his Lieutenants walk through the portal. The town of Tarriff is now empty, not a single living soul has survived the attack.

To be Continued...

Three months later...

In another part of the kingdom, there is a farmhouse in an open field just off a road. Two rough looking men are sitting on the farm house porch playing cards. One man has a spear and the other man has an axe. The axe man spots someone walking on the road, it's Guy.

Guy looks to be in his mid-20s and is an average sized man for his age. He has brown hair, and light hazel eyes. He looks rough with unshaven facial hair and unwashed clothes, and he has a normal-looking sword on his back.

Guy walks with his hands in his pockets. The two men smile to one another and run up behind him, "Hey you, turn around!"

Guy turns around, the two men have their weapons pointing at him, "Look, I'm just passing through."

The axe men has a cocky grin on his face, "Yea well, there is a toll for passing this farm, so pay up!" He raises his axe.

Inside the farmhouse are two more men and a kid. They have ravaged the farm house, drinking and eating everything they could grab. The Gang has also taken the owner of the farm hostage. The largest of the men yells at the old Farmer, "Bring me some more food!" Suddenly, they all hear screaming and yelling outside. The large mans and his goons quickly grab their gear and rush outside. The old farmer runs to the window to watch. The gang walk outside to see Guy standing over the axe and spear man, who are knocked out or possibly even dead.

The gang leader is pissed, "No one jumps my gang and gets away with it!" The gang leader signals to the archer next to him. The archer fires an arrow at Guy. Guy moves his head out of the way and the arrow flies past him. The archer quickly fires 3 more arrows, and again Guy casually moves around them. The large man snatches the bow out of the archers hand and gives him a sword. The archer looks at the gang leader questionably. The gang leader reassures him, "You got this!" The archer charges after Guy and tries to strike him, but Guy kicks him in the chest. The force of that one kick sends the archer flying across the yard like a flat rock skipping on water. The large man steps out of the way as the archer flies past him. The farmer watches in amazement from the farm house.

The large man grits his teeth, "You'll regret messing with us!" The gang leader pulls out a magic book and takes a deep dramatic breath. The book reacts and begins to spark. Guy notices the magic book and grins. "You little shit! I'll wipe that stupid smirk off your face!" The large man shouts. He fires lightning from his book, hitting Guy and causing a huge explosion. The gang leader turns to his last gang member, who is just a kid, "See, he wasn't so big and bad." The large man looks up and sees Guy unharmed, "That's not possible!"

Guy moves across the yard faster than a blink of an eye, and upper cuts the large man. Guy smiles proudly, "HA! I didn't get a single scratch on me-" Suddenly, Guy is hit in the back of the head with the flat end of a sword by the kid. Guy turns around and knocks the sword out of the kid's hands, "What the hell did you do that for?!" The kid starts crying. Guy responds, "Oh stop crying, kid! I didn't even hit you!" The kid runs away, "You better run! Pick better friends, you punk!" Guy continues down the road, scratching the new bump on his head. The farmer stumbles out of the farm house, amazed at what he just witnessed.

Later the same day, in Sansen...

Sansen is a town like Tarrif, surrounded by a wall with a castle in the middle. At the castle, one of the side doors opens and out walks a young woman. It's Lane Sansen, she walks across the castle yard and stops at the gate. Lane pulls out two muffins and hands them to the gate guards. The guards are pleasantly surprised, "Thank you, my lady."

Lane smiles, "You're welcome" Lane is 18 years old, she has blonde hair and light green eyes, and looks to be average height for her age. She is wearing expensive clothing and jewelry, she clearly comes from a noble family. Lane waves goodbye as she heads into town, "Have a good day." Lane spots an older gentlemen driving a horse and carriage, "Hello Mr. Clayton, could I get a ride?"

Mr. Clayton smiles, "Yes, of course, my lady, hop on." Lane hops on the back of the carriage as it drives into town.

After a short ride, Lane jumps off the carriage and waves Mr. Clayton goodbye. Lane has made it to the market district. The area is packed full of people. Lane takes a deep breath, breathing in the summer air. A smile comes over her face, and she runs food stand to food stand, trying everything. In her excitement, Lane accidently runs into a townswoman. The townswoman falls over and drops her groceries, "Hey! Watch where you're going."

Lane quickly helps her up, "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

Lane begins to help pick up her things, the townswoman notices who she is, "Lane Sansen! Forgive me, my lady. I didn't realize it was you."

Lane quickly responds, "Oh, no need to apologize, I ran into you."

The townswoman curiously asks, "My lady, what is the Warden's daughter doing out here?"

"I came to see all of this of course." Says Lane as she helps the townswoman of the ground. Lane points at all the people walking around the town, "Seeing it from the castle is just not the same."

"I suppose it is beautiful," says the townswoman. Lane buys the townswoman a fresh piece of bread. The townswoman appreciates Lane's kindness, "Thank you, my lady."

Two guards spot Lane in the crowd and quickly run up to her, "My lady, your father is waiting for you in the throne room."

Lane's eyes widen, she turns to the townswoman, "Have a nice day." The townswoman awkwardly waves goodbye as Lane runs away with the guards.

Guy walks into Sansen all the way to the castle gate, which is still being guarded by the two men enjoying Lane's snacks. Guy ignores them, but the two guards cut him off. "Excuse me, you can't just walk in." the guard explain with a mouth full of food.

Guy points towards the castle, "l'm here to talk to the Warden."

The guard holds out his hand, "Do you have an official summons?"

Guy digs through his pockets and then shrugs and awkwardly laughs, "I guess I forgot it."

Back to Lane, she rushes into the Warden's throne room. Lane's father, the warden of Sansen, is waiting for her on his throne. Lane sits next to him. "Lane, you're late," says the warden under his breath.

Lane whispers back, "Sorry Dad."

"Alright, send in the next one," announces the warden. The guards open the front doors, but no one comes in. Suddenly, a voice shouts from the ceiling, "I'm here! Sorry, the guards wouldn't let me in." Everyone looks up, Guy has climbed up the side of the castle and into a window. He slips and falls 30 feet to the ground. Everyone gasps, but Guy gets up just fine. The guards quickly surround Guy, "Whoa hold on, The Warden invited me here! I'm here to take down a local gang?"

The warden raises his hand, "Stand down!"

Lane protests, "Dad, he just broke into the castle!"

Her father calmly replies, "It's fine. I said stand down. Who are you?"

Guy approaches the Warden, "My name is Guy."

The warden isn't satisfied, "Guy who?"

Guy replies, "Just Guy."

"Forgive me, Guy, but I hired a "team" of mercenaries to take down a gang, not just one," says the warden.

Guy knew he would be asked about that, "My team agreed this was a one-person job, but we still expect full payment."

Outside the castle, the old farmer crutches through Sansen. He limps past the gate guards, who are now being yelled at for letting Guy break in. The old man heads towards the castle.

Inside the throne room, the warden has come to a decision, "You have no proof you're a part of the team I hired, however I only sent that team a summons for this mission, on this day, and at this time. As strange as this is, I doubt it is a coincidence. Here is the job. There is a gang outside of town who has taken over a small farm. We'd send our own soldiers, but well the leader of the gang has a powerful magic book, far more powerful than any of our soldiers' magic-"

Guy interrupts, "Oh yea, I ran into them on the way here, I already took care of them."

Lane finally speaks up, "This is a scam! Why should we believe you?"

"It's not a scam," says Guy.

"Do you have proof of your claims?" asks Lane.

Suddenly, one of the large doors opens and the old farmer walks in, "My farm is saved! A young man came by and took them all out! It was amazing, he took the full force of a magic book and survived." The old man notices Guy, "It was this man!" Lane is speechless.

Guy smiles, "Told you it wasn't a scam."

The Warden and Lane are standing on a balcony watching as Guy leaves town with his payment. The warden gives Lane a look. Lane sighs, "I'm sorry dad, but he just seemed like a criminal."

The warden chuckles, "Yes, he did seem like a criminal. Lane, did you think I would have paid him the money with no proof? You need to trust your father."

Lane quickly replies, "I do trust you dad."

The warden looks down at Sansen. "Trust is the most important thing you will need when you become the Warden. This position means nothing if you don't have the trust of your people."

"Me becoming Warden." Says Lane under her breath. The thought makes Lane nervous.

The Warden smiles and hugs Lane, "Don't worry, you have plenty of time to learn. I'm not going anywhere."

Later that night...

Lane is in her room scared. Suddenly there is a loud bang on her bedroom door. Lane quickly hides in the corner of her room. The door is kicked open by two soldiers carrying the warden, who is wounded and bleeding from his chest. "Dad! What happened to you?" Lane yells. She helps her father on to the bed and quickly takes a magic book from her dresser. She opens and activates the book and begins to heal her dad.

The warden knows the wound is too deep. "There is no time...Lane, save your strength...you need to run."

Lane begins to tear up, hear breathing is interrupted, and her magic flickers. "No, Dad, let me heal you!" Lane begs.

Her father pushes her healing hand away, "You must go for help! Send a message to the capital, tell them an army of monsters has attacked." He turns to the guards, "Get her out of here."

The warden is interrupted by the sound of foot steps down the hall. The two soldiers draw their swords and magic books and leave the room, closing the door behind them. The Warden thinks quickly, "Lane, go out the window!"

Lane glances at the window, then back at her father, "Dad, what about you?"

The Warden hears the two soldiers outside being killed, "I'll be fine! GO!" Lane grabs her book and opens the window. The warden takes one more look at his daughter as she climbs out the window and closes it behind her.

The warden hears foot steps and turns towards the bedroom door, it opens and Lieutenant 3 steps in. "Hello Warden, you're a hard man to find."

The warden is shocked to see the Lieutenant's blue skin, "Who are you?"

Lieutenant 3 smiles, "I am the Lieutenant, I'm here for the key."

The Warden doesn't respond. Lieutenant 3's smile leaves his face, "Silence speaks volumes Warden."

The warden gets angry, "You think I'll give you what you want after what you've done to my people!"

Lieutenant 3 shows his sword, "I'll get the information out of you one way or another."

The Warden of Sansen laughs and chokes on his own blood, "You're threatening a dying man!"

Lieutenant 3 doesn't like being laughed at, "I can make your death a lot more painful!" Lane hears her father being stabbed, she lets out a gasp. Lieutenant 3 glances at the window.

The warden quickly gets his attention, "Alright, I'll tell you. The key is under the castle in the old ruins. Good luck getting to it, the tunnel entrances are collapsed. No one has seen that key in a hundred years."

Lieutenant 3 smiles again, "Thank you, warden" Lane hears her dad being stabbed once more, the Warden of Sansen is dead.

To be continued...

Tears run down Lane's face as she climbs down the side of the castle. She makes it to the bottom of the castle and jumps off landing in a bush. Lane looks around, the town is in chaos as large beasts rip people to shreds, and short, deformed pale men stab townspeople left and right. Lane is frozen in fear, she doesn't know what to do next, but then she remembers her father's instructions, "Get a message to the capital." Lane's fear turns to determination. She looks towards the main road that leads to the Sansen's main gate. "That's the fastest way out," she decides. Lane puts her hair in a ponytail, takes two short breaths and runs towards the road.

Lane makes it just a few yards when she spots someone hiding. It's the townswoman she met at the market earlier that day. Lane runs to her, "Come on, we have to get out of town!"

The woman is surprised to see her, "My lady, there is no way we can make it!"

Lane tries to reason with her, "The only way out is the main gate, at the city wall, and the fastest way to get to the gate is the main road, let's go!"

The townswoman panics, "NO!! We have to hide!"

Lane grabs her hand and looks her in the eyes, "There is no hiding! I'll get you out of here, but you have to trust me!!"

The woman takes a moment, "Okay!" They get up and run! Around them soldiers fight against the pale men, and other soldiers are being eaten by hulking beast. Luckly Lane and the townswoman go unnoticed in the chaos. Lane and the townswoman spot a horse and carriage on the side of the road.

Lane recognizes it, "That's Mr. Clayton's carriage!" Lane and the townswoman run to the carriage. Lane strokes the horse to calm him down, but then she stops. In front of the horse are four pale men over the body of Mr. Clayton. The townswoman screams in horror, the pale men spot them. Lane quickly helps the townswoman onto the carriage, and she barely gets into the driver's seat when the horse gets frightened and runs over the pale men.

Lane takes the reins and leads the horse in the direction of the main gate. She looks back, and sees the pale men the horse had run over moments ago are somehow fine and are now chasing them. Lane desperately whips the horse's reins, "We can do it! Come on!" Lane sees the main gate, it's closed, "I'll have to ram it!" Lane grits her teeth and whips the reins, the horse is going at full speed now. The pale men are not far behind. The horse spots the gate ahead and instinctively turns away from it. The carriage detaches from the horse and slams into the gate. Lane and the townswomen are knocked over, but still on the carriage.

The pale men rush in, but the horse is in the way and begins kicking and stomping at them. Lane grabs the townswoman's hand, "Come on, we have to get over the gate!" Lane boosts the townswoman up, the carriage is tall enough to allow them to reach the top of the gate. The townswoman climbs on top of the gate and pulls Lane up. Lane and the townswoman jump down outside of Sansen and run away.

The Captain stands at the top of Sansen Castle, watching the destruction below. In the distance, he sees a handful of townspeople fleeing Sansen. The three Lieutenants walk up behind him. Lieutenant 3 speaks up about his findings, "Captain, I found the location of the key"

Captain pulls out his magic book, "Where is it?"

Lieutenant 3 responds, "It is under the castle, buried in an old tunnel system."

Captain turns to Lieutenant 3 and hands him a single page from the magic book, "Begin digging for the tunnels and send a hunter to find the humans who've escaped, we can't risk the possibility of one of them leaving with the key"

The Lieutenants respond all at once, "Yes sir!"

Guy is walking through the woods when he comes to a clearing. In the middle of the clearing, there is a wood cabin with a sign on the side that reads "pub". Guy walks up and says, "What's up," to two customers chatting outside and walks in. The pub is full of mercenaries. Everyone in the pub sits in their mercenary groups planning and talking, except for Guy. He walks in and sits down at the bar top alone, "One ale, Robert." Robert, the owner of the pub, gives Guy a pint of ale. Guy pulls out the bag of money he got from the warden, and throws Robert a coin, "Keep them coming."

Robert catches the coin, "You got it." Guy takes a big gulp of ale. Suddenly, five men enter the pub and walk up behind Guy.

One of the men leans against the bar next to Guy. "Having fun?" says the man

Guy takes a sip of his ale, "Well, Garth, I was having fun until you walked in"

Garth grumbles, "We were supposed to leave for the Sansen job the morning, but instead we woke up and found you gone!"

Guy continues to sip his ale, "I told you I could do the job on my own."

Garth points his finger in Guys face, "And I told you I run this guild, not you! We do things as a team here!"

Guy nods his head annoyed, "Garth, I joined the guild to build up a reputation in this area, and now I have it, so I don't need you! I'm not trying to be part of a team or group! It's a waste of time!"

Garth grits his teeth, "You've got two options. One, you give me my money and get off my turf or two!" Garth pulls out a dagger. "Well, let's not think about option two..." Garth then stabs the dagger in the bar top and lets it go.

Guy looks at the dagger, "You mean this option?" Guy flicks the hilt of the dagger, snapping it in half. Guy catches the broken handle.

"Why you little punk!" Garth goes for a punch, but Guy throws the handle of the dagger at Garth's throat. Garth falls to his knees and gasps for air. Garth's men look at Garth and then at Guy.

Guy throws his hands up, "You want some too!"

The men shake their heads and quickly grab Garth, "You son of a bitch! We trusted you!"

Guy shakes his head, "Yea well, I did you a favor, trusting people is a mistake." Garth and his gang stumble out of the pub, Guy sits back down drinking his ale alone.

A few miles in the woods outside of Sansen, a handful of townsfolk have gathered around Lane, "My lady, where is the warden?! What's happening?"

Lane can't find the words to explain what happened to her father, "My father...was killed." The people gasp. Lane continues, "But don't worry..."

The townspeople interrupt her, "What do those things want?!"

Lane tries to speak up, "I don't kno..."

She is interrupted again, "What are we going to do?!"

Lane is losing control of the crowd, they won't give her a chance to talk, "The Warden is gone, we're on our own!"

Lane gets angry, "SHUT UP!" The people stop talking. "Yes, my father is gone, but I'm still here! If you would all calm down, we can figure out a plan!" The people all agree. Lane explains her plan, "We can't fight those monsters, so the only thing we can do is get word to the king."

A person responds, "But the capital is weeks away, my lady."

Lane quickly responds, "That's okay, we can head to Locktin, it's not far from here, from there we can send a raven." Lane can see the townspeople look unsure, "I know it's scary, but you have to trust me." Everyone agrees. "Okay, let's head out." Lane leads the people into the woods in the direction of Locktin.

Lane and the townspeople have been walking for hours, everyone seems exhausted. Lane tries to keep them motivated, "Come on everyone, once we get some more distance from the town, we can settle down for the night." Snap, Lane and the townspeople hear branches and brushes breaking, they stop and listen. Behind them are four pale men and an unknown figure riding on a large beast. They are far away, but traveling fast. Lane and the townspeople begin to realize something's coming.

A few people start running. "Their hunting us!" Now all the towns people begin to run.

Lane gets ahead of the group and leads them away, "Everyone follow me!"

Garth and his gang on a road in the woods. Garth rubs his throat, "You cowards didn't even help me!" His gang looks ashamed. Garth hears something rustling in the woods and holds up his hand, telling his gang to stop. Suddenly Lane and the townspeople break out of the bushes and onto the road in front of Garth and his gang.

Lane realizes she's run into a group of fighters, "Please help, we're being hunted!" she says in a panic.

Garth smirks, "You got money?"

Lane can't believe the question, "What, no?"

Garth addresses the crowd, "Do any of you have any money?"

The townspeople start rummaging through their pockets, "Yea...a little."

Lane has had enough of Garth, "There is no time for this!" Garth's smirk leaves his face as he hears another noise. Lane explains again, "They're right behind us!"

Garth gets serious, "Get behind me!" The townspeople and Lane quickly get behind Garth and his gang. Garth and his gang listen carefully, but the rustling has stopped. Garth turns to his men, "Go check it out!" The men look at each other, none of them want to go. Finally, one of them steps forward with his spear extended. The gang member approaches the woods. Suddenly, a pale man jumps out of the darkness and attacks.

Garth pulls out a magic book and activates it. His gang also pulls out their weapons, but suddenly three more pale men jump out of the woods. Garth uses his magic, shooting high pressured wind at one pale man, but they have no chance. The pale men quickly stab one gang member after another, tearing them apart. Lane and the townspeople take off running in all directions. Lane stumbles out of the commotion with the townswoman she saved earlier. They're all scratched up and crying.

To be continued...