Rangers Tales Chapter 1 The snow fell thickly that winter. The entire southern forest was in the grips of the coldest spell in decades the travelling people had said. Also they brought with them tales of dark things, terrible things from the forest. Most of the villages in the woodland regions were left untouched. There were those however that were ravaged, burned to the ground and left in ashes. For miles around those villages, the ground grew nothing like a blight. Blisters of blackness surrounded by the forest as though the trees themselves were guarding the ground from future harm. The villagers were joined in their anger and fear. Anything strange or out of the ordinary was shunned and often banished from the relative warmth and safety of the little hamlets. So united was their fear that violence happened swiftly and savagely. Friends, family, even the elderly or infirm were watched with suspicion. Nobody knew why the villages were burned. The travellers stories of strange noises and sights from the forest brought fear into the dwellings of simple folk. Hauntings and ghostly apparitions appearing and warning of attacks and sometimes even offering solice and help. The attacks came swiftly and with a ferocity noone had seen since the great dragons had ruled the skies. The engravings began to appear, found on trees, door posts, gate pillars. Strange symbols with no meaning that the people could discern. They appeared after the first attacks and some thought that this was a mark, a stamp or warning of what was to follow. Quickly the village Elders ordered their removal but the attacks came just the same. Nobody escaped, nobody was ever found from the burned carcasses of these homes. Everyone gone, killed without mercy and for no apparent reason. The Elders held council for weeks at a time, trying to determine a course of action but to no avail. The only witnesses to the violence were all gone so why or who was responsible became an unanswerable question. Village folk, suspicious already, became angry with the Elders. Why didn't they do anything? Some became vigilantes, forming their own groups and fast became mobs. Hangings and burnings came soon after. The word spread fast and everyone became targets. Some turned the the mob for answers giving the mob power, a way to vent the anger and to settle generations of bitter resentment. Still the attacks continued. There were those who turned to the transcripts of ancient times when battles raged and magic turned the tides of wars. Tales of the old battles were told around fires to the wide eyes of children. Legends of battles that raged for hundreds of years and split the world asunder. Mythical beings and men who could level mountains with a word leaving all but waste around them. These fabled stories were told from scriptures found in the old cities of the world. Buried deep in catacombs that hadn't been touched by daylight in eons. But they served as a warning in these dark times. Few things were feared and hated more than magic. It was as though the desolation and destruction had left a memory on each person born since the ice came and once again disappeared. The fear of magic could be seen as completely rational by most due to the world it had almost destroyed. Those who dared speak out in favour of magic, much less practice it were cast out or worse, never seen again. The attacks still came. Nobody knew why. All the people knew was when they happened the fires left no survivors to tell of what caused them or who was responsible. They became more frequent and more intense the deeper the snows became. Winter went on and the cold biting ice took hold. Chapter 2 Hunger bit at his insides with a relentless throb making him wince. He hadn't eaten for three days and he could feel the little strength he had left leaving him. This was his last chance of meat before the cold took over and forced him to sleep. Shale knew that to bring this deer down he would need that last bit of willpower to pull the bow string back to his chest. The forest was hushed. The sound of the nearby brook from which the deer drank,babbled and splashed. Steam rose from the deers fur. The bow creaked as the string drew back. His breathing became still. The shot needed every ounce of concentration to hit the target. As if in slow motion to his eye the arrow took flight, curving away from the bow, the string snapping straight and instantly the deer sprang forward. The arrow thudded into a nearby sapling and the boy slumped into the snow. Shale could feel his remorse mocking him but he was too cold to care. The warmth he was beginning to feel was his blood freezing to ice water. His eyes felt heavy and he could not move his limbs. His eyes closed and he thought no more. Whispers surrounded him along with a strange lightness. He assumed he'd been released from his body in spirit form. He expected to see his own body #lifeless and sprawled in the snow. He felt neither cold or warm. This must be the spirit world he thought, as he didn't feel hungry either. The gods must be deciding his fate. The whispers continued, musical, light and Shale could almost understand them but not quite as though it was just beyond his reach of comprehension. He opened his eyes but the light was painful and made him cry out in agony. The whispers faltered, sounding concerned and some of them were issuing orders that much he knew. There were at least six different voices that he could make out in his blind state. Suddenly he could feel hands lifting him, strong but gently to another place, darker he could tell from behind his eyelids. A cool hand touched his forehead and a voice said "rest now, fear not boy, you are safe" "But where am I?" "It is of no concern right now. Sleep and care not, your journey will stop here a while. Rest young one and all will be well" Shale slept and dreamt of his old home. His mother smiling yet looking sad when she looked at him. The warmth of the fire where he played, the smell of whatever was bubbling in the cooking pot. His father speaking in hushed tones to another man by the door sounding angry then the drums began. Deep, sonorous and with purpose. Distant but drawing closer. Flashes of light and cries of pain were all he remembered before he awoke with a start. His heart pounded and he thumped back to bed , wiping beads of sweat from his forehead. He drew a deep breath and smelled baking bread. He realised he was starving still and his mouth watered. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around. Sunlight was streaming through a window nearby lighting up the polished floorboards. A fire crackled away in the hearth and the source of the bread smell came from a table near the hearth. Slowly easing himself out of bed, Shale painfully stood up and instantly cried out in terrifying agony. The shock of his feet touching the floor was like scalding water being poured over his legs. He looked down and saw what he feared most. The skin on his feet was blackened and dead. The bones of his toes poked through the split skin in a grisly way and red flesh could be seen through the split surface. He gingerly sat back on the bed and carefully swung his legs back to where they were, yelping with pain when he set them down. As the blue spots disappeared from his vision he noticed the room where he was laying. Every inch of woodwork was a carving of some description. Detailed leaves and branches that seemed to flow and ebb as a normal tree would. Various creatures carved within those branches, seemed to breath within the grain. So carefully wrought were the animals that when the eye strayed away to another you could almost see them move from the corner of your eye. Every nook had something to see and Shale found himself smiling, despite the pain. Now to decide where he was. He wasn't in jail, he'd had that experience before and it certainly wasn't this luxurious. He wasn't home, he thought bitterly. That privilege was taken from his last winter along with his family. His eyes filled with tears as he remembered seeing his sister for the last time. His mother and father were dead before her, eyes blackened and charred, reaching for their children in a last bid to make them safe. Shale shook his head, no amount of crying would bring them back no matter how much he missed them. A tentative knock on a door alerted him he may not be alone and he instantly closed his eyes as he heard a door open. Chapter 3 Bithrek stood by the castle main gate, pondering his orders. His master was angry in a way he'd never seen. He'd already killed half of his servants and fed them to his creature. Never before had he seen his rage in full flow, chopping slaves down for sheer gratification and his minion creature made Bithrek shudder. The way it fed off the agony of those unfortunate wretches was nothing short of disgusting. The sky was turning, storms were coming and distant lightening flashed in the distance. As if summoned by the lightening itself Bithreks master stood beside him, silent and brooding but deep inside Bithrek knew he was raging. He feel the masters raw power, coiled up and ready to strike down anyone who should displease him. "Any news?" "Not as yet master but we have our elites looking for what you seek. As soon as they find it they will report back to me" "Bithrek, you will not fail me again" the master growled "or it will be your undoing" "Yes master, as it please you my master" Bithrek knew he had used the wrong answer as he felt the push send him sprawling face first into the courtyard. "NO IT DOES NOT PLEASE ME AT ALL!" screamed the master. He stepped over the body of his soldier and looked down at him with a sneer. "You and your armies will not fail me again or every one of your stinking carcasses will be feasted upon. Do I make myself clear?". As the master said this Bithrek could feel himself picked up by a crushing force. The vice like grip of the masters magic began to crack his ribs, he could feel each one reach breaking point until three of them snapped, one of them piercing the skin of his chest. He gasped but could not take any air in. He was slowly having the #life squeezed from him by an invisible hand. "Trust me when I say this general" the master whispered "I will kill you over and over until I'm satisfied you know how displeased you have made me. Now get out of my sight!" The master gestured away and Bithreks punctured body flew against the battlement wall with a sickening crunch. With a final snarl and flick of the masters hand the Generals broken body repaired itself, bones snapping back into place, sinew and muscle reattaching itself. This was a worse pain than the injuries themselves. Bithrek knew then that he had a mountain to climb. To find that which the master desired, he was going to have to push his elites to the very limits of their abilities. A lot of them would die but anything was better than the alternative. Bithrek wiped the blood from his mouth and walked to the barracks. This was the start of worse things he knew it. The master wanted the world at his feet and if he had to chew on the bones of every living creature to do it he would. The storm hit the keep that night with an unnatural force and everyone within knew that the storm reflected the mood of the castle that night.