CHAPTER 1
The War

The air was more like smoke. It was too hard to breath. You must have lived in this ashy climate all your life to have been able to breath. Either that, or have been a demon. Everything was burnt, the only thing you could see was dead trees, innocent villagers torn bodies, the dark army, and a drifty fog coming from the eastern farmlands. It was as if all of the love in this once amazing farmland was taken away. Depressing is what it was.
A knight, Garroth Tilimba, sat patiently on his demonic broad stead. Thousands of Demons, powerful shadowed creatures, stood behind him growling and clawing at the ground, for they smelt fresh untouched meat knowing not from where it was coming from. You could see two of them fighting over an arm, gripping it with their teeth. A ghoul that was somewhat close to the black knight growled at them. In fear, they scampered like rats back into the crowd.
The Garroth wore a black cape that covered the back of his horses’ tail and black, shiny armor that could have blended into the night sky. His shield rested on his left arm. Made of opal and silver, that shield could have protected the wearer from a hit of a wild bull. His sword was hardly noticeable in this blackened light. It glowed a fiery red from within the sheath. It was dim but somewhat bright. His eyes were red as the blood that flowed within his heartless body. He was horrifying, but saying thus would be an understatement.
A random crack of a branch was herd from one of the burrows. The knight said something under his breath to the ferocious ghoul standing next to him. It was too quiet for even an eagle to hear. The ghoul screeched and four soul reapers, dark hooded minions from below, arose from the cold, blood soaked mud. They moved as if they were floating. Their robes were black; as black as the cold dark night was when the war started. You couldn’t see their faces. The four of them could cause so many calamities with a wave of a hand.
Cloaked by the darkness and evil that each carried with them, the ground was blackened. Each one moved without a sound towards the small burrow. You could hear a child crying from within the opening and a woman whispering “They shall not hurt you. I won’t let them. The gods will protect us.” She could hardly speak because of how frightened she was.
When they got to the burrow, they dragged the mother out by her dark knotted hair. Her face would have been gorgeous if it had not been for the muck all over her face and the horrified look on it. Her thin frail looking arms and legs flailing about like a trout out of water. Her screams could be carried out for miles as the reapers cut her body open with each touch. Nothing could be this horrifying. The cries slowly came to an end as her soul left the body and would roam this earth for the rest of the days.
The little girl crawled out and started to run as fast as she could towards a hollowed out tree shouting for her mother’s soul to return. Limping, she made it half way there. Fell into a shallow hole, crawled out while slightly grasping onto her wounded ankle. She screamed in pain.
She was a scrawny little human child. Not even old enough to grasp a dagger with one hand. She was more of an infant or a dwarf. Her brown hair was ratted and uneven with the clots of mud in it. She wore but only a ragged dress that was once blue and one small leather sandal. The saddest look in the world was upon her face. Tears were slowly rolling down each cheek, but you could hardly tell. For it was too dark to see.
One of the reapers looked at the tree, yelled out, “Aufstieg ubel! (dead rising)”, and it started to move as if it were alive. Roots were rising out of the ground slowly coming towards the young frightened girl as the branches rose higher into the air as if they were to strike down at any moment. They moved towards her swiftly and quickly. She screamed as the branches caged her and the roots coiled around her body. She could hardly breathe.
“Das Eis! (Ice)” shouted a brave elvan that came out from the eastern mist.
The tree froze. Ice coiled around its roots and branches stopping it from causing any harm to anyone. A sudden artic chill came upon the demons but they daren’t move for the fear of being froze too. As the human girl c
Anona Dellia shinned like the three moons in a cloudless sky. A young and beautiful elvan archer. Her hair was as fair as a lions main but as yellow as gold. Anona’s ivory satin cape fluttered behind her as the light breeze blew. Her dress was fit for a bride. A white corset with dark green stitching was worn around the top of her pale green dress. Her eyes were grey with green in the middle for her pupil. Of all her magnificent features, the one thing that stood out on. It was her golden amulet.
The amulet had two rather large jewels in the middle but they looked somewhat conjoined. A white diamond on the left and opal on the right. It looked as if they were blended together.
An army of mages, humans, banshee’s (fairies), griffins, holy elvan’s, and anything else that would help protect the amulet and it’s barer made there way close behind her. The army shined like a burning beacon on a far away mountain. Each wore silver armor or white clothes and stood proudly before the demons. They were known as the Holy Followers.
Anona ran towards the trapped girl knowing that she was scared to death. She pulled out her banshee maple bow and arrows and shot out four arrows at the soul reapers. The air was ripping between each arrow. Each reaper quickly turned into nothing but a shadow. Each died rather quickly, but it left the rest of the demons breathing deeply and ready to charge at any second, but with the knight holding his hand up they held there selves from doing so.
She slashed the frozen branches into pieces, broke the child free from the frozen roots and the little girl attempted to run for her mother’s motionless body. Anona carried her to Yenill, an old forest banshee. Anona took a breath and whispered in the little girls ear “I’ll make sure your mother’s death will be avenged. What is your name youngling?”
She spoke, “Hilan Duter.”, and held on to Yenill’s neck as they flew off.
As Anona sprinted towards the front of the army she could hear the little girl saying “Momma was right.” in a hushed voice, “They wouldn’t hurt me, but they hurted her.” The little girls voice got fainter as Anona reached the front. She noticed that Bronkia was standing in the front and ran to him.
He was a mage of light. Bronkia held a ivory staff that bore a blue crystal in the top. He was strong and the white robe he wore was covered in mud at the bottom
“Bloody demons, kill all that they can with no care in what or who it hurts.” He said quietly to himself but loud enough that Anona herd him.
“We can do this Bronkia. We made an oath to our gods and I made an oath to Hilan.”
“Hilan? The young human?” Anona shook her head ‘yes’, “Then we shall kill what we can,” shouted Bronkia with a courageous look in his eye’s.
“And pray later!” Anona and the rest of the army yelled as she and the two army’s ran towards one another.
Clashing weapons, screaming, and Hilan crying was all you could hear. Everyone’s only instinct was to destroy all that hit them, well, and stay alive. Anona drew her sword out and slashed each demon in her pathway. She squealed as she got her arm sliced open by an incoming spear.
The demons started to avoid the blade and circle her. She was trapped. No way out, and even if she tried it would certainly be the death of her. Anona pulled out her bow and arrows once again. She shot at least six at a time but there was still no chance of freedom. It was as if they were multiplying. Suddenly, Bronkia ran through making a large enough gap for Anona to run through. Anona looked at him with a teary face wishing that he wasn’t sacrificing himself to save her. She knew what must be done. She had to protect the amulet and somehow restore peace to this dreadful place.
Bronkia shoved her through the gap with his hooves. Anona fell face down into a bloody puddle of mud. She stood up as fast as she could to get away from a demon that chased after as she was shoved out of the circle.
As each one demon died, at least ten holy followers died. The dark was starting to take over. Yenill was laying face down in a hole with Hilan trying to get her to move. Everything was dead and bloody except for the knight and the demons that were circling Bronkia. The knight hadn’t moved since the war began, He also hadn’t stopped staring at Anona and the amulet around her neck.
The amulet was the one thing that caused the war. Nothing but fear or courage could be running through the souls of those trying to protect the Amulet of Ganz from any who tried to use it against its true purpose. It was the only thing that could balance everything. Light and dark, day and night, everything that had an opposite was balanced by this simple golden trinket.
Hilan ran to Anona when she caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of her eye. She held on tight and whispered “I’ve seen what will happen. Run!”
Anona stood there with a puzzled look on her face and looked back towards Bronkia. She started to run with Hilan in her arms. “Run faster Anona!” shouted Bronkia as he was fighting off the army of demons. The knight raised his sword and the ghoul took out his bow and aimed it at Anona.
“I won’t leave you here to die!” yelled Anona as she swiftly dodged the incoming spears. “Blutbefleckt der Neble!” she shouted as an arrow dug into her chest. Hilan started screaming, as she fell out of Anona’s arms. Anona rolled into a puddle of blood, gasping for air with a growing fog coming out of her mouth as if it were her breath. The fog was red, not just any shade of red, blood red.
The red cloud of fog covered the demons. You could see nothing but the fog tightening around them but what you could hear.... O, it would give you nightmares; make you wake up with tears rolling down your face like an endless river. It could stay locked up in your mind for a thousand years and still be as baleful.
As each demon died more holy followers souls came to there quiescent bodies. Everyone looked around trying to find the amulet barer. When they saw Anona slowly passing into the next life they each started to mourn.
Hilan held on tight to Anona’s hand wondering what would happen to her now that the one’s that protected her were gone. She covered her face up and started to cry. Before the first tear ran half way down her cheek she saw a green glow from Anona’s amulet. Hilan reached for the amulet. When she got an inch away from it, Anona’s body and amulet turned into a wisp. It flew around Hilan like a griffin would circling its prey. She stared at it with a grin trying to understand what this meant. The wisp turned away and broke in two. The larger one dug itself into the ground making everything grow and renew. The sky went blue and everything brightened up. The knight Started scream, he pulled out his sword and ripped the air and jumped into the hole shouting “Dieses ist nicht ruber!”
Everything went peaceful for three thousand years until the resurrection of Anona was born.......