It didn’t make sense. Where were the guards of Rollin’ Hills, they always had groups of them at the entrances and in the main Knights Hall. ‘Father…’ Destyn thought. Was he dreaming? He couldn’t have been gone. Things like that just didn’t happen. His Mother loved his Father deeply. She had lived quite a few years, fifteen years in fact, longer then him, but she had always said she had never loved anyone quite as much as his dad. He would have been forty nine years old this year, and she would be sixty four, though she looked as though she was almost younger then Destyn… almost. On the Evenings Destyn’s father was home it was always the best times. He would sit by the fireplace, Destyn and his brother Ternlei would lie on a large cushion as he told stories about all the heroic things his fleets did. Never talking about himself, always about the other knights and how good they were. Destyn’s mom would enter the main room.

‘Dinner’s ready!’ she would laugh as she held his father back from entering the kitchen to steal a kiss from him. His red eyes and her blue eyes met like Sapphires and Rubies and you knew they were meant for each other. Destyn and Ternlei would always joke when they did that.

‘Ewww, mom that’s gross don’t do that!’ Ternlei would say laughing. Both Destyn and Ternlei had been born with purple tinted eyes, but Destyn’s had followed his dad and they had started taking on a red tinge. Destyn’s brother on the other hand had become a dark purple, which could have been mistaken for black at times. People always seemed to notice that in the family. Destyn was the only one in his family that needed glasses for some reason. It didn’t bother him though because a good family friend specially made his glasses for him.

It seemed like ages ago. His brother had grown up, he was about five years older then Destyn, making him twenty three and he had become an archer knight and joined his dad’s fleet. And soon Destyn would do the same thing. But at the moment only Destyn and his mom would remain home and the house was quiet for the majority of the night. The sound of the fireplace cracked as the soft smell of burning wood traveled through the cozy house. It had become a familiar thing as his mom and him sat in the main room with the fireplace a blaze, they would talk at times but most of the time they would just sit there with blank stares as they both would enter into a deep thought. They would laugh at times over how stupid they were to do that so often, but that’s what happened.

Destyn had thought he was in his bed, but he started to feel the pain from what he thought was a dream. The pop of a fire woke him suddenly. A hail bail, probably a thief’s bed at one point almost burnt to the last strand of hay as the embers crackled. Grunting he lifted his head. It felt like a lead weight as he did so and everywhere hurt.

“What am I doing here?” Destyn decided to ask to hear his voice. He was in the town’s cellar, with his left arm shackled. His chest had been slightly bandaged, but it still seemed like it was bleeding. It appeared to be about noon the next day, dark clouds swirled outside as the sun glinted through slightly now and again. He had been out a long time, that wasn’t a good thing. Exhausted Destyn stood and tried to struggle free from the chains. No good, was he to lay a waste here to wait for those Seplini monsters?

Destyn crumpled into a ball and began to cry. He felt so useless; he couldn’t protect the town, and now look where he was. Everyone… especially his mom would be in big trouble. The room seemed to darken, it became calm, all sound drowned out and Destyn looked up.

‘Destyn…’ A voice seemed to surround him. Breathing seemed to become easier as Destyn’s pain went away. He all off the sudden felt as if he had a good nights sleep and energy returned to him.

“Who- Who are you?” Destyn asked curiously as he stood up again. Destyn looked around. The murky cellar was silent as the dark began to consume him entirely.

“What do you want with me?” Destyn felt like he was beginning to drown in the darkness and there seemed no way out, he began to panic.

‘You want to save your mother, correct?’ The voice seemed amused by the way Destyn was squirming.

“Of course!” Destyn growled as he tried to pull free from his shackles.

‘Then I will give you the power to do so. You have been healed, and I have given you strengths beyond your imagination young one.’ Laughing the darkness seemed to shatter as a loud sound cracked at the entrance of the cellar. The wooden door fell after several large attempts to knock it down had been made. Dust was lifted as sunlight shone in and a silhouette of a recognizable figure stood at the door.

“Ternlei!” Destyn screamed and tears began to work their way down his face.

“I was so worried, that thing said he had eaten all of you!” Destyn felt himself grinning as his brother approached.

“I am afraid he isn’t far from the truth, they got most of us, and I am the only one that escaped as far as I know.” Sadness was deep within his dark eyes. His hair was longer then Destyn’s and blond like his mother’s and he wore it in a ponytail. Unlike any in his family Destyn’s was blue. His fathers had always had a grey tint to his, so they had figured it had come from him, but they couldn’t be too sure. Pulling out a serrated iron shafted arrow Ternlei began to saw through the chains that held Destyn to the wall. It seemed foolish to do it with an arrow, but it worked. With a clang the chains dropped.

“We must go now.” Ternlei said quite distracted as he turned to leave.

“Wait! What’s going on? Where were all the guards last night? Why did no one help me?” Destyn ran to catch up to his brother, swerving quickly as a rope gave way and a beam came down almost hitting Destyn square on the forehead. Gasping at what happened he was too eager to know what happened to care and he quickly brushed it off.

“Ternlei?” Destyn bobbed his ears.

“There might be time later… to explain. Right now you have to run with me towards the Knight’s Hall, can you do that?” Paying no consideration to what happened he stared in the direction they were to head if Destyn followed. He wouldn’t have been able to run if that weird shadow hadn’t healed him and returned his strength, as both nodded in agreement. With a smile Ternlei began to run.

Destyn had no problems keeping up normally, but he was highly distracted by his surroundings. No one seemed to be there… no one at all. But it seemed everywhere was getting dark again. Surrounded by darkening clouds Destyn could feel a lump in his throat and it felt like he was choking. Swallowing hard he picked up the pace to run side-by-side with his brother. Running through the streets was dismal. It appeared as though everywhere had been raided and upset. Crates and barrels lay in the streets. Destyn and his brother had to evade many things laying in the streets, leaping over with graceful bounds as the clouds grew thicker. Some merchant huts that were aligned by the town square were torched and the stone walk where Destyn had fought was tainted with blood, his and the Seplini’s. The smell of rotting fruit was about, and many other things dead. No bodies for some reason, but everything else in the town had began to rot or decay.

They had finally reached the Knight’s Hall when the darkness started to bellow with a crack of thunder. Blackened raindrops started to fall. Ternlei quickly entered and pulled Destyn in. As the drops hit the ground everything seemed to soak up the darkness. Destyn shuddered. He felt like he was still outside getting hit by the rain. He turned around and halting to see a group of guards in the center lying on the stone floor. Destyn’s stomach rolled and he felt sick.

The room had been the main lobby for where the Guards and many of the town’s Knights spent most of their day, when not out on missions or on duty amongst the town. The stone in the center, where the bodies now lay, had the symbol for the allied Humans and Elves, a gold encrusted gryphon with Emerald eyes. At least that had been the towns symbol, Destyn wasn’t too sure about the rest of the world. Curtains, mainly now all torn, had been set across in a banner like fashion, golden cuffs holding them to the ceiling, which was stone as well. Torches were all over turned and some still lit in that position leaving a dim like that flooded the floor.

“Damned Seplini…” Ternlei cursed as he continued to walk to his right towards the hall that led into the armory. Destyn followed closely. He looked around the dark corridor. He could hear the drumming rain as they walked through as it opened up into a fairly large room.

“The rain did that to the town. It began to rain early this morning and I discovered best stay out of it as anything it seems to touch rots. And I would guess that most of the town has been taken captive, except the knights…” Ternlei exclaimed with much disgust as he continued to advance into the room. Weapons of all sorts lay strewn within the room among the racks and ground alike. Ternlei walked to the sword rack and chose a few good swords and grunted with satisfaction as he began to harness them to his belt.

“Can you please explain what’s going on now? The rain, the guards… where is everyone!?” Destyn was feeling quite frustrated now, enough so the room began to darken. Ternlei displeased in how his brother was beginning to act decided to interject.

“Would you settle down? You’re only helping the darkness.” Ternlei sighed going to another shelf grabbing a fairly large crossbow. “You’re familiar with the darkness that has been over the town for quite some time… am I right?” Ternlei glanced back as he continued to grab a quiver of bolts for the crossbow.

“Yeah, and I’m not the only one. People have been talking about it for some time… what’s happening?” Destyn walked over and struck a rock with a dagger that he had just picked up off the ground to light a torch. It had gotten quite a bit colder since the darkness began to rain down and the fire had felt nice on Destyn’s fingers and cheeks as he blew into his hands.

“The knights have had their suspicions for quite some time as well. We have never been too well off with the Seplini’s, since the Nojae War. We decided they might be up to something, though they had no such power to do this on their own they have always have tried to have more power then what they should have.” Ternlei gave a glance over his shoulder aimed at Destyn. “Dad’s Fleet was sent to find out if the darkness had spread and find out who was responsible. That required us to travel north through the borders into Syrain, the Seplini’s land. We had run into a traveling group that seemed to be an odd bunch. Even for Seplini’s… there was something wrong with them. They would go on about a great leader that had given them strength and they were planning on taking out their own town for power! They were mad, and we were about to leave when they felt they had told us too much. So they took everyone out.” He paused and he lowered his arms with the crossbow and bolts in his hands. Turning around his eyes narrowed and his eyes now appeared entirely black.

“Dad tried to protect everyone but these new powers were very real. We didn’t last long. I don’t know how I managed to escape but I did, it had happened so fast and on a very foggy night. I feared that they would head south because we told them that’s where we lived. Stupid mistake- but somehow I feel it had been planned the whole time.” The explanation had been longer then Destyn had expected. Ternlei threw the quiver; and crossbow towards Destyn, he caught it and nodded.

“So then… What’s the plan?” Destyn asked as he threw the quiver over his back and readied his crossbow.

“Well, we’re severely outnumbered, and we need to find the source of the darkness before it runs everyone mad. The towns people have all but disappeared it seems, and more and more Seplini seem to be showing up. This leader of the Seplini’s, I suspect is the problem, and I think he is doing most of this with his powers. It’s not the Seplini’s choice in the matter, they are pawns.” The rain seemed to have stopped but it hadn’t warmed up any. Destyn had no clue what he was going to do. Follow his brother obviously. But things didn’t look good, and he had to save his mother and any of the surviving townspeople, where ever they may be.

Ternlei and Destyn left the town and headed north following the tracks of the Seplini, not something Destyn had wanted to do, but they had hoped that the Seplini would lead them to this leader and to a solution to the problem.