Deep in the land of Terrenus a desolate region could be found. Everything there was either dead or dying due to sever drought. Most people called it the Badlands, others stirred rumors that it was one of the many gateways into the Nine. Truth be known, at one time the Badlands was a thriving region full of green grass and forests with a river that fueled the land with life. Over time the climate shifted and soon it became what it was today, dry and dead; a true no mans land.
Overhead a bird of prey stalked the skies in search of food upon the Desert's evershifting sands. The condor like bird drifted along for miles and miles with nothing in view. The sun had begun to set over the horizon's line of scrimmage, the breaking point where dark overthrows the light for only a short lived victory. As the sun hunkered lower and lower and ominous orange/red glow cast out over the skyline. The bird of prey focused in as shadows danced across the hills and valleys while the sands below shifted, untamed, like an ocean. Then it spotted him. A man, clad visibly in a cloak with a hood that covered his entire body. Each step the man took left tracks in the sand to be whisked away only seconds later. As the bird circled a few times it grew anxious and gave in to its hunger. It decided to attack.
Swooping down like an armed missile on approach, the bird locked onto it's target. The man caught a slight glimpse of a shadow casting over head and just so happened to look up. At first glance one might panic if they seen a giant bird, easily seven times his own size, but the man did not panic as he looked to the sky and caught a fading glimpse of this winged raptor. Instead a smile formed on his lips as the hood was pushed back to fall over his shoulders. Long black hair shone in the shifting light while red hued orbs stared the approaching creature down with the same focus of a dragon on it's prey.
"you will make for a nice lunch"
The man spoke aloud to the bird as if it understood his words at all what so ever or if it could as if it cared. From under the cloak came a swift right hand which held short sword, stolen from a passed over dead body, and with one quick motion the blade was sent hurling at the creature. A high pitched shrill was followed by the decapitation of this bird. A few feathers fluttered down to the ground, riding along on the winds weightless and dancing so elegantly. The bird, however, fell with a soft and almost silent thud into the sand.
Some say that when one's head is severed from the body they are able to bare witness to events before them for only a brief eight seconds more. Well if that were true than the bird's eyes would bare sight to a far worse predator than it ever imagined to become. A shadow crept over the man swiftly, engulfing him in darkness though still light enough to see his silhouette melt and take shapes that only monsters in the worst of nightmares could fathom. Gleaming red eyes peered from the darkness as if the dark was the entity itself. The shadow cast over where the bird lay and then it was gone, whisked away on the winds. Where the creature once lay now only remained a few bones that had been splintered and seemingly crushed by a giant maw.
Ten to twenty miles to the south, the same wind blew through the only place that still sustained life there in the Badlands. There was a small area of lush greenery with a fair sized structure built there in the center of it all. It wasn't a castle but too large for much anything else. These were called Keeps'; military strongholds commonly used for small regiments or outposts. That wind that blew in carried with it the shadow from the sands. It cast itself over the Keep and as the sun sat below the ridge, screams of those fifty some men, women, and children could be heard for miles, but subsequently heard by no one but the sands. Then just as the screams had began, they were snuffed out.
The man materialized at the Main Hall entrance. Both his hands pressed against the door and slid it open. He walked inside with a smile on his face while blood dripped to the stone floor.
"Home sweet home"
His words echoed and reverberated back through the corridors. His voice was deep and strong but held somewhat of a joyous undertone to it. He found himself, soon after, setting in the center chair within the Throne Room.
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