[WP] A portal opens to a fantasy world of elves, dwarves, orks, and goblins. Human nature being what it is, we decide to invade and set up puppet states. Write from the perspective of a magical being fleeing the human military that bears down on their once peaceful village.

...

Oh, I think many would agree with that sentiment, myself included. Life has been hard these last few years.

Don't have to tell me twice! Gods take it all: calamity after calamity... you could pin it on the Dark Lord himself, but light have mercy if he decides to get involved with the affairs of men. Nay, best course is to pray like all the rest that he stays, cooped up in that blackened tower of his out west, and that we die long before he ever decides to head in our direction.

Aye, I meant it. You're young still. Those eyes of yours have yet to see the terror that man... no, that god- that's closer to what he is. What that god can do, is reason for terror in any mortal.

Ah, you don't believe me, do you? Youth... I remember feeling that way: invincible. I pray it lasts, even in these times we live. The things that have gone wrong about the lands, it's just too much.

What? You really want me to list? Light help me, I'll do it- don't tempt me.

Oh, you fool. Another round of ale is only going to make this worse- that won't shut me up.

I can't talk while I drink?

I'll tell you, that only makes me drink faster

Fine then, I'll start the bloody count and the next round's on me, but hear: the question that stalls my wagon, is where the bloody-hells do I even start? Name something, anything- I need a push before I go drunkenly rolling down into this fucking pit again.

Oh, stop your laughing! The failed crusade? Is that what you said?

Fine then, that's as good as any. Hell, a few summers back, I think that was brought up by every drunken ramble in the local pub, on a nightly basis- no less. Who'd have ever thought, that sending thousands to perish in the Church's delusional attempt to bring an end to the Dark Lord, was such a bad idea?

Utter rubbish.

Ask anyone not sitting prim and proper in an ivory tower: we knew knew it.

I told the lads: "Don't you fucking go. It's not worth the gold." but no. Of course they didn't listen. Light have mercy of their souls.

Aye.

Let the West belong to abomination of death, pray for the wall to hold, and never open those bloody gates again, lest another swarm of undead come shuffling back... or a fucking dragon, for that matter.

I suppose those are the next two items to tally.

All hail the Captain and the noble Queen herself for dealing with that mess. Nobles were so busy pissing themselves, it's quite likely a miracle the city still stands.

And to believe, they'd almost had the Captain thrown in a dungeon, before they'd know what he was about- what, being a battlemage and all. Unsanctioned magic, consulting with dark elves, demons, daemons, werewolves and the like.

Oh?

Well, of course they say that about the Queen too- but mostly that she fancies the latter. Be a great laugh if there wasn't possibly some truth to it. Heard she's got a monster at her side, wolf the size of four stallions, and teeth like white razors.

Fine, don't believe me- but go the city one day, you'll see!

Another round? Aye, i'm good for it.

Let's see... where was I? Oh-

The Goblin attacks. Yes, always trouble- but never until recent years had they become such a menace. You've got the army trotting along, Captain and his crew pushing them back into the forests, but heavens only know there seem to be more of them every year. Damned if I know where in all fuckery they've been crawling out from, but light help me if you travel without a few swords in company.

And if that wasn't enough? Why, shit's been raining from the fucking sky!

Is it the Dark Lord? Damned if I know.

Maybe it has been, that Dark Lord himself has been up to something terrible. Ripping the laws of nature apart to wipe his ass with. Seems like the type of thing that monster would do on whim, now doesn't it?

World's fraying. That's what they've been calling it: "Fraying"

Aye, it's clear to see if you catch it in the act. Even the Queen's own Mages have been worried by it, here last week trying to close a hole in the sky.

Yes.

Oh, got in after it closed, did you? No, honest to the light- it was an actual hole. Was gushing sea water, bits of sand, and no small quantity of fish.

Aye.

Right there in the center of the bloody village. Cobblestones still smell like spoiled clams if you ask me. Fucking wreck that was...

You've seen other things, have you? Colors in the sky that don't match, voices from places far away?

It's true, you know. Things worse than fish have been slipping through. It's not hard to notice, what comes in the day is rarely the worst of things.

That's what comes in the night.

Aye... Even after all the hell and troubles befalling the land- even counting the menace to the west and all the trouble he brings: the worst yet to come, are the men of shadows.

Yes.

No, I play to tricks. No lies in the drink tonight.

They're men, see, but not like us. Not of the world, not of this place. They come in the dark of night, encased in black armor that can stop a sword, and arrow, a mage's fire- but even in this, they move like a thief of the cloth.

Silent.

Aye... silent in the night, blended to the shadows. By the time you see them, by the time you realize they've come...

They say the Dwarves have gone silent, you know. That their mountains have gone still, and their forges run cold. That the forests of the South have no more birds, and those who wander too deeply, never return. That those men of shadow have crept upon the land, and taken all they could.

They even say, that the men have come here...

Oh yes, here, even so close to the city of the Queen herself.

Maybe you might have seen them, moving along the trees, creeping in the dead of night about our walls. Waiting, watching...

For what? Oh, to take, you see. To take, to take, to take...

What do they want? Truly, you ask me this? You really don't know?

It's a simple answer.

The stones, the sand, the mountains, the sea... the rivers, the trees, the forests, the plains, and all who dwell beside them.

To take, to take, to take...

Everything.