Every tale has a start. Some start at small moments like a certain hobbit answering the door and meeting a gruff old wizard. It was from these small moments that lead to the small chain of events like meeting a bunch of dwarves, to joining an adventure into a lost mountain to slay/steal (from) a dragon.

There are tales that start with the big flash moments like a princess trying to escape an evil empire. You see soldiers holding the line only to be cut down by blaster fire until the main villain in black armor appears on the scene demanding to know where the stolen plans to his secret weapon is.

Personally his favorite was the one involving the detective taking his wife out to someplace trying to relax only to end up having everyone dragging him to whatever crime had happened because they wanted him to solve the mystery when he just wanted to take a vacation.

The classics were just underappreciated.

Marcus Leng Flame the Third walked along the edge of the city playground as he was fully prepared for everything… or as best as he could hope for. His clothing blended in for the most part as anything odd was safely hidden away within his backpack or the various pouches that hung off his body.

None of the other children reacted to his presence as he walked towards the small out cropping of trees that were supposed to give some privacy to the children playing in the back, but you could hear the sound of cars and traffic on the other side of the trees.

He sighed as nobody had given a second glance at his staff. He heard plenty of complaints, details, and reasons for why he shouldn’t have brought it or even tried to make one… but nobody saw it as anything more than a gaudy toy.

Grant it Marcus was fourteen years old… but still!

Slipping off his backpack he grumbled to himself “Just pull out the trinkets, check the area, and get paid. He said a child could do this and we need this.”

Pulling out a small black pendant and pulled out a small bottle of red ink. Looking behind him he just saw a bunch of children playing around. Some swung on swings, others ran around beating each other with sticks playing tales of knights and squires or something.

Would he have been running around on a playground like this if he was born normal?

Marcus tried not to snort as no… he’d probably still stick with staying inside and celebrating the wonders of technology making inside far more preferable than outside.

Dipping the pendant into the liquid he muttered a small chant underneath his breath “I am he who remembers the Ancient of Rites. I call upon the Dawn to reveal the truth in this morning’s light. I call upon the dark to reveal the secrets hidden within the Night.”

The pendant started to glow as Marcus frowned as the old chant had reacted to the area meaning that there was either magic at work… or a domain.

First rule of the business if prepare for the worst.

Marcus went over to the nearby slide that none of the other children went near as he dug into his backpack and pulled out a rope as one of the Unsee hidden inside the backpack helped untangle the rope.

He had heard enough stories and seen enough movies to know why you needed a good sturdy rope tied around your waist when wandering in an unexplored area. Worst came to worst it would either help guide him out of the area or more likely help him get pulled if things got bad.

One of the Unsee bound itself to the rope animated it with life as the rope tied itself around his waist and around one of the poles holding up the playground swing suit. The moment something bad happened would be the moment the Unsee would reel him in.

The Unsee were useful spirits, but sometimes they were a bit over protective. They needed to be bound by something to live and Marcus helped them out the best he could... in all honesty he thought they were where the stories of House Elves came from until he was told that House Elves were an actual magical race.

Flint one of the Unsee that normally accompanied him jabbed Marcus's stomach as the small spirit sort of glared at him. The red cloth had been fashined into a cloak and the red cap was adjusted to help give the impression he was angry. he waved his black coal like arms before making an X with them to make his point clear.

"You know Lord Velkear isn't going to stop... and if I do this job it will help my parents." Marcus reminded the small spirit "I mean I know I have you all... but..."

Aura came out as she stood beside Flint. The second Unsee had tried to style her cloth to look like a dress as the human like bird spirit was shaking her head. Flint sort of stomped his foot as Marcus let the two spirits talk it out. While Flint was focused on his safety he knew Aura understood the sense of loss at being unable to do anything when the family she had been protecting simply... died.

He could do something for his adopted parents. Even if it was foolish and there was probably some hidden problem Velkear hadn't informed them about... the reward for the task would be enough considering his parents had still been struggling with their problem for the last three years.

Marcus tried to ease Flint and the other Unsee who were worried about him “That is what the rope is for. Tie it around the waist to ensure that if anything happens I can get out of there quickly.”

Besides it was probably nothing… just some random twig twirler setting up some sort of ward or spying charm only for someone else to have hijacked it… that or there was a completely normal kidnapper hiding a few cameras trying to spot their next target and the magic in the area was ironically hiding the surveillance devices instead of frying them since magic and electricity normally didn’t get along.

You needed proper proteciton built into them… and the Twig Twirler society never bothered to learn how to do it. So if there was tech inside it meant someone accidently was using their magic to their advantage… or they were Arcadian Bound.

He placed his staff off to the side as the rest of the Unsee hidden within the backpack went to work trying to sort between what objects would be useful and what objects they thought he would need. The fact one of them had handed him a flare gun was both odd… and slightly insulting.

Why did one of them pack a Flare Gun? Did they think he was going to get lost at sea within the middle of the city? There wasn’t even an ocean he could reach by car ride for a good few hours at the very least!

He slid the Flare Gun into one of his pouches as he sighed “Look nobody is going to notice because people don’t care.” He glanced at all the other children “Unless I start throwing fireballs around like crazy, nobody is going to care because it doesn’t involve them.”

Marcus shrugged as he didn’t blame them. To them there was a perfectly logical explination that didn’t involve magic, monsters, or nightmares. Parents standing around would mean the area was safe. The fact another child went missing a few days ago meant police would be keeping an eye out.

The fact a child was all alone probably meant he had a parent nearby… not that he was doing this without their knowledge.

“If it’s dangerous I’ll simply go back to the hotel room and call them, then the police if it’s a mundane threat.” Marcus informed them “If it’s mystical in nature I’ll do the same except have them call the magical police or something.”

While he did have the random fantasy of being the hero of some great story… he also knew that he wasn’t hero material. Those tended to have people marked by destiny being something grand and willing to play the odds to do what was right no matter the cost.

That was kind of the problem as Marcus valued his life a lot. Oh sure he was out here risking his neck so to speak… but that was because Velkear picked a time in which his parents would be busy and offered something that Marcus couldn’t exactly pass up.

If he did this one job than his parents would be in a better position… and he’d help make up for the mistake they made three years ago. That is what drove him forward today as he grabbed everything he could think of just to be safe… just in case things weren’t as ‘simple’ as they were made out to have been.

Grabbing the rope and giving it a tight tug he heard a female voice call out “You shouldn’t be around here. It’s dangerous.”

Marcus turned to stare at the teenager as she looked nervous, but didn’t set off any warning bells. He would have ignored her if she didn’t keep looking into the clearing of trees with obvious fear. There hadn’t been a report of a missing child in a few days… and Velkear made the offer to him ‘today’ ensuring that it would be okay.

“Your younger sibling went missing yesterday.” Marcus sighed as the look of shock and horror on her face confirmed his worries “And you can’t explain what happened, but you know it wasn’t normal.”

He retrieved his pendant only after firmly ensuring the rope was tied around his waist. No way was he going in the tiny patch of woods if something was lurking inside them instead of someone.

“Can you describe the creature?” Marcus asked as the Unsee hid themselves inside the backpack “Did you get a description or…”

She shook her head “Didn’t you hear what I said… I mean it’s dangerous!”

He rolled his eyes and produced a camera “I have a phone, camera, and just need a bit of proof to get everyone else to believe me. If it is real I’ll bring back proof. If it isn’t then somebody had a car on the other side of the tree line where they kidnapped their latest victim.”

If it was a creature he doubted it would wait for someone to wander near the tree line… and if it was somebody with a getaway vehicle? Well they also wouldn’t wait as they would just grab whoever they were after when the opportunity struck… including breaking into a bathroom, grabbing the kid, and then shoving them into the trunk before driving away.

To be honest the second one would be just the kind of trouble he'd expect since it would mean a bunch of criminals would be after him. They would most likely be non-magical giving him a slight edge over them... with the risk of being kidnapped or shot to make sure he had a health douse of fear when facing them.

Not all threats had to be magical threats after all.

“Just what makes you think that a child should be doing this! I mean…” She glanced at him as Marcus hated it when they treated him like a kid.

He didn’t mind being a kid. He just hated it when they thought that ‘kid’ meant incompatent. That he was just the same like everyone else and because everyone else was a bunch of entitled idiots that he too was just as incompatent as them!

He built his own staff when the traitorous old goat made it so that Marcus couldn’t legally own a real wand. If they thought that was going to keep him from practicing ‘regular magic’ then they had no idea who they were underestimating!

Marcus motioned towards his equipment “I have tied myself to this pole just to be safe. It will prevent me from being instantly dragged away and I can scream pretty loudly…”

He motioned to tug on the rope he found nothing in his hand. She stared at him in horror not because she feared him… but because the sounds of the vehicles in the street had vanished. The playground with all of it’s various attractions and children had also vanished.

Instead they were left in the middle of an endless forest with only what they had on them at the moment.

The backup full of all his extra items (and help) wasn’t with him. His staff wasn’t within arms reach, and the freaking rope tied around his waist had just vanished before he could blink! He could understand lossing his staff, but why did the rope with an Unsee bound to it disapear!

He'd have a better shot at lossing his cape before the rope!

Digging into his pockets he pulled out a pair of white rocks with a minor arcana inscribed upon them as he was a Magician by trade and Magicians by nature tended to be one half misdirection, the other half preparation.

Sending a bit of magic into the stones he tossed them to the side creating an illusion of a large dog that stared at them. It wouldn’t be enough to fool a person since it was misty white and looked a little more like a ghost than a flesh and blood creature, but it didn’t need to fool a person.

“Over here and hide!” Marcus hissed as the teenager quickly followed suit.

They both hid behind one of the trees as Marcus pulled out the second pair of stones before he used them to send a command to the illusionary dog. It ran off into the distance barking loudly as they could hear the sounds of leaves shifting and branches breaking off in the distance.

It went after the ‘prey’ that tripped whatever trap they stumbled upon while they kept silent off in the distance. They could hear the illusionary dog growl and bark at the ‘creature’ before there was a resounding crack of something hitting the dog and the ‘snap’ with the pained yelp from the illusion before the magic animating it failed.

They heard the creature grumble “Through Pine and Bark I see your flesh. Through earth and rot I smell your breath. Like sticks and stone I’ll grind your bones as you stepped onto my domain young soul.”

Marcus kept a hand over her mouth as she kept a hand over his own. Neither of them spoke as they waited for the creature to leave… no… The Grim Song. He hated trying to deal with unchained nightmares especially when they grew into becoming a Grim Song.

They were easy to spot because of their instance at trying to turn every speech into a lyric or some sort of rhyme (and usually failing), but that wasn’t the worst part. No the worst part was how hard it was in trying to kill one of these things. Normally you needed a lot of research because the nightmares loved to lie pretending they were a lot stronger than what they were, while trying to hide their weakness.

That didn't sound bad until you had to fight a Grim Song that used fire. Some could be defeated by water or drowing them, while others could only be harmed by fire because Grim Songs couldn't be simple and loved having far too many tricks up their sleves.

The creature waited for a few more seconds before grunting as it mumbled ‘Blasted Twig Twirlers and their false summons. No meat, no trap, and time wasted while they come to find your nest.” It tore into one of the trees causing it to collapse as neither of them screamed “They can’t find your domain, but you need to fix the snare least they find a way inside… again.”

It grumbled marching away in annoyance before they could safely remove their hands from each other’s mouths happy at the knowledge that the Grim Song didn’t have enough power to ‘look through trees and smell their breath’ like it claimed.

It was just a scare tactic meant to reveal themselves. Now that it left he could check what he had and try to figure out how to escape the Domain of this creature… or kill it. The second one would be tricker because he didn’t have his staff!

The teenager coughed “So… what are you exactly?”

Marcus glanced at her before remembering that she had seen the supernatural, but hadn’t fully realized how ‘natural’ it actually was.

How exactly did you explain that magic, monsters, and ‘pocket realities’ were in fact quite normal and it was just the simple fact that the world isn’t insane because it had always been insane. She was just one of the few ‘lucky few’ who got to see what happened backstage?

Clearing his throat he gave it a shot “I’m a magician… magical kind, but we do share a lot of similarities with the fake stage magic variety.” She stared at him in disbelief as he pulled out a fake wand… a ‘toy’ magician wand “On the surface it looks normal…” he twisted off the bottom and revealed the blood red runes and the obvious arcane glow “But if you look a little bit deeper is a lot more complicated then it first seems.”

He stared at his fake wand as it didn’t have a magical core or special type of wood. It lacked whatever was supposed to make a wand… a wizard wand so to speak. This was just a plastic prop filled with a unique set of runes to set off exactly one type of magic when utilized with the proper command.

“How good are you at aiming?” Marcus asked the teenager.

She blinked before glancing off to where the Grim Song had trudged through the forest “I’m used to paintball guns instead of wands.”

He couldn’t help, but chuckle a little as she was willing to accept the wand was magic and that she could use it… instead of trying to have him explain everything.

Snapping the bottom back into place he placed it in her hand “White tip towards target. Hold tightly and just say… fireball.”

She pointed the wand up into the air “Fireball.”

A small fireball shot out of the wand and flew up into the sky. It didn’t go off or explode… as it simply dissipated. It wasn’t a traditional fantasy magic fireball, but that was because he didn’t know how to make one. Still he figured being able to lob balls of fire was still pretty effective even if they didn’t explode.

She held the fake wand tightly as she tried to stay calm “And that… thing? What is it? Why did it take my little brother?”

Marcus shrugged as he told her the truth “A Grim Song. Pretty much an inhuman creature that is smart enough to be evil, and is where most ‘monster underneath your bed’ stories come from. They are hard to kill, annoying to deal with, and…”

He didn’t finish as he saw her staring at him in fear of what those last few words might be. He felt an uneasy knot in his stomach as the plan was to find a way out of the Grim Song’s domain before calling his parents and the local magical authorities to deal with this threat.

Running into the den of this monster to rescue a random child wasn’t part of the plan. He didn’t have his staff and a good chunk of his supplies (and help) was missing!

She stared at him practically pleading for his help as he thought about what Velkear would say… and what his parents would say.

“He’ll probably be alive and…” Marcus searched his robes before pulling out another fake magician wand, except this one had a red cross symbol painted on the middle of it. Thankfully he had two of them on hand “This one is ‘Mend’ as you point at the injury. It won’t heal anything as it’s job is to keep you patched up until an actual doctor or someone can do the rest.”

She stared at the wand in horror as she carefully took it out of his hand “You mean… to make sure he doesn’t bleed out if… if that monster…”

“Medicine has advanced a long way… and so has magical methods by healing.” Marcus half-lied as he tried to calm her down “Worst case? He lost a leg or an arm as we can make sure he doesn’t bleed out before we get a professional to see what they can do.”

The young magician cleared his throat “So… how long has your brother gone missing?”

The teenager sighed “Since yesterday afternoon.”

“Then he will be alive. He’ll be horrified and scared as you might see another skeleton inside the monster’s cave… but your brother will be alive.” Marcus emphasizes that last part “So long as he is alive I can call someone who can treat his wounds along with anything else that needs to be fixed…”

She nodded her head as the fear was replaced with grim conviction. While this were bad there was hope that she could return back to her normal everyday life. That running into a Grim Song and taking back her brother wouldn’t cause any unexpected side effects… or problems.

So long as she remembered what happened today there was a good chance she might end up becoming an Arcadian Bound… especially with the trinkets he was lending to her.

“Here is a pendant for protection against slashing. It won’t stop it, but hopefully stop anything from cutting to deep.” Marcus spoke as he pulled out each trinket “A calming drought if you need it. A spare burner phone since normal tech doesn’t work near a Grim Song.”

“What?” The teen spoke as she pulled out her own phone “Why would it make my phone…”

“Electricity and magic traditionally do not mix well… just like water and electricity do not traditionally mix well together.” Marcus spoke as he pulled out the spare phone “So we need to make things to protect the electronics from water or magic. So ironically it’s faster and safer to run by foot than to get into a car since you need a car battery to drive a car.”

She nodded as a small grin came across her face. There wasn’t much, but they were getting things together. The last two items they needed to deal with was the more obscure and arcane of the items in question… and sadly ‘obscure’ was a bad sign when you barely knew what was going on.

“And one Guidance stone.” Marcus handed the spare stone with some reluctance “It is currently set to my backpack… technically the Unsee within it, but they are trapped outside the Grim Song’s Domain… so these things are our only guide out of here.”

Looking at him she understood the problem “What about tracking the monster?”

Marcus shook his head “I would need something from it to be able to track it. The whole point of the distraction illusion was to avoid it getting close to us.”

Now they… no now she would make the decision. Either they would both go out of the domain and call his parents to get help… or she would venture into the unknown trying to find her brother regardless of the risks.

Wand in hand as she pulled out her own cellphone with the other… she stared at the screen for a few moments.

“My name is Cathrine… and I’m going to try to find my brother.” She glanced at the magician as she closed her eyes “Could you help me find him?

He wanted to say no and do the smart thing. Sadly for him his father was a bad influence.

“We can try… for thirty minutes.” Marcus firmly stated “Any longer and it might circle back or notice our presence. If we can’t find him we leave, call authorities and have them try to break in here to rescue him.”

Thankfully she didn’t argue because even if he was younger than her… he knew a lot more about what to do in order to avoid being killed than she did. He was the resident… monster hunter… in this situation after all.

Besides the main threat was out of the way probably looking for someone else to try and lure into its domain… and it would help getting a feel for the area so that when they escaped he could tell his parents everything they needed to know to fix this problem.

“I think I know where it is hiding my brother.” She spoke more to assure herself “As there was a path in the woods…”

Now that was odd. Grim Songs do not leave ‘paths’ because when they make a domain they prefer having their prey run around helplessly without any idea on where they were going. If it hadn’t created this area, but simply moved in after the original owner died…

That usually meant somebody was trying to hide something within the domain. Something that was usually illegal… or valuable.

"uh..." Cathrine stared at him "I'm sorry, but what was your name again?"

Marcus tried to smile "It's Marcus... Marcus Flame."

She nodded as she tried to find some marker or way to figure out where to go while Marcus just followed her. He could spare thirty minutes to help try to find her brother... and if that didn't work out he could always make a Pact with her, get his parents to help, and then deal with his parents unhappy at him risking his life, but happy that he tried to help someone out.

Either way... He glacned at his wrist watch.

"That was the deal. I'd spend at least thirty minutes in here to forfill Velkear's part of the bargin." He reminded himself.

Unless they found something to improve their odds of surivial in a fight against a Grim Song... all they could do is walk around the woods and try to find where her brother was... or where the exit was.