Prologue

The stars faded from the night sky. As the lights died out, the village below began to slip into panic. Bells began to ring as an all encompassing shadow spread at a staggering pace.

Jeru ,a tall but slender boy of twelve, jumped out of bed and rushed to his window, staring through the clouded glass he saw a single point of light in the center of the pitch black sky.

“Outworlder” he said, gazing at the lone bright spot that ebbed and flowed in the darkness.

“Jeru” a gruff middle aged man spoke, "go to the shelter with your mother."

Jeru snapped out of his trance and replied, “yes Father.”

As Jeru ran with his mother; he saw his father emitting a faint white light from his body and a golden glow from the edges of his eyes. He stood their frozen, watching his Father float towards the blinking light.

The brightness faded and in a flash the night sky snapped back to its starry facade. The panic however did not subside. The screams and panic intensified as his mother yanked him away.

Jeru looked up to see his father and beside him, where the light had been, was a large creature, its skin was a deep red and its body emitted a harsh yellow glow. From its back was a constant stream of flames giving the appearance of giant wings.

Jeru's mother grabbed her son, threw him over her shoulder, and began to run. Jeru continued to stare into the sky as the massive wings began to flutter and with it a hailstorm of fire began to rain down upon the village. The last thing Jeru saw before being herded into a large cellar was his father swinging his golden blade. The blade grew brighter and struck the demon; the resulting flash illuminating the village.

Jeru sat huddled in the cellar with countless villagers. The constant tremors and explosions keeping everyone in tense and suffocating silence. The earth and sky shook and the cellar creaked, time lost meaning to Jeru. Minutes, hours, days, all of it blended together and the stress and shock of what was happening began to take its toll on the boy.

Finally there was one last thunderous crash and as silence settled in, Jeru slipped into unconsciousness.

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Chapter 1 A Burning Question

I never saw what happened. I only know that three days after the event I woke up and nothing would be the same. My Father and the outworlder were gone. The village was nearly destroyed; some homes left untouched, others were reduced to ash. The ground itself hadn't been spared from the onslaught, as it was marred with deep fissures spreading in every direction.

I had been depressed since the accident but days still went by; the injured were tended to and borders secured. The focus of the village became rebuilding.

“Jeru, go help the others clear debris.” Tora, a village elder said.

I stopped sulking and hastily replied, “yes elder.”

I ran to the outskirts of the village and started gathering salvageable material with the other children. There were piles for unbroken ceramics, piles for metals and unscathed materials. The village was still a husk of its former glory, but it would be restored. The land was still good for crops, trading cities were close enough and we were isolated from the beast forests.

The labor continued late into the day until one of the children started complaining.

“ Gah I hate this !” A short Auburn haired child yelled. "When I grow up, I will be the village guardian and no one will die. I'll be strong enough to save the village!"

I glared at him with menace. "You don't know what you are talking about. You think it's easy to stop an outworlder? Just shut up!"

“Legions of beasts, outworlders, I don’t care. I won’t be so weak as to let the village get destroyed!” The kid replied.

I grabbed him by the collar, yanking him forward, sending him tumbling to the ground.

He shot up rather quickly, “if you want to fight we can fight,” the ruddy faced boy looked up at me to make sure his unflinching stare met my eyes. “My name is Skerk and just so you know I have already unlocked my element.”

I cringed a bit at that, no wonder this kid had been so cocky. He had already unlocked his

element and stated school. A muddled orange fire with tinges of black crackled and sparked upon his fists.

My father had taught me some basic stances but this kid, Skerk, rushed at me quicker than I could react. He caught me off guard and got in two quick punches to my gut. I tried to counter him ,but I was immediately struck in the face; luckily he couldn't maintain his flame well so my injuries were relatively light.

I tried to counter him but I was immediately struck in the face, luckily he couldn’t maintain his flame well so my injuries were relatively light. He stood back until his flames reignited on his hands and took another swing at me, but was countered by a pillar of earth that shot towards him from the ground, striking him in the jaw and knocking him down.

I turned around and saw my younger neighbor Erda. She had unlocked her element last month and already had no problem creating dense columns of earth. “ Thanks Erda.”

Skerk got back to his feet. “ No fair you cheaters, this was a dual between men. I’m telling an elder!”

“You are just a runt not a man.“ Erda said, taunting him with a stuck out tongue.

“ I may be small but at least I am not a coward like him and his father." Skerk locked eyes with me.

“ Take that back!” I glared, balling my fists ready for a second round.

“ N0! “ Skerk said. "See for yourself, the fight continued south of the village. There is no trace of your father. He abandoned us, that's why the village was wrecked!"

I went to lunge at him but Erda grabbed me, she was smaller than me, but being of the earth element she was much

stronger. I could not break free of the small

hands digging into my shoulder. Seeing this, Skerk dusted himself off and walked away as the other kids got back to work collecting debris.

"Jeru don't listen to him, he doesn't know what he's saying." Erda was trying to console me but I brushed her off and sprinted towards the edge of the south territory.

The southern outskirts were littered with more signs of battle and a large trail of downed trees. Skerk hadn’t been lying about that.I continued to run, not realizing I was getting close to a gorge that

divided our village and a massive swath a beast territory. On the other side of the wide chasm I saw a massive crater, I climbed down a path into the empty ravine and climbed back up on the other side. From there I ventured till I arrived at the edge of the crater.

I paused for a moment and scanned the area. It was close to the gorge so it shouldn't have too many beasts around, but this was still beast territory. After losing to someone smaller than me and to my neighbor, I had no false bravado left. I was weak. A red furred rat could probably rip of my leg and slowly devour me. There were things much worse than a rat in the deep forest, but I had to know what happened.

I crawled down into the crater looking for signs my father was alive, any sort of clue. I felt a weird pain in the back of my right eye. Turning towards my right side, I saw a still flaming red lump of flesh. It must have come from the offworlder. That's when I saw it. Footprints that appeared human leading out of the crater.

“Dad, are you around here, are you hurt?” I followed the footsteps into the forest until they disappeared. Even after the footsteps vanished, I was still

running deeper into the underbrush in search of my father.

“Dad where are you where did you go, why did you leave?”

Was Skerk right? Someone close to him must have been part of the village search party. The deeper I went the more I doubted my father. Skerk was right. My father had walked away from the village, leaving it in ruins. I fell to my knees sobbing, lost in my own grief. As I sat there I was jerked back to the real world by a low growl. Horrified, I turned to see a frostcat.

“Murste,[1]” I muttered.

If it was something slow, I might have had a chance at survival , but this was a frostcat. At a little over the height of a rod[2], it wasn’t the biggest of creatures but it was known for being quick and brutal. Even some of the kids from the village who had unlocked their element might not survive. The beast's fangs and claws were clear as ice and I knew such claws could easily make short work of wood or even leave scratches on metal, let alone what it could do to my flesh and bones. The muscles underneath its skin tightened as it prepared to pounce. I started to back away preparing to turn and run, but before I could, a slip of parchment whizzed through the air and I heard a loud bang, which sent me tumbling to the ground.

1. A local favorite curse word

2. A rod referring to measuring system, one rod being roughly 2.4 feet or .73meters derived from the length of the core component of the average short sword