Dawn broke over Fort Erich and the small city surrounding it. Spring had just started, but you could still feel the cold nip of winter in the air. This fort was located along the border of two small kingdoms. The kingdom that Fort Erich belonged to was called Heider. Across the border from Heider was their rival Luxom. These two were constantly switching between war and peace with one another, so frequently that all others refused to ally themselves with the kingdoms in fear of starting large scale wars due to their little squabbles.

Fort Erich was resided in some rolling grassy plains, that were really in the middle of nowhere, while the fort itself was not terribly big so it could only hold a small garrison. It was primarily acted as a look out to see if any Luxom troops would be coming through the plains. If Luxom did want to invade through this area, they wouldn't even need to siege Fort Erich, they could just go around the fort and easily continue on their way. The area didn't hold any other villages as there was no rivers nearby, so the main source of water for the area was rain. Luckily there was an underground lake near the fort which was the only reason they were able to build it in these plains.

The city surrounding Fort Erich was not smartly built, it had popped up almost over night, after the fort was built. It started out when merchants would come and prop up tents to sell wares to the soldiers, who found them selves far from the comforts of home, at high prices. During times of peace, when trade was permitted between the two kingdoms, many merchants going to and fro would actually go out of their way to stop at places like this fort to sell their wares, at high prices. Eventually solid buildings started to get built by the traders and the city was born.

As the first light of day crept into his room, Adam began to stir. He was a young boy of eight or so years, with a head of brown hair. In a bed next to his own, a smaller figure could be spotted. The small figure was his five year old sister, Emilia.

The door to their room opened as their mother came in and spoke: “Come on, that's enough sleeping. It's time to wake up.”

Adam's mother, Vivienne, still looked young and in her prime. She wore her long hair in a braided fashion down her back, accentuating her demure beauty.

Adam sat up and yawned as he lazily replied: “M'kay mom.”

Emilia started to squirm and also cutely replied: “Morning already?”

“Yes dear, breakfast is already on the table now hurry up, I still need to open The Dancery.”

Right next to their simple house was a building that looked quite close to a tavern, however it sold no alcohol. This “tavern” was called The Dancery, and was owned by Vivienne. Dancery was a ploy on two words “dance” and “eatery” that Vivienne and her husband, Alaric, came up with when they moved here. The Dancery was a lively place full of music, dancing girls, and pretty decent food.

Adam got out of bed and went to wash up and change his clothes before breakfast. If one were to watch him changing clothes, they would notice that he had a rather sturdy body for an eight year old. This was because Alaric, who was once a mercenary and now a city guardsman, felt compelled to teach Adam what he knew of the sword. Nothing Alaric could teach, however, would be very profound like what big name martial schools taught. All he could teach, Adam, was how to exercise one's body, and how to strike at an opponent's weakness.

Even thought his father was never really strict in the training, as Adam was still too young for intensive full training, he really did not like the sword. He much preferred playing his flute at The Dancery as he watched the dances.

The house Adam lived in was a small house. It had just two bedrooms, a washroom, and then the largest space, that took up half the house, had the kitchen on one side, a table with four chairs in the center, and a fire place on the opposite wall that was close to the entrance.

Adam walked out of the washroom and went to the table where his sister and mother were eating breakfast. He noticed that his father wasn't joining them so he asked: “Did father start patrol early today?”

“Yes. They set Alaric's patrols this week to start at midnight. He should be done with his rounds in a few hours.” His mother responded.

Adam nodded back at his mother while in contemplation. Turning slightly sour he thought: “After father gets back he will probably just take a short nap before he drags me out to train.”

Vivienne smiled slightly as she looked at his face, she knew what he was thinking. Ignoring the sour look he had, she asked: “Adam, I was going to have you take Emilia and do some morning shopping while I'm opening The Dancery, do you mind?”

“Nope, got nothin else to do.” Adam succinctly responded

After they finished eating their food, Vivienne went next door to open up The Dancery, with the help of a few employees, as Adam and Emilia went to go grocery shopping. Their family would typically only buy food for breakfast as all their other meals were mostly eaten in The Dancery. Almost all of their free time was spent in the family business.

Their typical life is as follows: Adam would help bus tables or play the flute with the other musicians if he was not training with his father. Emilia could be easily seen learning how to dance if she wasn't playfully running around. Vivienne of course managed the place. And Alaric would try to help, if he was not on patrol, but would just get thrown out as he got in the way too much so he would drag Adam out to train.

It could be seen as a hectic life but they had friendly patrons and employees. Also, since they served no alcohol, there were no drunkards that would disturb the peace. Rather than hectic they would say that they had a happy life.

After breakfast, Adam and Emilia went out to do the shopping. Adam watched Emilia skip along as she sung a song to help her learn the months and days of the year. The song used a simple rhyme, but the words did not match very well. “♪ ~ First day is Montock, second day Deinstock, third day Mittvock, fourth day Donnerstock, fifth day Freitock, sixth day Samstock, last day Zonntock. These are the days of the week ~ ♪ "

It was cute listening to Emilia trying to pronounce the hard 'ock' sounds. She had such a soft voice and found it hard to say at times. She turned to Adam, fed up. "Why do they make the names of the days and months sounds so weird? I don't like it."

Adam could only give a vague answer. "Well, these names came from the First Era. They spoke very differently from now. It is said that the names of the days and the months are the only things that have been remembered or passed down from the First era."

The current year was 10E977 or Tenth Era Year Nine-Hundred-Seventy-Seven. With one thousand years in an era, numbered from 0-999. The era number does not follow the same process and starts at 1E instead of 0E. So the very first year recorded in this system was 1E000. The first year of every era was simply called by it's era number. It had been almost ten thousand years since the original date system was made. Thus, it sounds very weird and guttural.

Adam then smiled at Emilia. "Come now, I know you are just trying to get out of singing the next song. Mom says you need to practice saying the words, or you will never get them right. Sing the months to me now."

Emilia angrily puffed her cheeks at Adam before continuing to the months. "♪ ~ First month Einar, Second month Zv-Zv.” Emilia started stuttering over the harder words.

“It's Zvielen.” Adam Spoke to Emilia. “I know that one is kinda hard. Skip it for now and continue along.”

Emilia nodded her head, glad to skip the word. "♪ ~ Third month Drittel, fourth month Vieren, fifth month Fufenin, sixth month Sellen, seventh month Zieb, eighth month Auk'laren, ninth month Nuun, tenth month Tennen, eleventh month Elvarden, Twelfth month Zecunder. These are the months of the year. ~ ♪”

Emilia did not have too much trouble with the rest of the words. Adam grinned as he tousled her hair. “Good, that wasn't so hard was it?”

Emilia pushed his hands away and said in a cute voice: “Stop it!”

They had finally reached the market area and were ready to buy the groceries. In front of a bakery Adam told Emilia: “I have a pop quiz for you! If you get it right, Mom said I could buy you a sweet from the bakery!”

Emilia's face turned ecstatic. “Yea!” She then gave Adam the look of a cute and innocent animal as she asked: “ Please, Don't make the quiz too hard.”

Adam smiled at this cute sister of his. “Don't worry. There are three questions, and for every one correct you can get a treat that costs one copper.”

Emilia was excited, she should be able to get at least one question right. Then she could get a cookie. If she got all three questions right, she could get a slice of cake. Adam spoke, bringing Emilia's thoughts back. “The first question is; What are the four seasons of the year?”

Emilia put a proud face on. “Easy! fall, summer, winter, and spring.”

Adam nodded at his sister. “Correct, that one was kinda easy. Now it gets a little harder. Which months go with each season.”

Emilia turned grumpy. “Ooo, I can never get that one right, you know that! Why did you have to make it a hard one!?”

Adam laughed at his sister. “You are the one who remembered the seasons in the wrong order! You have to get it right. Do you want me to tell you the answer?” Emilia nodded her head in a defeated manner. “Einar, Zvielen, and Drittel are spring. Vieren, Fufenin, and Sellen are summer. Zieb, Auk'laren, and Nuun are fall. Lastly, Tennen, Elvarden, and Zecunder are winter. Try to at least remember the correct order of the season. Then every three moths of a year is a full season.”

“I try, but it just doesn't work. I can only remember them in the order I already know!”

Adam gently patted her head in a comforting manner. “I know, you still have plenty of time to work on it. Any way, the last question is easier so you can still get two cookies.”

Emilia's face turned gleeful as she expectantly looked at Adam.

“The last question is... what is today's date?”

Emilia looked at her fingers as she counted some days. No one had told her exactly what today was, so she had to go off of her memory in order to find the answer. “Hmm, this is a little harder than you said it would be. Isn't today the 10th of Einar, 10E977?”

Adam once again smiled at his sweet sister. “That is correct! You can choose two cookies from the bakery to eat!”

Emilia gleefully ate the cookies she won, as they continued their shopping. After only a small while, they finished gathering everything they needed. Heading home, Adam had a large sack to carry in his arms, though it wasn't too heavy or unwieldy for him.

Partway home, Adam and Emilia heard some slapping sounds followed by grunts and some jeers. Hearing this Emilia's face distorted a bit from anger while her cheeks filled with small puffs of air as she ran towards that barely audible sound. Adam put his sack of groceries down in a safe spot before he quickly followed after her. Adam only thought to himself: “Here we go again.”

Emilia was very proud that her father was a member of the city guard and had a very strong sense of justice. There wasn't a lot of bullying that went on around where they lived, but they would sometimes see it happening. Whenever she saw it, Emilia would quickly rush up to the bullies and demand they stop while standing between them and their quarry. Thankfully she never leaves home alone so she wont get in a tussle on her own. Her parents constantly warned her not to do this as she could get hurt, but she only says: “But daddy don't you always help those who are bullied?” with one excuse or another she was too stubborn to stop, and since she never left home alone, they let it be and hoped that she would wise up a bit when she got older.

Emilia went around the corner of a building off the main street and went down a narrow walkway, that was like ally, when she saw a group of 3 older boys crowding around a figure on the ground. Seeing this she ran over shouting: “What are you doing!”

Her tiny voice didn't project very far, so no one on the main road heard her little yell. However, right after Adam rounded the corner he bellowed with strong lungs he got from training: “OI! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!”

This finally startled the three boys as some adults passing by peeked down the ally to see what was going on. Finally startled by the loud shout and noticing the adults at then end of the ally, the boys ran off in the other direction hoping to avoid any sort of punishment.

Emilia had a bright smile on her face as she beamed at her brother. She trod her way over to the figure on the ground and asked: “Hey are you all right?”

The boy on the ground got up as he grumbled: “I'm fine.”

The boy sported a cut lip and a few bruises all over. Emilia looked at him innocently as she asked: “Hey, who were they? If you tell us we can get them to stop.”

Hearing this, the boy's eyebrows creased as he looked at her like she was stupid and spoke: “What, rat on them? That's just going to make things worse!” The boy then left with a little humph.

Seeing as the boy who was the victim left without wanting to tell what happened, the few adults who came over left shaking their heads with simple thoughts like: “Kids will be kids.”

Emilia turned back towards Adam with confusion spread all over her face, and a hint of tears in the corners of her eyes. She quickly ran over to him giving a hug while asking in a saddened voice: “Why did he yell at me? I just wanted to help.”

Adam gave Emilia a gentle hug back as he led her out of the ally. He had a small smile on his face looking at his sister who had such a pure soul. He thought about what his father had told him so far about how the world worked while they were training. He spoke out to Emilia saying the same words their father had told him when he didn't understand something: “Don't worry about it. The world is full of weird people and strange things, it is not quite as simple as you think it to be. You'll understand more when you get older.” Emilia only responded by gently nodding her head while holding his hand.

After picking up the groceries Adam left behind, the two went home without any further incident. The rest of the day passed by rather uneventfully for them, as well. There was one thing that worried Adam, though. He had over heard some of the patrons talking about was the new war that started with Luxom earlier that week. They talked about whether or not they would target Fort Erich during this war. Before Adam could hear anything else, however, Alaric finally came back and dragged Adam out to train like he thought he would, with all the training he completely forgot about those worries. Afterwards it was finally time for dinner and then bed.

Adam woke up sometime after midnight to an eerie sound permeating the air. He curiously looked out his window from his bed but only saw a starry twilight sky. When he paid more attention to the eerie sound that was growing louder he could hear different off tune pitches, like an incredibly dissonant song. He had been getting scared before and was about to wake Emilia up but the song made him think that maybe somebody was doing some sort of weird prank.

He quickly changed his thoughts about a bad prank when, as the eerie song hit a crescendo, there was a sharp whistling fwish followed by a large thunderous BOOM! Which immediately woke Emilia up. Flipping about in her blanket she cried out in a frightened voice: “Is that thunder!?”

Adam quickly got out of bed and untangled his sister as he took a glance out the window. He could not see anything amiss, but Adam felt that there was something distinctly wrong. While Adam started pulling Emilia out of bed, Vivienne quickly barged into their room: “Are you two all right?” She worriedly asked. While her children were frightened they appeared to be fine. She brusquely walked up to them and took their hands saying: “Come on, that may have been an attack, we are going to head to the fort walls.”

This was the major oversight of the city having been slowly built up around the fort. Instead of the fort walls protecting the city, the city was protecting the fort walls! Everybody knew this, but the city had never been officially sanctioned and until it was there would be no funds for the soldiers to build additional sturdy walls around the city. Even the city council was formed by merchants, not government officials.

As Vivienne led her children out of their house Adam quickly grabbed his practice sword that was propped next to the door. Vivienne just gave him a glance and thought that it would be better than having nothing as they made their way to safety.

When they had stepped outside, they were stupefied by what they saw. There was an odd towering black flame at the edge of town! This black flame stretched high into the sky and was even blacker than the night sky, even covering some of the stars! The tallest thing he had ever seen in his life was the fort walls. They stood over fifteen meters high on their own, with lookout towers stretching higher still, up off the walls. This black flame rose higher than even watch towers on the fort walls!

Vivienne's face paled a bit when she saw the gigantic flames and paused for a moment in fright. She then tightened her hold on the hands of her children and started to march them towards the fort.

The roads were already filled with many people who came up with the same idea as Vivienne's; to quickly escape to the fort. Even more people were starting to come out of their homes, in order to figure out what was going on. Some instantly bolted towards the fort while others collapsed on their knees while wailing in fright that hell was descending upon them.

As everyone was hurrying off to safety, their worst fears came alight as various sounds started to drift over to them, carried through the air. Shrill screams of death, sounds of fighting, and unnatural, guttural howls resounded in the night sky as orange flames started to spread among the buildings at the edge of town.

Hearing this, Vivienne picked up her pace. Before she had been going as fast as she could without letting Emilia trip over her own feet. Now Emilia was constantly tripping and being pulled back up by her mothers hand. Emilia had started crying in pain, but Vivienne totally ignored this as she was trying to get her daughter to safety as fast as possible. While Adam wasn't tripping due to the increased speed, he had tightened his hold on the sword, with his knuckles turning white.

Within minutes, they had made good time and were more than halfway to the fort, but now the roads were packed full of people running and pushing each other trying to get ahead. Vivienne's speed fell down as she met this throng of people. She did this so that her grip wouldn't loosen on either of her children.

During this time the howls and screams had been getting louder and ever closer as the frightened people got even more frantic and started to push others down and trample on them so that they wouldn't be the ones to fall to this unknown enemy that was marching death towards them.

Vivienne was trapped behind the wall of people trying to force their way forward past each other. She looked back hoping that whoever the enemy was, that they wouldn't come down this road. But as soon as she had turned she noticed a few figures coming around a corner and started running this way on all fours. Her jaw went limp as she saw what was running towards them. They were depraved looking men with deathly pale skin tones and their blood veins were bulging under their skin with a deep black color. Ghouls!

Ghouls were insane demonic creatures that were once human. Their blood had been entirely replaced by corrupted demon blood. Even if you fatally wounded these creatures, there were only three ways to kill them: wait until they fully bled out, cut their head off, or chop them to pieces.

These ghouls were horrendous to fight against. Not only were they hard to kill, but if you got their blood in you and left it untreated, you would become a ghoul yourself! It was a common occurrence when fighting these ghouls to see your comrades fall to ghouls, only to see them rise again and attack you as they turned!

Vivienne quickly collected herself and started looking for a way out. Trapped behind that oblivious wall of people they would certainly die. But she noticed a small side ally nearby, it might not lead to the fort but it was a way out of here. She then shouted: “Ghouls!” at the wall of people in front of her, giving them one warning before she fled.

Going down the ally, Adam was quite frightened. He had wanted to pull out his sword and protect his family, but his other hand was held too tightly by his mother so he couldn't unsheathe his sword let alone fight. He also knew that it would be next to impossible for him, a mere child, to kill a single ghoul, let alone the dozens that had started swarming their way down the road.

Fleeing down the ally Vivienne suddenly stopped as a ghoul came into the ally from another opening that was formed like a “T.” As it came out it was looking down towards the other side of the ally. As it turned its head towards them Adam managed to rip his hand out of his mothers grip and pull out his blunt sword. When the insane ghoul saw them it noticed Vivienne as the largest target and leaped to attack her, ignoring Adam and Emilia. As the ghoul was sailing through the air, Vivienne turned her body to protect Emilia, who had nothing but tears in her eyes for the last few minutes and couldn't see anything.

As his mother turned to protect his sister, Adam positioned himself in front of his mother with the point of his blunt blade up. His father had given him a warning when he had started practicing with the blunt blade that even if it didn't have a sharp edge, with enough force and the right angle it could still tear through flesh. Adam was hoping to use the ghouls own weight to press down on the point and at least wound the demon.

As the ghoul descended, its eyes were totally fixed on Vivienne not even noticing the sword Adam had pointed towards it. When it came down Adam managed to direct the point to pierce the flesh directly above the collar bone. The tip of the sword jaggedly went through the ghoul's flesh and split is spine and nervous system, as the point came out the other side of it's neck. Going limp the ghoul continued to fall down with inertia, pushing Adam back into his mother as he twisted his sword to the side, and the ghoul with it. Falling off his blade, black blood gushed out of the wound Adam had left in the ghoul and splashed onto both his blade and his hands.

Luckily the stab had severed its spine almost as though he had beheaded the ghoul. Looking at the ghoul that twitched slightly as it bled out, Adam retched his stomach out. This was the first time he had seen something die, let alone having killed it himself. Even if it was a demonic creature, it had still been human once and that did not make it any easier for Adam to accept.

Having been bumped on her back and hearing a heavy thump fall to the ground beside her, Vivienne looked up to see her son retching with a dead ghoul beside him. Even as he looked pale and dizzy by the ordeal, Vivienne had never been so proud of her son. She then noticed the black blood on his hands. Emilia only knew that she had suddenly been hugged by her mother before she was dragged along by Vivienne to get closer to Adam. Vivienne asked Adam: “are you all right? Lets wipe that blood off.”

Adam could only nod as his mother tore a strip of her long night gown off and cleaned his hands, but he would not let go of his sword at all. She cleaned his hands as best she could in the moment before tossing the piece of cloth aside and grabbing his other free hand saying: “it's getting even more dangerous, we have to hurry to the fort now.” Adam once again only nodded to her as he let his mother guide him along the ally. He held the sword in his other hand point down as they moved, so that it wouldn't hit anyone as he was tripping slightly in his still dazed state.

They went past the opening the ghoul just came out of, Vivienne was quite sure that way would just lead to even more ghouls so there was no way they were going to follow that path. They finally came out the other end of the ally out onto another road. But before they could get their bearings to figure out what was happening in the street, Vivienne was smashed down onto the ground pulling her children with her. She only let go of their hands after she had hit the ground hard. Before they could come to their senses they heard an oily voice saying: “well looky what we have here.”

When Vivienne looked up, she just couldn't take it anymore. There had been so many frights this night, she could just die from how fast her heart was beating. Before them was a man that had black hair, and a pale face with coursing black veins going across it. He wore black armor and held a black sword as well. This was a ghoul commander!

The only thing that could control the insane and ravenous ghouls were these dark figures that came out of nightmares. These commanders were the same as ghouls with one difference; they kept their intelligence instead of going completely insane.

Vivienne quickly looked around to make sure her stunned children were safe as well as hoping to find a way out. The man covered in black sneered at her as he took a quick step forward and smashed his foot down on her shin that was followed by a loud CRACK! And Vivienne screamed in pain. The black man chuckled evilly as he said: “O how much fun it is to watch hope turn into despair!”

Hearing his mother scream, Adam quickly snapped out of his stupor and got up with his sword as that man was chuckling. Filled with fear for his mother and anger at this man, Adam charge forward with a scream to strike at the man. The man glanced at Adam as he swiped his sword sideways deflecting Adam's sword with an evil grin on his face. He swiped his sword back along the path he used to deflect Adam's sword to hit Adam. Adam tried to dodge by taking a quick step back, but his steps were too short! Adam saw a black line go Horizontally in front of him right before he felt intense pain across his eyes and the bridge of his nose and he fell backwards with everything in sight turning black.

Screaming at the intense pain he felt on the ground. His consciousness started to leave him as he faintly heard a voice: “Don't bully Adam!” before he felt some sort of sticky warm liquid flow over him as his mother frantically screamed: “NOOOOO!” and everything went dark.