It was mid-morning on a day much like any other in the hamlet of Festid, the bright green of spring still clung onto the rolling grassy plains visible as far as could be seen northward, stretching all the way east. If a traveler were to instead look westward they would be confronted by a spectacular white beach and expansive green tinged ocean; reminiscent of a tropical paradise. To the south the land gently rose to soft hills lightly covered with taller grass and bush for roughly a half dozen miles before transforming gradually into sparse woodland near the horizon.

Festid itself was hardly more than a half dozen wooden shelters with buildings closer resembling more of a lean-to than a hut; being little more than sticks woven together, covered in sod and supported on one side by logs stood on end. Each building resembled a trapdoor, half open with a stick keeping it from falling closed giving the entire village an odd look as if someone had dumped a bag of wedge shaped doorstops on the ground around a large smoking fire pit.

Being mid morning already the residents were out and about, doing the things people must do to survive in such a rural community. Of the roughly twenty residents perhaps half could be seen either spear fishing or scavenging the beach and plains for food. Three more walked the border of the hills and woodland with spears and sling, hunting small game. It was these three that would stumble across a certain scene as they chased a medium sized rodent resembling a red fox. The small party paused at the treeline as the fox darted inside.

A middle aged man in his late thirties or early fourties bellowed at a younger woman, "God's damn yer fool girl, yeh let our meal get into de wood."

"Peace Vert; your the fool who took the sling and left us spears to catch the creature. A hunter you may be, but even you won't pierce a fox easily." A shorter black haired man in his late twenties and with a patchy beard spoke up. "Had you left the girl her sling we'd likely have something asides fish for our sup."

The hunter Vert spoke up again still with a sour look at the lone woman in the hunting party, "Kirst, ye thinks it easier to hit a fai fox with a rock than a spear do yeh? I say ye as daft as de elder, makin' this fool girl a hunter. The only spear she be fit ta touch be the kind as to make her wit baby. " With this he laughed and wagged his hips in a lewd manner.

"For Eri it be easier, seen her tag a lark meadow in flight I have. She be born to the hunt, whether yea like it or not ya old bastard." The man with the patchy beard, Kirst replied while moving an arm to mimic the release of a sling stone.

The woman Eri's spear landed at Vert's feet. With a look of disgust on her lips and anger in her eyes she had tossed the four foot long spear on the ground. She quickly stepped forward and snatched the sling away from the old hunter. "Give it, Ill head into the Myrkwood myself and bring it back. Ill be damned if I have to eat fish and kelp soup again tonight." With that she spun about, her waist length tightly braided red hair nearly smacking Vert in the face as she hastily departed.

The two men stared at each other silently for the span of a breath, then both yelled out at the same time, "No! The Myrkwood is not to be violated" They all knew the best to hope for when entering to woods would be only your death, Carelessly entering the Myrk could result in the entire hamlet being wiped out. But Eri was already gone, disappeared into the tree line.

"Gods be damned and mercy be shat." Vert swore, as he grabbed Kirst's tunic and began roughly pulling him back from the woods. "Move ye lice ridden pile of maggot vomit! Wer away to de elder. If de girl wakes de Myrk afore she gets erself kilt den we must make to arms!"

Kirst cast a frown toward the wood, but quickly turned back and with a nod they both set out for the village as fast as their feet would carry them. Before they had even covered half a mile of ground a massive bolt of lightning slammed into the woods, loud enough to cause them both to stumble and fall. "Ah me Lord let it be just de fool girl and not de rest of us wit er."

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Something was wrong, seriously wrong. But Gray could not seem to be able to pick out exactly what it was. He was standing in a blackened crater roughly waist deep in a small clearing among a sparse forest. The trees appeared to be similar to a weeping willow except where there should be leaves instead there were long thin needles comparable to a blue spruce. He was also totally nude, and while that was definitely strange he felt there was something more fundamentally wrong with him, or perhaps not wrong; but definitely different. As luck would have it though, he was already out of time to consider as he felt danger.

A frown formed on his face as it occurred to him that one doesn't 'feel danger'. This type of thing was for books and movies, but his body responded naturally by wrapping his arms around his head even as he wasted time in idle thought. Seconds later something small slammed into his left hand that had covered his temple; hard. Hard enough that he heard the bone break, judging from the pain that spiked out in his mind his middle finger was smashed. His head also began to swim from the impact, and his body began to tilt as he was robbed of his equilibrium by the impact.

A quick look in the direction he had 'felt' danger from revealed the culprit, a young woman not yet even twenty years of age; her long red hair tightly braided and still swaying back and forth from the force of her throw. Her bright grey eyes left him no doubt that she was afraid, her face which could easily be called cute, but certainly not beautiful was also twisted into a look of fear. She wore dark colored and tight fitting leather pants that terminated just above her calves with a pair of worn leather boots, and a looser fitting hemp-like sleeveless fabric top. In one hand was a sling and the other was already reaching for a pouch at her small waist.

his mind shrieked, now something behind him was coming. Whatever it was was far worse than the woman before him. As Gray began to collapse into the hole he had been standing in he watched the woman's eyes go from fear to relief as she realized she had struck him successfully and then to pure terror when she saw whatever was behind him.

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After taking her sling back and sprinting into the Myrkwood Eri quickly found traces of the passage of a small animal. Disturbed underbrush and two stalks of bent over tall grass told the story of the fai foxes passage to anyone who could read the signs. She quickly followed it deeper into the wood, but as Eri began to calm down she began to think she had made a mistake. Being angry with the old fool Vert was one thing, but entering the Myrk was beyond foolish. It was suicidal. She had heard the two men shouting something in the distance earlier but now nothing but silence. Just as she was about to enter a small clearing in the wood the entire world was bathed in bright white light and her ears were assaulted with a massive roar as lightning slammed into the ground not 50 paces from where she stood. Instinctively she covered her ears with her hands and pinched her eyes shut against the light.

Once it had passed she opened her eyes and slowly lowered her hands. In the clearing where the lightning had struck was a skeleton standing in a smoking crater. Before her eyes muscle sprouted atop the bone, tendon growing out and anchoring it in place. Flesh crept along the muscle, as organs formed out of nothing and in the span of a moment a man was before her.

The man was young, probably not yet eighteen. Well built, but not overly muscled, she was reminded of the warriors she had seen spar in the capital. His hair was a black, but his eyes, the irises were gold but the pupils were white!

Eri considered a moment. This being, she had seen it born from lightning. Might this be a Messenger? Or perhaps even a God? Just as she was about to step forward the man twitched, his prominent manhood swaying slightly, with a jolt she realized he was totally naked.

"Its a demon!" She hissed under her breath. Loading a polished stone into her sling she spun it once and launched it directly at the demon's head. As soon as the stone left her sling the beings head snapped up, and with impossible speed its arms covered its head.

The walnut sized stone that should have landed squarely on the demon's temple was instead deflected by the hand that he had wrapped around himself. She felt her heart sink, but hope blossomed inside her as the demon began to collapse. Hope was cruel and fleeting though, as behind the demon three Myrk emerged from the wood, probably drawn by the sound of lightning.

Eri's mind whirled in panic, she knew of the Myrk. A single one ten years ago had killed more than three fourths of the people of Festid, her parents included, when it emerged from the wood. Nobody knew why it had come or what it had wanted, it had simply entered the hamlet, slaughtered forty or so villagers and then walked silently back to the woods taking nothing and leaving the bodies to rot.

These three were typical of their species, around six feet tall with bulky muscles and thick leather pants covering their charcoal colored skin. They were thought to have intelligence as they often carried simple weapons, of these three two carried large wooden branches roughly as thick as a man's leg. The remaining one carried a large stone, made from some type of shiny black rock shaped roughly into a blade. The stone blade was fairly large, easily as long as a man's leg.

Their weapons were not what made them dangerous though, it was their endurance. The black skin of a Myrk was like tree bark. Even a massive ax would only just penetrate, making fighting a Myrk like trying to chop down a tree that could move freely and wanted to kill you. It was a feat impossible for all but the greatest of the king's soldiers.

Panic became despair as the three Myrk passed by the naked demon collapsed in the hole, barely giving it a glance in passing. They were focused on her, in her panic she fumbled a stone into the sling, nearly dropping it in the process and twirled it several times to gather force. Her teeth bared with a hiss as the stone was launched at the center Myrk with the stone blade.

The stone slammed perfectly into the black forehead of the center creature, knocking its head backward and causing it to stagger briefly and lower its weapon. Though the shock stunned it momentarily the creature's skin was unbroken, there had been almost no damage. The other two brayed out a low guttural sound slightly reminiscent of laughter as they charged forward. Panic swept into terror and Eri's knees fell to the dirt. She looked towards her killers in disbelief, no longer even able to struggle against her overwhelming fear.

A loud sound drew Eri back to reality and stopped the two advancing Myrks in their tracks, almost as one the woman and the two monsters turned to face the sound. What they saw stunned all three of them.

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Ah.... let me just apologize. I don't really intend on stopping chapters in the middle of fights like this, but time really flew by as I wrote this and I have to get ready for work. Soooo it was either post it after a quick PR or let it sit till I can finish it. And seeing as its already around 2k words I figured might as well just post it. Next chapter probably Thursday, maybe Wednesday though will depend on work.