Deep within the Isle of Endless Whispers, the soft crying of a newborn child resounds within the hollow walls of a magma chamber.

"As was prophesied. A boy will be born during the solar eclipse, and he shall herald the dawn of a new age in this world." An old crone with a crooked nose waved her staff around while speaking ominously.

The lava gurgles as it rushes down one of the sides of the chamber. Undeterred, the crone holds the baby in her arms as she whispers an odd chant.

"When the time comes, the boy will embrace the darkness inside himself, and all will kneel in front of him." The old woman gently wraps the baby before handing him to his Father.

"How can we keep him safe? The humans have no home, our kind have been hunted for thousands of years. The magical beings will not hesitate to kill him when they find out about the prophecy." The young father looked at his small wonder with a wry smile.

"Go north, to the Mountain against the Sea. A human calling himself The One True King leads his kind against the Magical Beings. No one can know of your true identity." The old crone explained where he was destined to go. "Take your wife and child, I will hold them off as long as I can."

"Grandmother, I am so sorry for not trusting you sooner. Maybe things would be different if I had..." The young man shed a single tear as he recalled how rude he had been to his benefactor.

"I serve the fallen gods, and they have already revealed to me how I will die. How could I mind what I have already seen? Foolish Grandson of mine... It is time for you to go." The old crone gently let out a tear of her own before turning her back on her Grandson.

The young robust man carried his wife on his shoulder while cradling his newborn with his left arm. A deep knock on the door to the chamber shook the whole room, making the young man lose his footing for a moment.

"Go, boy! Now!" The old crone yells as she begins to cast a spell.

The knock on the door resounds louder and louder, as if it were a hammer striking an anvil.

The young man fixes his footing as he leaves through a hidden exit, forcing a rock slide behind him to cover his escape.

The mountain shakes as a large spell engulfs the magma chamber of the volcano. The entire room becomes covered with ice as the lava solidifies and becomes igneous rock.

In the middle of the magma chamber, an old woman is covered in an orb of pure ice with eyes wide open. Forever watching as the hammering on the door becomes louder and louder.

When the door finally gives, a man dressed in flowing white robes with a golden seam appears within her sight. Unbeknownst to him, the old woman covered in ice crystals was still alive and could understand everything he was saying.

"Find the princess, they could not have gotten far. Excavate this old whore, see if she at least has the Obsidian Jewel on her corpse." The man gave his orders.

As the guards received their orders, vines of ice began to creep around their legs. Before they could escape the spell range, their legs began to turn to ice and crack.

The high level spell did not just stop at completely covering the inner magma chamber, but continued to expand as long as it fed off the magical energy of the old crone. Given enough time, it would have cracked and broken the door even without the help of the robed man.

The ice quickly rushed through the door, engulfing the guards and the robed man alike, completely converting them into ice sculptures. It surged forward, through the passage and out the side of the mountain.

Continuing to spread, it reached the peak of the volcano and the base at almost the same time.

As the young man turned around at his successful escape, he saw the volcano be completely engulfed in ice.

After shedding a single tear, he headed north to the Mountain against the Sea in the north as he was told to do.

The day after his escape from the volcano, his wife finally came to.

The woman, even while being covered in dirt and soot, was as beautiful as a blooming flower garden in spring. With sharp blue eyes and ruby red lips, she appeared fierce and cute at the same time.

"My love, you have finally awoken." The young man was so happy that his wife regained consciousness.

"The baby? What happened to our baby?" The young woman panicked as she recalled passing out from the pain of childbirth.

"He is fine, healthy and quite happy. I feared he was sick when he did not scream or cry, but he appears fine." The young man answered hastily before handing his child over to his wife.

As the mother accepted her child into her arms, she openly wept upon seeing his face. As if on queue, the small baby boy began to cry at the exact same time.

"We are not safe here, the King will know something is wrong soon. At most, we only have a few days before they figure out that something has gone wrong." The young man reminded his wife.

"Grandmother must have stayed behind to protect us. I am still too weak, your must carry me Atlas..." The wife coddled her child and began to feed him as her husband lifted her in his arms.

The baby cooed as it felt the soft texture of it's mother's bosom.

Foraging, hiding, and walking. These were the three things the Bloodwell family did as they journeyed to the Mountain against the Sea.

"Veronica, there is a town up ahead, and the only way is through. What should we do?" Atlas was at a loss for ideas.

"Knock out a few villagers, and take their clothes. Leave them some money for their troubles." Veronica answered as she brushed the hair of her child.

Atlas did as his wife said and found a male and female villager near the outskirts of the town.

With no time to hesitate, Atlas rushed toward the young couple, incapacitating them and stealing their clothes. He left two silver coins as compensation for their trouble.

After hiding the bodies of the male and female, he returned to Veronica's side and gave her the clothes of the female.

The clothes were tight when she donned them, showing off her gentle curves and slim figure. Even Atlas could not help but take a moment to enjoy the woman in front of him, whom he loved deeply.

Veronica's face turned a light shade of red when she felt the gaze of her husband on her body. Though they had consummated their forbidden marriage many times, whenever she was looked upon, it was as if a wolf looking upon a lamb soon to be devoured.

The baby was swaddled tightly in a brown linen cloth to look similar to a peasant's child. Though this gave Veronica no end of displeasure to treat her child this way, she knew it was necessary if she wished to sneak them all past the town guard.

As they began their trek to the bridge in order to cross the mountains, they were greeted by many farmers and gatherers on the outskirts of the farming village. In order to not raise suspicion, they greeted each in turn and spoke to them as familiarly as they could until excusing themselves from the conversation for 'urgent business'.

The closer they got to the wooden bridge, the less people they saw, until it was only two town guards and a lone woman on the side of the road selling salts.

Atlas went up to the old woman and paid her a couple coppers for a small bag of salt. The lone woman happily obliged and filled a small bag with different types of salts for the young man.

Veronica and the baby began crossing the bridge, with Atlas following closely behind her. The town guards did not stop them, but watched them both as they crossed to the other side.

On the other side of the bridge, the town guards blocked the path to the mountain. Veronica, noticing something was amiss, tightly held her baby as the guards patiently waited her approach.

When she was within twenty feet of the bridge end, the guards held their pikes in a defensive position.

Looking back, Veronica saw that the other guards had taken a defensive posture as well.

"What is happening?" Veronica innocently asked.

"Princess, please return with us to the Capital." A guard implored.

"How did you find out?" Atlas knew there was no room for conversation anymore, and readied a hidden dagger within his sleeve.

"The villagers knew the people you stole those clothes from, and even we have been told what the princess looks like. Surrender yourself, betrayer, and we will give you a merciful and quick death." The other guard spoke out.

Veronica stepped back and placed herself behind her husband. Atlas unsheathed the dagger and brandished it in front of the guards.

The bridge shook as the guards from the other side came charging forward.

Atlas lunged forward and threw the small bag of salt into the face of one of the soldiers while deflecting a forward thrust and slicing into his neck deeply. Using one of the guards to pivot, Atlas kicked the other off the bridge into the seemingly bottomless crevice below.

The scream of the falling guard could be heard for many moments as the fight continued. The guard dropped his pike and attempted to cover the gaping wound in his neck to stop the excessive bleeding. Veronica escaped away from the bridge as Atlas stopped the other two guards from pressing forward.

What followed was a brilliant display of martial prowess as Atlas and the guard engaged in melee combat. Many attacks flowed from both fighters, like the brush strokes of a painter to a canvas. The ground was slowly covered in streaks of blood as the guards began losing ground.

Unable to continue the fight, the guards begged for mercy from the 'betrayer'.

Atlas was more than happy to oblige as he kicked them down and began to run toward his wife. Soon he was able to catch up and they continued to run further into the forest beyond the mountain together.

The guards got up from their prone position and continued to follow, remembering the order that was given to them.

"Do not return until you catch the princess and behead the human betrayer."

Beyond the forest that the family had entered was the human settlement. Being so close to their destination spurred them to continue, despite having traveled day and night to get there.

In a moment of weakness, both Veronica and Atlas decided to rest within the burrow of a nearby oak tree.

"At least I was able to spend a little bit of time with my son." Atlas removed a beautifully engraved jeweled necklace from around his neck and placed it gently within the folds of the baby blanket.

"The ancestral Obsidian Jewel is not from this world little one. It will protect you in place of us." Veronica shed a small tear before refolding the baby blanket.

The beasts that commonly roamed the part of the forest seemed to actively avoid the area that the family was in, as if it was warded against entry.

Unfortunately, the guards were able to pick up on the beasts wariness to go within a certain distance and used that fact to track down the princess. As they closed in, Atlas was startled awake by the sounds of branches crunching beneath the feet of the horses.

"Veronica, they are here. From the sounds of the hooves, there must be at least ten of them. I will hold them off, you must seek the protection of the humans." Atlas could only think of one solution to their predicament.

"You will win, and you will return to me." Veronica kissed Atlas passionately and deeply before hastily retreating to the north.

Atlas removed himself from the burrow of the oak tree and walked toward the footsteps of the guards, a cracked dagger in hand.