19Under the dark clouds of Sylvania, inside of an abandoned building on the edge of an cursed forest like so many others, the light of a small candle could be seen illuminating a hooded figure.
The figure held an old manuscript in its hands, all while it muttered something indiscernible. The mysterious individual's eyes were quickly going over the book's content, barely sparing even a single glance on each page.
Suddenly, the sound of a snapping branch could be heard outside. The person violently jerked around in surprise, its hood falling off its head from the sudden movement, revealing the face of young man.
Despite his apparent young age, his skin was abnormally pale, his body seemed malnourished and sick. One would be easily mistaken to think that this frail body was shivering because of the cold wind blowing through the old building's broken windows.
The man gave a quick look around him, before snuffing out his candle and hiding the book inside his robe. He then began to slowly walk away, doing his best to not make a sound.
With the same amount of caution the hooded individual exited the building, but as he closed the door behind him, a nightmarishly distorted howl pierced the silent night. They had found him.
In a state of growing panic, the man tried to get back inside the building, only to find that the door was now locked from the inside. This could only mean one thing, the wolves' master was near, he was watching him, playing with him.
Refusing to accept this grim fate, the book thief began to dash madly in the direction that seemed the less dangerous.
Soon enough another distorted howl could be heard, this time on his right. He barely had time to adjust his course that another followed. He ended up inside a dense forest, with old trees blocking almost all moonlight and a treacherous soil filled with poisonous plants and encroaching roots.
The man suddenly crouched on the ground and held both of his hands on the gray and corrupted grass. This lasted for no more than a few seconds before a curse escaped his lips and he resumed his mad dash.
This path eventually led him panting into a small clearing bordered by a cliff from which a strange green light was coming out, and a thick mist hid whatever laid further.
A guttural growl pulled the man out of his observation and he turned around just in time to see a wolf coming out of the treeline. At least that's what the creature once was, right now it was more akin to a mass of flesh and bones hastily put together, resulting in some grotesque parody of its original form.
Similar monsters were now emerging from the woods, their growls and barks disgustingly distorted by their lack of some body parts, ranging from simple gaping holes in their throat, to bony heads barely kept attached to their body by the help of some ungodly magic.
Suddenly, what looked like a swarm of bats surrounded by a thick purple fume violently crashed into the ground in front of him. The fume eventually dissipated to reveal a lone figure.
If the book thief was pale, then this being was as white as bones, like some corpse from which the blood had been drained. Contrarily to the thief's sickly apparence, the new arrivant seemed unaturaly fit, towering over his opponent, each of his steps casting a deep mark on the ground. And while his face appeared quite young, his red eyes betrayed a maturity beyond anything a mere mortal could achieve.
"It seems that you have nowhere to run now, young man."
Said young man took a few steps back, until he could no longer feel the ground behind him. He had to get out of there, and fast.
"So it would seem. What are you planning to do with me ? Kill me and have me join your undead horde ?"
Taking a look behind him, the thief finally took mesure of what laid below. Falling from this height would probably transform him into a bloody puddle.
"Oh I could do that if course. However that wouldn't be interesting, would it ? I believe I have a better idea. You have shown quite the talent, intruding on my domain without being noticed and almost managing to leave. You could become so much more, if given proper guidance."
As the surrounding mist started to disappear, the strange light's source was finally made visible to him. A collection of massive crystals, their color of the same vibrant green as the light dimly illuminating him, all of this stood just below him, so close yet so far.
"So you would like to teach me ? And what would the conditions be ?"
Warpstone, those were warpstones. An unworldly material escaping any form of human understanding. Touching one could either awards you with incredible powers, or punish you with a fate worse than death.
"I am willing to give you my power, grant you a lifespan that no mortal man could ever hope to approach. I can give you this, if you become my servant, my thrall."
"Are you kidding me !? What's the point of all of this if I'm nothing but a mindless puppet ? Fuck you !" Yelled the thief while showing his opponent a middle finger, just before taking a step back.
This was bad, like very bad. But even with the ground quickly approaching, there might still be a way out of this situation. The book that even now idly sat in his robe included a very peculiar spell, one that would be considered niche and dangerous by most peoples, and generally they would be right. However this wasn't a normal situation, and taking this risk might just save his life.
A veritable litany escaped his mouth as he casted a spell quicker than ever before. It was a spell of transmutation, relatively easy to use even without a wand, to change the nature of a material, at least temporarily. With a bit of luck he would be able to transform the warpstone into something softer to cushion his fall.
Just as he was going to be squashed on the crystals, the spell came out of his hand and, in an instant, hit the warpstone. His vision was instantly filled by a blinding light and everything around him disappeared.
The first thing that he noticed, before even opening his eyes, was that he could feel the ground under his chest. His fingers were brushing against some weird flexible material covered by a thin layer of droplets.
One by one he slowly opened his eyes, only to witness something he had only ever heard legends about, something completely alien to his homeland. All around him, for as far as the eyes could see, there was grass. Green grass, pure grass, living grass.
Not only that, but in the distance he could see trees, and a flock of colorful birds in the sky. The clouds were actually white and the air was pure. Was this the afterlife ? Was he dead ?
The winds of magic were still there, but they felt strange, like hidden behind a veil. There wasn't any of the usual vampiric corruption to be felt, they were almost entirely natural, almost. As the young man focused on the flow of magic, he could feel a black spot, a void that no wind approached, and this void was just behind him.
"Grrrrrrrr..."
He dived sideway just in time to avoid a clawed paw aimed at his neck. The creature was massive, it could have been a bear if not for it being almost entirely of an unnatural black, with the exception of a few bones plates, and its glowing red eyes fixated on him.
To the apprentice this monster was very obviously not alive, no life force emanated from it and it's soul couldn't be felt. Yet it wasn't a classical undead either as no magical strings were attached to it.
Further musing was interrupted by the beast in question charging at him. He got up just in time to get blown away when the beast's head made contact with him.
He flew in the air for what felt like a few seconds before being violently stopped by a tree. He slided down the trunk into a bunch of fallen branches, and few more precious seconds were needed for him to get back to his senses, then he tried to think of a way to survive this engagement.
The monster wasn't alive so draining its life force would be useless, but he hadn't the strength nor the material to use a powerful battle spell right now either.
The monster crashed into the trunk behind him as he dodged to his right.
Physical confrontation was far from being his forte, yet it would have to do right now. Thankfully this forest was full of big sticks laying on the ground, this probably won't be enough to survive this, but it was a start.
The apprentice hurriedly picked up a stick, slightly longer than he was tall, while still being quite robust. As the beast recovered from the impact, he used all his strength to strike at the beast.
It was more like a poke than anything else to the massive beast, and it simply shoved the wannabe weapon away with its paw.
"Shit."
Despite the carelessness behind the move, the young man had to use all his strength to barely keep hold of the stick, and the monster was more than happy to use this distraction to lunge at him once again.
He instinctively held the stick high in front of him with both his hand and closed his eyes. What followed was probably no so dissimilar to what would have happened had he not cast the transmutation spell.
He felt a mass crash against him, quickly followed by a massive pain everywhere in his body, in particular in his left arm, and he could feel a warm liquid flowing down his shoulder.
Painfully and fearfully his eyes opened, and a nightmarish view appeared to him. The entirety of his left arm was little more than a gory mess, flesh barely held together by small strings of skin, and most of this body part was laying on the ground.
However this wasn't the end of it, as right in front of his face the monster's maw was currently doing its best to get a bite at him. This horror was so close that he could feel its pungent breath on his face and strings of saliva were falling all over him.
As he laid there, struggling not to pass out from the immense pain, he could not resign to his fate. Had he really gone through all this to die at the hands of some unnamed monster ? He had survived for almost two decades in the cursed land of Sylvania, facing impossible odds trying to oppose the ruling vampires.
"Arghh" He gasped, struggling to find his breath. "This won't... be the end" His blood stopped flowing down his arm. "I... refuse it..." The liquid began slowly moving upwards. "I REFUSE !" He screamed as his stick suddenly became bright red, a pool of his own blood whirling around it.
A powerful shockwave detonated, and he could feel the weight over him suddenly disappear. When his vision returned to him, he tought he had been transported once again.
All around him the forest had been flattened, the grass had withered and the earth itself had become gray, dry and rugged. No animal life had survived either, dead birds laid on the grounds, their once colorful feathers whitened in their final moments.
The desolation around him stretched over the equivalent of a small town, and it surely wouldn't go unnoticed. He had to get away fast, before any witch hunter showed up.
As for the beast, it was nowhere to be seen, and no remains could be found, it had purely and simply disappeared.
His left arm wasn't really in a better shape than before, but at least blood wasn't flowing out anymore and most tiny bits had been blasted away.
On the other hand, quite literally, there was his stick, or more accurately, his staff. Pulsating red veins were running all over its now white wood, and as he held it close, he could almost feel a heartbeat. The shape too had been changed, with a small skull sitting on the upper end, and two skeletal arms crawling all the way from the bottom to the top, the hands holding the skull on its lower sides.
He gazed into the rising sun, many uncertainties plaguing his mind, trapped in this unknown land, with no apparent way to return. But as he held his staff, and could feel the magic coursing through it, he was sure of one thing. This was only the beginning.
Hello there. Firstly I want to say thank you for reading this first chapter, please leave a comment and tell me what you thought of it.
As technically this is my second fic I don't have the "It's my first please be nice" excuse, but I still have the "English isn't my first language" one. So please be considerate.
Finally, even if I have a pretty good plan of where this story will go, don't hesitate to send me any suggestion, advice, idea etc...
Til' next time.