Prelude

In a small, secluded meadow a small fire smolders. All is quiet on this clear night, except for the crackling embers and the cheerful chirp of the small frogs and crickets in the pond bank nearby. The only other sound is coming from a cloaked figure resting by the fire. It was a low purring sound.

The hooded figure was sitting, resting against a rock, content.

At that moment, his eyes shot open revealing bright violet orbs that seemed to glow in the firelight. He started hearing footsteps as he leaped to his feet and spun around, a beautiful Azure sword drawn in his hand.

Or rather his paw, because in place of hands and feet were four paws, covered in fur as black as the night sky.

It was then that he removed his hood and threw his cloak behind his shoulders to reveal the face and body of a black panther. His entire body was covered with black fur. His Amethyst eyes shown brightly as they scanned his surroundings. His pointed ears twitched, listening to every sound around him. His black and light blue trim cloak was swaying in the breeze. Under his cloak, he wore a matching battle vest and pants. A long black tail protruded, and twitched behind him playfully. Attached on his belt was a dagger that matched his sword on his left, and a quiver of arrows on his right. Slung over his back was a bow that was the same light blue as his deadly arrows. His body dropped into a fighting stance as he sensed movement nearby.

There were three bushes about ten yards away. A smirk began to form at the edge of his muzzle. 'Shrubbles?' he thought, 'most likely sent to "stop" me from getting to Alexandra.' He sighed and raised his left paw. When he did this, three fireballs shot out of his palm, each hitting their mark causing the three bushes to burst into flames.

'I love magic,' he thought, 'it makes things so much eas…'

Just then three loud roars interrupted his thoughts. He turned to see the three bushes transform and stand up. Their bodies constructed completely from roots and vines.

'Great, now they're pissed!'

His muzzle curled up in a snarl as he gripped his sword tighter in his right paw. Then in a flash of speed, he charged toward one of the creatures and sliced through it before it even had chance. The evil creation roared and withered away to dust. As he turned to the other two he felt an intense burning sensation on his left arm.

As he glanced down he thought, 'Oh how wonderful, they learned to spit poison!'

"Now look what you've done, I'm gonna have to get my cloak cleaned!"

As he said this, he jumped into the air. At the top of his jump, he summoned two large hollow balls of ice with liquid inside. He swung his arms down, first his right, then his left, and the ice flew toward the dark creations.

He landed and the ice balls shattered as they smashed into the vile creatures.

The liquid inside exploded, freezing the shrubbles solid instantly and leaving behind a cloud of snow and ice.

He grinned, and held up his sword. It started to glow with a brilliant emerald green.

"See ya later my friends… stay cool." With that he slammed his sword into the ground sending out a green shock wave that rippled the earth and shattered the shrubbles instantly.

"Hmph, to easy!" he exclaimed.

'Well, enough resting,' he thought, 'I have to get to Alexandra Sayge before anymore of the Queen's garden tries to kill me.'

Author's Note:

Alright guys, I need advice...

I posted this once before, and no one seemed to like it.

I revised it a bit.

If you guys don't like this, I'll kill it now and put it out of its misery.