Chapter 1

The Day of Lights

The noon day sun beamed down on the small village located in the province of Hammerfell, more specifically the town of Skaven. It was the sixteenth of Morning Star, the Day of Lights, and young Damos was very excited. The young Redguard was running bouncing through his home over the excitement of the day. Damos' mother sat smiling, as she nursed the boy's baby sister, the young and beautiful Redguard sat smiling as she spoke.

"Be still now Damos, your father will be home soon and he will want you to be ready for your first hunt, my child." She warned

"But mother, how could I ever sit still, my first hunt! I only wish he could arrive sooner from his scouting for some game, I want to fell the first beast I see!" He continued to jump around.

"My child, your father will arrive soon, you don't even have any shoes on, have you even oiled your bowstring, or checked your arrows?" She asked, his mother was very wise, even with her age.

Damos thanking his mother as he ran into his room. The longbow that his father had recently crafted for this very occasion sat untouched against the boys bed, the quiver of arrows sat close to them as Damos snatched them up, stumbling as he ran from his room to the cooking area of their small house. Materials were very scarce and people found uses for everything where Damos lived. By melting the fat down from kills, the Redguard people could acquire a fine oil, that could be used for a multitude of uses, in this case, the fat oil was used to drench the bowstring, making it more flexible and durable.

"There, its done..." He spoke reassuringly to himself, before rinsing his hands with a small amount of water, which was also very rare.

Before his mother could say anything else, the wooden door of their house opened. A large man stepped in, his stocky frame was filled with muscle and sinew. His face was, if anything else, handsome, as he sported the wiry hair of the Redguard race, although it wasn't on top of his head, no, most of his hair was on his chin in a large beard. To anyone else, this man would arouse fear, but to Damos, the large man was a beacon of love.

"Father!" He yelled before running to jump into the arms of the large man, the deep voice of the large man and the sharp one of the young boy resounded throughout the home. His father's deep voice boomed as he acknowledged Damos.

"Well I see that your very excited about your first hunt Damos, and do I have an adventure for you!" His father bragged.

"I'm ready for anything father!"

The two of them laughed a little together before bidding farewell to the female members of their family before heading out on their hunt.

The town of Skaven hugged the edges of the Alik'r Desert, the most prominent feature of the province of Hammerfell, and the Dragontail Mountains, the large region in northeastern Hammerfell.

Damos' father, being a hunter, reaped the benefits of the dry desert with respect for it. From the desert he got meat for his family, hides for clothes, herbs for when they got sick, and anything else you could probably think of.

The two of them were silent as they stalked the dry sands of the Alik'r, the sun now setting on the two hunters as day turned into night. The temperature dropped quickly and before long the light of the moon shined down on the chilled pair.

"Father, I am cold."

"I know, I am as well Damos, but stay strong, if we keep moving, we can raise our body temperatures."

"Yes Father."

Damos and his father were now well over three leagues from their home and they finally found the first signs of game, but when they inspected what they thought were the hoof prints of deer, they soon realized something was amiss.

"These are horse prints..."

"Horse prints!" Damos had never actually seen a horse before, only hearing about them in the stories that were told to him when he was sent to bed.

"Yes my son, and a lot of them at that, there were at least twenty different animals here not long ago, about an hour or so ago, by the looks of the prints, and they were headed toward Skaven."

Damos laughed. "Maybe they're visiting for the Day of Lights?"

Damos' father grunted before rising, having stooped to get a better look at the tracks. His normally pleasant attitude shifted to worry as he turned and started walking back towards Skaven.

"Come my son, I feel something wrong in the wind."

Damos was always told to follow his instincts, and his father was obviously following his. Sad about his first hunt not being successful, he followed his father who sped up the pace to a run.

Damos fell to his knees, breathing hard, making the three hour journey back in only one. The two hunters now were on top of a tall sand dune, less than a league away. But from their position they could see the lights of fires burning in the small town of Skaven.

"Look Father, the Day of Lights has begun, see there was nothing to fear after all." He smiled.

His father on the other hand, did not cease in his barren look, dropping his items he ran towards the village, dropping everything he had except his bow and arrows.

Damos, confused, inspected the sight of his home town once more before gasping in understanding. The fires burned brighter than usual, and with his eyes, Damos saw that the fires were green. He knew that certain minerals would change the color of a fire when burned, but he was never shown this. The flames seemed unnatural, and they seemed evil.

Tripping and stumbling down the dune, he ran after his father, scared as the screams of pain and anguish filled the air. Once he reached the outskirts of the town, full chaos erupted. People that he knew and didn't ran, fought, and killed as he made towards his home. The culprits, he now saw, were slavers, people who lived the in the deepest, most unlivable parts of the Alik'r. They thrived on discord, and their signature were the green flames that burned brightly everywhere.

Damos finally made it to his home, which now like most of the others, was alight with the green flames. He started to break down but was intent on helping his hometown. So ducking as the flames licked his clothes, Damos headed into his flaming house.

The first thing he noticed was that he couldn't breath, the poisonous fumes given off by the flames filled his lungs and sent him into a series of rough coughs. His eyes burned, tears only making it worse as he struggled through the fallen debris and obstacles. His shoulders became heavy with the burden of no oxygen and he soon found himself tripping over something. Turning to look, he saw the outline of a body. Losing his composure for a second, he pulled on the body, breaking down when he realized it as the body of his mother. Damos shook with sadness and anger, his tears beginning to soak his face and clothes as he cried for her, still coughing and blind inside the burning building.

He couldn't see his sister, and for all he knew she was dead as well. Feeling the green flames grow closer to both him and his mother's body, Damos decided to act. Still crying, the young boy pulled his mother's body through the burning house as the black miasma continued to fill his lungs. Burned beams fell constantly inside of his house, hitting him constantly and burning his body. Still persistent on making it out, he dragged his mother's body faster until he could feel the chilly desert air lick his cheek and enter his lungs.

"Mother! Wake up,we made it!" He pleaded with the body of his mother as he continued to shake her body to revive her somehow, but inside he really knew she was gone.

Damos didn't know how long he sat by his mother's body, it seemed like only a few minutes, but really all the fires had quenched themselves, most of the fighting had died down, and the slavers now stalked the remains of the town of Skaven for any survivors.

One, a large male with a serpentine demeanor, walked up on the crying boy, stooping next to the body of a Redguard woman. He snickered at this and readied his shackles, tackling the boy who was caught off guard by the whole thing.

Damos' mind went blank as he now lay on his stomach, his face buried in the sand as he was shackled. How dare this monster try and take him away from his mother. This set the young one off, and he wrestled his hands from the man's shackles before he could be restrained. Kicking his feet back, he caught both heels in the face of the slaver, who fell on his back in pain and frustration. Before he could rise however, the young Redguard showed his race's prowess in battle, grabbing two large splinters in each hand before he was upon the slaver, stabbing over and over, burying the splinters into the flesh of the man's neck. Blood spurted everywhere, the slaver's body seizing as the life drained from his body. Standing over the body, Damos breathed hard, both pieces of wood now dropping from his hands as he roared a loud battle cry.

This however was his downfall, as more slavers came to the aid of their fallen comrade. What they witnessed was the form of their brother, savagely killed, beneath the form of a young Redguard.

Damos was ready to die with his mother and he tried to fight back, but the hefty strike from the blunt side of one of the slaver's scimitars ended the boy's rage, knocking him out cold. The last thing Damos remembered seeing that day were the darkened forms of the slavers walking towards him and laughing with their accomplishment.