*Prologue*

Emerest

The forest is dark, the shadows of logs and bushes and branches scattering across the tree trunks growing carelessly across the moonlit forest floor, stretching up to the sky as if trying to catch the shining stars accompanying the large full moon. The rustle of branches and the calls of wild animals made up the music of the forest. Among the shadows where the sleeping forms of two travellers, bravely setting across the land on foot. Their destination was not in this kingdom though; they were only setting camp in the woods of Idris for a night before setting off on their trek in the morning to the kingdom across from this one, the city of Elye to visit their ill mother. The two brothers lay in their makeshift tent, made from canvas thrown across sticks to make an open canopy of sorts. They had been trekking the mountains for two days now and were consuming a well-earned slumber under the cool night.

Mortelle awoke to the sound of a shivering growl, opening his eyes and yelling out with a start to find a large mound of grey fur breathing over him dauntingly. About to scramble over the rocky ground to the far side of the tent he froze realising the wolf could catch him before he even moved two feet. By now his brother-Sarji-had awoken by his oh so manly scream and was trembling beside him. They were not used to wild animals, growing up in The City and Mortelle knew neither he nor his brother would be able to fight off this beast by hand. Perhaps we could both jump on it at the same time, the power of two men combined must be large enough to take down this dog… or we both get shredded to pieces you idiot! What are you thinking! The wolf continued to treed confidently under the canvas covering, his thick teeth showing with his mouth slightly parted looking as though he was almost grinning at the men.

Mortelle-still on the ground- moved protectively in front of his younger brother slightly and saw the glint of metal in the moonlight flash as he did so. About a foot behind his brother laid the discarded travelling coats of the men and among it a large dagger strapped onto a leather belt along with a sachet for coins and a compass. The wolf walked over to a bag and began sniffing for its contents and Mortelle saw this as the perfect moment, leaning into his brother.

"Saj" the younger man kept his frozen gaze on the dog blankly, fear evident in his cool blue eyes "Sarji!" he quietly yelled under his breath hoping not to disturb the animal. Sarji looked up at him startled

"It-it's…it's-a… a-" he trembled. Mortelle glared and interrupted him

"Yes, Saj ive seen the bloody animal!" he hushed under his breath in annoyance "now reach behind you and pass me Dad's blade before it rips us to shreds"

Following his brothers orders Sarji shakily drew his breath as he felt around blindly in the dirt behind him, not daring take his eyes off the beast, until finally feeling the familiar cool metal under his touch. Unhooking the blade and passing it victoriously into his brother's hands, Sarji let out a breath of relief.

The large dog turned back around and padded across to its company, Mortelle stood up vigorously as it approached and yelled authoritatively at the wolf to get away, brandishing his weapon in front of him- swinging his arms around threateningly. The wolf stared steadily with his green beady eyes as though challenging him to even attempt. Swallowing he yelled loudly again and in return the wolf let out an ear splitting series of barks making the two men jump back. Mortelle stepped forward and lashed out at the wolf with the blade but just before it hit the wolf something soared through the air and hit the blade out of his hand and sent it clattering onto the floor with precision. All three heads snapped back to see who had sent the arrow. Mortelle gasped when he saw a hooded figure cloaked in a long green fabric standing before him with arms stretched out bow at the ready.

Neither men spoke- deciphering wether this mysterious figure was friend or foe.

A confident voice rang out through the eerie forest "Emerest. Step away from the visitors, they mean no harm to your cubs nor yourself" the brothers were both shocked, not only at how this strange figure spoke to the wolf like it was human but because it was a feminine voice, what was a girl doing associating with wild animals and wandering the forest alone at night? The wolf growled back at the two men and walked honourably over to the woman.

"Thankyou" she said softly and looked down at Emerest and the dog nodded back in acknowledgement "now it might be a good idea to think about heading home Emerest, you know your children will be worried if they awaken without your accompany" and with a final glance back at Sanji and Mortelle the wolf was gone, off into the darkness of the forest.

"Don't worry about Emerest, she's nice I assure you. She is just…," the figure laughed melodically into the empty woods as she began to walk towards the two men and their campsite "…a very protective mother"

The two brothers looked back to the figure who they had now established as a woman and Sanji looked questioningly at her "What are you doing?" he hadn't meant to say that, but it had somehow slipped out.

The woman stopped walking, she was now about three meters away and Mortelle noticed that she was actually quite a lot shorter than him, by about a foot. "I'm saving your life, I thought it was quite obvious to be honest" she mused

"Women shouldn't wander alone in the night" Sanji continued, his habit of not being able to keep his mouth closed getting the better of him once again "especially in the forest, you could get hurt" this caused another melodious laugh -though Sanji noticed a hint of bitterness to the tone- to resound throughout the clearing as she took several more steps closer until she was merely three feet from Sanji.

"Boy, I can assure you the things in this forest are child's play compared to what I've seen" she chuckled again letting wisps of mist blow from her breath in a gothic fashion. Mortelle didn't understand what she meant by this so he asked a question of his own

"Who are you…?" he meant to sound confident but his voice betrayed him. The figures small stature flicked her attention to him and replied in a bold and authoritive voice.

"It depends on who you are. Some call me less charming names, but generally the townspeople have taken on their own accord to calling me The Solus"

Hey everyone, so I decided to write this new story, I know I haven't updated any of my other stories in like two years *sorry* I just honestly haven't really had that much time and now your probably going 'oh yeh absolutely no time yet deciding to write a whole new story yeh right!' but I just had this idea in my head and had to get it down. Hopefully I will be posting new chapters on The Battle of Timesoon so yeah, hope you enjoy this new edition and reviews would be cool because I haven't written a story like this, so criticism is always good and I forget about my stories so motivation always help updates

-Me P:3