"Fear not my brothers, I feel the light, its warm embrace, guiding us." A paladin called over the company of marching feet. There were twenty footman accompanied by three clerics, and led by the young paladin Gavier Ringforge. He was a man of his twenty second year of life, finely combed hair the rich color of gold and his eyes a fiery amber. He was pale figure, thinner in stature than most of the soldiers that accompanied him, but the light gave him the strength he needed.
The land the traversed were hollow and grey, burned, salted and bathed in blood by a war band of daemons. The sky had been torn asunder into a scar that might never fully be heal. The sky was now a maelstrom of green and horrid fire, a tear between the world and the twisting nether. The daemons had appeared in Westfall so suddenly and spread forth as if locusts. The people were right to fear what was happening with so many heroes lost after the great war against the legion even if it was years ago. So much of Westfall had fallen before a defense could be properly mounted.
"Some say the broken and lost remnants of the burning legion are returning," Cleric Vaneer murmured quietly to Gavier, He did not dare speak louder lest he might weaken the resolve of other men. "That there is some rift from which the enter. With so many gone, how will the world stand against them. How much can a shard do?"
"We banished the legion twice from this world, and if they dared to return to this world again, they will feel the might of the light once again." Gavier said his soft spoken voice had hidden layer of iron and steel like resolve. He knew whatever was to come he would stand in the defense of this world. Doubts were feasting in his mind, despite all his words.
Gavier worried at these events and what could be causing them. Stormwind and Westfall were doing all that they could to stem this demonic tide, its numerous heroes were standing as a bulwark. This battle would need to find an end quickly though as men and women were tiring, but more importantly fingers were being pointed. Warlocks of both sides were being blamed. Their kind converging together in the hidden halls of their order, their coven as they felt rejected by their land.
In some ways this was helpful as they were fighting harder than others to prove innocence and it was not poking at the fragile peace between Alliance and Horde by utterly removing themselves. It was causing the warlocks to become as the death knights, separated from the rest of the world. Which was to no one's comforts and in fact only fueled suspicion of their involvement. A cycle of sorts from which none escaped.
There was small fighting between the sub factions, one could never separate paladins and undead from their endless wars, but there had be no great fighting since the purge of Gilneas and the battle of Southshore to retake those lost lands after the great war. They had found another peace after each was so weakened.
Shaking his mind from politics, he focused on the task at hand. Gravier and his company of soldiers had been tasked to search an area of Westfall that while at the heart of this demonic incursion, scouts found it empty. If the sources of these incursions had a heart, they hoped the black heart laid in this heart of the storm
"Fel stalkers!" The cry came suddenly from one of the men. "They are coming from the west" The small company turned their heads to see the setting sun. Sprinting in the tall grasses the demons were almost invisible, they hungered. With no magi nearby they would have to be quench their thirst with blood.
"Form a ring, we can not be flanked by these demons" Gavier commanded in an instant. This was no time for hesitation lest they were surrounded. To their credit the soldiers formed the circle despite their nerves, with the clerics falling to the center. "The light bless you all, for it will protect you so long as you hold it in your hearts" The paladin could feel the light caressing him, his hands glowing brightly. "Think of those that you love and know that you fight for them. Know that you fight for Stormwind." Gavier raised his hammer with a roar, his warhammer flashing the holy light. The light spread forth from him, showering those about him with golden lights that trickled the flesh and rejuvenated the body.
The fel stalkers hit them moments later, The hellish beasts struck without mercy,and Gavier gave none in returns. His hammer smashing one out of the air as it lunged at him, the blow smashing into a mouth full of razor like teeth. Its skull cracked and the blessed weaponed burning its insides before it was sent spiraling off to the side. Another took the opportunity to strike, its jaws clenching down on his arm. Gavier's gauntlet saved his arm from the initial bite but the creature's teeth began to sink into the steel, renting and tearing it apart slowly with unnatural strength.
Gavier growled as he dropped his hammer and began to pry open the mouth of fel beast. It fought with a horrid resolve, its six flailing feet ripping cloth and scratching plate, yet the paladin pulled its jaw apart. With a heave the fel beast's jaw was ripped out of place with a splatter of dark green ichor. Grabbing his hammer, Gavier resumed the assault. the creature's head was smashed into a sickly green pulp. It slowly began to began to shake as its body reacted to the last signals its mind could have given and then slumped over in defeat.
It was not long before the rest of the dozen fel beasts had been felled. They had been starved of magic and their feral nature blindly lead the daemons to their fall. One although remained, it had turned and ran leaving only a trail to be followed. The clerics slowly began to heal those that were injured, some would need to be evacuated back to the capital and already the clerics were helping them getting back to their feet. .
Vaneer went to Gavier for a moment and requested his arm, yet besides minor bleeding there was little that could be done. Vaneer slowly untied the strings binding Gavier's bracers. "pits of hell," Gavier cursed as he pulled off his gauntlet, metal being pulled from his skin. "Hmmm," Gavier bit his lip and groaned in pain as slivers of metal slid free, "where do you think, that beast is heading."
Vaneer looked in the general direction of where the creature had ran, "I could not say, perhaps to locate more of it's infernal kin, or lick its wounds." Vaneer closed his eyes and began to pray, he could feel himself being smothered in a warm, loving, sensation.A gentle light streamed from the cleric's hand, Gavier's flesh knitting itself back together and the pain fading. Given time even the scars would have faded, yet they had more important matters to attend to. He could only grunt in pain as he flexed his fingers
Vaneer Grisonn was a simple man. A face of well bred sharp features. The noblest of men whom had taken an affinity to the light. Many had a fondness for him as even in the dullest of conversations or stories he could keep a smile. It had some time in his youth earned him the apt title of "grin it" a moniker which stuck with him until this very day. While distress was clear in his voice even now he afforded himself and others the reassurance of a smirk.
"Well, I would see it followed." Gavier slowly began to flex his fingers, they were stiff and numb, before taking up his hammer once again. "See to it that the injured are taken care of, and those who can still fight might be able will accompany me."
"Lord Ringforge you would chase such a creature?" Vaneer questioned the priest, less than enthusiastic at the idea of chasing something that could very easily tear him or other apart.
"To its nest or it's brethren, come hell or high whatever and what ever else they might bring. Demons, bestial ones such as these especial, are not creatures to run. I intend to find out where and what it is running too, perhaps even why," Gavier turned and with a sudden bark he called, "Zennia come and see if you can reath this beasts trail."
"Yes my lord," The footman broke from rank and limped over to her commander. Gavier nodded as the girl went to work. She had been been a local hunter of the area and part of Westfall's main defenses. Gavier assured a number of Westfall citizen's donned the Stormwind color's for this mission and would put them to use. "The tracks are heading south by southwest my lord."
"Do you think we will be able to follow the creature through the land?" The Paladin asked looking down and then across the almost savanna like terrain. If it could still be remotely called that with it all dying
"The ground is dry and the tracks are weak, but so long as the wind does not pick up into some bastard of a storm we should be able" the hunter assured with the utmost confidence in her skill.
"Lead the way than Zennia." The paladin waved his armor clad hand in the direction of the brush that the fel beast had run off in the direction too. Two straight hours worth worth of tracking continued throughout the day once the company actually began its search. The tracks ended lead to a cabin. At first they had merely thought the creature had pasted the home, yet the smell of rank ichor spilled out over them, carried forth by the air, gave them doubts. The broken door and tracks leading into the home confirmed all their suspicion. Gavier had most of the men stand back to lest their be some kind of trap.
The company took up the march once again, it was slower though than their patrol. Gavier noted a new caution in the eyes of the men. Too many felt that they might be marching on into a death trap, and it was more than possible that they were, yet they could also be able to purge the
The footman approached the burnt cabin with the young paladin, the very air felt unnatural, not corrupt and yet not pure. It was trapped in some flux between the two of them. A flux between the holy and unholy, Gravier could feel it in his blood as his power waxed and waned. "Are you sure that it is wise to go in there alone."
"If I thought it wise, I would not have had you follow me in hopes you might convince me otherwise." Paladin Gravier admitted to the fear indirectly. He knew full well that the creature could snap its jaws upon his neck the very second he pasted into the room. The people though would not accept anything less than his utter commitment even in the face of death. "Until I have returned tell, cleric Grisson that command falls to him, if i do not return, send for the might of Stormwind and see this place burned." With those final words Gavier worked his way to the home.
The cabin was old and yet still in good condition. The air was choked and disgusting, the smell of ash and blood filled his nostrils. It was sickening and turned the guts upside down upon itself. He slowly began to work his way from room to room. It was a small and sweet home, a perfect place for a family to be raised. The walls were dressed in relics and weapons that made it clear that the occupant or occupants had a long life of great achievements. Some weapons were even from the great war against the legion.
It was not long before he found that the cabin was larger than it appear. A latch door rested on the ground of the kitchen. He pulled it open and the paladin had to pull himself away as the smell of vital and gore. Taking one final breath of clean hair Gavier began his descent. It was dark as clouded new moon night. Several small lanterns adorned the sides of the room. Working his way around Gavier lit them and revealed what was in the room.
Several bodies lay among the first room of the basement. They looked as if they had been torn to shreds by claws, their bodies. Some laid 'intact' though with only their chests or heads caved in and charred as if caught aflame. A rather large pool of blood rested near the center of the room, a trail breaking off from it. It had two types of blood it, red like fire and blue like the sky. The ichor path leading to doorway to another part of this cellar. There were a dozen bodies upon the grounds, their had been a fight here.
They were dressed in dark robes adorned in a black metal. He walked to one of the less deformed of the corpses to see if he might find any indication of who they were, but he found no emblem. With a curious handed, Gavier moved a to touch the metal, yet as he drew close to he could hear the sounds of something. It was as if the very world was holding its breath and whispering to him. Ge drew his hand back knowing it was better not to touch the metal. Catching the sight of a small bulge in the assailant's pocket. Gavier with a careful hand pulled out a small bundle of papers.
He unfurled the paper and began to read and yet it was filled with metaphors and symbolism and the words of a language he did not know. He pocketed the small pit of paper with a sigh. It would be the scholars of the church to decode that. Finding much the same in the others, the paladin to the door the trail of blood lead to. His a sigh he pulled open the door. The trail of blood lead forward right into another door. Seeing nothing in immediate view he took a step in.
"Fade!" The echoing sound roared off to his Gavier's side as he was knocked about. He did not know what had hit him until he crashed onto a table. The wood splintering under his weight and the force he was thrown with. His side burning in pain.
I decided to write this after playing the demo of wow and really liking it. I created numerous different characters in my head and I am started looking more into the lore for a while now. I have looked into the lore for a while cause I am a lore nerd. So I thought to create this story with all the lore I know. Well it was more I just started writing it and suddenly had a few thousand words. I thought of a much larger story but I am just going to give the beginning sections and see how you all like it. so please read and review.
I will as I only know so much and for artistic reasons might play a little bit with the lore from ether not knowing or just trying to make a small detail of what I want.
Check out my main stories on fictionpress, it is the channel with the same name and my main story Trials of the Witch Hunter