A/N: Hello all! Welcome to the first story from my collaborator Sorrowen. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did. Cobra Grimes
Chapter 1: Blood and Stone
A man ran through the woods his heart beating so fast he thought it would explode he heard sounds of the men after him. He ran until he was shot by a flying arrow in the leg he fell hard to the ground two knight's came up behind him, grabbed him and hauled him away.
At a nearby stone structure were a group of soldier's and knights one was covered in black shiny armor with a black wolf's pelt on his cape. He had a large claymore with black diamonds going down the middle and a shiny black hilt with a light blue sapphire in the middle.
The soldiers brought the man up to a nearby stone with a wide area the knight first the knight said "Do have anything to say about the charges that are against you?"
The man responded in a scared and nervous tone " My lord I just wanted to see her one more time before she left".
The knight responded in a dark and menacing voice " But this time she ended up dead didn't she because of you"
The knight said in a sadder voice " And for that you must die for what you have done and you will die!".
The man started to cry but the knight motioned to the soldiers to take him to the blood covered stone. As the man's head was put on the stone the knight asked " Is there anything you would like me to say to her lordship before you die?"
The man responded "Tell her I never thought things would end this way I never thought her daughter would die" The man cried. The man looked up at the knights face it was blacked out but he did see the flash of two bright red eye's but then his face was just black again. One of the knights walked over to him and held up a large sword sheath and the dark knight unsheathed a large sword it was blood stained but still very sharp it had a blood red hilt and blood ruby's down the middle and a light green sapphire in the middle of the hilt. The sky was grey and the wind blowing lightly as he turned to the man "I sentence you to die for acts committed against the women and men of a cruel nature" the knight said the sword still in his gauntlet covered hand's.
He raised the sword and then swung hard downward chopping the man's head off instantly and spraying blood all over the stone and ground. The knight then picked up his head and put it on stake and walked down the hill where many staked heads where. The sky was grey and dark with barely any sunlight showing though the clouds and snow was starting to come down on the knights and soldiers.
The mountains and hills where gray and lifeless looking and bleakness was ever present. One of the knight's walked up to the dark knight and asked him " My Lord what are we to do with the body" the knight said pointing toward the headless corpse.
The darker knight looked at the corpse and answered "Let the Werewolves have their way with it but move it away from the stone." The knights moved the body off the stone blood still flowing from where the man's head was.
The knights called their steed's and began to journey home to the northern lands which where very harsh in the winter months. As the knights rode the landscape opened up surrounding them where giant mountains with snow capped peaks and rugged cliffs. The ground was hard as it had been frozen for many months and the grass was gray and even black in area's in the valley because of the cold. The forest surrounding them was dark and fog and mist coming from the mountains gave the forest a eerie feeling of dread and menacing harshness and danger. As they followed the path out of the mountains they went down a steep pass of solid rock and marble the stones where in jagged shapes and they where sharp enough to cut a man if he touched them.
The darker knight was a demon of sorts he had done many bad things in his life but he also had a sense of justice twisted and violent though it was. One solider walked up to the darker knight and asked him "My lord is it true that you killed that man's family to it would seem to be a bite harsh to kill them all my lord."
The darker knight hearing what the solider said simply grabbed him and threw him over the precipice hearing a splatter below they continued on word toward the city and the castle which was home to the royals. They were sadistic ruler's who indulged in every kind of sadism and murder mostly on each other but to the people as well.
The darker knight looked up at the sky which was very dark with clouds and falling snow he saw a flash of giant dark wings and a massive head with blood red eye's with black pupils.
The darker knight lifted up one of his gauntlet covered hand's to stop the man from going any farther into danger. The dragon flew over them its wings causing a small wind storm and whipping up sow into the air making it colder then it already was. The dragon had huge horns around its head curved back to its skull its jaws where lined with 10 inch teeth like knives. Its body was covered with bright yellow markings and black spots dragon's prayed on large mammal's such as cattle and red deer but where opportunistic in nature.
The darker knight called over a young solider and said to him in a dark low voice "Tell the men to watch the sky's if they don't want to end up dragon food" the darker knight said to the man. The dragon flew over them once more eyeing them it sniffed the air as it flew searching for its pray.
The darker knight galloped forward ahead of the rest of the group these times where uncertain for many people in the kingdom. They had been at war with the outer kingdom's for sometime over land and resources and jewels which are the most important currency. War was constant and often brutal and lasted yrs and yrs without end thousands died in battle and from sickness.
To make matters worse the kingdom now had a werewolf problem as the beasts followed armies and waited for battles so they could pray on the wounded and scavenge the corpses of the dead and dying.
The darker knight once again looked up at the gray sky the dragon was still flying around looking for a meal of some kind man or beast it didn't matter. The dragon suddenly flew down over the group picking a man off that had gotten to far behind the darker knight heard a scream and crunch.
Unfortunately blood rained from the shy after the dragons human meal one solider said "What the blazes is this?" the man whipped the blood onto his sleeve and kept moving. The darker knight rode up to a cliff to see where they where headed and it wasn't a good place they where going to travel through. The wood's in this part of the country where hostile and dangerous with many beasts living in them. Most where highly aggressive and dangerous werewolves stalked pray from the tree's and pounced on it when the time was right.
As the group passed through the wood's the fog blocked out most of the light and in certain parts the sunlight went through the fog. Giving the forest a eerie look and feel the horses did feel spooked but didn't run or flee as their masters tried to keep them calm on the ride through the woods. Above them in the tree's werewolves where watching their every move to see if one of them made a mistake or tried to move to fast on the path.
Werewolves where vile creatures they where highly aggressive and hunted with brutal efficiency and cunning. Werewolves had pitch black fur, shiny yellow eye's and blood red pupils their arm's where strong and their hands had 5 inch claws that where a dark brownish color. Males had large mane's and where larger then the females and preferred to live alone when not in mating season, which was late winter and early fall. The darker knight looked up at the tree's again he saw a large black shape fly up a tree in a instant and then look down on them.
The werewolf sniffed the air for the scent of blood or weakness of the group as it would rather not attack a healthy victim. The werewolf sniffed again finding its target a old horse near the end of his days in the group. The werewolf bounded through the tree's knocking the rider off and dragging the horse into the wood's and up a large fire tree to eat its meal.
A/N: Please R&R