The first thing Sam registered was the lack of noise.
Normally, Weeping Gorge would be alight with the colorful sounds of merchants peddling their wares, children playing, and the sounds of the towns many blacksmiths working the iron that was as abundant in these hills as grass.
But today there was silence.
Pausing only to grab a pork chop, Sam touched on something an old friend had told her once: always be prepared. Sam planned to follow this, and in doing so she slid a knife down her leather boot. Stepping outside, several things became apparent to Sam. The first was the large group of town people clustered around the well. The second was the midnight black throwing dagger pinning a piece of paper to her wall. Sam paled. She hadn't seen a dagger like that sinceā¦but no. it mustn't do for the townspeople to see this. It would only inspire fear. Yanking the dagger out of the heavy wooden door, Sam pocketed it, and caught the piece of paper before it could hit the ground, and tucked it into her pocket. Right now, it was time to see to the crowd.
Walking quickly, Sam shoved through the crowd. When she got to the clearing, however, she gasped.
Hunched at the foot of the well was a ghost knight.
He was a monster, just nigh of eight feet tall, and with a wicked looking weapon clutched in his hands made from a sharpened blaze rod, he looked nothing short of demonic. For the second time today, Sam paled. She had seen what these freaks could do to flesh and bone, even without their weapons of fire and steel, and she wasn't eager to see it repeated. The real thing that troubled Sam however was that this brute didn't seem to have a good reason for dying, slumped against this well. Then the truth hit her.
The ghost knight didn't seem dead because he wasn't.
Like the lava surges so common in this brute's homeland, the ghost knight moved with terrifying speed, surging upward and towards a cowering woman, abandoned by the rush of people moving away from the ghost knight. All except Sam. Spinning on her heel, she withdrew the dagger from her pocket, gripped it firmly, and drove it straight through the ghost knight's helmet into the back of his head, killing him instantly, all in one fluid motion. She helped the woman, Sarah, to her feet, and looked around to the villagers. "I can explain. But I don't have time, so I'm going to leave you guessing. Goodbye."
Sam returned to her small cottage near the Weeping Gorge itself, to pack her things. She knew what something like this meant. For a start, ghost knights can only tunnel up from the Nether in corrupted zones, nearest to the frozen chaos catalyst. If they were suddenly becoming able to burrow up anywhere, that was bad news. And secondly, she knew VeloDrax wouldn't let a ghost knight retain his life somewhere he could hurt people unless he had more pressing matters. And if there were more pressing matters, then they must be big.
Sam started by packing the usual's, supplies and clothes and so on.
Then, she got to the unorthodox.
She carefully folded up a chainmail shirt, and tucked it into her rucksack next to a collection of small lightsteel throwing knives, and a collapsible axe. Removing her cloak from a hook, Sam drew it around her shoulders, and shouldered her rucksack. She took a moment before leaving to look around the small cottage. Her expression softened. Perhaps she would return here...if she survived.
Crimson Reporting! So people, how do you like the first chapter? I AM taking OC's for the Black Halo members later in the story, and as always reviews are appreciated. If you wish to submit an OC, then please leave a comment or PM detailing their name, race, gender, weapon preference, and of course a description of their appearance. See y'all later, Crimson out!
-Crimson Dawnbreak
