Prologue

All seems peaceful in the town of Nod. The small village is full of the usual day-time hussle. Merchants are setting up their stands for the beginning of the day. Women are bundling up their laundry to take down to the river for washing. The young girls aid their mothers by sitting and resewing torn clothes, while their little brothers are at play, staining and tearing the clothes they have on. The day has barely even begun.

A child of small stature is sitting on the railing of the small village hall, clutching his stuffed bear and gazing longingly at his brother across the square. His brother is with his friends, playing their war games in the center of town. The brother smiles as he sees the child and waves him over.

The child, in utter glee of being noticed, jumps down from his perch and into the street. He suddenly hits the ground as a low rumbling ensues.

The rest of the village begins to scramble about in the mist of the earthquake, each one seeking cover. The small boy stays where he laid. The brother dashes into the street and places himself over his brother to protect him from the crumbling of the nearby townhall.

The rumbling stops as quickly as it started and silence permits the air.

People begin to pick themselves up from the ground and looked about in confusion. They had never had an earthquake before, and the buildings showed that they never expected to, since most of them had crumbled to the ground. Women clutched crying children in hopes to calm their fear. The men still in town began to wonder where to house their families now.

But they didn't wonder for long. For it was only minutes after the earthquake seized that another rumbling occurred. But this time, the ground didn't shake, merely the air as the vibration of approaching terror took hold. All turned to face the hill in time to see that approaching terror arrive.

Men dressed in black armor and mounted upon horses came into sight. Hundreds of them came over the hill and headed toward the small ruined village. The boy and his brother, from their position in the street, looked among the warriors and spotted a suit of gold. And that was the last they saw as the world went dark.