Hi my name is Ted and I've been wandering the world of The Scarlet Moon Empire for over 300 years. I will never die, except to illness or murder.
I was lost one day in the northern reaches of the Empire when a man, by the name of Teo McDohl, who was exterminating the Liberation Army in the mountains, came and found me. I was cold and wet after many days of storms and walking all over the place, looking for somewhere to stay, safe from my past.
He took me back to his home and brought me into his family. Many other people lived with him and his son, Tir. Gremio: A man whose frantic personality made him first and foremost, Tir guardian. Cleo: A hotheaded woman who kept everyone in line, and who Teo, confided in the most. Pahn: A man of strength, whom I easily befriended, with his carefree personality, but always had a willingness to do what he felt was right.
Pahn and Cleo both had stones in their right hands. These 'stones' are called runes, there are 27 True runes and more made from those 27. Cleo had The Fire rune, given by Lady Lakknatt, a seer, and Lady Windy's sister, to guard Tir. Pahn had The Boar rune, and the rune quickened his speed and upped his attack power when used. I too had a rune...mine was a little different though. It was The Soul Eater; the rune of Life and Death. It had the power to take the souls of my deceased loved ones, and destroyed an evil threatening The Empire....(We'll talk of that later...much later....)
So, after Tir turned 16, and joined the Rebel army, and therefore pledging his loyalty to The Emperor, we went on several missions to prove our worth. They were long and hard, and we came back tired from every one.
Coming back from one mission, our intermediate from the mission told me Barbosa wanted to see me in the castle. Everyone else was tired and wanted to go home, so I told Tir and the others to go without me. Tir was worried, but I told him not to worry. They soon left and I was escorted to the palace.
Once inside I went up stairs and the Emperor was there with his court magician, Lady Windy. He ushered me in to the room and took his leave. Windy turned around, and her eyes lit up suspiciously as she walked towards me. "Do you remember me boy?" She asked me. I shook my head, then something clicked. She was the evil witch who destroyed my home, (The Village Hidden in the rune!) when I was young. She came closer, reaching for my right hand. "Give me that rune in your hand boy, and I won't have to kill you!!" She yelled.
I backed up, all the way to the wall, scared. I knew what to do. I took off my right glove, and held up my hand, saying, "Soul Eater, show your power!!"
Windy took a step back, then one towards me exclaiming, "What are you doing boy, you'll die!!" A bright light surrounded me and I escaped Windy, but was badly hurt, in the process of using the rune.
I was transported to Tir's home. I fell with a thud, collapsing on the doormat. Tir herd the thud and called everyone out to get me. They took me to my room and put me in my bed. When I woke up, Tir and everyone else was in my room. They said I had been out for two days!
Tir asked me why I was hurt, and I explained. "Tir," I said, "I am 300 years old and have been wandering the world ever since my home was destroyed by Lady Windy. Now, she has followed me here to try and gain possession of the rune in my hand, the Sou Eater."
Gremio was speechless. "S-Soul Eater, one of the 27 True runes!!?" He asked. I nodded.
I turned towards Tir, asking him to come to the bed. He came, pulling off his glove, and holding out his right hand. I held out my right hand, murmuring a few words and the Soul Eater and all it's power, was transferred to Tir.
"What's this in my hand Ted?" He asked me, staring at his faintly glowing hand for a moment, before replacing his glove. The others stared at me waiting for an answer.
"You now possess the Soul Eater, the rune of Life and Death. You are the bearer of it now..." I slowly fell asleep, and when I did, everyone stayed by my side.
Everyone except Pahn, though. He was worried and went out to get medicine, or so he told Gremio.
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(The events that follow are before Tir gets the Soul Eater.)
I was sleeping when I herd the front door open, Tir was leaving without me! I rushed to the door, waiting to catch my breath, then we headed for the castle.
The day was just beginning when we got there. We went to Commander Kraze's desk and he talked with us about our next mission. "Now you -" He was addressing Tir, then he glanced at us all behind him. "No all of you, are taking a quite difficult mission today." He stared at Tir so hard he looked angry. Gremio felt Tir was in danger, so he stepped between the two, guarding Tir, one hand gripping the handle of his copper axe. Kraze mearly continued to talk, unfazed by Gremio. "You all will be going to Rockland, which is East of here, understand?"
"Yah, understand? East of Gregminster." A voice spoke from behind Kraze, he ignored it.
"You will talk to Grady, the military commander there. He hasn't been paying the tax to the Emperor for a while and we need to know why."
Yes, we need to know wh-" The man behind Kraze spoke up again, but was silenced with a sharp look from Kraze.
"Shut up, fool!" Kraze shouted.
Yah, shut up!" The man repeated.
Kraze got annoyed, with the man, turning around and addressing him. "I was telling you to be quiet! Idiot!" Kraze was almost red from shouting, and turned back to face us. "This man," He started to say. "Will be an intermidiate between Gregminster and Rockland. Also he will be your guide, Kannan?" He spoke up and the man retreated to the side of the desk.
When he was done, Kraze directed the man on what to do, and we set out for Rockland right away. When we got there we found it was a quaint little place, with small houses and a big building on top of a hill. "That's Grady's establishment, come on." Kannan said, and took us up.
We met with Grady, who explained the situation. "Bandits came here and took my money! They have a hideaway in Mt. Seifu, you must help me get it back!" He said. Kannan grinned, telling Grady we'd be happy to help. He just wanted to for extra money.
We went to the mountain, which was huge and stood at the entrance. Kannan spoke, " Pahn, you must lead us into the mountain." He said slyly, wanting us dead, or worse, so he could take the money back.
Gremio looked irked and hooked a hand on Kannan's shirt yelling, "Why don't we let the Young Master decide who leads...no!??" Kannan stiffened under Gremio, who was holding his axe above his head.
Tir was frightened, and pulled Gremio's arm away. "Gremio, don't go hurting the man..." Tir looked at his guardian with sad eyes and Gremio relaxed.
"I'll keep an eye on him, if you guys don't mind..." Gremio said, with a smile. We all nodded and finally decided Tir would lead us into the mountain.
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We were inside of the mountain, going deeper and deeper, until we came to a large chamber. On our way to the chamber though, we fought lots of monsters, along with a lot of bandits who roamed around. In the chamber we found something we weren't expecting.
An Ant Queen. It was huge, bigger than any other monster we encountered before. We tried to fight it but it was too strong. We stepped back and I asked Tir if I could go and fight it alone. He was worried for my safety, but let me go anyway. I went up to the Ant Queen and held up my right hand, saying "Soul Eater, show me your power!" A large black hole opened up beneath the monster and it was gone.
'Did that boy say Soul Eater?" Kannan thought to himself.
Went it was clear we went on through and came to an underground tunnel. We got out of it coming to a higher elevation of the mountain, and climbed a set of stairs. We came to a burrow in the side of a hill, and there was a door leading inside.
Two figures came from the hole and one spoke. "We are Varkas and Sydonia," The older man said. They sent out henchmen to fight us but we beat them. Seeing this, the two went at us fully to destroy us. It took as while but we managed to defeat them, tie them up, and take them back to Rockland, to Grady.
Grady had his men take the bandits to the side yard and tie them to polls, then Kannan gave Grady his tax money and we went on our way, back to Gregminster.
When we got back Kannan was informed of Lady Windy and Barbosa wanting to see me in the castle. I went and told Tir I'd be back soon.
(That was where I began the story, now back to where I left off at.)
After I had slept off the pain of my injury from Windy, I awoke to banging on the front door. Tir and the others went to see what it was about. Windy was there and she wanted me!!
Pahn was with her, looking sullen at the floor. "For Master Teo..." He breathed sadly, collapsing to the floor in a crying mess.
A few seconds later I poked my head out and whispered to Tir, "They think I still have the Soul Eater, escape through the kitchen! Hurry." Tir nodded sadly and clasped my hand one last time before leaving.
Tir led the group, Pahn included, to Marie's inn, across from the main gates. Marie, being a long time family friend took them to her safe room and they stayed there for a while.
(Tir starts to talk, because I got killed by Windy, and her Gate rune.)
I was curious of the events out side and went out to the front desk. Marie tryed to shoo me back to the room but soldiers came in, looking around. They spotted me and I got turned around. "Who are you? You look like the McDohl kid..." one said.
Before I could answer though, a man came down from eating and stepped between us. "Now why may I ask would the boy be hiding here of all places? It's populated every day with the masses, and someone could surely see his face and report him. He's not here."
When the man was done the soldiers left and the rest of the group came out to thank the man. "The name's Victor." He said. He was a bear of a man, and carried a steel sword at his hip, he was bound in leather and smelled of beer and fish.
We thanked him and we walked out of the inn, Victor following. It was now that I start my journey with my friends...to unravel Ted's secrets and get away from the prying eyes and killing hand of the Empire that now looked at us as fugitives....I carried the loss of Ted as a heavy burden upon my conscience....