Chapter One
The Awakening
A bell tolls in the distance, a Knight peers over the edge of the high walls toward the Firelink Shrine, he dawned his Tricorne hat atop his silver mask and began down the stairs of the high walls, it was time.
The Knight gives a faint cough as he trudges through the ash filled graveyard, ash kicked up with every step getting in every crevice of his burnt heavy armour, it weighs him down yet the weight barely bothers him. The dark twisted trees with their roots wrapped tight around the gravestones cast shadows across the area, the Knight stumbles through the gravestones piled atop each other, he hears odd raspy breathing, feeling edgy the Knight draws his greataxe from the loop on his belt, a hollow barely able to stand wobbles toward the knight from a nearby coffin, the hollow stands for a moment in silence, twitching, then lets out a high-pitched piercing shriek and charges staggering from side to side with a dagger drawn at the ready, at the last second the Knight steps to the side and trips the hollow, its face plows into the ash, he walks behind the hollow and sticks his axe deep into its spine, a slight moan is let out before the hollows body turns slowly to ash leaving nothing but broken bones and the black cloth it was wearing remaining. He persists on till he comes to a small hill, a lit bonfire crackles atop the hill, the knight kneels beside the bonfire, he eyeballs the footprints in the ash leading from the bonfire, they are all the same but lead in one direction , "Ashen one must have died multiple times from this point," the Knight thought, "the tracks are fresh, the Ashen One must be close."
Down the hill from the bonfire is a large archway filled with a wall of fog, the Knight observes a woman, in light cloth-like armour, pacing back and forth infront of the wall of fog, looking through a satchel on her hip, bodys of hollows lay around her feet, after a few moments of preparing herself she puts her hand against the wall of fog and push's herself through it, the Knight sprints down, he try's to grab her arm before it goes through but the fog feels like a wall pushing him back. He sits outside the fog wall listening to the battle inside, grunting, shouting, screaming, stabbing, suddenly silence, he persists on till he comes to a small hill, a lit bonfire crackles atop the hill, the knight kneels beside the bonfire, he eyeballs the footprints in the ash leading from the bonfire, they are all the same but lead in one direction , "Ashen one must have died multiple times from this point," the Knight thought, "the tracks are fresh, the Ashen One must be...I've done this already." the Knight jumps up from the ground and sprints down to the fog wall, "Wai-Wait," the Knight shouts, "I can help!", the woman frightened by the sudden voice she draws her dagger, the Knight puts his axe back onto his belt, "I am of Lothric, I simply wish to help you." she paces for a moment with her dagger still pointed at him, ready to defend herself, Rodarich stands for a moment in silence, "I know you can't trust me, but please I just want to help." She thinks for a moment, tapping her foot, she then waves him over, Rodarich grabs her arm and puts his hand against the wall of fog along beside hers.
They pass through the wall to the sight of a large statue like man with a giant halberd, Rodarich takes his axe back out of the loop on his belt, the Ashen one charges at the statue of a man, her dagger prepared to cut deep into his thick armour, Rodarich tackles her to the ground as the halberd passes just over their heads, Rodarich hugs the Ashen one tightly as he rolls out of the way of a downward slash, the statue backs off as Rodarich and the Ashen one stand up from the ground, the statue jumps high into the air and comes down toward Rodarich, the giant statue misses and the halberd gets stuck in the ground for a moment, knocking Rodarich to the ground from just the shockwave created by the force, Ashen one climes up the statues back and begins to stab him as many times as possible with her small dagger straight into his wound from the coiled sword, the statue shrugs the Ashen one off his back, with one strong tug he pulls his halberd out of the ground, the fight continues, they struggle for a moment, until Rodarich takes one hard swing at a gap in the statues armour, a critical blow it was as the statue is brought down on a knee, Rodarich's left hand starts a small flame within the palm, Rodarich charges the flame for a second then grabs the statue by the neck, an ancient flame shoots through the statue, it kneels for a moment then with a loud thump falls on its side, the Ashen one stands and stares with disbelief that Iudex Gundyr could be taken down with a single small flame, Rodarich collapses from all of his energy being used in the flame, Iudex Gundyr's body begins to twitch as a large black snake-like creature begins to pour out of the wound where the coiled sword was, the Ashen one throws knifes at the creature that is slowly staggering toward her, "Fire." Rodarich grunts,"Use fire." the Ashen one takes out small brown handmade bombs from her satchel, she lights and tosses one at the hulking monster, it gives out a loud, harsh, piercing cry, as it flails around, its body burning to a crisp, Ashen one lights and tosses another, the creature stumbles toward the cliffs edge, the Ashen one runs toward it and gives it a firm kick to what remains of the body, it falls off the cliff, but as it goes it uses its large black abysmal hand to deliver a fierce swipe at the Ashen one, she goes flying back hitting a dirt bank, Rodarich stumbles over to the Ashen one's unconscious body and puts her on his shoulder.