Chapter One

Lance lay back in his seat, propping his feet up against the table, upon which were set up the holograms for yet another round of "Monsters and Mana". Coran probably would have complained, if he wasn't deep in thought, perusing his tablet in preparation for the upcoming game. Meanwhile, Hunk and Pidge were nattering away to each other about previous games they had played together and quests they had completed. Lance wasn't really paying attention though and they thankfully they weren't paying attention to him either. If his two best friends had caught sight of him deep in thought, they likely would have supposed he was daydreaming about meeting a nubile mermaid some when during their next game or showing off his fighting skills or something else they could tease him about…but that wasn't the case.

He was thinking about Allura – again. In all honesty, however, maybe it was just as well neither of them knew what was on his mind. Though they were the closest buddies he had, they could be pretty merciless when it came to taking the Mickey out of his excessive attractions to members of the opposite sex. Indeed, Allura was incredibly stunning and he'd fallen in love with her the moment he first laid eyes upon her, but that was purely physical. Things had changed so much now. He wasn't certain if it was merely a passing crush or something deeper, but he could certainly feel a surge of jealousy every time the thought of Prince Lotor caressing her soft brown cheeks and leaning ever closer towards her face came to mind…

"I do hope you haven't started without us!"

There it was again! That beautiful English voice.

"Don't worry, Princess!" responded Coran, "I haven't even finished plotting out today's game!"

It was then Lance twigged that Allura was actually in the room and not just a figment of his imagination. He quickly removed his legs from the table in case Coran was no longer as absorbed in his tablet and turned to see Allura and Shiro making their way towards the sofa.

"I'm sure it will be as exciting as ever," said Allura, "Just please do not feature the same villain as last time! I'm pretty certain he doesn't need to be resurrected from the dead a third time."

Coran winked. "Today's quest is my best work yet!"

Allura seated herself beside Lance, who felt a pang of butterflies in his stomach. He focused on the hologram in front of him, trying to distract himself until the feeling died down. Inside the holographic landscape, he could see their five figurines – his own anthropomorphic persona, a thief (sorry…ninja assassin!) with wolf ears; Allura's elvish archer; Pidge's dwarven warrior; Hunk's sorcerer and Shiro's knight. He had to admit, he made a pretty dashing rogue. Maybe there'd be an opportunity to charm some of the ladies again in this game (a tactic that had proven rather fruitful in some of his previous quests); even if it wasn't the one lady he'd be most interested in charming…

The group waited until eventually Coran cried out, "Finished!" He set the tablet down beside him and tugged on his lapels. "I must say, I'm proud of today's work."

"Oh do let's get started!" chirped Allura, "I have much enjoyed our previous games."

"Very well then!" Coran cleared his throat, picking up the tablet. "As you all remember, last time you defeated Dakin's master for the third time, unlocking yet another hoard of treasures. You have since used your fortunes to settle down in various parts of the forest and have not been on a quest together in more than two decaphoebs. However, Jiro is about to hear a blood-curdling tale that will force the intrepid team to band together once again…"

…

It was a bitterly cold winter's night in the first month of the new year and there was hardly a soul outside. Those who weren't tucked up in bed or sat in front of the fire in a cosy cottage were huddled together in the local tavern, chugging down beer and ale and sharing stories. The inn was lit only by a few candles, positioned on every table, around each of which were sat several frequenters. Instead of engaging in the drunken revelry common in the summer months, many of them were listening intently to the local bards, who were all sharing essentially the same chilling tale.

Yet another traveller came in from the cold. He was wearing a white and gold suit of armour, with a black cloak draped over the top. This particular cloak had a fur lining to combat the icy weather. He also had a shield and a rather cumbersome sword attached his back. Few noticed the new arrival, which was almost camouflaged in the darkened background. He seated himself at an unoccupied table, not intending to buy any food or drink, and began listening to the stories the bards were telling.

"Did you hear about that old couple who made a deal with the imp? They forgot to give him his payment on time and he turned them to stone!"

"They say he can vanish and appear at will!"

"He may well have been in the area for several phoebs by now!"

"Do not think you can outwit him! He is more cunning than you can possibly imagine."

"He may appear one quintant out of the blue and offer you a deal you cannot refuse…but refuse it you must! He rarely ever keeps his side of the bargain."

Jiro had heard it all before. The stories had sounded outrageous at first, but the more often he heard them, the more convinced he became that something bad was afoot and after meeting a few locals who'd shown him what this imp did to their crops or homes, he began to realise at least a portion of the rumours were true. It was his duty as a paladin to protect the innocent from mischievous foes and this imp he had heard all too much about perfectly fit that description. Even so, he had yet to hear the one thing he needed to uncover the most – how to defeat him. From the lack of hearing even pure speculation on the subject, it was apparent to him that no-one had any suggestions on how to. Even so, he continued listening, hoping sooner or later someone might mention something that would get his hopes up…

Suddenly, the tavern door burst open. "THEY'RE GONE!" squealed an older goblin woman, "He took all of them!"

"Hold on a minute, ma'am!" called Jiro, rising to his feet.

"He took all of who?" asked a troll. No-one even bothered asking who "he" referred to.

"AN ENTIRE VILLAGE!" wailed the woman.

Jiro made his way over to her. "Are you certain this is the doing of the imp we've been hearing about?"

"Well, who else could it be?! I haven't heard of such a tragedy since Dakin turned that village into stone!"

"Ma'am, if it's of any interest to you, I helped slay Dakin." Jiro drew back his fur-lined hood, revealing his tiara. "My name is Jiro, twin brother of Takashi Shirogane, who was slain by Dakin, leading me to avenge his death and continue his life of heroism."

The room became filled with gasps.

"My friends and I have defeated Dakin's master several times before. We have dedicated ourselves to fighting evil in its every form and by the blood of my brother who was slain; we will undo the mischief caused by this new foe!"

He raised his sword high in the air and everyone in the tavern cheered.

Despite being confidant as always while delivering his rousing speech, Jiro couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. He wasn't exactly lying when he said that he was committed to defeating the fiendish imp, but he couldn't help feeling that he was leading the people on, when in reality he had no more idea how to stop him than they did. Perhaps if he was able to reassemble his team, Pike's stealth might match the imp's alleged ability to teleport and Block and Valayun's magic skills could somehow detain him (or perhaps Meklavar could just knock him out with her axe…), but would they be able to undo the imp's spells? Just how powerful was this creature? Did you have to be an exceptional mage or cast a specific spell? Somehow he had a feeling the solution was bound to be pretty complicated…

He sat back down at his table as the cheers died down and everyone returned to their drinking and merrymaking, which was indeed a good deal merrier now they felt reassured he was going to sort out the enemy they'd previously been fretting over. Jiro only hoped he could live up to their expectations. He began to ponder what strategy he could take against the imp (how was he even going to find him if he was prone to appearing randomly?) and while he was deep in thought, he didn't notice a stranger approaching him from behind.

"So, I hear you are the great paladin Jiro," he said, placing a hand on Jiro's shoulder.

This caught the young knight's attention and he turned to see a middle-aged man, wearing a floor-length navy tunic in various shades of blue and gold and a navy blue cloak, clutching a staff. His skin was brown and wrinkled, he had a white beard and overgrown hair and his ears were pointed.

The older man seated himself beside him. "I am the sorcerer Alfor."

…

In the real world, this came as quite a pleasant shock to Princess Allura.

"My father's a sorcerer?" she gleefully remarked, thinking Coran's choice of rank was actually rather fitting for him.

"That was the class he chose when we used to play alongside the Paladins of Old," Coran said proudly.

"Why, of course! I quite forgot."

"Wait!" cried Lance, "The original Paladins used to play Monsters and Mana with you?" Somehow that didn't seem surprising…

"Uh, yeah?" said Hunk, "I think Coran's mentioned that before?"

"I think that was when we were playing on our own, Hunk," Pidge reminded him.

"Oh!" It all came suddenly back to Hunk. "Now I remember. Oh man, that was kind of embarrassing…"

"What characters did the original Paladins play as?" asked Shiro.

"Now let me think…" Coran tapped a finger against his chin. "If I remember correctly, King Alfor was a sorcerer, Zarkon played as a paladin, Trigel was a hunter, Blaytz was a rogue and Gyrgan was a druid."

"Blaytz had good taste," commented Lance.

"I can't say any of those choices surprise me," said Allura.

"King Alfor was an excellent Monsters and Mana player," continued Coran, "He achieved the highest level and completed hundreds of quests with his fellow Paladins. I felt it was only appropriate to pay tribute to him in one of our games!"

…

"I have heard a lot about the good deeds you and your friends have accomplished over the last few decaphoebs."

"We haven't worked together in a long time," confided Jiro, "In all honesty, it's been nearly two decaphoebs since I last saw any of them. We kind of lost track of each other after finally defeating Dakin's master. I don't know how I'm going to bring everyone back together now we've got another quest to complete! We sort of…found each other by accident in the first place…"

"I see," responded the sorcerer, "I'm afraid I cannot accompany you on your journey – there are other matters I need to attend to – but I can offer you some advice." He looked around them surreptitiously before whispering, "An imp's one weakness is his real name. If you are able to find it out and use it in an incantation, you will have the power to make him do whatever you wish." He pulled out a sack from underneath his cloak and took out a necklace, which he placed in Jiro's palm. "This amulet will guide you to the home of whoever you wish. It will help you find your friends and perhaps it will help you find out the name of the imp."

"I can't thank you enough." Jiro smiled.

"I wish you good luck, my boy." Alfor rose to his feet and affectionately thumped his shoulder.

While he exited the tavern, Jiro held up the amulet and inspected the stone embedded within it. As he did so, he began to feel the power it contained and started to get an impression to rise up from the table. He did so and began feeling drawn towards the door. He pulled up his hood, bracing himself for the cold night air, and ventured out into the darkness, the talisman's glowing gem his strongest source of light.