CHAPTER 1

THE NOBLE'S SON

Amidst the tall oak trees and silent winds lay a girl, hidden within a dark layer of tall grass. No more than 30 feet away from her was a large deer, calmly drinking from a small pond. The girl stared intently at the deer and drew her bow. Her arms steadied and her breath stilled. She was ready.

"Hey! Where are you? Are you done yet?" screamed another from afar.

The girl jumped, and her shot flew past the deer; startled, it ran off into the distance. The girl smacked her lips and arose, revealing her bright, yet sharp blue eyes and red hair that was as messy as the grass around her. She could see a girl running towards her, and all she could do was pinch between her eyes.

"There you are Lyla. Did you manage to get the deer?" asked the girl. Her peculiar brown eyes reflected the sun's bright light and her long black pigtails were as smooth as silk. Lyla stared blankly at the girl. She leaned forward, put her hands on her hips and asked, "well?"

"No, Alexia, I didn't," replied Lyla as she crossed her arms.

"Well maybe if we just fixed up your hair a bit and keep your hair from covering your eye,"- her hand motioned towards Lyla- "it could help you improve-." Lyla quickly swiped Alexia's hand out of the way and stared her down.

"Please don't touch me. I can see just fine." Alexia pulled her hand back and turned around.

"Alright fine, you don't have to be so rude about it. Anyway, we should get going, the rest of the group is waiting for us." The two walked out of the forest and into the open grassy fields. Waiting for them were their three companions; two large Elves, Zero and Rydel, each clad in armor and wielding mighty great swords, as well as a very pale and comedically short Tieffling, Solgeran; although most know him as Sol. The group joined together and ventured in the direction of a great city in the distance.

After some time the group noticed a few figures not too far off. Lyla leaned forward and squinted her eyes at the scene.

"Looks like their carriage is messed up," said Lyla. "Not only that but it looks like there's about 3 bodies on the ground, and they don't seem to be moving."

"The insignia on the carriage belongs to the Calliban family," replied Alexia. "Thieving bastards. They cheated their way into royalty. All they ever do now is suck up to the other Royal families, it's probably why they were headed to Shalai."

"Well regardless, there could be bystanders in need and we have to help!" exclaimed Rydel.

"Maybe we should think about this before we jump-," neglecting to hear out Alexia both Rydel and Zero charged toward the carriage, followed by Lyla who said, "Helping out a noble could lead to some pretty good rewards. I'm in."

Alexia turned to Sol who turned back to her as well. He shrugged, and went along with the others. Alexia stared at her companions and hung her head. Letting out a sigh, she put on her hood, and followed them to the carriage.

The carriage seemed to grow bigger and bigger as the group grew closer to it. As tall as they were, both Rydel and Zero who normally towered over their companions needed to look up at it. Four, maybe five horses were needed to pull such a thing.

As they were arriving, they noticed what seemed to be a young teen, wearing thin, silky robes, yelling obscenities at three others. Two of them were large men wearing heavy armor and weaponry, while the other was considerably smaller and wearing noticeably worn out clothing.

"Look at this brat, he needs some discipline," whispered Zero to Rydel.

"Quiet you," replied Rydel as he elbowed Zero.

The two men were noticeably tired and had a dreadful look in their eyes, as if to say that this wasn't the first time they had been yelled at for a long period of time.

"Umm, sire," said one of the guards as he pointed towards Zero, Rydel, and the rest of the oncoming group.

"What is it!" snarled the boy as he turned around to see the group of travelers. "Oh. My. Lord. What the hell do you cretins want?"

Just as the boy began berating Zero and Rydel, Lyla approached the carriage itself. She stopped and examined the several corpses on the ground; there were twice as many as she initially thought there were. Kneeling next to one of them, she used one of her hands to act as though she was looking for a pulse, while the other slowly moved towards its pockets.

"Don't touch that," snapped the boy. Lyla quickly got up and stuck both hands out.

"Alllright your highness," said Lyla, as she rolled her eyes and slowly walked back, "I was just trying to see if they were alright."

"My Lord, please excuse her, she's a troubled one," interjected Rydel, as Lyla looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "We're here to help in any way we can." The guards began to rub their temples.

"Kaynith, please," said one of the guards to the boy, "Maybe they can actually help us." The young noble paused for a moment. He took a deep breath and lowered his voice.

"I am Kaynith, heir to the Calliban family," boasted the noble, "my men and I were ambushed on our way to Shalai by those no good, filthy goblins. They slaughtered most of my guards and servants. They've also stolen one my horses and let the rest go in the process. If that wasn't enough, my family's sacred rapier was stolen." Kaynith turned and pointed towards the great city. "Now that I've informed you of my predicament, if you're so keen on helping me then you can do me the pleasure of escorting me to Shalai."

"Escorts?" questioned Sol. "But what about this rapier that you spoke of? Surely you'd want it back immediately." Kaynith turned to Sol and started him dead in the eye.

"I don't recall stuttering, but yes. You will escort me to Shalai where your services will no longer be required. As for the rapier, I will have my men search for it. I can trust them to retrieve it before the noble families gather in Shalai's forum."

"Yeah that sounds fin-" before Rydel could finish, Sol took a step in front of him.

"Your nobleness!" exclaimed Sol. "We're very capable adventurers. Surely we can find this item for you."

"You seem very keen on the rapier, little Tieffling," replied Kaynith, "I would advise against such disobedience towards a noble, you can give the wrong impression."

"Oh please," scoffed Lyla, "you really think we'd want to incriminate ourselves to a noble?"

"Says the one trying to steal from a dead man," said Kaynith. He turned and pointed to Alexia. "That one hasn't even said a word and has suspiciously been trying to hide herself this whole time." He examined the group and pondered for a moment. "Perhaps you were right earlier. Maybe you're not escorts, maybe you're not even adventurers. No, you're all just a bunch of filthy bandits trying to take advantage of my time of need, and I've nearly allowed myself be deceived."

"My Lord, please, we can explain ourselves," stammered Rydel. Kaynith raised his hand and snapped his finger. The guards and servant groaned as they readied their spears and dagger and charged toward the group.

"Oh no look at what you've done! Now we have to disarm and calm them down," said Rydel as he pulled out his mighty greatsword. The servant charged at him. Rydel swung his sword, aiming for the servant's dagger, but he gravely underestimated his strength and he cleaved the servant's arm. "Oh my god," he whispered to himself. He and the guards looked in horror as the servant fell to the ground and a pool of blood seeped from his wound.

"500 gold per head!" shouted Kaynith. Wasting no time Sol reached into his cloak and began making hand gestures to it. Immediately the staff began to make a faint glow and a burst of light flashed behind Kaynith and the guards. They turned and were quickly blinded by the light. Alexia took advantage of the situation and approached one of the guards, whispering a dissonant melody to him. The guard could see the world spinning and the sky growing ever so dark. He could hear what seemed to be people talking faintly all around him but failed to see anyone at all. With each passing second his world spun faster and faster and the voices grew louder and louder. He tried to close his eyes but all kept spinning. He tried to cover his ears but he could still hear the voices yelling nonsense to him. He sweat profusely. His breathing was rapid. His body was shaking uncontrollably. He couldn't handle it anymore. He grabbed his head, let out a loud eerie shriek, and fell to the ground. The second guard, blinded by the light, heard the cry of his companion. He began shaking and walked back. Unaware of his surroundings, he tripped. Lyla ran towards him and knocked him clean with her sword's pommel. Kaynith staggered and began rapidly blinking to readjust his vision.

"You're all dead," cursed Kaynith, "I'll make sure they search the ends of the earth to find you!" As Kaynith was giving his speech, Zero walked up to him and decked him in the stomach, instantly knocking him out.

"That'll teach you, ya brat," said Zero triumphantly. Lyla began tying up the noble and guards and leaned them on the carriage. Before she went back to the rest of her group she noticed that the noble was wearing a gold ring. She quickly took it from him and walked off.

"Welp, we gotta think of a way to explain ourselves now," said Rydel.

"This isn't something that you can easily explain away," exclaimed Alexia. "They're going to wake up and they're going to be furious!"

"Well yeah but we have to think of something to get us out of this."

"We could just kill him," mentioned Zero. Sol nodded his head in agreement.

"Jeez aren't you supposed to be a priest," asked Alexia.

"Yes but so what? He was being extremely rude and threatened us."

"That's sick and regardless, we can't kill him. He's a noble a child and killing him will brand us as enemies of the other noble families and the government."

"You've mentally scarred a man with your witchcraft and you think that's sick?" questioned Lyla.

"I've told you before, I'm a bard," replied Alexia. "My abilities from the magic of song and speech. And yes, as it turns out I'm not fond killing children for being 'rude', nor am I a fan of being enemies of the government."

"I wouldn't really call him a child, he seems old enough to warrant that. We also wouldn't be enemies if we do it discretely and cover our tracks."

"We are NOT killing anyone!" exclaimed Rydel, who looked at the disarmed body of the servant. As the group continued arguing over what would happened to their captives Sol walked over to the tied up noble and guards. He began gesturing to his staff and, like before, it began to glow faintly. Suddenly, shards of ice form in front of Sol. He waves his hand forward and the shards quickly pierced through the noble and guards. The group heard the loud sound of wood being hit and turned. They're jaws dropped and no one could speak up as they saw the once live bodies of the noble were no more. They turned to Sol who turned to them. He gave them a smirk and said, "Problem solved."