Ancient Quest
Chapter 1: Departure
In the middle of a forest in southern Crimea, a small mercenary fort lay burning. The mercenary leader, Andrew, was fighting off a small band of Daein soldiers south of the fort in the woods.
He dodged a lance thrust to his head and parried with a slash with his brilliant gold and silver bladed sword. He had cut down all of the soldiers but a berserker and a hero. They came at him at once.
"Where's your sense of honor?" he called out to the advancing enemies. He jumped to dodge an axe chop from the berserker and stabbed him in mid-air. He fell to the ground as the hero advanced at him more cautiously so as not to be cut down as fast as his comrade. Just then, Andrew sheathed his sword and sent a devastating blast of wind magic at his foe that crushed him like an insect.
At this point Andrew realized how far he had strayed from the base. He ran back but stopped dead when he saw how many Daein soldiers there still were. There had to be at least fifty enemy troops! He ducked behind a fallen log for cover as he watched his fort being burned to the ground and what survived of his force being led away in chains.
As soon as there were only a few stragglers (mostly looters) left near the fort, he jumped down and killed all the remaining allies of Daein. Then he began to search the burned base for survivors.
After searching for about a half hour, he found an injured archer, whose name he remembered to be Arthur. He went to him and helped him out of the still-burning base.
"Are you all right?" asked Andrew.
"I'll be fine. What happened to the rest of the company?" answered Arthur weakly.
"They were either killed or captured. I can't find anyone else left." Andrew said glumly.
"Then we must find them and rescue them!" Arthur said, jumping up. "We have no time to lose! If we hurry, we can still follow their trail." He began to run off.
"Whoa, there," said Andrew, sweeping him back with his wind magic, "we can't take on much of an army with just two people, even if one of them just happens to be me. We have to do this subtly or not at all. I personally prefer the first." He got up. "Follow me." He began to move away from the burned-out fort.
"They will know there are survivors when the thieves who lagged behind don't return. We have to stay hidden and off the road until the return party pass us. Then we can make all speed to follow the troops," Andrew explained.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Arthur said. "Let's go!"
"This is going to be a long trip…"
