Legacy of the Overlord Chapter 1: Humble Beginnings, an overlord fanfic

CHAPTER EDITED: Chapter has been checked for spelling mistakes and plot mishaps.

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Well what can I say. I began this story after a close friend asked me to write up a fanfic about a female Overlord.

Since I've just got Overlord 2 I decided to try and incorporate the two Overlord games in some way so I hope you like it. I'm using this story as a little break from my Prime Mover story, I tend to rush stories and get sloppy with plots if I get tired with them. But I'll get back to it soon enough.

I own nothing to do with the Overlord games, I only made Briar and if CodeMasters or Triumph Studios want to use her they can.

Legacy of the Overlord

Chapter One: Humble Beginnings

Briar was getting tired of waiting. He should have returned with the kid by now. With each minute that went by she became more worried, more frustrated, it would be dark soon. The sun was slowly being swallowed by the horizon and its dying light cast the grazing pastures of Mellow Hills in a glorious, rich, red and orange glow.

It was a beautiful sight. But Briar was too preoccupied trying to spot her lead herd dog to notice the splendor of the scenery around her. The young girl sighed heavily from her vantage point on top of a large boulder which gave her enough height to see the smoke rising from the chimneys of Spree, a couple of miles away. If the sun faded before her dog got back it was very unlikely she would be able to see him in the dark for him to lead her to where the goat was if it was stuck. All she could do was continue to stand on her boulder and tap her fingers against her wooden crook.

Some more time past before, at last, she saw something dark and furry running over the far hills on all four legs. Weaving his way through the few patches of tall grass her goats hadn't eaten yet was Grimjaw, her lead herding dog. Since he was returning to her he had obviously found the lost goat kid, but since he wasn't bringing it home it must be stuck somewhere or had been taken by a predator. It hadn't been taken by a rustler, she knew that for certain; Grimjaw would be returning with their blood matting his fur if he had discovered a rustler with his master's goat. Even from this distance Briar could see his fur was still sleek and shining in the dying rays of the sun; no blood coloured his coat.

The large dog/ wolf hybrid took only a minute to race across the fields to reach her and her boulder. He stood, looked up at her and barked with his low, deep bark, a sign he could lead her to the kid. Briar jumped down and followed the small worn path that led back past the goat pen to her small home. It was just a small, simple built round house, big enough to house her and her mother, and at one point her beloved aunt as well. Her aunt had left when she was six and her mother had perished in the aftermath of the magical plague a couple of years later; the round house was Briar's alone now.

It was just one circular room which acted as living space, bedroom and kitchen with a small stove, a bed of straw and cotton sheets with a goat skin blanket, the floor was covered in carpets of goat wool, a lone table and two small stools stood in the center and the shed horns of some of her favorite billies had been carved with patterns and used as ornaments. A small fire and the last few rays from the sun were the only light sources in the house. It was just a place to rest as far as Briar was concerned, it had not felt like home for years, not since her mother died. Briar placed her crook up against the wall and replaced it with her sword; just a cheap thing she had got off of an unfortunate rustler who tried to make off with a couple of her goats a few years back. She wrapped her trademark red cloak around her shoulders, since the nights were gradually getting colder with the approach of Winter, and also picked up her leather pack bag, she had a feeling about where Grim would take her and you never knew what you would find in Evernight Forest: the young shepherd was ever the opportunist, just like her mother and aunt. Briar did not care about the unruly state of her jet black hair as she covered her head with her cloak, creating a hood; she could sort out any tangles in her dark locks when she returned.

As she turned to leave, she caught sight of her reflection in her mother's old mirror. She was a pretty girl, her features were soft from youth but were starting to sharpen with the onset of puberty. Briar was a little short for her age, but she probably had a few more years left of growing. She was thirteen, barely having reached into her teenager years, life had dictated that she grow up and get mature fast. Her reflection's pale blue eyes stared out at her from her hood, and this was the reason she was alone, for when Briar experienced pain or extremes in emotion, anger, sadness, even joy, her left eye would glow; the sign of a magic user.

Magic users in this part of the land, even a young girl who had shown no actual magical prowess, were treated with the utmost suspicion and distrust. Mostly because of the Great Cataclysm and the magical plague, the same one which had taken her mother, but also because of the propaganda of the Glorious Empire.

The Empire's army had reached Mellow Hills a year ago, but had so far not taken any action to dominate the region, so long as the villages and towns remained complacent about the Empire's power they had no reason to take over. It was another reason she had little contact with Spree and why she tried to hide her eye under a red cloak.

Spree's villagers called her Red Hood, or just Hood if they were really lazy, because of her cloak. She doubted anyone but Spree's mayor actually knew her name in the village. Her cloak gave her that air of mystery and edge of danger that many of Spree's lads, and many of the men, found alluring. She wasn't interested in any of those Spree idiots. Briar finished and although the cloak didn't give much protection, she was wearing thick woolen clothes underneath. She doubted that the bandits would cause her much trouble, years of fetching lost goats from the forest where the bandit hideouts were had made her sword skills the best in Mellow Hills, not to mention give those bandits a headache just by thinking about the colour of red cotton.

Shaking herself from her reflection, she went back outside and shouted to the rest of her dog pack to keep patrolling her goat pen and farmstead. Grimjaw, however, stood from the seated position he had adopted on the ground when Briar went inside, as his young master approached him. "Show." was Briar's simple order and Grim turned around and began to lead his master back across Mellow Hills' pastures and towards Evernight Forest.

------ LoO ------

Evernight Forest was a dark place. Evernight Forest had been a dark place ever since the elves left the forest when it had been corrupted by one of their leaders and after the drawfes attack them years ago, before she was even born (her mother had told her the stories); and bandits and monsters had overrun the ancient woods in the elves' absence. Briar and Grimjaw entered without hesitation, as they had done many times before. The monsters were easy enough for her and Grim to handle and the bandits had learned some time ago to fear the red cloak and large wolf cross. Briar's trademark had once belonged to one of their leaders, one of the worst bandit lords Mellow Hills had known.

It was why the villagers and townsfolk were so tolerant of her and why they had not given Briar to the Glorious Empire, which now ruled and governed the land from Heaven's Peak, at least . With Briar making frequent trips into the forest she and her dogs discouraged the bandits from attacking Spree and the other settlements that she traded with, the bandits thinking she would come to the villagers' aid if they did raid their homes.

The bandits should not have been worried. Spree had done nothing for her, or her mother, and Briar was not someone to help a person out of the kindness of her heart, especially when they had shunned her from their very society. She would help the mayor, she would gladly help Old Archie. But the Spree villagers had done nothing to earn her loyalty.

Briar kept her sword ready and Grimjaw listened for every sound as he led her to the goat kid, they made no noise, letting the screeching of birds and creaking of the trees hide their footsteps. Briar was good with a sword, but that did not mean she purposely went in to the forest for a fight.

Evernight's constant mist hung low to the ground, swirling around their legs and leaving twisting patterns in their wake as they neared the river that ran through the great forest. Grim led her to several trees on the opposite bank of the river that had grown close to each other and their exposed roots had created a small hollow in which Briar could see a small goat had got itself stuck in long reeds. The big herding dog kept watch as Briar worked to get the kid free, once untangled the child shepherdess tucked the young animal under her left arm and began to walk back through the forest.

Halfway back along the route Grim had taken her, the dog stopped and growled dangerously at something lying in the tall grass at the center of a clearing; moonlight shining in from the opening the clearing made in the forest canopy providing the light Briar needed to examine the creature.

It was small, at first Briar thought it was a child, but it had large pointed ears and tan, almost earthy brown scales covering its whole body and it wore a small, simple loin cloth made from what looked like rabbit fur; it certainly wasn't a child. It's blood was everywhere, staining the grass in the clearing and its crushed head showed that it had been trampled.

Briar felt the tingling in her left eye as it suddenly began to glow with its blue light.

She heard a sound like thunder, the ground shaking under her feet.

She leapt out of the way just in time as something large and white shot past her, its head bent down and a long twisted horn stretched for half a meter out in front of it. Grim ran and hid behind the trees, he had no chance against this creature alone.

Turning to face the monster, Briar raised the tip of her sword to it, the bloody unicorn just stared at her with mad glassy eyes as it recovered from its charge.

"Wow! Glowy eye, blue glowy eye! Torn never seen that."

"Horsie too slow the blue glowy eye!" The child-like voices had not been expected and Briar couldn't understand where they had come from, she kept her sword trained on the monster before her eyes searched for the source of those voices. Her eyes fell onto five more of the brown creatures she had seen lying in the grass, their eyes glowing amber. They were taking cover up a tree to her left having climbed it to get away from the mad unicorn who had trampled their fellow. The blood stained beast charged and once again Briar leapt out of the way, slashing the beast's rump as it past by her with only a foot of distance. Grim took the opportunity to rush from his hiding place and took a bite at its ankle, causing another injury that would slow the unicorn down.

"Yeah! Bash it, blue glowy eye! Bash it!" the brown creatures roared in delight. The unicorn prepared to charge again, shaking its blood drenched mane and scraping its front hooves against the ground. Briar backed herself against one of the trees outlining the clearing, Grimjaw followed with his fur standing on end and teeth bared in a snarl, a deep and dangerous growl emanating from low in his throat and chest.

The unicorn charged, its injuries appearing to cause no difference in its speed at all. It lowered it head, the tip of the horn coming straight at her chest.

Briar's eye glowed fiercely as a content, knowing grin split her face. She had this over-rated pit pony right where she wanted it. The glowing, amber eyes of the brown creatures watched, unblinking.

The monster was no more than a foot away from impaling her when Briar dodged again, Grim leaping away in the opposite direction of his master, and the unicorn had no time to correct its course. Its pointed horn easily speared the tough bark and thick trunk of the unmovable tree which Briar had pressed herself against. The unicorn shook it head and tried to pull back but its screw-like horn was stuck fast, its tip sticking out of the other side of the tree.

"Ha Ha! Stupid horsie!"

"Wow, blue glowy eye so smart. And good at bashin'!" Briar wished they'd stop calling her 'glowy eye'; her hands would've fisted until she remembered she was still carrying the kid under her arm. The young goat bleated as if to show her it was still there as she stood up from having thrown herself to the ground to trick the mad beast.

Grimjaw was already biting into the bloody unicorn's throat once Briar's attention turned back to the beast; it was trying to stamp on him with its front hooves but it couldn't move properly in order to do so.

The brown creatures had climbed down from their tree, not caring about their trampled fellow, so they could gather around and taunt the trapped unicorn. Grim had managed to cause several bad wounds to its neck and the large canine was still trying to get at the monster's windpipe to choke it.

"Ahh, nice doggy, so helpful." Briar rolled her eyes and dropped her sword down onto the doomed monster's neck. With its spinal cord severed the unicorn went limp and the weight of its body caused its horn to snap at the base of its forehead. Briar was able to remove her trophy from the tree by unscrewing it since the horn was twisted and placed it in her pack bag, taking her skinning knife out.

"Gloob likes glowy eye. Glowy eye bash pony easy." A brown creature with very tattered ears said, watching as she gave the goat kid to Grim, who held it securely in his bloody jaws without his teeth causing any harm to the young goat. The young kid just let the huge dog take charge of him, bleating every now and then.

"My name is Briar." She told the brown goblin, not even turning her eyes to look at him as she began skinning the unicorn.

"Gloob likes Briar. Briar bash pony easy."

"Briar is smart and tricky." Another brown creature said "Briar make good mistress for next Overlord, yes?" The other creatures seemed to agreed, but Briar had only been halfheartedly listening to their conversation, she was too concentrated on her skinning to really pay any notice. But then the word 'Overlord' was mentioned and that gained her attention. It was a word associated with fear in Spree, so it was a word she liked.

Her mother had told her stories when she was younger, stories that were often used to scare young children but had kept her enthralled with wonderment. Stories about a dark warrior who controlled a vast army of demons, he had brought the of kingdoms of humans, dwarfs and elves under his control, even the temple in Heaven's Peak had known his armored grip. He had forced the Halflings from their villages, burned towns to the ground when the townsfolk tried to rise against him, and he had even played a part of the elves leaving this forest. The Overlord had disappeared shortly before she was born, but the land still had scars from the conquests of his army. Men in Spree and the surrounding settlements still talked in hushed voices.

Briar took an inquisitive glance at the brown creatures who were chatting excitedly amongst themselves. They seemed to have a connection with the Overlord, but a demonic army? They were magical creatures, their eyes glowing brightly even with the strong moonlight proved that much, but Briar found it hard to believe that these... things... could conquer a gnome hole, let alone an entire land. They were barely the height of young children.

The unicorn's skin finally came free. Briar stood, folded the large bloody pelt as best she could and began the walk home again; Grimjaw followed with the goat kid still safely in his jaws and the brown creatures followed behind him, picking up sticks as they went which they brandished like clubs.

When bandits came across the skinned unicorn some hours later, they knew exactly who had been here.

------ LoO ------

The brown 'minions', as they called themselves, had surprised Briar on the walk back to her tiny farm. They were quite good fighters when it came to creatures the same size as them or the size of a human, they used their greater numbers and surprising strength to overpower enemies. A unicorn required a greater number than six to stop its charging. When it came to the Evernight 'rat archers' the browns took them out easily, taking their skulls as helmets, and Briar's walk back through the forest was a dull event with the browns clearing the way for her and Grimjaw.

It was early in the morning when they reached home and while Grim took the young goat back to the pen Briar hammered the unicorn pelt to a side of her small barn to dry. Afterward, Briar dragged her feet to the door of her home.

"Mistress, we go sleep in barn." She turned around to see the browns as they ran back, off in the direction of her small barn. All it had was hay, rats and the occasional chicken egg she hadn't seen when collecting them in the morning. They were too far off now for her to call them back, so she left them to it. Besides, it was hardly like they could get a room in Spree and night hunters were often hired to hunt magical creatures in the woods. "Fellow magical creatures." Briar found herself thinking.

She entered her home. Grimjaw had most likely rejoined his pack in guarding the farm so she had no more worries and she had no other pressing matters for a while now until she had to ready her cart and orders for the markets, but that wasn't for a few more days. Freeing herself from her sword and cloak she slept fully dressed since she did not bother to start the fire, which had gone out while she was looking for the goat kid. The nights were growing colder.

She dreamed that night, the first time in what felt like ages. A dark warrior, a dark lord, with a great army of brown minions clad in armour around him, a huge magnificent tower standing strong far behind him in the background with some great mountains capped with snow; he held out his hand for her and she reached back for him.

Well? Do you like it?

Truthfully I don't know where to take this plot after I get Briar to Nordberg, if any one can think of something I'd be very grateful, even if it turns out I don't use your idea I might turn it into a oneshot story.

If you enjoyed it please leave a review. I can't take any responsibility if the minions should take offense against you not leaving a review.