A black storm was rolling on the horizon while blue and red lightning rained down from the heavens. In the shadows of the forest he scavenged the ground for slightest hint of life to sustain him long enough to find another scrap of nourishment. He had gone almost insane; only one thing still gripped his sanity, which kept him moving, trying to find the way out of this hell. What it was, he didn't know it was such a foggy memory that javelin was left with after he awoke. He lied still and focused on what he could remember to piece together the rest of his dream. It was several minutes before it came back to him. He was almost insane and completely starved to death when he saw the same girl from his other dreams. She stood upright in clean, untainted, white robes. It was as if she was completely unaware of the looming death around them she just looked at him and began to say something when something happened. Before he could get any further he had awoken. It was strange to him how he had been wakened, it wasn't even dawn and the rest of the circle was still asleep. Javelin was just about to go back to sleep when he realized the only thing wrong with what he saw. Quiver was sleeping alone, every other time that she slept lance was at her side in fact lance wasn't even near the camp. As he leaned up to investigate further into this puzzle he heard sticks breaking and saw a torch outside of the camp. After a moment he realized that it was lance, walking into the nearby forest. Being the half elf that he was he got up and removed all of his armor and weapons so he didn't make noise and quietly moved to follow him. Javelin had hardly even made it out of the camp and into the forest when he noticed the torch had stopped moving. He saw this as a good opportunity to catch up so he increased his pace. Once he had gotten within twenty feet of it javelin realized that the torch had stopped moving because it was no longer in lances hand. He found it odd that Lance would just leave the torch sticking upright in the ground. As he approached it, he came to find his suspicions of a trap to be true. Immediately after hearing a noise behind him a hand came up and covered his mouth.

"What are you doing up this early?" javelin felt so relieved to hear lances voice instead of another's. When his mouth was uncovered javelin turned around and said.

"You woke me when you left, so the real question is 'what are you doing out this early?'" lance grabbed the torch and motioned for javelin to follow.

"I had a dream that this happened and that we were to walk into the forest and find something. I'm sorry that I woke you, when I left I saw you deep in sleep. I thought you were having some kind of nightmare and was actually going to wake you. When you instantly went from miserable to in the most relieved look I've ever seen, so I left you to sleep." Javelin was about to reply when he saw something blur in the corner of his eye. He stopped to see what it was and he saw it blur to the left. This time lance saw it and waved the torch in all different directions.

"Who's there?"

Its voice sounded so strong and pure

"I am the warrior of the rusty sword and the broken shield. I am the one who makes cowards crawl and warriors rise up with a battle cry." Upon speaking these words the creature showed himself sitting on a large bolder that molded itself into a throne as soon as he went to sit in it.

Lance dropped the torch and his sword that he had drawn and bowed.

"Gora, forgive me for not showing you proper respect. To what do we owe the incredible honor of your glorifying presence?" Javelin was awe struck, he was standing before the god of war. The great man stood so tall and proud that he felt that his scrawny presence was a dishonor to him. His golden armor and massive battle axe shined in the torch light better than a mirror, making it difficult to see his divine face.

"You've been hunting an army of goblins for several days, they carry the zodiak stone. If they manage to use it properly they will likely defeat the humans and the dwarfs and eventually spread across the world. I have come to tell you that they have split up into two groups the group that the general commands has the stone and enough supplies to get them to their ships; the other has been left on a wild goose chase to find food and other supplies. In reality the general has abandoned half of his army to spare the other half. Having told you this news I must give you a grim message, the quest that you are on will take the life of one of your comrades. I will not tell you who but their death will shake the entire group. The gods have been watching both of your with great interest, and we are counting on you all to find success in this quest. Do not fail us, for the outcome will shape the world for centuries to come."

Within a blink of an eye Gora disappeared just as fast as he had appeared just moments before, leaving Lance and Javelin in a curious silence.

"Why would the God of war just randomly appear and give us information about the goblins? It's weird that the gods are so interested in this. There must be something more to this what meets the eye, but what? I'm not sure javelin, but we'd better get back to camp, there are terrible things in these woods."

The two walked in silence back to the camp and went back to sleep after a few hours of thinking about what had just happened.