100 years later...
As the sun began to set, getting close to night fall, a strange cloaked figure approached a graveyard walking up towards the gate that read "Fortesque." Who would be at a graveyard at this time of day? They pulled down the hood of their cloak revealing to be a woman in her early twenties. She an average height but slightly small, very light skin, white as snow and fiery red hair that was tied up into two long braids hanging down the sides of her face, and dark piercing forest green eyes.
Judging from her looks, she was definitely not a local from these parts of Gallowmere, she was in fact, a foreigner. What stood out the most, hanging around her neck, reaching to the center of her chest was a necklace. It was passed down to her by late parents before they died. It was shaped into a celtic rune with a red gem in the middle of it. They have claimed that the necklace have been in their family for generations. However, some of the recent locals have claimed that her family have been cursed. First, it was her father by an overturned carriage that fell off a cliff by an out of control horse who was spooked by a snake. Next, was her mother who choked on a pumpkin seed while she was eating pumpkin soup. Her name was Mary Lynne.
The woman was carrying a basket as she opened the gate heading into the cemetery.
"It's not too late. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some good quality herbs before the moon rises." The herbalist mumbled to herself. "I just hope that the clergy man isn't around."
She began to gather some of the plants that she needed, like deadly nightshade, wormswood, and witch hazel, placing them into her basket. As her basket was about half full, the woman stopped to take a break. From the corner of her eye, she saw something move as someone was approaching. Mary Lynne quickly took cover hiding behind a tombstone thinking that it was the clergy. As she heard them walk past, she peeked out looking over the tombstone to see who it was.
Not to far off in the distance, Mary Lynne saw a ugly, hideous and very old man slowly sauntering towards the sleeping village. She shrugged her shoulders and brushed it off thinking that he was just out for a late night stroll then laid back down looking up at the sky, watching the stars that were beginning to form and the clouds that were floating by.
Crack!
Suddenly, a loud thunder made that woman jump, startled. She looked over towards the village seeing strange green beams of light and lighting coming from there as it shot into the sky. The woman looked up and saw the sky began to turn pitch black as green clouds began to swirl violently.
Then she gasped felt the ground beneath her began to tremble. But, suddenly it stopped, going eerily silent. Something shot out from the ground. Mary-Lynne felt something grasp her wrist. She looked down and her eyes widened in horror and let out a blood curdling scream.
A severed hand.
She cringed in disgust and quickly stood up, frantically trying to shake the dismembered limb off, before prying it and tossing it away. The hand landed on the ground with a thud, not moving, seemingly dead, until it flipped itself over, standing upright on it's fingers.
Then It began to dart it's way over towards Mary Lynne. She looked down at her basket that was lying on the ground and picked it up then trapped the hand underneath it. The basket shook as the limb tried to get out. Mary Lynne spotted a heavy stone and picked it up placing it on top of the basket, trapping the severed hand for good.
"Ha!" Mary Lynne breathed triumphantly celebrating. "What more do ye got?!"
Mary Lynne spoke too soon, just as she finished, more tomb stones began to shake, followed by groans and moans. Bodies crawled out from the graves, as zombies came out and were now advancing towards her.
Not too far off, on top of a hill, there was a mausoleum. Inside, resting on top of a stone alter, laid the body of the fallen hero. Lighting shot through the stained glass windows, shocking the skeleton, reviving him to life. Dan's eye shot open and he let out a big gasp then quickly sat up. He looked around completely dubious as to where he was.
"I'm alive?"
He took in a deep breath and sighed "I guess it was just a dream-", but paused and let out a terrified scream "AAAH!"
He raised his hands and stared at them in horror to find no skin but bones. He quickly reached up feeling his head to find only his skull. Then his hands trailed down to find that his lower jaw was missing "What happened to my jaw?!"
Frantically, he jumped off of the pedestal he was laying on then looked around wildly to find out that he was in a crypt. He began to pace around trying to process everything then came into a screeching halt when he remembered. A familiar memory flashed into his mind: him leading his troops into battle, a person standing on top of the cliffs but he couldn't recall who it was.
They summoned their own army then fired arrows directly at his own as they charged. A stray arrow was heading towards him. Daniel reached up to touch where his left eye was as he remembered the arrow pierced it, killing him instantly, and that was the last thing he remembered.
"I died but some how I'm alive?" Daniel mumbled to himself. The only person who would have that kind of power would be...His eye widened realization, Zarok! That madman is still alive!?
"How much time has passed?" Daniel murmured.
He noticed a faint candle light glowing in the far side of the room and walked to see what it was. As the knight came closer, he saw that it was a painted mural on the wall. The paint had faded over the the years. He walked closer at the mural, inspecting it, then took a step back, shocked, when he saw what it was about. On the wall, was him fighting Zaraki, defeating him. Daniel noticed that there was something beneath the mural then looked down to find an inscription that read "The Hero of Gallowmere."
Daniel shook his head in disbelief as he fell to his knees. (I don't deserve this, any of this! Why was I hailed The Hero of Gallowmere?! I failed...)
Next to him, Daniel heard a cackle that nearly scared him right of his bones. He quickly moved back, as a head of a gargoyle with green glowing eyes came to life. "It has arisen again! Sir Daniel Fortesque, the hero of Gallowmere who fell at the first charge! The fogs of war and the shrouds of time, conspired to turn the arrow fodder into the hero that saves the day! But, we knows better!" The gargoyle scoffed. Daniel glared at it, insulted.
"I'll show you!" He declared. Then another gargoyle came to life in a wall across from the two of them.
"Leave it alone! Fate has given ye a second chance. A chance to forget the ignoble truth. A chance to set things right, to defeat Zarok and live up to the legend! We hopes it does well!"
"I wouldn't holds me breath." The other gargoyle said. Daniel rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath, walking away from the two stone statues, before stopping at a sword that was hanging on the wall. Daniel removed it, stashing the sword on his side.
"Well, better go outside to see what's become of my beloved Gallowmere." He walked a little further down the hallway of the crypt before stopping at a barred door. An idea came to him as Daniel reached his arm out, easily fitting through the bars, unlocking the latch from the other side. Guess being dead really does have some perks!
Daniel stepped out from the crypt, looking around at the scenery seeing that he was in a graveyard then he looked up seeing the pitch black sky and green clouds.
"Wow, Gallowmere, has gotten a lot darker since I've been gone." Daniel mumbled to himself.
Suddenly, a loud ear piercing scream echoed in the air that made him jump. That sounded like woman! A damsel in distress! Wasting no minute, Daniel immediately ran off, heading deeper into the cemetery, towards the source from where the scream was coming from.