Note:

I'd love to have reviews on this and I'm planning on expanding the story into the quest itself but only if you guys want it to.

I was planning on leaving it there - just ending on the cliffhanger but I have decided that I'd let you guys revel in another chapter ^_^ - I'm really teasing spice here!
Numair is dead.

The phrase rang around Daine's head. Numair is dead and nothing will bring him back.

Daine couldn't understand why. Everything had been going great between them, the wedding, the two children. They had been happily ever after for years. But he got bored.

He went off one day to "hunt", but this was not the normal game he brought home, and he didn't come home.

There had been widespread rumours that he wasn't so valiant and gold- hearted as the worlds had believed, and before now only the gods knew the truth. No one believed the rumours yet couldn't help but enquire about the latest instalment in this uncomfortably inducing affair.

He had gone out to hunt, but as he had done for the past few months soon took a detour to the house of baron George of pirates swoop. Not to have a friendly conversation over the lay of the land and the recent happenings in the realms of man but to see the lioness who guarded the house. So to speak.

It had been a shallow and lengthy affair of meetings under the shade of trees behind the estate, where few men dared to tread, believing a legend not quite accurate. The ravaging of any man who entered was in fact the ravaging of a single man who frequently went. They knew they were safe from prying eyes by the reputation of the woodland but did not know how some things come to pass.

On the tenth and seemingly ultimate meeting of the two there was a slight hitch. Numair had not realised Baron George had not left for a meeting as usual and in fact took his horse to explore the woodland of shadows and secrets. In the middle of the act cam the baron triumphantly strolling with a note singing loudly in his voice to be dropped to a yell of anger so full hatred that even the gods could not ignore the sound.

Numair could not explain. He pulled himself up and out of the way of the lioness and staggered a few feet back, attempting to re-clothe himself. Finding himself unarmed and at a great disadvantage Numair took flight through the woodland he barely knew, further and further into the depths as the undergrowth grew.

"George! Please! I can explain! I.."

"Shut up! And go back to the house and don't speak a word! I have nothing to say to you.yet!"

Giving Numair a not so sporting chance the baron now gave chase, with his hunting bow in hand. The previously undisturbed woodland clearly showed the path of two feet of a desperate man.

Numair tried to find the reason why he had done it but couldn't, he only knew that something had changed him. The curse that had turned his perfect life into a nightmare. Then he remembered the quest he once embarked upon but no details why or where came to hand.

"Numair! I will hunt you like the unworthy game you have become!" The figure was becoming larger in the view of the baron, even over the sound of the mare's hooves thumping the ground he could hear the faint whimpers from the man who turned from perfect soulmate, to hated foe over the series of one page.

The baron took aim. The arrow sliced the air at harrowing speed to enter through the side of Numair who had turned to see the distance the baron had gained. Up through one gap in between the upper ribs tearing through the supple flesh of his right lung and into the aorta of his heart.

There was no cry, no staggering, just a thump onto the ground. The baron left him where he lay, unburied and left to sort the punishment for his disgraces forged but the work of his once thought dear wife.

Numair is dead and there is nothing you can do.
"This is what will happen," enforced the wicca, spreading dark powder over the flame of a non-existent fire, "if you do not complete the task I set. Do you choose to find the ultimate prayer that will be the ultimate and unequalled gift for your perfect bride to be or do you go back and live life as an ordinary man?"

"It is my choice to decide?"

"It is your choice and your choice only. But you may have only one chance to decide to embark or accept a task too great. Once you leave this hallowed place of spirits you may never return. Not for a thousand lifetimes."

"Then it is my decision to."

I didn't really kill him! Well not unless he chooses to go! You decide - please review!