Frankly, we had no idea where we were going. We had crossed the bridge near the spring, and after running through a small clearing, we passed yet another spring and kept going. We came across what appeared to be a crossroads. On direction led us to a clearing with a man sitting at a fire, and the other led through a dark tunnel.

We decided to approach the man and ask if he had seen Talo anywhere.

"Yo!" He said, practically throwing a lantern in my hands. "I'm selling lantern oil, and giving out free lanterns as a business strategy. Did you need to go through the dark tunnel over there? No problem with a trusty lantern!"

What a strange man, I thought to myself. "We're actually looking for a small child, around the age of eight or so, have you seen anybody like that come through here?"

"Hmm…" He rubbed his chin in contemplative though for a moment. "No, I don't think that I have seen any kids come through this area. Maybe he went through the tunnel?" I thanked him and Zach and I went on our way.

We walked to the entrance of the tunnel and went into it, swords in hand. We were pleasantly surprised that only a couple of large bats accosted us, but we quickly dispatched them with our blades. We finally came to an end to the tunnel and walked into the open area before us. Aside from a few giant trees that littered the area, there was seemingly no signs that Talo might've come through here.

At least that is, until the monsters came out of the woodworks. Two monsters, looking almost like gremlins jumped from a raised platform and made to attack us with what looked like sword sized cleavers. Zach and I jumped back before attacking back while they lifted their weapons. A few strikes of our swords left them badly wounded before they disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"That was weird." Zach said. "You would think that they would just die like a normal creature, but they just vanished in the smoke."

I nodded. "We'll have to be careful, who knows what other kinds of monsters we'll encounter in this world filled with magic."

We pressed on, fighting through the occasional monster or two before coming across a locked gate that a couple of monsters were defending. Searching for another couple of minutes or two yielded a kay that we used to unlock the gate. We ran forward and came across a group of four monsters surrounding a bird, and quickly dispatched them from behind.

"Squak!" it said, "You guys look competent! Come try my potion, I've got a health potion, as well as oil for you lantern! Just dip a bottle in and pay the amount it costs in the box." We didn't have any bottles on us at the time so we went on our way.

Across the area rested a large tree, and from the entrance came a large root that ended on the edge of a cliff near us, with a worn out path clearly visible on the root. We made our way across the root, careful to go one at a time and took in the scene before us. A couple more monsters were walking around, almost lazily while a monkey and Talo were stuck in a wooden cage.

I nodded to Zach, signaling that we ought to move forward, and we caught the monsters off guard and took them out. "Help! Break us out of here!" Talo's voice came as the last monster exploded into smoke.

We made quick work of the wooden trap, and even though the monkey fled the scene, Talo came with us to the entrance of the forest area, back to the dark tunnel. Once we were through it, Talo said to us, "Thanks sirs, I'll head right home now. That monkey tried to save me, and it got captured trying to help. I'll be off then, and please don't tell my parents about this!" Then he ran off in the direction of the village.

A few seconds later, Rusl came from the direction that the Lantern oil salesman was still seated at his campfire. "I came to help bring Talo back, but it looks like the two of you got him before I even got here. I can't thank the two of you enough for what you've done here." He looked at the darkening sky.

"Come, let's get back to town and I'll treat you two to dinner and let you sleep at my house tonight, as thanks for saving Talo. It'll be dark soon, and monsters thrive in the darkness." Zach and I accepted his offer, and walked back to the village with him.

We ate dinner with Rusl and his wife, Uli, a pregnant woman who we congratulated, and their son Colin, the blond haired boy that had told us that Talo had been captured by monsters. While we ate, we thanked Colin for his levelheadedness in coming to get help from adults instead of trying to take the monsters on by themselves.

Once we were done, Rusl showed us a guest bedroom that they had in their house and let us sleep in there for the night.

The following morning, Zach and I got our things together. Aside from the backpacks that Sera had given us, along with a couple of provisions like food and water, as well as the lantern and the swords that we had bought, we didn't have much in the way of supplies. But we figured that it would at least be enough before we finally found the next town.

We left the town at noon, with the sun high in the sky when we saw them. A different type of monsters, a breed that we hadn't seen before, came rampaging on huge boars across the bridge. A few of them stampeded into the springs, and yet more rode passed us, shooting blunted arrows at us as they went by. The arrows hit Zach and I with such force that we doubled over, and we couldn't help but watch as the monsters raided the village.

They set no fires to the houses, but we watched as they took all of the children hostage, dragging them upon their boars and leaving the town with them. We heard the sound of a horn sound, and in the sky above the spring came a dark and swirling portal. Nothing came out of it, but neither did it disappear, hanging in the sky overhead ominously, as if to let more monsters come out at any point in time. We saw the Mayor's daughter Beth, and well as Rusl's kid get dragged from the springs, and the monsters grouped up and rode back across the bridge, disappearing in between the mountainside path.

As soon as I was able to stand, I grabbed Zach's hand and pulled him to his feet.

"This has got to be the darkness that the lights were telling us about." Zach said. "We have to go and save those kids." I nodded, and we took off in the direction that the monsters had taken the kids. We ran across the bridge, only to stop short as we came across a huge wall of darkness, fringed with an eerie orange glow, orange runes dancing on the surface. The wall extended all the way up into the sky, as far as our eyes could see.

This was the darkness that we were sent here to combat. But looking up at that wall, I had no idea how we were going to fight something that looked as though it was going to kill us if we tried to touch it?

We were left with no choice, however, as two giant hands reached out from the wall and grabbed both Zach and I, before yanking us through the wall.

A putrid scent hit my nostrils as I came face to face with a blackened demon, clearly one of the monsters that we were meant to destroy. It held us in its hands before a light shown from Zach's hand, blinding the beast. I had no idea what was happening, but as the beast dropped us, I thought that we might have a fighting chance against it.

Or at least, that was before the blinding pain racked my body. My back, my legs, my face and my arms all hurt with the pain of a thousand suns. Forget the car crash that had gotten me into this situation; my whole body felt as if it were compressing on itself, my bones felt as though they were bending and breaking, my sinews moving to accommodate the new skeletal structure of my body. My mind blacked out from the pain and stress, and I knew no more.