Land of Taria: The Awakening

Prologue

In the realm of Morosis, there was always one deadly force of nature that could never be controlled. One force of nature that could destroy entire cities in a day. Fire. The only thing to move was the fire.  The burning of houses, crumbling down, its former foundations now unstable. The smoke consuming the dead, leaving nothing but ash. The unstoppable heat, destroying everything in its path. The village, once teeming with life, now in ruins. A pile of rubble stirs, and rocks are thrown off. A small boy crawls out, holding his side and wincing in pain whenever he moves. He has dark gray skin, short black hair, and glowing red eyes, capable of piercing your soul. He stumbles away from the rubble, looking around, seeing the flames across his home.                                                                                                                           "Hello?" The boy lets out a whimper as he falls back down, his pain overwhelming him. He hears footsteps and turns to see a large demonic creature walking past him. He ducks down, avoiding its gaze as it searches for him. He waits behind the rubble, hoping the ground will stop shaking from each step the creature takes. The creature looks around once more before deciding to walk off, disappearing into the smoke. The boy lets out a sigh of relief as he slowly gets himself to his feet, limping towards the burned and destroyed castle just beyond the drawbridge. As he slowly and quietly makes his way to the castle, he looks around in horror, seeing the bodies of his close friends and their families.                
"They're all..." He whispers to himself, trying to hold back any tears. He proceeds to walk more through the village until he hears a noise. Hiding behind some rubble, he sees a tall man, who looks exactly like him, running. He is being chased by those large creatures and one managed to grab him. His screams mean nothing as the demons begin to rip him apart with their swords and hands. The boy looks away before sneaking off towards the castle. He makes his way across the drawbridge, avoiding the many holes and bodies on it. A piece of the bridge collapses underneath his feet. The boy lets out a gasp as he manages to grab onto the bridge, lava bubbling below him. He hears a roar coming from the village and he quickly uses any strength he has left to climb back to safety. Knowing there is no time to rest, the frightened boy hastily limps into the castle and closes the doors, bringing down the large metal lock to hold it shut. He feels the footsteps growing and growing as he scrambles down the corridor, desperately hoping to find someone. Searching in every room, he comes across a bedroom, blood flowing down from the bed, where a woman lays, motionless. The boy races towards her, placing his hand on her cheek.                                           
"Mom?" The small boy says. He can't hold back the tears any longer, as they begin pouring from his eyes, down to his cheeks, and falling onto his mother's face. "Please don't go, mom..." The boy whimpers as he hears banging from the front doors. He holds his lifeless mother close to him, giving her one last hug before gently placing her down. His fingers run down her face as she closes her eyelids. "Goodbye, Mommy..." The boy slides off the bed, soaked in her blood, and exits the room, carefully closing the door, as if he didn't want to wake her. He heads back down the corridor and finds himself in a throne room. The floor is piled with bodies, blood flowing from them, but they are not the bodies of his people. There are numerous bodies of the creatures he saw outside. On the walls, there are murals depicting a great war between two species. The boy looks up at one mural, which depicts a man holding a sword on top of the dead.
"Dad..." The small boy looks at the throne and notices how shiny it is, as if nothing had happened to it. He hears the front doors come crashing down, followed by several voices searching for him. He goes in front of his father's throne and gets on his knees, his tears overwhelming his senses. He can't stop the tears from flowing down his face, allowing his anger and fear to build up inside of him. One of the creatures spots him kneeling in the center of the throne room and calls for the rest. They all gather in the room and start to slowly surround him. The boy begins to feel hot, as if his skin is burning off of him. His mind goes numb as the creatures close in on him, their weapons shining with blood. The boy clenches his fists, reeling in pain as he feels himself burning from the rage inside. And then he lets it out. The fire from within is unleashed upon the creatures outnumbering him, their bodies instantly disintegrating into nothing. Their weapons melt upon the heat's touch and the boy is alone. Laying on the floor in pain, the tears evaporating as they touch his cheeks, the boy screams, but not in pain, but in sadness. The castle crumbles around him, not being able to handle the small child's power. Dust fills the room as the room falls on top of him.

Years later, in a forest in the normal world, there is running. Running on the ground and running in the trees. A man is running, turning to see his assailants pursueing him. He tries to go faster but a bola wraps around his feet. He falls to the floor and tries to tear the ropes apart with his claws. He goes to reach for his dagger but stops when an arrow strikes the tree beside his head.
"You gave me and my boys one hell of a chase, little Korwan." A voice calls out to the tired Korwan. This Korwan has black and red scales with messy bright orange hair dripping with sweat. The Korwan growls and whips his tail at the bandit.                                         The bandit looks at the Korwan and laughs, his men leaping from the trees onto the ground. They all have their knives and bows pointed at the scared Korwan, reading to kill him. The head bandit kneels down by him. "Do you know how much your scales are worth? Not too many of your people left, huh?" The bandit and his mn chuckle.                                                             "Please just leave me alone! I'll give you whatever you want!" He pleads, taking out his dagger to defend himself. The bandit kicks the dagger out of the Korwan's hands, but the Korwan grabs his foot and throws him to the floor. A scuffle begins as punches and kicks are thrown, ending in the Korwan being knocked out with a right hook. "Damn I hate this species." He signals his men to fire, but suddenly, a wall of fire surrounds the group, trapping them.                                                                     "What in Wenor's name is going on?!" The bandit shouts as his men are picked off from arrows flying through the flames. Cloaked figures shoot through the wall of fire, stabbing and slashing all the men till they drop to the floor. A large cloaked figure in black comes barreling through, charging some of the men into the flames, their screams scaring any birds away. Another cloaked figure in blue leaps onto one man's back and slashes his throat, spraying blood into another bandit's eyes, blinding him from the oncoming barrage of stabs. One figure in red blasts two men with a fireball, incinerating them upon impact.  The lead bandit stumbles in back, watching his men be slaughtered, and looks up in fear to see a figure dressed in a white cloak walk through the flames, glaring at him. "Please! Don't hurt me!" The bandit screams as the white figure approaches him, kneeling down next to him. The man in white studies him for a second before reaching for his blade. "Send your boss a message for me. Tell him that if I ever see one of you on my land, I'll kill all of you and any of your worthless future generations." The figure in white slowly cuts the bandit's cheek, blood dripping from it. "Y-Y-Yes, sir!" The flames disperse as the man takes off running, not looking back. "Doruntus." The white figure looks at the black figure, who simply grunts, "This letter contains everything I just said to that man." He hands the letter to the black figure, who charges at the bandit, slamming into him. The bandit screams as the black figure picks him up and stabs his sword through him, into the tree, with the note hanging off of it. The man in white turns to the other two. "Let's head back to camp, I'm hungry." The red and blue figures smile and nod in agreement, as the three of them turn and begin walking through the forest. The black figure gives an annoyed grunt and picks up the Korwan, slinging him over his shoulder, as he catches up to the rest of the group. The group heads back to their camp, just in time as the sun begins to set on the world of Taria.