Land of Taria: The Awakening

Chapter 1

"Ty'Vander! Ty'Vander please!"
The Korwan jolts awake, finding himself in a tent. Ty'Vander takes a deep breath and holds his head in pain. He looks around, taking in the scenery. He lays down in frustration.
"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" He groans. Ty'Vander's ears perk up when he hears scuffling from outside the tent. He jolts up and looks around, searching for a weapon. His eyes meet a folded pile of clothes near the edge of the tent, with his dagger laying on top. He reaches forward and quickly gets dressed, cautiously holding the dagger at his side. He peeks out the tent flap and sees two figures fighting. He ducks back into the tent, trying to stay as silent as possible. He backs away from the flap and feels something press against his back. He spins around to find himself face to face with a man cloaked in white. He is light skinned with dirty-blonde hair covering most of his forehead. The man's blue eyes seem to stab into Ty'Vander's soul. Ty'Vander slowly backs away, fear filling his mind as he keeps his eyes locked with the man. The man glares at him before slowly reaching for his holstered blade.
"Don't move." Ty'Vander points his dagger at the man, who doesn't seem to mind him.
"Easy." The man grabs his weapon and slowly places it on the ground, kicking it towards him. Ty'Vander looks at him in confusion. The man kneels down and begins folding the blanket on the floor.
"If you want to kill me while I'm folding your bed, I don't mind, but I can't say the same for my friends outside." The man continues folding.
"Who are you?" Ty'Vander demands, picking up the blade off the ground.
"My name is Jason. My friends and I rescued you from the filthy bandits. They've been pestering us for a while and I had nothing better to do, so I finally decided to send them a message." Jason stands up with the folded blanket draped over his arms. "Convinently, you were their target that day. Now what was a Korwan doing in this region of Taria?" He asks, tilting his head.
"That's none of your business." Ty'Vander snaps.
"Understandable. I won't pry." Jason walks past Ty'Vander and pauses.
"I suggest trusting us sooner than later. Some of us don't necessarily like strangers." Jason heads out of the tent, leaving Ty'Vander alone. He stands there for a moment before sliding his dagger back into it's holster. He steps towards the tent opening and hesitates.
"Can I actually trust these people?" Ty'Vander wonders aloud. Finding the courage from deep within, he takes a step and finds himself in a camp. He shields his eyes from the beaming sun, feeling the warmth on his scales. He closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. Ty'Vander opens his eyes and sees Jason throw the blankets in a water barrel. He watches Jason walk towards a woman dressed in a red cloak, whisper something to her, and walk into another tent, disappearing from view. Ty'Vander looks around and spots the two figures he saw earlier fighting. He watches as a smaller man dressed in blue throw a punch at a much larger man dressed in a black cloak, who grabs it, twisting the smaller man's body and slamming him into the ground. Ty'Vander winces, feeling his head pound as if that was him.
"Hello there."
Ty'Vander jumps at the sudden greeting, seeing the red-cloaked girl right next to him. Her skin is pale with faint freckles dotting her body, with orange hair flowing out from underneath her hood. Her green eyes beam with excitement as she extends her hand towards him.
"The name is Autumn." She keeps her hand there for a moment as Ty'Vander just stares at her.
"You're supposed to shake it." She says as he hesitantly shakes her hand. "Ty'Vander." He introduces himself.
"It's so great to see a real Korwan! How old are you? Where are you from? What happened to your home?" She peers at him, as if she is examining a test subject. She tries to study his tail but he twists it from her hands.
"I don't think I'm ready to answer those questions." He says, seeing a disappointed appear on her face.
"Ah leave the poor guy alone." A voice from behind calls. The blue-cloaked man approaches and wraps his arm around Ty'Vander's shoulder. He's a little shorter than Ty'Vander with tanned skin and short black hair. His brown eyes lock with Ty'Vander's and he chuckles, looking the Korwan up and down.
"The name's Matías. Don't mind Autumn, she's the weird one." Matías snickers as Autumn punches his shoulder. "Ow. Still hurts from when Doruntus kicked my ass."
"Maybe you should learn how to fight opponents larger than you." Autumn states, making Matías roll his eyes.
"Doruntus is too large of an opponent. And besides he weirdly knows all of my moves and just counters perfectly."
"Well you would know how to counter if you actually paid attention to Jason's lessons. Otherwise you'll never be able to beat Doruntus. Isn't that right big guy?"
A deep grunt comes out from behind Ty'Vander, who once again leaps away from someone sneaking up behind him. He looks up to meet his gaze and instantly becomes intimidated by the large behemoth behind him. He has dark skin with white hair covering part of a scar slashed across his forehead running down to just above his brown eyes.
"H-Hello." Ty'Vander greets the giant, but only receives another grunt.
"Pay no attention to him." Matías remarks. "He's not really one to talk, like at all."
Doruntus gives Matías a look and pretends to lunge at him, startling the small man. Autumn can't help holding back a chuckle. She turns her attention to Ty'Vander.
"So Ty'Vander. Has Jason asked you yet?" Autumn asks but only gets a worried and confused look from him.
"Asked me what?"
"Asked you if you want to join us?"
"Join you?" Ty'Vander is startled to hear this proposal. "What exactly is there to join?" Ty'Vander looks around at the small camp.
"Well you'd be joining our group and be helping us, whether it be on missions or supply runs."
"Basically we live out here so we don't need to follow society's rules and strict codes." Matías laughs as he walks away, ducking into his tent, with Doruntus following.
"This is all too sudden. First off, I don't even know you people. Secondly, I don't do this sort of stuff. I don't go on missions and live out in the woods."
"So you're going home?" Autumn questions. This makes Ty'Vander pause. He begins to feel as if someone punched a hole straight through his chest.
He looks back at Autumn, "No, I'm not going home." A somber look falls over his face and sadness begins taking over. Autumn looks at him and places a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. I have a tendency to just say things that pop straight into my head." Ty'Vander just looks away from her, but doesn't push her away.
"Ya know, we've all lost something. But thankfully we have each other by our sides. We're like our own little family." Autumn squeeze his hand with confidence and leads him towards a tent.
"You should go talk to Jason about it." She gives Ty'Vander a wink and walks off. Ty'Vander is now alone, in front of the tent that belongs to the man who saved him, who gave him a second chance at life and is now offering an opportunity to become part of a family. Ty'Vander looks at the tent with all the courage he can gather and heads into the tent.