An outcome of fate and hope.

Within the shadows

Within the cold, dark and corrupted areas of the woods, everything is filled with smoke and cries of those who are unfortunate enough to dare set place in there. Everything was once a peaceful, crisp air, with many rivers and people who were free. Everything felt so light and soft, almost like nature could sing a lullabye, that could easily put someone to sleep. 

However, nothing was meant to last. The area has been filled with servants, people forced to do the bidding of the dark creature known as Derick. All that could be heard was the the deathening sound of clammering and breaking of the many ores and rocks of the land. The servants, all lined up in a row, mining the once perfect land they had all once called home. 

Within the line of Servants, there were two who stood out the most, these two were the spoilt brats of the group, who take away all of Derick's attention and are showered with glory for it. Even they get to work harder and are punished more than the others, it was fustrating. One was a girl, who's hair was as black as the night, she wore a red dress and did whatever the master said. However the other one was a boy... A boy with soft, dirty, messy, golden hair. He does whatever the master does too, but it was ovious he was different. He would sometimes hesitate before doing as he's told and even look in the direction of the girl, almost as if to show symphapy... Pathetic. 

As for the Lord Derick, he always stood there, with an annoyed and almost impatient look on his face. He would sometimes tap his arm and foot, then often snap and punish those who he believes were "out of line," simply because he wanted to "help them to become stronger."

Today the Lord seems a bit different it would seem, he stood there as usual, however he wonders off into the darkness. He went along a path, covered in broken branches, the area around him became dark and dry, almost like the life of the forest was being sucked out and thrown away. As he walked along the path, most would cower in fear and occasionally, sometimes they would even attempt to attack him... How dare they.

"Get this creature out of my sight!" Derick ordered.

Within a few seconds, the boy with blonde hair came rushing over, he kicks the poor, defenceless mother to the side and threatens her with what seems to be an orb of lightning in his hand.

"That's enough, come along, we have work to do." Derick said in a stern tone.

The boy nodded and followed Derick along the path, the girl soon following from behind. After travelling through the now dark, dreary forest. They reached a somewhat bizzare area, what they were expecting to be abandoned was covered in bright, glimmering plants. None seemed to be phased by the Lord's magic.

"You there!" Derick shouts, turning to the girl.

"Yes sir?" She responded, in a somewhat dull tone.

"Find out what's causing my magic to not wilt this pitiful area, it's sickening me." Derick says in a disgusted tone, before turning to leave.

The girl immediately starts searching, she then stumbles across a strange door, quite literally since she had tripped over a branch to find it. She was just insanely fortunate that the Lord was no longer there to witness that. She opens the door and inside the hole, was a long staircase leading down. She cautiously moved her body, sliding into the hole and making sure her bare feet touched the floor below her, before standing up. 

She made her way down the staircase carefully, the area was dark but lit by a few randomly placed candles, that weren't very pratical for lighting the path that well. She continued down the dark, chilly stairway and soon came across a light at the end of a short tunnel. She moved towards the light and inside was a room, full of books, bookshelves. Paper was scattered everywhere and there were even some odd items dotted around the room. There seemed to be no-one present, but there seemed to be something strange in a bottle on the table. 

She approached the bottle, curiously and catiously. Looking around the room to see if there was anyone or anything there, she then picked up the bottle and removed the cap, the fragrance of the bottle smelt suprisingly like a warm boquet of flowers on a summer day. She then looked at the lable, unfortunately she didn't understand how to read, so she had no choice but to taste it. 

One sip was all it took and it felt... Different. It was like all the coldness and emptyness was fading away and she felt something warm and fuzzy for the first time. She didn't understand it and she hated it. She wanted to get rid of this weird feeling, thinking it was something wrong with her, thinking it was poision she tried to force it out of her body by coughing and spitting but nothing was working. That's when suddenly, she heard a loud scream, she turned her head and instantly rushed to grab the source of the voice she heard, in order to make her to be quiet.