The Dead Kingdom

Prologue

The sun had set. This evening whoever set foot in the twisted town of Magacon will soon meet their doom. This would be a mark for generations to come, do not mess with the woods.

The view from the highest mountains, the scenery of the rest of their town. The white temples lit with bright orange lights.

The dark had awoken and would not rest until they found the stone, no not just the stone the powers of the stone. Possessed by the rumors', everyone in their little greedy town wanted to be special, powerful, and have everything at the palm of their hand. The forest sensed the impurity of this new generation of humans for the old ones would never be this cruel, this power-hungry.

But only one thing circled in Jackson Coris' head: get the stone, rule the world.

The stone was no ordinary stone, the firestone, the key to unlocking everything, everything in their small corrupt universe. 

"Get ready troops, get me the stone."  

But there was something Jackson knew that the guards didn't, the forest is alive, it is sentient. They would be shot in the head if they escaped without that stone and if they managed to get it, the forest will manage to get it back. Not a single person had dared to enter the forest except the few brave ones. Even less managed to escape. 

Jackson held his torch high. "None of you are leaving until you find it."

His army murmured as they slowly entered the forest with their shield covering their faces and a sword at the ready. 

"Jackson" a voice whispered

Coris looked around, pulling a dagger from his belt and holding it up.

"Jackson it's me Ally"

His face lightened. He slowly took a step back and put his dagger back into his belt. He held his hand out waiting for Ally to grab it.

She slapped it away.

"What are you doing here. You promised me" she said

Jackson took a step further and held his head down in shame as he pulled out a piece of parchment from his rugsack. It's was a map, a map of Magacon as well as other parts of uncharted areas.

It was strange to them, there were horizontal and vertical lines all over the map making it almost impossible to read. And one thick bold line with a giant red circle marked around.

"This is the center of all Magic" he said with his face lit up.

"You mean..."

Suddenly Ally felt her body weakening. She slowly squatted down staring at her palms. She felt the coppery taste of blood in her mouth as she clasped on Jackson's leg. As she took a quick glimpse at the world below her.

"Don't let me go Jack, don't..." she said as Jack pulled her hand off his leg. She stiffened, she turned to stone.

"Never liked her anyways" he smirked. Hearing the church bell, he kicked the statue. As it rolled down the hill, he held out his hand for a second until he heard the church bell ring. He looked around, but then.

THUD! The body has hit the ground. A mob of people gathering near the body of the girl.

"ALLY!? WHO DID THIS TO YOU MY DARLING DAUGHTER!" a man yelled. Ally or Alliana was the daughter of the King Of Alverez. You see Magacon, was just a small town. The rest of the large empire was now under attack because of one death. Or so everyone thought.

The King placed his hands on Ally's cheeks. A purple spirit circled him, his head was spinning, his hands were shaking, his eyes, red. BLOOD RED! His once neat Armor has broken leaving a hairy monster. The purple spirit took the form of a girl. But not just any girl, Alliana.

Together the wolf and the ghost of a great princess. He would be dead. They would not stop until they had the head of Jackson Coris.

Seeing this sight, Jackson clapped his hands as a scaly creature bowed down at his feet.

"Nice dragon." he said.

He jumped on and started riding away. THE FOREST! He forgot the stone. How could he forget about the stone?! Surely he wouldn't go back just for a stone? But he did, he pulled the tail of the sapphire creature and back to Magacon it went.

It flew over a yard of trees, until he reached a cave. He patted the dragon and it threw him off.

"Stupid dragon... SCREW OFF YA MUTT!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. He dusted off his armor and walked into the cave. The cave was filled with moss, but at the center a rock with a symbol. He proceeded carefully and bent down, he put on a pair of gloves.

He cleaned the rock and saw a symbol. A fire symbol?! He was about to make an comment when suddenly...

"come out little Jackson. I know your in there." A voice screeched.

Ally?! Was she back? Of course she was, the royal family was always protected for a reason. That reason? They were all immortal. They had all died. but not in the way that you think they would. Not just once, ruling the empire next to the woods. To the sea of the dead. And finally the underground caves of Namedia.

Deaths in Alvarez were common but deadly, the deaths were when a heart broke or shattered, and a physical death never killed one.

The ex-king was a merman or more specifically a siren. His queen was a Wasturl, a monster of the wasteland. Wasturls set up a system of camps on the trees.

The King of Alvarez; he was a human. The humans or humanoids were the worst, most greedy, most diabolical things on earth. But after the King's Seventh birthday. A blood moon occured. His very first death.

He rolled off a cliff. He clenched his hands onto his head. And yelled as his clothes torn on a rock. He felt a freezing wind hit him, but then he felt warm. He stopped rolling, he took a look at his hands, they were covered with fur. That was his only death until now.

The term death in Magacon means something different then it does anywhere else. The death of anything here rather it be a friendship or even a death of a dear member of your family. Your body will change, mildly for the local people. But even more for the royals.

The death of Princess Alliana hit the King in his heart that he changed into a Werewolf. Alliana's actual death stood out from the rest of the royal deaths as, she died to a pathetic human.

But her spirit now belonged to the forest. She had to protect it from Coris. She flew to the cave where Jackson stood. But was too late. Jackson axed the stone and ran for it he jumped off the mountain. And was never to return.