The Demigod in Azeroth

The Town Shrouded in Darkness (PERCY)

A few hours had passed, and we finally made it to the border of Duskwood. The atmosphere was noticeably different. The red trees the once stood so full of life and vibrant colors were wilting, black and purple leaves clung to sickly green tree branches, the trunks a faded color of gray, massive spider webs hung from trees, Of all the things that made this place unsettling, the worst was the fact it was the middle of the day and there wasn't any light breaking through the trees. The air felt dead, this place sucked the jubilation out of you just from coming here. It wasn't like Tartarus, but this place gave me a feeling of dread, and also like we were being watched. There were no animals making noises, no crickets chirping, there was only a deafening silence with the ever so subtle breeze rustling through dead leaves. Why would anyone live here? This place seemed like it was meant to drive you mad.

"So uhhh how did this place get cursed with eternal darkness, again?" I asked, shifting with discomfort. "This place used to be beautiful, believe it or not, it was called Brightwood. From what I remember being told, during the events of the first war, the Guardian, Medivh, went mad from being possessed by a demon lord. He opened the Dark Portal which brought the orcs to Azeroth. When he fled to the tower of Karazhan, his apprentice, Archmage Khadgar, one of the statues at the gates of Stormwind, fought Medivh. Well when they fought, Medivh hit Khadgar with a spell that accelerated his age to that of an old man. Khadgar eventually defeated Medivh, and when he died, the sheer amount of arcane power Medivh had within him mixed with the demonic fel magics, and caused a massive explosion, destroying the surrounding area of Karazhan, what's now called Deadwind Pass. And then it hit Brightwood, turning it into what you see right now. Mages are obsessed with the tower, they say the knowledge there is endless. But because of all that happened with Medivh, the tower is cursed. I used to be friends with a mage but.." Aurelias trailed off at the end of his explanation glaring at the ground.

"Hey you alright man?" I asked. Aurelias looked at me and gathered himself. " Yeah, just thinking about someone, sorry it's alright though no sense dwelling on things that didn't last." he tried to assure me. I narrowed my eyes, letting him know he wasn't off the hook.

I heard Satorn shutter. "This place is so unnerving. It feels so cold... so unnatural. The fauna here is suffering, like it's being strangled by the eternal darkness, depriving it of the sun's warm embrace ." She seemed worried, her face looking a similar way to my mom's, before I went off to camp. "Mage's" Zeinnor scoffed "their ambition to try to control the arcane can cause far worse problems than solutions..." Zeinnor trailed off, before pinching the bridge of his nose. "But then... there's Chester."

There was that name again. "So who exactly is this Chester kid?" I asked curiously. Zeinnor sighed, "Poor Chester is a pleasant boy, though socially inept, and vastly intelligent, however his control over the arcane is almost unnatural for his age." Unnatural powers for his age? That sounded familiar. Growing up back where I come from, other gods wanted to kill me because I was unnaturally powerful, because of my father.

"How long has he been here, anyways?" Aurelias asked, his eyes locked onto the trees as we passed them. Zeinnor turned to look at Frogolir, a look of disappointment crossing his face. "I believe I'd like to know the answer to this as well, Frogolir." The dwarf turned his head away for a moment before answering. "Oh, well, ya see it's actually quite the funny story... err, he may have headed off about 3 days ago?" he replied, his hand rubbing the back of his head. Zeinnor took a long, deep breath, before dragging his hands down his face. "Why is it always me?" he murmured to himself.

There were a few moments of silence before Satorn finally spoke up "What about the supplies we're going to find? Did the Bailiff or Magistrate give you any information on them?" Zeinnor reached into a pouch at his hip for a moment, fumbling around in it before finally pulling out a small folded piece of paper. "Lets see, there were a total of two carts, both last checked in from Westfall, sending carrier birds alerting the magistrate of their arrivals there they were to leave in the morning for Darkshire, but they never received word of their arrival."

Frogolir brought out a flask, taking a long sip before saying "So all we have to go off of is that there's two cart's of supplies that's somewhere between Darkshire and the border of Westfall, and possibly could be anywhere?" "Basically!" Aurelias chimed in, a large smile covering his face.

A few minutes later, we arrived in Darkshire. It was a relatively small town, a couple two story houses in the main circle, an Inn, a Blacksmith, the Gryphon Master's nest overlooking on a small hill, and some small one room cottages sprinkled around the outskirts. On the far side to our right stood the Town Hall, a large clock tower looming from the top. The town guards wore brown and black leather and mail armor, carrying swords, along with torches or lanterns to light their way in the darkness.

"What's with the guards?" I heard Aurelias ask. "They aren't wearing plate, or a Stormwind tabard like other guards." "That's 'cause they're a local militia, lad." Frogolir replied. "They're people who settled here, who're still fightin' just to stay here, in this cursed land." As I was about to respond, I was cut off by Zeinnor. "Alright, now that we're here, let's start looking around for our... lost cargo. Percy, you and Aurelias are going to help Satorn fix her mess, and find Chester. I suggest you start in the Inn, see if anyones seen him. Frogolir, you're helping me ask around the town about the lost supplies, see if any locals or guards have heard anything of it."

As we headed towards the Inn, I could make out a sign overtop the doorway. 'The Scarlet Raven Tavern'. Its interior was pretty similar to most other Inn's in the human kingdoms, multiple tables strewn about, a hearth, and a kitchen in the back. Satorn walked up to a balding, gray haired man in gray overalls. "Excuse me sir, you wouldn't have happened to have seen a young boy around, 5 '11, blonde hair, sword at his side, would you?" The man pondered for a moment before speaking "Can't say I have, miss, but we do get all sorts or traffic through here, so it's likely I just missed him. Hey Trelayne! C'mere a minute." A dark haired woman wearing a red dress approached us, a warm smile on her face.

"Yes Smitts? Is there a problem?" the woman asked. "Well, this here lady's lookin for her young friend, and I was wonderin' if you might've seen him? She says he's about my height and blonde." The woman's face lit up like a christmas tree the second she heard blonde. "Ohh, you mean him! Yes, yes, follow me, he's upstairs!

We followed her up the stairs and into a room towards the back, filled with books. There in the corner sat a young man with blonde hair, a sword layed out beside him, books strewn about around him, and one in his hand, his eyes glued to it. "I'll leave you all to it! If you need a room or a meal, don't hesitate to ask!" Trelayne said, as she walked back down stairs. "Chester, I presume?" I asked Satorn. She took a deep breath before responding "Chester... Welp, that's my job done! I'm going to go grab some grub!"

As Satorn ran back down stairs, Aurelias and I approached the boy. "Excuse me, are you Chester?" I asked. No response. "Hey kid!" Aurelias said louder, waving his hand in front of his face. "Hmm?" the boy looked up, his eyes as gray as storm clouds. It was honestly quite eerie how he looked like- . "Sorry, did you say something?" he responded. "Yeah, is your name Chester?" Aurelias responded, a little irritated. "Oh yes, I'm Chester! Why, what is wrong?" he asked, a look of confusion covering his face. "Nothing, everything's all good. We're just here to make sure that you're okay!" I said, relieved we actually found the right person that easily.

Chesters face fell a bit ."Well I wouldn't say I'm okay. I couldn't find anyone to take me out to Karazhan. Most people here just laughed at me, but Miss Trelayne brought me up here with all these books, and told me she'd try to find someone to take me there!" his face seemed to light up when he said books. "Do you like books?" Aurelias asked him. His face lit up so bright, I thought I might go blind. "I LOVE books! I've read this whole stack just today!" He pointed to a stack of eight books to his left. "I'm also almost done with this one here! It's about the town's history. Would either of you like to read it next?"

"I can't read." Aurelias said with a deadpan expression. "Oh, too bad, reading's fun." Chester responded, his face equally deadpanned. "Sooo Chester, you wanna come downstairs with us to get some food? Doesn't look like you've eaten anything today." I asked, though more so for my benefit than his, the trek to Darkshire was long. "Oh no, I'm all good!" He pulled a piece of cloth from his pocket and set it down on top of a book. He waved his hand over it, and it began to glow a faint pink color. When he lifted it, there sat a muffin, the big kind you would find in a coffee shop back in New York.

I must've looked surprised, because Aurelias punched my shoulder and said "Hey, you may wanna close your mouth before a fly gets in there." As I snapped back to reality, Aurelias leaned over and whispered "Cmon, I doubt this kids going anywhere any time soon, hes still got a bunch of books to read. We can grab him after we find the supplies... and some food." My stomach growled in agreement.

As we came down stairs, we joined Satorn at the table she was sitting at, and ordered some food. I ordered a plate of grits and sausage, and Aurelias had a bowl of Westfall Stew. After a few minutes of chowing down, I looked over to Aurelias and said "So are we gonna talk about how he just summoned a perfect muffin out of thin air?" "Oh yeah, all mages can conjure food, and drinks for that matter, though I always thought it was a more advanced spell." Aurelias responded, his mouth still full of Westfall Stew.Before we could continue our conversation, Zeinnor and Frogolir walked into the Inn, both seemingly in high spirits. "There they are!" Frogolir said, his smile partially masked by his lengthy beard. "Praise Elune, where is Chester?" Zeinnor asked, pulling up a chair at our table. "He's upstairs distracted by books, he's not going anywhere for another few hours. Aurelias responded. "Any word on the missing supplies?" I asked Zeinnor. "Yes! One of the town watchers said he saw two carts off to the right of the main path, towards the crossroads.""Why didn't anyone try to recover it?" I asked, though I figured I already knew the answer. "He said it was surrounded by wolves, at least at the time." Zeinnor responded, his face dropping a little. "Those poor drivers." Satorn said sadly. "Alright then, it's settled. Let's finish eating some grub, and then we'll go grab those supplies and get 'em back to Lakeshire! We're burning daylight standing here talking!" Frogolir said, seemingly pumped for some action. We all agreed, and set off from the Inn to the last known location of the supply carts.