Tide of Shadow

Prologue

Many will tell you this story is naught but a den tale, a myth for cubs to teach them the ways of heroism and betrayal. Some would say that though it is false, it still has value, why else would so many species in Sonaria have passed it down for so long?
Both are mistaken. This story you are about to hear truly happened, long long ago, and its events set the stage for what is to come. True, time and the bias of its tellers have warped it, and the truth of what happened is far more complex. But today you will hear it as the fellisio tell it, as it is most familiar to someone you will be meeting very soon. Let us begin...

Many eons ago, when Sonaria was as a cub just learning to hunt, a king was hatched. His pelt was equal parts black and white, like both night and day had been painted upon it. As soon as he broke his shell, his parents knew he would be great, for when he opened his eyes, Serphelius, the Angelic Warden themselves reached down and placed many tiny flecks of gold inside them. He was named Stryke, and swiftly became the greatest hunter of his jungle homeland. But eventually, his might was such that all the prey had fled or died. Stryke saw his territory suffering, and thus made the Pilgrimage of Stewards. He flew to the shrine of Farhaus, sheltered by flowers and stone, in just half a day. By sunset he had come to the belly of the volcano where the shrine of Mors'vuhk rests.
The next day he returned to the jungle as a protector of nature, and his parents and brother bowed to him upon seeing his splendor. Eventually, life returned to his home, and Stryke became known as the true king of his lands, as noble as he was fierce.
But one day, a creature he and his family had never before seen came to his lands. Elegant and shimmering, her bite just as able to heal as to hurt. Titania the fairiocris had arrived, bringing tales of doom and violence to the jungle.
She told of a wave of shadow, sweeping over the land, devouring the wills of all it touched and leaving them husks to fill with its evil. Stryke's desire was to go and fight the abomination, but his brother, pale Nerium, cautioned him against it. He said that the visitor's stories were impossible, that nothing like her tide of shadow could exist. So Stryke stayed in his jungle, in the illusion of safety. For days it seemed as if Nerium was correct, that everything was as it should be. Until the night of the full moon, when its traitorous light reveals the quiet hunter.
The evil shadow came to the jungle, and as Titania had warned it consumed all in its path. Before Stryke's eyes his parents were taken into the folds of its blackness, never to return. The young king fought until he could fight no more, and Titania led him and his frightened brother to the path out of the trees. It led them to what is now the Pride Rocks, a pool encircled by stones where they could rest.
But alas, rest does not come easy to heroes. As they lay down by the clear water, they were met by a great black creature. Serpentine in form, with legs that looked too short for it, and a gruesome grinning mask hiding its face. It claimed to be a friend, also hiding from the tide. The being introduced itself as a shararook, and invited them to sleep in its den. Enticed by the promise of warmth and safety, the trio followed it into its dank cave, paying no heed to the bones upon the floor.
But Stryke was suspicious. No creature was this kind and trusting, to show strangers where it slept. So as night fell, he only pretended to sleep. He was prepared when, in the darkness, the shararook came to him and tried to slice his throat.
A brutal battle ensued, with Stryke biting and ramming the foul beast, and Titania healing the wounds it inflicted. Nerium darted in and out, slowing it with small wounds from his bite. As the sun rose, the fight seemed to be nearing its end, until the bleeding shararook let out a scream that stung their ears, and through the woods came twenty more masked horrors. The trio was surrounded.
The one that had tricked them cried out its victory, telling that soon the shadow tide would cover the world, and leave only the shararooks untouched. As the horde it called attacked, it fell dead to the ground. Its mask clattered off, and only Titania saw what was underneath. Nothing. The beast had no face.
As many shararooks pounced at once, Stryke and his companions feared all was lost. But as the three were buried under slicing talons and gnashing jaws, there came a beam of light from the sky. The light covered all of them, and each heard the voice of Serphelius. "Today is not the day of your doom," it sang. "For I have made you three my champions, and my peers and I have given you each a great boon."
And then, the light was gone. At the vanishing of the barrier it created, the shararooks lunged again. But as a pair of stinking jaws were about to close around Titania's neck, the shararook froze. It slumped to the ground, and she realized it was dead. The body was so cold it hurt to touch, for she had frozen its blood within it. Qhualhul had given her the power of frost which it embodied.
Nerium caused his opponents to faint with terror just by gazing upon him, for Maleviathan had gifted him its boon. And Stryke had been touched by the Angelic Warden yet again, his paws graced with talons made of pure light.
With their divine abilities, the trio made short work of the shararook pack. That was the day they became the heroes we know today.
But their story does not end there. They were told by the Wardens to go to the island where the Empiterium and Erridea dwelt. For this kingdom could had mastered metal, and with it they could forge a chain to bind the shadow tide, so that it could not consume any more lives.
The kingdom was beautiful, every den made of shining stone shot through with gold. The king and queen agreed to have the chain forged, for the abomination threatened even their island home. All the trio needed to do now was wait.
Stryke learned the most obscure and powerful of battle techniques, and Titania spent many days in their great library in search of more stories to tell. But one of them was restless. None had seen, but after the shararook horde was defeated, one of the dying monsters had whispered in Nerium's ear. It promised him safety and happiness, if he would just lead his companions to their deaths.
If it had been Stryke or Titania who heard this whisper, perhaps things would be different. But Nerium was weak-willed and afraid. And so he fled the great city under the cover of night, and led an army of shararooks through the gates, wearing the guises of innocents fleeing the destruction.
A massacre followed, the citizens of the kingdom slain in their dens, guards slaughtered by invisible foes. The violence even reached the palace-dens, shararooks pouring in through doors and windows in pursuit of the rulers. Stryke and Titania couldn't risk staying to fight, if the tide's allies got the chain, all would be lost. They fled to the home of the royal metalworker, and found him with a shararook's teeth tearing his throat. They managed to kill the monster, and took the sparkling chain from the forge. It was imbued with all the powers of the warden gems in the queen's treasury, and the pair thought that surely it could hold anything.
But they did not realize that it was only barely incomplete, it would hold the shadow tide, but not quite as tightly as needed.
When Stryke and Titania had left the island, the Wardens saw that it had become infested by evil in just one night. Serphelius, Nukzeh, and Zohutek combined their power into a great blazing strike, which sent the island to the bottom of the sea.
In their flight from the island, Stryke and Titania came to the western swamps, and saw them devastated. The shadow tide crept over the trees and tainted the water, and the few creatures it had not taken had to hide in caves and only venture out in twilight, for the tide was a danger in both night and day here.
Stryke gathered the remaining swamp-dwellers, and told them that if they were to save their homes, they must fight. But they were afraid, and hid from him. Until a light descended from the skies, bathing all in its beautiful and terrible glory.
As it reached Stryke, its blinding glow faded, revealing the creature within. An opralegion, a messenger of Serphelius themself. It spoke, and in its melodic voice it said to the swamp-dwellers that Stryke and Titania would be the ones to save Sonaria. But in order to do so, they needed loyal followers to fight the shadow tide. All the creatures of the swamp rallied behind the pair, but as they prepared for war, the opralegion told Stryke that he must go elsewhere.
Stryke wanted desperately to go and fight, but he knew he must listen to the radiant messenger. As he watched his new army depart, the opralegion told him what his purpose elsewhere was. "You must follow the brightest star to the shrine of Serphelius, when you find it you will know how to defeat the tide." But Stryke knew that the shrine of the Angelic Warden was in a secret place, and had never been seen by any mortal creature. The opralegion simply told him to follow his own nature, and then wreathed itself in light and flew away.
And so Stryke followed the brightest star until he came to a small cave. But there was no shrine to be seen, though the brightest star hung directly above the hidden place. He searched and searched the surrounding land, but still the shrine remained veiled from his eyes.
For the first time, Stryke felt that all was lost. He lay alone in the cave for days, despairing at his impossible task. But one day, something changed. "My friends are off fighting and dying," he cried. "While I lay here languishing in misery!"
But there was nothing he could do. He flew out of the cave, into the night sky, as high as he could go. "Serphelius!" He roared to the stars. "If you wish for my defeat, come down and fight me yourself!"
But no Warden came to greet him. Still, he roared his challenges to the stars, until he felt a pull deep inside him. He knew the way to the shrine. For he did follow his nature, to fight even against certain doom.
When he came to the shrine, he felt the need to sleep, and so he curled up upon the altar. He dreamed that he was flying through a world made of light, with Serphelius keeping pace next to him. "What must I do to bind the shadow tide?" He asked. The Warden told him that he must go to the lake at the center of Sonaria, the one surrounded by great stone teeth. There he must dive to the heart of the tide, and wrap the chains around it.
Stryke woke up full of new determination. He flew to the central rock faces in only a day, and saw that it was even worse than the swamp. The tide covered everything, and the lake had been made into a churning mass of blackness. He knew then that there was where he would find the heart. As he flew for the lake, he saw an army cresting the hill. At its head flew shining Titania herself. "Stryke!" She called. "Do what you must, we will hold off its thralls!"
But one evil servant slipped through the mass of battling creatures. And as Stryke prepared himself to dive into the lake, he was greeted by his traitorous brother, Nerium.
"Join me!" The betrayer hissed. "We can rule this darkened world together!" When Stryke saw Nerium, he found himself filled with burning rage. He called upon Serphelius' power, and put a curse upon Nerium. "For your betrayal, I take your wings! No longer shall you know the freedom of flight, now you must lurk within watery depths!" Nerium writhed and begged as his wings were taken, but Stryke was unmoved. "Never again shall you know the thrill of the hunt, now your teeth shall only scrape algae from riverbeds! And let the poison that chokes your heart fill your blood and flesh as well, so none shall dare to touch you! Let you and all your progeny be this way, from now until the end of time!"
The first crata peretina turned from his brother and ran, to the river where his descendants lay their young to this day.
Now, it was time. Stryke gazed into the hateful pool for only a moment before diving in. Then the tide was all around him, trying to seep into his mouth and ears, to get into his mind. But Stryke was shielded by all that he held dear, and dove deeper and deeper. Dark talons pulled his frills, and a thousand baleful eyes stared at him. But finally, he reached the heart. A pulsating mass of dark, reeking flesh and blood, to look upon it made Stryke feel ill. But even so he grasped the chain, and wound it tightly around and around the heart, till there was no more chain to wind.
In that moment, all of the tide rushed in, forming a single black orb within its bindings. Stryke found himself at the bottom of a pristine lake, the plants and fish no longer smothered by shadow.
He swam upwards, and saw the sky blue once again. All the tide's thralls lay dead, Titania and her forces standing victorious. A cheer came up from their allies, and every member of the army, from flickaflie to kavouradis, bowed to their new fellisio king.
But a vile shrieking sounded from the other side of the lake. A thousand shararooks stood on its shores, ready to avenge their master. But Stryke and Titania and their army stood firm. "Begone, foul things!" Titania cried out. "You have lost on this day, and are no longer welcome anywhere in Sonaria! Return to your hidden lairs beneath the ground, for if you stay here you shall be crushed!"
The monsters snarled and snapped, but Titania and Stryke were so magnificent and fierce that they retreated into their gloomy caverns once again.
That day was the beginning of Stryke's reign, one that would last a hundred years, and bring prosperity to all. But the shararooks knew what the good and noble creatures did not. The binding was imperfect, and someday their master might be freed to ravage the world once again.
Although the shararooks were banished, still they creep from their caves under cover of darkness, to steal away any creature who does not show respect to the Wardens, to take them as sacrifices to the shadow tide.
So all in Sonaria must give their due to our divine protectors, lest evil rise once more.