Fire in the sky's

4 Catelyn

Thousands of miles away from the Avantin manor, across grey and dusty plains, where nothing grew, stood the towering structures of the Black Gates.
The Black Gates were constructed in order to keep the rest of Arcada separated from the Forbidden, the land once home to the capital, or old Soret.
They were towering structures, the Gates. Their were four of them in total, each one by each of compass points.
They were comprised entirely of cold wrought steel and had been singed black from fire to keep the monsters known as Beasts inside.
On top of the terrace of the north wall, stood Catelyn Boradan, Keyman of the north Gate.
The Keyman were the masters and mistresses of each Gate, and the section of wall the went with it.
The west Gate belonged to Catelyns father, Jason Boradan. The east Gate belonged to her sister and south belonged to her mother.
While Catelyn stood in the setting sunlight, she watched the lanterns light up as each Gate Master reported that there were no Beasts, as they did every night.
Anyone could apply to be a Gate Master, and many did. The Gates were well supported and defended.
Tales of the fall of old Soret were still told around campfires and as bedtime stories.
There was no mistake about the Beasts existence, for the Gate Masters faced them every full moon.
Catelyn lit her lantern, signaling that she couldn't see any Beasts either, and spilling light onto her tan face.
Her hazel eyes scanned the darkness, and she thought she saw movement.
Dismissing it as a trick of the light, she shrugged and pushed her chestnut brown hair behind her ears.

A fully loaded long rifle rested beside her and a crossbow was slung across her back.
The arrow of the Hunters Faith lay on a leather loop on her chest, symbolizing her status as a devout.
All but one lantern had been lit, and she watched the patch of darkness expectantly.
All of a sudden, a lance of fire fell from the sky, and crashed a little way outside the Gates.
Each Gate Master had a whistle, and each chime of the whistle meant a different crisis.
One chime for raider attack from outside the Gates, cultists often thought the 'wisdom of the Beast' should be freed.
Two chimes meant personal crisis, someone falling off the Gates or getting injured.
Three chimes meant Beast pack.
Getting irritated, Catelyn decided to send a messenger to the abandoned post, until a young man was brought into her post, which was closest to the infirmary.
"Madame Boradan!" Shouted a junior Gate Master.

"Report!" She barked back, looking at the injured boy on a stretcher.

"He doesn't look well. I was walking my rounds when I reached his post. He took one look at me, then fell to the ground, raving like a lunatic."

The boy on the stretcher thrashed and snarled, useless and insane ramblings escaping from his lips.
"What his name?" Catelyn asked.

"Carter Madame. Carter Fera. This was his first year on post."

"Get him inside the infirmary. We can figure out his condition inside."

The infirmary looked like a typical hospital, but smaller, a maximum of ten small rooms and one operating room.
They laid the boy on a bed and waited for a doctor or nurse to check on him.
Catelyn looked him curiously, and listened to his ramblings.
His eyes were bloodshot and he was bleeding from his nose and ears.
He was frothing at the mouth and clawing at the bed sheets when he wasn't trying to scratch anyone who came near him, and snapping and snarling at people seemed to be his customary response.
His pupils suddenly dilated and his eyes spun in their sockets, going behind and into his skull, as the tendons that allowed him to see disconnected from his eyes.
Realization dawned on Catelyns face as her eyes widened in fear. "It's the plague." She said. "The Beast Plague has taken him."

"But how's that possible? He's never even seen a Beast, let alone come in contact with ones blood. As far as we kn-" The lieutenant was cut off by the sound of a whistle.

One chime.

Two chimes.

Three chimes.

The silence that followed was deafening.
No one moved for a couple of seconds, until a scream and a howl ripped through the air, and Catelyn rushed out into the cool evening air just as she watched another Gate Master get ripped to pieces.
A wolf Beast stood covered in blood and guts, the tatters of human clothes flapping off its scrawny corpse like body.
Catelyn grabbed her rifle and fired a lead bullet into its face. All it did was enrage it.
A howl arose from its throat and it pounced, pinning Catelyn to the floor as its slobbering face loomed inches away from hers.
Blood soaked bandages covered its eyes and its boney claws dug into her shoulders.
As it was about to sink its teeth into her throat and gorge itself on her blood, it went flying off the narrow catwalk.
Slowly, her vision clouded over, and she passed out.

When she came to, she was in some sort of makeshift infirmary, absent of light, strapped to a gurney
An old bearded man in a wheelchair wheeled over to her with a drip bag full of red liquid and a candle
"Don't worry, it'll feel just like a little pinch." He said, each word drawn out into a rasps.

In the darkness of the room, his eyes were hidden, but she could tell they were covered in bandages.
She tried speaking, only to find that she had been gagged, causing her to thrash against her restraints.
"Calm down. This is all necessary." He leant forward and whispered in her ear. "And whatever happens, go ahead and think it's all a mere bad dream."

There was a stinging sensation in her arm as he inserted the needle, and her vision faded away once again.

When she finally came to, she was still lying in the infirmary, her weapons by her side, but the old man and the drip was gone.
She got up from the gurney and held her head in pain, sighing and grunting.
"Damn that was a messed up dream." She moaned, and noticed the room she was in.

"Beasts ass!" She shouted, jumping up out of the gurney and looking around at the various medical instruments in the room.

The only visible exit was a pair of double doors that hid the outside.
"Where in Purgatory am I?" She wondered aloud, striding towards the doors.

"Nothing for it, I suppose." She muttered, pushing them open.

Outside was a graveyard, ironic since it was right next to an infirmary, that was devoid of all sound.
She walked through the crisp air, shivering slightly, and looked at each of the gravestones.
One grave was empty, it's coffin lay closed next to it, inciting Catelyns curiosity.
She walked over to it cautiously, gun and crossbow at the ready, wary of attack and light on her feet.

The coffins lid popped off, exposing the body inside and invoking a shriek of terror from Catelyn.
Maniacal laughter filled the air as a person climbed out of the coffin, and grinned madly.
"Oh hello. I'm sorry I gave you such a fright. Actually, scratch that. You scared is hilarious!" The person said, still grinning and even giggling slightly.

"Who are you?" Asked Catelyn, looking over the curious stranger.

"Ooohh~ Wouldn't you like to know?~" He asked teasingly.

His outfit was, odd, to say the least.
A black top hat hid his eyes, and his waste length silver hair was rough and unkempt.
A silver waist coat and a grey button up shirt hung loosely off his frame and revealed nothing of his figure.
"Yes. I would." Catelyn said blankly, giving him a deadpan look.

"Grumpy much." He mumbled. "Fine. You can just call me Gravedigger. And you can call this useful bit of quicksilver Bernadette."

He pulled a scythe off his back, and showed it off.
The handle started as a normal bone coloured pole until it reached midway, where it looked like a human skeleton, starting from the rib cage. The skull had a crown of white roses and the arms seemed to be hugging the blade, which gleamed a wicked silver.
"Gravedigger? What kind of name is that?" Asked Catelyn, as a howl pierced the air.

"My name," he said, jutting his hip out and wagging his finger, "and that would be a Beast. I suggest you run."