Islands of Fall

A past of one

A lonely child stared out of her window blankly when her mother stumbled in. The child turned and silently watched the woman as she knelt in front of her. "This is for you," the Mother whispered. "A gift that had been in our family as long as Time itself."
The Mother placed a necklace around her daughter's neck.
"But Ma," she mouthed. "Why are you giving this to me?"
The mother smiled a sad smile, pulling her child into a hug. "You're special because of what you will do."
The girl looked uncertain. She has always been told by the other children that she was worthless. "We only have a few hours baby," the Mother's voice turned sour. "Before the followers of the void domain comes for us, tonight you must run!"
The child clutched the necklace and backed away from her.
"You will not lose that necklace, promise me!" She was shaking her daughter by her shoulders. The girl looked at her mother horrified.
Tonight she'd run for her life.
"I I promise you Ma." Her mother visibly relaxed and stopped shaking her.
Relieved, her mother left the room and closed the door behind her. The necklace was a beautiful blue spiral of opal with red streaks. "Colours of Kassel and Dianthus."
The child turned, looking out of the window again as if nothing happened although she estimated that only an hour separated her from the time of her departure.
She moved quickly and packed a single bag, but the first screams could be heard already.
The warriors of the void domain were already in the town.
Pounding footsteps were heard coming to her door but by the time the Mother flung open the doors, the girl was gone. She had left through the open window.
The Mother gasped as a Syrian sword embedded itself into her gut. "Where is the necklace?" The void warrior hissed. The crazy woman laughed until she collapsed. Dead.
The void being let out a horrid screeching noise and left the house. It spotted her standing a little down the street, silver hair blowing around her head in the wind, grey clothed carrying a black backpack. He began the chase and she didn't hesitate to run from the creatures and her home. Other people were still making the dash out of town. Many more were lying lifeless with various wounds. The void warrior from earlier had caught up to her and it jumped in front of her. She almost screamed as it slashed his sword across her arm.
A God appeared.
At first glance, the God could've been Lord Kassel. However, this God wore a cloak of varying shades of green, black pants and a rusty type of red shirt. He was bare foot.
The God took out His sword and slew the Shadow. One of the first Shades to die in the village.
Red Caps appeared after some kind of war cry left His mouth. The dwarves immediately attacked the other Shadows once they gained their bearings. Short they were, hence why they're dwarves and they've got these hideous red caps.
The God turned to look at the little girl.
"Hello missy" He whispered . "My name is Lord Muriel, what's your name?"
The little girl looked at him in awe. She had heard of the the four Gods and new who Lord Muriel was.
"Um my, my name is Harlan." She stuttered. "Harlan Wood."
The God smiled at her before looking up at the destroyed village. "Kassel and his followers will be here by morning Harlan"
the Red Caps bowed to Muriel before disappearing into a swirl. "I don't trust him to look after you, and what would he think of a little girl being the lone survivor of a Shadow attack?" She looked up at him.
Was Lord Kassel really like this? After all the stories of Him being so... good?
"Ah, child I see the doubt in your face, but in the land of this one, the stories never tell you of the bad things he does." Lord Muriel makes a fine argument every now and again.
"I-I'll go with you Lord Lord Muriel." She muttered as He laughed.
"Please please just call me Muriel, dear child." Now she was smiling.
"Would you like to grab anything?" She shook her head and pulled out a necklace. It was a spiral made of diamond. He offered a hand for Harlan to take. Another portal opened to the Twilight Forest. As they walked through it closed behind them. Little did they know, Lord Kassel and his followers were watching them. "My Lord, what should we do?" One of them asked.
"We can do nothing" Lord Kassel told them. "She is now in His hands, for better or worse." The God frowned. "I believe miss Wood will be seen again in this realm, fighting what wants only to destroy." They turned around and left the, now, destroyed village.
Another being watched this unfold from the shadows, he had wanted to kill the child, her death would lead to his. Well, if she survived the raid of Shadows of course.
Which she unfortunately did.
But if anything the man knew that, in turn, who would betray the gathering Heroes in his favour. He still had a few hundred years though.
This figure standing alone in the shadows was none other than the Shadow Lord himself. His black cloak covered all of his body. On his face was a white mask, half smiling half crying, a symbol Fate. Death mumbled something and waved his hands around. The fires put themselves out, the smoke disappeared, few of the house crumbled, the bodies of the dead rotted away. All in a mater of seconds. Death had used time magic to make the town appear to have been there, undiscovered until the next travellers walk the paths to the, seemingly, forgotten village. He dissolved into something that resembles glitter. Of course He wasn't really there. Not with two gods battling His armies from their own realms. This figure was an echo of Death. Meanwhile, Dianthus laughed on his throne. He'd heard the echo of the fight from below. And He was happy that Kassel hadn't got to Harlan first because that crazy old fool wasn't to be trusted.
Then again, Kassel thought that same of Dianthus. Mortal enemies, or, as I'd say, immortal enemies.