Marissa's unenthusiastic adventure

Part 1: The journey begins

On the Northern edge of the Wiccenor Empire; Marissa stood over her pot, making a stew. It was the first meal she made for her husband; Edmund, and she reminisced about how he would eat bowl after bowl of it. Those were happier times, before Edmund was arrested and hung after getting drunk and punching the Magistrate; leaving Marissa both a widow, and a mother. Three years later, and the pain never truly went away; but she was happy to raise Ivan in peace and quiet. Peace and quiet that would be ripped clear away. Marissa had been wrenched from her thoughts by screaming going on outside. "By the Angels! Their everywhere!" a guard shouted, jamming his sword into a barbarian before a war hammer splattered his skull to sickly red paste with bits of brain and bone against the nearby house. "Ivan!" Marissa shouted; calling her five year old son to her, she picked him up in her arms. "We need to flee deary; and quickly!" she ran past the chaos that the Bjornish barbarians were causing. They were always aggressive, hence the necessity of the gate; but they've never targeted villages like this. Burning houses chocked the sky in lines of smoke; the screams being the hardest thing to hear, the sound of all the shattered lives. She kept Ivan close to her chest; trying to shield him from the worst of it. A barbarian barreled towards her; ax  waving wildly in his hand, he tripped on a severed arm; and the ax landed at Marissa's feet. Thinking quick; Marissa set her son down, picked up the ax, and buried it in the head of its former owner. "Come along honey, and quickly now!" she yelled at Ivan. All of a sudden, the barbarians were routing. As they were finished off, a mercenary came to Marissa; a look of pride in his eyes. "I saw you kill their war chief with his own ax! A thing of genius! You must have been strong to wrench it from his hands!" he said. "I was merely desperate to protect my son" Marissa said; still winded and shaking from the encounter. "Humble, smart, AND beautiful! you are truly with out flaw!" Marissa backed up, annoyed and confused. "This scum is trying to hit on me!? Now!?". "I never told you my name. I'm Alpha." the stranger said. "Alpha? Your parents named you Alpha?" Marissa said skeptically. "Well, no." he admitted. "Technically they named me Tom, but... well that's not important. What's important is that you and me head to the gate. Such a large number of barbarians shouldn't have been able to sneak around the gate" he said, his perkiness gone; replaced with more solemn pondering. "You don't suppose they captured it, do you?" Marissa asked; fearing the worst. Alpha paused. "Once again, you're genius reveals itself!" he bellowed. "You and me should take back the gate! Together!" Alpha suggested in a way meant to be dreamy and inspiring. "He's tapped in the head..." Marissa thought to herself. She already made up her mind on what to do. She would go further south to safety in the capital; and start a new life there. Her son would be safe there. "Come on Ivan, we need to hurry to the capital before more Bjornians come knocking." "Ivan?" she asked, after receiving no answer. She turned around and saw Ivan walking with Alpha to the North. "We're going on an adventure, your mother and me!" Alpha playfully told the young lad. "We'll be heroes! and of course you'll be coming with us!" "Adventure! Adventure!" Ivan yelled cheerfully and ran ahead of Alpha. "No! Ivan, come here! Back to mommy!" Marissa demanded. She ran off after the two of them; a most unenthusiastic participant on this adventure.