The cursed cave

“You will die today!” A voice echoed in Fenoam's mind. He was sitting in a pitch dark cave, leaning against a rock, barely breathing. It had begun as an ordinary day, and an ordinary hunting trip. He had hit a deer, but his aim had been a bit off and the wounded game ran into a cave. A cave that was regarded as cursed by many in Fenoam's village. There were rumours that those who had gone in there returned insane, or they hadn't returned at all. But Fenoam had considered the rumours as nonsense, nothing more than fairy tales to scare children from going into the cave, protecting them from cave-ins and such. So, without a second thought he went inside.

A Necromancer's Path

         During a harsh winter in the early 2^nd Era a boy was born to the widow Ameni in the small village of Deepwell. Being as pale and cold as he was, no one expected him to survive his first night. But as a late spring reached Deepwell and as it turned into summer the young boy Keemon seemed as healthy as any other of the children around him. But everyone knew something there was different about him, something that was wrong.

         As he grew up he never lost his pale skin or cold blood. He was a skinny boy with two tired ice-blue eyes and a thin face, framed by light grey hair.

         It took several years until something happened.

Alone in the Valley

      In our village we were about 120 inhabitants. Our families had lived in this valley for hundreds of years. I liked our village, I liked the people there and the valley itself. Everything could still have been exactly like it was then if that day had never taken place…but it did…

       It was an ordinary day like any other. I was sitting with my family by the table eating dinner. It was around midday. Suddenly a man, one of my father’s friends, came rushing in and shouted; “He’s here! He’s here again!”. My father quickly reacted and stood up, grabbed his bow and his quiver and ran out with the man. My mother took me and my two sisters and led us upstairs where she told us to stay until they returned. I wanted to follow them so when my mother went I grabbed my dagger, a gift from my father, and ran out. It was a beautiful day, the snow lay thick and reflected the sunshine. I stopped for a moment. Everything was so beautiful. Then I suddenly remembered why I was out here. I heard voices from the other edge of the village. I began running in that direction. Then I saw him. Garfereas, the dragon who had punished our village for many years. His wings threw a huge shadow over the village; it almost seemed like the sun had disappeared. He was about 30 metres above ground and his flames consumed the snow beneath him and ignited nearby houses. He began to fly towards me. He crushed a house before he flew over me. I was thrown backwards. I laid still, scared. I heard the sound of houses crumbling behind me. I just couldn’t move. He seemed a lot larger when he was this close.

       Minutes passed. The dragon had flown away at least ten minutes ago. I stood up, still shaking. I picked up my dagger which had been thrown away some meters when the dragon passed over me. I looked around me in shock. The whole village was destroyed, some houses were still burning and slowly falling apart. I began walking to the other edge of the village from were I had heard voices before; first with slow, shaking steps, but soon I found myself running. I came to the slope were our village ends. Then I knew why the dragon had flown away from there and into the main part of the village; his work here was done. I was looking at a morbid scene of slain men and women, all of the village’s adults were laying there scattered all over the area. Slain in the most ruthless ways. My dagger fell from my hand. I couldn’t move. I knew my parents were down there. I went down the slope. Some people had been charred unrecognisable by the dragon's flames, others had been shredded by his claws, pierced by his sharp tail or even bitten in half by his huge jaws. I wasn’t able to find my parents among the recognizable bodies. The snow was red. It seemed that the sky turned red too. My world trembled. I was left alone, alone in this world, alone in the valley…