You pause to consider what had just happened. A voice. A voice brought to you by some magical or mystical means and which seemed to suggest you should be starting many families.
Families! Bah! Adventure would bring its own rewards and woman would be among the loot. But children, families and... no, that’s exactly what you wanted to get away from. You knew you were born for greater feats than bringing up squawking brats.
Slinging your carefully packed slingbag over your shoulder you sneak your way out of the hut. Sneaking was necessary. You had told your mother your intention to leave and adventure, she hadn’t taken it well and you had no desire to upset her again. She would come to understand.
The walk out of the valley took only a few hours. The strips of crops your village had planted and had been successfully tending soon faded to the rougher greens of the wilderness. As the slope of the valley increased to take you towards the Village of Greensand the countryside became even more wild.
This is what you were expecting. It was common knowledge among your home village that the village of Greensand was the closest human settlement but that it was on the other side of the Shadowthrone Woods. It was the reported dangers of the Shadowthorne that made sure there was very little trade between the two villages. In fact, technically, the presence of Greensands was just a rumour – a rumour built on history, stories of a peddler who made it between the two villages long before you were born.
What you were not expecting was the sky. In all your life you’d never seen such a purple and red glow coming from the clouds. Twilight seemed to be bringing these eerie colours rather than the darkness you were familiar with.
And so; the choice... do you set up your first camp, far sooner than you expected, on this side of the Shadowthorne Woods and wait until morning or do you push on towards the twisted trees while the night sky glowed so strangely? |