"Today feels very strange…" thought Pharda, as he quietly polished his Murasame, the intricate rune markings of it reminiscent of a time long forgotten. His father had once told him it belonged to a great legendary warrior, his name lost to time, one of Pharda’s ancestors.
"Keep it with you, son," his father always remarked, "someday you may have need of it."
"Yeah…right." Pharda smirked at the thought; this lengthy hunk of metal was all he had left of his father before he left mother and him. Before he abandoned them to fend for themselves.
"How dare he do that to us!!" Pharda stood up, recalling past anger he had for his father, but then he sat down and began once again to rhythmically polish his sword, today had been very strange indeed, but even if he got the blade from his father, that didn’t matter, he would use it just like his more honorable ancestors had.
Far, far away, in another time and dimension…
The Life Crystal spun rhythmically in place, suspended only by magic, but swathed in shadows.
CRACK!!!
A small crack had surfaced itself upon the Life Crystal, something was inside it…moving.
CRACK!!!
Another crack line appeared, much larger than the first, this one climbing up the side of the Crystal, a vicious scar.
KRICKKKKAKKKKOOOOM!!
In one violent instant, the Life Crystal shattered in a billion fragments, a chunk of the debris landing near a Blood-encrusted foot, which then abruptly kicked it away.
She had returned.
"Come ON, Pharda, we don’t have all day!!!" his mother cried at the foot of the steps, "Andy’s waiting for you!!"
"I like being called ‘Andomiel’ Mrs. Beolve…"
"Oh, what’s that, Andy, you and your Dungeons and Dragons persona!!"
"Sighhhh...but that is my name…"
"Oh come on now, I’m like your mother, can’t I call you what I want?"
When Mrs. Beolve had that look in her eye, Andomiel knew never to press a topic, especially when it involved the Beolves, they had become his foster family of sorts, gave him a place to sleep, especially when his parents had died, at least that’s what the state told him when he became of age.
Pharda finally trudged down the steps, Murasame slung in a side sheath as always. The very idea that he carried around with him the one thing that reminded him of the father he so hated, boggled Andomiel’s mind.
The pair were about to walk out the door when Mrs. Beolve tossed each a sack lunch, "Be careful out there, you don’t want to starve in the wilderness of downtown New Alexandria."
"Aw, mom, real Samurai don’t carry sack lunches!!" Pharda complained.
"No they carry jugs of sake to get drunk on!! Which I expressly forbid you to do!!!"
"Alright, mom…if we find any fiends, we’ll kill them in your honor!!"
"You do that…I’ll make up something for dinner."
They left the little house, and Andomiel started the usual argument that Pharda was a momma’s boy and that he needed to be a little more independent of his mother. But Pharda would always came right back with the idea that he was his mother’s guardian, and that she was all he had left, etc. etc.
This went on for quite some time till they entered New Alexandria’s downtown sector, which always seemed to impress them with its ancient monolith buildings and old castles. But today, something was very different, the usual bustle of people was gone, it was quiet, empty.
"I don’t think I like this, Andomiel," And just for a little insurance, Pharda drew his blade.
"You bring your sword with you, Andomiel?"
"No, I didn’t think we needed it, you know how easy it is to take out those little Mandragoras, besides, I don’t like samurai swords, I’m into Paladin stuff."
"All the same, I’m beginning to wish you did grab that sword, Andy."
"I told you, I don’t like being called th--," suddenly a shadow of some giant winged creature swooped over their heads, very fast at that.
"…Um, I think this is about the time where we run, Pharda."
"No way! If that’s a monster or something, I’m hunting him down, just because you don’t have a sword doesn’t mean I can’t track that thing down!"
"I…really don’t think we have to go very far, Pharda." Andomiel pointed ahead at one of the ancient buildings, and a shadowy creature seemed to hiss and run into the building.
"C’mon, let’s go!" Pharda yelled, charging into the fray, dragging a very upset Andomiel behind him.
Running up a flight of stairs in the abandoned building, Pharda was all too eager to hunt, while Andomiel, now left behind, crossed his arms in disgust.
"Man, this just sucks, now I have to chase after bone-head Pharda, and watch out for that winged shadow-thing."
"Hisssssssssssssss"
"Ohhhh, crud, why does this happen to me?"
Meanwhile, up a flight of stairs.
"Come-out, come-out whatever you are, SO I CAN CUT YOU TO PIECES!!" Pharda said with a maniac smirk etched across his face. His Murasame was ready for anything, no matter how dark, or disgusting the challenge would be.
"What’cha lookin’ for!" A hand thwapped him on the back.
"Aaaauuuugh! DON’T DO THAT!!" Pharda spun around to chide out the idiot who would dare sneak up on a samurai to find…the mischievous Urd.
"What the heck are you doing here, Urd?"
"I was about to ask you the same question…only not my name…um…yours." She smiled innocently.
Urd could be a real air-head at times, but for the most part she was pretty level…that is, for a thief.
"I’m hunting down a fiend…what about you?"
"Me…I lost something, and I’m trying to find it and get it back."
"What did you lose? Maybe I can help you get it back?"
"That’s the problem, I’m not quite sure what it was that I lost, I discovered it recently, a rock of some kind with some weird markings on it, it seemed to glow when I touched it, but I got attacked by a fiend around here and lost it."
"Any ideas where to look?" Pharda said, waving his sword around, picking up chunks of debris about, and then casually tossing them aside.
"No clue, but hey, usually Andomiel’s with you, what happened? Where is he?"
"I left him downstairs cause he didn’t bring his sword, said he wanted to be a stinking Paladin and not a Samurai, Samurai are just as honorable you know. I don’t really understand why he goes on about it."
"Maybe we should go back down and check on him, that fiend might still be around."
"…W-wh-what are you?"
The creature in the darkness seemed to be more frightened of Andomiel, even though he was unarmed, a soft moaning growl could be heard rumbling through the shadows.
