Fire is cracking in the clearing, filling the area with the sounds of a comforting camp fire. A dark forest surrounds the humble camp in the cold night, the cloaked man is sitting on a rock, holding a colorless orb in his hands. The dark fog dances in the orb, the fog that escaped from the monster before. It starts to fill the orb more and more, the man opens his eyes as the fog fills in the transparent artifact in a quick fashion.

"Well that's that then." He says as he takes a deep breath and puts the dark orb away.

"Just need a few more now, and the old man should be able to begin his experiments." The man thoughts to himself.

He hears some ruffling from the bushes, he stands up straight, his grey eyes looking for any kind of movement. He stands tall with his broad shoulders as his black hair is being blown by the wind. Just a moment later a figure starts walking out from the bush, the man takes off the glove from his left hand, revealing his dirty looking hand. The figure from the bushes appears clearly with another behind him.

"Hey, you over there! This is a patrol unit of the city Toiva, would you be kind and let us sit by the fire with you for a while traveler? We will catch a cold if we just stand around like this in the cold." Says one of the guards who stands taller as the other, stating they come in peace. It was a cold age after all.

The man sighs and takes his glove from the ground and pulls it back on his hand, the two soldiers look at each other, shrug their shoulders and make their way to the camp fire as the man sits down. As they reach the camp they sit down on some rocks opposite of the man.

"Say you traveler, what brings you here in this night?" The smaller one asks curiously. As the man reaches over behind him drawing his sword out from it's sheath. The two guards look at the man scared, ready to draw their swords as the man looks at them and shakes his head once again, then lays the sword over his legs.

"I'm just sharpening it calm down. To answer your question: personal business brings me here." He says as he reaches for his sharpening stone, and smiles at them as he turns back and starts sharpening the edge of his weapon.

The two guards now sit calmly, and laugh a little. But one of them cannot seem to ignore his own curiosity.

"Hey, what is with your eyes? Did the gods curse you?" The guard leans in as he asks the question as the man stops and looks at him in the eyes.

"No, they gifted me the blessing of a hunter." He says as he continues his chore, as the two guards look confused at each other, then taller one asks.

"Are you a Shadow Hunter?" The smaller guard asks holding back his laugh.

"I'm one of The Brave Ones." As he let those words out of his mouth the two soldiers started giggling.

"One of The Brave ones eh? Why don't you prove it then." The tall one asked as the other started talking as well.

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"Yeah, i heard tales that some of them can turn into dragons and wolves." They tried making fun of the man, as he looked at the tall guard's eyes deeply.

"You falling in love with me?" He tried joking and the visor of his helmet suddenly closed. The soldier tries to take it off, but not being able to. The other one laughs at him.

"Hey! Stop laughing and help me get this thing off damn it!" The guard shouts in terror, as the cloaked man grins and takes the sharpening stone back in his hand, and the guard lifts his visor up.

The tall guard quickly stands up and draws his sword.

"What are you?! Are you really a shadow hunter?!" The guard asks as his shouts fill the clearing.

"Sit down, calm down if i would want to hurt you, you would already be dead." Says the man as the smaller guard looks in disbelief realizing the situation and turns towards the other guard.

"Sit down already! The gods sent him to help us can't you see that? Maybe the rumors are true." He convinces the taller guard as he puts his sword away and looks at the man with terrified eyes.

"I can't believe it. The legends are really true? When the beasts of the other realm comes, the hunters come out of hiding, a tale my mother always used to tell me. But i never thought it would be real." The smaller guard says.

"Well you met one now, it's for certain the beasts will come. You should warn your lords. This is no tale." The three of them talked for a while, asking questions about how the man fought monsters, although he did not share much he did mostly answer their questions. The man then lays down his sword and gets his bedroll out.

"We will be on our way sire... we will alarm him, we both wish you a good hunt, friend." The tall one says, both of them in a bit of shock and disbelief. The smaller one nods, they bow their head and take their leave. As they go away the man says to them as they start to walk.

"I'm no lord, i'm just doing what others would not." The guards stop for a second, but they keep walking on back to the main road as the man lays down in his bedroll, his horse getting tired as well, they rest until the morning that is soon to come.

As the man woke up he quickly gathered his equipment, got on his horse and headed towars the mountains known as "The Giants's Back" the road was fine, he got there in a few hours, the hunter thought to himself this might be one of the last times the world is at such peace.

As he trots on and on with his steed they get more into the mountain, snow starts to fall in small amounts, he is getting close to Katketty, the fort that is the home of the Shadow Hunters. As he gets close to the gates he notices a man in a red cloak with the symbol of the empire on it, the man is shivering and is yelling for the gates to open. As the man notices the hunter he goes up to him.

"Please! You are one of them aren't you? I have a message from Emperor Fakkal directly! But they won't let me in!" He pleads for the hunter as he sighs.

"That's because we don't like outsiders." He showes his right hand, indicating that he wants to take the message himself. The messenger hesitates to give the letter. "It's fine, i'm Cadmus i am sure you have heard of me." The messenger quickly gives him the letter after he looks at the hunter surprised.

"Yes i have." Says the messenger in a frightened tone "I hope you will all consider the Emperor's request!" With that he gets on his horse and rides off as fast as he can.

Cadmus walks towards the gates as they open and another person with the same grey eyes and in a similar armor welcomes him.

"Welcome home Cadmus, did you have a good hunt?" He asks the man as he takes off his hood.

"That i did, got the essence Rufa asked for. Seems to be quite powerful, is the experiment going well?"

"Yes it is, you got back right in time, we really needed another orb of essense, i hope it will be worth it. You should take it to Rufa as soon as possible, he will be very happy."

"I will, thank you Reignir." As Reignir leaves, Cadmus is getting to the stables, he gets off his steed and pats him, and takes his own belongings. He swings the front door open and the warmth of the main hall welcomes him.