Flyte opened his eyes and saw two men carrying him by the legs, a bad choice. He took a throwing knife out of his pocket.

Quietly, Flyte drew one of the runes he saw on the floor. It was difficult and took a few tries because of the movement, but after five or so attempts Flyte had Star's rune on the ground.

Star dove through the floor, no longer looking like a small clump of tentacles on a sphere, but now like a papery young woman with a simple white dress shaped just like Glow's.

Flyte grabbed the corners of the hallway, and the two looked back only to be blinded. They clutched their faces around their, now useless, eyes, letting Flyte free.

Flyte cut out a rune for Rowlo on the floor and ran off. Several people tried to ambush him, but they went out of sight as a light blue monkey teleported to them and slowed their movements.

Flyte got to his room and saw Perency sitting on his bed rubbing his eyes.

"You already here?" Perency said. "They must not be tryin' this time."

"What do you mean?" Flyte asked.

Perency pulled out his sword. "Don't worry about it." He bounded towards Flyte.

"Forslo," Flyte yelled angrily. Streams of fire shot from both of his hands.

Perency was good at dodging the flames, but they both knew that he couldn't close the distance between him and Flyte without getting cooked, However, Flyte wasn't aiming to hit Perency.

Perency seemed to realize this when Flyte stopped shooting off fire only thirty seconds after staring. He looked back and saw what Flyte drew.

"Sha-," He started, but he couldn't finish as the explosion from Glow crossing into the corporeal realm interrupted him. She was the only one of the spirits who didn't have a set form.

She blasted through Perency. "Glow," Flyte said. "Can you make sure that no one we fight dies from what we do."

"Sure," she whistled. Flyte took Perency's sword and Glow started healing the downed man.

Flyte ran outside of the room and thought up a plan.

First, he would go to the armory. There he could find gear, which found be especially useful in a long fight because he knew that Perency didn't care for his sword. Next, he would find a fortifiable spot that he could use to fight off the guilders. After that he would have to leave quickly, and maybe even have to fight Telin again.

Flyte ran for the armory and passed by a group of soldiers just as a monkey jumped up and tagged their shoulders, loving them slow.

A large formation of soldiers barricaded the armory. "Sari," Flyte said quickly. He passed a few of them but got hit by several slow spells.

"Flyte," Glow whistled loudly. Flyte turned to the sound.

He saw a shining yellow sword. "That's me," Glow whistled unnecessarily. "Let's go fight."

As Flyte touched Glow, his speed was restored, which brought up some interesting ideas, but now wasn't the time. Flyte swung Glow at soldiers to his left and right, depending on his adroitness. The soldiers, rather than being cut open, were pushed into a state of slumber.

Flyte threw Glow in a straight line in the direction of the armory, making a clear path as straight to the armory as guilders fell down. Glow morphed into the form of a woman in a simple dress holding two elegant short swords, and she was knocking people all around her out.

Flyte walked into the armory and fell to his knees. He was dragged up into the air, his arms and legs not working. He was pulled around the corner.

"You're pretty good at this," Telin said. "But next time you try entering a room in an attempt to escape, make sure no one's in there first."

"What's going on?" Flyte asked.

"Every time someone joins the guild, I wait a month, and then get them or a group of new recruits captured during the night and see how good they are in that sort of situation. I must say, Flyte, you weren't half bad."

"Thanks, I guess," Flyte said slowly. Telin raised his pointer finger.

"Other than the part where you nearly released demons into our base," Telin chuckled. Flyte smiled. "I'm just glad you managed to spare everyone. After you sleep, we can see how good you really are at fighting, and if you do well enough, I'll let you try be in a mission with our attack group."

Flyte, noticing how drained he was, did go to bed.

----------------------------------------

Ander was walking around the forest, thinking about how he could possibly find something to use to destroy the shades. He couldn't think of any ways. He couldn't find a single creature around that could help him with this goal either. There were no treants, trolls, or even twiggies, not a one.

It wasn't just that though. Ander was starting to scare himself. Ever since that day eleven years ago, he had started showing signs of having some strange magic. He could change how the ground around him was shaped.

'The world was better off without that sort of power, especially not with it inside someone as unworthy as me.'

Cutting through that dangerous train of thought was a creature, about as large as a young dragon, falling out of the sky.

Ander hadn't ever seen a creature quite like that before, which wasn't strange, he hadn't grown up in these woods. The woods he grew up by were far west of here, close to the border of Retun, and within walking distance from Kili's mountain.

Kili was the Retun name for Trelifar, the honorsoul of stone shaping. He had died two hundred years before Ander had even been born, killed in a fight with Une, who controlled speed with more power than even the best modern mage.

Ander decided to start walking off, looking for the creature.

As he walked, Ander noticed rock like toads hunting a few big snails. As a toad got close to one of the snails, the snail blew up in a flash of red light.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The toad flew back, pieces scattering around. Ander thought that these pieces must have been parts of the creature's body, but then the frog got back up.

The toad looked less rocky, but other than that, it seemed fine. The toad's tongue shot off at a different snail, piercing through the snail and bringing it back to the toad. all of a sudden, a dire wolf crested a nearby hilltop. The toads all formed up into a line perpendicular to the wolf.

It charged at them and was met by four sharp toad tongues. Three of them missed, but the fourth hit deep in its flank.

Soon the wolf was repelled, but unfortunately for the wolf, the direction it fled was straight towards a giant reptilian monster with many legs.

The wolf didn't last very long as the reptile unhinged its jaws and ate the, now dead, beast whole.

Next came the toads, and even though they were able to get a few pot shots, they suffered the same fate as the wolf.

The looked towards Ander and he felt a spike of fear rise up within him. The reptile scrambled over in a mad dash to reach him.

SCREECH

The monster looked away and Ander ran to the sound.

Ander heard the beast's many footsteps behind him, along with the sound of falling trees, and his pace increased.

The monster seemed to be right behind Ander, so Ander sprinted to a nearby gorge.

He jumped off the ledge into the gorge and turned midair, seeing the monster snap its jaws right where he would've been less than a second before. He pulled out his bow and shot the fiend in the eye, the least protected part of its body.

The monster let out a terrible scream and ran away. Ander exhaled a sigh of relief up until he landed on the ground.

He ended up on his back, with his legs just bruised, luckily not broken.

He stood up, and the winged creature Ander had been looking for screeched again. It was close.

Ander walked through the gorge, making his way to the fallen beast, and he was able to make it to a section of the woods where it was just in sight, the only thing he needed to do was climb back up the gorge.

"It's not so bad climbing with bruised legs after having run with a broken kneecap," Ander said to himself. He found himself at the top of the gorge in no time, and he looked to the creature he had seen falling. It had three pairs of lings, two sets of wings, scaled and feathered skin, a sharp beak, and green spikes on its back. the deathly pale creature had gashes all over from its fall, but it still had a graceful look to it. It almost reminded Ander of the dragons he had heard of in legends.

Another thing Ander noticed was an injured, many-legged reptile staring at him. The same reptile as before.

The fiend leapt out to Ander, who was only barely able to escape its vengeful jaws. He lashed out, stabbing at it, but his sword slid off of its scales.

The two danced back and forth, neither making a clear blow. Ander was beginning to notice that he was starting to get rushed. Not only was he tired from all of the running and fighting from before, but the creature that he had searched for all day was starting to look sickly.

The sword in Ander's hand was starting to get heavier, and he could already feel new blisters forming on his hand.

Ander dropped his sword, because it wasn't doing him any good.

Ander's stone fist immediately showed itself to be more useful for fighting this creature than his sword, Dancing Flames, was. The beast was bruised, and its scales were starting to get dented inwards.

Ander wasn't looking too good either. It wasn't that he had been hit by anything, he was just nearly out of energy.

Ander soon took a knee, not finding any more strength or adrenaline to swing his stone arm anymore, and his right arm being useless against the beast. His normal arm touched the stones beneath him, and he looked up at the monster he fought.

It was almost like slow motion. The creature's jaws opened gradually to eat Ander.

Suddenly Ander felt something stir deep within himself. He glared at the reptilian beast facing him, and it hesitated, confused. A fools mistake, but I guess I can't really judge a mindless worm like this in that way. Ander punched at the beast with his right arm, but instead of his fist moving, massive amounts of dirt and stone swatted the monster off to the side.

Ander stood up, reinvigorated. The beast ran at him, so he punched straight at it.

A mass of stone hit the beast in the belly, straight through the middle of its body, impaling it.

The monster tore itself in half, knowing that it would die. The only reason it got up was to make sure that Ander would die too.

He punched at the beast, but whatever he had been doing ran out of power and nothing happened. He tried again, but still, it just didn't work.

The beast was right about to kill him, and Ander knew he couldn't do anything about that. Instead, he waited for the beast to bite him, tearing him to pieces, and he closed his eyes.

But that bite never came. Ander opened his eyes to find out what happened. What he saw was the reptile impaled by an odd, icicle tipped, spear through a newly-formed crater in its head rimmed with ice. A man with a full steel helmet and splint mail walked over and claimed the spear.

"Ugh," he groaned. "Stupid basilisk."

Ander just there comically, waiting to catch his breath.

"I was wondering if you would speak up," the newcomer said. "But maybe that's too much to ask of you."

"I was going to," Ander said. "But I realized that I had nothing to say."

"Fair enough."

"Well, what's your name?"

"My name's Ithikar," he said. "And yours?"

"Mine is Ander," Ander answered. "You're from Retun, right? What is your job?"

Ithikar chuckled. "You're quite astute. I am a paladin."

Ander's eyes widened. On the entirety of Riftgard there were really only three paladins.

"You didn't recognize my name," Ithikar said. "Which actually kind of makes me glad. What is your job?"

"Currently," Ander smiled. "I am an unemployed man."

"Well," Ithikar frowned. "What was your last job?"

"I was a general for Chraith."

"I thought that a stone arm like that was a punishment in Chraith," Ithikar asked further. "How come you have one?"

"My employer," Ander said. "You know, you're very inquisitive."

"What can I say," Ithikar smirked. "I just like keeping tabs on interesting people." He paused for a second. "My last and most important question is, why are you in this forest?"

"Not your employer, right?"

"That counts as a question," Ander said. "But no, it's a different kind of monster."

"May I ask why you are killing this 'different kind of monster?'"

"I'll just say that he needs to die."

"Well," Ithikar started. "I'll just heal up my urk really quick, and I'll join up with you."

"Urk?" Ander questioned.

"The creature you saved," Ithikar elaborated, pointing to the winged creature. "It's my mount. Did you really save it without even knowing what it was?"

"So, it's called an urk," Ander said. "I know nothing about this forest. Heck, the only things I know about this urk are superficial traits, can you tell me anything about it?"

"Well," Ithikar started. "They are the apex predator for this region, and the locals call urks the voiceless dragons, because they can match dragons in everything except for magic, which they can't use. Their beaks are iron, and they get energy from both their prey and the sun. They are very smart, extremely fast, and have high endurance. In short," Ithikar smiled. "They are the strongest non-aquatic creatures of our time."

"That's cool," Ander said. "Sorry if I'm jumping around too much, but how did you find it?"

Ithikar chuckled. "Now I'm the one being questioned. A while ago, I found a nest of urks, but they were being attacked by a group of basilisks. After I killed those basilisks, one young urk went with me."

"How long ago was that?" Ander asked, eyeing the horse sized creature next to him.

"Half a year ago," Ithikar answered. "And it's still young."

Ander smiled. "I'll see you at Ithiles," he said as he walked off.