Extra Chapter 1 takes place after Chapter 10... Or does it?

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In the depths of the forest, The robed visage of a man came upon me immediately after I had finished doing something. I faced the man and said, “I am Xander.  Who are you.”

The man who I could not see well enough to determine his gender stepped forwards and said, “I am Lupus Mal, the tragic king of this barren land.”

And truly the land was barren, as all I could see for miles around was trackless wastelands of sand and more sand.  How this grim spectar was able to sneak up upon me left me confused and wary.

“Does such a tragically barren land really need a king,” I asked in wary confusion.

“Once it did.  But my tragic greed and lust for power and riches led me to spend my vast fortunes searching for vast power.  And there upon I was tragically curse with this tragic fate of mine.”

“Tell me of this tragic curse that you may alliviate yourself of it’s tragedy?”

“I am tragically compelled to kill and destroy everything that enters my former kingdom.”

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“How tragic,” I said.

“So fight me,” said man calling himself Lupus Mal.  “And either die tragically, or kill me, to end my tragic fate of tragedy.”

The grim spectar raised his great sword, as large and dark as himself, but in that time I surged forth and punched him so hard my hand went through his empty ribcage, for he was nothing more than bone and cloth.  The bones of his skeletal body fell apart, and the hood of the hooded dark warrior king of tragedy fell back, revealing his face.  Under the hood was the face of Callic.

“Callic!  You’re the tragic King Lupus Mal!?” I called out to his decapitated head.

“Yes, and I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for a meddling grad student!”

“Bad dog,” I admonished. “Bad, bad dog.”

Then I dropped the severed head in the barren sandy wastes of the tragic landscape that Callic ruined, so he might suffer in the place for all eternity.  As I turned my back and walked back towards civilization, I could hear Callic say something behind me.

“Such a tragically tragic tragedy,” were his parting words.

* * * * *

Okay, reading it over again, this story is absolute crap.  I know I was just practicing my handwriting in this otherworldly language I know, but I didn’t think I would produce something… this noxious.

I quickly folded up the pages and headed towards the nearest fire in the camp to set the pages to flame.  I knew I was going for a theme there, but the real tragedy would be if anyone had to suffer reading such garbage.