Prologue

The sky was pitch black. The wind blew, through the world, gently making the autumn leaves fall and fly. The camp was outside the Forest of Ashke, making camp there on their return journey to the Shadow's great fortress, atop the magnificent mountain, Mount Balor. You could see the mountain in the far distance from this far. They reckoned a week's worth of travelling by horse before they reached the mountain to begin the journey up it. Ahraon licked his lips in eager anticipation. He was excited about showing the others what he had discovered. He had rumours of the Balor Peoples making a move and building yet their own fortress. And the journal! If he handed his journal to his master, to their master, he would be rewarded. To think of what power Ahraon could achieve was too great to be true. He would be...a general. A general leading the war...no. Do not be too eager. He ran his dark tongue along his decaying teeth as he smiled deeper.

Ahraon blinked as he noticed that a Minotaur had walked in front of him. "Shall we bring filth human to master?" "Bring...him to me..." The Minotaur bowed and walked off . Ahraon entered the white, clean tent. He picked up a book on the floor and sat down on a stool. Ahraon opened up the book. He eyed the old pages, yellowed with age. It was crumbling, some pages were falling or had fallen out of the book. He kept reading those few words again and again. I should have died long ago...we will strike at the Shadow, if they attempt to move out of their fortress. Very interesting information this book gave him. Then again he should have guessed – the writer had been a fool. Fooled by the ways of the Shadow. He had been deceived...

The tent opened again and two Minotaurs dragged in a chained, bleeding human, scarred and stripped to the waist, with deep gashes and scars, with old crusted blood and fresh blood everywhere. The human had dark hair. Dirk Saber. The human glared at Ahraon with mutual hatred. What a fool. Ahraon looked at the hesitant Minotaurs. "Leave us...now." The Minotaurs bustled out, and Dirk glared still at Ahraon. Ahraon sat on a stool, and looked down at the human. "Do you know why you are here, human?" He hissed and spat. "I demand to be freed..." Ahraon widened his eyes. "Speak to me like that again, human, and I will make you regret those words for the rest of your life? You understand?" Dirk tried to stand up, but Ahraon stood up, reached for the whip and lashed it on the filth. Dirk roared in pain and Ahraon smiled. "How many more lashings does the human thinks it deserves?" Dirk growled. "No..." Ahraon smiled more. "Oh? I was more thinking along the lines of...three." And he lashed out, and there was the roar. Again and again did he do it while the filth roared in pain. Ahraon pondered. "And for fun, shall we just had another?" And he lashed out again and Dirk was roaring. Fresh blood was oozing down his back. Good. Ahraon set the whip down and sat comfortably down on the stool. "So – shall we go back to the start? Do you know why you are here, human?" Dirk growled. "No, you fucking bastard." Ahraon ignored that insult – the lashings would come later. He would unwillingly give the pleasure of that to the Minotaurs later on. "So you are not aware of this journal?" He picked up the book and studied it. "I believe this is the journal of King Rothem, and the battle plans...rather old looking. You must have been preparing for the war for quite a while." Dirk eyed the journal. "And why does that explain why the bloody hell I am here?" Ahraon opened the book and read aloud.

"I met a young brave warrior today named Dirk Saber. Gunther is quite positive the new recruit will be trustworthy. Apparently there was some other man named Puwen (not sure of his last name) and Kristoffer Wyld. As I found the pleasure of talking to the human, we managed to talk a bit of the battle plans... So...tell me...what are the battle plans. You are the one I need and if I did not find you I may well have tried even Bloodhelm and Wyld."

The human stared, shocked. "Why would I bloody tell you?" Ahraon smiled. "Ah...I thought here would come the snag...cause if you didn't...BRING THE WOMAN!"

Suddenly, Dirk widened his eyes. Lily Rosecult came in struggling against the chains, carried by Minotaurs. Ahraon took out a knife and ran up to Lily and smiled as he held the knife against her throat. "Or else the woman dies." He smirked as he saw the horror on Dirk's face. "Well, well, well, isn't this not entertaining..." Ahraon looked into Lily's eyes, and whispered in her ears. "Look at your dear, Dirk...all chained up...and guess what! If he doesn't tell me the battle plans...you die! And if he lies you die!" Lily glared at Ahraon and Ahraon grabbed her head and forced her to kiss him. "Or join me...and live..." Lily slapped Ahraon and tried to run to Dirk but not before the Minotaurs tugged at her chains, making her collapse to the floor, and being dragged to them. She screamed. "Dirk!"

Dirk stood up, glaring. Those bastards would pay. He ran up but Ahraon was on the floor and grabbed a chain from Dirk's leg, making Dirk fall, on top of Lily. Ahraon smiled as he dragged Dirk away. Dirk stared into the blood red eyes of that creature's face. He had once been human – but was now just a pure white undead monster. He wasn't even undead. Dirk could not make out what he was. But his teeth were black, and his tongue was green. His lips were purple, and his body pale white. His nails were longer but never went shorter or longer – they were unbreakable. He smiled. "COME TO ME SABER!" And Dirk swung his arm out, and the chain attached to his arm whalloped Ahraon in the face. While the monster fell, Dirk picked up the head, wrapped the chain around the neck and pulled. Ahraon shrieked a high-pitched scream. "No...IT CANNOT BE!" Dirk turned around, as a club whacked him across the head. Stars danced as he fell, and felt a crunch in his head. He still was holding the chain till the writhing figure next to him stopped. Ahraon was dead. All went black.

The Minotaur sat down next to Lily, her throat spilling blood and insides. The Minotaur licked the juicy blood. Human blood. Very...tasty...