1 Winter

Freezing darkness surrounded a boy about the age of twelve. He looked lost wandering through the blizzard. He was hunched over walking against the wind. The shadow of a large mountain towered overhead. The boy continued to climb towards it's peak.

He had left his shack earlier in the day and began walking towards the mountain. The sun had already sunk behind the horizon by the time he reached it's beginning slopes. The cold wind whipped him relentlessly. He knew there was a good chance he could freeze to death, but the boy had to find Drindle.

Drindle had been a renowned figure, but not many knew his whereabouts. The boy had heard tale of Drindle when traveling merchants passed through the nearby village. Based on what the merchants said, Drindle would be on top of the mountain. Apparently, there was a Weather Shrine located at its peak. If the merchants were to be believed, the time of the Shifting was about to take place. Drindle would be performing his duties until the Shrine shifted to another location in Wastrial. He would then move onto the next Shrine appearance and begin controlling the weather there. The people of the nation depended on the weather staying consistent. They grew crops year round to support their armies. Drindle was the being who controlled all of the weather in the nation. He was perhaps the strongest person the boy had heard of.

The young boy's name was Lionel. His family had a small shack they lived in. Their landlord lent them the building, in exchange his father and mother would work the fields. The small family would get to keep a portion of the crops as well. Those crops provided them with almost everything they needed to survive. It wasn't much but they could make it through the year with the crops they earned, and they were even able to sell some of the food for supplies. He and his parents lived in a valley between two tall mountains.

The mountains were known as The Lonely Peaks. The Weather Shrine would appear in different places every ten years as the legends went. The merchants said that the time of Shifting would be arriving soon. Peasants, like Lionel and his parents, didn't keep up with the comings and goings of the shrines, but almost all knew of Drindle. As long as the season stayed the same, those peasant's simple lives wouldn't be bothered. The merchants mentioned that the Weather Shrine should only be around for five more days or so. From what information Lionel gathered, most traveling occupations kept up with the shrines appearance. Most travellers chose to stay in one place until after the Shifting occured. They wanted to be sure that there were no catastrophes, even though there had never been an instance of one in recent history.

Lionel always dreamed of leaving his shack to find his place in the world, but he could never leave his parents. His parents were good to him. He was their only child and they were doubtful they would ever have anymore children. His parents would make him help in the fields daily, but they did that to ensure their family got the proper compensation from the landlord. His parents never beat him, like some of his friend's parents did. He felt lucky and loved, so he didn't want to leave his relatively happy life. That changed when the last attacks happened. The Gardgans came two nights prior. The only reason Lionel survived was due to his parents sacrifice and his scent being covered by blood

His father had sensed them coming and yelled for Lionel and his mother to hide, before heading out of their shack. He met them outside. Lionel heard his father struggling. There was a loud grunting. Lionel ran to his mother and glimpsed large humanoid beasts hacking and slashing at his father. Lionel's mother forced the boy into the small trap door that led to the cellar. Lionel hunched forward. He stared up through the cracks of the floor. There had been four or five large beasts that barged into his home, followed by an even larger and taller one.

Gardgans were considered the Bane of mankind. They varied in size but the leader was almost two meters tall. From what Lionel could see through the floorboard cracks; the leader had dark skin and wore a black rag that resembled a worn out robe. There were some remnants of a yellowish fabric on the chest area. When the leader entered the small shack, the stench of death and decay radiated heavily in the air. Every breath of those creatures left a putrid odor, worse than anything Lionel had ever smelt.

Lionel watched in pure horror as the leader spotted his mother. He could do nothing as he saw his mother stabbed, beaten, and sliced into small pieces. He would have screamed or yelled but everything happened too quickly; he couldn't believe it was real. He felt the warmth of her blood as it fell through the floorboards and dripped on his face. The now cracked, dried blood was the only thing that remained of his parents. The beasts quickly ate any piece of flesh before leaving. Lionel stayed quiet until he heard nothing. He then threw up and passed out into a pool of his own vomit and mother's blood. After the beasts left, the boy was in a mindless stupor. It had been two full days before he decided to leave the shack of death. The stench from the remnants of his parents was sickening. There had been only a brown stain on the grass marking where his father had fought the beasts.

Lionel had only heard stories of the Gardgans. They walked on two legs but had four joints in their lower extremities. It gave their legs a recurved appearance similar to a dog's hind quarters. The beasts were humanoid but lacked arms like a man. Instead they had curved blades in their place. The blades resembled bone; they weren't shiny but instead seemed to absorb any light cast upon them. The dull whitish colored blades extended out from where a man's elbow would be. The long bone blades filled the position of the forearm and hands. Lionel had heard rumors that some of the stronger creatures could even have wings or innate abilities, but he had never seen a Gardgan until that fateful day. The boy thought the cratures were just made up stories used by parents to keep kids in line. Now, he knew they were real. He would never forget them after what he witnessed.

Lionel could only think to find the one being that would be able to put a stop to the Gardgans. So he chose to leave his shack and started up the nearest mountain looking for Drindle.