2 The First Page Turns

Several Years Ago...

Far, far above, up in the skies a streak exploded across the sky lighting it up in a bright glow as it blasted across the black sky millions of stars far above it.

Down below four people could be seen. Two kids, a boy and girl, and two adults, one an old man in a cloak, and the other a man wearing armor forged from bones...

"Oh..." Davi, the young boy, said with wide eyes. He raised his hand up pointing towards the streak that went across the sky. "Look. That star is moving! It's a moving star!" He said with wonder his eyes shining. His large and jagged teeth formed into a smile. A shark like smile.

"A shooting star." Ava, the girl, asked cocking her head to the side. "I've heard of them but never seen them before..."

"Ah... That..." The man in the bone armor said staring up at the star. He seemed to reach up for a moment. "Yes... That's a Dragon. I'm sure of it."

"A Dragon!" Davi, and Ava said in shock turning to look at the man.

"Yes!" The man announced. "A Dragon!"

"Actually I think that's just a comet..." The elder man chuckled. "Honestly Orion... You shouldn't tell lies to kids."

"Sorry King La Fay. I couldn't help myself." The apparently named Orion said.

"So it's not a dragon!" Davi asked with wide eyes.

"Ha. Get punked ya stupid brat!" Orion laughed. "HAHAHAHA! I tricked you with a cunning lie. You'll have to be better son!"

"Dad!" Davi whined.

"How is he the strongest man in your army father." Ava sighed shaking her head as she looked at the elder man.

"Trust me my daughter." The old man said reaching out and petting her head. His fingers brushed her cat like hair for a moment. "Orion is... A Strong warrior."

"Still though..." Orion was still looking up towards the sky the strange streak now gone and only hundreds of shining orbs remaining in the sky from the many many stars. "How do we know what it is. We won't. Not until we get to see it up close one day. That great unknown. I want to see it. The place where the Dragons Sleep. Where the World tree lies. I want to see the place they call paradise."

"That's a dumb dream." Davi said only to receive a smack over the head from Ava. "Ow... What the heck Ava? Don't tell me you're a weirdo like my dad and want to see some dumb tree?"

"Then what's your dream." She asked sticking her tongue out at him.

Davi seemed to think on it for a moment. "...I want to become the ultimate panty thief and develop a move that can steal any girls underwear-" Ava smacked him again as Davi's father burst out into laughter. "Ow! That one hurt!" Davi whined grabbing the top of his head.

"I'm being serious you shark tooth jerk!"

Davi let out a hum as he seemed to think for a moment. "I don't need a dream." He said finally shaking his head. "Not as long as I have you Ava." His statement made the young girl blush and look away.

"Idiot..."

Orion seemed to let out a chuckle as he turned away from the two kids. "Dreams are important Davi. We'll never know if we can make them come true until we try." He announced. He reached down towards his waist and pulled out a metal sword. The blade ignited as a massive white aura seemed to explode around his body and he pointed the sword towards the sky shining brighter than any shooting star. "If we stay still, stay in these lands, there will be so many things we'll never have a chance to see or understand. So many things that will never even have a hope of seeing us either." Hundreds of sparkles flowed off his sword lighting the area up around them all as a rainbow aura seemed to cover his body. "To walk forward. To go on Quests. To save the day. To experience greater pleasure and pain. We exist. So we march forward." He sliced his blade down pointing it at Ava and Davi. "So I hope to see the day in which the two of you make lots of friends."

"Friends?" Davi frowned folding his arms.

"That's right. Friends. Lot's of them."

"I don't need friends. I have Ava." Davi said rolling his eyes.

"I could use better friends." Ava nodded making Davi stumble.

Orion let out a chuckle. "Friends are the most important thing in this world. Hear those words and learn them Davi. Because I want you to have a great life."

"I don't need others." Davi said throwing his hands behind his head.

"I hope you'll see it one day. Just how important others can be. To have someone that would cry for you. That's someone worth keeping around. Never let them go."

"Would you cry for me?" Ava asked turning to look at Davi.

"Nah." Davi said. "I'm a man. I don't cry! Besides." He grew serious for a moment giving a smile showing off his fanged teeth. "Monsters don't have a need for a heart. And without a heart I'll never experience that."

"All things, even the darkest monster, has a heart." Orion said spinning his blade around and sheathing it. "The thought of someone without a heart is sad, but the thought of someone not knowing they have a heart. I think that's sadder."

"Yeah whatever bone head."

"Bone Head! I'm the strongest Arcane Hunter alive! Show me some respect brat! I knew I should have left you with your damn mother!"

Davi spun around sticking his tongue out at the bone knight. He then grabbed Ava's hand and quickly ran off with her the two kids laughing as they did so.

Life...

Was good.

***

Present Day...

"Hey did you hear?"

"Hmm... Hear what?"

In a simple tavern right next to a train station two elderly men could be seen resting down at a table.

"Something bad happened." The first one said making a sigh escape the second one.

"What happened this time in this God awful Kingdom... I swear with the many wars, monsters, and dark guilds rising up something goes and gets all damned up everyday... Ever since our King fell into that blasted coma." There were several people in the bar running back and forth and having a blast drinking, but these two men had a bit of a sour look on their faces. Off to the side a large wooden board could be seen covered in the pictures of several young looking women, with the words 'missing' written on the board.

"Apparently Phoenix Flight caused yet another problem." The first man said rolling his eyes as he rested his newspaper down. "I swear that damn Guild of theirs causes way more issues than they fix." He hissed. "Not their fault though... Things have really gone to the Dogs lately... Arthur is rolling in his grave seeing the world he made look like this... Poor Pendragons..."

"You're telling me. Why can't they be more responsible like them other guilds... I mean... Gods know our Town could use some Guild members... What with the murders and kidnaps..." He sighed pointing at the board next to him. "I mean we can't even enlist in the damn army now. Not with them damn... Wizards and Magic men running around... Those Arcane Hunters... They think they're so much better than us common folk cause 10% of the population, mostly Nobles, can use Arcane Energy. Ha... Those guys aren't so special."

"You're telling me." The first elder said nodding his head as he hit the table with a small bit of frustration. "Why... I betcha, that if there was one of em Oddity Beasts in this building one of em Guild members would just stroll on in here and blast it not even caring about the people who are inside of the building."

"Nah. Not even one of them could be that dumb."

"Still. I'm glad we've never had to see one of them up close."

"Aye. Me to. Me to..."

From outside of the large inn a simple horse drawn carriage slowly pulled up. Some of the people who had been walking by stopped and raised their eyebrows when they heard a noise coming from inside of the carriage. Seconds later the door was kicked down.

"-and I'm telling you, that you're wrong!" A male voice announced. Seconds later a young seventeen year old stepped out of the carriage with a large frown on his face. He had messy black hair, and dark black eyes. He was dressed in a pair of long dark blue pants, with black boots, and he wore a simple white T-shirt, and an unzipped red leather jacket, and most strange of all he had a ruby red metal guitar on his back. It almost looked like an electric guitar? It's strings were a light blue color and almost seemed to be glowing, and there were ten holes on the side of it. Two of the holes had small purple rocks in them. One of the rocks had a '1' painted on it, while the second one had a '2' painted on it. But what was really odd about him was his smile. His grin was far larger than a human should be able to do and it showed off his mouth which was filled with rows, upon rows, of fanged, jagged teeth all lined with sharp edges to them. Like a sharks smile... This was Davi Hawker!

"And I'm telling you I'm never wrong!" A female voice hissed out as a boot flew out of the carriage and kicked Davi in the butt knocking him over. A young eighteen year old girl stepped out glaring down at him. She had pretty silver hair tied back into a pony tail, and bright rainbow colored yellow eye that glared down at her friend. Only one eye though. She wore a long sleeved white buttoned up shirt with a black vest over it, as well as a simple black skirt and dark red gloves and boots. She also had a black eye patch that covered her right eye. In her arms she held a stuffed red lion close to her chest as she glared down at the boy on the ground. She seemed to have a sneer on her face as she stomped at him a couple of times just for fun... This girl was Athena Dawn, and yes... She was also a hero of our tale... Even as she slowly stomped on Davi's junk as hard as she could.

"Will you stop it woman!" Davi hissed knocking her off of him. He glared back at her for a moment and the two looked like they were about to get into some kind of fight but the man who was drawing the carriage cleared his throat getting the two to turn to him.

He shrunk down in an unconfutable manner when he noticed that the two obviously ticked off people were now glaring at him. "You uh..." He gulped shrinking down. "You two know you gotta pay for this right."

"How much." Davi sighed opening a small brown bag with coins.

"Twenty Bells-"

"Twenty Bells!" Davi asked with wide eyes. "That's way to much. I told you we should have just walked. I'm not made of money! This is why we need jobs Athena!"

"Freaking cheapskate..." Athena sighed. She knocked him out of the way and opened the stuffed lions mouth stuffing her hand into it. It went down deeper than it should have considering how the toy wasn't that big. She got it all the way to her elbow and felt around for something. Seconds later she pulled out a brown bag of her own. "Here. This is twenty five bells." She said handing the golden coins over.

"O... Oh thank you ma'am." The man said before quickly getting his horses to run off not wanting to be around these two anymore. No one blamed him.

Davi sighed sitting back up. "Now that, that's been taken care of can we get back to how wrong you are!"

"Oh my God I'm not wrong! Maybe if you had more trust in people you'd actually be able to get a girlfriend!"

"I have trust in people, I just don't trust you."

"Wow!"

Everyone just kind of stared at the two not really knowing what was going on as they marched past the group and headed into the inn still yelling about who was right or wrong. Their shouting very quickly got several people to glance over at them, as the two made their way over to the bar and both got seated.

"Uh.. I'm gonna have to ask you two to leave." The bar tender said staring down at them.

"Why?" Davi asked raising an eyebrow.

"For one... You're both being extremely loud... Like really loud... And two I'm pretty sure the two of you are both kids... You can't be in here."

"See he's totally one." Athena said rolling her eye.

"I mean... He's just saying the law?" Davi nodded. "I don't see how him wanting us out proves anything."

"And I'm telling you my senses are never wrong! My nose, knows!"

"That's bull you've been wrong plenty of times."

"Have not."

"You were wrong the other day!"

"No I wasn't."

"Yes you were."

"No."

"Yes."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"N-"

"Okay look." The bartender said hitting the table and breaking up another fight before it started. "I need you two to leave or I will be calling the town guards."

Athena sighed running her hand through her long silver hair. "Look I'll prove it." She stood up slowly pushing the bench back. Than suddenly in a flash blue lightning began to crackle around her left arm shocking everyone.

"Arcane Energy!" The bar tender said with wide eyes backing up as fear shined on his face.

"Vil Lightning Claw." She announced swiping her left arm out as the bartenders eyes went wide and his entire head was sliced clean off being sent high into the air and crashing down on a table nearby.

Loud screams erupted out when they saw the head and the now headless bartender who fell over. Seconds later though before anyone could even react the head suddenly sprouted large tentacles.

"T... That's an Oddity Beast!" A Man cried out. "Monsters that aren't like normal humans... How did one get into the city! Arcane Hunters are supposed to deal with them!"

"With this damn war going on they must have slipped up!" A Woman cried out.

"Damn you two! So you two are Arcane Hunters! Members of one of the ten Guilds, who hunt monsters like me, and enter dungeons seeking great loot right! You're kind are all freaks powered up with Arcane Energy allowing you to use magic!" The head roared firing forward.

"Did... Did the talking severed head call us a freak?" Athena frowned.

The head let out a roar as it opened its massive mouth a large black needle jutted out. "I'll kill everyone in here and feast on your souls-"

In a flash Davi slammed his boot down onto the head slamming it into the ground and causing it to burst into a puddle of white goop. Seconds later the body also burst. "Huh... Sorry Athena you were right. It was a shapeshifter Monster."

"D... Damn you two." The head hissed as the goop it turned into began to slowly turn to steam. "Before I die... T... Tell me... What Guild... Are you two in."

"Oh." Davi stood up giving a smile showing off his fanged and jagged teeth. "We ain't in a Guild... Not yet."