Chapter 2 - Second Tremor

It was the middle of summer, the whole kingdom was in uproar. The abundant crops of that year provided enough supply to the cities to keep them very busy for the whole season.

Especially on that hot summer day. It was almost noon when without any notice, the very foundation of the world trembled beneath the feet of its people.

As briefly as it came, it stopped...

The tremor was brief despite its strength... and even so the damage to the buildings was very considerable. But before anyone could verify the situation they were in... An aftershock hit as very strong gust of wind...

It came from the west with enough speed and power to send flying roofs and completely leveling small houses alike that dared to stand on its way unprotected by the city walls.

The bells rang everywhere, the population in disarray hurried to the closest shelter they could find. Soldiers rushed to the walls certain that the enemy was at their gates. And with fearful eyes they searched everywhere around their walls, looking for any enemy sign.

Knights and soldiers from all cities were ready in moments, showing great discipline and organization as the kingdoms army. But to their surprise no sign of enemy could be seen, nevertheless they didn't dare to move away until the nightfall.

As the scouts returned and noticing no enemy army could be seen in any direction, the city quickly began to assess the damage it suffered and hurried to dispatch messengers to inform the capital about the strange incident.

In the capital, inside the royal hall, a man of strong frame and apprehensive look was sat down on the throne. His hair and beard was almost black. Both were very well trimmed, but were already showing signs of age as a few gray hair could be seen on his chin and the side of his head that ported a thin golden crown.

His throne was an art in itself, carefully sculpted in wood with lion crests and heads, the arm supports had the shape of lion claws. It was above the many other chairs in the hall, it was disposed in a way that from up there it could clearly look at the others from above. A purple mantle covered the whole well seat and not only was a decoration but also could be used as a cushion to the throne itself. And despite his apprehensiveness, his eyes were sharp as he looked contemplative into the hall's floor.

Every city in the kingdom had sent word of a disaster and requested aid to rebuild. Every city reported the same event the capital have also suffered.

As he had dismissed the last messenger, he began to ponder on what could have caused such event, how can one explain such incident. But the only thing he could make clear, was that the closest the city was to the west, more damage and intense seemed to be the report received.

Moving in his chair, he laid back and looked to his side.

"Bhalrom! Assemble the Mages, I need to consult them..." Said the king to the knight standing a bit behind to his right. The knight was a tall man with dark hair like the king and a bit younger.

The armored man elegantly bowed his head that showed a well done shave and an austere looking face, a sign of a long military life behind it. He had a standing lion with the two purple flags in his crest on the right side of the chest.

Silently acknowledging the command he moved out of the hall by a door in the far corner in the back.

The king was now alone with his thoughts.

He sighed and lowered his head, lost in thoughts about the crisis that surfaced in the middle of the summer...

Suddenly he hears a voice...

"Tired of the royal duties, my lord? Or are your old bones beginning to take their toll on you?" Mocked in a light tone the strange voice that just echoed in the hall in a way that none could pin point its origin.

The king kept his head down and grinned "You of all people calling me old? When my father was born you already had gray hair old timer" said the king in a better mood rising his head towards the man that was now standing in front of him.

His smile was brief and a concerned expression quickly followed as he realized the reason for such a visit

"For you to have come here personally... after all these years, I can't help but wonder that this situation is a much than I imagined. Am I right?"

The man standing in front of the king was wearing commoner clothes. His short gray hair and a small trimmed beard, he had a well-built physique and one could easily see him as an ordinary middle aged man.

The gray one's face suddenly showed a serious expression "I'm afraid so, your highness, if my suspicions are correct. I'd strongly recommend to send your best knight and troops to the west, well-armed and ready for anything. Tell them to not stop until they reach the border forest, time is of the essence..."

The king gasped as he heard the mention of the forest, barely containing his surprise "The Endher forest!?"

But soon after uttering such name he realized that the forest was located at the western border of his kingdom, and surely something there could have been the source of the strange event.

Anybody nor anything that entered the said forest had ever returned, thus the name of the forest. Over the course of many centuries, legends and stories began to surface and nowadays was believed that its dark woods held the gates to the realm of the dead.

That's why no being with life that crossed its borders was ever seen again.

The Forest covered a vast part of the land in such a way that no road or path could ever been used to traverse it.

The thought that something there caused the phenomenon send a shiver through the king's spine. "The knights will depart at once..." said the king in a low tone still immersed in the thought of what could cause such powerful reaction.

"Very wise as always Elrik. Tell them that I will join the convoy once I finish my preparations" said the gray man turning to leave. At the same moment, sound of many steps could be heard approaching from the door on the back.

The gaze of the king quickly went to the door through which the knight had left a moment ago. It were the mages he had summoned, walking into the king's hall.

He quickly turned back to face the gray one, but as turned, nothing more could be seen.

He looked again at the mages and as they seem no different than always. 'That old fool, always showing off his tricks...' he thought to himself while waited for the mages and the knight.

"Thank you all for coming so fast, but before I brief you all about the situation... Bhalrom, assemble the best men of the First Army, you are to lead an investigation party to the west. Assess the damage in the villages on the way as possible. Do not stop until you reach the very border of Endher, find out what happened there and report everything to me personally once you return!"

The eyes of the mages widened the moment they heard the famous forest name and quickly exchanged glances. The knight Bhalrom was unmoved by the order, he acknowledged it the same manner as the previous one.

"Bhalrom..." the king continued "Go at once and expect a friend to join you later on"

------------------- 4 weeks went on

The army had around three companies led by Bhalrom. They marched on, not all soldiers are from a cavalry unit. They were around 140 of the finest soldiers of the kingdom.

And finally, after a month of travel they finally arrived at the last village before the forest borders.

The dark trees and strange fog that could be seen inside of forest were undeniable, it was very different than the countless other trees the army passed by… despite the season, climate and temperature the Endher remained the same.

And not too far away from the strange forest, a small village could be seen. As the knight approached it, he could see that despite a month had passed since the incident, the villagers were still fixing roofs and building houses, seemed like they had to rebuild everything from scratch as all houses seemed recently built.

The Knight quickly dispatched his men to start patrolling the forest border with the order to report any findings immediately as he continued towards the village center.

"Sir, are you the elder of the village?" Asked the iron knight after localizing the eldest man he could see. The old one was hammering a plank to a recently build wooden wall and hearing the knight promptly turned to answer him.

"Oh why, yes! What can I do for you my lord?" - The man kindly answered the knight. It was a simple, very old and short man, the knight estimated that he was in his seventies. With long white hair and wrinkles all over his face. But despite the old age he was still a healthy man who clearly have spent a lifetime working below the harsh sun.

"We are investigating the incident that happened four weeks ago, what you can tell me?" continued the knight.

"Well, as you see, we are still finishing the repairs of the village." Said the elder looking around "That damn thing caused everything to go down or flying in a blink of an eye! Luckily the worst the villagers suffered were bruises and light wounds. I easily patched everyone up. I'm a healer you see"

Smiled the old man to the knight, clearly proud of his healing skills.

With an angry face he continued "Whatever it was... it was fierce... unrelenting while it lasted. First the earth moved beneath our feet and all the houses cracked or a wall went down... afterwards a strange calmness followed" He said shaking his head up and down "We knew something was not right. When you live this close to the forest you begin to know this things you know? Right here, we feel it" He said pointing to his guts

"So we quickly left our houses and went as far as we could, but shortly after that... a very strong wind sent the rest of the houses away. And only then the forest calmed down… it's been like this since then" said the elder pointing to the unchanging forest

The knight couldn't take much information from the elder story since it was similar to what he knew himself. But he concluded at least that nothing out of the ordinary aside from the incident itself. But that was not enough to the knight captain of the First Army, he was to investigate and so he intended to do to the best of his ability.

"Very well elder, please tell the villagers to report to any soldier anything out of the ordinary they remember or see. We will be camping nearby for the time being." The knight waved to some soldiers nearby to come closer and continued "We will arrange some soldiers to help with the village repairs as well" Said the knight signaling to one of his soldiers to comply with the order.

The elder beamed with joy.

---------- 1 week later

It was mid-morning, Bhalrom was beginning to believe that as they could find no information to what could have caused the incident, which would remain a mystery.

Not a single leaf or branch had moved in the forest, no damage could be seen anywhere. Anywhere meaning the borders of the forest, since the main core of it remained hidden by a thick fog.

The knight was sitting in his tent pondering what could be done to improve the investigation at this point, and more importantly, what would he tell to the king.

That aside, the so called friend that would be joining him to help on the investigation still haven't showed up.

The knight captain was not used to the lack of results. It had been 5 long weeks since the incident. Maybe it was about time to return home. If nothing new surfaced until the end of the day he would call an end to the investigation and begin preparations to return to the capital.

It was then he heard a commotion outside, soldiers were very excited and shouting. Without delay the knight rushed outside to see what was going on.

His widened as he saw a middle aged man waving and smiling while walking amongst the soldiers, he had gray hair and a gray beard. He was being clearly exalted by the soldiers "Eisenwald..." said the knight captain remembering all the bedtime stories his mother used to tell when he was little. The True Magus, the Oldest Mage, Dragon Killer were just some of the names that came to his mind… still lost in thought the legend himself approached him.

"Hello Bhalrom" Said the smiling gray man, "Hope you didn't have to wait too long, I had to prepare before coming here. Unfortunately it took more time than I had anticipated... but since I didn't knew exactly what we would find here, I could not take any chances"

The knight quickly suppressed the joy of being called by name by the Magus himself. Despite not being the first time seeing the hero, as he sometimes visited the king, it was certainly the first time that he called his name.

He collected himself and put his serious face which he was so used to and without delay led the Magus inside the tent for the report. That was rather quick, despite the knight's effort to be as detailed as possible, but nothing actually happened nor discovered so far.

"I see..." said Eisenwald expecting such news, "Perhaps this was a natural phenomenon of some sort. And not a malevolent plot as I first imagined" he said dismissively, he then began to ponder out loud "The alignment... yes, yes.... and the year were perfect too..." he continued while pulling parchments and books from a bag and reading a couple lines from them as if to be sure of what he was thinking. He then turned to the knight and continued

"But before anyth..in..g" another tremor suddenly occurs without notice... it was so powerful that both barely were able to keep their balance. As soon as The Magus could get his bearings, briefly an eerie feeling could be felt which revived an old memory of the mage. He couldn't help but wonder that the very fabrics of the world was being torn apart, and he was close enough to feel it.

His heart pumped vigorously by the thought of what unimaginable could be causing this. But before he could do anything… it completely stopped.

The Great Mage quickly braced for the aftershock that was surely to come. The nimble hands of the gray man reached for the bag once more and from it his hand brought a blue stone. He quickly threw it with a parchment on the ground near his feet.

Both the stone and the parchment were filled with runes and glyphs, and as soon as they touched the ground a spark occurred between the magical itens. From them a magical barrier erupted and instantly evolved the whole camp and village. It was clearly very strong as it seem more like a solid wall instead of a magical barrier.

A moment passed… and to his surprise, nothing else happened.

Flabbergasted he quickly put his mind to work, he was comparing the incidents to get a clue "It was a similar tremor, but yet, why so different from the first one?" he analyzed, the first he had felt was if the very foundation of the world were struck by an unthinkable power, the shockwave… hmm, the shockwave followed as the aftermath of the physical manifestation of the power... huhum" he said out loud "This one was very different, indeed, now comparing the magical signature from them both, what could be have been different now…" he commented while picking up parchments and looking at some magical apparatus that hold a few different crystals.

"Interesting" The Magus said. "Such magical vigor with no physical manifestation in the aftermath... this time it was not in the realm, this time it must have happened here… but what could…" still pondering but clearly reaching some king of conclusion he turned to the knight that just observed with curiosity "Knight Captain, please send the men out, search the outskirts of the forest, send lookouts to vantage points and ask them to look for any sign of destruction in the forest... we must assess the situation in all forms possible, please request them to report back immediately anything out of the ordinary" Said the middle aged man while quickly bursting out, he intended to take a look personally as well.

------ Few hours later, in afternoon.

"Sir! Reporting in" A soldier rushed inside the knights tent. He saluted the knight and continued "The south patrol found an unconscious person near the forest border, he is in the elder house now, we suspect he had been attacked and robbed as he had no belongings and was almost naked. The elder is assessing his health now"

The knight captain raised up from his seat "Show me the way" he said storming out of the tent.

Arriving in the room, he saw a brown haired young man laying down in the bed. He should not be older than fifteen years old calculated the knight. The boy was wearing some sort of black shirt, his skin was very light colored, almost pale. 'Could be part of the nobility? With this skin he surely doesn't looks like a peasant.

It was not unusual to young nobles to spend most of their time in their house's libraries to study magic. The fact was that only the high nobility could afford to send their children to the academy to learn magic. The rest usually had to improve on their own, and their family to learn.

Even so, only nobles could afford such a carefree life, for the rest of the population it was the commerce or the farms.

As Bhalrom could not recognize the boy in front of him, he came to a conclusion "perhaps he is a noble from a foreign land".

"Wake up!" The knight said after checking the boy health with the elder.

No response, he was exhausted, in such a deep sleep that even the potent voice of the knight captain could not awake.

"How was he when he was brought here elder?" asked the knight

The elder began to explain that his feet were dirty up to the knees and his hands looked as if he crawled the earth. His grandsons cleaned him up a bit before laying him down on the bed. Beside all that he seemed very healthy.

The knight then came closer to the bed and with an extended arm touching the boy's shoulder he tried to shook him. Finally the boy showed signs of waking up, slowly moving his hands.

"What's your name?" inquired the knight

"What's your name?" this time louder, and then once again "What's your name?"

"Nah-me?" came out from the boy in the bed, clearly very sleepy.

"Nahme!?" the knight repeated 'He can't understand me'. The chances that he was a foreigner increased in the mind of the knight.

He then recalled the talk to the soldier, 'maybe his caravan was attacked by bandits and he somehow managed to escape. He ended up wandering for days until he collapsed from exhaustion, then his presence here is just a coincidence.'

The young man in the bed finally was able to open his eyes, a dark blue color which was not very common in those lands could be seen. As the boy sat on the bad the knight could see his physique. It was average build for a noble and very well nourished for whom for has been attacked and wandered alone the land, noticed the knight.

The knight continued to closely inspect with prying eyes, trying to find more clues that could help him to identify the boy. It was certain now that the young one was not a commoner. He was indeed too pale, no calluses on the hands, he clearly did not work nor trained with a sword.

After a moment of though, all indicated that boy was indeed a foreigner noble. The only issue that remained was to discover how he ended up there of all places.

The knight left the room and requested the soldiers outside to summon Eisenwald at once, surely he would be able to help in that situation.