The Beginning of a Forgotten Legend

Footprints deep in the snow lead to an abandoned town, nature took its land back, so beautiful and yet dangerous. While wandering through the alleys, Arthur Xavier seems to search for something, well that something doesn't seem to be a certain object... just something. While wandering around he looks at the buildings and tries to figure out what happened in this once so beautiful town... "What kind of nature disaster or monster wave had to happen in order to bring this town down to this state, it can't be only the work of Chaos, can it?... This looks like an Inn... I can't read what it was called, seems pretty old and kind of destroyed, anyway let's go in-" creak.

Art didn't open the door yet so where did the sound come from, from the front, sides or behind... instead of panicking he closed his eyes and tried to use his senses and aura to figure out the origin of that noise... "Was it a human or a monster, maybe an animal, I don't know lets see... it didn't go far enough, damn Aura Sense, uses up a lot of Aura for nothing. Anyway, I am gonna try again and focus on its density and range, maybe I can figure out more... I need to-" bip, bip... Before he can start again, his wristband makes noise and lights up, seems to be some kind of communication tool...

Unknown:" Arthur Xavier, D-Rank Mercenary," weak connection "here is a mission for you. Details: Investigate the disappearance of children in the Whitedell Orphanage in Whitedell Town and report back to us."

After the unknown voice stopped speaking, the details of the mission popped up and Art read through them again." Children are disappearing in an Orphanage, that's quite strange... Whitedell town is pretty far away... let's see..." He takes his map out and studies it very carefully "hmm... from this ruin Town to Whitedell, it will take around two days to reach because of the snow and getting a carriage is also impossible... that will take some time to reach. I hope the mission is not that hard and complicate- I feel like I forgot something important... if it's forgotten, then it's not important-" break, steps... After Arthur barely finished the sentence in his thoughts he heard it again, but much closer with steps... putting his right hand on his sword followed by a jump and rolling, he quickly drew his sword before realizing that in front of him were monsters."Dammit, I let my guard down and got surrounded by snow goblins! One, two, three,... nine goblins, thankfully there aren't that many-" swoosh he barely dodged an arrow aimed at his head and realizing that he barely stood a chance against them in a head-to-head fight, Art decided to lure them out after hiding behind a broken wall.

"How do I lure them out, snow goblins are more intelligent than forest goblins... may-" a rusty sword was swung down at him, noticing the danger he is in, Arthur drew his sword and deflected the goblins sword while standing on standby. With his left hand he took out his dagger and stabbed in that damn goblins throat followed by slashing it open. "They may be more intelligent, but not stronger, so stop hiding... I am not that weak either!" And Art dashed forward while following his enemies with his sharp eyes, whom he trusts more than his Aura Sense, and holding his dagger in front of his head with his left hand and his right hand with the sword behind his body. With his fast kill on the first Goblin, the others were shocked and stunned for a split of a second, but it was enough for Art to kill a second goblin followed by the third one beeing an archer behind the second goblin. The fight went on till Xaver killed everyone out of the nine snow goblins, slowly walking towards a torn down wall, he sits down on it and cleans his blades and prepares to depart for the mission.

"Phew... I am finally ready to get on the way to Whitedell Town... I hope this snow goblin monster cores will bring me some money. Anyway, let's get going." Arthur started his journey to Whitedell further in the North, as he came closer to the passage that leads through the mountains, some signs of a heavy storm started to show, which Arthur didn't really like and welcome. But he underestimated the heavy blizzard and barely found a small cave where he could hide from the storm and hid in it. Inside he looked around and found a good place to sleep a little... "I need some sleep if I want to be able to function tomorrow, where should I sl- ohh! That place in the back looks nice, I am gonna go there and lie down there..." step, step... lying down... "wow nice! *Happy face with a smirk* I can see everything outside while lying down safely from the blizzard" Before he fell asleep he took his dagger from his back with his left hand and held it strongly while on standby, because even when he sleeps he doesn't let his guard down, and started drifting away into the dream world...

*Lying down on a meadow in his garden on his mother's lap while she goes with her fingers through his hair, around him everyone is smiling and happy, dancing and playing around... then a bloody sun rose up behind a pitch black moon... the sky is dyed blood-red with black clouds and instead of a beautiful meadow there is bloody massacre around him. A voice tells him to run away, RUN AWAY, ART!!!* Arthur wakes up and slashes in front of him and rolls over to the right, followed by a roar, a snow leopard is in front of him, ready to attack... a second time...

"The voice in my dream saved me, finally free of that damn sleep paralysis... again that nightmare... Should I dodge or attack, the Leopard, it has puppies... *counting* three in total. I think I have some meat in my Backpack" Art searches for the meat in his backpack while keeping an eye on the leopard and its puppies, "There it is", he takes out the meat and throws it over to them. The leopard sniffs at it, she tastes it and gives it to its puppies, as Art's gaze wanders from the mother to its puppies and back he spots the slash wound he made on the leopard mother. "It looks bad, and it will get infected, I need to treat it, but will it let me... damn what am I even thinking, it's no longer hostile to me so... I am gonna give it a try. Here it is." He stands up slowly and walks carefully towards the leopard, not knowing what will happen. "I-i... it is letting me apply the ointment on it?!!" Surprisingly the leopard mother was allowing Arthur to put ointment on its wound, that's unheard of, because snow leopards are very prideful animals and don't let anyone near them...

And so the night passed in a blink of an eye and Arthur continued his journey, but it seemed that the baby leopards took a liking to Art and started following him around as well as their mother. "I don't mind them following me, I am just worried because the blizzard barely lessened, and I need to arrive at Whitedell... I am just gonna keep going!" And Arthur continued his journey to Whitedell with four Leopards. They wandered, hunted, ate and slept together, they even kept watch in shifts, and when Art was having a bad dream the baby leopards cuddled with him to make him feel better. And this is how the second night passed in an abandoned single house. On the third day after it was noon they Arthur and the leopards parted ways by the forest, and they continued their journeys.

"How come I haven't met a single monster since we parted ways, that's really strange, because normally I would have to fight a lot against snow goblins, who cares anyway." After a few hours when the sun slowly started to set and the blizzard became even stronger, he didn't stop but continued further while on his way through a small forest, Art saw a silhouette of a certain something *heartbeat starts rising faster* ... creepy *heartbeat gets even faster*... as he wanted to get closer to it, that thing let out a disgusting scream, it sounded like a kid crying mixed with a pigs death scream, a tigers roar, a wicked laugh and a demonic ear destroying scream!!!

Disgusting and extremely loud, Arthur held his ears, but he was like stunned by it, it kept resonating in his ears, but right after it let out that scream it disappeared away with the scream remaining... "Ouwww.... that hurt my ears a lot, now I think... *huff huff* I know why there weren't any monsters nearby. I need to get away as fast as possible from here... gotta run *huff... huff... he runs towards the exit of the forest* is that Whitedell town there, let's hurry up!" Arthur started running towards the Town, and it really was Whitedell, by the time he reached it the blizzard was raging, and no inn would open its door to let him in. Right before he wanted to give up, an old and rude seeming man with a big scar on his face came out of an old building and asked Art if he would like to get shelter in the Orphanage.

"So this is an Orphanage" Art asked the old man, "Yes" he answered with a deep voice while stuttering a little. "I am the Janitor of this place" he added, "This place gives off bad vibes and a certain dark aura, I think I better hide who I a-, wait I cannot hide my sword, I think..... I will just tell them that I am a wanderer who was caught off guard by the blizzard, YEAH! That's it" Arthur thought while not changing his expression one tiny bit. "Plea...se come in..." told him the Janitor and Art followed him inside that building that gave him an uneasy feeling and as the old heavy wooden doors squeaked loudly while they were beeing closed, lightning and thunder stroke when they were finally closed followed by silence....

Unknown: "Soon the time is ripe and it will be finished, he will descend and we will rule!" *Phuahahahahaha!!!!!*