1 The Harbinger: Cameron the Scaleless

Black, vivid darkness seeped down the slopes of the valley. I waded my way through the thick fog of night until I reached the bottom of a cliff. I hoisted myself up with the last remaining fragments of my strength and looked out towards the sky. At the ridge's edge stood a man in an intricately carved series of plates and a red cloak draped upon his shoulders, illuminated by the silver glow of moonlight. I dug my fingers into the ground and pulled myself towards him. Once I was finally at his metal-plated boots I looked up at his visor. "Why? Everything we have ever known and loved, gone?"

He clasped his hands behind his back. "There's beauty in it. Don't you agree?"

I looked down at how the darkness twisted and churned the land. The ground itself was made into clay in its dark embrace as the night writhed to and fro.

"Do you know what is so wonderful about a canvas?"

"Answer my question."

"It is full of endless possibilities. Right or wrong, all shall be made manifest upon its blank void. From nothingness springs life."

"Chaos."

"Life is chaos. So it has been, and from that chaos shall reign order everlasting."

I tried to stand, but I could only fall to my knees. In the distance I could see it: A city of ethereal blue caught in between the lapping flames of yellow and red. All to be consumed by the darkness.

They knelt next to me and placed a soft hand on my cheek. "Sleep now. A new world is dawning, and it waits for no one."

A great, harrowing, roar, echoed into the night, as long thorny wings unfurrowed, blotting out the silver moon.