Future Foretold

Ot was nearly sunrise before everyone arrived at the Castle.

'I should ask Karik what the castle was called or give it a name.'

The goblin tribe had mixed feelings seeing the disheveled state of the castle. The walls seemed sturdy, besides sections of the wall missing, and the courtyard was much larger then they needed. They were happy about that.

"Okay everyone" Lovo clapped his hands. "I will be inside the castle. I can't stay out during the day. My skeletons can. I'm leaving Julki in charge of defense. If you all wish to sleep feel free to take up the Inn as it has enough room for all of you." The tribe was only 30 strong at this point. They lost nearly a third of their members.

"Feel free to look for me in the castle if you have any questions."

With that Lovo left and let the goblins to their own devices.

Once he was inside he used his Flesh Clean skill on the rest of the corpses. He extracted all the bones from the beasts and had one of his skeletons bring them all down to the dungeon. He was planning on turning that into his room. Mainly because it was close to Karik. He also ordered another skeleton to bring down a coffin and blankets for him to sleep in."

Julki, Grimmal and Atlas carried out what remained of the beast corpses for the goblins. They graciously thanked the skeletons for the food. Once that was done Julki and the other two started to patrol the castle walls.

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Toma started to direct his people. He had the crafters, mainly sowers, start to make bedding inside the inn for everyone. He also ordered the best farmers to start clearing some of the foliage to build a farm inside the walls.

Kipi and Gega took the initiative and started to descale and clean the meat they were giving. Kipi had another hunter dig a large hole and place cloth down. This was their way of trying to keep the meat as fresh as possible. They used their stone knives to cut off the scales and patches of fur. They wanted to keep the skills as trophies, but Lovo was the one to kill them and had right to them.

"This meat will be great! When's the last time we had something this good!?" One of the hunters spoke.

"Not since Ji killed that Plains Deer. It was a ferocious battle, but the deer tasted so good" Gega said.

The hunters sat around for the next couple hours skinning the beasts. They chatted about some of the great hunts and how soon they will have some as well. They were still wary of Lord Lovo, but he seemed like a decent person. For a Vampire.

Back at the inn Toma was helping the other tribe members clean up the place. They removed all the sticks, cob webs and leaves. Some of the crafters finished a couple beds and had the largest room ready for everyone to sleep in. They wanted to all share one room before they either had to make new homes or fill in the rooms here. Since this was technically Lord Lovo's castle Toma wanted to ask him what he planned. He decided to completely change his sleep schedule. He would take naps through the day and night. 5 hours of sleep during the day and 5 during the night. He decided to be the first to sleep while everyone finished cleaning. No one really had a problem with that. In fact some were happy. They knew while they slept he would be up and be able to handle anything involving Lord Lovo.

Nearly half the day went by. Everyone was working tirelessly to make this a nice new home. Members of the cleaning crew finished cleaning the inn, besides some old wood and missing wood, the hunters were just about done cleaning the meat to cook and even the farmers had enough room to start a farm. The luckiest part was the well inside the castle walls still had water in it!

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Nearly an entire continent away an old Elf sat in a marble room with gold etchings. He wore luxurious white pearl robes with emerald green linings and black embroidered runes. He sat in a mediation position and slowly opened his eyes. This was Grand Wizard Tython. He is a powerful mage of the High Elf empire and has been an advisor to the king for the last 400 years.

"Interesting prophecy. A world on the brink of war and destruction. The collapse of civilization. A dark shadow looming over. The savior; an unlikely hero. A Vampire. I wonder who it can be?"

His voice was horse but wisdom could be heard from his long years of life.

"I should inform the king."

He quickly rose from his spot and left his chambers. The guards outside all wore enchanted blue armor made from the scales of dragons. The each had a halberd in their hands.

The Grand Wizard walked pasted and made his way to the Kings Throne room. As he walked other mages under his tutorage bowed before him. They would only seen him every so often. He only left his meditation chambers when he foresaw a prophecy of great importance.

The Kings Throne room was as stunning. Two large Steel Oak doors with blue and gold runes carved into them. It would take the might of an Elder Dragon to break these door. The guards outside immediately opened the door for the Grand Wizard. Normally he would send letters to the King involving minor issues. If he showed himself personally then it was of grave importance.

The doors opened revealing the King on his throne, his queen on hers next to him and the heir to the throne on his other side. King Aegnor and Queen Saeldis ruled the High Elf Empire for over 400 years. Their heir was their only child. Princess Tiaela was 100 years old and would inherit the throne once she came of age.

Inside the room Nobles sat on either side of the throne room. The right side were the Isolationist and preferred to stay out of other mortals affairs. The other side was the Radicalists. They preferred to work with other mortal races to have a strong alliance to defend against any that threaten them. They were even willing for forgive the Dwarves and Surons of past transgressions. This was the Isolationists wanted to avoid. Every time they got involved with other races they would be dragged into conflicts that had nothing to do with them.

The Royal family sat on their thrones listening to both sides argue.

When the doors opened and the Grand Wizard stepped in the entire room went silent. Many of the Nobles never seen the Grand Wizard and those that have gave him the most respect.

The King stood up and spoke.

"Grand Wizard Tython! What bring you here?"

Grand Wizard Tython bowed before the King.

"My apologies your highness. I know we have maters of the kingdom being discussed and I hate to intrude." He have a cheeky smile.

As he turned around two mages walked in with a cauldron. They placed it down next to the Grand Wizard and handed him a small bag of ingredients. The two locked hands forming a circle around the opening of the cauldron. The Grand Wizard started to say an incantation and throwing the ingredients into the cauldron.

After a few minutes smoke started to bellow out of the cauldron and formed a cloud inside the Throne room. It was a deep black color, but slowly started to lighten up and showed images.

The first image was shadow figures of elves living peacefully in their cities. Soon everything started to rumble as an army of darkness descended onto their cities and slaughtered its people. Bright white images of people showed up with the center wearing golden armor. It was the King and his armies. They fought back against the armies of darkness before being overwhelmed and killed.

The scene changed again to the Kingdom of man and Dwarves fighting against similar shadow figures. Some looked to be in shapes of Orcs, Goblins, Undead and the Rakari (Ratmen). They swept through the lands of the Mortal races and killed them all.

Again changing scenes the Surons kept to their temples and used magic to create powerful barriers around their lands. But inside their temples a darkness grew and grew before their entire kingdom vanished.

The last scene showed the Princess and Queen mustering the last of their army to battle the darkness. The put up a valiant effort of fighting the darkness but were soon overwhelmed, just like their King. Although, soon a bright light shined that rescued the Princess and Queen. A man in blood red armor with bat wings appearing behind him for a brief moment. He extended a hand to the Princess and lifted her up. Shortly after an army of grey appeared and pushed back the armies of darkness. The grey army consisted of all manor of races; Goblins, Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Undead, Orcs and even the extremely secluded Surons.

The smoke started to dissipate once the grey army showed.

Everyone in the Throne room were unsettled. They knew this was the way the Grand Wizard showed the prophecies he witnessed. If what he showed was true then the End Times were upon us all. Not only was many of the mortal races slain but they lost their King and their most powerful army. What shocked everyone the most was the grey army and a Vampire saves them?! How could this be?! Why would a Vampire save them. Vampires were the enemy of the living. They thirst for power and control. Killing all those to obtain it. Why would one of them save the Elves?!