To Tell a Tale

Long, long time ago, a war started in a small city. At first it was seen as a simple civil war, but it was odd. Noticing this oddness it's neighbor cities tried to put an end to it. But for some reason their involvement revolved back at them. The war began to spread over to near cities, then towns, and soon enough the kingdom's capital also got caught on it.

Sometime passed, and no one could understand whose fault was behind that war. But it kept on spreading over the continent, violence and fear grew bigger by moment, and then the kingdom's king befell to it. The world was soon dominated by war and no place was safe, it was a fight or die life from then on.

Somewhere near the borders of the main continent, a weapon was created. A weapon strong enough to corrode even the strongest metal and take lives without any pain to it.

The first to be victim of such weapon was a big city that remained neutral during the war, neither people nor building was left standing, only a black and gruesome mass of poisonous gas, or that's what "they" thought.

Creatures born from the places that had fallen victim to the weapon appeared at cities's gates, creatures without a common form to be called, were then named Nightmares.

As the war reached its peak stage and the little peace that existed almost being eaten by nightmares, hope was no more and despair would prevail at any moment. A light came, a warm and soft light that engulfed the entire world and brought peace to the heart of all people.

An event that was a mark that the war was coming to an end, a good ending, this event was then called The Might Descend.

"And, end." Mom said, closing the story book in one go. "Sleepy already?" She whispered while getting up from the bedside.

"...Uh." I nodded, my eyes were almost closing by themselves, the warmness and softness of the blanket was just making me more sleepy.

"Then off to sleep..." She said quietly while putting the book back in the shelf. "Have good dreams." Swiftly she went to the outside and quietly closed the door.

"Night..." I answered before finally falling asleep, with a nice grin in my face.

From the room one could see the moon shining brightly in the sky in the form of a banana, and could also hear the workers coming back from the woods and the mine, humming songs and laughing among themselves, all heading towards their home or the tavern, since there were close to no inn in the village, by close to no I mean zero.

Filled with dreams of what I could be when I get older and the thoughts of how peaceful here is, the night, my night went by smoothly.

"Nham, chomp, humgh, gulp." It's me eating breakfast as if it were the last. "Where are your manners!" Mom complained.

"Sorry, mom, I, nham, gulp... am in a hurry." Honestly I woke late just because today is a calm-day meaning, no school, and forgot that I had an appointment, for worse after changing clothes and brushing my teeth I came to eat breakfast, then noticed that I forgot my pouch, again, after rushing back and forth I had to eat in a hurry then rush out of home. "I'm leaviiing!" I said while putting on my boots and going out.

"Morning, Dad!" I shouted to my dad who was working in the field right beside the house and a immediate reply came. "Hey, son, be careful near Mido!" He shouted out so loud that almost everyone in the village could hear. How embarrassing, dad. I thought while hurrying off.

"Hehe, making your daddy worry again, Paulie?" A neighbor asked. "No way, haha." I laughed a bit while scratching the back of my head still moving my legs.

And as I passed by their houses the others villagers would occasionally laugh while teasing me. "Hey, Paulie, boy, don't play around in Mido too much, it's dangerous with those monster out there so be careful." Joel's Dad warned me. "Got it, sir." An immediate response before rushing again.

From Joel's house didn't take much time to reach the east fence of the city, it's made of iron and scrap, kinda old but does the job for keeping the village safe, well, at least I feel safe.

At a hidden spot of the fence is a dug hole, that has enough space for kids to pass through, not adults though, I passed to it and went into the forest, Mido Forest is it's name, it's a home for lots of animals, monsters and some other creatures, sadly no nightmares. Do they even exist for real? I asked myself, but no point thinking about this. Gotta hurry.

"Huff, I'm here..." I reached the place, exhausted, "You're late!" A shout coming from a tree right behind me.

"Huff, may I ask again, is it normal for rich kids to climb trees?" I said with a tone of sarcasm, hoping he would get it, useless. "Pfft, maybe if I were a common and cowardly boy no, but I am the vice-leader of the party." He closed his fist and punched the air in front of him to say. "A mere tree climbing won't be scaring me so soon." And that's Tarry, son of a rich family which has the biggest house in the village, and in my opinion, his house couldn't be called a mansion, it wasn't that big, but still bigger than mine.

"Why are you doing so much noise for? It's way past the meeting time, I say." A female voice coming from the tree house's lookout complained. "Wait, there's no way. No way that I got here after you Zellia!?" I got perplexed, sure I am late, but to be more than her who always takes hours to brush that long and crystal-blue hair of hers, I just can't believe it, no I won't believe it, she must have cheated. Yep, let's go with that. Is what I thought but better not say it out loud, still have some bruises. "Humph." She buffed right followed by a grin.

"Heey, huff, puff, ahh..." A male-voice coming from the same way I came exhaling out loud and waving a bit before stopping his tracks by my side trying to catch his breath. "Ohh, I'm not the last one." I cheered up. "That is not a good thing, you know." Then Zellia put me back down.

"Bru-uh. I'm super tired." The complaint came from Hector, his dad is a nice and hardworking rancher, he continued. "Dad made me stay up 'till late helping him search for the cattle that has gone missing." As he finished explaining, he went back to breathing heavily.

"Cattle has gone missing?" I asked. "Why is that?"

"No idea, bruh." He replied.

Then another male voice coming from the tree house highest window echoed through the place, turning everyone's heads towards it. "I know the answer for that question!" He said in a quite dignified way, making it sound very investigator-like.

"Joel!" I said out loud, quite excited, it's been a while since I last saw him since he began working. "That's my name, Paul." he replied in a cool way, that cool and quite handsome guy, with brown hair that has a certain smooth touch but with hard sides that reaches the ears but covering only half of it, is Joel, the oldest of our party and our leader, his dad is a great farmer but he chose to work at the guard post. Is he really thinking of leaving? I thought to myself, glancing to the ground, then turned my eyes to Joel who just signaled us to come in.