Chapter 1

	I still felt the moisture on my hands from sweat, my fingers curled tightly around the hilt of my long sword. I loosened my grip, gently fingering the leather wrap as I took in the sight before me. I've seen dragons before, and this one wasn't all that different. The golden scales glistened brightly, causing it to appear almost metallic, due to the bright sunlight. Though the dragon wasn't what I was looking at particularly, but rather the woman with it. Her hair seemed to bare a metallic look as well, yet it's color was a cobalt blue and her irises, as well, were blue, yet more of a sapphire color.
	One might be able to guess that someone with such a cold color of aura about her would have the same attitude. Though, I could only guess. She wasn't frail, but not really muscular. Athletic might be the word, able to wield the broadsword on her back. Before I knew it, her eyes were upon me, almost in a glare. Already found out, I still took in the rest of her, which really only was her clothes and armor. I neared her slowly, noting the blue-violet tunic like garment on her upper body, slit up the sides. They were pushed opened, as if meant to show off her waist and what one could see of her flat stomach.
	Yet, brightly glistening armor closed the cloth, covering her chest. A breastplate, appropriately enough, connected to the silver shoulder guards. My eyes followed the curves of her waist and hips, moving outwards to her arms, hands covered in black gloves. The 'dress' of the tunic ran down to near her ankles, wrapping about, layering slightly in front of her. But as she walked, the brown boots crushing the grass under her weight, or probably more or less the weight of her armor and sword, the dress slid open slightly, revealing her pale flesh, giving hint that there wasn't much under there. Though a bit ashamed to say so, it almost caused the corners of my lips to lift into a smile.
	Despite the situation, everybody was running about their daily lives, as if nothing was happening. Deep inside, it hurt me really, how it didn’t seem to bother anyone that I was leaving, but there’s nothing I could really do about it. It was only really this point that I realized how primitively we all lived with fields that gave birth to vegetables, stables and pens that held the source of our meat. People rushed about, in and out of the flaps of their erected tents, looking like we were some kind of gypsy tribe. Nomadic, even, but it’s been centuries since we have all left together. While children ran and played, swinging at each other with sticks that in their fantasy world were swords, the teenagers remained off to the side in meditation and training. A small field with several small waterfalls that flowed into a river, that ran straight to Mount Skie, served as the training grounds. Meanwhile, the adults were doing a mixture of things, between tending to the animals and fields, laughing while they watched children play, to helping those training in the magics of a Warlock.
	"The Ice Wolf. Your escort."
	My thoughts had suddenly been interrupted. I had to almost force myself to turn and face the man, the one who had decided that 'it was best for me to leave', without a real care. It was almost like looking into a mirror, I noted as I turned, with his black hair and green eyes. Though my hair was longer than his, mine reaching down to my shoulders, while his was spiked up. He always said it was cute how when I was younger, I refused to cut it.
	"Ice Wolf?" I replied in a questioning tone.
	He had already cleared the distance between us, standing in front of me. It was only then that I really noticed how his left eye was more of a blue than his right, jade in color. I heard it was the effect of the many years of magic use. Some also say that through one eye, they see the normal world, yet through the other is a world where everything is replaced by the colors to represent magical energies. Of course, he was at least a decade older than my twenty-one years, so it was certainly possible.
	"Fenris, the Ice Wolf," he seemed to correct himself. "Not her real name, of course."
	"Of course," I replied, this time in a bit of a mocking tone.
	His garments were the same as mine. A dress of sorts, like the woman's, only colored black with an outline of gold. Mine was red. A sash hugged the silky fabric to our waists, tight black shirts connected to lower part, pressing to our upper bodies. Yet another difference, while his maintained their long sleeves, I had cut mine off at the shoulder some time ago, the edge traced in a crimson color. The final detail seems to be what really made the entire outfit. Two pairs of shoulder garbs, first a chosen color draped over our shoulders (naturally, his gold, mine red) before the second pair, ebony and about an inch longer were thrown neatly over that. Both were stitched together, so as to not separate, golden chains with circular broaches connecting them in front and back.
	"I'm sorry th--"
	"Are you?" I interrupted, arching my brow slowly. "Are you really?"
	I couldn't remember the last time I had actually talked back to Eame. I don't think I ever had.
	"Sevrin, don--"
	This time, it was the woman who interrupted him.
	"Any day now!" Fenris growled, irritated.
	I glanced back over my shoulder towards the bitter woman. The children had already gotten to her at this point, the crowd circling around the dragon, running around it. Although the creature seemed to enjoy the attention, the woman did not. Smirking, I then looked back to the one I had once called a brother, but was now nothing but a traitor.
	"Don't start. I need to leave, remember?"
	"Take this," Eame sighed.
	As he spoke, he shoved a small book to my chest. The bound cover felt strange, like his hand, yet colored ebony with violet tracings. I knew what it was, his spell book, the one given to Adepts when young and still learning. It was a bit insulting, really, given the fact that I wasn't a child anymore. But almost as if just to please him, I took the 'gift' never the less.
	"Thanks," I muttered.
	"Be careful. I hope you find her."
	I didn't say anything to him. Instead, I turned to see Fenris waiting still, impatiently. Even in spite of my situation, I smiled to her.
	"Sorry to have kept you waiting."
	She held that glare once more, before she turned away to her gold-scaled dragon.
	"Hurry up and get on. I have other things to do."
	I smiled, nodding as I eyed the creature almost cautiously. Yet, as I mounted it's back, it remained strangely calm. Probably due to the fact that it's master and trainer was close-by. She climbed on, in front of me, grabbing the reigns and leaning down to kiss the back of it's neck.
	"Okay, hun, let's go," I heard her whisper to it, sitting up. "Hang on, kid."
	"Alri-"
	I was cut off suddenly as the dragon roared, taking to the air, my arms clinging almost desperately to her waist, so as not to fall off the creature. Looking down, I saw that the children that had crowded about the golden creature decided to scatter off to watch in admiration as it's massive wings aided in carrying it through the air. It took me a moment to realize what I had done, and I was a bit surprised she hadn't snapped at me. Yet, as the creature began to fly with more stability, she did make a remark.
	"Enjoying yourself there?"
	I was thrown back into reality, inhaling sharply as I let her go, sitting up. Sarcasm, flirting, I couldn't tell. Yet, I thought it was obnoxious to think the latter, so I immediately assumed the former. Nothing else was said for the majority of the ride. After a few minutes, she spoke up again
	"I'll take you only as far as Pairodis."
	For a moment, I had to recall the map that I was attuned to, of the world around is. Clawrok, our Warlock village, was purposely built in what we thought was the corner of the continent. While massive, almost impassable mountain ranges blocked off the northwestern section of the village where we were camped, the south-east had a smaller range of mountains called the Camler Range, which was the home of one of the tallest known mountains on the continent, Mount Skie. Pairodis, as I recalled, began as a waterfall that spilt out of the mouth on the other side of Mount Skie, and followed down the range, and into a river at the base of the mountain, the start of what we called the Inoeu Plains. After mapping out the path in my mind, I realized it must’ve been quite a trip for her, as even the Camler Range was quite wide. From what I was told before having met her, this woman kept a small stable of dragons in between the land of Camler and Clawrok. Shaking my head for a moment, it turned more into a simple nod in reply to her statement. It wasn't my place to tell her how to do her job.
	"Alright," I agreed verbally, several seconds later.
	I kept a few inches away from her, my fingers clinging desperately and clumsily to the dragon’s scales, for support. It only took several minutes for us to clear the large, bright-green and golden field that separated Clawrok and the mountain range. My bright green eyes must’ve shimmered as I looked at the scene like it was the most wondrous thing I have seen in my life. If you asked me then, I probably would finally admit that, yes, it was my first time I had ever rode a dragon, let alone seen what this field looked like from such a high altitude, even though it wasn’t all that much, only a few thousand feet, to make sure to clear Mount Skie. Thinking back to when I was younger, before I was training, I remember playing in that field, every day. Though, nobody was allowed to go too far away from the campsite, or you wouldn’t be allowed back. Adults told the children legends that beyond a certain point lived many evils, creatures that existed only to hurt, torture, and kill. Such things weren’t really known in Clawrok, and such hostile actions were forbidden. Thusly, one could understand why someone who went too far out wouldn’t be allowed back. They were in fear that someone who ventured out far enough would bring back the evils that tainted not only the world on the other side of the mountain, but even on our side, at the base.	
	This, in turn, made me think back to my sister. I remembered, last week, she would be twenty-five, four years older than me. Looking at Fenris, I began to think about Serah, probably because they were both the same age. At least, Fenris, I was told, was twenty-five. Though in my eyes, she didn’t look a day over twenty. Serah was the only family that I really had. My parents died of a disease, that attacked their heart, when I was only three. Of course, they didn’t tell me this. A child had no place to learn about death, so I wasn’t told what really had occurred until I was eighteen. Adults handle death better, and by that time, know to not let it seep out and taint the children. Yet, Serah didn’t believe in such. She ended up leaving me only six years later, which is when Eame took me in. When I had turned eighteen, they decided to tell me the truth. Apparently, Serah went out too far, on purpose, in hopes of being banished from the village. Then they had the nerve to tell me my sister was a traitor, and she abandoned a Warlock’s way and began to study and advance in Necromancy. Guilty by association, that was the verdict ruled upon me.
	Eame managed to convince the Elders of Clawrok to prolong my stay, until when I reached the age of twenty-one, when an Adept exceeds said level of magic and advances on to the long journey of Masterdom. As you could think, it was a surprise to me, and a dagger in my heart, when Eame told me that it was ruled upon that I would have to leave. He even tried to cheer me up, saying that ‘it would be better that way’. I guess that moment changed my whole outlook on the idea of ‘trust’. Never again did I believe I could trust anyone. Set aside the idea of being forced out into a world that I only learned in geographical lessons and studying maps, I didn’t have the slightest clue what I was getting myself into. All the people that I was taught to ignore, look down upon, and belittle because I was ‘better than them’, or ‘my eyes were open further than theirs’. Now, it was on me to trust all these people. What do you do when all your enemies are friends? The only thing that came to mind was to start with trying to befriend Fenris, which I could tell wouldn’t be easy.
	“You okay back there?”
	I jumped slightly as Fenris spoke to me, blinking free the moist tears that had gathered up in a shield over my eyes. My reply came as a simple nod, with a soft murmur of ‘yes’.
	“Hang on!”
	I blinked at this, when suddenly the dragon angled off to the side. Yelping, I clung to its body again, scared even more so of falling off. Luckily, I got a nice grip upon it’s scales, and I managed to keep stable and not stray off to the side and chance falling. Then I noticed just why the dragon had turned in such a manner; we just curved around the massive Mount Skie. The gigantic crag look amazing from such a view, for I’ve never seen it so close before, at the top was a snowy white color that ended up gleaming down as if some God had taken a handful of pearls and crushed them, sprinkling them around the mountain. Moving down the mountain, the ivory color soon became blotted out with at first large specks of sienna, then the brown color began to simply flood out the pure white, streaking shades of brown running down into the golden mountain range. From the village you could only see the white top of Mount Skie, as much as I had seen anyway.
	Allowing a soft breath to pass through my lips, my thoughts were suddenly interrupted. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glistening that seemed to stand out against the darkening sky. I turned my head, to see what it was, a bit too late as the arrowhead wedged itself between the scales of the dragon's neck, causing it to cry out in pain. It's flight started to become unsteady as it soon began to fall. Fenris swore aloud as the dragon's warm blood splattered on my face. Wiping it away, I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders, yet I insisted on attempting to fight them off. It was a flurry of activity around me, seeing Fenris suddenly tackled off the dragon, a feathered wing slapping me across the face as a brown and white flash went by. My sight adjusted to see the woman plummet, a strange creature following, with the body of a mountain lion, and the bust of an eagle.
	I remember hearing of such a creature. In fact, Eame was the one who had made a reference to them, calling these things 'Gryphons'. As I came closer to the ground, I was pulled from the dragon's back leaving the dragon to hit the ground with an Earth-shattering force. Shortly after, I was thrown to the rocky floor of the mountain cliff, barely hanging onto consciousness. Forcing my eyes shut for a moment, I felt the pain shoot through me as I hit the solid ground. My eyes fluttered open slowly, looking to the side of me, seeing Fenris start to rise. Wincing, I attempted the same, looking around while blinking to clear my vision. Taking note of my surroundings, I noticed we were stuck in the middle of the part of Camler Range that separated Mount Skie and Pairodis. We were so close. Sighing, I knew all too well that we were stuck in the mountain range, our surroundings stained with dull browns and oranges, the kind of colors one would expect to see around a mountain range. Yet, as night came closer and closer to enveloping everything in it’s path, the browns turned to violets and the oranges turned to blues, the topaz colors shifting to shimmering amethysts and sapphires. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw that the top of Mount Skie still stood out, as bright and white as ever. 
	My attention soon snapped back to the matter at hand, as I noticed that Fenris and myself were not alone. I saw the Gryphon that had tackled Fenris, her blood on it's claws, my brain making a note of the wound on her waist, just below the bottom edge of her breast plate. Another stood next to it, glaring at us, ready to pounce. Behind the two creatures, standing tall as if he were their master was the one responsible for the dragon's fall and slow suffering, the crossbow still in his hands, another bolt already loaded into the insert of the shaft. He looked, at first, like a normal human, dark-tan skin and ratty blonde hair, with these dark, glistening brown eyes. Ripped, dirty ivory pants and brown leather shoulder guards made the bulk of his wardrobe apparently, only other notable items being his boots and silver head band, the middle pointing down to protect the bridge of his nose.
	"A thief?" I asked.
	It was then, that I realized this one wasn't human. Two massive golden wings extended from the convex curve of his shoulder blades. I felt my hand subconsciously move to the sword at my waist, as I noted Fenris stand, drawing her own from her back-scabbard.
	"Humph! A hawk man, and a murderous rogue no less. The trained Gryphons were a nice touch. But, I can't let you live for injuring my friend." The Ice Wolf's first few words sounded almost respectful, yet the last statement, I could tell, was malicious. A light click was heard as I started to pull free my sword. But soon, the loaded bolt of his crossbow stared at me, dead-on.
	"I wouldn't recommend that, wouldn't be very wise," the rough voice said, a bit muffled, as if the voice had trouble leaving the vocal chords
 	"We don't have anything for you, so just get the hell out of here," Fenris growled.
	"Whoever said I was here to take something from you?"
	"So you're not a thief?" I asked, trying to buy time.
	“Hardly.”
	Fenris started to walk towards the hybrid, the Gryphons screeching at her. He jabbed the crossbow in my direction almost as if it were a warning, my eyes focused upon the head of the bolt, chanting to myself quietly.
	Fer cres detos...
	“You don’t want your friend to get hurt, now do you?” he asked, smiling almost triumphantly
	Hytos ti fanite...
	“Do you really think he means anything to me?” Fenris responded, scoffing. “I don’t give a damn about him.”
	Suret de tresten.
	Just as Fenris brought her hands up, our attacker pulled the trigger, sending the bolt spiraling towards me, my eyes shutting in reflex. As I finished the chant of the spell, I suddenly felt light as a feather. Soon I allowed my eyelids to lift, focusing in once more as my sight took a fraction of a second to adjust to the flooding light of reality. It took only a second after that to realize what the spell had actually done. The bolt from the crossbow had stopped, not even an inch from my face, still circling in place slowly. I inhaled, sharply, noting how all else was still. Our attacker stood silent, grinning with satisfaction. Fenris, her arms were pulled back, ready to bring her sword down and through the hissing Gryphon, the other in the middle of stalking towards me. Yet, it had been frozen, as if all of time was stopped with my one command, one of the four paws of the creature hovering just above the ground.
	“It worked,” I murmured.
	Everything had stopped, allowing me to move freely as I wished. As my foot extended forth to try walking away, I felt no different as I had several seconds ago. Yet as I looked down, I took note of the fact that I could actually see through myself, my boot having become translucent, seeing through right to the ground. Taking another deep breath, I turned, watching my still, solid body. It was also then that I realized I had just stepped into the arrow, yet I remained unharmed. The breath flowed out yet again through my slightly parted lips as I took my time, walking along, a straight line towards the rogue and passing through him. Turning slowly, I was now facing his back, and I repeated the last line of the chant. My sight was suddenly bleached out, white light blinding me temporarily. After several seconds had passed, my sight slowly began to repair as I came to realization that I was now behind our attacker, not just spiritually, but physically as well.
	The arrow had flown right through the air, hitting the ground. As I heard the end of Fenris’ battle cry, her blade sliced through the beak and feathered skull of the Gryphon, splattering blood across the ground. It then registered to the thief that I was behind him, and he turned while reloading the crossbow.
	“Damn you!”
	He lifted the crossbow to fire, yet my long sword rose, propelled with my left hand. The cold steel of the blade whistled through the air, the movement suddenly halted slightly as the razor sharp edge came into contact with his skin, pushing further along to the bone of his elbow joint. I growled, pushing harder as I put both of my hands on the hilt, tightening my grip around the leather-wrap. It suddenly flung up, chipping off the bone, a piece of crimson-stained ivory flying off to the side as his arm thudded to the ground in a pooling spray of blood.
	He cried out in obvious pain, falling to his knees and holding his arm as it bled, the appendage now ending at the elbow. I heard the blade pass through the feathered neck of the first Gryphon, taking its head off. Yet, the second one had decided to commence it’s attack upon me. It crouched, low to the ground, then screeched as it leapt forward, landing on the back of its master, the claws digging into the back of his neck, tearing the flesh out, the poor man soon bleeding to death. Once he had died, the creature let another echoing screech out before it jumped towards me, pushing its massive paws against my shoulders, the talons piercing through my flesh and into my shoulders, sending wave after wave of shocking pain through my nervous system. The tendons in my shoulder were soon shredded, torn apart and rendering the joints useless, yet I soon felt two sources, well three, of a thick warmth. First was, of course, my shoulders, the blood soaking through the fabric of my tunic.  But I soon noticed that the other source had actually come from the Gryphon itself. As it had pounced upon me, it had accidentally impaled itself upon my sword, its stomach split wide open as it bled, still with fight as it continued to claw at my torso, screeching insanely.
	I gasped, quite audibly, as a sudden schink was heard, the blade of Fenris’ broadsword passing right through the neck of the creature that pinned me, coming dangerously close to my face. The thick red bodily fluids of the Gryphon poured profusely from the wound as it gave up its attempt to claw me to death. That sickening taste of copper soon hit my taste buds, my mouth having been left open from gasping, the Gryphon’s blood pouring through the parted lips, causing me to choke and spit the blood out. She grunted, pulling the sword from the throat of the beast, and pushed it off me. Choking and coughing still, I saw her step over me, pulling the blade up, then slamming it down into its head this time, repeating the action several times, more and more blood hitting against my face, the warmth seeming to almost protect me from the strangely cold breeze that had come over the mountain range.
	Night had completely fallen, the darkness taking over the sky. I recalled tales of this mountaintop at night, how it got so cold it sometimes snowed, and by the time the morning had come, it got so warm, all the snow melted. It would explain the strange moisture. Though, all these thoughts began to slip away from me, as I felt the warmth within my body pour through the open lips of the wounds upon my shoulders, stomach and chest. Soon, I accepted the inevitable. Honestly, I told myself, it was doubtful at this point that I would make it any further. Fenris didn’t seem like any type of healer, and it wouldn’t be long before I bled to death. My consciousness was, though, first to fall victim to the blood-loss, I knew, and I knew that it was close as everything around me started to get darker and darker. The last thing I truly recalled at that time was Fenris’ face hovering over my own, her warm gloved hand wiping blood from my face and around my eyes. Her silvery-blue hair hung around my face, almost as if acting like a blanket from the cold. Then, I heard her voice, just as I slipped away.
	“Hang on, kid. Don’t go dying on me.”