Prologue

A prelude to the next installment of the Tales of Talon Series. The prologue reminds us of what has happened previously and sets the stage for what will happen now.

Everyone has a moment in their life that they wish it were possible to go back in time and erase.  Every man or woman has what they would consider their "Darkest Hour".  Leading up to the hour, nobody expects what the event to take place, but after it does, we all wish it could be taken back.  Sadly, part of life is the cruel reality that there are no take backs.  What's done is done.  Those that do good will cherish those moments forever, and those that do evil can never change the past, even if they wanted to.

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These are the tales of the traveling mercenary Talon, and his loyal friend Willard.  Talon and Willard used to be part of one of the most famous mercenary companies in the land of Tyseria, known as the Valor Mercenaries.  Lord Lucian, and his band the Valor Mercenaries were noted as heroes among the land of Tyseria for saving the region from the evil reign of the Nazrogoth Empire.  Lucian was the only warrior who was noted across the world by name, all the fame of his followers and fellow warriors fell under the name "Valor Mercenaries".

For men like Talon and Willard, simply being a nameless figure in Tyseria's great history was no longer enough.  Late one night, the great marksman and assassin, Talon left Fort Valor and the crew of mercenaries that he never particularly cared for (especially their leader) to begin his own quest for fame, glory, and especially wealth.  Having similar ambitions, the blue former knight of Laos, Willard, followed.  The two made it to a tavern called the Wandering Journer in the small town of Silverthorne, not far from the Valor Forest.  While Willard was trying to impress the local pub's women, Talon earned the intention of a potential employer who offered to pay the archer a considerable sum to assassinate a particular woman who was being held captive by the Unforgiving Sword.  Talon considered the task easy money, and agreed to accept the job, as any hired mercenary most likely would.

The skilled archer and veteran warrior sneaked deep into the Valor Forest, found the Unforgiving Sword's outpost and located the woman he was assigned to kill.  Being reminded of a former acquaintance by the look of this lady's green eyes, Talon hesitated to take his shot.  The woman noticed her assassin, called him out, and revealed herself as the Sorceress Oceana.  Oceana also revealed that the money that was paid to Talon, by his employer Morphus, was nothing but enchanted dust.  Talon, infuriated that he had been fooled, let the Sorceress out of captivity.  Oceana insisted on finding her mystical spellbook, so Talon decided to leave her to die at the hands of the mercenaries.  Ironically, as he left, Talon ran into the entire gang of the Unforgiving Sword led by Kilvren Nightblade.  Talon bested the mercenaries until he had a one on one battle with Kilvren the wielder of the black sword.  Kilvren easily brought the archer to near death, but Talon was then saved by Oceana who had regained her spell book.  Kilvren left the woods, as he felt it was more important to continue his conquest against his former teacher, Atticus, then to die in a fight against an opponent he truly did not care about.

Oceana brought Talon to a hill overlooking the Valor Forest and began to heal his wounds with her magic.  Meanwhile, back in Silverthorne Morphus felt that his enchantment wore off of the dust he had given to Talon, so he sent his lackey Bruno the Axe Wielding Berserker to go finish the job he had expected Talon to do.  Willard, after getting his wallet stolen by a beautiful and mysterious woman who left Silverthorne, overheard a conversation between Bruno and Morphus where their intent to kill Talon was expressed, and followed Bruno to the hilltop where the two encountered Talon who was being healed by Oceana.

Willard defeated Bruno in a very intense battle and Oceana revealed a little of who she was to Talon.  It was discovered that Oceana and Morphus were part of a clan of people known as the Ancients who were immortal and incredibly powerful.  Oceana took one look at the archer and realized why Morphus had CHOSE Talon to attempt to assassinate her.  The Sorceress also revealed to the mercenaries that Talon had something evil within him that would eventually take over and cause him much pain and make him do terrible things.  She pitied him for being born.

After the battle with Bruno, a temporarily weakened Oceana left an injured Willard and an unconscious Talon.  Willard carried his companion down the road towards the town of Pelmridge, until he fell to the ground unconscious as well due to excessive blood loss.

The introduction to Talon's Tale is over, and it's second adventure begins.  As the story continues, things will get much darker and the two mercenaries will face many challenges of the likes they have never experienced before.  Here is the Tale of Talon's Rising Darkness Within.

Reviews

[Shep]

well that was a nice recap of the first book. For me i would have left it with the first pargraph and gon on from there. I have seen done so many ways including this way and have considered doing it my self so the jury still out. Notify me when you have more.

[DarkCrono15]

Will do! You'll be the first to know. I wasn't sure if i wanted to do a recap or just leave it mysterious. On one hand, the recap catches anyone up who for some reason hasn't read the first book. On the other hand, it was kind of on the annoying side to write. For now, it works haha.

[AWickedMoon]

I love the way you started off the prologue but I find the middle to be to "crammed" with information. I like your writing style. I thought I found one place where a re-wording might come in handy. Though when reading this I thought it more as a short story then a prologue, and if that’s what you’re going for that’s great! I did start to read the first chapter and I must say I do enjoy Willard. Also in the last sentence you wrote girl “gir l”. I look forward to reading the rest of your book.

[DarkCrono15]

Thanks a lot AWickedMoon! Did you get a chance to read the first book? This one may make more sense if you read the first one first, I appreciate any feedback and review! I'll definitely work out better wording for it all (including this prologue) once I get the entire series up.

Thanks for the mention of the typo, I'll go and fix it now!