It was early in the night and Kiro and Roje had to get back to their campsite before the night fully set in. It was their first night on the road, since they got kicked out of Gambder, a small town on the east coast. They had no idea where they were going and no idea what they were going to do. Kiro, tall with long silver shinning hair, was the only one of them that had had some personal experience on the road and with the creatures of the night...Roje on the otherhand hadn’t left his town in the 14 years since he had arrived. Roje was tall and bulky with short blonde hair.They had both spent most of their life in weapons training. Roje always preferred his one handed battle axe and short sword, everyone thought it was a weird combination to use them together but no one could use them as well as him. Kiro on the other hand preferred the old styles of the duel wielding Scimitars. Both Kiro and Roje were humans in a purely non human world...
Not much is really known about either of these two though. Kiro is a lone warrior that wields two scimitars, which were given to him by a monk in the high mountains in Hargrash. He is fairly sized, slim at the least, with a muscular build. His heritage comes from the olden monk warriors called Shintra and also from Death Knights, which is where he gets his attitude from. He has traveled from town to town to try and figure out the use of his existence in the plane. He thinks he doesn’t belong to anyone or anything and that he has some greater purpose meant for him. So he searches that out for half of his life up until he comes to Gambder and meats up with Roje. Roje is almost the opposite of Kiro. His blood line descends from both the barbarians and knights of the old ages. Both of his parents died when he was fairly little, so he has had to fend for himself almost his entire life. He wields his Axe and Short sword with pride and honor, for his Axe was his father’s and his Sword was his mother’s. His mother was a knight of the king’s army, one of the highest ranks. And his father was a high class desert barbarian. His parents met while in battle. No one really knows how that turned out, or the cause and effect situation with Roje’s parents to his birth.
Roje had trained his entire life using both of his parents weapons, and is now one of the only known people to use that mixture of weapons and fighting style. And one of the last remaining of his blood line that he knows of. He met Kiro in Gambder, while he was doing some mercenary work there, and decided to work with Kiro’s cause.
Back in Gambder, there were some terrible things going on in that town that Kiro had tried to stop. But no one paid any head to what he had said and continued doing them. Little did they know that they were the ones summoning all the demons that had arisen lately and that they would be the reason for their own demise. Kiro and Roje tried to stop them several times, but the town’s people just ignored them and kept on going on with their business, and eventually kicked both Kiro and Roje out of the town. That is when they decided they would go straight to the source of the summoning and to the only place where the evil was evident....Darkness Hollows. It was a dark, murky, swamp filled forest in the middle of the desert area known as Shangarta...
Later that night they had reached a perfect spot to set up camp. Once they got everything set up they decided to strategize their next move towards the Darkness Hollows. As usual Roje was making the dinner, which happened to be squirrel again, and Kiro was out getting fire wood. "So where to after we visit Rotila?" Roje asked. "Truly, I don’t really know my friend," Kiro said bluntly, "We just need to find more clues to where this damned summoning takes place, and we already know that someone is controlling the townsfolk..We just don’t know who or from where."
"Well, what if we do find something of use in Rotila that could probably lead to some clue about the demonic summoning?" Roje retorted, "We have no way to get anywhere on the supplies we have been given!" "Well, we could always do some mercenary work around the town, if it is needed. Therefore we could find some clues while earning some gold to get supplies. Or just work for supplies and food." Kiro suggested. "That might work because this is a fairly dangerous area, it shouldn't be too hard to find work."
"Well lets worry about it when we get there..." Roje commented.
"Your right, we need to get some sleep...Did you want to take first watch, Roje?"
"Yes, I guess I will take first watch..You took first watch last night. Get some sleep, you will need the rest."
When sunrise came, so did the heat and the last ashes of the nights fire burned away under Kiro's watch. "Time to wake my friend, we have along way to go.” Kiro had nudged Roje's shoulder to wake him up, “Damned Kiro, is it that time already?"
"Yes, it is...We have a long way to go till we reach Rotila and we will be traveling straight through goblin and Orc territory so we need to get moving before they arouse. I want to be as far through that area as I can be before they start their scouting..
Kiro and Roje both put on their desert cloaks and began to break camp, and finally got on the road towards Rotila.
"Kiro, do you smell that. Move silently my companion and seek shelter in the trees...We are not alone" Roje was half smiling as he gripped the handle of his axe and sword. There were a group of goblin scouters coming near the immediate area around them. Kiro jumped and climbed into the foliage of a tree and took out his bow. Roje just stood there near another tree directly across from Kiro.
Approximately 3 minutes later a group of 5 goblins slipped into the clearing, not knowing who/what awaited them. As they went through half of the clearing Kiro shot an arrow straight through their leader's throat, blood spewing everywhere. The rest of the goblins held up their shields and swords looking around nervously. That's when Roje came out and threw his axe into the next goblins head. This caught all of the goblins off guard. Roje jumped onto the dead goblins body grabbing his axe out as he went. Kiro, in the meantime shot off two more arrows, killing two more goblins, gruesomely. Roje then thrusted his short sword into the remaining goblins eye socket, killing him instantly.
"Well, that was quite fun," Roje commented while wiping the drying goblin blood off of his axe and sword. "Yes, but didn't last all that long." Kiro was smiling as he jumped from the tree. "My scimitars are quite hungry now; I think they are mad because I chose the bow instead of them." Kiro laughed as he put his bow back on his back. "Well we should probably be making are way now before the rest of the group shows up...Shall we?"
"I am not really looking forward to going through the orcish lands to get there...Is there any other way around the Orcish lands to get to Rotila?" Roje was fiddling with his axe "Well yes there is but I would take an extra day or two to get there and we don't really have that much time."
"But we can't possibly hope to fight a bunch of rabid orcs!" Roje stopped cold in his tracks. "You underestimate us, my friend.” Kiro grinned and kept walking, then Roje decided to follow. It really wasn't all that far to Rotila, it was just through a treacherous area. They would have to be extremely careful through this trek of their trails. This was just the beginning of their journey, if they messed up this early on….They would never be able to find out who was behind the demonic summoning.
The next day they had finally made it to the edge of the orcish territory. Neither was very happy at what they had seen. Scores upon scores of orcs were just rampaging around destroying anything that moved. Both quickly hid behind a couple of trees to watch the madness. Thankfully none of the orcs had seen them. “This is crazy, what are we going to do now Kiro?”
“To tell you the truth, Roje, I haven’t a clue. I can’t possibly kill enough of them with my arrows to make a difference in this matter.” Kiro sighed as he fiddled with his bow. They both contemplated on the mess as the sun began to sink farther into the horizon, giving the surrounding forest an orange glow.
Roje and Kiro were too busy watching the scene in front of them to realize what was going on behind them. They were caught by surprise when 2 orcs came up behind them and knocked them senseless. Both Kiro and Roje fell to the ground immediately unconscious. Later they finally woke up and realized that these were no ordinary orcs. They were indeed more intelligent and cunningly swift to be normal orcs. These were 2 demon orcs that could speak any language they chose and much stronger than normal. “What the hell is this you damned orc?” Roje struggled to stand but couldn’t find it in his strength to do so. The first orc slammed his fist onto the table in front of them, “Shut up human! You’re under our control now. You’ll not be ‘scapin very easily. We will be takin you to the leader. Or we will just be executin you!”
Kiro finally got to his senses and started looking around the room, “What exactly do you want with us?” The orc just snorted at the question. “I said, what the hell do you want with us? You damned dirty orc!” Kiro was getting impatient with this. “You really don’t know who the hell you are messing with.”
The orcs started to laugh at him, now this was just pissing Kiro off even more. “Kiro, hold your tongue. These aren’t ordinary orcs. There is something more to them.” Roje whispered
The orcs started getting fidgety, “Can we just kill’em ’n get it over with? I don’t feel like waiting for the Shaggra to get here.” The first orc said finally. “You know that the Shaggra will eat us instead of dem, if we don’t leave them alive. You know he likes fresh raw meat.”
“What the hell is a Shaggra, Kiro” Roje said a little nervously. “HAHAHA you stupid humans, you’ll see the Shaggra when he gets here to have his long awaited dinner.” Both of the orcs started laughing again. “You know, he could always eat both of your dead bodies!” Kiro was standing now both of his arms tied behind his back.
“How dare you speak to us like that, filthy human,” the orcs stood up and faced Kiro. They were also taller than the average orc. They were both approximately 9-10 feet in height, and both had a strong, but slow, physical build. Oh, and nasty breath.
“How dare I speak to you, no, how dare you hold us like this…You will be paying for this, with your lives.” Kiro’s eyes flared a sharp red for a second then dimmed down. His hands were now somehow free as well.
“How in the nine hells did you do that? You know what, I don’t even want to know I will crush you!” But before the orc could finish his sentence, Kiro was already racing towards his scimitars. An orcish first came at him fast, but he dived under it, sliding right up to his scimitars and belt. Scimitars flashing wildly, the orcs backed out of his way going to get their clubs. Meanwhile Kiro had tossed Roje his sword and axe. Roje then chopped himself free of the rope and held his weapons closely.
It was a showdown, orcs versus humans. Each eyed each other with the thought of slaying racing through their minds. The orcs attacked first. The first orc, across from Kiro, had swung his club over his head and aimed it right down on Kiro. He just side stepped out of the way and lashed both of his scimitars in a diagonal slash slicing at the orcs weapon hand. Roje was dealing with the same attack pattern. He just held his axe up and caught the full swing of the club with his axe, locking the attack and almost buckling his knees. Then Roje came with a full swing of his short sword and swiped at the orcs stomach barley nicking the orc.
All four fighters held their own for a long while with no inclinations of the battle ending soon. Their movements were slowing almost to a crawl. Blood and flesh stained each weapon. Kiro had blood dripping off of his face from a head shot from the orc, and Roje’s breathing was coming in short gasps from a jab in the gut from the orc’s giant club. Then finally the two warriors decided to turn the pace a little. The orc that was fighting with Roje decided he wanted another shot at his gut and thrusted his club hard, Roje just side stepped and swung his axe hard, cutting off the orcish hand. Blood spewed everywhere, staining the floor and the axe. Roje took the surprise for granted and thrusted his sword viciously into the orcs throat and then twisted and pulled out. The orc screamed in pain and growled horrendously, then just dropped to the floor and disappeared into thin air! Kiro was having little trouble turning the tables on his orc while Roje stopped to catch his breath. This orc was a clumsy fighter, but tough and able to sustain loads of damage. The orc decided to take a sweeping blow to Kiro’s left side. Kiro did an X-formation block and drop kicked the orc hard in the gut then pushed off , then flipped back onto his feet while swinging both of his scimitars up into the orcs face, scarring the orc across both eyes. The orc had been blinded and Kiro just smiled and jabbed both of his scimitars into the orcish flesh, penetrating the heart, if the damned thing had a heart, only to watch the orc disappear like the last.
“What in the name of the nine hells just happened?” Kiro said breathlessly.
“I haven’t a clue my friend,” Roje has just caught his breath and was wiping orcish blood and flesh off of his axe and sword. “This was just weird. I haven’t a clue where they went, and further more what if the Shaggra shows up? I still don’t know what the hell that thing is!”
“Then I suggest we move, gather up the supplies and I will head outside to see where we are.” Kiro ran out of the building. Only to discover that they had lost a lot of ground and it was dead night. He walked around for a few short moments to figure out how much ground they had lost and how far they must go to get it back. He discovered then that they were in neither the goblin or orc territory. He was guessing he was somewhere in the scale region, which is north east of the goblin territory. He quickly ran back inside the building.
“Roje, we need to leave now!”
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“We’ve lost more than just a couple of days, we are somewhere in the scale territory I am guessing,”
“WHAT!?!?!?!”
“Yes those orcs carried us far away, and fast. We need to leave before this Shaggra decides to show its self”
“Ok, I am almost done with everything here. Just grab your scimitars and supplies and then we can get the hell out of here.”
“Ok”
Kiro strapped back on his belt and waited on Roje to get his stuff together, then they started heading out of the building. When they opened the door to the outside they were both in shock. It was the middle of the night yet it looked like the middle of the day. No, the sun was not up. The stars and moon were not visible under the sky. But everything was just brighter than anything they had seen. It almost hurt their eyes to gaze upon it. The creatures here were running rampant with no idea where they were going.
“Is everything around us just going crazy, Kiro?”
“I am starting to think that way…I think we should just pass by this and start heading in the direction towards Rotila.”
“Ok, lets try and avoid these scale and move as fast as possible.”
“Works for me, try to keep up!”
Kiro started walking at a brisk pace, and Roje matched him. Then Kiro began to jog and go faster as the distance increased. Roje was matching him pace per pace. They made incredible time this way. They kept this pace for a while until they figured they were away from the rampaging scale.
“Kiro, I think we can rest now.”
“Yes, I believe we can. I don’t think that this Shaggra is of any threat to us.”
Right as they sat down in the cold, wet grass of the forest, they started hearing a banging through the forest. They both took up arms and waited nervously for the approaching storm.
Shortly after that, a huge 10ft humanoid demon stumbled upon them. It had bluish green scales covering its large biceps and entire legs; Three eyes, 2 on the front of its face and one on the top of its head, its pupils were red with its infrared sight. Its mouth was worse. A head full of sharp blood stained teeth. This must have been Shaggra. Drool was dripping from its mouth It was blood hungry, and it had two meals in mind: Kiro and Roje.
Shaggra smelled them out, searching through the forest. It had tracked them down since the scale territory. It came to a stop a few short feet from Kiro. Kiro twitched his foot nervously and the scale demon jerked immediately in his direction. Kiro crouched down into his readied stance. One scimitar behind him in an offensive position and one in front for defense. The moment Shaggra lunged its arm out at Kiro, Roje had stepped out of hiding and threw his axe out as hard and fast as he could at the demons head.
The demon turned around sharply and caught the axe and threw it back at Roje as fast as he could think. Roje sidestepped and caught the axe as it started to pass him. Shaggra, distracted by Roje started heading in his direction. Kiro, taking advantage of the situation, rushed Shaggra with his full force. He jumped high in the air above Shaggra, and lunged one of the scimitars in its back on the way down, the serrated edge of the scimitar slicing down the demon’s back. The demon howled in pain and then suddenly lashed back around and smacked Kiro into a tree, knocking the tree down with the force. Kiro lay half conscious on the ground next to the fallen tree. Now the demon concentrated its full force onto Roje. Roje stood in a defensive stance in order to fend off any attack this creature may throw his way.
The monster charged towards Roje. All he could do as stand there as it approached. Shaggra threw out an arm and Roje held up his axe and sword and batted it away with ease. And again and again the monster threw himself at Roje. And again and again Roje just threw away the attacks with little effort. The monster was just toying with poor Roje now. Roje went in for an offensive strike. He threw his axe at Shaggra’s head. Shaggra caught the axe with little effort and he then lunged the sword towards its gut. Shaggra then kicked up at Roje and hit him full on, throwing him back a few yards onto the ground. It walked over and stood above the fallen Roje with the axe in its hands. It then swung the axe down at Roje. He barely brought his arm up in time to stop the axes decent. He then bushed up with all of his strength and ended up shoving the monster back a bit. In this time Roje rolled backwards kicking the axe out of Shaggra’s hands and into the air as he got to his feet, then caught the axe as it came down.
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