The Ancients of Larkiss: Prologue

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my family, for encouraging me to do what I love doing, and my friend Alex for helping to inspire half this story with me. I couldn't ask for a better muse. I'd also like to thank my God and my Friend who gave me the gift and passion for writing that I enjoy today. And I'd also like to thank Del Taco, for being one of the few places open as late at night as I find myself writing when I suddenly have my soda cravings. A few other thanks are probably in order, but I'm feeling lazy and you really don't want to read them anyways, so too bad for them.


This is where I'd put disclaimers, if I actually cared enough to do so.

(Coincidentally, I'm also having trouble finding the Line Break command on this blogger, so sorry for the series of equal signs they'll have to do. Sorry, I'm an author, not a computer tech....well, anymore that is. Sissy, help!)

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Angel Falls was under siege.

If you asked anyone who lived there how the community of some eight-thousand in mid-autumn North Dakota could find their ordinarily humble lives gripped with an almost paralyzing fear they would tell you of the terrible evens that had started several months ago. They would tell you of the first body, mangled and mauled beyond any human recognition in the middle of the highway. Literally torn limb from limb, it had been a full four days before forensics could account for every part of the corpse. Whatever had done this had not been hunting prey, and the first theory of a bear attack was disproved early on. Only problem was, no one knew what had killed the unknown woman. Only that it couldn't have possibly have been any animal they knew to have in those parts.

Or they might tell you when eight-year-old Erica Gonzalez vanished for three days straight, only to show up at her mother's doorstep without a mark on her, but her mind gone. A vacant, empty expression all that remained of the poor girl who would neither move nor speak of her own will. She would walk when led, and eat when she was fed, and lie down when sat into her bedroom for the night, but that was as much life as anyone could tell the unfortunate girl had.

More recently had been the Sorority vanishings, when an entire college dormitory had inexplicably emptied in the middle of the night, leaving the occupant's possessions and cars all accounted for on the premises. While certainly not a college prank, no one could figure out who could kidnap an entire dormitory without a struggle. If it even was a kidnapping. Even the FBI had been called in and couldn't find any clues or traces to point them in the right direction.

And that would only be the start. They would tell of how the violent gangs fled town, or of the police officers filing reports of shooting at figures that could not possibly be human. They would say that it all started months ago.

And they would be wrong.

For it had not started a mere season ago, but rather a dozen centuries. Back before even the founding of the nation, this terror lived, thrived, fought, consumed, and destroyed. Held in check only by the valiant Warriors who laid their lives on the line to battle the darkness back. Many of these heroes didn't even know the struggle that they were involved in until after it was over.

Unknown to almost everyone, the true origin of the threat goes back to nearly twelve hundred years ago. Back when mankind still languished in the dark ages, existed a figure known by title rather than name. This Sorceress who wielded unimaginable power and held entire kingdoms in terror. Having gained immense magical power, she hungered for more, the power to conquer even time and live forever. And also, to the Warrior whose name is also unknown, who opposed her. And who still opposes her to this present day, in a struggle with no winner that has spanned centuries and wars innumerable.

It is this struggle that has Angel Falls as its battlefield. An atmosphere of anxiety hung so thick in the air you could almost touch it. 'Good evening' held no charm anymore, not that strangers greeted one another any longer. Children were rarely seen playing outside, and never on their own. The parks were depressingly empty and every Saturday night just a little quieter.

And as the Sorceress rallies once again for her ambitions, again the Warrior rises against her. A struggle which has always ended in a draw. This time however, there is a third force in the war. For out of the terror and the strife surrounding their homes emerge two unlikely souls, caught in the middle of a battle they never knew existed, but whose interference will play the vital role in ending this conflict once and for all.

Before it ends them once and for all.