Will of Immortals

Calm before the storm

The sun was setting behind the big hills of Eldenwood, with a warm golden light on the village. The town lay in silence, bottomed in a lush full valley, with colorful forests and peaceful streams all about it. Eldenwood had always been a place of peace; it was a safe place where nature flourished and the simple lives of its people were ones of happiness.

And every place was filled with the air of being warm and safe, both because the villagers attended to their plants and children played in the fields, as laughter filled the air.

Small and unremarkable; however, neighbors could turn cranky, and family had pride-of-place. Freshly baked bread filled the smell throughout the market square during nighttime gatherings, as long familial tales were shared through eating hot food.

Some said there was a certain rest here that few locations managed to maintain, or there would simply never come a promise unspoken; this Eldenwood kept quiet from the outside mess. But far away from the village, in the old mountains around Eldenwood, a new life was beginning—a life that would alter the future of this quiet town forever.

In a small house by the forest, a young woman, her face tired and pale, let out a quiet, hurt cry as she held the hands of her family. She was alone except for the old midwife in this crucial moment, as her child's future was uncertain. The small and simple house appeared warm enough, full of hope and dreams shared in the quiet night and a family that would soon be complete. The child was becoming part of Eldenwood's history and did not know the legacy he was going to inherit. His birth was as silent as the evening light around the village, a peaceful sign before the trouble that was coming.

Meanwhile, the Eldenwood Academy stood atop the mountain looming above this small town.

The academy was a big old stone and wooden house. It was a place to respect, for it carried the best cultivators. Not just students passed through their doors but were there picked for the potential for the control of elements that could form the world.

They claimed that the halls of the academy were older secrets than the town, with masters gone way past the limit of the human limits.

The cultivators trained there were protectors of the land. Their skills were famous, for they taught and fought; they were wise people whom everybody in Eldenwood and elsewhere was able to admire themselves. Even to see them made one feel respected and filled with wonder, because one felt, if they were with him, that one actually felt the real spirit of the world.

The rest of the evening was in peace light from the twilight. The air was still, and the villagers went on performing their evening activities, caring less about anything going on that night and completely ignorant about the change that would suddenly take them to a future beyond their comprehension.

Then from a long way off, within the depths of the thick forest, beyond the village, sounded a cry through the still air, breaking up the silence of the night, not the chirp of crickets or leaves stirred by the wind; nay, it was a roar as of the shaking of the earth beneath it.

The earth shook beneath their feet, and the wild animals of the village ran for cover frightened. Some of the townspeople stand stopped in their tracks, wide-eyed with confusion and terror as the rebound of the cry vibrated down the streets.

It was a sound unlike anything they'd ever heard before, carrying in it the sense of ancient power, primal and raw.

"What is it?" the woman asked, holding her child tight.

I don't know, he said, his voice shaking. It came from the forest. What. What was it?

Fear spread among the people that had gathered in the town square. The serene days of Eldenwood, which never had such a problem before, were now under threat by an unknown force.

The air up atop the mountain was heavy, charged with silent tension. The winds had stopped to wait for something, but still, the air up there seemed heavy, like an onlooker, in stillness.

The strong cultivators of Eldenwood Academy felt this change when something happened in the world. They gazed out to the distant horizon, sensing something. Maybe it was some ancient power stirring up.

Maybe it was something they had always feared would return one day.

The night had fallen, and once more, the cry came out this time louder and echoing throughout the village and giving everyone a chill as they heard it.

The villagers drew closer not knowing what was to happen next. The cry was not a warning; it was a call—a call to something much more dangerous than any in Eldenwood could ever have thought of.

The baby cried for the very first time in that small house by the forest, just a few minutes old.

No one knew, but the arrival of that baby marked a new time for Eldenwood-one to be tested for how strong it was and if it could survive.

The night grew darker and there was nothing the villagers were waiting for than the unknown creature which was descending onto the village, having nothing to do with the forest creatures.

The storm had started.