Prologue

            Vienn threw the hood of his cloak back and gazed at the fields sprawling below, the town slightly more than a gray area on the horizon. The August breeze sent chaotic ruffles through the wild grass, as the young man closed his eyes and took in the scent of the countryside. There was no place like home, but his newfound work would require him to travel most of the year so a few weeks, if not days, was all he could manage. He opened his eyes and lay down at the edge of the woods to wait for his companions to catch up with him, but Vienn knew he probably had at least fifteen minutes to himself. There was no way the other four would traverse the forest as quickly as he did. Navigation and reconnaissance was his specialty after all. He propped himself up against the nearest tree, and drifted off to a nap…

            Peace and quiet were interrupted by a sudden thud near Vienn. His eyelids flew open, only to stare into the eyes and jaws of a grizzly bear. Vienn’s jaw dropped but before he could scream, a flash of silver silenced him as it struck the tree barely an inch above his head. Color returned to his face momentarily, as the bear was replaced with a crouching enraged man appearing to be in his forties. It was the group leader, Andreas Eisenblut.

            “You little son of a- You leave us in the middle of the woods like this one more time and I swear I’ll strangle you myself, boy!” Andreas growled through clenched teeth. “I got you into this team so that you could put your worthless self to some use, not ditch us in the middle of nowhere while you decide to take a goddamned nap!”

A bead of sweat ran down Vienn’s back. Andreas definitely was not someone he wanted to anger if he could avoid it. The team leader was an absolute giant. He stood at six feet four inches, and was three hundred pounds of pure muscle. Not surprising, considering he spent many years in his previous career as a blacksmith until certain circumstances forced a slight change in the plans.

Andreas sighed and stood up. “You need to understand, boy. When I found you, you were nothing. Your skills were being used for mischief and nothing more. But now, look. You have a chance at a real job, a respected job, and one you will be paid good money for. But!” he raised his index finger as a schoolteacher would, “We are still a team, and we need to trust and look out for one another. Just because we’re not on a job this minute doesn’t mean we don’t need you and you can do whatever we want. Understood?”
            “Yes,” Vienn nodded.

A smile cracked Andreas’ lips. “Good.” He extended a hand toward Vienn and helped him stand up. “Now I imagine you’re about as starving as the rest of us. Come, Karin should have a fire going by now.” Andreas paused, and turned with a smirk. “As punishment, you carry the bear.”

* * * * *

Throughout dinner, Vienn sat quietly, having been reprimanded by Andreas. He knew better than to get on the leader’s nerves, but the old man seriously needed to loosen up and live a little. Can’t even cut loose for ten minutes without him bitching. Vienn was seventeen, and an adult – so it was about time he got some respect, damn it. He didn’t care that dinner was slightly awkward when one quarter of the team of four was silent. He was boycotting Andreas with everything not concerning business. That was it. One more time, and he was just going to quit the team. The pay and “respect” means nothing if you have to suppress who you are!

He shut himself off like this for a bit, to the point of not even noticing another figure sit down on the log beside him. “I know you’re upset at him, but he’s right, you know.” She whispered into his ear. “You shouldn’t just leave us like that. What if something happens to us? What if something would happen to me?” Vienn shifted his eyes to his log companion, and grumbled. This was a low blow. She knew he wouldn’t argue because he liked her. He knew it too, which made it even worse for his ego.

“So what am I supposed to do, then Rose? Just lie down and obey every command like a dog? First it’s ‘Don’t run away’, and tomorrow it’s ‘Sit, boy’!” he let out through clenched teeth as he turned to face her. She was beautiful; you couldn’t see it in the darkness, but the bright campfire revealed her slim face, high cheekbones, and blazing red hair. Combined with her normally fiery temper and mood swings, it was no big surprise that she showed affinity to the fire element and became a mage. She didn’t show it often, but Vienn thought she liked him too.

“Just give it time. You’re young, you’re reckless, and Andreas is just afraid that you’ll desert us at the first sign of danger. Give it time, stay on his good side, and he’ll warm up to you. Promise.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then I’ll warm him up for you,” Rose winked and put her hand on his shoulder. “Now, come on. You have some work to do. Show us what you’re made of, mister recon,” she said as she stood up and walked off. Vienn felt her warmness through his cloak – was it the fact that she was a fire mage, or was he just that infatuated with her? He shook his head and stood up. It didn’t matter and he really did have some work to do.

Vienn looked around, gauged what seemed to be the center of their makeshift camp and drew a small circle about a foot across. He opened his satchel and pulled out seven smoothly polished stones, each about the size of his palm. In the middle of each stone was carved a rune meaning “eye”, with a circle around it, and smaller modifying runes around the circle. The stones were arranged evenly on the outline of the circle Vienn drew in the ground. He whispered a few words, and the stones sunk underground. He felt each move for about a hundred and fifty meters before stopping.

He shut his eyes and focused on the stones. Each moved exactly one hundred fifty meters, and they were still in the septagram he arranged them in. Good. Then he focused away from the eyes themselves, and onto the signal they were transmitting to him. The flow overwhelmed Vienn at first and he flinched, but he quickly tuned the minor signals out and only took in the larger objects in his circle. Trees, rabbits, nothing to worry about. The one large moving object was a moose, grazing on some bushes not too far away. They were safe, for now anyway. Vienn stood up, and joined the others at the tent.

As he lay down, he closed his eyes and tuned in with his spell again. It was an interesting enchantment, in that it would work while he slept yet even asleep he’d be alert to any changes. A few hours later, the spell woke him. It never did that except in dire circumstances.

One of his eyes was out.

He got up, and sleepily wandered out of the tent. He needed to fix the eye – the incomplete septagram weakened his surveillance spell. Damn moose probably knocked it out of the circle, and his relatively weak magic wasn’t enough yet to monitor several systems yet – he switched from his incomplete circle to focus in on the missing eye. He felt it rapidly approaching. Was a moose kick that strong?!

He didn’t have time to finish wondering how strong moose could be, as his eye fell to his feet. He turned in the direction from which it was thrown, and saw a wolf standing at the edge of their camp. It was larger than any normal wolf, but its eyes seemed to glow a bright red reflecting the flames of the campfire. To Vienn’s horror, it wasn’t even a werewolf.

“Wake up!” Vienn yelled, “There’s a-“ He didn’t have time to tell them what paid them a visit. The bloodwolf jumped, shifting into a humanoid shape mid-air, and landed in front of Vienn. It swatted Vienn aside, the brute force launching Vienn toward the edge of the camp. Vienn hit a tree, and lost consciousness before coming to a rest on the ground.

A/N: Woo! And there goes my return to writing! Please R/R, more than willing to return the favor on request. Comment, subscribe, and I'll try to get Chapter One done quick!