Nate didn’t need an alarm clock and its blaring foghorn of a call to wake him up.  The young man had laid in his bed, his eyes wide open while anxieties for the next day rolled over him.  School had started two months ago for all of America, but for Nate, it started that morning, in a place he didn’t know, and didn’t want to know.

Nathaniel Seymore had moved with his family from their grand and massive apartment complex in New York City, New York to a modestly sized suburban house in Augusta, Maine only about three days ago, arriving on Friday last week, after school had ended.  Business had sent Nate’s dad, Arthur Seymore, to Maine about three months earlier as a representative for his company.  His duty, while there, had been to keep the fairly young branch of the business running efficently in August until the Distric Manager there could get his feet back on the ground.  Arthur had done so well on his trip that he had been assigned with the new duty of running the Central Maine-based district of the company.  Which called for Nate’s family of three to skip town without even a second thought.

Nate personally felt cheated, especially now as he laid in his bed, listening to the hum of machines as the day started.  This year was his senior year, the year he was supposed to remember in the distant future as his happiest and most exciting year in his whole life.  How could it be such a good memory if he was to be cut off from friends he’d known his whole life?

Nate sighed with a mixture of annoyance and anxiety and quickly pulled himself out of his bed.  No amount of complaining would get him back to his old home.  He’d just have to grin and bear it until he was finally free of this rotten mess he called life, and was able to be off on his own.  Nodding confidently at the thought, Nate pulled a pair of blue jeans off a hanger in his closet, and a graphic t-shirt from his dresser drawers, and headed over to the bathroom.

Nate made certain to keep his shower short, just going with washing his hair and giving himself a quick scrub-down.  His parents still needed to get cleaned up as well, and from the few days staying in this house, Nate had learned that hot water was harder to get than back in New York.  Sighing, he walked out of the steaming shower, dabbed himself off with a towel, and pulled on his shirt, jeans, and a pair of sneakers.  He looked himself over in the mirror, wiping the thin layer of fog off the reflective surface.  As much as he’d like to deny it, Nate was fairly good-looking for someone his age.  He was average height, nothing too special, with the basic build of a runner.  His hair was a deep, dark brown, and his eyes were two deep blue eyes that brightened the closer to the pupils they became.  If it weren’t for his hatred for being the center of attention, Nate would probably have been popular all throughout his high school years.

Stifling a deep yawn with one hand, Nate made his way down to the kitchen.  His mom, Heather Seymore, was standing by the stove in the kitchen, a small bit of sweat glazing her forehead as she cooked up the food for breakfast.  His mom smiled over at her son as she cooked away, and soon walked over with a pan full of scrambled eggs.

“Good morning Nate!” she chirped, her radiant smile still shining down on him.  Sometimes Nate wondered how she could be so cheerful even this early in the morning, when even the songbirds carried a very somber attitude.  “I hope you’re hungry, because I made scrambled eggs, just the way you like it.  And, mmm!  They smell so good!”

Nate smiled weakly.  He loved eggs, that was for certain, but he hadn’t been able to enjoy any food since he’d arrived in Maine.  Something in the air upset him, and had shut down all of his sinuses.  He couldn’t smell for the life of him, and food without scent was bland and flavorless.  Still, he smiled to his mom and scooped up a forkful of the slightly runny eggs.

“Thank you, Mom,” he replied, before taking a bite and swallowing.  His mom smiled at him, eagerly awaiting his reaction, and he sighed.  “It tastes delicious as always, Mom,” Nate lied as the slick, runny texture slid down his throat and into his stomach.  His mom’s grin grew even wider, and she slipped back from his side to the kitchen again.

“I’m glad you like them, Nate!  I couldn’t let you go to school today without a decent meal.”  Suddenly her eyes shined, and she turned to her teenaged son. “Oh, that reminds me.  Before you go to school today, could you take Rodney out back for his ‘business’?” She looked over at the large blonde-ish gold lump of fur that was Nate’s Labrador, Rodney. “He gets too excitable if I’m the one who lets him out, and your dad can’t keep up with him anymore if he tries to break into a run.  You’re the only person in this family who can go out with Rod and keep him under control.  Besides, it could be good for you to get some fresh air before school!”

Nate nodded and wolfed down the last of his eggs.  “Sure thing, Mom.  I’ll get right to it.”  Quickly he pulled his jacket on from off the coat rack and patted the Labrador on the head, waking him up.  The large dog yawned loudly, and then pulled himself to his feet and over to the back door.  Nate sighed and followed after him, clicking the lock and opening the door to the back.  He shivered faintly, the cold bite of the autumnal breeze grazing over his face.  Summer had long been over, and showed it with the orange and goldenrod-colored trees, and the straw-like dying grass that crunched a bit whenever Nate took a step.  Smiling, Nate turned back to his mom and nodded. “I’ll be right back, Mom!”

Before he stepped out, though, Nate’s mom stopped him, holding his shoulder.  “Nate,” she said softly, in a voice that had calmed Nate’s father’s troubled heart many times before.  Instantly Nate groaned inwardly, recognizing the tone also as his mom’s lecture voice.  “I know that the move was difficult for you.  You’ve lost a lot of good friends and experiences, but trust me.  Your father and I did this to help our family.  This will be a good new start for us, Nate.  Trust us on this.”

Nate’s shoulders slumped a bit, and he gave a soft sigh.  “I’ll be back before school starts, Mom,” Nate said simply, stepping down the small steps to the back, and leaving his mom behind him.  After a moment or so, his mom closed the door again, and Nate was alone with Rodney.

‘The back’ for Nate’s new house was several acres of woods and streams that eventually ran into the Maine wilderness.  It could be easy to get lost in the seas of trees and shrubs, especially during this bright and vibrant time of the year, where the leaves were all brightly colored with orange, red, yellow, and brown leaves that captivated and confused the eyes and the mind.  Nate, though, paid no mind to the bright, autumnal colors.  His mind was too busy thinking about the horrid day that the universe no doubt had planned for him.  Antagonistic teachers, cocky jocks, ditzy cheerleaders; it was all going to be too much for Nate to bear.  He sighed again as he began to walk through these woods, and turned to Rodney, who was padding along beside him.

“All right, Rod, make this quick.  As much as I hate going to this new school, I still can’t miss my first day.”  Rodney gazed up at him blankly, tongue rolling off the end of his lower jaw.  Nate sighed again and pointed to the bushes.  “Come on, Rodney!  Get going!”  Still, the large Labrador sat on its haunches beside Nate, staring up at him as blankly as ever.  Growling in frustration, Nate grabbed the dog by the back of its neck and pointed it nose first into the forest.  “Go!”

At that very moment, as Nate shouted loudly at his dog, a fairly large ball of fur, feet, and ears shot out of some nearby bushes, passed directly in front of Rod’s nose, and continued down the forest path.  It was a rabbit, the one weakness of every domesticated dog.  Instantly Rodney’s usually lazy personality did a 180, and with a loud, excited bark, he took off through the trees after the long-eared blur.

Nate stood where he was, frozen in shock for a few seconds from the sour turn of his luck.  Groaning, Nate finally snapped out of his shock and kicked off of the ground, chasing after his dog.

“Rodney!” he shouted loudly, his long strides breaking through the undergrowth with ease, “Get back here right now, you over-sized Shiatsu!”  The large dog continued on his path, not listening to the calls of his master, and Nate groaned angrily.  Honestly, for being man’s best friend, dogs certainly were stupid and stubborn.  Nate cupped his hand around his mouth again and called out.  “Rod!  Come here!  Come here!  Now!!”  He was practically begging Rodney with each call he gave as the dog shot further down the path.  It came to be, very quickly, that all Nate could see was the very back of Rod’s legs, and even that became lost very quickly in the growing trees.  Groaning, Nate came sputtering to a halt beside a large tree and swept his hand across his brow.  With no sleep, and barely any food in his stomach, there was no doubt that Nate was feeling exhausted now.  Nate let out a deep sigh and slid down the tree, coming down to sit against its rough bark.  Groaning again, he looked up into the woods, and for the first time realized just how lost he was.

The back of his house was nowhere to be seen, obscured by the thick foliage and creeping branches of the trees that scraped across the sky.  Large rocks stood like sentinels on the other side of the small break in the woods, staring down across at him with blank, bored expressions.  Nate could hear the sound of a small brooklet nearby, skipping over stones while singing a soft, melodic tune.  None of it looked familiar to him, but that wasn’t what told him he was lost.  What did was the fact that the trees were all filled with bright green leaves, spring flowers were poking up around the roots in the woods, and a pleasantly warm air filled the air.  Spring songbirds were perched in the branches of the trees above him, and Nate could clearly see the tall, forest-green grass growing up in patches between the trees, just ahead of him.  By all rights, it appeared to be a bright spring or early summer day.  But to Nate’s knowledge of home, it was still late autumn!

“Wh-where am I…?” Nate wondered, looking around the glade slowly.  Before he could think any further on the subject, a loud, familiar bark reached his ears from deeper in the forest.  Nate’s astonishment with the woods was quickly quenched, and he turned towards the direction of the bark. “Rodney!” he cried, running through the trees, eyes wide.  That sound in his bark, it wasn’t a sound that Rodney had when he was chasing rabbits or running with dogs in the park back at New York.  It was a sound that he made during thunderstorms, when men walked by their apartment, and now house, in the late of night.  It was the sound of fear.

Soon Rod’s yelp reached Nate again, this time with more of a whine to it, and Nate pushed himself to go even faster, jumping over fallen trees and low-lying shrubs.  His heartbeat roared in his ears, and his mind raced as he tried to find out what could cause Rodney to cry out in such fear.  The answer came to Nate just as fast as Rodney’s bark, in the form of a loud, animalistichowl from just ahead, cutting off Rod’s second bark and making it end with a pained whimper.  Nate skittered to a stop, the bestial cry still ringing in his ears.  A sound, much like crunching leaves, and another that sounded like Nate whenever he eats ramen noodles, soon filled the air, coming from just ahead, where the howl had come from.  Nate’s throat suddenly felt very dry, and he took a few shaky steps forward again, until he could see through the trees to his dog.

The scene he saw would be scarred into his mind for the rest of his life.

Lying in the center of the small clearing ahead was Rodney’s large, broken body.  His back was bent back at a ninety-degree angle, and his fur was matted and torn.  Blood trickled down from a large gash in his side, pooling at the base of his stomach like a small red pond.  His large eyes were glazed over, their vacant, blank stare permanently fixed into reality.  Standing above Rodney, though, was something unbelievable.  It stood at least nine feet tall, though it could have been larger or smaller.  It was hard to tell, seeing as it was hunched over, its head buried in Rodney’s side, jaws smacking loudly as it slurped up the bright red blood.  Dark, thick fur covered its entire body, with large, boney segments that shot out of the fur and spiked up dubiously.  Its long limbs were curled down underneath its wide chest, each one ending with long, ivory-colored claws.  Its head, or at least the part that Nate could see, was shaped like a wolf, and every once and a while, Nate could catch a glimpse of the beast’s large, bone-crushing jaws, painted crimson red from Rod’s blood.  Its long, red tongue licked either side of its snout, cleaning off its long, pale yellow canines, all twelve of them, and soon dove back into Rod’s chest and resumed eating.  Nate stared on in horror.  The creature before him was nothing short of a monster.

Nate stared in shock at the scene before finally realizing just how close to the danger he was.  The wind was blowing into Nate’s face, and the beast’s nose was buried in the dog’s side, so it couldn’t see or smell him.  Now was the chance to get the hell out of there!  Gulping cautiously, Nate stepped backwards, away from the beast, and the clearing…and right down onto a thin, cracked twig.

The sound of cracking twigs and crushing leaves filled the mostly still clearing.  Nate swore under his breath and turned back to the clearing, where the beast had suddenly stopped eating.  Its jaws hovered over Rod’s back, then it turned the whole of its head towards the sound.  And straight at Nate.

Without even another thought, Nate took off through the forest, weaving through the trees like a top.  Instantly the wolf-like creature stood up on its hind legs and raised its head to the sky, letting out a long, low howl that echoed through the forest for miles.  The howl was soon accompanied by roars and yelps.  Nate turned awkwardly towards the sound, and his eyes widened in fear yet again.  Running up behind him on all fours were seven large wolf-like creatures that looked only a bit smaller than the first, which was running right behind them, mouth frothing in rage.

Nate instantly panicked and ran as fast as he could.He could almost feel the monster’s scathing breath against the back of his neck, the large claws tearing away at his chest.  Fear pushed his already exhausted body to its limits, and he tore blindly through the trees, not knowing where he was going…until he felt himself step down onto nothing.  Nate stared in shock, and screamed as gravity took control, sending him falling off the edge of a cliff.  As he spun through the air, Nate saw the beast and its pack staring down at him from the cliff’s tip, not daring to venture after him.  Nate groaned in fear and pain, and braced himself to hit the ground below.

When he did, he blacked out completely.

2: Chap 2: Lost in a New World

With a loud gasp of shock and fear, Nate sat up in his large bed, his eyes wide.  His heart felt like it was beating a million beats a second, and his breath was caught in his throat and would not release its hold.  Groaning, Nate let his face fall forward into the cradle of his arms and sighed deeply.  It had all just been a dream.

Nate sighed again and closed his eyes, a small smile forming on his face.  Of course it had only been a dream, what else could it have been?  No one just walks out into their backyard and ends up in the middle of a forest during a completely different season, and watch as their pet is devoured by a werewolf-like thing, which then chases you off a cliff with its pack, and you fall to your imminent doom.  In no way could that ever happen in reality.  The only logical explanation was that it had been nothing more or less than a dream.

Still, it had all seemed so real.  The warm spring and summer sun that shone down onto Nate and wrapped him in its radiance, the sound of song birds gathering their choral groups together in the trees and singing wonderful melodies, the sight of Rodney’s broken and dead form, laying on the ground as its blood pooled out around it.  All of the scenes, feelings, and sounds in Nate’s dream had seemed so…physical.  He could even smell the blood that dripped from the creature’s jaws still, the strange, lead-like taste forming in his mouth.  Thank goodness it had just been a dream.

Sighing, Nate took a deep breath in, through his nose, to relax his heart some.  His eyes instantly widened, and his whole body paled.

The smell.  He could still smell it because it was actually there!  And it seemed to be coming from him.  Slowly, his whole body quaking in shock and fear, Nate moved back, away from his arms, and opened his eyes.  Wrapped around the both of his arms, like several long, pale snakes, were pasty-white bandages, stinking foully of gauze, ointments, and, most prominently, fresh blood.  Some parts of the bandages were a dark, almost indigo purple, with the blood dried and cracking underneath.  Others were a bright crimson, with the newly surfacing blood pushing through the bands surrounding it.

Nate paled as he saw this, and slowly leaned back against his pillow, staring blankly up at the ceiling.  When he’d gone to bed the night before, he hadn’t even a scrap of a cut or bruise upon his body.  Yet now, presumably the next morning, he was covered in bandages, fresh blood forming from wounds he never remembered receiving.  The only explanation to it, the only one that made sense, made Nate shudder in fear.

“It wasn’t a dream,” he finally said, eyes wide in shock.  It had all been real…all of it.  From the spring grove, to Rodney’s sudden death, to Nate’s falling off the cliff, the beast right behind him.

As Nate lay back against the headboard of the bed, he frowned, the shock slowly leaving his body.  If it had been real, how was he alive?  And where exactly was he now?  For the first time that day, Nate looked up at the room around him.

It looked like he was inside some old cabin, timber boards making up the walls, with thick logs supporting them from the inside, like the ribs of some gigantic beast.  The window, which stood just above the bed he lay in, let the bright sunlight into the room, and outside, Nate could see the verdant trees of the forest.  Mounted on the wall directly opposite of the window was the head of some large beast with long, bull horns that swung out to either side of its head, and were complemented by the rows of razor-sharp teeth it displayed.  Along with the beast’s head, there were many shelves on the walls, holding a number of books, journals, and even what appeared to be scrolls.  On another wall, there was a large map that looked nothing like the world Nate knew of, and a large opening for the door to the cabin, which was currently closed and bolted shut.  The other wall had a large fireplace that looked unused for several months, and a large dresser with a small pile of clothes beside it and what appeared to be an old, grime-covered mirror.  And hanging from the center of the ceiling was an old oil lamp that was out.

None of it looked familiar to Nate, though, who groaned and moved to the edge of the bed and slowly stood up.  If he couldn’t find out anything in here, he may as well go out and find the answers he needed himself.

Nate looked at himself in the mirror as he passed it just for a moment, and frowned again.  Instead of his usual t-shirt and jeans, he was wearing what appeared to be a tan vest with white fur on the neck and shoulders, and blue symbols dyed into the fabric.  He wore nothing underneath to cover his fairly modest six-pack and pecs, though several bandages around his chest seemed to complete the job just fine.  On his legs he wore a darker brown pair of ragged pants, which looked a bit torn up and overused, and were held up by a long leather belt.  The look was so surprising, Nate could barely believe he was looking at himself.  The only definite sign that the image was Nate was his face, with his short brown hair, and deep, dark blue eyes.

“Weird,” Nate muttered to himself, before shrugging his shoulders slightly and walking up to the door.  He took one last deep breath to prepare himself, and stepped cautiously out into the sun.

Outside the doors of the cabin, Nate found himself looking over a large village, with cabins, much like the one he’d been in moments before, clustered together below.  Villagers young and old ambled about, moseying their way from one cabin to another, or down to a small marketplace not far from where Nate was.  At the center of the village there was a larger cabin, in the shape of a large dome, with a strange symbol that looked slightly like a three-headed dragon in flight, painted on a sign above its door in a red paint.  To Nate, who stood in awe of it all, it looked very simple, and almost primitive.  Certainly nothing like the Augusta, Maine he knew, and definitely not like New York!

“Beautiful, ain’t it?” a gruff voice called from beside Nate.  Quickly the young man spun towards the voice, eyes wide still.  Slowly walking up to him, dressed much the same as Nate, was a tall man, probably in his early thirties, with long blonde hair and a rugged blonde beard.  The man nodded calmly to Nate and came to a stop only about a yard away from him.  Nate smiled weakly and nodded, looking back at the town.

“Uh, sure, though it’s kind of small if you ask me.And not very modern-looking.” The man nodded and smiled down at the town.

“Aye, Brunshill may be a quaint, small village, but it’s a proud village, as proud as any.  And, though it may be behind architecturally a few decades, it still serves its purpose.  Keeping the villagers safe from Lobodrones.”  The man smiled again and held his hand out to Nate. “Ah, but look at me, speaking so absently when I hain’t even introduced myself yet.  I am CeidricSalerm, Head Beast Slayer of Brunshill Village.”

Nate stared at the hand for a moment before gripping it and nodding. “Nate Seymore, and I think I’m a bit lost.  How exactly did I get here?”  Ceidric chuckled, a deep baritone of a laugh that rumbled deep in his throat.

“Well, I found you about a week ago, unconscious in the woods, lying on the bank of the river.  You had some right terrible cuts and bruises, covered most of your body, and your clothes, at least what hadn’t had been torn off already, was shredded.  When I checked to see how you were, I noticed the low howls of Lobodrones and a Lupolusar off in the distance, and took little to no time in helping you get here to our little town of Brunshill.  Since then, you’ve been watched by our best of healers and medics.  Only recently have you actually woken.  Now that you have, I assume that you’ll be looking for a way to get back to your home, where ever that strange place may be.”

“So you believe that I don’t actually belong here?” Nate asked in surprise.  Ceidric nodded slowly.

“Yeah, I guessed you ain’t from around here.  Those clothes you were wearing were unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and the fabric used for them I’m never seen used before, and the fact that you weren’t carrying even a short sword tells me you did nay know the dangers you’d find out in the forest.”

Nate nodded solemnly. “So you already believe I don’t belong here?” he asked slowly, nervous to hear the man’s answer.  The tall man nodded and looked out into the forest.

“Of course I believe you.  The question, though, is where you came from, and frankly all I can take is your word for what you say you are, and where you’ve come from.  So, what is your story, young man?”

Nate frowned and looked out to the forest as well, trying to collect his thoughts.  “Well,” he finally said, “I was out walking with my dog in the woods that run behind my house.  It was mid-autumn, too, so the trees were all filled with bright orange leaves.  My dog took a run through the forest after a rabbit, and I followed after him.  When I took a break to catch my breath, it felt like it was a warm spring day and the trees were filled with bright green leaves of summer.  I found my dog in those woods, killed by a large, wolf-like beast, which quickly chased me off a cliff.  Next thing I know, I’m here.”

The older man nodded slowly as Nate told his tale, finally sighing and stepping back.  “Well, that is quite a tale you have there, young man.  And if weren’t for the fact that I’ve heard it a’fore, I would have dismissed it as not more than a tall tale spun by a pup of a man.”  Nate’s eyes widened and he turned to Ceidric.

“You’ve heard this before?” he asked incredulously.  Ceidric nodded, his eyes looking off into the distance.

“Indeed I have, though the first time I heard it I thought nothing of it.  However, I’ve heard tales much like your own seven times now, yours being the seventh, and by no means can this be a coincidence.Yours is the first, though, where the teller was being chased by the horrid beast known as the Lupolusar, the wolf-beast.  Still, everything else was similar to what others have told me, so it is my belief that you are not of this world at all, but by some means that cannot be explained were pulled to this world, without any way of returning agin.”  Nate nodded slowly, the frown returning to his face.

“That would make sense…” he said softly, before turning to Ceidric again. “But if that’s true, then why can I understand what you are saying?”  Ceidric shrugged, shaking his head.

“I hain’t but a clue as to why it is, though all the others who told tales like yours could speak and read Alusarianas well.” Nate frowned again and raised an eyebrow, but before he could ask, Ceidric caught his expression and sighed. “Ah, yes, you don’t know.  Alusarin is the dominant language of our world, Alusaria.”  Nate nodded slowly again.  So it was true.  Nate wasn’t even in his own world anymore.  Somehow, he’d been teleported from his home to this world, Alusaria.  Frowning, he looked down at the ground.  All this meant to Nate really was that his trip home would be harder than he thought.  He’d been gone for a week in a completely different world.  What were his mom and dad thinking, or doing?  They must be worried sick about him.

“Anyway,” Ceidric continued, “that is beside the point.  The point is, until we find a way for you to return to your home world, it looks as though you are stuck here.”  Nate’s frown deeped, and his eyes grew darker.

“Isn’t there anything I can do to get back home?” he asked, his voice raising in worry.  Ceidric shook his head sadly.

“I think nay…wait…” His eyes brightened a bit, but instantly darkened again and he shook his head. “Nay, it is too fool-hearty of a mission to go through with.”  Nate shook his head and stepped towards Ceidric.

“Whatever it is, I’ll gladly do it!  Just tell me, how can I return home?”

Ceidric looked down into Nate’s hopeful eyes and sighed.  “There is one way that you can return home, but ‘tis a gamble at best, and most likely you won’t succeed.”  Seeing Nate’s confidence waver for not even a second, Ceidric smiled weakly, though mostly out of sadness, and fear.

“You must hunt down and kill Nazruth, the Dragon of the Void, and the Killer of Thousands.”

3: Chap 3: Where There's a Will...

Nate stared blankly at Ceidric for possibly two full minutes before the Slayer’s words finally registered in his teen-aged mind.  When they did, though, Nate’s eyes widened and he stepped back in shock.

“Wait, what do you mean, ‘kill’?”  Ceidric sighed and crossed his arms in front of his chest, bowing his head.

“’Tis just as I told you, Nate.  The only way, that I can think of at least, that you can return to your world and your home is to slay the Void Dragon, Nazruth.  It’s a mighty hard mission to take, only the truly desperate and the truly foolish attempt such a thing.  But it may be the only way fer you to return to your home.”

Nate groaned and stepped back, turning away from Ceidric. “But how can I do that, Ceidric?  I just barely appeared in a world I don’t know, from a world where almost everything is done for you!  I don’t have any serious physical training, because I wasn’t on any of the sports teams back at home, and even if I had, I’d still be nothing compared to the men that are needed to do this kind of stuff.”  Quickly he turned around and faced the blonde-bearded man. “Why can’t you go and do it for me?  You’re a Slayer, surely you can do the slaying for me!”

Ceidric shook his head and walked up to Nate’s side.  “I wish I could, oh how I do,” he said sadly, his face angled down towards the ground, “but it simply cannot be.  You see, for the first thing, I am no longer a wandering Slayer, who can travel this grand world all over and slay to my heart’s content.  I am stationed here, in Brunshill, and cannot leave it to the beasts that wait in the night.  I cannot leave even if I wished to.”

Nate frowned at this and looked up to Ceidric.  “And why can’t you?”

Ceidric stared at Nate sadly, and the teen could tell the Slayer was wrestling with the idea of telling him or not.  Finally, Ceidric’s shoulders slumped in defeat.  Grunting, the older man bent down and lifted his right pant leg.  Nate gasped softly as he saw a huge, black spider web of veins pulse along the pale skin of Ceidric’s leg. “Last winter, I succumbed to Raknis Disease, a horrid plague that, up until a while ago, was most unagreeable.  It is a strange virus, one that causes the blood to move much slower than normal, and can be most costly in any Slayer Mission above a B-Class ranking.  Most beasts here fall under C-Class to low B-Class Slayer Missions, so it isn’t too dangerous for me, but challenging Nazruth, who has never fallen to even S-Class Slayers…it would kill me, no doubt.”

Nate stared in shock as the Slayer lowered his pant leg again and stood up to Nate’s eye level.  “I’m sorry, Nate, but I cannot go to kill this beast for you.  It is one thing you will have to do yourself.”  With a deep sigh, Ceidric turned away from Nate and began to head down towards the center of the village.  Scowling, Nate followed closely behind.

“Well, if you can’t go slay it for me, then I can find someone else to hunt down Nazruth!”  Ceidric laughed hollowly and shook his head.

“You still don’t get it, do you?” he asked, staring down at the young man with an expression of deep sympathy. “S-Class, the highest-ranking Slayers, haven’t even a chance against Nazruth.  He is a bane among dragons, a creature so horrid, even the Nightmare Beast Todinor flees before him.  Any Slayer you ask to hunt him for you will laugh in your face and turn away, or be so scared of the idea they’ll faint dead away.”  Nate’s scowl deepened and he grabbed Ceidric’s shoulder, bringing the bearded-man’s face closer to his, so that he could see the fiery anger and ambition in his eyes.

“Then what do you think I should do, Ceidric?”  The Slayer sighed again and pushed Nate off of him.

“Just what I said, Nate.  You need to slay Nazruth, yourself.  Yes, you said that you haven’t done any serious training even in the least your whole life, but now I believe you have a reason to get up and start.  You need to become a Slayer, Nate, and powerful one at that, if you have even the inclination to kill Nazruth and return to your home.”  Ceidric paused for a moment, and then placed a firm hand on Nate’s shoulder, his voice coming out now softer and calmer. “I know this will be hard for you, Nate, but think about it.  If you do not try to hunt down and slay Nazruth, then you will never even have a shred of a chance to return home.  Certainly, the road to slaying that beast will be hard, but a year or two away from your family is better than an eternity, ain’t it?”

Nate paused again as Ceidric’s words washed over him, and he sighed.  “You’re right,” he muttered softly, not wanting Ceidric to hear him admit it.  The Slayer nodded, though and smiled.

“Good.  Well,” he said, stepping back and staring through the village, “it’s obvious that before you go off and slay the Void Dragon, you will need some training.”  Smirking, Ceidric pointed towards the building across the village that Nate had seen earlier, the large, domed building with the red marking on above the doorway.  “That is the village’s Slayer’s Guild.  It’s not very large, and the Slayers aren’t the best by a long shot, but they are as best a place for you to start as any.”  Nate frowned and nodded to the tall Slayer.

“Thanks Ceidric.  Wish me luck.”  Ceidric nodded slowly and waved Nate off, then began to leave.

“Oh, by the way Nate,” Ceidric added as he was leaving, “best not tell them that you’re going to try go and kill Nazruth.  Not likely they’ll take you seriously.  Just tell them that you need to learn how to defend yourself.” Smirking, he went off on his own, leaving Nate alone.  Taking a deep breath, Nate turned around and looked up at the tall domed building.  From inside, he could hear the sounds of men fighting and laughing with each other, having a blast.  Nate sighed, closing his eyes.  If he was going to make it in this world, he’d have to be ready for anything.  Slowly, he stepped forward and walked in through the doorway.

Inside the guildhall, he could clearly see about a dozen young men, and some women, sitting around the tables, drinking, laughing, and gambling.  Some wore the same simple clothes that he was wearing, though with different designs and dyes decorating them.  Others, though, wore a slightly heavier choice of clothes, made from what looked like thick brown and blue fur, and armored up with some light metal guards.  In the back, a large furnace was set up, and beside it sat an older man who was banging away at a piece of steel with a blacksmith’s hammer that looked much too large for him to be using.  Beside the kiln was an opening to what Nate was betting was the kitchen, with several men and a young girl sitting outside it, chatting away.  And to the far left, beyond the benches and the gambling drunks, stood a tall counter with a young girl sitting behind it, scratching away in a large leather-bound notebook.  Nate sighed and cupped his hand to his face.

“Hey, I’m here to join this Guild for a while!” he shouted out loudly, trying to grab some attention over the now-shouting gamblers.  Those young men and women barely batted him an eye and kept on with their game, some occasionally swearing when they’d lose.  Some more sober ones, though, pointed back towards the girl at the counter and returned to their dealings.  Nate nodded slowly towards them and wound his way back towards the girl, who through his loud shout, was still writing away in her book.

“Um, hey,” he said lamely, smiling as well as he could, “I’d like to join this Guild.  Can you help me out there, miss?”  The girl stopped writing and looked up at him, frowning.  Nate gulped as her emerald green eyes cut away at his face and body, looking for something precise.  Finally, she stared straight into his deep blue eyes and sighed, closing her book, and pulling out another leather-bound book with the red seal from the doorway on its cover.  She slammed it down onto the desk with a huff and a spray of dust and turned back to Nate.

“What’s your name?”

“Nathan Seymore,” he replied, watching her as she scrawled down his name onto a new line in the book.

“All right, Nathan.  Tell me, what is your preferred weapon choice?”  Nate gulped and scratched the back of his neck.

“Um, about that…I’ve never actually used any of the weapons you guys use as Slayers.” The girl froze, the quill in her hand a millimeter from the page.  Slowly she looked up at him in shock and stood up, revealing to Nate she was probably only two inches shorter than him.

“You’ve never used a Slayer weapon?” she asked slowly, eyes wide. “Surely you must be joking!  You can’t join a Guild if you don’t know how to use a weapon!”  Nate shrugged and stepped back.

“Sorry.  I assumed that you guys could teach me.  I really need to get off to becoming a good Slayer, and this place seemed like a good place to start learning.” The Guild girl frowned and walked out from behind the counter to face him.  Like him, she wore a very basic set of clothes, a fairly large cloth that concealed her chest, with a vest like his.  Unlike him, though, she wore a slightly short skirt made like the vest, and wore cloth slippers on her feet.  Frowning again, she turned directly to him and folded her arms across her chest.

“And just where did you hear you could do that, Mr. Seymore?” she asked, a bit of coldness in her voice.  Nate gulped dryly again and stepped back a bit, feeling a bit intimidated by the young girl.

“Um, Ceidric Salerm told me it.”  As soon as the words left his lips, the guildhall froze, and everyone, even the drunk gamblers a ways off, turned to him and the Guild girl, who at that moment had gasped, eyes wide.

“Ceidric?  Ceidric asked you to come here?”  Her eyes flashed suddenly, and she gaped at him. “You!  You are the young man that Ceidric found in the forest a week ago who was so badly injured.”

“Yeah, I remember you,” one of the guys said, standing up, “I remember seeing you be carried into Ceidric’s cabin.  Looked like you’d gone after a Morketzu with only a steel hunting knife!”  Nate nodded slowly and turned back to the Guild girl, remembering what the old Slayer had told him about keeping his intentions secret.

“Yeah, that’s me.  I seriously need to learn how to protect myself, so I came here to learn.”  The Guild girl sighed and brushed some blonde strands of hair out of her face, then turned back to Nate.

“Well, we certainly can help out somewhat.  I’m Ashlyyn Bellamere, C-Class Beast Slayer,” she said, a bit more warmth than before in her voice as she held her hand out towards Nate. “I hope we can help you out here.  And sorry about earlier.”

Nate shrugged and shook her hand firmly.  “Hey, no problem.  Probably would have reacted the same way myself.”  Ashlyyn smiles and then looks over to the group of guys gambling.

“Hey, Elric, could you come over here?”  One of the men, a tall guy with spiky silver hair and piercing blue eyes nodded and stood up, walking over to stand beside Nate and Ashlyyn.

“You call, Ashlyyn?” he asked, his voice soft and whistle-like.  Ashlyyn nodded and smiled at Nate.

“Yeah.  This is Nathan Seymore, sent in by Ceidric Salerm.  I want you to take him out to the market and get him some proper armor, and show him the basic weapon choices available to him.  Don’t fail me, Elric.”  The taller man nodded and stared down at Nate slowly, his eyes cutting into his soul.

“No problem.  Meet me outside the guildhall, Nathan.”  Without another word, the Slayer walked out and into the street.  Nate sighed and smiled over at the Guild girl beside him.

“Well, I better get going.  Thanks Ashlyyn.  I look forward to learning here.”  Ashlyyn nodded and returned to her desk.  Nate smiled slowly over at her, then made his way over to the Guild doors.