Chapter 1

Jannah woke to the sounds of armor and weapons clanking around. Someone pounded on her door.
“Ranger!” they yelled. “Let’s go!”
Jannah sighed and rolled out of bed. She pulled on her jerkin and boots and grabbed the weapons that were propped up by the door. The fort was in chaos when she emerged from her barracks.
“Erik!” she called to a running soldier. “What’s going on?”
“We’re moving out, Captain,” the soldier responded. “Something about the capital needing defending. Oh, and the commander wants to see you.”
“Alright, thanks.”
Jannah walked to the centre of the fort where the command tent was and saw the commander studying a map.
“Commander Thorne,” she said, walking up to him. “You called for me.”
“Ahh, yes, Captain Jannah,” Thorne said. “As you’ve heard, we’re pulling back to defend the capital. Things with the Southern kingdom have gotten tense.”
“Tense? I thought we were friends with King Ryson and his son.”
“Son, yes. But King Ryson died recently, and Prince Karson took his place instead of Prince Erik. We haven’t heard from Erik or his family since.”
“So why did you call for me?”
“There’s a town up north, Cerwallen that’s been having reports of Warden attacks. I want you to take Kade to deal with them. Mage Ian will go with you, and Lieutenant Racka will act as his guard.
“Yes sir,” Jannah said, hiding her frustration. She didn’t like mages very much. Too absorbed in their ‘magic’ to pay attention to life. “Anything else?” Jannah asked.
“That’s it. Be gone by noon.”
“Yes sir!”
Jannah left the tent and walked towards Kade’s barracks. He was waiting outside in full gear when she arrived.
“We moving out?” Kade asked as Jannah approached.
“Yeah,” Jannah responded. “The main force is heading back to the capital, we’re heading up north to deal with some wardens. A mage will be taking us there, and he’ll be escorted by a lieutenant.”
Kade made a face. “Here’s hoping they don’t slow us down.”
“Be nice, Kade.”
“Yeah, yeah, I will.”
Jannah and Kade walked over to the mage’s quadrant. It was an open area, and several hooded mages were sitting around reading.
“Hey!” Jannah called. “We’re looking for Ian.”
One of the mages stood up and walked toward them with a forced calmness.
“I am Ian,” the mage said. “What do you need?”
“You’re supposed to take us to Cerwallen.”
“Ahh! A mission. Racka!” Ian called.
“Here,” a calm voice answered behind the mage.
“Good. We’re going with the rangers.”
“Where?”
“Uhh,” Ian turned to Jannah. “Where again?”
Jannah sighed. “Cerwallen.”
“Cerwallen! Yes, there.”
“Very well,” Racka said. “Captain Jannah, you are the leader of this expedition, I assume?”
“I am,” Jannah said confidently, taking that moment to pull the conversation away from small talk and into action. “We’re to go to Cerwallen and look for a couple of Wardens. As soon as we’re done, we head to the capital to regroup with the rest of the army. Understood?”
“Yes ma’am!” Racka said.
“Good. Ian, take us in.”
“Right-o,” Ian responded. He lifted his staff, and a blue circular portal appeared beside them. “There we are! Hop on through!”
Jannah walked through the portal and instantly knew something was wrong. She smelled smoke and quickly made her way through the trees that Ian had teleported her into. She reached a ridge that overlooked the town of Cerwallen. Below her, the town was in flames and circled around it were several packs of Wardens.
“Well that’s not good,” Kade said beside her.
“We’re in big trouble now,” Jannah said grimly.

Chapter 2 (Slightly shorter, but fear not, it'll get better)

Calum leaned against the wall and stared at the sword in his lap. It used to give him a sense of hope and purpose, but now it only served to remind him of his failure. That along with the mark on his wrist. He heard footsteps approaching and looked up.
“You shouldn’t be here, Seria,” Calum said as the girl approached.
“Why not?” Seria asked in a gentle tone.
“You know what’s happened to me and to people around me since Darkfall.”
“I know that a couple of people who have gotten somewhat hurt when close to you, and that you’ve gotten depressed.”
Calum gave a chuckle without humor behind it. “If that’s all you think, you’re severely misinformed.”
Seria sighed and sat down beside him.
“Just because you failed once doesn’t make you any less worthy of yourself. It doesn’t make me love you any less either.”
Calum sighed. She didn’t understand. Of course she didn’t, he hadn’t told anyone what had happened.
“I need some air,” Calum said as he stood up.
“If you need anything, you know where to find me,” Seria said, standing and turning to leave.
“I'll let you know,” Calum said, as he grabbed his sword and walked down the trail leading to the mountain he regularly climbed.

The mountain air helped a little bit, but Calum still felt the edge in his mind that he had felt since the Darkfall assignment. Taking off his gauntlet, he sat down on a rock face and stared at the black mark on his wrist. It hadn’t seemed to grow, but was simply writhing like a living snake. He looked at his sword and noticed that the red jewels had grown darker, as if tainted with some evil. Trying to take his mind off what was happening to him, he gazed at the landscape as it turned almost golden in the sunset. Off in the distance he saw smoke rising into the darkening sky. As soon as he recognized where it was coming from, he raced down the mountain, his heart beating quickly. The smoke was rising from the village that he had called home before he had gone down the path of the Eagle’s Talon.

Fascinating!

Intriguing! 😄 #second

@D_R+FB: Thankee!
not the quality of writing you get from Greenie or D_R, but I'm trying

@GMan, don't beat your self up! I'm still worse then you 😂

@Gman, It's good! You should've seen mine when I first started on here . . .
Wait, you still can 😂

Thanks for thinking so!
writing is hard

Cool