It was a sunlit afternoon with a few clouds in the forest near Varisteel, located as a small village on a large scale map. Within the forest was a young, handsome man, encased in rusty scrap armor to repel offensive strikes. He rubbed the sweat off his forehead and started following the forest's ripe hunting trail back to Varisteel. His name was Elrand, a unique, but weird name with no fixed or any meaning at all.

The calm village of Varisteel greatly depended on Elrand as his job and burden is to hunt beasts and defend the peaceful community from natural threats. But today... Wasn't the best day. A new species of the reptilian kind called the Kettle Salamander suddenly boomed. They spreaded like a wildfire around the village, their fierce attitude, kettle like stomachs, durable scales, and boiling, toxic saliva made them a fearsome species.

Elrand fought back with cunningly place traps and amazing sword flay, reducing their numbers gradually would've been easier if it weren't for HER... A once thief from the west, a warrior in training, under HIS guidance. It was only the last seven days in the past but he could remember every little disaster she crafted... Stuffed some undergarments in an oven instead of a birthday cake (She SUPPOSIBLY couldn't tell the difference), read a child's name to a bedtime book, stabbed herself with a sharpened carrot (Only the heavens know how that happened.), and the list goes on, almost forever.

The familiar sights of Varisteel pulled Elrand back to reality. Many neatly built stone cottages and grassy hills with bolvine and domestic primal felines was always a wonderful sight to see after a good days work. The woman he was hoping he wouldn't run into today showed up by the well in the center of the village, calling to him upon his arrival. She had a balance of a cute and sexy feminine body, about his age, and a curious, encouraging, yet guilible attitude. She had smooth lightly tanned skin, mid-length silver hair that lightly bounces below her shoulders, blue eyes you could get lost in if you stared in them too long and a sweet soothing voice. At first glance, it would seem as if she'd never worked a day in her life. She was wearing her long gray and gold robe along with her 'protective gear' which consists of leather belts here and there on her limbs, and a leather stitched vest which shaped and hugged her womanly figure.

"Err... Meridith? Right?"

"... My name is Meriam... Daughter of the Great Sage Merlin?"

Elrand embarrassingly scratched his head, "Right. So what is it you wanted me for?"

"I'm ready for a sparring lesson Elrand!"

Gotta love her enthusiastic charm.

"Alright then. Lets head to the fields, I'd like to see how my student is learning."

 The two silently but quickly paced into a flat area of tall grass, checking for any surprising disturbances before drawing out their blades. Meriam's weapon of choice is a rope dart, or more specifically, a well crafted dagger attached to iron chains. She let it fall just above her ankles and waited for Elrand's signal. As soon as he said to begin, she blurred in front of him, whirling and thrashing the chain in a flurry of attacks, trying to catch Elrand off guard. He stumbled backwards from the onslaught as she came too close but countered with a lunge and gained his footing again.

Meriam's weapon wrapped around his sword and yanked it skywards, disarming him of his broad weapon. In the process, she had to lift her hands up to yank out the sword from his hands, leaving her vulnerable, Elrand took advantage of this chance. He threw a medium-heavy left hook into her arm, and slipped a uppercut under her chains and into her midsection, causing her to flinch painfully. He caught the sword at the end of its descent in the air and pointed it at Meriam's throat, claiming victory.

"It's not always the weapon you should worry about."

She said nothing. She just looked at him in awe and seemed delighted. Pretty frightening... There was a rustle in the tall grass, a red ball whirled out and shot a watery fluid straight at Meriam.

"Look out!"

Elrand instinctively deflected the substance with a swing of his sword, only to find that the blade melted into two parts. The red ball unfurled into a Kettle Salamander and glared defiantly.

"D-don't worry Mentor Elrand! I can handle this!"

"It's fine! I've got a better idea."

"Really?"

"Look! A twig!"

The bloated salamander seemed to stumble closer in anger.

"Seriously!? Our lives are in danger!" Cried Meriam, now becoming worried.

"U-uhh. Um... A rock! Some meat! Uhh... LOOK! A PAIR OF BOOBS!"

It was a surprise it actually turned around. By the time the creature noticed it was tricked, the duo was safely hiding behind a tree at the edge of the forest. As it grumpily headed off, Meriam softly blurted out, "It turned around when you said BOOBS!?"

"I need to make a note in my journal, boobs is a universal language."

The two laughed away the troubles and headed back to the village. Today wasn't actually a bad day, except for his sword which was now in two... They would laugh now. But soon, the real conflict would reveal...

Three weeks after their training affairs,  it was a bright dew-filled morning, a common, boring, old sight in Varisteel, but a happy one. Meriam sharpened her dagger and munched on one of Elrand's rations, then spat one out the second she tasted its bitterness.

"H-how do you eat that?"

Elrand laughed, "It's a ration silly. Nutrition over taste."

"I think I'll stick to raisins."

The two chuckled and looked up at the mountains in the distance. It was a breathtaking view in the mornings light, vivid, amazingly high, and jagged earth towered over one another, forming a hollow ring in the middle in which the sun would seem to hover upon as the day descended. A large golden kingdom shimmering with brilliance could be seen beneath these natural wonders, but today the kingdom wasn't very shiny as it usually seemed. One of the towers leaned on the outer walls, some of the wall crumbled around the floor, and black depressing smoke floated above the once prideful looking kingdom.

Meriam worried about this, Elrand gave her a a pinch of a sugary gel to help calm herself down. She still gazed at the kingdom with uncertain eyes and she questioned to Elrand, "what do you think happened?..."

"Something tells me I don't want to know."

In that instance, a scream erupted out of its silent cheerful barrier, it came from the direction of Varisteel. The two hunters ran towards the cottages to find them set aflame, bloodied bodies were scattered around the rubble. The screaming stopped, Elrand and Meriam lashed out their weapons at the sight of a red and black dressed witch. She was beautiful, black hair, pale skin, but the two weren't checking for details, just a guilty person, and the blood stains on her red and black jacket confirmed the mass murder.

"Oh. Look who it is, ready to die?"

The witch looked merrily into Meriam's and Meriam yelled, "Go back where you came from!"

"Youngest go first."

Meriam rushed forward, throwing her dagger as far as it would go, but it was deflected by a magical imbued wave of the woman's hand. She chanted some unintelligible words and threw a giant fireball which had formed from destructive intent. Without thinking, Elrand stepped in the way of the flaming orb, flashed out his shortened blade and tried to repel the bright flame... With no use. The hot ball of energy went straight through and ignited his entire body.

He couldn't scream, he couldn't move either. His body stiffened as the searing flames ate up his flesh, he could see Meriam crying. Then the world went black, nothing to see but himself. Elrand wasn't on fire anymore, but still felt the burns.

"Hello?" He called out, but nobody answered. He took a few steps in this platform of nothing, he was astonished and actually quite fascinated with this pitch black... Wherever it is. The darkness soon brightened to give the image of a forest, a familiar forest, Varisteel's forest. Its twisting, winding trees were gloomier in this atmosphere. Where Varisteel would've been was behind him, but he couldn't see anything there, just nothing. Elrand started into the forest which seemed empty, not full of life as what he remembered. It felt like forever until he reached a lake, and behind it, nothing, this place was much like a closed box. Unlike the rest of the frozen world, the lake writhed and wriggled, squirmed, and thrashed. No sound came from it, but a sharpened bone blade whirled out by his feet, almost stabbing him.

"With this blade, you'll get what you desired. But you must promise to uphold the burden, the burden of a legend."

Elrand remembered what was going to happen if he didn't get up, the witch would massacre Meriam like she did him. He clenched his fists around the handle of the weapon and called out, "I desire power, to help a dear friend and many more in the future ahead. I'll accept any burden to see this promise made as a reality!"

There was silence. Until the voice said, "Then behold my powers, your oath has been judged worthy."

And with that, the scene came back, bloody corpses, flames, ashes, fallen buildings, and the crying Meriam, weeping about how she wasn't strong enough to protect herself.

Her body twisted to face the witch who was smiling all slick and joyfully, jeering at the hooded girl and throwing little embers to torment her victim. Elrand was having none of this, he shoved Meriam away from her magic's reach and got up quickly to lock eye contact with the murderous woman.

"Ooh! I get to kill you twice! This'll be fun!"

His simple sarcastic reply, "Yeah, but this time, I'll be packing the heat."

"I'll be the one to joke on your grav-"

She never finished her sentence, a skeleton arm nearby rose up and whipped her side, knocking her to the ground.

"Eh. You talk to much."

"How did you- OWW!"

"You're still talking!"

She grunted, getting up and shooting another fire orb at him. He never learned anything about his powers, he just knew in an instant on how to use them. His hand raised up instinctively and a wall of skeletons jumped out from the ground, oddly, but successfully blocking the attack.

"W-what are y-"

"I SAID SHUT IT!"

Elrand pushed his hand forward, the lady stumbled over as a disturbing crack rang in her neck. She gave a heavy gasp for air, then laid lifeless on the ground. He turned to Meriam, who was terrified at what she just witnessed.

"Elrand?..."

"Meriam! Are you alright?"

She shuddered weakly, "I'm good. Just a few light burns..."

Meriam fell and Elrand caught her in his arms. He could see and feel almost everything, the hungry flames, the crushed ideals, the hopeless fear, the revengeful rage. The two would have to abandon Varisteel and live somewhere off in the distance. They'd live like nomads. With no place to go, Elrand carried Meriam and headed towards the mountains to see if this attack effected the kingdom or the other way around. What truly were his powers? Or what was his burden? Maybe it would unfold itself. Going to a likely raided kingdom for shelter, was the weirdest idea he thought about. But his only idea. One could never really know unless they try...