Tales of the Unknown : Shattered Blades

Chapter 1 : The Journey Begins

She leaned to the armor by her side and gazed into the fire burning infront of her, she had nowhere to run to, and nothing to lie down on, all that she had was a broken armor, and a few gold with some pieces of a broken blades as she sat in the fading light of the fire inside the cave. The memories of her past restrained her from sleeping, as they came into her mind in the form of Nightmares and haunted her in sleep..She clings onto whats left of a torn cloth as she tries to relax herself and come to terms with the darkness seeping into the cold cave..

Down from where she rests was a bustling village still young at midnight, it was the travelling merchants marketplace, where people from faraway places came to trade and setup shops at the heart of the Empire. Most of the villagers were merchants who sold almost everything from salt to Diamonds. The lights of the city reminded her of how she grew up, in a well lit, warm and cozy room, playing in the vast garden, and living a luxurious life, teardrops fell down her cheeks, and as she wiped it away, the fire had gone silent with nothing but darkness around her.

She couldn't sleep that night, she stayed in the shadows, checking on her belongings, most of which was burned or broken..She kept looking through until she stopped, and picked up a small diary, a travelers journal, and what she considers treasure. She held it close to her chest along with the armor, looking at the lights dancing in the village down below, her mind began wandering, strange lands and people and stories, it was her favorite as a child. Adventure stories told by her mom, where a brave hero with his friends and companions fought and defeated the evil demons and brought peace and happiness to the world. And among one was the story that made her the most excited, and the story that gave her the strength to survive and seek out what she must do, and what she was following now, trying to seek it out. Unfortunately, she had no idea where to and how to start, and as she waited for the cold night to be over, she kept thinking about it...

5:13 AM, Friday, 20 AD (After Dark*)

She put on a cloak that hid her well, and her knapsack which contained her precious treasures, as she headed down to the now silent and resting marketplace. She kept to the darkness, under the trees as she closed in on the shops. Some were still open, but deserted...She made her way to the blacksmith's corner, in hope that she can get her sword fixed. She made her way into the shop and it was empty for except an old looking man with a long white beard and beat up helmet with horns on it..
"E-excuse me mr. shopkeeper "..... she called out to the man and he jumped on his chair like something hit him in the back.
"O-oh a customer..Welcome, welcome, i was not sleeping i was just thinking.......he giggles awkwardly..So what do u need...young....wanderer? "...... He asked in his grumpy voice.
"Can u fix this? "....She took out the blade pieces.
"mmm...I'm sorry, but that will be hard " He pauses and examines the broken pieces,
"First of all, the hilt is missing and the blades are somewhat uneven pieces.."
"W-what do u mean u cant fix this...Why not? " Her voice cracked..
"What i meant....Do u have a hilt...If not, then u cant fix this...i can manage to reshape the pieces and form the blade once again, but without the hilt, its not possible to make it into whatever it was before..might i suggest u buy a new blade...um..we have lots here..." He pulls off some cloth and a set of weapons are under it..
" Um..well..what else can i do with this...? " she asks anxiously..
" No...I'm afraid not....." he replies while looking at the blades " nothing much i can do "

She takes the pieces and puts it back into her bag, and she is about to walk away she notices the display on the wall, thinking she might need to buy something else anyway she asks for him to show her some good weapons for protection..There were a lot of swords and all of them looked so expensive...
" How much for these.. " She looks through and picks a Sword and Dagger that seemed alright..
" That's..um....well... around 450 Gold.." he mumbles "  Yes, 450.."
" 450!...isn't that a little too much? This seems like a really old sword too.... "
" It might look old, but its still sharp as new " he picks it up and juggles it in his hand
" Its not that old, and its in great quality too, OK..so it will be 450.. " he looks at her in the eye
She picks up the sword and un-sheaths it and makes a couple of swings..
" Hmmm....i guess its alright...but 450, is too much, i will pay u 250 for the sword "
" what is your name wanderer " he asks seriously
" ..................................Elysia " she answers after a long pause
" Elysia, what a fancy name u have.." he looks at her suspiciously and continues " 400 is a very low price to pay for a sword of this quality, u wont find one like this at this price anywhere.. "
" This doesn't seem to be worth that much, and i don't think this will last much longer..its already started to dull its blade...how can u sell this for such a high price " She runs her hand over the swords edge and teases its blade..
" Hmm.... U are no ordinary traveler are you, what are you doing wandering here ? " His voice hardens..
" I'm just a passer-by, who happened to find a blacksmith just when my blade was broken " She hovers her sight over the other swords..
" You've got such a fine collection here, certainly you wouldn't need to sell this sword to a poor traveler with no weapon to protect herself at these high prizes to do business...would you? "
" Hah! my swords are the best in this nation, i don't need anyone's to praise to sell them.. "
" Then you wont certainly mind if i took this off your hand....after all, this doesn't belong with your swords.. " She smirks at him
" So you noticed.....True, this isn't one of my swords, mine would never get thrown away like this, they were born from fire and they wont ever fade away " The old man laughs with pride
" 200 it is then " 
" 350 " The old man looks at her with a smile 
" 250.......and u can throw in a fire-set and this hand-guards too " She puts in something extra
" 300, not a single gold lesser " He crosses his arms
" Deal! " They both smile and he bursts into laughter
" You are the first customer that ever successfully haggled with me kid....here...take this too.." He gives her a Pair of arm blades that fit right into the Ebony hand-guards she picked "

She walks out of the Shop, and heads over to her path, the path that leads to Zereif...The town from her mother's stories...She had no food nor had she had any luck of getting some for the past couple of days...So she tries to find somewhere she can buy something to eat, unfortunately there were no other shops open at this early hour..She makes her way to some trees, hoping to find some fruits..And she was right, it was an orchard, and the trees were full of Blue Apples.. She uses her sword and cuts down a few Apples and put them in her bags and sits down biting on one..... " This is so tasty...why haven't i had this before " she thinks to herself, and looks at her new weapon... It looks a little old, but still a good sword, she dusts off the sword and notices some writing in a strange language , she tries to read but to no avail...

Not too long had passed, as she was walking through a misty road, completely dark..She could hear her breathing become faster, and the cold making it hard to hold her breath steady..its been some time since she wandered into this labyrinth of darkness... She kept her sword close to her, pacing her steps ever so carefully and starts hearing whispers... She was never a fan of darkness and now here she was in the middle of it, and top of that, she was hearing things......She was ready to draw her sword... Might something pop out of the darkness and make a move at her...she would strike back and teach it to never mess with her....With one hand on her sword handle and her eyes and ears sharpened to the fullest, she walks ahead....

=[ "*" - Trivia items...
     After Dark - The Demon wars that concluded 20 years ago and lasted nearly half a decade was                               referred to as the Dark Era, as the Sun and Moon were Blinded by smoke and                                         blood in the air..]=