text: [Themes: fantasy]
  
  The sound of screams assault you as you wake.
  
  Though it is so fundamentally different, the screaming is in another way similar to the shouts of the cheering crowds that stood before you not too long ago, paying their due to the great hero Tainea.
  
  Paying homage to you.
  
  It takes about half a second before the screams truly register in your mind and you leap to your feet. The single, small window you have allowed yourself for this hiding place of yours confirms that it is daytime. You gaze through it, seeing nothing out of the ordinary until your eyes catch a glimpse of a sword blade. Turning your head, you see that two men stand in the village square, one of them cloaked with a hood over his head. The other, you take a moment to recognize.
  
  Then you realize that it is Ghall, the blacksmith here! He is -- was, judging by the weapon driven through his heart -- the most skilled at his art for miles around, the one who arms the town's guards. Without him, they will not have any weapons and therefore will be much less able to defend the village.
  
  Several others lie dead on the ground, you realize, and the sword was stained with blood even before it was buried up to the hilt in Ghall's flesh. The murderer pulls the blade out, turning towards a guard who wields a bow and is approaching him. He points his sword towards the guard and mutters a single word under his breath, you can tell by the movement of his lips. He isn't talking loudly enough for the guard to make out the word, you can tell.
  
  Even if he had, it wouldn't have mattered. The corpse slumps to the ground, its head completely incinerated. Your jaw drops and you take count of the weapons you hold. You haven't seen anything like this since the Dayel! There are a lot of daggers on you, hidden in every conceivable place. A wrist-bow on your left arm creates only a slight bulge in the sleeves of your robes. It is activated by a rather complicated mechanism of Ghall's own design. A vial of acid hangs from your belt, something that you have only ever used in last-ditch situations because you carry just one at a time. They are quite hard to come by, especially inside the Dayel's realm. You intend to save that one for the creature you detected which no doubt commands Ghall's murderer. Finally, there is a crossbow strapped to your right hip.
  
  You shed the robe that hid all of these weapons and rush out towards the village square. Yes, you're thought to be dead, but with the guard's death there will be no witnesses. As you come out of the door, the killer gets up from the corpse that he was bent over, the one of the guard. He (it?) looks towards you and points the sword at you. You estimate that you have about a second to live, unless you stop him, and quickly.
  
  > fire your wristbow
  You raise your arm and the wrist-bow fires, its string emitting a thrumming sound as it releases its deadly cargo. Your missile streaks through the air spinning several times as it goes, until it finally strikes the attacker in the forehead. The sword falls to the ground, and he stumbles backwards, clutching his wound. You watch gleefully as he falls to his knees, but your smile droops somewhat when he tears the missile out and throws it at you.
  
  You dodge to the side easily, but considering that it was meant to be shot, not thrown, that was a very good attack. Rolling forward, you get up and take out your crossbow, holding it in your right hand. A dagger comes out of its sheath in your left and you approach your prey, ready to finish it off. Just as you are almost there, though, your enemy grabs the sword and lashes out at you.
  
  You leap up over the sweeping strike, barely avoiding getting your right foot chopped off, and then spin to the side, sending another bolt into your enemy's flesh, this time striking him near the heart. Near the heart, but not in the heart. You didn't even get an artery, in fact. A shame, but you'll take what you get. Mostly that was to distract your enemy who obviously can heal extremely quickly.
  
  There is no doubt in your mind; this one serves the Dayel's minion. This is the one who attempted to kill you, you can tell by the way he is acting. Therefore, your fears of going out into the open are assuaged. Still, that's the last thing on your mind right now. You try to finish him quickly, stabbing towards his neck with the dagger in your left hand. He can't recover from having his head removed, you know that. A neck wound would be difficult enough to recover from that you might be able to end his life while he was distracted.
  
  You never hit him, though, as he jumps to the side and smashes the pommel of his weapon into your head. You stumble forward and turn back towards him, considering your options.
  
  > try to fit another bolt on your crossbow and fire it
  You reach into the box that hangs at your belt and take a bolt out of it, just as a blast of energy flies towards you. Luckily, you manage to dodge to the side, though it does tear a hole through your cloak, and when it returns towards you, you flatten yourself to the ground and fit the bolt onto your crossbow.
  
  For a brief moment, you think that the energy might hit the one that had released it, for it's heading straight towards him, but he simply raises his sword at an angle, heading straight towards the morning sun. It glances off of the side of the blade, and flies straight towards you. Again you dodge, this time by rolling away, and the energy bolt hits a building nearby.
  
  Your attack closes his eyes and attempts to fire another blast at you, but before that can happen you push upwards on the crossbow-trigger, activating the mechanism that releases the string and causes it to push the bolt forward. It leaves the crossbow and flies towards your enemy, striking them in the neck. He reaches up towards the wound desperately, stumbling backwards, trying to remove the ammunition.
  
  Rushing up to him, you put away your crossbow and draw a pair of daggers. He lashes at you with the sword, but you leap over him, pivot on your heel, and drive your right-handed weapon into his back. Though you immediately remove the weapon, before it leaves your opponent's flesh the body vanishes. Sword and cloak clatter to the ground.
  
  You sheath your weapons and reach down towards the sword, thinking that you might put it to good use. Reaching your fingers around its hilt, you smile with satisfaction. Your smile drops when you see that the blade is turning to dust in your hands. Your arm brushes the cloak, and it falls to dust as well.
  
  Too bad. You could have done a lot with those. You get up and set your sights on the horizon, just as you notice a set of footprints.
  
  > follow the footprints
  You decide that following the path that your attacker took before he got here is probably your best chance at finding a way into the Dayel's domain. It rained last night and the ground is very wet, so the tracks are rather easy to follow. They wind in between buildings and then comes towards a place near the gates. You look see a fence in front of you and look down. The tracks continue on the other side of the fence!
  
  Sighing, you grab onto the side of it, then slowly and laboriously drag yourself up. It takes a while, but eventually you find yourself on the other side and drop down onto the ground. The footprints continue off into the forest and for a moment you consider whether or not it's a good idea to follow them. If you do, it may very well lead to your death, but it's a risky job you're attempting to do, so you don't see why you shouldn't.
  
  Readying your crossbow just in case, because you really can't be too careful, you follow the tracks along until darkness falls over the land. You can barely see, and have to transfer your crossbow to one hand so that you can hold the torch you packed. Its light shines just far enough for you to see where you are going, and then it stops. You continue moving, following the tracks, until you see a pulsing portal before you.
  
  This is it! You walk towards the portal and gaze into its depths. An unnerving feeling comes over you, because after all, this is the gateway into the realm of an extra-planar creature that very nearly destroyed all of mankind. Sucking in a breath, you step forward and allow it to take you in.
  
  It's a strange feeling, crossing through a portal. It has an incredible gravitational force, not quite a literal one, but rather, it draws anyone too close to it in by interfering with their brain's functions. That suggestion nagging at your brain is something that you felt even before you drew close to it. When you cross through it, the gravity of the portal becomes physical and you feel as if you are going to be torn apart by the unimaginable forces at work here.
  
  However, ultimately, it does not kill you, and instead spits you out into a stone room with a single door. There is nothing in the room around you, nothing but stone and the door. And, of course, air. You know that it probably didn't have air before, but more than just living things can pass through portals, obviously, and therefore, so can air.
  
  You look towards the door and think it might be a good idea to open it.
  
  > open the door
  You reach over to the door and swing it open. Standing before you is a demonic figure with a sword. It advances on you, and you prepare for a fight. You've got no choice, if you try to run it'll catch you and kill you.
  
  > battle the demon
  The figure charges towards you, its sword held tightly in both hands and pointed forward so that if it gets within five feet of you, you'll be dead. You dodge to the side and the blade-wielding creature nearly runs into the wall, but then turns about before you can even fire a bolt. He comes straight towards you again, and you fire a crossbow bolt straight into his face. It hits him in the forehead, though you note a slight advantage as he brings his sword up in an ill-fated attempt to block. When he cannot knock the bolt aside, his sword weights down his arms for a brief moment and his sword goes down to the side.
  
  You only have a few moments before he recovers and comes towards you again. In that time, you might be able to get to the portal, though it's unlikely that you would reach it in time, and you'd have to go around the demonic figure. Your wrist-bow is still loaded, and you have easy access to a large number of bolts for your crossbow, so that might be your best option.
  
  Perhaps, however, doing battle on this thing's terms might suit you. You could put a knife neatly into its neck, judging by the way that its head is tilted slightly upwards. You just hope that the maneuver would not end up terribly wrong, likely getting your head removed in the process.
  
  He's almost manage to get over the unbalancing effects of his failed deflection and of the crossbow bolt which is quickly burning away, so you'll have to act now, whatever it is you're planning to do.
  
  > stand your ground and knife-fight him
  You drop your crossbow, shrugging and waiting for him to lift his sword. The crossbow bolt falls to the ground and continues to burn away, while your enemy advances on you. He's about ten feet away when you draw the daggers, and this gives him pause. Examining you, the obviously quite evil creature tightens its grip on its sword. Then, as abruptly as it came, your moment of opportunity is gone. The creature charges.
  
  Which, by the way, appears to be something it's quite good at. You bring the knives into a blocking position as it comes on, deflecting its downward chop that would have cut you in half had you not thwarted it, then slide to the side and drive a single dagger into its flesh. The satisfying crack of bone lets you know you have done well, but the battle can't be over yet. This thing is far too tough for that.
  
  It swings at you and you duck under the blow, then put your left foot forward, pivot, and put a knife in the thing's leg. It howls, stumbles forward, and raises its hand, shifting the sword so that it's only taking one hand to wield it. The weapon seems to shift slightly, and you nervously look up towards it.
  
  Within a moment, the weapon is in your heart, and as if that's not enough to kill you, the creature snaps its fingers and you burst into flame. Perhaps it merely wished to dispose of the body, not thinking it necessary to use overkill, or maybe it thought you would dodge the attack. Either way, it doesn't matter much to you.