Neon Black

[Roenwolfe]

"So that is known his journey has not ended, but only has begun a new. May his soul rest in peace." The casket was lowered into the ground carefully and the priest went inside as the gravedigger began with his chore of covering the hole. The hole was half full when it happened; a slight tremor shook the earth around the grave causing the rectangle in the ground to cave in on the sides a little. The gravedigger was use to strange happenings and he just continued his chore. Just as the gravedigger finished, he lifted a weak arm up and wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked to the east. It wasn't a pleasant sight and he hurried himself to find a safe place.

It wasn't rare that a priest would have to arrange a funeral because no one claimed the dead to be their loved one or no one bothered to care about their loved one's death. "There was something strange about that man. I just can't put my finger on it." The priest said quietly writing in his journal. "The armor, the sword, and the pendant was so...unusual?" The priest was dumbfounded as he tried to figure out what society and religion that poor soul was from. He didn't even look normal. Something magical sturred about him, but not only magical; divine! "Perhaps he was a messenger from the heavens that had done his duty and died with honor? What a privilidge that would be to know I buried a messenger of the heavens. Though it worries me, his appearance did not seem holy nor heavenly. Oh bah! Don't worry yourself." The priest quickly dismissed the ranting and raving from his thoughts and set back in his chair, then looked out the window. His eyes widened as he saw the black skies to the east. The priest hurried home to take his family to their cellar.

He and the gravedigger weren't the only ones though. It seemed nature itself was just as well trying to run away from the horrible black skies. All kinds of animals were scrambling into their burrows. There was something unnatural about this storm that didn't agree with nature. Black clouds stretched for miles wide rolling towards its destination like a herd of wild nightmares. There were even life-like shapes seen in the clouds. Flickers of unnatural movement and sounds of almost wicked laughter. Wicked laughter that would make a man go insane if it was imprinted into his soul.

Farmers miles away scurried about everywhere. They had not seen the likes of such a storm in their whole lives. All they could do was settle in their weak homes if they could not find the shelter of a cellar. Farmers knew all their hard work through the season was for nothing; the storm would annihilate the crops. It first started slow as any storm would. The rain came in steady fall, the thunder and lightning set itself, and then the heavy winds blustered through the fields into the village. There was nothing they could do other than sit and wait it out.

The gravedigger watched from inside a mausoleum through the steel gate. It was a horrid experience. Tremors shook the ground all around the graveyard and seemed to only get worse as the sky faded into darkness. A narrow black light shined from the grave that he had dug out for the lone mystical man earlier that day. The gravedigger was scared stiff. He tried to move away, but to no advance. He found himself continuing to look at the grave and the skies. It was then that he saw the possible worst of it. Thousands came from the sky screeching their ghastly wails of insanity. He only hoped that they didn't see him in that mausoleum. He prayed to Kelemvor that if it was his time to die, that he let him die a quick and painless death. The wraiths turned their attention to the man and let out their appalling wails once more as he passed out. Hell had surely come to take them all.

The storm was closing in on the village. Families were terrirfied and didn't know what was to become of their homes. The screams could now be heard. The women and children started crying, fearing for their lives. The men were even shaken by these screams. One farmer made his way to the window and carefully looked out. He saw the thousands upon thousands of wraiths and allips. They were flying through destroying any life they could find. Crops could be seen shriveling due to the nightmarish sounds coming from the monsters. The farmer was scared into a mental petrification. He could only stand and watch in shock. The farmer then noticed, through the heavy rains, a man walking toward their village. Something was shining fiercely through all the terror. A very strange light from the man's neck. The mysterious man clad in black drug a bastard sword behind him, limping as he came.

The wraiths all seemed to stop their appalling wails of terror and turned all awareness to the man. He was now running towards the wraiths with a harsh angered facial expression screaming, "Ο καιρός σας έχει έρθει!!" They all started at him so they could rip his soul apart piece by piece. Millions, it seemed, were going after the man. The farmer could not turn his eyes away. Their was no doubt in his mind man in black would be torn into fragments, both body and soul. The wraiths piled atop the man as if to satarize a mortal game. The man in black could not be seen. A dark neon glow came from the center and the wraiths began to flee. It was too late; the light let out a spherical explosion of neon black. The sky above parted as the top of the sphere reached it and birds could be seen flying above the stormy skies. The wraiths let out a dieing screech before they finally disintegrated. The stormy skies began to swirl above the man in black. He let out a scream and pointed his sword toward the sky as the neon black light from his neck climbed his sword and shot through the swirling skies above. The black skies seemed to implode.

The gravedigger had finally woke from his nightmare. He rose up and started rubbing his head. "Thats the last time I drink whiskey that damned late again! I musta been out for hours. I guess I'll be hearin it from the priest again...." He shook his head, picked himself up to his feet, and then it hit him. His eyes widened in fear that it was no nightmare he had the afternoon before. The gate, that was closed when he first sought safety, was open. The grave, he had filled yesterday, was now as empty as before he had made. The earth was scorched inside that grave. He couldn't think of anything else to do except run and tell the priest. Indubitably he would know what to do.

The priest held his wife and daughters close to him as the storm beat against the doors of the cellar. The screams scared them all. Though after a while the screams were silenced by a quake. The storm fell to clear skies and the priest prayed with his family thanking the gods for their good fortune. No sooner did they start to get up and walk to the stairs a mad banging came from the cellar doors. The girls screamed out of fright and the priest picked up a small hand axe as he made his way to the door. The priest slowly let out a prayer then readied himself as he flung the cellar doors open. The gravedigger was standing there and the priest let out a sigh of relief. "Father, Father! You must come see the grave!." The priest sniffed the air in front of the gravedigger as to catch a hint of whiskey but to no avail. "Alright let me get my family inside and set, then I will come see what you speak of."

The sword fell to the ground dragging the man to his knees. He could be seen from far away breathing heavily as he was exhausted. The farmers slowly crept from their houses staring at the strange man. He was their savior, but the farmers were afraid to get near the man. The dark one picked his sword up and stuck it into the ground so that he could help himself up. Once to his feet he began to walk towards them all. He got closer and closer. The neon black light at his neck began to glow brighter as the light consumed the man and he vanished into thin air. One farmer swore he saw him walk right passed him after he vanished. As the farmers were looking around for him he was sighted again, but it was on the other side of the village farthest from the woods he emerged from. One farmer rushed to the man's side offering him food and water. The man turned to the farmer and made a small nod. "Οι ευχαριστίες μου," The man in black spoke then softly took the food and water. The farmer looked curiously at him. "I'm sorry sir but I do not understand your language, but we have a lot to thank you for...I only hope we can return the favor some how. Do you understand my words sir?" He nodded then finally spoke their dialect, "No favor in return, you owe me nothing. It was war of mine. Go to family of yours now. Go." The farmer smiled, nodded, then hurried back to his family.

The priest was stunned by the sight as the gravedigger relayed the story to him of what he remembered. "I only hope who ever that man was, isn't the evil power that brought the storm." The priest said in a somewhat bothered tone. "Ahh, no sir. I think he might have saved me. Really I do. Right before I passed out I saw that light and the wraiths were coming at me...but then the light got brighter and those things turned to the light. He may not have saved me himself, but he sure enough made them things turn their sights off me." The priest nodded. "Anything is possible so we must take proper precautions in this situation. He can be good or evil. From the sights of his amulet that I noticed before burial, it didn't look as if it were a friendly symbol." The gravedigger looked confused for a second and then finally said, "Ahh, whatever you say, but I think somehow if that didn't happen I wouldn't be here to tell you about all this." "That may be so, but again we must take caution in a matter such as this." With that the priest went back home to think about all the things that have happened in full detail. There were many possibilities.