Book 1 Age of Darkness

Episode 1 : Girl and Boy

Year 7 of The Great Darkness

In the beginning of what was referred to as "The Age of Great Darkness", the twin suns of Arcadia would occasionally rise later, and sets sooner. This would continue until eventually, both suns stopped rising. Thus began The Age of Great Darkness, and with it came the rise of the Shadowfiends.

Daerutt Village, a small nondescript village by the Poison Lagoon on the Continent of Arcadia, with a population not more than 100 souls, this day is submerged in darkness as it always has. Lacking in resources and funds to arm itself with adequate amount of the valuable "Moon Stones" in order to generate light, it can only afford to do so in cases of attacks by "Shadow Friends", monsters bred and empowered by the the darkness, as they can only be killed under the light.

Attacks of the Shadowfiends grow more and more frequent every passing day, eroding what little resources the small village has left. As such, almost all able-bodied villagers are deployed as "Shadowhunters", to scavenge and hunt tainted plants and "Shadow Cores", which are the ingredients to produce Moon Stones.

A little girl not more than 10 years old is seen tottering along the ruined street of Daerutt towards a run down shack at the edge of the village. The girl has black hair and fine facial features, and can be considered a beauty if not for her sallow skin and skinny body, appearing a little malnourished.

Upon reaching the shack, she proceeded to open the door, revealing a dimly lit room. On top of the wooden table in the middle of the room lay a wooden cage, in which a single "Lunn Shadowfiend" can be seen, giving off faint yellow light. Lunn Shadowfiend is a unique type of Shadowfiend in that it consumes darkness and give off light, as opposed to many other types of Shadowfiend that does the exact opposite. This coupled with the fact that it is weak and easily captured, makes it an ideal substitute for Moon Stones for poor folks.

Other than the wooden table, the room is only furnished with a single wooden chair, and a wooden bed on the far side of the room, on top of which laid a boy of approximately 5 years of age, with black hair and sickly countenance, now awake due to the door opening.

"How are you feeling little bro?" the girl's sweet voice echoed within the room i greeting.

"I was having a nice dream, till you came in and ruined it....." the boy replied despite a wide grin on his face.

"Awww... sorry about that, here, have something to eat.." the girl said as she laid down a bundle of cloth on top of the table, promptly unfolding it to reveal a piece of seemingly rock hard bread.

The boy then jumped off the bed, and grabbed the piece of bread with joy on his face, then attempting to break the piece of bread in half.

"No, no, it's all yours, I've had better at work today", the girl interrupted him with a smile.

"But..."

"No buts, either you eat it all or I'll feed it to the dogs." the girl said firmly.

"Thank you pretty sis...", the boy replied and started to eat, knowing full well the girl had lied.

"Now, I'm dead tired.. Good night little bro..", the girl said, satisfied seeing the boy started eating, and proceeded to lay down on the bed, sleeping.

"Good night sis..." the boy replied meekly while eating.

As soon as he saw the girl fell asleep, the boy stopped eating, then folding the remaining piece of bread back with the cloth, leaving it on the wooden table .

He then silently watched the Shadowfiend, and softly said, "Sleep."

Just as soon as the word was spoken, the Shadowfiend shuddered, and light stopped coming off of it, engulfing the small room in darkness....