The Abducted Princess of Alouria

POV: Asharion The sound of hooves striking the cobblestone road echoed through the forest, accompanied by the clanking of armor worn by my knights echoing into the abysmal darkness surrounding us. The ancient trees of the forest closed in around us, forming a tunnel of oppressive darkness that seemed to threaten to consume all. As we rode on, the light from our torches flickered and waned, struggling against the encroaching darkness. Suddenly, our horses came to an abrupt halt, their trembling forms and anxious whinnies signaling the presence of imminent danger nearby. That’s when I felt it, a bone-chilling coldness that descended upon us. Swift winds now whipped around us, attempting to extinguish the flames of our ever-burn torches. Despite the dim light, I could make out the shadows coalescing into unsettling forms to become something otherworldly. Long, gangly yet powerful-looking limbs began to take on a tangible form, with a dusty copper hue accentuated by sparse fur. The unearthly figures were shrouded in tattered, hooded cloaks that seemed to be made of pure darkness. Slowly, they raised their gnarled, four-fingered hands, adorned with jagged claws, and yanked back their hoods, revealing faces that embodied our deepest nightmares. The air filled with the piercing screams of our horses, a sound that sent shivers down my spine. Suddenly, they reared back and threw us onto the cobblestone below, to land painfully in our splendidly heavy armor upon our rear ends. As we scrambled to our feet, the storm clouds of dust kicked up by our panicked steeds enveloped us, making it hard to see what hid in front of our very eyes. We quickly assumed a defensive battle stance, gripping our swords tightly before us as we prepared for the nightmarish threat that had spooked our mounts causing them to abandon us here. And then I screamed, “KILL TO SURVIVE!!!” It was all my knights needed to rush into the battle that lye ahead in the shadows of the forest waiting before us. It was as if these monstrous creatures knew that we were no match for them. In the now eerie stillness, not a single creature had been felled, and I found myself standing alone enveloped by the ominous shadows of fear, hearing the memory of the screams ring in my head as one by one each of my men were slaughtered. Suddenly, they all descended upon me, threatening to overpower me. With every ounce of my determination, like hell would I allow them to kill me without fighting until I took my very last breath. Just when I thought all hope was lost, something unexpected happened. The purple crystalline amulet, a precious gift from our kingdom's sorcerer that he had bestowed upon me as a young lad, began humming a mesmerizing voiceless melody. Soon, radiant beams of purple light shot forth in every direction, engulfing me in a blindingly bright brilliance that consumed all sight and sound, and then I too, was gone.