The reign of Valkor.

"So.. Do you think we'll be able to win against these things? From what I've heard, one vampire has the strength of at least three men. And that's not even mentioning the god like figure I've heard rumors about.." Silas asks Garris nervously.

"I'm not sure about any of these rumors. If what they say is true we are fighting a losing war and we should just give up." Garris says to silas.

"And the God like vampire sounds a little far fetched to me. Where did this God come from and if he is a god why is it taking him so long to conquer the Northern Mountains?"

"That's a good point.. I guess if the vampires were as strong as people say they are, we probably wouldn't still be fighting this war.."

"Do you know when we're supposed to start fighting?"

The young man stepped up to the wooden gates, pushing one open with a heave and standing outside by the night watchmen. With unease, he stared into the welling pools of darkness on the outskirts of the camp's inherent lights. He crossed his arms, finding time to think to himself.

The two soldiers guarding the gate look at the man with confusion. One of the soldiers says "What are you doing out here? Its warmer in the camp. And its not all that safe out here." they pause for a moment "They are watching. It's only safe during the day out here."

Garris looks at silas and says "Fights are never planned they just happen. We will likely be ambushed or something. I'm not to sure on the tactics of our enemies."

Olion nodded, turning to walk back into the camp briskly with his fur cloak billowing behind. He shook his head, holding his face in a single gloved hand, still warm from the recent fireside talk.

Had he seen what he thought? A moving creature of the shadows merely out of bow's reach of the encampment... or was it just paranoia getting to him? No matter, he thought, approaching the same fire.

He sat on the opposite side, continuing to warm his hands and contemplating silently to himself.

Garris looked at Olion and said "Whats bothering you?"

Olion's head was bowed low to the fire, the man letting out a soft sigh at Garris' voice. The man looked rigid, like a thin sheet of ice freezing a small plant in spring's early days. He exhaled through grit teeth, speaking.

"They're out there." He said, offering a glance from the fire. "Make sure you seal your tent when you go to sleep." Eyes glazed over by the flames, he nodded at Silas and stood up to turn and march towards his tent.

Garris whispers to himself "I bet they could rip threw my tent."

Garris gets up and streches. He walks to his tent and lays down trying to fall asleep. It takes him a few minutes to fall asleep because he thinks they are just outside of the tent ready to strike.

Jacob comes from the dark, after tying up his horse, He looks around confused as to which tent to sleep in

One of the higher ranking officers looked at the man. He sees that the man is confused. remembering how confused when he was a new recruit he walks over to the man and says "Hey there. You another recruit? What do you need?

He looks over at the officer with a confused look "Yeah umm. . . which ones my tent?" He motions to all the tents.
"My name is Jacob Smith" He says hoping to help the man with the question. He looks around at all the men sitting around the fire. The snow begins building up more, his hair now covered with white specks of snow. He waits for the man's response.

The officer looks around the camp with a confused look. He begins to think about who he assigned to each tent. He says in a glad tone "AH! this one is vacant. Yes i remember now this poor fellow was killed by a weird disease. Well good luck and make sure to wash up." he laughs.

Garris hears the officer outside telling the man that he is assigned next to his tent. He takes this as an opportunity to make another friend since he doesn't have many friends in this new place.

Delorn had a rather fitful night. With horrid dreams and faint whispers clouding his mind, it would be impossible to get a restful sleep. He woke several times, to stare uneasily at the tent's roof, but managed still to salvage a good six hour's sleep from the night.

At the first crack of dawn, the young man turned from his side and stood to his feet, reaching for his arms and putting them on, one by one. Once he was suitably armed, the man reached to the bedside to produce a small metal flask, taking a sip of it before exitting his tent.

Loud horrified screams come from the gate entrance that chill you to the very bone it's self.

Garris wakes up to people gathering around the outside of the gate. Many held their hands over their mouths to keep from screaming. Others were more calm about what they saw but there was an uneasy feeling about the crowd that gathered around the gate.

Garris pushes his way threw the crowd wanting to see what the commotion was all about. When he looks at the gate he sees the two dead bodies of the Guardsmen that stood watch that night. Their Organs were ripped out and splattered all over the ground. Garris looked up and saw a weird symbol written in blood.

Garris turned to the soldier next to him and said "What does that symbol mean?" the soldier looked at him soon realizing he was a new recruit and did not know any better. He looks at Garris with his horrified eyes and says "That symbol. Right there... is the mark of Valkor."

Now that Garris looked at the blood on the wall it did look like something. It looked like a crudely drawn set of teeth except that two of the teeth were longer and more beast like. Everyone soon knew what was going to happen soon but no one wished to speak about it.

Garris returned to the burned out fire that now was but a few smoking ashes. Garris tries to revive the flame once more.

The young man stared at the disemboweled guards, shaking his head and placing two gloved fingers on his brow. Silently he thanked the two for ushering him inside, and said a few hushed words of prayer in hopes it would bring peace to the two. Noticing the bloodied symbol, he swore, clenching his fist and marching towards the commanding officer of the encampment.

Garris sees Oloin heading for the commanding officer of the outpost. Garris abandons his attempts at reviving the dead fire and intercepts Olion.

Garris steps in his way and says "Hello Olion. Ummm can you give me a hand with preparing the fire? We best be prepared if more snow rushes in aye?".

Garris grabs him by the arm and rushes him to the fire pit. Garris looks Olion in the eyes and says "Might not want to disturb the Commander. He already has enough to deal with. Hey put some more dry grass in the fire pit please" Garris strikes two stones together making a spark but not catching the dry grass on fire.

Olion let out a sigh, grabbing a few pieces of the dried grass and tossing it into the firepit. He caught Garris' eyes, and shook his head in moderate outrage.

"We must do something! Call for aid from the main encampment, retreat back or some form further fortifications. Two men were taken from us within arrow's reach of where our men sleep." He spat, shaking his head and tossing a bundle of dried grass onto the pile.

"If we stay here, we will die. You know this, and the Commander must be told to find aid." He stretched a glove to emphasize his speech, hazel eyes burning with some unseen fire.

He began to pace, contemplating charging back up to the C.O.

He looks up at Olion and says "We don't want to start a panic. And besides do you think the commander wouldn't have already taken the necessary steps to prevent an attack? You need to put a little more faith into our commanding officers. They got us this far and im pretty sure they can take us even further."

Garris strikes the stones again sending sparks flying into the grass igniting the dry grass with a weak flame. Garris carefully places sticks on the fire to feed it into a bigger fire.

Jacob listens to their conversation form a distance, calming down his horse, who was now bucking around with fear, trying to get as far away as possible. Jacob made sure to keep the rope keeping his horse in place tight.

Jacob curses looking at the mark and sits down next to Garris and Olion looking at them attempt to revive the fire. He looks off into the distance thinking of his family, wishing that everything was back to normal.

Olion turned from his angered statements to Jacob, quirking a brow. Feeling slightly rude to interrupt the man's thoughts, he spoke, "Greetings. I don't think we've met before." He said, smiling in a small manner and offering a hand to the man whom was sitting.

His voice remained angered, however, as he spoke. "The men are already half panicking. I only attempt to speak wisdom on the Commanding Officer's part; if he does not do something quickly, someone else will. Perhaps to the death of us all."

Garris looks at the man next to him and realizes he has never seen him before.

"Hello there you new?"

The man's thoughts abruptly interrupted by the two he looks at the hand awkwardly, caught by surprise. (He puts his hand in his hand and walks away with a queerish smile JK) He shakes his hand awkwardly and replies to both of them, "Ahh, I just came here so I wouldn't know much about the commander, and I am new" He says, glad someone made a move to talk to him. He was feeling quiet lonely in the camp.

"I am Olion." Said the leather-clad man, nodding at Garris. "That's Garris. I'm supposing we're all recruits to this army. Did you see all the commotion out by the gates?" He said, pulling his hand back and adjusting his other glove.

Garris smiles friendly at the man and says "Whats your name?" in a befriending tone

Garris throws some bigger sticks on the fire as he talks to the man whom ,to his knowledge, just arrived at the outpost.