Legacy of the Fae: The Dragon Queen's Calling

Chapter One

One week ago, a group of six strangers strode into the Vine Panther kingdom. They consisted of a dragon, a lupine, a human, a vine panther, and a fae and their fae beast. Correction, a half-breed fae. Each one represented one of the five islands that made up their world. The last time such a pair had come together had been one thousand years ago when the Chaos Mist surged and nearly consumed all of Ceres. They had been dubbed, the Champions, warriors handpicked by the spirits themselves to shepherd peace among the islands. Sadly, in the end, they had only been able to contain the mist. It still remained, but did so in a much more manageable state.

Yet, despite that, evil still found a way to disrupt peace.

Trouble began to brew within the Vine Panther kingdom. The tenuous peace between them and their neighbors the dryads had been broken. For some odd reason, their queen had gone mad, militarizing her people into an army. Despite that, the fighting did not spread beyond the Pearre Forest, but if nothing was done, the Vine Panthers may have very well been wiped out. Just as the dryads rebelled, a strange pestilence began to run throughout the island. Odd and sickly-colored thorny vines spread, infecting anything they touched. So far, they had simply been inclined towards animals, but one account from the champion of earth had spoken of how his spirit guardian had died from the infection.

Once the Champions arrived, the Vine Panther king, Oberon, commissioned them to help restore peace to the kingdom. Being the heroes they were, they accepted, though a certain lupine clearly hoped for a material reward. Things hit a snag, however, as the king was poisoned by an unknown assailant. Paws were immediately pointed toward the dryads, and the Champions were tasked to avenge the fallen king. Little did they know, they had all been deceived. It turned out the true culprit for the king's death was one of his closest advisors, Sir Bearus. Hoping to claim the throne for himself, Bearus conspired with the true mastermind behind the king's death; a mastermind known as the Warlock King.

Very little was known of the Warlock King. All that was known was that he was behind the recent troubles with the Chaos Mist and the Daemon pestilence that had spawned with it. With the Warlock King's help, Bearus had brainwashed the Dryad queen's mind, turning her into a raving tyrant. Thankfully, the Champion of Aether's spiritual prowess was able to purge her of the corrupting influence. With Bearus exposed, a final task lay before them: keeping the crown from Bearus.

A duel commenced between Bearus and the king's loyal knight Sir Pan. But not wasting time with a fair fight, Bearus summoned the same corrupting power that had taken the Dryad queen. With his new power he nearly won, but a valiant blow from the Champion of Earth silenced him, though not without one final echo.

By law and tradition, the fact that Puck gave the final blow made him king by right. Despite the newfound king's reluctance, the vine panthers celebrated, and a new union was forged between them and the dryads.

The celebration would have probably gone on for weeks if only to praise their heroes. But it was not to last, for though the evil had been halted, the Warlock King was still out there, and he needed to be stopped.

Those thoughts ran through Gene's mind as he walked along the road. They had set out with enough supplies to get to the port town. Suddenly, a scratching sounded out from his shoulder.

"You need to stop picking at it Midlo," Gene chided.

Midlothian sat on his shoulder, scratching at her bare paw. The ferret's gaze was insistent upon her formally wounded paw. Bearus may have been dead, but the echo he left gave its mark upon Midlothian.

The tiny slug-like daemon that had emerged had sunken its teeth into Midlothian's paw. Kinto's water magic along with the healers had dressed it up nicely. Oddly enough, it had healed rather quickly. The bandages revealed the wound was closed and the fur returned to its clean pattern.