Thrais of Snowdale

Golden light bathed the land as the sun was setting behind the horizon. The town painted a long shadow on the road, the night was nigh. If there was one thing in this life Thrais cherished, it was moments like this, always before nightfall. He basked in the fading light thinking of the beauty of it. He saw the town in the distance, it was small, almost a village, the yellow star was set perfectly behind it, the town was rendered black to Thrais' eyes.

He was on horseback, walking slowly toward his goal. He was tired. For a couple of months now, he was on the road, living under the stars, and not a coin to his name. He had long chestnut hair loosely tied back, ice blue eyes and pale skin. He was broad-shouldered and looked strong. He wore a full beard and had a deep scar on the right cheek. The armour he had on was crimson of colour and looked like a lot of plates sewn together with hefty strings, it was Yamran and he got it from a merchant couple of years back as a reward for finding the merchant's daughter. It was a good armour. He had a dragon steel katana strapped to his right hip and a black iron dagger to his left. Even though his equipment was Yamran, he himself wasn't from the south, he was born way up north, in a place called Snowdale, a place he never wants to return to and ironically, a place he was named after. Thrais of Snowdale was his full tittle.

He marched onward, fully aware of the fact that if he doesn't let the horse rest soon, it'll drop dead. The horse was not the only one exhausted, being on the move for three days and nights without a stop was not the brightest idea, but he wanted to get to the town as fast as he could. To add to the exhaustion, he hasn't properly bathed for a month now, he was dirty all over and had lice. The stench he gave could only be topped by dragon shit, nonetheless, he moved forward, he'll take a bath once he's in the town.

The Far Town, or so it was called in the common language, was a small town of no notice, it was located close to the ocean, in the farthest reaches of the Yamran kingdom. The town was also near the Karahan forest, so it gets a lot of guests from the other side of it. The forest was once a powerful magical barrier that let nothing past it. It guarded Thrahrath, a kingdom that fell to ruin and corruption, only evil spawned there now. A powerful mage erected a magical barrier in the shape of a forest to hold the evil within. Unfortunately, as centuries passed by, the magic wall started to crumble and the evil that brewed inside for couple of hundreds of years, slowly seeped out.

As Thrais drew closer to the gate, the sun was almost all the way down, leaving a dark orange tint to the surroundings. The town just ended its day cycle and was springing to its night life. Some merchants still had their stalls out, but mostly, the centre market was closing down, drunkards started roaming mindlessly, singing songs of yore. Thrais led his horse to a water basket, and left it there. He had nothing of value, save his armour, katana and dagger. He wasn't worried about the horse either, he'll come for it tomorrow and if it's not there, he'll buy a new one. Tomorrow he will have enough money to buy ten horses, and when he finishes what he came to do, he'll have enough for fifty.

He continued on foot through the market, when he saw the most beautiful woman he has ever seen in his life. The dark orange light of the fading sun looked like fire in her emerald eyes. She had long black curly hair with two lavender bows on the sides of her head. She had freckles on the bridge of her nose spanning on to her cheeks. She had a petite figure and wore a white tight dress with a purple dragon patterned on it. She stood before an old man's stall with fruit, both the old man and her were smiling at each other, she had the purest smile Thrais has seen to this day, he was dumbstruck. The man offered her an apple, and she took it with an even bigger smile. She bit the apple with haste taking a small chunk out of it. Her expression quickly changed as she tasted the apple. Her smile twisted into disgust and fury, for a second Thrais thought her eyes went red. He didn't know what happened, then he noticed blood dripping down her chin, and a large worm, wiggling helplessly from her mouth, she spat it out. The old man was dreaded. Two guards Thrais didn't even notice, apprehended the man. They were wearing Yamran armour and the Demon helmets. They let the old withered man fall on his knees before the woman. "I beg your forgiveness, please", was all he said through tears. But the woman was raging. "YOU DARE!" she was shouting, spitting worm blood everywhere. "YOU PEASENT SHIT-BAG, YOU WORTHLESS SCUM..." Thrais stopped listening, the scene was absurd. All the magical aura surrounding the women was gone now and he wanted to move on. He was about to go when he saw that insults were not the end of it. The man was on his knees, his old wrinkled hands stretched on the ground. He was begging in the most humiliating way, but the woman didn't stop there. She raised her foot and slammed her heel into the old man's hand, she was wearing shoes with high pointy heels. Blood squirted everywhere and the hand twisted in an unnatural way under the pressure of the shoe. The old man started screaming at the top of his lungs. She didn't stop, time after time, she slammed her heel into the old man's hand, with a wicked smile on her face. Royalty, Thrais thought, the biggest scumbags of this world. He moved on, he didn't care.