The Last Caster

Chapter 1: The discovery

Rowan opened his eyes finding himself suspended in an inky black void. There was nothing but darkness in all directions when suddenly a small light appeared out of the gloom and started to drift slowly towards him.
"What?, Where am I?" Rowan shouted into oblivion. The light started to move faster, Rowan tried to move but found his body was frozen in place. "Please don't hurt me!" He screamed at the light; his fear causing his voice to waver garbling up the words and making them gibberish.
"Rowan." An angelic voice echoed through the darkness warming Rowan and making him feel more alive than he ever had. Rowan felt himself calm down as the fear left his body.

"Who are you, and why am I here?" Rowan stuttered, struggling to create a sentence. A tinkling laugh seemed to envelop him completely calming him down.
"You are here because I called you here Rowan." The light abruptly stopped in front of him and started to shake like it was going to burst. A blast of bright light blinded him. He instinctively closed his eyes but the light shone through his eyelids just as bright as it did when he had them open. Suddenly, the light was gone. Rowan opened his eyes to see a beautiful woman floating in front of him.

The woman was young; looking at about 20 with long wavy blonde hair and blue eyes as deep as the sea. She wore a long purple robe that draped down below her feet completely concealing her legs. Her skin was very pale and her entire body seemed to be glowing similarly to the light Rowan saw drifting toward him earlier.
"The truth is Rowan; I came to warn you of what is to come." The woman frowned.
"What's to come?" his voice wavered, the fear returning to his body. The woman stretched out her arm and grabbed Rowan's hand,calming him once more.
" I cannot tell you exactly what is to come for I do not know. All I knew is that I had to contact you to warn you." The woman paused seemingly deep in thought.

"Soon Rowan you will embark on a journey to save Regesia and all its people." Rowan laughed at the woman's suggestion.
"I don't think you have the right person; I come from a simple family; my father studies the stars." He referred to his father who worked as an astrologer for the lord of the village who was very superstitious and believed the stars showed the future in some way.

The woman's gaze became fierce, her eyes bearing deep into Rowan's soul. "I am not wrong." The woman winced losing her fierceness.
"Rowan; I don't have much time left to talk. If you seek guidance,come to me; I live deep in the marshlands in a small house on the border of lake Altas. Make sure the lizardmen don't see you." The woman let go of his hand; her body was slowly becoming translucent.
" The marshlands; but that's where the dragon Beildry took over with the drakes and lizardmen!" Rowan was stunned that anyone still lived in the marshlands after the drakes and Beildry awoke a year prior; destroying all human settlements on the coast and in the marshlands.
"Yes, I'm aware." The woman replied sarcastically.
"How are you living there?" he asked but before he could get an answer the woman had disappeared completely and Rowan was alone once more.

He sat up fast; his thin wool mattress soaked with sweat.
" What was that; who was that woman?" Rowan thought to himself. "She said I was about to embark on a journey and that she lived on lake Altas." He pondered aloud wondering what had just happened.
"But that's impossible; the marshlands have been completely taken over by the dragon Beildry and his army of drakes and lizardmen," Rowan thought confused. There was no way any human was left alive there.
"Must have just been a really weird dream, then again; it seemed very real." He lied back down on his mattress, bringing his thin wool sheets over his chest. He closed his eyes once again, letting himself sink back into the sweet release of sleep.

Rowan awoke the next morning to his father yelling to him from the main room of his small house. "Rowan; it's time to get up!" Rowan rolled off his mattress and onto the hardwood floor jutting his arms out a second before hitting the ground and catching himself.
Standing up and walking over to his small wooden wardrobe. He reached in picking up a plain linen tunic with matching pants. Rowan slipped on his clothing,finishing it off by tying a leather belt around his waist to hold both his pants and his tunic on his body.