Hi, before you think that, NO, this is not THAT kind of fanfinc. This is a short story that I wrote since I find interesting the Nexus. I’m still studing English so some parts are kinda weird to read, but I hope you enjoy my short story.
Warning: This fanfic could be kinda hard for some people to read, so, if you don’t handle well the terror genre then consider to not read this thing.
A cold and sterile land where the sun is unable to alleviate the icy trail left by the night rains, a place where terrible gales seem to announce horrible events to come. The moors of the Raven Court are no place for the weak.
At some distant time, those lands prospered and tranquility was the norm, which was worthy of envy for the other lands of the Nexus, but those days ended long ago.
On a night like any other, the peasants of the moors took refuge in a tavern. Challenging the night rain is something that few are able to do, so most people avoid it and try to rest from their long day with the hope that the tomorrow will bring better times. But the ominous wind was more “audible” that night and one of the lumberjacks came abruptly through the door, panting and sweating like a pig about to enter the slaughterhouse.
All the farmers left their jars and quickly went to see what happened to the poor man.
“My companions, my brothers … they are all gone, the creature has taken them away.”
Nobody understood what the man said, but they knew that if a man like that lumberjack was in that state, it was because something very bad had happened.
Some volunteers stayed to help the lumberjack, despite the fact that from his clothes, a terrible rotten smell could be smelled.
In the morning that lumberjack was more lucid, but he was still pale and very frightened. Once again all the peasants went to ask what happened and the lumberjack proceeded to tell them what had happened:
"The previous day in the afternoon, he was cutting pine trees near the swamps that are in the limits of the moors and that connect with the domains of The Grave Keeper. The best wood was scarce and necessity forced him and the other lumberjacks to venture to strange lands, even for such low quality wood. Several already were the trees that had cut and already it was arranged to tie its load to its horses, when a heartbreaking shout made that he left all its made work and proceeded to see what happened. During his search he met his other companions and together they looked for the source of that shout, but after making a general count they noticed that the most silent of his group, a lumberjack who came from the region of the Dragon Shrine, was absent. Scared, they searched until a terrible stench near the bog caught their attention. There they saw the remains of his companion, but they could not regret his death as another of his companions screamed desperately before disappearing into the bushes.
All the lumberjacks fled from there in terror, but no matter how fast they ran, one after the other, they were all captured by a creature that none could see clearly. The long grass hid the appearance of the creature, so the only survivor did not see what it was that ended with his companions with whom he had spent working all his life and with his brothers who worked with him. If it had not been because he found the mountof one of his companions, he would never have escaped to tell what happened."
Everyone who had heard the story could not believe it. Although before the peasants had been attacked by monsters such as the terrible ogres or the skeletons from the mines, they had never heard of such a terrifying event.
The peasants alerted all who could and the news of the creature spread throughout the Raven Court. It did not take long for a squad of soldiers to be sent to investigate the situation.
Five days after the attack, the squadron arrived at the peasant village. The leader of the squadron, the magician, asked the peasants for the lumberjack, but they informed him that he had died the day before. No one knew exactly the reason, but most believed it was due to the horror of having encountered the creature.
When the main witness was no longer present, the squad thought about leaving, but for some reason Raven Lord seemed very interested in the famous creature and thought that if they returned without fully investigating the case, they would probably be executed by the Raven Lord himself.
So, asking for help from the peasants to explore the area of the attack, the squad marched to the swamp. Three were the peasants who joined the search: the hunter, the shepherd and the medic. The three of them were brave men who wished they could avenge the lumberjacks and set out on an adventure, but each of them felt a deep fear inside them.
After hours of travel, already during midnight, the group found the old hermit’s house, which delimited the territories of the moors with those of the swamps. The peasants knew that the hermit was not well from the head, so they told hims members of the squadron that ignored the ravings of that poor man.
When the group passed just outside the door of the poor hut, the hermit came out, wearing clothes made of tree bark, wearing his long beard and exposing a scar on his forehead, proof of his battles when he was young and sane. This peculiar man told them with his raspy voice:
“I hope you have enjoyed your days of tranquility, because the times of madness are approaching, soon everything you thought you knew will change forever. Beings with immeasurable power will begin to appear, warriors with extraordinary strength will emerge and in a battle devoid of logic the great lords will participate. Tremble with fear, that the realms of the nexus will never be the same again.”
The group barely heard what the man said, but the peasants insisted to the men of the squad that they did not pay attention to him, that he was just a crazy old man who one day came to the moors and that since then he had spent counting his strange fantasies. Despite the words of the peasants, the magician took seriously the words of the hermit, because he believed that he had recognized him.
In the Raven Court magic academy, a great magician once excelled from the others, but one day after participating in a battle, from which all official records were erased, he never returned. The wizards who admired him knew that he had survived that battle, but they all did not know where he might have gone. Now the magician believed he had found it when he saw that scar on his forehead so characteristic that it was said he had, but he preferred to keep his thoughts.
Finally after a long trip, during the early morning the group reached the swamps and quickly began to search for clues. The men of the squad complained about the terrible smell of rottenness that abounded, when questioning the peasants about it, they answered that they had never before known that the swamps smelled so bad. After a few minutes of searching, the group found several remains of rotten fish, they assumed that they should be the food source of the creature.
When it was past noon, the group rested their fatigue for a few hours and made a bonfire. The hunter offered to find something good to eat, even with the warnings of his companions, but he decided to go anyway, although the shepherd insisted on accompanying him.
After a few minutes, the hunter visualized a hare and after wounding it with his arrow and after chasing it for a while, he finally captured it in a kind of circle of large rocks. While the hunter prepared his prey for transport, the shepherd noticed that this circle of rocks was not normal, it seemed to have been done recently and after inspecting it better, he noticed how those stones were covered by a strange sticky liquid and that around some some big rags. When he mentioned this to the hunter, the man was terrified, after seeing all that he knew that those rocks were actually the remains of some trolls, huge beasts with great physical strength, but that they had still been defeated by something and that something well it could be the creature.
The two men hurried back to the campfire, but when they arrived they could not assimilate what they saw.
All the men in the squadron and the medic had been massacred in a horrible way. Their bodies had been thrown thrown everywhere as if they had been victims of an explosion and their remains seemed to have received a great amount of damage in a short time, besides that they were covered by a strange type of oil.
After seeing what happened the two men fled in terror back to the moors. Since they had arrived there on foot, they had to run a great distance for a long time to be able to flee the place. When they had finally arrived at the hermit’s hut, they decided to rest there for a while, but when they entered the hut they not only saw the lifeless body of the hermit, but also saw how the place was covered with the same type of oil as the corpses of the other members of their group, but that was not all, there was also a gigantic egg in that hut.
The men left there as quickly as possible and not only because of the fear, but also to alert the other peasants that the creature was getting closer and closer to them.
On the morning of the next day, the two men finally arrived, so exhausted that they could barely speak, but somehow managed to alert others about what had happened in the swamps. Everyone in the place left quickly. Even if everyone knew about the law that prevented commoners from approaching Raven Lord’s tower grounds, they all preferred to face the law to face the creature.
As expected, the peasants We were stopped by the knights of the order of the Raven, but they were determined not to back down, so a squad of knights had to move to end once and for all with the creature.
The knights of the Raven order were well known for their enormous power emanating and it was said that two squads of knights had the power to slay a grave golem, so they believed that no unknown creature would be able to defeat such powerful warriors, but 2 days passed and there was no news of the squad of knights, but suddenly a raven arrived with a letter that arrived directly with Raven Lord, which said:
"Raven Lord, absolute lord of these lands. This is the report of the squad of knights that he sent to investigate the case of the creature of the moors.
As soon as we reached the moors, we found a strange looking creature, very bad tempered and with the size of a child, although it offered a tough battle, we finally managed to shoot it down, but when we were preparing for our return we found a creature exactly similar to the previous one, once again we fought and won. Maybe it was not a single creature, but a group of these. We will stay here longer so we can make sure we will finish all of them."
Although the note said one thing, the reality was different, for those knights never returned alive to the Raven tower. That hermit spoke truthfully, the nexus would never be the same again, multiple beings were going to enter the scene and the realms would change forever. That creature was just the beginning of a series of horrible events that were to occur. Raven Lord was quotient of all that and while looking towards the moors, he knew there was no turning back, it was time to act or all would be lost, meanwhile in the now desolate moors stalked a creature of small size but of great power and after observing with his big eyes the raven tower that glimpsed in the distance, he took his fishy weapon and marched towards the battle that would soon begin, as one of the many participants in a war full of horrors, full of monsters and full of heroes.
The creature is Murky, if you still have not figured it out yet.
