A crystal orb of blue wonder.

Such a peaceful orb to behold, deep blues and rich greens. Accelerating inwards to a distant orbit he finds its three beautiful moons. One is full, one is new and one is lit from only one side.

All at once he is on the ground. Long black coat and savvy demeanor, he walks as if he owns this place, though he has never known this place. Always a distant observer, he has never truly visited. What a shame, after all, this is his domain.

At the behest of one of his peers he set down on this wild and ever-changing world. “What’s it like?” She had asked. “How are the locals?” He was admittedly startled, he had never been asked about it with such earnest.

It was with that then he set out for this world. An explorer and adventurer in his own domain. When he landed he took a deep breath and looked about. The air was pure and the place was full of light. He found himself on a narrow road in a wood. The light could not penetrate the trees and darkness was found there.

Off in the distance he found the sky darkened. An odd thing to behold as the sky was as blue crystal as far as the eye could see. He decided to make that his first destination.

As he trapsed toward the unnatural sight, he found it was billowing up from the ground. The hairs on his neck stood on end and he felt followed and heard rustling in the woods.

Out of the brush he heard running feet and a shriek of fury. He turned unafraid to watch a short humanoid pulling a sword from the back of a spider. His first thought was that it was merely a child, but the eyes did not reflect this. His emerald eyes and pointed ears suggested he had an almost other-worldly origin.

The creature removed his sword and cleaned it. His glowering visage softened to a smile as he looked up and beamed before fleeing back into the woods. The man stood reflecting for a moment and then turned to continue towards the distant and dark clouds.

As the man traveled he found that the place was beautiful and some how terrible. There were shrieks that occasioned from the woods, sounds of creatures in pain or dieing, though throughout most of the journey his peace was undisturbed.

The man traveled and he observed the world around him. It was not unlike many others. The greens were vivid and the sky was a beautiful blue and the flowers were exotic and beautiful to behold. Their aromas filled the air around him and mixed with the smell of pines as he continued on his path.

Wildlife was often hinted at, a torn branch signifying larger animals and torn bark where they were molting. Animals were rarely seen in the flesh, but signs of their life was ever present. Once while walking he did find a large scaled creature that writhed about on the ground. As soon as he noticed it, the creature vanished into the brush.

After his trek was drawing long he found himself in shadow. As he looked up to see the cause, he found himself near the source of the dark cloud that he had seen.

He walked to the end of that road to find it crumbling away into a great pit of fire. No screams were issued forth of it, but when he tried to gage the depth of it, he could see or find no signs of an end.

A tremble sent shockwaves through the ground as the world lurched and then fell away in areas. The pit grew, though not all that much. “A scourge on this land”, he said to no one. “This shall heal in time.” Already he saw hope. Not much longer and an endless river will swallow the fire, quenching it forever.

Turning his gaze to the north, beyond the river, he noticed a great gleaming tower. Having only seen one other indication of sentient life, he decided to turn his trek there to see what he might discover.

He walked and noticed that after several hours he found that the light had not dimmed and that he had not grown weary of travel. As he pondered this happenstance, he searched for the source of what energized him. He took many thoughtful steps towards his destination he pondered the riddle.

“Oh how interesting,” he mused. He took a look at the vegetation and at the sky once more and took a deep breath. “This world sustains me. The life flows out of it from within.”

The scenery changed from the densely packed woods into a wooded lowland. Every now and then a cottage was found in the prairies near the side of the road. Every time he investigated the short structures, he found them empty. No one was ever home to converse with. The buildings were far from looking abandoned, found in a general state of repair, but a knock or a holler were left ignored at each such place.

He traveled on to find himself at a large black wall, as he looked up he realized that he had made it to the shimmering tower. “That can’t be right, the tower had been much farther than this.” He found the gleaming tower that he had sought to be large and flat black. Not at all what should be gleaming from afar.

The perimeter wall was enormous, there was no way to scale it and it circled around to the sides as far as the eye could see. When he looked to the tower, he found it taller than he would have expected. He continued around the wall looking for some entrance that he could pass through.

“Hello there.” A voice out of nowhere chimed in as the man was thinking of how to cross the wall. The man looked behind him and saw nothing, as he turned around again he found an oddly dressed man holding a long carved staff. The wanderer looked the man over taking in his wolf skin cloak and royal garments.

“Hello Sir,” the man finally responded, “is this your home?”

The older man just stared intently until he finally broke into a smile, his long white beard just exaggerating the movement. “I do live here, yes, and it is about time that you should arrive here.”

The young wanderer was taken aback by the thought that this stranger might have been waiting here for him. “Excuse me?”

“I’m sorry, let me courteous, I know the lengths that you have traveled to come here. I have been waiting for you to come this far longer than you might guess, Cedric.”

The young man had a tough time keeping his shock hidden as the old man continued. “I know a quite bit more than you would think, perhaps even more than you might think is possible. You’ve left your personal responsibilities unattended for just a little too long. I’ve just been waiting here for you to come home.”

“I see… But how can you possibly have been waiting for me? No one here should even know of my existence.”

“Ah, but we do all the same. Lollier, Gallatus, I and others have spoken of you often. The Scourge there wreaks a great havoc, but there is no doubt of the outcome. Deep in yourself you’ve realized this, too. Realized that you’ve needed to come back here and stay for a bit, at least to witness the end of the Scourge. Though we’ve all missed you terribly, we have always cherished you for protecting us at such a great cost.

But we both know the Scourge was born from within and will be removed from within.”

“I did see its end near. It moves forward toward its end, a giant river shall quell its fires.”

“Indeed, however, though the river is great, it will not defeat it alone. We all have our place in that fight, even you.”

The old man spoke as though he had seen it somehow, or somehow been there and seen it as it unfolded before. The young wanderer was unnerved by the certainty of his tone.

“But come now, Sire.” The old man continued. “We have much to do. People to meet and alliances to form. We mustn’t wait forever.”