The Last Watch - Chapter 1

Streams of incense drift through the room in blue wisps. Two figures sit facing each other, eyes closed. Breath intentional, slow, in unison. At first glance they would appear sisters, one clearly older with her hair pulled back in a warriors knot. Her face grim, but frozen in timeless beauty. She breathes in.

“Icebane stirs. The Final Hunt has begun.”

Stil holding her breath she opens her eyes. For this second she is silent. She basks in the stillness of this breath. For now, nothing has changed. She is still waiting for her life to begin, just as she has for the last 200 years. For thousands of years her people have been waiting. Trained from birth for this moment, she lets the tightness in her chest expand to fill her body. This final breath before her destiny manifests completely. She turns her attention outward and stares at her companion. Stark white hair that normally lies just above the shoulders is now floating, awash in sea that she can’t feel herself. Younger than herself by 100 years, but confident and poised beyond her years. Created from birth for this day, just like every member of their group. She finally breathes out. Everything is changed. The Final Hunt has not begun.

She stands and removes a loose floorboard of the rented appartment. The smell of weathered oil cloth mixes with the incense that is now drifting in eddies around the room. She unwraps the bundle with the reverance of ritual. First revealing a longbow and quiver, black with golden scrollwork along the riser. Veins of magestone running through the limbs. Then a long, slender greatsword. Ruby red grip and golden pommel. Created over 1000 years ago and passed down through her family. She straps them all to her back and heads for the door.

“I will gather the others.”

She walks unanswered through the door and shuts it softly behind her.

Now alone, Lanyssa begins to retract her awareness back into her body. Sweeping through the icebound peaks of the Wolf Lands to the north, back accross the sea until she reaches Grayfoot Forest. Here she pauses. Searches. Finds. Suddenly she is no longer alone, two are with her. She does not communicate with words. She feels dirt under her paws, the smell of prey on the wind. Flashes as something brushe her shoulder, bounding at a pace barely comprehensible to her mind. She looks to her left, shes herself racing through the trees, retracts, feels the cushion against her legs. Breathes in and smells the incense bringin her fully back into her body. She breathes out and the rooms chills, her eyes open in a flash of pale blue light before returning to normal. She stands and strides through doorway not bothering to shut it behind her.