The night had fallen over the last village in the northern lands. Smoke curled lazily from shattered chimneys, and the wind whispered through empty streets. But peace… was only a memory. The echoes of laughter and life had long since vanished, leaving behind the hollow skeletons of houses and the scent of ash.
A boy lay beneath the open sky, staring at the stars that shivered above him. The wind tugged at his tattered cloak and swept across the broken rooftops. It spoke in a voice only he seemed to hear, a whisper that wound around him like a secret. Sleep had abandoned him, leaving a restless awareness of the dark that pressed in from all sides.
He did not know it yet, but the shadows were watching. One moved differently, silently, blending with the night. It shifted closer than the stars themselves, closer than any human should ever feel.
A low growl broke the fragile quiet. The village dogs had fled, their frantic barks swallowed by the mist. Edward's heart thundered in his chest as he gripped the wooden sword his father had left him. It was small, splintered at the edges, but it carried weight far beyond its size—the weight of legacy.
The shadow lunged.
Edward stumbled back, instincts taking over before thought could reach him. His first real fight. The world revealed itself in that instant: cruel, merciless, yet alive. He survived, barely, his breath ragged and trembling. Yet he felt… something else. A strange current thrumming inside him, as though the darkness had touched him and left a mark.
By dawn, the village elder appeared, stepping out from the haze like a figure out of memory. His eyes, sharp yet kind, fell on Edward.
"You are not like the others," he said. His voice was calm, each word deliberate, as though it carried the weight of centuries. "The world will demand more from you than swords and courage… it will demand heart."
Edward did not fully understand, but deep inside him, something stirred. A spark, tiny but persistent, ignited within his chest. A spark that would one day blaze into the light of kingdoms yet unclaimed.
And he knew, without needing to see, that tomorrow the monsters would come again.