“Four blasted weeks. Four whole weeks I have kept the secrets. Four weeks have I protected them from the people who wish to steal them. Four whole weeks I have been keeping them, desperately to let no man have them that didn’t deserve them. Four weeks in prison. Four weeks under bondage. The time has come for revenge for the experiments, the beatings, and the testing. The time has come to remove this evil which has plagued me for so long.”
       
       This was it. He was going to get out. It wasn’t going to be through peace, as that had never worked before.
       
       “Those gates in my mind I have torn down, none shall stand in my wake any longer, no one who oppose me shall live.”
       
       With these convictions, Mike’s scales had turned a pitch black, though never having taken off the white suit.
       
       “This power, it feels… satisfying, like no food has ever given me.”
       
       In his cell in the basement of the wizard’s tower was he placed, with many wards to prevent him from escaping.  
       
       “I wielded darkness. Shadows come and went with my beck and call.” Standing up from the lone wooden bench placed in his cell, stretching his scarred arms, back and torn wings, Mike roared.

“THIS IS THE END! YOU SHALL ALL DIE!” The room became dark with living shadows. “FREE ME!”

The cell doors were rent, completely ripped off their hinges. The wards placed to keep him from escaping were completely useless against this much darkness.

“MY NAME IS DRAKE!” He pounded up the stairs in complete darkness, coming to the main floor.

“What in the blazes is going on?” The wizard looked down to see his creature pounding through the cellar door, pure darkness engulfing the room.

       No fire from a candle could be seen once covered with the living shadows, yet the fires kept burning. The mage instantly knew he would be overtaken. Desperately, he tried to escape, but to no avail.
       
       He was already covered with the shadows. His magic wouldn’t work under this much dark, he knew.
       
       “You, Mage, have imprisoned me, beaten me, and experimented with me. Now it’s my turn.”
       
       A creature of darkness formed in the shadows of the pitch black room as the wizard began to run up the stairs, blindly trying to escape the darkness.
       
       “Now you fear me. You have every right to.” The once Mike, now Drake said mockingly to the fleeing wizard.
       
       The creature that was summoned practically flew after the mage, using a tendril, grasping the wizard’s old and withered legs, tripping him.
       
       Another one came, subduing the arms. The wizard began to scream, but no one could hear in that darkness.
       
       “This is my dear friend, we have grown to become good friends in that cell. Our goal is the same.”
       
       The wizard was dragged down to Drake’s floor by the shadow creature, trying desperately to kick, scream, anything, to get free, but it was to no avail. “No one can hear you in the shadows, wizard.”
       
       Drake looked at the mage, seeing not by light but by what gave off heat, though it was still as good as daylight for a human.
       
       Drake looked at the mage, and with a wave of his claw said “pothenes undelas” a dark sphere gathered itself in front of him. With a flick of the wrist the sphere fell on the head of the mage, the creature holding him letting go.
       
       “Expand and hold!” Drake said with contempt. The ball heeded his command, expanding to the size of the mage’s body, then crystallizing into a dark sphere, not allowing the mage to move, imprisoning him there until Drake found it in him to free the man.
       
       “Come back to me, we will be going into daylight.” Drake said to the creature, which latched onto his body, crystallizing itself into black spikes and filling the scars and holes in his skin.
       
       Drake’s scales changed back to white and black, returning the room to its semi-normal brightness. He approached the door as the dark powers that were suppressed by the white suit receded once again.
       
       He grabbed the handle with his three claws, about to be truly free, and pulled the door open –free at last. No one will stand in my way.
       
       “Boy, this is my last wish of you before I pass on.” Henry’s mother said as she lay, grimly pale with sores on her neck sweating heavily.
       
       “Yes, mother?” the twelve year old boy asked, coming over to her bed.
       
       “Before I pass beyond to join your father, I want you to take this.”  She took off of her neck a string with a key on it. “This key can be used to unlock anything. The key only works once for every person. Don’t use it except in the direst of situations.”
       
       Henry sadly looked at her. Death seemed to plague him at every turn of life. This was the last of his family members to go. He could hardly bear it.
       
       “Take it!” She weakly pleaded shaking it in front of him.
       
       “Mother…. I love you” He said, grabbing her necklace, and kneeling at her bedside. She reached for his head, and with much strain, pulled it closer and kissed his forehead, then she lay back down and passed on to the next life.

Henry, quietly sobbing at the passing of the last of his family members, picked himself up off the ground, walking slowly with difficulty, tears streaming down his face.

He stumbled, and fell on the ground, passing out.

“Hey bud, what’s up?” a shrouded figure said cheerfully. Henry sat up from the ground, looking at the figure standing up in the doorway. “She’s gone. I don’t have anything left. They’re gone. Everyone. Why me?” Henry said, tearing up again.

“Don’t feel so bad. It’s all in the plan. Trust me.” The figure said.

“Why don’t I just hang myself? It’s not like anyone needs me any more.” Henry said, sobbing full-on.

“Hey! Don’t ever think that way kid! I believe in you, and so does your mother. Get up, let me show you something.” The figure in the doorway said, holding out his hand to Henry.

Henry looked disdainfully at the figure, grabbed his hand, and was pulled up onto his feet.

“Please, hand me the key.” Henry stood there, and decided that no matter what, things couldn’t get any worse than they have.

The stranger took the key, grasped it in his hand, and put it around his neck. “Come, let’s leave this place.”

Henry’s home, however close to a small town, was near the side of some mountains, where he and his Father would go hunting years past.

The stranger led him into the mountainous forest, following a well-beaten trail. “You’ve probably been to this sanctuary before.”

Henry kept walking somberly, following the chatty person, remembering that he and his father would go hunting in those woods, back when he was younger.

“Why are you so distant, young child? I am here to comfort you.” The figure said, stopping at the top of a small hill to wait for Henry, who was just slowly following the person who claimed to want to help him.

Henry just kept walking, slowly up the slope he moved forward. No faster, no slower did he walk, moving towards the person with out any face.

“I am here to show you something. I know you know where we are, at the grove of the twilight. Here rests something that only you and this key can unlock.” It said, moving to a grove of trees lined almost perfectly in a hexagonal shape. “Your mother told you wrong about this key,” the figure said, holding up the key in the sunlight with its grey and indescribable hand.

Light began to enter the grove, increasingly growing in strength by the second. All description but white began to fade from the landscape, the figure still standing there, “Behold, when you come next into this grove, you shall find shelter.” The voice said, as everything turned white and left a blank-faced Henry in the white wind, which seemed as for a moment, paradise.

“Don’t ever lose hope. In anything. ever” The figure said, fading into the white light after giving Henry back his key.

“One last thing; you can use your key to unlock anything, more than one time. Your mother couldn’t use it more than once because she wasn’t born with the blood of the house your father’s family came from.” And with that, there was nothing. Just. White. No sky full of stars either. Pure solitude, as Henry stood there, the wind setting him down in the void, where he stood for what seemed to be ages.
        
A prickling sound erupted from somewhere off in the distance in the void. Tiny specks of something just began to fall, tearing tiny holes into the dimension in which Henry was left to wander. Slowly the had fallen at first, and with small numbers. Were it not for the solidarity of the seemingly endless white void, he would not have notices the small specks falling, not only from what one would consider the sky but from below as well they fell, all falling towards Henry, as if he were some focal point of an immense force of gravity.
        
The specks, though seemingly harmless enough, after a while began to restrict movement, making his arms heavy and unwilling to move. The specks continued to swarm him, every one, trying to find a spot to which it could touch Henry’s skin. Henry was just sitting there. He still didn’t even care, even after the speech and the revelations of hope that were given to him by that figure.
        
His mother was dead, his father was dead. His Brother was dead. His sister was dead. Why should he give a care about what happens to him now? It’s not like he could lose anything at this point, with his death. With those thoughts, the specks began to turn to grey, becoming even heavier, and more restrictive to his movement.
        
Hope given up, in that white void, with those seemingly restricting flakes of void covering him, Henry heard something again, only without the voice of the figure. “Henry, my dear, never lose hope. Your life is hope!” the voice of his mother said.
        
“MOTHER!” Henry screamed, with flakes even moving down into his throat when he opened his mouth. “Give me something to hope for!” He yelled, tears beginning to stream down his face, washing away a few flakes of the encompassing void from his face.
        
“Hen, you already do!” The voice of his brother said.
        
“I have seen your future, if you are to have hope enough to carry. It IS hope!” The voice of his sister said.
        
“Henry Stillwater.” A commanding voice said. “Pull yourself together, my son! I died so our family might have hope. Never ever lose that hope. You simply cannot. Just let it happen.”

“But I am afraid without you, father!” Henry said, relaxing only slightly as the specks of void continued to come to him at a steadily increasing rate.

“Don’t be, for you hold hope inside you. It is the spirit of love, hope, and pure intent, and shall not leave you unless you deny it.” A warm feeling came to Henry, making his heart feel lighter and much stronger. The graying flake began to return to their whiteness, and soon it was that Henry was completely covered with the specks of the void, grasping on to that feeling as hard as he possibly could.

The specks had stopped coming towards him, but now, it seemed as they would implode him in that void, holding onto the hope of something better. Pressure, the flakes began to move about as if they were a lung. Bigger, there was slight space around Henry, then it contracted, more pressure than if the pieces of void weren’t moving. Then inhalation. An expansion of the space around him. Then another contraction, slightly weaker than the last time the specks of void had contracted.

Another inhalation of the void ‘surrounding him, and with one final swing contracted completely, crushing Henry; who jerked up in the house, sweating. He gasped for air several times breathing hard, after some degree of recovering his nerve, noticed that what once felt like a cold lump of sadness in his riddled heart was but warmth and happiness, and empty void was filled.

After some degree of recovery, Henry noticed that he was in his bed. He froze, as there were footsteps in the room next to him. Those footsteps entered his room and it was the local friar.

“Boy, you must have had a bad fall, because no one in town has seen you for days. Your mother was always kind to the church and so I took the liberty of arranging her burial. You were asleep for many days that she began to stink very badly, so I could not wait until you rose, for the complaint from the villagers was many. I am sorry, please forgive me for this.” The Friar said, taking off his cap and holding it to his heart bowing to Henry.

“You are forgiven, as I have learned that death should be moments of joy more than sadness, old friar.”

“Thank you, kind sir. I shall have breakfast ready in a few moments, you must be famished.”

“The thanks should be mine, for taking care of me while I was out.” Henry replied, holding on to the warm feeling in his heart that he named hope.  

“Oh boy, thou art gracious! The Lord must surely be pleased with ye” The Friar said in a Biblical tone.

“We all hope he is pleased with us, do we not?” Henry asked.

“Indeed. ‘tis so”

“I shall have breakfast with you and then leave for my own travels. I pray thee, Friar, to take all the valuables in this house and use it for thyself, as I have no use for it any longer.”

“Are you sure? We are always accepting donations, but is that not too much?” The Friar asked, boiling some mush on a fire in the next room over.

“All is yours except the land, which I give unto the church to protect and use for itself until I come again to obtain it.” Henry said, getting off the bed, putting his day clothes on and stepping into the room where the Friar was.

“Wise choice, as I will see to it that the church would protect the lands as if it wert ours.” The Friar said, intently stirring the pot of mush which he decided was done cooking and poured it into two clay dishes at a table next to a window. Henry thoughtfully got out two spoons and placed them at the table.

“I shall say grace,” The Friar volunteered. They folded their arms and closed their eyes. “Father, in heaven, we thank thee for thy Spirit which thou hast sent us during this hard time in Henry’s life, and ask that ye would help us be delivered from out of the hands of our enemies that we might be greater servants in thy hands. We thank thee for this food which has been provided by thy hand, and give thee thanks, and ask of these things in the name of thy son, Jesus the Christ, Amen,” Henry repeated “amen” as the Friar finished the prayer and began to eat the paltry food that was before him.

“Have you any idea where thou wilt be going?” the Friar asked, curious. Henry continued chewing his food for a second, nodding. When he swallowed, he said: “I know not where I should go, but that it is in my interest to go, and find what use I could be to someone in this great land.” He took another spoonful of the mush and put it into his mouth. (What we today would call oatmeal with a few other ingredients for better taste)

The Friar nodded and said; “I shall befit you with proper clothing before you leave, something that would do better in the rain and better for a journey.”

“I thank you for your offer but I don’t need that, I have good clothes for most any weather.” Henry replied, turning down the Friar’s proposal, taking another wooden spoonful, and with another scoop finished the food shortly before the Friar and putting the dishes away.

I’d best be going now,” Henry said to the Friar, going to his room packing some clothes in a sacloth (no not that stick with the bag on the end you see in cartoons think Frodo) The Friar accepted this rather humbly, gathering some bread and a leather water canteen, putting them into a sack which would fit on his back. When Henry had finished gathering his clothes, he went and got the bag that his father would use on his camping/hunting trips.

Five minutes of knot-tying and food-packing, and Henry was ready to go. “I shall be back soon, if I have not returned in Eight weeks’ time, I have died and every thing in the house is the church’s” Henry said, making sure his key was still around his neck, holding his bow in hand and departing from his house, locking the door behind leaving the Friar outside, who said “May God be with you.”

And the two parted, Henry towards the hills he was brought in his dreams and the Friar, back to the town.

      Several hours of walking later, Henry had made it past the hills, and continued walking, past the grove of trees, towards his future.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      The door to the pub opened, and a dark shadowy figure entered, getting a few odd looks from the regulars, but other than that, people minded their own business.  The person, still keeping his hood from showing his face, ordered an ale, and sat down at a corner table of the pub, taking small sips of his drink, waiting.

     After what seemed an hour, another man walked in the pub, wearing scout attire, for quick movement. He was sweating and struggling to hide his shortness of breath, but still managed to sit down at the table the cloaked man sat.

    "What happened?"

    "It's gone, everyone.... just disappeared. I arrived Early yesterday, to find bodies, scattered everywhere, all lifeless or about to die. At the gate there was a stack of bodies of mages, all dead. The grounds hold some of the strongest Mages in the human race! Not even the strongest Drake could kill that many of our men before being killed." the scout said, fear in his eyes, even visibly shaking.

   "Is it true?"

    "I tried to see what was going on in the tower, but when I opened the door, I found the most horrific of sites a man has seen. I quickly shut the door, grey storm clouds gathering in the sky... Then, I heard it. It was neither human nor dragon. As I recovered from the roar and began to flee the grounds, a small porter house literally lit on fire, sending ashes, wood, and bricks flying into the air, even as a small  teenage boy holding some kind of white thing came running out of the house in my direction as if all the armies of Hell were chasing him, which would be an understatement! Behind the kid, was a full-sized shadow Drake!"

   The man in the cloak solemnly regarded what the scout was saying while the scout continued describing the  encounter.

    "Luckily for the kid, a horse other than mine was all saddled up, tied to a fence, which I cut the ropes to holding the horse to the fencing, the boy jumped on, and galloped away, myself catching the attention of the massive creature,  flinging a few arrows which did stall it for just enough time to jump on my own steed and ride into the forest. I looked back, the creature had completely disappeared from my vision, the land we had left was a deathly grey color, as if it had not seen light for ages."

     "So it is true?"

      "It is war." The scout said grimly, taking a large swig out of his own Ale the bar tender had gotten him. (the scout was a regular at that specific pub)

     The man in the dark cloak got up, which alarmed the scout. "Where are you going?"

    "I must warn my superiors. They will not be happy with this turn of events."
     Indeed they won't be happy to hear about this rogue Drake. We must also prepare for a war with the humans.

    There were screams outside of the pub, to which the cloaked person ran outside, to see a nightmare. Thousands of the fastest moving animals were running through the town, ignoring the human presences, deer, cows, foxes, goats, sheep, pigs, everything that could, ran through the town, trampling many people, just in the fright to get out of what could only be described by rolling blackness, which came at a quick pace from the distance.

    "Run with the animals, everyone, flee!" The person in the cloak yelled at everyone , who were too busy watching the animals to notice the dark storm that was threatening to come rolling in over everything.

    The scout came outside, and despaired, "What can we do? All is lost already!" To which the ranger punched the scout in the face.

   "Get yourself together and ride! There is your horse, go!" He shoved the scout in the horse's directions.

Everyone in town was utterly freaking out, trying to escape the rolling blackness, hitting each other, jumping onto deer, and stealing another's horse, women carrying children were running away. A few minutes and the last of the animals had passed through- a kid on a horse was charging at full speed running away from the darkness, which was but twenty feet behind him. In one hand, the kid held something in his left hand, which was larger than he, likely a blanket.- the kid made it into the town, and in that flash of white an brown, there was what looked like a pair of wings and a tail following him- "What?" The Ranger said aloud as the kid galloped past.