The Rising

[704338]

In the shadows of the night, you notice a flash; your eyes attempt to focus on what it was. You hear the rustling leaves behind you and as you turn you feel it. A cold sliver of metal pushing against your throat. Tracing back through your mind you try to compile every bit of information you can to figure out what is happening, but during your hesitation a voice breaks the silence. "Your bid has been taken and a debt has now formed." Your shirt is soaked, you gather yourself enough to reach down to feel it, you bring your hand up into the moonlight and see a shimmer of black gloss. You begin to lose your footing and fall. You hear footsteps all around you now. Your eyes grow ever so heavy and just as you close them you feel the metal penetrate your neck deeper than before. Now all that stands is a man in a dark robe peering over the corpse. He kneels down and begins sawing maliciously. From a distance you see the stranger stuff something big into his pack. He vanishes just as he appeared and moments later a crowd gathers around. A few noblemen begin pushing through the crowd to the center. A handful of healers follow them through. The healers, startled, examine the body and notice a small dagger sticking out of his leg. As the healers begin writing details down a guard steps in and pulls out the dagger, and cleans it on his pants. Examining it with a torch he see's a blackrock handle with a verite blade. The surrounding guards are shocked and begin to question who exactly it was that they captured weeks before. "You fools! You couldn't find a dragon in a shanty!" an old man yells from the crowd. The Captain lets out a sigh and heads back to his outpost slumped over more than ever. An apprentice healer, listening in on the guard's conversation rushes off into the nearby woods where he meets the stranger. They appear to be acquaintances. The apprentice passes off a few bottles and heads back to the healer's tavern and once more the stranger fades away into the shadows.