Opiltan plopped down on the stiff plank he called a bed as the world around him buzzed. He stretched his shoulders, staring at the ceiling wondering why he went through with this. When captain Padraig had found him outside the city of fire, he had offered a way out. Opiltan remembered that day as if it were yesterday. He had been 11 at the time and had just ran away from his mom to go explore; a noise had caught him off guard and he shot fire out of his hand without meaning to. Padraig had been walking over a hill at the time and stood in pure amazement. Padraig had offered Opiltan the chance to join the Champion, a small group of the god’s chosen soldiers, or Padraig would forget that any of this had ever happened and just continue on his way. Opiltan had jumped at the chance and joined the Champions on that day.

  Since then, he had moved to Capital hill, the capital city of the Nation, to live with the other members of the Champions. There was Opiltan obviously, he was now 16 with short cherry red hair and amber eyes. He had been blessed at the age of 10 by Opilton, the god of fire. Next, we have Sparrow, he’s chill and one of the few people here who was friends with Opiltan, he was also 16 with dirty blond hair and ocean blue eyes. He was blessed by Shoralto, the god of the sea.

  There is also Timmy, that’s just his nickname but no one knows his birthname. He’s younger than the rest of the champions, at only 12 years old. He has short curly orange hair with ruby red eyes. We also don’t know who he was blessed by but someone had to have blessed him.

  Then there are the last two Marshalo and Analyssa, they have been dating since they were 10 and their parents already told them they are to be married at 18. Marshalo goes by Marsh most of the time, he’s the king’s son and was blessed by the god of death and darkness, Kalothopol. He has black hair in an ivy league haircut with chestnut brown eyes. If he grew out his hair and had slightly darker eyes he would look just like his dad. He also has a Houndwolf named Marshal. Then we have Analyssa, she goes by lyssa most of the time though, she if brutal. She was blessed by the ice goddess Saphorata, and you can tell, She has the same general appearance as the cold ice queen. She also has platinum blond hair with blue eyes.

  Opiltan was born a commoner unlike the rest of them, and he was weaker. Marsh is the next in line for king and Lyssa and Sparrow are the children of a high-ranking duke. Timmy was naturally going to be the weakest of them because he was young but even, he seemed to be able to keep up with the rest. Opiltan tried sitting up, but pain shot through his whole body. Today they had worked on sword combat and that was not his specialty. The others had more training than him so that didn’t help, he had come from a city where he was the worst blacksmith to a group where he was the worst at everything.

  “Tanner, what are you doing, our first missions are about to be assigned.” Sparrow stood at the door of the room and called Opiltan by his nickname.

  “Everything hurts too much. Just tell me what to do after.” Opiltan finally looked up at Sparrow who had a duffle bag on his shoulder.

  “Can’t, I’m going to my mom’s while she recovers from her sickness. You’re on your own Tanner.” Sparrow put down his things and walked over to help Opiltan up.

  “Do you really have to go, I mean I could really use your help out there.” Opiltan stood up and rubbed the bruise forming on his ribs from practice.

  “We wouldn’t go together anyway. You can do this dude, just don’t rely on a sword ok.”

  “I get it, I’ll just burn down a forest on accident when I run into an Elf.” Opiltan rolled his eyes, and they started walking toward the meeting house.

  “Don’t do that, the gods might take away your blessing.”

  They started approaching the meeting house when Opiltan slipped and fell backwards. “Oh, sorry Opiltan didn’t notice you there I was just practicing a new trick.” Lyssa said with mock sympathy, a gleam came from her blue eyes.

  “Opiltan I’m glad to see you could make it, come have a seat.” Captain Padraig ignored Lyssa and gestured toward a seat next to Timmy. “Sparrow, I believe you know where to meet your ride.”

  “I’m on my way there right now. Bye Tanner, good luck.” Sparrow walked off.

  “Alright now that all of you are seated let’s get to your missions. Analyssa you will be exploring the ashen planes, Marshalo you are going to the windy desert, Timmy you are going to the windswept mountains, and Opiltan you will be going to the haunted woods.” Padraig passed out the letter with the mission information and left the 4 of them alone.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Wait, Captain, why does Opiltan get the fun one. I have to go to a boring old field.” Lyssa yelled back at Padraig.

  “Calm down Lyssa, captain can’t hear you. He wouldn’t have given you a good one anyway, we all know Opiltan is the favorite.” Marsh helped Lyssa up and they went over to the sleeping quarters to pack.

  Timmy soon got up to pack too. Opiltan sat there questioning what Marsh had just said. He wasn’t the favorite; he couldn’t have been. Marsh and Lyssa had been promoted, clearly, they were the favorites. Right? No, he needed to get his head off the ground and get packed for his journey. Opiltan remembered what they were taught while packing for missions, pack light and only the bare minimum because he would be in the woods alone for who knows how long. He grabbed his travel pack, it had rations for a month and some other necessities, he added a couple daggers for foraging and emergences as well as his notebook for journaling. The last thing he did was get clothes for the journey, then his sword. Soon he was ready to leave the next morning, so he laid back down on his bed. He thought back to before he joined the Champions a lot, life was simpler then. Politics was just a thing that was out of his control and barely affected him, now it was his life, and he still had no control of it. His punishments before when he misbehaved was just missing a meal at the worst, but now that was the lightest punishment. The harshest was death.

  He had thought about leaving and going home hundreds of times, but that could never happen. If he left, they would hunt him down and never let him be. While being in the champions he learned more than anyone other than nobles should now. Leaving would put him and his family in danger, punishments are never just kicking people out instead they kill people or imprison them.

  Opiltan opened his eyes to find light filtering though his open window, he must have drifted off while he was laying there and missed dinner. He got up and changed into the clothes he had set aside the night before, he grabbed his bag and headed out to see what the others were doing. He saw That Lyssa and Marsh were heading out, but Timmy was still eating what looked like left over bread.

  “Hey Timmy, when are you planning on heading out?” Opiltan called as he walked over to where Timmy was sitting.

  “I was thinking I would head out later tonight. I’m ready to enjoy a bit of camp without Lyssa and Marsh picking on me.” Timmy gestured toward the carriage that was leaving the grounds. “Do you want something to eat, I noticed you weren’t at dinner last night.”

  “I think I fell asleep after I packed, but I don’t need anything I’m way to stressed to eat.”

  “I get it, are you planning on leaving soon?” Timmy shoved another piece of bread into his mouth.

  “Yeah, I’ll probably head out in the next few minutes. Do you know where captain is?”

  “Haven’t seen him all day, why do you ask?” crumbs fell out of Timmys mouth.

  “Just curious. Well I’m going to head out, good luck on your mission.” Opiltan started toward the carriages.

  “Good luck on your mission too.” Timmy called after him.

  After a long ride the carriage stopped and Opiltan arrived in the moonlit city just before nightfall. He stayed the night in an inn and started the trek to the haunted woods right before sunrise. The path was lit by the light of the moon above, the soft light of distant villages looked like stars that had fallen on the path. Opiltan had never seen such a dark landscape, he was born on the other side of the kingdom in the bright lands. Though he could admit that he had never seen the moon so beautiful, the moonlit city had gotten its name thanks to how bright the moon was every night.

  The sun had fully risen by the time that Opiltan had gotten to a village next to the Haunted woods. He stopped to grab a bite to eat while he had the chance.

  “Thimson says he heard the ghost last night. He was gathering herbs at sunset when he heard the chains.” A group of three young boys were muttering around a table.

  “What was he doing out so close to a full moon. I’d get it if he was young but that old man?” Another boy commented.

  “I guess he thought since the full moon was tonight, he would be fine. He is getting old.” The first boy

  “That’s true, maybe he didn’t even know it was so close to the full moon.” The second boy sneered.

  “Or maybe he didn’t hear anything but the wind rustling the leaves. I can’t believe you actually believe in that stupid myth.” The third boy rolled his eyes at the others.

  “Come on Shoklo, if the gods are real then why wouldn’t the myths be real?” The second boy retorted.

  “A ghost living in those woods just sounds dumb. Wolves have never even lived in those woods; how could one have died there.” The third one pointed out.

  “How do you know they weren’t just scared away after a Houndwolf ate a young one?” The first one asked.

  “Wolves wouldn’t leave a young wolf alone long enough for it to get lost, let alone killed by a Houndwolf. Come on we need to gather herbs before it’s to dark to see.” The third boy stood up and the others followed.

  “Know he’s scared of the dark.” The second boy muttered.

  “What was that about?” Opiltan muttered to himself. “Are there things in the woods I have to worry about.”

  “Don’t concern yourself on old myths like that. They only stay alive because kids like that want to scare their friends.” A server told him. “What can I get you to eat?”

  “Whatever is fresh and warm, I have a long trip through the woods waiting for me.” Opiltan told the server.

  “Sounds good. You won’t want to be in the woods late at night, you already won’t be able to see your way at midday.” The server walked off to prepare Opiltan’s meal.

  The server arrived with a steaming bowl of soup, then left Opiltan to eat his warm meal Before he had to head to the Woods.