(Fair warning. As the intro post, this was startar in advance so it will probably be longer then normal. We will not request posts that are overly long, just long enough to be good and detailed and accurate.)
(The reason this is so long is to introduce key points, introduce me and Vole's characters, start the RP off with some light, casual stuff, as a prelude to before the first incident occurs which starts the journey. Characters will get introduced, things explained, that sort of deal. Please do not panic, no one expects you to type this much on a regular basis...though, we don't want them to be too short either got it?)
(Also, this one post should not be assumed to be the theme for the whole RP. It will get dark, it will get violent, it will get filled with all sorts of things. This is just the prelude...showing an innocent, natural life in this world....before throwing it all to hell. And remember, these are ancient/medieval times, different from our modern times, as well as being in a different world! Things will be different from what you would think, but keep in mind the technology, ethics, and morals of our own world has greatly changed in the past five hundred years! So if you come across something weird, just logic it in your head and do some research on ancient times. Trust me, it will help you understand and open your mind)
(Also, because Vole's character was involved, MartinVole helped check this over for his own character's sake, and was there for its development as well as the planning stage. So say Thank You to him for his hard word!)
In the far off mountains of Urgin, nestled in a lush warm valley between various mountains covered with snow despite it being the start of summer, and valleys which represent the roads in and out of this region, was the village of Arisa. It was not that remote, but also it was not that commonly traveled to or from. It was not particularly convenienced or inconvenienced, and had plenty of food, fields, rivers, and forests to suit its needs and prosper. When it got big enough, it would likely start mines in the nearby mountains and become richer and bigger until it developed.
The village was fairly well off, and the only real threats to it were basic monsters of low danger such as Goblins, Hunter Wolves, and maybe the occasional Goblin with a higher intelligence or strength then others. Although the villagers, if they gathered a small number together, could usually defeat them, in the past ten years they did not even have to worry about that and could focus on their jobs and trades. That was because ten years ago, an adventurer couple arrived in the village with two babies along with them. But it was obvious they were not their own children, because while the man was a human, and the woman was an elf, one of the children was a Black Wolf Animan with red eyes neither of them possessed, while the other was still an egg. A large egg, that hatched into a Dragon.
In the region where the village existed, it was not hard to know about what those two would be faced with anywhere else. Animans were often considered as a lesser race by many in the main cities of the Orvenus Kingdom, which Arisa Village existed inside of. And others would seek to capture him, either as a trophy or as a research speciman, as not only were Black Wolf Animan considered rare nowadays, but the trait of Red Eyes was considered rare and symbollic for strong fate as well. And Dragons, well there were many nobles out there who wanted both living and dead Dragons, to make them prizes or pets. Even though the Dragon was of the Drocora subspecies, and could take human form once it reached the age of two, and were sentient and intelligent, this would not matter to them. It would only make them more interested.
Anywhere else, and they would have to stay hidden in this kingdom and live a tough life, provided they remained free. But this village was just isolated enough, and made by the right people, that they would not subject anyone, especially children, to such a horrible experience. They did not believe in the racism and cruelty they would face, and not only made no effort to report them but even helped keep them hidden. And so the couple became a family, and settled down in the village of Arisa, known for its fields and even moreso, its hot spring baths.
And so, the young Animan boy and the young Dragon Girl were able to grow up in the village with somewhat normal, but relatively peaceful and enjoyable lives in the village.
And so like many other times before, light began to creep into the room containing the sleeping bodies of two young children as they rested slumberly on the bed. The air had not cooled too much over night, as it often does not during the summer, so the morning air was hot but not humid. Therefore, the two had chosen to once again sleep naked that night. Even if one disregarded the fact that it was considered normal and okay to do that in this world, they had been sharing the same bed since they were little and found no issue with it either. The two were siblings that shared a strong bond of trust, and they would forever see each other as family and siblings no matter what. Because they believed that what is important is not blood relations, but those who stick with you and live along side you.
The first one to wake up, however, was the Animan Black Wolf Boy with red eyes, Corro Porter. As an Animan, he appeared human with some animalistic traits, such as his small wolf fangs, his black wolf tail, and his black wolf ears that replaced his main ears, and sat on top of his head instead of on the side. As the light peeked into the room, he began to stir. Although their bed was small, he did not hit his sister once, the Dragon Girl of the Dracora subspecies Quail Porter. She was in her human form, with brilliant purple hair and if she were to open her eyes, would radiate blue from them most likely if the sun reflected off them. In her Dragon Form, her scales were also a light blue.
Oddly enough, although neither of them were related by blood, they were both of short stature for their age. Although everything else was different, other then the skin color when Quail was in human form, it was this trait that made people never doubt they were siblings, even if they were adopted. There was also the bond they shared, and how they treated each other, so there was no mistaking that they were siblings.
Not immediately waking up his sister, Corro began his morning by performing some of his morning streatches. Corro wanted to become an adventurer who was known as a Magic Swordsman when he grew up, and also he wanted to be the kind of brother that Quail could rely on. Because she had natural, innate strength, Corro had trained his body as hard as he could. Although his appearance would look like a weak, small, lanky child with no muscles, he already possessed strength over the average human adult. Of course, soldiers, knights, and so on where all considered at least above average, and especially adventurers, so it was not something that made him already invincible.  But for his age, it was incredible. Some even suggested he was somehow blessed by the gods.
However, despite it being one of his reasons, Corro was never jealous of Quail, but admired her as a sister and wanted to be a person that she looked up to. He was fully aware of their positions in the rest of the empire, and wanted to be able to be there for her should something happen. Which is he why continued to finish his warm up morning training.
"Mmmmm...so warm..." a familiar voice spoke out from their bed behind him. He turned around, and saw Quail waking up. She looked back at him, and smiled a little. "Good...your not dressed yet...that means I didn't sleep in too much..."
Although the two of them were boy and girl, they were siblings who had shared pretty much everything with each other and had not only seen each other naked hundreds of times, but bathed naked together, had breakfast together, even trained together when they could. They were very close, and neither of them really minded the other.
"Yeah. I don't hear anything from the other rooms yet, so I think mom and dad went out on patrol. Or maybe, they had errands to do? I will go chec...wait, what is this?"
As Corro approached the door, he noticed there was something lodged undernearth. After he picked it up, he read the title and then became shocked. He immediately ran across the small room and jumped onto the bed next to Quail, landing in a back laying down position as he moved so their shoulders were right next to each other touching. And then, he showed her the newspaper that their parents had left for them. It was nowhere near as big as modern day newspapers from other worlds, but they also were not usually distributed except for once a season at the start, at least in their village, because of the cost and importance of paper. Although books could be produced, they were meant to last awhile, while a newspaper was something that was only meant to be read once or twice, so they usually never delivered more then they felt they should. Yet for some reason, they had delivered a special version.
There were various things that were written on the front page alone that were shocking and staggering however. For one thing, it said that around six weeks ago that a Chaos Dragon had appeared around the Dungeon City Saria, and combined with the other chaotic events, it had been ecided that it would change from the current Era, the Era of Advancement that had been maintained for 4043 years, to the Chaos Era, of the First Year. That was very significant, but so was the Chaos Dragon appearing in a large city. They were commonly told in stories and legends, and it was confirmed that they often had body counts that got to the thousands or even millions.
However, what had also caught Corro's eye was something else. It was known Chaos Dragons were an entirely different species then normal Dragons or Dracora, so the Chaos Dragon was not only seen as something different from Quail, but it was also known that Chaos Dragons liked to eat other Dragons to get stronger. It was why he felt he had to show her immediately, before either of them had even gotten dressed.
"However, by a miracle, a group of adventurers, no, legendary heroic adventurers, managed to team up and work together to cast an ultiimate spell. It is confirmed that they were already in an established party and even living together, however while they all contributed, their leader was able to use the power of the spell and go to fight the Chaos Dragon alongside his lover. These two managed to fight against the Chaos Dragon, and lure it into their trap before slaying it before it had even managed to produce casualties of a number outside three digits. Not only is this worthy of praise, but as this had been inside a populated city, even if it was Dungeon City Saria full of adventurers, where even their children could fight the swarming lower level monsters and calmly maintain party formation while killing them and providing support, to have that low of a body count is truly a miracle. And their leader was confirmed to be a Fire Dragon, possibly of the famed Ignius clan, even though he was only as we learned a ten year old boy of incredibly short stature. Well, his achievments surely prove that despite his size, he is a Child of Fate that saved us from what could have been a world class disaster!"
Although by the time he realized it talked about height, it was too late as he was already near the end and was sure that Quail had already read that part, he figured the inspiration of it and amazingness of it would not cause a negative reaction for that. Rather, he hoped learning this would only provide her more hope and happiness since it proved they both could be great heroes despite their size and age.
And upon hearing all that, Quail looked at Corro and said...
"So I guess this means Dragons are more heroic then Animans".
"Why you..."
She had said it jokingly, but Corro responded by tickling her body all over. Because she hadnt gotten dressed yet and was still naked, she had nothing to protect herself from his tickles. However, Corro was still naked as well, so inbetween laughter and spasms from the tickles she tickled him in response, which caused them both to eventually laugh themselves into exaughstion and collapse next to each other on the bed, their arms crossed and spread out while their legs were just spread out. But neither of them minded the other's tickle torture, because they were siblings that got along great and had a strong bond. To them, this had just been another game to play.
Looking back at the collection of paper that had the emergency news written on it, the two smiled warmly.
"Isn't this amazing? I mean, its bad that the situation around the world is getting so bad they renamed it to a new Era, but this proves it. Soon, we can finish our training and become adventurers ourselves. The two of us, working together, we would be unstoppable!"
"Yeah! We will show them! We will be the biggest, bestest adventurers of this new Era! We will...huh, what is that?"
As Corro and Quail cheered, Corro had stretched his arms into the air and a small piece of paper came out from inbetween the pages of the newspaper. Quail noticed it first, so after he saw it Corro picked it up and read it.
"Dear Corro and Quail, this is mom and dad. We thought you might want to read this emergency news since it seemed important. However, please dont sleep in too much. Remember that tonight is the Summer Festival, and make sure you get yourselves up early, take a good bathe, and then come to help set things up. I know you two have a habbit of sleeping in and being late, so if you are late, I will give you both a spank......"
Corro stopped reading the note out loud as he turned pale. Although their parents were nice, wonderful people, Corro and Quail often ended up late because either they woke up late or lost track of time. They had also been late to the last two Summer Festival Setups, and their parents were not afraid to help make sure they were properly motivated to do their jobs.
"Quail, quickly! Grab a change of clothes! Uhg, its already late into the morning! Okay, we will sprint towards the River, bathe with the other children quickly, and then get dressed afterwards!"
As children in rural areas often played nude in the summer when it was hot, running as they were would be no issue. On the other hand, Corro really wanted to be able to sit down tonight so the prioerities were easy to establish. He quickly grabbed his clothes and a change of shoes as Quail did the same, and the two of them sprinted towards the River at speeds abnormal for normal children. As a result, they were able to reach the river and dive into the water in record time.
"You two appear to be working hard".
Nearby, there was a woman with a large group of village children all taking a bath just like Corro and Quail. As they lacked access to advanced medicine or doctors, and because magic was bad at dealing with disease, it was common practice for an adult to supervise and assist those under thirteen and not an adult bathe so they would get properly clean and not catch disase. As Corro and Quail were still ten, she would normally help them but...
"Quickly! Scrub harder!"
"I am trying! You too! And pass the soap!"
The two were going full force. The woman had a good idea why too, she had remembered their mother saying something about motivating them. And she wasn't known for saying things without the intention to follow through. And right now, they were both in sync, often switching sides so that one could wash the other's back and such, and then switching again, and then sometimes facing each other and doing it simultainously. They were even using soap.
However...
She grabbed both of their shoulders, swung them around so they were side by side, and finished up them both. They were in such a hurry, while they made great progress, they had missed a few areas including the bottom of their feat and the part of the body they had been sitting or kneeling on.
"Please do remember to be careful and thorough, okay?"
"Yes, yes. Now...."
"Is that enough?"
"You should be goo...."
"Alright Quail, lets get moving!"
"Yeah!"
Before the two could jump out of the river, they were both grabbed by their tails. Quail was not sure when her tail even came out in the first place onto her human form, but on occasion her transformations did go awry. But the two of them had been caught quite litterally by their tails.
"Now hold on, you two need to rinse off and stay awhile here. The festival setup is not going to start for some time, and even if your late I will explain to your parents that I stopped you. You need to relax anyways, to swim around and cool off before you get out".
Hearing her words, the two looked at each other before turning back and nodding at her. She released their tails, and the two entered the middle of the river where the other children were. Just like them, they were also naked because no one had invented swimsuits yet. The idea had been thought of several times, but....
"What is the point? Wont it cause the same effect anyways of wearing clothing? Pointless".
And got rejected like that. Â
Although Corro was a good swimmer, he was no match for Quail despite it not even being her element in the first place, that being wind. But he was defienntly a good swimmer himself, just nowhere near the best.
"Corro! Quail!"
"Fang, Gale!"
As the other children called out to them by name and nickname, they ended up swimming around for a bit while talking about the latest news they heard. They also ended up talking about the various things they had been doing, like Corro or some of the other boy's training, or Quail's latest magic development. Because it was a small village, many of the younger children taht were not born first would likely try to become adventurers, or at least village guards. After all, they only needed so many people to operate the fields, and it would require a lot more food if the population of the village only kept increasing.
They were vaguely aware of the mortality rate of adventurers too, but they all had hopes and dreams they did not want to give up on.
"Ahhh....days like this, are really nice..."
"Yeah! Although, you might be a good swimmer, but isn't your swimming style a bit silly?"
Because he was part Wolf Animan, Corro would switch between having his whole body below and doing a doggy paddle.
"Alright. It looks like some time has passed. Children, we should get out, get dressed, and start..."
Before she could finish, the two jumped out of the river and were drying off, before they got dressed and ran off towards the center of the village where the festival would be held. The woman could only laugh as she thought that their mother had definently motivated them this time around.
Corra was wearing a basic T shirt and shorts, and Quail was doing the same. Their tails were just sticking out from the shorts, waving up and down as they sprinted. In their hurry, they had forgotton to put on the shoes they had stuffed inside their bags, but for them running barefoot was probably easier.
And so as the two of them raced off, no one had yet noticed that the mana concentration in the air was steadily increasing.
"We cant be late Quail!"
"I know, mama can get really scary in punishment mode!"
And so as various forces began to move around and towards the village, they had just kept running forward. They had no intention of stopping, because even with permission they wanted to avoid getting into any potential trouble at all. After all, they knew just how bad punishments could get. They were planning to take the most direct route as well...
But suddenly, the ground collapsed underneeth their feet the moment they stepped onto what appeared to be a normal patch of ground. Yet now, a hole had opened up, and sharpened wooden spikes had been placed below. If that woman or the children had fallen into this, it would have been bad. Novice adventurers could have been gotten by this trap as well.
But Quail was able to use her wind magic to push them away from the hole before they got stabbed, staying alive. Corro took a step back as he analyzed things, but another hole was triggered behind them. Corro was able to step forward before he fell in, but it proved this area was riddled with traps. This was exceptionally rare, and when it did happen it was usually one of the hunters that warns them. However, none of them would actually put traps between the river and the village. Which meant, no one of the village would have made these traps.
Corro used mana circulation to enhance his abilities, while also sending out a mana pulse to try and detect hidden monsters nearby who were not concealing their presence, or where not able to. As a result, several Goblins wearing some sort of leather armor came out holding weapons, and one was holding a staff. The Mana pulse was not magic but a mana circulation technique, but as a result anything that could use mana would sense it.
"These....don't look like normal Goblins!"
Corro gave an analysis, as light blue wings appeared out of Quail's back. They seemed to phase through the shirt, but looked like the shirt was pinned under them and implied they were still connected to her back. In one go, she took to the skies while evading any attacks and made her own from above. Meanwhile, Corro had not brought his sword to go bathing but he did have his claws.
By focusing some mana circulation into his hands and fingers, Corro could generate wolf claws to use on the enemy and help in in unarmed combat. Although his goal was to be a magic swordsman, he was aware of the possibility of being attacked unarmed and also trained in hand to hand combat.
While Quail began to focus on the archers and the one Goblin with a staff in the back, Corro engaged the ones that had swords. Corro was able to jab his claws into one of their arms, force it to twist around, and then grabbed the sword that fell and stabbed it into the Goblins's neck. Another one came and and slashed at his body, but only his clothes got a bit cut up as he pivoted around the Goblin corpse while lunging at the second Goblin, forcing his claws into it's neck and then ripping it out. He then picked up the sword the Goblin used, and looked at the remaining few. They had yet to back down, and seemed to be underestimating the two of them.
One of the Goblins began to charge forward...and then flung the sword it pretended to be drawing at Quail! Corro was able to knock the sword surprise attack away, jumping up to intercept, but it was a rare and dangerous stratagy since it meant losing your weapon. For Goblins, it was stupid, but they were stupid as well. But it was also crafty.
Quail, annoyed at the goblins and their tricks, ran up and jumped off of Corro's shoulder, appearing above them with without wings, before dive bombing them by falling to the ground while punching it as hard as she could. In addition, she let loose a blast of wind at the same time using magic, which caused several Goblins to die or go flying off their feet. After that, it was simple to finish off the now scattered goblins who could not effectively work together.
After that, they quickly finished running towards the village after setting off the remaining traps, and immediately ran towards their parents. At first, they seemed a bit annoyed or impatient, but when they ran closer they saw that Corro had several cuts on him and his current clothes were in tatters from all the grazing hits. Normally, Corro could take on a squad of Goblins solo without worry. So if he had gotten into this stage, it would be very bad. The two of them understood that.
"What happened?"
The man, their father, immediately asked that. As one of the main protectors of the village, he had to learn the situation immediately. Even though his son was in that state, he couldn't tell him to relax in the hot springs to help recover with his sister first or get new clothes, but about the enemy they had encountered.
Corro explained it to them in detail, about the Goblins that had weapons and armor, and one was even a mage. These types of Goblins only rarely appeared near the village, and usually it was one leading a group of weaker, dumber goblins.
"This isn't good, its possible a large number of them are for some reason migrating this way. Those were the ideas he was thinking about. Meanwhile, a young looking elf woman came up to them....
"Eric! We need to help our children as well!"
"Ah. Alright, can you handle that Lily? I need to ge investigate".
"Very well, but later we should all take a nice good family bath at the hot springs".
"Alright, if there is time..."
Eric ran off to see about the other areas nearby, while Lily remained with them.
"Look at this, your clothes got a bit torn up in the fight. Alright, I will get you a robe or tunic or something nice to wear. In the mean time, come on and follow me, I am sure you need to rest and clean up or take another bath after all that intense fighting..."
While this was going on, a number of figures were watching from a long distance through some telescopes.
"Looks like we finally found them...now all we need to do is capture them alive. I don't care if you break thier limbs, or even use them for pleasure, but I wont be happy if they die. Well, breaking them mentally is fine too".
And so began what by morning tommorrow, Corro and Quail would come to see this as the worst day of their lives....
(So again, let me state this now. NO ONE HAS TO MIMIC THIS LENGTH! NONE AT ALL! IN FACT, PLEASE DONT! THIS TOOK ME SEVERAL HOURS TO FINALIZE! @.@)
(This was just to get everything started, to establish various points, to introduce some characters and events, and start the prelude to the first incident that will start the journey)