Jax ran.

  Why he was running well, that was a long story.

  He jumped over felled trees, roots, and underbrush, weaving his way through the dense forest. Tall leafy trees that he couldn't put a name to surrounded him, they seemed to glow a pale white in the moonlight that penetrated their canopy, reflecting off their leaves, illuminating the underbrush in an ethereal glow.

  The howls grew louder. Jax could almost feel the hot breath of the wolves on his neck as he ran, clutching his prize wrapped in a dark red cloth. The heat emanating from it was intense. Jax himself didn’t know what it was; whatever he stole was most certainly valuable as he was getting paid ten thousand tempered chips up front, with the other ten thousand coming after.

  That could buy his freedom as well as a comfortable life outside the den.

  Well, that was after he delivered whatever he was holding. Jax looked down at the cloth-lined object in his hands, it was even hotter now, almost burning him through the thick cloth. He tried to imagine what it could be but was given strict orders not even to think about what it was, let alone see what it was, just to steal, deliver, and forget the whole thing ever happened and live his new life away from crime in the kingdom.

  The whole job gave Jax weird vibes, but who was he to complain about twenty thousand tempered chips? Certainly not Jax, as he just tried to scrape by each passing day getting just enough chips to eat and sleep.

  His daydreaming ended abruptly as his ears picked up a trace of footsteps behind him, padding softly through the forest floor yet still fast enough to match his pace.

  Wolves were creatures of the night trained by the wood elves, they were deadly enough even to skilled warriors of any race when they had the element of surprise, yet the thing that scared him the most was they always were in packs of at least three.

  One wolf was hard to handle by themselves, but when you had three wolves bearing down on you, that was a whole new challenge in itself.

  He ran from the wolves over fallen leaves that crunched underfoot, past a blur of trees as he ran, and across a small creak that splashed up, coating his warn boots in cold water that seeped through, shocking his system from the cold.

  They were relentless barks, and howls rang through the forest as the wolves gained on him, running him down like a runaway train, and he was unlucky enough to be on the tracks.

  He finally reached a clearing surrounded by dense underbrush, and his lungs burned within the last ten minutes. Jax had run nonstop, and his heart pounded in his ears with a fast rhythm. The forest was now silent and still like the denizens of the forest were waiting for the climax of a book that they just couldn't put down.

  They stalked out of the undergrowth, their paws treading lightly against the fallen leaves that softly crunched under them, four of them. All closing on him slowly and patiently like they had all the time in the world, which for them they did, as they could just wait for reinforcements to arrive, then the elves that commanded them would most likely kill him from afar with their bows, and that would be that for his forsaken messed up life of killing and stealing for the chance to leave that behind him.

  Jax supposed that he deserved his fate of death and that whatever came next might just deal him better cards to work with. Yet a lingering sense of hope filled his mind that he might just survive and get out of this whole mess unscathed with money in his pocket. They struck faster than the eye could see, the wolves darted forward as he was stuck in his own thoughts.

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  That might have been the only thing that saved him, call it fate or destiny Jax didn’t believe in that, as he stepped away from the incoming wolves he tripped on a root hidden in the brown leaves. Jax fell backward, time seemed to slow as the arrow whistled past him right where his head was only a moment before.

  As Jax fell the prize slipped from his hand falling down on the leaves with a dull thud, the tightly wrapped cloth unraveled opening up to a blinding golden light that illuminated the whole clearing with its radiance.

  Time seemed to speed up as Jax landed his back hit the forest floor driving all his oxygen away with the force of the impact, a sharp pain lanced through his head as it struck a root, he saw stars. Jax blinked away the pain and got onto his feet with a grunt phishing himself up, he drew his knife from his belt, taking in the scene around him the four wolves circled around him ready to charge at him at a moment's notice, the blinding light somehow intensified like the light of the sun illuminating the clearing in its blinding rays, Jax drew his dagger from his belt getting ready for a fight, he threw off his long dark cloak to reveal worn leather armor underneath, the armor had small plates of steel covering his vitals and hands they were made of sky steel from elven forges that he was lucky to get his grubby hands on as he saved up from three jobs to buy them. They were durable like steel but were as light as a feather, as he got ready for the fight to come.

  Jax got in a low stance to lower his center of gravity to make dodging easier. if he was going to die, he might as well take the wolves with him, he thought to himself. They charged, rocking forward from all sides, Jax eyes tracked the closest approaching wolf, he looked in it eyes, the eyes of a predator stared back gleaming with wildness tamed and honed into the deadliness that were the wolves of the forest. The first wolf swiped its paw at him but did not overextend. It just tried to test his defenses. Jax dogged out of the way from the attack avoiding the claws meant to rip open his chest, in return he made a quick motion pivoting his feet and using the momentum from the dogged attack to whirl around and use his blade to cut up the wolf attacking from behind, it was caught completely unaware as his blade stabbed into its shoulder making it whimper but the momentum of the beast still continued as the now crippled wolf slammed into Jax, stumbling back and off balance white hot pain raced up his back, as he was completely exposed and off guard, the wolf that was now behind him raked its claws into his back he was sent sprawling down to the ground with an exhale of breath now lying completely prone on his face, two more claws ripped up his back and legs from the two wolves that took their chance while he was down, Jax screamed from the pain.

  Writhing on the ground delirious. He had managed to hurt one of the wolves though that was little comfort as he was most certainly about to die. With one more swipe that clawed his back, he backed out from the pain.

  Lily pov

  Lily was having a bad, downright, horrible day.

  Was it because of her new demotion to the lesser royal guard? No, was it because of her getting laughed at by the whole royal court? No, it was because the blade she was sworn to protect had finally found its chosen, the man who was its want to be a thief.

  “How are we going to explain this?” Autumn asked.

  “No idea,” said Lily with a sigh. “Tie him up at least,” said Lily as she kicked some loose dirt on the ground.

  The clearing was drowned in bright light emanating from a fallen sword.

  Throughout hundreds of years, many people have tried to claim the sword for themselves or factions thinking one of their members could bind to it, yet it has always been with the elves, they were the ones who had helped make the sword after all but even for the ones who had made the sword in ancient history fifteen thousand years ago could not replicate the feat of magic and craftsmanship because it was elves, dwarves, and humans all working together in harmony to craft it, until the humans great betrayal.

  In their greed and drive for power the archmage who had helped make the sword strived to make a staff to keep for themselves had sacrificed half of the dwarven and elven population to infuse the staff with the most unholy magic of all the corruption of life and death itself necromancy.

  Then the archmage, with the corpses of the fallen, rose his undead army to march and capture the elven and dwarven crafters to complete the staff, as the archmage found the craftsmen in their workshops, the sword of midnight found its chosen, who, after a long battle slayed the archmage. In one last gambit, the archmage made a statement “I will one day return after the blood and battle of the races, and in the wake of battle I will sweep up the kingdoms and place them under the undead banner.” That was what Lily learned in her mandatory history class to become a palace guard which paved her way to royal guard and then finally true guard.

  “Lily! Lily, we have company!” said the voice of Autumn from her left, panic in her voice. “Ten at least!” “Where!?” said Lily sword already drawn.