THE DARK PAIR

According to the map, the next village is only over the brow of the this hill, so you decide to continue on through the twilight, in the hopes of making a warm bed before the darkness is complete. Suddenly, ahead of you and off to one side of the path,something dark catches your attention, a dark shape, which as you approach along the path,resolve into a huge pair of dark, bat-like wings wrapped tight about their owner.

As you come closer still, the vast wings snap open with a leathery crack, each must be at least as long as a tall man, and twice as high, like the wings of a vast, dark butterfly. The cold wind and snow are long forgotten now, the dark wings and their owners are the centre of the world, and all else seems to fall away down a dark well, till you can see and hear nothing else. There are only the dark wings and their owner.

Stood between these vast, taloned wings is a tall, dark haired woman, with a beautiful face and a wry smile, she wears a simple black shift that does little to hide a luxurious figure, the wings seem to grow right from her back. To her right is a slightly taller man, he is large framed with dark, heavy clothes reminiscent of light armour, from all over his body jut the hilts of weapons, he has longish light hair and a few days growth of stubble grace a strong jaw.

But the most interesting figure is that between the two, standing there is a young lad of perhaps ten winters, dressed like the others, in dark, serviceable clothing, he seems to be crying, and each of the adults lays a calming hand on his shoulder.

The man steps forward through the snow and the boy moves with him, the woman wraps her wings around her, and her sobs can be heard over the howling of the wind;

'We have been the boy's guardians for all of his short life, now my time is near, and Suzi's dark master have finally found her, and are clamouring for her return. It is time for us to pass on the torch, and your blood has chosen you!'