Desent into Madness

When I look back now, I try desperately, to pinpoint the one event that lead to the chaos that began to overtake the small, struggling world I knew. But alas, there is no one thing, no moment in time that dictated the outcome. No, it was so many things, so many influences, of selfish men and foolish women, so many blindly led souls lost to madness.

Balkoth was the first to alert me to the corruption within the new Alpha, the similarities between the former and the new beginning to show almost immediately. It was becoming clear the pack, while under new leadership, was just three, and while I was clearly more pack than either of them, I was odd man out, so to speak. Rarely trusted, rarely consulted, as the pack quickly moved away once more from what it was meant to be.

Balkoth kept me focused, kept me driven, pushing me and finally it was he that convinced me to leave, and strike out once more into the Wild Night. We searched for a path, a safe way through the mountains, a tunnel perhaps, leading beneath the Darkness..to, somewhere, anywhere else! A small pocket of islands had been discovered recently, ship travel opened to the Skrell homelands, perhaps there was more people, more places that still existed beyond our knowing, out there past the relentless insanity that was unleashed upon this world.

We departed, just before the storms hit Seahaven. Our advantage was only hours ahead of the wrath of Sykala as he lay waste to the fields and the city itself that relentlessly and selfishly abused His gifts. The fury of the storm overtook us in the mountains, the winds becoming biting, the terrain, treacherous. Finally, even Balkoth's tough blue skrel'eth hide began to wither beneath the onslaught, and we were driven to find cover.

We waited out days of endless frozen winds and driving rain and sleet, tucked into a small cavern, little more than a crag that barely fit us both. Still, we were protected from the winds, and of course, Balkoth had come prepared, as he always did, and we survived, for the time being. It was only an hour after day break, the sun creeping up over the crest of the mountain tops, showing a dazzling blue sky were we able to see the walls of Darkness, closing towards us. Those walls, were once static, shifting yes, at some points, during some rare, and usually terrifying events, but this, this was different. You could see the barrier, in nearly all directions, from our vantage point high up upon a mountain peak, yes you could actually see the Darkness..slowly contracting, moving inevitably towards Seahaven and what small refuge the fields still offered.

He knew, before I did, that I would return, I HAD to try to help, try to prevent what was coming.