Welcome To the City of the Dead

Skittles had entered a dark and unforgiving city. Not a single person was out in the street. It was such a depressing place that flowers never grew, and the grass was always gray.

His horse stopped, pleading to get away from this awful place, but they pressed forward to the heart of the place. With each step they took the darker the place grew. At last, Skittles, Taeda, and Fulmen stopped and dismounted.  The horse whinnied and ran in the opposite direction leaving the three travelers behind.

Skittles pressed forward, to get to their destination the fastest way the had to travel through this city. They were still several days away from their destination.

After quite sometime they came to a temple. It was not dedicated to En'dai, but to a lesser goddess. Laraia'Bukira of Fortune. This town used to be called "The Garden of Truth" until something misfortunate happened. 

No one knew what that thing was though.

Fulmen suddenly threw caution to the wind and sped forward towards the temple's open doors.

"Fulmen! STOP!" Skittles called after him, but he disappeared into the shadows. Skittles cursed and looked down at Taeda who was pulling on his pant leg.

"We need to help him! Let's hurry!" She yelped and flew after him.

Skittles, left standing alone, twitched. What could have sent a sensible little creature into a temple of misfortune? 

Then Skittles heard it. A week voice calling out for help. He was still very skeptical, but he decided to enter this temple of great misfortune.

***

It was as grim on the inside as it was on the outside. The walls were covered with cobwebs, things were falling apart. One thing seemed to be stuck in a time of long ago. That was the statue that depicted the Goddess of Fortune. She was a picture of pure beauty from head to toe, but one thing was missing for the statue. Her face wasn't depicted, in it's place was a mask split in half. One to represent good fortune and the other to represent misfortune. 

There at the feet of the statue sat Fulmen and Taeda. Skittles ran up to them panting, the room was far larger then it looked. Fulmen looked up at Skittles and said, "What does this scripture say?"

Skittles nearly ripped his head off, "Are you freaking insane! You could have been dead!"

"I highly doubt that."

As Fulmen said that something fell, and then there was a rustle of fabric. Skittles pulled out his bastardized Veecharoval, from seemingly nowhere,  a weapon with a crescent moon blade on one end and a small fan shaped blade on the other. It was made out of the best metal and held a surprise for long range attacks. With a swish he had it place at a woman's neck. 

She looked at him with golden eyes, "Please have mercy."

"Who are you?" he growled. She had a knife somewhere on her. He could smell the steel and blood mixture.

"I'm simply no one. I've been stuck in this place all my life and I just wanted someone else to speak with."

"That's a lie!" he pressed the large blade closer to her neck, and felt Taeda and Fulmen move closer to him, more aware of the danger.

The woman was obviously surprised by this new development. The strange thing was that she neither seemed alive or dead, and she most definitely was nothing divine. More then likely she was some sort of demon who had decided to use a dead woman's body. Skittles always felt sick when he thought about that.

"You want to know what the scripture says? It says "All those who seek good fortune in my city shall find it if and only if they have no hatred in their hearts. If too much of the hatred spreads then I fear my city of good shall turn to a city of misfortunes. For where there is one there is the other."" The woman seemed to hate those words and saver them all at once.

Skittles suddenly understood a bit more. "You belonged to this temple?"

"Yes," she said as she leaned into the untarnished blade.

Skittles pulled his Veecharoval away, "So you're now forced to live a half life as a demon and a holy priestess constantly in pain. I guess you call out to people who are foolish enough to enter this city."

"I've never called out." The woman said in a surprised voice.

"Really?"

"Really."

'Then who did?' thought Skittles. 

Unexpected someone answered his internal question. "I, the goddess Laraia' Bukira called to you so my priestess could see her own message, and so you could see it also."

Everyone spun around dropping there guard. No one in the room could believe that the goddess was standing before them. He white hair surrounding her pale face that itself almost seemed white. Her eyes shown a bright gold color that seemed to pierce through the hearts of men. She was the picture of pure beauty that all men wished to see, and all women desired to be. That was the reason why they also called her the goddess of purity.

"You..." was all Skittles could get out.

The goddess smiled, "You want to know why I seem to have put this woman through torture. I wanted her to see the truth with her own eyes. I wanted her to see that she had corrupted herself with hatred. I also wanted you to see what hatred did, because I know you harbor it for the Goddess of Life and your very own parents."

The room remained silent for what seemed like an eternity. Skittles didn't know what to make of the nonsense that had just been spouted at him. He knew it had meant something about his future, but it was utter nonsense.

The goddess broke the silence, "Go to your dragon, and take him on an adventure of a life time Skittles. You may be called a villain, and you may be exactly that, but you must walk your path this way."

"I'd ask you a question, but I'm afraid you wouldn't answer me, so I'll leave and do what you say." He turned to leave, but the goddess said one more thing.

"Skittles, we're counting on you to destroy the world. If you don't there will be a fate worse then death."

Skittles nodded, "I'll kill thousands of heroes who dare challenge me." With that he walked away Taeda flying ahead him and Fulmen running beside him.

As they left Skittles made sure to set the whole town ablaze with a fire spell. As he walked away he whispered, "May you rest in peace fare city of fortunes."