You pulls away from the Shadow and hold on as tight as you can, hoping that somehow the horse can outrun these creatures, or at least hoping that someone can help you.

No sooner have you thought this, when suddenly you hear a sizzling sound followed by an ear piecing screech from above. The Shadow trying to rip you from the horse has been struck down by some sort of bolt of lightning. Soon another Shadow is destroyed in the same way

"Cursed Shadows! Just hold on to the reins boy and keep moving! There's a town up ahead where you'll be safe!" you hear someone yell at you. You notice some trees and rocks along side of the road, but no people. Whoever it is helping you must be well hidden.

Eventually all the Shadows following you have been destroyed by bolts and you make it into the town, though you aren't sure of what to do or go next, but for now you're just glad to be alive. (Your horse has even clamed down a bit)

While you just temporarily rest on top of your horse, you hear the voice of the person who helped you again.

"Ah there you are, glad to see you're alright. What's a boy like you traveling by himself in these dangerous times anyway? The wretched Nightmare Tyrant's minions seem to be everywhere nowadays."

The one who's helped you looks like a little different from what you expected, this man looks more like a warrior, but not like the knights you encountered earlier. More like a barbarian type. He's bristling with muscles and has a large axe carried on his back.

"You don't look like a Wizard." You say.
"Of course I don't, because I'm not."
"I thought only Wizards could cast spells."
"Oh that lightning bolts back there? That's thanks to this magic ring I found a long time ago. Though I think it's out of charges, it's useless except maybe to trade with now. Here, why don't you take it." He says giving you the ring.

"Thanks. I'm supposed to be heading to the Parran Empire to get back home."
"You live in the Parran Empire?"
"No, but they're supposed to have Wizards there who can help me get back home."

You go into detail about your adventures to the barbarian; he seems a lot more surprised by your tale than the rest you've told have.

"That's some tale boy, though I have no reason to disbelieve you, given the things I've seen since my own travels as well as the things I have heard about the Nightmare Tyrant. His darkness has even reached my old homeland far north, though my people tend to be nomadic and the land doesn't really contain anything of major importance. We had more problems with the usual menaces of giants and trolls more than anything else."
"How come you're so far from home?"
"Well as I said, my people are nomadic in nature, and I guess I'm even more so. I wanted to see other places outside of my homeland, so I traveled south to where civilization tends to thrive. I'll most likely return one day."

Before you continue this conversation, you have just realized you don't really know the route to get to the Empire. The Paladins were supposed to lead you there and now both of them are gone. You don't know who else to ask, you're all by yourself again and this barbarian did help you, so you give it a shot…

"Hey, um…could you help me get to Empire? I don't exactly know the way."
"Me? Well, I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask, seeing as I've never been there either, though I'm sure that wouldn't be too much of a problem, all I need is a few directions from someone and I could probably get there quickly…sure why not? As I said, I've never been to the Parran Empire lands so it wouldn't really be a wasted trip for me, but we probably should find a room somewhere first. Also I'll need to ask for directions. My name's Qualan by the way."

Qualan rents a room for the pair of you, but he doesn't stay, instead he says he's going to go ask for directions and explore the town a bit, and for you to just stay in the room and not to open it for anybody. He has the key, so he can let himself in. Soon you're alone again in a relatively barren room. It's pretty boring in here, but you try to keep yourself occupied, namely by thinking of all the people and places you've encountered since you've been here. In fact this is the first time you've actually got the chance to reflect on this little adventure. You also wonder about your Mom, she's going to be worried about you and probably have the police looking all over for you! And when you finally do return, what will you tell her?

You don't know, but what you do know for certain is that you DO want to get home as soon as possible. You find this place very fascinating, but the Shadows and the Nightmare Tyrant who's taken an interest in you is something you can do without. You just wish you had something that you could fight them off with…

No sooner does that pass through your mind when you notice something glowing under one of the beds. You cautiously check underneath it, and find a short sword. It faintly glows with a white light for a moment longer and then fades back to its normal color.

After "playing" with the sword for a bit, you suddenly realize that you created the sword, or you at least made it appear. In fact you've caused quite a few things to occur just by "thinking". It seems like every time you "wished" for help, it suddenly arrived.

Maybe you have magical powers here or something similar, this all can't be a coincidence.

You don't wish

Something instinctively tells you that "It's not going to be that easy." You remember back when the Shadows first tried to take you, you wished you were back home and it didn't happen, you ended up in the middle of nowhere. There's no telling where you might end up if you tried it again. So far "little wishes" have worked for you, so you're going to stick with the current plan of getting the Empire wizards to send you home and use your "powers" only when necessary.

You eventually fall asleep with your new sword by your side, you're awakened by Qualan in the morning.

"Hey, get up boy let's get going… where'd you get that sword from?"
"Huh? Oh…well uh I found it under the bed."
"Sheesh, I know I've forgotten a few things in my travels, but never a weapon. That's just unthinkable. You probably should have a sword anyway, I'm not sure how it is where you're from, but a boy your age would definitely be somewhat familiar with a weapon of some sort by now in my tribe."
"Where were you?"
"I told you, I was getting directions to the Parran Empire, and exploring the town a bit…well okay I was exploring the tavern, in fact I eventually explored the floor of it. Oh well at least nothing was stolen, not that I have anything left after spending it all at the tavern…hey you still have that silver ring? I think I might need to trade for a horse. I can't be accompanying you efficiently if I'm not on horseback as well."

After giving Qualan the ring back, and uses it to buy a broken down nag, you and he are on your way again. You and he talk during your uneventful travel; he's very fascinated with your world as you are with all the adventures he's been on. Soon you come to a split in the path. You ask which way to go.

"Well, both of these paths will eventually lead to the Empire, but one of them is a lot quicker. There's a catch though, back in town I was told the quicker path is currently under complete control of a vicious goblin tribe. Apparently they're attacking anyone that goes through there. I heard The Empire was supposed to send in some soldiers to take care of the problem, but the Nightmare Tyrant is a more immediate and dangerous threat and as such they're concentrating their efforts on him instead. The second path is supposed to be safe and clear, but it'll take longer. We'll probably have to make a camp somewhere, before we even reach the Empire.

"Let's take the safer route." You say.
"Alright, but keep alert anyway, just because I heard it was safe doesn't necessarily mean it is."

You and Qualan travel further with no unexpected encounters. When it begins to get dark you half expect Shadows to come attacking you out of the sky again, but this is a natural darkness, night is merely falling. Qualan suggests that you should make camp and you do so. You and he eat the provisions he bought from town. He comments on how bad they are and next time he's just going to stick to hunting in the wilderness for food next time.

You've never slept outside before, so like most things in this adventure it's a brand new experience for you. One that makes you really wonder why some of the kids at school have said they like camping so much. You're definitely a city boy!

After trying to get comfortable several times and not worry about bugs crawling on you, you fall asleep, but not for long. A noise awakens you and Qualan. The horses seem agitated as well.

"Qualan?"
"Shhh! I heard it too…be prepared for anything." He says standing up and readying his axe.

Soon a large figure lurches out from the darkness. It's another Shadow, but not like any of the ones you've encountered before, this one is bigger for one thing, almost as if its armored and for another it looks vaguely familiar. The black figure is hard enough to make out by the campfire, but when it speaks you know immediately who it is.

"At last I've found you boy."
"Salzat?"
"You know this…thing?" Qualan asks getting ready to attack.
"Briefly, he used to be one of the Paladins sent with me to take me back to the Empire." You reply backing away.
"And I still have to waste my time escorting you around!" Salzat hisses. "Come boy, my new master the Nightmare Tyrant wants to see you, it would be unwise to keep him waiting, the agony will only be much worse the more you resist…"
"Take the horse and ride boy! I'll dispatch this monster!" Qualan shouts at you.

You're sick of running at this point, and Qualan needs your help. Besides you figure you can actually do something now with your new sword, which you draw out.

"Boy, I told you to get out of here!" Qualan exclaims as he defends an attack from Salzat.
"Ha ha! Good. Saves me the trouble of chasing down the little fool!" Salzat laughs.

While he's laughing you take the opportunity to stab at him. He attempts to dodge, but you manage to slightly wound his leg. This causes him to bellow in a hissing shriek. Qualan hits him with his axe, but it doesn't effect Salzat like your attack did. Salzat retreats back a bit to recover.

"YOU MISERABLE LITTLE WHELP! YOU HURT ME!" he says before getting ready to charge again.

"Boy, your sword can hurt it, but I'm better with wielding such a weapon, toss it to me and I'll dispatch this creature!" Qualan quickly says bracing himself for another attack.

You toss Qualan your sword

Following Qualan's advice that he would do a better job at fighting Salzat you toss the sword to him and he meets Salzat's charge.

Qualan lands what would look to be a powerful blow, but instead nothing happens! In fact you've noticed that it's stopped glowing. Salzat winces a bit from the hit, but he doesn't stop his own attack which fells Qualan. The sword flies out of his hand and disappears into thin air. It would appear that without your belief in yourself, the sword lost not only its power, but ceased to exist altogether. You attempt to wish for another, but you're too panicked to think straight and you're having a hard time concentrating altogether. Soon Salzat's hulking shadow form has grabbed you, and your mind is filled with nothing but terror. He carries you back to the Nightmare Tyrant. You soon join Salzat and the rest in everlasting shadowy torment.