A scream of terror at what she was looking at erupted from her throat. She quickly dropped the child and scrambled backwards as far as she could and wailed "That thing…how could that thing come from my body?" Her whole being was shaking in repulsion. Across from the mother footsteps, heavy and rapid, sounded the arrival of the baby's father. A mixed look of disgust and triumph settled on his features.

"Finally, we finally have it," he bellowed in unconcealed victory. He swept up the child in his grip and strode outside of the cave. The farther held the child up as far as his arms could reach so his army might see it. A great cheer rose from the men who could see the baby but an even greater howl of pain and sorrow drowned those joyful sounds out. "Look men, look! See how it takes only a small thing to stop the gods. They are no match for us. Now our army will be called the God Slayers!" At the moment he declared this, a great shadow fell from the sky. The shadow was so immense that it looked like the night had come to the ground and left the sky a blinding white. All the men surged towards the fallen dragon, poking and prodding it. Bright blue lighting struck all who had touched the felled dragon. From the sky another dragon descended, this one a brilliant white with pale blue markings.

"What have you done to her?" The dragon's voice rumbled in the tone of many avalanches and the screams of hurricanes. The humans coved their ears because the sound of his voice was agony to them. "Fools, all of you! Because of her death you will suffer. You have released ancient evils upon this world again and you will all be subjected to those evils for it." The dragon paused at the sound of the child's wailing. His eyes, devoid of their once shinning fire, had sparked up again at the sight of the baby. The white dragon reached out a taloned hand towards the child, but the man holding the baby swung his sword at the dragon. Hissing the dragon leapt away and in a flourish he was gone, along with the dark dragon's corpse. The leader of the armies looked down at the child he was holding. He curled his lips up in disgust. "Get this, this thing away from me," He said almost throwing the baby away.

"Kail, hurry up with that hot water!" yelled a grizzled old women who was feared more then any of the warriors. The old lady was the keeper of a bathhouse for the clan's wounded tired warriors, the occasional traveler, and for all visiting Lords and Ladies. It was placed up in the mountains on top of the old shrine for some deity that no one worshipped anymore.

"Yes, Aunt Sally," Kail replied trying to hurry her already too quick steps. Kail was one of the more beautiful girls there all but for her long dark hair and her strange birthmark that held the shape of a dragon's eye. Kail had been an orphan as long as she could remember and the only thing that seemed to get her through the days was the monthly visit by one of the bathhouse's guests. And today was the day that he was coming so everything must be perfect. Still rushing, Kail didn't notice the person in front of her. She crashed into the person splashing near boiling water all over him.

"Ouch! You burned me!" The guest yelled at her.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Kail said moping up the burning hot water. She had messed up before but never this badly as to burn a guest. She knew it, just knew that she would be stuck on cleaning duty for the rest of her life and just when she was finally allowed to get out from behind the back screens.

"Are you going to compensate for running my good clothes? Well?" the guest ask rather loudly. He was big but so was nearly ever one compared to Kail's small frame of five-five. The man grabbed Kail's hair and yanked on it really hard. She had to fight to keep from saying anything though tears of pain welled up in her eyes.

"I think you should be the one to apologize to this young lady," a guest Kail had never seen said. He had some of the most beautiful eyes of blue and hair as white as the hottest flames that could only be occasionally glimpsed at a master blacksmith's forge. But the hair's color did not seem to be from age because he looked no more than twenty years.

"And why should I do that, huh? She was the one who split hot water on me not the other way around." The stranger merely looked at the warrior and moved his lips soundlessly. Suddenly there was no longer any pressure on Kail's head and she scrambled out of the reach of the warrior. Kail took in the scene in front of her. The warrior was standing still, his fingers poised in the position they were in when in her hair. The stranger was standing no differently his lips still moving in silence. The air took on an unnatural feel around the warrior. Kail stepped over to the stranger and touched his arm. The stranger turned his head in her direction and the air calmed back down to what it was before.

He smiled and said, " Thank you. He should be unharmed though I did do that a little to long."

"Are…Are you a mage?" Kail asked rather tentively, curiosity sparkling in her eyes.

"Kail! How long are you going to make me wait for that water?" Kail turned towards the voice and called, "Just a second," she turned back to the stranger, "excuse me but I have to go. Hope you visit is refreshing!" Kail picked up the now half empty gourds of hot water and rushed over to where Sally was standing.

"Girl what took you so long?" Sally asked exasperated, "Never mind just hurry up and get this bath ready for Lord Adonia."

"Yes Aunt Sally."

"Oh and Kail, don't mess this up too."

The Girl with the Dark Hair

Kail is just like any girl here at the Bathhouse. Her destiny seems only of serving people, but one visitor changes that when he brings strange magic's and gods that no one in her village has seem since the Great War; the same things that started the war.