The sunset, always one of the most beautiful things to watch, drifting clouds listlessly reflecting the fading dawn, the deep purple, yellow, and the orange that takes your breath away, it's the waking dream of many, the sleepy waking call to some, and the romantic's dream, only falling behind the thought of a perfect sunset sky.
With this thought running through his head, Emanuel took a cautious step out of the door way,or what you might call a doorway. To anyone else not looking closely it would simply look like a hole in the wall of the old decaying building that he had built his temporary shelter within, although to the untrained eye this building was no different to any of the others that were nearby,this had once been something of a city, but that was a long time ago.
Emanuel, having been awake for over an hour, or what he assumed was an hour,was still not entirely awake as he checked his surroundings, his gaze carelessly fluttering across the horizon, as something caught his eye from a nearby pile of debris that had crumbled from the building next to it. As he watched it seemed to make the same motion repeatedly so he began to think it was a piece of trash fluttering in the breeze, simply caught on a jagged piece of rock, that is, until it suddenly launched itself a good fifteen feet away and landed on top of a building. "s**t!" Emanuel swore loudly, ducking and bolting back towards the building where he had left all his gear, his footsteps echoing loudly across and down the street as he went.
Then as soon as he turned his head to try and find the creature that had flew off it came crashing down right in front of him, barring his way to the building, his gear, and his weapons left inside. Emanuel quickly began searching for anything he could use nearby, already beating himself up for it in his head, thinking back on how he had told himself "You should take your gun or at least your sword with you." But no, as always he had discarded it as an annoyance instead of taking his instinct into thought.
As Emanuel glanced quickly back and forth the creature just stared at him, staring almost completely still, waiting for him to finally realize there was no way out, because even then the monster had grown to be at least double it's original size resembling a canine similar to what people had once had around their homes, but this creature was much, much bigger. The creature was as tall as Emanuel, with twice as broad shoulders. It sported dark blue-black fur with ears pointed straight up as it anticipated a meal.
The beast, as it slowly gained a glazed look as it began imagining how tasty this small human would be for dinner, suddenly jerked to attention as Emanuel made a run for the building not ten feet from where he had been standing, hoping he could get inside, because the door, only being a small fire exit would prove too small for the beast to fit inside at it's current size. But as Emanuel ran he realized he couldn't outrun this thing, so he took a sharp turn and drop kicked the beast. This seemed to daze it and he managed to make it inside and slam the door shut with no further problems.
As the resounding slam from the door that Emanuel had slammed slowly echoed and faded away he realized his plight, locked in a building that he knew nothing about, with no gear, no provisions, and no light. He began to look around, straining his eyes to see in the dark, but still only making out vague shapes or gigantic shadows, he fumbled around in the dark for what seemed like forever, his heart pounding in his ears as his fear grew that he might be in the very den of some gigantic beast, or even the nest of the beast he had met earlier.
During his search and constant tripped and clattering of objects he knocked over Emanuel's fear grew with each sound, and each step he took deeper into the building with only a hope that he could find a door or an opening to the outside. He finally came across a small gap in the wall, letting in only a sliver of light. As he grew closer to this light he heard a slithering behind him, and when he turned he saw nothing but what looked like some old clothes, a coat f some kind of fur maybe. This being resolved in his head he continued to approach the light and there was a sudden rustling that signaled the lunge of the beast he had just disregarded.
In his panic, Emanuel suddenly jerked in his attempt to move out of the way and fell over an old office desk and was immediately lunged upon by the beast he had been trying to avoid only to realize it wasn't attacking him at all, but was licking at his hands and arms with a massive sand paper-like tongue. To his surprise, and dismay, it was simply a Gresh. From what he could tell it was of the branch of its species that liked lower areas with lots of grass, as to how this thing got stuck in the room he couldn't tell, as it was roughly the size of a lion with long feeler-like antenna on its head for detecting smells and feeling for weak spots in the ground, along with short hairy legs that usually numbered in the twenties. It also had wings that resembled a moths, but often most of this species can't use the wings for anything but to create a buzzing mating call.
This being resolved, Emanuel began to grumble how much he hated the Gresh, for they were always attracted to him for some reason. some might say this was a good thing, as Gresh are great at scaring many of the beasts of this world away. Emanuel still considered it a curse, as they always wanted to lick him and that could cause rashes from their rough tongues and a constant annoyance while trying to sleep. As Emanuel continued to find more reasons not to like the Gresh, including their smell, feeding habits and other things, the Gresh began to move away and Emanuel decided it would be better to follow it as it might know the way back out of this building.
As the Gresh rumbled on, as its movements supported quite a mass of weight, Emanuel began to get tired from the constant noise and warmth the Gresh was emiting. He stopped to stretch and the Gresh loyally, although curiously stopped a few feet ahead and turned to see why he had stopped. Emanuel just glared at the beast and growled, "What? Can't a guy stop for a stretch?" As he grumbled more the Gresh slowly came to within a few inches of him and sat down as if expecting him to climb on. "Oh no." Emanuel groaned, "I am not going to ride you." At this Remark the Gresh looked knowingly up at him and for a brief instant Emanuel could see a deep intellect in it's eyes before if forced itself under his legs so he was laying on it's back.
Emanuel forced himself up into a sitting position and turned so he could see forward, although he still couldn't see much, and wasn't sure if the Gresh could really see or if it was just guessing. "Do we have to do this?" Emanuel asked and went to lean to get off the Gresh's back. But before he could get anywhere near off the Gresh shrugged causing a ripple that knocked Emanuel back into a laying position. Emanuel, aggravated at first, couldn't help but to start laughing. Of course once he started laughing he realized how quiet it was in the dark building, and the sound of his echo echo off the walls into the distance and ended up echoing back sounding almost like a sad cry in insanity.
The Gresh stopped and at first Emanuel thought something was wrong with it and tried pushing on it and moving around to get it's attention but it stayed perfectly still and Emanuel could feel it tensing underneath him in anticipation of what was going to happen. This caused Emanuel to feel small, even smaller by the fact it was in the dark, and even smaller yet because of not knowing what was about to happen.
A slow rumble began echoing from somewhere ahead that Emanuel hadn't heard earlier. As it grew closer Emanuel began to get more nervous about what might happen. What if it was another Gresh and they fight? What if it's some massive beast? Suddenly angered by his own nerves, "Shut up!" yelled Emanuel into the darkness. Suddenly the rumbling stopped and a high-pitched noise began, it seemed almost a screech, worse than nails on a chalkboard, it reached ear shattering strength before suddenly stopping. Silence consumed Emanuel and his Gresh, and both were anticipating what seemed like death its self.
A soft thump gave way to almost silent footsteps, from the patting sound Emanuel guessed that whatever it was approaching them was humanoid, or walked on two feet atleast. The sound of sliding metal revealed that this was indeed either a human or a Shmesh, both of which carried metal blades. At this resolve Emanuel was ready to atleast try to fight back when the Gresh reared up and shot forward faster than Emanuel knew it could. There was a brief clang and a scream as the Gresh came crashing down n their attacker.
The Gresh began to back slowly up and Emanuel jumped off it's back to inspect the body of whatever it was that just got crushed. As he strained to see it's form in the dark a light cut through the room, sweeping wide like a lantern. Emanuel quickly moved behind something and glanced back to see if the Gresh was in plain view and noticed that he couldn't see it anywhere in the area. This was a curse and a blessing. Without the Gresh he could present himself and not be questioned by most mercenary teams that worked in the area, except the fact that the Gresh had just crushed what he assumed to be one of their friends.
As the light grew closer, Emanuel's mind started racing and he began moving as silently as he could in an attempt to get away. The strangers got closer and closer by the second and now Emanuel could here small parts of what they were saying. "Didn't they saw a..." One of the strangers said. "No, no it was a few days ago that..." The other casually replied. "Shh!" Another said and a tense silence grew among them. Emanuel knew that they had spotted the crushed body of their comrade.
A sound started somewhere nearby, echoing off the walls and bringing an ominous feeling to Emanuel. This sound grew louder and louder, resembling the rattling of a chain mixed in with the low moaning caused by strained metal. This sound was then joined by a low rumbling roar that grew with such force that the dust off the walls and objects nearby was shooting into the air with small "pfft" sounds, creating a blanket of dusk everywhere and forcing Emanuel to close his eyes.
There was a loud clambering as the strangers that had been approaching started to run away, bumping into each other, the walls, and various things on the ground and in the process they broke their lanterns. This had the effect of closing the entire area in a blanket of darkness and in the distance Emanuel could hear them screaming "Demon!" as they continued to run away.
Emanuel however, stayed where he was, his heart racing and trying to force himself to breath slowly as to not draw attention to himself, because he was fairely certain their running away and loudness during their attempts to flee would draw it to them and not him so much. But, as Emanuel stared hard into the darkness, with his hand over his hand over his mouth, he saw a shape begin to emerge, it had a cold, deep, dark red glow to it. This glow wasn't enough to see in the dark with but it gave Emanuel a cold shiver down his spine and his eyes grew wide in terror.
As Emanuel stared the light spread throughout the creatures body, it revealed a very heavily muscled figure that was at least ten feet tall, with a thick metal collar that had what looked like the remnants of a chain attached to it. This, Emanuel figured was the source of the metallic sounds he had heard just moment ago. This gigantic beast had claws at the end of each finger, a very shaggy torso that covered a "V" shaped section of his chest and continued down a straight line, wrapping around the area where his loins would be and his buttocks. And instead of feet of any sort the beast had hooves, dark black and un-shoed.
Although the beast had long black horns that looked like cracked lava rock, the facial features were human-like showing a very handsome outlook with a strong jaw and features that glow with an unearthly light. As Emanuel stared in at at this beast, it looked directly at him, seeming to see him yet pierce his very soul with it's gaze and for a moment he thought it smiled, and the voice in his head echoed the word "Agares." Then Emanuel blinked and the beast was gone, seeming as though to have disappeared into the very air, leaving behind only a burn mark on the ground.
As Emanuel stood from his spot and moved to examine the burn mark he found there were more than one, there was a trail of them. Except one thing appeared very odd, the hoof marks were in a completely straight line and there was only one mark at even intervals. Emanuel moved closer to the spot where the demon had been standing and noticed a faint gleam of something metal, and he instinctively backed away at first, but curiosity brought him back even closer.
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