Notes

Chapter 1

Down a long twisting purple cobble stone path close to the border of the wood of wisdom “the smallest of the five woods of eternity” but still far enough into the dense undergrowth to barely be able to see the light of day. There is a small wooden shed like building that looks as though it could topple over with only the slightest of pushes. The roof is splashed with violet slats in the shape of birch tree leaves and a single solitary street lamp with a sign with a golden painting depicting a tall pointed hat, a long beard twisted in to hoops and the words The Curly Beard Tavern inscribed underneath. The sign swings on two chains attached to a crooked wooden arm that squeaks eerily with the breeze rocking the street lamp as it does. The door to the tavern is large with a big brass door knob in the center, above that is a stain glass window showing a large, what seemed to be an oak tree but with brass, copper and golden leaves. The door is stiff and hard to push open, it too squeaked like the sign outside. Upon entering there are tattered old round tables scattered around the room which is normanlly filled with fisher men from the local river village, hock creek. The fisher men were all wearing long leather trench coats and thigh high wading boots. There is an island like bar in the middle of the room with a pillar of beer and wine barrels. the bar man is a stout, scruffy looking man with an ale soaked white shirt partially unbuttoned showing his hairy chest and a dirty old rag thrown over one of his shoulders. In the far corner of the room are four older men laughing hysterically as if they could not control it, they were each wearing robes of a different color, red, blue, green and purple. They all had long waist length beards tied in the middle with a piece of cloth matching the color of their ragged old robes. On their table appeared to be everything they might possibly need to survive in those exact seats without ever having to leave, the table was covered in wines, cheeses, fruit and meat. There are several bowls scattered around the table, some with tobacco some with a green tobacco like substance they would mix into their tobacco before they filled there pipes and finally the rest of the bowls were filled with red mushrooms covered in red spots that they were eating religiously by the handful.

The old men were sat smoking there pipes, talking of the resent war between the fairies and pixies over the small patch of seeker trees, white leaved trees with silver trunks and branches in the centre of the wood of peace, they use these trees as a breeding hive. When a tall slim man wearing black leather clothes and a dark red hood opened the stained glass door with an overly forceful push that swung the door wide open, allowing dead leaves to fly in at his feet. The room went quiet as he did this, the fisher men seemingly simultaneously looked toward the mysterious man before looking back to their drinks and carrying on their convocations. The hooded man walked slowly towards the four old men, who were refilling there pipes completely unaware of the man’s arrival, he stood next to the blue robed old named Drafaris man and pulled a letter from his top pocket and threw it on to the table and spoke loudly “a message for the wizards” before leaving as quickly as he came. The red wizard pulled a short oak wand from his sleeve with his left hand lighting a candle on the table with bright yellow sparks whilst grabbing the letter with his right. He looked at the plain front of the yellowy tinged envelope before turning it over, the other wizards leant forward in their chairs trying to get a glimpse of the envelope. The back of the envelope had a large red wax seal with the letters H, C and V all overlapping each other, the blue wizard announced in a shaky tone “the High Court of the Vampires” “what on earth could they possibly want with us” the green wizard pronounced in an interested manor “well let’s find out” the red wizard interrupted whilst breaking the wax seal and slowly sliding out the letter on the inside. Before he could even unfold the small piece of paper he had just removed, he collapsed of his large armchair and landed on the floor screaming in agonising pain, as if every bone in his body had broken all at once. The other three wizards leaped out of their chairs, in awful fright the blue and green wizards sprang to the red wizards’ aid. The purple wizard whipped his long purple wood wand from within his beard and flicked it towards the piece of paper laying on the floor, it sprang up on to the table. He leant forward slowly as if scared of the letter but still trying to read what was inscribed upon it. The letter only read one sentence “come to us we seek your conference”. The purple wizard shouted over to the barman “we need a carriage and quickly” “right on it sir” the man replied in a nervous voice as he ran out the back to prepare the horses. The blue and green wizards turned to face the purple, the red wizard still screaming in pain on the floor beside them they said almost simultaneously “what does this mean” “it means we’re involved in something way beyond us I feel” the purple wizard replied. Before they could reply the barman ran back into the room “ your carriage is ready” “thank you Gillbert, come you to we have a long journey ahead of us, bring red and put him in the carriage” they moved with great haste, the blue and green wizards struggling to put the red wizard into the back kicking a screaming, whilst the purple jumped onto the front grabbing the rains of two very large muscular black horse and jolting them back as he did so causing them to bolt of down the purple cobble stone path, rocking and swerving uncontrollably as it did so.

Day and days past of what seemed to be endless travelling. The red wizard had stopped screaming now but his condition was seemingly worsening his eyes had turned completely black as if his very soul was trying to escape from them, his breathing was fast and erratic and he showed no signs that he was even conscious. None of the wizards had any idea what was happening to red, all they knew is that whatever happened to him came from that letter and that letter came from the high court of the vampires, so they must know what is happening to him and maybe they know how to stop it. Days turned into weeks and they were still travelling, they had crossed vast rivers that raged through fields and fields’ lushes grass of green and blue, they proceeded down winding roads through incredible winds and unbearable rains. Until on the sixteenth day of their journey, red wizard at this point if completely incapable of functioning by himself, barley even breathing. They came across an enormous forest. The road lead into the forest, at the point where the road met the forest was a large arch crafted with the branches of the oak trees from either side of the road and forming the shape of a horse’s head with a rather haunted expression on its face. Suddenly just before they crossed under the unusual arch way the horses jolted back and started bucking and whinnying, the purple wizard managed to take control of the two rampant horses and managed to get them to calm down and stand still although they were still shaking in fear. The green wizard jumped out of the back of the rickety old carriage and walked slowly towards the horses making so not to sneak up on them, he leant in close to the horses ear and whispered something, he then walked round still being careful not to spook them he then did the same to the other horse at the same time they both stood straight and true the green wizard then looked up at the purple wizard with a rather large grin on his face and said “that ought to do it” the purple wizard just sat in amazement with his jaw wide open as the green wizard meandered back and hopped back into the carriage swinging the door shut as he did so. After the purple wizard had sat there for a moment taking in what had just happened he lashed at the rains and the horses began to walk forward at a slow gallop. Hours passed and the further down the road that was no longer purple cobble but a vibrant crimson, it seemed that the forest got darker and darker, eerily so. The carriage reached a point where the road was broken by a small stone bridge, as the purple wizard looked across the bridge he could see nothing but pitch black darkens. He stopped the horses just as he reached the crossing and reached under the chair of the carriage, pulled out a rusty old brass lamp and blew gently on an unlit candle on the inside of it, the candle burst into light and he hung the lantern on an iron hook screwed in the side of the roof of the carriage, before slowly and carefully over the precarious bridge. It appeared that even the lantern was getting dimmer and dimmer as they moved further and further along there crimson path. Never the less they must move on wither they can see or not. The blue wizard sitting in the back of the carriage began to realise that there forest was getting much darker, so reached in to a rather large leather brown leather satchel and reveals a handful of pale white acorns and passes them threw a tiny window to at the front of the cart to the purple wizard saying “shake and throw a few of these, it should give you enough light to get your bearings” as he does so. The purple wizard take one and puts the rest in a small basket on the side of his chair and like the blue wizard said he shook and threw one, it hit the floor and exploded causing an incredibly bright flash of yellow light that lasted about two seconds, giving him enough time to get a quick snapshot of his surroundings. About half a mile down the road the horses seem to be getting a little agitated, the wizards’ thought little of it, as they themselves felt a little agitated. The horse’s agitation grew worse and worse every second that went by. Suddenly to the left of the road the purple wizard heard a horse scream and the sound of a cart toppling into the undergrowth. The wizard jumped into action and threw one of the pale acorns in the direction from which the sound had come, there was nothing, he threw another to make sure he hadn’t missed anything but still nothing. He carried on convincing himself that it was a figment of his imagination. A few seconds on he heard it again but from the right of him this time, he threw a couple more pale acorns to see what was going on in that direction but still nothing. He turns around to look check if it was behind him but again there was nothing, so he decides to Carrie on and turns around to do so but when he turns back he is terrified by the sight of a white partially clear horse bucking and whinnying in front of him, he jumps back in his chair closing his eyes in terror at he does. After just a second he opens them again but there was no sign of a horse and he didn’t hear it run off “what on earth is happening” the confused old man thought to himself before throwing almost all of the pale acorns at the ground where the horse was stood hoping that he would be able to see all around him, instead they went of one by one making it seem like the whole forest was flashing in and out of existence. He looked around vigorously turning his head trying to look in every direction at once. As he did the same white horse appeared to his left and with the next flash to his right and the next in the distance and the next so close he could feel it ice cold breath on his fear stricken face, with the final flash the white horse appears right between the two black horses rearing up and kicking as it does, the two horses leap forward in to a sprint dragging the carriage hastily as they do, seemingly passing through the white horse that is still stood where it was. The horses run as fast as they can un slowed by the purple wizard hanging on for dear life. They run for some time until they reach an opening on the other side of the forest stopping for rest as they reach a similar archway to the entrance, showing in fact that they had been in that forest all night as it was now sun rise. The crimson cobble road they had been travelling on for some way now extended for a little outside of the forest before ending rather abruptly at a red lake that reached out for miles around, surrounding the lake is thick dark forest of black, dead, bare trees that’s branches stretch and spike out in every direction. Beneath the trees at the roots is a thick blanket of leaves as red a ripe cherries.as the carriage pulls up next to the side of the crimson lake, the purple wizard steps down off of it and walks slowly down towards the lake and stands at the very border, looking across in bewilderment. “What do we do now” he proclaims to himself in a tone of despair. “Why we wait” the blue wizard said placing his hand on the purple wizards shoulder as if to comfort him. “What for what, what are we waiting for” “nightfall of course when else do you see vampires” the blue wizard interrupted before purple could even finish his sentence. They both looked at each other for a second before meandering wearily back to the carriage. Both stepping back into the carriage it is not as small on the inside as the outside would lead you to believe, when in truth it is large hall like room with stone walls and stain glass windows all depicting a different battle fought by the neverends at the beginning of all creation. This room like the curly beard tavern had a round wooden table covered in foods, drinks, tobacco and those unusual mushrooms they all seem so fond of. At the back of the room are four four poster beds, two on the floor and two directly above those with a curved set of stairs leading up to those. The red wizard still in his condition is on the lower right of the beds, whilst the other three wizards are sat around the table playing a game of backgammon, all awaiting nightfall pondering there role in what is yet to come.