It was nearly dark, and he could see the dim lighting of the streetlamps of Carlin starting to appear when something strange happened. A storm, like one he had not seen in quite some time, started to form suddenly. "Where did those clouds come from?" he asked himself. In fact, the clouds formed so quickly that Misthalin (that was the Knight's name) had to quickly make his way to a cave entrance for cover. "Getting wet is not in my plans for tonight, and I'm definitely not wetting my mushrooms." He had found a mildly profitable business bringing mushrooms from the elven city into Carlin - but no one quite liked to buy soggy mushrooms.
When he reached the ladder at the cave entrance it was already pouring and lightning and thunder were striking the tree tops around the amazon camp. Perhaps he was too worried about keeping his backpack dry that he almost forgot about the goblins that usually kept a presence near the cave. Luckily for him, this time, they were gone."They must have seen the storm coming before I did and hid away in their filthy lair" he thought logically, "Even goblins don't like to stay under this kind of rain". Misthalin was unusually witty for a knight - he had taken an interest in magic and in reading various books and manuscripts he found during his explorations. After some time, he learned a few basic spells and even was able to efficiently use healing runes, which proved useful to him on more than one occasion before.
After climbing down, he landed on a narrow dirt corridor that led to some other passages beneath the cave entrance. He checked on his backpack once more to make sure it was dry, and was about to utter a spell "Utevo...wait" he thought loudly, "I'd rather light a torch here. Don't feel like dealing with any trolls and the magic light will likely attract them." As he lit the torch, the light from the flames pushed back the darkness in the corridor, and the knight started making his way deeper into the cave. It was not a completely unfamiliar place to him, and he knew there were some chambers there that the trolls rarely visited - if he were quiet enough, he would most likely be able to spend the night, his presence unnoticed by the brutes. After some more walking, he reached a small room through a narrow passageway. As expected, uninhabited by the cave's original dwellers. There were only embers of a troll campfire (lucky for him, trolls would often make campfires and leave them burning unattended until they found them again).
The weather outside only seemed to have worsened. Misthalin was camping only one or two levels below the ground, so he could still hear and feel the thundering rage of that unusual storm. "I wonder what could have triggered this storm," he thought while he poked the embers on the campfire with a stick. He was about to take another puff from his pipe when he sensed a strange presence coming into the room, apparently from the narrow passageway. He picked up his sword and took a stance to strike whoever it was, when he heard, in a deep voice, coming from across the room "That will not do you much good, young one."
"Who are you? What do you want?" he replied in return, asking the most obvious questions that someone in that situation could ask. "I'm here to talk to you, and you'll learn who I am soon." As he spoke those words, the wizard revealed himself. Unlike Misthalin, this mage was not young. Something about him felt old and tattered as if his very presence there was no more than an image or a shadow being cast from another dimension. "Listen, for we have not much time," he said as he stepped closer to Misthalin. "I'm Cyranno and suffices to say that I've been looking for you for a while. I've tried contacting you in your dreams, but that didn't work, you see." Misthalin's eyes widened as he heard that. "It was you? The nightmares? What does it mean...who are you?!"
Sense had started to leave the young knight's mind when the wizard took out a small book from his robe. "This is what you have seen. This is what you must find. I have not the time to explain it further now, for every second I spend in this world causes irreparable damage somewhere else."
"What do you mean? Where else?" Asked Misthalin, yet knowing that he would not get an answer to his questions now. "Take this book, Misthalin. Read it. Keep it safe. Look for The Rose...you will find me there...I'm..." As he spoke those words and handed the book to Misthalin, a strong thunder echoed through the caves, and the mage was gone. Vanished. Suddenly, the storm was also gone, and it became so quiet that Misthalin could hear the crackling sounds of the campfire. He looked at the book in his hand for a while. It was real. It felt like he had woken up from a dream, but it was real.
The knight tarried for a moment before opening the book. It felt warm to the touch, and its pages seemed to be empty, except for one:
