The clouds slowly drifted downwards from the Gardlan mountains as the cold mountainous wind blew across the peaks and hills giving one a lungful of fresh air. The sun slowly rose on the horizon illuminating the sky with its yellow rays of light. Plants and animals slowly woke to life, flowers smiling and turning towards the sun while birds chirped and chased and played with each other in the sky.

Many of the villages already sprung to life an hour early. The villagers starting their day while the weather was still cool, trying to get a head start over their neighbors. Cows and sheep were happily eating grass on the hilly pastures while the farmers were slowly working in the fields pulling out any weeds they could find.

"Be careful out there." Said the fisherman's wife kissing him on the cheek and handing him a basket filled with food. Prius looked at his lovely wife and her round belly. Seeing her and the child they were about to have he couldn't help but embrace his wife giving her a deep kiss. She slapped his shoulders lovingly sending him on his way to meet his two friends who were already waiting for him in the distance whistling provokingly at their loving embrace.

"Man I'm really jealous of you Prius!" Said one of his friends. "Yeah, such beauty your wife is!" Said the other.

"Hah! If both of you stopped drinking that piss of wine at the tavern, then you will find a wife as well." Prius laughed at his friends as they traveled down the path to the lake.

"Maybe...but what would Nischas big titties say?! They would miss me all day!" His friend laughed loudly.

"You might catch some warts on your dick if keep visiting that wench." Prius said jokingly.

"The only thing I'll catch is a bigger fucking fish than you both!" Said his friend. "You wish!" Prius and the other one replied at the same time, sparking their long rivalry back to life. They greeted the farmers and others that they knew as they kept slowly walking towards the lake making their way towards their favorite spot.

Soon in less than an hour, passing through the woods they made it towards the lake joking along the way.

"Ah quit yapping! You'll be a good dad Prius! Besides your wife isn't somebody who would marry some ol' prick isn't she?" Prius looked at his friend slightly annoyed that he has brought out his embarrassing past and continued "I just hope my child grows up to be as great as the lord's son one day." He said, still seeing Lucius' young heroic figure before his eyes as he sat there with his family.

"The lord eldest? It's true that he woke up from the Passing slumber isn't it?"

"It is! I saw him with my own eyes! He's alive and well! A living miracle! Truly the of the Annatallia!" Prius praised.

"Oi Prius! Look! I think your little prick is rising!" One of them said laughing, mocking Prius's admiration for Lucius and his family.

"Shut up!" He shoved his friend slightly who seemed to trip over something nearly falling into the water.

"Hmm? What is that?" One of them said and all three of them leaned closer to look at what was on the ground.

There next to the lake lay a translucent greyish piece of skin nearly tall as a human child and as long as two entire adult men. The skin had scales as long as a human finger while its claws were at least twice as big. Its tail was thick and strong being nearly twice as long as its entire body. Sticky liquid almost like mucus seeped from the skin as whatever left it here seemed to drag itself towards the lake leaving deep gash marks and crushed rock lying all around.

All three of them stood there silently nailed to the spot unable to move or breathe as they stared at the thing before them.

"That's!" One of them broke the silent spell as they all looked at each other fear evident in their eyes.

"We have to report this immediately!" They were about to get out of there even abandoning their fishing equipment but the sudden splashing sound behind them rooted them to the spot as they slowly turned around and saw a large scaly head with a pair of dark black eyes looking at them. Unknowingly a scream of terror escaped their lips but before they could even attempt to run the thing in the water already emerged and dashed towards them.

While this was happening in the outer parts of the keep Lucius sat on one of the benches, his sister standing behind him holding a pair of scissors, pulling on his hair while he kept shrieking in pain. Servants and villagers came and went doing their jobs, smiling at the brother and sister as they kept arguing.

"Agh! Why do I have to do this?"

"Because you look awful? And that little pubic hair under your nose and chin is gonna go as well."

"Don't call it that! It's...a mustache." He argued back.

"Yeah right! A Mustache! What you have is a rats tails hair and needs to be shaved!" Ilya didn't bother to be nice with a blade as she skinned his grimacing face.

"Ugh! Ok! I can understand the mustache! But why the hair!"

"Because you look like a bloody girl! And since you don't know how to take care of yourself properly. It has fallen onto me to do it for you." Ilya said as she cut off a larger piece of hair than she wanted quickly throwing it away before he notices it.

"I don't know how to take care of myself?!" He turned around, feeling insulted.

"Of course, you don't! She replied with confidence and started listing off the thing he does or does not do.

You don't take care of your hair! You always wear the same things! You hate to bathe regularly! You eat too much meat and little else! Also, you should brush your teeth more often! And..."

"OK! Fine! Mister Investigator!" Lucius quickly gave up feeling the insulting jabs of truth to be too hard to listen to anymore.

"Since when the hell did you have time to notice?! Have you been spying on me or what?

She looked at him as if he was an idiot and said in a stretched-out manner.

"I'm a girl Lucius...we notice these things."

Ilya's answer left him contemplating what his future actions and manners would have to look like when he would approach a girl. Just imagining all the things he would have to do made him want to go hide and train among the soldiers.

Time quickly passed and she finished cutting most of his hair. She was about to finish off the rest on the top when suddenly a rider came into the keep. Forcing his horse to wildly make his way towards them

Stopping just a few meters away from them he hastily jumped down and with panic filled voice spoke.

"Young lord! Lady Ilya! Bad news I bring you!"

"What is it?"

"A group of 3 went fishing this morning. They went to the eastern lake and were supposed to be away for at least half a day. That is until one of them suddenly came back all bloodied and beaten screaming madness of a monster. He said it dragged both his friends into the water while he barely escaped with his life."

"What?!" Lucius stood up nearly knocking his sister over, demanding to know more. "Is this some kind of sick joke, the villagers are pulling or what?"

"No! The man had deep claw marks on his back and legs."

"Did he not mistake it for a bear or a mountain lion?"

Lucius tried to think rationally. A panicking villager that has never set foot outside the borders of his village could easily mistake reasonable things for unreasonable ones even when it was right before their eyes.

"No. The wounds on his body were not from these animals. The head hunters have confirmed this."

As he listened Lucius' calm thinking started to dissipate but he did not want to show it on his face. At least not in front of his people that have now gathered, listening to what was happening.

"Then how did it look like?! Did you ask him?! "

"We did! With the help from the head hunters, we have concluded that it must be a Lurker!" The crowd gasped in shock at the man's words.

"A lurker!? This high up in the mountains?" They couldn't believe what the man said. Although none of them have ever seen one with their own eyes, all of them knew about lurkers. They were famous but horrible creatures that loved the water and warm weather. So hearing that such a monstrous lizard came here made all the people shocked.

"What are you doing?!" Ilya screamed seeing her brother walk to the armory.

"What do you think I'm doing."

"Are you nuts?! Shouldn't we wait for father to come back?!"

"We don't have time for that. I'm going after it."

"We have all the time in the world! We can just send men to guard the lake and wait for dad and Raenus to come back! Stop acting like your some goddam hero in a story Lucius! That's so unlike you!" She yelled as she tried to pull of the armor he was putting on. But her strength proved to be too little. Frustrated and panicking about the unlike brashness of her elder brother she ran outside trying to find her mother to stop him.

He understood her intentions and hastened his actions, putting armor on his most vital places. He took his spear, the thing he was most familiar with along with some bow and arrows before he headed to the stables.

Luckily one horse always had to be ready in case of an emergency so he took that one. A young brown one with white stains. And exited the gates just in time to hear his mother and sister madly screaming at him to come back.

But he did not listen, urging his steed to speed up disappearing in the distance.