Jantha stared into the distant forest alert for any signs of life moving through the foilage.  It was tough being an awoken even on this remote island.  Bands of elves, goblins, and dwarves had all smashed through the island leaving chaos in their wake.  The awakened who remained had been lucky to be left alive.  The mauraders had defiled the awakened village and had slain men, women, and childred accusing them all of being the reason for the shattering.  Jantha had been beaten nearly to death but had survived, he had been seven.

From that day on he had vowed to never again be that weak.  To never again give power to elf, dwarf, or goblin.  To never allow an innocent child to face what he had faced.  It was a vow that was fairly easy to keep on a small island.  It was even easier to keep when you had an incredible awakened mage on the island with you.  He was responsible for the incredible quiver that Jantha had strung across his back.  A gift from the mage after he had brought back his first dwarf skull.

The quiver was constructed from animal hide and hung down just lower than Jantha's waist.  A single strap across his torso held the quiver in place.  He had been told the quiver was magic but hadn't believed at first.  It was only when shown that he realized the amazing potential.  It made an awakened archer much more than a mere archer.  Able to pull arrows from the quiver with either fire or eath properties and to pull them from nothing was incredible.  True he had to expend massive amounts of his own magic power to do so, but it was worth the cost.

A rynok raced from the trees scampering quickly through the grass towards him as Jantha scanned the trees.  The small deer like creature couldn't weigh more than thirty pounds but it would make a few meals.  He reached behind him merely thinking the word earth as he did.  His hand clasped over an arrow quickly bringing it forward and slipping it onto his bowstring.  He armed the bow and pulled it back in one smooth motion taking in a breath as he did so.  He paused before exhaling releasing the string inbetween heartbeats.  The arrow raced through the air before striking the rynok just behind its shoulders.  After impacting the arrow crumbled to dust.  With the wind knocked from it the rynok offered no resistance as Jantha moved in for the kill.

It was getting harder to be a provider on such a small island but the alternative meant going over the sea.  With water being an enormous weakness for the awakened the thought was intimidating to say the least.  Jantha chuckled did awakened even know how to build boats? He was fairly certain they could make something work but for how long? He would have to see if the elders had an answer.  If not everyone could be in trouble.

Field dressing the kill took almost no time neither did summoning a small fire to cook a portion of it.  Jantha warmed his hands and his body before eating the delicious roasted meat.  Satisfied with the quietness on the island and with the food in his belly Jantha decided to take the time to expell his own magical power and feed it to the quiver.

All awakened could summon both fire and earth this was essentially the same thing.  Instead of utilizing the fire or earth for his own benifit though hewould feet it to the quiver which would then store the magical energy until summoned in the form of arrows.  The process was tedius and time consuming but it was better to do it when you weren't desperately in need of arrows than to run out when you were.  With that in mind Jantha began summoning flame after flame and dropping it into the open quiver.

The stomping of boots stopped him quickly.  Whovever was out there wasn't familiar with the island and that meant trouble with a capitol t.  With a portion of his magic already drained Jantha withdrew his knife from its scabbard and began walking slowly towards the sound.  As he neared a beach he watched two young lovers spread a blanket over the sand before staring past their small boat out into the ocean.  Two clueless elves, defenseless at that.

The awakened wasted no time sneaking behind the duo and slitting their throats.  The boat he quickly pulled up onto the beach making sure to stay as far away from the water as possible.  Now this was something he was going to have to take to the elders!

The elders would have to wait though as night was drawing near.  Jantha decided to spend the last remaining hours before drifting off to sleep investing in the quiver.  More and more magical energy siphoned from himself went into the quiver.  Drained Jantha threw another log on the fire and drifted off to sleep.

The night passed uneventully for Jantha who woke up refreshed.  Another helping of fresh meat and he was ready to head back to the village and talk to the elders.  First though he wanted to revisit the site where he had killed the elves.  It was a short hike back to where he had left the bodies but to his utter surprise the bodies had vanished.  Not vanished, they had been drug away by some hungry carnivore.  The proximity of the predator to where he had been sleeping put a sense of unease in Jantha's mind.  This also was something he was going to have to bring to the elder's attention.  Satisfied that the boat wasn't going anywhere he turned homeward and began the trek back.

When the elders heard what Jantha had to say they assembled a small gathering of men and asked for volunteers.  Three men stepped forward along with Jantha.  They were tasked with finding and slaying the large carnirerous creature as well as finding out what they could about the sea worthiness of the boat.  The latter part of their quest drawing groans of dismay.  As the men prepared for their quest each man was given a quiver identical to the one Jantha had over his shoulder.  Jantha grinned as he saw some of the men had no idea what they had been given.  Hopefully he would have time to show them.  It looked like some of the quivers were already lacking magic.  One could tell from the lack of glow coming from them.

The journey back was filled with casual light hearted talk between all of the men.  This was nothing more than a simple hunting expedition really.  The opinion changed when Crax began studying the sand around the area where the bodies had been.

"Look at those footprints the're dwarf? It's hard to tell but they don't appear animal.  Why would a dwarf drag elf bodies away? Guess it's time to find out."

The trail led from the beach through a small section of the forest and then towards a hole in the ground.  "Jantha you're youngest and most expendable go check the hole."  The young awakened fought back a wave of fear as he summoned a fire arrow and notched it to his bow.  Using the light it provided he illuminated the inside of he hole to find it less hole and more cave.

"It's a cave.  We're going to all have to come in."

A collective groan rose from the other four awakened yet they all followed Jantha into the cave.  Bats flew from the ceiling as their sleep became distrupted by light.  Their noisy chatter helping to mask the sound of footsteps by the awakened.  The cave expanded and narrowed several times yet continued to descend the entire time.  Time after time the words "I don't like this" came from each of the assembled awakened.  After a time Jantha was forced to reach for another fire arrow to replace the one that fizzled away.

As he summoned the new arrow he stumbled over something large, soft, and lumpy in front of him.  he swore and then turned to examine what it had been.  Color drained from his face and from the faces of those gathered with him.  On the ground was what remained of one of the elves Jantha had killed.  Its grotesque mummy like appearance proof to them all that the magic had been drained from the corpse.  There was one creature that was known to do just that and if they were facing it they were all going to be lucky to walk away.  Remnant...the very word crossing their mind enough to send chills through their bodies.

The awoken reached for weapons arming themselves the best they could although they doubted the effectiveness of any weapon they possessed against a creature like a remnant.  Remnants were thought to be almost immune to physical attacks as fire remnants bodies were composed of flame.  Earth remnants were a little less resistant to physical harm as they had corporeal bodies even if they were made of sand or stone.  Magic wasn't going to much help against the remnant either as awoken were unable to utilize any magic othe than fire or earth.  Neither was effective against remnants.

"Do we leave and come back with more men?"

The question struck all of the awoken as cowardly and yet they all hoped somebody would respond, yes!  Nobody did.  Grudgingly the party continued deeper into the cave.  The strange part mew part growling sound from ahead was the sound all five awakened had been dreading.  The remnant was near and it was feeding.  Remnants fed off of magical energy and this one had already fed off of one of the elves corpses.  It was probably sucking the magic from the second one now.  As they could hear it but now see it the concensus was the remnant was of the earth variety.  Any earth attacks would be useless but fire? It was unknown and better than nothing.  The men notched flame arrows to their bowstrings and walked towards the remnant.

The creature resembled a dwarf in every way except it was composed of sand instead of flesh and bone.  As it came into view the awoken could see it hunched over the remaining elf corpse mouth open draining the last bits of magic from the body.  Arrows were loosed immedietly flying thrugh the air and impacting with the body of the remant.  Surprisingly the arrows penetrated the body causing it to roar in pain before turning to face them.

"Another volley you fools if it gets close to us it'll suck us dry just like the elf."

Four of the five awoken drew fire arrows and let them fly.  The fifth stared at his hand in horror unable to comprehend the quiver had run out of magic power.  "Wydren pull it together draw your blade and add fire to it.  We need you."  The third volley of arrows was fired by three of the awoken as yet another quiver ran dry.  There was no time for a fourth as the earth remnant closed the distance and began to attack.

Jantha ran retreated a short distance away so he could continue to fire arrows at the remnant.  Those unable to fire arrows were faced with the unwelcome task of using steel against it.  Wydren had done as he was told and attacked the remnant with an intensity the others had never seen him use before.  Slash after slash impacted with the remnant before it tired of the pain and ripped the awoken in half.  The others armed with swords continued pressing the attack but knew they would suffer the same fate.

Jantha and one other continued firing as many arrows as they could as quickly as they could as they watched the remnant rip both arms from one of their companions.  His screams of agony ended when his head was torn loose from his body.  With only one other awoken attacking at close range Jantha knew fight was going to come to him very quickly.  He fired yet another arrow at the remnant wondering if there were any weak points in the creature's anatomy.  They had put numerous arrows in the creatures torso causing it pain but not slowing it.  If there was a way to slow it they might stand a chance.

As the thought went through his mind the lone figure fighting with the remnant close up struck out with his blade impacting with the creature's neck.  A roar of pain reverbrated from the cave walls giving Jantha a glimmer of hope.  "His neck target the neck!"  His arrow flew straight and true slamming into the remnants neck, the other archer swore.  The awoken fighting up close had stabbed the remnant with such force that his sword had penetrated through both sides of the creature's throat.  In intense pain the remnant had still managed to grab hold of the awoken crushing him against himself, and then into himself the magical energy releasing itself directly into the remnant.

The the other archer turned tail and ran fleeing the cave and leaving Jantha alone to face the remnant.  Four more arrows shot quickly and accurately and then Jantha was faced with going toe to toe with a pissed off earth remnant.  Instead of standing toe to toe with it Jantha decided to test the creatures agility and speed as he moved back out of the cave firing arrows relentlessly into the remnant's throat.  Was it his imagination or was the beast slowing?  He wasn't sure but wasn't going to stop firing until either he was dead or the remnant was.

Another three arrows later and it was confirmed the remnant was in fact slowing down.  Not enough to stop beinga threat but enough that Jantha could take a moment to aim his shots accurately grouping them in the remnant's throat.  As if to make the point that it was still a threat the remnant lunged forward with renewed speed causing the awoken to lead backwards.  As he landed his leg impacted with a stone causing him to fall flat on his back.  In a flash the remnant was on him.

With no usable weapon in his hands Jantha tried the only option he thought he had available to him.  He summoned a small fire targeting the remnant's eyes as he did so.  The remnant sceamed in pain reaching up to tear at its eyes.  As it did Jantha watched a flaming arrow appear above him and then tracked it until it slammed into the remnant's throat in the middle of all those he had fired previously.  The arrow ended the remnant's life.  Jantha watched in amazement as the sand body lost its shape and became a small puddle of sand on the cave floor.  In the midst of the sand were what remained of the awoken who had been injested and sucked dry by the remnant.

Jantha turned his head to see who it was that had fired the final arrow and was angered to see not an awoken but an elf.  The elf extended a hand to help him up but Jantha refused it getting up on his own.  "How? Why? Who are you? What are you doing here?" So many questions to ask and the elf didn't look as if he was going to answer any of them.  Finally Jantha took a deep beath, "Thank you for saving my life.  The name's Jantha and you are?"

"Somebody interested in purging the world of these vermin.  Yet somebody who isn't too worried about destroying your kind.  I have to admit you awoken fascinate me.  Now then do you have any idea why the remnant chose this cave?"

"To tell you he truth I've never been in here before.  Probably be dead if I had been."

"Yes, I imagine you would.  Are you interested in finding out why the remnant made this its dwelling place?

"They feed on magic and that means there's a source of magic nearby.  I could give a damn about it.  Who's to say the one you killed was the only one in there?

The elf laughed softly before nodding in agreement.  "It's better that you don't feed them then.  We've got to do something with the bodies of the dead and with those quivers that they're carrying.  They don't just suck the magic from beings, but from anything magical.  If you're up to it we'll drag everything out here and set it ablaze.  Afterword we might think about sealing the entrance to the cave as well just as a precaution."

It wasn't really taking orders from an elf if the plan made sense, was it? Jantha couldn't tell and didn't care.  He spent the better part of the day dragging remains out of the cave and chopping wood for the large fire needed to burn them.  With the last bit of daylight behind them Jantha and the elf worked together to close the cave entrance before returning to watch the fire burn.  In the woods beyond the cowardly archer watched.  It was one thing to flee from combat, another to help an elf.