The Lady in Black

The sun rose over a new day, brightening the sapphire blue sky and awakening the citizens of the sleepy village of Lumbridge. Farmer Fred was already counting his chickens, and the Castle Chef was putting a soup to boil. Dee looked around for his "staff", and the Fishing Tutor cast out his bedraggled nets. And while the town began to slowly move into it's daily routine, Stan Charles slept silently in his comfortable bed. A bell rang in the church. Stan awoke with a shock, looking around his room. It was a fairly large room, with mahogany furniture and opulent fabric. Light dragged itself through the patterned windows and made crazy shapes across Stan's bedspread. Slowly but carefully, he crawled out of his bed and dragged himself over to his wardrobe. He took a glance at his gilded clock. 7:30am. Ripping clothes from his wardrobe, he franticly dressed himself and punched down on a Varrock Tele-Tab - it was half-an-hour after his shift was spposed to start.

He landed in Varrock Square, sprinting past tired bankers and finally arriving at the Grand Exchange.

"Is old Joanus here yet?" asked Stan urgently at the desk.

"No. Don't worry, the old hippocrite's been late the last week anyway." replied Chris.

Joanus Bentley was not the most pleasant of men. He was callous, industrial and down-right rude and he was also a hippocrite. It was a combination of these tendencies and a rather ugly face that made him one of the most un-pleasant men in Misthain. In fact, he had gained a rather un-savoury nickname - The Bulldog. The Bulldog, if you would like to know, was currently stranded on a desert island around Karamaja, and would not be visiting the Grand Exchange. Stan took out his keys and sat down behind the counter.

"Good. I can't risk another pay-decrease. I was ruined enough by that economey crisis."

"Oh, come on. At least we're back in business."

"For how long? You've got to admit, something's allways going to be wrong in this world, there's allways gonna be a problem. We can't avoid it. I swear - I bet that something big's gonna happen today. I can feel it."

"You're too pessimistic - look on the bright of life for once. Look at the sun-shine!"

Stan sighed and shifted some beads on his abbacus. He looked up into the open sky, and saw something that interested him - a black cloud. A single black cloud hovered in a fairly clear sky. It was slowly growing.

"Look!" said Stan. The cloud was now several metres in circumfrence, and was spitting drops of black liquid down on the crowds. "We can't even see the sun!"

The crowd was dissapating. Women were screaming, and the clerks were running into the central coloumn, which led to a series of underground bank vaults. Stan and Chris sat perfectly still, staring into the distance at something slightly more significant - Black Knights.