[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
People were coming close again. Would they ever learn that to mess with his domain was certain death? He watched in the darkness as they played around outside the cavern; sudden light forced his pupil to become smaller. His new blindness forced him to take several minutes to allow his eyes to readjust to the dim light. They were close now; he could smell them before he saw them. Three of them, just like before. The smell from these stung his nose; he wanted them to drop dead, like they had last night.

A faint glow caught his eye and he was able to see the faces of the intruders more clearly. There was one male accompanied by two females. The male was rather tall and blond, how he hated blonde-haired males. He wasn't dressed like everyone else he had encountered in this world. Dressed even stranger was the female who stood back a bit from the others, her long black hair offset by her pale skin. Finally, his vision fell on the woman leaning over one of his earlier victims. Her presence was sugary; his stomach churned with detest just looking at her. Instantly he knew that destroying her was the only way for him to survive, she would be his downfall and she must die.

Her voice, soft as it might sound to an average ear, pierced the inner core of his eardrum. His head pulsated as she continued to talk; he couldn't even make out the words she was saying. It was almost as if she knew that her voice would injure him, she had to know that he was near.

Those pathetic people before thought that the cavern ended where they died, but he knew the way past the block wall at the end. Now he made his way through that wall, away from the voice, away from the pain.

*****

Still shocked over what he saw in the cave, Nick sat staring at the meat Albert prepared earlier. His stomach churned and he vomited a few times already from the smell. Rose and Cassie took another bite of their pieces and watched Nick turn green again.

"Nick, those certainly will not be the last dead bodies you see." Rose chewed her meat thoroughly before she spoke again. "You should try to eat something." Moving to the open spot next to Nick, she held her plate out to him. The smell wafted into his nostrils, it was all he could do to move away from the group before his stomach turned against him and projected the nothingness inside.

He groaned and turned back to the group hearing Albert's laughter drift through the air. "So far you have done that at least ten times this trip alone. The people in your world must be feeble. You can't hold down water, and the sight of a dead body makes your stomach jittery." His booming laughter echoed in Nick's ears.

"I am going to lie down," He told the others. The little girl was already napping farther away from the group. Nick made his way to where she was and lay down not far away.

After Nick left, Rose turned her attention to Cassie. "You called the thing that thing that killed those people Wulf. Are you allowed to tell us what this Wulf thing is?" Cassie could take them to where the people lie dead, but she refused to tell them any more then his name.

"I know you doubt my powers Rose, but believe me the only thing I know about this beast is the name." Every time she had tried to focus on the monster called Wulf, her thoughts were blurred and a headache ensued. She shook her head to herself and wondered about the power behind the beast, something that had to be strong enough to keep her senses away.

Cassie sat staring into the fire as Rose and Albert clambered on about something from their own world. This blocked vision was not something she saw in her past vision. She thought back on when she was ten years old. The priests in her clan took her aside and talked with her, had her focus her thoughts. A bitter potion administered to her by the priests they said helped clear her vision making her own natural powers amplify. The only thing Cassie remembered from the potion was the sick feeling that followed swallowing.

Her brother told her once that the priests told you what they wanted you to see during your vision quest. Her parents overheard him say that and started one of their memorable fights with him. After he left her parents would talk to her and see if she believed her brother or not. She always reassured them that she believed in the priests and her visions, but what her brother said stuck with her now.

"Cassie?"

The voice brought Cassie back to the here and now. "Yes Albert," she reassured him she was alright by answering.

"Rose and I were discussing our next step. I just asked you what you thought we should do."

Cassie thought for a moment and then said what common sense in her mind was. "Can't we just ask the girl to take us back to her hometown? That way we have a place to leave her and they might have more information about this Wulf thing I named."

Rose nodded her head, and then wandered off on her own. Where she was going, or what she was doing, she told neither one of them.

Albert sat staring at the fire, looking back and forth between Cassie and the fire. Thoughts of Emille flooded into his head suddenly. He wondered if she was waiting for him still or if some other king had taken his bride. He sighed rather loudly and looked up noticing Cassie was looking at him this time.

"Albert, she must be very lucky." Cassie stated simply.

Excited over the prospect of Cassie telling him about his Emille he almost jumped off his rock. "What do you mean?" He managed to ask calmly.

"It's obvious that you have a love back in your own world. That you are thinking of her now proves how devoted to her you are. She is very lucky."

Albert nodded is head respectively, this was nothing new to him. Emille told him that she was lucky, but he thought himself even more lucky to have found her. For lack of anything better to do, Albert turned his attention to Cassie, hoping to force his mind off Emille.

"Is anyone waiting for you back home?" he asked her.

Cassie shook her head. "I have known I would be here almost all my life. There would be no point to starting something I would have had to leave." She turned from Albert and looked towards where Nick and the girl were lying. "We should wake those two and prepare them for the journey." She turned her attention away from Albert, making it clear that it was a sore subject and she no longer wished to talk about.

*****

Corin slammed the door to a small hut shut. An old woman turned from her place at the fire and stared, startled at him. When she recognized the robes he wore, she fell to the ground in a frightened obedience. He moved in closer to her, allowing her to grovel forward and kiss his feet.

"What do I owe you company?" She questioned, face flattened on the ground in front of her.

"You have something in your possession. You came across a stone not long ago. The color was a brown gold. Do you remember?" He questioned her, making himself comfortable walking around the woman's house.

"I think I know what you talk about." The woman scuttled along on the floor, showing her absolute compliance. She reached the trunk in the corner of the room and without taking her head from the floorboards, she opened it and pulled out a small gem from inside. Quickly she scampered back to where Corin now sat in one of chairs. Stretching out her arm, she opened her hand exposing the stone.

With a smug look, Corin bent his head to look in the woman's hands. "You fool!" He raged. "This is not the stone I'm looking for." He smacked her hand away launching the gem across the room. Temper flaring already, he reached down and grabbed the old woman by her hair, forcing her to stand again.

"I know you had a larger brown gold gem. Now where is it you fool?" His anger causing him to spit in her face while he spoke.

The woman looked at the angry face of the head of the priesthood and scared simply said. "Not here no more."

"Then where is it?" Still holding her hair, he lifted her again, her feet barely touching the ground now. When she did not respond fast enough he took his ringed fingers and backhanded her across her face.

Trickles of blood ran into her mouth as she mustered her answer. "Travelers. They help when beast came. I give to him."

Even angrier at the peasant he dropped her on the floor and used his foot to kick her away when she groveled at his feet for forgiveness. He turned to leave the hut, but his anger got the best of him. Slowly he turned back to her. "I think Wulf demands a sacrifice tonight."

His eyes glinted as he caught sight of a cooking pan sitting on the table newly cleaned. He shot his hand out and grabbed the handle, advancing towards the woman.

Her head still bent in her frightened benevolence, she barely registered the pan crashing into her skull, cracking her old bones and killing her on impact. Corin simply tossed the pan next to the body of the old woman slumped over in death. A small, but evil chuckle escaped his lips. Opening the door to the woman's house, he turned his head to the skies. "Wulf, for you oh Master!"

He took one of his bloodstained rings, tossed it on the doorstep of her hut, and strode back to his caravan. His oracle was holding back some of the details and must be punished.

He strode to his litter, pulled the dark curtains down to give him complete darkness and sat in mediation on his actions and those actions he would soon be forced to take against his oracle. His litter bearers jerked suddenly almost dumping him out. He snarled angrily and yelled out to them. "Watch what you are doing you imbeciles. I do not think you should wish for me to bring down the wrath of Wulf."

He could hear the quaking in the leader's voice as he told Corin what the trouble was. "I am sorry you supreme grace. There was ditch in road. We swerve to avoid, not mean to almost dump you."

"I should slap you for you stupidity," he managed to yell back.

A few more minutes of travel and they arrived at the illustrious campsite that his peons erected while he was visiting the old woman. He spotted his main quarters, next to the shrine of Wulf. Blood red material draped over the eaves of the tents making it difficult for anyone to see anything going on in the tents. Corin nodded in satisfaction. He would be able to maintain his worship and his questions to the oracle in a suitable manor. Reaching into the red and black purse that hung at his belt, he fondled a few gold coins before tossing them on the ground. Those that assembled this place groveled at his feet for his generosity.

Carefully tossing his robes behind him, Corin advanced to the tent of worship so that he might invoke Wulf to help him in his next course of action: punishing the oracle.

*****

Still groggy from being forced awake, Nick drug his feet along, following the others towards the girl's hometown. He looked at the others walking along, Albert carrying the young girl on his back, holding her with one arm and his spear with the other. He was starting to lag, falling back to where Nick was walking.

"You want me to carry her Albert?" He asked holding his hands out to take the girl from him.

"It would be a great relief for awhile if you did." The two men stopped and exchanged Nick's sword for the girl. Albert relieved to have the lighter weight of Cassie's sword on his back versus the girl. "You know when we get to her town; you really should find a new sword. You can't use a girlie sword the whole time." His booming laugh caught the women's attention and they stopped, waiting for the guys to catch up with them.

Nick rolled his eyes behind Albert's back and started to trudge along behind. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours until the sky was dark once again and the girl on Nick's back trembled from the cold. He squinted and saw that the others had stopped. Rose and Albert were gathering wood fallen from nearby trees. With her keen eyesight, Cassie was off hunting for something they could eat that night.

Nick arriving as Albert and Rose returned with the wood, they piled some pieces up and looked expectantly towards Nick. He stood staring back at them. "What now?" he questioned.

"What better way to hone your Dragoon magic then starting a contained fire." Rose stated.

Nick raised his eyebrows at Rose, shrugging his shoulders in resignation and allowed himself to become a Dragoon. Though scared, the young girl was too tired and hungry to make any fuss about the form that Nick took.

Nick concentrated hard trying to remember the words used to call upon the magic he possessed. Deciding on one, he put all his thought to that word and forcing that power to the one spot. He broke out in a sweat, heat surrounding him. "Flameshot" he growled from deep inside, trying to contain an urge to scream in pain.

A single shot of fire came from his direction and sparked the wood, eventually starting a raging fire concentrated in the one area of the fire pit.

Tired from the concentration it took him to aim his magic, Nick hardly noticed being released from the Spirit and slumping over on the ground.

"When you practice more, it will not be as hard." Cassie's voice from the darkness comforted him. Carefully she strode next to Albert and handed him her catch, a pair of rabbits.

Albert looked at the rabbits then to Nick. "Think you will be able to handle these tonight?" The fire illuminated a smile on Albert's face. "Rabbit is an easier meat to handle, I assure you of that." Chuckling, the king set himself to roast the meat, laughing inside at his new role in life: campfire chef.

Rose silently crouched next to Nick, holding Cassie's sword. "I never told you that it was a brave thing you did saving that girl." She reached down and grabbed a couple of pebbles at her feet, tossing them a slight distance, uneasy with dropping her shield as she just did.

Looking at Nick's smug face she quickly hardened herself again. "I just want to let you know that you still have much training to do before you are truly ready to be considered a Dragoon." Dropping Cassie's sword next to him and stood, making her way to the other end of the camp. "We practice again tomorrow." Were the last words she spoke to anyone that night.

Nick smiled to himself for the rest of the night. He ate his food in silence, listening to Albert and Cassie banter about something or other. He fell asleep quickly, eager for another day of training opposite Rose.