Darkness all over nothing but it's cold and lifeless presence all over. It was drowning me, creeping it's way all over my body. But one thing was for sure, I wasn't dead, I just knew it somehow and it all had to do with that mysterious man. Who was he? And what did he do to me, attack or help but one thing was for sure he was strong and that's what I needed right now.
NEVER ABLE TO DEPEND ON YOURSELF COWARD! ALWAYS NEED TO LEACH OVER SOMEONE LIKE A FOOL! HOW ARE YOU EVEN SO SURE HE MAY HELP YOU?
'He has to.....why wouldn't he?' I reassure myself with a simple sigh. But first I had to get free of this place or wherever I was, but what was there to do? There was literally nothing to help, oh mother if only you were here to guide, help, save or even offer a warm embrace to your frightened broken son.
open your mind
Huh? My mind? But how?
I.....I.....don't know how
THEN LEARN FOOL!!!!
focus son...
They were right, I had to focus and try to get free....try to get.....home...*grunt*...focus Griffo! I tried to remind myself of home, Aelpisia, it's wonderful people, the wonderful streams, the joyous helpful people.....
THE DEAD PEOPLE!..
No!!!!!!! Don't listen to him Griffo. Just try to break free...C'mon...Light....I can see light. I tore through with my sheer willpower and could feel the sense of life and living coming back to me. I opened my eyes and sat upright as I struggled to catch my breath. I looked around to see where I was. It was dark and cold.
I tried to move but my legs were flurrying in pain, but the weird thing was that there was no blood, the wound was completely healed but the pain was as vivid as ever. "What you're feeling is phantom pain." The voice came from a burly figure bent over a crackling fire in the corner of the room. I sat up and tried to get a better look at the guy but the room's darkness acted as a hindrance. The man also was hunched over the fire, not even looking back.
" Who are you?" I asked meekly as I held my vision sturdy on the figure I was yet to determine as friend or foe.
"My name is of no concern to you child, the real question here is what you're doing all the way here, upstream and why did you have lycans after you? " The voice said in a gruff tone as he poked the flames with what seemed like an iron rod.
"I was trying to run away from those things" I said as I remembered the sounds of blood-curdling screams and cries ring in my ear. But the man simply grunted in response.
"I simply came here seeking refuge...," I said in a genuine tone.
"Well sorry but you came to the wrong place," He said as he still poked around the fire, it's bright yellow embers trying its best to light up the room.
"But....you.....you helped me, you fought off the lycans that were after me....you...you healed my leg," I say a hint of remorse in my voice. The man still staring into the fire sighed a sigh of what sounded like disappointment .
" That was a mistake in the first place" He said in a gruff tone. His words were an eerie reminder that I was still alone in all of this. "That's why after you are fully healed up I expect you to leave here and never return ,"He said with a serious tone, no hint of care or hesitance ."But...but..." The man didn't let me finish and simply woke up from where he was sitting and walked out the cottage.
It was still night so I had no idea where or what to do. I sighed and got out of the old bed. My leg was still in pain but it could support my weight. I took this opportunity to get a better look of my surrounding and get a better read of this guy . The room was pretty blunt nothing much except for furniture and furnace in the corner. It appeared the man was just a simple being. Though I got intrigued by a picture which was hanged up a nearby wall. The picture was pretty old and dusty and torn but I could still make out what it entailed.....A family? The picture showed a family of three; a mother, a daughter and the part which was supposed to be the father was torn off. It doesn't take a wizard to conclude that He was the dad, reasons of tearing the picture must have been of his own.
As I was examining the picture, I accidently dropped the picture, I quickly bent down to retrieve it and that's when I noticed a hidden up hatch. It was hard to see with all the darkness, but I could still make out the shape of the hatch's rounded handle. I reached out for it....
NOT A DAY HAS PASSED AND YOU'RE ALREADY SNOOPING AROUND!! CAN'T YOU SIMPLY STAY STILL. YOU USELESS CHILD!
But why not? Why live in the forest alone? Why stay alone? I just need answers. I reassure myself and pull the hatch up only to find what seemed like weapons, armor and an..... emblem. I lifted the emblem up towards the light and caught sight of....of.....the king's seal!
Impossible! An imperial knight? Here? But how? I put the emblem aside and rummage through the other stuff. The armor was dark....not black but simply dark, like holding darkness in my palms. But I could still see it... the emblem imprinted on the dark metal. I ran my fingers over it and could feel its ice-cold banged up surface. I was still feeling the armor when the glint of the sword caught my eye. I grabbed the sword and unlike the rest of the stuff, the sword still had its sharpness and deadly edge. it was also dark but with a hint of crimson to it, bearing the tales of those who were unlucky to have danced with it. I was running my fingers over its edge when the door was slammed open.
"What do you think you're doing?" My mysterious savior said as he stood at his doorway. His deep, authoritative voice caught me off-guard and I almost dropped the sword and that was enough to give him a quick guess of what I was doing.
He clicked his tongue as h came towards me and dropped everything back down into the hatch. He placed everything back frantically before pausing as he held the family picture but he simply sighed as he placed the picture in the hatch as well. He closed it back up before turning to me.
"Didn't your mother teach you not to stick your nose where it doesn't belong," He said in a disappointed and he was right. I wasn't supposed to be snooping around this guy's stuff, but that wasn't the main problem here.
"You're an imperial knight!" I say still having not believed it myself. Once the guy heard my claim, he simply got up and tended back to his fireplace. He purposefully avoided my gaze, it seemed I struck a nerve.
"But that's good news, right? You can probably call other knights and help fight the lycans but maybe you can even fight them alone. You guy's are the strongest warriors in the entirety of Alvacone. You can help...." I stop talking as i notice no response for him.
"That life is behind me, kid," The man said in his low, gruff tone.
"Behind you?! But you can save my village. You can take down the lycans! You can use that shadow thing..." I say in a desperate tone as I try to convince him. "You're a knight. It's part of your life to protect people. To make sure people are safe. A savior to the peo....."
"Look Around You!!! Do I look like a Knight to you?! Do I look like a fucking savior?!! I'm a nobody!" He yelled interrupting me as he stood and faced me. At that point, is when I finally saw his face and all its gritty details. The scars, the bags under his eyes, his alcohol-burnt lips and the void of hopelessness in his eyes.
But I couldn't let him give up on me....my village. I lock eyes with him and ball my fists. "But you saved me, didn't you? You can do the same for my village." I say back to him trying my best to convince him. He simply looked at me and gave a slight deranged chuckle.
"Saving you was clearly a mistake. Here you are, snooping through my things and disarranging my things like an ungrateful idiot. Forget what I said about leaving once you are fully healed, it's clear you can almost walk. You can fuck off." The man said as he sat back down and focused back on the fireplace. I looked at his back in disbelief as I balanced my tears. This stubborn fool, had everything he needed to save my village but he simply wants to be....
"SELFISH!...You're being selfish. Just sitting here and wallowing while there are people literally dying below you!!!" I say as tears rolled down my cheeks. A slow silence fell between us for a while before it was rudely broken by the guy's disgraceful laugh.
"How ironic of you to say that. Cause it sounds to me like you're doing the exact same thing. If you wanted to save those people so bad....then do it yourself. Instead of standing there and putting your problem on other people." His words hit me hard, he was right. I was pushing him to do something, I myself ran away from. I was no better than him. I looked down in embarrassment of the truth in his words.
"Maybe you're right." I say in a low tone as I ball my fist and grind my teeth before heading straight to his hatch and retrieving his armor and sword. As I did this, he said no words or even looked up. I had put on the armor as best as my inexperienced self could and held up the sword ,with both hands due to its weight, as I made my way to his door. I looked back at him one last time, but....nothing. I shut the door behind me as I made my way down hill, occasionally tripping due to the weight of the sword.
I ALWAYS THOUGHT YOU WERE DERANGED BUT THISTAKES THE CAKE!HAHAHAHAHA!MY COWARDLY EXCUSE OF A SON RUNNING INTO BATTLE! ALMOST MAKES ME FEEL PROUD IF IT WERE'NT FOR THE FACT THIS IS SIMPLY AN IDIOTIC SUICIDE ATTEMPT!
I pushed back my father's haunting voice to the back of my mind. I was tired of it, you died, left me and mom with nothing but memories of your drunken nights and violent episodes. I shall not live in fear anymore, fear of not making you proud of me, of not living up to you. NO! I realize it now, I am capable of anything, I should never have ran away or leave mom to die. No, that's something you would have done and I might be your spawn but I'll be damned if I ever be anything like you!
And for the first time in my life, I didn't hear his voice, no snarky remarks or figurative eyes that looked down on me. It was quiet.....
Meanwhile downhill, the former peaceful and blissful little village of Aelipsia was now a burnt down ransacked pile of debris, various bodies of mothers and children were scattered around life snuffed away from them. But there were faint cries of help and pain, belonging to the unfortunate souls that death did not be grateful enough to grant them a quick demise, as others were bleeding out, others crushed under wreckage while others were simply burnt beyond recognition.
The people or better described as monsters responsible for this were mostly by the seashore, hauling the little treasure they could acquire from this raid onto their ships that were packed by the docks ready to leave. But treasures weren't the only thing that was being smuggled as the unfortunate enough to survive the night's raid were tied up and being led into one of the bigger ship's lower deck to be sold off as slaves or whatever unlucky endings fate had to their stories.
The convey of captives were being led into the ship by some of the lycans foot soldiers, who would occasionally whip their backs just for the fun of it as they grinned disgustingly every time they did it. All the other lycans involved in yesterday's raid were also stationed next to some of the ships but one group in particular was more different than the others.
A group of lycans who were greatly more larger and more intimidating than the rest. This were the officials who oversaw this raid. They took a more bipedal stature unlike the other lycans with slight human traits being visible. They were currently looking over the captives being led into the ships.
"This has to be the smallest raid we've ever done. We barely got any loot and look at the state of this captives, we'll barely be lucky to get a pouch of gold from them," One of them said in disgust as he looked down on them.
"Or we could simply dine on them, there's not much flesh on them to go around but I'm pretty sure the boys would appreciate it." Another lycan says as he licks his lips in hunger and gluttonous desire.
But a larger, scarred lycan than the rest in the group stood forward. "Now calm down Jemoth and Jontar, Jemoth may i remind you that a haul is a haul no matter how small. And Jontar, didn't you all already have enough 'fun' with the women." this larger lycan said his figure producing an authoritative air. It was clear he was the general commander over all of them.
"But Gravik, look at what we got. This has to be our shittiest work yet. I can't believe....."Before the lycan called Jemoth could utter another word, he was hoisted up in the air by his nape. Gravik had his single hand wrapped around his neck as he gnashed his teeth and got his jaws dangerously close to Jemoth's mouth. "Now Jemoth correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds to me like you are judging my leadership an my commands." Gravik says in a low death-tainted tone as he increased the grip on his hand.
Jemoth struggled to breath but was able to choke out a slight 'No' as Gravik let go off him and let him drop to the floor before wiping his hand on Jontar's coat with a click of his lips.
Jontar coughed in a desparation of air as he rubbed his neck and stared daggers at Gravik. His hand was reaching to his scimitar to maybe give his so called boss a piece of his mind but was interrupted when everyone turned towards the sound of an armor clinking and a sword being dragged weakly along the ground. Their eyes landed on a small boy in an armor visibly too large for him as he made his way down the docks.
He stopped and looked right into Gravik's eyes. "You devilish spawns of darkness!!!! I am here to avenge everyone you killed!!!! And take revenge for my mother's death!!!!!" The young man said as he held up his sword and got into a poor sword stance with him clearly shaking on his feet.
Every single lycan there burst into an uncontrollable laughter as they couldn't believe the boy's outlandish declaration. Some of them started to approach the poor lad, flashing their fangs at him but Gravik raised his hand and commanded them to back away from him as he then started to walk towards the poor lad himself. He towered over him, looking down on him but Griffo kept his stance not showing any fear.
"That's quite the claim, young boy. Are you sure you can back those words." Gravik says as he looked down at Griffo with his sharp golden eyes. Griffo simply kept the eye contact and grasped his sword tighter. Griffo looked down and took notice of the armor the boy had, more importantly the imperial crest on it. Where a simple village boy would get his hands on such a piece is beyond him but what he did know was it would fetch a bountiful price and actually make this raid worthwhile.
"Where did you get such....armor? Seems like it's too big. Let me take it off your...."but before he could talk anymore, Griffo punched the tip of his sword into Griffo's eye-not a clean thrust, but a clumsy jam, grinding through the soft jelly with a wet squelch sound as blood trickled down the sword once more. Gravik roared in pain as he staggered back in pain.
Griffo's fingers, slick with blood clung desperately to the sword's hilt. 'Maybe he could do it' he said reassuring himself as he stared down at the lycan before him who was grabbing his eye socket in rage. All the others lycans gasped at this sight, all except Jemoth who had a one sided grin. and as everything dropped to a pindrop silence, Griffo started to laugh maniacally as he retrieved his hand from his face showing the empty hole where his eye was formally present, a bloody, dark fleshy wound.
"You have some balls idiot! HAHAHAHA! Quite the pair! And here I was trying to be nice. I guess you're a man who only speaks with his fists. Don't worry I'm quite fluent." Gravik says with a cynical grin as he flashed his fangs, as Griffo notices one of his larger canines was made of pure gold but there wasn't much time to look as Gravik dashed right at Griffo and punched him square in the chest sending him flying backwards, tumbling a few times before coming to a stop. The impact was enough to knock some air out of Griffo's lungs as well as a few senses but came around to notice two unfortunate events. One, he lost his sword while he was flaying in the air and two, Gravik was rushing right at him. As much as Griffo wanted to move he's body wasn't listening and it was mere seconds before Gravik just grabbed his skull, lifted him up and threw him back down where he met a steel padded knee with such force, a concussion would be an understatement. And as Gravik stood over the boy, it was unbelievable to hear the poor lad breathing, better yet trying to crawl back up.
"Still moving?" Gravik snarls. His voice low, quiet and cold. He grabs Griffo by the collar and lifted him off the ground with one arm, the boy's feet dangling, twitching.
Then came a gut punch that folded the boy like paper. A spray of blood erupted from his mouth as his body twitched violently, then went limp, a ragdoll in Griffo's grasp. Gravik launched him up a bit and grabbed his leg before chucking him into a bunch if boxes.
Griffo landed right in front of a group of captives who didn't even dare look at his sorry state. All they could do is pray for all this to end for him, how foolish of him to try and fight. Instead of encouraging the captives to fight back, it was all just a sad scene which showed them to not fight those above you.
Gravik grabbed his leg dragged him away from the captives and placed him right below himself. He clawed his fingers under the armor and pulled it right off the boy, not giving a shit about whether he damaged it or not. He then knelt beside the broken boy and pounded him with closed fists-one, two, three-each blow driving deeper. The sound of bone splintering could be heard. The scene was brutal, even for some of the lycans.
When Gravik was done, breathing like the beast he was, chest heaving, he looked down at the boy, eyes barely open, his face a crimson mask, chest twitching shallowly. His limbs twisted in the wrong angles that were humanly impossible.
Gravik leans closer to the boys face and whispers in a low and cold tone. "An eye for an eye as they say" He said as he grabbed Griffo's face. A hand like iron wrapped around his skull, meaty claws digging into his cheeks and brows. Griffo wheezed, a gurgle of protest escaping cracked lips. Then Gravik drove his finger in. Not slow. Not clean. It was brutal, grinding, wet. Gravik's thumb burrowed deep, shoving past the eyelid, crushing through the socket as blood gushed down the boy's temple in hot, sticky rivers. Pop!
Gravik yanked his hand back and with it came the eye. Red, veined, strings of flesh and nerve still dangling, twitching in the open air. Griffo's mouth wide open in a scream that had no voice, just breath, just horror. Gravik stood tall, holding the eyeball between two fingers before throwing it into the water. He looked down at the broken boy and out of spite, flashed his claws dug them deep into his chest, drugged him down on the floor, splinters ripping into his skin as well as tearing it, he finally just chucked the boy's body away.
Griffo landed on the hard floorboard. Nothing worked other than his single eye, as he looked towards his former village. He could hear the giant lycan walk away as he said in a raised voice ,"It seems you are lucky Jontar, a feast has presented itself after all." Griffo could hear the arrival of other smaller footsteps and simply lost all sense of hope. But as he was staring off into his former village one last time, right at the age of his village he saw a silhouette of a man.....it was his savior, his HERO . A small spark of hope lit up in him. He can save me again....he can set my people free.....he can be my HERO . But he just saw the man stare back at him, he didn't move he didn't do anything....he wasn't going to do anything.... The other lycans were already ripping Griffo apart, feasting on his flesh. Griffo still staring at who he claimed as a HERO and he looked at him before everything faded in darkness. He saw those eyes in him.....the eyes his father had.....eyes that said;
' I am NOT A HERO....'