AGE OF CHAOS

Word from the author

This story has been narrated to me by the one who actually endeavored
in the adventures and experienced the mythical and ancient….you know
what I’ll be straight forward with you. It makes everyone’s life simpler.

What’s in this book is a story not connected to our planet. It has taken
place somewhere else so do not worry yourself with the events that take
place. No matter what you are safe…..or are you?

This book will take you through the story of a boy. Is his story
interesting enough to be converted into a story? Well, that’s your job to
find out. Read the book and judge.

This series will be a trilogy. I hope at the end of this book you do not
curse me for this statement.

The title on this page said Word from the author but I went into a few
sentences. Ok. Over look that mistake.

I will conclude this now.

Uh..Well..Yeah… “I will not claim everything written in this book is

true. I won’t admit it is not true either. I just think that if I say that this
is a fiction book and not a documentary, you may sleep better.”

So dear sleeper, I mean reader I hope that you enjoy reading this book.
MAP OF QUESTA
Acknowledgements
 Index
CHAPTER 1: KIDNAPPED

CHAPTER2: RUN AWAY!!

CHAPTER3: Mr. DEATH

CHAPTER4: ARMOUR VILLA BURNS

CHAPTER5: ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN OVER COFFEE

CHAPTER6: I FIGHT ONE HUNDRED SOLDIERS

CHAPTER7: THROUGH GREN WOODS

CHAPTER8: WATER DRAGON

CHAPTER9: TYBOLT VAN CRYST

CHAPTER10: RETURN TO BRUTUS’S INN

CHAPTER11: ARMOUR FAMILY, HISTORY CLASS

CHAPTER12: EVERYONE HATES ME

CHAPTER13: ON TO TRADESVILLE

CHAPTER14: ROGUE PRINCES

 Chapter 1:
Kidnapped

“The world is never as we see it; it is more of a matter of how we

perceive it.”

These words meant nothing but the truth to the Armours...as in, a family
called Armours. The Armours perceived it as a place where you can
bend the laws with something round, made of metal and golden in color.
Freakishly rich though they were, they were very careful on how they
spent their wealth. Like not paying taxes, hiding behind the furniture
when little girls came to collect charity, so that no one seemed to be
home. They were a highly regarded family, loved and respected...by the
underworld and the necromancers...

Truth be told every civilian hated them. They were hated until the day
when they helped a brave knight ascend the throne of Zurind. After this,
everyone despised them and went after them with pitchforks and
torches. The Armours used their money wisely and the rioters accepted
their apology.

The currently ruling knight had murdered the Rubid king (Rubids are
talking rabbits with magical healing powers.). And drove all the cute
Rubids out of their settlement, luckily everyone else in Questa, was not
as allergic to cuteness. The Rubids now live in most parts of the
country. The knight, whose name was Typhoon, used to be a faithful
human knight until he went on a quest to an island in the northeast.
After which he turns bad; really, bad.

Of course, all this is supposed to happen a few years before the part
from where our story starts..................

On the night of New Year’s Eve, around half an hour before New Year,
the sorceress Zeldina gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. You know, the
great thing about being born to a sorceress is that it happens only once
in a millennia. And usually you get a hero’s destiny. An amazing and
mystical symbol on some part of your body (birthmark). Oh! Yeah!
Almost forgot...........you also get super awesome fighting skills and the
ability to do magic. And you can only die when you wish to die or get
defeated and murdered in a fight. The bad part about being born to a
sorceress? It is that she dies within 15 months after giving birth.

Ok here’s everything I know about the story at this point…..

Zeldina named her son as Saphire. Odd name, I know but don't ask me,
she named him. The reason maybe the birth mark on the baby’s torso,
shaped like the legendary blue dragon called Saphiren. The mark
emitted a sapphire glow too. Cool, right?

After about ten months, Zeldina realized that her time had come.

Sorceresses can tell when they will die. Just when, not where, how or
anything. She left Saphire with Brutus the Lincolnshire’s beloved and
respected weapon smith. That would be me, apparently. According to
what I know no one ever saw Zeldina again.

A month passed. It was the night that Saphire was born. Artimis, the
renowned and wise mage had blessed Saphire for a long and happy life.
Many of the people of Lincolnshire had given their best wishes for
Saphire. He was one lucky baby. Loved and blessed by everyone who
had met him and even everyone who had not.

That night, everyone in Lincolnshire was partying, celebrating both

New Year’s Eve and Saphire’s birthday. There was hardly anyone who
was sitting in their houses. Who were in the houses were either disabled
or were too small to walk or talk. Food and booze of every kind any of
us could even remember the names of were free for everyone. Hugs
were being exchanged with total strangers. Cigars shared between new
found brothers. Everyone had gone off their rocker. But amidst all this
joy, dancing, singing and fun, there had been one man who was not
being a part of the festivities. Amidst of this happiness, who would have
guessed the tragedy which was about to strike?

If Artimis and I hadn’t setup the magical campfire, which took the
shape of dancers who were dancing to a Disco Dragons song, amplified
by Artimis’s magic, we would have noticed the lonely hooded figure
entering my inn, currently empty except for the baby with the sapphire
birth mark.

Or at least we would have heard Saphire's crying and the even more
sudden quite that filled his room. But that sound was nullified by
Artimis’s magical music.

And if I had not been suffering from a hangover from last night I would
have noticed next morning that Saphire had not started to cry
yet.............

***

“Hey have u seen Saphire yet?”

“Is Saphire ill? Why hasn’t Brutus brought him out for the morning
walk yet?”

“Have you even noticed that Saphire hasn’t cried at all since last
night?”

“Hey everyone!! Happy new year!!!”

“So...where is this boy Saphire I have heard so much about?”

These kinds of questions and statements filled the cafeteria of my inn.
And I was lying in bed unaware of what was happening.

Not until someone actually asked the bartender at the inn where I was,
did they find out that I was still in bed. And only later did they find out
that Saphire had been kidnapped.

Panic.

The top warriors of lore dispatched to every corner of Questa. Artimis

unleashed all his forces to look for the baby. Tybolt, a legendary
paladin, top guardian of the guardian tower, and his legion of paladins
dispatched in a hunt after a person carrying a baby and wearing a black
hood...sounds easy? It wasn’t...because every mage, almost every
woman and a lot of people wear black hoods.

The search went on for long days and sleepless nights. A baby born to a
sorceress and that too to Zeldina was a very important baby. It would
have powers and a destiny that may even decide the fate of Questa.
Saving this baby from a kidnapper was not only necessary. It was
nothing less than the duty of every single man in Questa.

Warriors and mages flooded into towns hoping that they would be the
ones who captured the person who had kidnapped Saphire. And it
wasn’t all about the prize gold, though it could easily have been. All the
searchers involved in this great manhunt had a kind of love for this
baby. Even if they had never even seen him once.

But all efforts aside, no results ever came up.

Reports of failure came from east, west, south and north. Forests had
been searched clean and a few new species were discovered during the
search. Rivers had been rowed down and some of the warriors turned
into pretty good swimmers. So many people were interrogated that it
was hard to keep track of who had already been questioned. All in vain
though, no clues that lead up to Saphire.

Finally, there was only one choice left.....no surprises huh? Cause
Tybolt and his legion of paladins stopped for a hot chocolate every half
an hour after a couple of days of sleepless nights and unending
searches; and Artimis spotted a magic shop and well, went shopping.
He is one of the most patient people across the land and if he got
distracted, it was obvious that the kidnapper had a plan figured out and
was no petty crook.; Ok. Back to the story, the final choice. Cyrus

Before bringing in what Cyrus did to help, let me tell you why Cyrus
was a final choice. Cyrus; more commonly known as the mad weapon
smith; made weapons. Sometimes as good as Brutus, sometimes better.
Go figure. He was also a hero in the eyes of the children of lore. To the
children’s parents, he was a person whom they pointed at and told the
children not to be like. He was eccentric, happy go lucky and clumsy.
But he was brave and always stood by people who needed help. All in
all a good guy.

When Cyrus arrived in Lincolnshire, he knocked over the pedestal and

beheaded king Zaerius the first. I mean his statue. He set up his
machine. And let his fingers race across buttons. Within a few minutes
he said he had the location and said that the person who had kidnapped
Saphire was en route towards the Armour’s house in Dwellerei. You can
guess that after that there was a whole army marching towards Armour
villa.

It was night time when the army reached the sprawling villa constructed
using black marble. The fence was barbed and the lawn behind it
seemed like a timeless stretch of green. There were trees, no leaves
though. All the snow that should have surrounded the mansion hadn’t.
Instead it fell neatly outside the fence. That’s right, magical weather
control.
The hooded man had already crossed the stone paved pathway and was
nearly at the door.

He knocked.

Tybolt rushed forward.

Cyrus drew his guns.

Artimis whipped out his staff....

The door creaked open....

Tybolt jumped the fence.......

A hand reached out...........

Tybolt drew his holy axe...........

The hooded man handed Saphire to the hand............

Tybolt lunged for the door.

Bang!!! The door slammed shut. Tybolt and everyone else who had
crossed the fence found themselves forced into the air and whacked out
of the boundary line of snow. The hooded man, well, not hooded
anymore, was not lucky enough to survive the wall of force. He fell
right next to Tybolt.

Now if you are thinking that the man was captured and interrogated by
the warriors, think again. He stood to his feet a couple of seconds after
being blasted out. But before he could run, he was surrounded. Tybolt
was the first to attack. His axe was nothing more than a gold and silver
colored swish in the air. The man though was not a fool, he was quick
enough to draw his knife, duck the attack, grab the axe and pin Tybolt
to the ground with a knife at his throat. Quick and strong.
“Back off!! Or the paladin gets it”

“Easy now, just_

“Shut up mage!! Put down your staff!! Or I’ll set half of your weakling
army on fire”

“Pfft, I doubt it. Controlling the element fire is not child’s play you
know”

“Don’t say I dint warn you”.......he freed the hand he was using to pin
Tybolt replacing it with his leg. He raised his arm, palm facing the
army...And shouted “burn!!!!!”

Suddenly half of the legions of warriors present in the chase were on

fire. Pure blue flames licked their Armours and skin, until_

“Aqvos!!” Artimis shouted pointing at the space over the burning

warriors “ok ok...we’ll cooperate.” He nodded to the warriors, who
weren’t burning anymore. Instead they seemed to be drenched in ice
cold water, which they didn’t look so pleased about either. Hey it was
snowing you can’t blame them for wanting to be dry.

“Good” the kidnapper said in a gruff and hoarse voice.

He chanted for a bit and then it was bye bye hooded dude. Cause the
guy disappeared in a cloud of blue and black. Tybolt stood up, rubbing
the back of his neck.

“Well, at least we know they cannot kill him. You can’t kill a sorceress’s
son unless he dies in a fight.” Said Artimis.

“I am more afraid of what they’ll do to his mind, and more afraid of the
person who now has Saphire in his hands.” Tybolt shot back

“I will get together with Cyrus and try to figure out a way past the
protective force field. I don’t know how the Armours got such magical
abilities they were only surviving with the help of their polished pieces
of gold. And as much as I hope I am wrong I fear that the real owner of
Armour villa has come home.” Artimis said to no one in particular but
managed to scare everyone within earshot.

A short description of why some of the most powerful warriors in all of

lore fear Mr. Armour. Well his real name is Typhoon Armour. He was a
powerful and brave knight who served the king of goldenrod for many
faithful years. Until one day when he was sent to an island in the east of
the state of Partovia, currently known as Morpheous Island.

He had said this before departing on the quest, “I hate the Armour
family. It is evil. I have nothing to do with it.” When he returned he
never was the same again. He was a powerful, power-hungry chaotic
knight who murdered more often than he needed to use the bathroom. I
am not joking.

But wait, it gets worse…Typhoon had been serving under another

sometime before he went back to Armour Villa man. Well he was an
insult to men all over. Anyway, this man used to be a wizard. One day,
he attempted to link our world with the world of the devil. He
apparently wanted proof of the existence of hell. His son Artimis
stopped him. An intense battle it was. Imagine two wizards with eons of
training. When they fight, death obviously follows. This man, well, we
said that he was to be addressed as Demoen Frizae . Sorry, but I do not
know a lot about this man.

He rejoined his family. Attached the name Armour to his name again.
His father dies a sudden death, leaving all the gold and powers to his
son. Typhoon inherited the family sword, forged by a legendary mage,
with the help of dwarves and dragon fire. His family helped him
conquer the throne of Zurind, one of the most magical places in Questa.
Of course this only furthered Typhoon’s powers.
Within a month Typhoon’s evil reign ended with his disappearance.
Reasons unknown. We know that he found out about Saphire, so he
chased Zeldina. No one has seen him since.

Back to the story.....neither Artimis nor Cyrus managed to get into the
mansion. They had to settle to set up a group of warriors who would
camp outside the mansion until Saphire returned to Brutus’s inn safely.

A few years pass. I am Brutus, I run an inn and forge stuff. Some of the
information I shared with you I got it from a pub. So it may be a little
bit ‘off’ from the truth but the basic story is still the same.

Anyways, I only needed to narrate till here. Cya.

Chapter 2:
Run away!!!!!
Small beams of light tried to poke through the thick curtains which
covered each of the four elaborately decorated windows of my room
every morning. If you were here at this point you would have seen the
small demarcations made by this light on some of the objects in my
room, my table and its legs with their intricate carvings of war. The
water jug made of green crystals. The huge stack of gold rotting at a
corner. A merry and crackling fire. A cat which looked like it would
sleep on the Frostmas mat for eternity. A huge wardrobe lying open to
reveal the most expensive possible clothes. A bed which had its pillows
placed and covered in a blanket fully so it looked like I was sleeping in
it. Perfect.

I straightened out in front of the mirror. I felt as uncomfortable as I

always do about my skinniness. My eyes were blue in color and the
cheeks under it looked almost like they were stretched across my face.
My nose was straight as ever and my pre-mature mush was
underdevelopment. The shaggy looking bluish black colored mess on
my head was in fact my hair. The hair hung over my forehead and
reached my eyebrows. I grinned at my eyebrows. I grinned at myself.

I grabbed whatever clothes I could, shoved them into my bag and pulled
open the curtains. I had a room with a view. The Snowleopard
Mountains reaching for the sky, their peaks lost in the clouds. The spine
river ripping across the plains and flowing into two tributaries, one
disappearing behind the guardian hills and another flowing right next to
our village. Since I lived in the largest house in or around Armour
village, I could see right over the hay covered houses.

And right outside our fence, for some reason, there was always a bunch
of soldiers who camped there. Also, often there was a young man
wearing blue robes, he had snow-colored hair and his golden chain
hung across his neck and ended near his stomach. He seemed to have a
slim build and I could have sworn he was over a thousand years old.
The cat that lay on my mat was actually his. I had seen him standing
outside and staring at my window. Yesterday the cat had sunk in
through my window and delivered a letter addressed to me……
To Saphire,

I know you hate your life at the moment. I also know that you want to
run away from that house. I can help. I have answers. All you need
to do is walk to your front gate. Raise your hand. Focus on your need
to escape. Move your palm in a circle and command the protective
shield around the mansion to break. It may take you a few tries but
believe me when I tell you it will work.

P.s. I can read the look on your face whenever you see me through
your window. Don’t worry I don’t get bored as quick as you think.

Artimis.

Another attempt. What difference would it make? Might as well try this
too. I wish I had known how much difference this would make.

I pushed open the window. The cat stood up yawned and leaped out
the window. I followed. One step on the window. Another on the wall.
Jump. Last step on the pipes. Jump. Flip and land. At least that was the
plan. I leaped and managed the first part, of hopping and placing one
foot on the wall. I couldn’t do the next. My dramatic landing was
nothing more than thud!!! Argh!! My leg!!

I stood up cursing and limped over to the fence, praying my heroics

hadn’t woken up anyone in the house.

This was it. The moment of truth. I stood facing the barbed black fence.
I raised my arm. Focused on how badly I wanted to get out of Armour
villa. Leave all the rules, silence and boredom behind. Get out find
answers to forbidden questions..............

If only I hadn’t focused so much, I would have noticed Artimis sink to

the ground unconscious. I would have noticed the cat fall too. I also
would have noticed how the air suddenly seemed to weigh more.
“Break” I screamed. Big mistake. It all happened in a flash. I felt a
power surge across my body towards the point I had pointed at with my
arm. The air cracked, literally, it got marks like a broken glass. That’s
when I was blasted from behind.

Was I dead? I asked myself....no such luck, you’re alive but your whole
body wants you dead, I heard my mind tell me. My back felt like it was
being whipped with burning hot rods. It hurt most there. I managed to
force my eyes to open. I was in my room. The same cozy room that I
hated. It was still the same as it was this morning. Well, almost the
same. The sun’s rays were bright, it was noon. The cat was gone. And I
myself lay in the bed. Not my pillow decoy.

A man was standing, starting out of the window. Hands on his hips. He
was wearing a purple and black Armour. Three spikes reached out of the
shoulder blades on both sides. The Armour seemed to take the shape of
his awesomely ripped and buff body. Black and purple veins reveled
themselves on various parts of his body. He wore a breastplate made of
a black metal I couldn’t identify. His legs and forearms were fully
covered in the same metal. He left his biceps and triceps covered in the
purple and black cloth. He seemed to have left his back bare. A cape
hung from his shoulder blades. The cape was the only part of his
Armour that looked like it was weak. Like it was weak for a purpose.

The last and worst part of his getup was his sword. It would have
looked like a beautiful sword had it not been for the thick, purple and
black, nerve like vines stretching across its blade. Bits of the sword’s
hilt seemed to be layered with black snake skin and secured with its
innards. A black diamond like stone was embedded above the hilt. And
above the stone was the worst part of the sword. A purple eye peeped
out of it. Not you’re round regular human eye. I could have sworn it
was the eye of a monster. It was looking around the room until it finally
fixed its gaze on me.
I tried to ask him who he was. First attempt resulted in a sound you
would only expect from a chocking pig. I let my voice return to my
vocal cords.

“Who ....are…you” great!!! My voice still works. Good to know some

part of my body doesn’t need to be fixed.

“Shut up.” Was the reply my ears heard and my brain took offence to.
‘Shut up’ was obviously not his name. He has told you to keep quiet in
a very rude way; my brain figured out and then got angry about.

“Don’t you usually say good morning to a guy who has been out cold
for quite a few nights?”

“Don’t use that tone with me. I don’t pity people who are injured. I
hope you haven’t forgotten the attack to your back. And as for you
being out cold for a few nights, that stuff only happens in stage shows
and books. You were barely out for an hour.” He said without facing me
but still looking out the window.

“Why the heck did you attack me? Who are you anyway? I haven’t seen
you in this house. Not once.”

“I am known as Typhoon. The reason for my attack is you were doing

the one thing you were forbidden from doing. Trying to run away. Get
up.”

“No, my body is aching like crazy.”

“Do you want to meet your dad?”

My dad? This guy is really nuts. My nana, had told me my dad had died
years ago. About five months before my mom died too.

“My dad’s dead”

“I know, I killed him. I also killed your filthy mother.” Was the reply.
I grabbed the wooden sword my mixed martial arts teacher had used to
teach me with. I threw it with all my strength, or whatever strength my
body could provide. I expected Typhoon to catch the sword without
turning around, deflect it or do something.

He didn’t.

Whackk!!!!!

It hit him, right below the shoulder blade, on his back.

He screamed!

And when he screamed. I knew it was time for me to be scared.

He turned around and I saw his face. He looked good for an evil guy.
His mouth was half open showing rows of carnivore like teeth, which
sparkled white. His eyes were bloodshot as if he had just experienced
the worst sort of pain possible. His purple pupils had no iris. They were
plane. Blank. Just dark purple circles. His cheeks were scared as if a
bear had tried to use them to sharpen its claws. His hair hung right up to
his eyes. It was messy. Just like mine.

He raised his arm and pointed it at me. I tore of the bed sheet and
leaped. Not a minute too soon. His hand glowed purple and he shouted
something, making the bed explode into tiny pieces of wood. The next
few seconds, I spent dodging whatever magical attacks I could.

I dove over my table and saw the letter Artimis had written to me. I
grabbed it before Typhoon screamed, “burn!!” And ignited my table on
fire.

I ran out of the door; then ran through the hallway expecting to be
blasted at any moment. I looked around. Thick smoke was pouring out
of my room. And I could make out Typhoon emerging from the door
too.
I forgot to stop when the hallway ended. I thought I would get a
makeover from the wall. How dramatic would that be? I run into a wall
and smash my face against it when a superpower freak is after me. But
after I closed my eyes I dint feel the impact. I had passed right through
the wall. Cool.

The room was empty except for the table, chair and wardrobe. It didn’t
have any widows so it was pretty dark. A little light emerged from
behind me. I could see the hallway. I could see Typhoon walking
towards me his purple eyes moving side to side. He stood right in front
of the door. And then walked away towards the left of the hallway.

I sighed and let my body relax.

“So you have finally found my study”

Give me a break man! This is just too much. As if I hadn’t had enough
for a day, I just had to see a man dressed in white robes float into the
room. His skin was almost see-through. He was a ghost

“So... How are you planning to kill me today?” I asked the ghost, he
seemed to smile.

“You have your mother’s attitude....ah! I see that caught your attention”

He was right. I had never really cared much about my father. My

mother was what concerned me the most. The way nana had described
her, my mother was a walking angel. But all my nana could describe;
was her personality. She hadn’t seen her. Not once.

“Are you Mr. Armour? I have seen your pictures. You look like him” I
made a wide guess.”

The ghost smiled. “I was Mr. Armour. Now Typhoon owns this house
and is the head of this family. I have much to tell you but with Typhoon
after you, you do not have much time. So I will just do my duty and
leave whatever explaining I need to do to Artimis.” He took a pause and
floated over to the dusty couch. He tried to sit but passed through it and
fell through the floor below. He came back up cursing.

“That ruined the movement I suppose. Anyways, here’s the deal, I am

your dad and I need to d_

“Whoa!! Whoa!! Whoa!! You’re my dad? You can’t just walk in here
and say ‘I am your dad.’ I can’t just accept that.”

“Why do you think you are in this house? Now please stand still for a
few moments. I was not able to pass on after I was killed because I had
left this task undone.”

“Ok ok fine you maybe my dad. But it took me a movement to accept

it.”

“Will you please keep up? I don’t have much time you know.”

I thought I heard a bit of annoyance in his voice.

“Sorry.” I apologized

He touched me on my birthmark, on the left side my chest, right over

my heart with his hand. His touch didn’t feel ghostly or anything it felt
human. My birthmark, shaped like a dragon began to glow a blue color.

My nana had always told me to be proud of the mark. I thought it

looked cool for a few days then got bored of it.

The glow lit up the entire room. The lamps lit up too. The dust seemed
to move away from my feet as if someone had used a 360 degree leaf
blower on it. The glow stopped. The lamps stayed lit but nothing else
seemed to change.

“Well....that was overdramatic...what was the point of that?”

“Give it a bit of time; it will do its thing. It needs to accept your body
first.”

“Fine....but what did you just do?”

“Artimis will explain. Now grab that bag over there, take the compass,
the map, the few clothes in that cupboard over there and there’s a sword
too on that chair. It’s all I can give you right now. Run down the
hallway and get out through the hall. And you know what to do after
that, right? Get out of here.”

“Thanks dad, bye.....ugh.....I would have hugged you if you hadn’t

been, well, un-huggable. You know, because you’re a ghost and all.”

“That’s ok, see you. Finally I can leave this rotten house.”

I grabbed everything he had told me to. The sword seemed like a stick
compared to Typhoon’s but it will have to do, I guessed.

I ran out of the room giving my dad a final smile. I knew I would never
see him again. I didn’t.

I was surprised about how I had been so unemotional about seeing my

dad’s ghost. Guess I am just not the type that tears up a lot.

Wrong, apparently. Dead wrong.

I ran in the direction my dad had told me to. I can’t say I hadn’t
expected it; I had known that Typhoon would be waiting for me at the
exit door. I had hoped he wouldn’t be. Seriously why couldn’t a cuddly
little Rubid be waiting to wave bye to me?

“Hello again. So....you ready?” Typhoon asked.

Knowing fully well, I asked “ready for what?” Trying to stall for time.

“Oh! Common Saphire, you may be just thirteen years old but let’s not
pretend like you are slow minded.

“Fine, I am not ready but might as well get on with it..”

“Good.”

Chapter 3:
Mr. Death.

There I was, a thirteen year old boy. I was thin. I had never been in a
real fight. Never held an actual sword. And I was fighting an extremely
muscular, strong fighter. Trained mostly in ever sort of hand to hand and
weapon combat. He had a way better sword than me. Trained in magical
combat. And as if this was not enough, Typhoon surely had years and
years of experience. Sounds like a fair fight? Apparently it was.

I was able to expect every move Typhoon was going to make. Dodge
them or block them. My sword moved without consulting my brain.

I am not saying it was easy. It was a tough fight for me. Really tough.
But I was shocked I had taken on that blade and not died yet. Typhoon
seemed to be shocked as much as I was.

He tried to cut my head off. My sword got in his way. He spun around
and his blade whipped his blade through the air on my left side. I
ducked. There goes my nana’s prized painting. And also the wall it hung
on. The wall exploded into bits of wood.

Before the wood even dropped, Typhoon’s sword struck the ground
where I was standing about a fraction of a second ego. I had dived to
my left. My palm was pointed at Typhoon’s face. Just a second before I
said the words, I thought I saw a flicker of fear behind those purple
pupils.

“Break”

Typhoon’s head shot back. His body followed. He flipped over and fell
face down on the wrecked floor.

Ok, I know violence is a bad thing and fighting, hurting people is not
good either. But there is something very satisfying about casting a
devastating spell that will break anything, at the face of a person you
hate. What’s even more satisfying is seeing his him flip over and fall
face down.

What happened next was not as much fun.

“You piece of_!! That’s it!!! Arghhhhhhh!!”

Bang!!

Now if you expected me to have been blasted through a few walls, then
feel every bone in my body crack, think again.

What happened to his blast?

Maybe it had something to do with the blue glue that was emitting from
my chest. It slowed time. I could see the air around Typhoon’s arm
swirl. Literally see it. Then I saw small sparks of fire starting to set the
swirling vortex on fire. The fireball was ready to blast me.

At the same time, the blue glow was spreading across my torso, my
feet, and my body. One last flash of sapphire light and the fireball which
was supposed to kill me was gone.

Either that or Typhoon had made a very bad miss with his blast. This
seemed to be a less likely possibility.

Typhoon was still showing me his palm. His face was different. He was
scared.

The pain I had been ignoring until now, didn’t need to be ignored
anymore. I was healed. The sword I was holding seemed to be craving
to take another crack at Typhoon’s. It was glowing. I felt different. As if
like a deep hidden artery had suddenly started pumping power through
my body. I attacked Typhoon.

I slashed at his chest. He defected the blow. Before he could develop a

counter attack, I kicked him on his thigh.

He retracted it and stabbed at me. I had not yet regained my footing

after the kick. Basically because I had hit his Armour. My foot hurt. I
stumbled and fell which helped me dodge Typhoon’s blade.

But he had me now. I was on the ground. And he was ready to strike. He
swung his purple-black sword downward. I put my sword in his way.

The block had definitely shattered most of the bones in my arm. I

dropped the sword.

Typhoon smirked. Ready to deliver the final strike. He raised his

sword........

An idea struck me. It was the only idea; it was crazy but it just might
work. I put my plan into action before Typhoon attacked. .

I started to laugh.

Typhoon seemed to think I had gone crazy. To be frank I kinda agreed

with him on that.

I laughed like I had never laughed before. I put one hand on my

stomach and the other was pointing over Typhoon’s shoulder.

Typhoon’s smirk faded and he raised an eyebrow. When my laughing

didn’t stop he glanced around to look at the apparently very hilarious
wall.

I couldn’t believe it had worked!!!

I took my chance. I slid through Typhoon’s widespread legs and with

my good leg did and overhead kick at Typhoon’s back.

Typhoon didn’t scream this time. He gasped. Then just fell to his knees
as if trying to stay calm, waiting for the pain to cease.

I didn’t waste my time resting. I grabbed a piece of glass and was about
to introduce it to Typhoon’s back, but apparently Typhoon’s back wasn’t
feeling like making a new friend.

Before I brought the shard down, Typhoon turned and with a single
right hook punch to my face sent me flying. I crashed in order to find a
terrifying Typhoon glaring down at me.

He was not smirking anymore. He was as angry as a lion that had been
forced to have salad for lunch.

“That was a dirty trick you pulled.” He told me. “I am feeling like
sharing today for some reason.” He walked towards me. “Since you
enjoy gifting me the pain through my back, why don’t I give you a taste
of how it feels. Let’s share the pain. Or why don’t I gift it to you.”

“I don’t want pain for a present I could use a new set of mixed martial
arts training material though.” Not a very smart thing to say I suppose,
but nothing else occurred to me.

“Oh! No. No. You should never say no to a gift. Here_”

He raised his arm and directed his palm at me. I felt myself get pulled
into the air and smashed against the wall. I crashed into the wall. Once.
Twice. Thrice. After that I must have lost count or lost consciousness.
By the time I had finally stopped tackling the wall, it had a few holes
and some cracks. Once I fell to the floor, I was sure my spinal cord had
a few cracks too.

“Well here’s the best part. The major part comes now. Enjoy.” This
time, his voice seemed to be extremely happy. Not your regular happy.
It was an evil maniac happy.

I couldn’t lift my head to face Typhoon. I couldn’t hear what he said. I

wish I could say I didn’t feel the pain when it came to me, but I did feel
it.

I was screaming.

Screaming for death.

Screaming for the pain to end.

My eyes felt too big for their sockets. My head felt like it had split into
two and both were now being forced back as one. My legs and arms
where numb. The ribs under my chest were cracking. It felt like the air
in my lungs was full of acid. My heart was pumping blood and pain
through my body. Every thump of my heart felt like a hammer had hit
me on my chest.

The worst part of the pain was in my back. It felt like the flesh there
was being layered with barbed wires and getting torn of the bones.
Every tiny part of my body was definitely on fire.

Then, finally, the pain finally ceased.

I opened my eyes slowly. I was not in the same wrecked hall. Typhoon
was not there holding a murderous sword. I was alone.

As to where I was....frankly, I don’t know. It was very dark. I could

make out the outlines of trees in a circle around me. I guessed that I was
in a clearing of Gren Woods. I looked down and well didn’t see
anything. My body was gone.

I figured all I could do was think. I could also hear a river in the
distance so I still had a sense of sound. I remembered that I was able to
see the outlines of trees around the clearing. I could see, barely but sight
hadn’t left me. I couldn’t taste the dryness of exhaustion that should
have filled my mouth. And I couldn’t breathe. So I couldn’t taste or
smell. And since my body was gone I couldn’t do anything else. I
coughed. Which meant I could still speak.

Well, that’s just great huh? I prefer fighting Typhoon over this.

And as if it wasn’t freaky enough that I was bodiless and lost in the
middle of who knows where, a hooded figure carrying a deadly looking
scythe had to make a scary and silent entry into the clearing.

“Hello there” the creature’s snakish hollow voice said; “good to see you
I am Mr. Death.”

Chapter 4:
Armour villa burns
“Um..Hi” I responded to the greeting. “where_

“Sorry I don’t know where you are. All I know is you are dead. Or at
least are about to be.” The hooded creature replied.”

“Ok......so now what?” I found myself asking.

“Now my friend we decide what to do with you.” Mr. Death replied.

“Welcome to judgment day.”

A sort of Dun!! Dun!! Dun!! Music played. I turned around and found
the source of the music to be a skeleton playing a piano.

“He’s the best dead musician we could find. You won’t believe who he
was when he was alive. So I won’t bother telling you. Now let’s see ....”

He drew a file from under the folds of his robes and read through it.

“So you didn’t really do anything wrong in your life huh? And as I see
it, you have not passed through the natural procedure of death since I
myself had to come collect you. Oh! What do we have here? You have
one hell of a fate my friend. I cannot let you pass on yet dude, you are
gonna have to go back to your body. Good bye”

“Wait, that’s it? The judgment day? That’s it?”

“It’s a much quicker process than it sounds. Good luck..You will be

healed and all when you return to your body. I think I kinda like you
dude. But if you die again I won’t be able to do anything. So be careful.
And remember everything is not as it seems. Especially in your case.
And magic can be applied in many different ways try to find the right
one to beat your opponents. Of course, I must warn you though that too
much use of magic will get you so tired you may have to visit me again.
Try not to use it much until you get trained. ”

“Thanks, good bye Mr. Death”

“See ya” Mr. Death said and floated out of the clearing.

I found myself engulfed by darkness again.

I felt like I had taken a jump off a cloud .

I didn’t feel wind rushing past me. Even if it was rushing past, I didn’t
have a body to feel it. All I know was that I was falling for a long
while.

I finally saw light ahead of me. It seemed to be a tunnel. When I was

about to crash into the tunnel’s entrance, I felt my body. I realized I was
not falling anymore.

In fact I felt a wooden floor beneath my back. I smelt smoke. I was

back in Armour villa. I had returned from the dead. Literally.

There was no pain anymore. I heard Typhoon talking to someone.

"Yes, I think he is dead. Don’t worry I won’t let it affect the plan. Good
bye. Don’t worry. Make sure that kid is safe.”

Then I heard another voice, it sounded distant and guilty. “Typhoon, I

have something to tell you, the kid he kind of has escaped a couple of
years ago_

“What?? You useless piece of _

I couldn’t lay still any more I felt my finger twitch.

Typhoon suddenly stopped talking. The distant voice tried to say

something.

“Shut up. I will speak to you later.”

I felt Typhoon’s gaze on my body. After a few seconds I felt his

presence next to me. And then I heard a sword being drawn from its
stealth.

That’s when I reacted. I ripped my eyes open and kicked Typhoon’s

face and locked his sword arm with my legs just as my master had
taught me. I pulled the rest of my body with my feet and knew that
Typhoon had dropped the sword.

Typhoon tried to throw me of his hand. Before he swung it, I released

my leg lock.

I spun in the air and managed to introduce my foot to Typhoon’s face.

Typhoon’s face swung sharply.

I landed on the mat right next to Typhoon’s sword.

Typhoon spat blood out of his mouth and got ready to attack me.

I pointed at Typhoon and screamed “break”.

Before he realized I had cast the same spell on him again, Typhoon was
of his feet and had crashed through the wall into the lawn. I picked up
the sword and ran after him.

He had regained balance and was ready to fight me; but when he found
that his sword was sticking out of his torso, he seemed shocked. I
leaped and kicked Typhoon’s sword deeper into him.

Now it was time to try Mr. Death’s advice.

I managed to pin Typhoon to the ground. After rearranging his face with
a few punches....ok! Lots of punches. I kicked Typhoon so he was
facing the ground.

I leaped into the air and landed my knee on his back. Typhoon
screamed. He grabbed me with both hands and was about to throw me
when I shouted, “release”

Typhoon’s hands released me. I jumped away from Typhoon and

pointed at his back.

“Kill” I whispered.

I don’t know if it worked. I didn’t care. It didn’t take a genius to figure

out when your opponent was defeated.
I watched Typhoon twitch for a bit then begin screaming. I do not want
to tell you what happened next to him. When he finally stopped
struggling, Typhoon’s body disappeared into the air like steam. He
evaporated away. Literally.

I turned towards Armour villa. I needed to go now. I meant go in the

sense that I had to run away from Armour villa now. Not that I needed
to ‘go’.

Whatever prevented me from escaping, the power source of the

shielding around the villa, was inside it. I was sure.

I raised my hand. Images of nana, the maid, Mrs. Grandma Armour and
everyone else who Typhoon had obviously killed by now. I thought of
my dad’s hidden study. I thought of his ghost.

“Burn” I whispered.

The black marble mansion was burning. It looked cool. Black marble
and blue flames, I bet it would have made a great t-shirt picture.

I stared at the villa a bit. It then started to rain. This time the rain fell
into the lawn. The force field didn’t stop it. It felt good. The rain
washed my body. I felt the dirt, sweat and blood flow down and off of
my body.

I saw a rock at the edge of Armour hill. I thought it would be a really

dramatic end to my fight with Typhoon if I stood on the rock in a cool
hero pose. With a black villa burning behind me and thunder and
lightning fighting the sky above. I managed to climb the rock. I got to
the top.

I was about to strike the pose when a lightning bolt hit the ground a few
feet away . I got so shocked, I tripped over the rock and bounced to the
bottom of Armour hill. Very dramatic indeed. -_-
 Chapter 5:
Anything can happen over
coffee
After the fall, I was surprised to find my body still in one piece and in
almost perfect condition.

I wished that I had grabbed a few clothes and some food from Armour
villa before I burned it. Seriously, I really should have taken a bit of
time and thought straight. Sigh.....

I threaded along Armour hill until I found the road that lead to Armour
village. After a long and boring walk, I reached the gates of the village.

Well, not exactly reached it, the spine river was in my path. Today,
unlike how I usually saw it, the river was slow, calm quiet. Even though
there was a storm of rain and winds.

I yelled at the gates to let me in. It took a few minutes but a bored
solder’s voice shouted back, “State your name and purpose for coming
to our village”

“I am Saphire Armour. My purpose is t_

Before I could say anything more, the gate dropped at my feet.

The solider ran out; bent over and kissed my feet.

I was shocked and I jerked back. He still lay bent over whimpering as if
I would whip him.

“What’s wrong with you? Don’t ever kiss my feet. Why did you
anyway?”

“Master please forgive me for questioning you. Please....” He seemed

very scared of me for some reason.

“Don’t worry it’s really no big deal. I am not going to do anything to

you.”

“Thank you master!!” He rushed forward to kiss my feet again.

“No. No!! My shoes definitely don’t taste that good dude. Cut that out.”

“Yes master.”

“And don’t call me master”

“Yes master.”

“I just told you not to call me master.”

“Sorry mas_. Sorry.”

The solider led me to his shack which was a little way into the village. I
was too tired to look around at the village. I just followed the solider
and crashed in the bed he showed me.

Sleep. Finally.

I woke the next morning to find a note, a bag of gold and some clean
clothes next to my bed.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and stood by the window. I let the
sunlight wash over my body. I saw that apparently, the solder’s house
was right in the centre of the village. I could see lots of shacks and
stone houses dotted here and there. At one end of the village I saw a
huge stone tower. Nana had told me that criminals were locked up and
tortured in that place. I had sworn that no matter what I wouldn’t even
visit that place. Much less get taken in as a prisoner. I wish I had known
how pointless that oath had been.

Kids of my age ran around aimlessly. A few people were walking

around dressed in robes of various colors. I saw a coffee shop. Not very
far from the hut.

I returned to my bedside table and took the note and read it...

I had to leave early for work today. I have left some gold for you
Master Saphire Armour. Please feel free to use it. Yes feel free. Um..I
have also left some robes that you can use. I will return tonight.
Um..Feel free to use the gold.
I changed into the black robes and tied the bag of coins to my waist.
Hey! The solider had said ‘feel free’. I walked down the stairs which
led right to the door.

I sighed. This was going to be the first time I would walk out of the into
a town with a bag full of gold. I wanted to walk slowly out of the door
and stretch, smell the fresh air and walk over to the coffee shop.

I got to the part of stretching. After that, I was running and shouting,
“Hey give me back my gold!!!! Stop!! Thief!!!”

After chasing him through a few streets, I realized shouting at a thief to

give back what he had stolen was as dum as trying to scratch your ear
with your elbows. Instead I ran as fast as I can and chased him.

He ran into a new street. I remembered it as the way to the coffee shop.
I knew that the road ended in a dead end. I jumped from one wall to the
next and got up on the roofs. I leaped from one roof to another and
finally caught up with the thief.

What I found was surprising. The thief had been cornered by someone
else before I could catch up to him.

I looked at the ones who had cornered him and figured that shouting,
“no fair, I was chasing him first” was not a good idea.

He had been cornered by about five people. One was holding a knife.
He was your typical drunk crook. A red scarf around his neck. Shabby
clothes draped over his muscular body. A cigar clenched by the dirty
teeth. Eyes like a madman and a scarred face. The other four didn’t look
very different.

The one with the knife spoke. “So....I guess you are not handing over
that bag, huh?

The thief replied, “Duh! Why would I steal gold, run halfway across the
village and hand it over to you? You surely are as dum as you look.”

One more thing I do not understand. A guy who is in danger of getting

beaten to a pulp usually insults the guy who is going to do the beating.
Seriously! Is it that complicated to figure out that you don’t insult the
guy who is going to rearrange your face?

The man attacked and swung his knife at the thief’s neck. The thief
ducked and punched one of the other goons under his stomach. The
goon sank to the ground. Ugly number two was kicked under his chin
then punched in the stomach. By the time he dropped to the ground,
ugly number three whacked the thief with a punch that definitely would
have broken his jaw. Ugly number four grabbed the thief from behind
and held him up to the boss goon.

The boss goon had a wicked smile on his lips. He licked his knife. And
within a movement was rushing towards the thief.

I knew what was going to happen to the thief now. I couldn’t watch
that.

I jumped from the roof and grabbed the boss goon by his shoulders. I
flipped over and threw him on to the others.

The thief had managed to free himself and knock the guy who had been
holding him unconscious.

I smiled at him. In that movement I felt a sudden weirdness. Like that

feeling of someone walking on your grave. I glanced around and saw a
knife rushing towards my chest.

It was the thief’s turn to save me. He stepped next to me. Leaped and
knocked the goon out with a fist to the face.

“Let’s get out of here” the thief said “before the rest of them join the
party.”
“Yeah. Sure.” I replied

A few minutes later we ducked into the coffee shop. Apparently it was a
coffee shop; and a bar.

The thief finally pulled his hood off. He had the face of someone who
has had a harsh life. His cheeks looked sunken. His eyes had shadows
around them. He had a crooked nose. His mouth was curled into a broad
grin. He must have been about my age. Blond hair fell over his
forehead.

He crashed into a cozy looking seat behind a table. He motioned at me

to sit down next to him.

I kinda felt a tinge of annoyance. This boy had stolen my gold. And was
acting as though he was going to ‘treat’ me to coffee with it. Go figure.

I sat down in front of him. And stretched my legs. He saw me eyeing

him suspiciously.

“I know what you are thinking. That I am treating you with your gold
right?” The thief said.

“Oh! No I was just thinking of how fun it would be to pound your face
in and take the gold back.” I tried to sound tough; but I must have failed
because the guy laughed.

“Oh! Common you do not need to act tough with me. I can see right
through you. Anyway, I won the gold fair and square from you. Just
accept the fact.”

“You call stealing fair?” I asked sarcastically.

“Well. Yes” the reply sounded honest. As though it was an obvious

answer.

I grunted and looked around. The shop seemed to be full of happy

looking people. Each one of them was drinking coffee or tea. Some kids
were also drinking hot chocolate. The bar tender seemed to be busy
chatting with a few customers. All in all it was a friendly and cozy shop.

One odd feeling though, I felt like most of the customers there were
keeping watch on me. As though I was a shady and dangerous person.

“Relax. You are new they will be a little suspicious. By the way you are
not from this village are you? Mind letting me in on some
introduction?” The thief continued.

I didn’t reply, so he shouted to the waiter to bring two hot chocolates.

We waited for out drink in silence.

When the waiter left our drinks in front of us, I was the first one to pick
up the cup. The thief smiled and took the other one. I took the wooden
cup to my lips and sipped. It tasted awesome. The best hot chocolate
possible. It tasted so good I tried to gulp down more of the drink. I
burned my tongue.

“Aave!!!_hoth!!!.Hoth!!!! My thungh!!” I said aloud.

The thief sitting in front laughed. He laughed so hard he started to

cough. He snorted the drink through his nose. I couldn’t help but smile.
Once he gained control of his laughter he spoke again.

“Sorry about that. By the way, my name is Shawn.” He told me

“Shawn.......” I said wondering about his family name.

“Just Shawn. I don’t know which family I belong to. I grew up in an

orphanage. I got the name from there too.” He said this with no sadness.
I didn’t ask him about that.

I shook his outstretched hand.

“So........... Will you tell me your name or should I just go talk to a wall?
I bet that would be way better.

I smirked and said, “My name is Saphire Armour.”

I heard a few chairs get pulled and a table fall over. And at that moment,
all hell broke loose.

A chair smashed over our table. Spraying the hot chocolate all around.
Shawn and I jumped away from the table before a torch was thrown
towards it. A second later and we would have been barbecued with it.

I heard guns get loaded and swords get drawn. I ducked behind another
table and heard bottles smash against the other side of the table. Shawn
was at the door, he motioned for me to follow him.

I leaped away from the table and ran for the door. I heard gunpowder
blast against the wall. I was almost at the door when a huge man with a
gun got in my way.

I dodged the shot which smashed the glasses on the bar table. I retreated
towards the back door, fighting off swordsmen, taking them three or
four at a time.

When I finally reached the back door, I found a huge group of people
with swords ready to slice me like a cucumber.

I looked around at the people who had surrounded me. I tried to find a
weak spot. Found none.

So I did the natural thing.

I charged a random part of the crowd.

I heard gunshots, so I bent and slid on my knees. The shots obviously

hit someone else because from the corner of my eye I saw blood splatter
on the wooden floor. I spun on the ground and kicked a solder’s legs.
He fell and before a few swords could slice at me, I had jumped away
from the spot.

I managed to grab a man’s head in mid air and lock his body like a
shield in front of me. He dropped his sword I grabbed it. I felt a sudden
heat behind me. Without turning around to look at the torch, I threw the
man I had locked behind me. I turned in time to see another man whack
him with a blazing torch. Sparks and ash exploded on impact. Some
sparks landed on the hay covered roof. Soon it was on fire too. Great.
I’ll just add that to the long list of problems I have.

As burning pieces of wood dropped onto the floor, the fight turned very
very brutal. I backed up to avoid a sword. I heard a gun behind me. I
ducked and felt the gunpowder rush over my hair. A warm liquid
splashed on to my back. The floor was stained red. I swung the blade in
a circle and was happy to find that the guy behind me managed to
dodge it.

A large piece of burning wood fell in fornt of me separating me from

the crazed crowd.

I took my chance I threw my sword at the nearest window. The glass

smashed and I jumped out.

I ran. I didn’t know which way I ran. I just ran.

I dove through alleys, flew over walls and sliced across roofs.

Left. Then right. Right again. Straight ahead, dead-end!! Backed up

quickly. Left this time. Over the wall. Under that bridge. Through that
door. Up that ladder. Down that balcony.

And finally, I hid in an alleyway.

I waited and tried to catch my breath. I could still hear the crowd
chasing me. I sank to the ground. Now that I was out of danger of
having to visiting Mr. Death again, at least for a little while, I relaxed.
I had taken a bath in my clothes. Well; either that or I was just sweating
that bad. I had cuts and bruises all over my body. Along with sweat, hot
blood was gushing out of a cut on my arm. I ripped of a long piece of
cloth from my body and wrapped in around my wound after washing it
with water.

“He’s here!!” I heard someone shout at the alleyway entrance. I tried to

get up but my left leg gave away. I crashed and waited for death. I lost
consciousness as someone pulled me out of the alleyway.

I crept back into consciousness a few hours later.

I felt great to have missed the bus to Mr. Death’s place. I woke up on a
cold stone floor. No windows just a big empty room. The walls were
made of stone too. An arch was cut in the wall; it was blocked with iron
bars. A few soldiers stood guard at the door.

Great, I was a prisoner now. Where did I put that problem’s list again?

I waited until the solider shoved a plate of who knows what into my
cell. I ate it and found it surprisingly edible. I asked for water and
gulped it down once it arrived.

Finding nothing to do, I slept.

I woke up again when it was nighttime. My leg was still throbbing and
the cut in my arm was as bad as ever. I thought if I didn’t heal them
now, I would die of blood loss.

I managed to open the blood stained cloth and then I put my hand on
the large cut. I winced a little at the pain when I touched it. I said the
magic word- “heal.....ugh.....heal right now I mean.”

It worked. After wiping the blood off my arm, I healed my leg. In about
half an hour, my body was fully healed but I felt exhausted so I slept
again. Man, I am becoming lazy.
I woke up again in about half an hour, this time, because I heard
someone call my name. I got up and walked over to the iron-bar sealed
exit to the cell. Let me correct that, the ex- iron-bar sealed exit.

I found Shawn messing around with the bodies of the unconscious

soldiers. When he saw me he smiled and threw me a sword.

“Hey, nice to see you again. If you don’t find your new ‘room’
extremely comfortable, I don’t mind helping you escape.” Shawn told
me.

I smiled back and said, “How come you came back for me? Are you
sure this isn’t too much of a risk for someone like you?”

“Well, you’re right. I had just sighed and walked away. Later on, I
thought about something, so I guessed that helping you wasn’t a bad
idea.” He replied.

“That explains just too much, I am not being able to digest that much
information!!” I said sarcastically. “I would like a straight answer man.”

“Fine, I need to speak to the guardian tower dean Artimis. I figured that
being an Armour, you would know him. I need to learn some stuff in
that tower man.” He explained as if making his explanation as brief as
possible.

“Um......well.....not know him as a very good friend. Though you can

say I know him.”

“Well that’s all I needed to know bro, let’s get out of here.” He said as
he ran down the dark stone corridor.

I smirked and followed. Getting out of this place was not gonna be easy.
Later I would learn that I was wrong. Getting out of there was going to
be extremely horribly difficult.
 Chapter 6:
I fight one hundred soldiers
I ran through the stone corridors, lit by oil lamps. The orange light
washed over sealed doors and those doors seemed extremely
forbidding. We jumped down stairs making more noise than necessary.
When I asked Shawn about this he said that soldiers care more about
creepy and shady noises that people are trying to make while sneaking.
Apparently if someone was running down a hallway making lots of
noise, they weren’t given a second glace, even if someone actually
spared them a first. I didn't really know if he was right, but since we
saw no soldiers, I didn't bother about it. After descending three floors,
we stopped dead.

Soldiers dressed in full battle Armour were talking to each other. About
me.

“I wonder why master, will not tell us why we have to imprison that
kid” one of the soldiers said.

“He killed about twenty five people in that cafe that reason enough?”
The other replied.

“Ok. Ok. Mr. Sarcastic, lets say that’s one reason. But remember that
other foot soldier that had come this morning to report him and said he
had left him at his home, my word! Master was angry, what’s so special
about that kid anyway?”

“He is horribly rich, what more reason could you want? We have to do
is just threaten to kill him and all the riches of his filthy family are ours.
His idiot of a dad will pay for him”

The soldiers laughed heartily. I couldn’t bear it anymore. I stepped into

the room and said “My dad’s dead you drunk excuse for a solider” and I
killed them both with their own swords when they tried to attack me.
One of them was shocked that I had escaped the other roared like a
barbarian and rushed at me with his sword. He tried to stab me; I
grabbed his arm and brought it down on my knee. It was broken. The
other solider had realized that he ought to attack and did. I shoved the
broken hand holding the sword towards the other solider. He collapsed
on the spot after I ran him through with the sword. The solider whose
hand I was holding was struggling; I bent his arm at an odd angle and
flipped him over. The sword which he was holding in his broken hand
went through his back when he got to the ground.

Shawn stepped into the room and gave me a disgusted look.

“What?” I asked him as if innocent.

“You are turning into a murderer, control yourself or you may just turn
into Typhoon the second” he said.

I was ashamed of myself. I managed a feeble sorry as we ran further. By

now, we were sure that a legion of soldiers was after us.

Shawn seemed to be extremely sure of where he was going. I made a

mental note to ask him about that if we survived, as at the moment it did
not seem important.

Shawn stopped in front of a wall; we were at a dead end. Ok, I take it

back, Shawn had no idea of where we were going.

Then I had to change my thought again because Shawn pushed a stone

and pulled the wall like a door to reveal a hidden room.

It was too dark in there for me to see anything of the door. Shawn
seemed to be moving about a lot, I heard metal clunking and swords
being drawn. Shawn told me to stay still and then put something onto
me that felt extremely heavy. He put something of the same metal on
my arms and legs. He handed something into my arm that felt like a
sword’s hilt. Then he told me that we were going to have to fight our
way out and be fast about it. He lit something on fire.

As if on cue, the wall we were hiding behind exploded to reveal a

corridor packed with at least a hundred soldiers, I saw pieces of
gunpowder barrels. Lying here and there with what remained of the
secret door.

I glanced at Shawn who was clad in a chain mail Armour. He was

holding a burning arrow at the ready. At his hip hung a deadly looking
sword. His expression was plane, ready for a fight, not scared.

I heard some of the soldiers shout “charge!!!!” And did the same. In
case you were wondering how it would feel to have a hundred armor
clad soldiers running at you with deadly looking swords felt, let me tell
you that it felt very very scary.

Shawn‘s arrows whizzed past my ear and exploded on impact, a few

soldiers fell prey to them until Shawn was out of ammunition.

As I reached the legion, I bent and swung my sword in an arc while still
running, many soldiers fell with legs missing and many more backed
off. I screamed and stabbed downward at a soldier and bathed myself in
his blood. I turned in order to find a solder’s head leave his body, thanks
to Shawn. I kicked another solider back with my foot and stabbed him
through with my blade.

I couldn’t see the face of the people I was killing, I didn’t want to. I was
sure that if I did see them, I would stop fighting.

I whacked a solider between his eyes with the hilt of my sword and then
jumped to avoid a spear from behind. I flipped in mid air and brought
the sword down on his head. I grabbed a spear which had been thrust in
my direction and used it to get down and kill my opponent. I threw the
spear in a random direction and knew that I was down one more
opponent.

My sword was a devastating weapon, it sliced through armor and bone

with ease. I spotted a couple of archers at the far end of the room, they
had their arrows aimed directly at the ceiling above us. The arrows were
the same exploding type that Shawn had used. I grabbed a spear and
threw it at one of the archers. He died but the second one was able to
loosen his grip. Don’t ask me how I did this, cause I don’t know; I saw
the arrow fly towards the ceiling as if in slow motion I put one foot on
the wall jumped used a solder’s head to get higher and then grabbed the
arrow. I threw the arrow out the window and heard it explode. I heard
screaming and knew that another building in Armour village was on
fire.

My sword had turned from a clean silver to a deep red color. I kept at
swinging the blade, hacking and slashing through hoards of soldiers
who saw me as a goodbye sight before taking a journey to Mr. Death.
No matter who stood before me, they died. It didn’t matter what
weapon they had. It didn’t matter how strong their armor was, heck! It
didn’t even matter how strong and trained they were. One by one they
all fell prey to an undertrained thirteen year old’s sword. Which is why I
was scared. I was turning into a ruthless killer.

As the fight intensified, the soldiers started to back down. Their

numbers were reduced by a lot. Some ten soldiers seemed to remain in
fighting condition. Lots more lay crippled missing arms or legs. Many
more lay dead. The corridor was now destroyed. Fragments of stone lay
on the floor. Shawn’s arrows had left many flames here and there.

Shawn!!!

I remembered him with a shock. I looked around but I couldn’t find

him. I understood what must have happened. The soldiers had made a
mistake and taken Shawn as a prisoner instead of me.

I was horribly angry.

I roared and attacked the poor soldiers who stood in front of me.

Slash. The first solider sunk to the floor. Stab. And solider number two
was through. By the time the remaining eight realized they were going
to die and tried to defend themselves, four more fell prey to my blade. I
was hit by the hilt of one of the remaining solder’s sword. I staggered.
One of the soldiers punched me on the face. Blood started to gush out
of my mouth. I spat out the blood. I reclined and punched him back.
Apparently I had more muscle than a trained solider. The solider winced
at the pain and jerked back. I kicked him between his legs and stabbed
him in the gut. Two of the remaining three soldiers came at me with
their spears drawn. One tried to stab me with his spear. I used a simple
technique. I sidestepped, grabbed the spear and shoved it into another
soldier. I knew that the one holding the spear would not relinquish his
grip. So I yanked it towards the window. The solider went out with it.

The last solider ran for it.

I chased him. He ran towards the end of the corridor and turned left. He
ran towards the stairs.

I was not going to let him get away. No matter what. I ignored the dents
in my Armour, the pain in my leg and the cuts and bruises all over my
body. Since he was able to run faster than me, I resolved to using magic.

I knew I was taking a risk. Even then, I raised my arm and screamed
“explode!!!!”.

The walls on both sides of the solider exploded. I had missed and
missed badly cause in the confusion, the solider had gotten far ahead of
me. I knew that if I continued to use magic, I would tire out and
eventually be unable to do any chasing. And the magic had drained me
of a lot of strength.

I ignored the nagging feeling that I was walking, nay, running into a
trap. I followed the solider towards a spiraling stairway which
obviously went up to the top of a tower.

As I stormed up the stairs I realized that I had no reason to chase him.

This was my chance to get out and get away. They mistook Shawn for
me. Might as well leave him to his problem and get out of here.

I hated myself for even thinking that. Great sense of gratitude. ‘Hey!
Thanks for helping me break out of prison. Now that they have caught
you instead of me, I will be on my way. Good luck. See ya!’

I ran even faster as if it would make up for the horrible thoughts which
occurred to me.
I caught up to the solider before he could pull the door and get out into
the balcony. I put a hand on his mouth and sliced his neck.

I knew that now I had to be stealthy. I was too tired to face anyone in a
face to face combat. I retraced my steps ignoring Shawn screaming that
'he wasn’t Saphire Armour' from behind the door. I went back to the
corridor where the fight had happened. I found a cross bow near a
soldier who I must have killed.

I jogged back to the door. I pushed the door out slightly and caught a
glimpse of five or six soldiers standing guard around a chained up and
gagged Shawn. He saw me and his eyes widened. He shook his head
from side to side slightly. I knew he was telling me to stay away. Trying
to warn me that I was walking into a trap. I ignored him.

As quick as I could, I went out the door and rolled over. Then, I ducked
behind a few barrels. I shot an arrow at a solider to the far right. He got
hit right under his head. He made a weird noise and fell to the ground.
The soldiers lost focus. And by the time they realized that they were
under attack, they died too.

I threw the cross bow down the side of the building. Only now did I
realize exactly where I was. I had seen this tower from the window of
the solder’s house. I had sworn I would never even visit this place. The
irony of it all hit me like a breeze. There was a breeze in the air. I was
about 300 feet above Armour village. I was at the edge of the village.
The spine was rippling across at the base of the tower. The sun was
starting to rise. The sky was a blend of orange and red.

I broke Shawn’s chains with my sword and he pulled out his gag.

“Well....congratz! You are still alive.” He told me.

I smirked and said “you too.”

“You better run now. And I better follow. The soldiers were talking
about waiting for their master. I don’t fancy meeting him again. C’mon”

By the time we turned and ran towards the door, someone said, “too
late.”

I knew that the master person had arrived, there was no doubt he would
have arrived. It just had to happen. How could I even hope that this
ordeal would end without him?

I turned. And saw that the source of the voice was a man draped in deep
blue robes. He had an armor clad over the robes. It seemed to be a plane
foot solder’s breastplate and back guard. And of course the
soulderblades, except it was purple in color. The armor and robes
seemed oddly paired, they did not look good together at all. His face
was hidden by a hood. I could see that his eyes were a deep and glassy
green. He had a necklace that reached down to under his stomach. He
drew a sword from behind his back.

“I am afraid that your run ends here. You die here Saphire Armour.”

“I killed Typhoon if you are his minion then you'll be a piece of cake.”

“When you, as you say, ‘killed’ Typhoon he was still healing from a
wound. Believe me Typhoon was at his weakest when he fought you.”

I ignored Shawn’s repeated whispering of run! Run!; cause I knew that

it wouldn’t work. We had to fight him.

I charged.

I swung my blade like a lasso at his neck. He deflected it easily. I spun

and brought my blade close to his stomach. He grabbed my arm and
threw me back. I flipped and leaped back at him and kept swinging my
blade like a madman.

He dodged each slash. He ducked under my sword as I swung it at his

neck. I brought the sword down in an arc towards his solider he avoided
it by sidestepping. I stepped in his direction. My sword followed him
too. He leaped high. I grabbed a barrel and threw it at him. He kicked it
back at me. I met it with my sword spraying red-colored wine all
around.

In the confusion, my opponent went on the attack. He slashed

downward as he landed. I got a bruise from shoulder to hip. My Armour
had prevented this sword from slicing me in half. I winced and jerked
backwards. I managed to get my sword in his way before he cut me into
two.

His sword moved so fast and with so much power that I could not lock
his blow. All I could manage was to keep him at bay while he moved
with so much deadly ease.

I tripped over and fell on to my back. My sword clattered away. I

remembered the same situation when I had fought Typhoon and tried to
use the same trick again.

I laughed as hard as anyone could laugh when there was nothing to

laugh about. Mr. Powerful dude called my trick. He kicked me on my
ribs and sent me flying across the balcony. I grabbed onto the stones
that stood there and prevented myself from falling to my doom. I
climbed back up to find a surprising situation.

Apparently while I was fighting the hooded guy, Shawn had not been
taking a stroll and enjoying the view. He had aimed a cannon and gotten
it loaded. Our opponent now had an extremely explosive cannon ball
ready to rearrange his face and also the rest of his body.

“See you later.” Shawn said.

Boom!!!!!!

The sound of the cannon was extremely loud. As it neared the hooded
man, I saw that the wind was pushing his hood back, I managed to spot
a glassy green colored pupil-less eye. Before I could see the rest of his
face, the cannonball exploded. And the guy was surrounded by smoke.

I felt Shawn grab my arm. And pull. I ran behind him to the edge of the
balcony. Then stopped and turned back. Through the smoke and dusk I
saw that the explosion had in fact just been a distraction. The smoke
was an escape plan. Good thinking, if a cannon ball couldn’t stop the
dude, I had doubts that I would manage to.

Shawn shouted at me to follow him. He jumped off the balcony. I

looked down and saw him slash into the spine river. I turned back and
saw that the smoke had started to clear. I jumped too.

I felt the wind whack my face and body. Goosebumps sprung up all
over my arms. I had no idea how to land so I just managed to hug
myself and whisper, protect. What must have been a millisecond later I
crashed into the river. Apparently, I had executed a perfect cannonball
dive. I felt happy about that later when Shawn told me. Although, the
part under my back and above my thighs didn’t fell too good about it.

When I splashed into the river all I could think about was getting away,
far away from the horrible Armour village.
 Chapter7:
Through Gren Woods
I didn’t know how to swim. How could I? I had never even stepped out
of the Armour villa’s yard. I splashed around, and managed to get to
shore. I found that Shawn had been able to do the same and get on the
bank too. I was too tired to get up and get into the safety of the woods. I
just lay there waiting for sleep or death whichever was going to take me
out of consciousness.

I woke up around noon. I was not wearing an armor either. I was

dressed in the same black robes which I had been wearing the armor
over. I hadn’t opened my eyes yet. I found that I was not on the bank
anymore. I could still hear the river churning, but that seemed quite
distant. I sat up and opened my eyes. I was definitely in a forest. I had
trees all around me. Dead leaves formed the forest floor. I looked up to
find a thick canopy. The midday sunrays poking through the leaves
reminded me of my room back at Armour villa. The tree trunks were
covered in moss. I tried to stand but couldn’t. I realized my leg was
broken.

Now that I thought about it, my whole body was aching, especially the
bruise stretching from my shoulder to hip. It was throbbing pain
through my torso every few seconds. My armor or whatever was left of
it lay in a messy heap a few feet away. I knew I would never use it
again. The sword was still there, the river had washed the blood off of
it. I rested my back against a tree trunk and waited for Shawn.

As I waited I thought about the last two days of my life. I had died once
and returned to life because Mr. Death found my fate important and
unfulfilled. I had killed Typhoon. I got attacked for saying my name and
killed around twenty people before getting caught. And in the prison,
just to save my own life and the life of a friend I had killed more
soldiers than I dared to count.

I wondered what was happening to me. I was fighting to save my life. A

life I don’t even know why I am keeping safe. I realized that the reason
I had killed Typhoon was because I wanted revenge from him for
killing my dad, my nana, my grand mom and most importantly my
mom; but I couldn’t justify the massacre in the village.

I resolved that I had to stay alive and find out why I was attacked in the
first place. I realized that I wanted to stay alive because I wanted to
know why I was hated. I wanted to know why I had been imprisoned in
Armour villa for thirteen years.
I whacked the tree trunk in frustration and retracted my hand after I had
hurt it. I cursed myself for trying to vent out my anger by punching an
innocent but strong tree trunk.

A wood monster came walking to the place I was sitting. When it put
the wood down an wiped it’s forehead with the back of its hand, I
realized that the monster in fact was Shawn.

“Well, good morning Mr. Sleepy” he said. “We need to get on the road
by tonight. You better heal by then bro.”

“Why tonight?” I asked him.

“C’mon don’t tell me you seriously thought that those were the last of
the soldiers? They will surely start looking for us soon.” He said as he
messed around with the wood to set up a camp fire.

“Ok, so.....you’re not horribly hurt like me then?” I asked him.

“Apparently; when you collapsed on that bank after that perfect cannon
ball dive into the spine, I was able to drag you here. Get that armor off
your body and well cover your wounds.” He said

“Where are we? Gren woods?” I asked.

“Yup.” He replied trying to set fire to the campfire. He failed. He cursed

and then looked at me and smirked. He threw me an apple after
rummaging in his backpack. Then he got back to trying to get the
firewood burning.

I didn’t ask him where he got the apple. I looked at him sweating while
spinning the wood on the set up, I felt like I should help him.

“Get back” I told him. Without asking questions he backed off. I raised
my arm, and said “burn.”

When the campfire actually started to burn, I expected to see Shawn’s

smirk widen. Instead I saw it fade.

I felt like saying, “yeah glad you feel so good that I helped you light up
the campfire.” Instead I asked “What’s wrong?”

Shawn looked at me gravely and said, “Nothing. I have had some bad
experience with magic.”

I did not want him to elaborate. I figured that if magic can be used to do
anything, then, torture was not an exception. I remembered the mental
note I had made while running around in the prison tower. I asked
Shawn how come he knew the corridors there so well? And how in the
world did he know about the secret weapon room?

He sighed and said, “I was a prisoner there for a very long time. I
escaped a couple of years ago. I grew up there. When I escaped, I had to
hide in that secret room for a few days while they scanned the village.
When I got out, I started to stay in an orphanage. An ex-soldier trained
us in fighting there. That’s how I know about the tower.” He stopped.

I knew that the conversation about his past stopped there. He did not
ask me about mine. After an uncomfortable pause, he started the
conversation again, “So....you really killed Typhoon?”

I smirked and replied “Yeah. I did.”

“Wow! You must be like a master fighter. Who trained you?”

“To be frank I am not that well trained, a rookie martial artist taught me.
I was locked up in Armour villa since I was born. I escaped a couple of
days ago after Artimis sent me a bit of advice with his cat.”

“So you are saying you are untrained and yet you can fight a hundred or
so soldiers and live? You Armours really are natural born fighters!!!”

“Thanks, you seem to know a lot more about my family than I do.” I
told him.

“Not really man, all I know is that you belong to one of the most hated
families in this country. Don’t ask me why. I also have been told that
your family has been dishing out generations of fighters. Typhoon was
one of the best. Against his dad’s wishes, he started to serve king
Zaerius the 1st as a knight. Years later, when he returned from a battle,
he turned extremely evil for some reason. He caused chaos all over
Questa. The wars stopped abruptly a few years ago. That’s all I know.”

“Like I said, you knew a lot more than I did....” I said.

“Anyways I am going to go find some food. You try to get some sleep
man. One last question, you don’t mind eating meat right?”

I was wondering what he was talking about. Why would anyone have
any problem with eating meat? Were there actually people who didn’t
eat it?

He seemed to read my confused expression. He smiled and said, “There

are people who do not eat meat. Since you didn’t seem to know that, I
take it that you don’t have any problems with eating it. Get some rest
I’ll be back in a bit.”

He grabbed a sword, and rushed back into the thick woods.

I remembered how Shawn’s clothes were stained with sweat and dirt. I
recalled a cut on his cheek. He had lost his armor too. His robes were
ripped. Although his smile was still the same.

Without realizing it, I had started to think of Shawn like a brother. I

cared for him.

Hey! There are many things you can go through and not become friends
in the process. Escaping from a prison, while fighting packs of soldiers,
jumping 300 feet into a river and hiding out in a forest apparently is not
one of those things.

As I smiled and started to doze off.

Barely minutes later, I heard a howl. It was a wolf's howl. The howl was
a creepy one. It washed over me and caused me to shiver. It was one of
those sounds which hurt you just by hearing it. It cut through the silent
forest like a hot knife through butter. Somehow I knew that the wolf
that had howled had just found prey. I knew I had to help this prey. No
matter what.

I had grabbed my sword and was running in the direction of the sound
of the wolves. By now, I was hearing many more wolves. Apparently,
the prey had not yet been caught. It was a chase.

I heard paws crashing over twigs. I ran towards the sound from where
the howl had come.

I heard another set of feet running across the dry dead leaves on the
forest floor. I stopped and waited, hoping to be able to see the source of
the sound without being seen. I saw that the sound was Shawn running,
in a direction opposite to the one I was.

I caught up to him.

“Hey what you up to?”

“I am trying to catch up to the dark wolves. Did you hear that howl?”
He said without stopping.

“Yeah, I was trying to find those wolves too.” I replied while trying to
keep up with him.

“No, they are ‘dark’ wolves. Deadlier, stealthier, stronger and faster
than regular wolves. That howl meant there was going to be a fight for
position of leader of the pack.” He explained
“Well then, why exactly are you chasing them?” I asked

“I don’t know, I just had a feeling that I need to get there.” He said

“Me too, I didn’t realize what it was, but I just felt that I needed to get
there.”

Shawn nodded and ran even faster. I felt like telling him to slow down,
but I ran faster too. I really don’t know why I enjoyed pain so much.
My leg was surely broken but I ran like a cat with its tail on fire.

We ran into a clearing. Then ran right back into the forest. We hid
behind a tree and peeped from there.

In the clearing, about ten wolves stood in a circle like a border. In the
centre were two more wolves. These wolves were the same size as any
other wolves would have been. Their fur was the darkest shade of black.
Their legs seemed to be quite muscular. Their bodies were slim as if
built for speed. Other than that they looked like regular wolves.

The two wolves which were fighting in the middle were completely
mismatched. One of the wolves looked like the leader. He had the most
muscular wolf legs ever. He was barring his sharp and bloody teeth. I
could see his claws from fifty feet away. They were god dam sharp!!

The other wolf, or I guess I should say pup, was about half his size. It
must have been a few years younger than the leader. The poor wolf
seemed to be hurt at every part of its body. It’s teeth were not as sharp
as it’s opponent’s.

Oddly though, the pup was winning.

The bigger dark wolf was apparently too slow compared to the smaller
darkwolf.

The pup leapt over an attack and in mid air whacked the bigger wolf
with its claws. The leader wolf turned around and attempted a neck bite.
The pup managed to roll over and bite down on the leader’s nose. It
released its grip and jumped onto the leader’s back. It attempted a neck
bite again but the leader rolled and body slammed the pup. The leader
got up, grabbed the pup with its razor sharp teeth, and threw it across
the clearing.

The pup leaped back up while I was praying it would give up. It was
shaking with pain; but the pain was not going to make it give up.

The dark wolf pup tackled the leader wolf and sent it flying into a tree
trunk. It tacked the leader wolf and slammed it again and again against
the tree. It tackled it for the fifth time, after which, the tree trunk
shattered. The pup ran back to the centre and turned to face the leader
again.

The leader was hurt. It was growling. It stood up and barked a couple of
times at the pup. Then, it rushed at the pup at blinding speed. It ran so
fast, I actually saw the wind split in front of the darkwolf. I implied it
twice, I will imply it again, it was extremely fast.

As the leader darkwolf, rushed at it, the pup held its ground, growling
right until the leader was a feet away. It barked at the last minute and I
saw the air around the pup turn into a black mist, it protected the pup
against the tackle. The leader wolf crashed against the mist and fell
back. This time it was hurled at least twenty feet into the air and thrown
just as far.

The mist disappeared after it did its job.

The leader stood back up, hurt but not nearly hurt enough to admit
defeat. It attacked the pup like a barbarian. It was fast and it was
obviously strong. But apparently the attack lacked skill.

The pup dodged each swing of the paw easily. It backed up to the edge
of the clearing. It seemed surprised when it found that it had been
backed up against a tree. It lost focus and payed for it with a paw to the
face.

The leader darkwolf seemed to smirk and whacked the pup with its paw.
The pup flew across the clearing. It crashed at the other end. The leader
wolf ran towards it and leaped. It was going to body slam it again.

The pup did something I didn’t think was possible. As the leader wolf
came down and was about to slam it, the pup got up, grabbed the leader
with its mouth and back-flipped. It slammed the leader into a rock,
hard. The rocked shattered as the darkwolves rolled in the dust and
rubble. The leader wolf let out a pained bark. The pup got back up and
ran back to the centre of the clearing.

This time the leader wolf looked like it was through. It barely managed
to get up. It didn’t charge at the pup.

It howled.

I smiled. It was obvious to me that the pup had beaten the leader wolf. I
turned to look at Shawn. I expected him to be smiling too. He wasn't
smiling. In fact he looked worried.

Of course, how could I have been so stupid? The fact that a pup had
fought a leader darkwolf double its size and not died 'was' a cause of
worry.

I asked Shawn what he was so worried about.

"I have heard that howl before." he said. "I think it means attack. I think
that, that big wolf is telling the other darkwolves to attack the small
one."

'Oh!" was all I could manage, after which, all the ten darkwolves in the
clearing let out the same dangerous howl, causing the hair on my body
to stand on its edge.

I turned, too scared to look. I saw as if in slow motion, the pack of

wolves attack the little pup. I stood there in shock. I watched as the little
pup fought for its life against ten dark wolves, about double its size. I
looked at Shawn and saw him sigh. He saw me looking and warned me
not to try and help.

The little wolf was starting to bleed in many places. It was not barking
anymore. It was still trying to fight but it knew that there was no point
in fighting. It tried to use it's magic but was unable to do anything
much. It saw me looking.

The look in its eyes was so sad. As if it was begging me to rescue it's
life. It made me feel like I was a loser. I hated myself for standing there
so long and not having rushed in earlier. I had to help. I didn't know
why I had to help, I just had to.

I tightened the grip around my sword, grabbed Shawn’s sword in my

other hand. And charged into the clearing with both swords going wild.
I heard Shawn shout something, but I couldn't understand him. I jumped
right into the centre of the fight. I stepped hard over a couple of
darkwolves and jumped into the centre. I used magic to blast all the ten
wolves attacking the pup in different directions and landed in front of it.

I stood protecting the dog-sized darkwolf from the other darkwolves.

Both my swords were being fully used to provide an all-round
protection.

A darkwolf leaped at me from behind. I used my legs to kick it back. A

couple more wolves pounced at me and I sliced my swords in opposite
directions and killed both the darkwolves with deep cuts across their
chests. I landed next to the pup and got tackled by one of the wolves. I
slammed into a tree. Before another wolf could slam me against the
tree, I ducked. The other wolf that had tried to tackle me whacked the
tree. I stabbed it from under. I stood up and pushed the dead body of the
wolf off of myself.

I stood to find seven or so darkwolves barring their teeth at me. I tried

to find a weak spot. I had lost the momentum I had had when I started
the fight. I was confused now. I was scared of the creatures in front of
me. I heard Shawn shout something about eyes, but my mind felt misty.
I couldn't understand him. I shook off the confusion and attacked the
wolves.

When I started to fight, I started to regain control on my thoughts. My

swords where slashing and swinging under my commad now. I was
starting to gain an edge over the wolves. It felt as if the mist around my
thoughts was starting to clear. Fear took a back seat in my mind as I
started to gain control of it. I felt pain, yes, lots of pain. I realized that in
the period when I had lost control on my mind, the dark wolves had
taken full advantage and attacked me ruthlessly.

I remembered the reason I was actually involved in this fight, I was

trying to save someone.....the darkwolf pup! That's right, I was trying to
save the darkwolf pup.

I still hadn't gained total control over my mind, I managed to sink my

sword into about three or four more wolves but then I fell.

I saw Shawn rush into the clearing with a bow. He started to fire arrows
at the wolves surrounding me. A couple of wolves fell prey to his
arrows. I saw that there were only two more darkwolves we had to
fight. The big leader wolf which had already been injured and another
darkwolf which was still at full health.

I got up and got ready to fight. I kept my swords at the ready and
walked over to the darkwolf pup. I had expected the wolves to back
away and run.
Instead, they howled again.

This time, the howl did not affect me one bit. In fact I couldn't even
hear it. I just guessed they were howling because of their stance.

This time, nothing happened. The wolves ran back out of the clearing
into the woods.

I sat on the spot. I had no idea what was going to happen now. All I
knew was the darkwolf pup was about to die if I didn't heal it now.

I crawled over to the pup as fast as I can. It saw me and seemed to

relax, as if it understood that I was a friend. I placed a palm over its
black fur.

I whispered, "Heal."

It didn't work.

I tried again and again but it was as though I had lost my magic. I
realized it was nothing like that after I set a twig on fire using magic. I
turned back to the pup puzzled. The wolf pup just looked at me again.
This time, the eyes seemed to be scared, scared for me. I could see pity
in them. I could also see that the wolf was feeling sorry. It was feeling
sorry for involving me in this encounter.

"It’s ok little buddy," I tried to assure the pup. Truth is I needed the
assurance. "We are gonna get you out of this. You are gonna be ok."

"You need to accept it into your family if you want to heal it." Shawn
said from behind me.

"What?" I asked Shawn completely confused.

"Look, here's how the pet-rule works, if you needed to own a dog or a
cat, or any other non-magical creatures, then you just like find them
somewhere and bring them home. And if you are dim-witted enough
you pay a pet-seller who just picks them off the roads, be my guest. But,
when owning a magical creature, there is a different rule. When you
wish to own a magical creature you state your name and the name of
your family then take an oath to care for the creature. Dark wolves are
magical creatures. So you will have to take the oath." Shawn explained.

I was even more confused now. I told Shawn to wait until I found a
piece of paper and a pencil and then repeat.

He rolled his eyes and said, “For example, if I was in your family, I
would say this... I Shawn Armour, accept this dark
wolf into my family. I swear to care for it until I am alive. Or until the
creature is alive..........but it only works if everyone who is still in your
family is alive accepts the pet.

"Well, I think I am the only one from my family who's alive. My

granddad died a natural death, as far as I know. Grandma was killed by
Typhoon when I tried to escape. Typhoon told me he himself had killed
my dad and mom...so yeah, I am the only Armour remaining." I told
Shawn.

"You killed Typhoon right? Because he was an Armour too." Shawn

said.

I was surprised when he said Typhoon was an Armour. I of course knew

that Typhoon was an Armour because my dad's ghost had told me that
he was the head of our family. What surprised me was how Shawn
could know. I guessed that someone in his orphanage had told him.

"Yes, I have killed Typhoon."

"Well then it should work. Just say what I said." he told me.

I stood up and looked down upon the dog-size black wolf that was
shaking with pain. I said,..."I Shawn Armour, accept this dark wolf into
my family. I swear to care for it until I am alive. Or until the creature is
alive."

Nothing happened. I hate it when that happens.

Shawn hit me on the back of my head. "I didn't mean exactly what I
said. Say your name dude not mine. Gosh!!"

'Oh! Sorry!! I wasn't paying attention when you said 'example'." I

retorted.

"I Saphire Armour, accept this dark wolf into my family. I swear to care
for it until I am alive. Or until the creature is alive." I repeated again.
This time.......nothing happened again. Did I mention I hate it when that
happens?

I was sure that I had said it correctly. I had no doubts. So I assumed that
this was a kind of magic that takes time. Like the one my dad's ghost
had done. It had taken about ten minutes to take effect.

I waited as time crawled by. I stood there in agonizing silence. Until...

"What are you waiting for? Christmas? Heal the poor thing" Shawn
said.

"Uh......isn't there some kind of glowing or something that happens?" I

asked Shawn surprised.

"Jesus!! You were waiting for it to glow?!?!? Just heal the poor thing!!"
Shawn said, clearly hysterical.

"Ok! Ok!" I said "here we go...."

I kneeled down and touched the dark wolf. I felt that it's pulse. It now
matched mine. As for the bond I had just committed myself to have
linked our life force together. I was sure that the wolf was only alive
until I was. I smiled and knew that even if I couldn't see the wolf smile,
it was still happy. I said, "Heal."
This time it worked. And so that I knew it worked, the dark wolf started
to glow. The white light washed over me, Shawn, the clearing and in
that light, I knew that the wolves that had run away were back. And this
time, they had a human with them.

The glow faded. I felt exhausted after the magic. I could have collapsed
and slept a few dreamless hours.

The darkwolf though was up and running. It ran around the clearing at
blinding fast speed. Once. Twice. Thrice. Four times. It ran over to the
rock and let out a happy howl. This howl, I heard and for once, it made
me feel good.

When I say feel good, I don't mean feel good in the sense of happiness.
I mean that the cuts, bites and scratches on my body, which had been
sponsored by the dark wolf gang and the hundred soldiers I had fought,
were healing. I felt my leg's broken bones slide back together and seal
themselves together. I looked at Shawn and saw that he had a broad grin
on his face. I smiled too, though I knew that we were in deep trouble.

Once the pup stopped howling, it ran back, pounced on me and licked
my face mercilessly. A person in a suit would have said, thank you
gentle men and shook my hand, I liked the way the pup thanked me
way better. Even though I was saying get-off!!! Stop!! Get-off!!!

"I think you should name him." Shawn suggested.

"Scythe." I replied. "I’ll name you Scythe." I told the dark wolf after it
had stopped liking me.

The darkwolf seemed to like that name and barked a couple of times. I
realized then, that even though dark wolves were supposed to be
though, mysterious and magical, deep down they were still dogs.
Friendly. Fun. And soon, I would realize protective about their master.

"The two wolves," I told Shawn, "they are coming back. I saw them.
There seems to be a human with them this time."

Shawn's eyes widened. "We have to run" he said. "Common."

I didn't ask questions. Shawn was a brave person, I knew it. If he

wanted to run away from a fight, there was no doubt that he was right. I
nodded to him.

I got up, grabbed the two swords and patted Scythe on its back. "We
have to run boy." I told him. "Can you take us to a good hiding place
quickly?" I asked.

I guess I shouldn't have said the word quickly. Scythe sprinted super-
fast towards one end of the woods. We chased him, tripping, sliding
falling and rolling. That's right 'rolling' I fell so bad I rolled down a
slope and actually managed to get ahead of Scythe.

After running by similar looking trees and falling a bit more than
running, we arrived...well I wasn't sure where we arrived. We had
stopped because Scythe had stopped.

I huffed and puffed. Shawn sat down and his head fell back (not
literally.). He was breathing hard too. Scythe walked over to a tree and
watered it.

"You made us... (huff).....run halfway......across the forest.........so that

you could pee!?!!?!" I breathed at Scythe.

Scythe seemed to be offended. He pushed me from behind and led me

to the base of a tree.

"No Scythe I don't need to pee. We need a place to hide."

"I don't think Scythe wants you to pee Saphire. There's a camouflaged
tree house up there." Shawn told me while looking up.

I looked up too.
There covered in tree leaves, fruits and vines was a hidden tree house.
We climbed the tree. There was a trap door which we pushed and
through which entered the tree house. Scythe had already gotten to the
top before Shawn and I could. I don't know how he did that.

There wasn't anything much in the tree house. It was just a small
squarish room covered with wood on all sides. It was very well hidden.
There was a place in a corner where you could cook. And a hole above
that for the smoke to escape. It was a perfect hideout to rest a few days.

I bent down and patted Scythe on his back. "Good work Scythe." I told
him. I sat back and leaned against the wall. Scythe rested his head
against my shoulder. He didn't drool like how I had read that dogs do. In
put an arm around him.

Shawn paced around the tree house. When I asked him what he was so
worried about, he said, "Dark wolves are able to co-operate with only
necromancer without having to be accepted in their family. If what I
think is right, the man you saw with those two wolves was a
necromancer." he said, I could sense the fear in his voice. It scared me
too. I didn't know what a necromancer was, but the way Shawn said it, I
figured that it was not a cuddly little Rubid.

"What’s a necromancer?" I asked Shawn, confused about why I

sounded so scared.

"Do you know anything about the Drydenblood Empire?" Shawn asked
me, finally sitting down.

"Nope, I heard that word in one of my nana's stories but I never

bothered to ask what it was." I told him.

"Drydenblood are an empire of undead. It is an empire of all those

people who die, but do not want to pass on to the land of dead. They
manage to keep the life-force with them, but loose all their memory.
Confused, they end up serving the Drydenblood . Here's the funny part,
the empire of undead was ruled by a completely living person. His
name was Gustavor Sae Drydenblood. He's dead now, one of the
mindless soldiers in the army. What he did was twist magic in such a
way that he could control these zombies. Then his daughter Adelide the
1st took over him. Currently too, Adelide the 2nd rules this empire.

Gustavor Sae recruited many mages who were hungry for power and
gold. He trained them in the dark art of controlling the undead. They
became the Shadow Liches. Soon, He managed to use his magic in such
a way that the undead mages and warriors still retain their skills. The
living mages he recruited, he turned them into these horrible undead
wizards. They then became the necromancers. They are evil and
powerful undead mages who can control the undead.

Another tendency of the undead is that they hate the living. There have
always been wars raging between both the sides. Paladins are some of
the best warriors who can fight these hoards of undead. If these undead
come out of their underground empire, paladins track them down fast.

What worries me is that we are extremely far away from the nearest
paladin camp."

I didn't want to ask him any questions. Not because I was worried and
scared. Basically because I had not been paying a lot of attention. Hey!
I understood the basic and important facts, so no harm done.

I sighed and stood up. Scythe the darkwolf got up too. I stretched and
heard pops all over my body. It felt awesome. Scythe tugged at my
shirt with its mouth. I looked down and asked him whether he wanted
me to follow him. He barked his yes and walked over to the trap door.

Shawn raised his eyebrows. I told him that I will be back in a bit. He
nodded and smiled. If the necromancers were after us, I was not too
sure of whether I would see Shawn again.
I jumped down from the tree house and followed Scythe through the
misty and dark woods. They didn't look very different from how they
looked in the morning. The canopy prevented the light from entering
the forest then. Now that it was night, there was no light.

Scythe was almost invisible in the darkness. A sort of forbidding chill

had settled over the forest. The animals that should have been highly
active by now were oddly quiet.

I followed Scythe for a little while. The path I had to follow was oddly
clean. There weren't many roots I had to trip over. I felt great for having
walked a few meters through this forest without having to kiss the leaf
strewn wet muddy ground.

I was happy about my night walk until I tripped over Scythe, flipped
and landed on my base. It hurt.

After getting up I realized that Scythe had stopped. I asked him what he
had brought me here for. He motioned at a wide tree trunk.

I raised my arm and thought of a new spell. "Light" I whispered. It

actually worked. My arm light up in a warm white light. A water drop
fell from above and dropped onto my glowing hand. Apparently my arm
was not only glowing white, it was white hot too. The water drop
steamed away within a second. More drops started to fall. It had started
to drizzle.

I pointed my glowing palm in the direction Scythe was motioning

towards. All I could see was the vine covered tree trunk. Green moss
stretched across the brown trunk. Scythe looked ghostly because of the
white light emitting from my hand. I turned and raised my eyebrow at
him. He seemed annoyed and motioned at the trunk again and moved its
paw across it.

I understood, finally, that Scythe was asking me to run my palm across

the tree trunk.

By now it had started to rain. The drops kept steaming away after
dripping on my glowing palm. It was quite annoying when rain kept
steaming away with a hissing sound from your palm. I raised my right
hand and ran it across the trunk, I felt the wooden bumps and holes but
nothing you would want to come out in the dark into a forest to find.

I knew Scythe wouldn't have brought me here for no reason. I kept at it

but didn't feel anything different. I told Scythe we had to get back to the
tree house but he shook his head violently. I got angry with the stupid
wolf and smacked the tree trunk in frustration.

I shouldn't have said stupid wolf. When I smacked the tree trunk I
creaked a dent. I had enough sense to know that you cannot dent wood
by punching it.

I ran my hand over the tree again but couldn't find anything. I started to
lose my temper again.

I was about to say forget it and drag Scythe back. Before I could put my
brilliant plan into action, Scythe got a better idea. He ran back a few
meters and charged at the tree.

Bang!!!!

A huge dent appeared in the tree again.

I understood what to do now. I raised my arm and punched. Dent. It was

working.

I kept pouncing the trunk and kept inflicting dents onto it, until I
punched real wood. I squeaked out the pain and shook my hand rapidly.
I realized I should just heal it with magic and I did.

Now I knew what I was looking for. I put my palm a little further from
the last dent. I focused fully on the feeling of the wood. I moved my
palm slowly across the wood. I felt every bump and every hole on the
wet wood. And then I felt a gap. A tiny gap that I had been overlooking.
That gap separated the wood from the iron.

Ok. Follow Scythe and understand him, check. Find something on the
trunk, check. Realize there is a iron door on the trunk, check. Find the
separation gap, check. Open the iron door...uh...how??

I pondered over the simplest of answers for a long time. It always

happens doesn’t it? The answer is like right next to you but you run a
mile to realize you left it behind. All I had to do was raise my palm and
use magic and command the door to open. I did so.

The door moved outwards and hit Scythe in the face. He came back
from behind the door and growled his annoyance at me, I apologized to
him awkwardly, while trying not to laugh. By now, the rain had stopped
leaving me, Scythe and forest floor annoyingly wet. Scythe shoot off
the drops of water. I didn't think I could do the same. Even if I could, I
wouldn't.

Scythe reminded me of the door while I was imagining how I would

look while shaking like an idiot, trying to get dry.

I raised my glowing (and to my total delight, non-steaming and non-

hissing) palm and threw light, literally, into the hidden room.

I was amazed to find food supplies, clean clothes, armors, spears,

swords and bows and arrows. It felt like I had found a warriors treasure.
My delight was justified, I knew these weapons would be useful. I had
never guessed as to how soon that help would be needed.
 Chapter 8:
Water dragon
As day dawned over Gren woods, sound waves of snoring and grunting
emanated from our tree house. Shawn was the first up and he got to
empty half our food supplies. I'm kidding, there was a week's worth of
fruit stored in there.

When I came back with all the supplies last night, Shawn had been
delighted. He had hugged Scythe around the neck and given me a
'friendly' punch on the arm. My skin had turned blue in that area. I
returned the friendliness next morning by giving him a 'pat' on the back
as a greeting of good morning. It was just a pat. I have no idea about
how he tripped over the spears and fell to the forest floor through the
tree house window. Seriously, I have absolutely no idea how it
happened.

The next morning we trekked across the forest and splashed around in
the spine river. I was surprised to find that I could swim pretty well.
And don't believe Shawn, I didn't use magic to teach myself how to
swim.

I waded through the gushing waters like a fish. In a bit of time I was
better at it than Shawn. I felt pleased with myself for having such a
good 'natural' ability at swimming that I could beat someone who had
two years more experience than me.

We returned dripping wet to find a few monkeys enjoying a feast that

we were planning to enjoy. We laughed off our anger and let the
monkeys enjoy our fruit.

So we set out to find a bit of meat for ourselves with Scythe being the
natural and amazing hunter. I must say, I was not bad either. I must also
say again, that do not believe Shawn. I didn't use magic to make my
arrow hit the deer.

We cooked the meat, which I had obtained; by magic in that corner of

the tree house from where smoke could escape. We decided we would
eat only fruits after that meal, basically because we felt terrible for
having to kill a deer every time. The other important reason was that
neither of us were very good cooks.

In the evening, we went to a clearing and sparred with our various

weapons, I can honestly say that I didn't have to use magic to be good at
sword fighting or using a spear, or even hand to hand. Shawn and I were
almost evenly matched. Every fight ended with a few brusies but
neither of us could actually defeat the other.

Shawn taught me a few exercises that his sensei had taught him. I could
do almost all of them with ease.

After sweating so much that we looked like we had taken a swim again,
we still weren't satisfied. We called Scythe who had been out chasing
deer and basically running around, and asked him to run.

He ran like a mad wolf and we ran behind Scythe like our behinds were
on fire. Soon, very soon, we lost Scythe's trail and had to whistle for
him to come back.

By then it was night and we collected a bit of fruit, using the light from
my glowing palm. Yup, I had mastered the torch-hand spell.

Sitting cross-legged and talking about random stories and joking

around, we enjoyed a well earned fruity meal. The monkeys joined us,
we didn't mind. We slept like babies that had crawled half a mile.

After a long time, I managed to sleep happily. I was sure I was smiling
in my sleep.

We fell into this routine for the next few days. Swimming, collecting
fruit, eating with monkeys, sparring, practicing with arrows (which I
was getting better at, without having to use magic.) And chasing Scythe
until we lost him. Later, collecting fruit, eating and chatting and then
sleeping. I was getting better at everything we were doing, sword
fighting, swimming, chasing Scythe at high speeds and yes even eating
and sleeping.

I was happy enough to be able to follow this routine for a bit, I wish I
had had a prior warning to know how short this period of happiness was
to last. And how quickly we were going to have to leave the shelter of
the tree house.

One day, after sparring like crazy, we were chasing Scythe. I had gotten
way better at keeping pace with him. Just that morning I had noticed
how from a skinny thirteen year old, I had turned into a warrior, with a
brilliant warrior's body too. My body was muscular now. My biceps and
triceps rippled across my arms. My calf and thighs had gotten much
more muscular now. My chest was like an armor itself, no I will not test
it against a sword. Abs were carved out across my abdomen. I had
gotten way better with my speed too.

Shawn hadn't lagged he was as good a fighter as I was.

Anyway, we were chasing Scythe until we saw that he had suddenly

stopped. We were wondering if something was wrong with him when
we heard voices.

We ducked behind a tree and peeped through its branches. I saw the
same hooded man that I had seen with the darkwolves the other day. He
was as tall as an average adult. His face was covered in darkness by a
black hood. Black robes were draped across his body. The robes were
scrappy and torn. On his shoulders were creepy shoulder blades. A
skeletal hand showed through the sleeve.

He was speaking to a misty black and red sphere which was floating in
front of him.

The necromancer's voice was hollow and it echoed. He said, "Should I

kill them?"

Another voice replied, this one sounded more human, I recognized it as

a woman's “How old are they?” the voice sounded bored, as if this was
a regular and boring conversation.

I realized that the voice was coming from the mist.

"About thirteen may be fourteen."

"Good fighters? Will they be able to defend themselves?" I don't know

why but it felt as though this question was a different addition to the
regular conversation.

"I suppose so, I have seen them sparring, they are excellent with the
sword. One can do magic."

"You actually praised someone about good ability with a sword. That’s
a surprise, no need to explain yourself. Anyways, the reason you want
to kill them is....."

I noticed how she asked him the reason last, as if that wasn't important.

"The darkwolves told me they interrupted a fight for leadership of the

pack and rescued the darkwolf that had lost. In the process they killed
quite a few of those creatures. They told me to bring them justice in the
form of their blood."

"Those stupid darkwolves and their stupid fights, I will never

understand their laws. "

She paused for long. The necromancer stayed quite too.

I won't lie and say that I wasn't scared, I was. But hiding there and
listening to the silence, it was starting to get boring.

Finally voice emanated from the mist again, "Fine, kill them. Make sure
they die, I wouldn't mind using them in the army."

"Yes Miss Adelide. I will kill them tonight." the necromancer ended the
chat.

I turned to Shawn who looked like someone had told him he was going
to be hanged in five minutes. I was pretty sure I looked pretty much the
same. I whispered to him that we have to get back to the tree house.
Now. He nodded.

We were running back towards the tree house. I had asked Scythe to get
there first and get all the weapons down. The sky was already turning
dark. I was sure that we had run very far away from the tree house this
time. It was going to take us a long time to get back.

After stopping suddenly, Shawn made a weird clicking sort of noise and
held his hand out. I was afraid he had gotten so scared that he had lost
his mind. Until I saw a familiar pigeon come and perch on his arm. He
picked up a thick looking leaf and carved a note, pleading for help and
told the bird to take it to the nearest village or town. Apparently the bird
understood him and also understood the tense situation. It took off in a
hurry and flew away wildly, it's claws clinging to the leaf.

We were still trying to get back to the tree house when the sky started to
darken. Tonight the moon was full. A perfect setting for a dead mage
who could control the undead, to slay a couple of teenagers.

We were still a little while away from the tree house when it turned
dark. We ran as soundlessly as we could. Every sound in the forest
creeped me out. Every slight movement looked like a zombie moving. I
ran with all the speed I could. Luckily we managed to reach the tree
house before dying.

Scythe was waiting for us. He was on his guard. He looked more war-
wolf like than I had ever seen him. His growl showed his sharp canines.
His claws were just as sharp. He had grown since we found him. He
was the same size now as those other darkwolves. This meant, he was
huge!!

He had brought down all the weapons like I had asked him to. Although
Shawn got a better idea than grabbing the weapons and trying to run
from the necromancer in the dark. Well at least it gave us a better edge,
because even if we didn't want to, whatever we did, we would have to
face him.

He said we should get back to the tree house. Take a sword and a spear
each. Get all the arrows possible and strap them on. Get ready with the
bows and try to take out the enemy from far.

Scythe definitely wanted to stay on the forest floor and fight, but I was
not about to risk that. He was going to stay in the tree house.

We climbed up to the tree house after picking the best swords, amours,
spears, bows and all the arrows we could carry. We had around two or
three hundred arrows stashed in the tree house. I wasn't satisfied with
that so I sprinted with all the speed I could back and forth from the
hidden weapon closet until we had at least a thousand or so arrows.

There was only one window in the tree house, so I cut a few more
windows. I stuffed a few fruits into myself and Shawn did the same.
Then, we waited for the enemy.

The forest had grown eerily quiet. As if the forest knew there was a
slaughter about to take place within its borders.

It was getting darker and darker now. If it was any other day, we would
have been having dinner and laughing heartily. I was starting to feel
drowsy now. My eyes kept fluttering shut. I felt a bead of sweat drop
down my face.

What felt like an eternity later, we heard footsteps. They were loud
footsteps. They echoed through the silent forest. I had light torches in a
circle around our tree house so we had enough light to see the enemy.

*********
 ********************

The necromancer stepped into view. He was alone. That freaked me out,
I don't know why but seeing him walking alone into view like that at
this time of the night just scared me. He had no shadow. I turned and
looked at a sweaty and scared Shawn. All the same, I could tell he was
ready for the fight.

I saw Scythe pacing the tree house, not tensed but confident. He looked
like a cracker which was lit but had been warned not to burst. He started
looking out the window I had cut for him once the sound of the
footsteps started.

Shawn attacked.

He loosened his arrow and it flew towards the necromancer. It hit him
in the chest. The necromancer reached for the arrow stuck in his chest
and pulled it back out.

There was no blood on the arrow. The part that had been inside the
necromancer had turned black. He dropped the arrow and it shattered
when it hit the ground.

He drew a large and ugly looking staff from out of the air. The staff
looked like a spinal cord of a large animal. I could have sworn it was. I
could almost make out bits of flesh hanging off it.
He touched the ground with its base and drew a sort of alchemy circle
with it. I couldn't see the details on the circle very well, because of the
darkness. He pulled the staff off the ground and brought it back down.
This time, with lots of force. It landed right in middle of his circle.

His robe started to ripple. As if a harsh wind was blowing. I felt the
wind too. It washed over me. I always liked a nice breeze. This wasn't a
nice breeze. It sort of chocked me. I felt like not breathing the air which
now smelt so much like death.

The circle began to glow. That’s when I knew that we were positioned
to fight a hopeless battle. The ground cracked about half a mile behind
the necromancer; and the undead pulled themselves to the surface.

They wore tattered and torn clothes. Their skin had torn off on various
parts of their body. For some, various parts of the body themselves had
torn off. Their faces looked human. Even from that distance I could
make out that their eyes had no pupils. Blood was dripping from some
of the undead. Others had run out of blood after bleeding for eternity,
they just had blood stains. Hundreds, no thousands of these undead
crawled up to the forest floor. They did not look weak or fragile. They
were surely as strong as any living solider. Their only weakness seemed
to be the inability to think. Though I was sure they would understand
what to do if the necromancer pointed at us and said kill.

I was scared. I wanted to go home. Then I realized I didn't have a home.

I looked at Shawn who was praying. He had closed his eyes and his lips
were moving in what was surely a frantic prayer. I didn't believe in god.
I never had. So I didn't pray. Scythe wasn't looking so confident either.

I waited for Shawn to open his eyes, which gave the undead enough
time to get their army ready.

When Shawn opened his eyes, I grinned at him. He looked too scared to
return the grin. Just for a moment, he grinned back. I nodded at him and
then patted Scythe gently on his back. He licked my palm to show his
readiness to fight on my side. It was the best assurance I could hope for
before this battle. I turned back to the army of undead. I breathed
deeply and loosened my arrows.

I managed to turn one of the undead to dust with it. One down and an
estimate four hundred ninety nine to go.

The undead army charged. Armors and axes had materialized on the
zombie army. They roared and slowly started to cover the half a mile of
distance between us.

I grabbed as many arrows as I could and released them all at once.

Shawn did the same. Many more undead turned to black dust as our
arrows rained down on them. We kept wiping out the charge with
arrows. The zombies kept coming though. Black dust covered the forest
floor now. Armors and swords were fallen in equal number. The zombie
army had no archers in their midst. They weren't able to return fire. I
was pleased that we had at least one small advantage.

My fingers were growing numb from the speed at which I was

launching the arrows. I was trying to keep an eye on the number of
arrows we had remaining.

I grabbed an arrow and set it on fire. I shot it at a tree and made a sort of
burning separation between us and the undead army, which they kept
charging through. But the flames were burning them to dust.

We were running out of arrows. If the fight resulted to a close-ranged

sword fight, I was not sure of our chances. I resolved to leave the
remaining arrows for Shawn and climbed to the roof of our tree house.
Scythe followed me.

He took a grip on the roof and went into a position as though he were
howling. I saw blue-black sparks starting to fill his mouth. He took a
deep breath and his chest puffed up fully. Then, he roared at the undead
army. From his mouth, he shot a ball of blue-black energy at the enemy.

Booooom!!!

The explosion shook the forest.

I patted Scythe on the back only to find that his attack had not made a
lot of difference. I told Scythe to get back into the tree house and attack
from there he obeyed. I grabbed a spear from the hole in the roof and
used magic to make it able to fly. I wasn't sure if this would work.

I put the spear down. I took a few more spears and using magic joined
them to make a kind of board. I cast a spell to give the spear board the
ability to fly. I told Shawn to throw me my swords. He did and returned
to firing his arrows. I fastened my feet onto the magically altered
spears. And jumped.

It actually worked. I could fly using the spears. I took position and
rushed for the undead army as air and arrows whizzed past me. I went
into a dive. I saw Scythe's blue-black balls of energy blowing the
undead army apart. Shawn's arrows that were now burning were
igniting many of the zombies and roasting them into a black zombie
powder.

The one part of the war which I was enjoying was flying the spear. I
was in the middle of a weird forest, I was involved in fighting five-
hundred member undead army and I was actually having fun fighting it.

At the climax of my dive, I pulled up and shot at the confused undead

soldiers, a moment before I tore through the undead horde, I yanked my
swords out and held them perpendicular to my body in both my arms.

I concentrated on the blade of my flying spear. I looked up and saw the

dead who were going to turn to dust. Before I could even get scared by
looking at the faces of the dead, I burst into their midst.
My flying board slash spear turned many flanks of the army into dust. I
kept swinging my blades wildly knowing that every swing meant at
least one more undead less. I bent my legs to get the spear to turn
around and rush back towards the army. I spun wildly, ridding the world
of more of these walking dead. I stopped, facing a random direction. I
sighed and shot into that direction, spraying undead dust all around.
One of the undead soldiers leaped at me, missed and his clothes got
stuck on the blade of my ride. I climbed up to a higher altitude. I shot
through the canopy and hovered a few hundred feet above the forest.
The undead turned and looked at me.

"This is your stop, get off." I told the undead and spun my ride wildly
so that he was thrown off. He collided with a tree trunk and exploded to
dust against it.

I got another idea for a spell. I had been able to control light by using
my palm. I wondered if I would be able to control fire and take it to a
new level. I shoved my swords back into their sheaths. I concentrated
on my palms and said "burn!!!"

Another trial that worked perfectly. My fists were burning in blue

flames but I didn't feel pain or heat. I raised my arm and said "burn"
again. The flames shot a few feet from my palm like a flame thrower.
Awesome.

I dived back into the forest. This time I did not have to go right into the
army. I curved around the edge of the army leaving a trail of fire behind
me. I spun in mid-air and flew over it. This time, I burned legions of the
army. In a few seconds, I had eliminated a lot of undead. The spell was
draining my soul. Literally. So I ended it.

I hovered facing the necromancer while standing on my spear. I heard

Shawn shout his cheers from behind. The necromancer snapped his
fingers and half the threat I had just eliminated sprung back up. He did
his circle thing again and restored the army to its former self.

"Almost all the men who have been dying for the last eight hundred
years have joined the Drydenblood . Apparently, we have a large army.'
he told me.

My temper fuse blew and I told him to go (BEEP!) himself.

I spun back towards the uglies and attacked them again.

I didn't dare do the fire thing again, I was too drained. I just kept flying
hacking and slashing. It was still working to an extent. I dived again
until, an axe hit my spear and shattered it. I lost control and fell a few
feet to the forest floor.

I rolled into the midst of the undead battalion. I leaped to my feet before
a few spears stabbed the place where I was lying. I used magic to burn
away zombies who had surrounded me. All I could focus on doing was
keeping a circular boundary of zombies and staying safe there. Killing
any zombie that stepped over the line. I stabbed at an undead knight
who stepped at me and tried to get me with his axe. As he turned to
dust, all the zombies around me charged at me. Before I got squashed
by the onslaught, I rammed by blades in their direction and ran through.

I had never noticed it but it had started to rain again. It just increased
the intensity of the battle that was raging. I could barely see now.

I knew that Shawn had run out of arrows and had joined the fight on
foot. I had seen Scythe run through the army leaving trails of undead
dust behind him. And though we were fighting for all our lives worth,
we were outnumbered three to about five hundred undead. I didn't need
any calculations to know that our chances of living were going down
and down by the second.

I ran a couple of undead through with my swords. I kicked a zombie's

head off which apparently was not enough to kill him. Scythe grabbed
the rest of the body and threw it into another zombie and turned both
into dust. Scythe charged back into the battle. I got tossed into the air
and then felt a heavy club to the back. I spun through the air but
regained balance before falling to the ground, I landed slashing a couple
of undead down.

I kept fighting but the waves of undead just kept coming. As I fought I
realized the power that the necromancer possessed. It was pure evil
power, but that didn't stop me from appreciating it. I mean control of
every single warrior who had died until now? That is sheer power of
numbers. There are fewer people alive in this world compared to how
many are dead.

My swords were deadly even to the dead but I had to face it that it was
hopeless. I looked around and saw that both Shawn and Scythe were
very close to me. And I decided that they were not going to die. I was
not going to let them get killed because of me. I killed another ten
undead. Ok kill was not a very appropriate word, but hey I can't say
turned them to dust in every two seconds. Anyway I cleared my path for
a couple of seconds.

I shouted to Shawn and Scythe to run. I had gotten a crazy idea and had
hoped that both of them had heard me. If they were alive.

I ran back to the tree house and was happy to find a perfectly alive
Shawn and a perfectly alive Scythe running away from the battle right
alongside me. I turned around and used magic to make a trench in the
forest. I told Shawn and Scythe to run to safety. I shouted to them not to
worry, that I had a plan. All they had to do was run and get to safety.
They nodded and did what I had asked.

I ran a little while and turned to find the undead army rushing towards
me.

I knew that if I had sense, I would turn away and run. Apparently I
didn't have sense. It was the only way that I could have gotten away, but
I stood my ground. I wanted to make sure that Shawn and Scythe were
out safely. I was going to give them enough time to get away, even if
that time cost me my life. I know you are surprised by how heroic it
sounded, I was too. Nevertheless, it was true.

I sheathed both my swords. The rain splattered against me. Soon, I was
sure that swords of the undead would splatter against me too.

I raised my both my arms like a hawk raises its wings before flying. I
concentrated on that part of my body where magic was resting. The
wind that he been rushing against my face until now, turned direction,
the rain drops were coming from behind now.

I had found an alternative for the lack of arrows. Raindrops. I was going
to control the rain and turn it into a weapon. I knew that this might just
be the last bit of magic I would do. It was going to empty the magic and
probably even the life-force in me.

I felt my feet leave the ground. I closed my eyes and felt my body rise.
Ten feet, twenty feet, I rose over the burning patch of forest. The thick
tree cover that had been present here had burned down to a clearing. I
heard the metal clad undead army rushing towards me. I felt it's deadly
power. I smelled it's stench. I knew that it was now or never.

I yanked my eyes open and roared.

The rain stopped smashing against me. Instead, rain drops started
spinning like a hurricane until they assumed the shape of a dragon. The
shape of my birth mark. I was in full control of the deadly, not to
mention, 'huge' dragon, whose body was water, literally. The dragon
stood infront of me. Since it's body was made of water, there were no
distinct marks I could make out. It had four muscular legs, a muscular
tail, a muscular neck and a head worthy of a legendary dragon. I could
make out horns on its head. Three horns actually. It wasn't a fat dragon.
It looked fit, like it had been working out. It roared at the undead. If I
didn't know that undead couldn't think, I could have sworn that fear was
their only thought at the moment. I commanded the dragon to attack the
undead. As the dragon stretched its enormous watery wings, the mark
on my torso began to glow. The sapphire glow came both from my torso
and the massive similar shaped dragon that I was controlling.

The dragon burst into a billion water drops and rushed towards the
undead army like a hurricane. The army stood no chance as the deadly
rain shot through their bodies. If one rain drop turned an undead solider
into a pile of dust, a hundred more passed through that dust before it fell
to the ground. The dust kept falling until I managed to keep the spell
going. Sadly I knew that was not going to be very long.

I was losing the feeling of magic. I could literally feel it like someone
was pulling a shirt off of me. I was also losing energy. I was at least a
hundred feet in the air and when the magic left me for good, I was
going to fall to my doom.

I did my best to keep the spell going until I wiped out the entire army. I
couldn't. I managed to turn at least half the undead soldiers to dust. That
was pretty good, at least four hundred zombies were gone. That was all
I could manage though. After that, I lost the magic. The game was over.
I had used every bit of magic in me.

I felt the power that was keeping me in the air slip away, I fell. I crashed
through the branches, leaves and a lot of vines. I broke myself against
the forest floor. I opened my eyes and found my sight blurring. I waited
a bit and blinked a lot. I finally saw that I had managed to throw the
undead army into chaos. The necromancer was trying to gain control
but he was having a hard time. After a lot of shouting and screaming. I
knew that the army was in attacking form again.

I looked up through my still functioning eyes and saw my death.

Literally above the horde of approaching undead, I saw Mr. Death. He
was not wearing the hood this time. I saw the ghostly face of Mr. Death.
I am not going to describe that face. It was a feeling I cannot explain
and I do not think that sharing that feeling is a good idea.

Through my pain I smiled at Mr. Death. He smiled back. I stood up and

faced the undead army.

I drew my swords and charged at my end while roaring. I turned the

first few undead into dust. Then I lost balance, my arm gave away. I
dropped my sword and felt another sword go through my stomach. I
spat blood out of my mouth and killed a few more undead with my fists.

Another sword went through me. This time, it was from the back. I
looked down at the blade sprouting from my chest and another sword's
hilt lodged in my stomach.

I was through. I was going to die I had no doubts. I just hoped that
Scythe and Shawn were able to get away. I closed my eyes and dropped
to my knees. The undead were huddled around me. I was crying now. I
don't know why I was crying, but I was.

All I wanted now was to just go to my family, my grand mom, my nana,

my father, my mother..I just wanted to go to them. I had protected my
friend and fought the dreaded undead to my last breath. I was hoping
Mr. Death would consider that enough payment to let me pass on to
where ever my family was.

'Payment'. I smiled at my own joke.

The feeling of pain had now left me.

I looked at Mr. Death who smiled and mouthed, "We’ll see" and
evaporated. A flash of brilliant golden light blinded me.

I died.
 Chapter 9:
Tybolt Van Cryst
This was the second time I died and I had a feeling that Mr. Death
would not be giving me a third chance to die. I was assured later that I
would not be getting a third chance from Mr. Death.

I felt the feeling of jumping from the sky again. I kept falling through
pitch black darkness. This time I could feel my whole body. I could
smell fresh pines blended with the smell of death in the distance. I know
I keep saying smell of death, but I never explain how it smells. I am
sorry to say that there is no word in English that can let me describe that
stench to you. Anyway. I could feel the wind rushing through my hair
and against my body. This time, I had not left my body behind, it had
managed to get into the train with me. I opened my eye. Either I was
blind or either I was surrounded by pitch black darkness. I looked down
and saw myself in a ghostly shirt and pant. They were the same ones I
was wearing my armor over when I died. I sighed, because when I was
living, those clothes had caused me quite a bit of annoyance. The stupid
things had followed me even in death. My skin was almost transparent
but still the same color.

I was cursing the clothes when someone said, "Don't worry they won't
bother you now that you are dead."

I had a slight hope. Tiny one that I could still live; but hearing Mr.
Death's hollow voice tell me I am dead, it wiped any hope out.

"So this time I am dead for good, huh?" I asked Mr. Death turning to
look at him. He was dressed in an elegant white suit. It was a plane suit
but this outfit freaked me out more that the tattered hood and cloak.
Like I said before, I will not describe his face.

"Yes" he replied with a shrug.

I noticed how he was standing calmly; and I felt like an idiot for having
been spinning out of control. I steadied myself and came to a standing
position. It wasn't hard considering that I was falling through
nothingness.

I sighed and turned to face Mr. Death. He smiled at me and said,

"So...what do you choose?"

"What do you mean what do I choose? That's your job."

"True. And not true also. You see you are at the gates to death, but you
can still return to the world of the living."

I was happy and annoyed at the same time. "Look, if you are just going
to send me back to my living body every time that I die, then why even
let me die?"

"Who said anything about a living body?" he asked surprised.

Surprised, I asked him, "Well, then what did you mean return to the
land of the living?"

"He meant become one of the undead."

I turned around sharply to face the voice.

I saw a girl, about my age mostly, with blood red hair and dressed in a
dull maroon armor. The armor seemed like any regular one except it had
a couple of bull-horns sticking out of the shoulder blades. A red cape
fluttered behind her. A deadly looking sword made mostly of silver was
hanging at her waist. It was an extremely broad sword. It had red
carving running across it's blade. I couldn’t read the inscriptions but the
sword looked like it had tasted the blood of thousands. It dangled from
a plane black belt. The full body armor covered her athletic figure. She
was quite pretty. Her eyes were black. She had red slanted eyebrows.
Her nose was straight and her blood red lips were curled in a cruel
smile. Her armor clanked as she raised her hand, "Nice to meet you, I
am Adelide."

"But, you, aren't you like very very old?" I asked her nervously.

"Sorry." She smacked her forehead and held her hand back out. "I am
Adelide the third. I am thirteen, I hope you don't consider that very very
old."

I shook her hand.

"Look," I told her, "If you are here to convince me to join your undead
army, forget it. You are out of luck there. Firstly because I do not like
your intentions. Secondly, I was killed by one of your necromancer's
legion of undead. I am not about to join you."

"I understand." she replied.

"Ok then. So....any other reason you are here?"

"Just to warn you, I'll let you know that your friends are going to be
joining you soon. They aren't out of danger yet."

"You mean your necromancer is still after Shawn and Scythe!?!?!" I

shouted at her.
"Yes. If you want to help them, I can make you a necromancer. It will
be an easy process."

I turned to death. "Can you please send me back to my body? I need to

help my friend."

"I am sorry Saphire, I have already broken the rule once for you. I doubt
I can do it again. The only method you have is what Adelide's."

"Argh!!" I shouted exasperated.

I thought of Scythe and Shawn now running helplessly from the

necromancer. I had told them I had a plan. I had had a plan. It hadn't
worked to its full extent. Now they were running hoping for help from
me, help that wasn't going to arrive. I closed my eyes and literally saw
Shawn and Scythe getting over run by a horde of undead. I snapped my
eyes open. I was feeling like such a loser. How could I have died while
leaving my friend and pet like that?!?!

"You can still help them you know." Adelide continued. “There isn't
much time though. Decide quickly unless you want to let those two die
with you."

"Fine." I whispered.

Mr. Death seemed to sigh. As though it was a sigh of pity.

"Anything wrong Mr. Death?" Adelide asked him. I didn't really pay a
lot of attention, but I thought I might have heard a warning tone in her
voice.

"No Miss Adelide. None" I heard Mr. Death reply.

"Well. Didn't you say there's no time left?" I asked her.

"Oh! Yes yes, we must proceed. Please kneel down at my feet." she said
I did feeling extremely angry and humiliated.

She withdrew her sword and placed it on my shoulder. And said….

"I Adelide the third, master of the undead, preserver of the soul, accept
you. I accept you into our family of undead. I command that your soul
return to your body. I command it not to leave for eternity. When it
returns, it returns to body of a necromancer. So rise soul of
necromancer...."

"What happened?" I asked her through gritted teeth.

"What is your name?" she asked me.

"Saph_

Before I could finish, I felt a pulse in my body. It banged through me.

As if someone had attached mikes to my heart and amplified the sound.
Each thump of my heart started to echo. And with each thump, my soul
started to fade a little more. The heart beat hurt me. I felt like screaming
but couldn't.

"He is not joining you Adelide." a new voice echoed around, well
echoed around where ever we were. This voice sounded more alive than
both Mr. Death's and Adelide’s. It sounded like a man's voice.

I turned around and saw that a new figure had joined my death party. He
wore a silver armor with golden trims. It seemed pure and good. The
armor covered all of his body. He didn't wear a belt. Instead he had an
intricate and elegant looking golden scarf tied around his abdomen. A
golden cape fluttered behind him. A golden war axe hung at his hip. It
had intricate carvings that were a deeper shade of golden. He seemed to
have a well built body and looked to be in his twenties. His brown hair
was a mess. And on his squarish face, angry looking brown eyes stared
at Adelide. His skin was a pale. His mouth was curled down in an angry
look. All in all, he was a knight in a shining armor. Literally.
"You have no business here paladin." Adelide said to him.

Let me correct myself, paladin in shining armor!!

"Usually I wouldn't Adelide, but tonight I do. I cannot let you turn
Saphire Armour into one of your filthy minions."

"Filthy minions!! You coward, call them necromancers they deserve

more respect than that."

"I would rather respect a donkey." the paladin said.

"You would since your powers can't even match that animal's."

"Um...sorry to interrupt but about my return to the living..........."

"What’s your name kid?" Adelide asked again.

"Saphire Armour, the paladin just said that_"

"Your an Armour!!" Adelide said. I could tell she was extremely happy
about that.

"He’s an Armour who hasn't died yet. You have no control over him."
the paladin said.

"If he wasn't dead he wouldn't be here."

As they argued, I had been fading more and more. The thumping was
starting to get fast.

"I cannot let him die. Artimis needs to see him. The boy is going to put
an end to your kingdom and you cannot stop him."

"The boy is not going back to the living world!! Not now. Not ever. I
will not even let him join my army. He is going to rot in Mr. Death’s
kingdom for eternity."
"Excuse me, only people who have committed sins in their lives 'rot' in
my kingdom. I don't think I would do that to Saphire’s soul." Mr. Death
told Adelide.

She ignored him.

"He doesn’t have to. He has already gone back to the living." the
paladin said coolly. "While I stalled you with this argument, a healer
had been working on Saphire. Bad luck Adelide."

I knew Tybolt was right. The reason I had been so quiet was because of
my thumping-fading problem. I had almost faded to a totally
transparent body. I was feeling pain. Excruciating pain. I screamed.

I couldn't take the pain so I closed my eyes and...

Bang!!!!

I felt myself crash and then I felt my body again. This time there was
pain. Lots and lots of it. I felt the rhythmic thumping of my heart. I
breathed a whole full-filling breath of fresh air.

I was alive again.

I pulled my eyes open slowly I saw the same paladin who I had seen a
couple of minutes ago. He had his palm on my forehead. He opened his
eyes slowly and gave me a friendly grin. I smiled.

The paladin pulled me into a sitting position. My rids and lungs hurt
like crazy and so did my stomach. I saw Shawn’s face light up as he
saw me. He smiled and said "Welcome back." he was dressed in blue
robes. He looked like he had taken a four hour bath. I smiled back at
him.

A woman was sitting next to the cozy blue bed where I was lying. She
was dressed in a plane white robe. She seemed old, not only because of
her gray hair but because of her wrinkles. Her eyes were white in color.
Her hands were hidden beneath her robes. She saw me looking and
smiled. I tried to smile back, it was awkward but I managed a lop-sided
smile.

"Well, now that you are fighting fit again, let the introductions
happen.." the paladin said.

"I doubt the fighting fit part." I told him.

"Yeah me too. Miss, I am a healer so I know it's ok to lie to a patient to

make them feel better told me to say that." He said.

Confused, I asked him what he was on about.

"She told me to say that." He said pointing at the old lady. "Anyways,
Saphire Armour that's Gertrude, top healer and Cyrus's mother. I am
Tybolt Van Cryst, top paladin and teacher in the guardian tower. You
can call me Tybolt."

I found out a little later that I was a short walk away from Lincolnshire.
I had died and even in death managed to get to this place. It was home
to the guardian tower, where Shawn had wanted to study. It was where I
was going to meet Artimis and get some things explained. Tybolt had
told me to rest until I was feeling fully alright. He meant it. I was in
Tybolt's friend Cyrus’s house. Who is Cyrus? Don't ask me. I have no
idea.

Shawn said that Scythe was alright but Tybolt hadn't let him bring
Scythe into the house because he was too big to fit into the door now. I
heard him barking and howling below my bedroom window.

The healer Gertrude visited me twice every day, giving me the worst
possible medicine and telling me to rest. That was her habit, Tybolt told
me a little while later. She tells people to do exactly what they are
doing anyway. In a few weeks, Gertrude let me out of the house, and
then pulled me back in before Scythe drenched me in wolf saliva.

Tybolt came in one day and he said Artimis will be coming to visit me
in a few days. I was almost fully healed by then so Gertrude allowed me
to feel excited. Shawn said that he would make sure I was back on this
bed after sparring with him once. I told him to bring it on.

The food!! How could I have forgotten to mention food!! After a month
of boring and fruity lunches, scraping down on Gertrude’s fried chicken
and cheese grilled, my mouth felt like it was in heaven. The chicken
was spicy and crunchy on the outside. Bite into it and then you get to
the tender and juicy part. I'll stop now in case some of you are those
kind of people who do not eat meat.

Anyway after a few long boring weeks, through which I enjoyed

resting, Gertrude declared me fit to break a few bones again.

I felt great that I could walk, run, jump and do other stuff without
having to feel pain pulsating through my body. I walked out of my room
while Gertrude cleaned up behind me. I peeped back in and thanked her,
she smiled. I walked down the corridor where three other doors locked
Tybolt’s room, Gertrude’s room and Shawn’s room. I didn't bother
peeping into any of those. I jumped down the stairs into a huge room.
There was a big glass door saying Cyrus’s workshop. Another which
Tybolt had said was Cyrus’s room and a couple of doors leading to the
rest rooms.

I jumped down another fleet of stairs into the living room where Tybolt
was polishing his golden axe. He was wearing a black shirt and brown
pants now. He was holding a black colored cloth and wore a pointless
smile. His pointless smile was what I liked most about Tybolt. He saw
me and let his smile widen.

"So the snake finally sticks it's head out of its whole." He said.
"Uh...what snake?" I asked him, though I knew perfectly well what I
was saying.

Apparently Tybolt was happy to play along as if embarrassed of his old

man like dialogue.

"You know, now that you are alright, I think we can go to Lincolnshire
so that you can meet Artimis. He wasn't able to come here because he
got held up at the guardian tower." He said

I was fully in support of this idea.

"So Tybolt, should I hold the leash to my questions until we meet Mr.
Artimis?"

"Yeah, that would help. By the way, never say 'Mr.' Artimis, he hears
you saying that and he'll turn you into a rat, seriously, he will." Tybolt
said smirking.

"I’ll go out and get some fresh air" I told him. He shrugged and
suggested he could teach me how to ride a horse a bit later. I gave him a
thumbs up and ran out.

I was off my feet after I took about three steps out the door. I had a
black monster licking my face like it was an ice cream cone. I managed
to get Scythe to calm down and noticed that he had grown to its full size
now. He was about ten feet in length. He was much stronger now, I
could see it. His legs were more muscular and his teeth and claws were
sharp as swords.

I gave Scythe a hug and told him I missed him too. I saw Shawn
standing a few feet away with a lop-sided grin I waved at him.

He walked over and said, "Thanks."

I was surprised that he was actually thanking me for saving him, when I
expressed that aloud, he laughed and gave me a high five.

"So, what're you thinking of doing now?" I asked him.

"Like I said I am gonna try for admission into the guardian tower
education and graduation course. If I manage to get my hands on that
paper, I can join king Zaerius's army and live the life of a rich man for
once."

"You dream ahead man seriously, if I'm not wrong that's like a five year
course."

"Right, and I am gonna do It." He said as if there was no discussion left.

We sat and watched Scythe race across the field. The house was in a
perfect setting. Not only was it as big as armor villa, it had the best
scenic surrounding. A sea of green grass stretched towards the tall trees
of Gren woods. Before the forest started, the spine river gushed across
the fields. It's waters were bluer here. It seemed more fresh and pure
compared to the part within Gren woods. Even after the war and
violence which had taken place within it, the Gren Guard forest looked
like a merry rain forest. A tourist's dream wildlife observation journey. I
tried not to remember the fight. The memory almost scared me as much
as the real thing.

I scared myself quite a lot too. I remembered Adelide’s acceptance

speech. She had told my soul to return to my body. Which meant that
the hundreds of undead I had destroyed in the forest had souls to. I
remembered the fight in the prison. The fight in the coffee shop. And
the fight with Typhoon. I wondered how I did not deserve to be behind
bars. I calculated a total I dreaded. I realized that I had destroyed
around a thousand souls. I let my neck sag and stared at my palms.

Shawn must have read my mind because he said, "Don't beat yourself
up about it. There's no sense in it. You were the one who was attacked.
You never attacked anyone. All you did was kill people to try and stay
alive. There nothing wrong in that."

He saw me looking sarcastically at him and said, "Ok! Ok! It's wrong
but what are you going to do about it now?" He said angrily.

"I can't do anything about it now can I? Even if it was possible to bring
people who are dead back to life with magic, I couldn't." I replied with
a sigh.

"What do you mean, I couldn't?" Shawn asked as though I was joking

and he was trying to find the funny part to laugh at.

I looked at him seriously and said, "I cannot do magic anymore."

Shawn kept doing his fake laugh thing. Until he noticed that I wasn't
laughing and that I was serious. He changed his expression from
confused laughter to shock.

"What!! You are serious?!?!?"He shouted.

"Yeah, once you got out of range I did an extreme magic spell and
conjured up a sort of dragon from the rain. I wanted you and Scythe to
get out of range. And while I was doing the spell, the magic, it left me."
I said blandly, leaning back and looking at the clear blue sky.

Shawn patted me on the shoulder. He didn't say anything though.

"Don’t feel so down Saph, that was one hell of a magic you performed
in that forest." Tybolt said from behind. "I don't know the exact
technical term for that but you controlled the elements fire and water.
That is no small feat. I had to work for four months just to be able to
light a match-stick on fire, using magic of course."

I thought Tybolt was just trying to make me feel better. Although, I

could feel he was telling the truth.
"Thanks Tybolt." I said to him. "Still my magic is gone."

"That’s totally true, sorry about that kid." He said.

I just sighed and got up. I looked at Tybolt and said, "Well, are you
going to teach me or not?"

Tybolt seemed to come out of some deep thoughts and asked, "What?
Teach?.....what?"

"You said you would teach me how to ride a horse." I reminded him.

"Oh! Right. Right. I'll just fetch the horses, I’ll be back in a minute."

Tybolt walked away behind the house. I turned to Shawn who was
staring at the sky.

"Forget it." I told him.

"What?"

"Forget the whole no more magic thing. It makes no difference anyway,

I mean we are safe now and are going to see Artimis tonight. I doubt I
will need it again." I said, trying to assure myself more than Shawn.

He nodded and then told me that I would never be able to ride horses.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I really needed it." I said

sarcastically.

"No, I am not saying that you will fail at it, all I am saying is, well,
you'll see." he explained.

"Yeah. We will." I told him.

Tybolt came back whistling and beautiful white horse came trotting
behind him. It had a thick and silvery mane and a similar tail. It seemed
fit, strong and fast. It was surely Tybolt’s own horse because it looked
like a warrior owned it. The horse saw me looking at it with my mouth
open and took it as an opportunity to show off. It leaped onto its hind
legs and galloped. Tybolt mounted it as it came back on all fours. And
rode it towards me.

He sat straight on it and looked down at me and said, "Say hello to

Bolt."

He must have been trying to make a cool effect but I ruined it by

saying, "Hello Bolt."

Tybolt jumped off with an angry frown. And handed the reins to me. I
took them and pulled myself onto Bolt. I did everything Tybolt told me
about having a secure grip and making sure about how to sit. Tybolt
patted bolt and it went on at a boring trot.

After moving a few meters at the boring speed, I got bored. I pulled the
reigns a little and made Bolt switch to run mode. I held on as bolt edged
along the field and enjoyed the ride back to where Tybolt was standing.

I gave Shawn a smug smile, which was supposed to mean, "See, I am

awesome, I can do anything."

He apparently couldn't understand my secret message and returned the

smile. His smile seemed more "I told you so" type. He pointed his
thumb towards his left.

I raised my eyebrow and turned, in the direction he was pointing. A

black fur ball pounced on me and pulled me off my ride. I had time to
say, "What the_" before I got knocked off.

When I finally fell to the field I heard Scythe growling down at my

face. I heard Shawn laughing and saying, "See? I told you. With Scythe
around, he won't let you ride the horse. You are going to have to ride
Scythe."
"Uh, huh, I managed to say. Ok. Ok. Scythe I won't ride Bolt. Relax."

“Grrrrrr.”

"Ok. Ok. I'll learn how to ride you."

“Bow.”

After striking a deal with scythe, I was allowed to sit up and face a
laughing Shawn and Tybolt.

As it turns out, I was pretty good at riding a darkwolf. And Scythe had
enough fur to make the ride comfortable too. All I needed to do was
hold on to Scythe, as he raced across the fields at speeds that would
make the horse pop like a balloon. Before I knew it, we had done a
couple of laps around the field. Now, Scythe was rushing towards the
spine. I knew that he had a plan so I swallowed my nervousness and
held tight. Apparently, Scythe was so fast that he could run on water. I
turned around to see the water which was just a blur of blue and white. I
looked at the house which was a multicolored blur. Scythe ran back to
shore and skidded to a stop near the house.

"That was awesome!!" I shouted as I jumped off Scythe and patted him.

Tybolt looked at Scythe with misty eyes and so I told him that he could
try a ride if he wanted to. Tybolt obliged. Scythe didn't.

When Tybolt tried to get on, Scythe turned around and Tybolt fell to the
ground face first. When Tybolt finally got on, Scythe looked at the sky
and howled and Tybolt rolled off his back and used his face to land
again. This went on until I started to wonder how much more Tybolt’s
face would take until Scythe finally had had enough fun. Tybolt rode a
couple of laps around the fields and jumped off. He didn't apparently
want another go. I can't imagine why.

Shawn had a much easier time with Scythe. He fell a couple of times
too but not as much as Tybolt.

When Gertrude finally called us in for lunch, Scythe howled and ran off
into the forest for his own lunch.

"That wolf really hates me." Tybolt said when we settled down in the
living room. The table had been decorated with a chicken, a salad and
some rice. As always we didn't talk while eating. Gertrude had said it
would cause the food to get stuck. Truth was, her food was so good, and
we were too busy time scarping it down. Who had time to talk when
you have food like that? When the last chicken leg was eaten and the
last of the rice was forced down the throat, we crashed infront of the
fireplace.

The weather had been getting more cold than wet for the last few days.
The skies were clearer now but usually, it was freezing cold. I didn't
mind. I was in a cozy house and had some good friends to spend time
with. Does it get any better that that?.....I know it does but let’s enjoy
the things that we have, as my nana used to say.

After an early dinner, I packed a few shirts, pants and undergarments.

Gertrude had stitched me a sweater that I thanked her for, while
swearing in my mind that I would never wear it. As I mounted Scythe, I
pulled the sweater out and put it on. Shawn had one too, and so did
Tybolt so I wasn't feeling too bad.

After a few goodbyes to Gertrude, we set of towards Lincoln shire.

It didn't take very long. We stopped at a cliff when there was still a little
bit of light. Tybolt told us we would stop so that we can get a good view
of Lincolnshire. It was one hell of a view indeed.

The guardian hills, which in fact were mountains, in all their majestic
element covered the background. Nestled between the snow laden peaks
of grey mountains, was Lincolnshire. It was a huge place.
Lights from street lamps engulfed the town in a yellow light. A woody
and comfortable inn rested just behind the stone fence. Yellow light
shone through the windows on both its levels. And smoke was puffing
out of the chimney, a kind of smoke that just screamed out good food. I
could read the sign hanging from here. It said Brutus's inn. Right next to
the inn was a big building which Tybolt told me was a one stop shop for
all your needs. A few large villas built of either stone or wood extended
in a circle around a large fountain. Between the fountain and the villas
was enough space to have a perfect celebration. Shops were dotted here
and there. A mage's shop stood right opposite to Brutus’s inn. I
wondered what was inside it, but I also knew that I would never need to
go inside it. Roads led to the inner parts where more shops obviously
stood. The size of the houses shrank as you moved away from the
centre of the village. This made the town look almost cone-like. Huts
dotted the agriculture fields which surrounded a few miles around
Lincolnshire. Behind a concrete church lay a castle of stone. I didn't
need Tybolt to tell me that, that was the guardian tower., which
apparently was a castle. Home to the greatest warriors in all of Questa.
Also home to the aspiring knights and mages. It stood with majesty as
the largest building in Lincolnshire. It had two towers at either side. A
small stone wall ran around it. After the stretch of green training
grounds, a wooden door blocked entry into the castle. It seemed to have
five levels. Light was shining through all windows on the first and
second levels. The other three seemed eerily dark. It was a pretty plane
castle. Nothing out of the ordinary, except of course that it was so large.

The last part of the town was the graveyard. It fit in a little away from
the guardian tower. And it was huge. I saw lots and lots of forbidding
looking oaks in the graveyard. I didn't bother staring at it too long.

I kept looking at the mental painting I had made of Lincolnshire while

we got back to riding. Before I knew it, I was starting at a wooden
board with blue writing.
Welcome to Lincolnshire, enjoy your stay.
 Chapter 10:
Return to Brutus’s inn...
Tybolt lead us to the closest building. Brutus's inn. He had told me to
wait with Scythe outside for a while. He took my bag and asked Shawn
to lead the horses to the stables next to the inn. I did as he asked.

"We made it here, boy, finally."

Scythe barked.

"Yeah, I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. Yet I am guessing

agreeing with you is a safe thing to do, huh?"

Scythe barked again.

I smiled and told him that once Artimis spoke to me, I would work out a
way to get trained and join king Zaerius’s army. And when I did join
king Zaerius’s army, I asked him whether he would stick by my side.

And Scythe replied very emotionally and honestly. He barked.

"You know you are not a dog. You are a darkwolf for crying out loud!!
Can't you do something more to converse than bark??"

Scythe howled.

"You are totally useless." I lied to him.

He growled and I apologized, knowing full well that the growling

meant nothing.

After a few more minutes, Tybolt finally walked out. He said Shawn
was inside talking to Artimis about getting into the guardian tower's
knight training program. He said that I should follow him to the pet
shop.

"Why? I already have a pet." I told him.

"No. Saph, I am not saying buy another pet. Scythe here, he's a magical
creature. And you have been able to befriend him. That's an
achievement bro, but you see, you are in Lincolnshire now, a place
where normal people live. So caring for Scythe all the time will be
difficult. Brutus couldn't let Scythe stay at the inn. The other customers
would get scared and leave. So Artimis suggested that we leave Scythe
at the pet shop where Alica can care for him." He explained.

I wanted to argue but I knew that if I got selfish, Scythe would have to
sacrifice his happiness. So instead of arguing, I asked Tybolt if this
Alica person could be trusted.

"Don’t let anyone here hear you say that. Seriously you would get
beaten to a pulp. Alica is the most honest and trusted person next to
Brutus and Artimis." Tybolt said.

I doubted that the people would beat me up for a small reason like that.
If even if they would, I doubted that they could fight me. I didn't push
the subject though.
"How often can I visit Scythe?" I asked him.

He told me that the pet shop was open seven days a week from morning
to night. And between it's open hours, I could visit Scythe as often as I
wanted. At least until I started to annoy Alica at least.

"The darkwolf is a rare pet. Even between magical creatures. It has

powers, all of which even we humans haven't been able to understand.
You are very lucky to have been able to befriend Scythe." Tybolt told
me as the pet shop came into view.

I nodded with a smile and patted Scythe absent mindedly. The pet shop
was a small building. It looked like a one or two room hut. Behind it
thought was a huge field. It had every farm animal you could imagine.
A high stone wall separated the poultry from the other huge quarter of
the farm. I could hear tiger and lion roars, grunts and growls from
behind that wall. I noticed that the fence lead into the forest behind the
field.

The bell jingled as we pushed the door with a sign saying,

'Alica's pet shop'.

A pretty looking woman stood behind the counter. She looked like she
was somewhere in her twenties. She had a reasonless blush on her
cheeks. She was a brunette. Her eyes were a brilliant blue. She had a
slim figure and wore a loose fitting brown shirt.

She gifted me a sweet smile and blushed a little at Tybolt. I felt like
punching Tybolt because of that.

Tybolt seemed to be oddly comfortable in her presence. "Hey Alica,

how are you?' he said.

Her voice was soft and sweet, "Oh! I've been doing very well. Who's
your little friend?"
She looked at me with those young blue eyes. I noticed she was smiling
so I tried to smile too. With lots of effort and arguing with myself that
smiling is not an embarrassing thing to do, I managed it.

"This is Saphire." He said.

"Hello, Saphire, which family do you belong to?" She asked me.

"I belong to the ar_"

"Arvitr family. They are foreign." Tybolt cut in.

I did not raise my eyebrows at him. I knew he would explain later.

"Oh!" She said. "Nice to meet you, Saphire Arvitr. Which country are
you from?"

"Uhh...."

"Frostovia."

"Oh! I love that place. Have you ever gone freeze diving?"

"Uhhh..."

"Freeze diving has been illegal for a few centuries, I mean in

Frostovia."

"That' sad, have you_"

Luckily I didn't have to say, "Uhhh..." again because Tybolt interrupted

her.

"I’ll make sure Saph comes to chat with you later Alica, we are in kind
of a hurry."

"Oh! Is that so? Well then that’s alright. How can I help you?"

"Well, Saphire here owns a darkwolf, and he would like it if you could
care for the wolf a while."

"Did you say he owns a darkwolf? That's awesome!! When did you_
never mind. Where did you_ like that matters. Can you tell me how did
you_"

"Pressed for time, Alica." Tybolt reminded her.

"Oh! Yes. Yes. Sorry. Darkwolves are at almost the top of a long, long,
list of animals I love. So..How long do I have the luck of caring for the
darkwolf?"

"As long as Saphire stays in Lincolnshire. That will be pretty long."

"Great!!" She exclaimed. "Where is the wolf?"

"Outside."

We walked out and saw that Scythe was not outside the shop. He was
on its roof. He was howling. His fur rustling in the moonlight. I looked
at Alica, who was looking at Scythe with misty, admiring eyes.

We waited for Scythe to finish, which didn't take too long. Once Scythe
had performed the howl, I whistled to him. He leaped down in a smooth
and fluid motion. He spared Alica a glance and gave Tybolt a sort of
agreement nod. He stood next to me. He came up to my elbows now.
And I was not a short person.

I patted him and said, "Scythe, this is Alica. Alica, Scythe. She is going
to be caring for you while I stay in this town."

He growled his disagreement until he was convinced that I was not

lying about visiting him every day and every night.

He walked slowly towards Alica. I knew, that Alica wasn't going to be

sniffed or licked. That pet-dog behavior was obviously reserved only
for me. He stood a feet away from her. He looked at her with his
memorizing, blood red eyes.

Alica smiled and put a hand on Scythe's head, between his ears. Scythe
didn't seem to mind it. She bent down and petted Scythe a bit more,
Scythe didn't stop her but he didn't dish out any pet-like behavior. After
trying for a while Alica gave up with a sigh. I couldn't tell if she was
annoyed or disappointed.

When I asked her if she would take care of Scythe, she nodded
enthusiastically. I guessed she was going to befriend Scythe no matter
what.

I hugged Scythe around his neck and then let him walk into the pet shop
with Alica.

"Don’t worry." Tybolt said as we walked back.

I didn't worry. I was kinda upset about leaving Scythe there but I was
not worried about him.

We walked back to Brutus’s inn, and Tybolt said he was going to go to

the guardian tower to inform Artimis. Who would meet us next
morning.

I nodded and pushed through the big wooded door.

I was tackled by a bear, then another and then one more. I was scared
for my life until I realized that the ones who tackled me were not bears,
but very bear like men. And they hadn't attacked me, they were
apparently being friendly because I heard a couple of people laughing.
One of them was Shawn.

Finally they let me up and I looked around the lounge of Brutus’s inn.

I was in a large and woody room. Candles in stands lined the walls
alternatively with various paintings. The frames looked golden and so
did the glasses and mugs and buckets which were on the table. A
smooth table ran from one corner of the room to the opposite corner.
Instead of paintings, barrels of alcoholic drinks were stacked in the
shelf. Bottles of wine, beer and whisky were stuffed into a small shelf at
the corners. Stairs led up to the above floors. Windows on the right
showed a great view of the cliff where I had gotten my first view of
Lincolnshire. Windows on the left showed the streets. A cozy red and
brown carpet layered the floor. And on that carpet stood the people I
had confused for bears.

The two men other than Shawn who had just bear-hugged me were
wearing loose and warm t-shirts. Over those shirts were scarves which
had 'Brutus’s inn' stitched onto them. Just for the sake of it, I’ll mention
the obvious fact that they were wearing cotton trousers too.

Both of them had brown hair and a long and happy beard. I'll admit I
couldn't find a better adjective for their beard than happy. They were,
well, chubby. Whatever of their face I could see, I saw pale pinkish
skin. I saw identical brown and kind eyes and a wide smile was hidden
behind the brown swamp. It was easy to make out that they were happy
men. And were happier men now that I was in Brutus’s inn. Reason? I
didn't know at the time.

One of the men, the one who had a longer and happier beard, was
wearing a sort of hat which told me he was the boss.

Other than the smiling chubby men and Shawn, the lounge was empty.

Shawn saw my confused expression, he pointed at the boss with his

thumb said, , and “This is Brutus!”

Brutus continued with a the introductions and said, with a happy and fat
man's voice, " and this is Borin."
"Hullo!! And you, as I am sure you already know, are Saphire...uh..!!"

"Saphire Arvitr." Shawn said.

"Right! Right! Anyway Saphire, welcome back lad!! I missed you so

much!!" Brutus said and rushed me off to the dinner table.

While Brutus talked non-sense about my baby actions, Borin asked a

maid to feed me delicious chicken and beef. Did I say feed, I meant,
'shove into my mouth so fast I couldn't even talk'.

And when dinner was done I carried my bursting stomach to bed

reserving my questions for a time when I wasn't so full of food that my
vocal cords was clogged.

I heard Shawn enter the room laughing and more laughing blazed
through the open door.

Sleep came soon after and I had a strange dream. Where I had been only
a few months old. And I could make out Brutus taking care of me like a
father. One night when it was snowing, I remember loud noises coming
through the window along with fancy lights. I remember seeing a dark
figure entering my room and then I started to cry. Then the dark figure
raised its arm and I fell asleep. Later I would learn from Artimis that
this had been my past. Real past.

Next morning I woke up and smelled toast and coffee. Ashes of a warm
fire crowded the fireplace. Cold wind rushed outside the shut windows.
And over night, the ground had gotten covered in snow.

I rubbed my eye with my fist and pulled off the blankets. I got off and
stretched. I pulled the curtains apart and peeped out. I saw the street
split in two by the winding path. The stalls and shops were now open
and crowded. Children ran around fighting with the snow. The fun they
got out of the flying snowballs was a surprise to me. I had never played
'snowball fight' with anyone. I slid the curtain back. After I washed my
face and ate the buttery toast, I got dressed in a new pair of deep blue
pants and a blue shirt. I pulled a few thicker shirts on over myself and
bent down to put on my shoes. After I had, I reached for the coffee cup.

"Good morning." said a voice from the door. The voice was merry, but
old. Artimis was standing at my doorstep. He looked just like he had
when I had seen him from my window. I could make out that his eyes
were a deep and glassy green. "I am really happy to see you here
Saphire. I am so proud that you were able to make your way all the way
here and take on those challenges Shawn told me about."

"Thank you Mr. Artimis. I_ I_ thank you." I stuttered.

"Relax Saphire. Please. You don't need to be nervous in my presence. I

am not a look-alike of the blue feathered man-eating giant eagle, I
hope."

I laughed politely at the Artimis’s joke, though it was a horrible one.

And by horrible, of course I mean I couldn't understand it fully.

"Anyways," Artimis continued, "meet me in the guardian tower later

after breakfast. We will talk. I promise you that."

I nodded and smiled at him. He smiled back and exited smoothly.

Closing the door behind him.
 Chapter11:
Armour family- History
class
"Good morning!!' Shawn said as I walked into the kitchen. Brutus and
Borin were busy cooking,

"Hm."

"Eat up, eat up...I have already prepared a mug full of milk for you."

"I’m gonna go to the guardian tower. Artimis said I should get there as
soon as possible."

"Oh! Ok then. Go on. Take Shawn with you. Here take these coats."
Brutus said, stirring, tossing and doing other cook actions.

I sat next to Shawn as Brutus threw a plate full of bread, butter and jam
onto our table.

"I already had breakfast, it was next to my bed." I told him.

"So?" He said handing two warm looking furry coats to me and Shawn.

I pulled on the coat and snuggled myself into it, it was kinda big for me.
Shawn ate heartily and did the same with his coat. And when we were
both ready, Brutus told us the way to guardian tower.

I was feeling exactly how a guy who hadn’t slept for days and was
having a throbbing headache would be feeling. I was suddenly feeling
angry for no reason. I felt like punching Shawn, no I don’t know why. I
ignored my tiredness and Shawn’s constant annoying Artimis is the
greatest human alive facts.

I stepped out and a grand chariot stood there. A white stallion pulling a
black carriage with golden embroidery. The one holding the reigns said,
“Mr. Saphire Armour?”

I didn’t know how he knew I was an Armour family member, or my

name. I ignored that and nodded.

“Please get into the chariot sir. Master Artimis asked me to bring you to
the guardian tower as soon as possible.”

Shawn seemed like he was about to refuse, I got into the chariot before
he could. Shawn followed looking offended.

I stared at the floor of the chariot throughout the bumpy ride. I was still
trying to figure out why I felt so angry. I didn’t get much time to think
though.

“We’re here sir.”

“Thanks.”
I got out and walked straight through the large gates. I walked into a
garden full of statues and students. They were of around my age. Some
were sitting in the shade of the huge trees and reading scary looking
thick books. Some more were sparring with wooden sticks or poles. A
small group of students were in a corner, doing magic practice. I
ignored that corner. The statues showed some students in heroic poses.
The grass was freshly cut and the flowers at the foot of the fence were
adding to the beauty. Four basic fountains dotted the garden. I marched
through the centre path into the wooden doors.

It was in a tiny room. At the far end of the room, there was a counter.
An old lady sat behind it. And all across the room were doors. At least
fifteen doors. The lady looked up at me and Shawn, and smiled. “Please
go up these stairs” she said pointing to the doors exactly behind her.
“Go into the door to your left on the second floor. You will be able to
find your way from there.”

I didn’t ask any questions. I pushed through the door and bolted up the
stairs. I reached the second floor and faced the door to my left. I looked
at the next fleet of stairs, they lead to the to third floor. I knew that
going up those stairs would be a bad idea but still I found myself
moving towards them. I made sure I walked through the door by the
time Shawn walked up calmly. A long corridor ended in a golden door.
A maiden was carved onto its surface. She seemed to be in her thirties.
She was beautiful. Her robe was fluttering in the wind. And her hand
was engulfed in a magical glow.

I walked towards the doors and tried to push it open. As if on cue, the
carving of the maiden began to glow. A blinding flash went across the
corridor.

When I opened my eyes, I found that the carving had come to life. The
woman was looking directly at me. “State your name and purpose. If I
don’t sense any ill will against master Artimis, I will allow you inside.”
“I am Saphire Armour and I wish to meet and talk to Master Artimis. I
want to talk to him about my family and my future. He instructed me to
escape from Armour Villa. So I am hoping for a few answers.”

“I, Zeldina, guardian of the Headmaster’s room, allow you to pass. You
may enter.”

I walked in through the door. I mean literally walked through the door.
Shawn followed mumbling. I asked him what he was on about.

“That was Zeldina, th….the sorceress. Isn’t she your…..your….

“Stop talking if you are not going to talk properly.” I told him.

“Go soak your head. If you’re that angry take it out on someone else.”
He said.

I felt like he had slapped me.

“Sorry.” I told him.

“Yeah, whatever.”

I turned back. An elegant table and chair were present in the centre.
Book shelves lined the walls up to the ceiling. An elegant chandelier
hung from the ceiling. On one side of the room, a window occupied the
entire wall and opened out to a balcony. Sunshine washed through the
room through the window.

Shawn and I sat on the chairs in front of us.

A cold breeze washed through the room.

“So, you’re finally here Saphire, nice to see that.”

Artimis was sitting in the elegant chair across the table.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“No, that’s alright….”

“Well alright then. What is it you want to know.”

“I want to know everything about my family. I want to know why I was

attacked in Armour village. I want to know who it was that I had fought
on top of the prison tower. Why I was locked away in Armour villa…
Everything...”

Artimis made the tips of the fingers on his two hands meet and rested
his elbows on the table. He was staring intently at the table. His pale
glassy green colored eyes looked familiar even though this was the first
time I had seen them up close.

“Ok then, I’ll tell you everything that I know. It’s a long story so I
recommend you get comfortable…

What was it now? 200 years? Yes…Around two hundred years ago,
your grandfather, Sybroden Surial Armour, had travelled to Partovia.
And there, while making deals with pirates and assassins, he discovered
the first lair of the Drydenblood Empire. He ventured into the lair and
surely, he met up with none other than Gustavor Sae Drydenblood.
They didn’t kill each other. Instead they became good friends. Soon
they made a pact. The Pact of Partovia. A pact that was going to seal the
land of Questa in political wars, rebellions and death.

The Armours were a political, ancient, rich and powerful family. Every
child born into the family was a natural warrior. Another special ability
they had was to be able to converse with dragons. They had conquered
quite a few places in Questa. Both Partovia and Drakovia were under
their rule. Needless to say they ruled Armour village. Xala and Enris
Islands were also their territory. But they were not good rulers. They
were money hungry tyrants. They conquered many of these after the
pact. As, once they were partners with the Drydenblood, few could
stand in their way.
Anyway, the Drydenblood was having a problem of its own. Gustavor
Sae was sensing rebellious thoughts among his Shadow Liches. Unlike
all the other troops of Drydenblood, they were mages who were still
alive. They had the ability to think and rebel. That’s when Gustavor Sae
decided to turn them into Necromancers. They would have the same
power and same abilities, only, now they would be undead. To do this,
he needed huge amounts of magic.

But such magic is apparently not available in Bob’s daily mart. He

needed to enter the Zurind treasury. It is the most magical point in
Questa. But Zurind was a place ruled by the Rubids…..Rubids are
magical creatures. A kind of cross between rabbits and koalas. They are
healers but have magic that can win wars. Also they are one of the only
magical creatures that have gotten along extremely well with us
humans.

Thus Gustavor would have to conquer the throne before he could use
the magic in Zurind. But the Drydenblood army alone could not defeat
the Rubids. Gustavor turned to your grandfather for help. Of course,
Sybroden agreed to help him, at a large cost. Sybroden told Gustavor
that even with the help of the Armours, it was still not enough power to
beat the Rubid Army.

That’s when Gustavor thought of the Drakonir blade. He wanted

Sybroden to use his ability to talk to dragons to forge a sword using
dragon fire. He said that he would pull the very souls out of thousands
of undead soldiers and embed them into the blade of this sword. Can
you imagine that power? The power of the greatest soldiers to ever have
lived, embedded into one single sword, combined with the fact that it
would be forged with dragon fire. Making it the hardest ever material.

He said he would pay Sybroden more gold than he could count if he

made him this sword. Sybroden disagreed. He said that he would forge
the sword. But he would use it himself or hand it over to one of his
three sons to use. Gustavor had no choice but to agree. So Sybroden
went and locked himself away in the Dragon lair for a couple of
months. Thus Gustavor Sae went to assemble his troops and wait for
Sybroden.

Now, we shift the story between these two months towards Sybroden’s
sons. There were three of them. Typhoon, Christen and Daceaf.
Christen, the youngest, had been sent to Zurind to check the battle field
and draw out plans. Little did he know he was going to get murdered
soon.

Before I go on to that, let me just you Typhoon’s story. At around an age

of thirteen, Typhoon ran away from home. He said that he had had
enough and was breaking all strands that connected him to the Armour
family. He didn’t realize though how much the people hated the
Armours. He had hoped he would make friends and have companions.

He didn’t. People tossed stones at him. Mud was kicked at him when he
walked past. No one cared to throw him a slice of bread. He was left out
in the cold, hungry and lonely. He had given up hope until one day a
chance came for him to do something good.

I do not remember the details, but I think he saved King Zaerius the
First’s life somehow. The king was overjoyed with the young lad. By
this time, Typhoon was eighteen or so. He started serving the king as a
knight.

A few years later, he fell in love with a young witch. They are the exact
same as sorceresses except, they practice dark magic.

Soon though, the king died. There had been a battle in Morpheous
Island. Typhoon, was hoping to be crowned the next king. Sadly for
him, the king’s son became the new ruler. Typhoon was accused of
murdering the king. The people attacked him and drove him out of
Goldenrod. That day on Typhoon swore to get his revenge. He
murdered the prince and many of the people in town. He used his magic
to set the entire town on fire.

After this, the witch left him. He went back to get her but she was
furious with his actions.

He became ruthless and cruel. Evil even. I wish not to describe the sins
he committed later, some are too gruesome others are too foul for
words.

Any way he returned to the Armour family. But when he had went away
he had broken his connection to the Armours. He was no more a true
member of the Armour family.

Now, I will get back to Christen’s story. Christen, met with the same
witch Typhoon had been in love with, Zelda. They fell in love with each
other. Unfortunately, Typhoon found out about this. He was furious and
jealous. He tracked Christen down and murdered him in a way so
horrible that I try not to even think of it, forget speaking. Zelda, luckily
escaped.

Typhoon told everyone that Christen was killed in a duel with someone.

Morgran, the eldest of the three, too had been in love. Although he
didn’t get killed for it. He was in love with Zeldina, the sorceress and
also my sister. Morgran and Zeldina are your parents Saphire.

Anyway, Sybroden returned soon enough. He said he was proud that

Christen had died in a duel. Although if he hadn’t died, he would kill
him himself for having lost.

Pretty soon, Gustavor attacked Zurind. The fierce war raged for days.
In the end, the Rubids were defeated by the might of the Drakonir
blade. But, Sybroden was murdered by during the battle. Typhoon
murdered him because he was hoping he would get the Drakonir blade.
Gustavor Sae fulfilled his ambition. He turned the Shadow Liches into
Necromancers. But, he lost his life during this. This left Adelide the 1 st
to rule the Drydenblood. She was in a horrible state at her father’s
death. So she handed rule of Zurind over to Typhoon, who accepted the
duty without second or even first thoughts.

Typhoon was hoping he would get the Drakonir blade. He didn’t.

Morgran received the sword from his father. Typhoon was devastated.

And proving your guess right. Well, that is, if you guessed that
Typhoon’s going to go kill Morgran, then yes, you guessed right.

Typhoon was hoping that by killing your father, he would get the riches
and the sword. Unfortunately for him, Morgran had already sealed the
sword away in the Armour’s vault. The thing about this vault is that it
only opens to a true Armour. If you recall that Typhoon had run away
you will realize that was no more a true Armour.

He kept at trying to figure out some way to get the vault open. And he
found his answer. You were his answer Saphire.

He realized that Zeldina had given birth to Morgran’s son. He was

going to use you to open the vault and get to its contents. Zeldina was
not a fool though. She evaded him for almost a whole year.

One day, she came here, to Lincolnshire. She told me about everything
that had happened. She also said that she could feel her death
approaching. We sorcerers can feel things like that. So I suggested that
she leave should leave her baby in Brutus’s care and just go face
Typhoon. She agreed to this. I told her I would help her but she wanted
me to protect her baby at all times. I failed at that too.

Anyway, she did as I instructed. She met with Typhoon. The fight was
legendary. Even if they were fighting in the upper reaches of
Snowleopard Mountains, explosions from their spells could be heard
from here in Lincolnshire. I found out a while later that my daughter
had passed on. Killed by Typhoon. But she managed to seal Typhoon
away with a spell for thirteen years.

But you were kidnapped on your by first birthday Saphire. We don’t

know by whom. We tracked the kidnapper down to Armour Villa. By
the time we could save you though, He had already handed you over to
a resident of Armour Villa. We assumed that Typhoon. Soon though we
realized we were wrong. That was your nana.

Your nana and Grandmother a had received instructions from Typhoon.

Do not let him out of this house. I need him safe. That’s why you had
been locked in for so many years.

As to the kidnappers’ identity I think it was the work of a Drydenblood

ruler.

That is all I know.”

I sat there holding the handles of my chair so hard that they had cracks.
My eyes were wet. I recalled that Typhoon had killed my entire family.
My Grandmother, Grandfather, Uncle, my father and even my mother.

“Relax Saph, calm down. The truth hurts a lot of times. But we just
have to accept it.” Shawn said putting an arm on my shoulder.

“All he needed to do was ask. Just ask for what he wanted. Instead of
going and murdering everyone.” I told him.

“You have already gotten your revenge Saph. There’s no point just
getting sad over it now. You wanted answers, you got them. Just put
your past behind you now.”

I nodded at him. I stood up and thanked Artimis for his time. And I
walked out the door.
 Chapter 12:
Everyone hates me
I walked back into the garden feeling red eyed and tired.

“Shawn”

“Hm?”

“I just remembered. Back on that prison tower in Armour village.

Before we fought that hooded person, you said you don’t want to meet
him again.”

“I’ll tell you about it once we get back to Brutus’s inn.” He said.

We walked up to the fountain in the centre.

“Well. Well. Well. What do we have here” Someone said from behind
us. “A little favorite of Master Artimis. Or did he make you clean up his
office?”
I turned back to face a guy, no wait, a girl, uh…he is dressed like a guy.
I assumed it was a guy.

Anyway, he wore a black full shirt and black trousers. A sword was
dangling from his hip. His skin was a pale shade of brown. His small
beady eyes were weighed down by bushy black hair. His hair was
neatly combed backwards to reveal an average size forehead. His mouth
was curled in a proud grin and his nose looked like it had been punched
a lot of times.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m Alicia’s son. Dravis”

“Son right? Ok I’ll remember.” I told him. “And what were you on
about behind us?”

“Saphire Arvitr. Master Artimis doesn’t invite anyone and everyone into
his office. What’s so special about you that he called for you?”

“And I should tell you this because……”

“Because you look like you were born to a bitch. And raised by a
werewolf. The likes of you do not deserve to even look at this place
much less walk in it.”

“Jealous Dravis?” A female voice said.

A girl in purple and black robes walked over. She had purple hair which
was quite surprising. It was long and untied. Her elegant eyes were also
a deep shade of purple. Her beautiful face showed a kind of teasing
expression.

“Jealous? Of this scum? I would rath_”

The abrupt ending to the sentence was because Shawn punched him in
the face.
“Say scum again and I’ll pull your teeth out.” Shawn yelled at Dravis.

“You really shouldn’t have done that.” The girl said.

She raised her hand and said “Dresta Savio”. I didn’t understand her
one bit. Although I heard a few gasps around the garden.

A black kind of fire started to engulf Shawn. He began to scream. The

fire kept licking at him and his screams just increased in the amount of
pain they resembled.

“STOP IT” I shouted at the girl but she had a sort of evil and maniacal
smile on her face and didn’t pay any heed to me. I steeped towards her
ready to pound her face in if she didn’t stop. Before I got to her though,
Dravis grabbed me by the leg and yanked me upside down.

He was laughing. And that angered me all the more. I used me free leg
to kick him in the face. He let go of my leg and grasped his cheek. I
back flipped with my hands and got to my feet. He drew his sword and
rushed back at me. I easily caught hold of his sword arm and squeezed
it so hard that he dropped the sword. He fell to his knees trying to free
his hand from my grasp. I threw him across the garden and he crashed
into tree and fell to the ground. He lay there whimpering.

Five or six guys rushed at me. They all looked big and scary. But they
had no skill. The first one tried to knock me out with a right hook. I
ducked and kicked another who tried to approach me from behind. A
third tried to grab me but only grasped my arm. The first one who had
attached tried to punch me again but I dodged easily and he squashed
his friend’s nose. I kicked him in the private region before the last two
rushed at me. I threw the guy who was holding me at them. He was
heavy enough to pin them both.

Then lightning struck. Literally. One of the mages cast a spell at me and
blasted me halfway across the garden. A few more mages came and
enclosed me in a circle of death.

I had no time to try and fight them. Shawn’s screams were starting to
die out.

I tried to rush out but was blasted again. I stood up and again got
blasted. Next time I stood, I dodged the spell and almost escaped the
circle but was frizzed from behind. I was getting really angry.

This time, I didn’t get up. At least I didn’t try to. When I fell, I skidded
across the grass and stopped in the centre of the garden. I was too tired
to move but my body got up on its own accord.

A kind of weird and crazy power started to brew inside of me. It wasn’t
the same feeling I had had when I first felt magic in me. This was
different. The power that was growing in me right now felt dark,
dangerous and evil. It started to keep growing like fire, it was
spreading, spreading through me. I knew that I would explode if I didn’t
release this power. No I didn’t have gas. This was the real deal.

I grasped myself. Hoping to control the shredding pain erupting inside.

It didn’t work. Not one bit.

The mages though hadn’t stopped attacking. I was feeling pain on the
inside and outside of my body. How could it still be in one piece?

I rolled up into a kind of cocoon and lack colored light started to

emanate from my birth mark. Before I knew it, I was enclosed in a kind
of sphere made of dark energy.

The pain was still immense on the inside. Although, the spells which I
was being bombarded with were now just shattering against the outer
wall of my sphere.

I opened my eyes and caught a glimpse of Shawn. His body was a mess
of tattered clothes. Blood was gushing from hundreds of wounds. The
worst part of it was the expression on his face. Like a face that couldn’t
experience any more pain. It almost looked like the face of Mr. Death.

I was boiling up with rage. We had done nothing to these people. They
had started the fight for no reason. I looked around and saw smiling
faces. I was about to make sure that those faces never show a smile
again.

Without actually trying to, I rose of the ground still curled up. I rose to a
small height. Then I roared. I threw my arms and legs and torso in
opposite directions. And roared at the sky. The black sphere around me
shattered and pulses of dark magic radiated from the mark on my torso
which was glowing black. Once I stopped the attack, I looked around at
the circle of mages. They were a mess of bones and flesh.

I flew at the girl who had been torturing Shawn. Without saying a spell,
I blasted her into the air. A kind of sword formed in my hand. It wasn’t
your regular and solid sword. It was made of pure dark magic.

I slashed with my sword and the girl got hit even though she should
have been out of range. She flew higher because of this blast. I
controlled my flight to an altitude higher than hers and then threw my
sword at her.

The shock wave that exploded from her after impact caused all the
windows lining the Guardian Tower’s third and fourth floor to shatter
since we were at that height. I think the walls cracked at bit too.

She crashed into the ground. I turned to Shawn and said heal. A fireball
shot towards him and engulfed him in a black glow. I knew the spell
would work.

I was hovering over the gardens when I lost the magic again. It didn’t
drain out as slowly as it came. It lasted for a few seconds and then it
was gone. I fell towards the ground. I was about to break a few bones
when; “Levitate.”

Artimis himself had come out. He looked furious.

“What is the meaning of this??!!” He barked at the students in the

garden.

“He started it.” One of the students said pointing at me.

“Is that so? Can you tell me what he did?”

“He….He attacked Dravis for no reason. And didn’t stop once he was
done with him. He murdered around six or seven mage students. And
then he_”

“You are lying. I am a sorcerer with over a hundred years of experience.

I am not deceived very easily.”

“Artimis, I am leaving. I don’t want to stay in this place any more. I

don’t know where but I am going to leave. If not right now, then as soon
as possible.”

Artimis sighed. “ You may do as you wish to Saphire. I will not stop
you. I will ask you to leave Shawn here for a few days though. Let him
heal.”

I nodded and stormed out of the Guardian Tower gates.

******

The carriage took me back to Brutus’s Inn.

I walked into the inn and ran up the stairs. I heard Brutus shout
something about soup but I slammed the door behind me.

I crashed onto the bed. I lay back and put my hands behind my head. I
was staring at the wooden roof and thinking about what I had just done.
I had performed magic. I was sure of that. And this magic made me feel
good and powerful. It wasn’t your regular magic, it was dangerous and
deadly. I had so easily killed six or seven trained mages.

I closed my eyes and sighed. Images of their skin burning off and then
the flesh and leaving behind bones. Some of which were still on fire. I
yanked my eyes open.

I sat up and raised my arm. I faced my palm towards a pile of books on

a table.

“Levitate.”

I hadn’t expected it to work. It didn’t.

I tried again and again. It was quite lame but I was desperate.

I heard knocking on my door. It was Brutus he said that Alica has come
down and wishes to speak to me.

I nodded and slowly pulled myself off the bed. As I dragged myself
across the room, I kept thinking about how dum I would have looked
pointing at a book and shouting “levitate”. And Brutus, who was
shaking so hard trying to control his laughter, didn’t help.

I wasn’t too worried about what Alica had come to talk about. Maybe
warn me about picking a fight again with her. Most probably she was
going to return Scythe and say she wouldn’t care for of him. Like that
matters.

I reached the ground floor to find Alica laughing at a joke with Borin. I
never really thought about it but when I realized ‘Borin’ had told a joke,
it just felt ironic.

“Saphire Arvitr.” Alica exclaimed when she saw me. “I heard all about
your brawl with the Dravis and his friends..
“Yeah. So…”

“I’m quite happy that you beat him actually. You know he’s been
getting quite out of hand. No one of his age is very good at battle. He’s
been quite proud and like you bullying his friends. And now that you
have come as a challenge to him, I think it’s good. He will maybe come
under control now.”

“I am not here to help you settle your parental problems. I did not even
start the fight. It was_”

“Details. Details. I just came over to say thank you. Alright.” She cut in.
“DRAVIS” she shouted.

Dravis walked in. he was still dressed similarly. He had a few bruises on
his face. He gave me an evil look and then faced his mother.

“I want you to befriend Saphire Arvitr.”

“No.” He said and walked towards the door. At the door, he turned. He
pointed at me with two of his fingers, like a gun. “BANG!” He said and
jerked his hand backwards. Then he just turned and backed out of the
inn.

“Don’t mind him. Really.” Alica apologized. “Just relax ok. Oh! And
please be more careful with your Alchemy. Lucky Artimis was an
alchemist. Or you could be in quite a bit of trouble.”

I nodded and turned. I was just about to turn back and walk away when
I thought I should tell Alica the truth.

“It wasn’t alchemy.” I said. “It was magic. I don’t know if it was dark
magic. I think it was. I am sorry.”

I ran back to my room before Alica could say anything. I lied down on
my bed and slept.
I woke up late in the night when someone was knocking on the door.

It was Shawn. He looked pretty shook up. His hair was messier than
usual. His eyes looked red and tired.

“It’s Dravis.” He said. “He wants to settle the fight once and for all. He
said to grab a sword or whatever weapon you want and meet him down
behind the guardian tower.”

I will be honest. I was hoping to have this face of as soon as possible.

I washed my face and grabbed a sword from downstairs. Shawn did the
same but I stopped him.

“You are not coming. You are hurt and Artimis just fixed you up.”

He didn’t argue too much. Basically because when I just tapped him on
his arm his eyes started to tear up. Once I made sure he was back in the
room, I quietly stepped out of the inn.

The weather was extremely cold. Snow was falling and the atmosphere
was spooky. Once I even saw a hooded person standing in an alleyway
looking at me. I just moved on.

I kept seeing the hooded person everywhere. I tried to ignore it but I felt
extremely uncomfortable.

I reached the Guardian tower after a long walk. I looked up at the third,
fourth and fifth floor; they looked even more creepy and spooky than
before. At an instance, I thought I heard screaming.

I jumped easily over the compound and found Dravis waiting there. He
saw me and smirked.

“Hello.” He said. “The filth has finally crawled out. Let’s make this
quick. I am going to kill you now. Defend yourself if you think you
have a chance. Although, I will warn you that it is pointless.”
I didn’t say anything. I simple drew my sword.

“The weak and dumb type I see. Well that’s what I would expect from a
pitiful fool like you. Garbage like you should know it’s place. Just
because you were able to perform alchemy doesn’t mean you are the
king of the world. Don’t be too proud. You are crap so know your
place.”

“If you are done talking, maybe you can pick up a sword now.” I said.

His temper fuse blew and he rushed at me while pulling his sword out
of its sheath.

He swung at me wildly. I easily dodged his sashes. I kept taunting him

and laughing at his lame skill with the sword.

“Even if I give a monkey a sword, it will do better than you.”

……

“You are trying to hit me and not swat flies right?

……

“HA HA HEH HE HA HE”

…….

“Stop laughing at me scum. Your mother and father must have been
lizards. You must have inherited their slimy skills. You family must be
full of scum. Filthy beggars.”

That’s when he crossed the line. I grabbed his hand in mid slash and
punched him across the face with my other arm.

“Show some respect (BEEP!). You are talking to Saphire Armour!

Watch your filthy mouth.”
Shock shot across his face and fear followed. Before he could say
anything more, I kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying.

He crashed into a tree trunk and sunk to the ground.

He forced himself to his feet. Pain and terror clearly showing on his
face. His eyes were starting to tear up. Dravis’s fear must have clouded
his judgment. The fool rushed at me his sword was positioned over his
head. I knew he was going to try to cut me half by swinging it
downwards. I took position and placed my sword near my abdomen. I
was going to make our swords meet diagonally. And I was going to
make sure I use enough force to put Dravis in his place.

He jumped the last few steps and brought his sword down. It didn’t
come all the way down. Not in one piece at least. One powerful stroke
with my blade and his broke into two. I stepped inside his guard and
gave him a hard punch to the stomach.

He fell to his knees whimpering with pain. He dropped whatever was

left of his blade at fell at my knees.

His pain seemed to ease out soon enough. Dravis though was obviously
a coward. He was too scared to get up.

He kept opening his eyes and closing them.

Suddenly, I heard the rushing of air behind me. I didn’t have enough
time to dodge the club. It hit me on my neck and I flew a few feet and
crashed into the snow.

I got back up and saw around ten or so of Dravis’s friends armored and
equipped with swords, spears and clubs.

“You wonf beaf Dravis” one of the fat guys said.” We’ll make sure of
fath.”
I stood back up.

“The snow here is gonna be tinted red after this battle Saphire Armour.
And that is going to be your blood. You humiliated me so you have to
die.” Dravis said. “Get him.”

The fat guy with the club ran in. I was trying hard not to laugh but when
he fell over rolled at me, I couldn’t control myself. I knocked the guy
out easily with a karate chop to the neck.

Then all the other rushed at me. One thing Dravis said was true the
snow was going to be tinted red. But another thing he said was false, it
was not going to be my blood. It was going to be the blood of his
companions.

I cut open two of them who reached me first with my sword. I whacked
the next guy with my foot. I spun to dodge a spear and caught a club
which had come in my direction. I pulled the club and it’s owner
towards me and whacked him with my head. I swung my sword wildly
and cut off the spear guy’s head.

The others stopped once I did this. There were three people left other
than Dravis.

They hightailed it out of the clearing and into town.

“So you are Saphire Armour.”

I turned around to face the girl who had been torturing Shawn. She was
wearing a hooded cloak.

“Have you been stalking me?” I asked remembering the many times I
saw hooded people staring at me.

“Yes”. She replied.

“And you are stalking me because….” I said.

“Because you lied about your identity. I figured out you were an
Armour. I just wanted to make sure. And you yelling that at Dravis was
helpful.”

I was shocked and frozen on the spot. Both literally and

metaphorically…

“How did you arrive at that stupid conclusion?” I asked trying to make
her rethink her judgment.

“I am not a fool Saphire Armour.” She shot back. “And yes I know for
sure that you are Saphire Armour.”

Thinking of nothing else to say, I said, “No. I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No. I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No. I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No. I’m not.”

“YES!!! YOU ARE!!! YOU ARE SAPHIRE ARMOUR THERE’S NO

POINT DENYING IT!!!!”

“Ok. Ok. Fine I admit I am.” I said lamely. “But I am not about to trust
you, not after the way you tried to kill Shawn.”

“I cannot explain why I did that. I will not. Just understand that
sometimes, magic just takes over my mind and I lose control.” She said.
She almost sounded desperate.

“Something similar to me at the garden. Whatever magic I did, I didn’t

do it on purpose. It just happened by itself. Like some kind of power
just took over me.”

“Were you able to keep control and direct that magic?” She asked
stepping towards her fallen class mates. “Heal” She said pointing at
them.

As their gashes closed up, I answered her question truthfully, “Not

completely. I mean I was able to do what I wanted to do, blast those
mage students and then stop you from attacking Shawn.”

“So that’s his name.” She said.

“Anyways, I don’t think that that power completely took over me or

possessed me. I felt that I was still it’s master.”

“That’s peculiar.” She said staring at me with those purple eyes. “Can
you come with me? I want you to meet someone.”

“Who?” I asked, curious but careful.

“Please, just come with me. I think that this person will help under your
magical problem.”

“Why are you so concerned about this problem?”

“…..that is none of your business.” She said.

“Well, in that case, I will see you around. Good Bye.” I said and started
to walk away.

I deliberately walked slowly. I was actually interested in going and

meeting this person. It didn’t take too long for her to give in though. I
turned with a cocky smile on my face.

“Wait……Fine. I’ll tell you. I really shouldn’t be revealing this but….I

don’t really have a choice right now do I?”
“I’m listening I said turning back to her.”

Before she could even start explaining, I heard two terrible screams
from the other side of the guardian tower’s stone compound. Then I
heard an angry crowd.

I turned back to the girl and she motioned towards the woods.

We ran in before we could get seen. I turned back at the last minute and
saw Dravis leading a mob towards his fallen comrades. They were not
fully healed yet.

I realized the trick Dravis had played on me. I bolted into the woods
after the girl.

She turned back and said, “By the way, I am Floina.”

 Chapter 13:
On to Tradesville
The snow was treacherous and slowed us down terribly. Floina was
falling behind after about five minutes. I told her she was slower than a
tree. She got angry and turned me into a tree, for a few minutes so she
could catch her breath. I watched my mouth from then on.

I was surprised as to how much time I got to crib about my life as a tree.
I had spent like a month outside Armour Villa, which I had been locked
in for thirteen years. And within such a short time, I had managed to
become a known criminal. Remember that problems list I told you
about back in Armour Village? Yeah, I really need to find a proper spot
for it cause I need it all the time.

When Floina finally felt that we were far enough into the cold woods of
Guardian Forest, she cleared a spot for us to sit. The snow was pushed
away in a big circle and a campfire formed by itself.

I sat down and warmed myself up.

“Ok. You better get explaining about whatever it is you want to

explain.” I told her.

“You see, I am from the Island of Xala.”

“Oh! You mean Island of Enris?” I said getting a vague recognition
from a map of Questa I had seen somewhere.”

“IT IS THE ISLAND OF XALA AND YOU REMEMBER IT!!!!

THOSE ENRISIANS ARE INVADERS WHO TOOK PART OF OUR
LAND. MARK MY WORDS WE WILL SEND THEM PACKING
ONE DAY!!”

I don’t know why she was shouting at me. I didn’t bother asking.

“Ok….”

“Anyways, you must be familiar with the rule of Magical Family Life.”

“The what?”

“Magical Family Life, the rule that prevents a member of a family that
is associated with magic from killing another of his or her family
members?”

“Does that mean…”

“Yeah, it does. I am an Arm too”

I do not really know what she said. ‘Being an Arm’ didn’t make a lot of
sense to me. Basically because once she told me that rule, I lost stopped
listening to her. If this rule was true then, I had been lied to by
everyone. Everyone said that Typhoon had killed my parents,
grandparents and uncles. But then he was an Armour too. How did he
pass through this law.

I must have been thinking aloud because, Floain said, “No Saphire. It’s
true that Typhoon killed your mom and dad and everyone else. But you
forgot that Typhoon was not a true Armour family member. His actions
were not bounded by family rules.”

“Ok then.” I said. I believed her because it was logical. “So why did
you bring me out here to tell me that?”

“You aren’t the least bit surprised?”

“Well….I suppose the Magic family rule thing was good to know but I
wasn’t planning to kill any member of my family so, it doesn’t matter
so much.”

“NOT THAT YOU DUM PIG!! I was talking about me being an

Armour!!!!”

I sat there staring at her face. I was dumb founded. Out of nowhere
suddenly someone just comes and says, ‘I belong to the Armour Family,
one of the most magical, dangerous and powerful families in all of
Questa.’

“Aren’t you gonna say anything?” She said.

“Uhhh….Great..Awesome….so ….How exactly are you an Armour?”

“I knew that I belonged to the Armour family a while ago. Someone

told me that already. I figured out that you were an Armour family
member in the Guardian Tower garden. That bit of magic you
performed there, that was deadly dark magic. Especially the part you
attacked me with. But I didn’t die. Applying the rule I just told you
about, you being an Armour too was the only possible conclusion.”

I nodded. But there was one thing bothering me that she hadn’t
answered. In fact she had told me stuff I couldn’t care less about.

“How do I have the ability to do dark magic?”

“That’s what I came here to talk to you about. I told you about me being
an Armour I thought you would trust me more then.”

“I trust you lesser than I used to now.”

“Yea, I suppose. But then you don’t have too much of a choice now.
Everyone thinks you are a murderer.”

“Fine. Anyways, you said something about someone who will help me
figure out how and why I can do dark magic.”

“Yes, I was talking about Zelda.”

“YOU MEAN ZELDA THE WITCH???!!! The same one who Typhoon
loved. And then she left him and fell in love the uncle Christen?????!!!”

“Nope I don’t mean her. I was talking about someone else.”

“Oh! Ok then.”

“OF COURSE I MEAN HER!!!”

“Oh! Ok then. Where do we go to meet her?”

“Island of Xala.”

“All the way there???!!!”

“Yeah. Go let Shawn and Artimis know. I’ll prepare the horses and I
know a place by the coast that will provide us a boat. Meet me outside
the Lincolnshire.”

“Ok. Give me half an hour or so. I will be there by then.”

“Ok. Hurry.”

I nodded and had some water which Floain conjured up. I sprinted like
a madman. My legs were definitely smoking due to the speed. I knew I
had to be fast. Basically because everyone in Lincolnshire had surely
been informed about how the blood thirsty Saphire hunted down Dravis
and his friends to extract his revenge. I knew that if I was spotted, I
would be dragged into a fight.
Upon reaching Guardian Tower, I climbed up to Artimis’s office
balcony. To my surprise, the ghostly image of Zeldina stopped me from
entering again. After she checked that I was not carrying any ill will
against Artimis, she let me pull the door open.

Artimis was pacing the room. He seemed worried.

“It’s ok. I’m alright.” I said before he spotted me.

Artimis seemed to return to his real age from being an old man upon
seeing me.

“Saphire!! I am so glad you are safe. You do know the story spreading
across this town don’t you?”

“Yea, I do, I don’t have enough time to explain. I am going to get out of
this town as quickly as possible. Just wanted to let you know that I am
headed to Xala Island with Floina. She’s a student in this castle.”

Artimis was smiling at me.

I told him that there was no need to smile. She was just helping me
because she was an Armour family member just like I was.

He nodded and wiped his smile off his face. I just realized then how
young Artimis was. I always looked at him as a wise and strong person.
Only then did I realize that he was still a man in his thirties who still
liked a joke.

I waved bye to him and jumped off the balcony. One step on the wall.
Another on the pipe. Jump. Land while sliding. No I didn’t crash this
time.

I smiled after my successful landing, I smiled. I recalled a similar plan I

had made while trying to escape from Armour villa. I had landed with
my face. I felt proud of how much more athletic I had become.
I was standing in a dark alleyway near Brutus’s inn. People had
crowded around the entrance. Brutus was blocking them from entering
the inn. He was shouting at them that he didn’t believe a word of it.
That I would never attack anyone. Only his size seemed to be keeping
the people from burning the place.

I bolted as swiftly and silently as possible towards a side of the inn

which seemed easy to climb. I managed to avoid being spotted as I
rolled into the first floor corridor. I pushed open the door to mine and
Shawn’s room to find him sitting on the bed with both hands on his
ears. The poor guy to be mentally disturbed about all the screaming and
shouting.

“Shawn?” I said.

He looked up at me with those red eyes. I saw hatred in them.

“WHY DON’T THOSE BASTARDS SHUT THE (BEEP!!) UP??!!”

He shouted.

“Shawn, relax. It’s gonna stop soon. I am leaving.”

“What?”

“I need to go to Xala Islands as soon as possible. Stay here. Artimis will

explain whatever questions you’ve had.”

I grabbed my bag in silence. I stuffed it with clothes. I ran down to the

inn’s weaponry and grabbed the best sword I could find. That’s the only
weapon I took. The sword had a golden colored hilt. A sapphire was
fitted under the blade. Black colored gems ran along the middle of the
sharp blade. I found its sheath soon and strapped it around my waist.

Shawn had brought my clothes bag down. He was looking more tired
and weak than I had ever seen him before. He handed me the bag. Then
he handed me a belt with some throwing knives strapped on to it.
“Consider it a gift.” He said.

“Thanks man. I’ll be back in a few weeks.”

I hugged him. It was the first time I had gotten so emotional on parting
with someone. I just wished that I knew then that this would be the last
time that I hugged Shawn.

I smiled at him and snuck out giving Brutus a glimpse of myself and
telling him in sign language to keep the crowd distracted.

I bolted towards the Lincolnshire gates. My bag slowed me down. I was

almost at the gates when I remembered someone. Scythe.

I tightened my bag onto my back and bolted towards the pet shop.

I ducked into the alleyway when I saw someone at the pet shop door. It
was Tybolt and Borin.

“ALICA!! OPEN THE DOOR!!” Tybolt yelled banging on the door.

“WHAT?? MY SON IS DEVASTATED AND I CANNOT HAVE

CUSTOMERS NOW.”

“We don’t want to buy your filthy animals. We want to execute one.”
Borin cut in.

“What?”

“We want you to hand over Saphire's pet Scythe. We are going to
execute that terror. It belongs to a murderer., who knows what guy has
taught it.”

“You want to kill that Darkwolf? Be my guest. I think I don’t mind

taking my anger out on that filthy animal. Come in.”

They left the door open as they stormed in. I sneaked up and peeped
inside.

Rage was boiling inside me. Tybolt and Borin. People who I had trusted
so much without doubt. They had betrayed me without a second
thought.

Alicia’s servants were dragging Scythe into the hall. Around ten of them
were struggling with the ropes. Scythe’s mouth was clamped shut and
ropes were tied to an incredibly uncomfortable looking leash. I

I was boiling up. But I knew quite well that it was pointless to rush in. I
drew a few throwing knives from the belt Shawn had given me.

I was ready to kill whoever was going to raise a blade against Scythe.
The men held him in place and Borin stepped forward. He drew a long
sword and raised it over Scythe’s head.

That’s when I made my move. I jumped into the shop and in mid-air, I
threw all the knives in my hand. Most of them stabbed people in the leg.
Borin’s thigh was sprouting one too. He dropped the blade. Scythe saw
me and started to struggle harder.

Around two or three guys were not down and screaming in pain. Tybolt
was still standing too.

Tybolt rushed at me and the others kept struggling with Scythe.

I side-stepped at Tybolt's punch. He tried to switch into a kick but I met

his foot with mine. I leaped in the air and gave him a spinning kick to
the face. He almost fell but he used a pretty smart move. He shifted on
to his toes and spun giving me a proper and hard kick to the side. I
crashed into the wall. Tybolt rushed after me with a raised fist.

I stepped backwards and grabbed his hand. I locked it and pounded his
face in. I then threw him out the window. Seriously. He crashed through
the glass and wood. I would have been really annoyed if he walked
back in through the door. He didn’t.

Shawn had managed to throw off the men who were trying to control
him. They lay in their blood.

I walked over to Scythe and ripped his mouth cover off. He barked and
licked me so much I was soaked. I smiled and brought him under
control.

Alica was staring at me with her arms crossed.

“You are not going to get away. I’ll make sure they catch you and
execute you.” She said.

I drew a few gold coins out of my pocket and threw them at her face.

“Thanks for taking such good care of Scythe.”

Then I hopped onto Scythe and he bolted into the streets.

We were out of Lincolnshire before I could even tell him where to go. I
saw Floina waiting for me a bit south from the path. Once I told him
where to go, Scythe shot towards her.

She looked scared when I arrived on Scythe but I knew she would get
used to him pretty soon. As it turned out later, I was wrong. Scythe
hated Floina and vice verse.

She had her own horse and the one she had brought for me ended up
carrying our bags. There wasn’t a lot of stuff so don’t feel too sorry for
it. It was definitely luckier than the one Floina was riding. If you know
what I mean.

By sunrise, we hadn’t exchanged a lot of words but had surely covered

a lot of distance because I was staring at the mighty blue sea from a cliff
a few miles from the beach.
“We’re going to cross those waters if we are going to get to Xala.”

“Yeah. I know.”

We were by the beach quite soon. Floina refused to stop but I wanted to
enjoy my first time at the sea.

The white froth splashed onto the clean white sand. The endless stretch
of blue. The horizon, where according to the mythology, the gods of sky
and the gods of sea collide in a never ending battle. But of course, I
being an atheist, never believed that.

In the distance, the clouds were formed in a sort of archway. Light was
pouring into the world from through that arch. I wanted to ride a boat
of Scythe into that arch.

When I pointed it out to Floina, she said that she had gotten bored of
looking at it. I shrugged and presumed that the clouds formed that way
many times.

We kept riding through the white sands until nightfall. I was so bored I
was jumping off Scythe often, picking up stones, jumping back onto
him and throwing the stones into the waters.

“Are we there yet?”

“No. A few more miles”

“Are we there yet?”

“A bit more.”

“Are we there yet?”

“Shut up.”
“Are we there yet?”

“WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM??”

“Are we there yet?”

BANG!!!!

He got so pissed off with me that she blasted me with her annoying
advantage of being able to do magic.

“So?” She said looking at me questioningly.

“So, what?” I asked pulling myself back up to my feet and dusting

myself up.

“You’re not going to attack me back?”

It like a wound that had slowly healed up had suddenly been cut open
again.

“I cannot de magic. Not anymore, none that I can control anyway.”

“I’m sorry.”

I smiled and hopped back onto Scythe.

“Well. Get a move on. I am really getting bored. We better get there in
an hour. Or I’ll try to do my dark magic thing again.”

“You will try. I will do it no doubt.”

“Yeah. Yeah, just kick that horse’s ass so it starts running again. Scythe
is barely crawling at the moment.

“Hiyah!”She said sinking her heels into the horse’s body.

We raced along the beach. Well race may not be an appropriate term.
The horse ran like it’s tail were on fire but Scythe just trotted ahead
leisurely.”

And finally, after a long journey, we saw Tradesville on the distance.

It was not a heavily guarded frontier like Armour Village. Nor did it
seem like a place to stay. Business was the heart and soul of that town.
You could tell that from a mile away. How do I know? Well, I was a
mile away.

We were still trotting towards the town when I realized something that
should have been obvious to me. I was a wanted criminal. Maybe there
was even a prize on my head. When I spoke of this to Floina, she said,
“Relax. News doesn’t travel as fast as we just have. I still do not know
how these horses managed to keep pace with your darkwolf.”

I didn’t bother pointing out again that Scythe had barely trotted.

It was mid afternoon by the time we reached the town. It hadn’t snowed
here. In fact it was mildly warm even though it was the middle of
winter.

I was surprised at the weather patterns of our land. Lincolnshire which

was about hardly a hundred or so miles to the northeast from
Tradesville. But Lincolnshire was the southernmost point where snow
fell. After that, no snow.

I remembered how the snow had started to reduce in thickness as we

had been moving away from the Guardian hills. I had not seen a clear
demarcation though. We had walked through intensely thick fog. So
thick that I almost had trouble seeing Scythe. And I was sitting on
Scythe!!

Anyway, we were walking through a sheet of snow when the fog

engulfed us. When we finally were released from the fog, we were
walking on wet grass.
Snow-knowledge aside, I’ll get back to the matter at hand. Tradesville.

It was a huge town. Maybe even as big as Lincolnshire. It had to be I

suppose, it was the trades capitol of Questa. Ships that seemed to be
royal rides to boats that I doubted could go half a mile into the sea.
Every kind of ship lined the side of Tradesville that faced the ocean.

As we got closer I smelled fish. I HATE the smell of fish. Barely even
entered the town and already I wanted to leave.

The buildings were built spicily in the centre. As you moved away, huts
and sheds were crowded together.

I doubted that anyone in the place practiced agriculture. Why do I think

so? There was not a single stretch of land that seemed like it was fit for
agriculture. The white sand was extremely beautiful though.

As we came closer to the gates, I heard inviting sounds of friendly

sailors shouting greetings, vendors screaming the names of their
products and children laughing more loudly than necessary.

A sign was hammered into the ground.

‘WELCOME TO TRADESVILLE, MATE!! HERE’S HOPING THAT

YOU HAVE A GREAT TIME TRADING, BUYING OR SELLING.
CHEERS!!’

It was the most cheerful sign I had seen for a while.

All the way till now it had only been ‘Storm area.’ Or ‘Beware of
rogues.’

Then I noticed a small print under the ‘WELCOME’ sign. It read..

‘Storm area.’

‘Beware of rogues.’
I sighed as Scythe marched towards the gates. Floina and the horses
close behind.

Chapter 14:
Rogue Princes
We stood outside the Tradesville gates, gazing at the bustling town. A
day and a half ago, I had run out of another bustling town. But both the
towns were bustling in very different ways. Lincolnshire was bustling
with people who were trying to find and maybe execute me.

This town though was full of people who were happy, rich and
hopefully not even thinking of murdering. Men and women and..well…
People of all ages were roaming the streets with bags full of things to
eat, wear, throw at others, joke items, swords. And it maybe a slight bit
of exaggeration, but the bag(s) were bigger than their shopping bags.

The guard welcomed us like kings. He went running when saw that I
was sitting on a lean-mean-killing-machi…ugh...darkwolf. I laughed
and patted Scythe on his arm. The streets were extremely wide. All
shops and houses seemed to be brick made and painted by amateurs.
That was the part that seemed most inviting to be. The town seemed
more inviting and friendly because of that. It was like it was saying, ‘we
accept and love you even if you are not perfect….cause we aren’t
perfect either.’

I told Scythe to hunt and stay in the woods near the town for a few
days. He barked his agreement and I got off him. He licked my face and
I struggled to keep him from drenching me in drool.

I looked I into his deep red colored eyes. They were the only part of
him that had not changed yet. His black fur had gotten darker and
longer. If it was dark and you didn’t have any fire around you, there was
no way to see Scythe.

A day before, when we had camped on the bank of Spine River, it had
been a moonless night. Floina had set up her tent magically and gone
off to sleep. I had been trying to find wood and some covering for my
own tent. And it felt to ask weird to Floina to share her tent. And
another thing was that tent was a little too small for the both of us.
Floina had made it for only herself.

Anyway, I had gone into the woods to get some wood, when I heard
many shifty sounds around me. I spun around but there was no one. I
heard twigs breaking and dry leaves on the forest floor crunching.

Still, I saw no one. It was extremely dark too. Hardly any light came the
stars.

I made out a few outlines of trees at the beginning of the woods. Where
I was, a little into the forest, which meant you are totally blind. I walked
swiftly back to the part of the woods that marked the beginning of the
forest. I looked down and saw outlines of some sticks.

Perfect, I thought and bent down. I grabbed about 20 or so sticks and

stood up with the bundle. That’s when my heart skipped a beat.

I heard a hushed footstep stop right behind me and felt a foul smelling
breath on my neck.

I whipped around found that a sort of over-grown gorilla with fangs was
glaring down at me. It looked buff and strong. A wet nose grossed me
out. It’s mouth was half open in a frown. However dark it was, I was
able to see it’s bloody red teeth. And finally I looked in its eyes. They
were a horrible blood red color. I saw a tiny reflection of myself in it.
And it’s face showed one expression and one expression only. Food!!!!

It whacked me with a muscular and clawed arm. The sticks flew out of
my arm, and I flew off my feet. I landed on my behind and rolled for a
while until I was stopped by a tree.

I saw many more shapes emerge between the trees. Then or so Yetis had
surrounded me (I came to know that they were Yetis when Floina told
me later.)

The one that had attacked me rushed at me. I dodged it at the last
second but by the time I had even landed from the jump, I saw as if in
slow motion another brutally dangerous, murderous and blood-
thirsty(excuse me for using words that mean the same thing, but I think
it just helped me convey the image of an Yeti running at its food better.)

But at the last second it flew off in an opposite direction. Then its neck
split into two. I heard the shuffling of feet but was unable to see what
had attacked that creature.

The remaining Yetis seemed to be confused. I was unable to see their

expression but I’m guessing. The invisible creature proceeded to kill a
few more Yetis. Still no sign.

Around five or so of the Yetis gathered and rushed at me. They probably
thought I was the one doing the magic.

I was rooted to the spot. I stood there knowing that I was defenseless
and useless at this point. I would not be able to fight hand to hand with
five Yetis and had no magic that I could control.

I felt a swish of air and a presence seemed to come and stand in front
of me. I felt that this presence was familiar. I managed to look down
and see the shape of a big dog like creature. It’s fur was a slightly
darker shade of black than the darkness.

And then, a ball of pure force blasted away from me. The ball seemed
to be made of a kind of black and purple fire. In that split second of
purple light, I recognized Scythe in front of me.
KABOOM!!! The explosion shook the small patch of woods and left
no trace of the Yetis.

Back to the present….

See what I mean by fur that is a darker shade of black than the night
sky? Scythe had become stronger and more agile than ever. So I trusted
him to go and stay in a forest for a while.

Floina could obviously not do the same with the horses. She had to
struggle with them as we moved through the streets of Tradesville.

This is how we got separated.

I took the opportunity and weighed my gold. Not a lot but I supposed I
would manage quite easily for an hour so.

I walked into a nearby inn and ordered three roasted chickens. The inn
keeper brought them out soon and laid them on my plate.

Even though it was daylight outside, the inn was lit with torches. This
made the place a little warmer than necessary. The walls were lined
with grey or black wallpaper. The air smelt a little woody. There was no
bar here, only a counter behind which a man slept. Everyone in the
room were happy. They were having fun or just smiling for no apparent
reason. In such an environment, you tend to smile too.

I was hogging my juicy yet crunchy chicken when a girl came and sat in
front of me. She was stunningly beautiful. Her eyes were a elegant
shade of blue just like mine. Her hair was a light brown stretch of
beauty. Her eyes, nose, mouth, ears everything seemed perfect, making
her face the prettiest one I had seen for quite some time.

Her body was slim but athletic. She was dressed in a sleeveless black
shirt and was wearing a pair of brown trousers. She wore a few bands
on each arm.
She ordered a cocoa milk drink and leaned colder to me.

I raised my eyebrow. Confused, I didn’t move at all. I put my chicken

leg down and face her.

“I have a proposition for you.” She said when she saw that she could
not lean any more. Her voice was as beautiful as her face. Sweet as
honey.

I replied in a kind of gruff and chocked up voice. Bad attempt at

sounding tough. “Excuse me?”

“You seem to be a fighter. So I want you to think about joining the

Rogue clan.”

“The what?” I asked her.

“You do not know about the rogue clan?” She asked.

Her expression showed that she thought I was a dum idiot who till now
had been living under a rock.

“No. I’m not from here. I just arrived in Tradesville about an hour ago.”

“Sorry I wasted your time.”

Then she got up and hurriedly exited the inn.

I felt quite lame, sitting here with a confused expression on my face.

Then I just shrugged off my confusion and attacked my chicken.