Karlston walked towards his tent. He needed to recollect his equipment. After about a quarter hour, he reached his tent. He opened up the flaps to find everything where it was. He slid the hiltless blade back into its sheath, it fit perfectly. ‘I will need to get a new hilt quickly, who knows what they will make me do.’ He strapped his sword belt around his waist and left.

As he looked around, he could see the hopefuls who had not made it to the hunting grounds. ‘Lucky them, they did not have to die.’ The strange thing was, whenever he went near someone, they would take one look at his face and run away. ‘Do I really look that miserable? Well, I did go to hell and back.’

As he walked further on, he noticed something. The nobleman who had died during the hunt had left his horse in the campsite, it still had its glistening armour that marked it his property. ‘Well its owner is dead so I guess it would not matter if I took it, I need a horse so I can hurry back.’ He went towards the animal, which took one look at him and whinnied in terror.

It took a lot of calming for it to allow him to get on it. ‘I must stink of wyrm, I should bathe in a river somewhere before I head back to town.’ He kicked at the horses stirrups, pushing it into a gallop. As he headed back, he opened the money bag. Inside were a load of gold coins, possibly even more than a hundred.

Karlston whistled. ‘With this much, Malen can restore the manor as well as his health.’ As he reached the edges of the charred plains, which now showed signs of vegetation, Karlston neared a stream. He got off, leaving the horse to drink. He knew that it was trained to stay where it was left, so he did not worry about it. Karlston cupped water with his hands and splashed it on his face.

As he looked into the water, his reflection shocked him. His left eye had changed drastically. What used to be a green iris had now turned a glowing orange. Its pupil had turned into a thin vertical slit. It looked exactly like a dragons. The flesh around his eye socket was tinged red, enough to make it look inflamed. He put his hand over it to spare himself the sight. It was then that he realized he was shaking.

‘I was prepared to lose a limb, I was prepared to even sell my soul. But I was not expecting this. I have become the very monster that I killed!’ Karlston tore another large strip from his shirt and wrapped the cloth around his head so it covered up his eye. ‘Dragon eye, huh. Galton must find this to be a grand jest.’ He looked back into the stream. He now only looked like he had an injury there.

‘I had better make sure that this stays covered up during my visit. I will be mobbed otherwise.’ He jumped into the stream and splattered himself with water, it would dry off during the trip back. Making sure that the makeshift bandage was secure, Karlston went back to the horse and saddled up, he would need to ride for a few more hours before he reached the town.

After a long ride through the grasslands, Karlston neared the town. He dismounted from the horse and veered around the buildings, heading towards the manor. He could not bear to face Celise right at this moment. As he reached the mansion doors, Karlston saw men standing outside. There were about ten of them, nine looked like the common thugs you would see in the town streets but the tenth man was finely dressed.

‘The merchants! I had forgotten about them...’ The merchant at the head was shouting through the door while repeatedly banging on it.

“We have given you fair warning Malen, now we wish you to leave! If you do not, we will have to use force!”

He waited for a few minutes, there was no reply. He was about to signal to the thugs when Karlston grabbed him by the collar of his tunic. He spun the man around and dumped him on his behind. Karlston stared him down.

“Come back tomorrow, you will receive your payment then.”

The merchant got to his feet, sputtering indignities.

“You do not ‘have’ anything to pay us. Now leave the area before I set these men on you!”

In fact, they already seemed to be doing that. One man charged at Karlston, aiming a club at his face. Karlston caught the man on his arm. He was only gripping lightly, but the man squealed in pain. As he let go, Karlston saw the other men getting ready to strike. Before they had a chance, he opened the money bag attached to the horse and grabbed nine gold coins. He looked at each of the men separately.

“I know that the merchant’s offering you money to do this. I will give you each a gold crown if you leave now and never come back.”

The thugs looked at each other, then at the merchant and finally at the gold coins. They all nodded, Karlston threw them a gold coin each and they ran off. Karlston then turned to the merchant, who stood still where he was.

“Look, I ‘have’ got the money now. If you leave now and come back tomorrow, you will get your money back, with interest.”

The man’s ears perked up at the word “interest”. ‘It must be a merchant thing.’ The merchant nodded, dusted himself off, then turned away and strutted off. With that over, Karlston grabbed the money bag, went to the door and pounded.

“They have gone Alber! Let me in.”

Within seconds the door opened. Alber was waiting inside, he looked as pale as Malen had been. Karlston sighed.

“Please do not tell me, you have it as well?”

Alber nodded wearily. As he led the way to Malen’s study, Karlston thought on a few things. ‘I have become a Slayer… I was expecting to feel different afterwards, but I do not, although I definitely look different. I wonder what my greatfather would think of me now.’ He came in to see Malen resting in his chair, the lad was nearing the final stages of the yellow fever. ‘At least I was not too late.’ He waited for Alber to wake the poor boy up. Malen did, but slowly. Once he saw Karlston though, he glared at him fiercely.

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“Where have you been Brother. You were gone for two whole days!”

Karlston sighed, he had known this was coming.

“I managed to get enough money to pay them off Malen, and enough to get you some decent medication.”

Malen stiffened for a few moments, he seemed to be mulling it over. Then his eyes widened, he had apparently only just noticed Karlston’s tattered appearance.

“What happened to you?”

Karlston grabbed a nearby chair, this was going to be a hard conversation.

“I went out hunting.”

Malen snorted.

“How could simple hunti– Oh.”

Karlston always knew Malen was a smart one. He nodded and stuck a thumb at his chest.

“Yeah, your brother has managed to kill a dragon and become a Slayer.”

Malen froze, this was the hard part.

“Then what about me? What about the mansion? What about the Fireheart name?”

Karlston shook his head.

“Once you become a Slayer, you relinquish any right to land or power. In the eyes of the law, I no longer am the head of the Fireheart family… You are.”

Malen made a choking sound. Karlston knew this would happen. Although Karlston had been a poor family head, Malen had never expected to ever have the responsibility. Karlston continued on, he had to convince his younger brother… Then he realized the best way. ‘Show him.’ A voice seemed to say. He raised his hands and removed the bandage. Malen looked at him perplexedly. As Karlston opened his left eye, Malen gasped, holding his hands to his mouth. Karlston nodded.

“This is the price I had to pay by becoming a Slayer, I lost my humanity. No one would want someone like me to be the head of a noble family, I am a monster.”

Malen hesitated for a second then he nodded.

“Ok, I understand… But what can I do? I do not have any money nor do I have any land other than this mansion, which is almost ruined by the way.”

Karlston lifted up the money bag and dropped it onto Malen’s desk. Some of the coins fell out as it landed. Malen just stared at the amount of gold in amazement. Karlston chuckled.

“Being a Slayer has its perks. So long as you do not mind being financed by your monster of a brother, I think you will have enough money to restore the mansion and regain our lands.”

Tears streamed down Malen’s eyes, which the lad quickly wiped away. He then looked back at Karlston.

“I would never mind! How can I ever thank you?”

Karlston shook his head.

“Just think of it as a brother’s love. All I want to see is our name restored to its original glory. No, I want to see our family become even more glorious than it ever was before. If you can do that, then I will be happy.”

Malen nodded and looked through the money bag. He was a shrewd one, even when he was emotional.

“What are you going to do now brother? You can stay here whenever you like.”

“No, I think I will not be able to do that. Slayers have to travel a lot, from what I know. And anyway, I still need training. I will be gone for a long time…”

Karlston got up from his seat.

“There will be more money where that came from, so you should not be in any financial situations for a long while.”

Then Karlston hesitated for a second, which caused Malen to turn around.

“The only one problem there might be is the inheritance... I need it”

Malen raised an eyebrow. He looked pointedly at Karlston’s sword belt.

“Is that it?”

Karlston nodded and slid the blade out of its sheath, he heard a gasp to his left and saw the head steward lurking in the corner, trust Alber to do that. Karlston laid the blade flat on his palms and allowed Malen to inspect it. Malen ran a finger over its edge and cursed when it cut him.

“That is definitely our heirloom, it has the inscription on it… But what happened to it?”

Karlston laughed.

“I was told by another Slayer… black steel is only the incomplete piece. It needs dragon fire to turn it into the full item, dragon steel.”

Malen nodded, he seemed to be slowly digesting the information.

“Fine, take it. I can just find something else to call an heirloom.”

Karlston nodded and left the room, he saw Alber outside. The poor old man was crying. As Karlston patted the man on the shoulder, the head steward turned and bowed.

“You have done master Triston proud! I hope that whatever fate lies ahead of you, that you will take it in your stride and continue onwards.”

Karlston nodded, trying to hold back his own tears. As he left the building, he turned to get one last look at it. ‘When I return, it will not be a ruin again. Goodbye, greatfather…’ Karlston turned around and grabbed the reigns of his acquired horse. This would be the last he would see of this town for a long time, he hoped that when he came back, it would be as a full-fledged Slayer, someone worthy of the Fireheart name.

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Ok, that's it for a while. As in this is all the pre-written stuff. Now for any more of this, I'll Have to get off my lazy ass and write *sigh*. If you enjoyed this so far, please rate and review. If I get around 5 (Decent) Reviews, then I promise to start writing immediately. And trust me, I will be checking. Thank you for reading so far!