The pain was an eternal constant, a flame that could never be quenched. Every second an unending torment that left no room for coherent thought, emotion or even memory. There was only the pain and fire clawing through every vein, a monster tearing through the bloody passages of the body. The only relief was the occasional tiny pulse of, something, that would trickle down the ravaged veins and arteries, easing the pain and damage that the ever present burning caused. With each passing of the agonizing cycle the healing pulse seemed to get a little stronger and the walls of the blood vessels adjusted and became better at resisting the burning of the blood flowing through them. Eventually the pressure eased and conscious thought returned, with it came the senses and a flood of information.

Spasms wracked His limbs. He could feel what he could only describe as small rivers of sweat flowing across his skin. The few patches of skin that were not drenched in sweat felt like they would be scorching hot if it were not for the arctic chill of the air. His mouth and nose drew in great gasps as if He were starved for the lungfuls of lifegiving air. With the air came the vile scents of bile, blood and other bodily fluids. Abruptly, He realized that His back was not covered in sweat, but instead He was laid out on a cold hard surface of stone. Then His ears twitched at the sound of voices, the movement causing their pointed tips to scrape across the stone surface.

“-sure he has a good chance of surviving,” the cold, clinical voice of a man was saying.

A second voice, also male, but higher pitched and with a slight whine to it responded to the first, “What do you think makes him different from the others?”

“I am not sure,” the first voice answered, “It could be that his Gift is compatible or that there was a slight difference in the experiment this time. Either way we are lucky he will most likely pull through.”

“When can we begin with the second phase of the experiment?”

There was a long pause, during which he could only hear the sounds of his own labored breathing, then the first voice returned, “It might be some time, a few days at least. The boy’s condition may be stabilizing but it is still poor. We only have the one specimen so we must proceed cautiously. If we rush and push him too hard we might lose him and we will be back to square one. We will take our time until we can figure out how to replicate the success.”

“Hmmm, that is reasonable,” the second voice said in a thoughtful tone, “Perhaps we should set up a divining circle while we wait. Once he awakens we can determine if his Gift might have been a factor.”

“That ritual will require a number of expensive materials.”

“It’s that or stumble around trying to figure out what his Gift might be and whether it affected the experiment,” the whining voice argued.

“He is of elven blood, we simply have to wait for him to come of age,” the cold voice retorted.

“The boy cannot be more than ten,” the second voice spat, “It will be years before he turns sixteen, not to mention that we have no idea as to which day that will be. Besides, we have no idea if elves simply know their innate Gift instinctively or if they have some special ritual of their own.”

“That’s,” the cold voice paused, “a fair point. Perhaps we wait until he acquires his secondary Gifts, then if he cannot tell us what his innate Gift is by then we can perform the divining circle ritual.”

“That seems reasonable enough although I hate having to wait that long. Would we be able to accelerate his aging process?”

“There would be little point. Secondary Gifts arrive on the first Forging after one’s sixteenth birthday. No exceptions. Aging his body would have no impact and the magic required to age him is powerful and may damage the experiment.”

“So all we can do is wait.”

“For the Gift, yes all we can do is wait,” the cold voice retorted impatiently, “But there are other things we can do in the meantime. We can start by working the magical constraints that will make him obedient and then teach him how to wield weapons.”

“We will need to find someone skilled at arms to teach him,” the other voice whined.

“Eventually perhaps, but for now I believe I can cover the basics. It shouldn’t be too difficult.”

On the cold stone He wondered who they were talking about and where He was. The pain was still coursing throughout His body but He felt like it had receded enough to try opening His eyes. As He tried to open his eyes He found that they were sealed shut by something that reminded him of the crusts that built up in your eyes at night, only this felt like there was a hundred times worse. With a great effort He tried to lift his hand to His face, but all the attempt achieved was a sharp increase in the pain coursing through His arm forcing him to abandon the attempt. With a moan He felt himself slowly slip back into a state of helpless suffering. All He could do was ask himself where am I? How did I get here? Who am I? What is happening to me?

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

* * * * *

“You are the culmination of three decades of efforts to create the perfect soldier,” Master Eisel intoned in his cold, clinical way, “this challenge should be a simple task for you Hydra Zero.”

Hydra Zero gritted his teeth in frustration and shifted the grip on his scimitar. In front of him, his opponent bared its fangs darted forward. As the silver furred wolf charged at Hydra Zero and he tried to duck behind his shield. He was too slow and the wolf seemed to slip beneath his upraised shield like water around a rock. Its front claws tore through the heavy leather armor like paper, drawing savage gashes across Hydra Zero’s chest while the wolf’s hind claws ripped open the leathery skin and patches of scales on his belly with ease. Through the haze of pain Hydra Zero saw the wolf’s snarling jaws coming for his throat. With a growl of his own, Hydra Zero twisted his head and neck to the side. The wolf’s teeth savaged Hydra Zero’s shoulder, rather than tearing out his throat.

With a snarl, Hydra Zero’s head leapt instinctually forward and his own jaws opened wide. He attempted to sink his own fangs into the attacking creature’s throat. All he got was a disappointing amount of fur. His own jaws were not wide enough to get a good grip of the wolf's throat, nor were his teeth long enough to sufficiently pierce anything vital. So instead Hydra Zero let his now useless shield drop from his left hand. He brought the freed limb around the upper part of the canine’s torso and hugged the wolf closer to his chest. At the same time, Hydra Zero’s legs came up and gripped his opponent’s lower body and his right hand shifted the grip on his wicked looking double bladed scimitar. In its now inverted position, Hydra Zero brought the weapon down point first toward the wolf’s spine, as if it were the fang of some great beast.

Unfortunately the angle of attack was poor and the maneuver was unpracticed. The weapon missed the intended target and missed the spinal column. Instead, the weapon pierced the ribs of the creature. The wound was far from fatal but the unexpected retaliation caused the wolf to release Hydra Zero’s shoulder and howl in pain. The beast began to scrabble more desperately at Hydra Zero’s torso in an effort to force him to release it, but instead it found that all he did was drop the blade and hug the wolf tighter to him with both hands. With a savage roar of pain and determination, Hydra Zero threw his weight to the side and rolled atop his opponent.

The wolf probably weighed about the same as Hydra Zero, but then unexpected action combined with the unusual amount of strength contained in his deceptively wiry frame was sufficient to allow him to pin the creature beneath him. For a moment, the two combatants waited like that, chests heaving as they gulped in great lungfuls of air. Then the wolf realized that it was under attack from a rather unexpected source. It let out a whimper of pain as the dark green blood of Hydra Zero that now coated its muzzle, mouth and paws began to burn it. The acidic fluid began to sizzle as it began to eat through the parts of the body that had been covered in it and more of the deadly blood was dripping from the gaping wounds that the wolf had opened in Hydra Zero’s shoulder and torso by the second.

The wolf yelped at the unexpected pain and began to scrabble away. Hydra Zero took advantage of his opponent’s panic and seized the wolf’s head. Hydra Zero reached down and began to smother his blood across the wolf’s face. He gave a savage grin as he watched the acid eat into the canine’s eyes. With a grunt Hydra Zero rolled off the wolf as it scrabbled futilely at its damaged eyes. With an effort of will, the Hydrablood stood and bared his teeth. His body was aching and covered in dozens of gashes from the wild beast’s claws and his shoulder ached from where it had sunk its fangs into him. Then step by step he made his way over to where his scimitar had fallen. Hydra Zero picked up the blade and turned to the blind wolf thrashing about. His first swing missed hitting anything vital, but the second ended the pitiful creature’s agony.

With a groan Hydra Zero slid to his knees. His wounds ached and he was covered in blood, but he could already feel the cuts that had been opened in his skin and scales were closing. In a minute they would be gone entirely. The shoulder would take about two minutes by his estimate. Still, he was victorious against the silver furred wolf. He was also starving.

“I suppose that was an adequate performance, Hydra Zero.”

Master Eisel strode into the glowing magical circle that had prevented Hydra Zero and his opponent from leaving, his robes making it appear as if he were flowing across the cave’s stone floor. He had been walking its perimeter, observing the fight.

Hydra Zero struggled to his feet and slowly bowed to the ancient wizard. The man's black eyes locked with Hydra Zero’s golden eyes and Hydra Zero saw a frown appear beneath the white whiskers of his beard. For the briefest of moments Hydra Zero wondered if he would be fast enough to strike. Master Eisel’s next words put an end to that possible line of thinking.

“You are not fast enough,” the man’s cold voice snapped out, “You are too easily distracted. You lack focus and discipline. Your opponent got through your guard too easily.”

Hydra Zero snarled at the double meaning behind the man’s words then recoiled in shock and pain. The wizard had struck the moment that Hydra Zero had bared his fangs, a wave of powerful force magic had struck his jaw at the same moment that another wave had swept a leg out from beneath him. Hydra Zero felt a large bruise forming on the back of his head, but also felt his regenerative abilities go to work to repair the damage caused by the unexpected collision with the floor. With a groan he rolled slowly back to his feet. His hunger was growing.

Eisel stared coldly down at the hydrablood for a moment before turning and walking out of the circle and toward the desk where Master Gavidan sat making notes. As he did the magic of the circle dimmed.

“Return to your cage Hydra Zero,” the master ordered, “there should be a few loaves in there to calm your appetite.”

Gavidan snorted, “He eats far too much. The cost of feeding him is getting out of hand.”

“Hardly,” Eisel returned coldly, “the meals are pittance compared to the benefits.”

“I disagree. The goal is for the perfect army of soldiers. Think of the costs it would require to sustain a single unit much less a full force of equivalent soldiers.”

Hydra Zero turned away from the bickering wizards, as the magic of the command that Eisel had given him took its full effect. He took only a couple steps toward his cage when he stopped. Hydra Zero’s gaze settled on the plain wooden door before him. It appeared to lead to nowhere and it certainly had not been there before. Then Hydra Zero felt a new magic seem to emanate from the door, one that washed away the strands of Eisel’s compulsion magic like they were faint wisps of cobwebs. Hydra Zero felt compelled to open that door. With a wave of trepidation, Hydra Zero glanced back at the arguing masters, but they were too invested in what was becoming an increasingly heated discussion. As soon as he confirmed they were distracted Hydra Zero stepped forward, opened the door and stepped through.