It was very dark, there were shadows in my head and the world spun around in circles. When I tried to lift my right arm it stung with a sharp pain and wouldn’t move. I slowly lifted my left hand and moved it to my right trying to find out what was wrong. I should have felt flesh or skin but there was a rocky surface instead. Following the rock, I had found it had impaled my arm and pinned me to the floor. I knew I shouldn't panic, but I was laying in a pool of sticky fluid in the pitch black.
When I attempted to pull out the rock spike a pain unlike any other rocked my arm. Moving the rock a few centimeters caused a spray of blood to gush onto my face. I quickly moved, working on freeing myself from the ground. As time ticked past I could only think of what happened to Rea. Everything from the time I met her to the point I lost her. I may have only known her for a few moments, but to me, one who has had a life of solitude since it was two, it meant the world to me.
“DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT, screw this!” With a last ditch effort to pull out the stone from my frail body, it did not move whatsoever. Pain erupted once again and I fell into a black sleep.
A few hours later I woke up. I looked around to find the same darkness from my dreams, once again I was reminded of Reas face, that messy red hair and her amber orange eyes. Scouring my memories I looked for a way to save her. I searched for something that could help.
“Anything, c’mon you worthless son!” In the back of my mind, I remembered what my mother had told me: “Never give up and never give in.” Finding fragments of my past and placing them together I had found what I wanted, the only spell my mother had taught me.
Moving my left hand and writing white symbols into the air I created a script. Once that would rewrite my flesh, but before I could do that I had to get rid of the jagged rock within my skin.
Crunching down on my teeth and grinning with pain, I pulled, yanked, and tore. Finally freeing my hand and illuminating the cave with my script I saw a mangled limb. Torn from the rock and my struggle to free it. The blood stopped flowing as dirt and dried blood covered up the injury.
Dipping my ravaged hand through and past the script, the flesh became whole. I could see each and every strand of meat knit itself together again. Twirling itself up my bone, soon my whole body began to tingle, but I ignored it, I was just happy that my arm was healing.
When I was mostly healed I walked back toward the rocky cliff, only to find the way I came in was blocked by clusters of rocks that formed a wall. Falling to my knees I wept, covering my eyes with my hand.
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“Once again I’m useless!” Raising my fist to pound on the walls I stopped, “Never give up.” I whispered this line to myself.
Standing with my fist clenched I walked leaving behind the cave and deciding I would find a way to save her. Bring back Reatha and leave this place.
Walking back up to the orphanage I noticed it was too quiet. None of the workers were picking at the walls and I was all alone within the mines. Trudging past abandoned picks and minecarts I was grabbed.
“What do we have here? Were you hiding the whole time captain Xerin was looking over all the slave workers?” A man clad in iron and golden threads lifted me into the air.
“Wait! Put me down! I don't know anything about some Xerin!” I began to thrash around in his arms.
“Calm down boy! I'm not going to hurt you. But how do you not know what happened? The entire honor guard rode in here and slaughtered all the bandits.” The man then threw me under his arm and marched onward.
What's going on? How long was I out? I began throwing questions at myself. If there was enough time for a large battle to happen up top, then for how long was Reatha getting chased by that golem then? The man quickly brought me up the stairs, as we walked I saw Max’s lifeless body leaned against a wall. His head had been cut clean off. Whoever these guards were, they were not ones to be messing around. We traveled around a few corners before reaching Max’s office. There were more guards in the same attire that was carrying me like luggage.
“Xerin I found someone lingering within the caves, now look at his eyes!” the guard carrying me exclaimed. Wait, what happened to my eyes? Finally breaking free from his arms I ran over to the cracked mirror near the corner of the room. Peering in between the cracks I found my once brown eyes had now grown white with small specks of brown and red running laps around a dragon-like iris.
“What happened to me?” I turned around asking the guards.
“Ha ha ha ha! I think I found him Kai, is that you?” the man who seemed to be the leader stepped forward.
“Who are you? Why do you know my name?” I took a few steps back, bumping into the wall.
“I'm Xerin, your father told me to find you.” He kneeled down and took his helmet off, placing it on his knees.
--Xerin’s Raid--
We finally reached the mines where the bandits had shelled up in.
“Captain! The guards are ready to enter, say the word when you’re ready.” A man clad in iron armor and golden threads stepped up to my side.
“Alright, let's move men!” I and the royal guards rushed forward and slashed the doors open. As I marched forward toward the main room I met many simple minded bandits ahead. Slicing them to bits with my twin swords as I walked past.
Upon entering the main office, I found a man wielding a club and torch. I slashed at him with both my swords, slices that would easily cut a man half, but his body proved to be stronger than the other bandits. “Arghh! What was that?” I took another strike, this time he was aware of it. The man tried to block my right sword but instead my blade chopped all of his fingers on his club-wielding hand. I took my other sword and sliced into both of his thighs. His support now leaned towards my body, so I front kicked his chest outward and left him crawling on the floor. “Ya bloody bastard! If ya didn’t sneak up on me, ya wouldn’t be the one standing!” The man was a sight for sore eyes and a whistle in my ear, so I grabbed him by his metal collar and severed his head straight off. Not knowing what to do next I decided his body wasn’t useful, so I threw his body back out into the hallway to relieve some of my stress.
“Gather up all the workers, we need to have a little talk.” All the guards split off to find every slave worker in the mines. As they returned he sent them off to find food and shelter with the soldiers outside.
Where is that boy? Back at the castle, Darius told me to look for Kai, another dragon. Was he still here? Or had he been moved?