The day passed by slowly as Zack ran out of things to keep himself occupied. Normally he would have went fishing, but the sunk boat and unknown life in the lake made that a no go. He checked on the Sat phone every half an hour with the same result, no signal. By the end of the day, he was going stir crazy. He read every book and piece of literature in the cabin. He went outside a few times and saw nothing out of the ordinary. As dusk approached, he thought he should get an early bedtime just to get the day over with. As bored as he was, he had to concede it was nice to have a day without crazy weird or dangerous events happen. He smiled to himself as he barricaded into the closet. Maybe a boring day was not that bad.
Zack woke up to loud trumpets blaring in the distance. He sat up startled by the noise. As he unbarricaded the closet and made his way outside he noticed the mountain and the valley were back. It was a cloudy windy day. A fall chill was in the air. This time the small village in the valley was a much larger village. The fairgrounds area was significantly closer to his cabin. There was a large crowd and banners everywhere. They were watching some sort of sporting spectacle. He realized he was in that crazy dream world again. Behind him the pull of the purple barrier in the mountain and the crazy wizard was strong. However, with firm resolve he decided to ignore it. He wouldn’t even permit himself to look up the mountain. He went back into the cabin and grabbed supplies. He decided to check out the festivities in the village. As he was about to leave it occurred to Zack he might not be dressed appropriately. He needed to blend in. The best thing he could find was a camouflage raincoat shaped like a large cloak. The raincoat passed below his knees and had a hood. The camouflage was classic greens and brown shapes to blend into a forest background. If people didn’t look to close, they might not notice it was made of plastic.
Zack found a small trail that wound down the valley to the close side of the fair grounds. As he approached, he noticed the crowd was very quiet for what appeared to be a large festival type event. When he arrived to the main event, he saw most people were sitting on the side of a hill watching one man fight three other men in an area that looked a lot like a rodeo arena. On both sides of the arena were raised for spectators and the main area was flat and surrounded by a small wooden fence about four feet high. As he worked his way to the hillside to get a better look no one paid any attention to him. He noticed the crowd was very subdued and lacked any emotion of the events in the arena. Paying closer attention to the men fighting he realized it wasn’t a real fight at all. As a much larger better armed and armored man was really beating the living daylights out of the three other men. The three were not armed except for a wooden shield and small sword. Two of them were clearly knocked out and bleeding. The third had just lost his sword and was on his knees begging for mercy. The well-armed man took off his helmet and raised his sword to the crowd as if in triumph. Zack almost laughed out loud, the men looked like the worst stereotype of every Disney villain he had ever seen. He had severe features and stringy black hair. Somehow, despite wearing a helmet he had a long-pointed mustache that rose like a smile on his face.
He sneered at the crowd and yelled in a high-pitched shrill voice, “Is this really the best the Village of Vinstra has to offer?”
There was minor grumbling in the crowd. But no one spoke loudly. It was clear the people watching were very fearful of this man. Zack began to notice soldiers in lines at either end of the arena with many more soldiers closer to the village. They all had the same black armor with a golden dragon embossed on the breast plate. The banners all had the same dragon flying above the arena.
The man spoke again, “As your gracious duke, I will allow these failures to live. However, I demand more challengers.”
As if on cue the guards collected the three men and literally threw them out of the arena. They grabbed three more men from the crowd. One woman sobbed as she refused to let go of the man.
She cried, “My husband is a farmer not a warrior. He is no challenge for you, please, I beg of you, pick someone else.”
One of the guards turned and struck the women down. The crack of bones breaking from the strike was heard across the arena. The women was dead. The husband gasped in rage and attacked the soldier. The soldier easily cut him down. Without a second thought he grabbed another man and shoved him into the arena. The three men were given the same wooden shields and small swords.
The Duke put his helmet back on and with a sadistic laugh taunted the new combatants. “Let us see if you three have more of a backbone, however you lot look as miserable as the last. I will dispatch you slowly to teach this little shit stain of a town that weakness will not be tolerated.”
After a moment of silence, the Duke attacked the three. They simply ran away. The Duke easily caught a chubby man has he clumsily tried to evade him. He knocked him down on the ground and grabbed a handful of hair as he pulled the man up to a kneeling position. The man sobbed in fear begging for his life.
The Duke exclaimed, “Your town has not paid its tribute to me and yet fat slobs like you are allowed to waste my resources instead of paying for the protection I provide. I will make an example of you.” The Duke stabbed the man in the back and released his head. He fell to the ground with blood flowing around him. The sound of the stab and the wet thud silenced the crowd.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Zack stood there shocked and in terror. What in the fuck is going on here. Who is this guy and why is he such a terror to these people. Zach could not believe his eyes. He felt horror and sadness for the people of this town and the men he was torturing. Then like a cleansing burn throughout his system he felt rage. As he watched the Duke stab the obese man in the back something clicked in his soul. It felt like a fire in a furnace just lit up. It flowed through his veins and fed on his rage.
It was such an overpowering sense of anger it distracted Zack for a moment. He had never felt this way before. Not even when he saw his fiancé cheating on him. There was something about the arrogant injustice of the so called “Dukes” action that made his feel like he had to act. At the same time a small part of his brain was now asking, what the fuck is going on in my head. However, the feeling of rage and then power consumed him.
He came back to the moment and looked back to the arena. The Duke had just shot another man in the back with a flaming arrow. Zack stood up, he felt like he had to do something. He had no idea what he could do. The citizens were unarmed and terrified. The Duke was well armed and had a small company of soldiers with him. Zack hesitated as the reality of the situation hit him. Suddenly he felt self-conscious as he was the only one standing on the hill. Much to his surprise most people did not notice him. A Young boy pulled at his arm and pleaded with him to sit down so the Duke didn’t make an example of him. There was a loud cry in the arena. The last man had just barely missed getting decapitated by the Duke’s Sword. As the Duke rounded on the man Zack noticed a commotion in the background. A small boy jumped, well more like fell over the wall and ran to the man.
He yelled at the Duke, “Leave my dad alone, you are a wicked awful man, leave my dad alone!”
The Duke snarled, “This is a perfect example of what is wrong with your village. Even your youngest do not know their place.” He then looked at the crying boy and said, “Your dad is going to die little one, and you are going to watch.”
Despite his injuries the man tried to shield his son from the Duke. The Duke laughed, taunted the man and the people of Vinstra, “You have been away from civilization for far too long. You forget who your betters are in society. You have acted as though you are above the nobles, and now you will receive your punishment.”
As the Duke continued to monologue Zack felt his heart turn to fury and the power of rage pulsed through his veins again. As the Duke raised his sword to strike a deadly blow to the man, Zack spoke. In an almost otherworldly deep voice, he boomed his words across the valley. Looking straight at the Duke he said, “You will stop this madness at once, you will leave this village and never return! If you don’t, you and your men will die.”
The Duke stopped mid swing and just stared at Zack in disbelief. After a moment he turned to Zack and screamed, “How dare you address me, the Duke of Shoreland. When I am through here, I will enjoy teaching you how to behave in the presence of nobility.”
He stared at Zack for another moment and then with almost supernatural speed he turned and swung his sword at the injured man’s head. Zack without hesitating and with actual supernatural speed waved his hand over the arena. Before the sword could come down on the man’s neck it fell to the ground. Like a strong gust of wind passed through the arena, the Duke was pushed a foot to his right and crumpled to the ground. Across the arena all the Duke’s men, in an eerie synchronicity did the same thing. Yet it did not affect anyone else.
The crowd sat in stunned silence. No one knew what to do. The man in the arena grabbed his son and attempted to get to his feet. He fell over on the body of the Duke and screamed. The Duke’s armor fell apart and bloody paste poured over the arena. Then in unison the crowd cheered and stormed the arena to help the man. They quickly noticed that all the soldiers met the same fate as every set of armor had crumpled to the ground and covered in a bloody paste. As the people took stock of the Duke and his men, they in unison looked up at Zack on the shallow hillside. He mutely looked back at them, then nodded at the man he had saved and disappeared.
Zack woke with a start in the dark closet. He was shaking and soaked through with sweat. Disoriented in the dark and shaking he struggled to get to his feet. He opened the closet door and was blinded by sun light. Zack sat back down. He felt disoriented and overwhelmed by the feelings in the dream. It felt so real. The power in his system and the vivid moment of turning the Duke and his men into paste. He felt the power as it flowed out of his arm. It felt so natural, like an extension of his will. The sense of the fury igniting a force in his heart. It was intoxicating and terrifying. Then it dawned on him that he killed over 50 people. Well did he kill people? It seemed so real and still feels like it really happened. However, he knew it was just a dream. How could a human being do that? He reminded himself that magic isn’t real. Regardless of all that happened, there was an explanation for it, at least he hoped there was.
Zack took a much-needed shower and made some breakfast. He began to relax after he ate breakfast. He really hoped the plane landed came to pick him up today. He was not looking forward to a 15-mile hike to a town he hoped was there. He checked the sat phone and saw it was blinking with one message. It arrived around at 5:37am this morning. It was now 10:37am.
It was from his mom, “Zack I am very worried about you. I flew up to the cabin today and you were not there. There was no sign of you at the cabin. We scouted around for two days and could not find you or the boat. I am Hoping against hope you didn’t die in a boat accident. The first time Tom was there he said there was evidence of your belongings and a few bullets in the cabin. Now there is nothing and the boat is missing. We called the authorities, and they are sending police up to investigate. I am so worried about you. If you get this message please call me, I need you to come home. I love you, Mom”
This brought tears to Zack’s eyes. Again, there was no signal on the damn phone. How could they have been here for two days and not see me? Overwhelmed with emotion from his mom’s text and the crazy dream Zack collapsed on the couch and cried. He felt so powerless to get home. After he got the emotions out of his system he sat up and just stared out the window at the lake. It occurred to him that waiting for the boat was probably pointless. If he was going to get home, he needed to take things into his own hands. It was time to plan and prepare for the trip home. If he had to hike 500 miles he would.