The legendary dawn sword is not chosen, it chooses. It’s a sword shrouded in mystery. The legends about it date back centuries, some say it was made by cultists who worshipped the sun. Others believe it belongs to a family of legendary weapons all but this lost in time. But the most popular theory was that it was the sword of a legendary and righteous hero who died in battle, but his soul lived on in the sword only wanting to be wielded by the most virtuous of people. But of course, nobody knows the true origin. What people do know, is that whomever the sword chooses holds the power of the sun in their hands. Two generations have passed since its past wielder died and the sword was left to wander the stars, looking for its next handler.
The times of the day attracted different walks of people who lived in the Oceanside slum. Mid-day was when the market near the docks was filled with the most people. As the sun reached its peak the mothers of families would haggle for food and other items to feed their large families. In the morning on the last day of the week, explorers would set up shop in the market carrying things fished from the great sea like treasure from destroyed ships and wonders formed by the grand ocean to sell. Snipers would wake up especially early and try to get the best items at the lowest prices. Everyone knew not to come at night time, then only the smugglers, drug dealers and thugs would dare show their faces. It was dangerous even walking around if you didn’t know your way around, you never could be certain what lurked in the night.
“You fucking brats, you can't just knock over my product and scram away,” the shop-keep yelled at the four kids running away from him. Three of the kids effortlessly dodged the old man’s sea shell stand, the last and clumsiest of the four was the one to run into it, returning his precious seashells back into the great sea.
“I'm sorry,” the child yelled back to the man while continuing to run.
She was slower, shorter and a lot less agile than the other three. And the heavy bag she was carrying wasn’t doing her balance any favors. Marnie looked like a typical girl at her age of fourteen, her dark brown hair had been cut short into a pixie cut as per tradition. She wore a dirty t-shirt and pants; you could only tell she was a girl if you looked closely.
The child directly in front of her went by the name of Kayne, the youngest of the group at twelve. He was the brains, the one who put the thought into their reckless plans and a method to the groups madness. In front of him, Gwen ran with all his might, exhausted from jumping from floating platform to platform while carrying a bag filled to the brim with goods. He just went along with the four like he usually does, stealing a shipment of treasure from a known gang wasn’t his idea. It was their leader’s, who happened to go by the nickname Leader. The boldest and bravest of all the children who lived in the seaside slum naturally had a bold and brave plan to steal from something as dangerous as a gang. On Leaders back, a medium sized box was strapped to him.
Just minutes before Leader had spotted numerous bags and boxes lain out onto a secluded area of the dock, seeing it as a big break for the other kids in the slum he ordered, told as he would put it, his friends to grab a couple of them and bring them back to the hideout. What Leader had not anticipated was that there were 2 guards set up watching the loot. After only spotting them after they had taken some of the goods, the guards had given chase.
The children jumped and turned throughout the floating alley, desperate to outmaneuver their pursuers. They stopped for a little certain they bought a little bit of time.
“Split up and get back to the hideout,” Leader said in between his heavy breaths, “we can’t outrun them together.”
“We’re going to be caught and killed someday because of you,” Gwen fired off.
“You’re right, everyone knows the way, right?” Kayne asked hunched over, ignoring Gwen.
Marnie and Gwen silently agreed and ran of their separate ways, while Kayne and Leader distracted the approaching gang members until it was their time to run.
The raggedy door slammed open as Gwen arrived first of the four, shortly after the three kids followed. Inside they were greeted by a blinding darkness, the light coming from the open door was the only thing that pierced it. Before going further into the house, Gwen walked to the door and raised his hand, he knocked in a specific pattern in a way that made it seem like he’s done it a thousand times over.
A moment after the knock code was finished, light shined through the room as the windows were uncovered. In the darkness hid numerous children, all younger than the group of four. The small children surrounded them eager to see what kind of goods they brought back.
“Leader, Leader, how was it out there?’ one little girl asked him.
“It was just fine, we were chased by some very bad guys but we got away, didn’t we Gwendolyn?” Leader said smirking at Gwen.
He wasn’t amused though; they wouldn’t admit it but Gwen was right. They were only lucky to this point, and their luck had to run out one day.
The 3 put down their bags and laid it in the middle of the house immediately attracting the attention to all the kids. All around the children begged and pleaded for them to reveal the contents of the bags.
“The moment we’ve all been waiting for,” Leader said as he took the bag Marnie carried and opened it.
In the bag food of all kinds poured out, fruits, salted meats and more food than any of the children have seen in one place in a long time.
“Divide the food and put it away, will you?” Kayne kindly asked some of the children. In reply, the children gave an exaggerated salute and sped off with the bag.
Gwen opened the second bag he was carrying. Inside were loose trinkets, gadgets and many other objects unknown to the children. One by one each one disappeared as each other the children rushed to grab one.
The last bag belonged to Marnie, she opened it hesitantly. From the bag only sand came out, Marnie looked embarrassed as some of the kids laughed at her bad luck.
“Looks like it was some kind of decoy, It’s okay though, what we have is good enough,” Leader said while patting her shoulder. He moved to the center of the circle the kids had created and took the box from his back and set it down. Without locks of any sort, Leader opened the box effortlessly. Inside it was just sand, some of the kids look disappointed until he reached a little inside it. From the sand, he held a sword in his hand and put it back on the ground. The children gathered around it in awe, but most of all Marnie became entranced with the sword.
She had never seen anything like it, the sword was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She wondered if it came from the sea and how the gang got a hold of it, but those thoughts floated away the longer she stared at it. The sword seemed to glow brighter as she got close to it. Marnie reached for the sword to pick it up, but before she could a child snatched it away from her.
The child didn’t hold the sword for long before dropping it and crying out.
“My hand, the sword burned my hand,” he said clutching it tightly. He rushed off to find something to relieve the pain.
“Oh, let me see,” another child said approaching the sword, he couldn’t even get it off the ground before being forced to let go.
The remaining children, including the group of four, gathered around the sword. They all chimed in, in their own unique ways, about the sword. Kayne stood by himself inspecting the box itself. Leader finally saw it fit to end the discussion.
“Quiet,” he yelled, “the sword was just sitting in the sun too long, serves you right for being grabby you idiots, use the bags and put it in the back room. You three, we’re having a meeting.”
Gwendolyn, Marnie, Kayne and Leader all left the children to play with their new trinkets and went to the room in the side to hold their meeting. After sitting, Leader begins the meeting.
“Kayne, what was the haul?” Leader asked.
“A bunch of trinkets we could probably sell, food and lots of it, it’ll last us a little over a month, more if we ration well, and some trinkets we could probably sell.”
“What about that sword? It was too hot because they left it out, right? It must be cooled down by now.” Gwen interrupted. Leader look down at the ground, and scowled.
“I was lying about the sword,” Leader admitted, the other three said nothing to him, intending to hear him out, “The sword was never in the sun, it was always in the box.”
“What are you saying? That the sword is just always scalding hot?” Kayne said.
Leader didn’t say anything back to him, instead he turned his hand over revealing his half-melted palms on his gloves.
“What is that sword?” Marnie said beneath her breath.
“It belonged to the lepers,” Kayne said to the three of them, “they marked the box.”
They all looked in shock to Kayne’s bold statement. No one, not even leader could hide their worry.
The lepers were the worst of the gangs who roamed the slum. Known for their brutality and ruthlessness. They were the only gang who didn’t bother keeping their activities to the night. Stealing from them was practically a death wish.
“It doesn’t matter what sword is, what matters is that we probably stole the boss's personal sword or something,” Gwen yelled at Leader as he stood up, “Face it, we stole from the wrong people this time. I always told you Leader, one day, you’re going to get everyone killed. Who is going to feed them when we’re dead?”
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Gwen and Leader were always at odds, and he always let his anger get the better of him. He got up from their circle and paced around the room endlessly.
“Calm down, Gwen, we couldn’t have known,” Marnie said trying to calm him down.
“You’re right we couldn’t have, but this was bound to happen,” he continued his rant, “we can’t keep stealing things to feed everyone, it’s going to catch up to us one day, and we’ll all be killed, or worse.”
“So, what do you think we should do, Gwen?” Kayne asked.
“For now, I’m going to go over to them and offer them their sword back,” Gwen stopped and said. He moved to go to the door but was blocked by Leader.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Leader said putting his hand on Gwen’s shoulder.
“I didn’t think stealing those was a good one either,” Gwen snapped back. He pushed Leader aside and left the room.
Gwen was finally fed up with his friend, for as long as he’s known him Leader would always put him and others in danger. Sometimes he didn’t know what for, his antics put him and the rest of the children in just as much danger as starvation. Usually Gwen would go along with it with the occasional complaint, but this was his breaking point. Gwen believed he had to do something drastic to save them all, and that drastic thing was to simply apologize to the lepers and offer the magic sword back so they won’t kill all of them.
Before long, Gwen found himself wandering around the slums in the dark. He grew scared, but he swallowed his fear to complete his mission. The people he asked for directions grew shadier and shadier each time. One by one lights in huts went out leaving him at the mercy of the moon's light. He was close to giving up hope, but he spotted a group of four guys having a smoke outside. The man in front wore baggy clothes and attached to them were several cheap looking chains and jewelry. Near the back was a very large man, he disgusted Gwen, it angered him to know that he and the children could go starving while this man ate in excess. The two other men didn’t stand out too much with one wearing a worn-down suit with sunglasses and the other sporting a blue bandana.
He cautiously approached them.
“What are you doing out so late kid?” The man sporting the chains said. He walked up to Gwen towering over him, he was trying to intimidate the boy and it worked. To combat this Gwen held his head to the moon and put on toughest voice
“I need to find the lepers, are you a part of the group?” he said trying his best to hide his shaky voice. The two men in front just laughed.
“You got balls kid, so what if we are?” the man said getting close to Gwen's face. His breath reeked of alcohol and his clothes were stained by the smell of tobacco. Even after moving back to escape his stench, the potent smell made Gwen gag.
“My friends and I, we stole from you and I want to give it back before you take it back.”
“Hmm I see, well you’re in luck, we are in fact lepers,” the man said grinning ear to ear, “aren’t we?”
The rest of the men nodded their heads violently and agreed.
“So, what do you want us to do?” the man in the suit spoke up and asked
“Just please take the sword and whatever you want back and tell your boss we’re sorry and not to come after us.”
“That’s all huh?”
“I just don’t want my friends to be hurt because we made a mistake.”
“Don’t worry your friends are going to be all right, we’ll make sure of it,” the man in chains said as he beat his chest
“Thank you, I can show you the way.”
“After you kid.”
Gwen walked through the darkness in silence with the four men, leading them to children’s hideout. As the men snickered and talked behind him Gwendolyn couldn’t help but think that he had made a mistake.
After a bit of walking Gwen and the men arrived at the hideout.
“This is it kid?”
“Yeah, just follow me.”
Gwen walked inside the dark house along with the men.
“It’s me guys you can come out,” only the sound of the ocean answered him.
From the darkness sprung two children, no taller than one of the men’s knees. They rushed the man near the front, while Gwen tried to hold him. The man simply kicked them away and drew his flintlock pistol to shoot Gwen in the shoulder. Gwen fell to the ground and cried out in pain.
“I know more of you brats are out here, come out and I won’t kill your friend.”
After lighting the lights of the house, one by one the children came out. In front of them Kayne, Marnie and Leader stood.
“So, I assume you guys are the ringleaders of this pack of runts,” the man said waving his pistol around.
“We don’t want any-,” leader said before being interrupted
“Shut it, I already know you have some sword or something, give us that and everything you have and I won’t hurt you brats”
“But we'll die anyway if you take everything,” Marnie pleaded
“And how is that our problem,” the man sneered at her. Marnie shrunk under the pressure of overwhelming character.
“Is that a girl boss,” the large man in the back said, “can I have her?”
“Go ahead, we gotta show these kids we're serious.”
The man licked his lips and walked towards Marnie. None of the children even tried stopping the beast.
“Please don’t, tell him to stop,” Gwen said to the man.
“Too late kid, once he gets going he can't stop, now about that stuff.”
This was the first time Leader was at a loss. If he gave them everything, the children would starve and he had no guarantee they would go peacefully. If he didn’t they were all dead. He already showed himself capable of hurting them, and he didn’t want to imagine what that pig was about to do to poor Marnie.
Giving them everything was the best choice here, they could just steal some more. But stealing was what got them into this mess. Leader's head was running laps, but he calmed down once he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over to Kayne and his defeated face and knew what he had to do.
“Get the food,” Leader said quietly to the children.
“Good to see you came to your senses kid.”
The fat man dragged Marnie into the first room he saw, in it was a pile of boxes stacked high. He figured they must’ve used it as a storage room, but it didn’t matter now. All that mattered was this ripe girl and his desire.
Marnie struggled but he liked them with a little life in them. The man dragged her to the back of the room near a low table.
“Come on girly it’ll be over soon,” the man slobbered all over her
Marnie had always been a timid girl. Not one to think of her own ideas or speak out very much. She came from a large family so not having any spotlight was natural for her. But she was content with this, she didn’t find any need to change what she was like.
But when she found Gwen, Leader and Kayne it was different. Suddenly she found herself speaking more, they wanted her ideas and always included her in everything they did. She loved them and the children, and she would do anything for them. Because they gave her something she didn’t know she was missing before she met them, they gave her a family.
On the ground pinned by the man, Marnie fell limp. The man noticed her change from struggling to sudden limpness and took it as her acceptance. He let go of her and go up a bit to unbuckle his pants. The moment his weight was lifted off her she bolted towards the table looking for a weapon of some kind. Towards the end of table laid the sword they found earlier. She hesitated to pick it up remembering how it burned leader and a child. That hesitation was enough for the man to grab her again
“Playing dead, aren’t we?” he said as she pulled her down. She held on to the table and it fell with her. In the corner of her eye she saw the sword and ignoring the supposed heat she grabbed it. It felt hot in her hands, but she didn't feel the burning her peers warned about. In her hands, she felt a nice nurturing warmth. The warmth gave her new-found courage, twice as much as she just had. With the sword in her hand she raised it against the man's face and held it there. The man screamed as his face burned. To her the sword felt like a warm, comforting cloth, but he felt something else, something more intense, like the sun was on his face. He rolled off her screaming and covering his face.
Marine stood up over him and watched as the man squirmed on the floor. The man was in the process of committing an unspeakable act against her but she was too kind too let him suffer any longer so she took the blade and ran it across the man's throat, silencing him. From the outside the day man's screams could be heard.
"Check it out," the men said to the other, "what have another kid hiding in there? Looks like we're just going to do the hard way"
The other man slowly walked to the door for the back room. He peaked inside to see what the commotion was. He scanned the room a little before seeing the body of the dead man sprawled across the floor. He turned to warn the others.
"Boss something-,"was all he could get off before Marnie swung the sword at his back killing him. Her swing was so large and powerful that the sword lodged itself in the wooden door frame. She struggled to pull it out before the sword burned through the wood freeing itself.
The children all looked in awe of their savior, even leader and Kayne had trouble keeping their mouth closed. Then leader spotted what she was holding.
"But Marnie, the sword," he cried out.
"It’s okay, it doesn't hurt. It didn't choose you, it chose me," she answered as she gazed longingly at the sword.
“Put down the sword and I won’t kill this kid, I’ll really do it” the man said as he hoisted up Gwen and pointed his pistol to his head
“And I believe you,” she said apathetically as she lifted the sword up. Inside the circle on top of the hilt of the sword, slowly a light began to form. It looked like a miniature sun had found its way inside as it grew larger and more intense as it floated in the previously empty circle.
Her short brown hair slowly singed away leaving behind a bright golden color, soon her hair had no trace of brown. She smiled as she closed her eyes and shook her head. When she opened them her eyes had changed to a radiant yellow.
The man, still clutching Gwen, cowered back, fear was growing in his eyes and it was apparent. The longer he stood there the more he started to sweat, it was getting hotter and hotter by the second. He found himself uncomfortable in his own clothes, shifting around to find even a slight pocket of cold air. He could feel his chains through his clothes, he fumbled to take them all off and threw them on the ground. On the floor, the plastic chain began to melt.
It wasn’t just the man that was getting hotter, the whole house was getting drastically hotter. The candles strewn about began to melt, the stuffed animals and toys caught fire one after the other.
One by one the children weakened under the intense heat, Marnie stood there, sword in hand unfazed.
“Marnie, you have to snap out of it,” Kayne barely got out. His throat dried rapidly every time he spoke. He felt like he hadn’t drunk anything in days. With Gwen passed out from the heat and pain, Leader and Kayne shared a look that meant they were on the same page. In unison, they both crawled toward Marnie in a last-ditch effort to try and stop her. They looked around to see some of the children joining them. Powering through the intense and rising heat they continued to crawl over to their dear friend.
The two men, realizing the situation wasn’t going to turn in their favor, let go of their hostage ran out of the house.
Finally reaching her Leader touched her leg, he skin was impossibly hot. Less than the sword when he touched it, like black concrete that’s been under the sun all day. But he and the children ignored it. Marnie didn’t budge under their weight so Leader propped himself up onto her
“Marnie, it’s okay now,” Leader said barely holding on, “we’re okay”
She looked at him with her big yellow eyes, he felt as though he was staring directly into the sun, but he persisted. Marnie closed her eyes and shook her head again as if to shake something away and when she opened them her eyes were back to their brown hue. Her hair stayed the same golden color
“I’m back,” Marnie she yelled to the children. She dropped the sword and fell to her knees. “I’m back”
The children all huddled against her in an embrace, happy to see their friend again
13 years later
A lone soldier walked up the balcony of the massive castle to meet his commander. Strangely, all new recruits were required to meet the commander when they were assigned to this post. This is the rule that she set up herself.
Managing to make it up the countless stairs, he finally sees who he thinks he’s been looking for. She leaned out the balcony, staring longingly at a piece of paper in her hand. Her short, golden hair still managed to flow in the wind. She turned to him, revealing her bright yellow eyes and on her hip sat a magnificent looking sword, it matched her perfectly.
“Sir, I’ll be in your care from now on,” he said giving a hearty salute. He stood tall but he couldn't resist trying to sneak a glance at the photo still in her hand. Despite his efforts she still noticed, but she only chuckled.
“Would you like to see?” she said to him. He only nodded.
She went to his side and showed him the photo. It was a black and white photo, a very old one from what he could tell. In it were 10 small children and in front were four older ones. One with a cast, he looked serious, refusing to smile. The one next to him looked away as if something more interesting caught his attention. Next to him a boy held out his hand and put two fingers up with a toothy smile. And the last was a girl who only gave a small smile as she looked to the camera. By her side was a certain sword, the one his commander held as this very moment.
“Who are they?” the soldier asked.
“They're my family,” she said proudly.