Hron's Adventures

by Karthan

.. Till the flaming ball of destruction burned through the blankets inside of the window, turning it into a molting greenish brown mess with smoke. Another victim of the small ball’s wrath was the destroyed bedding where the old crackpot was earlier...

Night That The Shadows Showed Remorse

P1

The time was nearing midnight and it was several hours into Hron's shift at the king's ball. The midnight sparkling heavens were filled with magic as small light beams rocketed into the air by slithering streams of water which spurted out of the marble angels; surrounded by a small pond adding to the festive atmosphere of the King's Palace. Marbled floors hallmarked with silvery tiles of lions and sea urchins floundering under the sea of dancing nobles.

IWell, this sucks /I, Hron tipped his round ceremonial spear against the wall behind himself and continued to think where he could be other than the marriage celebration of one of the King's Daughters.

Straightening himself as two over zealous couplets entered the main chamber for the ballroom dance. Hron noticed a jester, who was playing with fire in the main area, set himself alight. Laughter rang through the central ballroom floor as the panicking jester threw himself into the angelic fountain, and blew bubbles along with the angelfish inhabitants, whirling about his head. Hron's senses were elevated and took everything in short sporadic jumps- fully alert, awaiting for something to happen.

Some moments later a healer passed through the crowds from the area of the eastern guard barracks to take the actor to the infirmary. As the pair went behind a bend into an alley way, trapping Hron's gaze for a single moment –

BOOM! A shaking wave of hot air, visibly rippled the music around the pool, and forcibly threw people to the ground within a fifteen-meter radius. It appeared that the air came from around the fountain but it was difficult to determine exactly what happened.

-Huron was blown back in amazement from what happened in the corner of his eye. Hron shot his head to the direction of the disturbance. A rocket went off in the distance and imploded itself with a green mist flowing out of it, which then started to shower itself onto the white marble floor.

The mist above their head, solidified and started to rain down in small meteorites of green flame. Continuing to fall the green flames above set an eerie faint greenish ghostly glow around the place and oddly enough did not burn anyone. Then the fountain stopped giving the crystal clear water from it's mouth and was replaced by a murky blackish red substance, resembling blood.

Events were happening so fast that Hron barely had time to think about any of it. This had to be the entertainment that the King brought from over the sea from Aracoix city. Had to be. That thought was then completely obliterated by what the green flames started to do to the red water. Each second the liquid began to rise into the air as mist; adding to the deepening of the green fog.

I This was dark magic/I Hron caught himself thinking- and edged for escape.

Astounded, a small kitchen boy with a platter edged towards the shallowing pool. He reach down into it- touched it- and evaporated. Not he evaporated- but all his flesh and organs. Every inch of flesh, every inch of tissue, and all the food the boy carried was gone. Leaving only the remains of bleached white bones.

People began to flee. Beefy men in dark brown robes yelled it was an omen of bad will from the gods and started chanting, only to be then transformed into skeletons. Green mist settled down further with the falling of the men, in turn turning a large portion of the crowd into lifeless embodiments with their remains. But still the skeleton system of the boy stood there not crumpling with gravity's command, and neither did the others.

The few remaining living beings suddenly realized what was happening. They were trapped, and paralyzed in a situation which magic reigned supreme. It seems that if the green mist or the green comets touch any part of you it turned you into the dead.

I Could it be possible that one of the launched rockets was filled with poisonous gas. We're under attack.. .. /I

"Lo-gro-grimmish-maul", a un-child-like voice rang from the empty visage of the kitchen boy's fleshless bones. …pure malice and death emerged from the newly vacated skeleton, allowing the jaws to magically move up in down in sync with the words. Still the rockets that were sent up into the heavens, swirled in a circular motion gathering speed and sending down small green meteorites occluding your vision except for eight feet in front of you.

I The sprinklers hasn't stopped.. .. .. They're getting faster.. .. .. .. I need to hide. I need to hide fast, to be safe from the deemed fate as the poor souls that just got.. .. Damn it.. I need out/I

The star filled sky, with all it's magnificence, a shade grayer in comparison to the immense amount of flaming "guck" speeding down at the now shining marble floor. All the dancers could do was stare/ Stare at their death. Skin on their skulls and their clothing withered away with the hissing gases. The poisonous gases permeate through the air to the tropical birds in the air…….the birds some twenty feet in the air plummeted and gave their final squawk on hitting the floor.

It would appear that some unknown culprit sent a magic rocket into the sky filling the sky some poison. It was as though things stopped in time as Hron became intensely aware of what happened and his current circumstances.

I Oh, I'm screwed. Yup, everyone is dead. /I

Starring at him, all the empty sockets of the past dead- just looking at him for what seemed like hours. Never looking away as if wanting him to do something. Hron looked first at his spear and then looked down at the gauntlet. He had died like everyone else and was now unable to move an inch. That was why they just looked at him for so long.. .They were immobilized.

"NOO!" Hron screamed as he shot his body up from this treacherous nightmare. Globs of sweat made its way down the smooth tanned mountain pours on his skin. He looked around seeing he was save in the Barracks of the palace. His fellow guardsmen stared at the grunt as if he had just gone mad from a mind disease.

"I'm not crazy." Hron mumbled to himself as the guards lost their attention and re-enforced their minds on their assigned tasks. Be it hammering their armors or cleaning their bed spreads.

"Yes you are Hronen. I'd be mad crazed if I was late for my shift at the king's ball. Hmm… Yup- your late by about quarter sun. Common Hron! Say to the lieutenant that you had to slay a vampire that was trying to suck the soul out of children. It always works for me." A gruff voice from below the bunk bed laughed at the young man," As well my friend you wet your blankets."

"Thank you, for telling everyone about the spill, Adron." Hron said as he looked under his bunk to see a rather pudgy man with a brownish gray beard complementing his shined bald head, where a small blemish arouse from above his right eyebrow.

"Your welcome. Same dre- Hey! Wait!" Adron was cut off when Hron jumped out the nearby window with full plate on- running to the palace half a mile away- and Adron mumbled to himself sadly," That's him for you… .."

Upon arrival, sweat flowed off the back of his knees, he looked at the white marbled castle by the clear green shining sea. As he walked over the light blue lions and sea urchins masterfully carved into the tiles below him. He slowly passed the monolithic pillars on his way to the guard sign in post.

i Most people would gasp in a state of astonishment… No, not me though! Everyday I look into space and rarely anything causes action. This is the King of Sacraba, holder of the king of Zaza of the great Anuh Shalo kingdom! Something should be happening.At tleast I wasn't a farmer like my father.. Heh, my father. /I, he thought mockingly to himself.

"Your late." An eerie voice spoke beside Hron, who was only conscious of his own thinking. A tall individual shocked him out of his internal focus. Guard coordinator Yucca Gored, the evil deviant controller of our hero's weekly paycheck.

Fear entered Hron as he looked at the seven foot, gold cladden behemoth starring down at him smilling and repeated what he just said," Your Late. You will be getting another shift tacked onto your watch shift. You get to enjoy the whole party my friend for Princess Shelia and the Prince of Morten. No overtime pay. Heh. 'A shadow punishment for a shadow of a person.' "

Grunt. Salute. Hron walked away with his post number with information on his patrolling area, plus included when he got off his two shifts. .. … Which was ten hours away.

Some eight hours into his shift, our hero looked out onto the marble floor. He looked out and saw each individual tile covering every inch of the floors, giving it the magical feeling with an aura of magnificence. Pure white walls and several pillars with heavily decorated entrances made the half oval shape. Seeing out into the roaring ocean continuously bouncing and shaking at the bright peach beach. Perfect sand and palm trees spread evenly around the edge. Perfect Scene.

The Sun was setting and bringing it's holy bright orange and purple fans; fanning a fresh breeze into the courtyard. "Nice today" a harsh rasping male voice with a faint glow of arrogance whispered behind Hron," Very nice indeed."

A glove reached around Hron's mouth, and he felt a slightly elevation emotion. One where one knows he can fly to the worlds above in the heavens. Complete bliss, and after few moments of this godlike peace, coming a pain seared each individual vein- making each living moment unbearable.. .. Our hero passed out.

PII

I"Fall into shadow's embrace

My warrior

I shall hold you tight my warrior

My warrior

We shall see the sunset

My warrior

Seek the sunset, then to the light

See with open eyes and engage your soul

Reaps the benefits of your mould

Then you will not be my sole warrior

But the Guardian.. .. …"/I

The same voice earlier, which seemed to corrode and smother Hron's entire body with a cold liquid like substance- causing instant pain relief which each line the pain dissipated.. Each line dissipated the pain, and at "See with open eyes" he awoke to see himself in the barrack infirmary. Words after that filtered out the window as if the wind.

Pure silence, with only a whistling breeze.. Shifting the blankets around the window.

"They're coming.. The evils.. .. The skeleton men.." A twitching bump in a bed across from Hron mumbled ecstatically," No.. They are coming.."

I Oh. Its only an old man, off his rocker by the looks of him./I, he thought to himself smiling at the scene as he fought desperately with one of the nurses. After some wrestling and a swift blow to the nugget; the old wreck was stabilized to be taken to another place. A happier place for crazy people like him.

After such an interesting short scene of entertainment , Hron looked out to the incoming sunset thinking of his brother in Nosul, which was south of Sacraba. Just simply looking into the wooing of the tropical birds. Their late canzonet overloaded with joyous cries of tucans mating. Easily, Hron though, it could be assumed that the ocean could stretch for eternity; emitting its glorious falls and rises with more dull roars of lions against the beach. Few more swift breezes pushed the trees bumping the coconuts together- playing their part to nature's anthem with the birds. Hron experienced a feeling of complete bliss.

Till the flaming ball of destruction burned through the blankets inside of the window, turning it into a molting greenish brown mess with smoke. Another victim of the small ball's wrath was the destroyed bedding where the old crackpot was earlier situated.

Purely amazed our hero was, because other than his nightmares he had never seen magic before, than that singular destructive moment. Magic was not something easily trifled with. Eyes wide open Hron started to stand up and clean the area.

"Who would be interested in a fireball aimed at a bed? Everyone. Heck, they even might try to convict me, a simple guard, of sorcery. I saw nothing, and shall say nothing.", Hron continuously mumbled to himself.

Sweat dripped from Hron's pours, seeping onto the bed sheets thinking of the possible punishments he may have to endure. He cleared his mind from all these thoughts and tried to concentrate hiding, from such harmful evidence. After some burying activities with moving a fountain over a mound of freshly shifted dirt, he laid down and rested Knowing he would get no sleep.

IAgain our hero stood beneath under a pillar in a rain of green mist, pouring out of the sprinklers. Skeletons of long past dead crowded about his feet, Instantly remembering his previous dream he darts his eyes to his hand.

His hand was still there. Thank the heavens his flesh still held to the bone like honey to the bee. Slightly tanned and scarred flesh, but still enough to hold onto his spear Hron looked out into the mist to see something.

All the carnage beside the fountain rotting and bleached white remains were still strewn wildly, where the previous nobles stood. The green mist continued to haze Huron's vision and a surprising absence of sound from the roaring ocean.. .. It was silence.

A shift in the bones towards his left, caused him to shoot his head in the opposite direction.

".. .. It was a dream, and this is a dream." Hron failed at trying to calm himself. He looked out into the haze attempting to see something other than bones, the fountain, and the white marble pillar behind him.

Ruffle. Crack. Ruffle. Then a slithering sound of more ruffles of many bones; accompanied by rattles of fresh hollowed bones. The rattles increased behind the pillar and Hron edged his head around to see, so he peeped for a second around the pillar. This dream had become more like a twisted nightmare.

Pure and bright bleach white bones amassed into a giant creature in front of his eyes. All the small bones fixed themselves as larger joints and few insanely large joints cracked the marble floor shattering the lions and urchins in many directions. It started to form the skeletal system of a dragon like reptile. Bony fleshless wings, razor sharp claws, back bone the width of a merchant cart, and slinked lazily like a lizard resting In the sun. There was no sun though, but an abnormally large moon with the eerie green haze slowly covering it.

A small crack of light came from the east, clearing a straight path of zero mist. True straight path of light sharply whizzed to the pillar, and created an immense shadow spanning many meters. Still Hron looked from the shadows at the now shaking piles of bones which was trapped by the light.

Tremor and tremor rippled the ground ripping the five-hundred tones pillar from it's roots.. .. It started to fall.. Tipping over in his direction! Hron looked above him, seeing the pillar, and how fast it was going to flatten him like a pancake.

"I know this is a dream. Let me out! Let me out!" Hron screamed at the top of his lungs and jumped out of the way to his right; waking instantly on hitting the cold floor.

His lower stomach's birthmark burned and roasted his nearby skin. Hron experienced a spastic reaction of the blood moving through his body due the effects of the magic. His body began to relax with each passing second. Each second, the arterties shrunk and fleshed, bruised and and rested; till the spasm eventually ceased…The shadow then took hold of it's warriour thus letting him sleep for the night.

PIII

Twelve Weeks Later… ..

Hron was on guard duty on top of the western gate facing the setting sun, shaping the skies into their pastels of colors. Him and Adron, the fellow earlier in the barracks, chilled there watching as a merchant caravan entering the city with the Merchant's wife yelling at her husband in a foreign language.

I Same old, Same old. Eleven or sum' weeks since that assassin was caught trying to get to the King. The attacker got his butt roasted by the fire guild's ambassador who was currently in conference with him. Pure flaming catastrophe what happened after he was set alight. Burnt a hundred year old tapestry of the King's great-grandfather slaying a "Proteroglypha Demon". It was some sort of part snake-part liquid elemental summoned by a demented wizard. Interesting story./I Hron continued to think to himself.

"Argh.. .. Damn loud Akians. OYE! Keep it down!" Adron yelled loudly which shifted his armor from vibrations that were rippling from his belly.

"They're only Human, Adron. Akians or not they pay the sentry fees and trade their wears here. Simple in, and out. Why are you yelling anyways? They're not that loud." Hron said to Adron and shuffled his feet adjusting the weight, "What's the situation with finding the person who hired that assassin?"

"The assassin that got YOU, you mean? I thought you were some all mighty guard that could take down anything? Demon or human?"

"Shut up. And don't change the subject."

"Well. It is true that the killer had to eliminate you first.. …"

Hron twitched in the padded room with a straight jacket on. Starring out into the window seeing into the hallway continually talking to himself," .. … .. Well.. .. It is true that the killer had to eliminate you first. … Huh? What's that? … .. What's happening? Like my dream.. .. The skeleton lizard.. .. Your dreams? .. … … I am Hron the Guard. .. … No. .. I .. .. Am.. .. Where am I?"

The medical equipment outside the room that was monitoring the patient's heartbeat- suddenly flat lined. Soon as a nurse passing by noticed the long red line against the green pixel background and called the doctors to clear the dead corpse. It was classified as a heart attack from a experience in his coma within the hospital report. Spooky, eh?