Chapter II – The Cake was Definitely Not a Lie
I wake up to the sound of somebody knocking on my door. Looking around, I find that I am in my room, sun light shining its way through the window. I open my bedroom door to find my dad, Steve, there.
"Morning." I said, yawning as I stretched. "Morning to you too. Are you ready for today?" Steve asked me, ruffling my hair. "I'm always ready for any day." I answered. "But are you ready for today, though?" my dad asked again, with some emphasis on 'today.' "What are you talking about?" I asked, confused.
"It's your birthday today! How could you forget?" Steve responded, getting me in a chokehold and giving me a noogie. "I just barely woke up, dad." I said, escaping from his grip and fixing my jet black hair.
"So are we going to go anywhere today?" I asked. "Yeah. Remember that archery range at the park?" my dad answered. "Of course. That was part of the reason I made the Bowmerang." I said, picking up the holstered weapon from where it lay and putting it on. I also belted on my sword's sheathe, with the sword in it, of course. "Well, we're going to be going there today. Are you excited or what?" Steve asked me, smiling. I did more than just smile back.
"Finally! I've been wanting to go for a really long time!" I practically screamed in his face as I hugged him as hard as I could. "I know. That's just what I figured you would like. That and I was waiting for you to get better with your weapons, which you did after a few years." My father said after getting me to calm down enough for me to loosen my grip and hug me back.
"Alright. Now let's go eat some breakfast before we go. You're mom made breakfast and we don't want that getting cold." Steve said. I nod and follow him to the dining room.
For breakfast, we had waffles, breakfast sausages, bacon, and eggs. "Alright! I'm ready to go!" I said, getting up after finishing my breakfast and heading towards the front door. My parents followed. Once we were in the car, Steve started up the engine and we were on our way.
After a while, we reached our destination. I excitedly run out of the car once my dad finished parking it and head straight for the range. As I made my way there, I heard the sound of a motorcycle. I looked around and saw my cousin, Bob, parking his ride next to my dad's car. I quickly changed direction and ran up to Bob. It had been a while since I had last seen Bob, which, to be precise, was a few years back. "Hey there, Jordan. Happy you're going to be 13?" he asked me after a high five.
"Yeah. But the archery range still beats that by a lot." I said back, looking at the park's archery range. "Bob. I'm glad you could make it." My dad said, clapping him on the back. "It's a pleasure, Steve. Same to you, Elenar." Bob responded, shaking their hands. After exchanging greetings and all that, we went to the archery range at last.
"Let's do this!" I said, drawing the Bowmerang. Everybody, including me, watch as the limbs quickly extended after I squeezed the pressure pads I had built into the weapons handle. A bowstring shot out like a web from a spider's abdomen, catching itself on a hook on the other limb's end. I drew and nocked an arrow, ready to go.
As I pulled back the bowstring, the world around us started flashing, as if the sun was flickering out like a giant flaming lightbulb. I tried my best to ignore it and instead focused on the target in front of me. I was several feet back. Suddenly, the flickering started becoming more frequent. I loosened my pull on the bowstring, still holding the arrow, and looked around, wondering what was going on. Everybody else noticed as well and were throwing confused looks at each other.
I shrugged and went back to aiming at the target. Right as I released the arrow, the world momentarily disappeared in a bright flash of light. When my sight returned, I saw that I had hit more than just my intended target, which I had gotten a bull's eye on. Pinned to the target was a mass of darkness with what looked like bone armor plating on. As it melted into shadow, I could see that it looked like a wolf. The only difference being that it looked to be capable of standing on two legs. It kind of reminded me of the leowolves I had seen in my dream.
Just as I was about to continue pondering the similarities and differences between the two creatures, I heard a scream behind me. One of the creatures was right in front of my stepmother with a clawed hand raised, prepared to strike. "Oh no you don't!" I said, immediately shooting an arrow at the raised paw without really aiming. The wolf howled in pain and rage as my arrow struck true, pinning the thing to a tree that stood behind the picnic table that Elenar was sitting at. Just as I switched to dual-wielding and was about to charge at the armored shadow, I saw a red blur come in from the side.
Within the blink of an eye, the red blur that had come in slid to a stop, planting the blade of a large scythe into the ground to halt its momentum. It resolved itself into a girl with a red and black outfit with a red cloak upon stopping. The girl's eye kind of reminded of mine and Athena's, but only difference being that her's were a little brighter. Her hair was black with red highlights.
Hearing a noise behind me, I instinctively I turned around, swinging my blades in the process. Completing my spin, I had successfully cut another wolf in half. Looking around, I found no more so far, so I went to check on my family and the girl that had come into play. "Scratch that. Girls." I thought to myself, seeing that three more had arrived, talking with the red cloaked girl.
"Are you guys alright?" I asked my stepmom, dad, and Bob. "Yeah. We're good. Nice shot there with getting that thing's paw stuck on the tree." My cousin said, giving me a thumbs up. "You're welcome." I responded, nodding. "Who are you?" I asked the girls that had arrived.
Before I could even get their names, more of the creatures arrived, emerging from the woods that surrounded the park from three directions. "Oh great! How many of these things are there?" I said, asking nobody in particular. "I have no idea. But these beowolves should be easy enough to take down. The blonde one said, her bracelets changing into gauntlets with what looked like shotgun shells in them. "Bob! Get Steve and my stepmom to the car. I'll keep these things busy." I said, taking up my battle stance.
"Okay. Just try to stay alive." Bob said back, guiding my parents back to the parking lot, kicking a beowolf out of the way as it charged at them. With that, I charged at the monsters along with the girls that had recently arrived. The black haired girl dashed forward, leaving behind an after image. I jumped on top of the after image, finding it surprisingly solid. As I made contact with it, it started to disappear, so I immediately jumped off of it. As I landed, I cut down more beowolves. I ducked under a claw slash and countered with a jab from the Bowmerang's Edge Form.
I charged at another incoming pack and cut them all down. I ran around evading blows and striking before they even had a chance to figure out what had happened. As I finished off my last one, I turned around and found that the girls had cleared up the area as well.
"That was some impressive footwork there. Where did you learn to fight like that?" the blonde one asked me. "That would've been through years of practice and just getting into my muscle memory. So I'm only really going by instinct." I said, putting away my weapons. "Let's go see how Bob and my parents are doing. Hopefully they made it." I said, going to the parking lot.
"Looks like you made it through, after all." Bob said. "Those guys were nothing. I've fought worse in my dreams." I said, recalling the leowolves I had to fight in my dream. "So who are you people, anyway?" I asked, curious.
"I'm Ruby." the red cloaked one answered. "Weiss. You may want to work on your fighting style a bit, by the way." the overall white one said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I prefer to go by instinct. I may be the child of the goddess of wisdom, but that doesn't mean I have to fight like a tactician. There's never really any room for thought in a fight, anyway." I responded. "Alrighty then. With that out of the way, this silent one here is Blake and I'm Yang." the blonde said, grinning.
"Thanks for the help back there. How old are you, anyway? You look a little young to be using those." Weiss said, pointing out my weapons. "Oh. You mean these? I made the Bowmerang myself. The sword was left behind by my real mother and given to me by my dad. As for my age. That would be 13." I said, showing them my weapons.
"You hear that, Ruby. This one's got skill as well. And he's a couple of years younger to boot." Yang said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Wow! These are so amazing!" Ruby said, obviously busy with examining the Bowmerang. Just as I was about to say something, I heard somebody shout at me from behind.
"Jordan! Look out!" Elenar said, causing me to look in her direction. In between us was a mysterious black entity shrouded in flames. I could feel the heat rolling off of it as it seemed to be staring only at me, ignoring everybody else. I backed up at first, then as it approached me, I charged at it, slashing with both weapons. The fire entity vanished as my blades were about to connect.
I felt the heat again from behind me. I tried to turn around fast enough, but I couldn't do that against something that could warp around. I was turning too slowly at any rate as time seemed to slow down around me. I barely completed my turn as I saw a massive fireball head right at me. Before I could even react, it slammed into me.
It felt like getting hit by a truck that had a burning engine. I flew backward for quite some time, before somebody caught me in a rough embrace. I could see my dad and everybody else talking to me and looking at me with worried expressions, but the ringing in my ears prevented me from hearing what they were saying. Eventually, my remaining energy fled from my body and darkness consumed me, everything going black once more.