Chapter 10

Marko and Damak just stood there, not saying a thing, the only noise coming from a soft wind that had started to pick up. Finally, after a few minutes, Damak broke the silence, "I-I cannot believe that it is truly you, Marko." To this, Marko smile stayed the same and he started to walk towards Damak. "Believe me, Damak, this is real: I have returned home." Once Marko had said this, the two were a few feet apart. Now that he was closer, Marko could see some finer details on Damak's stump of a hand: it was a near perfect semi-circle where his wrist ended, and there was a thin scar running from side to side. "Brother, what happened to your hand?" To this question, Damak stiffened quickly, before loosening again and whispering, "The 'incident' happened, Brother." Upon the word 'incident', Marko knew what had happened...He had SEEN it happen...

Three and a half weeks ago – Molak – Marko

"Marko!" shouted a voice through the thickening black smoke, but Marko didn't pay any attention to it: he had to find the thing responsible for this. He needed to find him. Putting his sleeve over his mouth and nose, Marko started in the direction of a collection of screams. After a few minutes, with eyes burning and lungs gasping for clean air, Marko spotted a gap in the ash, and he saw him: Black Ash, swinging his swords at a group of men, and each of them falling to their deaths. With angry in his eyes, Marko started running towards the direction where he saw Black Ash, but the gap had moved now, so he had nothing but instinct and memory guiding him.

After a few mere seconds, Marko broke through the wall of smoke into a clearing. Looking around, he spotted Black Ash, surrounded by his dead brothers and sisters, and had a small child, no older than nine, choking to death in his right hand, and his bone handled sword in his right. "Stop this, NOW!" shouted Marko, drawing his swords from sheathes on his back. Black Ash snapped his neck towards Marko, and chuckled darkly, then dropped the child, who gasped for breath and quickly ran away. "You dare challenge me?" questioned Black Ash, stepping closer to Marko, who was also walking towards Black Ash, his swords making a cross in front of him. When they met in the centre of the gap, they were nothing more than a few meet apart.

"I challenge you," said Marko, and swung his left sword directly at Black Ash's side, but was blocked by Black Ash's sword. Marko tried again, this time using his right sword and aiming it at Black Ash's side. But, yet again, Black Ash stopped the sword with his own, and pushed Marko's sword back and attack with a swing of his own, one which Marko was only just able to block. This fight went on for a long half an hour, before Marko lost his balance and fell over, causing his swords to be knocked away from him. When he went to reach for the sword on his right, Black Ash walked forward and put a foot purposely on Marko's forearm, causing Marko to let out a grunt of pain, for it was the forearm that had his black scales covering it.

"You're pathetic," muttered Black Ash, adding more pressure to Marko's forearm. But before either of them could do anything else, a large hammer came out of nowhere, hitting Black Ash square in the stomach, causing him to cry out in pain and fall back. "Be gone, Demon!" shouted a voice, sounding as though it came from the same direction that Marko came from. Then, through the ash, a figure stepped forward: he was wearing white ceremonial robes that had black patches spread across the front, and he had a dagger in his left hand, and he had a look of anger in his eyes.

"Damak, NO! You don't know what he's like!" shouted Marko, trying desperately to keep Damak away from Black Ash. But Damak wasn't listening: he was advancing towards Black Ash and trying to disarm him, though he was being unsuccessful, for Black Ash was putting up a good fight against this veteran fighter. Marko got up and tried to help his friend, but by the time he got there, Black Ash had gotten Damak in a head lock and held his sword to Damak's throat, adding enough pressure to let a single drop of blood seep out. "Come any closer, and I slit his throat!" said Black Ash, adding enough pressure to cause Damak to cry out in pain.

Breathing quickly, Marko was stuck on what to do: on one hand, Marko could let Black Ash kill Damak right in front of him, and let that image haunt him for the rest of his life; and on the other hand, he could surrender to Black Ash, and show the survivors how much of a coward he was. No, I'm not a coward! thought Marko, tightening his grip on the two swords. After a few minutes stand-off, Marko sighed and said, "Fine, you win," and dropped his swords. Chuckling darkly, Black Ash lowered the sword from Damak's throat and let go of him. Cautiously, Damak walked towards Marko and safety. Then, in one foul swoop, Black Ash lifted his sword and brought it down on Damak's left wrist, slicing clean through the bone, and leaving it to fall to the ground, with blood dripping out of it.

Screaming in pain, Damak fell to his knees and clutched what remained of a once perfectly working and functional hand. With grinding teeth, Marko looked up at Black Ash, shouted, "You MONSTER!" and picked up one of his sword, running towards Black Ash. But when he lifted the sword over his head to strike Black Ash down, Marko suddenly felt a stinging pain in his abdomen and gasped out. Looking down, he spotted an arrow head jabbed into his stomach and it was covered in blood. Looking up, Marko saw Black Ash looking at him with a smug smile on him face. He then walked forward until he was almost breathing on him, before saying, "I will see you again, Marko, and next time, I WON'T return." After he said that, he walked into Marko, his body turning transparent until he was in the exact same position as Marko, who was grunting in pain from both the arrow head and from Black Ash returning inside him.

Once the pain from Black Ash had subsided, the pain from the arrow started to throb. Looking around, Marko saw that the smoke was still thick, so there was enough time for him to get away before any of his brothers and sisters found out that it was his fault. Whistling for Ice, Marko looked around to make sure none of the people on the island saw him, but then his eyes landed on the unconscious form of Damak, a small pool of blood surrounding his wrist. Sighing, Marko shook his head and walked over to Ice, who had just landed and mounted her. He muttered, "We have to leave for a while, Ice, and don't ask why." Looking at her owner, Ice nodded and said nothing more on the subject. Once they were high up in the air, Marko thought about where he could lay low for a while, and then, it came to him. "Berk," muttered Marko, and he told Ice to change direction so they would arrive in Berk in about a week.

Present – Marko

Shaking his head, Marko tried to get the past out of his head. Looking up at Damak, Marko muttered, "Just some bad memory..." before Damak could ask what's wrong. Nodding, Damak said, "I noticed that you were not alone. I saw Rachel and Fradokos return, but then Fradokos left, why?" Marko sighed, and replied, "I'll tell you later." Nodding, Damak added, "I also noticed that you brought a stranger onto sacred ground. I wish to see him." Nodding, Marko walked towards the edge of the cliff, with Damak

Following him. As they walked, Marko was deep in thought. If Damak survived, did anyone else survive? Are we alone, or are there others?

Firstly, I'd like to thank those people who actually reviewed this story. Secondly, as long as I keep getting reviews, I will continue.

So, R&R.

Nf991