You know, in all of my planning processes and all of the various prompts I am working on, this wasn't even in the works yesterday. I just asked my trusty Discord bot to pick a character, and from there I would pick out a prompt. I listed Luke's name at the end, but I didn't think the bot would pick him. Then I landed nearly 2,000 words of content. This isn't my favorite, but it works. I tried to do a more serious approach, but you can tell that it got more light-hearted as time went on, and I'm sure that the second half is like a crack fic without the goods to supply it.
Let's Go On An Adventure
They had once been friends - best friends, in fact. Luke still remembered that day four years ago when the blond man arrived in the Empire and started to rise through the ranks. Although jealous at first, Luke had grown close to him. He knew that Grayson considered him family, and he had trusted him with one of his darkest secrets. For an entire month, Luke lived with the terror that Emperor Ferox would discover the egg and have Luke killed for being Grayson's accomplice. Every night would pass with the imperial guards swarming the Emerald City looking for the thief.
Luke did the only thing any sensible man would do: twisting his hat in his hands, he told the emperor what he knew. As a reward, he was given a small fortune almost as big as his former friend's. At first, he regretted what he had done. A few days later, there was a pair of bodies swinging in the square before they were dumped into a pit with a dozen other bodies to be mass buried. Luke had been among the group of guards who chased after the thief, and he ignored their previous friendship out of a sense of duty to himself, not just the Empire. If he could catch him, he'd get paid even more.
However, Grayson had escaped, and the dragon's egg disappeared. Luke knew his old friend, and he knew where he would go to hide. After a month, he accepted the Emperor's mission to hunt down his former friend. He traveled deep into the Badlands, and now it was a matter of finding the man. All the soldiers lost track of the man the further south he went, and while Luke knew that he would be staying close to some ruins, he did not know where to look. It had been a long time since Luke had stayed in the Badlands, and he kept traveling in circles around the same beaten bridges and dying trees. Meanwhile his quarry kept getting farther and farther away from him. It was as though he had vanished off of the face of the earth.
Luke didn't know what he was going to do when he finally found his old friend even after he found him at the river. Two years had passed since they had last seen each other, and the man felt so different to him now. From behind the tree as Luke notched the arrow, he could see the wave of sadness pass over the blond's face over something his strange new companion had said. Luke had a funny feeling he knew what the question had been about, and it would have been a kindness to kill Grayson then and there so that he wouldn't have to recount the painful past.
However, Luke had a job to do. Between the two, he knew which one was the bigger threat, but he couldn't kill Grayson - not yet, at least. First he needed to find out where he had stashed the dragon's egg. They had found the man's house a while back, but they were unable to find where he kept the egg. Either Grayson had it with him, or it was better hidden than even Luke had thought. Only the former commander of the armies would have the answer.
Luke felt nothing as he released the arrow. He felt nothing at the cry of pain coming from both men - physical for Grayson's friend, emotional agony from Grayson himself. Luke dropped the sword and unsheathed his sword easily. It was a very light sword, perfect for the art of being an assassin. He charged after his former friend, and he did feel something when he saw the unfathomable contempt shining in Grayson's eyes. Luke realized his mistake in injuring Grayson's friend, and he knew that he wouldn't be shown any mercy if he lost the battle. If he was going to come home to the Empire at all, he had to defeat the man here at the river. Luke doubted that he could. Grayson could always beat him in a sword fight.
"You need to fix your stance. You can't kill a man fighting like that."
The light-hearted affection was gone from the other's eyes, replaced by sheer hatred and disgust. Grayson was snarling at him like a rabid dog, and every swing of the sword was poised to kill. What had started as Luke on the offensive was now him on the defensive as he blocked every swing of the sword and tried not to die. He was saved by a powerful burst of magic that sent him flying away, but Luke was sure that the intent was for the mage to save his friend.
Now, sitting battered and bruised on the forest floor, Luke needed to come up with a new plan, a clever one. He had used a poisoned arrow on the hybrid giant, but it wouldn't distract Grayson for long. No, his quarry had always been a man of action. Luke knew that he was looking for something, and it probably had something to do with the dragon's egg, wherever it may be.
The best option now would be to find the pair. That part wasn't too hard because there was a trail of broken branches and traces of blood leading up to an abandoned old house nearby. Shielding his face from the rain with his hand, he peered through a dusty, cracked window at the pair who were sitting on either side of the fire. The one he had injured was chewing some food nervously. Grayson had that look again, that pained desperate look that he had when Drake had been answered, the same look he had when his family had been killed.
"How could you, Luke? I trusted you."
No matter. The events of the past could not be undone. Luke ignored that twinge of hurt from the memory and stepped away from the house. He had no desire to pick a fight with the mage again, so he would wait for Grayson to be by himself before he made his next move, which would be…. What? Luke couldn't best him in a sword fight; he never could even while they were friends and Grayson took it easy on him. Even if he tried sneaking up on him, somehow Grayson with his super-sonic powers of observation would wake up and have a sword pointed at his chest in a flash. Trying to take him when he had a mage at his beck and call was asking for death.
What was an assassin to do when his quarry was impossible to deal with? Luke knew Grayson too well, or he thought he knew him, anyway. Even if Grayson had changed from grief, he was still a military man through and through. He would always be several steps ahead of the Empire, nevermind an assassin.
Luke ducked inside of some ruins nearby with a badly damaged anvil and some ancient, rusted tools that would serve him no good. It was a roof over his head for the storm. Luke curled up on the stony floor with his arm as his pillow, but it was so hard to fall asleep with the pitter patter of rain and the crackle of thunder. Something felt off, like a quake in the air in the middle of the night that seized Luke's breathing for a few moments, but he had little dealings with the supernatural and didn't know what had happened in the house close by.
Find Grayson. Kill him. Take the egg. It was such a daunting task, come to think of it. Maybe Luke was in over his head. He already knew what Grayson would have said to him before in a situation like this if he hadn't been the prey they were hunting.
"Always choose your battles wisely, Luke. Otherwise, people that you know or even you can get killed."
He followed Grayson at least for a week, waiting for the perfect chance to strike. When Luke prepared his attack, however, he could see the blond tense up. He would dodge the perfectly aimed arrow. He would freeze sometimes and turn his head slightly towards the side. Even when Luke was watching him, he was for sure that Grayson was the one watching him.
That settled it. Luke should have taken a job as a grocer or a baker instead because this was nearly the most impossible job he had ever been faced with. He would be better off poisoning a batch of cookies and leaving it for Grayson to find, but with his luck, the blond would sense the trap and find some way to turn it around on his assailant.
Luke knew what he should have done, and of course it was too late to try it now when Grayson had the supplies he needed (and yes, Luke had followed him for many leagues to the Wall and still didn't find the opportune moment to strike). He should have taken Grayson's precious friend and demanded a trade for him: Grayson's friend for the egg. Then again, Grayson would have found a way to kill Luke while ensuring the survival of his next beloved.
He could waltz on over to Grayson with a nervous smile. "Hello. Luke here. But I guess you already know me, sort of." He could pretend to be on Grayson's side and to have seen the error of his ways, but, no, Grayson wouldn't buy that, either. Even if Luke had been genuine, which he would not be anyway, he knew that Grayson blamed him for his family's deaths, probably more so than he would blame himself but less so than he would blame the Emperor. As he was right to do.
No, no second thoughts. Luke had done what he needed to do two years ago, what had felt like the right thing for him to do at the time when food was hard to find and he was desperate. Luke had convinced himself then that Grayson would have done the same to feed his family if Luke had been the one to take the egg. (He wouldn't. Grayson was always a better man than Luke).
Luke didn't even know why Grayson took the egg. When Grayson had told him, he said that it was imperative that the Empire not find out that it was him because whatever they planned to do with it was too terrible to speak of. The might of the dragon was enough to destroy entire countries, apparently. Personally, Luke saw no other use for the egg than to make a massive omelette if there was no way to hatch the damn thing.
Why had he taken this job again? Because now Grayson had found himself another traveling companion, and the last time Luke had picked a fight with an elf, he found himself thrown outside of the building and couldn't move for at least a week because of how sore he was. Great, so Luke would have to face his former best friend who used to command over entire armies, a mage the size of a small mountain, and now a freaking elf who was taller than he was?
That's it. Luke was done. He quit. He turned tail and started to walk home and just hoped that the Emperor wouldn't execute him, too, though that was probably a better fate than one he would get if he tried to face the three head-on.
Woot! Done! I don't know what I was going for by the end, but it worked! My working ending was going to have Grayson kill the assassin for his family, then a twist of the sword for Drake, and leave it at that, but when I made the joke about the poisoned cookies, I realized that it wouldn't have fit.
CJ: I think that I had that theory before a long time ago XD I wonder how such a thing would fit in with the comics, though, because Herobrine is a demon, so following that logic, that would make Grayson a demon but I am 90% sure that he is human? Or is he? Is he possessed? Has he been possessed by an amnesiac demon this whole time? There could be a simple answer to all of this, and I will never know!
I'm working on enough content for all of you who are stuck at home! I'm apparently considered an essential worker, but we are closing an hour early than normal (and we're trying to bump it down to a 10:00 close when we usually close at midnight). Expect more content because fanfiction can be your next quarantine best friend!
~Lya200~
