Crushed Dreams Chapter One
The boy picks up the blade, still too heavy for him to wield without difficulty, but the anger running through his body was enough to handle the rest. He tears out of his small family cottage, hopping over his father's motionless body: "They shall all pay!" the boy yells in rage, tears flowing down his face.
"Why had this come to be?" the boy wondered, "We did everything they asked! But I guess they were nothing more than mere monsters. Well, all monsters are destined to die!"
"Eak!" the boy hears a familiar voice.
"No!" He thinks as he takes off toward the direction of the scream.
"Stefon! Help me! Please!" The female voice yells.
"No! Not her!" Stefon thinks running as fast as he could.
He finally comes around the last corner. A blade glistens, raised above the enemies head, above the girl's head, "No one can save you now! Ha! Enjoy hell!" The soldier starts to bring down the blade.
Everything to Stefon slows down, step, step, inch, inch. "Am I going to make it?" Stefon wonders step; by step. Stefon gets closer just as inch by inch the blade gets closer to the girls head.
Stefon remembers all the times he had with the girl, even though he was forbidden from seeing her, beings that she was royalty, but they still saw each other as much as possible.
Stefon quickens his pace, step, step, step, inch, inch.
The soldier caught Stefon out of the corner of his eye, and that was the last thing he saw, Stefon brought down his own blade with as much speed and power as he could muster, and through his leg in front of the enemy soldier's blade. He winced as it cut through his leg and only stopped once it hit the bone, right below the knee. His blade caught the soldier high in the chest, slicing easily through his heart and lungs.
Stefon pushed the corps back off from his father's blade, now his, and jerked out the soldier's blade from his knee.
"Are you alright, Dominique?" Stefon asks the girl who was wiping away tears of fear from her face, and crawling toward Stefon.
"I'm alright, just scared." She says hugging Stefon.
Stefon looks to see the square he's in is full of enemy troops." Crap…" Stefon mumbles as he slowly walks backward finally getting his back to a wall, and placing Dominique behind his back, he steps forward and puts his sword in a defensive position.
"Brave kid, but you and your girlfriend are still going to die!"
"Only after you!' Stefon lunges forward bringing his blade between the cocky soldier's eyes, Stefon then hops back into his defensive position.
"Do you actually think you can take us all?" Another soldier asks.
"No, but I'll be sure to take as many of you to hell with me as I can!"
The ground starts to rumble and they all look around. They all get twitchy, and mumbles can be heard from the crowd. "Is it true?" "No, it's just a myth." "But-" "Look!"
A red flash is seen soaring to high altitudes, then seconds later there is another flash of red as the object plunges toward the square.
"It's true!" Stefon whispers in excitement, "The legend is true!" Stefon now yells as a fiery blast from the red object lands in the middle of the crowd of soldiers sending corpses flying everywhere.
"It's the dragon!" The rest of the living soldiers scurry toward safety, Stefon and Dominique stood perfectly still, a little in aw, a little in fear.
The dragon lands in the square in front of Stefon and Dominique. Stefon drops his blade a little in an offensive position, not knowing the intent of the dragon.
"I claim you as my princess!" The dragon roars.
Stefon and Dominique are so stunned by the fact that the dragon can talk, they didn't even go to run as the dragon rushed toward them, swooped up Dominique, and was off in the sky.
"No! Come back!" Stefon yells as he takes off after the dragon keeping an eye on it at all times.
Stefon finally reached the Forbidden Forest, where many demons lurk, his favorite place to hang out when he was alone; he knew it like the back of his hand.
After running for fifteen minutes, Stefon is finally winded, and loses track of the dragon.
"No! I've lost it!" He screams in frustration, and soon regrets it. In the distance he hears a loud cracking sound coming straight at him, "What now?" Stefon asks angrily unsheathing his blade.
The beast finally explodes out of the foliage.
"Who dares trespass in my wood?" The twelve foot tall wolf asks Stefon.
"Oh crap…" Stefon says loosening his grip on the sword. "I'm in search of the dragon." Stefon bravely says knowing how close he is to death.
"Dragon you say?" The wolf asks, loosening his muscles a little.
"Yes, it flew over these trees carrying someone close to me."
"I saw no dragon."
"He flew into the clouds."
The wolf looks Stefon up and down. "I heard of a disturbance, west of here a few minutes ago, I was traveling to check on it. That's where I would look if I was you." After saying that the wolf disappeared back into the foliage.
"Well that was close." Stefon takes off again into the foliage, west from where he met the wolf.
After running for about another fifteen minutes Stefon finally reaches the clearing in the woods. He keeps running forward looking frantically in every direction, then he finally spots it, in the middle of the clearing there is a cave where profound screaming is being omitted.
"Bastard! Better not hurt her!" Stefon runs with all he has left.
"I don't want to be your princess!" Dominique screams over and over again.
Stefon runs until he trips over a small lump.
"Ow! Watch where you are running!
Stefon jumps up without even looking at what he tripped over, and takes off again in the direction of the cave.
"Halt!" The object he tripped over yells.
Stefon turns to see a young wolf, "What?" he asks annoyed.
"You can't go in there!"
"The hell if I can't!" Stefon yells, and soon finds himself on his back with a pretty young girl, about his age, shinny silver hair, and aqua blue eyes, on his chest.
"Where did you come from?" Stefon asks a little confused.
"I'm the wolf stupid! I'm a shape shifter like the rest of my clan." The girl says annoyed at Stefon's ignorance.
"Well, why can't I go in the cave?" Stefon asks struggling a little.
"Stop!" The girl says slamming Stefon on the ground. "That." She then says pointing to a huge group of soldiers that had attacked his village, entering the cave.
"So? The dragon can easily take them!"
The girl smacks Stefon, "See that cart right there?"
Stefon looks, "Yeah, so?"
"That's wolf's bane, it's a rare plant that decreases dragon's powers.
"I don't care! I'll fight then myself if the dragon will not!" Stefon pushes the girl off from his chest, takes a few steps after getting up, and hears a shrill scream which put him to a dead stop, and fall to his knees. "No….No!" Stefon yells, and soon feels a blow to the back of his head which sends his face into the ground.
"Shut up!" The girl hisses.
"Get off!" Stefon lunges forward as the dragon explodes out of the top of the cave holding Dominique's lifeless body, tears roll down Stefon's face as he lets out a battle cry and charges forward.
"If you're going to do anything, take out that cart." The girl, now back to a wolf, yells to Stefon, and then sits to watch the action.
Even with his battle cry, Stefon still surprises many of the soldiers when he brought his blade from the head to toes of the closest soldier to him. Stefon then scurried to the cart of wolf's bane, killing all that got in his way taking only minor cuts and scratches.
When Stefon finally reached the cart it was on a slop, not too step, but good enough to get something to roll on, so Stefon severed the ties from the cart to the horses pulling it, the horse furthest away from Stefon took, off into the woods, while the other stood still. Stefon gave the cart a good shove which sent it on its way. Stefon then grabbed the reigns of the horse that stood still and began running toward Dominique's lifeless body.
"No! No! How could this be?" Stefon kept asking in his mind as tears flew freely down his cheeks.
Stefon was about fifteen feet from the body when he was surprised from the left, and took a pike to the ribs. Stefon fell to a knee clutching the wound tightly; the soldier then raised the pike high above his head, and was about to strike when Stefon felt paws jump to and from his back, and in a flash of silvery gray the soldier was on his back with a raged wolf tearing at his face. With this chance Stefon struggles to his feet and takes off for Dominique's body.
Stefon finally gets to Dominique and knows she's gone by the sight of the wound across her chest. Stefon falls to his knees and clutches Dominique's body crying freely. "I will….I will avenge your death, they all shall perish!"
Stefon hears a scream, and looks to see the wolf is completely surrounded by grunts, so he picks up Dominique's body, places it across the horse's shoddier blades, and takes off for the other girl.
"Grr…There's too many of them." Stefon thinks, then, after hearing a thunderous roar, looks back to see that, finally, the dragon regains some of it's strength, and is tearing through soldiers like rag dolls, Stefon then, slices the back of the head of the soldier in-between him and the wolf girl. He then throws his hand down, picks up the girl, and puts her on the back of the horse.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" She yells into Stefon's ear, who is happy to oblige.
They travel for around ten minutes to Stefon's village, which was in shambles, there was very little movement, save for a few birds feasting on the carcasses.
"Bastards!" Stefon yells as he dismounts, and charges after the birds. "Well, looks like I got a few graves to dig…But first let's look for survivors." Stefon says looking at the girl.
"Alright," she says, "By the way, my name's Faith."
"Mines Stefon, and thanks for the help."
"Dido." The girl says, then forming into a wolf to sniff out survivors.
Stefon searches every house in town, no signs of anything living, suddenly he hears a high pitch yipe, so he takes off in that direction.
"What now?" He asks himself as he runs around the final house to see Faith fighting with a coyote, and clearly losing. "What the hell are you doing?" Stefon asks, staying out of the brawl with his sword drawn.
"What does it look like?" Faith asks annoyed.
"I don't know…Making friends possibly?"
Stefon sees clearly that Faith has no chance, so when he sees his chance, he severs the coyote's back leg, after which Faith finishes the job by tearing out its throat.
"Well, looks like you've had enough fun with Rouge; let's see if you can handle the rest of the pack."
"Pack?" Stefon wonders as he turns around to see about thirty coyotes, half of which were the size of the first wolf he had saw in the forest. "Oh….Pack…Crap!" Stefon thinks again as he raises his blade.
"I'll take you all on by myself!" Faith says in her human form, now wielding two short ninja swords.
Stefon hears an evil cackle, and turns to see about thirty more large coyotes.
"Well, I don't think we can handle all that." Stefon says looking for a way out.
"I'll have to agree." Faith says looking, but seeing that the sixty coyotes have surrounded them.