Crushed Dreams Chapter Two
"So, let's even the score."
"Who the hell?" Stefon says looking back to see a magnificent soldier in blood red armor, and huge blood red, dragon like, wings sprouting from his back.
The soldier raises his blade high above his head, then brings it down, disintegrating a coyote lunging at him, and spits fire from the end of his blade to kill plenty more.
"Well, that's one way to do it." Stefon says hacking down a few coyotes.
Faith tears through coyote after coyote with her swords.
"Dang it!" Will this onslaught ever come to an end?" Stefon says hacking down coyote after coyote.
"Probably not till we're dead!" Faith yells back to Stefon.
"What are you two complaining about? This is great!" The soldier says, now wielding a pair of claws, which are about a foot long, three claws to a hand, "By the way, the name's Wes."
"Are you crazy?" Stefon yells as he and Faith come back to back.
About five minutes the three of them are back to back with a huge pile of bodies around them.
"Damn it! This is getting tiring!" Wes says shutting his eyes, suddenly a red ring forms around the three, Wes extends his wings to their fullest, his hair starts to glow, "Hell fire!" Wes yells and a ten foot wall of fire arose around Stefon, Faith, and Wes, and slowly moved away from them, engulfing hundreds of coyotes and part of the village.
"You moron!" Stefon yells at Wes, while looking at the rubble of the village, "There could have been survivors!"
"Excuse me! But I'm not that irresponsible! I've already scanned this place from the sky, you're the only survivor." After that Wes takes off into the woods, chasing down a few coyotes.
"I think you pissed him off." Faith says while checking her wounds.
"Grr….Are you going to help dig the graves?" Stefon says walking off to find a good shovel.
"Sorry but I can't, I have to report back to my clan, If I get back before your done, I will. Bye till then." After that Faith takes off into the woods.
"Bye…" Stefon says walking off to find a good place to dig the graves.
After about forty-five minutes later, Stefon is down to the last three graves.
"That was quick." Faith says appearing from a crowd of bushes.
"Oh, hey." Stefon says noticing Faith. "Yeah, I see no reason to slack off, and the sooner I get done, the less I have to think."
"I see you're down to the last three graves." Faith says looking at Stefon's mother, father, and Dominique. "Want any help digging the graves?" Faith says as a wolf digging at the ground.
"Yeah, why not. Are you going to dig all three?" Stefon asks slamming the shovel into the ground.
"Yes, me and a few others from my clan."
"Alright, dig them deep and good." Stefon then walks off to a local stream he and Dominique used to hangout at.
After washing up and getting a few drinks of cool water, Stefon goes back to the village to see three neatly dug graves, and about a hundred wolves surrounding them.
"Good enough?" Faith asks, walking up to Stefon.
"Yeah, thanks. Where did they come from?"
"They're all apart of my clan."
"Oh, thanks I guess." Stefon says walking over to the three bodies. He picks u his father and places him into the small pit, and three wolves kicked in dirt until it was level with the rest of the ground. Stefon then walks over to his mother, and picks up her body, and repeats the process.
Finally Stefon walks over to Dominique's body, picks her up, slowly walks toward her grave and places her in.
"I will avenge you, and everyone else in the village." Stefon says in a low growl as he places a flower onto her chest and all the wolves in the pack howl, all in sync with the rest. Stefon looks around and starts to feel a little better for some reason. He wipes away all the tears as he watches Dominique's body disappear under the dirt getting kicked on her.
One of the larger wolves, the one he saw earlier in the woods, and he appeared to be the leader, approached him.
"You have experienced a great tragedy, and yet you still stand strong, ready to avenge the deaths of your village, but you don't want to go off unprepared." The wolf says sternly to Stefon, and then shapes into a human. "You will need some training, Faith has told me about your encounter with the coyotes, and I would like to thanks you for assisting my daughter."
"Heh, it was nothing, I was just there."
"Yea, but most people would have run away in fear." The elder wolf says as he walks toward the woods, Stefon following closely.
"Yea, well, I'm not like most people." Stefon says thinking about all that had happened.
Stefon and the rest of the wolves finally reach the caves where they live.
"First," the leader starts, "you will see our doctor about that wound."
Stefon finally remembers the wound, forgotten in the day's events, and winces.
"Then we shall eat, then rest. You have a big day ahead of you."
"You've got a pretty nasty wound there." An elderly man says coming up beside Stefon. "Follow me to the clinic." The man then leads Stefon off to a little shack in front of the caves.
Stefon awakes to find Faith at his feet. He then gets up and walks out of the cave to the warmth of the sun. He sets down on a rock and tries to wake the rest of the way up.
Not to long after sitting he feels a heavy smack to the back of the head.
"Why did you wake me up?" Faith asks tiredly.
"Like I did it on purpose." Stefon complains rubbing his head.
"Well," Faith starts, stretching and yawning, "There is a creek over there a little ways, I'm going to nap till everyone else wakes up, I'll get you then"
"Ok." Stefon says, walking off in the direction indicated.
Faith comes up from behind Stefon, who is washing up and staring at his reflection in the water.
"Finally up?" Stefon says standing up and turning to Faith.
"Yea, let's go." Faith skips back to the village with Stefon following loosely behind.
Just as he walks into the village, Stefon is dealt a intense blow to the abdomen, which almost makes him go to the ground, but he forces himself to stand.
"First lesion of the day, always be ready, even when walking into a friendly environment."
"Thanks." Stefon grunts trying to catch his breath.
"I'm Stan; I'll be your instructor until I see that you are ready to fight on your own." The man extends his hand out toward Stefon.
Stefon also extends his hand out and the two shake, the man wasn't much taller than Stefon, he had gray hair like everyone else in the village, and he was well built.
Stefon followed his new teacher closely as he walked away toward a battle yard, where many people were already training.
His teacher brought out his sword, and Stefon did the same.
"Let's see where you stand." Stan says charging at Stefon, blade raised high into the air.
Stefon was able to easily block the first few blows, but when Stefon went to retaliate, he was delivered a tackle which sent him into a near by wall, making a fair sized dent. Stefon fell from the hole to his knees and then struggled to his feet.
"Well, you need work on you counters, but I am surprised you're still able to stand. Let's see if you can move."
Stan rushed Stefon, even though Stefon was still trying to regain his balance. At the last second Stefon brought up his blade, surprising Stan, and swooped out his leg, putting Stan on his back. Stefon then stepped forward and put his blade to Stan's throat.
"Well, well." Stan says pushing away the blade and sitting up. "Shouldn't of went easy on you, now you might go off headstrong."
Stefon looks at Stan again and blacks out.
Stefon wakes up with a warm sensation on his forehead, and looks around to see Faith holding a rag.
"What happened?" Stefon asks sitting up and rubbing his head.
"You wound from the pike came open, and you passed out from the blood loss." Faith says standing up.
"Oh." Stefon says struggling to get up.
"Stay down." Faith says, pushing Stefon back down into the bed.
"Fine." Stefon says lying back.
The doctor enters the door and sees that Stefon is conscience.
"So, how long do you plan on keeping me in here?" Stefon says.
"At least till tomorrow, if not longer."
"Come on!" Stefon yells stilling up and is dealt a smack from Faith making him lie back down.
"That wound can easily come open now at its weakened state, and you could possibly bleed to death." The doctor says, "I'll be back with some breakfast, Faith you can go and train any time you want."
"Ok!" Faith yells cheerfully and runs out the door.
Stefon wines a little more, and finally settles back into a comfortable position, knowing there's nothing to be done.
At about midday, well after Stefon has finished his breakfast, Stan come to the hut, and after being permitted by the doctor, walked over by Stefon.
"I'm sorry about that." Stan says looking over the wound.
"Don't worry about it." Stefon says sitting up a little. "I pushed myself to hard."
"Oh, well in any case, you're a lot stronger that I had expected." Stan says.
"And that's where I get my advantage."
"Well, we will resume training as soon as you're permitted to leave."
"Ah, this is so boring!" Stefon says slamming his head into the bed and wincing in pain from the wound.
"See yea!" Stefon says, then beings to linger in the past.
After a littler while Faith comes into the hut and sits down by Stefon.
"My father is holding a war council; all of the males are there, so there's no one to train, and I can't join them."
"Cause you're a female?" Stefon says sitting up with little pain from his wound.
"Yea! I can barely train, 'It's unlady like' as my father would say, he was very angry when he found out that I had went off on my own when I met you."
"Oh, well that sucks."
"You couldn't imagine." Faith says standing up. "Could you take me with you?"
"What? Stefon asks looking at Faith.
"When you leave, will you take me with you?"
"Your father would kill me."
"So? I have to show him that I'm just as good as the others."
Stefon panders the though, "Even if I did, your father would hunt us down, kill me, and take you back with him."
"So? We'll have to move fast then." Faith says looking sternly at Stefon.
"But-"
Faith takes off out the door before Stefon can finish his sentence. "Damn it!" He thinks to himself.
Stefon then lies back yet again, and thinks about taking Faith, even with the consequences.
A few minutes after Stefon had finally shut his eyes for a small nap in the late afternoon he hears a battle cry that wakes him up and to his feet with sword in hand. He takes off out of the hut to see that he was surrounded by coyotes yet again. Stefon raises his blade and grips the handle tightly.
"You all just don't learn do you?"
Stefon turns to see Wes hovering about a foot above the ground; he was welding a chain with a wicked looking scythe at the end.
"You again?" Stefon says turning back to his opponents.
"Gee, I expected at least 'Hi', maybe even 'Thanks' beings that I saved your life, and about to again." Wes says letting a bit of the chain slip from his hand and the head of the scythe tough the ground.
"I never asked for your help!" Stefon says locking swords with a rushing soldier.
"Well, aren't we the ungrateful little wretch!" Wes says swinging his chain scythe around, and easily separating an advancing soldier's head from his body. "Don't need help hu?"
"Heh!" Stefon snorts and then hears Faith's scream in the distance, "Hell!" Stefon yells pushing back the soldier he had his sword locked with, onto his back and then slits the soldier's throat in the same clean motion. "Anyone who stands in my way will suffer the same fate!" Stefon again yells and then tears off in the direction of the scream.
Stefon finally reaches the training grounds and sees Stan and a few others battling it out with a large number of soldiers and coyotes mixed. He looks around to see Faith lying face down in a pool of blood around her torso.
"You monsters…" Stefon mumbles, "You…You all shall die." Stefon says calmly causing most of the soldiers to turn.
One of the soldiers steps forward laughing, "You and what army?"
Stefon kicks up a small rock, catches it, draws back, and with all his might, throws the rock. It passes through the first soldier's skull with easy, and buriers itself in the chest of a soldier behind that one. They both fall dead.
With the attention of the rest of the army Stefon closes his eyes and begins to cackle, "I have no need for an army! You all shall perish!" Stefon shoots his eyes open to reveal bloodshot demonic looking eyes, then jumps forward, splitting open the skull of the closest soldier to himself. After that Stefon blacks out.