Warning to Previous reading: Re-read the story if you haven't finished all first three chapters. I went back and combined the first two into one chapter and cut the third into two different chapters since it was so long. Sorry for the confusion, and there may be double post of the same text, just ignore them if it did occur.

Disclaimer: Warning! This chapter contains mild abusive language and slightly - medium amount of blood and gore. I recommend that you be at least 15 years old to read the following. If you are any younger please let a parental adviser read this chapter before you to make sure if you are able to continue in the mature developments that follow. From now on I'll make this announcement "Warning Mature Content!" if there is any adult content in the following Chapters. I'll announce now that I will try to refrain from any violet language and any gore will be kept to a minimum, take note that it will be kept to a minimum but not entirely took out. No sexual scenes will appear in this writing but sexual comments (gender insults) and/or references (Kissing/making out) may or may not, but if so it will be kept clean for immature audiences.

Chapter 3: Their New Protectors…

As the stranger lay in bed, his mind was off in distant memories…

The scene was very dark, for it was nightfall. He was in a small village, walking along looking for someone or something.

He flashed forward; he was looking in a small house made of sticks and straw. Confusion clouded his mind. As he looked inside, there was no one home. Just scattered messes of food and clothes strewn about. He left.

Flash: He was at a water-well, looking down inside. The water was gone. There wasn't a soul around.

Flash: As he stood in the center on the small town, he looked all around. Nothing. When he started to give up hope of finding someone, a small boy came up to him and asked, "Who are you, mister?"

"Just passing through." He replied.

"Are you here for the festival?" The young boy asked.

"Is that where everyone is?" He questioned.

"Yes, sir. It's the anniversary of the founding of the village. Come I show you." The boy grabbed him by the hand and ran off.

Flash: Dozens of people were dancing and celebrating, and having a merry time. Explosions of light and sparkles lit up the night sky. Men were drinking and women were singing and children were playing. And as the wanderer started to feel at peace, everything started to darken. Darken to the point where all he could see was the endless black nothingness. The sounds of joy and laughter suddenly turned into screams of pain and fear. He couldn't open his eyes, he couldn't open his eyes. And the screams continued and terror followed. All he could do was listen in horror. He could hear bones breaking and lives ending and all that he was able to do was listen, he couldn't open his eyes. And when he tried to move in the darkness he would get more disorientated than he already was. The screams began again as he could feel warmth, warmth as from a fire.

Finally the screaming and chaotic terror ended. Now all he could hear was nothing. Complete silence. And now he started to regain his vision. Blurry at first, as he could make out the village homes as they were brightly lit up. But as the vision came clear he could tell that all the houses were set ablaze. As he started to run to the well for water, he could felt something on his hands. His dark eyes opened widely as he saw that his hands were covered in blood. When he looked around again, he saw the bodies of all the townsfolk lying lifeless on the ground; most of them were decapitated and desecrated as their bodies laid disemboweled and dislimbered and strewn about like sands in the wind. The ground was covered in so much blood, that it seemed as though the village was founded on a red swamp. "Who could have done this?" kept running through the stranger's mind as he witnessed the end of this senseless slaughter. And when he lowered his head in agony, he noticed the blood stained sword in his hands. He dropped the sword and backed away fast repeating "No", "No", "I didn't", "No", until he tripped over one of the lifeless bodies. As he turned around, he noticed it was the small boy who helped him. Tears and fears started to boil up in his eyes. He started to scream.

"AAHHHH!" and he sat up out of bed.

"Its ok son, you'll be alright. You were having a bad dream." An old man said, sitting across the room.

As he looked down at his hands, the blood was gone. He noticed that he was bandaged up around the waist and shoulder. "Did you do this?" he asked.

"Yes. After you survived the miracle that happened yesterday, two of the town members helped you in here and I bandaged up as much as I could tell was injured."

"What do you mean 'as much as you could tell was injured'? Aren't you supposed to be a doctor of some kind?"

"Yes, I am the city doctor. But you sustained no visual injuries of any kind. There was no evidence that you had any internal bleeding or wounds either."

"Then what's the bandages for? You some kind of quack?" He asked as he took off the bandages.

"No, no. They're just there for precautionary proposes only. The only thing you have to show for it is two scars on your back. They are located right along your shoulder blades. I could tell that those scars where new by referencing them to your older scars." And he then pointed at various locations on his body where you can tell that blades of some kind were used to create older, healing scars. "They look like burn marks, but also look like slicing scars. I just don't know what to think about them or the absence of any other injuries."

The stranger started to get up out of bed, and looked around. "Where's my shirt?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, the lightning unfortunately destroyed most of it."

"So you're saying I have no shirt."

"No, I took it to the town's finest tailor. He said that he'd repair it, free of charge on account of what you went through."

"So?" He looked at the doctor. But the doctor had a confused look on his face. "Where is it?"

"Oh! Yes, oh course. What was I thinking?" The old man asked himself, as he walked away into another room. He returned shortly with the shirt folded into a neat little square, and then gave him his shirt back. "The tailor told me to tell you that the design may not be perfect because most of it was ruined and he had to create the rest from his imagination. He also said that if you wished he would fix it back like it was meant to be, if you bring it back over there when you got better.

He took the shirt and unfolded it and held it out in front of him. He turned it around and looked at the back. It wasn't perfect but it did have a dragon sitting on a moon, but it was the wrong color. "Close enough. I might go back after a while to thank him, where is he?"

"Just down the street, you can't miss it. He has a big sign with the name of his shop on it, 'Tailorsmith'."

"Thanks old man." He then got up and put on his shirt. "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing, it's on the house."

"No, old man, I can at least pay for the supplies and room for the night. Here take this." He then took out five gold coins and laid them on the table as he started to leave. "Wait. Where's my sword?"

"Oh it's in the next room by the door as you leave. Hope you have a better day today than yesterday."

"Yes, I do too." As he left he picked up his sword and tied it back to his side.

When he stepped outside he saw many people walking down the streets, going about their day as if nothing happened yesterday. Children played in the streets while their mothers shopped at the local shops. Then he imagined his dream again and shook it off. He looked down the street and saw the sign the old doctor was talking about, so he headed toward it to pay the man for his services.

When he walked inside the doors, the man recognized him immediately. "Hey you're the man who got struck by lightning yesterday aren't you?"

"Yes. I'd like to…"

Before he could finish the tailor cut him off. "Are you ok? You look alright. How'd I do on the shirt?"

"I'm fine and the shirts ok, I'd like to thank you and pay you for your services."

"No. It's on the house. But was the design good enough, I couldn't figure some of it out."

"It's fine."

"But it's not right either is it?"

"Well actually no, it's the wrong color and the dragon needs to look like this." He then pointed down at his pants to the symbol there.

"Oh, if I knew you had the same design on the pants I would have used them as reference. Here put this on and let me borrow yours."

"Its fine, you don't have to do that."

"No I messed it up worse than if I'd have left the symbol off completely. I should be done in about an hour, just go shop for a little while and I'll come tell you when I'm done."

He didn't really want to, but the tailor wasn't giving him much choice. So he did as he was told. He went shopping for a little while to re-supply on rations and water. He also bought a new map. It was getting about the hour mark, when the tailor came up to him and said that his clothes were done. They then headed back to his shop. But on the way, he heard a child scream. As he looked over in the direction he heard the scream, he saw an ogre stomping into the city. Without thinking, he ran over to the fiend and slid down under the ogre and drew his sword and pierced the devil in the bottom the jaw and up through its entire head. Blood ran down the ogre's head and down the blade and covered the wanderer.

As he threw the dead fiend over and started to wipe off his blade before sheathing it, a small girl ran up and began to cry. The small child launched into a fit of wailing and screaming. Her mother ran up and held the child in her arms and carried her away.

As she was walking away she stated, "What have you done, you murderer!" at the stranger. The foreigner just stared at them with complete confusion. As they walked away, the girl gave a tearful stare at him. The face of the lifeless boy in his dream replaced her face for a spilt second.

The tailorsmith came up behind him soon after. He whispered, "Come with me." So he followed the man out of the city.

"Here's your clothes." And he handed him the folded pile of cloth.

"What was that all about?"

"That ogre wasn't a fiend; it was the small child's friend. Well more like an overgrown pet."

"But I heard a scream."

"Yes, I did too. It was probably snake or something; we have many wild snakes finding their way into the town. Most are not poisonous but they do scare the children."

"Oh. Then I'm deeply sorry. Here take this and see to it that the pet gets a proper burial." He then pulled out a hand full of silver coins. "And this is for you." He said as he pulled out a few gold ones as well.

"No I can't take…"

"Just take it, it's the least I can do for the irreparable thing that I've done."

"You are a very kind man sir. Thank you very much." The tailorsmith then took all the money given to him and went back into the city.

The wanderer then looked across the horizon and then thought about what the man just said. "I wish I could see it that way." And then he continued on his journey.

-

He started to wake now. Vision blurry at first, but he soon gained most of his sight. "Ugh? What happened?" Michael said as he started to sit up. When he got up he noticed a wild dog chewing at his shoes, so he picked up a nearby stick and scared the dog away. It took a moment but he finally got to his feet and looked back in the shrubbery. The hazy mist was gone and the ground, instead of the air, was covered with flower petals and blooms.

"The flowers, they must have been poisonous or something. That has to be why I passed out. And if I hadn't of woke up now that dog might have eaten me alive, maybe that's why everyone told me not to go wandering in here." He had pieced enough of it together for now, so he started back running to his house.

When he passed the final corner of trees, he could finally see his house. And to his fears, it wasn't the chimney that was smoking. The path of the wild fire must have been large, because most of their yard and surrounding woodland was also on fire. He stood there for a few moment transcended in horror. Then he heard his mother scream. This broke his fearful train of thought and he ran around to the front. He saw his mother standing in front of the house crying and screaming. He ran over to her and tried to shout over her moaning, "Mom! Where's Dad and sis?"

"Michael! Thank goodness you're safe. Your dad and Melanie are still in the house!"

Without hesitation, he ran off into the house while his mother continued her wailing. As he stepped into the house he could see the flames burning all around him. They went up the walls and over the ceiling. It was extremely hot inside the house as Michael started to pour sweat. He looked around and just about every room and hallway was filled with the chaotic fires. "Dad! Sis! Where are you!" Nothing, he feared the worse. But then he heard coughing from one of the rooms down the hall. He ran as fast as he could to get there. The door was shut and was slightly ablaze, so he stood back and kicked the door down. As the smoke cleared he saw his father lying on the floor. He rushed out to him. He tried to wake him up, he couldn't stir him now. So he struggled to hold him up by the arm and dragged him out of the house.

By the time they got in the living room and only had a few more feet until they reached door, his father awoke and screamed in pain. When Michael looked down, his father's legs were on fire. He suddenly dropped him and grabbed a nearby rug that had somehow survived the flames and started to put out the fire on his legs. After he put out the blazes, he picked up his dad again but this time his father could help now that he was conscience. They finally reached outside, as his mother came running over and hugged them both. And as Michael started to run back inside, his dad yelled, "I think your sister's in the basement in the back." He took this advice and ran with it, literally.

When he got back to the door though, a pier fell and blocked most of the way in, or out. He took a few steps back and ran and jumped back in the flaming house. He rushed into the kitchen and through the door lending to the basement. "Sis! Melanie! Are you down here!" As he started to give up and go search the rest of the house, he heard a voice whisper his name. He looked in the corner that he heard it from and saw his sister lying half dead on the floor. He jumped down and picked her up in his arms and started dashing out of the house. When he got back up to the kitchen he noticed that the back way out of the house was completely blocked now. "Well I've have to run and jump over the pier in the front then." He thought to himself, but by now he wasn't as nervous and fearful because he knew that it was almost over. He sprinted into the living room, but the fire in front of the door had gotten a lot larger while he was downstairs. He looked around, but there was no other way out.

"Dad!" he screamed. And as his father came around the front he screamed, "Catch!" He then took his now much helpless little sister by the shirt collar and pants waist and chunked her out of house threw the front door and over the flaming pier. His dad barely caught her and fell to the ground. But before his father could ask what he was going to do, he had done ran off into other parts of the house trying to find a way out. He ran to each of the rooms, all were infernos he couldn't even see through. Then he ran back to the kitchen to see if there was anyway to move the flaming pile of roofing that was blocking his way, there wasn't. He then stumbled into the living room, the smoke now starting to get to him. It seemed as if everything started to run trough his head now, now that he began to believe it was the end. But he didn't fell sorry, or pain, or fear. He felt much happiness and relief now that his family was safe. He looked around and saw that the flames riding along the walls were swirling together. "This is odd." He thought but just as quickly decided he'd take this secret to his grave in a few moments. He noticed that it was getting much hotter, something he suspected would happen. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on anything else. The way the wind felt on his face in the middle of summer. All the scoldings he got from his mother and now how he missed them. He remembered the fight he got into the other day, and suddenly realized how pointless it was. He remembered so many other things and how he would have made up for them, but the heat was getting too hazardous now and he couldn't think of anything except about how much he was sweating now. When he opened his eyes, the entire room was engulfed in flames, this was too much for him to handle as he jumped up and started to scurry about. But this was a bad idea, as it lead to his pants catching on fire and he began to run around even more. The pain was too much for him to bear as the screamed to the top of his lungs, while his parents listened on in absolute horror outside. When he could open his eyes all he saw were flames, and all he felt was intense heat and extreme pain. He felt as if his entire being was set ablaze and that he himself was the raging inferno of hell, and only getting hotter and hotter. He eventually couldn't bare it anymore and passed out from the pain.

-

"Do I want to fish with rods or grabble?" Sean asked himself as he was heading out of the giant house. When he got to the shed, he decided to go fishing with a rod, because he didn't fell like getting all wet and dirty and just having to clean up again after he came back inside. So he grabbed a rod and reel and some worms for bait, and started down to the pond in the back.

He started to put a worm on the hook as he looked up and noticed that it was a very clear night and he could see just about every star in the sky. It was a double full moon tonight as one moon tried to hide behind the other. He went back to his rod and reel. He threw baited worm out into the pond. It landed right in the middle of the pond. The ripples echoed throughout the pond. They caused tiny waves to appear and as they bounced off the shore and headed back to the center, Sean started to notice the small occurrence. The ripples got larger and larger, until they finally met in the middle of the fishpond. When all the waves collided, they formed a small bubble shaped 'hill' in the middle of the pond as a tiny drop jumped up out of the water. Sean looked on in amazement. The one tiny water drop didn't fall back down after it climaxed, no it just stood in the air for moments as Sean still stared in awe and put down his pole. The small drop seemed to be drawing the 'hill' of water up out of the pond, but as the 'hill' started to come out it only got bigger and bigger. The lump of water in the center got so enormous that it started to pull at the shore lines and pull up the entire pond. Sean just stood there with utter disbelief. That disbelief slowly began to turn into fear as the entire pond was now hovering yards away from the ground.

"I must be dreaming!" Sean finally spoke up.

The ball of water just stood there for what seemed like an eternity, before a small cylinder tube of water emerged out of the side. It appeared as though it were looking for something as it swayed back and forth in mid-air. It stopped as it pointed straight at Sean. He panicked and began to run away, but the cylindrical arm grabbed him before he could get away and sucked him into the ball of water. He was stuck smack dap in the middle of this monstrous device. He tried to fight and swim his way out, but it was like the arm think was all around him and holding him in place. He started to panic again as he started to run out of breath. But before he could think of anything to do, the spherical water instantly froze into ice, freezing Sean in place in the center of the sphere. Fear was the abundant emotion going through his body. He couldn't move one inch of his body, He tried his fingers, hands, and arms; failed, failed, and failed. He couldn't move is legs, he couldn't even contract any of his muscles. He was even denied the act of exhaling, or even moving his eyes. As he laid there suspended in this icy prison that would become his grave, he could feel the energy or maybe heat swirling around the huge ice sphere. But as the energy swirling around him got faster and faster and was closing in on him, everything started to go dark as Sean began to black out from lack of oxygen.

-

Lauren held on to the pole with all here might. But out of nowhere her luck ran out, as a wooden crate came flying by and knocked her off her last tread of life. Her screams could be heard by the crowd that had to leave her stranded. They echoed and intensified her screams by several degrees. Lauren made three trips around the cyclone before it swallowed her up.

She looked around inside the tornado and saw the legions of sand and dirt mixed with all the wood and bricks that were destroyed outside. It seemed as though the lifeless fiend was pulling her closer into it's womb. She soon reached the center and emerged from the clouds of millions. And she could see clearly now, as the dirt and sand and other objects weren't flying around in the center. It was just tranquil harmony surrounded by chaotic destruction. In the very center where she was now was one small twine of air running from the ground all the way up into the skies. She was swirling around slowly now that she was close to the ground, but as she was ascended into the skies, the twirling became more rapid and faster. She got very dizzy, very fast and lost all senses as she was spun around like a child toy-like top.

On the outside of the hurricane, the villagers came out of the shop, as the villain of chaos chased its way out of the city. As though the tornado knew what it came to get and now that it had it was going to leave the rest of them in peace. Most of the survivors blessed the ground and air and their respective gods for life and pardons of life.

A/N: So how was this one? I thought it was a lot better, but a tad bit to long. I might rearrange the first few chapters latter. If so, I'll post it in the Disclaimer at the top. Now please review and tell me what was wrong or good or what you thought about it please. Oh and how was the dream episode with the wanderer? It was a lot better in my head, but I just couldn't accurately portray it in words, kind of like most real dreams.