Chapter 9: The Storm
Jake flew out to Central Park again, everything was quiet…and not the peaceful, likable kind of quiet…but the dangerous, 'FIRE IN THE HOLE!' type of quiet. A few minutes after landing he felt someone put his/her hand on his left shoulder, he whipped around with blinding speed to see it was Christian, Michael was right behind her, "Well look who finally showed up?" Michael said with a smirk.
"Any idea what's going to go down here?" Jake asked.
"No…but if all three of us have to be here, then I'll bet its something big." Michael told him.
Suddenly they heard the sound of footsteps approaching, all three of them quickly hid, but tried to stay in view of what was happening, suddenly 30 crimson cloaked figures came out of the night, 11 of them shimmied up a few nearby trees.
"What's L'Épée Foncée doing here?" Michael thought.
"Oh no, not this…" Jake thought to himself.
In about 5 minutes to Midnight they got their answer when 44 members of the Huntsclan showed up.
"There's going to be a war here…" Christian whispered to her self.
Rose's POV-
Rose marched along side the Huntsmaster as the members of L'Épée Foncée came into her visual view, there were such a small number of them, soon the Huntsclan came to a halt about 25 yards from L'Épée Foncée. "Is this all you could muster, because if it is than you are a bunch of fools!" The Huntsmaster commented.
The crimson robed figures stayed silent.
"What is wrong, are you deaf now too?" Rose joked.
Suddenly one of the robed figure, wearing under his cloak what looked to be Iron Splint-Mail Armor came forth, "The time for talk has passed…" he then drew his sword and held it in the air, "Au nom de Jack!"
Suddenly a shower of arrows came from the trees, Rose and the Huntsmaster were able to avoid being hit…but for 5 Huntsclan members, well….they weren't so lucky. "This would not be a bad time for those dragons to show up!" Rose thought to herself, suddenly getting side-swiped by some mis-fired magical energy and tossed to the ground as if she was a rag-doll.
Jake's POV-
When Rose got winged by that energy blast he'd seen enough, "ROSE NO!" he cried out…not realizing he'd given his location away as he did.
"The Dragon…get him!" The Huntsmaster ordered, three of his men tried to head for him…but were immediately cut-off by three of L'Épée Foncée, Jake took this as his moment to make his way towards Rose, Michael and Christian also came out of hiding and now were bringing a hell of an icy rain of ice beams and icicles down on both sides. As soon as he got up to Rose he was met by the Huntsmaster who had a rather large and heavy sword, "I was saving this for such an occasion Dragon…this sword has been enchanted with the souls of Huntsmasters' past…it is said to be the only thing that will be able to kill Jack de Lames, so it fitting this sword has been named 'Jack-Slayer'!"
Jack looked at the blade and saw it was pulsing with some sort of energy, he was ready to put up a magical barrier to try and shield himself from it, but as it struck the barrier the blade of the sword created a shockwave that not only shattered through it but caused Jake to change back into a human for a quick second.
The Huntsmaster saw this and swung the Sword at Jake again, Jake dodged it again, but the force of the magical energies once again caused him to fly back and become human again for a few seconds.
Jake was now staggering to get up, he used a tree for support, he then felt the gauntleted hand of the Huntsmaster against his throat, "Now Dragon…I saw you shift, let's find out who you really are…"
Suddenly the sword gave a bright flash of deep green light, Jake tried to fight the effects of the sword but found that fighting it felt like 10,000 small daggers going into his body and different intervals, he let out a loud scream as returned to his human form.
"Your Roses little friend." Said the Huntsmaster "I can't believe she was stupid enough to befriend a dragon and not know it."
"Have you looked in the mirror lately?" Jake joked with a laughing cough.
The Huntsmaster let him go and stepped away, Rose had managed to get back to her feet…She saw the Huntsmaster looking upon Jake, she couldn't believe he was here. "Ah Huntsgirl…you're back to your feet…" Huntsmaster said, tossing her a small sword. "It appears your little friend here was our dragon all along…now is the time to fulfill your destiny."
Rose stepped towards them and put the blade up to Jake's throat.
"Yes that's it…now finish him." The Huntsmaster ordered.
"Don't do it Rose…" Jake said weakly.
Rose's expression seemed to soften a bit, "Can I really do this…can I really kill Jake?"
"Apprentice why do you stall, hurry and finish him before he gets his strength back." The Huntsmaster told her.
"Rose, it doesn't have to end like this…you're not a killer…" Jake said to her.
"Apprentice do as you are told…cut his throat now!" The Huntsmaster ordered.
"Where's the Rose I know from school…if you kill me, then you'll have to live with the guilt that you did that the rest of your life…so what if I was a dragon, behind the fire-breath, wings, and scales I'm still the guy you know from school, see Rose…it's not what's on the outside, but the inside that counts…" Jake told her.
"That does it…to hell with my destiny, I know where my loyalty lies!" Rose thought to herself as she pulled the sword away from Jake's throat.
The Huntsmaster saw her pull the sword away and thought she was going for a striking blow, but when he saw her drop the sword he asked, "What is the meaning of this?"
"He's my friend…I can't, no, I won't kill him!" Rose said soft but sternly to him.
Jake smiled and said, "Good job Rose…I knew there was some good in there somewhere."
The Huntsmaster then put more pressure on Jake's ribs causing him to gasp and cough a bit, "But this is your destiny, are you unwell…are you really willing to bring shame to the Huntsclan just to spare this whelps' miserable life?"
"It's my destiny to kill the dragon yes…but now that I think about it, I realize that no one's destiny is completely written in stone, especially mine…and if I have to kill one of the people I love and care about to do it…" Rose then took off her mask, showing her full facial fury to him. "then I don't want to be part of the Huntsclan ANY MORE!"
The Huntsmaster then let go of Jake and with an up-scale growl shouted, "INSOLENT CHILD!" and gave her a back hand slap, knocking her to the ground.
"Hey, back off!" Jake protested…trying to fight the Huntsmaster, but ended up getting tossed to the ground beside Rose.
The Huntsmaster looked at Rose, his eyes reflecting many things at that moment, betrayal, sadness, but also what seemed to be a long hidden malice, "Just like your Mother…" he said shaking his head, "always thinking about others, never doing what needed to be done whatever the cost, and your Fathers' stubbornness to boot…I knew that one of these days you would eventually rise up against me." He then walked a few steps back and said, "I should have killed you then…"
He then pointed his blade and raised it to deliver a killing blow to Rose and possibly Jake, "but never mind…I'll do that now!"
Rose clutched onto Jake's shirt and buried her face into his shoulder so she wouldn't see either of them die, just then she heard her uncle emit a sort of gasping noise, she looked to see an arrow sticking out of the left side of his chest. They looked the opposite direction to see one of L'Épée Foncée's members with a crossbow in hand, the Huntsmaster took the sword and in awkward steps made his way to the archer, the archer launched a second shot and hit him just five inches below the first one. The Huntsmaster fell to one knee and tried lifting his sword, a third shot was fired, but he managed to dodge that one and it only grazed his right shoulder. Finally he just dropped the sword and fell to his side.
Rose stared for a few moments…she couldn't believe it, it was over that quickly. Jake quickly muttered some words to create a giant plume of a smoke-screen.
"Christian…Michael…we need to get out of here now!" Jake called out.
"Oh, but I was just starting to have some fun." Michael complained as he was smashing a L'Épée Foncée soldier's head against a tree and in a taunting voice shouting 'Stop banging your head against the tree, stop banging your head against the tree!'.
Jake grabbed Rose's hand and lead her out of the area.
Once all four of them were out of the cover and could see each other, they all met up.
"So what do you do with her?" Christian asked, both she and Michael assuming dragon form.
Jake got her onto Christian's back, "Gramps will know what to do with her…let's go."
"I can't believe you're the American Dragon Jake." Said Rose
"Just rest, you're safe now." Said Jake
As they flew off into the night Jake thought "What else will happen now."
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Hello, Count H here...I'd like to take this time to thank all those who took time to read my story and write reviews.