Secret of the Stars: The Forgotten Tale, Chapter 4: Gara Vs. Dram
A Secret of the Stars "what if?" fanfic by Dustin M. Dixon
No one in this story is owned by me, except for Aldayne Booth's friends, his father, and Gara's parents. I am not writing this for profit, I am merely expressing my desire to create a fanfic centered around an RPG with almost no story in the localization, or rather, a "what if" prequel to Secret of the Stars. That being said, I hope you enjoy. On with the story!
To Gara von Amaboss, all was silent, as her new friend appeared to be dead upon impact with the ground. She held her breath, wanting to scream. She very well would have done this if not for the cloth tied between her lips. However, she was snapped out of her horror as the tall bandit, Dram, spoke up again.
"Get up, boy. I know I didn't kill you in a single hit, no matter how much of a spindly mage you are." Dram frowned.
"Ohh…" Aldayne moaned in pain, as a wave of relief seemed to wash over the Amazonian princess.
"Don't feel too relieved just yet." Godem, the winged bandit, commented as he looked over at Gara, reading her expression. "Dram WILL kill your friend."
"That scenario went over so much better in my head." Aldayne chuckled weakly.
"You tried to use a weapon you have no prior experience with, and you're surprised that this is the result?" Dram looked genuinely taken aback.
"I guess us new heroes have it rough, don't we?" Aldayne laughed, louder this time.
"You want to murder another human being. You're no hero, boy." Dram's steely gaze followed Aldayne as he climbed to his feet.
"Shut up! I'm a hero compared to you two scumbags! Who kidnaps a girl so they can draw out one lone bandit?! You two are nothing but cowards!" Aldayne shouted, pointing accusingly at Dram. "Lousy, no good, stinkin' bandits! ALL OF YOU!" he raged.
"Bandits…?" Dram paused for a second, then shocking Aldayne by letting out a snort, which quickly turned into uproarious laughter. "G… Godem, d-did you hear that…?"
"HAH!" Godem laughed as a response. "You think we're bandits? Oh… you WISH."
"Well then, if you aren't bandits… what are you?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Dram asked, after he stopped laughing long enough to form a coherent sentence. "No, I guess it isn't. We're assassins."
"…!" Aldayne's eyes widened.
"The fact that you've seen us means that we can't let you live." Godem explained. "Technically, the princess will have to 'die' as well, but in her case, we'll make an exception and erase her memories of the past couple of days magically."
"That's horrible…" Aldayne gasped, and then he realized something as his eyes narrowed almost comically. "Wait, couldn't you just do the same to me? And aside from that, wasn't Dram here the one who purposely alerted me to your presence?"
"He's right, Godem…" Dram pointed out. "I did call him."
"Don't encourage him, Dram." Godem said flatly. "And I told you why I couldn't just do that to you, but since you insist on being the pain in my ass that you are, I'll explain again. You're a very emotional person. The amnesia spell only works to erase the memories you had for a certain amount of time before the casting. You must be awake to perform the ceremony. Gara here wouldn't know anything about us, but YOU, and YOUR outright hatred of our target… Dram looks much like Salonius, his father. You'd hound us to the end of the earth if you saw Dram after getting your memory wiped. No, it's best just to kill you here and now. Dram, if you would, please." As Godem spoke, however, he was unaware to Gara's secret. As the two assassins chatted away with their self-imposed target, she had begun to slice through her ropes with a concealed knife from within her glove, grinning slyly from behind the gag as she thought 'That's right, keep your eyes turned that way. Hang on Aldayne! I'm almost free!'
"With pleasure, Godem." Dram smirked. "Your life is over, kid." He stated, dropping his hand axe for the use of his giant axe once more, as he lifted the heavy thing above his head.
"I'm NOT a kid!" Aldayne shouted, snapping his right fingers, and then bore a look of legitimate fear as he noticed that Dram didn't drop his axe. "What the hell…?! Normally when I do that attack, people drop their weapons!"
"Ordinarily, yes, I would have been screaming like a little girl, except you didn't account for these." Dram smirked, letting his axe drop and raising his right hand, using his left hand to remove his gauntlet. What Aldayne saw horrified him.
"Runic symbols… carved into your flesh…!"
"Yes. Your child's play magic is of no use on me. Are you done dragging out the inevitable?"
"Nothing's been decided yet, dammit!" Aldayne snarled.
"Oh, just GIVE UP already!" Godem sighed. "You're just dragging out this pathetic little debacle! You don't stand a snowball's chance in Hell against someone who can ABSORB your little magic spells!"
"That's what you think! I'LL SHOW BOTH OF YOU!" Aldayne roared in rage, snapping his fingers in rage and sending a large torrent of flame at the greatly-surprised Dram. As it engulfed him, Godem remained still, his arms folded as he stared forward.
"Aren'tcha worried about your buddy?" Aldayne smirked. "I just nailed his ass with a wave of fire. You might wanna go help put him out!"
"No need." Godem smirked, using his head and eyes to point over in Dram's direction, and as Aldayne turned, he gaped in horror. Standing there without a burn or scratch upon his body was Dram.
"And that was supposed to accomplish what, again?"
"DAMMIT! DON'T YOU MOCK ME! I'LL BLOW YOU THE F&#K UP!" Aldayne shouted at the top of his lungs, letting out another massive wave of fire, and another, screaming again. "IF I CAN'T BURN YOU IN ONE GO, THEN I'LL KEEP GOING UNTIL YOU'RE A PILE OF ASHES!" Another snap, and another wave of fire later, and he screamed once more. "I WILL NOT DIE HERE!"
'He's stronger than I thought.' Godem thought to himself, his eyes widening ever-so-slightly. 'Dram might be in trouble.' His thoughts from that point were drowned out by Aldayne yelling in absolute rage. He felt the last of his magic power leave him for the day, as he emptied one more wave of fire in Dram's direction, letting out a pained, enraged roar as he did so. Panting heavily, he looked into the fire that had been started by his magic. "Yeah… how do you like THEM Plum-plu—" he started, but stared in complete horror as a tree smashed down on the flames, again and again, knocking him to his knees as it put out the fire.
"Quite a dangerous trick…" Dram interrupted him, holding the tree without a look of pain on his face, his body completely uninjured from Aldayne's rage-filled assault. "But completely useless."
"No way…" Aldayne gasped. "That might have blocked one spell… MAYBE two, but eventually I would've overloaded your rune!" he argued.
"That would be true under normal circumstances, but as an assassin… I'm hired to kill all kinds. This includes mages, and I can never be too careful with mages… so I carved several more onto my body." Dram explained, hefting the tree into a swinging position. "Goodbye, Aldayne Booth. I'll tell my father you were looking for him when I see him… and then I killed you. But since he's going to die anyway, your life wasn't a total waste, now was it?" he smirked, swinging the tree hard, ready to paste the young, exhausted magician against the base of the tree, turning him into little more than a red splotch. As he swung, Aldayne closed his eyes.
'Is… is this the end…? Mom…' he thought, before hearing the sound of metal chopping effortlessly through wood. As he opened his eyes, Gara stood above him, now completely free and offering her hand for him to grab. The half of the tree heading for Aldayne had been cleanly cut away, nearly pinning Godem against the tree to which Gara had previously been tied.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"…My magic's used up for the day. I'm afraid I can't help you out." He sighed.
"That's fine. Stand back, Aldayne." Gara instructed, and after a second, Aldayne did just that.
"Princess von Amaboss…" Dram looked stunned. He still hadn't recovered from the shock of watching her effortlessly demolish his new weapon.
"How did YOU get free?!" Godem looked annoyed once he climbed over the tree. Turning to him with a smirk, she ignored his question and asked one of her own.
"Hey, you're a Dragonian, right?"
"Yes, that's correct." Godem played along.
"You know MY people used to hunt YOUR people, right?"
"I'm aware."
"Then this should be REAL easy for you. Start running." She grinned almost psychotically, pointing her sword toward Godem. She was interrupted by Aldayne's yell.
"Gara! LOOK OUT!" …But she was way ahead of him, simply leaning back with a smirk on her face as she turned to look at Dram, narrowly missing the hand axe he had thrown at her.
"You've got balls, trying to axe me while my face is turned… we could use a big, strong guy like you in Amaboss." She offered.
"I'm an assassin, and a friend of the Dragonian whose life you just threatened." Dram snarled. "I have no place in your town, nor do I WANT one!" he shouted, throwing another of his hand axes at Gara, who simply parried it with her hand, as Aldayne looked on in horror. However, she was revealed to have no scratches on her, as the chipped hand axe fell to the ground noisily.
"How…?!" Dram looked flabbergasted.
"Have you heard of Eledium? My gloves are made of it. Durable, yet surprisingly elastic metal." Gara smirked. "Too bad for you. You could've seriously incapacitated me there. Now you're about to be seriously injured."
"Highly unlikely. You got lucky with the tree." Dram said, crossing his arms confidently. "You're just bluff—"
"Eight-Point Strike!" Gara shouted suddenly, vanishing before the eyes of all who were watching her. Without any sort of warning, Dram felt eight sudden stabs all over his body as he let out a yell of pain and collapsed immediately. The assassin Dram had been soundly defeated, as Gara reappeared, holding her bloodied sword.
"Dram?!" Godem looked concerned. After a few seconds, Dram let out a loud moan of pain.
"That was one of my secret moves. Feel privileged that I let you live through its execution." Gara smirked at Dram, who lifted his head barely, before letting it drop once more with another groan.
"Damn…" Godem snarled.
"You might want to help your friend." Gara pointed out to the smaller assassin. "And leave me and MY friend alone."
"Holy crap…" Aldayne gasped. 'She took out that guy in ONE HIT!'
"Well?! Get out of here!"
"Tch…" Godem snarled in rage, walking over to Dram and slinging his unconscious friend over his shoulder.
"Go treat your friend. If I'd aimed for his head, he wouldn't be alive right now." Gara scoffed, turning around to face away from the two assassins. As she did so, Godem spoke up again, his rage ever-present in his speech. "You haven't seen the last of us! DO YOU HEAR ME?! WE'LL HUNT YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE UPPERWORLD AND BEYOND, IF NECESSARY!"
"And? Do what you have to." Gara closed her eyes. "But do it after you heal your friend."
"…" Godem remained silent, flapping his wings mightily as he lifted into the sky, then flew off, away from the campsite.
"Why did you let them go?" Aldayne asked.
"He and his friend are no threat." Gara replied, opening her eyes once more and gazing into the sky. "You need to get some sleep."
"So do you." Aldayne commented. "Maybe you didn't expend a lot of energy to take Dram out, but I'm gonna assume you didn't get any sleep when they kidnapped you."
"You assume correctly."
"So how DID they manage to sneak up on you?" Aldayne questioned, leading Gara to shrug.
"I was lost in thought regarding someone close to me." She answered, shrugging again. "Now go get some sleep. I may be physically stronger than the seven foot man I just took down, but even I have my limits. I need you to help me out."
"Y'aint gotta ask again!" Aldayne replied, jogging back toward the tent, being slowly followed by Gara as they silently celebrated their temporary victory over the two assassins and dreaming of what the next day would hold for them…
End of Chapter Four