(A/N: I would also like to thank KoinuAndKokage for reviewing and showing my errors. I'll try to fix it once my plot becomes stable. Anyways, this is chapter's gonna have some action in it and probably the next one too. Expect violence. Here's chapter 3… Enjoy!"
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonfable. (That came up late….)
Chapter Four: And Then There's Drakath…
I was dashing full-speed into the forest staring at endless rows of trees darting side by side . The noontime sun shining brightly but it didn't brighten my mood a bit. I was silently cursing myself over and over ever since I left the castle. How can I be so stupid, leaving them alone like that? They were only in the woods for the first few minutes and ran into a gorillaphant. Who knows what else is out there? I silently cursed again and kept moving.
In less than five minutes, I wounded back to where I last saw the priestess and Twilly, panting a little and slightly worried about my leg but it still seem to be fine. I turned to the shortcut, a little narrow winding dirt path littered with leaves, new and old. After I caught my breath, I sprinted through the shortcut. The sound of leaves crunching under my feet.
I continued running through the seemingly endless dirt path, wondering why the priestess called this the 'shortcut'. Its been about fifteen minutes and I felt myself getting tired but I still haven't seen any signs of the priestess or any indication that there is a village or any kind of civilization nearby. Luckily, the path didn't split into two or more directions so I just kept on following it.
When I thought I was never going to find the priestess and this path will go on forever, I spotted a familiar white figure ahead. It was the priestess still with the box in her hands, with Twilly beside her, but she is holding it defensively as if preventing someone from taking it. As I drew nearer, I noticed that they were not alone. There was a man with them and had her and Twilly backed against a tree. The man was closing in on them.
"Let them go….now!" I shouted as I halted a few feet from them, panting.
The man turned around to face me and smirked. He had a deep tan with long black spiky hair swaying to the side. He was wearing a metal visor on his forehead and a purple cape slung on his back. " You have no business here rogue," he warned. " Turn back now and leave before I lose my patience and have your carcass lie with theirs as soon as I'm done with them!"
"Who are you and what do you want?" I asked.
"I am Drakath the rightful ruler of this accursed land! Once I have the Black Dragon Box, I shall obtain limitless power which then I will use to reclaim the throne!" Drakath laughs maniacally and then gave me an evil sneer. " Now get lost rogue, or I'll let your hide know how sharp my Marquis blade is!" He unsheathed a 4-foot long steel sword and aimed the tip at my face.
"Hero you must not let them have the box at all costs!" the priestess shouted behind Drakath.
Drakath let out a low growl and turned to the priestess. " And you should learn to shut up unless I tell you to speak!" I heard a loud slapping sound as the priestess head jerked sideways, her hood falling behind her head revealing her face. Drakath had hit her. I felt rage surge through my body. How dare he?
"Give me the box and I'll kill you quickly!" Drakath kicked aside Twilly who yelped, and grabbed the box with the priestess somehow holding on. He raised his closed fist and was about to punch her but he stopped mid-way as he felt the cold tip of my blade on his nape. "What the-" Drakath was about to say but I cut him off.
"Let…her…go…now." I said. My voice cold and filled with venom in every word. " If you think you're so tough, why are you picking on a woman instead of settling the score with me?"
Drakath slowly let go of the box. "You're going to be sorry you've messed with the Darkwolf Bandits!" And as he said it, a pair of leather-clad men emerged from the trees, their head covered with a cloth and they were wielding a spiky mace. They advanced on both sides, hefting their maces and stopped at a considerable swinging distance. " As you can see you are far outnumbered, that is, if you do not count these damsel here and that tiny weakling!"
HIYAAA!
Suddenly, we all heard a high-pitched yell as Twilly charged at Drakath and hit him square in the face with his twig. "That's for hitting me and the priestess!" Twilly shouted as Drakath fell back and let out a scream, he had dropped his sword and is cupping his bleeding nose. I kicked him aside and pulled the priestess away from the tree as two maces collide on its bark. The two thugs knelt to check on their leader. Drakath swatted their hands away and glared at us before shouting " I'm fine you idiots! Get them!"
The two men began closing in once more. The priestess moved away from my back. It's a good thing that she knew that I won't be fighting in one place and will be moving around quite often. Twilly ran over to the priestess as Drakath recovered and began to stand up, sword in hand. " You're so going to get it, rogue!" he growled in fury.
I drew my other dagger and assumed my fighting stance and said. " Stop hiding behind your thugs and fight me yourself!."
Drakath laughed. " And deny myself the advantages of numbers? Good one, rogue, but this is no game and I don't play by the rules!" The trio then charged at me. I've been in plenty of situations where I was outnumbered so this was nothing new but I've never fought anyone from the Darkwolf Bandits before so their fighting style is yet for me to discover.
I ducked as the first mace went swinging over my head and rolled forward. I parried Drakath's blade but broke off quickly as another mace swung at me. I could easily dodge maces since they were too slow but I can't keep this up forever. Twilly seemed to understand. He crept up behind them as I kept their attention on me. I charged head-on. Drakath's eyes widened he must have thought that I was crazy but he clutched his blade nonetheless. As I closed in, Twilly came from behind and whacked Drakath in the calf of his leg and then the other leg. "Why you little-!" Drakath yowled as he kneeled down. I saw my chance and plunged my dagger straight into the throat of one of his thugs. He fell back, convulsing. The other thug recovered from the unpleasant surprise and kicked off Twilly and sent him flying off. Drakath then swung upward, his blade making a gash on my arm as hopped back. The last remaining thug charged, with Drakath struggling not too far behind. As he swung his mace downward, I side-stepped, ducked, and stabbed him in the back of his thigh as he cried in pain. Drakath lunged at me with his blade scraping the side of my body plate and then he spun around for another strike but I stepped back and he missed. " I'll gut you!" he shouted, his thug still struggling to stand up. Drakath tried another overhead swing but he was blinded by his rage, making his attacks readable. I proceeded on blocking it. As his blade collided with both of mine, I was taken aback by his sheer strength but managed to hold it on to a stand still. Drakath glared at me and I glared back but at the corner of my eye, I saw the thug hobbling towards my back, breathing heavily and dragging his mace. An idea struck me, I pretended that I haven't noticed the thug and kept on glaring back at Drakath. We broke free and he went for another slash but this time I just didn't clash with his blade, I lodged it with the hilts of my daggers. As the man behind me bellowed and swung his mace straight to my head, I pulled my daggers up over me as Drakath's blade received the full impact of the mace, shattering it. A broken shard ripped through my cheek leaving a good sized cut. I quickly recovered from the impact and sliced through the man's veins in his arms. He cried out in pain as he dropped his weapon. I then slammed the butt of my dagger to the back of his head and he fell down unconscious.
"NOOO!" Drakath burst out, " That blade is a family heirloom!"
"That blade was a family heirloom." I said, emphasizing on the 'was' part. " I suggest you leave now before I'm forced to kill you!"
That was the final straw. Drakath let out a scream, picked up his sword despite being broken and charged, swinging it madly while shouting through the top of his lungs. " I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU ALL! YOUR FAMILY, YOUR FRIENDS, EVERYBODY!"
"I don't have a family, or even friends… they were already killed." I replied to his mad statements. He's gone crazy, I thought. I leapt sideways avoiding his first swing, he went for me again but I parried his already broken blade. " I guess I'll have to dig them up and hang them along with your dead body once I'm done with you." He concluded.
"You do NOT disrespect them!" I said coldly. That was it, he just made it personal , this guy's going down. As he charged at me again, I zoomed in and before he could make another wild swing, I deposited two slashes on his torso and two slashes on each of his arms. He was about to cry out but I slammed my knee to his gut as he groaned and hammered his head with the butt of my dagger. His beat up body rolled off into the grass. He looked dazed and in pain at the same time. I placed one of my foot in his chest as I towered above him with my daggers raised up, ready for the kill. My face back to that expressionless look that I once had all those nights ago.
"Do it," he groggily whispered. "Do it…"
And with that I brought down my daggers…only to be stopped by a small but firm grip on my arm. I turned and saw the priestess, her dark green eyes filled with warning.
" Don't…do it" she warned. " You can still change. There is still hope."
I snapped out of my trance and kept on gazing at her eyes, which were now sparkling with hope. I never really had taken a look on her face up until now, maybe because of the hood. She was beautiful, maybe in her thirties but something tells me she lived longer than that. Her long silvery white hair that went well with her pale complexion. Her cheek still a little red from Drakath's slap. I sighed and slowly lowered my arms and sheathed my daggers but my foot was still in Drakath's chest. " What do you mean change? You don't even know me." I asked.
" On the contrary, I've known you since you were born." She corrected. " I've known all about your struggles, how much you grieved and suffered as you lost them one by one. I know it all" (A/N: To be explained on further chapters, I'll occasionally drop in a few filler chapters about his past and what really happened to him along the way.)
"You're lying!" I said my voice a little shaky and harsh. " How could you know?"
" I have my reasons," she said knowingly and unaffected by my rudeness. " But for now, I suggest you let him go."
"Why! After all he's done you're just- WOAH! ARGH!" I cried out as Drakath who had recovered all this time grabbed hold of my ankle and spun it hard as pain shot through my whole body. I collapsed as Drakath rose up and ran through the forest declaring " I'll be back. You haven't seen the last of me!" before disappearing through the forest.
I winced and held up my ankle to take a better look. It pointed into an unusual direction. I had no time to study it further though as I heard Twilly's voice shouting from a distance. " Oh no you- ACK!". I saw him get knocked away by a small green creature with pointy ears and landed beside me, dazed with a large bruise on his head unmistakably in the shape of a boot.
" Oooohhhh! Mine!" He marveled as he picked up the box and ran away with it. I tried to stand but the priestess along with the pain in my ankle held me back.
"Stay my hero, let it go" she said to me. I stared at her with a surprised expression.
"But all this time I've-" I started to protest but she knelt down beside me and held up a finger in my lips.
"Shhh…. Theres no point of wasting the life of a noble hero such as yourself on a box." She replied gently. I stared at her in disbelief. After that gorillaphant and the run-in with the bandits, she would just let go of it?
" At ease, hero." She continued with a gentle smile as she wiped off my bloody cheek. " You will have your chance on retrieving it once more. Soon, but not now."
" Ummm…Alright. I'm sorry about earlier." I submitted. I can't help but obey her. Its not just because she was beautiful or anything, its that she seemed to radiate hope and comfort that can calm the spirits of everyone around her ( maniacs like Drakath not included). She nodded, letting me know that she understood. I watched her in wonder as she went over to Twilly who was still a little dazed.
" Forgive me priestess, I failed you not just once but countless times!" he said miserably, close to tears.
"There, there brave one," she bent down and stroked his head affectionately still in the gentle smile of hers. " You might not have the strength but you have a brave heart. A heart of a true hero." There she is again with the radiating hope and comfort thing, I thought.
" Do you really think so?" he beamed. Like a child being told by a parent that he/she could do better.
"Why would I lie?" she laughed gently and turned to me. " Alas, I'm afraid we should continue with our journey. There have been too many delays. We should be on my dwelling before sundown."
I looked up at the sky and noticed that it was already late afternoon. Time sure flies when you're having fun or in my case, a lot of trouble. And then I remembered the last time I left them on their own. " But priestess, what if something happens again? And also, I have a lot to ask you about." I told her.
"In time my hero," she replied. " Now is simply not the time and place for this but if you happen to come by Sunbreeze Grove, my humble dwelling, then we should have plenty of time for ourselves. There is also no need for you to be anxious for you will accompany us until we reach the bridge to Falconreach. Do you suppose I'll leave my hero, who fought and save my life, lying around here after all he has done? There will be knights stationed there I suppose. We will be safe once when we reach the bridge for Falconreach is near and we are almost home-free."
"Home-free!" Twilly chimed in.
" Sounds like a plan." I agreed while she nodded and outstretched her hand to me and I took it. She helped me stand up and slung my arm into her shoulders. "Then come, we must not tarry any longer." She concluded as we ventured back into the woods.
(A/N: whew! I thought that'll never end. It's a little rushed up because I remembered that I had to leave the house and won't be back for sometime. Sorry, I'll try to fix that. Before I leave, I was really wondering: is Twilly a boy or a girl? Oh well I'll be expecting your answers. I won't be able to update in about 3 to four days. Sorry 'bout that. The Iron Raven taking off!)