OoO( 2 )OoO
Walking to the fields, Lyle spotted his sister dancing circles around a scarecrow. She turned and looked at him. "Oh, Lyle!" she said running over to him. "Where have you been?" she asked.
"In trouble." he said making his sister smile.
"As usual. Did you remember my birthday this time?" she asked.
"Sure did." he said tossing her the sack.
Pulling the ribbon off, she let the sack fall and smiled brightly. "I knew you wouldn't disappoint me brother! Its the one I always wanted!" she said dancing around with it. "Its just like in my dream." she said.
"What dream?" asked Lyle.
"Huh? Oh, its nothing. Lets hurry home, mom will be home soon for my party." she said and together they walked down the road. "So brother, how did you earn the money to get this for me?" she asked.
Lyle's face went grave. "I can't even begin to tell you the trouble I went through." he said, then smiled at his sister. "But I'm glad you like it."
"I love it." she said hugging it again. Suddenly, she stopped walking and stared strait down the road. Shaking her head, she dropped the doll and started to yell. "No, something...terrible is about to happen." she said.
"Help! Bandits are attacking the village!" yelled a man from behind them. Theresa pushed her brother away and fell to the ground as the man fell ontop of her with an arrow protruding from his back.
Lyle fell backwards into the forested area on the side of the road and his head slammed into a rock. Falling unconscious to the ground, he lay still unaware of what was going to happen to the village.
OoOoO
Hours later, Lyle woke up and slowly got to his knees. Holding the knot on his head, he rose slower to ease the throbbing in his head. But all pain in his head was forgotten when he looked towards the village. Everything was bathed in a crimson light as fire ate the town like a hungry dragon. Lyle stumbled towards the village and fell to his knees as he stared at the burning village.
He tried to cry out, but his voice was lost. He got to his feet again and ran towards the inferno, ignoring the pain that was pounding in his head. He ran through the streets and past burning houses, when he stopped again. He heard screaming. Turning to the house, he ran towards it and yelled as he did. He kicked the door and it fell from its hinges, making a bridge across the flame to the other side. Running across the door he sped into the next room to find the girl with her bear sitting in a corner.
Lyle jumped a small fire and landed next to her. She started crying again when she saw him land. "No, please don't hurt me!" she shouted. Lyle mearly picked her up in his arms and ran into the next room to find his bridge leaking with fire. Shouting a battle cry he ran forward, ignoring the stinging of his feet and burst through the wall of flame that was the doorway. Once outside, he set the girl down and she looked up at him. "Thank you." she said, then fell unconscious.
Carrying her with him, he ran to his house. His heart nearly stopped as he saw a body lying in front of the house. Setting the girl down on the path, he approached the body and got a glimpse of the mans face. His fathers body lay spread across the street with a giant slash across his chest. Lyle knelt and layed his head on his fathers shoulders as tears streamed down from his eyes.
Suddenly, a man saw Lyle laying there crying and smiled. "Gotcha." he said, then charged towards the boy.
Lyle looked up and saw the man. Taking a flaming piece of wood from his porch he ran at the man as well. Lyle aimed for the bandits head and swung, barely missing him. The bandit smirked and backhanded Lyle, making the torch fly off up the street. Smiling in triumph, the bandit raised his weapon to strike the boy, only to be killed.
Lightning flew from the hands of a stranger and hit the bandit in his head. The bandits body convulsed and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as his body sizzled, then fell to the ground scorched. After lowering his hand, the stranger walked over to the dazed Lyle. "Get up boy." he said.
Lyle got to his feet and stared up at the man. He wore a strange armor and had a very dark blue skin color. His white hair matched the many glowing markings on his face and his light grey battle hardened eyes stared down at Lyle.
"You must come with me now. I will take you somewhere safe, just take my hand." said the stranger. Lyle looked down at his hand, then walked past him. Picking up the little girl, he walked back to the stranger and took his hand.
Lyle was surprised to find that he was lifted off the ground by an invisible force, then felt a cold wave cover his body as they vanished.
OoOoO
When they appeared again, Lyle was standing in a field of some sort. He gave the girl to the stranger and walked over to a fence post and used it to balance himself. Bending double, he vomited on the grass.
"Hmmm...I thought you would have had a stronger stomach than that." said the stranger. Lyle turned to him and swung a fist at him in an attempt to shut him up. The stranger dodged the punch and laughed. "Woah boy, I'm not your enemy." he said. Lyle said nothing and sat on the ground, then fell backwards staring at the sky. "You may not believe this, but I just saved your life. My name is Maze, I came from the Phoenix Guild." he said. "Which is where you will be going with me once I take her home to her grandparents. They live in Knothole Glade, so just stay here while I take her, then I shall take you to the guild." said the stranger.
Maze walked over to the girl and picked her up, then vanished again leaving Lyle to sleep.
OoOoO
Lyle woke up and found himself in a bed. Looking around, he saw many shelves of books and various beds scattered across the room.
"I see you are finally awake." said a voice next to him. Looking at the speaker, he noticed a dark skinned girl standing at the end of his bed. She smiled. "You've been out for two days, I was starting to worry that you had left us. My name is Whisper, what is yours?" she asked.
Lyle looked at her. "Lyle...my name is Lyle." he said, then got to his feet.
"Well, Lyle. The Guildmaster told me to bring you to him once you woke up. So, get dressed and lets get going." she said pointing to the table with some kind of uniform on it. "I'll be outside the door when you are finished." she said, then left the room.
Lyle groaned as he got up. His entire body ached and his face painted the picture clearly enough. He tossed his old clothes aside and put on the guild uniform. It was mearly a white tunic with a hood and white shorts. He slipped on the boots next to his bed and walked out the door and strait into Whisper.
"Took you long enough farmboy. Now, lets head down to the training area, the Guildmaster awaits us." she said, then ran down the stairs and out into the bright sunlight. As Lyle walked out into the sun, he covered his eyes. He had not seen the sun in a few days and it made it hard to see everything.
But as soon as Lyle opened his eyes, his jaw dropped. The courtyard of the guild was beautiful. Everywhere there were statues of heroes famous for great deeds. The entire place was covered in lush green grass and bushes lined the stream flowing through the center of the guild. Lyle snapped out of his trance as he heard a girl yell at him.
"Hey, watch your head!" she shouted. He looked at her then ducked as an arrow nearly pierced his skull. She ran over to him carrying a short bow. She wore the same type of outfit as him, except it had a skirt instead of shorts, and had her blonde hair tied up into a long ponytail with a pink ribbon. "Are you alright?" she asked.
He looked up at her surprised. "Am I okay? You nearly beheaded me with that arrow!" he shouted. She looked at the ground guiltily. Lyle smiled and said, "Yeah, I'm alright. Sorry, I just woke up."
She smiled at him and said, "I see. Well, my name is Alex. What's yours?"
Lyle held out his hand and said, "Lyle, nice to meet you Alex." His eyes almost popped out of his head as she leaned forward and kissed him on his cheek.
"Nice to meet you too. I hope to see you around more often." she said, then took off back down the stairs from the balcony.
Lyle stood there speechless for a second, until Whisper's call woke him up. "Hey farmboy! Are you coming or not?" she shouted. Lyle shook his head and walked down the stairs. "What happened up there?" asked Whisper.
"I was nearly killed, twice." he said and walked with her to the melee circle.
Whisper laughed. "Not here for a week and you already sound like a hero." she said.
"Ah Lyle, there you are." said a man ahead of them. "I am the guildmaster here at the Phoenix Guild and I welcome you. Maze has told me of your incident in Oakvale and says that you have incredible potential. So we are here to teach you the arts of being a hero." said the old man. Lyle nodded and the old man continued. "We will teach you the three basic disciplines of being a hero. And the first will be your melee skills. Get into the circle." said the guildmaster.
Lyle jumped into the circle and noticed a straw dummy in the center. "Let me guess, hit the dummy as hard as I can right?" he asked.
"Exactly. We shall see how you do with your melee skills first."
Lyle nodded, then turned to the dummy. He drew his fist back and hit the dummy, which barely flinched.
"Hmm...could use some work. Here, try this." said the guildmaster, who tossed him a wooden sword. Lyle caught the sword and turned back to the dummy. He struck the dummy several times, but still it barely moved. The guildmaster sighed. "How disappointing, I guess Maze is getting a little old for his job."
Lyle glared at the guildmaster, then turned to the dummy. He closed his eyes and pictured in his mind the bandit at Oakvale.
"I got your daddy real good." said the bandit. "He begged for mercy before I diced him up."
Suddenly, he opened his eyes and there was the bandit in front of him, taunting him. Something inside Lyle awakened, making him go into a rage. Yelling out loud and making everyone in the courtyard turn their heads, he held his sword up and ran at the dummy. With lightning quick attacks, he decimated the straw dummy within seconds and straw was flying everywhere.
Whisper smiled and started clapping. "Thats more like it farmboy." she said.
The guildmaster joined her in clapping. "A very skilled attack indeed. Maze was right when he said you had potential." said the man. Then, another guild apprentice walked up and tapped the guildmaster on the shoulder. After whispering something in his ear, the apprentice left. "It seems that the beetles infesting the guild woods has begun to attack the fisherman inside. This is a good chance to put our two newest students to a test." he said. At this, another apprentice left to fetch the other student.
"Who is the other student?" asked Lyle.
"Oh, she's a lovely girl. You'll like her." said the guildmaster as he walked them to the entrance of the woods. "Now then, all you have to do is kill all the beetles that are out and about. They always come out in packs of drones with one leader. You will know the leader because he will be dark red instead of black. As soon as the leader is dead, the others will flee. All you have to do is bring back the leaders body." he said.
"Sounds easy enough." he said.
"Lyle!" shouted Alex from behind him.
His face went from battle ready to annoyed. "The new student?" he asked.
"Yes, apparently you have met?" asked the guildmaster.
Lyle nodded as Alex hugged him. "A very friendly girl." he said. He turned to her and smiled. "Alex! How long has it been?" he asked.
"Well, it was only about ten minutes but it seemed like forever." she said holding her bow over one shoulder.
Lyle's eye twitched. "Y-Your using your bow?" he asked.
"Yeah, its what I'm best with." she said smiling proudly. Lyle gulped in fear.
"Well children, get going." said the guildmaster.
OoOoO
Lyle and Alex walked through the woods together, Lyle holding his wooden sword gripped in two hands and Alex holding an arrow notched to her bow. They crept quietly along, keeping a watchful eye out for any sign of movement.
Alex turned her head and shouted, "Look out!" She pulled the bowstring back and let the arrow fly. Lyle ducked and looked at the tree that arrow had struck. A beetle had been impaled upon Alex's arrow. He turned to her a look of surprise on his face.
Her face was a mask of seriousness. "You are good with that." he said. She smiled and nodded. "Well, lets take care of the rest." he said as the rest of the nest began to climb out of the woodwork.
A monster of a beetle flew and attacked Lyle, only to be bludgeoned by his sword. Lyle slammed the wooden sword across one beetle then slashed at another one behind him. He lifted his foot and obliterated one under his boot, then spun around and bashed another one with his sword.
Alex took down the beetles like her arrows were heat seekers. Each one pierced the armored hide of the beetles and pinned them to the wood. Occasionally, she impaled two at a time if the shot was clear.
In a matter of minutes, the entire drone army had been demolished. Suddenly, the leader appeared and started to fly towards the pair. Lyle confident in his partners archery skills smiled. She fired an arrow, but it mearly riquochetted off its thick armor. Lyle, now on guard, pulled his sword back up.
The beetle flew and tackled Lyle with amazing speed. He dropped his sword and wrestled with the monster as Alex notched another arrow. She pulled it back on her bowstring, but couldn't get a clear shot with Lyle in the way. Lyle rolled over and elbowed the insect between its pincers, stunning it. Then he shoved it off of him and reached for his sword. Grabbing his sword, he slammed it onto the beetles underside, cracking its armor.
Suddenly, an arrow nailed the beetle in its cracked armor and it started to wriggle its legs in pain. Thinking quickly, Lyle took his wooden sword and smashed its flat side against the backside of the arrow, driving it into the monster and through its back. It went rigid as its life vanished. Lyle looked at Alex and smiled painfully. "You okay?" he asked.
She nodded, then lowered her bow. Wiping sweat from her brow, she smiled. "It almost had you there." she said.
"Yeah, but almost doesn't cut it. Lets get this to the guildmaster." he said as he pulled the arrow from the ground and dragged the carcass along with him.
As they exited the forest, they were greeted cheerily. The guildmaster was at the head of a group of clapping people and welcomed them back. "Exellent work you two. Never have I seen such skill at your age." he said.
"What do you mean?" asked Alex.
"Yeah, how did you see us?" asked Lyle.
The guildmaster smiled. "Oh, all in the guild can be seen at the ancient mirror." he said, "No matter though. Alex, you have obviously chosen archery for your main skill. What about you Lyle? Melee, Archery, or Alchemy?" he asked.
Lyle lowered his head in thought. All that came to him were memories of Oakvale. His eyes burned in rage at the sight of his father. And it made him even more furious to know that he couldn't avenge his father. His eyes opened and he looked up at the guildmaster. "I would like to study all three." he said, gaining him a gasp from the crowd.
The guildmaster eyed him. "Are you sure? Nobody has attempted that kind of training since Agrias the Paladin. Even she had trouble controlling all three." he said.
Lyle nodded. "I want to learn all three. And I will become the greatest hero this world has ever seen." he said. The guildmaster noticed the serious look on Lyle's face.
"Alright, but once you begin this training, you won't be able to graduate the guild until you master all your training lessons." said the guildmaster. Lyle nodded his head and the guildmaster smiled. "Very good. Now follow William here to the mess hall. Your dinner is waiting for you." he said, and they left. The guildmaster stayed there and smiled at the group walking away and said to himself, "That boy is going to do great things."