1
I opened my eyes. It was dark. Actually, to say it was dark is a gross understatement. It was a kind of all consuming blackness where there was no light at all. None the less, it was dark, and for some reason my head hurt. I reached up to feel it thinking, “I probably fell or something”, but in reaching up, and thinking that, I came to two shocking realizations. My hands were bound and that was no accident, but the one that really scared me is the fact that I could not remember anything about myself. Where and who I was all escaped the metaphorical hand that was franticly grasping for them. The feeling of dread that comes with not knowing anything about your own life is fierce and terrifyingly real that it can drive weaker men to the breaking point. The only way I stayed sane was to shove it out of my mind and focus on the here and now.
As a sat there, contemplating my next move, I heard voices. I jumped to my feet and pressed myself against the wall nearest to where they were coming from. Apparently the very wall I was against wasn’t a wall at all. It was a door and I was preventing whoever was trying to get in from doing so. I could hear shouts as the people on the other side of the door got angrier and angrier. I had no problem with that, “if I’m going to be held prisoner,” I thought, “I’m going to be as difficult and uncooperative as I can possibly be”. Eventually though, they managed to push the door open and they were not happy about my little stunt. The thing was, I couldn’t understand a word the thing was saying. I say thing because it was not a human at all. It was tall and broad shouldered. Its skin was actually kind of a grayish blue and its features, while they were there (apart from the nose which was replaced with two holes), they were oddly shaped.
He (or she for that matter), apparently deciding I’d been yelled at enough, dragged me to my feet by my hair and said very quietly “come with me you nameless scum”. As the reader this may not seem that bad but this really struck home. Was I scum? Was nameless? Or did I just forget? I was vulnerable at the time and that one insult crippled me. I put my head down and followed him. By the light of the torches I could see we were in a cave or tunnel of some sort. Out of curiosity, I looked down at my bound hands and arms to see if they were that same grayish blue color that was just sickening but to my relief, they weren’t.
As we were walking, I noticed a shadow of a figure cross our path. In my weakened state this terrified me and I screamed out loud. This earned me one grey fist in my ear. As the three of us were nearing the door at the end of the tunnel, one of the grey things was just gone. The other one did not seem to notice so I thought about alerting him but I was probably going to die anyways so I figured I’d give the mysterious shadow a chance. Sure enough the shadow appeared behind the grey creature and ran a knife across his neck. I bent down to pick up the torch that the guard was holding. When I stood up the figure was gone. I reached down to grab the guard’s sword and used it to cut the rope that was tied around my hands.
I quickly assessed my situation, I was alone, in a cave that I didn’t recognize, I don’t know how to get out, there is someone running around in here slitting people’s throats, and I don’t know who I am. “Fantastic” I thought, and was on my way to the door.
More cave. Only this time, there was a fork in the road. I decided to go left but as soon as I did I noticed a note on the ground. I didn’t know who put it there or why it was there but changed my mind about going left and went down the passage on the right. As I continued I came to another fork and another note, once again with an arrow on it but this time pointing left. I came to a door, and another note, but this time it didn’t have an arrow at all. It had the words “welcome home” written on it.
I walked up to the door and opened it. I was instantly blinded by the sun but as I my eyes adjusted I saw that I was standing in a field filled with tall yellowish grass and surrounded by woods and mountains. A ways to my left I could hear a small stream and for the first time I realized how thirsty, and for that matter hungry I was. I walked up to it and began to drink. It tasted incredible though if you’ve ever been as thirsty as I was you would know that any water, no matter how nasty, tastes better than any other water you’ve ever had in your life.
When I had quenched my thirst, I sat up and looked around. I didn’t look for long though because all of the sudden, a horn was blown and the grey people all came out of doors in the ground and started chasing me. The instant I saw them I took off into the woods. They were fast. Very fast. They gained on me quickly. I came to a cliff with water down below so without even thinking I jumped. They did not jump after me however I had failed to notice that it was a lake with only one beach, and on it were 20 or 30 grey men. I had no choice. I had to go onto the beach where they were waiting for me. As I came ashore I accidentally splashed on of them causing him to scream in agony. Nobody moved. I was still in the water and they weren’t coming after me. I backed up a little. “water kills them,” I thought “I’ll just splash them to death.” That’s just what I was about to do when an arrow whistled by my head.
“Next time,” the captain said gesturing to the man that shot the arrow, “he shoots to kill.” And that was the end of my great idea. They bound my hands again and led me back to the cave. As we entered the cave, the captain said, “If you wish to live, you will bow in the presence of the Garjaul.”
“Who is the Garjaul?” I started to ask but was interrupted by a grey man handing me a sword and shield. I was confused but I did all that he told me to do and was soon led to a door. I had no idea what was going on but I did not like it. I stepped through the door.
The applause was deafening. Thousands of people were sitting around a large arena. Someone blew a loud horn and the audience quieted. “Quiet! Quiet! The Garjaul would like to speak!” yelled the man who had blown the horn. Then I heard a voice. I did not hear it with my ears though, rather, it was echoing in my head.
“Welcome,” it said and everyone, including me kneeled down, “to the one and only Hero games!!! The purpose of these games is to show our dominance over the surrounding lands. My great great grandfather started this tradition that we would celebrate as the greatest hero’s of the surrounding lands die pathetic deaths. We, are the kremins, and we shall not fall! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!”
For the first time I realized I was not alone. There was someone at a gate across from me, and a person at a gate to my right. We all walked into the center where I realized the person across from me was the person who killed the guards and helped me escape. For the first time I saw her in the light, she was beautiful. She had almost glowing amber eyes and a kind of frosty blue hair. She had a look in her eyes, though, a look that told me exactly what she was thinking. I was an idiot for being captured again and if she was trying to convey that thought through her look, she was doing a damn good job.
The horns blew again and a large gate opened. Out of it came an enormous beast with grey blue fur. It looked kind of like a giant hyena, just a lot scarier. It pounced but I managed to jump out of the way. The girl was nowhere to be seen but the creature had caught the man. All that was left of him was a pool of blood.
Out of nowhere a spurt of blue blood came out of the creature’s neck. I charged at it jumping on its back. The girl stabbed it in the chest as I was atop the beast. I repeatedly thrust my sword into the back of its neck. It howled in pain, that or rage. I still don’t know which. I jumped off swinging my sword at its neck. The monsters head hit the ground at the same time I did.
The crowd was in outrage. Kremin soldiers charged out of the gates but fell as my blade tasted their blood. Somewhere I had learned to fight. I did not know where, when, or how, all I knew was that I felt invulnerable. A kremin swung his sword at me and, without even thinking, I ducked under it and stabbed him in the back while spinning around.
The bodies were starting to pile up and there was a fairly open run to the gate so I yelled at the girl and made a break for it. Very soon I was hurtling through the tunnels with the girl at my side. We killed everyone we met without even thinking. We came to the gate and burst out. Running down the field was incredible. I felt powerful, it was unreal.
We ran into the woods with thousands of soldiers chasing us. We jumped over the small stream and took off with the kremin soldiers in hot pursuit. Son I noticed the more of the hyena creatures (called dornons as I would soon find out) were chasing us as well. We came to a bridge; as soon as we crossed I cut the ropes holding it up. That stopped the kremins but the dornons easily crossed the 30 foot wide gorge. I knew we couldn’t escape them. We had to stop and we had to fight. The almost godlike feeling had worn off and now I was just scared as hell. I turned to meet them.
There were three of them, all as bloodthirsty and terrifying as the first. The girl asked me what I was doing and I told her, “We cannot run; they are too fast. We must fight, there is no other option.”
There we stood, both at the ready. They came crashing through the brush. They came close and I braced for impact. They burst out and just stood there looking at us. The dornons were obviously an intelligent being as they just looked at us for a moment. There was a feeling of mutual respect and they bowed their heads a bit and turned around. They were chasing us as prey, but when we stood fast and waited to fight back, we became equals. We were no longer their prey because prey shows fear. The girl and I were both terrified but we did not show it by running away. I will never forget the moment they bowed their heads to me. It is forever engrained in my memory.
The girl and I walked through the woods in silence before she finally spoke. “We should probably set up camp for the night,” she said looking at the sky. “It’s getting dark.” I agreed and that is just what we did. I made a fire while she wove branches together to make a shelter of some sort. That night we sat around the fire just talking. “What is your name?” I asked. “Klarisa.” She responded. “It’s Togran, it means ‘bringer of light’. What’s your name?” I told her I did not know. I told her everything I did know though but that took all of 10 minutes. “Do you think maybe you could tell me about this place?”
“Well,” she started, “this land is that of Meijern. Long ago Drake, the god of war and glory and king and father of all other gods, and his brother Gravhal, god of the underworld as death, were born from A drop of sun. They came of age and came to this land. At that time it was a barren wasteland. Gravhal grew angry at his brother and created an army of demons and necromancers know has the army of Hell. Drake eradicated them from the land and damned Gravhal to the underworld forever. He then built a city and called it polifers. Drake populated the city with two people, a man named Juverk, and a woman named Marah. They had 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls. When they came of age, they left Drakus. Three sets of one boy and one girl went together to found three cities. The first two founded the Warrior city of Walgorn, named after the man. The second pair founded the farming and economic city that supplies the entire land with food called Tolkhier, again named after the man. The Third pair, the oldest two, went off and founded the King’s city called Drakus, named after the King of the Gods. The four cities grew very prosperous. They are known as the Granthimhiel. Drake, growing lonely despite the worship of the people of the cities, created a wife for himself. He named her Agrofia, goddess of love, compation, and salvation. Together they had two children, twins named Yhamra and Jezer. Together they are the god and goddess of art and fine food. They had many children who had children and so on but Drake, Agrofia, Yhamra, and jezer, are the major gods. Not much is known about Gravhal except that he is growing restless.
About 35 years ago, a baby was born. His mother was the daughter of the king, his father was drake himself. He is the true king of Meijern. The king, afraid of losing his power, sent the baby to be killed. That baby disappeared from the castle the day before his scheduled death was. Nobody knows where he is but in the name of Drake may he return.”
“So what about you?” I asked. “Where are you from?”
“I am a Togran.” She responded with great pride. “I was born in Ethilial woods, near Walgorn. My Mother was the seeress of my tribe, my father was the Chief. I was kidnapped when I was 7. I was held for ransom by the midnight riders. When I got back, my father had me trained to fight. I’ve been training all my life. Waiting for the day when I get to use my skills. Today, back in that arena, the only thing driving me to escape was his last words. On his deathbed he said, ‘you are free my dearest daughter, stay that way.’ We need to sleep.”
“Goodnight.” I said. “Sleep well”