Post by Richard El Britannia on Jul 11, 2006 20:44:35 GMT
Name: Heaven's Reality
Type of writing: Prose
Subject: The afterlife
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi (Romance may be included later on)
Summary: Derick works as a defender of his village and does his job pretty well. One day, an old woman is slain by a bandit and Derick finds the bandit and kills him. The following night, the bandits catch wind of their friend's demise and take to the village to destroy it. Derick is killed and wakes up in a land very unfamiliar to him.
Status: Still being written. 3 (chapter 3 is not finished yet) chapters written so far.
Chapter One: The Demise Of The Defender
The sun arose from behind the sleepy mountains and shone over Kranden Village. It was a peaceful village, situated in the mountains. Everyone played a role in the village; one was a farmer, one a tailor, one a wood smith and so on. Everyone had a purpose.
As usual, the elderly awoke early, whilst the younger people of the village carried on sleeping. Derick was one of those who just carried on sleeping, until a scream was heard from outside. Derick yawned, sat up in his bed and stretched. He got up slowly, and walked over to the window, thinking that one of the local children was playing early in the morning again but much to his surprise, it was far from it. On the floor, lay an old woman, lying in a puddle of blood, which still oozed from her body. It was clear from the careless slit across her stomach, that the person who killed her was no professional. Derick carried on looking, pondering, whilst people started running out, screaming and crying.
"Damned idiots," Derick muttered, picking up a bucket, and leaving his house. Derick strolled up the road in the clothes he had slept in; old rags that covered his legs and the top half of his body. Despite the shocked people running past, Derick just carried on walking up the road oblivious to it all, until he reached the village well. He put down his bucket and leant over to grasp the rope hanging down the well when he heard the noise of footsteps quickly approaching from behind a nearby house. Derick spun around with haste and noticed a huge man wielding a huge broadsword running at him. Derick quickly picked up his bucket and threw it at the crazed, baboon-like man. The man lunged at it with his sword, then carried on running, but much to his surprise, Derick wasn't where he was before. Instead, he was behind his attacker, ready to unleash a mammoth punch into the top of his spinal cord, in the hope of either killing or paralysing him. Unsurprisingly, the man flew forward and promptly hit the floor, dropping his sword next to him. Derick walked over to him and lifted him up by his shirt. "Bandit?" Derick asked, shaking the pitiful creature by his shirt. "Are you a bandit?" The man remained silent. "If you don't speak, I'll make your death very painful. However if you answer my questions, it'll be quick and painless. So, are you a bandit?" The man continued to keep his silence. Derick dragged the man over to the wall of a nearby building and smashed his head against the wall. "Answer me! Are you a bandit?" Derick shouted, readying to smash the man's head into the wall again.
"Ye-" the man replied, being stopped mid-speech by coughing up blood. "Ye-yes."
Derick grinned. "Good, now, did you kill an old woman before you tried to kill me?"
"Ye-y-yes, I-I di-did," the bandit said, again coughing up more blood.
"Final question, then its goodnight," Derick said to the bandit. "Why are you here?"
The man at this point started coughing uncontrollably, then started shaking violently.
"Damn," Derick thought, throwing the bandit's body to the floor. "The idiot's long gone now." Derick walked over to the sword, picked it up and thrust the point into the bandit's corpse. He made his way back over to the well and picked up his bucket, tied it to the rope and sent it down to retrieve some water.
Everyone played a role in the village. One a farmer, one a tailor, one a wood smith, and Derick: the defender.
Later that day, a meeting was held in the village hall. Everyone was expected to go. The village hall was vast, filled to the brim with all kinds of people muttering things about the killing.
There was a loud cough at the front of the hall and everyone went silent, except two teenagers who sat in the bottom corner. Tabatha Seelsby aged fifteen and Edward Uebus aged sixteen, who was Derick's younger brother.
"Hehehe, show it me again, Ed!" Tabatha whispered, giggling.
"Okay," Edward replied, pulling a small lizard out of his pocket.
"Tabatha Seelsby! Edward Uebus! We shall have silence!" Shouted out an old man who stood at the front of the hall, next to Derick, who was staring disgustedly at his younger brother. Edward and Tabatha looked up quickly, both with bright red faces.
"Sorry, Tengett," Edward whispered to the small lizard, putting him gently into his trouser pocket. The old man coughed again, slamming his walking stick down onto the wooden flooring. He stood about five foot tall hunched over, with barely any hair and he wore an eye patch over his left eye. He wore a clean, rich suit and was constantly trying to keep his reputation as leader. His name was Henri Jenks. "As you know, a terrible tragedy hit our humble village this morning," he said to the crowd. "Jann Klemp, who happened to be a very close friend of mine, was slaughtered by a bandit from a tribe in the mountains. Luckily, Derick found the cur who did this and caught him. Derick managed to get that much information out of him, before he died. Sadly, we don't know why the bandit did this or why he targeted our village, but Derick will now be keeping a more vigilant guard on the village during the night and early hours. Also, he has requested that four people join him on his patrols."
At this point, the crowd started mumbling, "what? None of us are as strong as him", "he's mad if he expects us to do that sort of thing."
Henri slammed down his stick once again. "Is there nobody that will help? This is for the benefit of the village."
A couple of strong-looking men walked forward, whilst Edward and Tabatha - who were still sat in the corner - continued to talk and joke.
"As I thought! Edward and Tabatha, you are still talking!" Henri shouted, hitting his stick down hard at the floor once again, making Edward and Tabatha quickly jerk back up. "It'd do you some good to help out your brother, Edward! You too, Tabatha! As of tomorrow, you shall both help with Derick's duties!"
"Sir, don't you think they are slightly too young for this kind of work?" Derick questioned.
"Nonsense, Derick my lad; they're too relaxed. In my day, our generation had been in many a battle before we were even nibbling the feet of adulthood. These children are reaching adulthood and they know nothing of hard work. Be trusting, Derick. We shall see a change in them yet." Henri whispered to Derick, then turning to the crowd, he said, "Those who volunteered themselves to help with the defence patrols, meet here tomorrow at sunrise. You may leave now; thank you for coming."
Derick walked over to Edward and Tabatha, with the same look of disgust as before. "If any other bandits do attack this place, don't get in my way. I'll kill them all and you'll only hinder me. Edward, you put a filthy mark on the Uebus household. We were a proud family of warriors until the day that you were born. I suspect mother and father are turning in their graves." Derick said, in a tone of absolute disgust and he stormed out of the hall.
Edward looked down at the floor, barely being able to hold back his tears.
"I still love you," Tabatha said reassuringly, taking his hand.
"Thank you," Edward replied, wiping his eyes.
'Why must I have to put up with that blundering idiot of a brother?' Derick thought, rushing down the street to his home. 'He's a failure; refuse. As far as I'm concerned, a bandit can kill he and his pathetic girlfriend. They will just continue to besmirch the Uebus family name whilst living, otherwise!'
Once Derick returned to his house, it was dark and getting ever closer to sunrise, so he decided that there was no need for him to sleep. He quickly got changed into his only other set of clothing, which consisted of matching rags; top and bottom. He walked over to a large sword which leant against a wall, took it and resting the blade on his shoulder, he quickly left. He walked casually out of this house, and turned to face the village exit. 'They'll return. Once they find out that one of their men has been killed; they'll surely be here for revenge,' Derick thought, as he slammed the point of his sword into the ground. 'Skies, Sun, Moon and Stars, please grant me the power to crush my foes.'
"Quickly, Tabby!" Edward shouted, hauling a big sword behind him. "We're going to be late!"
"I'm sorry, Ed, but this sword is too heavy for me to lift." Tabatha replied, gasping for breath and dragging an equally large sword behind her.
Edward quickly ran over to Tabatha, dragging his sword behind him. "Here, let me help you." He said to her, forcing a smile whilst taking the handle of her sword. Edward pressed on, dragging the two huge swords behind him, with Tabatha following slowly behind. 'Damn,' Edward thought. 'Why did that old fool make us use these huge things? I'm sure there are some smaller weapons; besides, we can't defend the village very well with these swords if we can't even wield them.' Edward slowly came to a stop in the middle of the road and dropped to the floor.
"Edward? Edward!" Tabatha shouted, running over to him. "Edward, are you okay?"
Edward turned his head over to Tabatha as she ran over, and tried to push himself up off of the ground, only falling back down, but this time, landing on his back. "Damn it," He joked, as Tabatha knelt down next to him. "The swords are stronger than the master. Heh, I can't even move now; I'm exhausted."
"Thank God," Tabatha said, falling onto her back next to Edward. "I thought you had hurt yourself."
"You don't have time to be sitting with me, you'll get into trouble with Old-Henri," He said, turning his head to Tabatha's. "Get going, then at least you won't get into trouble.
"No!" Tabatha said defiantly, looking up at the stars. "It's such a nice night, why can't we just enjoy it?"
"I suppose we could stay," Edward said, looking up. "Since when have we ever done what we were told to?"
"As expected; they haven't shown up." Derick said to Henri, both of whom stood in the town hall, with the two men who had volunteered previously to help with the defence duties.
"They are nothing but defiant children, we were foolish to think they would obey," Henri said, afterwards sighing. "You two; Jon, Freid - go look for them, we will wait here for you."
"Yes sir," Freid replied obediently, leaving the hall hastily with Jon.
Derick rested his sword against the wall of the hall and sat down on the floor. "I suspect they'll be a while finding Edward and Tabatha. They are always hard to find." He said, again with the tone of disgust he expressed previously about the two.
"I belie-" Henri started to say, but was interrupted by Jon and Freid running into the hall.
"Bandits!" Freid shouted, struggling for breath and pointing outside. "Bandits are attacking! Edward and Tabatha have been killed! They're raiding houses!"
Derick quickly jumped to his feet and took up his sword. "Fools! Then why are you not fighting? Move!" He shouted, running out of the hall with his sword. Outside, a huge group of bandits could be seen setting fire to the finely crafted houses and people being slaughtered. Bodies lay scattered across the road, the stench of death plagued the air. "Maggots! I'll crush you all!" Derick shouted, running at a random bandit, who was hunched over a wasted body, hitting it with an axe. Derick swung the huge sword above his head, then forced it through the back of the bandit, pulling it back upwards, ripping the body in half, from the stomach up. Blood flew into the air, as Derick back flipped over a bandit who was running at him from behind. In mid-air, Derick forced the sword through the bandit's head, then landing with a loud thud. Suddenly, most of the bandits were gathered around Derick. The largest, most muscular bandit forced his way to the front. It was obvious that he was their leader.
"What? Are you meant to be the leader or something?" Derick asked, gripping onto the sword even harder. "It must only be power then, obviously. I can tell that you're no smarter than the rest of those maggots."
The leader didn't understand a word that Derick had said, nor did the rest of the bandits. The leader shouted something in his language and all of the bandits started cheering, eerily. He turned and walked out of the crowd, followed by a few of the bandits while about ten stood around Derick, still chanting. One slowly walked forward and Derick sped at him and swung the sword into his waist. Almost immediately, the rest of the bandits had thrown themselves at Derick; their axes digging into him, his blood smothering the floor. Derick's vision started to blur as his bloody sword dropped beside him. Shaking, he slowly moved his hands in front of his face, the bandits still forcing their axes into his tough body. He coughed and blood sprayed the floor.
"Not - not like this," He muttered, slowly falling to his knees, as if not feeling the great pain that was spreading across his body. "How could I be defeated by a bunch a bandits?" Derick finally fell to the floor, lying face-first in a puddle of blood. His own blood.
The bandits stood over Derick chanting again, whilst jumping around his dying, shredded, body. After a few minutes, the bandits stopped their strange ritual and pulled their axes out of Derick's body. Blood spurted out of the wounds and Derick couldn't move an inch. His body had reached human limitation. All he felt was cold. He wasn't even able to feel pain.
Above him stood the crazed bandits, laughing hysterically like hyenias. One of them muttered something in their language, then seconds later, Derick heard them running towards him.
Derick expected to feel something hit him; some kind of pain: the killer blow. Instead, he awoke lying down on what seemed to be a dirty wasteland: a baron wasteland with barely any living vegetation. All that could be seen was the dirty, stony ground in all directions. He pushed himself up and looked at his clothing. Much to his surprise he was wearing a different clothes. They didn't look much better than before, but they were definitely different. He felt his body and found no injuries.
"What the-?" Derick muttered, bewildered, as he walked slowly across the coarse floor. "What the hell is this place?" He looked up only to see dark grey clouds. He looked around to see nothing but a baron wasteland. He looked around to find nothing. He was alone: alone in a place very unfamiliar to him.
Chapter 2: Lizards, Zemour and Capture.
For days Derick wandered aimlessly around the dead, lifeless fields, feeling lifeless himself. If was as if the fields were a visual representation of his emotion: empty. Days and days he walked, not a sign of anything and very oddly, he didn't feel any hunger, thirst or signs of fatigue. Human limitations seemed to have disappeared completely.
After countless days of dragging himself through the wastelands, in the far off distance he could make out a small building what looked like a church or cathedral, bearing the Christian cross on the side of it's walls in between huge, colourful windows bearing pictures of a hands reaching down from the clouds and people, whom Derick supposed were saints. Blinking to check what he had just seen was real, his emotions completely changed. He let out a cry of relief and ran quickly towards the building. As he did, he noticed the ground beneath him was becoming greener. The sky was a deep blue with few clouds, trees and other wildlife was in abundance and birds, squirrels and other small animals were going about their lives happily.
He quickly approached the church, noticing the doors just closing. 'People are here!' Derick thought, as he burst in, but what he saw he would have never expected. What looked like half-lizard, half-human, standing eight feet tall was gripping a short, old woman with long grey hair that looked like she was dressed like a vicar high above his head by the neck. The woman was desperately trying to break free, kicking him with what little strength she had. Derick quickly, but quietly hid behind one of the benches, which were laid out in rows, his heart hammering against his chest. Finally the old woman gave in and the lizard-man hissed and threw the body to the floor.
"Massster will be very pleasssed," hissed the lizard, to a small looking teenager who had just stood up from sitting on the front bench. He had long spiky greyish-blue hair that went half way down his back and was wearing a black cloak with red trimmings. "He wiiill won't he, Lord Zemour?"
The boy looked back and in a rather bored voice replied. "Of course he will. You did his bidding, did you not?" Zemour started to laugh mockingly, "Your kind are very stupid, I must say. You ask the most idiotic questions. I don't know what he sees in you. You? A captain? Honestly, your kind isn’t suitable for a position of meaning. You should just be used as shields for the decent soldiers. Like me, say?" Zemour gave a twisted smile to the lizard.
"I would kill you if massster didn't care about you," Hissed the lizard moving right in front of Zemour, looking down on him.
"You would, would you?" Zemour started to laugh again. "You said massster was the only one stopping you from killing me? Well guess what?" Zemour's eyes glowed and he broke out with an inhuman, evil grin. "No one's stopping me from killing you, lizard freak!" Zemour raised his hand with incredible speed against the stomach of the lizard-man. His hand started glowing red and the lizard swung to hit Zemour in the head, but without moving his eyes from his glowing hand, Zemour swung up his other hand and blocked the punch.
"I wonder what it feels like to not exist?" Zemour asked, his grin growing bigger, more evil and even more inhuman. His red hand quickly penetrated the body of the lizard and a deadly silence fell over the church.
The lizard started breathing deeply and his arms fell limp to his sides, then his body started to shake madly.
"Oh! I forgot," said Zemour, in an insanely happy voice. He put out his free hand and clicked his fingers, as a green glow appeared around his body. "Now I won't get my robes dirty."
All of a sudden, the lizard's body blew into a million peices and blood and body parts soared across the building, dying the room a deep red. Zemour smiled, and then clicked his fingers and the blood that covered him disappeared along with the green glow. His smile quickly faded and turned back into his bored face again. He put his hands behind his back and walked out of the church quietly, not noticing Derick hiding behind a bench, terrified.
Derick stumbled out of the bowels of the church and out into what he expected to be a pleasant scene compared to the horror inside. Derick’s eyes widened and he looked around frantically. Everything was gone; all of the trees, plants, life …everything. The whole area looked like the desert he had managed to escape. He fell to the floor and sat looking around for what felt like hours.
Suddenly, a blood-curdling roar could be heard. Derick jumped to his feet and made for a wall behind the church. He poked his head round to see if what he heard had visualised yet and he saw a beautiful girl with long pink hair, wearing a white dress running from four people which looked like the lizard man Derick had saw in the church. He continued to watch from behind the wall, and then the girl tripped. The largest of the lizards flew forwards, caught her and hit her on the back of her neck, knocking her unconscious.
“Misssion accomplisshed, men. Returrn to basse,” hissed the lizard. “I’m ssure master will reward u- Whaat wasss that?”
A crunching noise from stones came from where Derick was standing. The lizards turned around and started walking over to Derick’s position. Derick ran around the other side of the church, his heart in his throat.
“Found him!” shouted a lizard, as another came from around the wall Derick had just ran from.
Another lizard jumped from the top of the church onto Derick’s back. Derick struggled to get the lizard off of him, but to no avail. Derick lay there shocked at the speed the lizard had managed to get onto the huge church and at the same time jump and land safely. The lizard pulled out a piece of high-tech machinery out of the back of his trousers and pressed it into the back of Derick. Derick started to fall unconscious, as the sound of a boy could be heard shouting to the lizards, which were muttering to themselves.
“Stop! Stop you filthy creatures!”
The voice was Zemour’s, but he sounded scared, even terrified.
“Stop or I’ll rip you all apar -“
Type of writing: Prose
Subject: The afterlife
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi (Romance may be included later on)
Summary: Derick works as a defender of his village and does his job pretty well. One day, an old woman is slain by a bandit and Derick finds the bandit and kills him. The following night, the bandits catch wind of their friend's demise and take to the village to destroy it. Derick is killed and wakes up in a land very unfamiliar to him.
Status: Still being written. 3 (chapter 3 is not finished yet) chapters written so far.
Chapter One: The Demise Of The Defender
The sun arose from behind the sleepy mountains and shone over Kranden Village. It was a peaceful village, situated in the mountains. Everyone played a role in the village; one was a farmer, one a tailor, one a wood smith and so on. Everyone had a purpose.
As usual, the elderly awoke early, whilst the younger people of the village carried on sleeping. Derick was one of those who just carried on sleeping, until a scream was heard from outside. Derick yawned, sat up in his bed and stretched. He got up slowly, and walked over to the window, thinking that one of the local children was playing early in the morning again but much to his surprise, it was far from it. On the floor, lay an old woman, lying in a puddle of blood, which still oozed from her body. It was clear from the careless slit across her stomach, that the person who killed her was no professional. Derick carried on looking, pondering, whilst people started running out, screaming and crying.
"Damned idiots," Derick muttered, picking up a bucket, and leaving his house. Derick strolled up the road in the clothes he had slept in; old rags that covered his legs and the top half of his body. Despite the shocked people running past, Derick just carried on walking up the road oblivious to it all, until he reached the village well. He put down his bucket and leant over to grasp the rope hanging down the well when he heard the noise of footsteps quickly approaching from behind a nearby house. Derick spun around with haste and noticed a huge man wielding a huge broadsword running at him. Derick quickly picked up his bucket and threw it at the crazed, baboon-like man. The man lunged at it with his sword, then carried on running, but much to his surprise, Derick wasn't where he was before. Instead, he was behind his attacker, ready to unleash a mammoth punch into the top of his spinal cord, in the hope of either killing or paralysing him. Unsurprisingly, the man flew forward and promptly hit the floor, dropping his sword next to him. Derick walked over to him and lifted him up by his shirt. "Bandit?" Derick asked, shaking the pitiful creature by his shirt. "Are you a bandit?" The man remained silent. "If you don't speak, I'll make your death very painful. However if you answer my questions, it'll be quick and painless. So, are you a bandit?" The man continued to keep his silence. Derick dragged the man over to the wall of a nearby building and smashed his head against the wall. "Answer me! Are you a bandit?" Derick shouted, readying to smash the man's head into the wall again.
"Ye-" the man replied, being stopped mid-speech by coughing up blood. "Ye-yes."
Derick grinned. "Good, now, did you kill an old woman before you tried to kill me?"
"Ye-y-yes, I-I di-did," the bandit said, again coughing up more blood.
"Final question, then its goodnight," Derick said to the bandit. "Why are you here?"
The man at this point started coughing uncontrollably, then started shaking violently.
"Damn," Derick thought, throwing the bandit's body to the floor. "The idiot's long gone now." Derick walked over to the sword, picked it up and thrust the point into the bandit's corpse. He made his way back over to the well and picked up his bucket, tied it to the rope and sent it down to retrieve some water.
Everyone played a role in the village. One a farmer, one a tailor, one a wood smith, and Derick: the defender.
Later that day, a meeting was held in the village hall. Everyone was expected to go. The village hall was vast, filled to the brim with all kinds of people muttering things about the killing.
There was a loud cough at the front of the hall and everyone went silent, except two teenagers who sat in the bottom corner. Tabatha Seelsby aged fifteen and Edward Uebus aged sixteen, who was Derick's younger brother.
"Hehehe, show it me again, Ed!" Tabatha whispered, giggling.
"Okay," Edward replied, pulling a small lizard out of his pocket.
"Tabatha Seelsby! Edward Uebus! We shall have silence!" Shouted out an old man who stood at the front of the hall, next to Derick, who was staring disgustedly at his younger brother. Edward and Tabatha looked up quickly, both with bright red faces.
"Sorry, Tengett," Edward whispered to the small lizard, putting him gently into his trouser pocket. The old man coughed again, slamming his walking stick down onto the wooden flooring. He stood about five foot tall hunched over, with barely any hair and he wore an eye patch over his left eye. He wore a clean, rich suit and was constantly trying to keep his reputation as leader. His name was Henri Jenks. "As you know, a terrible tragedy hit our humble village this morning," he said to the crowd. "Jann Klemp, who happened to be a very close friend of mine, was slaughtered by a bandit from a tribe in the mountains. Luckily, Derick found the cur who did this and caught him. Derick managed to get that much information out of him, before he died. Sadly, we don't know why the bandit did this or why he targeted our village, but Derick will now be keeping a more vigilant guard on the village during the night and early hours. Also, he has requested that four people join him on his patrols."
At this point, the crowd started mumbling, "what? None of us are as strong as him", "he's mad if he expects us to do that sort of thing."
Henri slammed down his stick once again. "Is there nobody that will help? This is for the benefit of the village."
A couple of strong-looking men walked forward, whilst Edward and Tabatha - who were still sat in the corner - continued to talk and joke.
"As I thought! Edward and Tabatha, you are still talking!" Henri shouted, hitting his stick down hard at the floor once again, making Edward and Tabatha quickly jerk back up. "It'd do you some good to help out your brother, Edward! You too, Tabatha! As of tomorrow, you shall both help with Derick's duties!"
"Sir, don't you think they are slightly too young for this kind of work?" Derick questioned.
"Nonsense, Derick my lad; they're too relaxed. In my day, our generation had been in many a battle before we were even nibbling the feet of adulthood. These children are reaching adulthood and they know nothing of hard work. Be trusting, Derick. We shall see a change in them yet." Henri whispered to Derick, then turning to the crowd, he said, "Those who volunteered themselves to help with the defence patrols, meet here tomorrow at sunrise. You may leave now; thank you for coming."
Derick walked over to Edward and Tabatha, with the same look of disgust as before. "If any other bandits do attack this place, don't get in my way. I'll kill them all and you'll only hinder me. Edward, you put a filthy mark on the Uebus household. We were a proud family of warriors until the day that you were born. I suspect mother and father are turning in their graves." Derick said, in a tone of absolute disgust and he stormed out of the hall.
Edward looked down at the floor, barely being able to hold back his tears.
"I still love you," Tabatha said reassuringly, taking his hand.
"Thank you," Edward replied, wiping his eyes.
'Why must I have to put up with that blundering idiot of a brother?' Derick thought, rushing down the street to his home. 'He's a failure; refuse. As far as I'm concerned, a bandit can kill he and his pathetic girlfriend. They will just continue to besmirch the Uebus family name whilst living, otherwise!'
Once Derick returned to his house, it was dark and getting ever closer to sunrise, so he decided that there was no need for him to sleep. He quickly got changed into his only other set of clothing, which consisted of matching rags; top and bottom. He walked over to a large sword which leant against a wall, took it and resting the blade on his shoulder, he quickly left. He walked casually out of this house, and turned to face the village exit. 'They'll return. Once they find out that one of their men has been killed; they'll surely be here for revenge,' Derick thought, as he slammed the point of his sword into the ground. 'Skies, Sun, Moon and Stars, please grant me the power to crush my foes.'
"Quickly, Tabby!" Edward shouted, hauling a big sword behind him. "We're going to be late!"
"I'm sorry, Ed, but this sword is too heavy for me to lift." Tabatha replied, gasping for breath and dragging an equally large sword behind her.
Edward quickly ran over to Tabatha, dragging his sword behind him. "Here, let me help you." He said to her, forcing a smile whilst taking the handle of her sword. Edward pressed on, dragging the two huge swords behind him, with Tabatha following slowly behind. 'Damn,' Edward thought. 'Why did that old fool make us use these huge things? I'm sure there are some smaller weapons; besides, we can't defend the village very well with these swords if we can't even wield them.' Edward slowly came to a stop in the middle of the road and dropped to the floor.
"Edward? Edward!" Tabatha shouted, running over to him. "Edward, are you okay?"
Edward turned his head over to Tabatha as she ran over, and tried to push himself up off of the ground, only falling back down, but this time, landing on his back. "Damn it," He joked, as Tabatha knelt down next to him. "The swords are stronger than the master. Heh, I can't even move now; I'm exhausted."
"Thank God," Tabatha said, falling onto her back next to Edward. "I thought you had hurt yourself."
"You don't have time to be sitting with me, you'll get into trouble with Old-Henri," He said, turning his head to Tabatha's. "Get going, then at least you won't get into trouble.
"No!" Tabatha said defiantly, looking up at the stars. "It's such a nice night, why can't we just enjoy it?"
"I suppose we could stay," Edward said, looking up. "Since when have we ever done what we were told to?"
"As expected; they haven't shown up." Derick said to Henri, both of whom stood in the town hall, with the two men who had volunteered previously to help with the defence duties.
"They are nothing but defiant children, we were foolish to think they would obey," Henri said, afterwards sighing. "You two; Jon, Freid - go look for them, we will wait here for you."
"Yes sir," Freid replied obediently, leaving the hall hastily with Jon.
Derick rested his sword against the wall of the hall and sat down on the floor. "I suspect they'll be a while finding Edward and Tabatha. They are always hard to find." He said, again with the tone of disgust he expressed previously about the two.
"I belie-" Henri started to say, but was interrupted by Jon and Freid running into the hall.
"Bandits!" Freid shouted, struggling for breath and pointing outside. "Bandits are attacking! Edward and Tabatha have been killed! They're raiding houses!"
Derick quickly jumped to his feet and took up his sword. "Fools! Then why are you not fighting? Move!" He shouted, running out of the hall with his sword. Outside, a huge group of bandits could be seen setting fire to the finely crafted houses and people being slaughtered. Bodies lay scattered across the road, the stench of death plagued the air. "Maggots! I'll crush you all!" Derick shouted, running at a random bandit, who was hunched over a wasted body, hitting it with an axe. Derick swung the huge sword above his head, then forced it through the back of the bandit, pulling it back upwards, ripping the body in half, from the stomach up. Blood flew into the air, as Derick back flipped over a bandit who was running at him from behind. In mid-air, Derick forced the sword through the bandit's head, then landing with a loud thud. Suddenly, most of the bandits were gathered around Derick. The largest, most muscular bandit forced his way to the front. It was obvious that he was their leader.
"What? Are you meant to be the leader or something?" Derick asked, gripping onto the sword even harder. "It must only be power then, obviously. I can tell that you're no smarter than the rest of those maggots."
The leader didn't understand a word that Derick had said, nor did the rest of the bandits. The leader shouted something in his language and all of the bandits started cheering, eerily. He turned and walked out of the crowd, followed by a few of the bandits while about ten stood around Derick, still chanting. One slowly walked forward and Derick sped at him and swung the sword into his waist. Almost immediately, the rest of the bandits had thrown themselves at Derick; their axes digging into him, his blood smothering the floor. Derick's vision started to blur as his bloody sword dropped beside him. Shaking, he slowly moved his hands in front of his face, the bandits still forcing their axes into his tough body. He coughed and blood sprayed the floor.
"Not - not like this," He muttered, slowly falling to his knees, as if not feeling the great pain that was spreading across his body. "How could I be defeated by a bunch a bandits?" Derick finally fell to the floor, lying face-first in a puddle of blood. His own blood.
The bandits stood over Derick chanting again, whilst jumping around his dying, shredded, body. After a few minutes, the bandits stopped their strange ritual and pulled their axes out of Derick's body. Blood spurted out of the wounds and Derick couldn't move an inch. His body had reached human limitation. All he felt was cold. He wasn't even able to feel pain.
Above him stood the crazed bandits, laughing hysterically like hyenias. One of them muttered something in their language, then seconds later, Derick heard them running towards him.
Derick expected to feel something hit him; some kind of pain: the killer blow. Instead, he awoke lying down on what seemed to be a dirty wasteland: a baron wasteland with barely any living vegetation. All that could be seen was the dirty, stony ground in all directions. He pushed himself up and looked at his clothing. Much to his surprise he was wearing a different clothes. They didn't look much better than before, but they were definitely different. He felt his body and found no injuries.
"What the-?" Derick muttered, bewildered, as he walked slowly across the coarse floor. "What the hell is this place?" He looked up only to see dark grey clouds. He looked around to see nothing but a baron wasteland. He looked around to find nothing. He was alone: alone in a place very unfamiliar to him.
Chapter 2: Lizards, Zemour and Capture.
For days Derick wandered aimlessly around the dead, lifeless fields, feeling lifeless himself. If was as if the fields were a visual representation of his emotion: empty. Days and days he walked, not a sign of anything and very oddly, he didn't feel any hunger, thirst or signs of fatigue. Human limitations seemed to have disappeared completely.
After countless days of dragging himself through the wastelands, in the far off distance he could make out a small building what looked like a church or cathedral, bearing the Christian cross on the side of it's walls in between huge, colourful windows bearing pictures of a hands reaching down from the clouds and people, whom Derick supposed were saints. Blinking to check what he had just seen was real, his emotions completely changed. He let out a cry of relief and ran quickly towards the building. As he did, he noticed the ground beneath him was becoming greener. The sky was a deep blue with few clouds, trees and other wildlife was in abundance and birds, squirrels and other small animals were going about their lives happily.
He quickly approached the church, noticing the doors just closing. 'People are here!' Derick thought, as he burst in, but what he saw he would have never expected. What looked like half-lizard, half-human, standing eight feet tall was gripping a short, old woman with long grey hair that looked like she was dressed like a vicar high above his head by the neck. The woman was desperately trying to break free, kicking him with what little strength she had. Derick quickly, but quietly hid behind one of the benches, which were laid out in rows, his heart hammering against his chest. Finally the old woman gave in and the lizard-man hissed and threw the body to the floor.
"Massster will be very pleasssed," hissed the lizard, to a small looking teenager who had just stood up from sitting on the front bench. He had long spiky greyish-blue hair that went half way down his back and was wearing a black cloak with red trimmings. "He wiiill won't he, Lord Zemour?"
The boy looked back and in a rather bored voice replied. "Of course he will. You did his bidding, did you not?" Zemour started to laugh mockingly, "Your kind are very stupid, I must say. You ask the most idiotic questions. I don't know what he sees in you. You? A captain? Honestly, your kind isn’t suitable for a position of meaning. You should just be used as shields for the decent soldiers. Like me, say?" Zemour gave a twisted smile to the lizard.
"I would kill you if massster didn't care about you," Hissed the lizard moving right in front of Zemour, looking down on him.
"You would, would you?" Zemour started to laugh again. "You said massster was the only one stopping you from killing me? Well guess what?" Zemour's eyes glowed and he broke out with an inhuman, evil grin. "No one's stopping me from killing you, lizard freak!" Zemour raised his hand with incredible speed against the stomach of the lizard-man. His hand started glowing red and the lizard swung to hit Zemour in the head, but without moving his eyes from his glowing hand, Zemour swung up his other hand and blocked the punch.
"I wonder what it feels like to not exist?" Zemour asked, his grin growing bigger, more evil and even more inhuman. His red hand quickly penetrated the body of the lizard and a deadly silence fell over the church.
The lizard started breathing deeply and his arms fell limp to his sides, then his body started to shake madly.
"Oh! I forgot," said Zemour, in an insanely happy voice. He put out his free hand and clicked his fingers, as a green glow appeared around his body. "Now I won't get my robes dirty."
All of a sudden, the lizard's body blew into a million peices and blood and body parts soared across the building, dying the room a deep red. Zemour smiled, and then clicked his fingers and the blood that covered him disappeared along with the green glow. His smile quickly faded and turned back into his bored face again. He put his hands behind his back and walked out of the church quietly, not noticing Derick hiding behind a bench, terrified.
Derick stumbled out of the bowels of the church and out into what he expected to be a pleasant scene compared to the horror inside. Derick’s eyes widened and he looked around frantically. Everything was gone; all of the trees, plants, life …everything. The whole area looked like the desert he had managed to escape. He fell to the floor and sat looking around for what felt like hours.
Suddenly, a blood-curdling roar could be heard. Derick jumped to his feet and made for a wall behind the church. He poked his head round to see if what he heard had visualised yet and he saw a beautiful girl with long pink hair, wearing a white dress running from four people which looked like the lizard man Derick had saw in the church. He continued to watch from behind the wall, and then the girl tripped. The largest of the lizards flew forwards, caught her and hit her on the back of her neck, knocking her unconscious.
“Misssion accomplisshed, men. Returrn to basse,” hissed the lizard. “I’m ssure master will reward u- Whaat wasss that?”
A crunching noise from stones came from where Derick was standing. The lizards turned around and started walking over to Derick’s position. Derick ran around the other side of the church, his heart in his throat.
“Found him!” shouted a lizard, as another came from around the wall Derick had just ran from.
Another lizard jumped from the top of the church onto Derick’s back. Derick struggled to get the lizard off of him, but to no avail. Derick lay there shocked at the speed the lizard had managed to get onto the huge church and at the same time jump and land safely. The lizard pulled out a piece of high-tech machinery out of the back of his trousers and pressed it into the back of Derick. Derick started to fall unconscious, as the sound of a boy could be heard shouting to the lizards, which were muttering to themselves.
“Stop! Stop you filthy creatures!”
The voice was Zemour’s, but he sounded scared, even terrified.
“Stop or I’ll rip you all apar -“