The Vanquisher
Hero they call him, a savior, but he was no such thing. That monster ruined my life.
I was born and raised in the humble town of Meltwater. I was just a humble fletcher. I made little to no money doing my job and I couldn't support my wife and boy. There was just little use for my skills in Meltwater. So imagine, just imagine how eager I was to move to The Vale. The King's forces had taken it and by right of combat it was ours. New land, a fresh start for my family somewhere other than the frozen wasteland we called home.
So we packed what little we had and left for the new world. For two months we walked, facing danger and despair every step we took. We had no money for food so I attempted to hunt for our dinner and so I went into a thicket of trees one evening hoping to find at least a rabbit. I heard something move to my left and I let loose my arrow, yet when I did it shattered and fell to the ground. A beast the humans call a Nettlewolf stepped out from behind the log. This monster was huge! With large teeth and even larger quills. It snarled and sent its quills flying at me! I just nearly moved in time, I could hear the air being pushed aside as a quill came at me and sunk itself into a rock. I readied my bow again but before I had it drawn three more of the fuckers showed up. I never ran so fast in my life!
So after that you can imagine we were all quite relieved to make it to our new home. A small hamlet west of the human capital. We had gotten a small hovel that we paid for by selling everything we had that was not essential to the trip. It was a strange land to be sure but it grew on us. We fixed the holes in the house and I got a job felling trees. My wife picked up her forgotten love of painting and my boy met a girl and they got married. It took years but our old life was behind us, we had made everything out of our new start. Then he came.
I remember it well, how could I not. Kuten and I had awoke before the sun had even risen, I always had to get to work early. We laid in bed, talked about dinner for that night, how our boy was doing and when he would have children. All pointless things in the grand scheme of the world. I ate my stew as the sun rose that morning. I made note that the table was off balance, then I heard it. A roar that sounded like it had escaped the underworld.
I heard its foot steps as it got closer and closer. Our neighbors began screaming so loud my ears rang. Kuten and I rushed outside and then we saw it, the death that rode for us and the rider atop. Kuten screamed and screamed, she insisted we run, she began to shake me but I couldn't move. I stood frozen and watched as it got closer. I could feel each foot step on the ground, every breath it took. It stopped on the hill and let out a roar that froze the air around us, as cold as a blizzard. Kuten began to leave me an started running at this point, but it was to late.
The dragon swung its head high and when it lowered again....water, a tsunamis worth of water. It hit the house and our home blew apart. The shrapnel flew through the air and into bodies! Then another shot, this time into a crowd of people, they went into the air screaming and crying. You could hear their bones break as they hit the ground. In the blink of an eye the dragon rushed the town, It let forth the cold waters of hell and level three more houses!
A horn blew and its sound is what snapped me back to reality. The King's men were hear, surely we were saved. The drew blades and spears and ran at the beast. The dragon lunged and picked a man up with its mouth, his head..was in the dragons mouth and he wriggled his body now hanging off the ground to get free. The dragon tightened its grip and he fell back the the ground, now missing a head.
The warriors backed up and began to shake. The dragon's rider jumped off the beast and cut the warriors down. The dragon than began to run through the town. Flooding the streets and farmland, it leveled the houses and the church. We began to run but as we got to the edge of the village the rider stepped out of a house, with our boy in hand.
The rider threw him to the ground and ran his sword through my boy's neck. As he pulled out his blood soaked blade he saw us. He walked towards us slowly, wiping the blood off his sword with his hand. We tried to run again by the dragon, now behind us, swung its large tail and knocked Kuten and I to the ground. It sunk its claws into the dirt, it bared its white, razor teeth, its breath warm.
The dragon grabbed Kuten by her shirt and lifted her into the air. Its eyes glimmered and it began swinging her around like a toy, then it let go. She flew fast threw the air and landed head first into the ground. I watched as my wife blood ran out of her skull, the cracking sound of her skull is one I can never forget. The Rider stood above me. His eyes were like ice that was lit on fire, both ice cold and burning hot. He lifted his boot and kicked in my head.
When I awoke the sun had set and the moon was high. I got to my feet looked around. The houses, gone, our people gone, my wife and boy, dead. We just wanted a fresh start. We were not soldiers nor lords, what did we do to deserve death? We were peaceful, we just wanted quite lives. Instead we were given death and judgement, and it was given to us by Filavandrel the Vanquisher.
Comments