With Blades and Flames: Awakening

by David Csontos

  “Arkain! Arkain! Help me!”came the voice again out of the darkness. The wolf ran and ran to help save her from the oncoming danger but there was no way. The blood on the ground sploshed every single time his feet stepped into it, but even though it looked like it was making a lot of noise, nothing could be heard. All silent, other than the screaming of the girl.“Arkain! Arkain!” The voice got closer and closer as the wolf ran further and further into the darkness not seeing anything else than the ground in front of him. All was covered in blood. A blood river that stretched forever. He ran and ran as fast he could.“Arkain! Arkain!”The voice got closer.“Arkain!”And closer.“Arkain” Closer. Then, all became silent. The visibility widened and a shadow appeared on the ground in front of him. Covered in blood. Not believing this, he raised his hand and tried to see if the body was her. The one that he tried to save. As he slowly got closer, the shadow raised its head with enormous speed along his hand, grabbed the wolf and started pulling it. For the first few seconds it troubled holding on as the wolf strongly pulled away from him. Because of this, it transformed into claws and long dark hands that all kept grabbing towards him. There was no escape. The more he tried to fight, the more hands managed to grab more of him. All of them started pulling him towards themselves as a black hole appeared in the middle. They dragged the wolf towards it and thrown him in despite how hard it tried to escape. With ease they lifted him into the middle and released their strong grip.

  Once again, he woke up sweating and there was not much he could do. At least it wasn’t as cold as when they were up on the mountain. The firewood was all used up but the fireplace was still emitting heat and a bit of smoke from yesterday. The leafs were flowing in the wind from the trees. It wasn’t even wind, but a small breeze that have blown through the camp. He stood up and grabbed his sword from the ground. He tied it to his belt and walked away from the camp. Leafs were rustling and birds were singing as the forest started to wake up again. Because of that, Arkain tried to stay as quiet as possible. He walked away from the camp so no-one could hear him. Then stopped at a nice clearing and pulled his sword out. The metal as plain as it was, it reflected a lot of things if one were to look into it. Even though the edges were chipped off at some places on the side, this was his weapon. The only defence he could have had in a danger situation and he had to learn how to use it. At least how to swing properly. He grabbed the handle with two hands and gripped the leather tightly. Then he took a swing forward. It didn’t feel natural, so he did it again. And again. And again. If someone would have saw him, they would think that he has gone mad from the frantic movements. Then, about the tenth swing became natural movement. Following the flow of the hand that was acting on its own it became a deadly attack that would have very easily killed anyone. His legs started moving, following the dictation of the hands. Simple attacks became multiple ones with jumps, twists and complicated movements. All while the boy was closing his eyes. Since he started feeling it, his eyes closed and what seemed to be a sudden memory, his body started following it. Like running, it came to him, not knowing where it come from or where would it go, but currently hanging in the moment, fuelling the boy’s movement. It was all natural, like he would have done it before. Without knowing the speed of time, it flew past like a sudden gust and the sun was high up in the sky by now. When he have finally got tired, he realized this, and started making his way back as soon as his sword was back in its sheath. Agaroth and Burdõl started to wake up when he got back and soon after all of them were travelling through the land. Trees passed by, hills grew and shrunk as they made their way up, down, and to the sides as they tried to go through rivers, lakes, rocks and obstacles. They talked, and laughed to stay entertained. All of which was about Dwarves and their jokes. Mainly, Burdõl did the talking and the others the listening. Other than that everything went smoothly. There were no fights or life threatening situations. The weather was constant compared to the weather before they have passed the mountain. There were times when it was quite warm and damp, but most of the time, as they headed north it became colder and fresh. Soon, the nice warm sun turned its back on the world and left little summer to this reign. Winter was evident and there was no stopping it. It did not snow, yet, nor rain came crashing down onto the ground, but it was significantly colder day by day. There weren’t as much leafs on the trees and the number of wildlife was decreasing to a normal human eye. Each night became harder to bare once again. Whenever needed to sleep, Arkain would curl up next to the warm fire and stay there until the morning without moving much covered in animal fur that Agaroth’s hunting had produced. His legs would get tired but none of that mattered because if he would dare to stretch them, a cold mist would take away the warmth from him. Each night, Agaroth stayed up for longer supplying the fire with enough wood so it could maintain itself up until the morning when the fire disappears, and only ash and smoke would be left along with quite a bit of heat from the burnt bits and pieces of fuel. At least, whenever they could start one. It required much more effort than ever before. Gripping the sword each time, the boy has wandered away grew an expanding problem. Sometimes his hands would freeze slightly onto the hard leather making it quite the bit of struggle to release the cold metal weapon after long hours of practice which showed promise. It was like, with each hour his memory inexplicably releasing thoughts and feelings that coordinated his moves to an extent where little eyesight or thinking was required to complete moves that he has never seen or done. Even though he showed good progress, this needed to stop too. Each morning became colder, trapping Arkain near the fire. There was no way of continuing his practice, even at night. The long hours of walk became longer in the cold, draining every bit of energy from the boy. It was impossible to do anything by the time they have settled down. As soon as their bag hit the ground the fire was already being lighted and Arkain was already blinking hard to stay awake but failed each time. Not even his dreams came back. It seems like they were also frozen in time from the weather. Eating and drinking was also agonizing. The cooked meat helped but the drink quickly froze its taste and washed down any sign of warmth. He wondered what happened to the beautiful weather. After a few days of further lasting journey across their knowledge, some kind of manmade building could be made out which looked to be a wooden shack rising towards the sky. However small it was, it could have meant life, which could have meant warmth, and food, which has been depleted the day before. When they got closer, more houses appeared, all on one side of a lake, the other side desolate. None of the houses had any smoke above their chimneys or lights through the window. Agaroth walked towards the house that was the closest and opened the door. Its handle was rotten wood, the sides had holes. Inside there was little space but was full of wooden furniture, tables, chairs, spoons, bowls and anything one could name. A chair stood in the corner. On it, was a human figure, covered in old clothes. It also had a hat which covered up its face. No movement, no sound of breathing came from him. Just silence. Dead silence. It seemed dead but when Agaroth took the first step in, it jumped up, making a row of clothes fall, including its hat. Behind it, lay a bone face with little skin. He barely had any teeth, the remaining all over his mouth like a child’s writing, but the most striking was that he was blind. His eyes showed nothing else but a deep white colour. Still, he stood up and faced towards the guests.“Who might be walking in here?”he asked. The voice that was coming from his mouth seemed friendly but undoubtedly horrible. He could not hold a not for a single second. His voice crackled as he talked.“Travelers. We would like to get a place to rest and some food if possible. We have money that we can pay you with”answered Agaroth with a slight suspicion.“Money? Me no need money! Mecan only provide you home when you kill what has been bothering us! Would you do that? Would you?” His voice started to rush and become excited. The wooden floorboard was cricketing as he made his way closer.“This is witchcraft! Get away from here, monster!” shouted Burdõland aggressively stepped forward swinging his axe, to threaten the c
reature but it did nothing. Just stood there like a mere puppet, hanged on strings.“What kind of monster is it?”asked Agaroth and pushed back the dwarf.“We…do not know. It comes at night when we sleep and grabs us!”He answered and imitated a grabbing motion. Strangely, his fingers barely moved.“Then tell me, where did you see it last?”

  “It crawled into a hole on the other side of the lake” This time its voice was deeper and clearer but showed aggression.

  “I will not take this! This is madness!” the dwarf whispered and walked out. He pushed the door outward breaking the silence that now settled into the room. Agaroth agreed to the deal and walked out with Arkain. As soon as they took their first step to the outside though, they smashed into Burdõlwho was standing in front of them, looking around with dropped jaws and wide eyes. His hands were holding his axe, ready to swing any second. Arkain looked up and saw not one, but a whole village worth of similar looking people to the one inside the house. They all had white eyes, and skin that sometimes was pierced by their bone. All of them were just simply walking around aimlessly. Some stood near trees looking up. Some walked into other’s houses.“Alright then, you will stay here until I take care of the problem” said Agaroth when he managed to take his eyes off of the sight.

  “No, we will go with you” replied Arkain.

  “What…?” tried to split the conversation the dwarf.

  “Trust me, I have done this plenty of times. You need to stay here so you are safe. As soon as I leave start heading the opposite direction and don’t come back. I will come to you. And…”

  “No, I am coming with you. You don’t have a say in that, besides, you might need help” argued Arkain and started walking towards the frozen lake, past the silent people. Agaroth came after him shortly and after that, Burdõl, who was afraid of staying alone. When they got close to the ice, the traveller grabbed a stone, then threw it into the middle. Luckily, the cold lake did not break, or crackled so it was safe to cross. The three of them treaded lightly across until they have reached the other side. Here, the ground was hard and there were no trees around. Everything was like a frozen swamp. There was mud, there was vegetation and small puddles of liquid dirt but it was all rigid. When looking around there was no cave nearby that could be visually seen but a hole, tucked away at the bottom of a hill. The entrance was covered in vines, which grew along the edges. It looked small and did not resemble a ‘cave’ at all. First, it was Agaroth who climbed through but quickly came back because it was completely dark in there. He broken off a piece of wood from a dead tree nearby and covered the top bit in cloth, which he got out from his bag. Then, he sparked it into flames and down did they go after him. The tunnel was a steep way downwards but was easy to use. Once all three of them reached the bottom the dark area widened into a cavern. The small torch seemed useless now. All of them took out their weapons and started walking forwards.“Oh, what the hell is this squishy thing that we walk on?!” bursts out Burdõland looks down. The ground, and everything was covered in dead bodies all around them once the traveller’s torch shined onto them. Heads were dislocated from the body and torsos were ripped apart.“What could have done this?” whispered Arkain.

  “I don’t know”answered Agaroth to which both the others were a bit sceptic. If Agaroth didn’t know something, that is probably either very bad or ancient. In this case it could have been both, given from the count of the bodies. There were also, many weapons. Swords, armour, helmets, spears and axes. All have been left there. As they have continued to walk forward, they have discovered that there were also fully armoured elf bodies too. According to the traveller these must have been doing the same thing as the three of them are doing now and that it is very suspicious that the village didn’t leave yet. Now, they got to a part where the sound of water could be heard and as they got closer, there was a small puddle that reflected the torch’s light beams and created a cavalcade of lines. Also, the water was coming in from somewhere because the sound of a small fountain echoed through the cave.“We are going to have to split up to cover more ground. Burdõlyou go with Arkain. Be careful” the man commanded and picked up two torches from one of the dead’s hand. It was still working once he tried to light it with his own. The group quickly got split up and both of the sides went different directions. Arkain was at the front and Burdõlat the back. Once they got far away, their feet were not crunching on bones anymore but rather touched cold stone. There were a few bones here and there but it was relatively clear compared to the other place, which made both of them glad.“Look, if we find this, thing, then just go on a full on attack. Together we are stronger than alone which means that we must stay together”echoed the dwarf’s voice what seemed to be further away than what Arkain thought, but when he looked back to answer, it was gone. The dwarf’s light was nowhere to be found and when the boy tried to speak into the darkness, it was only himself that he could hear. His companion was gone and now, he wondered alone. There was no point in trying to go back. He can deal with a monster. He dealt with worse things than one monster. At least this one isn’t part of a pack. The cave darkened around him. Everything was silent. Neither water nor footsteps made much sound and quickly echoed into the abyss. All he could do, is keep walking with his sword in his right hand, and his torch in his left. Just like at the dwarfs’ cave, this one had plenty of tunnels digging deeper into the earth. The walls were hard and the ground was cold, even in boots. Suddenly, Arkain felt a sweep of air had touched his shoulders. He looked back but saw nothing. Soon after, it came again but there was nothing behind him that he could see. He raised the torch but the light didn’t cover much, so he continued walking. A few steps away, there were noises, coming from within the walls. Many, in fact. It sounded like a thousand claws sweeping towards the boy. The sounds continued to come closer, become louder and louder. Then, when they got so close that it felt like they were right next to him, it became quiet. The boy span to the left, to a loud sound. A helmet rolled out into the light, in which a head lay. Arkain not knowing what to do, started running to the opposite direction. It became a foul end as the tunnel turned into a big room, similar to the one the boy was coming from, with bodies on the ground, but these ones, seemed to be covered in a higher quality of armour. There was not much to look at before the sound of a body dropping to the ground could be heard. It wasn’t even a drop, but more of an elegant glide onto cloth. The boy turned towards it and saw a dark, tall figure looking at him, with big white eyes that reflected the light. Arkain’s heart stopped as the creature dropped onto four legs and started creeping towards him. Quiet as the night, the creature of darkness with boned wings crawled towards him and stopped at every crack of the fire. Realizing that it might be blind, the boy quickly acted and threw the torch to the wall, far away from himself. The creature followed it and the boy got ready to attack. He slowly made his way towards it and just as he was ready to swing, his feet stepped on a chain guard. In moments, the creature turned around, not being interested in the fire anymore, and leaped onto the boy without giving reaction time. The boy fell backwards, his sword flying far away from his hand and out of reach. Breathing fast, and his heart beating even faster he tried to get out of the monster’s sharp claws that now, dug deep into his skin. His shoulders started bleeding and he started yelling from the pain. Now, the monster looked at his head with his great white eyes and showed its long and deadly teeth from which blood started dripping. Desperate to find a way out of this situation he turned his head to as many direction as he could, trying to find some kind of a weapon. As the creature’s head got closer, giving out a carnivorous growl, he saw a two edged sword, sticking out from a body near. He tried to stretch his hand as far as possible, which caused it to bleed. The monster’s claw got deeper and deeper into his hand, the further the boy was of getting the blade. Arkain head-butted the creature to gain more space. Not receiving the results he have hoped for, he needed to be fast. Fast enough to move his hand as the monster released it for a split second. This e
nraged the creature and its teeth instantly speeded towards the boy’s head. It got closer and closer and when it was just about to gnash its teeth into the skull, it stopped. From his mouth, no more growl, but an otherworldly scream was leaving as the boy pushed the two edged blade deep into its body. The blade, looked like it was sucking a dark cloud from the monster’s heart and its sharp edges became undoubtedly hot. The ghoul, infuriatedly jumped away and started crawling. Each movement became slower and slower. His last movements were cuddling up into a ball. After that, he moved, no more and his scream died away. Arkain looked at blade, which emitted a dim light that faded away fast. To his luck, the blade had a holder from where he pulled it out from. It was a detailed skin sheath with iron plates on the bottom and top, from where he pulled it from. The boy, stretched his hand to try and grab it but it was for a cost. His shoulder blades were still bleeding, throbbing from the claws. The blade quickly skidded into the sheath and now, he was holding the sword by the thick layer of skin.“Arkain! Where are you!?”came Agaroth’s voice from where Arkain came from. The voice of footsteps now, echoed through the tunnels all around them and it was hard to determine where they are. Close or far, footsteps could be heard. The boy slowly stood up, trying to leave out as much pain as possible out of the movement. When he stood up, a piercing pain restricted him from staying upright, and the only way to escape from that, was bending over. Soon, two small torches could be seen growing and growing in the distance. Their light showed that the traveller and the dwarf were close and a few seconds later, they were in the same place as the boy.“Are you alright?”asked the dwarf but quickly diminished the conversation, because he saw the creature in the corner, enlightened by the boy’s torch.“What is that?!” horrified but curious, he walked up to it and poked it, to see if it was still alive.“Did you kill this?!”he asked. The traveller saw all of this, but also saw that the boy was hurt and that he was carrying a sword.“Our first priority is to get Arkain out of here. Then we’ll talk”And so it was. No questions were asked other than, the usual“How bad is it?”and“Tell me, if it gets worse”. The way out seemed a lot faster and calmer than the way in and before they knew it, they were out.–Once, out on the sleepy sunlight, the blood could be seen. He was covered in it. Not just the creature’s but his own too. Quickly, they have managed to find a rock, onto which Arkain sat down, giving time and space for Agaroth to help.“Did you kill that?” asked Agaroth with Burdõl closely listening behind him.