Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Fantasy

Chapter 1

         I open my eyes, but I stay there, lying on the cold, hard, floor, working up the courage to stand up and scan my surroundings. It takes a few moments, but when I do, I notice that I am in a large room, roughly the size of a High school  gymnasium, the room is completely empty, except for a large cauldron full of, what smells like, soup, and an old man hunched over it.
   I looked down at myself, I was wearing a blue shirt with leather straps crossing over each other to make an X, I was also wearing Khaki pants without shoes, I look back up and walk over to the man, but as soon as I get to the cauldron, the man turns his head up at me with such speed that it startles me and makes me take a few steps back “Ah! You’re awake!” He hands me a bowl of soup, but afraid of what he could have done to it, I turn down the offer, “All right then, do you remember what happened? Or who you are?” I shake my head. “I’m not surprised, taking a Forgetting Spell at your head like that, I would be surprised if you even knew how to speak!” What had happened? I think to myself. Did we have an All-Out war with Harry Potter or something? “Please, try to say something to me" the Old Man said, apparently not expecting me to say anything at all, because he looked taken aback when I say “I still know how to speak, but I cant remember anything, not even my name" I said “Ah, I see… Well, your name is Sean Smithwald, and you’ve been asleep for nearly 30 years.” I was shocked, I didn’t know what to say, but I forced a question out if my mouth that has been lingering there since he said I was hit with a Forgetting Spell “What Happened?”.
   When he finished his tale, I was in complete shock, I wasn’t a warrior, was I? With the Class of Heavy-Wielder? But I couldn’t confirm that this was true, because I couldn’t remember anything, so I could only really take his word for it. “Follow me.” I followed him out into the hallway, with a arched roof and a pillar every 10 feet or so, he lead me into a dark room and pulled a torch off of the wall, then held it high to illuminate our way forward, then he held up a hand and I stopped, almost running into him and looked over his shoulder, I saw a Great Sword encased in a large glass box, he opened the box, turned around, and held it out to me.
   I couldn’t believe it, it was true, I was holding the sword in both hands with surprising ease, I swung the sword with ease, too, I then turned around and hugged him, the smell of urine and beer were strong, but I didn’t care. That was when it all started.
   He started laughing, laughing uncontrollably and maniacally, I let go of him to see him start tearing his own flesh open. Then it was silent. And there was no longer an Old Man, just the empty shell, and a rotting person in front of him, I take my sword and swing at his legs. I miss. “HAHAHAHAHA!” The creature laughs, throwing me off guard, and hits me, the hit launches me back, making me hit the wall, I can feel the life drain out of me upon impact, but I stand back up, ready to start fighting again, the troll raises his left hand to backhand me, but that’s when I heard it, a voice, and it sounded exactly like the old man, I turned to look at him and there he was, sitting up, blood dripping from his mouth, I rush over to him, but he pushes me off, then with one bright flash, and the sound of thunder, the creature was gone, then, he raised his palm up to me, and says “One for Another" I feel a sudden surge of power, just as the mans body goes limp, he whispers his last words to me “go…. To…. My…. Son…..” “Where?!” l said. “Ghost….. Town….”
Then he hitches up his last breath, releases it, and dies.
    I pick up his body and fling him over my shoulder, and walk to the exit. I walk out to mind my self in a dessert full of, what looks like, nails, I stepped out onto the land and felt a sharp pain in my right foot, but I keep on walking, How did anybody get through all of these nails to build a dang Temple? I think, I run through a couple of answers in my head, but can’t come up with any and keep walking on. Then, out on the horizon , I see a cloud of dust combine and make something, which looked like a person, so I run forward, Maybe it’s a traveling merchant? But it wasn’t. It was another one of those Creatures, but bigger and bulkier, no doubt it would be harder to kill him, but I took my chances anyways, I unsheathed my sword, and ran forward, but it was ready, with one quick swipe, it launched me backwards maybe 30 feet, I got back up, smirking to myself at how ridiculous I must look with nails sticking out of my back, I ran forward, almost tripping over my own feet and face-planting into nails, and swiped at his legs. I didn’t miss. His left leg decapitated and he stumbled, then fell, I pointed the sword toward his head, and plunged it into its skull, leaving a nice, red slot in the back of its head, I ran to the old man’s body, picked him up, and continued walking forward.
   It was a few miles before he found a road, and a few more miles whenever he found a sign, the sign said that Ghost town was north, as I was about to walk in that direction, I heard maniacal laughing and dropped the body, I looked down at the mans corpse, and I see it ripping at it’s own, already torn, skin. Crap. I unsheathe my sword just as it emerges from the body, it looked relatively smaller and weaker than the last guy, This shouldn’t be too hard. I think to myself but just then the creature jumps onto me and starts clawing at my skin. I put up my hands to defend myself, but I start feeling blood run down the sides of my hands and down my arms, staining my blue shirt to crimson. He’s quicker than the other ones I think to myself, I turn my head and spot the sword, just out of arms reach, so I scoot over, just a little so I can reach the handle, I lower my defense, grab at the sword, and plunge it into the side of the creatures head, he falls sideways and I push him off of me.
   I look at my hands, he got me pretty good, I could see down to the bone through claw marks, but I had to keep going, I look down at the old mans body, there was nothing left of him but a few chunks of flesh, but I pick them up, pick up the bag he was carrying, and stuff them inside, the bag was completely empty, so it wasn’t that hard to put them inside. It was a smooth ride from then on, besides the nails, of course.
                              Chapter 2

   I was relieved when I saw the nails slowly rise and switch to grass, that meant I was close. When I arrived at Ghost Town, it didn’t seem like anyone was there at all, but I heard cheering and the clinking of glass cups coming from the other side, so I walked to the other side of town, tired and hungry, but bound to the mission the Old Man has left me, when I reached the opposite side, I found a few partly-transparent girls gossiping while walking down the street, I figured that I should ask them before anybody else. I pulled one of the girls aside and started asking questions, “Hello, has a human ever passed through here or is staying here at the moment?” I asked. “um, a nice man and his son were staying at the hotel, I believe” She said. “Okay, when they departed from this town, did they go separate was, or did they go together?” I asked, “Hm, now that I think about it, I think the son stayed at the hotel and the father left with his friend, rambling on about ‘ending it all’ or something” She said, “Actually, you look mighty like his friend…” She said, trying hard not to hide my confusion, I said “It could have been, I do not know. Thank you very much" And I walk off without another word and head towards the hotel. When I reached the door, I pushed it open, the lobby was dazzling, the room was filled with gold, gold plant pots, gold chandeliers, but I didn’t have time to stop and stare, I walked up to the receptionist desk and asked “Hello, do you have a human residing here?” “Why, yes actually, we do. Room 3 on the 2nd level.” She said, “Thank you" I walk toward the stairs and walk up them to the 2nd floor, when I reach the 3rd door, I knock three times, when the door opens, I see a short, skinny man in bath robes.
   “You're back, huh?” He said, “I guess so" I said, “What do you want?” He asked “I’m here about you father, he- he's dead…” I said, trying to hide my tears “I don’t believe you" So I take a chunk of meat out of his bag, and present it to him, he cowers back in fear and asks “What did you do to him?!” “I didn’t do anything, he died saving me from this… this creature.” And then I told him the story, he looked taken aback whenever I told him the he died right after putting his soul into my body.
   “So… it’s true, then" he said, “Yes, yes it is" I said, he pulled out a little Tupperware box from under his bed, “My name is Andrew, by the way" he said, and pulled out two little devices, he tossed one to me, which I almost dropped because I wasn’t expecting it, the device had a flat side and a side with sharp metal teeth, I watched as Andrew put the side with metal teeth into the left side of his throat, I mimicked this action, and felt a sharp pain in my throat when the metal teeth sank into my skin and latched onto my skin, I felt the device inject something into my neck and a Heads-Up Display popped up in front of me, though it was clear no one else could see it, because Andrew didn’t say anything about my health being 1 percent. “Where is the hospital?” I asked, “Down the road and to the left" he said, “Thank you.” And I walked out of the room.
   I walked down the road, and took the left onto the walkway to the entrance of the Hospital, I opened the door, and stepped inside, I walked over to the Receptionist’s desk, I opened my mouth to say something, but, with one quick glance at me, she beat me to it “Hello? We need somebody down here, quick! This man is bleeding out!” and out came a squadron of doctors who carry my to the Emergency Room, where they put a mask over my mouth, turned on a canister next to the bed, and I fell into a deep sleep.
   The next morning, I awoke feeling groggy, I felt some of my wounds, but, to my surprise, there were no wounds, how a bunch of ghost doctors managed to work on me, I do not know, but if my HUD said I’m at full health, I won’t question it, I jumped out if my bed and walked out into the hallway. I looked to my left and to my right, there was nobody there, so I continued forward, out to the receptionist's desk, but nobody was there, either, Where is everyone? I pushed open the door to the street, and it seemed like everyone was in the pub across the street, so, taking my chance at not having to pay anything, I ran back to the hotel, where Andrew was still there, sitting on his bed, waiting. He jumped up “Are you ready?” He said, “Ready for what?” I said, “Ready to go see my Dad’s friend and his son, of course!” He said, “You say it like I’m supposed to know what you’re talking about" I said, “Why do we need to go get them, anyways?” I asked, “To get a piece of the Artifact that will end all of the Infected" He said, “Oh, well, in that case let’s get going!”
   “How far are they?” I asked, “About 20,000 miles south, at Giant Valley" He said, “Oh.” And that ended our conversation, I had nothing else to say, so we started south, and didn’t stop walking until 10,000 miles in, when we saw something in the horizon that looked like Stables.

















Chapter 3

    When we arrived, they were indeed stables, but you had to pay 200 G just to buy a horse, and I didn’t have any money on me, so I started south again, until I heard Andrew tell “STOP!” I turned around to look at him, just to see him rummaging in his own bag, and pulled out 2 handfuls of golden coins, “My dad gave me some parting money before he left, he gave me about 600 gold" I was shocked, why hadn’t he told me this before? But there was no time to dawdle on this, so he bought us some horses and we were back on our way.
   We weren’t even 50 miles away when we saw another Infected form over the horizon, I unsheathed my sword and made my horse start galloping in its direction, but the I heard Andrew yell over the wind “This one is a Meek! Let me deal with it! They’re weak to Ice!”, “Fine!” I shout back, I look over at Andrew to see him with his right hand raised, mumbling something that I cannot hear, then he lowers his hand and a storm of icicles rains from the sky down onto the Meek, then a HP bar pops up on top of it, and its health drains straight to zero, I scream over the wind whistling in my ears “Good job!” he heard me and put up a thumbs-up in thanks, and once we slowed our horses to a trot, I asked “What class are you?”, “I’m a mage, not a very good one, but a mage nonetheless” and, with that, we continue onward to Giant Valley.