Draconis could never remember anything before his eighth birthday, he remembered everything After that, but nothing before, for his eighth birthday was the day everything in his life changed. He remembered that a strange man, dressed in Red and Black, had knocked on the front door and had had a heated arguement with his mother and father. all of a sudden he saw a bright flash and he heard the screams of his mother and father dying, it was then that he realised that if he didn't fight back, he would be next. slowly, Draconis, without turning his back on the strange, evil sorceror, walked backwards, the stranger walked purposefully towards the scared young boy, with a triumphant grin on his face, he noticed that the boy was struggling to lift his father's sword, and he laughed at the thought of the child's imminent doom. all at once, Draconis felt a strange power flowing through him, he noticed that the sword was now, feather light and the steel was white-hot, he had the sudden urge to plunge this mighty new weapon into the heart of the sorceror, and so that is what he did, after that, all was dark...
As Draconis groggily opened his eyes he say a man and a boy of around the same age as himself standing over him in his, now wreckage, of a house, he heard them talking but could not understand them.
"Those herbs won't last long, Stahven..., we have to get him to the clan wizard, and fast, powerful, evil, magic has been cast here, very recently." exclaimed Dengor.
"Aww!, but...." Stahven started to complain.
"No buts!, just do as i say please." said Dengor before Stahven could finish his sentence. Dengor then noticed that the boy had his eyes open, he squatted on the floor and asked Draconis if he was ok, noticing that there was a large Bastard sword with dark stains on it and steaming from being recently superheated in the boys light grasp.
"I am sorry, youngling but you are going to have to come with me, the herbs i gave you will not last long, you need to get help from a wizard judging by those wounds." Dengor sullenly explained. He heard Draconis utter a small whisper of, "my dad's sword!" as he picked him up.
"Stahven can you carry the sword back?, i think the scabbard's over there" he asked while pointing to a black-leather scabbard with the unmistakable markings of a Mhainite written along it.
As they neared the clan, Dengor found that Draconis was already capable of walking, with some support.
"This boy is quite strange" Dengor thought to himself. As they reached the entrance to the clan, Draconis was already walking un-accompanied towards the gate when a large, well-built man, barred his way,
"It's ok, Mayno, he's with me" Dengor said exasperately, wondering why he had barred the young child's access in the first place. The watchman grumbled angrily to himself under his breath, and let them pass, he had been looking forward to finding someone doing something wrong, but had so far found no-one who had.
The next few years were the best for Draconis, he spent his childhood, learning to fight witha sword properly (he never used his fathers' sword unless of in emergencies, incase it wore out), He had grown into a tall teenager, aged 16, with broad shoulders and semi-toned muscular arms, he always wore a look that showed that he had seen and done things that a young child shouldn't have. He found that he had a little talent with magic and also that he could have an un-stoppable rage, if he was angry enough, which he rarely was. But the thing he liked most was talking to his friend, Stahven who, in the past eight years he had struck up a strong friendship with, Draconis particuarly liked annoying the old and short-fused watchman. But eventually he knew that his peace could never last long, for him and Stahven had been recently added to the army, which was about to go to war, Draconis felt excitement, at his first, real battle, he kept walking up to more, seasoned warriors and asking them for tips, but they told him to stop annoying them, which he didn't, but in their minds they knew that they had once been the same, so they ignored him, which seemed to work.
after the battle, Draconis looked around at all of the death and pain around him and looked down at his most recent kill, a boy of about thirteen, he let out a loud wail and wept for the dead, eventually, the magic re-surfaced for the first time in eight years and the wail of a mortal became the screech or un-controlled magic, every living person on the battlefield put their hands to their ears and hoped that the strange, glowing thing i the middle of the battlefield would soon stop screeching. Their wish came true, the glowing thing, which they found out was actually Draconis, had stoped screeching after five minutes and had collapsed on the floor, they left him to rest and set about to burning their dead. As he woke, Draconis could still feel the power of the magic swirling within him, making him feel invincible, he looked about, found Stahven, walked over to him and plainly said,
"Let's go home, Stahven, i'm hungry."
Once they were safely back, Draconis went to his tent, and wept, but eventually his weeping subsided and remembered that the ones he loved were still alive and safe in the clan, he had half-forgotten his mother and father, the next morning, he crept over to Stahven's hut, found it was empty apart from a note to him, saying where he had gone, he sighed and took off at a brisk pace to talk to the chief.
"My Daughter's GONE!!!?" exclaimed the chief, after he had explained where Stahven had gone and why, he also explained the he had found the watchman knocked-out from a pommel hitting him in the back of the head, Stahven's pommel.
Over the next few weeks Draconis struggled to learn the basics of how to control his magic, for if he didn't it would eventually kill him, he also had to put up with the Chief making snide, rude comments about Stahven in public every day but it was not until four weeks after Stahven had left that the chief finally declared Stahven the one who had kidnapped his daughter and, therefore a traitor, Draconis lost his nerve he sprinted straight towards the chief, beat down his bodyguard in his rage and drew his sword out of it's scabbard and put it to the chief's neck,
"you will be punished for this..." he said with a suprisingly calm voice and demeanour.
"what'ya gonna do?, hmm!?" exclaimed Draconis to the astonishment of the rest of the assembled clan.
"Guard's this man is from now on, banished from this clan and any clans that have a direct fealty to us, take him away" exclaimed the chief with a look of greed for power on his face, and so, Draconis was stripped of his second name which had previously been Steeling, so that he became, Draconis Nevyn, which meant, No-One, and he was banished from the clan with all of his possesions, he took off in search of Stahven, and Stahven's lover.
After he had trailed Stahven for the first few weeks, using the techiniques that Stahven himself had taught him, he hid from sightm always watching, but sensing that Stahven was still quite far ahead, then one night, he had just managed to use his night-vision spell when he heard a great "SMASH!" from a place not far from where Draconis was situated, he quickly but quietly sprinted towards the location of the noise, once he arived at a large, but old-looking fort, that carried ancient enchantments inside it's walls, he hid from view,in a large bush, but noticed that he hadn't have needed to, for he saw that Stahven was locked in combat with a Giant, and making a loud thing of it too. He noticed that it must be only around 20 years of age for it was only about 7 foot tall, but would soon encounter a growth spurt and shoot up to an average of 20 foot tall, he realised that Stahven kept ducking and weaving out of the giant's grasp and slowly but surely bearing it down. Draconis adjusted his position and then Stahven heard him and started to move towards him. Stahven thrust his sword into the bush and it took all of Draconis' speed to deflect it with his gauntlet, then he felt a hand grasp his throat and then he felt cold steel on his throat
"Hey!!!, What by thunder are you doing?, it's me, Draconis" exclaimed Draconis,
"sorry, mate, thought you were something else" Apoligised Stahven,
"tool" replied Draconis but he drew his father's sword and charged at the giant, after a second, Stahven followed suit. the next few minutes were filled with Draconis and Stahven slowly taking down the giant, which was now testing it's sword, the giant got a lucky swipe at Draconis and knocked him off of his feet and then knocked Stahven backwards into a pillar, knocking him out. Draconis rolled to the side and into the darkness, for he could see the giant but the giant could not see him, he struck at the giant's back and sliced down it's spine, immobilising it but not killing it, he walked to it's head and cut it off so that it did not suffer too much. Draconis packed away stahven's sword and re-sheathed his own, while stealthily hiding the giant's sword so that he could use it in battle instead of his fathers', then he picked stahven up and moved him to an almost empty moor, where he could re-couperate. the next night, Stahven woke up, picked up his sword and hit Draconis on the back of the head with the pommel of it
"OW!!" shouted Draconis,
"oh, thank the Dragon lord, it's you" breathed Stahven,
"who did you think it was" exclaimed Draconis while cursing under his breath, and holding his head,
"i dunno some sort of fiend" replied Stahven,
"look nothing that exists can make a face as good looking as mine, same with my voice" replied Draconis and they both fell about laughing, but eventually, Draconis stopped, one reason being that his head was in agony and the other was that he could hear footsteps, coming across the moor, trying to be stealthy but not doing particularly well.
"Stahven, listen" hissed Draconis and Stahven abruptly stopped laughing and got as low to the ground as he could. An extremelly well built but average heighted man with a large beard and a battle axe across his back was walking towards them, obviously drawn by the smell of the fire,
"who's here?......, come out, come out wherever you are....., you are tresspassing on the eagle claw's land......., please show yourself, so i can rip you to pieces, i promise if you come out now, i'll make your death quick and painless!" shouted the man, Draconis and Stahven exchanged glances and saw fear in each other's eyes for the eagle claw clan members were notorious for their un provoked anger and killing for absoulutelly no reason, Stahven started to draw his sword.
"don't" whispered Draconis, recieving an astonished glance from Stahven, Draconis blew into his hands, and there seemed to be a light coming from within them and then Stahven noticed that there was flames in Draconis' hands, he gasped, drawing the attention of the Eagle Claw, who could now see them clearly, because of the flames, Draconis whispered to the flames "go, now!" and th next thing he saw was the man screaming in pain as flames consumed him, Stahven looked down to congradulate Draconis but he had fainted from the energy the spell had taken. One night after Draconis had woken up, he successfully executed his Sight spell, he heard a great rumbling noise as a massive, majestic, but deadly if provoked Dragon, embroidered with gold on it's scales, flew above them, to some far away place in the far distance. Once Stahven had taken over the watch, which for him, was more of a listen, Draconis fell asleep and drampt that he was back in the camp in ownership of a young, golden dragon and there was a woman of around the same age, who he couldn't see clearly, but she had long black hair and was very pretty. it was the best dream he had had in years but it quickly changed into the other type of dream that he had, it was always the same dream, but he had never explained it to anyone, for fear of being thought crazy, although he knew that he was seeing either the past or the future, he could not tell which, for there was no indication of either, he saw a large, well-built man embroidered with black surrounded by many soldiers, while in the background there was a large battle being fought, the man in black raised his sword, and Draconis woke in the early morning to find Stahven sleeping against the sides of the tent, Draconis left him to his slumber, picked up his father's sword and walked out onto the moors for an early morning stroll.
Draconis walked along the forest in the light of the morning, feeling free and untroubled, as he strolled though he became aware of a presence following him, he rubbed his hands together and spoke to the static, then he super charged it to create lightning, spun and saw his mother smiling at him, but there seemed something unnatural about her. she had eyes blacker than the night and there seemed to be unnaturally sharp teeth and something sinister in her smile.
"mum?" he asked
"NOPE!!!!!" exclaimed the being which then transformed into another girl, one who looked remarkably like his mother, yet was different also, he presumed that she was another member of his family, but she looked only a year older than himself, 'strange' the thought.
" begone!, creature, leave me in peace" exclaimed Draconis
" i shall give you eternal peace then.." whispered the being and transformed into a being that was shiny black, had wings, horns, spikes and many other natural, deadly weapons.
the demon swung it's clawed hand at Draconis who barely dodged it, he drew back his arm and released the bolt of lightning he had charged up, as the demon flew backwards and flew away, Draconis collapsed to the ground, out of breath.
after a while he became aware of many footfalls not far from his position, he caught his breath and traversed to where he heard the noise comming from. he saw the source not far away , a line of slaves and their slavers, he had always had sharp eyesight but it was only now that he noticed that his eyesight was stronger than a normal persons, as were his footfalls, despite his build and weight, his feet had left almost no tracks in the dirt, he pondered this for a while but stopped when he caught sight of another group following the line of slaves, they seemed, interesting, so he waited as the line of slaves and the group came nearer. Draconis noticed a familiar person among the captured, kerys, although he'd never spoken to her or met her he knew what she looked like from Stahven's endless descriptions, stories and just worship, Draconis often thought Stahven could create a religion about her, just as he smiled at that thought he heard Stahven approaching. Stahven crawled over to Draconis and said "what the hell are you doing all the way out here!?". Draconis explained how he went out on a morning stroll when he saw a large band of Warriors escorting a prison column among the prisoners was kerys. Stahven saw her and was about to leap out and charge straight in to the column but Draconis cought him and pulled him down into cover again. "No!, we can't attack that colum now, lets just follow and find out where they are going". Stahven, now red in the face at being so close to his goal but watching it escape away from him, agreed to what Draconis was saying. "very well, but the kidnapper is mine" Stahven whispered. After the column had gone over a ridge Stahven and Draconis started to track their unsuspecting foe, sticking to the bushes and scrub as they went. After a few hours of tracking they ran into a band of warriors. "who are you!?" said one of the warriors who aimed his bow in Stahven and Draconis' directions. "I am Stahven and this is my friend Draconis" Stahven answered the challange, Draconis nodded his head as his name was spoken, and saw that the warriors were more suspisious of him than Stahven. "i have heard about you two, you two are outcasts from the border clan". The warrior said looking Stahven in the eye. "how did you know that?" Stahven asked. "what?...you don't recognise me?" the warrior said. "evidently he does not, stranger, name yourself to help jog his memory" said Draconis, applying himself to the conversation, "this does not concern you, Draconis" replied the stranger, who also pointed at two of his warriors "here, your two keep him busy away from here, the warriors smiled, drew their weapons and charged, Draconis backed away from the warriors, into a large clearing, smiled and drew his sword, "bring it" he simply said. the pair worked in perfect unison, although their style was undeveloped and wild, with no feignts or other skilles involved, just slashing, Draconis dragged it out, nipping at their legs, arms and most other parts of their bodies, he found that they fought purely on adrenaline, instead of fusing it with skill, he shook his head and simply told them to sleep in the magic language. once they were asleep Draconis set about healing their wounds. once they were healed he walked back to the stranger, "meh" Draconis breathed, in an 'that was pish' mocking voice, as he sat on a log at the edge of the circle, he heard a female voice in his head,
"Brother..., come", Draconis stood, alertfir no one he knew was able to break through the barriers that shielded his mind, he answered, "who are you?" and got only one reply "your sister, come to my voice, brother, we have much to talk about" "yes" he replied and walked to Stahven to say farewell for now, "farwell my friend i must go and search for something, what will you do?", "i will stay with these men and attack the slave column, to rescue my love", replied Stahven "i expected no more of you, my friend" and departed to find his sister.
As Draconis reached the place where he could sense his sister was nearby but could not find the place where she lived, he had spent a week travelling and then a day looking for the house. suddenly he sensed an incoming attack and he dove forward as fast as he could,rolled and then, drew his weapon and turned. "haha, you don't have to fear me, Draconis..., come we shall go to your sister" exclaimed a rather tall man in his twenties, with shoulder length blonde hair, carrying a katana. "who are you?" Draconis asked suspiciously, "I'm your brother-in-law, Drayna's husband, my name is Jack Pyrus, now come" Jack replied "husband...?" Draconis muttered, confused, he followed without asking anymore questions. as Draconis neared his sister's house he noticed that it was perfectly camouflaged so that it wouldn't be seen (it also had enchantments so that if anyone happened to see it, they would see it as a figment of their imagination.) Draconis walked through the doorway of his sister's house and then felt an immence pain and he fainted. "what the-?" exclaimed Jack, "leave him, he is having a vision." whispered a calm, soft, yet powerful voice. "hmm.." sighed Jack. As he slept, Draconis saw a large encampment, with slaves and large, bulky warriors fighting, many were dead, he saw Stahven protecting a girl, Kerys and another girl was running towards him crying, he noticed that she was running, not of her own free will but an magician was making her run to Stahven and then that magician was engulfed by enemies and the crying girl screamed in dispair, then there was a massive blast of light and Draconis saw one last thing, the words: 12 days. Draconis sat up in a high-ceilinged room, and looked around, it was quite empty but held an aura of power and from the window he could see the valley he travelled through, 2 days previously. "ahh, you are awake little brother" said the woman's voice she was about 22 with long, golden hair and peircing blue eyes, she looked thin and weak but she emmited a pure aura of destructiveness. "D..Dra..Drayna..is that really you?" Draconis stuttered, "yes, brother, now we have little time, Jack shall train you and i shall give you lessons in magic, understand?" she spoke fast and urgently, "no." Draconis simply said. Drayna gave a pretty laugh and said, "well then get outside". When Draconis exited the building he saw lots of different excersises, "what the-" he exclaimed "oh good you're awake, now let's get started lift that boulder." he also spoke quickly. "ok." said Draconis as he felt through the air with his mind to lift the boulder. "NO NO NO!, with your arms!, magic uses your energy if you can lift this boulder normally without dying then you can lift it with magic without dying, the better being with your arms you know when it's too heavy." Exclaimed Jack. "oh.." said Draconis and proceded to lift the boulder, he succeeded, but only just, "good, now run this 10 mile circuit non-stop" said Jack, "WHAT!?!" exclaimed Draconis, "do it." said Jack, and Draconis did so, as the day wore on, Draconis had no energy but continued anyway, and then, after a meal his sister taught his different ways of casting that lowers the ammount of energy needed to cast a spell, and other skills, this was the same for 8 days and then, on the ninth day, Jack and Drayna bid Draconis farewell and Drayna also gave him a map to the location he had seen in his vision, "why do i need to go here?" asked Draconis " i cannot tell you, though please do not use pure magic, it will not turn out well, little brother, now farewell" Drayna said, "yeah, cya little bro" said Jack in a half-joking way. Draconis waved goodbye and set out, his journey was easier he had grown twelve times stronger than he had been previously and was still growing stronger, he made it to his destination with a day to spare, so he practiced his swordsmanship on the trees there, by the end of the day, he had severed most of the trees, he looked artound and then closed his eyes and returned all of the trees to their former glory, he then almost fainted, "almost over stretched it there.." he said to himself, just then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw an advancing horde, "no.." he knew he was about to live his vision.
he hid himself, and got a little sleep, then, 3 hours later he heard the horde halting and setting up camp, he rolled out of sight and peeked out, as he had thought, he say Kerys being pushed around and then he say the crying girl he had seen in his dream, and he wondered who she was, in half an hour the camp was set up and the prisoners were put into tents, and the light stared to fail, Draconis streched out with his consiousness and felt the presence of Stahven, "hmm." he thought to himself, and then he set off to find Stahven. Draconis easily crept up on Stahven and whispered into his ear "hello old friend" Draconis laughed quietly as Stahven silently jumped three feet into the air. "what are you doing, you fool!?" he demanded, Draconis then put on a steely face and replied "i'm here to save your ass, Stahven, do not attack at night, do it in the morning." "but-" "no argument, don't attack tonight, go and see Kerys if you must but we attack tomorrow." Stahven cursed quietly and then he agreed, and set off to see Kerys and tell her of the plan. Draconis slept and was awoked by steel touching his neck, Draconis bent the blade backwards with no effort, stood up and then repaired the warrior's blade, "you could have just said: wake up" Dracoins whispered. the other man grunted in response and nodded, Draconis asked him, "so what's your name?" "Allon Blödgahrm" he replied and then raised his finger to his mouth, to signal for silence and then raised his sword and drew another weapon, a hand axe. Draconis reached out with his mind and felt around him, the band of warriors was situated around the camp, and seemed to be waiting for someone to give an order Draconis felt a strong magical presence from in the camp and from beside him, Allon, Draconis decided not to mention it. Suddenly, one of the warriors erupted from one of the tends holding up one of the capturer's heads and roaring, all at once both sides attacked, from the start, Draconis knew that if he didn't use magic then they would surely lose, so he simply closed his eyes and imagined several enemies' heart's stopping and then he opened his eyes and saw those enemies fall, and he felt the small drain on energy, then he proceeded to release the captives with his mind, very gradually growing tired. then, Draconis felt a blast of energy being fired at him, so he instinctivelly erected a basic barrier, and the blast was deflectedand killed several people, friends or foes, he could no longer tell, "Stahven!" he shouted, i must leave the fray, keep going, my friend" and he rushed out, cutting down foes as he went, he followed his senses and found a tall man with a long black beard and also long black hair pulling a girl with him, he was wearing long robes and a knife at his belt, he saw Draconis and pulled his knife out and put it to the girl's neck, he noticed it was the same girl he had seen crying, and she was crying in fear then, looking at him in desperation. Draconis took a stance, drew his sword and waited, "you fool, i could kill you easily with this knife" the man said, scornfully "try it" Draconis replied and the man charged with astonishing speed but Draconis simply flicked his blade at the man's wrist and broke his wrist, and straight after, stabbed through the magician's head. "bah, amature." Draconis said and was surprised to see a flurry of hair flying towards him and gripping him tightly around the midriff "thank you, thank you, thank you, sir" she exclaimed "ok, ok, all is fine", he said and comforted her, and he noticed that he had very strong feelings for this girl, "now, stay here, i need to go back and fight." he added "no, please, don't leave me" she begged, "what is your name, maiden?" Draconis asked, "Charlotte.." she replied, "well then, Charlotte, follow me, but stay safe, take this," he gave her his father's weapon. they rushed back to the battle which, Draconis saw, his side were losing, straight away, he set to work he killed 30 men consecutivelly and then started slicing enemies up, he saw that Charlotte could swing a blade as she killed an enemy, he swung her around and deflected an arrow then proceeded to the ruins of a buildingand found he was surrounded by hundreds of soldiers, he saw Stahven and Kerys fighting together a little away and he knew what had happened, "Charlotte, run now", "no i won't leave you, you'll die" "i won't, now go" "you're lying" "Charlotte, please go" Draconis reasoned, a tear in his eye, he saw that Charlotte was crying aswell, and knew he had to force her to leave, he cast a spell on her and made her run to Stahven, "i'm sorry" he said, and prepared to fight, he took down one hundered warriors and then he was overwhelmed, he pulled the building down on top of himself, he heard Charlotte scream and it awakened his magic and he unleashed a pure blast of massive energy. "...pure magic" said Stahven "what?, is he..?" asked the quavering voice of Charlotte, "knowing him.., i have no idea" replied Stahven, "i shall go check, kerys you stay with Charlotte" he added and walked to the dust pile, all around him he saw wounded and dead, but he couldn't see Draconis, then he saw movement and recognised Draconis' pauldron, "DRACONIS!" he shouted and he saw Draconis attempt to stand and fall flat on his face, Stahven rushed to help him, and grabbed his arm, but pulkled it away as he selt a spike underneath the cloth of his arm, "Draconis... what the-" he added as he pulled up the cloth and saw a strange, chiton-looking arm, with spikes and three fingers and a thumb each ending in claws. "i don't know, QUICK!, hide it" he added as Charlotte travelled closer, "she wouldn't sit still" Kerys said. "Draconis!, are you ok?" she asked, hurriedly "yeah just hurt my arm a little bit is all" he replied "let me see it then" she asked, "no, no, it'll be fine" he added quickly she looked at him suspiciously but submitted, "ok" she said and hugged him, he returned the hug with his right arm and looked around to see the survivors, 13 men, including Allon and Alyx (a mercenary who was fighting only for money, but was very skilled), they walked away and Draconis healed those of his friends that were alive, and killed the enemies, mercifully. they all then walked away and set up camp a decent distance away and slept a deep sleep. to be continued.