Decided to take a stab at writing so here is a story that began as a RP that was killed early do to the forums death… Anyway on to chapters one and two…
Chapter I
It was early morning and in a dim alleyway of the abandoned city was a girl that looked to be about the age of nineteen. She had a lightly tanned complection with long honey colored hair and was shapely at about five and a half feet tall. She wore a white tunic, tan rawhide leggings and a pair of tan leather boots. She had a cutlass at her side with a silver pommel and hand guard, although just by looking at her you could tell she was untrained in the use of the weapon. Mika stopped and turned to look at where she had just come from. She couldn’t see anything, but she felt it. She felt that something was there. She screamed as a great rush of shadowy wind swept over her and she fell backwards, stunned.
A tall man, at least six foot, is stood in an alleyway. He is muscular, but not bulkily so, and he has brown hair that goes down to the base of his neck where it is tied off with a leather thong before it continued on for about six inches more. He wore a leather shirt, some jeans and black leather boots, all of his clothes have lost there original black color and have faded to a dark grey throughout his travels. He also had a light chest piece made of silver, on his right arm he wore some more silver armor, on the shoulder piece was the insignia of the silver lion, a demon named Kyphrin, and on his right hand is a gauntlet made of silver. His left arm, his sword arm, didn’t have any armor so that he was able to maneuver his blade much more quickly and smoothly. On top of his armor he wore a black velvet cape with a silver trim and the insignia of the silver lion on it as well. At his side he wore a long sword, it has a normal cross pommel and hand guard made of platinum. Out of the hilt came a lions head, also made of platinum except for the lions eyes which were pieces of jet, with it’s mouth open as if giving a mighty roar. Out of the lion’s mouth came a steel blade which had a stream of archaic and mystic words going down the length of it.
Dhamon looked around as he heard something not too far off. A scream… He shook his head and began climbing up the wall of a building to get a better look at what was going on in this abandoned city. He reached the top and began to look around until he spotted a shadowy figure beginning to descend on a seemingly unprotected girl. “I still can’t turn my back on someone that needs help. I’m still too weak. The knight’s counsel was right, it seems…” he muttered to himself and headed in the direction of the girl, unsheathing his sword as he went.
The violent presence started to take shape, a huge shadowy, wolf-like creature. Dhamon leapt off of the building to the ground, in-between the girl and the creature, and said, as he rose from his crouch, “Leave the girl alone, fight me.”
The creature looked at Dhamon and, baring it’s teeth, growled. Mika remained on the ground motionless, just breathing quietly in and out, unable to protect herself.
Dhamon looks right back at the creature and growled back. He fixed his eyes on the wolf’s, challenging it. The wolf crouched down, attempting to seem more menacing, and leapt at Dhamon. Dhamon simply rolled out of the way and slashed at it’s chest but the blade passed harmlessly through the shadow wolf. “Damn ” Dhamon cursed and began chanting in an archaic language very rapidly. His sword began to glow with a silver light as the wolf charged him again, Dhamon rolled out of the way again and slashed. This time the glowing blade pierced the shadow and the wolf howled in agony. Dhamon jumped up and brought his sword down on the momentarily stunned wolf, cleaving it’s neck. The wolf exploded and dissipated, leaving no trace. Dhamon sheathed his sword and headed over to the girl. He offered his hand, raising his eyebrow questionably, and asked, “Are you okay?”
“Y-yes, thank you. My name is Mika.” The girl replied, somewhat shocked that someone else was in the abandoned city. She took his hand and got up.
“Do not thank the weak.” Dhamon muttered and began walking towards the end of the ally.
“Weak? You seemed pretty powerful fighting that creature.” She said, eyeing him incredulously. She walked quickly to catch up with him and continued, “What are you doing here anyway? The city is abandoned.”
“Strength of body is not everything. Strength of body with out strength of mind is utterly useless, and it is abandoned so what are you doing here.” Dhamon stated.
“You don’t seem ‘utterly useless’ to me. With what you just did for me you seem rather useful.” Mika remarked and then said, “I am here because I was sent to get an important artifact for my master. What’s your name?”
Dhamon stopped for a moment and looked at her wondering why she would want to know his name and why she was bothering him in the first place. “My name is Dhamon Rien, ex-knight of the Red Dawn.” He spoke, almost bowing as he subconsciously remembered his days as a knight.
“Knights of the Red Dawn ” She said somewhat shocked, “Aren’t they from Meritto? The country obsessed with the balance of good and evil?”
“Yes.” Dhamon replied sighing, “They were too obsessed for my tastes so I left. Obsession for such an impossible task is a weakness and has no place in any knighthood.”
“Weak? They’ve destroyed entire cities in their quest of balance. None could stand up to them. They are anything but weak.” She said shocked that someone would call the Knights of the Red Dawn weak.
“Yes, physically they are the strongest in the world, but they have been lacking in strength of mind lately because of their obsessiveness driving them towards insanity. If their leader, General Varin, finally goes insane it will very bad for the world…” he then shook his head and asked, “What artifact are you looking for? The Staff of Larine?”
“…Yes, but how do you know about that? Only the people of my village know of its existence.” She replied rather worried that someone else knew of the staff.
“So your from the Rhijon Village. I have learned about it and many other powerful artifacts in a variety of ancient and rare tomes. If you are looking for the staff don’t bother. I found it here about a week ago. Now, if you would excuse me, I really must be going.” Dhamon said as he turned around and began walking away.
Mika stood there for a moment, dumbfounded that some one had gotten there first, and then ran up to him saying, “Hey, wait That staff belongs my village so I must insist that you give it to me so that I can return to my master.”
Dhamon chuckled a bit and then said, “I am sorry, but I must ask. What would you do if I said no?”
“…I wouldn’t really be able to do anything… but you wouldn’t want to be labeled as a thief would you?” She asked, looking at him hopefully.
“No I wouldn’t, but my objective is to important to worry about that.” He answered, continuing to walk.
“What objective?” She asked, rather curious.
“I cannot speak of that.” Was all Dhamon would say in response.
“Fine. I’ll follow you until you can then.” She said and began walking with him.
“It’s to dangerous for you to go. Now please just go back to your village.” He responded, starting to become annoyed.
“No, I am not going back until I get the staff.” She responded determined to follow him.
“Fine, but don’t complain if you can’t keep up.” He said shaking his head. She has to sleep some time.
Chapter 2
Dhamon was actually surprised, the girl was keeping up better than he expected. She hadn’t even complained once yet. Although she is from Rhijon so I shouldn’t be so surprised, but then again she wasn’t able to defend herself against such a weak creature. The people of Rhijon village are normally a very physically active and strong people. They also have a very deep culture and are normally quite wise. But this girl seems to helpless to be from that village. I wonder if she has figured out that we are heading to Rhijon right now and the man who hired me was probably her master. He chuckled a little bit when tried to picture what her reaction would be when she figured out who hired him. Does she have any idea what is going on at all?
“What are you laughing about?” She asked annoyed that her job had been interrupted earlier, and it didn’t help that her feet were killing her while he seemed to have no discomfort whatsoever.
Dhamon waved his hand disregarding her question. He turned his head slightly towards her and asked, “Are you really from Rhijon?”
The question caught her off-guard and she answered, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You seem weaker than what I would expect from one of Rhijon’s people.” He replied.
“What do you mean weak? I haven’t complained at all about how much we’ve walked.” She said, seeming upset.
“True you haven’t complained but I got some reasons to suspect your not from Rhijon. First, you were completely helpless with that creature and I’ve become pretty sure you don’t even know how to use that sword. Secondly, I can tell your tired of walking even though you haven’t complained.” He responded, moving off of the path to a clearing he saw.
She was surprised and silent for a moment as she followed him into the clearing. She watched the ex-knight take off his pack and armor and then start grabbing some dead wood for a fire. When he came back and started to make the fire she looked down at the ground and said, “I am not originally from Rhijon, and no I am not trained in the use of this sword, my master just didn’t want me to go unarmed. When I was about 10 I left home to get away from my parents who blamed me for basically everything that went wrong, and things seemed to go wrong very frequently. About a week after I left I came across an older man that was eating of the side of the road. He saw me walking by myself, waved me over and offered me food. I ended up telling him what had happened and he turned out to be the leader of the village. He took me in as his adopted daughter and I have lived with him ever since. He is actually the one I was running this errand for.” She raised her head and looked at him, seeing that he had the fire started and was preparing food.
I had expected as much. That explains why she wasn’t able to defend herself. He looked up after a moment and put the pot over the fire. He looked at her and said, “Would you be surprised to learn that I was hired by the leader of the village of Rhijon? I was hired to get the Staff of Larine and bring it back to him. Although he never mentioned that I might run into someone else…”
Mika sat there, dumbfounded for a moment and said, “He what? Why would he send me after it and then hire you to go get it? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t know but it turned out better for you it seems. If he hadn’t hired me you would be dead. I guess we’ll find out when we get to the village.” He said, stirring the stew he was making. He took the pot off the fire after about ten minutes and filled a bowl, handed it to Mika and then filled his bowl. “I’m going to charge him for not telling me everything and making me play bodyguard…” He muttered as he began to eat.
“Yeah, I guess we will find out once we get there…” she said. The rest of the night passed in silence and they both fell asleep.
Dhamon woke the next morning to find Mika already up and making food. Dammit… He looked around and asked, “What are you doing up?”
She looked over at him and smiled, explaining, “My master is an early riser and I always get up earlier than him to make him breakfast.”
He looked around, still waking up, and she handed him a bowl. He muttered his thanks and ate. After they ate they began getting their things together. As they were about to leave they heard a noise behind them. They turned and saw a ragged looking man with a sword in surprisingly good condition in his hand. He had a myriad of scars over his face and long, dirty unkempt hair. A thief if I’ve ever scene one… Dhamon thought as he looked at him.
“You,” He started pointing his sword at Dhamon, “Leave the girl and your goods or I’ll kill you and take them anyway.” He finished, swinging his sword threateningly.
Mika looked fearful for a second thinking that he might just leave her. Instead though Dhamon chuckled, shaking his head and withdrew his sword, saying, “First off I like my things. Secondly, do you think I will just let you do whatever you want to this girl?”
The thief snorted and whistled. Two more thieves came out of the woods at either side of them and two more joined the leader. The leader laughed and said, “First off I like your things more and secondly soon you wont have a choice in the matter.” He then charged forward, yelling at his comrades, “Don’t hurt the girl I want her in one piece.”
Dhamon looked at Mika and said, “Get behind me.”
She got behind Dhamon and he swung in a wide arc around him forcing the thieves momentarily back while Dhamon moved back so he had all 5 of them in front of him. They came at him again and Dhamon without much trouble managed to block their attacks, throwing up a wall of steel. “You may have more people, but I have more skill. You should have really choose to run.” He said as he managed to drive them back again, knocking two of the down. Dhamon moved forward and swung knocking two more of them down. He moved back again and began to chant. His blade began to glow red and the thieves moved back a little fearfully. Dhamon raised his blade up, yelling, “Abandon’s Flame ” He then drove it into the ground sending a gout of flame out in front of him, incinerating the thieves, who were killed so quickly they didn’t have the time to scream in pain.
He turned and looked at Mika saying, “Lets go.”
She was speechless for a moment, surprised that he would help her and that he was so powerful. Well he was a Knight of the Red Dawn…, Then she looked around and pointed saying, “Dhamon…”
“What?” He said turning around seeing what she was pointing at. The trees had caught fire from his attack. There hadn’t been any rain for the past three months and so the trees were extremely dry, as a result the fire was moving very, very fast. “Shit! Run ” He said and they began to run away from the growing forest fire.
They ran for about five minutes before Dhamon heard a cry behind him. He looked back and saw that Mika had tripped on a root. She managed to get up and when she tried to run again she just fell back down. “Dammit.” Dhamon cursed and ran over to her, picked her up and began to run again while carrying her. “You really should watch where your running and I really need to get paid extra for this.”
“Sorry…” She said and blushed a bit at her own clumsiness. “Thanks for your help.”
As they continued to try and out run the fire Mika, who had nothing better to do than look at the scenery right now, spotted a lake. “Dhamon, look.” She said and pointed towards the lake. Dhamon looked over there and decided it was probably the best course of action because he was getting tired. He turned towards the lake and ran in that direction while looking for a large enough log.
They reached the lake and Dhamon had spotted a good sized log on the edge of the lake. He set Mika down, took off his metal pieces of armor (the thought of taking his sword off didn’t even cross his mind) and pushed the log in the water. He then carried Mika over to the log and made sure she had a good hold on it and then he got a hold of the center of the log and began swimming towards the center of the lake, which, luckily for them, was still quite warm because it was early fall, and they were protected from the flames.
Mika looked over at Dhamon as they floated on the log and asked, “How long have you been away from the knighthood and how were you able to leave it? I thought it was their strict policy that no one could leave once they joined.”
Dhamon looked over to her, somewhat confused, and asked, “Why do you want to know about me?”
“Well… were going to be here for a while so might as well do something. I’ve already told you some about me so I wanted to know about you.” She replied, not really sure why she was asking herself. She just didn’t like uncomfortable silences.
Dhamon raised his eyebrow questionably but just shrugged his shoulders and said, “I left the knighthood about a three years ago at the age of nineteen. They have too much bloodlust for my tastes. They didn’t take to kindly to my wishes to leave, but for my ‘valor in combat’ as they put it they let me leave.” He scoffed, “Valor in combat my ass. Their idea of valor in combat is not questioning orders and being able to slaughter innocents without a second thought.”
Mika looked at him in shock for a moment then her look changed to horror and she said, “Slaughtering innocents You didn’t…”
He laughed at her expression at first and replied, “No I was simply charged with guarding the leading council.”
Mika gave a sigh of relief when he said that and she replied, “You didn’t seem like the type of person that would kill innocent people. Especially since you saved my life 3 times now.”
He looked over at her and said, “Two of those times you could have saved yourself if you had known how to use that sword properly.”
She looked back at him hopefully and said, “Would you teach me? You seem more than competent in using your sword.”
He let his head fall down, nodding, and sighed saying, “Why do I get the feeling I will regret this… but I guess it would be best if you learned how to use it…”
She clapped her hands in delight almost falling in the water and Dhamon grabbed her, shaking his head, until she got a hold of the log again. “You really need to work on watching what your doing…”