Chapter Two
..::THE LIGHT OF BURNING FLAME::..
“Are you sure, Rave? He’s just a kid!”
In the midst of the silence of
the town, sobbing cries of a helpless woman should be clearly heard if it was
not the occasional thunderous roar of the sky.
“He’s not a kid anymore, and
you know it. You pampered him as if he is a little baby,” said a masculine
voice, sounded so serious and determined with whatever he had decided.
“So it’s me you blaming? You
treated him so harshly! What had gotten into you? Don’t you feel sorry for
him?” The woman paused as she sobbed. She took a deep breath and continued,
“He’s yearning for a fatherly love! And now you’re sending him away for some
life-threatening quest?” Her voice was shaking and trembling, taken over by her
emotion.
“I am not sending him away,
Rielda. He’s the only one who can do it! This quest is forbid by the King, so I
need to assign someone trustworthy for it. He’ll be just fine, Rielda. I have
faith in him and you should, too. Besides, you do know what he’s capable of,
right?”
The cries started to calm and
slowed down.
“I know it’s hard to let him
go on such quest, but believe me, he can do it! He’s our only hope.”
A loud thunder growled in the
sky.
“I need to go now. Good
night.”
Reks
heard the set of clanking footsteps walking past his room and down the stairs. Then
it was the squeaky sound of the door downstairs before a thud. In fact, he
heard everything what had his father and mother talked about, as their bedroom
and his were only separated by a wooden wall – except he did not know who they
were talking about. If the two did not have any other son he did not know of,
then obviously it was him. But his father’s words – He’ll be just fine, I have faith in him, and he’s our only hope – made him almost sure it wasn’t him they were
talking about. His father wouldn’t say such things about him, would he? Reks let the thought sank into
his mind as he went to sleep.
******************************
‘Ding dong ding dong ding dong!’
The bell rang as it usually did. Only this
time, it did not end there. The bell was endlessly ringing, its annoying
echoing sound was urging everyone to wake up.
“Shut up, dumb bell!”
Reks covered his ears with his
pillow though he could still hear the rings loud and clear. It was not long
before he noticed something was wrong – the only instance the bell will
continuously ringing is when – there is an emergency! He hurriedly woke up and
looked at the window. He had to squint his eyes as there was bright light
escaped through his window – so bright he never had saw before. He could feel
heat boiling his room from his open window. He cocked his head out of the
window and sought for the source of the light and the heat. He was terrified by
what he had seen with his very own eyes – the whole town was burning bright
with flames. Thick black smoke was filling the air, filling the town with a
foul smell. The houses collapsed to nothing but smoldering rubbles. Townspeople
running and screaming for help, and the knights were helping them to evacuate
to the castle. To his horror, near the knights were some dark creatures, trying
to attack them. Some of the knights tried to fend the creatures off but were
ultimately sent flying to the burning rubbles. The creatures seemed vicious and
far too powerful for the knights to fight.
He wanted to help, but he was too far away to make it there in time.
“Rekkkkss!”
A woman was screaming
hysterically from downstairs, awaking Reks from his traumatic state. He
immediately knew it was his mother. He jumped out from his bed and grabbed his
sword that was leaning against the door. He swung the door open before he
climbed on the banister and flew to the floor below, landing with poise just
behind his mother. She was standing still in front of the entrance door,
trembling and terrified. Suddenly, a loud thud against the door came from the
other side and made her fell to the floor. She dragged herself away from the
door.
“Mum, get behind me!” Reks
commanded, as he drew his sword and readied his fighting stance. She got to her
legs and dashed to his back. “Sorry mum, looks like I’m not in my shining armor
like I promised. I’m on my pajamas instead.” Reks said, let out a chuckle.
He strengthened his stance and
gripped his sword harder as the thuds were getting louder and louder, trying to
get into the house.
‘Dushhhh!’
The door smashed to pieces. Reks and his mom
covered their faces from the broken door pieces that were flying towards them.
Black smoke from the flames was fuming into the house. From the thickness of
the smoke, Reks could see a silhouette of a mysterious creature similar to the
one he had saw attacking the knights. As the creature crept closer, Reks could
see the creature in much horrifying details.
The creature was nothing like
any monster he had encountered before. In fact, none of the monsters he fought
looked as vicious, filled with killing desire before, even the Bullzroar. It
was black, from horns to tail, even its eyes were pitch black – except its
white iris. Its four legs were equipped with a set of five claws each. It had
three jaggedly horns; two on the side of the head and one right in the middle.
Its edgy, blood-stained teeth were countless and multi-layered. Its tail was
like a fish bone, except thousands times bigger and deadlier and had a sharp
pointy arrow at the end. But – the deadliest of them all was the countless
spikes all over its body, pointing in all directions, waiting to impale you to
death.
The hideous creature curled
its body, making it look like a giant black spiky ball.
‘Zasssss!’
The creature rolled itself
towards their direction. Just before the creature could impale them, Reks and
his mother jumped out of its rolling path and thankfully landed on a soft sofa.
The creature rolled past them and crashed the kitchen. It shook its head,
trying to regain consciousness after the impact. It tilted its whole body
facing towards them and curled itself again. It was going for the second roll!
“Mum, stand still! On my count
to three, you jump to its left and I’m to the right.”
Reks needed to make sure their
timing was precise, fearing that their luck won’t be on their side this time.
Furthermore, Reks figured that the creature was able to steer its rolling
direction. If they evade too soon, the creature can steer towards them and
crush them to death.
“One, two…. THREE!”
Reks’s mother did as told and
Reks sidestepped to the right side of the giant ball killing machine. As it
rolled pass him, he swung his sword straight through the creature using all
strength he had. The sword sunk deep into its body and the swing left a wide
cut to its body. Some of the spikes broke to pieces as the sword slashed
through them.
The creature crashed to the
wall and fell to the floor. Its black bodily liquid was oozing from the cut as
it struggled and moaned in pain. A few moments later, it remained silent and
lifeless.
To Reks’s amazement, the creature
was slowly sinking into the floor, as if its shadow was a pool of water that
drowned its body. Soon the creature sunk completely, leaving no trace except
puddles of its black blood on the floor.
Reks
and his mother were shocked to see the strange phenomenon. They had never seen
anything like that before. Reks knew he was dealing with something else than
just mere monster.
Reks grabbed his mother’s hand
and went outside of the house. He knew it was only a matter of time before the
fire swallow the house whole and burn them to crisp. The road outside did not
make it easy for them to escape from the deadly sea of flames. The road to
their left leading to the Central was blocked by smoldering rubbles and wooden
planks of the burning houses. Fortunately that was not the only way to get to
the Central. There were roads from the East and West Wing of the town that
leads to the Central. Reks peeked through a small opening from the rubbles. He
could still see from afar that the east’s road to the Central was still
accessible while the west’s was filled with numbers of the ferocious dark
creatures.
Both of them had to take a
detour to the East Wing of the town and pass the Central before they can head
to the castle. They have to get to the castle as it had always been the safest
and nearest place for the townspeople to go if there were any case of
emergencies.
Reks
and his mother ran through the East Wing of the town using back alleys instead
of the main road, fearing that they would come across the creatures. As they
were running, Reks heard screaming and crying voices not far from them. A
screeching voice and a sound of metal clanking were heard not long after. Reks
sought for the source of the noise before he saw a fellow knight swinging his
sword to a black creature in front of a group of women and children.
Just before the creature could
claw the knight, Reks appeared in front of him and blocked the attack just in
time. Reks slashed the claws and manage to break some to pieces. The creature
was in excruciating pain and left vulnerable. The knight and him took the
chance and lunged towards the creature. Their swords stabbed deep into its
chest. The creature fell to the earth with a crash, sprawled to its death.
Just like the one in Reks’s
house, the creature sank into the ground, slowly disappearing.
“What is this thing?” The
knight had the same expression of when Reks first saw the phenomenon.
“One thing for sure is that this
is not just some monster.” Reks replied, shrugging his shoulder.
The cries of the women and the
children had calmed. Only sobs were audible every once in a while. The women
were hugging one another as they wiped their tears and comforted the children.
Reks’s mother joined them. They were all terrified and traumatized. A few minutes
ago they were sound asleep on their warm and comfy bed. But now, they were on
the run for their lives, trying to survive both the burning fire and the
bloodthirsty creatures, freezing in the night.
One of the children approached
to them.
“Thank you, mister,”
“You’re welcome, boy. Don’t
you worry, it’s our job to keep you safe from dangers.” The knight tousled his
hand on the boy’s hair. “Reks, can you bring them to the castle? I need to
check out the town to see if there are any survivors.”
“Yes, sir. Please be careful.”
“Thanks for your help.” The
knight smiled and ran into the town opposite of his direction.
Reks led his mom and the group
of survivors further west of the town, heading to the Central. It was not an
easy trip as Reks had to fight the creatures that were lingering around the
town and in the same time protecting the survivors.
After a few turn in the
corners and got to a wrong direction, they finally arrived at the Central. Reks
decided that they should take a short rest after the breathless and endless
run. Reks whimpered and panted, trying to catch his breath. By his instinct, he
shifted his sight over his left shoulder, to the west entrance. It was dark as
it was overshadowed by the shades of the building surrounding it. He could see
movement in the darkness, as if something was emerging from the ground. He
tried to squint his eyes, hoping that it would help him to see the darkness
better from the distance. When Reks had realized what it was, it was already
too late – countless of the mysterious creatures had emerged from the ground
and it was now approaching to their direction.
“Quickly, everyone! To the
castle!” Reks commanded, signaling his hand towards the pathway leading to the
castle. Everyone was terrified to see the approaching creatures as they raced
to the castle’s gate. Reks trailed behind his mother. The two Royal Escendria
Knights guarding the gate were ready to close the gate as soon as they passed
through it. Everyone had but Reks and his mother.
“Mum, you go first! Don’t
worry about me!” Reks said as he was trying to release his hand from his
mother’s grasp.
“But Reks -!” His mother held
his hands tighter, not wanting to let him go.
“Trust me, Mum! Didn’t you say
that I should be a hero, protecting this kingdom?”
“But, Reks…”
Tears trickled down her cheeks
as she slowly loosened her grip on Reks’s hand. She reluctantly turned away,
stepping up the stairs one after another and ran passed through the gate. She
did not bear to look back to her son and the creatures that were approaching.
She continued running while she wiped her flooding tears; tears of fear that
she will never see her son ever again.
“What
are you standing there for? We’re closing the gate! Come on up here unless you
want to be swatted like a fly by those things!” One of the royal knights
yelled.
Reks turned away from them,
facing the creatures that were coming to their direction. He gripped his sword
harder as he readied his fighting stance.
The two knights looked at each
other, their eyes wide opened.
“What do you think you’re
doing down there? Trying to get yourself killed?”
“Even we, the experienced
royal knights won’t be too bold to fight those things! Now let’s just get to
the castle before they crush us all” The other said as he was going down the
stairs.
Reks clenched his teeth. “There
are too many! I’m afraid it’s either we kill them here, or they’ll crash the
gate and kill us all – the women, the children, the elderly, the King!” Reks
refused to listen and strengthen his stance instead.
“I think he’s right, Norman. I
don’t think the gate manage to stand against them.” The knight’s hand gestured to the creatures that were now
flooding the Central. The colourful gardens of flowers looked like a black
ocean. The clock tower that once stood out in the middle of the Central could
be hardly seen.
“There’s no way we can do
this, Paran! It’s impossible!”
Reks glanced angrily to the
two knights behind him. “Impossible or not, dead or alive, kill or be killed,
to the last drip of my blood, I shall protect this kingdom and its people! You
call yourself a knight when you are too scared to hold your sword? Get up and
fight!” Reks shouted. His eyes were burning with fire.
Both of them were taken aback
to hear what he had said. His words hit them hard. Although they hated to admit
it, everything he said was right. They claimed themselves as royal knights but
they don’t even have enough guts to hold their swords. All they had ever done
was standing in front of the gate, pretending they were protecting it. That was
what they were proud of the whole time. They had been guarding the gate for too
long that they forgot how to fight and were scared to.
“I don’t know about you,
Norman but I’m fighting alongside this kid.” Paran unsheathed his sword and get
on his position.
“Too scared to hold your sword? Give me a break, boy.” Norman swung
his sword to the air and get to his stance beside Reks.
Reks’s words of wisdom had
finally knocked some sense on their heads. Although three people were barely
enough to fight the countless creatures, it was better than him to fight alone.
The trio paced carefully
heading to the approaching creatures – their swords were ready to kill. Soon
the creatures were only a few feet away from them. One of the creatures flew
out of the crowd and sprawled onto them. Had they not evade it one moment
earlier, they would be splattered, crushed from the impact. The creature had a
rough landing and struggled to get back up on its feet. The three of them
surrounded the creature before launching several swings with their swords. The
creature moaned before it remained still on the floor.
“One down, many more to go!”
Paran said as he pulled out his sword that sunk deep in its body.
“Don’t put your guards down!”
Reks commanded.
“Hiyaaaarghh!”
The three of them charged to
the sea of black creatures. They slashed and swung their sword sideways, ups
and downs, and any other directions possible to the creatures. While doing so,
they kept an eye to what was coming to their direction – the claws, the jaws,
and the whipping tails. They jumped, crouched and blocked as they saw them
coming. It was too crowded that every attack they evaded hit the other
creatures. One of the creatures did the rolling attack but it crushed its own
friends instead of them. Unfortunately some of the attacks were too fast that
they were cut and bleed.
They were constantly charging
forward that they did not realized they were already in the middle of the
Central. Before they knew it, the creatures were surrounding them, gnarling
their teeth and readying their claws as if they were saying: “You don’t have
anywhere to go but our tummy!”
The helpless knights stood
back to back, trying to protect each other. They grasped their swords tighter
although deep down in their heart they knew they couldn’t make it. The
creatures did not seem to be any less than before but their strength was. Their
morale was down, but they forced their body to keep on standing to fight,
despite that they were gravely injured. They were trembling and shaking for
they knew what would their fate be for the next few minutes.
“I’m glad I could fight
alongside you, Paran.”
“You too, Norman. Reks, we are
really sorry for whatever we had done to you. Thank you. If it wasn’t for you,
we would not be able to stand up, fight and die for our kingdom!”
“No one’s going to die, Paran.
We’re going to defeat them all here, get back to the castle, and tell to the
people our victory!” Reks said, trying to raise their morale.
“Bring it on!” Paran and
Norman shouted as loud as they can.
The
creatures surrounding them curled themselves up, forming a ring of
human-impaling spiky balls.
“On second thought, don’t
bring anything on, please?” Norman, as well as the other two was terrified.
The three knights were sure
now more than ever that they were going to die. There was no way they could
escape that! The creatures rolled towards them. The surrounding ring was
getting smaller and smaller, trying to crush whatever standing in it. Reks
closed his eyes, not wanting to witness the horrifying scene of his last
moments of life.
A
bright luminous light suddenly beamed into the air. It was so bright that it
escaped through Reks’s closed eyelids. He slowly opened his eyes to see what
had happened, but everything was bright and white he could not even see his own
hands.
“What’s going on?” Norman
asked, frightened.
“I don’t know, I can’t see a
thing!” Paran said
“Maybe it’s light from heaven!
I think we are all dead!”
Soon the miraculous light
slowly faded. The white colour of the surrounding slowly turned darker and
darker as it was before. As their eyes had adjusted to the fading colour of the
radiant light, they could see their surrounding sharper and clearer. They could
see the clock tower, the flower gardens, the burning houses, the mighty castle
– everything except the creatures. The creatures that were flooding the Central
a few minutes ago were nowhere in sight. It was either their eyes were playing
trick on them or the creatures had just magically disappeared.
Reks could see a silhouette
standing at the west entrance of Central. He was holding a sword on each of his
hands. The silhouette became clearer as he was walking closer towards them, out
of the shades of the buildings and into the sunlight.
The two knights behind Reks
stood straight and saluted as they recognized who it was.
“Knight Master Rave!”
******************************
The
castle’s basement although it was as large as the castle, was crowded with
people. The townspeople were evacuated there for safety. It was the safest
place for the townspeople to go if there were any cases of emergencies –
earthquakes, fires, natural disasters, monster attacks but not the most
pleasurable place to stay. You can hear children screaming, women crying, men
fighting, elderly folks snoring and farting. The foul stench of blood and smoke
filling the air was unbearable.
At the corner of the basement
was an enclosed room equipped with small beds. It was a medical room to treat
sick and injured people, handled by a team of medical experts known as Medic.
Reks rested his head on a pillow.
The bed he was lying on was not as comfortable as the one he had in his room,
troubling him from sleeping. A female Medic was treating his wounds and
injuries, applying antiseptics and bandaging them. He only had several cuts and
bruises, very lucky compared the other two royal knights who suffered fractured
legs and torn muscles.
Aside the hard bed and the
itchy wounds he had, something kept him from resting. His head was puzzled with
riddles. What was that light? Where did
it come from? Was it from his dad? Was it his dad who made the creatures
magically vanished? What are those creatures? What do they want? Why did they
attack the town and the castle?
Reks had a strong belief
that the light came from his father – or specifically the sword. His father was holding both of his swords when he saw
him. He had always carried the two swords everywhere he goes, but it was the
first time he had ever seen his father drawn that sword. The sword with the dark blue metal hilt and a shiny sun-shaped
gold attached to where the hilt joined the blade. Reks drew the sword from its
sheath before when he was a kid and saw the stunning details of the blade. The
blade was white and shiny as if it was made of fine crystal. He could clearly
see his own reflection from the blade. The base to the tip of the blade was
engraved with ancient text that can only be translated by the Oracles. Its
edges were sharp that he almost cut his finger just by touching it. Ultimately,
as Reks drew the sword, it was glowing bright blue. Reks believed that the
sword hold some kind of magical power that he could never fathom.
“Are you done resting, Reks?”
His father’s sudden appearance shocked him.
“D-dad? I’m sorry. I was just
getting my wounds treated. I didn’t mean to slack off or anything.” Reks got up
of the bed quickly.
“Are you okay?”
“Um, yes. It’s just minor
injuries. Those things barely hurt me. See, I’m fine!” Reks gestured his hands
to his body.
“Great. Here’s your uniform. I
got a quest for you. I’ll fill you in the details later. But first you need to
tell your mother now. I’ll be waiting right outside of the Castle.” Master Rave
walked out of the room.
As he was excited with his
first quest for the past few months, Reks quickly put on the troublesome
uniform that his father just brought him. It was probably from the Escendria
Knight’s store room since the smell wasn’t too pleasing. As he came out of the
medical room, his mother was already waiting, her face soaked with tears.
“Reks, I thought you’re gone!”
Her arms spread and hugged him mercilessly, crying happily seeing her son safe
and sound.
“I’m alright, Mum. Geez, it’s
embarrassing.” Reks whispered as he tried to escape from his mom’s deadly clasp,
but he failed miserably.
Suddenly his mom was silent
and her embrace loosened. She put her face on his shoulder and cried silently.
“What’s wrong, Mum?”
“I’ve only just see you safe,
and now he’s sending you on a quest.” She sobbed.
“You knew?”
“He told me about it. It’s a
dangerous quest, Reks. Please don’t go. Tell your father you don’t want to go.”
“I can’t, Mum. I don’t want to
disappoint him. I’ll be alright, don’t worry. Didn’t you tell me that I’m the
strongest man lived on this planet? Nothing can hurt me! Look, I’m fine!” Reks
was trying to console his mother, there was no way he would turn down the
quest. If he could not impress him, the last thing he wanted to do is
disappoint him.
Reks found his mom’s behaviour
rather strange. Usually she would encourage him and ask him to be strong, but
now she was crying, hoping that he would not go for the quest. Maybe the quest
truly is dangerous, not cut out for him?
“I’ll be back, I promise.”
Reks kissed his mom on her forehead and casted a smile to her. She calmed down
but her tears were endlessly flowing from her eyes. Before he went up the
stairs to the Castle’s surface, Reks turned to take one last look of his
mother. He had a feeling that he would not be able to see her face for a long
time.
“Goodbye.”
 |
| The Royal Town of Escendria engulfed in flame |
