The Legends of Siele: The Lucid Ring

[Anima241]

please evaluate, i ask now for everyone's assistance just this once

Prologue

Long ago, A man by the name of Agretalaam was granted a magical ring of zeal when he saved a Master Wizard’s life from certain destruction, and with this ring he became the greatest warrior in all of Siele. Now Agretalaam was born a twin and had a brother, named Cain. Cain grew jealous and wanted the ring, so the two of them fought and in the end broke the ring into two unequal pieces. But Cain, in an attempt to steal the other piece of the zeal ring, Cain killed Agretalaam, his own brother! Unable to look at himself in the mirror, because he would see his brother’s face staring back at him. Cain committed suicide. But before doing so he handed the two halves of the ring to the greatest jeweler in Siele, and told him to put the two halves together again. But when the jeweler replied that the ring was made of zeal and was too resistant to fire to forge it back together again. Cain asked him if he could make the other halves of the ring. And so the jeweler took both halves and added gold to one half of the ring and silver to the other half, thus making two separate rings. Both rings were colored differently so the jeweler covered the zeal halves with gold and silver coatings, ending up in the end, with one silver ring and one gold ring. When Cain committed suicide he threw the rings into the ocean and then drowned himself.
Five years later a man by the name of Edmund found the rings while fishing with his wife, Joyce. When Joyce refused to wear them he put them both on. Edmund was a fighter in the Tendon Shiga Battle Arena. He fought alongside his partner, Galleon, and together they won thousands of adoring fans and battles. But the day that Edmund found the rings, he battled in the arena. That day Edmund somehow was able to cast a powerful spell that blew a quarter of the arena off. Galleon was already a powerful mage but when he noticed that his friend, who knew no magic what so ever, cast the strongest spell ever recorded. He grew jealous and wanted the rings. He casted a death sentence onto Edmund, and gave him five days to live. Joyce was heartbroken, for she was already pregnant with two twin boys and was about to become a widow. On the final day of his life Edmund gave Joyce both rings and said to run far away, knowing that Galleon would soon be over his dead body to collect the rings. She fled the town and knew that Galleon would come after her and her children. On December 25, five months after her husband’s death, the twins were born Willcrum and Anhell. After long consideration she came to the conclusion to separate the boys. She left Willcrum in an orphanage in the south, and Anhell in an orphanage in the north. Placing them both in a separate baskets with tears in her eyes and leaving them both on the doorstep of the orphanages, each with a polyester necklace around their necks, the rings acting as the pendants. Galleon soon found out what Joyce had done, when he found her he slaughtered her furiously, and began his lifelong search for the twins…




Chapter-one


Anhell rolled to the right grunting loudly. The swishing of a sword could be heard even over the small loud crowd of students that had formed around the two boys fighting. Angel’s loose, medium cut, obsidian colored hair, slowly fell over his burgundy eyes. His white face covered with few freckles became red as he withdrew his silver short sword.
“Bastard I bloody hate you!” He shouted in his high pitched voice. Before him stood a tall and slender boy only 11 years old with his right eye now black. That was two years older than Anhell. The boy yelled nonsense and slashed at Anhell again, this time instead of dodging. Anhell parried the attack and gave a hard clout to the boy’s face with the hilt of his blade. Tears exploded from the boy’s hazel eyes as he fell backwards onto the ground, his sword beside him. The boy cried loudly as the students laughed at him. But it all ceased when a large man with rugged hands and black hair, pushed all the students out of the way.
“The hell is going on here?” He yelled seeing the boy on the floor crying and bleeding on his nose. Anhell looked up at him and tried to speak.
“It’s not what it seems headmasta.” He stuttered. But the man scowled at him and grabbed both of them by the throat and dragged them both into the academy.

He slammed them both against the wall of his office. “Anhell Brave and Aries Junior! You both know what the consciences are for fighting!” He yelled in their faces spitting. Anhell squealed,
“Headmasta! It’s not my fault, Aries killed a bird purposely, I was only avenging its death!” The headmaster strengthened his grip on Anhell’s neck making him start coughing.
“How dare you raise your voice at me! Who took you out of that infernal orphanage! Who!” Tears were now flinging out of Anhell’s eyes and his face was getting red. He couldn’t respond. That just made the headmaster angrier and had clutched onto his neck harder. Aries turned to Anhell and saw him coughing.
“Headmaster please stop it, your going to kill him” he said frantically. The headmaster didn’t respond. ”It was my fault!” Aries yelled. The headmaster let go of Anhell’s neck and Anhell fell to the ground rubbing his neck and coughing loudly.
“Get your ass to your dormitory boy.” He said firmly kicking Anhell’s side. Quickly Anhell ran out of the room, but at the door he stopped and looked back at Aries who was starting to whimper like a baby, as the headmaster went to the desk and lifted a huge whip-like instrument with hooks at end of it. He closed the door and ran to his dormitory.

That evening Anhell sat upon his bed waiting for Aries to bash down the door and kill him. But when Aries appeared at the doorway he just gave Anhell a look with his eyes red from crying, A look that didn’t chill Anhell to bone, but made him feel sorry for Aries. What’s worse, when Aries walked over to his bed and removed his bloody shirt, and revealed all the raw skin on his back glazed with fresh blood, Anhell had to look away.
“Aries…I’m….” he said weakly, but was silenced as Aries just turned away. Anhell watched for a moment seeing that Aries was crying again, as he wiped his right eye he winced, touching the black eye Anhell had given him.
Later that night two other boy’s that shared the dormitory room came in laughing, when they saw Aries they laughed at him and pointed at him making fun of him.
“Hey Aries you got your ass whooped by a nine year old and the headmaster!” they laughed heartlessly. Aries just covered himself with the blanket and turned away, going to sleep.
The next morning Anhell awoke to a one of the boy’s yelling, “Where’d he go!” sleepily Anhell asked what was going on. Apparently Aries had vanished, not even his bed covers were on the mattress. Quickly Anhell ran to the Headmasters office and burst through the door.
“Headmasta! Aries is gone missing!” He yelled frantically. The headmaster just got up and escorted him out of the room saying, “Don’t worry about it.”

Anhell’s hair blew gently in the wind. He sat crouched upon a weeping-willow tree side on a hill. He wore a pure white shirt, with sleeves that went halfway down to his elbows, with beige shorts made of fine cotton, without any shoes. His silver short sword was stabbed into the moist ground beside him. His burgundy eyes were fixed on the silver ring on his necklace. His hands ran over the markings etched onto the ring. “I wonder what this is for.” He slowly began to put it onto his finger. As he did so the gentle winds became furious. Blowing his sword over, his hair waved around wildly as he felt a strong tingling in his arm, then all over his body. It was building up in him getting more and more powerful by the second until it began to hurt. He groaned and removed the ring. The winds stopped and became calm again.
“Bloody hell?” he said a little shook up. Suddenly the academy bell rang in the distance. He quickly put the ring around his neck again, and ran off to the academy picking up his sword. Trying to forget the incident ever happened.

One year later…
“Ready battle!”
Anhell stepped forth withdrawing his sword, before him stood a large 3-headed dragon. The three heads were named Sevi, Revi, and Sacrime. It was Anhell’s final exam before he was to head north to the Tendon Shiga Battle Arena, to begin his career as a fighter.
Sacrime, the middle head blew three waves of fire at Anhell. He ran at it jumping over all three waves and slashed at Sacrime in mid-air but its head went under him and Revi bit him ripping off a piece of his arm. Then quickly after, before Anhell could land, the dragon’s tail whipped him to the arena wall. He squealed in pain as it bled. But the dragons snickered and ran at him, the ground shaking beneath its feet. They rammed him against the wall and bit off his silver chest plate. Anhell yelled and stabbed Sevi in the eye and jumped on top of its head. Revi went to bite him. But Anhell jumped off and Revi ended up biting Sevi.
“You’ll have to do better than that ya bloody fools’” he laughed landing on the sandy ground before them. Suddenly Sacrime roared and two wings opened up behind the dragon. The three of them roared at Anhell.
“Blast!” Anhell yelled as he dodged several beams of ice and fire coming out of their mouths. The real fight was about to begin…

They flew at him so fast that he didn’t even realize he was hit until he was rolling backward scraping his body on the ground. His neck cracked as he came to a halt. When he got up the dragon was coming in for another attack. He quickly jumped onto it as it came down, and he stabbed the sword into Sevi’s head. Sevi roared so loudly that the sound waves knocked Anhell into the crowd of students.

 

[Anima241]

chapter 1 continued

He rubbed his head and realized he was in the arena’s audience. The students were looking at him, when suddenly they began to run. Anhell looked up and noticed the dragon was flying right at him full speed. He screamed loudly as the dragon rammed into him and the arena. The entire structure shook and the emergency horns went off. The students ran out off the stadium screaming. As the chaos was building and students were being trampled. The dragon was trying to stand up. The scene was horrible with the smoke and dust flying up into the air. The headmaster watched from the opposite end off the stadium and whispered,
“Anhell… I know your not dead…”

The students had evacuated and guards began to swarm in armed with elemental runes prepared to take down the Dragon and haul out Anhell’s dead body. The dragon appeared trapped in the Arena, because it was squirming and roaring trying to get out, but everywhere it put it’s claws for support to pull itself out, the arena broke and it stumbled back into the arena.
The headmaster turned his head thinking Anhell was dead. But suddenly there was a murmur among the guards and then they began to cheer loudly. As an enormous explosion knocked the dragon straight to the opposite side of the arena, so fast that the headmaster had to jump out of the way yelling “What the hell?!” Out of the smoke appeared Anhell yelling words.
The dragon got up and suddenly was up in the air its eyes red. Anhell performed a one handed triple front flip right onto on the dragon’s body and stabbed his bare hands into Sacrime’s eye. It roared, as Revi tried to bite Anhell off of Sacrime but missed and bit part of Sacrime’s face off. Sevi managed to lift Anhell’s body up with its mouth but in the process Anhell ripped out Sacrime’s eye, blood exploded out of the eye and landed like vomit on the ground below. Anhell dropped the eye and squirmed out of Sevi’s mouth and made a huge icicle out of nothing and stabbed it through Sevi’s snout. With that he did a flip and jumped onto Revi’s head. The intense g-force knocked Anhell off balance and within a second Revi had eaten Anhell. The guards watched in awe at the entire scene happening just a few miles above them, along with the evacuated students.
Suddenly another massive explosion so loud that it knocked a few of the students out. Revi’s head had been blown into nothing. Soon the dragon had fallen out of the sky right into the middle of the arena with a huge crash that shook the entire earth. Anhell landed shortly after within a few seconds he had blacked out and had fallen onto the ground sweating and breathing heavily his bleeding wounds glazed over with sand.
Guards rushed to the scene containing the dying dragon with powerful gravity runes that kept Sevi, Revi, and Sacrime from taking off. A few students rushed in and helped Anhell onto his feet. They had his arms around their shoulders and were smiling at him and excited. “Dude that was awesome!” or “amazing!” they said loudly. But Anhell had already gone unconscious.
The headmaster met up with Anhell at the entrance and lifted him off of the student’s shoulders up into his arms and hauled him off to the academy running.

The sun was bright outside and the sky was an intense blue. A gentle wind flowed into the room and made the transparent white curtains waved back and forth slightly. Anhell awakened in a room by himself. He was covered with a white blanket. He saw that his arm was bandaged with a brand new white bandage.. He pulled the covers off and noticed he was in his boxers only.
“Oh your awake.” A gentle soft voice came from the doorway. “Just on time. To get dressed.” Anhell turned to the doorway. There stood a young girl with a beautiful long blonde hair that went all the way down to her shins. It was tied into a long braid and her bangs made it hard for Anhell to see her big Sapphire eyes. she wore a white shirt that had sleeves that were brimmed with lace. She wore a long white sash around her waist with a beautiful white skirt that covered her legs, it was also brimmed with lace. In her hands she held a fresh white uniform. Her pink lips gave a small curve upward. “I thought I would have to dress you myself. Oh well that wouldn’t matter to me, I already bathed you.” Anhell blushed, as she walked over to him and placed the clothes on the edge of the bed. She then walked over and put her soft and warm hands on his arm and began to remove the bandage.
“You should’ve seen it, The headmaster rushed you here and handed you over to me, you smelled like battle Anhell” she said as she unraveled the bandages. Anhell didn’t respond but just watched, not even surprised how she came to know his name. “I could’ve said no but you were so weak and vulnerable, I decided to take you as my patient.”
The cut beneath the bandage was healed, now only with a small scar on it. She ran her thumb over it and continued speaking, moving onto the bandage around his chest. “I remember when I attended the academy…I was a superior Holy Archer.” Anhell nodded listening. “But then I decided to use my Holy abilities to heal those in battle not hurt them. But Anhell you should’ve seen yourself it was horrible, your arm had suffered an intense aftershock from your extreme use of magic. You almost died on me you know?” she stopped unraveling and looked up at him, brushing her bangs away from her eyes, so that she could see him clearly. Embarrassed and not knowing what to say, he blushed and turned his face away. He heard her giggle and felt her begin unraveling again.
“But my patients never die, never, especially not a cute boy like yourself.” She said finally. She pulled off the bandage and looked at the wound, it was just starting to close. “I can fix that right now.” She placed her hand right on the gash and began to mumble some strange words. The cut turned pure bright, like a light was in it and it began to shrink rapidly. Anhell only felt warmth on his chest. Once she stopped mumbling, the light had disappeared and all that was left was a scar. She wrinkled her nose, “Scars can never be removed not even by magic.”
She got off the bed and walked over to the doorway with the used bandages in her hand. Anhell called to her, “What’s your name misses?” She turned around smiling. “Kaname Lightsender” Anhell nodded getting off the bed, “Thank you Kaname” she nodded and left the room quickly blushing.


Anhell picked up the silver ring, that Kaname had placed on the nightstand while he was unconscious, and ran his finger over the symbols engraved on the ring. “It was you that kept me alive…you and your magic…. That save me from the dragon.” He whispered to himself.
“Anhell? The headmaster is here to see you.” Kaname said staring at him from the doorway. Anhell turned and nodded putting the ring through the polyester necklace and around his neck. He brushed pass her and met with the headmaster who was downstairs waiting.
“Anhell my boy! It’s good to see that Kaname has taken good care of you!” he said loudly, giving anhell a huge bear hug. Anhell cringed and grunted. “Good ta see you to headmasta” Kaname laughed behind them.
“Anhell now hat you passed your test you can finally go to the Tendon Shiga Battle Arena!” The headmaster said loudly. ‘You’ll be leaving us tomorrow” he said placing anhell slim body onto the ground. Anhell nodded “Yes headmasta” The headmaster frowned sitting on a couch.
‘You know I never got the chance to hear you call me father…or do anything with you a like a father would do…” he said looking down. ’I made you live in fear…but that never stopped you from becoming strong, I knew that you were the one. The one that could defeat Sevi, Revi, and Sacrime in one shot, that’s why I took you from the orphanage that day. You were special anhell.” He said looking up smiling. Anhell looked at him smiling, “ Thank ya headmasta.” The head master got up and sighed, “I know I can never make up for those years I treated you like a student instead of my boy, so I give you this for you journey.” He said pulling out his huge broadsword with two dragons sculpted onto the hilt. ‘It’s not much, but since your short sword was thrashed during the battle I give you my sword, not as a memento of me but as a trophy.” He handed the sword to Anhell, and laughed when Anhell could barely lift it. “Your only ten and already graduating before some other students a foster father couldn’t be more proud.” He said trying not to cry. Anhell bowed, “Thank you headmasta…I mean fatha” The headmaster just smiled and walked out of the hospital without a word.

Anhell sat by the window side staring at the setting sun when he felt someone tapping his shoulder. There stood Kaname.
“Big day tomorrow, huh?”
“Yeah Real big…”
“Anhell I have a question…”
“Yes what is it?”
“May I come with you tomorrow?” Anhell turned to her gasping.
“for what?’
“Anhell…I want to help more people then just injured students. I want to see the world and I want to help those that don’t even have a breath of hope left in their souls. Please Anhell I wont be a burden!”
“What if you get hurt? We have to go through the Deadwood forest to get to the arena, you know?’
“I can protect myself, I did, study in the academy as a Holy Archer.” She said smiling. Anhell grinned and just walked away, leaving Kaname there alone. She smiled chasing after him, and yelling “Hey wait, Is that a yes or a no!?”

 

[Anima241]

chapter 2

There was a huge clatter of pans and plates as a fat lady chased a small boy.
“Get back here you pest I’ll have your head!” the fat lady yelled. In the background you could here the children laughing loudly as they watched cheering the small boy on. “Go Willcrum!” or “Don’t get crumbled by the mistress Willcrum!” they shouted watching from the doorway. Willcrum laughed yelling back at the mistress, “Why don’t you try your rolling skills?1 your to fat to catch me running like that!” the fat lady growled and threw a glass plate at him.
“You little hooligan I’ll wipe the floor with you head hair!” she yelled, running faster. The ground shook and Willcrum laughed hard. His medium dirty blonde hair seemed to float as he slid underneath the table and onto the window edge. His burgundy eyes met with the mistress’ bloodshot eyes. She gasped, ‘You wouldn’t dare! This is the blasted third floor!” he laughed, “Oh wouldn’t I?” He stuck one of his dirty feet out of the window along with his head. She yelled in fright, “Willcrum don’t!” but it was too late. Willcrum had jumped out falling headfirst. She ran to the window edge screaming, “Somebody catch that boy!’.
People below, gasped in awe and fright as they watched the boy fall from the San Tania Boy’s Orphanage. Willcrum laughed all the way down landing perfectly onto his feet, yelling up at her, “Somebody catch that ugly excuse for a woman!”
Outside, he could hear the boys laughing inside. Suddenly there was a tugging at his ear. He looked back to see two guards frowning at him.
“Trying to escape again Willcrum are we?’ said the one holding his ear. Willcrum just grinned and said sarcastically.
‘Sorry you guys I won’t do it again I promise.”

He quivered as he brushed passed the mistress knowing that a major spanking was coming. She thanked the guards and closed the door. She turned and faced him grinning. His burgundy eyes were fixed on the floor.
“Sorry Mistress, I won’t do it again, I promise---” He was cut off as a huge force knocked him to the ground. He looked up teary-eyed rubbing his head, full of blonde hair. The mistress stood there with a huge paddle made of wood in her hand.
“What did you say worm!” She yelled smacking him across the face with the paddle. Usually Willcrum could handle the abuse, but she was hitting him harder than ever before. He whimpered,
“I’m sor---“ He was cut off again as she ran over, smacking his head again. He cried out in pain as blood dripped from his head.
“ I’m sorry!” he yelled, but she jumped onto of him, pinning him to the ground. She began to beat him repeatedly over the head with the paddle over and over. Until it broke on his scalp. Then she used her bare hands beating on his face until her knuckles were fresh with his blood.


It was morning and the boys were waking up one by one. Willcrum lay in a corner opening his eyes slowly. His face was swollen and full of dried blood. When he got up he stumbled back down and the room began to spin slowly. One of the boys rushed over and frowned upon him.
“Jeez Willcrum, you’re a mess.” The boy was Willcrum’s age, eleven on the spot, his name, Finite. He pulled Willcrum onto his feet and put his arm around his shoulder and guided him to the bathroom.
“Finite…” Willcrum uttered
“Yeah?”
“Thanks Finite….”
Finite just smiled and used his hands to scrub off the dried blood off his face, being extra careful around the bruises on Willcrum’s face.
That day, at lunch Willcrum could not attend dinner as part of his punishment. But Finite managed to hide some bread under his shirt and sneak around the mistress.
“Here…” he said handing the bread over to Willcrum. Willcrum took it and ate it in small bits because his teeth were hurting a little. Willcrum looked up at Finite, and asked him.
“Finite why are you so kind to me…you’re the only one that helps me.”
Finite just smiled and rubbed his dirty feet. “I know that you can break out Willcrum…” Willcrum took another nibble and listened.
“…I know that one day you will leave us and become famous, and possibly have us all freed.” He stopped and began coughing loudly.
“Are you alright Finite?”
“Yeah…yeah…I think it’s just a cold.” He said wiping the spit that was dripping out of his mouth.


The doorbell rang that evening, and a boy stood in the doorway. Willcrum and Finite watched them talk from the stairway. They listened until the two went into the mistress’ office and closed the door behind her.
“Looks like we have a new boy here…” Willcrum said looking at Finite. Finite nodded and helped Willcrum onto his feet and into the bedroom. It smelled like crap and piss. Because the boy’s bathroom was always occupied, the boys would just piss beside their beds or in the corner of the room same goes for crapping. Willcrum and Finite shared bunk beds Finite on top and Willcrum on the bottom.

The bedroom door opened that night and the mistress appeared with the boy that they saw earlier. She gave him a little push and said bitterly.
“Get your ass in there and go to sleep boy.”
He stumbled in and began looking for an open bed, but there were no extras. Boys slept on the floor on thin blankets with no pillows, and he had to clamber over them. Everytime he stepped on somebody by accident they would push him onto another person by the ankles, cursing at him. Eventually the boy found his way to the corner and sat down. A wave of giggles broke out as he got up talking to him self.
“What the hell!” Willcrum smiled knowing that he must have sat down in piss. One of the boys called out a name at him.
“Pissypip!” Suddenly in a blink of an eye, everyone was yelling at him calling him, Pissypip. Until the door slammed open and the mistress ran in kicking a random boy in the jaw.
“Shut the hell up you scum!” the boys obeyed without questions, But when she left there were still a few giggles and boys whispering about, Pissypip.

 

[Anima241]

chapter 2 continued

Later that night when everyone was asleep, Willcrum awoke to a faint whimpering in the darkness of the room. It was Pissypip, crying. Willcrum got up and off of the bottom bunk, following the sobs in the dark. He felt his way with his feet over the boys asleep on the floor.
Finally he felt the boys arm in the dark. He whispered, “Don’t let go Pissypip…” and began to guide Pissypip back to the bunk bed, telling him were to jump and walk so he wouldn’t step on a boy. When they finally reached the bunk, Willcrum removed his bedcovers and laid them on the floor beside his bed. He forced Pissypip onto the covers, then reached up to Finite’s pillow and slowly pulled it out from under his head. He handed it to Pissypip and whispered.
“Now just go to sleep Pissypip…” Pissypip responded with a whisper.
“Who are you?”
“Willcrum, What’s your name?”
“I’m Aries Junior.”
The two were interrupted by Finite, who did a loud whisper.
“Shut up Pissypip”
The three fell asleep shortly after.

The morning sun rose behind the hills slowly. The entire crowd of boys was gradually waking up. When Willcrum awoke Finite and Aries were both still sound asleep. Willcrum wandered over to the bathroom and looked at his face in the mirror. The once swollen face had now gone back to normal. His burgundy eyes were glistening, as he combed his ruffled hair with his fingers. He smiled and ran back to the bed remembering that he never actually saw Pissypip’s face.
Willcrum looked down at the boy. The boy had short pure red hair, with many freckles on his face. Willcrum could see that the boy had many scars on his face Willcrum jumped when Aries’ big hazel eyes opened suddenly.

“Hello…” he said getting up in a sitting position, yawning. Willcrum smiled,
“It’s me Willcrum, nice to meet you.” He said putting out his hand so Aries could shake it. Aries did so but stopped short when he noticed the gold ring around Willcrum’s neck, he then gasped.
“Anhell Brave?!” He yelled out loud. Willcrum cringed,
“What are you talking about Pissypip, who’s that?” Willcrum asked confused.
Aries rubbed his head, noticing that Willcrum was darker than Anhell and had a different hair color.
“Nobody…I just…you looked like someone else I knew. You have the same exact eyes and everything. Except your darker.” He said shaking his head. Willcrum nodded looking up at Finite who had awakened to Aries yelling, and was now listening.
“You must be Pissypip, aren’t you?” Finite said looking directly at Aries.
“I’m not Pissypip, I’m Aries.” He said looking up at him.
Finite laughed, “Not any more! It’s Wednesday!” He jumped off the bed and onto the floor, “You better line up Pissypip!” He said running off to the front of the door, joining in the long line that had already developed and was getting longer. Willcrum cursed and ran to the line.
“Hurry up Aries!” he called out. Just as Aries joined up at the end of the line, the door slammed open.
“Ok! You there clean the stairs, and you sweep the orphanage!” a fat woman yelled throwing brooms and buckets at kids. When she came to Finite she smirked. “You clean the toilet!” She stood before Willcrum now and threw a stick with many black bristles on it at him. “Sweep that damn chimney boy!” Willcrum nodded running off. Aries was last and she smiled, “you new boy, your job is to rub my feet and follow my orders.!”

Night had fallen and the boys returned to their rooms exhausted. Willcrum jumped onto the bottom bunk and sighed loudly. Finite did the same. Aries appeared later and sat on the bed covers Willcrum had given him.
“That was way to hard…” he uttered.
“That’s just Wednesday chores, on Sundays she doesn’t even give us dinner.” Finite said annoyed.
“Damn that woman.” Aries said to himself. Willcrum looked at them with a grin on his face. “You guys… I found an escape.” Finite gasped along with Aries.
“Behind the chimney there’s a small passage way. I don’t know how it got there, maybe it’s from god. I followed it, it leads right into the park on the other side of the city.” He said excited.
“You mean you escaped from the orphanage? And you came back!” Finite said loudly.
Willcrum jolted over and covered finite’s mouth with his hands.
“Keep quiet. I couldn’t just leave you guys here….” Willcrum said whispering.
“You mean…you came back for us?” Finite said, with glistening eyes. Just as Willcrum was about to respond, Finite reached over and Willcrum a hug, trying to keep himself from crying
“Thank you Willcrum! Thank you!” he yelled out loud with small tears flinging out of his gray eyes. Willcrum pushed him off, “Quiet! You want the mistress to hear? Now’s not time to get mushy gushy, now is our time to make a break for it and start our lives.” He said looking around for anybody that might have heard them talking.
He looked at them both sincerely. “Tomorrow at midnight…we escape…”

That night the three slept on the floor and whispered to each other in the moonlight that came in through the window.
“Willcrum…do you want to know what I want to be when I grow up?” Finite said staring at the moon.
“What Finite?”
“I want to be a hero…I want to save people…like you Willcrum.”
“Really Finite? I haven’t saved anyone, I can’t save anyone.”
“Yeah Willcrum…you’re saving us…your giving us hope. Just like a hero in the stories before my father died. You’re so lucky to be a hero Willcrum.”
“No I’m not. I don’t know Finite. I don’t even know what I want to be when I grow up…Maybe a mailman…” Said Willcrum smiling to himself. He turned over to Aries,
“What about you Aries? You’ve been awfully silent lately.” Aries appeared as if he was in a trance and Willcrum had broken the trance.

 

[Anima241]

chapter two continued

“Oh I’m sorry…I’ve just been thinking that’s all. What was the question again?”
Finite sat up and looked at Aries.
“what do you want to be when you grow up, Pissypip?’
“I wanted to be a fighter, I really did…” He paused briefly then continued, “But I was expelled from the academy a year ago…”
“Why?” Willcrum said looking over at him.
“It was that boy I told you about earlier, Anhell brave…it’s all his fault.” Aries said looking back at him. “I felt pity for him just as he was being punished for something he deserved and I took the blame…” He got up and removed his tattered shirt and showed them the scars on his back. “This is what they did to me before they expelled me…that’s the whole reason I’m even here in this place. I was to ashamed to tell my mother that I had been expelled, so I came here and put myself in this orphanage, hoping that they would think I died while I went through Deadwood.”
He said sighing.
“Sounds like this Anhell kid put you through a lot. I say we go to the academy and beat the crap out of him when we get out, right Finite?” Willcrum said smirking at him.
After several loud coughs and wheezes finite nodded slowly. “Are you alright Finite that doesn’t sound like a cold anymore…” Willcrum said, worriedly.
“I’m alright Willcrum I am…” He responded wiping off spit that dripped out of his mouth. Willcrum rubbed Finite’s back and said, “get some sleep alright, I don’t want you dying on me.” Finite nodded and laid down falling asleep after awhile. Aries did the same. As Willcrum wavered into sleep he whispered aloud. “A new life…a new beginning…”

The day had passed slowly but, The time had come to make the escape. Willcrum got up ever so slowly and began to walk slowly over the sleeping children on the floor, followed by Aries then Finite. They made it to the chimney downstairs with great agility, and made it past the Mistress’ room. For that day they had mapped out where every single crack and squeaky floorboard was. They reached the chimney.
A huge smile ran across their faces. Willcrum opened the small shaft in the back of the chimney. He looked at them and smiled and whispered.
“Who’s first?”
“You…” whispered Finite smiling.
Willcrum nodded and entered and waited inside the shaft signaling them to hurry. Aries nodded and made his way in right behind. Aries signaled Finite to come in, and nearly screamed when he heard the Mistress’ footsteps upstairs. She had left her room and gone into her bathroom. Finite stood there. Aries and Willcrum stared at him puzzled.
They suddenly noticed, tears were streaming down his face. His head began jogging back and forth and his face became red.
“Finite…Finite hurry.” The two whispered and him. Then it came to Willcrum like a lightning bolt. “Finite don’t cough, please Finite don’t cough.” He whispered loudly. He could see Finite was struggling his hardest not to cough.
It suddenly happened instantly, so fast and so sudden. Willcrum saw Finite stare at him sadly and cough so loud. The mistress’ bathroom door slammed open and she ran down the stairs yelling, “Who the hell is down there!?”
“Run for it!” Willcrum yelled and began to crawl quickly down the shaft.
“Willcrum!” a voice echoed down the shaft. Willcrum turned to see Aries grabbing Finite’s foot, while the mistress had finite’s arms both struggling for Finite.
“Get back here you little Fuckers!” yelled the mistress while Aries yelled back, “let him go you WITCH!”
Willcrum grabbed the same foot as Aries and they both pulled. Finite cried out loudly,
“Willcrum! Don’t let her take me! Don’t let her!”
Willcrum pulled with all his might along with Aries but it was all in vain. For the mistress was to strong for them and managed to pull Finite away.
“Willcrum! WILLCRUM!” yelled Finite. “Willcrum run! Run come back for me! Come back for me.” Tears rushed down his red face. Willcrum struggled a bit within himself but managed to turn around and crawl away. Aries watched as the mistress threw Finite’s body straight across the room into the wall. Finite whimpered a bit and then fell over unconscious, whispering Willcrum’s name. Quickly Aries shut the shaft door and caught up with Willcrum that waited for him far down in the shaft.


The air was crisp and cool as the two orphans climbed out of the chimney shaft placed in a small abandoned house in the middle of the park. Willcrum escorted Aries out into the park, before he collapsed in tears.
“Finite…I’m so sorry! Forgive me! I’m no hero! I’m just a fake!” He cried out loudly so that it echoed. Aries shook his head no, and cried with Willcrum. The two fell asleep by a nearby tree. In the morning Aries was the first to speak.
“Where do we go now Willcrum?”
Willcrum closed his eyes and spoke silently. “I’m going to live out His dream Aries…We’ll go to where all heroes are born…The tendon Shiga Battle Arena…I don’t care what it takes…I’m going to do it. Then I’m going to come back for him and fight her and kill her…”
Aries looked up at the rising sun, and whispered in his thoughts, “The Tendon Shiga …maybe I’ll see him there…. We’ll have to go through the Arid Desert…am I ready to go back?…”


(so here are the first 2 chapeters, i'll submit more later since the coping and pasting takes so long so...yeah, there's already 10 chapters, and coping and pasting takes lots of time, so be ready, remeber, i am not the only writer in this story, i am accompanied by my friend william, so yeah, please comment as i go along)

 

[Copperfox]

You've clearly put lots of thought into this tale; but you need to consider how much exposition the reader can absorb at one time. Stories set in the real world have the advantage that the reader already knows where Japan is, where France is, what the Pacific Ocean is, etc. When all your places are freshly made up, the reader needs help to become familiar with them.

You could, for instance, have started your story at the craftsman's shop to which Cain came. Setting the scene at this shop would let you present SOME of the information about your story-world; then with Cain's arrival, you could start informing the reader about the origin of the divided ring. And so on.

 

[Anima241]

chapter 3

(alrigh but i have a map that will accompany this story i just havent posted here yet, it's still being enhanced, it should hepl with the gography and such)

The sky was a dark gray. Anhell stared forward down the dirt path that disappeared into the Deadwood Forest. His obsidian colored hair waved in the cold wind that blew. He looked back at Kaname who stood speaking with the headmaster. She was beautiful in her battle outfit. It was a white top that was made of silk with a iron mesh shirt under it, along with a pair of white cotton shorts that were way above her knees revealing her nicely shaped legs, with a pair of metal brimmed boots. Her hair was no longer in a braided ponytail, but let down. It flowed from the top of her head all the way down to her ankles. It was longer now.
“I’ll miss you headmaster…” she said hugging him with love. The headmaster hugged her back and smiled, “Be careful Kaname.”
“I will.” She said smiling, as she stepped back and looked at Anhell, who stared at them in his newly made uniform. Which was a pure steel breastplate, without anything else underneath or on top of it. Allowing him to show off his six-pack and his muscles on his arms. It matched with the metal gauntlets he wore, and the lower half of a knight’s suit of armor attached to his waist. A newly made sheath was attached to his side with a black leather harness, which had small pouches and potions attached to it. He stood barefoot, with a grin. His burgundy eyes met with the headmaster’s eyes.
“it’s time…” said the headmaster with a frown. Anhell walked over to the headmaster and gave him a hug.
“I’ll be back fatha.” Anhell said smiling. The headmaster nodded.
“be careful in there, it should take a half a year to get to the Tendon Shiga. Anhell don’t die on me… you too Kaname”
They both nodded, and vanished into the forest of deadwood.

The trees were dead and decayed. Thousands of sounds filled the air, not of animals, but of monsters. Kaname followed closely behind Anhell with her bow in one hand and her hand ready to pull an arrow out of her quiver at any second. Anhell looked back at her and laughed.
“What’s wrong Kaname? Scared?”
‘Shut up Anhell you’re so mean. I’ve never been here in my life.”
“Neither have I but you don’t see me quivering like a bloke.” He laughed again and slowed down ,and held out his hand. “If ya want I’ll hold your hand for a year and a half, until we get out of deadwood.” She scolded him and walked right past him giving him a cold shoulder.
“I’ll be fine on my own thank you very much.” She said bitterly.

As the two walked the sun began to set and it began to get dark in deadwood. The two had not spoken yet since Kaname gave Anhell the cold shoulder. The deeper they got into the Forest the more horrific it got. The leaves on the ground were dead and brown and crackled as the two walked. The sky was gray and did not seem to change colors as the sun set. Anhell heard Kaname gasp, and withdrew his sword quickly. Kaname turned to him and pointed at a figure in the woods off the dirt path. It was an extremely huge thing that was growling. As they got closer they noticed it was a griffin. It was picking fruits off of a decayed bush. Kaname smiled brightly, and began to approach the beast. Anhell gasped and grabbed her whispering loudly.
“Do y want it to see us?”
“let me go Anhell I know what I’m doing.” She whispered back. She slowly approached the griffin. When it saw her it growled lowly. Anhell gasped hiding behind a tree whispering loudly to her.
“Kaname get back here you blasted fool!”
She smiled as she put her bow down and extended her hand out toward the griffin.
“Come here boy. My name is Kaname…I’m not going to hurt you.”

It’s deep teal eyes met with hers and it took a step forward. Anhell stood in shock as she touched its beak and smiled. It actually went and cuddled beside her, rubbing against her side growling softly. She giggled and signaled Anhell to come over. Anhell stepped forth shyly. The griffin growled at him and ran over to him. The pounding of its hooves scared the living daylights out of Anhell and he quickly withdrew his sword holding it out closing his eyes tightly.
When nothing happened and Anhell heard Kaname laughing he opened his eyes slowly, To find the griffin crouched, growling beside his leg sleepily. It’s huge beak opened wide and it’s white feathers shot up as it gave a long yawn. Anhell smiled brightly and laid beside it. He slowly laid his head gently on its pure white soft feathers. He buried his face into it laughing; he stopped when he felt a warm feeling at his side.
He turned to see Kaname laying beside him her back to him and her eyes closed. He smiled and pointed his back to her also closing his eyes. A few moments later he heard the griffin snoring softly. He smiled when he felt Kaname’s hand slowly reaching for his hand. He moved his hand away just as she was about to reach it and giggled a little bit to himself. He cringed when her hand came down hard on his thigh. He knew she was laughing inside because she kept moving behind him and kept rubbing his back. He gave a grin and eventually they fell asleep.
But the two had no idea that in the dark of this forest there was evil…

The two awakened when they felt the griffin move and get up quickly, making their heads hit the leafy ground. It coughed a couple of times before taking off, opening it marvelous wings and flying out of the dead forest canopy.
“Good Morning Anhell” Kaname said rubbing her head. She reached over to the fruit bush that the griffin was eating from and plucked a large red fruit from it.
”Want half?” she said politely.
“What is it?” Anhell asked also rubbing his head.
“It’s an appipilin.” She said knocking on its rock hard skin.
Anhell nodded smiling, “yes please.”
She took his sword and cut it in half. As she did so, green ooze seeped out. “What is that crap?” Anhell asked disgusted. ”It’s nectar silly.” She said handing over his half. He took it and bit it. When he yelled out loud in pain, Kaname giggled loudly.
“Your not supposed you bite it Anhell. It’s harder than rock. You just drink the nectar.”
Within minuets they were both gulping down the nectar and telling each other about the dream they had last night.


It had been nearly six weeks since the two of them had entered the forest. They had just spent most of the time walking and not speaking to each other. But every now and then, They would catch the other looking at them when their backs were turned.
“Oh look Anhell...look…” Kaname finally spoke pointing at a forest tree. On it there was a small leaf. One small little leaf. She smiled walking over and touching it.
“We’re almost into the second layer of deadwood…” Anhell smiled as he looked down the road. The father down you looked the more leaves you could see on the trees. Kaname took off and ran down the path yelling back at him to hurry up.

In a few weeks the two had reached the second layer into Deadwood. As they walked together they began to hear sounds they had never heard in their lives. The sound of phoenixes chirping flying in the green canopy above them, and the low cry of mandrakes hidden in the soil below them.
Kaname gasped loudly. “How cute!” she ran over to a low tree branch and grabbed a small dragon off it. It was green and had small claws that could cut through a bottle cap. Its wings were so small it couldn’t fly. When it tried to burn Kaname it only let out a small flame that lasted only for two seconds. Anhell smiled and walked over petting it on the head.
“Yeah it is,” He said chuckling. But when it bit him he frowned and flicked its head with his middle finger.
“Botha’some little bugger aren’t ya?”
Kaname’s bright smile became a demon frown as she slapped him across the face, yelling.
“Anhell how could you?!” She looked back at the dragon that was covering its head giving out a little cry that made even Anhell feel bad for it. He rubbed his cheek and turned away not wanting to apologize to a wild animal.
Suddenly Anhell stooped and looked back at Kaname. “Kaname…do you hear that?” she was busy kissing the dragon and putting it back onto the tree. When she finally looked she frown and spoke in a mean tone. “Hear what?”
“That sound.”
“What sound?”
“It’s music…it’s a harp it sounds like…and…it sounds like water!” Anhell took off in the direction of the sound. Kaname followed closely behind yelling out for him. Within minuets she ran into him. He stood at the shoreline of what looked like a little pond. The small waves were crashing into his ankles. But this was no ordinary pond. There was a woman made of water sitting on a rock in the middle of the pond.
Anhell stared in awe at the sight. It was so beautiful the scene. The colorful leaves of purple and blue surrounded the pond. And in the canopy there was an opening in the leaves. Allowing sunlight to flood onto the pond. Making it sparkle and let off shines that resembled silver stars.
“Amazing…” Kaname uttered as she witnessed it. The woman made of water was playing a harp also made of water. She was manipulating the water around her with sound. The water began to dance around her. Like little tentacles the water around her appeared. They stretched right up into the canopy and actually touched the leaves. Three women made of water appeared and danced around her laughing. But when the one on the rock noticed Anhell and Kaname she gasped. Quickly they became formless and fell into the water like nothing splashing like water does. The tentacles of water crashed into the pond and everything became silent. They stared in total amazement.

 

[Anima241]

ch.3 continued

“What was that Anhell?” Kaname asked finally.
“I don’t know…” Anhell said looking at her.
There was suddenly a rustle in the leaves and as quickly as it happened, Kaname’s arms wrapped around Anhell’s arm, “Anhell!” she yelled frightened. Anhell smiled and said assuringly. “It must’ve been a goblin Kaname, just a goblin.” He walked over and went through the bushes and called to her. “Kaname come here look at this!” Kaname rushed through the bushes and meet up with Anhell who was staring a large statue.
“What is this?” he said confused. It was a huge dragon with no wings but six large tentacles sticking out of its back. Suddenly another rustle in the bushes suddenly something slithered out of the bushes and hissed.
“What the hell is that?!” Anhell yelled withdrawing his blade. Kaname screamed in terror, stepping back quickly pointing at it “Anhell kill it! KILL IT!” Anhell’s burgundy eyes narrowed as his arms stiffened and his mind cleared everything. His only goal was to protect Kaname at all cost. The forest blackened as the monster reared it face. It was a Pitomefia (this creature is a large one-eyed snake with petrifying venom. It’s been said that these creatures were extinct.)
It hissed loudly showing off its size by perking itself up, until it’s head touched the forest canopy. It must’ve been sixty-five feet in length. But Anhell Held onto the hilt of his sword.
“Show me what you’ve got!”

It’s fangs revealed themselves, and it went right at him without warning. Anhell hurled out of the way and grunted. It lifted its head again and bit at him quickly. It’s fangs reflected off of his iron chest plate. He yelled sending a devastating blow at its neck. His sword bounced off and it snickered whipping him with it’s tail. Anhell flew straight across the forest hitting g a tree.
“Ugh! Damn it!” He yelled getting up and going straight for it. Just as he slashed it dodged and bit his arm following it up with a tremendous hiss. Within seconds 76 grams of venom were injected into Anhell’s body. He yelled in pain and managed to stab it successfully in the snout. It roared and bit at him. He placed one foot on the top of the snake’s mouth and the other on the bottom and managed to snap the Pitomefia’s mouth open with a tremendous crack. It roared as it swung its head around maniacally. Its jaw swung from left to right as it spat venom everywhere. Anhell screamed loudly as it quickly went at him. It rammed him into a tree the pinned him against it. Anhell cringed as he felt his back tear open and blood ooze out. The venom leaked onto the tree and slowly, it turned into stone. Anhell yelled in horror, “Somebody!”

There was suddenly a loud chant, a loud whirring, and a tremendous hissing. The Pitomefia fell over motionless. Anhell turned to see Kaname holding out her bow breathing heavily. Her bow was glowing a bright blue almost white. Her eyes were slowly returning from white back to her sapphire eyes. Her hair was waving in a strange wind that blew past her. Anhell was about to get up when he noticed his arm wasn’t responding. When he looked down he cried out in horror, his voice echoed. His arm was gray and pure stone, slowly it was spreading onto his shoulder.
“Kaname, Oh god! Kaname I’m petrified!” He yelled loudly. Kaname ran over sliding beside him. She spoke firmly and held him down “Don’t move…”. Suddenly she pulled out a long needle the size of her arm out of the quiver. Anhell’s Eye’s shot open.
“No! No Kaname don’t!” He yelled terrified, but regardless she stabbed it right into the stone arm. It quickly shot out of the other side of his arm and it began to regain its color again. The arm was soon bleeding, she pulled out the bloody needle, placed it into her quiver and began chanting putting her hand onto the wound.
Suddenly Anhell’s eyes shot open as the Pitomefia rose and went right for Kaname. Without thinking Anhell slipped the ring right onto his thumb. It’s menacing eye opened and a huge beam exploded from it heading right for Kaname. Time seemed to slow as Anhell yelled in fright and pushed Kaname out of the way and yelled loudly. “Eroubious Flare!”
An intense black flame exploded from his mouth and blew right through the beam the Pitomefia had fired. Directly into the Pitomefia’s eye it went. Blowing right out of the back of its head.
It fell to the ground shriveling up into nothing but a skeleton and some organs. Anhell stood there on his knees. Kaname beside him motionless and a small flame on his bangs, which blew out in a strong wind that passed him. The dragon statue remained not moving one bit. It had witnessed the power of the ring…it had witnessed anhell’s strength…it had witnessed the power of the lucid ring…

 

[Anima241]

chapter 4

It had been ever so silent between Willcrum and Aries. They had barely escaped and Finite was a lost cause. The weeks had gone by slowly and the two survived by robbing markets and sleeping on the roofs of houses. It was officially three weeks after their escape from the orphanage and they were finally ready and strong enough to go through, The Arid Desert

“Re-vo….sa-ia-s” said Aries aloud. He pointed at the sign. “That’s the name of the city? Revosaias?” He said scratching his head. Willcrum smiled, “Cool! You can read almost!” Aries frowned, “Are you making fun of me?” Willcrum laughed, “No not at all, I’m just happy you can read, that’s all” Aries grinned running off to the wooden sign. “You can read, right?” Willcrum frowned and looked away.
“No” he said ashamed
“Why not?”
“The mistress never showed us how to read, I’m lucky I even learned how to speak, some of the guys at the orphanage cant even speak.”
Aries smiled, “don’t worry Willcrum I can teach you how to read. Well at least as much as I know. They gave us a few lessons back at the academy so we could read Magic books and such.” Willcrum just smiled and nodded, “Thanks” Aries nodded and ran his fingers over the sign.
“This must be the entrance sign to Revosaias. Meaning were leaving the city.” Willcrum nodded and ran past Aries. “Come on Aries, I want to see the world!” Aries followed quickly behind laughing.
The plains were beautiful to Willcrum’s burgundy eyes. He ran across the grassy fields laughing and rolling down the hills in his tattered and smelly clothing. When he saw a small rabbit he waved. “Hello there, my name is Willcrum!” Aries followed behind him laughing also. He waved to yelling, “Hello there my name is Aries!”


They had traveled all day and had run a whole lot. As the sun was setting and the two walked. The plains seemed to be getting less green. Willcrum noticed that another color was fusing in with the plains. He saw a patch of a white and tan grainy substance at the foot of a great hill that seemed to make a wall all the way to the coast of Siele. He reached over and took a hand full of it. Aries caught up to him and smiled, “Do you know what that is?” Willcrum shook his head no, as it seeped through his fingers onto the ground. “It is sand, that must mean this is the hill that separates the plains from the desert….” Aries said firmly. He suddenly took off and began to climb the steep hill. Willcrum followed close behind as the winds seemed to pick up and sand flew in the air. With one hand he climbed and the other hand he kept his dirty blonde hair from his eyes. When he reached the top his jaw dropped open as he whispered inaudible words.
The plains had suddenly become a wasteland of sand and wind. As the winds blew the sand, it appeared like massive waves. Aries looked at Willcrum. Willcrum didn’t speak.
“Ready Willcrum?”
“Ready…”

Aries jumped of the hill into the desert Willcrum close behind, they began running quickly. Aries yelled to Willcrum over the loud winds, “Whatever you do don’t stop. If you keep running the sands won’t hurt you!” Willcrum stared at him disoriented, but understood finally. When after a few seconds his feet began to burn in the steaming hot sands and he began to run. The grand sun lets it’s awesome radiance fall upon them both. Together they ran through the desert unarmed. The winds howled, blowing sand into their eyes. They both struggled to keep from crying. Sweat slowly developed on their bodies. Strange growls whispered through the wind, as the sand strangely shifted, as if something was moving underneath following them. They both removed their shirts as noon passed and the heat intensified. Blisters were slowly developing on their feet, and they were starting to slow down. When one of them grew tired the other carried them on their back until they were strong enough to run again.
Finally, the sun had set and night had come over the Arid Desert. The sands cooled and became warm. Aries and Willcrum were finally able to rest.
The moon hovered far above them in the night sky. Thousands of stars twinkled and accompanied the moonlight.
“It’s cold.” Willcrum said shivering. “I didn’t know going through the desert would be so hard.” Aries nodded, “It’s not so bad when you do it a second time. I had to go through this when I was coming to the orphanage, from the academy.” Willcrum looked down and wiggled his dirty feet in the sand.
“Do you think Finite is alright?” Wilcrum asked suddenly. Aries shook his head and looked up at the moon.
“Yeah I think he’s alright, he’s probably on his bunk bed right now looking at the same moon as us probably saying, “Hurry up Willcrum and Pissypip, get back here and kill this woman, so I can go train to be a hero with you guys.” Don’t worry about it Willcrum”. Willcrum looked up at the moon and nodded in agreement. For a few moments they were silent until Aries spoke again. "I’m hungry and so thirsty.”

The two were slowly starting to doze off until Willcrum spotted a huge structure in the distance. “Aries…ARIES! What is that!?” Aries looked up at him then to in direction he was pointing at. “That’s a damn statue!” Aries yelled in shock. But by then Willcrum had taken off toward the statue.
Willcrum ran faster as he got closer and began yelling, “Water! Aries Water!” Aries caught up and could not believe his eyes. There was indeed a statue sculpted into a perfect dragon on a square pedestal. It stood on two legs that had two joints. Its long tail was wrapped around one leg and it was covered with wide spikes. It was fairly fat and its two arms were placed in a position that appeared, from Aries’ point of view, as if it were holding the moon on one hand and another hand on top of the moon. Its wings were small and inferior just like its snout. But what really caught Aries’ eyes was the stream of water coming out of its mouth. “I am hallucinating this can not be!” he said out loud. Willcrum did not hear him because he had clambered on top of the statue, sitting on its hand that held the moon, and stuck his head into its mouth drinking water and pouring water all over his body.
“Aries, ARIES COME DRINK!” he yelled laughing joyfully. Aries did so and joined Willcrum, drinking water. When their bellies were full of water they both rested at the pedestal laughing and talking about the statue’s features. Aries fell asleep shortly after, but Willcrum stayed awake and began to examine the statue.
It was midnight now and the winds had stopped completely and just as Willcrum was about to fall asleep he heard a growl. “You have finally come. For so long have I waited for your presence in this desert.” Said a fearsome voice in the winds. Willcrum rose to his feet looking around frantically.
“Who’s there!?” he yelled at the winds. “Willcrum…I have so much pity for you…I know your fate. This not the last we will meet, take the rations and weapons from the sands beneath Aries. There is a gourd among the items, it will supply an endless amount of water until you reach the Tendon Shiga…I will see you soon in the near future Willcrum.” The voice vanished in the soft winds and Willcrum ran over to Aries and pushed him aside and began to dig. When he did this Aries awoke.
“What are you doing Willcrum? I was trying to sleep.”
“Just shut up Pissypip.” Willcrum said abruptly. Suddenly there was a gasp, as Willcrum pulled a leather bag full of bread from the sands. Willcrum continued to dig.
“What is all this? Is this a dream?” Aries said taking the bag smiling. Aries gasped louder as Willcrum pulled a small dagger from the ground that was made of pure silver. “That’s my training dagger from the academy!” yelled Aries as he ran over and snatched it. Quickly he looked over to the hilt and saw there was a large cursive letter “A” engraved on it. Willcrum laughed as he pulled a long sword from the sand. Its hilt was made of silver and had a dragon engraved on it along with Willcrum’s name on it. The blade was made of some type of black rock that was extremely lustrous and sharp.
“Willcrum…this is amazing…” said Aries in awe. Willcrum ignored him, and finally pulled a gourd from the sands.
“Let’s see your magic….” He said pulling off the cork that sealed it. He turned the gourd upside-down, and let the crystal clear water flow out of it. It fell onto the ground and vanished as the sand absorbed it. After a few minutes Willcrum popped the cork back on. He looked up at the statue in awe.
“The dragon did it Pissypip…” Willcrum said after staring at the statue for a long time. He turned to Aries who was slowly falling asleep. Willcrum just walked over and gave a hug to Aries.
“The gods are watching over us Aries.” He said sleepily. Within minuets the two had fallen asleep again.
They awoke in the morning when the sands grew hot again and they were forced to run across the desert again. But now they were ready they had weapons and food and endless water.

Weeks, maybe months, had passed since they had seen the dragon statue when Willcrum finally stopped.
“What the hell?” he said aloud pointing to a massive shift in the sand before them. Aries stopped but ran in place.
“I don’t know!” he yelled at Willcrum, over the intense winds. Suddenly the wind stopped and an intense low growl filled the air and the sands became cold.
Willcrum looked at Aries confused. “What’s happening?” The low growl echoed past the cold sands of the Arid Desert. Aries withdrew his dagger.
“oh no…”
“what is it Aries?”
“I know that scream…it was the last thing I studied before I left the academy.”
“WHAT IS IT?”
“An Antlion…”

 

[Anima241]

ch. 4 continued

“what the hell is---“ Willcrum’s voice was interrupted by another scream. Then something appeared in the distance, heading right for them, but it was moving so fast that they couldn’t move out of the way. Within moments they were flung into the air as the giant beast propelled them into the air by passing beneath their legs. In mid air Willcrum withdrew his sword and landed on his feet while Aries did the same.
“Watch out Willcrum!” he yelled. But it was to late, the antlion had appeared beneath Willcrum creating a huge whirlpool of sand. Willcrum screamed as he began to go into the center of the whirlpool sinking slowly. Suddenly the antlion appeared in the center of the whirlpool. It had huge fangs that snapped and thousands of legs were sticking out of it abdomen that had huge black hairs on it. It had Six bulging red eyes that scared the crap out of Aries. Aries shouted nonsense and ran back. Willcrum suddenly went under and vanished in the sand. Aries watched helplessly in horror.
“Willcrum!” he yelled. When he did this the antlion spotted him and one of it’s large crab-like claws went right for him. He was captured quickly and began screaming. When he tried to stab the dagger in its claw the blade nearly broke because it was so hard. Blood shot out of his stomach as he dangled like a dummy in the antlion’s grasp. He cringed in pain.
Like a light in the fog Willcrum appeared in the whirlpool. Aries had fallen unconscious. Willcrum was screaming loudly and had sand in his hair, when he looked at the antlion he just screamed louder. Then he realized the gold ring that was around his neck was glowing, a deep blue, when he touched it the whirlpool stopped. The antlion had stopped growling and everything had stopped. It took an extremely long time for Willcrum to realize what just happened. He had just frozen the entire area, which was covered with pure clear ice. .



Kaname’s sapphire eyes slowly opened. Anhell fell onto her and gave her a hug whimpering. “Kaname…oh Kaname….” She rubbed her head and suddenly remembered the stone arm, the black flame, and the beam of light heading toward her. Tears burst into her eyes as she began to cry loudly, “Anhell I’m sorry!” For a moment they stood there hugging until Anhell looked up, and spoke “I’m so glad your ok Kaname…” She nodded letting him go, she walked over to her stuff and packed up. “Lets get going Anhell…” He nodded and packed his stuff, when he picked up his sword he realized the ring was still on his thumb, he did not remove it he just kept it on and followed Kaname without talking and they continued through the forest.

Aries and Willcrum ran together across the Arid Desert. The days were long and event-less, Willcrum refused to speak at all, he just stayed quiet almost as if in a trance. Aries tried hard to speak to him, but Willcrum just looked away.

 

[Anima241]

chapter 5

6 months later….


Kaname gasped, “Anhell there’s the exit!” she looked at Anhell who certainly had changed physically in Deadwood. His hair had grown long and frizzy. His once perfectly smooth breastplate was now rugged and scraped. His once, pale skin color had become a light tannish color and he was totally dirty with small scrapes upon him. Kaname herself was now dirty and her once white uniform was now brown and covered with bloodstains.
“I can see the light at the end!” She yelled as she took off. “The sun, oh thank god, I see sunlight!” Anhell ran after her and met up with her. She had stopped directly at the exit, Her sapphire eyes glistened in the sunlight and made her seem beautiful again. Anhell put his arm around her shoulder and sighed.
“We’re here…it’s so beautiful…” After a half year Deadwood the landscape seemed like heaven to them. Shades of green, blue and yellow shot out and reflected on their eyes. Hawks and deer went about doing their daily things. The skies were pure blue and not gray like in Deadwood, and the horizon was covered with massive blue and white mountains. Kaname started to giggle and then laugh. Anhell looked at her puzzled, “What’s so funny?” She shifted closer to him and wrapped her arms around him, “I didn’t think we’d make it…” Anhell stared at her noticing that she was hugging him. He did the same back.
“Ready to get to the Tendon Shiga?” he asked gently. She didn’t respond for a moment and hid her face on his breastplate. He heard her sob once very silently. When she looked up she wiped her eyes, “I’m ready Anhell.”

Willcrum figure had changed slightly, his skin had become a light tannish color, and his hair had become a black obsidian color. The winds had died out and for some reason Willcrum could see green on the horizon. Aries did also. “Willcrum….is that what I think it is?” Willcrum still remained silent. Aries asked again, "Willcrum please tell me I’m not dreaming!” Willcrum looked at him and a smile suddenly appeared and he spoke finally after six months in the desert.
“You aren’t dreaming Pisspypip”
Aries smiled with joy and he began laughing running faster toward it. Willcrum laughed and chased after him, “Wait for me!” Aries slowed down and waited for Willcrum. When he finally caught up Aries challenged him to a race. They started off slowly, but began to pick up speed and finally were sprinting with all their strength to the ridge of grass, to the hill that separated the Arid Desert from the luscious green plains. Within minuets the two were clambering up the ridge their feet full of blisters and sweating. Willcrum gave one look over the awesome plains full of color and animals and water, before he looked at Aries who was already looking at him, and gave a small chuckle. Aries laughed and jumped with joy. Willcrum pulled the gourd from the desert and tossed it in the air, it shattered in midair, into a million pieces and the two took of toward the large shadow in the distance, were thousands of geese were heading to.


Kaname laughed loudly as they slowly approached the Tendon Shiga. There was loud music emanating from the huge Arena. Flutes, trumpets, and brass instruments playing in harmony, Drums beats echoed through the air. The ambience that came from the Arena could be heard far away. Anhell smiled taking Kaname by the hand, his face became eager as he pulled her and ran to it. The massive structure was a perfect oval if seen from the sky. The walls outside of the arena were decorated with thousands of statues of sirens, griffins, and chimeras. At the very top of the walls, were the eight very large dragon statues. The eight of them were positioned with their wings closed sitting upright and looking down into the very center of the arena as if they were watching the battles that took place inside of the Tendon Shiga.
When Kaname and Anhell arrived at the entrance, there were people all around. Vendors had opened weapon shops, markets and even spas, around the entrance. People moved about talking freely and having a good time. ”Anhell it’s amazing!” Kaname yelled in awe, as she stared at the vendors and weapons and everything that could be bought. The two stopped at the small orchestra of seventeen people that were playing music in the middle of the entrance road.
Willcrum laughed loudly clapping his hands to the music that the orchestra played, along with Aries. They stood on the exact opposite side of Anhell and Kaname who were also clapping now. When the orchestra finally stopped, a massive applause broke out and the earth even shook a little.
“Bravo, Bravo!” yelled Willcrum loudly. Aries did the same smiling. Anhell and Kaname continued down the street, Aries noticed Kaname, then noticed the boy standing next to her it looked just like Willcrum who looked just like Anhell. When Aries rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. When he opened his eyes again the two had disappeared in the crowd, even Willcrum himself had vanished. Aries rubbed his head, “Willcrum…Anhell? Who the where the?”
Anhell stopped at a weapons vendor and Kaname sighed bored, Suddenly she pointed a strange creature in the middle of the road, “LOOK ANHELL IT SO CUTE!” Anhell didn’t even bother looking back at her and waved her off, because in Deadwood she had said everything was “so cute” even when she saw a furred goblin she said it was cute. She put her hands on her hips and frowned, “Fine! I’m going to go pet it, be right back!” she said running out into the middle of the road to the creature. It was some thing that resembled a lemur. It’s eyes were perfect circles and were huge, it’s ears were long and dragged on the ground along with its tail. Its fur was a perfect white, not even dirty, it’s head had a patch of black fur that covered the area around it’s eyes, also it’s tail was striped and the tips of it’s ears, fingers, and toes were black.. It had just picked up an acorn with its small paw and was hitting it on the ground trying to break it. Kaname’s eyes went wide-eyed as she went toward it. “AWWW YOU’RE SO CUTE!” she said out loud smiling. When she grabbed it, she began to hug it like it was a doll. The creature looked at her confused and tilted its head. When she pulled it away from her she began to ask, “Are you lost little---“ she suddenly let out a grunt as the creature gave her a sharp clout on her fore head with the acorn.
“Now that wasn’t very---“ She started to say, but was hit across the head again. Willcrum came walking down the road talking with a flute player from the miniature orchestra.
“So how do you play this?” He said as he began to blow on the flute and spit got all over it. The fluteplayer looked at him with a scrunched face, obviously not liking Willcrum. By the way he was holding his nose, you could tell that Willcrum smelled really bad, and right in front of Kaname the fluteplayer snatched the flute away and ran off in to the crowd sticking the middle finger up at Willcrum. Kaname looked up at him and laughed before getting smacked with the acorn again. Willcrum smiled and kneeled beside her, “That’s so cute” he said poking its belly. The creature threw the acorn at him and began growling, but it sounded like a laugh.

 

[Anima241]

ch.5 continued

“Isn’t it Anhell? I love it!”. she said looking back at him. Willcrum’s faced scrunched up, as he began to speak, “Anhell? who’s----“
“Why do you have sand in your hair? And where’s the sword the headmaster gave to you, And where’s your silver chestplate?” she said as a look of annoyance came over her face.
“ma’am I think you have me confused with some---“ Willcrum started but was interrupted again.
“It was that weapons vendor, he ripped you off didn’t he?!” She said angrily. Willcrum spoke but slurred his words as she grabbed him by the hand and dragged him off, with Willcrum in one hand and the creature in the other she yelled. “Never make a trade without me! You hear me? Now which vendor was it? Was it you!” She said as the two vanished into the crowds.

Anhell laughed as he turned away from the weapons vendor with a new breastplate in his hands. “Thank you sir.” He began to look around disoriented. “Kaname?” Suddenly he was slapped on the back really hard, and a voice spoke loudly behind him, “Finally there you are! I’ve been looking all over for you!” Anhell turned to Aries who was smiling at him.
“Who are ya?” Anhell said confused. Aries frowned, “Only five minuets and you’re already making trades. And what’s worse you didn’t even get me anything, and you even took off all the sand in your hair.” Anhell looked at him like he was crazy.
“Are ya alright in the head boy?” Aries laughed, “Ok, enough jokes now lets go check out one of those spas (and stop it with the accent you moron)” he said grabbing Anhell by the arm and hauled him off to one of the vendors giving massages.

Kaname slapped her fists on a counter. “Give him his stuff back you cheapskate!” she yelled angrily. Behind her, Willcrum smiled at the guy she was yelling at. His hand slowly went up to his ear and he began to spin his pointer finger around it, saying she was crazy in sign language. “Miss step away from the counter before I call the guards“. Her face became red as she began to yell, “No, I’ll call the guards! Guards, Guards!” She began to wave her hands about like a maniac. The people passing by laughed and chuckled. “What are you laughing at?” she said looking at the creature who sat on the counter snickering loudly rolling up and down the counter kicking its legs in the air. “Stop laughing!” She said firmly. As she did this Willcrum backed away from her, running into the crowd.

 

[Anima241]

ch.5 continued

“Ahh doesn’t this feel nice Willcrum?” Aries said as one of the vendors was giving him a massage. Anhell was getting his back rubbed, “Uh sir, I really think you have me mistaken---“ He said to Aries smiling. “Rubbish! Stop acting stupid, because after this we have to go register into the Tendon Shiga.” Aries said almost laughing as the chiropractor tickled him a bit. Anhell frowned, “Now see here---” He said standing up firmly. But the glare from the people around him made him sit down again speechless. He sighed, “A little to the left then…”

“Anhell! Where are you!?” Kaname yelled walking around the main street with the creature in her hand. Willcrum behind a crate of fruits, watching her grinning, as she passed by not seeing him.
When Anhell heard her calling him he smiled, “I’ll be right back, I have to go to the restroom…(psyche)” he said standing up, putting his hands between his legs pretending he had to go piss. Aries laughed, “Alright Hurry back.” Anhell nodded and ran towards the sound of Kaname’s voice. Aries yelled at him, “Wait a sec.! I have to go now too!” He got up and began calling for Willcrum. Willcrum heard Aries calling for him and got up and ran towards his voice.
The orchestra had begun playing again, and both Kaname’s and Aries’ voices were covered. Anhell looked around nervously as the people began to crowd around the orchestra again. Willcrum did the same, afraid he would lose track of Aries. Anhell accidentally bumped into a young woman. “Ever so sorry.” He said as he began to walk backwards, smiling. Just behind him Willcrum bumped into a fat man and ricocheted of his belly. “Ever so sorry.” He said smiling as he stumbled backwards. The gap between the two quickly closed as they went right for each other their backs turned in the opposite direction. They finally stopped just within a foot of each other, they both spoke in unison in the same voice as they spoke to the people they had bumped into, “Really I am sorry!”
The two stopped and at the same exact time they scratched their right ear with confused faces, as if they had just heard their echo. Suddenly Aries appeared and Kaname appeared on each other side off the main street. Like symmetry, they walked in opposite directions to Kaname and Aries.
“There you are! What kind of man are you leaving me alone in a place like this!…well at least you got your stuff back…now let’s get to the arena.” Kaname said smiling.
“Finally! Did you find the bathroom?” Aries said grinning. Willcrum looked at him strangely, then remembered that he was being followed. So he grabbed Aries by the arm, “yeah I think it’s in the arena! Lets get going!”

(that's it for now, please comment)