Warriors of the Forsaken Ch. 08

"James! Wake up!"

My ears were ringing and my head hurt. I could barely open my eyes and I felt a sharp pain in my right side.

"James!"

I could hear Faye shouting my name but it was still so hard to open my eyes or even move. I felt hands grab me and lift me up. My arms dangled and my feet dragged along the ground. One of my eyes opened after a moment and I saw dead bodies all over the ground. Many were burnt beyond all recognition.

My other eye opened and I saw burning houses. Every single house that my eye could see was inflamed. It was absolute destruction everywhere. I saw several people dart by us with bows and arrows in their hands. They were all so young and all had scared looks on their faces. They had no idea that today they were going to wake up and find themselves fighting a dragon in their peaceful town.

"I need to join them!" Marian shouted as she stopped for a moment. I looked to each side of me and saw that Faye and Marian were carrying me. They both had bruises and cuts on their faces. Faye had a cut on her cheek that was dripping blood.

"Don't be silly! You're going to get yourself killed!" Faye shouted at her. "We need to get out of here!"

"Where's Cyrena?" I asked them woozily. My head was pounding and I still felt like I needed to close my eyes for a bit. I wondered if I had a concussion.

"I...I don't know if she's still alive," Faye said. We all looked over at the inn which was flattened to the ground. There was no movement coming from the debris. I felt a strong pang of despair hit me in the chest.

"Cyrena can't be dead?!" I said as I looked at all of that rubble. Please, god, no! I thought.

There was a horrible roar from above and I looked up to see a dragon in the sky. On its back was that armored figure. The dragon let out a deafening roar and fire burst from its open mouth. Several houses blew up. We all jumped from the loud sound. I saw to my horror several inflamed people come running out of the house. They collapsed on the ground as the fire overtook them. I felt like I was going to be sick. This was all too much.

Faye and Marian watched all of this with wide eyes. I hung from their shoulders and tried to put my feet on the ground. My legs shook for a moment as I regained my balance.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Marian shouted as she looked up at the dragon.

I watched as the group of people fired their arrows at the dragon above. Many of the arrows missed the dragon while a few hit it but bounced off of its hardened body. The dragon let out a roar and fire jetted out from its mouth and obliterated the people. There were horrifying screams as the people burnt alive.

"No!" Marian screamed from beside me. There were tears in her eyes as she looked at her fellow citizens who were all burned to a crisp. I started to retch and my stomach completely emptied itself.

"Come on! We need to hide somewhere!" Faye screamed.

Suddenly, the dragon and the rider on it looked over in our direction. It started to charge toward us. We all screamed in fear and ran. Faye grabbed my hand and pulled me in the direction of a destroyed house. We ran through the open door with Marian behind us. There was literally nowhere that we could hide. The roof had caved in and the staircase to the second floor had fallen. We got behind a table that was on its side. There wasn't much protection against this dragon.

Faye and I were shaking like leaves in fear. I could see that Marian was just as scared but she was trying to put on a brave face. She peered over the table and Faye and I followed suit. We saw that the dragon had landed in front of the house. The rider got off of it and began to walk toward the house. A sword was taken out of the scabbard on the dragon rider's hip. It was a red long sword and it seemed to shine in the bright sunlight.

I gulped loudly as I looked at the sword. I had never seen anything like this before. Not even in video games that I played. This sword was meant for killing and we were going to be its next victims.

"I'm going to kill this bastard!" Marian said in anger. She grabbed the hilt of her own sword and stood up before Faye and I could stop her. She looked at the red armored figure with hate in her eyes.

"You are going to pay for what you've done!" Marian yelled. She withdrew her sword and it came out in a flash. Her sword was a sharp gray color from tip to hilt. I stared at it in awe as she held it in her hand. It was a long sword and looked ready to do some damage.

There was a laugh that came from the dragon rider which made me turn my eyes to them. It was a woman's laugh that I heard. "Drop your sword and I'll spare your life. All I want is the boy," the dragon rider said in a raspy voice.

I felt fear rush through me. She wanted me?! Surely, this was not all because of my semen?! All of this destruction and carnage could not be all due to me?!

Marian and the dragon rider raised their swords. I could see the hate in Marian's eyes as she stared the other woman down. Her hand gripped her sword tightly. In a flash, both women charged at one another. The sound of swords colliding rebounded in the room. It was such a loud sound that it made my ears ring.

The dragon rider laughed as she swung her sword at Marian who fielded the blow. Marian's scowl deepened on her face as she yelled out and attacked the other woman. The dragon rider easily dodged all of Marian's attacks. With each collision of their swords, I would let out a disappointed sigh. I wanted Marian's attacks to hit the dragon rider.

It felt weird to want that. This was not a video game where I could watch a sword strike a character down. This was real life. I knew that if Marian struck her that the dragon rider would be injured and that Marian would kill her. Did I really want to watch someone get killed? Yes, the dragon rider had destroyed this village and killed probably all of the women here but did I really want her to die?!

When I was younger, I had a bully in primary school who picked on me every day. One day he had pushed me into a puddle of dirty water. I was drenched from head to toe in that dirty water and watched as he laughed with his sidekicks. When I got home and after I cleaned myself up, I prayed that he would die. My anger was so deep that with all of my being, I wished death upon him. That was the only time that I had ever really wanted someone to die.

Later that same night, I woke up feeling guilty and said a prayer that he would not die because I was afraid that it might really happen. I must have prayed over and over undoing the original wish for his death for hours. The next day, I actually let out a sigh of relief and was glad to see that he was still alive when I saw him in the hallway. He gave me a suspicious look as he saw the happy smile on my face.

Marian let out another loud yell and swung her sword at the dragon rider's midsection. The dragon rider fielded the blow and hit Marian in the side of the head with the hilt of her sword. Marian let out a cry of pain.

"Did that hurt, elf?" The dragon rider asked her with an evil laugh. It was a laugh that I had heard many times in anime shows from diabolical villains. The dragon rider was enjoying toying with Marian.

I looked over at Faye who was watching the fight intently. I could see that her hands were trembling hard on the table. I wondered why Faye did not shrink down to her pixie size and fly away but I knew the answer to that already. After only knowing Faye for about a day now, I knew that she was very loyal. She wasn't going to fly off and leave us to our deaths.

"Faye, what do we do?" I whispered to her.

Before Faye could even respond, the dragon rider looked over at me after dodging another attack from Marian and kicking her aside. Marian stumbled and fell into a pile of rubble. "You can do nothing, boy. The Demon Queen wants you and you are returning back with me to her castle. There is nothing you can do. You are hers, now."

A chill ran down my spine at her words. It was the way she spoke them that made me feel absolutely terrified. It was like she was stating a fact. I was the Demon Queen's!

"No! He is not hers! I won't let you take him!" Faye yelled at the dragon rider. Even though her hands were still shaking, she had a defiant look on her face.

The dragon rider laughed. "If you want to keep your head, fairy, I think you should flutter away now. I am going to kill this elf then I'm grabbing that boy."

Marian had gotten back up to her feet and let out a battle cry as she attacked the dragon rider. Their swords collided as I watched as the dragon rider stumbled back a little. Marian swung her sword fiercely with all of her strength which caused the dragon rider to step back twice from the incoming blows.

I felt a sliver of hope as I watched Marian. She kept moving the dragon rider backward. It was like she had gained a surge of strength. She gritted her teeth as she forced herself forward with the endless barrages of attacks.

Suddenly, the dragon rider began to laugh. She swung her sword and it hit Marian in the side and blood dribbled out from the wound. Marian let out a painful sound and grabbed at her side. She stepped back and tried to dodge the attacks of the dragon rider. The dragon rider kicked Marian off of her feet and she fell with a crash on the ground.

The dragon rider laughed as she looked down at Marian. "You are no match for me, elf. Now, you die!"

"No!" Faye jumped over the table and I followed right behind her. It was instinctual. We both did not care about dying as we did not want to watch Marian die. The dragon rider turned and slapped Faye before she could hit her. Faye went flying across the room. She hit a broken wall and fell down with the wall falling on her.

I tried to grab at the dragon rider but her armor was so hot. It was like grabbing at a hot pan fresh out of the oven. She pushed me hard which caused me to trip over debris and go sprawling to the ground. I let out a cry as my hurt side collided with a piece of rubble.

The dragon rider looked at me with concern as if wondering if she had hurt me. Her eyes stared intently at my side where I held it. I wondered if she was afraid of hurting the Demon Queen's new possession. I figured that had to be it.

This distraction proved to be fruitful. Suddenly, Marian thrusted her sword at the dragon rider. It hit her in the abdomen. The dragon rider groaned and looked down at Marian who pushed the sword deeper into her. The dragon rider fell to her knees as Marian went to her feet. Black blood poured from the dragon rider's abdomen.

I watched as the life left her eyes. Her head drooped over. I felt both relief and fear as I looked at the dead woman. Suddenly, there was a loud roar from outside that made me snap my head in that direction. The dragon! I had forgotten that the creature was right outside this entire time! It roared again and my body began to tremble as I could feel that heat building up inside of its mouth. We were going to be burnt alive!