Jace Irons: The Shard of Chaos

Chapter Eleven: This Next Part Would Make a Great 2006 Thriller Movie

"Holy shit, one punch??." David asked in disbelief.

"Yup." I nodded. "He dropped like a pile of bricks."

"Damn, remind me not to piss you off."

I chuckled. I had just finished telling David the story of how when I was fourteen I had won a boxing match in the first round with one hard, well-timed blow to the jaw. The guy I was fighting was three years older, and had an easy sixty pounds on me.

"Relax, man. It was more luck than skill." I said.

David and I had been walking through the woods for the past couple hours. Initially, when we ran away from camp, we had jogged through the woods glancing at Briar's map to make sure we were still heading west. He had run for about an hour or so, then slowed to a walk, whisper-talking the whole time to try and maintain stealth. We didn't want to attract any monsters. We talked and all the while kept a close eye out for danger. All was quiet so far.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, did you really kill a manticore?" asked David.

That question caught me off guard. "Uh, yeah..." I said. "Punched it in the face, actually."

"Oh, man!" he said excitedly. "That's hardcore! Did you knock it out?"

I looked down at my metal arm, and my hand closed into a fist. "Not exactly..." I said quietly.

He knew he was getting close to a sore spot. He chose to pump me up next.

"Well," he started. "Not many demigods could stand up to a manticore and live. They're one of the most dangerous monsters to exist. You got skills, dude."

"Apparently not enough..." I said under my breath.

"What's that mean?"

"Not everyone got out as lucky as I did."

"Wait, there were others?"

"Just one."

"Oh man..."

I told David the painful story of how Briar the satyr had saved me from the cyclops and led me safely through the woods. I then told him all about the fight with the manticore, how Briar had been mortally wounded, and how I had come by my new metal appendage. The arm I had come to accept, even going so far as to trick it out with a retractable sword, but not being able to save Briar, I still carried that guilt with me every day.

"Damn, dude..." said David. "I had no idea..."

"It's okay." I said. "What happened, happened."

"Right." he said. "You okay?"

"Better now." I said.

"Well hey man, if you--" he stopped. "You hear that?"

I stopped and cocked my head. I heard it too, a metallic rumbling sound coming from somewhere to the north.

"Are those....trains?" asked David?

"Sounds like it." I said. "Lots of em. That's weird, there shouldn't be any train junctions anywhere near here." Just to make sure, I checked Briar's map. Sure enough, there were no train stations or junctions anywhere near camp. I showed David.

"Yup, that's weird alright." he confirmed.

"Could be monsters." I said.

"Could also mean a ride west." David said optimistically. "Think we should check it out?"

He was right, we'd need a ride west to find that power core soon and make it back to camp just as quick. We didn't know when the war was gonna start, but it was gonna be soon. Also, if there was any sort of monster train operation going on out here, this close to camp, we'd better deal with it quick.