Hero

Chapter 4: LUKE II

The plains of Dox was a wasteland that stretched across a large area in Istoren. It was once said to be a vibrant happy place with the streets filled with children's laughter and rivers filled with fresh fish that would be caught and eaten by the people for supper. This was until a great monster destroyed it, leaving it in ruin and leaving all the people dead.

Luke stopped and stared at the deserted area in front of him. His mind could not understand how a place in Istoren could become so empty and lifeless. A large grunting noise was heard getting closer to him.

"Seriously, Luke... We have been traveling through this shit hole of a place for almost a day now and we have no idea where we are going, I suggest we turn around now whilst we still can," said Jason panting as he caught up to Luke.

"Oh stop moaning, you're doing my head in, I'm sure Luke has some sort of knowledge of how to get through here," shouted Kathryn who was about twenty metres in front of the boys.

"Well buddy, do you?" asked Jason now getting rather impatient. Luke ignored both of them and didn't move a muscle. They both stared at him for around a minute complete clueless as to what he was doing. Kathryn ran back over to see what was going on.

"Luke, are you okay? What's going on? Luke! What are you thinking about?"

Jason finally saw why Luke was so still. Now on Luke's arm was a deadly Spipion; half scorpion half spider. Kathryn instantly new what it was.

"Do not move a muscle Luke."

"What do you think he's been doing for the last five minutes, running about giving us information on what to do?" Said Jason commenting sarcastically on Kathryn's instruction to Luke.

Kathryn gave Jason a dirty Luke and pulled out her bow slowly from her back.

"Woah, Kat I was just kidding, like seriously I didn't know you had such a bad temper I.." Murmured Jason in fear before being interrupted by Kathryn shooting the Spipion off of Luke's arm.

Luke burst out laughing, "You thought she was gonna shoot you."

Jason paused, gave a fake smile, then sat down on the floor. Kathryn looked at look asking if he knew what to do next but even Luke had no idea of where to go. He realised they they were completely lost and he didn't even know how to get back either. Luke stood up and started walking in an Eastern direction. Kathryn lifted Jason off the ground who continued to make grunting noises as they walked.

* * *

Clouds covered the moon over the plains of Dox with lighting coming out of them. Luke had barely spoken to Jason and Kathryn whilst walking because he wanted to focus on the one goal alone, of finding the sword and becoming rich. He didn't know where to go but he just got this feeling in his gut that going East would lead him towards the sword. Luke called them to a halt when he reached a dilapidated building.

He turned around, "Look for anything that could be of some help to us, wether it's food, weapons or something that tells us where we are."

They all began to search through the rubble until they found a trap door in the ground. Kathryn opened it up walking down, shortly followed by Luke.

Jason called down after them, " I'll keep watch guys, I'm not going down some creepy hole in the ground but if you want to... Go for it... Have fun..."

Luke and Kathryn reached the bottom of the cracked staircase arriving at a small room that had a chest in. Luke approached the chest attempting to open it up. Kathryn noticed that it needed a key so began to search round the room for one. After a few minutes she found one underneath the rocks by the entrance.

Luke put the key in the chest and opened up the box. There was nothing inside but a note that said, 'One step ahead of you brother.'

Luke shrugged placing the chest back on the ground, " come on let's get back to Jason, he's probably scared out of his mind up there by himself."

They almost reached the top of the stairs but heard talking so went slowly. Luke peered through the top of the trap door to see Jason surrounded by a group of Dagors. The original Dagor was created by a wizard to curse a man for killing his family with his own hands. They had Orc like features with grey skin and voices that sounded like snakes.

The Dagors grabbed Jason by his arms pulling him away. Luke was about to jump out of the trap door to try and save his friend but Kathryn held him back.

"If we go out now we will just get taken as well, we have to follow them from afar." She whispered

Luke reluctantly nodded because he knew that Kathryn was right. They slowly lifted up the trap door and followed the band of Dagors from a distance. The Dagors reached a large gate calling out a strange sentence in their language. It opened up and they all hobbled though still with Jason being dragged along screaming and whimpering.

Luke and Kathryn made a quick run for the gate slipping in just before it closed. They then sprinted up the nearest staircase so they could get a good view from above of where Jason was going. The whole city was covered with Dagors. Luke looked over at Kathryn with a worried face.

"So what now?"

She looked up at the sky above muttering, "Hope that the gods give us a miracle, we'll need it."