True Resolve

Chapter III : Conception Of Will

All those hours Marty put into those shitty driving sims seemed to pay off. He swerved into the treeline and braked and I hit the windscreen so hard I could almost taste the dew on the other side. My nose felt like it got sucker punched by a brick wall and the cold didn't help anything either.

Me and Marty both instinctively left the car, hearing Douglas' engine sent us deeper into the forest when suddenly I heard a very loud thud and bang that rang through the whole forest. The sudden noise had birds flying away and left my ears ringing but that haze was back again. Telling me to follow the noise and investigate what exactly it was.

Without question or hesitation, Marty and I ran deeper into the forest with Douglas still on our tails. Until we reached what I could only describe as otherworldly. Had I known what we were walking into, I would've avoided it completely and voided the memory of it in my mind, but I felt compelled at the moment, like something greater was nudging me towards it.

It was a crater and in the centre was a damaged white box that was pretty beat up from impact with a familiar logo on it. Me and Marty slowly approached the site, still silent and investigated it.
"You see that logo right?" Marty enquired, looking at the object. It was undoubtedly that logo, the one of the company we were constantly praising. "Stavaras..." We said in sync. I reached out my hand to try to get a proper feel of the object when the lid suddenly burst open and before my eyes was something countries were killing each other for, something that yielded the ability to topple nations.
A Stand Arrow.

1989, A group of architects find an ancient tomb in Egypt that had a plethora of treasures but one thing that stood out the most was an unusual arrow that was being held by what was assumed to be a Pharoah. What made the arrow unusual was how the parts of the Pharoah touching the arrow were completely fresh, unlike the rest of his body which had completely mummified over 1000 years ago. When the researchers tried to pry the arrow out of the body's hands, it supposedly flew through the bodies of 3 of the 4 archeologists before piercing the last researcher in the hand. Said archeologist allegedly gained the ability to control sands but the entire thing was dismissed after finding the tomb was boobytrapped with heavy hallucinogens from when they tried to take the arrow, which supposedly caused all the researchers to kill each other in a crazed frenzy. The arrow that led to that rampage was sitting neatly, packed on a black pillow in a box that practically fell from the heavens, right in front of me...or at least one of them anyway.

I was in complete awe seeing such a powerful object in my midst. My mind flooded with several thoughts. Is this actually real? Do I pick it up? Why did it fall from the sky? "There's no way..." Marty said cutting off my train of thought. The hissing steam of the box invited me closer to pick up the arrow, I held it in my hand for what felt like an hour before I heard a distant shouting voice "DON'T PICK UP THAT ARROW". It startled me and caused me to drop the arrow which landed head first into the exposed bit of my foot, above the tongue of my shoe.

The feeling that hit me sent pain throughout my whole body, it felt like my entire nervous system got ripped out of me and glued back in the wrong way. Hearing Douglas' voice getting closer didn't even help my case, his voice screaming my name echoed and drilled deep into my head. I started spinning before I turned around and kicked the arrow off my feet.

It might have been the fact that I just experienced what felt like open heart surgery with braai tongs but as I was falling, I swore I saw the arrow I kicked curve mid-air and hit someone standing next to Douglas, Dana.

I got winded hard as I hit my ass on the ground and looked up to see people in a screaming contest. Douglas, Dana and that crackhead who invited us were in a frenzy. When I kicked the arrow, it landed square in the middle of Dana's thigh who was conveniently parallel to me when I thundercunted the arrow. Douglas was in a frantic panic, trying to take the arrow out. He managed to grasp it but it nicked him and he dropped it.