Immortal Life of the First King: The Wandering Knight

Chapter 3: Taken

"Uh-" Leon mumbles as he shifts in his chair. He grabs a drink and stands up holding it high in the air, "Let's have a toast. Let's toast to our good health." Parodona stands up with her rock beer looking at him curiously, "To our good health Leon."

She pulls him close so her face is near his ear. Her cold and rainy breath hitting his ear she whispers, "I won't forget about that question, you will answer it one day Leon."

Leon's face grew tired, "Step away from me Parodona, I'm too tired for this. Get some sleep. You will need it for the journey to Protovia." Parodona walks to the doorway of an adjacent room, "I do not know if I will be going with you, I might go back and help my village recover. I have been away too long."

"Go get some sleep Parodona, regardless of what you're doing in the morning," utters Leon as he walks outside.

Parodona goes and lays down, sighing as her thoughts drift off into the open sea of dreams. Sitting in front of the door Leon smokes a pipe full of Jute, an herb that helps soothe the mind and soul. Blowing smoke rings into the air, forming shapes of all sizes.

He takes the pipe out of his mouth, puts it out, and places it on the ground next to him. He holds the pommel of his sword with relative ease and as the night comes drifts off to sleep.

An hour passes, and the night becomes dark and gloomy. Leon awakes to a crack in the woods. He looks down to see his left hand still on the pommel of his sword, "Old habits die hard I guess," he mutters as he stands up stretching.

As he starts walking into the cave again he hears another noise from the forest. He turns around and quickly spots a bush shaking. Quietly walking over to the bush, he steadies his breathing and brings his right hand to his sword handle.

He creeps up on the bush and separates it with one hand, while the other remains firmly on his sword handle. Leon sees nothing but a dirt hole. Leaning in closer to it he spots materials for stone beer. He picks up one of the stones and spots a marking on the back of it, "Geru" he reads in Unisaki. His eyes go cold and he throws the stone down as he turns around towards the house, "I've got a horrible feeling about this." he whispers to himself.

The ground shakes and five creatures burst out of the ground. Leon rolled out of the way but not in time before two of the creatures latched onto his back, squeezing their claws into his shoulder blades.

Leon starts to draw his sword when one of the creatures grabs his hand. Leon tries to shake the two creatures off his back by suddenly jolting forward, but he's unsuccessful as he grunts in pain from their claws piercing his skin.

Eyeing the three on the ground, he backs up suddenly, "Get the hell of me!" he roars hitting a tree, knocking the creatures off his back. His hands now free he draws his gleaming longsword.

Firmly grasping the leather-wrapped handle and silver pommel he swings at the heads of the creatures on the ground. His slash cuts the air creating a furious wind force as he just misses as the creature crawls out of the way stunned. The other two back away in a daze.

The two creatures he knocked off his back get back up. They jump up in the air screeching. Swinging his long sword into the air he cuts them both down as their bodies are thrown away by the force.

Leon feels the sword slipping out of his hand because of the blood all over his fingers. The three creatures on the ground snap out of shock and jump towards him claws and teeth out.

"This is going to end badly for you! Go back to your master!" Leon thunders as he brings both hands on his sword to prevent it from falling out. The sword now has a green glow, lighting up the area around Leon and the creatures.

Bringing his shimmering sword downwards chopping the first creature in two, shaking the entire forest with his battle roar.

Slashing the other creature, Leon steps back to compose himself for the third and final creature. Then all of a sudden it charges at him, "I'm not ready! I won't have enough time to bring it back to block!" Leon frantically thinks.

Backstepping to get more space his blade suddenly is in front of him. Astounded for a second on how it got there, he looks at the end of it as the creature is there. There on the end of the sword, not alive but dead, and its blood running down the edge of the blade.

Somehow he got his arms around to the front of this body to kill the creature with his sword. Leon didn't know how just that he did it.

The creature blows up in green flames and the sword goes back to its normal shine. Leon's eyes widen and looks at his blade curiously, "There is no way I could've got my sword around in time. What did I just do?" he mutters.

Sweeping his blade to the side, all the blood on it being thrown off cleaning the blade enough to sheathe. Leon looks at all the dead creatures as his eyes widen, 'Parodona!" he forgot that she was still asleep in the cave!

Running back towards the cave he finds a dead creature in the entryway. The same type as the ones he fought. Bursting inside knocking a chair over, "Parodona are you here!" Leon shouts. "Yes I'm in my room!" he hears Parodona shout back.

Walking into her room he sees her with a bloody dagger and a dead creature at her feet. "I'm so sorry Parodona, I was fighting them off in the woods!" Parodona sighs and drops the dagger on the floor as it makes a loud clang, "Leon it's okay, I know how to fight a little bit you know. You look injured how many did you fight? Also, what are these things? I've never seen them before."

Leon's gaze over the room becomes indifferent, "Those were small creatures, claws, and teeth sharp as knives. They hunt in packs and are the sworn enemies of the Unisaki. Those are the Darthja."

Parodona's eyes widen in fear as she sits on her bed, hands on her head, "Leon. Where's Rowyn."

Leon's mind thinks back to the hole with the stone beer materials, "It said Geru on a stone." he said. Parodona's face is riddled with confusion, "What does Geru mean?" she frantically asks him.

"It means help. In Unisaki." Leon says coldly.

Parodona begins talking, "Leon? Where is he?!" she repeatedly asks.

All of it is just background noise since he is too busy in his frenzied mind.

Staring at the floor. He clenches his fist snarling, "Rowyn has been taken."