Looking Forward

Chapter 2 - Kyros

Kyros                           It had been maybe two months or it might have been five. I wasn't sure, I had lost count of the days ever since the barn incident. I now lived on my own, traveling from town to town just trying to survive. I'd come up with a fake name just in case someone might recognize me. I called myself "Kyros". Occasionally I'd meet someone, we'd talk, but then I'd start to get attached and leave. I didn't deserve friends or relationships after I failed to protect my village. It wouldn't be fair to them. I'd also sometimes meet people who only wanted trouble. The fights usually wouldn't last long. At the moment I was staying in a village far away from where I came from. It was nine in the morning and I got up out of bed, got dressed and walked outside. By now I had managed to buy a new sword and a hunting knife. The sword was way worse then my previous one but it worked all the same. I headed over to the local tavern and sat down. "Hey! If it isn't Kyros." I hear from across the room, I look over and see a man with messy blonde hair, and green eyes approaching me. He's average height and average build. Not muscular but not skinny. His name is Jean. I met him a week ago yet he acts like we're best of friends. I've wanted to leave this place ever since he started talking to me yet for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do it. I shouldn't be here anyways. These people had a completely different culture, they hated "Throlik the Thunder god" and acted as if he was their greatest enemy. They believed in the fire god "Jean" who supposedly killed Throlik in battle before the old world ended and created the new one we live in now. Jean uses the coincidence that his name is the same as the fire god to act like he's better than everyone else. I doubt he could even win a fight with a toddler. Me and Jean were on guard duty today. One of the rules of living here is you have to help in some way or another. Normally nothing happens, sometimes there's a wild bear that we need to take care of. But today was different, it felt different. It's the same feeling I felt before. It felt dangerous. We were outside the gate standing by the wall watching. I watched every small movement I saw. CRACK! There was a noise coming from the bushes nearby. A rabbit jumped out from the bush and ran towards us. I threw my knife and pierced its heart. I picked it up and tied it to my belt. I looked over and Jean looked terrified. Like he'd just seen a ghost. There was another noise coming from the bush, "Just another rabbit." I thought to myself. "FIRE!!!" someone yelled in the distance and a barrage of arrows flew at us. I tackled Jean and chopped the back of his neck with my hand. I didn't want him to see my abilities. He might hate me. I stood up and unsheathed my sword. In the distance a large group of people charged towards me. They looked and acted like bandits, they were unorganized and messy. One ran at me, I ducked under his blade and shoved my knife in his gut. I swung upwards, blade still inside him. It began to tear through his body till he dropped his weapon and went limp. I took my blade out of him and threw his weapon at someone else piercing their throat. I felt something wet dripping down my leg, I looked and saw that an arrow had pierced my lower thigh. I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my leg, the pain was so strong I almost fell over. Another bandit charged towards me, I kicked his ankle with my metal boots. I heard a "crack" and his ankle bent in a way it was very much not supposed to. He fell over groaning in pain until I slashed his throat with my sword. By now the other villagers had heard the commotion and were preparing for war. I kept slashing and dodging through the crowd of bandits, I would occasionally feel something hit against my armor but I just kept pushing through the crowd. I grabbed another bandit by the skull and felt a shock in my hand. A blast of electricity shot from the palm of my hand and went straight through the man's skull. I dropped his now lifeless body and kept pushing. I was halfway through them when I felt something hit my head. I fell over and my vision started to go blurry. Then it went dark. When I could open my eyes and see, the gates were open and there was fire everywhere. I slowly stood up and stumbled my way towards the village expecting the worst. I was at the gate when someone tackled me. I punched them in the throat and they fell off of me. I got on top of them and pulled out my sword ready to kill. I looked and it was Jean, he was still alive. He had a large cut on his cheek. I got off of him and he told me about what happened. Apparently the villagers had opened the gate and successfully fended off the bandits. But it also somehow caught fire so now everyone was on their way to put it out. Jean had seen me and assumed I was a bandit trying to do something sneaky. I had also noticed something else, Jean's eyes were now a bright orange, and his body felt unusually hot. He didn't even notice when his pants caught fire. After we had finally put out the fire, the villagers met up in the middle of the village and threw a massive party. While they were having their party, I went to my hut and sat by my table. I watched them throw their celebration. I went to my bed and decided to go to sleep. I awoke the next morning and grabbed my pack. I began to fill it with stuff I'd need to survive in the wild. I left my hut and began walking to the gate. Jean ran up to me and asked where I was going. I told him I was leaving, he insisted he come with me. And now I'm several miles away from the village whilst Jean walks behind me. So far he's been more trouble than help. Anytime we need to fight something he hides behind me and lets me do it all. The most he's done is beat one guy. The man tried to fight us with a dagger lit on fire, Jean grabbed the blade completely ignoring the fire, he punched the man in the face causing him to fall over, he took the blade and slashed the man's head causing him to die. We had just arrived at a distant town and rented two different rooms in a hotel. We walked into the tavern and sat down to rest. We were enjoying the food and drinks when we heard lots of marching outside and someone walked in. Someone familiar. They were wearing a helmet with an X etched into the left eye and a big black gem embedded in the left glove. They had a long red cape. But now you could see long golden blonde hair. The hair was so long that it couldn't be contained in the helmet and it was coming out from the bottom of the helmet. They also sounded much more feminine than I previously remembered. Their cape now had several tears in it and black burn marks along the edges. I stayed still, practically frozen. I thought they had died, I remember it clearly. The old barn we were fighting in had caught fire and crashed down on them. Yet they're here right in front of me.