The Elemental Kingdoms: Flames of Truth

Chapter 8: Forging Alliances

I woke up tied to a post, it was night time, I saw the fire guard eating some meat and other stuff, one of them walked up to me, untied the ropes binding me to the post, and walked me towards the fire pit were the other men were sitting. he gave me some food and I started to eat it like I hadn't eaten in a week or so, the general looked at me as I was scarfing down the meat and said " I'm General Kolten of delta squad, rank 3rd in the entire fire guard, state your name and business in this region" I looked at him and told him my story, how I was raised outside the borders, about the beginning of my powers, about the shadow beast that attacked me, and how I left my group and got to this point and time.

They looked at me, at each other, then back at me and laughed, one of the soldiers said " Yeah right kid" he said, then another chimed in and said" I believe most of your story, but the shadow beast are a legend among the four nations" I looked at him in shock. They couldn't be legends, I saw them in the flesh, or whatever their skin was made of. They gave me my own tent to sleep for the night, I got in and started to think to myself " I know they weren't my imagination, but these guys say their not even real" I kept thinking about what was real and what was not, after a while I went to sleep.

During the middle of the night I woke up, that same dream from the night before kept me from having normal dreams, I tried again to fall asleep and this dream was a very different one, I was outside in the camp grounds, suddenly swarms of shadow beast came from the sky and the ground, one by one I saw the army be strike down, I woke up again terrified of what I saw in my dream, I stood outside for a bit looking around to see if it would happen.

As I started to walk back to my tent I got a weird dream-like thing where a shadow creature attacked me when I was going back to the tent, when it ended I turned around and shoot a fireball, as I did I saw a puff of shadowy ash and realized that what I saw came true. Before any more of them arrived I went to the middle of the camp and activated the alarm, when it went off everyone in the camp ran out of their tents, took arms, and asked me "Why did you set off the alarm" before I could answer I got a new vision and saw that  creature slash him from behind, when it ended I shouted "Look out!" I shoved him to the side and shoot another fire ball and saw the puff of shadow smoke once again.

The men and I were now on look out for more of the beast, then one of them turned around and said "These can't be actual shadow beast could they?" then the other guy said "I don't know, I thought they were just myths made up to scare children" the I said "No, they're as real as the air you breath" before I could finish what I was about to say next, another vision came, I saw one start to come up from the ground next to us and started to claw its way at us. when it ended I said "MOVE NOW!!!" they did what I said then the beast looked around confused as the captain shouted "FIRE AT WILL!" the others and I did as he said and the beast was engulfed in flames, then one of the men asked me "How did you know that thing was about to attack?" all of us standing guard, then I said "I don't really know, I get a warning and see what it's about to do before it can make its move" every one looked startled and surprised about what I said, I looked at them and said "What?" then more beast came from the air and started run toward us, then the captain said "No time to answer that, now we fight"

I started to run towards some of them, I moved as fast as I could, I was able to take out about 10 on the ground and 2 in the air before I got slammed in the back and launched back to where the others where, when I looked back to what hit me I was shocked to see this beast as big as a building, two of the men helped me back on my feet, and the captain handed me a sword, its handle was a charcoal black, and the blade was a shiny silver, I looked at the captain and he said "That's a new kind sword still in development, the metal it's used to be able to produce fire from the blade itself" I gripped the swords handle. I took a swing and the blade started to catch fire.

With this new sword at hand we were able to take out most of the shadow beast, each slash decorated in fire, slicing clean through each beast that challenged us, we were exhausted , but the huge beast was still alive. We tried every thing we had but nothing would take down the beast, when I thought we were done for a huge burst of flames came from the air. We looked up and saw a huge deep red colored dragon soaring above us it landed fast and hard, I felt the ground shake violently and a huge gust of wind blew, we struggled to stay where we stood.

It eyes were a dark green, its large claws a crimson, and its roar was powerful, the two great beast fought, the dragon flew up quickly and proceeded to slam down on top of the beast, as the shadow giant gave out a loud roar, the dragon opened its mouth and a great burst of crimson flames shot forth, we raised our shields and tried to hold on. When the wind settled down we lowered ours shields, I saw the dragon surrounded by shadowy mist, the giant was destroyed in one powerful burst of fire. The dragon turned to look at us, we didn't know what to think, I felt it looking right at me, in my mind I thought I heard a voice speaking to me, but I couldn't hear it very well. The dragon flew off and after a while the captain said "I don't want to believe what I just saw, but after what we just went through, I think it would be in the best interest for us to stick together until we reach the capital" I just nodded and looked up at the sun rise mumbling to myself "Now what?"