Buried Deep

Part 4: The Commander's Plight

I wake up, bound in chains. The sky is dawning, and a thick layer of mist covers my view, throwing a wet wool blanket over my eyes. I am surrounded by stern-looking soldiers, making sure I don't escape. Part of me wonders how I know all this, but it seems small and far away. I just ignore it. A voice cries out among the morning fog.

"As you all know, for the last few months, the devilish thief that stole the Empire's last dragon egg has been at large. Now, that is no longer the truth! This evil man, a possible East Empire spy, has committed crimes against his homestead, His Majesty's Empire, and he will pay." I am pushed forward through the mist, and I find myself standing on a wooden stage. People crowd around me, trying to get a good look at me, the man who stole a precious thing, not commander nor soldier, but criminal. I look around the stage, and see my family, also bound in chains. I see my wife silently crying, knowing that today I will die, and so will she. My son, barely old enough to go to school, and hugging his mother's leg, terrified. Guilt hits me like anvil falling from the sky. I never meant to put my family in danger. I just wanted the egg. It had called to me, it needed me to do something. Something I didn't quite understand. The herald continues, jolting me out of my thoughts. "As punishment for his crime, along with being possible accomplices, this woman and child, guilty of assisting this man, will be executed. I watch as my son's head snaps up at that word, and starts crying out for me.

"Daddy! Help! Please help us! Please!"

I watch, enraged, as a soldier walks over to my son, and hits him on the head with the hilt of his sword. My child crumpled to the ground, unconscious. A line of soldiers match up to the stage, and guards poke at my wife, forcing her kneel. By then, my son is awake, and they have kneel in the same position as my wife. The mist rolls in, and I can only see shadows. I watch as the silhouettes of the soldiers pull crossbows off their backs, and I hear the click of bolts being loaded. All I can do is stare in horror as the soldiers take aim at my family, and fire. Suddenly, I am filled with a burning fire, a anger so powerful everything blurs around me. I lash out at the guards holding me back, and they fall back, surprised. I run away from the stage, and keep running until I'm at my house. I run through many secret passageways, eventually coming to a room filled with many riches and wonders. I grab my backpack, already packed with food, water, and the dragon egg, my sword and crossbow, and a helmet made of a purple metal. Then I run some more, through tunnels and then out into the open. It didn't take long for me to come back to the stage where my family was murdered. Everyone had left, spreading out to find me. No one bothered to pick up the bodies. Tentatively, I walk over to them, and I feel a throbbing pain in my head. I begin to cry, holding my wife's head in my hands. The tears slide down my face for what seems like forever. Suddenly, I'm falling through a dark tunnel which doesn't end.