The Battle Of Titan's Desert

Chapter 1

Taking a swig from his cup Daron took a minute to enjoy himself. He hadn't done that since the attack. In his camp the men were telling old stories and drinking ale. Daron never had anything to contribute, well, so he thought.

"Oi, Daron! Tell us about that one with that young highborn lad." Yelled Torin, one of the first men Daron gathered for his band of soldiers.

"The one who helped me kill those bandits or the snobby little prick?"

"The snobby prick, you didn't finish that story."

"That's because my stories aren't anything to tell." Daron chuckled.

"Nah, your stories are great, it's you, you're story telling is shit mate." The guardsman laughed as Daron light heartedly threw his cup at the man.

"Haha fine, fine. Right well I told you about the fox that left a surprise in his breakfast didn't I?"

Daron's keen listener howled with laughter. "No! No you didn't! What happened there?"

"Well this is when the kid really started to get ticked off. Just imagine this pompous little shit, already irritated by life outside of a fancy castle when one morning he wakes up, grumpy as anything to see a nice little raisin by his pillow." Daron's little audience had put their food and drink down and we're listening to his intently.

"Well feeling peckish he thought he'd eat the raisin, fair enough right? Only, as you can guess it wasn't a raisin, yeah."

"What did he say after that?"

"Oh yeah, he came screaming out of his tent saying 'you p-" Daron was silenced as they heard something just outside of the perimeter of the tent.

"I thought the oasis was-" Daron cut him short with a silent hand signal. He needed silence.

Daron and another both followed the sound to the bushes that were rattling. Creeping up on the bush he pulled back the foliage to see what was beneath.

Daron had his sword at the ready as the leaves were pulled back to show a naked man with cuts and bruises all over his body. He was gagged and bound with blood soaked cloth.

Behind him Daron heard a gasp and a squelch. He spun himself behind to see one of them. One of the blue soldiers; hand over  the mouth of Daron's companion, their blade eight inches inside his stomach.

The poor soldier stood there lifeless, helpless, unable to do anything but wait as the ghoulish figure took the knife out of his stomach and almost routinely brought the knife up to his throat.

Daron felt useless as the knife sliced across his friend's throat. Nothing but gurgling as he choked on his own blood filled the air, beyond that was silence.

Filled with rage and grief Daron wanted to lunge at the murderer so bad, but for some reason, he couldn't. He was just frozen in place, whether it was fear, shock or just grief something stopped him in his place.

As the blue man let go of the soldier his lifeless body slumped to the ground. Like a bag of wheat dropped in a cart.

Daron was able to do it now. After what felt like an eon he came back around. Gathering himself he shook his head and strengthened his grip on his sword and held it up against the attacker.

As he measured up his opponent Daron took his time to strike, he was upset, but he didn't want to be stupid.

Just as he was about to strike Daron saw a blade come down from above. Just in time he was able to lift up his sword in a parry.

The ring as metal clashed woke Daron up, now alert he was fighting at his proper ability.

He withdrew the sword from the clash and within the same few strokes sliced at the man's belly. Missing and getting just cloth he slashed again, and again.

By now he had the attacker up against a tree. He struck his enemy with a hard punch and without a second's thought drove his sword straight through the stomach of his friend's killer.

He pulled his sword back out of the stomach and walked away, back towards the camp. He knew he should have had the mercy to finish the attacker off but he didn't know what to make of the situation.

He stopped and cleaned his sword for a minute and calmed himself. He looked over to the lifeless body of his friend, a shock went through Daron's body. He walked over to his friend and closed his eyes.

"Rest now Yori." Daron quietly and painfully muttered.

He looked towards the camp and with a second to breathe continued to go back to the camp.