Chapter 2
By LeMarkHamster (Mark Evans)
Wattpad Edition
Copyright © 2014 Mark
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Adam was rooted to the spot, his legs refusing to move like his other body parts. All he could do was stare straight at the charging bear. His heart raced to such a beat that he felt it jumping out from its usual place. The furry creature lifted one of its huge paws, as soon it was a few feet in front of him and brought it down. At the last moment, Adam regained his senses and side stepped, missing the deadly blow by inches.
He did not waste a moment as he broke for the forest. All around him, the trees lacked thick stems, which would be easy for the bear to break. The bear meanwhile, had recovered and was closing on him when he spotted a tree with a thick stem, twenty feet away. If he ran fast enough he might be able to make it but it was a risk. A risk that involved him to scale up a tree like a wall. If he even miscalculates one-step, he will become the breakfast for the bear.
Jumping off the ground with one foot, he landed the other on the stem and pushed off it. His hands grabbed a high branch, which he used to pull himself up and saw the bear colliding with the tree. The bear too tried to climb but the branches broke because of its weight.
Adam settled himself on a high branch and allowed himself to breathe while looking at the bear that let out a fearsome growl. Waiting it out was the only option left. He tried to concentrate on other things to relax. The village’s bard, Paul, had once told a mythical story about a battle between The White Dragon and King Tristan –the ruler of their land- who would have conquered the Earth realm if not for the White Dragon’s sacrifice. Paul, was an ex military lieutenant who had left the King’s service and later always talked about ‘realization of truth’ and ‘the evilness of the King’ caused him to leave. He said he was helping the King for evil and corrupt causes. After leaving, his family was found murdered in their home. Paul had gone out to buy his wife a cake for their wedding anniversary. Adam felt pity for him. Paul always talked about dragons, dwarves, elves and other myths that no one in the village believed in. They thought that dragons only exist in fairy tales but some part of Adam, deep down, didn’t allow him to believe they were not real.
A shake brought him back to reality. He almost fell but caught himself in the last moment. Down, the bear was ramming the tree and he was losing his grip. After a few more fruitless tries, it gave up and walked away. Sighing, Adam slowly climbed out of the tree and landed on the snow with a small thump. The forest was in a stark contrast of milky white snow and dark brown trees. It was beautiful. The air smelled of pine and rosewood. Remembering of the actual reason for coming to the forest, he looked around for any animal but he found none. He pulled his gun and clicked its safety off.
He started moving deeper into the forest, opposite to where the bear headed, his boots crunching on the snow and birds chirping atop the trees. Though the forest was dense, occasional light patches could be seen of the forest floor that guided him.
The forest suddenly seemed to end and Adam found himself on a clear patch of land surrounded by trees from all sides. It stretched for a kilometer in all directions and in the midst of the white snow-covered field, he saw a huge stone. Drawing out his glock in front of him, he headed towards the stone cautiously. On coming closer, he saw the stone was over nine feet tall and had strange carvings all over it. Upon a closer look, he realized that it was a manuscript of something with beautiful drawings on it. Surprisingly the stone was not covered in snow. In fact, there was no snow anywhere near it. The stone surface was cold and smooth. His fingers traced one of the intricate drawings. Suddenly his finger felt hot and he jumped back.
The place where his finger was, started to glow dimly. He extended his arm, poking it with his knife but nothing happened. He brought his face close to it and suddenly a bright blue light engulfed him, followed by a strong wind that swept him off his feet. As quickly as it had come, the light retreated leaving Adam staring at the sky with the air knocked off his lungs. He was stunned and thought he heard swords clashing.
What was that? He thought pulling himself back together. His breathing became difficult and his vision was becoming blurry but was clearly able to make out the outlines of two figures. As it cleared, the two seemed to be engaged in a fight, seemingly oblivious to the teen watching them. The clang of metal with metal rang out throughout the forest. They were fighting with such fluidity and grace -dodging and landing blows- that no one seemed to have the advantage; it almost looked as if they were dancing. One of them was wearing what appeared like a white long coat with his dark hair flying around his head with every twist and turn he took. The other, was more intriguing to Adam as he wore a military vest and black pants with a shade. Unlike the other man, his hair was cropped short.
What struck Adam strange was that they both were fighting with a sword. Who fights with swords these days? He asked himself. His vision cleared and saw the man with the long coat disarm the other man. This brought a smile to his face. Adam could see his eyes behind the shade meet his and wink at him. With that, the man charged at his opponent and rolled at the last moment to avoid his oncoming blow while picking up his sword.
The sky seemed to grow darker while the wind picked up suddenly. They both charged at each other again with their swords raised. As they clashed, the blue flash came again engulfing everything, including Adam. He felt tired and his lungs burned for air while his vision blurred. As quick it had come, the light retreated, leaving a black patch where the two figures fought not so long ago. Out of his blurry vision, Adam could make out a stone in the middle of the black patch.
His hands seemed to grow colder as he fell to the ground. White spots began dancing in front of his eyes and everything turned dark.
