Wardens Of The Dragon Tattoo

Chapter 3 - Shira's Vengeance

The story shifts to a woman named, Shira Drano. She was a proud and fierce knight of the Golden Hawk Order. She was to become a brilliant archer, the best in Tamra, but one thing that made her stand out, was that she also had the Dragon tattoo. Her story began when she was still an initiate in the Golden Hawk Order. Shira and her sword brother had orders to investigate a possible attack on a nearby village.

They were on their way to the town when Salvador looked seriously at Shira. "What do you expect to find there, Shira?" He asked.

"I have no idea, but it seems we are being sent out more and more frequently to investigate these bandit attacks. I mean, how organized can a group of bandits be to be able to give us the slip for this long?" She asked, while keeping her narrowed eyes on the hills.

"You are right. It makes absolutely no sense at all." He said, shaking his head. "Let's hope this town is still standing and not in ruins like the last ones. We better find these bastards and cut them down to size. No one messes with us and gets away with it," he said, smashing his fist against his chest.

They arrived at the gates of the town. "What the..." They said simultaneously, standing there and staring wide-eyed at the town. This town was burning, but with a green flame. Neither Shira nor Salvador understood what was happening, but the air had a foul smell, like something horrible had happened here.

Suddenly a crossbow bolt was shot from the trees. The bolt split into two bolts and hit Salvador right in the chest, but the other bolt burned up before it could hit Shira. She had a green flame flowing around her, which came from her dragon tattoo and shielded her from the bolt.

She looked down at her sword and shield as these started burning. Her sword and shield turned black and a burning green dragon formed in the center. She began to feel such a rush from the power flowing through her that it made her berserk. She bolted towards the tree and hit the tree with her shield. The tree shattered around her shield and the shockwave sent the archer flying out of the tree, and it knocked Shira backwards off of her feet. The archer stood up and started laughing.

Shira slowly stood up and saw Salvador lying next to her, coughing up blood. She turned her head towards the archer, glared at him and screamed, "You are next!" She ran towards him and slammed him against another tree with her shield. "Who are you and who ordered you to attack our towns?" She demanded.

The archer continued to laugh. "You'll never stop us! This is bigger than you and your little white-livered order of children!" He said loudly, motioning up and down with his hands.

"Tell me, or I will cut your knavish head from your fool-born body!" She growled and held her sword against his throat.

He smirked as three more bandits came from the shadows. They all had black weapons with green dragons on it, but the only difference was that the dragon on their weapons weren't burning.

"These bandits must have found the secret place used by the Dragon Dwarfs to forge their equipment." Shira thought, before returning her gaze to the archer who was still smirking at her.

Shira pulled her shield back, turned around and quickly swung her shield horizontally against the archer's throat. The forceful blow broke his neck instantly and his lifeless body slid down the tree. The bandits looked at their leader in shock before engaging Shira. One bandit attacked Shira from the left and swung his sword downwards toward her, but she went down in a squat position and blocked it with her shield overhead. Another bandit came from the front and Shira pushed upwards with her shield and sent the left bandit stumbling backwards, before she decapitated the other bandit with a quick swing of her sword.

Shira turned towards the other two bandits, but they were nowhere to be seen. She looked around and screamed in anger, "Come out and fight me you two whoreson clodpolls!"

She fell down onto her knees next to Salvador and held his head in her hand. "I'm so sorry, Salvador," she said as her head dropped. "I will avenge you, brother, this I swear to you." She closed his eyes and crossed his arms before walking to the dead archer.

She picked up his strange crossbow and examined it closely. The black crossbow had a green crystal at each end of the prod, which was held into place by a strange metal substance smithed into the shape of a dragon's claw. At the end of the stock, where the bolts were formed, was a dragon skull with green eyes. The bolts were created from inside the stirrup by the strange crystals and a green light emanated from the bolts just after they had been created. Shira had no idea what strange this device was, because she had never seen a crossbow which created its own bolts.

Something strange happened. The dragon's eyes and the crystals lit up with a green flame as soon as she touched it. She didn't understand this power, because she knew little of the Dragon Dwarfs, not like Mahrek's grandfather, who was an expert on them.

After that incident she was never the same. She kept training and honing her marksman skills until she became the best of the best. Many have challenged her, but none have succeeded. Since the death of Salvador, she became a lone wolf. Even though she did all of her tasks alone, she had never failed.

She was destined to become the leader of the Golden Hawk Order, but she was too fierce and didn't want to have that responsibility. Her thirst for vengeance was too strong. She wanted to find the place where those bandits, The Embers of the Rising, got their armor and weapons and she wanted to decapitate their leader's head.

She wouldn't rest until every single bandit was dead. Their leader was an infamous criminal and a very powerful leader whose influence over the bandits was unshakable. Some say their leader is an immortal god, because he remains undefeated in battle, and entire armies have fallen at his hand.

*****

Thank you for reading :)