Tales of a Dragon

Chapter Eleven

Rastiv felt a strange role in the boy's life. Rastiv had a Ceremony tomorrow, but until he found Axis, he would never stop. It was about time he got fired anyway from his job. It had been eight years as the Mages Sir and he was starting to hate the job. It was so repetitive, but so important. Maybe that was why he couldn't do it. He didn't have the confidence to have all of that on his shoulders.

Maybe that was why he thought Axis couldn't depend on him.

After training the boy for almost two months, it was not surprising he had felt a fatherly love towards him.

He remembered his own son.

Farley was his name. He was nine years old when he died. Rastiv had been 37 and his wife 35.

Farley was an Eden. And once the King had found out, it was over. The Edens had just became a threat to Ashton and at the time, every Eden was to be hunted down and killed.

Rastiv gave them a fight, though. They couldn't kill his own child just like that. Why weren't they hunting himself instead? He was an Eden, too.

There had been so much fire, so many battle cries, the clashes of swords, the hiss of embers. His wife had died, also, and his rage burned inside of him.

Farley tried to run, but someone threw a sword at his feet, and the blade cut his ankles, causing him to fall.

There was a rush of air as he was lifted upwards and his screams filled the air as he fell. His head cracked on the ground, along with every other part of his body. There was one last little grunt and he was dead.

It was just Ashton and him.

"Rastiv," Ashton said. "We don't have to do this."

"But we do."

Rastiv Larson was young and irrational at the time. He just didn't want Farley to die to this man, and then have him live. He would get revenge for his boy.

There he was, on a patch of grass, blood trickling from his skull to his chin. His eyes were like glass... no... his boy... for some reason, Rastiv thought that it wasn't him that had flown upwards and died. But his limp body was right there....

"Rastiv, calm down..." Ashton stopped his heavy breathing and dropped his sword. "You don't want to join them," he said, gesturing at the dead bodies. "And you don't want violence."

The words echoed in his head, as if bouncing inside his skull, vibrating. You don't want violence... Farley wouldn't want that...

"Fine. What do you want?" Rastiv asked with heavy hatred layered in his voice. Those soothing words had helped, but he kept glimpsing at Farley... was he reallly dead, he questioned again.

He was.

But now, he was betraying him and siding with the King. Why was he such a coward? Coward, coward, coward. His heart beated with shame, and he couldn't help but cry and sob. His shoulders jerked uncontrollably and everything blurred. Why was everyone dead... where was his wife? She had died, right?

I'm sorry...

"Rastiv... it's fine. You can help us in the castle. You can thrive and have a new life in there."

Rastiv was never the one to be willing to risk his life for another's, to be brave, or anything of the sort. he was a damned coward and everyone knew it. Even he knew it, and it burdened him even more. he had to be brave for Farley. He had to thrive again. Right? So wasn't the right thing to go with Ashton?

"Alright. Take me."

===

 Clara, Kecia, Jackson Stark, and Axis were all in the dorms. Everyone else was in the training rooms or eating in the very small dining room. Clara didn't want to eat; she didn't feel like it. She had gotten back from training and came to this awkward mess of people not talking to each other. God.

"So... how are we?" she asked Kecia. Kecia tossed a glimpse at Axis and Stark, a strange look in her eye. Clara could read her best friend very well; she meant they're not talking and it's weird.

"Look..." Clara bit her bottom lip. "How about we get all of this out in the open? Let's talk."

Axis slowly lifted his head up and smirked. "Huh, alright. Let's talk."

Clara was slightly worried. His voice sounded... almost sinister. What had happened to that confident shield she had put up in front of him when they had first met? What had happened to the Clarrise that everyone knew?

"I want to get out. I was put here against my own will. And I have a Tournament in three, almost two days. I don't want to be part of your hellish cult or group or whatever the-"

"Whoa, hey!" Jackson stood up. "No need for that. Listen, royal boy, you gotta be kiddin'. You know your father is demented, cruel. You know that everyone loves your damn face, so suck it up and help us. Or leave everyone to die. Even your little dragon and that old man. Oh, and your sister, t-"

"Shut the hell up!" Axis screamed. He dashed up and raced for the stairs, his quick legs pumping. Stark immediately went after him, summoning vines from the floor to wrap around his legs. Axis jumped upwards and used his air spell to push him forward a good amount, dodging the vines.

Clara and Kecia went to help Stark. Axis was halfway up the stairs, but they were too narrow and he couldn't dodge a blast of water that Kecia sent from her palm. He fell foward and grunted with pain, sliding down the steps. He was trapped with the vines now, and he couldn't get out.

God. That was unexpected.

"Let me go." Axis was breathing heavily, his eyes narrowed at all three of them.

"Sorry, bud." Jackson smirked. "Can't do."

"At least let me sleep, dammit." The vines released him and Stark grabbed his shoulders and pushed him to the dorms. Axis laid on a mattress and scoffed. His face was red from anger.

"What are you planning to do with me, even?" The rest of the Crossbones were done eating and were flooding into the dorms with chatter. Clara could barely hear Axis.

"We want to show the world what your father really is."

There was more chatter and it was really loud now, to the point where she wanted to shush everyone and tell them to shut up.

"We want you to help kill him."

A/N

Sorry about the kind of late chapter. Usually, I release frequently, but I'm not quite caught up now. I know this chapt. was bad and rushed, but the Tournament is coming up. Get ready to clench your buttcheeks ;) God, I'm so weird. Thanks! :)