Crystal Folly

His Father's Story

Arthur was taken back to a time he never wanted to relive. A time where he never wanted anything to play out how it did. A time before he knew what true sadness was. The time where his father sacrificed himself to save the rest of his immediate family.

Brandon had just gotten back from a tour of another city, and all went well there. Nobody was burned, according to him, and everyone was nice. Then he came back and someone pranked him horribly. Despite pulling pranks on people, he absolutely hated it when others did it to him, regardless of age. He found where the boys lived and destroyed their homes.

He wasn't satisfied.

Arthur was just returning from a mission he'd be sent out on when his father told him to meet him at the library. Knowing that his father usually only called in dire situations, he went to him.

"What's this about, dad?" Arthur asked. He couldn't control anything he said here. He was going through the dream as if it was all happening again right in front of him.

"It's your brother. He's back in town and trying to destroy everything," his father answered. "I didn't want it to have to come to this, but we're the only two in the family strong enough to fight him. Get ready, we won't need to fly far." It was then that he gave Arthur the golden blade. It probably would've saved his dad's life if he kept it instead.

"What's this? Nobody's able to get close enough to stab him!" Arthur almost screamed, knowing that it was the wrong thing to say.

"That blade is enchanted. I can't explain right now, but you can thank Navomi later," his dad replied. "Now come on, let's go!" Finding his trail wasn't difficult, as there were broken homes and flames everywhere he went. A roar from about a mile away let them know which direction to fly in.

"Why is Brandon like this, dad?" Arthur asked, afraid of what he might do if he saw people coming to stop him. He knew that he could blast them with blue flames, which would burn them through even their scales.

"I don't know," was his father's response. "We're coming closer to him. Be ready to dodge those flames of his. They'll burn through those golden scales that the sword turned into."

As they flew closer to him, Arthur felt nearly awake, ready to tear away from this nightmare. Only when they got near Brandon did he lose all feeling.

When he saw them, he just laughed and said, "So, this is how I lose? My old man and my little brother coming to stop me? If I'm going down, I'm taking one of you with me!" The last words he shouted while spraying the cursed blue flames in the direction of them. Then, he charged.

It was at that moment that Arthur woke up in a cold sweat. He almost screamed, but he didn't want to wake up everyone again like the last time this happened. The only people he could tell were up were Ender, Stella, and Taylor, who was just pretending to be asleep.

"Taylor, I know you're awake," Arthur whispered, still shaking a bit from how real that last moment was in his nightmare.

"I forgot wyverns can tell who's asleep and who's awake," she replied groggily. "I've only been awake for about an hour, anyway. It's kinda early for me, usually I'm asleep until noon."

"Well, guess we'll just wait for Sadie to wake up. Should be some time soon," Arthur told her. Taylor was going back to sleep as he said it, taking no notice of it. He sat in silence as he waited, not wanting to wake either of them up to go to the other room to talk to the three awake in there.