The Sword of Fire-Trials Of Fate--Book I

PROLOGUE

She ran.

She ran as if her life depended on it. Which, in this case, it did.

As she raced through the forest, she heard him running after her. She heard the pounding of his footsteps. She heard him yell, " Get back here, Natalia! There's no use in running! Whether you like it or not, He will rise again! There's nothing you can do to stop him!"

She only ran faster, faster than she had ever run before.

She heard his voice again, "I'll have the Eye, Natalia! Do you hear me?! I'll have it! And I'll use it to raise him up! He will reward me!"

She heard him gasp for breath, and only a few seconds later, he yelled, "But you, you traitor, he'll kill you! He'll destroy your soul! There's nothing you can do to stop him from awakening! Nothing!"

Tears stung her eyes as she muttered, " I'm sorry."

And she kept running from the one who was, until only a few minutes ago, the dearest friend she ever had.

.......................................................

An hour earlier, the two of them were at the mouth of a dark cave in the deepest part of the forest. She trembled just looking at it.

She felt his hand hold hers. She turned to him and he smiled at her, his brown eyes locking with hers. With his strawberry blond hair swaying in the wind, he looked quite charming.

"Hey, babe," he assured her, "We'll get out of this. No worries."

She wanted to believe him, with all her heart. But she couldn't. "This isn't any ordinary beast we're fighting, Stan," she said, "This is the strongest of demons. No one has fought him before and lived to tell the tale."

"You're forgetting something, Nat," someone else said. The couple turned to him. With his light blond hair and olive skin, he had the look and aura of a god. He wore a grey vest, a brown trenchcoat, and khaki trousers tucked into a black pair of boots.

His stern blue eyes fixed on the cave, " I've fought him before. And I lived." He turned to her, his expression softening as he smiled. "There's always a first time for everything."

"Yeah", Stan agreed. Large dragon-fly wings emerged from his bareback and he revealed his weapons- two silver scimitars gleaming in the moonlight-as he continued," Plus if we give this fight our all, we'll beat him. All Jack has to do is-"

"Shh!" Jack glared at the cave, and the other two stopped talking. He whispered, "He senses us. I can feel his aura extending... He knows we're here, but not what we're up to or who we are. We must strike now, while we still have the chance. Come on!"

With that, the trio rushed into the cave. When they entered, Natalia felt it before she saw it. She felt its dark presence in the cave, its evil inclination, its chaotic tendency to destroy every living being that dared to oppose it. She had a feeling that if she didn't give this fight her best, she'd never make it out alive.

She tried to calm herself, to steady her nerves. All she had to do was fight the beast long enough to give Jack the chance to return the Eye to its place and activate it. Then all he had to do was unleash the Sword of Fire. Slashing off the beast's head would be a piece of cake from there, right?

Jack raised his left hand and it caught fire, lighting up the dark cave.

And then she saw it.

Calling it a beast would be an understatement. Even the word 'demon' sounded more like a joke than a description. With a cobra's head, it's eyes blood-red, it's large body dark and dotted with ugly scales and scars, surrounded by heaps of dry bones, it's smile was worse than demonic. It seemed an evil smirk was plastered on its face; one that said," Fight me all you want; you're only wasting your time-I'll kill you anyway."