The Order of Jade

Chapter 19 - Insanity

"ITS THERE, I SAW IT!!" Bjorik shouted in fear pointing in the direction he thought he saw the beasts. Curtis and Kirin looked over there but saw nothing. Eager to find out what it was he saw they planned to go there and see for themselves.

"We have to go there, if it means saving Bjoriks sanity then we must." Kirin said to Curtis, and Curtis agreed.

They picked up their weapons and ran towards the deeper forest where Bjorik was pointing. They left Bjorik with the crazy old man, hoping he would have calmed down by the time they returned.

There they stood in the forest. It all went silent. They stood among the many trees. They felt a gentle breeze standing there. It felt like something has ran past, was it the beast? They heard sounds of insects through the vegetation they were standing in, it was so thick and overgrown that they couldn't see below their knees. Then they heard a stick snap as if someone had stood on it trying to sneak up on them. They instantly reacted and raised their guard, the same way they would do it if they were in the army.

"Anyone who out here show yourselves!!" Curtis shouted, more serious than he usually was. "You don't want us to cook you for lunch do you?" He then killed the seriousness. Still nothing.

"Curtis whatever this is it probably can't speak, we need to gather some evidence if we want the city to take action." Kirin suggested. As they both moved forward even more. Then out of nowhere. Something ran past the trees, quicker than they could see, but they got a glimpse of it. And it fit the description so far.

"Kirin keep you guard up this could get ugly." Curtis warned. Chills ran down their spines as they stood there among the trees. Another breeze swept by. Then it jumped at them......

"NOOO!!!" Curtis shouted as a giant beast jumped at him and tackled him, nailing him to the floor with its claws piercing through his shoulder. Curtis blocked its teeth with his hammer, holding off the beast with ever ounce of strength in his body. Kirin came up from behind and knocked the beast off of him, swinging his mace at full force at the beast, making it scream in pain at it fell, leaving a wound on its side.

"Come on get up, we need to kill this thing if we want to prove something." Kirk told Curtis as he helped him up off of the ground.

The beast came back, blood shooting out from its side right where Kirin struck him.

"Get ready!!" Kirin shouted as the beast started to run at them again at full speed, growling on it way there. It's footsteps made the trees shiver, and it make the birds fly out of the trees in fear. As it nearly managed to land a strike on the men, Curtis charged an attack with his hammer. And with as much force as Curtis could handle he struck the beast in the jaw as hard as he possibly could, blood shooting in Kirins face. And the beast was sent flying back, landing and rolling before lifelessly sitting there on the ground. Dead.

"Nice one." Kirin told Curtis. As they walking up to the corpse, making sure it was 100% deceased. This was now their chance to prove to the city that this beast was real.

"We have to take this corpse to the city, show them that they need to deal with it." Kirin told Curtis.

"Alright, help me carry it to the hut, if Bjoriks better he can help us." Curtis told Kirin, and they lifted up the humongous creature over their shoulders and made their way back to the crazy old mans hut.

"Bjorik, are you ok?" Kirin asked Bjorik, he stood there in the corner looking at the wall. He turned around slowly revealing his weary exhausted face.

"I'm fine, just freaked out, I need some sleep." Bjoriks told the men, his voice trembling and breaking because of the shouting.

"Come here, we have something." Crust told Bjorik, taking him outside to see the corpse of the beast that gave him such a shock.

Bjorik starred at the beast for a minute, lifelessly, struggling to make sense of why he reacted the way he did.

"I cant explain what happened, I've never seen this before I don't know why I reacted that way." Bjorik said with no explanation, he felt ashamed of himself that he did that, especially as a Viking. The men didn't care that he got frightened, it didn't matter to them that he was a Viking, he was their friend.

"Bjorik, you don't have to explain yourself to us, even if you are a Viking, your out friend and there's no changing that." Kirin told Bjorik with his hand on Bjoriks shoulder. Bjorik then looked to Kirin and smiled.

"Let's get this back to the city. They'll want to see this." Biotin told the men. As he walked up to the beast, he started to pick it up and almost lifted the whole thing by himself, Viking strength was nothing to joke about.

"Well, that's me looking like the weakling again." Curtis said, helping Bjorik carry the corpse.

(Valor POV)

"Please, you don't have to do this. Let me go and I'll see to it you'll be let off lightly." Valor told Lisa. As he hung there chained by his hands in the abandoned city dungeon.

"This is my ticket out of this shit hole, 20 years, 20 MISERABLE YEARS STUCK HERE!!!" Lisa shouted a Valor threatening him with a knife. Waving it in his face.

Lisa has lied to Valor. God knows if she liked him for real, but it was clear they weren't going to start a relationship any time soon. She put a natural sedative in his drink when he went to the toilet, and when he fell asleep she took him down to the dungeons. She had chained him up and was preparing to ransom him off to the rest of the order, as if they had any money.

"Lisa please, there's always another way, I can get you out, the men can get you out of here, just let me go and we'll handle this appropriately." Valor begged to no avail, receiving a scoff from Lisa as she turned around and ignored him.

"Fine, what are you going to do?" He asked, hoping to draw some information from her. She then turned around and surprisingly she revealed her plans with no drawbacks.

"I'm going to ransom you off to you friends out there, then I'm going to leave and never come back, I'll be free from this wrenched filth." She said, completely confident in her idea.

"You know, the men can handle you, you won't make it out of here alive even if they give you the money, they know what they're doing." Valor told Lisa, but she didn't believe him. She was so drowned in delusion. There was nothing Valor could do in this situation, he wasn't exactly a master of picking locks. And if he shouted for help Lisa would have probably just killed him.

(Narration)

Kirin, Curtis and Bjorik made it back to the city with the body of the beast. They entered through the front gate, and everyone in the city was shocked at what they were seeing. They plunked the body down right in the middle of the street, and everyone came to look at it. Kirin then made a speech to address the situation.

"Lady's and gentlemen, this is what was destroying your livestock, and wiping out all the wildlife around the kingdom. This wretched beast did it all. We must convince the council that they need to send company out into the forests to kill them, it is crucial." Kirin explained. Chatter could be heard among the crowd as chills ran down the people's spines. Cries were heard as well of scared children running to their parents.

And then this happened, as if the situation wasn't bad enough.

"KIRIN!!!" Lisa shouted from the top of the clock tower, grabbing the attention of all the people looking at the beast.

"Valor." Curtis Said to himself in shock seeing one of his best friends in a potential life threatening situation.

Valor was hanging on one of the gargoyles by his hands. His wrists were bleeding from having them there for so long. And Valor was half dead, deprived of sleep and barely conscious.

"VALOR, ARE YOU OK?" Bjorik shouted fearing for his friends life. Valor didn't answer, he just hung there lifelessly.

"VALOR HOLD ON BUDDY YOUR GONNA BY OK!!" Curtis shouted. Lisa then began her threats.

Kirin, Curtis and Bjorik. I want you all up here, if you don't come up, your friend here falls.

The men stood there for a second and looked at each other, they agreed with Lisa that they would be compliant and they began their journey up the tower.

"Let's hope to god that she'll let him go, we need him."