Twin Dragons - 1

Chapter 1

Crystal slowly climbed out of her second story window, falling softly on the sacks of grain under the window. She climbed out of the mess of grain she procured; dusting herself off, checking to make sure that the sword was still on her back. She walked towards the clearing where she would meet her brother, Kane, and her best friend, Mika.

She sped up when she noticed that her neighbors had lit a candle, trying to figure out what the noise was. After she was outside of the town she slowed down, not in any rush.

“Better not waste my energy. We have a long way to go.” She mumbled to herself. She turned toward the forest, hearing an eerie mumbling. She walked on, unsure of what it was. A sweat built up on her forehead as she picked up her pace, still hearing the odd noise. She stopped, unsure of what was happening, but knowing that she was being watched.

Something brushed by a bush, making it shake. She slowly reached for her sword, being cautious in case it was dangerous. Another bush rattled, and another, and another. The foliage covered all of the forest behind it, so Crystal had no way of finding out what it was. She slowly drew out her sword, holding it in front of herself, like her brother showed her. When the sword was fully extended, the rustling stopped. She waited for what seemed like an hour, watching the forest with the eyes of a hawk, looking for any idea of what it might have been.

She sheathed her sword, not finding any evidence of what it was, and started to walk away. As soon as she turned around, something burst out of the thick foliage, and grabbed her.

As Crystal screamed bloody murder, her brother yelled, “Calm down! Calm down! It’s me! It’s me!”

Crystal looked first at her brother with surprise, then anger. She started beating on his head with her arm, intent on giving him a lesson. “How DARE you!” she screamed, still beating him on the head.

“Sheesh!” he yelled, “It was a joke!” Trying to block his head from being broken by his surprisingly strong sister. “Besides,” he continued, after Crystal stopped, “It was also a test. Even if you think there is no threat because you can’t see anything, doesn’t mean it is not there. If you ever walk away, never sheath your sword until you are far enough away. It’s dangerous.”

Crystal steamed off for a second, and after she regained her composure, she said, “Come on. We need to get going. It is almost dawn and they will find out we are missing. Mika must already be there and worrying. You do know we can’t ever go back, right?” she eyed Kane with a melancholy tone, and he nodded back, knowing that she was right.

She started walking, knowing where she was going, but unsure when she was going to get there. The two drudged on, looking forward to take rest in the safe valley, where she could rest in peace with her brother and her best friend.

“Brother, about how long will it be until we get there?” she asked, thinking about why they only were allowed to bring a weapon and the clothes that they had on.

His reply was short and curt, “We’ll get there, when we get there.” He walked on ahead of her, instinctively handling his dagger, which was a gift bestowed to him from their father, who was long gone, for he had been killed in battle. His last words were, “Give Kane Wylek.” Wylek was supposedly the dragon word for ‘promised’. It was studded with three rubies, the middle one larger than the others and had Wylek inscribed on it.

She followed cautiously, wondering why he was in a bad mood all of a sudden, or if she had given him too many hits to the head. He chuckled quietly, almost as if to escape detection, and motioned his head forward. “Good timing sis,” he muttered nonchalantly.

They walked into the valley, which was teeming with flowers. It was dawn, and the early morning sunlight and the dew cast an amazing effect over all of the flowers surrounding them, and they felt like they would drown in the sea of flowers.

“We’ll have to wait here until Mika arrives. Hopefully she won’t be too long. I was kind of actually hoping she would already be here.” He mumbled, content in flopping on a bed of daffodils.

“Why?” Crystal asked, “When we would’ve had to rest anyway? Come on, we’ve been drudging along all night, and we’d need the rest.” She plumped down on the daffodils and let out a heavy sigh. After some silence, she asked another question, as she leaned over and picked up a tulip, “What is your favorite flower, Kane?”

He rolled onto his side to look at her, and said, after some thinking, “I never really thought about it. I would have to say a rose. Just simply due to its beauty. The soft petals, the sweet smell, and the thorns.”

Crystal stared at him, “The thorns, why the thorns?”

“Because it describes life,” he replied, “You see, no matter how beautiful or wonderful something is, it will always have its downfalls.”

Crystal stared at him in awe, amazed at the thought process of her brother. “You know, I never thought of it like that. Wow,” she said blindly, still amazed at what she had heard, “You know, you really are a very deep person when you want to be. All the other boys in the village, all they wanted to do was fight. Fight, fight, and fight some more. You though, were special. You wanted to do something with your life other than getting gaping wounds. That’s why I love you big brother,” she smiled sincerely, just to put emphasis on the end of her little speech.

“I love you too—”

Mika burst out of the trees, panting and saying that she was sorry for being late. “Sorry, guys,” she took in a deep breath of air to try and stop the panting, “There was an extremely long caravan driving through on the path and I had to walk in the woods to get here, but then I got lost. However, I found my way here. Thank GOD!” she ended with a long sigh, before collapsing on the flowerbed.

Crystal let out a chuckle and motioned at Mika to Kane, “Told ya we would need to rest.”

He chuckled back in agreement, “Yes you did, so let’s get some. Lord knows, we’ll need it.”





They awoke later that day, when the sun was about to drop and the moon to rise. Crystal was the first to wake, and she did so with a yawn so amazing it woke the other two.

Kane climbed from the mangled arrangement of daisies and surveyed the area. He looked towards Mika, who was still lying face-first on the ground in a half-assed attempt to get up. He looked at the bow next to her on the ground, and the quiver of arrows spilled over the ground due to her falling down, and not even bothering to ask, took them and headed off towards the forest.

He yelled to the girls behind him, “Make a fire! We’ll need to cook dinner before we eat it!”

The girls watched him walk into the forest, and once he was out of their line of sight, started gathering the necessary materials for making a fire.

“Gather the sticks, Mika,” Crystal nonchalantly told her friend, “and I will get the flint.” Crystal knew that there was a small cropping of rocks near the valley, not even a ten minutes walk. And she was nearly completely positive that there was flint there. "All I have to do is find the rock that will spark with the flint." She thought to herself. She started walking through the dense forest, not completely sure if the rocks were still there, but thinking positive.

After about five minutes, she thought, "Alright, now there should be a big oak with a sign on the trunk." She looked around, her, convinced that she was going the right direction, but growing less convinced by the minute.

Just about when she was about to give up and head back, she fell over a stray rock, which meant she was getting near the cropping of rocks. She started forward when she heard a queer growling noise. She stopped dead in her tracks, afraid of what it might be. She had never heard anything like it in the game forests before. She looked around, hand on weapon, trying to locate the source of the odd sound.

She had rumors of dragons occupying the forests these days, taking a bite out of any unfortunate passerby. The noise stopped, and the forest was quiet, except for the occasional chirping bird. She slowly walked forward again, being more cautious. "What was it that Kane said? Even if you can’t see anything, never take your hand off your weapon? Was that it? Ugh…"


She came upon the giant oak with the sign on it that read,


Kalaxar-Left Valk Woods-Straight Grimnd-Right


She turned left towards Kalaxar, and knowing that the rock pile would be a little past the sign, she stopped for a rest. She sat down a stump that was on the side of the trail, and sighed. "I wonder how Kane is doing," she thought, before getting up and starting toward the rocks. She got the flint and tried out the different rocks on it till she found one that sparked, and headed back to the valley.

When she got to the valley, Mika was just coming back with her last load of firewood.

“Phew,” Mika said in a sweat. “Gathering firewood is harder than you’d expect.”

Crystal was going to mention the strange growling that she had heard, but disregarded it when they got onto that subject. “Sure, but a half mile hike isn’t any work,” Crystal sarcastically replied, with emphasis on the ‘any’. Then, a noise pricked Crystal’s ears. The bushes were rumbling, but she didn’t think it was Kane.

“You hear that, Mika?” she questioned.

“Yeah, it is probably just Kane.”

Crystal stared at the spot that the bushes were moving, and drew the sword from her back. “No it is not,” she replied, “he left from that direction. And the game in this forest is plentiful. He would not have to circle around the valley to find a meal. He might come back anywhere on the side he came from, but not on the complete opposite side.” She took a step towards the 50 ft tall wall of trees, and heard the same growling that she had when she was going to get the flint.

“You hear that, Mika?” she said with a harsh undertone. She looked back at her friend’s terrified face.

“Y-y-yeah…” she stammered, “W-what is t-that?”

“I don’t exactly know, but I heard the exact same thing when I went to get the flint.” She stole another look at her easily scared friend, and then looked back at the rustling foliage. She drew her sword and took another step forward, going into the ready position. The growling immediately stopped, and the bushes didn’t rustle.

They both waited a minute, and finally Mika said, “Well whatever it is, it left.”

Not forgetting her brother’s lesson, but reluctant to believe it was still there, she put away her sword, but didn’t remove her hand from it, either. Just then, there was a rustling from the bushes on the other side of the valley, and Kane emerged carrying a dead doe on his shoulder.

Distracted, she looked at her brother and forgot the rustling in the other bush, and dropped her hand from her sword and started to walk towards her brother, to help him with the deer.

She saw her brother’s eyes widen, and then she heard Mika scream. She turned around just in time to see a giant blue paw pick up Mika and fly off with her, while she had one single thought. "DRAGONS!"

She turned to her brother Kane, and he was standing dumbfounded, pointing towards Crystal, and he finally formed the words on his lips, “BEHIND YOU!”

Acting out of instinct, she drew her sword, before she even turned around and slashed at the great blue beast standing behind her, hitting it on the outstretched paw, making a small, insignificant cut on the paw, but the dragon roared nonetheless. She stole a glance at the other paw, and noticed that Mika wasn’t there. "So there are TWO dragons. Great…" she thought as she tried to slash at the dragon’s feet. She heard an arrow wiz past her had and hit the dragon in the chest. It stuck, but it did not go in very far.

While she looked at her brother, the big blue dragon took advantage of the situation and took Crystal in its paw, constricting her, but not suffocating her. It leaped into the air, a force that Crystal had never experienced before, and started to fly off towards the distant mountains, at least a 100 miles off, or so she thought.

All she could do was scream, “KANE! KANE! KANE HELP ME!” as she fell unconscious.