Magyckal Legends Chapters 3-6

Chapter 3: a special soldier

Back on Planet Reven, a military camp located in the outskirts of the galaxy Fervendour, a general by the name of Orion could be heard from a distance instructing (or screaming at) his rookie soldiers. While observing a soldier whimpering on the ground during a dual, he yelled, “If ya don’t want nothin’ to do with hand tah hand combat then yah should just quit the military right now! 150 years of peace ain’t going down the shitter on my watch!” Orion was a plump man, but with quite an attitude and lots of military experience. He was nearly 100% human, with the exception of a chip in his brain that made his sense more keen, allowing him be a more efficient killing machine. It also adjusted his body temperature to a more comfortable level.

Despite being on the outskirts of Fervendour (galaxy of fire) the average temperature was still a scolding 177 degrees Celsius. The race of soldiers he was training were known as the Flarens. They had snake like eyes, white-scaled skin and an unbelievable tolerance to heat. Their magyck and combat abilities were impressive as well.

There was only one soldier in the camp who was not a Flaren. His name was Storm, and honestly, nobody knew what he was. He was a well-cut boy, just 14 years old with spiky blue hair and glowing eyes that seemed to fluctuate among the colors blue, red, black, and even white at times, making him look otherworldly, God-like. He, unlike the rest of the soldiers who were observing the dual and joking about the one-sided abuse they were witnessing, was away from the pack. He was sitting on the ground with his back leaning on the barracks. He was either meditating, sleeping, or resting his eyes.

Regardless, Orion spotted him and didn’t like what he saw. “Hey! Whaddya think yer doin’ ya little punk! This is important information!” Storm didn’t budge. Orion was furious at the lack of respect he was receiving from someone who was not just a rookie, but also an outcast on this planet. “Awright! If ya think yer so tough, why doncha get your ass up and let me show ya a thing or two! I’ll show you what the battlefield is like!” Storm’s eyes opened, glowing as usual. He got up and walked up behind the severely beaten Flaren, and took his place.

It was not unusual for military camp duals to be so brutal; it was very common for these duals to end in death, to “get ridda the dead weight” as Orion put it. The other warrior, who had won the dual, awaited the go-ahead from Orion to make the foreigner suffer. Orion looked very excited, he loved watching anyone suffer at the hand of his power. “Awright kid, if you think yer too good to be in this military, I’ll show you what were all about! Begin!” The Flaren almost instant extended his hand to blast an immense fireball at Storm who dodged it with amazing speed. The Flaren growled and then leapt at Storm in an attempt to choke him with his scolding hands, only to find that Storm had disappeared. “What the…where’d he go?” the Flaren said in his own tongue. The observing Flarens talked amongst themselves and couldn’t explain it. Suddenly, Storm dropped down from the sky with a sword and pierced the Flaren warrior through his back, instantly killing him. Orion watched on in horror. Storm hadn’t disappeared, he was moving so fast that nobody could see him.

As the crowd of warriors watched him fearfully, he placed his bloodied sword back through his belt, and shot a glare with his glowing eyes at Orion. “Is this what the battlefield is like? How disappointing.” Storm said coolly. Orion was rough and tough, but not stupid, he replied. “I think you’ve proven yourself, kid. It’s almost a shame there are almost no missions anymore, I’d love to see ya in action out in the field.” Suddenly Orion received a neuro-transmitted message to his added microchip in his brain. “What?! The house of Government Affairs? Y-yes, I’ll get there as soon as possible sir.” The warriors looked on in curiosity. It was unclear if Orions expression was excited or anxious, maybe it was both. “Umm, important meeting boys, I’m afraid we’ll have to cut camp short today. But don’t get any ideas, ya’ll had better be ready for a taste of hell tomorrow morning!”

Orion was about to sport is aero craft when he stopped and turned towards the soldiers. “Uhh hey! Kid! What’s your name?” he yelled towards Storm. “Storm” he replied dryly. Orion pondered the name for a moment and then yelled out to him “Come here, I’ve got somethin’ for you!” Storm walked towards him, again with almost no expression at all. When he reached the aero craft, Orion studied him for a second, as if unsure if he wanted to do what he was going to do.
“I’ve got a mission for ya. There’s a volcanic cave about 100 kilometers south of here, there’s a valuable item that our government has been trying to recover for sometime. It’s called the firestone, now I can’t give you the specifics, but if this meeting is what I think it’s about, we may need it.” Storm was now looking more interested at the prospect of being the sole warrior on such an important mission. Orion continued, “I’ve already sent one of your kind there, but she’s been missing for three days. Your second priority is to find her and bring her back alive. Of course I doubt that’s possible, so just worry about the firestone for now.” Storm was now curious, he asked, “Who is this girl?” Orion looked perturbed and said, “Stop worryin’ about the girly and focus on your mission! Get that firestone! Now, I have an important meeting if you’ll excuse me!” Orion struggled onto the aero craft and took off at blazing speed.

Storm wondered to himself what the use of this firestone was, what the meeting was about, and who this girl was that was dispatched to the volcano ahead of him. Storm surveyed the scene, and then shot up into the air. He locked on south, and began flying towards the volcano. The Flarens again watched on in amazement. “Who is he and WHAT is he?” said one Flaren. “What did Orion say to him? Where was Orion going?” said another. “My guess is that Orion told that guy everything that’s going on, just because he has powers. The more power, the less trustworthy I always say,” said another Flaren. Little did they know, that Storm knew just as much as they did: nothing.


Chapter 4: A mission with an unknown purpose

As Storm flew south, it seemed a million thoughts were running through his head all at once. Why was he sent alone? Why was he sent at all? What was the firestone? Who was this girl? Storm eventually concluded that he’d just have to wait and see. After just a few minutes of flying, very small volcano appeared on the horizon. It was on an island and did not look to be active. What was odd about this scenery was that their was actually flowing green grass surrounding it and algae on the rocks. The rest of planet was hard rock and gravel due to the intense heat. Storm had noticed this area was significantly cooler.

He descended out of the air and landed on the island. As he stared up at the volcano, which was no more than 20 feet tall, he pondered what could be so dangerous about this mission and why the firestone had been stored in such a peaceful and harmless place. As Storm began to walk towards the volcano, he heard a voice yell from a distance behind him. “Just where do you think your going?” Storm turned to see who it was. The voice Storm had heard was an elderly man with an enormous purple cone-shaped hat, his beard was white as snow, and hung below his waist. “To the volcano” storm replied stupidly, not knowing what else to say. The wizard knew where he was going, but took Storm’s obvious reply as a reason to act surprised. “What are you crazy? That has to be cleared with me first! And why on earth would you want to go into that dreadful place!” “I-I…I’m here to get the firestone and rescue some girl from inside the volcano.” Storm thought to himself that he knew too little for his short explanation to be acceptable grounds for entering volcano.

But surprisingly, the mysterious man looked intrigued. “Who sent you young man?” he asked. Storm relieved to finally be able to reply more completely said, “General Orion, he told me that he had an important meeting to go to and that it would probably be beneficial if he had the firestone in his hands.” The mysterious man instantly gave an understanding look. “Ahh, it’s about the council meeting I gather. Orion has probably received word that Firan is not happy about the council’s decision to relieve Pious of duty and then go and let Aurelius off the hook.”
“What’s this all about?” storm asked. The mysterious man closed his eyes and though for a moment. When open them he said “Your quest is an important one young man, I suggest you proceed with what you are here to do. If and when you come out, come by my hut and I will tell you all that I know. The mysterious man walked away from Storm back towards his hut, as if trying to escape any questions Storm may ask.

Storm proceeded up the gradually inclined path towards the volcano’s mouth, noticing that the temperature was getting cooler and cooler as he climbed higher. He reached the top very quickly and after a few deep breaths more for preparation than endurance, he peered into the mouth of the volcano.

What Storm saw inside was baffling. The inside was some four hundred feet deep. But it was brightly illuminated with beautiful magyckal energy of many colors, flowing brilliantly through the cave. There were raging streams and waterfalls of crystal clear water, gigantic trees and many different types of flowers that grew both large and small and were easy on both the eyes and nose. This was the last picture Storm expected to see he looked into the mouth of the volcano. From his perspective of the interior, it didn’t appear to be a volcano at all. “Well that explains why they sent me instead of a Flaren, it’s too cool in there for them to survive. But how is it so cool and why?” Storm said to himself. He decided that if he wanted to find out, he’d probably have to ask the mysterious man, and to do that he’d have to accomplish his mission first.

He leapt up and hung into the air momentarily before plunging head-first into the mouth of the volcano. He stopped in the middle of the air about halfway between the mouth and the floor. He was still struck by how alive the interior seemed. It was more alive than anywhere else on the planet, Storm thought to himself. He wasn’t sure where to begin. “Firestone, missing girl…damn where to start?” Storm said to himself. He suddenly heard a muffled noise. It sounded like a girl screaming for help. He tried to sense where she was because the noise echoed around the cave and hit him from all directions. He locked onto her by sensing her magyck level, an ability only a select few were blessed enough to have.

The noise was coming from behind an extremely thick and powerful waterfall. Storm quickly sprung into action. As he flew towards the waterfall and clasped his hands together tightly, charging a beam of energy in between. “VENTOOOO!!!” he screamed loudly as he threw his hands forward and fired a beam of energy at the waterfall. The waterfall was parted in the center by an extremely strong powered wind, causing the waterfall to distribute its flow to the sides. Storm quickly flew through it and landed in front of a prison cell. Moments after he landed, the magyck he had used on the waterfall wore off, and it began flowing regularly again.

Inside the cell was a girl about his age, looking at him and beaming with hope. The first thing Storm noticed about the girl was that she had the same glowing eyes as he did. She was a short girl with short curly blonde hair, a small button nose, and crystal clear skin. Storm continued to study her and the girl then broke the silence. “It’s not nice stare ya know, has your mother taught you anything?” she said. “I wasn’t staring” storm replied. “Yeah yeah, it’s alright, I get it all the time. But uhh…yeah, I’m not sure if maybe you think I like it in here but umm yeah, I don’t, so let me out already!” she said childishly. Storm studied the cell, it appeared to be made of stone. He extended his arm and opened his palm. He screamed out “IGNIS!!!” an immense fireball appeared in his hand and it blasted towards the cell. The girl hit the dirt and covered her head.

The ball of fire bursted as it hit the cell and was reflected back towards Storm. He tried to absorb the blow but failed. He was rocked backward by the extreme heat and fell on his back. The girl looked enraged. “ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!!! Open the cell you big dumbo, you can’t just blow up a cell like this!” Storm looked at her with a face of pain and confusion. The girl shot him a look that said she should have known. “Oh God, another slow one. This is an enchanted cell, you need a special key to open it! Obviously your too interested in blowing things up to realize this!”

Storm wiped the ash from the fireball off of his face and then stood up and looked at the girl. “How do I get the key? And why should I save such an irritating spoiled brat like you?” storm said acting as if he were seriously considering leaving her there. She responded knowing that he wasn’t being serious, “Oh stop it! You have to unlock the cell if you want the firestone! Now get yourself out of here and go to the opposite side of the cave. On the surface there is a hatch, open it and go down it. You’ll find yourself in a room with an immense red dragan. He imprisoned me here and he has the key. If you want the firestone you have to kill him, but you’ll probably die-hey, where’d you go?!”

Storm had already blasted through the waterfall again and began searching for the hatch on the opposite side of the cave. “Ugh…men” the girl said to herself as she retreated to the corner of her cell to rest.


Chapter 5: Meeting with Firan

General Orion, speeding on his aero craft, spotted the house of government affairs, and landed in the back courtyard landing pad that was reserved for him. As he got out of his aero craft he noticed that security was extremely tight. Several elite Flaren soldiers were surrounding the House of Government Affairs. It was just another sign of how important this matter was. Orion was now almost certain it had to do with the meeting of the high council. Which led him to also believe that great Firan himself was inside. As he walked towards the entrance, he was cut off by two Flaren guards, demanding his identity.

“General Orion of course, don’t you remember me? Ahh, ya guys all look the same. I happen to be the greatest general you’ll ever know, so don’t forget the name. Anyway, I was called here for some important business with the local government.” The two guards looked at each other and nodded at him, and then split back to their positions and allowed Orion to pass.

Orion stood on the pressure plate in front of the electronically locked entrance. He looked at the digital computer attached to the wall. It spoke to him, “Please speak your five digit pin number within the next three seconds to grant access” Orion, being familiar with this process, promptly replied “24572.” The computer scanned his voice waves and went through its list on numbers with mind-boggling speed. It accepted the pin, and the door opened. The computer welcomed him, and was programmed specifically for this visit, “Welcome General Orion, you have been asked to attend a meeting of great urgency. Please find your way to the war room immediately.”

Orion hurried as fast as his overweight body would allow him until he reached the winding staircase that led to the war room. He again was asked to speak his pin #. He repeated the process and was granted access. As he hurried down secret winding staircase, he wondered to himself if Firan himself was going to be here. He had mixed feels of excitement and concern. He was excited because there was rarely any important work for the military to do anymore, but concerned that it involved concerns with high council. Intergalatic matters were the only problems both significant and broad enough to destroy the council and threaten Lord Pheobus’ influence.

Orion finally reached the bottom on the winding staircase. He was asked for his pin number one last time, and then entered the war room. There were several political officials, generals and advisors gathered around the war rooms table. As General Orion entered, they settled down and glared at him. “Late” Orion muttered to himself, proving he could take a hint. As he took his reserved seat, everyone was quiet and seemed to be waiting. Not being in position to break the trend after being late, Orion followed their lead.

After a few moments of waiting, a friendly ding, comparable to that of an elevator was heard in the war room. It was overhead computer speaker, generally used to alert officials of important events, or suspicious activity within the House of Government affairs. “Emperor Firan’s ambassador is currently descending down the winding staircase, he should enter in approximately 20 seconds, thank you.” General Orion looked disappointed at the message. “Shoulda known Firan himself wouldn’t show up” he thought to himself.

Just then the door opened and Firan’s computerized ambassador walked through the door and straight to the podium, completely unaffected by the dozens of eyes fixed on him. He wasted no time delivering the message, it was probably the only good thing about using computers to do a job instead of people. They did their job and nothing more. “I bring a private mission from Emperor Firan. Here is the audio recording of his instructions:

'My dear rulers of Reven. I bring most urgent instructions to you. Due to the elite military program on your planet, I found it best to contact you for this mission above anyone else. I have reason to believe that something has gone wrong with the High Council. Pious Augustus, the member of the High Council that I respect most, has been removed from his chair and seems to have gone mad. However, moments later, Aurelius’ made comments just as radical and was supported for it, due to the republic of Turqua voting towards independence for Wickil’s homeland matters. I seem to be the only member of the council who doesn’t trust Aurelius’ intentions are in the right place. I have great respect for the council and the pacification cluster, but will have to betray their trust to assure prevention of disaster. I am asking that General Orion direct a top secret mission to travel to Wickil and spy on the government. I have provided you with a ship compatible with the nearest worm-hole directly to Wickil. It can support 8 ship members, but I am asking that you divide them up. Four crew members/pilots, one doctor, yourself, and two elite warriors who can tolerate the climate change of Wickil. If these requests cannot be met, we’ll have to find defected mercenaries who are out for self-gain rather than their objectives, so please do your best to find the requirements within our own galaxy. The firestone will be needed for leverage in any negotiations involving the galaxy of Wickil, or any other galaxies that may intervene in our inspection. If he have the firestone ready for use, we will have a fallback on case this mission is leaked. Please keep in mind how much trust is involved with this matter. It seems deceptive, and it is. But it’s for a good cause. I bid you and the planet of Reven farewell, do not fail me.

Our Lord Pheobus be with you,
Emperor Firan.'

The war room was overwhelmed by the mission and wasn’t too thrilled with being ordered to deceive the council. Orion however, beamed with excitement. It was the first important mission he had been in charge of for a very long time. He got up out of his seat and headed towards the exit and raced up the winding staircase and out the electronic entrance back into the courtyard.

With great excitement Orion thought up several ideas on how we was going to handle the situation and how he was going to make it succeed. He hopped into his aero craft and was headed directly to his private war room at his training base. “My military…the best! Guess that makes me the very best general around! I’ll make sure those evil bastards behind all this in Wickil get a glimpse of some fiery Fervendour hell!”


Chapter 6: Ashburn: The Firestone Guardian

Storm flew to the opposite side of the cavern, searching for the hatch that contained the firestone. As he surveyed the scene from the air, he still couldn’t get over how beautiful and harmless his surroundings seemed. Still, he knew to be cautious, as everyone he had spoken to seemed to fear this place.

He descended from the air and landed on the thick, grassy surface. He looked around at the ground for a bit, finding nothing. He then studied a stream that separated the east and west sides of the cave. Again, he found nothing, and was becoming somewhat flustered. “What the hell…the girl said it was over here, she didn’t say I had to do anything specific…”Then suddenly, as he was meandering around, he was blinded by a brilliant pulse of light. It took him a few moments of seeing black spots before regaining his sight. As his eyes regained focus, he found himself standing before a brilliantly colored flowerbed, with a statue of a red-dragan in the center.
Storm hesitantly walked through the many colored flowers towards the statue. He studied it for a moment, and then discovered a plaque on its pedestal. It read:

“Ashburn
Guardian of the Firestone”

Before he had any opportunity to do anything other than read the plaque, the ground was shaking below him. “What the…?” He looked down at his feet to find the ground crumbling beneath him. He tried to fly away from the shattering rock beneath him, but was pulled down towards it as if it were a black hole. Suddenly, he weighed 160 tons instead of pounds, and he plummeted downward along with the bedrock. It seemed the fall through darkness would never end; it lasted so long he had forgotten he was falling, because he couldn’t see himself; or anything for that matter.
Finally, he struck a hard, cold surface.

“Son of a bitch!” he barked as he held his now limp left wrist that broke his fall. Though very sore from his fall, he stood up and looked around. He was in a dark, cold dungeon. Struggling to see, Storm yelled out “Illuminos!” The room lit up at once revealing an enormous wooden door. He walked towards it and it opened as if anticipating his arrival. A voice growled and thundered through the dungeon as doors creaked open. “If you desire the ultimate sacred weapon of Fervendour, you must slay me first.”

A cold sweat broke out on Storm’s face. Was it fear? Maybe the situation would be different if he knew why he was about to do battle with a red-dragan. The lack of knowledge about the situation left Storm torn and he found it difficult to find the fire inside to fight something so menacing. In the middle of pondering whether to turn back or not, a blazing fireball was speeding in his direction. He tried to dodge it, but it was too late. He took it head on and was blown backward with an incredible amount of scolding energy. Storm lay on his back, severe burns covering his entire body. He thought he might never get up again. That however wasn’t an option as the red-dragan was now stomping towards him, gigantic steel sword in one hand and mammoth iron shield in the other.

Storm, through extreme pain struggled to his feet. “I better figure out a way to get rid of this thing quick, or it’ll be lights out before I know it.” He leapt out of the way of the red-dragan, and withdrew his enchanted sword; a sword that changed it’s blade to the most effective element against a particular enemy. It instantly changed to an ice sword. The red-dragan known as Ashburn was clearly more than large, it was also clever, and extremely quick, as it swept it’s huge red spiked tail at Storm. He dove onto the ground, increasing the painful sensation of his burned palms, and ducked under the attack.

He got back on his feet and swung his sword, dragging across the dungeon floor, at the red-dragan. “Brina!” Storm shouted, and miniature blizzard of snow launched from the ice sword into the Ashburn’s burning red eyes. It growled viciously as the freezing snow melted over his eyes. Storm seized the opportunity, and leapt onto Ashburn’s back and clutched his thick, rough scales.
Ashburn blindly tried to scratch at his back and grab a hold of Storm, but before he could, Storm pulled back his sword and drove it emphatically into Ashburn’s spiked back. He let out a thunderous growl, which spread fire across the entire dungeon, and then violently threw Storm off of his back like a rag doll.

Storm felt any remaining oxygen in his lungs leave him the instant he struck the ground. He only had enough energy to see Ashburn squaring him up, ready to vaporize him in his fiery breath. Just as his huge muscular neck cocked back to engulf Storm in flames. Storm, barely able to see, had accepted his unfortunate fate. “Heh…guess…guess this is it…I can’t believe I actually…failed a mission…I’m sorry…General…” Just before the great beast could send Storm to the next world in a blaze, he stopped.

Storm was looking at him, too exhausted to have any ideas as to what was happening. Ashburn had a look of absolute terror on its face, and began shaking uncontrollably. He dropped his enormous sword and shield which both left huge craters in the ground where they were dropped. He then let out a loud groan and began stumbling, before falling over on his side, crushing the ground beneath him, in a very difficult to watch and miserable pain. Storm watched Ashburn with hope, but was unsure of what to think. “…what? Heh…ha…ha…ah! The sword…it’s still working…”

Ashburn, through his misery, managed to speak to Storm. “Plea…please…use it for a good cause…the guardians…only seek peace…and protection for weapons as destructive as this one…please…for the sake of my lord Pheobus…don’t…kill…” but these were the last words of the firestone guardian. His breath turned cold and his every inch of his humongous, thickly hided body was frozen with a thin sheet of ice, with the enchanted sword still driven into his back. A key with a red jewel on it’s head fell off of Ashburn’s belt when he fell over. Storm was too weak to get up to retrieve the key, and fell unconscious after hearing only bits and pieces of Ashburn’s final words.