Dragon's Dance

            The boy ran through the woods towards the village as if being chased by a fleet of ghost or a horde of hounds from the dark underneath of the world. A malicious scream came from the tree-line behind him and he stumbled, got himself up again, and continued running.

The hours of the day was noon; but the sky cast shadows over the fields and were coming from the east towards the Village of Dremter. Lake Sil was covered by a growing and crawling mist that made its way towards the gates of Dremter.

         The boy ran along the stone path that twisted its way up the hill. The youth avoided following the serpentine pathway, and opted for the more direct route to the gates. The guard atop the gate saw the darkness and the mist first and then he saw the boy.

“Open the gates,” he shouted to another guard.

         “He will bring in the evil with him,” the other responded.

         “Open the damned gates or he will die!”

         “If I open this gate, we will all die you fool.”          

         At that moment the boy was at the gate pounding and yelling.

“Let me in!” the youth shouted.

         “You bring a great evil with you, boy!” the second guard yelled down to him. “Go away before the darkness befalls us all.”

         “Please, you must let me in!” the boy cried.

         “Let him in, damn it!” the first called again.

         “Over my dead…” he fell over.

A third guard had hit him over the head with the butt of his sword and began to open the gates. The child started squeezing through until he finally fit and the guard closed the gates again.

“Secure the gates!” the first guard called down below. “Lock them tight and brace yourselves men!”

The gates were closed and locked. The mist and darkness approached the village steadily. Within the compound, the guards listened as the sounds of scratching and growling came from outside. Every man had his weapon draw and ready for the worst. And the worse came not with a whisper, but with an explosion.

The wooden gates blew inward and every guard in the path was blown backwards fifty feet. The guards atop the gate were blown to the ground as a great hole appeared in the entranceway of the village. The splintered ruins of the front wall covered the soldiers lying on the ground.

There were screams from within as men, women, and children began to run for their lives. The soldiers took up their positions and searched to find an opponent to attack, but their vision was limited to near blindness as the mist and darkness covered the entire village.

From within the vapors were inhuman sounds in the form of grunts and growls. As men prepared to defend themselves, arms of black and grey come from within the fog and began slashing apart the small garrison that was on the ground to defend.

Men screamed as their arms were slashed and torn from their bodies. Armor and weapons fell to the dirt as the bodies that held them became limp in death. Blood spew from the necks of warriors who had them ripped open from the unseen enemy.

Some men tried to attack into the mist only to hit nothing. One guard swung his sword and thought that he struck an opponent until his sword was torn from his hands. As he looked at his weaponless hand in disbelief, his blade was returned to him quickly and through his throat. He grasped the hilt with the intent to remove it, but fell to the ground, soaking the land with his blood.

Somewhere in the distance, a loud roar from a great beast sounded. The villagers that were still alive cringed in terror at that moment before returning to their fearful flee.

Within an hour, the village of Dremter was basking in the glow of sunlight. Lifeless bodies littered the ground. The mud was a mix of blood and dirt. Nothing living stirred within the gates.

#

Seph fell to the deck of the ship face first. He lifted his head slowly and turned his head to face his assailants. The three crew-members peered down at him and laughed. The biggest of the three, the one that had hit Seph and knocked him down, stood with a sneer across his face. He pounded his fist into his other hand and then motioned for Seph to stand.

As Seph slowly stood, he gathered his wits and tried to formulate a plan. ‘Not lose’ was all that he could come up with. Seph’s attacker, Tonklin, chuckled. He licked at his silver covered tooth, and then hunched into attack position as Seph was near to standing.

“Get ‘im, Tonks,” his darker skinned companion urged.

“Make him bleed some more, Tonks, old man,” the shorter, but no less burly, goon added.

Seph put his hands out to the deck hands to ward off a further attack.

“Gentlemen, I am sure that we can reach resolution if we just…”

“Tonks,” dark-skin said, “him’s using dem big words again.”

“Don’t worry, Zylde,” Tonklin replied. “when I gets done wit’ ‘im, he won’t ‘ave no teeth to use on dem big ol’ words o’ ‘is.”

“Yeah,” Zylde sneered.

“I do not want to hurt you gentlemen,” Seph started again. “It is our teaching at the monastery to love thy brother and to bring peace…”

“Hear dat, guys?” Tonklin said. “He loves us.”

All three men began laughing.

“Love, dis,” Tonklin said as he threw a hard right punch at Seph’s head. This time, the monk stopped the attack by catching the swinging fist in motion.

“Now, Mister Tonklin, be reasonable.” Seph said, “There is no need for this pugilistic outburst.”

“Puga- what?” Tonklin asked, confused by the words and at the fact that this less than 200 pound man could stop his fist.

“Pugilistic,” Seph replied, “it means, well, never mind. The point is gentlemen that I have done nothing to instigate this attack, so if you would kindly give me leave; I will go about my business.”

The three men looked at one another for a serious moment, and then they began laughing harder than before.

“Forget dat, island man,” Tonklin replied.

“Yeah! Forget dat, island man” the short man echoed.

“Sherik, shad up,” Tonklin said. “Yous don’t need to be my echo.”

Tonklin focused on Seph again.

“Where was we?”

“You were going to leave me be?” Seph asked.

“Nope,” Tonklin replied.

He began a serious of punches and jabs only to have Seph knock each one away.

“’it ‘im!” Zylde yelled.

“I’m trying,”

More punches and each attempt was met with Seph swatting them away as if they were only flies. The only thing that Tonklin succeeded in doing was to make Seph take a few steps back, towards the wall of the galley. Seeking to take advantage of his partially cornered prey, Tonklin moved in and swung at Seph’s head again.

Seph merely ducked and moved to his left as the deck hand hit the wooden wall full on. He yelled as he withdrew his fist and cradled it in his other hand.

“I do not want to hurt you gentlemen,” Seph said.

“Stop calling us dat,” Sherik yelled.

Seph shook his head and put some distance between him and his attackers.

“I will go on about my business now…” he began

“Like hell ya will,” Tonklin grunted.

Tonklin leapt at Seph full force with his arms extended and growling as he flew towards the monk.

Seph only had a moment to react, and in one fluid movement he used Tonklin’s momentum and threw him the rest of the distance across the galley. While his back was turned, the other two goons decided that they would attack. Their lack of stealth made it simple for Seph to spin around, grab Zylde’s already extended arm, continue his turn with Zylde in tow, and throw him into the charging Sherik.

Both men fell atop one another and crashed into a few barrels. At this same time, Tonklin was recovering from his flight, and had gotten on his feet again.

“Please, do not attack again,” Seph asked.

Tonklin ignored the request and charged again anyway. And, as before, Seph used his opponent’s weight against himself, and had Tonklin flying through the air a second time.

By this time, the noise in the galley had brought on-lookers including the captain of the vessel.

“What in the name of the dark, black hell is going on here?” he yelled.

Tonklin, Zylde, and Sherik all stood and began brushing themselves off and looked at Seph, who was standing there looking to see if anyone else were going to attack.

The captain looked at his men, each individually, with Tonklin last.

“Well, Tonks,” the captain bellowed, “what is da meaning of dis?”

Tonklin cleared his throat, “well, you sees cap’n, it’s likes this,” he began.

“Shaddup, you idiot!” the captain barked back. “Everyt’ing you say is a lie anyway. Why are you trying to bother dis man anyway?”

“Well, you sees cap’n”

“I sees everyt’ing,” the captain interrupted. “Dis is my ship, and you work for me, Tonklin. I decide who rides on The Wanderer and who don’t, you got it?” he began to walk towards Tonklin until they stood nose to nose. “He paid his fare, and he is ridin’ wit us whether you likes it or not.”

“Yessir,” Tonklin mumbled.

“Did ya say somet’ing, Tonks?” the captain asked.

“Aye, aye, Captain Wynn, sir!” Tonklin replied.

“What about you two dung pots?” Wynn asked Sherik and Zylde.

“Aye, aye, sir!” the echoed one another.

Captain Wynn looked at each of the three men again. “Looks like I have permanent volunteers for washin’ da crockery for da rest of da trip.” He chuckled as he turned to leave. “You, dere,” he pointed at Seph. “Come wit me.”

#

Captain Wynn opened the door to the captain’s deck, and allowed Seph to enter first before following him in and closing the door behind him. Seph took five steps into the room and stopped, as Captain Wynn walked around him and behind his table where he had an old, plush covered chair. Wynn took a seat, grabbed his pipe, lit it and took a few puffs before speaking.

“First, I would like to say sorry for da way da boys was acting,” Wynn started.

“That is not a trouble, Captain,” Seph started.

“I said I would like to. But, see, dis is my ship, so what I say goes.” Wynn stood up and walked over to the window with his pipe in hand. “Do you know how to sail a ship boy?”

Boy? Seph was not that young. He was not that old either, but, boy?

“No, sir, I do not,” Seph replied.

“No, I did not t’ink dat you did. Nor do you own a boat, do ya boy?”

“Again, no, sir.”

“Den, could I make a suggestion?”

“Certainly, captain.”

“Don’t piss on me ship!” the captain whirled around as he shouted, taken Seph back by surprise.

“I never…”

“I do not mean literally, of course, boy,” the captain explained, “I mean it in the udder sense of da word.”

“Figuratively,” Seph assisted.

“Yeah,” the captain agreed, pointing his pipe at Seph, “but dat is what I mean. You’re all book read and stuff, and da boys here are good hard workers, to be sure, but, well, you sees what I means, don’t ya boy?”

Seph sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

“I do understand captain.”

Wynn looked at Seph for a moment and then sat down again. He opened up the lock box on the table, removed a leather pouch, and placed it on the table. Seph recognized the pouch at first glance. The captain opened it and withdrew the purple gem from within.

“No, dis is a fine price dat you paid, to be sure,” Wynn said. “I never asked where ya gots it and I don’t care none. Not right now at least. But, if dere is any more trouble on my boat, you are goin’ ta find yerself swimmin’ da rest of da way to Dropridge.”

“Understood, captain,” Seph replied.

“And I will keep this shiny for me troubles. So da next two days had better not have no trouble, you get me boy?”

“Yessir, captain,”

“Dat is all,” Wynn took a drag off of his pipe and replaced the gem. “Oh and, boy?”

Seph turned around.

“Good to see someone put Tonks in ‘is place for once.” He said with a smile. Then his face was serious again. “Once,” he emphasized.