Hand of Death ch1

Here I Stand, The Hand of Death, Hear my Command, Seep Red again. Souls flew from his finger tips, stealing every ones very life essence. Their bodies returned to the soil that they once came. Their killer laughed maniacally amidst the bodies. Then, he looked straight at me.
I awoke with a shudder. Knowing I dreamed about The Hand of Death, I couldn’t go back to sleep. The dreams about him, The Plague, who was destroying our planet, Neos, with his hand were becoming more often. In Neos, we have managed peace for so long until he came along. In retaliation of his attack on Neos, Every Archer, Every Warrior, Every Mage, and Every Cleric joined forces. Yet, The Hand of Death proved too powerful to be defeated.
In the first year of his attack, He destroyed our Churches, all of them except Adeona. Nowadays, everyone calls it Hidden Ground. In his second year, He killed every Cleric except the one in Adeona, my teacher, Valden. He is the only Elf I’ve ever seen. The rest of us in Hidden Ground are Humes. In his Third year, He killed the last prince of Neos, Olen the Grand. After this, everyone went into hiding. The Hand of Death was invincible. The Hand of Death was sent by god to punish us. So many opinions, but the truth is; we were just scared of him. Now it is the fourth year of his invasion.
I got out of bed and got dressed. I wore the armor my father gave me before leaving to fight The Hand of Death. Walking into the school room, I saw Valden talking about the geography of Neos. He was about two hundred years old with grey hair and long pointed ears. Much to my surprise, Robin was cooking. I looked at her questioningly and she just shrugged. She must be feeling better.
Adeona had very few residents now. The rest had run, hoping to escape the Hand of Death. There was Valden Elfsworn, Robin Carroll, Jeremiah Strong-arm, Sarah Lovett, Criss Valentine, and myself, Seth Alexander. Elza, a good lady and wife of Valden, died in The Hand of Deaths raid of the original Adeona. Valden was an elf, and his age showed. He was short and had grey hair. Robin had long dark hair and a feeble disposition. Jeremiah was a slim guy, but his looks alone could kill a man. Sarah was a blonde who constantly had a pony tail. She was always hopeful and romantic. Criss was a dark haired, pale guy who looked dead. There wasn’t much I could say about me. I was Ordinary, nothing special.
“Aww, Seth come and join us,” Valden said, noticing me. I came and sat by Jeremiah. As Valden talked about how beautiful Neos once was, I couldn’t help but look up. Beneath the ground, I missed the sun. I longed to feel the wind once again.
Neos was dying. Not only did The Hand of Death kill our people, but he was killing our planet. I knew he would find us eventually, no one knew where he was. Also, if he didn’t get someone, the Bandos did. The Bandos are no better than thugs. They are followers of him, giving “punishment” to the “rotten”. They were nothing but murderers.
Suddenly, Robin collapsed. My training as a warrior in Hidden Ground was not wasted. I dived towards her the minute she began to fall. I caught her head before it hit the ground. Robin was the only Mage in Hidden Ground and for some unknown reason, she was constantly weak. I looked at her and her eyes shined a bright, white light. Remembering past events, I realized she was having a vision. The Sight was a power given to only the most powerful mages, so that at random points, they would have premonitions. To me, it sounded very dangerous, but Robin said it was worth it. When the Sight left her, she screamed, “Bandos!”
My worst fears realized. The minute she muttered their name, the Bandos charged Hidden Ground. I drew the sword of my father. There were so many of them. A quick count of heads told me their was at least thirty.
I slashed and hacked my way to Valden.
“Valden, What do we do!?” I hollered.
“We have to get to higher ground.”
By then, the others were in earshot. I knew what we must do.
“To the Sun!” I charged, obliterating everyone in my path. I made a straight line to the ladder by which the Bandos invaded. We made it out and the sun temporarily blinded me. I saw the world around me, and I liked to cried. Knowing now was not the time; I turned to fight the menace that invaded my home. Valden was tending to Robin behind us. Jeremiah and I stood upfront, swords drawn. Sarah and Criss stood arrows posed.
One by one, the Bandos crawled out of Hidden Ground. One by one, we killed. I did not enjoy killing them. This situation was an exception; it was us or them. After killing one, I heard the sound of galloping horses. I turned around to see we were surrounded by Bandos. I looked at the man in front, riding the white horse. Obviously, he was the leader.
“For the Hand of Death!” The man on white horse decreed. He then stabbed Valden. I dived to stop him but was too late. Criss, Jeremiah, and Sarah rushed over to Valden and Robin. I jumped at Valden’s Killer. I had him around the throat before I noticed everyone was watching Robin. She was afloat midair and her eyes were glowing with a red color. Something I have never seen her do before.
There was a flash and all the Bandos were dead. She fell to the ground, and Jeremiah caught her. I would find out what that was later: for now, we all rushed to Valden. He was coughing up blood: the spear he was stabbed with was poisoned!
“Valden, what are going to do without you!” Cried Sarah.
“You must listen to Robin. The Bandos knows where we are, and she will guide you out. Seth, come here…”
I got closer to Valden, and he whispered something to me that only I could hear.
“Hand of Fate!”
Puzzled I looked at him to find he was dead. If the sky had clouds, they would cry. The hand of Death stole this too. In Valdens final moments, Neos should have cried and ached for him. No, The Hand of Fate stole this. For now, Valden returned to soil.
Putting my heart away, I stood up. I looked around and saw nothing. The ground was barren. The trees were nonexistent. The memories of my childhood diminished. Even the sun looked less bright.
Knowing the Bandos would return before long, we set out. Jeremiah was carrying Robin, and all the dead wood we passed I chopped. We all stayed quiet. Watching Valden return to soil was heartbreaking. He was one with Neos again, and because of the Hand of Death, I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
When Nightfall came, we made a fire out of the dead wood. We were all quiet. Sarah broke the silence by saying, “What are we going to do?”
I looked at Robin, and she was looking at me.
“We have two choices: Fight or hide until caught again.” Robin stated.
We looked at each other. We were friends since childhood and if we chose to fight, who would die.
“I say we fight.” Criss said. Criss was one of those quiet people that when he did talk, people listened.
“We need to avenge Valden.” Sarah said. She was such a loving individual.
“I’m not going to hide anymore!” Jeremiah spoke up. He wasn’t a pacifist, for sure.
“We are going to defeat the Hand of Death” Robin responded. I looked at her, knowing her pain.
“We are going to avenge Damien.” I said. From that point, everything was quiet. We lost Damien in the first year of his invasion. All of us drifted into sleep except Robin. Robin just stared at me. What was with her lately?
The morning came, and we had no idea where to start searching. Not only that, we need something to ride because this would be a long journey and none of us wanted to walk.
“Where was the last place The Plague destroyed?” I asked.
Robin said, “In Hidden Ground, Valden had an orb that let us see the outside world. There was a hidden warrior outpost not to far from here.”
“Think the Bandos may have gotten them?” Sarah asked.
“Maybe, but of course they might have left some sort of transportation.” Robin said.
“Well, lets get going” I said
It took about 2 hours by foot to reach the warrior outpost. We arrived to find it barren. The houses were destroyed, and there was no sign of intelligent life. There was, however, a stable that had horses. We only took enough for all of us. Though it saddened Sarah to leave the rest behind, we had to. We couldn’t afford more mouths to feed.
Standing in the middle of the desecrated outpost, I spoke up.
“We have transportation. Where are we going now?”
Everyone looked at Robin. Somehow, Robin had become our leader. It was because she had private training in magic by Valden.
“Im…Im not sure. I can try to use the sight but I don’t know how to draw it out.”
“Speaking of your magic, what was that that you used back there to save us from those Bandos?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I think I might have summoned a flashfire fox but I’ve never been able to before!” She cried.
“It’s okay. Don’t get upset” Sarah said, hugging her.
“Flashfire fox?” I asked.
“Seth, leave her alone for a minute!” Sarah snapped.
Sarah glared at me and I just dropped it for now. I would find out though.

Later that night, we sat around the fire, talking about what we were going to do.
“We need allies,” Criss said. Everyone turned to look at him.
“Why?” Jeremiah asked.
“Well, we have us 5 and The Plague has who knows how many Bandos” He replied, with a melancholy tone. I hoped this wasn’t going where I thought it was.
“Who would fight with us? Everyone is too scared.” Sarah queried.
Then, he said it; the words that could change everything.
“The Darklands.” He said, crestfallen.
Jeremiah, Robin, and Sarah just looked at him in disbelief. I looked upon him with an understanding.
“Do you think they could help?” I spoke up.
“It would take awhile but if I became a leader, then yes they would”
Everyone but Criss and I were confused.
“What are you two talking about?” Robin asked.
“Friends, I’m sorry for having deceived you for so long, but,” He got up and walked a little ways, “I’m not entirely Hume.”
For the second time in my life, I saw him change. His two legs became four, and his hands and feet turned into paws. He was a wolf.
Everyone but me was shell-shocked. Sarah looked at him and her first response was, “I kissed a wolf!?” I never did understand their attraction..
“Your so cute!” she ran up too him, petting his dark silver coat.
Jeremiah chuckled, “I always knew you were a dog.”
Robin’s reaction was the most surprising of all. Nothing. She, somehow, already knew.
He ran off into a house, and came back out Hume, but with different clothes.
“I am a shape shifter. My mother was Hume, but not my father. I think I can go to The Darklands and bring back help.”
“Are you sure The Hand of Death isn’t from the Darklands?” Jeremiah asked.
“If he is, I can find information.”
“You’re not going alone!” Sarah said.
“You’re not going with me! Humes will be killed on sight in The Darklands and you know that” He said, trying to suppress the irritation.
We all knew he must go it alone. It was inevitable. We needed help, and he was the only one who could get it.
“I’ll set out first thing in the morning.” He said like he didn’t want to but had no choice. I couldn’t blame him. For Humes, The Darklands was deadly. For Half-bloods, it was dangerous.
“What are we going to do?” Jeremiah asked.
“You won’t make any moves on The Hand of Death until I return” Criss said.
Robin eyes turned white, and she fell backwards into Sarah’s lap. When The Sight left her, she said, “We’re going to Soteria”
Criss nodded, because who knew this land well. He had constantly snuck out of Hidden Ground to bring supplies, and to go wolf.
We continued to talk, but Robin had no idea why they needed to go to Soteria. Soteria was the biggest outpost there was, very well hidden amidst a forest of fog. The Sight had told her for us to go there, and go there we shall. We decided to go to sleep, and I stayed up to keep a watch out for Bandos. Jeremiah and I were taking 2 hour watch and sleep intervals. Robin woke up during one of my shifts, and came sat beside me.
“How did you know about Criss?” I asked.
She chuckled, “you know me well. The Sight showed me what he was long ago. It also showed me how good of a person he was, despite who his father was.”
Deciding to drop it, I stared at the sky.
“Do you think we can save him?” Robin asked.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”