The Legend of Keelroth Chapters 1-5

THE LEGEND OF KEELROTH

CHAPTER 1

"And with a blow from his mighty earthen hammer, the dwarven warrior Gigeja strikes down the Dark Minion, servant of the wicked Naerog; sworn enemy of all that exists."


Sean picked up Keith’s esteemed Dark Minion from the playing board and eyed it with a look of triumph behind his thick glasses. "Return, Dark Minion, to the depths of the Netherworld where you belong." He placed the little figure in a compartment on the board that read "Netherworld."


Sean had destroyed his friend Keith…again. A ruthless master of Heroes of the Soul, Sean worshipped the game and never failed to miss its half hour spin-off series on television.


"Looks like you win." Keith said with no surprise. He leaned his head on his hand, half heartedly flicking over a troll figure on the board. Sean would always win by a landslide--which was to be expected from the guy who won the regional tournament where the big time nerds compete. Eleven times in a row, in fact.


"How many more times are you going to make me play this game, man? You know I'm not into the fantasy scene. What's the point anyway? I don't stand a chance against you because you go all out!"


Sean held up his pudgy finger as he molded his face into the look of an old wise master.


"Mercy has no place on the battlefield, my son. My satisfaction comes from how badly I can destroy my adversary." It must have amused him to no end in that scenario, Keith thought.


"You know that none of this stuff is real, right? There's no such thing as magic or goblins."


Gasping, Sean pulled his head back gaping at Keith, his dark eyes wide. "You speak nonsense, Keith. They're everywhere! Books, movies, games."


"True, but this is a game! It's fiction, not reality."


"This is no mere game." Sean displayed the game box to his friend, decorated with knights and axe-wielding warriors battling goblins and other such forces of evil. "This is life!"


Keith scoffed, "To you, maybe."


"You know what your problem is, Keith? You have no life!" Sean began putting the game up, picking up the pieces and removing the artificial landscape from the board.


"What are you talking about? I'm going to college. I have a job."


Sean folded the board and put in back in the box. "What? Your three days a week for two classes at the community college? You work twelve hours a week at the gas station; you haven't devoted yourself to anything. You should go out and do something with your life, make something of yourself."


"Man, you sound like my mom." Keith stood up, stretched his arms, then fished around his back pocket. “I have some spare change. Wanna go down to arcade and play some ‘Eradicator?’”


As his eyes narrowed and a sadistic smirk appeared on his face, Sean chuckled. “Those poor fools don’t have a chance.”


Keith followed behind Sean out the wooden door to his apartment, into the plain tile hallway.

“That’s what you said last time and we wound up spending thirty tokens on it.” Sean said.


“Maybe if you would help shoot the aliens on my side of the screen, I would have lived a little longer.”


“I find that kind of hard when I have mutant spiders the size of a pit-bull jumping at me on MY side of the screen.”


“Excuses, my friend, excuses. The true warrior looks out for his friends’ safety as much as his own.” Sean opened the door leading outside the apartment building.


As much as he wanted to object, Keith could only shake his head at his friend, hoping one day he might be able to distinguish reality from his fantasy games. He didn’t know if stemmed from his constant defeats, or a lack of really trying to get into the genre, but the whole fantasy thing didn’t interest him. Instead, he chose more realistic interests: Cops, city-living sitcoms, and action flicks. Of course, getting Sean to look the other way wasn’t going to happen, so Keith remained silent.


Once outside, Keith set his sights skyward. The sky had been looking strange all day, with a strange reddish color lining the eastern horizon. It was now late afternoon, and had grown even redder, painting the entire horizon with a fiery red backdrop. A wall of thick clouds seemed to burn in the distance.


“Keith? What is it?”


Sean’s voice brought Keith’s attention away from the sky. “Nothing. It’s just the sky’s been looking kinda funny all day.”


“Yes, the atmosphere can take up strange colors for any number of reasons. Think nothing of it, my friend. Come now, there are aliens just waiting for us to destroy them.”



(End Chapter 1)



CHAPTER 2

Skye opened her eyes to a blurred world. How long had she been asleep? From the cliff overlooking the ocean, the sun seemed to melt into the sea as it cast a orangish-red farewell to the day, the ocean waters sparkling in its fading light. It was daylight when she’d flopped down for a nap.


She yawned big, stretching her forelegs first, kneading her claws into the ground to stretch their tendons and leaving scratch marks in the dust. She stretched her hind legs, then beat her large wings several times to stretch them as well. Without further ado, she turned the opposite direction from the ocean into the wooded area that surrounded the cliff. Ronan would have a fit if she didn’t make it back to the castle before they drew the bridge for the night.


A single path dirt cut through the forest leading to the kingdom of Alucafet. In the dimming sunlight, a human might have had trouble seeing, but it was nothing to a half-dragon. Easily as it were full daylight, Skye pushed on through the path with a leisurely stroll to enjoy the cool breeze against her scales, the peaceful stillness of the forest. In the distance, a deer reached up with its long neck to pick some leaves from a tree.


The deer, alert, twisted its head to see the draconic form approaching. In less than second it bounded away into the emerald sea.


Alucafet was a small, peaceful kingdom, governing only a single village and less than 200 inhabitants. The kingdom had never been in a war, and its kings came from a long line of pacifists. Skye had lived there her entire life, enjoying the peaceful nature of such a place.


A rotund, bearded shopkeeper had just begun to blow out the torches and close shop for the night when Skye approached the village. He eyed Skye warily, as he often would when she approached.


“Hello, Mr. Falcore.” She said.


The shopkeeper stared her down a few more seconds before retiring back into his shop without a word.


Skye closed her eyes and shook her head. Such a reaction wasn’t uncommon.


The dragon continued on towards the castle on the hill overlooking the village, but not before hearing the whispered murmur of a couple of teenage girls taking an evening stroll around the village, spreading gossip Skye judged from the sounds of their giggles. Though she knew better, Skye took a deep breath and tried to join in the conversation.


“Good evening. Anything interesting happening tonight?”


The thin, blonde haired girl scrunched her face at Skye with a moan of disgust, bringing an immediate halt to their gossip.


“Ugh, it’s that…dragon again.” Said the other, a brown haired girl of slightly larger figure, putting much disgust into the world ‘dragon.’


“Come on let’s get out of here before someone sees us with her.” Said the blonde. She turned down a dark alley way followed by her friend.


Skye snorted, discharging from her nostrils a billowing puff of smoke that twirled around in the air before fading into nothingness.


Again, nothing unusual. She went about her business, again heading for the castle on the hill. Humans could be such shallow creatures.


As Skye moved through the main street of Alucafet village, she stopped in her tracks as something bounced past her from the left. It was a ball made of pink rubber. She looked in the direction the ball came from. Three children, two boys and a girl, stared wide-eyed at her, not daring to move. Of course, they’d heard from their parents what dangerous and vile creatures dragons were. Not until it passed would they dare try to retrieve their ball.


They didn’t have to, as Skye walked over to the motionless ball and batted back to them with her forepaw. The girl, a tiny thing with short red hair, slowly approached as her brothers retrieved the ball. Something in the dragon’s eyes, a light of kindness, made her feel at ease.


“Sophia, don’t get close! It’ll fry you with it’s breath and eat you!” One of them shouted.


“Naw, she ain’t gonna hurt us.” The red haired girl said as she moved even closer. “Are you?”


“Of course not!” Skye said with a giggle, giving the best smile a dragon could muster. A very pointy-toothed smile.


The two boys moved closer to their sister. Something was strange about this dragon. It wasn’t particularly large, no taller than an adult human. They found the same kindness in her eyes as Sophia did.


“B-but I thought dragons were supposed to be big and mean!” Said the smaller boy.


“You shouldn’t listen to stories like that.” Skye said. “Most dragons don’t want to be hated. They only attack when someone attacks them first.”


“Can I feel your horns?” The taller boy asked.


Skye lowered her head. “Go ahead.”


The boys felt the dragon’s curved horns. They weren’t burning hot or poisonous. They felt just like a goat’s horns, only bigger. Sophia dared to rub Skye’s ruby colored scales. They weren’t at all slimy like she thought they’d be.


Skye laughed on the inside. Sweet an innocent, that’s what she liked about children. They were too young to hate what they couldn’t understand.


“Cool! A real, live dragon!” The larger boy said.


“Can you give us a ride?” Said the smaller.


Skye picked up her head. “Huh?”


“You have really big wings. Can you take us flying?”


“Actually, I…can’t fly.”


“Well can we ride you?” The red-headed girl asked.


Before Skye could answer, the chinkling of chain-mail boots got hers, and the children’s attention. A tall, gruff and serious looking man approached. To the kids, he seemed much scarier than the dragon. There was nothing friendly at all about the man. He even stood taller than Skye.


In fear, the children hid behind the long body of the dragon, hoping to lose the grim looking man.


“There you are, Skye. It’s getting late, they’ll be drawing bridge soon.”


“Ronan, I’m not a little girl anymore. I don’t need to sleep at the castle every night.”


“What if some dragon hunter were to come after you while you were asleep? The castle protects you from that. You know I don’t you wondering around the village anyway. Now come inside.”


“I know you care about me Ronan, but you have to let me look out for myself sometime. I’m an adult now, you know.”


Ronan turned his back to Skye. “Fine, do whatever you like. Just don’t let me catch you begging me for help if a group of dragon slayers come after you.”


I’m just as human as you are Skye said to herself as she watched Ronan head back towards the castle.


“Who-who was that guy? He’s scary looking.” The older boy asked,


“Well…I guess you could say he’s like my father, but he’s not my real one.”


“So who’s your real dad?” Said the little girl.


“I…don’t know. He died before I was old enough to remember him.”


True to a kid’s innocence, the little girl’s eyes teared up.


“I’m sorry, kids. I have to go.” Skye turned around, her tail slinking behind her. She closed her eyes, fighting a wave of disappointment. It was so rare that humans took the time to talk to her.


“Will we see you again?” The younger boy asked.


Skye opened her eyes and turned her around. “You can bet on it!”


(End Chapter 2)



CHAPTER 3


“Nice job how you shot the alien queen right in the forehead.” Keith said.


“That was nothing to how you finished off a whole group of your ‘pit-bull’ spiders by yourself while I went to get more tokens.”


“You know, despite how badly you whoop me at Heroes of the Soul, we’re a pretty good team.”


“I told you. Those poor fools didn’t have a chance.”


The brake lights of Sean’s rusty navy bug came on as he stopped for a red light.


“Hey Keith.”


“Hm?”


“No hard feelings about earlier, huh? I was just giving you a hard time”


Keith raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”


“I didn’t mean to say that you need to get a life. I mean, I know creatures like dragons and elves couldn’t really exist in our world, but it’s fun to pretend.”


Keith reached over from the passenger seat to pat his buddy on the shoulder. “It’s forgotten. Hey, the movie ‘Warzone’ premiers on TV tonight. Why don’t you chill at my place for a few hours?”


“I can’t.” Sean said as he put the little bug into drive again. “I’m almost late to meet Smithy the dwarf, Lynk the wood elf and Arcana the sorceress on Heroes of the Soul: The MMORPG. We need to group up in order to defeat the terrible lizard king which terrorizes the good people of Azmerok. None of us are powerful enough to slay it alone.”


“Have you ever even met these people?” Keith asked.


“Of course. We met in the dwarven city of Everforge, where we first teamed up to defeat a hideous monster with a taste for dwarven flesh. We’ve been comrades-in-arms ever since. And with voice chat, I can actually talk to them while we’re adventuring.”


And you think I need to get a life Keith said to himself. Mostly, his attention was away from Sean, still fixated on the sky. The clouds had drawn closer, like great clouds of flame threatening to engulf the entire sky. Keith tried to shrug it off, thinking it probably had something to do with the sunset, but he still couldn’t fight a sense of ill omen.


“This is your stop, Keith.” Sean’s voice brought Keith’s attention away from the sky as he parked in front Keith’s house.


“Oh, right. I’ll see you later, buddy.”


That, which had been the most normal of days, would end being the most important day of Keith’s life. No sooner had he stepped in the house than something heavy rammed him in the side hard enough to take him off his feet, followed by a rough landing on the floor that drove all the air out of his lungs.


"Got ya again, big bro." Mike’s booming voice rang into his right ear.


Keith’s little brother Mike, at age 18, was four years younger than him. Mike was more than three times Keith’s size and the star football player of the high school team. Then again, Keith wasn't very big. A few inches under six feet tall; not even 150 pounds and was never very popular either. It wouldn’t surprise him if everyone referred to him as "that lanky blonde kid."


"Will you boys settle down?" Mom's voice called from the kitchen. "And how many times do I have to tell you to close that door when you come in?"


The thick, buzzed head of Keith’s brother came into his blurred vision, arm outstretched. Keith grabbed his hand, using it as leverage to pull himself back to his feet.


"You know..." Keith doubled over; struggling not to pass out from a lack of oxygen. "Tackling a 300 pound running back and tackling me are two very different things."


"Yeah but you're the easiest." Mike laughed a high laugh; then patted his brother on the back hard enough for him to lose more precious air.


Keith limped over the couch to sit down for a minute, regain his senses and let the throbbing in his side go away. After about a minute, his mouth watered at the smell chicken and alfredo noodles coming from the kitchen. He grabbed the remote from the coffee table next to the couch and flipped through the channels in time to see action movie legend Buck Morris deliver a well-timed roundhouse kick to the jaw of some idiot foolish enough to provoke him. A life like one of Buck's characters, getting the bad guys while being a total badass at the same time would be much more interesting than the life he’d lived.


Maybe he thought like that because his dad was a policeman who was shot to death by a couple of bank robbers when he was 15. Often he'd dreamed about being a cop like his father because he wanted to help people, but everyone'd always told him he wasn't cut out to be a police officer.


"Lying on that couch isn't getting you anywhere in life, Keith." Mom called from the kitchen. Keith slapped himself in the forehead. Mom and Sean were right. Everyone around him had some kind of calling. Sean was a Heroes of the Soul god, Mike played football, his mom was, well, a mom. She raised Mike and Keith by herself after her husband died.


Do something with my life? Like what? I'm not good at anything Keith told himself.


As he laid down, trying to sort things out, he sat straight up at the sound of a faint explosion, followed by a tremor that shook the floor like he’d taken another one of Mike's tackles. Mom appeared in the kitchen doorway with a scowl on her face. "I thought I told you boys to settle down!" Keith glanced over at Mike before they both looked back at mom.


"Wasn't us." Mike said.


Mom gave the brothers her sharp eye for a few seconds. As she began to go back into the kitchen, the ground shook again, hard enough to rattle the ornaments on mom’s curio.
Glass shattered above Keith as something whisked over his head. He snapped down for cover. A large piece of white painted wood, the tip of it in cinders, skidded across the floor and stopped at the wall, leaving a trail of smoke in the arc it had traveled. The carpet underneath soon browned, curling in submission to the red heat of the board.


Glancing up from the wood, Keith saw the most horrified look on mom's and Mike's faces directed out the now-broken window. Of course, he looked out, too. His hand went right to his head as his heart began to pound. What was once their neighbor‘s house was now nothing more that a smoldering pile of smashed wood. Adding to the chaos, a fireball shaped like a tear plummeted from the sky. As hit the ground, it dissipated into a bright red burst of heat.


"What's going on?" Keith’s mom asked. Another tremor shook the floor.


"Holy! this is crazy!" Mike shouted.


"Alright boys, now don't panic! Let's head for the boat yard!"


The town was located on the coast so Keith knew what Mom had in mind. Their only hope was to escape out to sea with a boat.


As Keith and his family stepped outside into a sea of running, screaming people, he turned his sights skyward and quivered. The entire sky looked like it was on fire; huge smoldering clouds circled as if they were going to produce some giant red tornado. The fireballs were falling from these clouds. The whole town was so terrified, all he could hear was screaming as he and his family struggled to move through the sea of running, shouting people. So gripped with terror, he couldn’t analyze was happening, but in the back of his mind, he remembered Sean.


"Sean!" Keith yelled. "Sean!!" It was pointless. There were human bodies running everywhere, obscuring anything beyond a few feet. With all the screaming and explosions, there was no way Sean could have heard him.


"Keith, come on!" Mike yelled. Keith knew he was right. Finding Sean in all that chaos would have been impossible.


Keith followed mom and the big back of his brother until one of the fireballs fell several yards in front of them, kicking up dust with a blast of fiery wind. Keith used his arm to shield his eyes, anchoring his feet to the ground as a wave of intense heat wrapped around his body like he'd been chucked into a wood-burning oven. Mom's scream revealed pure terror, her arms tightly gripping her chest as if to prevent herself from throwing up. Her entire body was shivering despite the heat.


Mike took mom's hand. "C'mon, mom, we're almost there. We're gonna be fine."
There were so many thoughts rushing through Keith’s head, at the moment he was acting solely on pure adrenaline. If he was going to survive, he couldn't allow himself to be paralyzed with fear or doubt. His only thought was to keep running, to get his family and himself to the sea where they could escape the raining fire.


At long last, they arrived at the boat yard on the docks. The three of them got into a mid-sized canoe. Mike pushed off and paddled out to sea just as a fireball fell directly on top of the boat shop. The wooden building stood little chance against the fireball. Lumber shot in all directions like it’d been hit with gale force winds.


Mom buried her face, drenched with tears into Keith’s chest with loud, terrified sobs. She was shaking so hard that Keith thought she was convulsing. He put his hand in her hair to comfort her as he watched the home in which he’d lived his entire life move farther away, lit red in flames. He’d begun to cry himself until a huge splash tossed the boat high into the air, scattering Mike, mom, and Keith in separate directions. When Keith hit the water, his lights went out.



(End Chapter 3)



CHAPTER 4


The large blade on Ronan’s back gleamed in the sunlight as he made his way through the castle garden. Cool air and the scent of magnificent arrangements of flowers in every color gave hints of mid-spring It was likely the type of place he’d find Skye.


She was nowhere to be found. Only an off-duty guard sitting next to his lady friend on a stone bench and a pair of butterflies dancing about in midair. Ronan continued on to the old wooden shed at the edge of the garden next to the castle wall; Skye‘s sleeping quarters. The door opened with a creak. Not there, either. Just her bed: a large pile of hay, and rays of sunlight made visible by the dust that filled the shed. With a low grumble, Ronan turned to head back into the castle.


“Looking for something, Ronan?” The silver armor-clad guard standing by the wooden door leading inside asked.


“Sir Englehart, have you seen Skye?”


“Can’t say that I have. She’s kind of a hard thing to miss, if you know what I mean.”


“I just hope she’s not wandering around outside the village again.”


“She’s not a pup anymore. What’s the harm in letting her explore a little bit?”


“Nothing I suppose.” Ronan said, heading into the castle without another word.


Ronan hung a left, his footsteps echoing across the stone corridor connecting the castle’s main square to the garden and mess hall in the middle of the corridor, and one the castle’s rear towers in the back of the hallway. Several guards were crowded by the red velvet carpet in the main square leading to the throne room.


“What’s going on?” Ronan asked one of the guards.



The portly guard turned around. “A nasty looking character just walked into the throne room. I wonder what business he was with the king?”


“Just looking at him gave me the chills.” The thin guard next to the fat one said.


“None of us liked him.” Said another. “Whatever business he has, I’m sure his majesty wants no part of it.”


The guards kept their eyes on the double swinging doors. Long, nervous seconds ticked away as they waited for any cry of help from their king, but it remained quiet as the stone walls. Ronan swallowed a lump in his throat. It was rare to see trained soldiers this shook up.


Finally, the king shouted; in an instant, the trio of guards and Ronan reached for their weapons.


“Never will accept such an absurd offer! You are to leave my kingdom at once, and if I catch you back here again, I’ll have you locked up! Now get out of my sight!”


Not wishing to provoke the stranger, as soon as the doors opened, the guards released their weapons. A calm face belied the nervousness Ronan felt inside as a small, pointy-eared man with long black hair and a flowing violet robe strode out of the throne room. A black cape drifted behind him as he moved with long even steps, leaving a methodical rhythm of footsteps in his wake.


After the man passed through, the guards let out a sigh of relief as Ronan raised an eyebrow after the stranger. What would a half-elf be doing in Alucafet, and what business did he have with the king?


“See what I mean?” The fat guard asked. “Did you see his eyes?”


“Yup.” Ronan said.


“So dark and steely…it’s almost like he was glaring into our very souls.” The small guard said.


“Never mind him, he’s gone now. Let’s get back to our posts before the captain catches us. I can’t handle a shortened mess again.” The third guard said.


For a moment, Ronan considered asking his majesty what the commotion was about, but decided against it. Prying would only question the king’s trust and it was none of his business anyway. More importantly, where was Skye?


***


Keith found himself lying on his back, half-soaked. Warm sunlight cast itself against his face as a handful of dry, dusty sand slipped through his fingers. The sound of waves broke the still silence.


Moaning, He sat up. Keith’s muscles felt like they were made of jelly and would melt if he moved anymore than that. It was like he weighed a thousand pounds. The previous night raked at him like a demon‘s claws. The thought of never seeing Mom, Mike, or Sean again made him quiver. He felt the urge to shout at the top of my lungs to take the pain away, but The best he could muster was a weak groan. Fortunately, a female voice from not far away helped to shift his focus.


"Oh good, you're awake. It's been almost an hour since I pulled you ashore."


Keith’s only answer to the voice was to try to shake the cobwebs out of his head and rub his eyes again.


"You sure picked a strange place to take a nap, you know that?"


Despite the intended humor, Keith didn't laugh. Instead he turned his head to cough up a nasty mix of vomit and seawater.


"Are you going to be okay?" The voice asked again. Physically, probably. Mentally, no Keith told himself.


"It's a good thing I happened to be walking by; otherwise you might not have survived."



So, that was twice in less than 24 hours I managed to cheat death. At least SOMETHING was going my way, Keith thought.


"I'll be fine." It was a blatant lie, but Keith found the voice to very soft and soothing. The girl sounded like she might have been his age. He’d always found soft-spokeness attractive, so he wanted in no way to appear weak to a pretty girl.


As Keith turned to catch a first glimpse of the person behind the voice, his body went numb with disbelief. It wasn't a person. Four legs, scaly skin, long tail ending in an
arrowhead, and pair of curved back horns.


"D-d-d-dragoooon!" Keith scrambled to his feet, putting no stock in the fact that she claimed to have saved his life. It was a short-lived haste, as Keith was taken over by a swell of dizziness. He fell to his knee and snapped around on his rear end, slowly backing away from the beast. "No...please, don't eat me! Don't breathe fire on me!" He begged with his arm outstretched.


"Hey, I just saved your life. Now you think I want to kill you?" Sure enough, the soft, sweet voice belonged to the dragon. She was unlike the dragons Keith had read about or saw in movies. On all fours, she was not much taller than he and about as long as a two-door sedan. The dragons Keith had heard of were all massive. They dwarfed any normal human.


As Keith still sat on his butt, trying to sort things out, the dragon turned around so suddenly he had to duck to avoid catching a tail with his jaw. Interested in what made her turn so fast, he stood up again. Several greenish objects were approaching from a crag just beyond the beach. The images soon became clear, they looked like goblins. Five of them. No more than three feet tall with deformed faces, wielding clubs with ugly looking spikes protruding from every angle. Great, Keith thought, first a dragon and now these things. What the heck's going on? Where the heck am I?


"Looks like we're gonna have company. Know any magic?"



"Um...no."


"Well, you'd better find something to defend yourself with, 'cause here they come!"


Keith didn't know how to react to such a situation; it wasn't like he was armed or anything. Besides, the dragon, even if she was small and just short of the lower end of cute, was still a dragon. The supposed most powerful of all beasts. It would have been surprising if she couldn't take them all on by herself.


The monsters surrounded the dragon, which took a defensive stance. One of the goblin creatures approached and swung its club. The dragon snapped her head down, stopping the goblin's arm in her teeth. With a flick of her head, she tossed the creature aside, which bounced off a nearby boulder. It made no effort to get back up as the dragon got on her front feet and kicked another goblin preparing to strike her from behind.


The dragon ducked a swing from the attacker on her right and snapped around, nailing it in the face with her tail all in one smooth motion. The other two goblins rejoined their comrades, again circling the dragon. She was not as prepared this time. Still able to dodge the blows aimed at her, but wasn't able to capitalize with any form of counterattack as she had done earlier. The blows kept coming; she kept dodging and backing up.
"Um, a little help here?" She asked.


A strange feeling inside him made Keith want to grant her request. Surveying the scene, the only option of weapons was the club in the hand of the downed goblin. He took a deep breath, gathering his courage as he grabbed the handle. Once lifting it with both hands, the sheer weight the weapon forced the still-groggy Keith to stumble backwards, bringing his skinny arms down with its weight, landing just centimeters from his foot. Gently he set the weapon down and made a mental note to leave club-swinging to the professionals. Beneath him, Keith spotted another option for a weapon: a piece of splintered wood that had washed ashore.


The adrenaline had shaken off most of his sleepiness, so Keith was prepared to fight or run, which ever came first. With all his courage, he charged at the goblin behind the dragon, which had its club above its head, ready to meet the dragon's scaly body. Keith thrust the splintered end of the lumber at the goblin hard as he could. It managed to do little other than give the monster a scratch, but gave the dragon the opening she needed. She escaped through the open hole in the goblins' offensive circle. After she was clear, she swept her tail hard across the remaining trio of goblins. All three fell from their feet.


Keith felt the dragon would have no problem taking on the rest of their enemies, so he stopped to catch his breath. Once again, his presumptions proved to be near-fatal on his behalf. Just as he bent down to put his hands on his knees, something metal whisked against the top of his head. He’d barely avoided catching a spiked club to the face. The goblin prepared to swing again; its club held high above its head. As it brought the club down, Keith managed to stop the creature's hands with his own; though just barely. Strong as they had to be to wield those clubs, they weren't particularly intelligent. The goblin staring Keith in the face with a wicked grin made no attempt to loosen his grip. Keith raised his foot, then kicked the goblin in the gut. It was the diversion he needed to escape. The dragon's tail swiped across the monster's face and knocked it out.


The dragon had already taken care of one goblin, the other she had grounded. As it struggled to get up, the dragon took a deep breath. A cloud of flames emerged from her snout, warming Keith’s face and cooking the goblin to little other than a charred crisp as the flames rolled through air before melting into nothingness.


Keith looked around to survey the carnage, then felt the top of his head, afterwards taking a sigh of relief. The attackers were all down and he was uninjured. Satisfied by the results of the fight, he started to walk down the beach to see if anybody else had survived the fire rain. The length of the beach stretched beyond eyesight, so he knew he could be walking for a while. But he didn't care, all he wanted to do was find at least one survivor from that horrible night.


"Hey, slow down!" The dragon's voice called. At first Keith didn't want to, but realized it would have been nice to have somebody, anybody, to talk too--even if she wasn't quite human. He slowed his pace to let her catch up.


"You should take it easy. You're lucky to be alive, you know?" She said once she joined the blond-haired young man’s side.


"You... saved my life?" Keith asked.


"Probably. If I hadn't pulled you out of the ocean and healed your wounds, you might have died."


"Healed my wounds?" Keith patted myself over to feel for any burns or cuts. Sure enough, he was fine even though there were burn marks all over his shirt and jeans. "How did you do that?"


"I used magic, silly." The dragon replied with a little giggle.


Magic? Goblins? Dragons? It was like something straight out of one of Sean's fantasy games.


"So, what's your name?" The dragon asked as the duo continued to walk down the beach.


Rocky cliffs beyond the soft sand with emerald green tree tips jutting above seemed to move with along with them as the gentle music of waves washing on the shore filled the still, warm air.


"Keith."


"Keith, huh? My name's Skyla, but you can call me Skye for short."


"That's a nice name." Was the only answer Keith could think of.


"Why thank you." She moved forward quicker so she could turn her head and look at Keith.


Suddenly he found himself staring into Skye’s lavender eyes; in a way they were calming, gentle, almost beautiful.


"We made a pretty good team back there, huh?"


"Yeah, sure." The words came out more insensitive than Keith would have liked.


"Hey, is that any way to talk to the girl who saved your life?"


Keith opened his mouth to utter an apology but couldn’t find the words. He wasn't trying to be mean or blow her off, his mind was simply on other matters...like how he was going to get back home and put the fairytale nonsense behind. He kept walking, saying nothing.


"Something's bothering you, huh?"


Keith closed his eyes and nodded in confirmation. Skye moved away from his front, rejoining him once again at his side. "Want to talk about it?" Her voice was calm and serious.


"I'd rather not. I don't want to remember what happened...ever." Keith felt tears welling up in my eyes and had to look away. Skye must have understood, because both of them kept walking in silence.


Keith’s mouth still tasted like saltwater, and the air smelled of it. It wouldn't break his heart if he never tasted salt again, just thinking about it brought a nauseating pain to his stomach. To take my thoughts away from it, Keith stopped to gather his composure enough to talk to a living, breathing dragon.


"Hm?" Skye asked. Now in front of Keith, she turned around.


It took a few seconds to find the right words, as strange as they sounded. "Have you ever seen fireballs rain from the sky big enough to shake the ground?" Keith didn't even plan on asking that, it just came out.


Skye gave a funny look "No."


"My hometown...was destroyed by fireballs raining from the sky. Everyone was so scared. I saw people I know die. When my family and I escaped on a raft, the only thing I could do was watch as everything I ever had burned away. The next thing I knew, I woke up here."


"That's awful." the dragon replied. "No wonder you're so tense. I knew you weren't from around here."


"How'd you figure that?" Keith asked as he started to move again.


"First of all, you looked like you'd seen a ghost when you first saw me. Dragon's aren't such an uncommon sight, and the fact you don't know any magic. Everybody knows at least a little."


"Not where I'm from."


"No magic and no dragons? I've never heard of a place like that."


Great. That's just what he needed to hear.


"Well, I know a place where you can stay until you get things sorted out." Skye said as she moved back around to Keith’s front. "There's a small kingdom just up the hill. The king is a very kind man, I know he'd let you stay there."


Now a castle? Sean would have loved to see this.


"I'd appreciate that." It wasn't like Keith had a choice. "Lead the way."
He thought things were weird now, but the weirdness was just beginning...



(End Chapter 4)



CHAPTER 5


Keith followed Skye up the nearby cliff with no idea where he was, how
to get home...or what I was about to get himself into. He had little other choice
than to go to this kingdom Skye spoke of. A rumbling in Keith's stomach reminded him he'd not eaten since a few hours before fire started raining on his home. Shelter was an obvious must as well, and where there were people, there was food. It would be as good a place as any for him to stay until he could find a way to get back to his world.


The road was quite beautiful; Keith was happy to find there was only one straightforward path like a corridor of greenery, trees, and multi-colored berries. Squirrel-like creatures frolicked amongst themselves, running around the bark of a tree only to slink into a bush as we approached. A few birds darted about the sky, offering their songs to the quiet wilderness.


"Nice day, huh?" Skye asked. "Cool breeze sure feels nice."


"It does feel nice." Keith said, allowing the crisp breeze to caress his face. It seemed almost to relax his tense, tired muscles. "Perfect day for a good walk. I needed one."


Skye looked around for a while, not saying anything. She seemed to be absorbed
in the tranquility. "This is my favorite place in the world. It's so beautiful. It's perfect
to escape to when you need to be alone."


"It's nice."


"I love to take naps out here, too."


The road kept going a ways until the two came across a fork: one path went straight
ahead, the other curved to our right. Skye turned to the road to the right. She
seemed to know where she was going, so Keith turned, too, but something was
bothering him.


"Hey, Skye, if you don't mind, can I ask you something?" He asked as they kept
moving.


"What?"


"Back home, I would read about dragons or see pictures of them, and they all
appeared to be huge creatures. I'm just curious, are you not full grown, or all
dragons here your size, because you're not as big as I've heard dragons to be."


"Yeah, most dragons are enormous. I'm small because I'm only half dragon."


"Half dragon?" Keith narrowed his eyebrows.


"Yes. My mom was a human and my dad was a dragon. So I'm half human, half dragon. In human years, I'm 21. Most dragons live thousands of years, but I've aged at the
same pace as a human."


Half human and half dragon? How did her parents do what they had to do
to give birth to Skye? Keith was quick to shake off a disturbing image in his head of what that might have looked like.


"Anything else, I'll be your guide-dragon."


"I'll keep that in mind." Keith said.


For a few minutes Keith walked in silence to enjoy the stillness and the soft dirt cushioning his feet. He cocked his head to the side as he watched a rabbit-like creature with what looked like a horn growing from its forehead. It hopped along the trail, stopping at the end to nibble on some leaves from a low shrub As he and Skye got closer, the critter reared on its hind legs, eyeing them for a few seconds before bolting into the blanket of trees. Other than that strange sight, the nature in this place didn't seem too different from back home.


The silence also helped Keith to consider options as to where he was, and what happened to his town. Nobody had ever seen a real dragon before, so he deduced he must have somehow wound up on another planet. Maybe aliens had destroyed his world for some reason and warped him to another world. Keith shook that dumb idea out of his head, cursing himself for thinking too much.


"Hey Keith," Skye's voice broke his concentration, "look up."


Keith froze as his mouth hung open in awe. Cutting above the trees was half of a magnificent stone fortress in the distance. Two grey towers reached up to tickle the clouds. From the distance he could just barely make out a pair of flags waving from the tip of these towers.


"Come on, we're almost there!"


"Sorry." Keith said, then continued to follow Skye. "It's just I've never seen a castle before."


"Well, now you have. This kingdom's called Alucafet, and I was raised here. I don't think I could ever call another place home. It's a peaceful little kingdom that only governs one village. We've never even been in a war. All of Alucafet's past kings came from a long line of pacifists. There's really nothing fancy about it. It's just another flea on the dog's back, but I think that's why I like it so much."


"Small town girl, huh?"


"Yup, that describes me pretty well! Trust me, this'll be a great place for you to settle down until you can sort things out..."


Skye's voice broke at the end of the sentence. Her head stuck straight up and
she turned her head, first to the left, then the right, letting out a confused
hum with widened eyes.


"What is it?"


"Something's wrong. I can feel it. My dragon's 6th sense is tingling." Without warning, Skye rushed ahead. The only thing Keith could do was follow the trail of dust she kicked up as the woods began to thin out into plain countryside.


In the distance, the castle loomed on top of a hill overlooking a little village, and Skye's figure running towards it. Keith ran after it as best as a person could who woke up from almost drowning to death no more than two hours ago. Judging from Skye's reaction, he couldn't help the feeling he was charging headfirst into more danger...



(End Chapter 5)