D
Draconias Galactica
Guest
Prepare yourself for the next epic* installment in this epic** series. Enjoy***.
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After about 12 hour's travel, the three stopped for the night. Jake had
tried to explain that some animals were still nocturnal and liked
moving targets, but Hawks continued to disbelieve him.
"I giant cloud that never goes away, I can accept," he started, "but an
animal stupid enough to think this place has a night...even if you
proved it you'd still be full of crap." He took a drink from his
canteen. "Human or otherwise," he added under his breath.
"If you don't believe me, start running. I'm sure nothing'll try to eat
you if you're right."
"I'm tired, and that damn horse wore off my ass. You go get eaten, then
maybe I'll believe you."
"I already know I'm right, what do I need to prove?"
"Yeah, don't bother. What animal would want to eat something like _you_
anyways?"
Jake rolled up the sleeve to his jacket, and pointed to a group of
scars on his arm. These ones looked like they were made from animal
claws. "When I was six, some weird freak-animal ran up and jumped me.
If I wasn't so good with a knife, it probably would have killed me. I
cut off half its face before it ran back off. Damn nocturnal critters."
"That's nothing," Hawks declared. He stood up and rolled up his pant
legs. Below his knees on both legs, there were scars. Some looked like
they were from claws, others from teeth. "You ever seen a golden
gecko?"
"I've seen pale geckos."
"Well, imagine something twice as big, and ten times nastier and you
have a golden gecko. Me and some buddies of mine were out hunting, and
three of those bastards charged out of some bushes and went straight
for my legs. I panicked, dropped my spear, and ran. I was only about
seven at the time, so I wasn't too good at beating up critters. But
they caught up fast, and then they started digging into my legs. My
buddies sure took their damn time killing them. I couldn't walk for a
month after that."
"I thought you said you ran circles around geckos," Jake said,
remembering something Hawks had said once before.
"After that I did."
"Well, my story's better. I actually _do_ something. You just get
eaten."
"Your story's bull. That's probably from falling down on a rock.
There's no way animals are nocturnal here." Jake shook his head and
stood back up, grabbing his sword.
"I'm gonna go find some food. You can tangle with some critters of the
night if you want some." He walked off into the shadows. Hawks picked
up some branches - a few nearby trees had adapted to the low light,
though they were very frail - and threw them into the fire. After a few
moments of staring at the fire, he turned over to Canine. The dog had
been lying quietly by the horses ever since they stopped for the night.
"How about you? You have any scars?"
"None you'd be able to see," Canine replied. "And none of them have any
interesting stories attached to them."
"Do you have _any_ stories? _Interesting_ stories?"
"Yes, I do. Once, about a year ago, I was in a poker game with three
other...'people'."
"I still don't see how you can play poker."
"Oh, it's a thing of beauty to behold. But that's unimportant. One of
the other players was sober, and the other two were drunk. About
halfway through the game, one of the drunks started singing some sort
of song in a high pitched voice. Something like 'you'll think of me'.
Then, the other drunk started singing in a deep, growling-like voice. I
think he was singing 'when I'm alone with my fancies', or something
like that. Then they started dancing, and I won five minutes later."
Hawks stared at Canine blankly. "Um..."
"Well, I never said it was a good story," Canine 'said', laying his
head back down. Hawks started rummaging through his backpack, looking
for a bag of jerky he had stuffed in there. A moment later, he found it
and started eating. Then, he heard Jake dragging something back to the
make-shift camp. It was an animal, though he didn't recognize the type.
"Nocturnal," Jake muttered, continuing to drag the animal towards the
fire.
"All you can prove is it's dead," observed Hawks. He watched Jake cook
animal bits on a stick for a bit before speaking up. "So, do you have
any stories?"
"What type of story?"
"Any story. I'm bored out of my skull, and watching you eat isn't
helping me as much as I thought it would."
"Why don't you ask your dog?"
"I did. His story was boring."
"You're just not emotionally prepared for the epic tales of my
adventures," Canine stated. "They make grown men weep."
"Bullshit. Jake, you have anything?"
"About 12 years in the wasteland, nearly half my life, and you're
asking me if I have any stories?" He shook his head and then shouted,
"Of course I have stories!"
"Then quit stalling and start talking."
"Fine. Um...alright, did you ever hear of the Order of the Cloud?"
Hawks's blank stare was answer enough. "Okay, how about the
Twilighters?"
"Yeah, Gray said they were some sort of warrior clan 18 years ago."
"Well, most people call the Order of the Cloud the Twilighters because
they're idiots. The group was around for about three years before
disbanding. There were some internal conflicts. The end."
Hawks shook his head. "I've got to stop traveling with people who can't
tell a story."
"You tell one then."
"I'm the one who's bored. My telling a story isn't going to help me."
"You're always bored. Throw a stick at the dog or something."
"They're all on fine."
"Your point?" Canine started growling at Jake, and bore his teeth.
"Okay, how about this one? Did I ever tell you that I used to hang
around with the Shadow Raiders?"
Hawks's eyes opened wide. "Oh, so _that's_ why they're after us," he
muttered.
"You want to hear this story or not? Anyways, it was probably about 14
years ago. I had just headed out of Crater Town, when I realized I
didn't have a clue where to go next. So I just pointed myself in the
possible direction of north, and took off for DRR."
"How long did it take for you to get lost?"
"Ten minutes. That was when I lost sight of Crater Town. So I decided
to lie down and take a nap. When I woke up, I saw some horses walking
by. They probably thought I was dead or something so they ignored me. I
got up and started following them. I figured they'd know where the hell
I was supposed to be going.
"A bit later, they stopped in front of a small camp and took out some
riffles. One of them said, 'Hey kid, take care of the horses. Just
don't do anything stupid'. Then, they got off their horses and charged
in. So I decided I might as well do what he said. I didn't have
anything better to do."
***
Jake picked up a bag hanging over the side of the horse, and pulled out
a hand full of oats. The horse quickly gobbled the oats down. As the
horse did that, Jake looked over at the camp. Its residents were
charging at the raiders haphazardly and very few of them got close. The
raiders shot fast and accurate - the campers never stood a chance.
A minute later, the resistance was either unconscious or dead. After
grabbing what they wanted and placing the stuff in their bags, the
Raiders walked back over to the horses. The one who had spoke to Jake
earlier mounted his horse. He turned down to face Jake. "Well? You
coming?"
"Um...sure." He climbed onto the Raider's horse.
"What's your name kid?" a second Raider asked.
"Jake."
"I'm Metz, that's Ron," said the first one. Most of the other raiders
rode off. "Got that?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. Hang on!" Metz's horse took off, followed by the remaining
raiders.
***
"Why'd you go with them?" asked Hawks. Jake shrugged.
"Dunno. I was still lost, and it made as much sense as wandering around
aimlessly. You see, I didn't have the luck to fall asleep and wake up
with a skilled and _handsome_ guide nearby."
"You didn't get drunk, that's the problem."
"Anyways, we rode off to their main camp. At that time, it was around
20 miles away from Crater Town."
***
The raider camp was nothing but tents. There wasn't a single permanent
structure to be found. There were quite a few camp fires around the
area. The horses instinctively walked up to their feed. The raiders
dismounted and dispersed around the camp.
"C'mon, this way," Metz said to Jake.
"Uh, right." Jake stopped gazing around the camp and followed Metz.
They walked up to a large tent near the center of the camp. Inside,
there were tables, lots of tables. There didn't seem to be anything
else, besides some torch posts. However, the far side of the tent was
dimly lit, much to dimly for Jake to see anything.
"Hey Arelen! I found us a new horseboy." Jake, at first, couldn't see
who Metz was talking to. But, after a moment or two, a very large
figure walked towards him from the shadows. He was the largest man Jake
had ever seen. He was also one of the most disturbing-looking. His
jacket arms, above and below his elbows, were covered in what looked
like human arm bones. His pants were similarly dressed. There were even
a few bones on his face. His jacket was worn open, and his chest was
covered in patterned scars.
"_This_ is your horseboy?"
"Yeah." Arelen walked up to Jake and knelt down to look him over. Jake
kept his eyes forward, so he wouldn't have to make face contact and
show fear.
"Scrawny for a horseboy."
"He don't need to be to big to be one. So how 'bout it?" Arelen stood
upright in front of Jake - he was even more massive up close.
"Hit me," he said.
"Huh?" Jake responded.
"I said, _hit me_!" The room shook when he shouted. Jake, not wanting
to anger him, pulled his fist back and punched Arelen in the stomach as
hard as he could. The giant didn't even flinch.
"Hmm...he'll do. Just make sure he doesn't fuck up." Arelen glared down
at Jake for a second, and then walked back into the shadows.
"Well, c'mon," said Metz, walking out of the tent. "I'll show you
around."
"R-right." Jake turned and followed him.
***
"...he was wearing bones?" asked Hawks.
"Yep. He smelled like a corpse, too."
"Why would anybody follow someone like that?" projected Canine. Jake
shrugged.
"Beats opposing him, I guess. Would you want to go up against a guy
like that?"
"Better him than the Reaper," muttered Hawks.
"Trust me, this guy was worse than glow boy. Once, somebody, don't
remember his name, got drunk and threw a punch at Arelen. Bone boy
grabbed his arms and tore 'em right out."
"You have clever names for everyone, don't you?"
"Are you gonna let me finish bird boy? Anyways, I hung out with them
for a few months. All I did was take care of the horses, and get the
guys stuff. They fed me, and taught me about fighting...usually
firsthand. It was a pretty good deal, though. The only real problem I
had was this one guy, Brose. Major asshole, the only reason the others
put up with him was he could cook. But eventually, I got fed up with
him."
***
Brose was approaching. Jake couldn't see his face, but the guy's strut
gave him away. "Hey horseshit, where's my knife?"
"Huh?" Brose growled and then grabbed Jake by the shirt.
"Where's my fucking knife?! I told you to watch it while I was asleep!"
"I take care of horses, not your knife. Now leggo." Brose pushed Jake
down. He got back up and stared Brose in the eyes. "It's not my fault
you're too stupid to keep track of a knife."
Brose shouted, and then threw a punch at Jake's face, which Jake ducked
under. As he did, he pulled out his own knife from his belt and stabbed
Brose in the side.
"I'm getting sick of your damn, ugly face," muttered Jake as he pulled
his knife out of Brose's side, and slashed him across the face with it.
Brose screamed for a second, and then collapsed. Hearing this, some
other raiders ran up to the two. Metz was with them.
"Did you do this?" he asked.
"Yeah. He was asking for it." The mummering that had been going on in
the background quickly stopped. Arelen was approaching. He looked down
at Brose, who was bleeding profusely, and then at Jake.
"Metz," he said without averting his eyes.
"Yeah?"
"Is this your horse boy?" Metz swallowed, buying time.
"Um, yeah. He is." Arelen turned around and walked back to his tent.
Metz followed after him. Jake turned around to face the other raiders.
"What's going to happen to him?" The others whistled, looked away, or
walked off. None gave him an answer. Jake picked up his knife, which he
had dropped when he saw Areleln outside the tent, and walked over to
the horses. His hands were shaking the whole time he fed them. He
figured he had gone too far this time, killing a full-fledged Raider.
About half an hour passed. Then, he heard Metz's voice behind him.
"Hey Jake." That was the first time any of the raiders called him by
anything not involving "horse", "shit", or "boy". He was in it deep
now.
"Y-yeah?" He turned around to face Metz, just in time to see a riffle
fly at him. Jake caught it half a second before it would have hit him.
"Welcome aboard."
"Huh?"
"You're in. Arelen wants to see you. I'd get there fast." Jake nodded
and ran off for Arelen's tent.
***
"Apparently that's how they always did their recruiting. They wait for
horse boys to show they have balls, then they take 'em on a raid. If
they come back alive, they're in."
"Interesting procedure," Canine 'said'. "How many members do they
have?"
"I don't know, about 60 or so."
"...just _60_!?" Hawks exclaimed. "Then we've killed - "
"About a sixth of 'em, yeah."
"So where's this small army you said we had after us?"
"I think 50 guys is a nice sized army, especially when all of them have
guns and horses. And they got Areleln too, remember?" Hawks muttered
some nasty sounds under his breath. So anyways, we were raiding some
camp in the middle of nowhere. This was my 'come back alive' one."
***
Metz, Ron, and four other raiders were already charging into the camp.
Jake, being the rookie, had look-out duty. Some of the raiders had
heard something about Twilighters in the area. Twilighters were about
the only thing raiders would be scared about in this remote area. They
were somewhere in the Crater Town-DRR-Archives triangle. Jake didn't
know where specifically. There were lots of small settlements in this
area, since the three points all had patrols that killed critters on
sight.
Jake could see the camp's denizens either being slaughtered or running
away. The raiders knew how to pick their targets so that the scales
were tipped to them. Jake didn't like that much - it made them seem
like cowards. They could take on bigger targets but - but they didn't.
Someone was behind him, Jake could hear it. He turned around and fired,
not waiting for a target to aim at. It was hard to see if anybody was
there or not. A rock slammed into his head, knocking him off his horse.
He dropped his riffle in the fall. Jake leapt back to his feet the
moment he hit the ground, only to have somebody unseen whack him across
the face with a wooden rod. He was unconscious before he could see who
was attacking him.
***
It was...later. Jake had awoken, but hadn't opened his eyes yet. He
wanted to know how much trouble he was in. If he was with the raiders,
he was probably in deep shit. If he was still in the camp, he was
probably dead.
He heard a voice. "Kill him!" It could be a raider or a camper. Either
way it wasn't the best thing to wake up to.
There was another voice. "Brick said not to. You wanna mess with that
guy? Be my guest." Jake had heard of a guy named Brick somewhere
before, he just couldn't remember where. He might be a raider. But why
would raiders follow orders from anyone but Arelen?
Footsteps now, three pairs. Somebody else was there. A third voice
spoke. "So how is he?"
The second voice spoke. "He should be fine, I guess." _Gee, thanks.
That really helps me out._
Now the first voice was talking. "He won't be much longer. I'm gonna
kill this bastard!" Very likely he was still in the camp, which meant
he was in for a world of hell. He heard somebody pull out a sword. Jake
wasn't sure if he still had his knife, but he prepared to grab it
anyways.
The third voice spoke up. "You're not gonna kill him, understand?"
"Um...sure." Jake heard the sword get put away.
"Now get out of here." There were footsteps, and then silence. Jake
wasn't sure if he was alone or not. "You know - " _well that settles
that_ " - sleeping people don't breathe that way. Sloppy."
Jake decided he might as well open his eyes. There was only one guy in
the room. He was tall, large, and enveloped in a large black coat. His
hair was turning gray, and he had a few wrinkles on his face He also
had quite a few scars, and a cocky-ass grin. He looked sort of like
what Jake thought a Twilighter would.
"They also don't fall for tricks like that."
"Godamnit," Jake muttered. The old man bent down and looked at Jake in
the face.
"What's your name?"
"It's 'none of your damn business', pleased to meet you." The old man
stood back up and backhanded Jake across the face, knocking him off the
table he was sitting on.
"What's your name?!" Jake stood back up, ignoring the bruise on his
face. Before he could answer, the old man grabbed him by his hair and
punched him in the gut. Jake thought he was going to throw up. "Answer
me this time!" The old man let go of Jake's hair, and he collapsed on
the ground.
Jake coughed a few times, and sat up. "It's Jake."
"And what was your father's name?" The old man clenched his hand into a
fist.
Jake didn't bother with his cocky routine this time. "Zed." The old man
nodded his head and relaxed his hand, placing it over a chair.
"I'm Brick. Now get up." Brick slid the chair over to Jake, who sat
down in it. "So Jake, how the hell did you wind up with those asses?"
Jake's arrogance returned. "None of - " Brick raised his hand slightly
" - ....it just happened that way."
"Does Zed know about this?"
He's dead, how should I know?"
"I see." Judging by the look on his face...
"Did you know him or something?"
"He was trying to get into the Order of the Cloud. I was - "
"Order of the what?" Brick growled, and then backhanded Jake again. He
went flying to the ground once more, bleeding from where Brick's
knuckles connected.
"Don't interrupt me when I'm talking" Jake got back on his chair,
rubbing his cheek. "Order of the Cloud! Ever hear of them?" Jake shook
his head no. "Fine. The 'Twilighters'." He obviously didn't like that
name by the way he nearly spat it out. "Your dad was trying to get in,
and I was the one that got stuck training him."
"Oh...did he get in?" Jake had never heard of any of this. His father
must have mentioned it at some point, but Jake couldn't remember
anything about it. Brick shook his head.
"The Order fell apart before he could. Otherwise, he would've." Brick
turned away. "But it's a goddamn shame his pansy of a son's joined up
with those weakling raiders. What a waste of good genes." Jake jumped
out of his seat, knowing that he was insulted even without knowing what
his pants had to do with it.
"What?!"
"Those raiders are pathetic, and you're a weakling if you join them."
Jake, not thinking, launched himself at Brick's back. The old man, more
collected and skilled, easily sidestepped out of the way without even
looking. As Jake passed by him, Brick spun around and roundhoused the
novice raider in his side, sending him flying to the ground. "Like I
said, weak."
Brick slammed his foot onto Jake's back, pinning him to the ground. It
also felt like there were several boulders aiding him. "So, do you want
to live?"
"Huh?" Brick pushed down harder, and Jake thought his back would snap
in half.
"You heard me. Yes or no. Very simple. Which one?"
"Which'll get your foot off my back?" Jake managed to squeeze out.
"Which do you think?"
"Fine, yes." Brick pushed down harder, somehow. Jake started screaming
"Yes!". After a few seconds of that, Brick let up.
"Alright. Let's get going. Leave your shit here, you'll only need your
knife."
"Huh? Where we going?"
"If you want to live, you're going to need to get pass the people
outside. And they want you very dead for what your buddies did out
there. To get past them, you need to be with me. And that means you're
my apprentice." Brick started walking. "Of course, if you'd rather deal
with them, be my guest." Jake got up and rushed after Brick.
***
"And, the end." Hawks blinked a few times.
"What? That's _it_?!"
Jake shrugged. "What more do you want?" Hawks stood up, walking around
in a circle, and throwing his arms up.
"I don't know, what happened after that?" Jake stared at Hawks as if he
was asking if green water was healthy.
"He _trained_ me. That's what masters do with apprentices. Why do you
think I dress like a Twilighter?"
"But why did he train you?" Canine asked. "He seemed to have a very low
opinion of Shadow Raiders." Jake shrugged again.
"He didn't want the Cloud Order to die along with him, and I was the
only person he found who he could train. As soon as I was done he took
off. That was about...11 years ago."
"We really need someone who can tell a story," muttered Hawks. "I'll
die of boredom at this rate."
"We should reach DRR sometime tomorrow. You can look for someone there.
Or you could tell the stories for once."
"Up to about a year ago, I was hunting lizards and worshiping rocks.
There's not much to tell about that."
"Then go to sleep. Maybe the nocturnal animals - you know, the type
that come out when it's _night_ - will eat you. That might keep you
amused." Hawks muttered something nasty under his breath, and then
rolled over to go to sleep.
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[P ALIGN=right]-Draconias Galactica
-http://upperpage.tripod.com
* - Not nesecaraly epic
** - Not nesecaraly a series
*** - Not nesecaraly humanly possible
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After about 12 hour's travel, the three stopped for the night. Jake had
tried to explain that some animals were still nocturnal and liked
moving targets, but Hawks continued to disbelieve him.
"I giant cloud that never goes away, I can accept," he started, "but an
animal stupid enough to think this place has a night...even if you
proved it you'd still be full of crap." He took a drink from his
canteen. "Human or otherwise," he added under his breath.
"If you don't believe me, start running. I'm sure nothing'll try to eat
you if you're right."
"I'm tired, and that damn horse wore off my ass. You go get eaten, then
maybe I'll believe you."
"I already know I'm right, what do I need to prove?"
"Yeah, don't bother. What animal would want to eat something like _you_
anyways?"
Jake rolled up the sleeve to his jacket, and pointed to a group of
scars on his arm. These ones looked like they were made from animal
claws. "When I was six, some weird freak-animal ran up and jumped me.
If I wasn't so good with a knife, it probably would have killed me. I
cut off half its face before it ran back off. Damn nocturnal critters."
"That's nothing," Hawks declared. He stood up and rolled up his pant
legs. Below his knees on both legs, there were scars. Some looked like
they were from claws, others from teeth. "You ever seen a golden
gecko?"
"I've seen pale geckos."
"Well, imagine something twice as big, and ten times nastier and you
have a golden gecko. Me and some buddies of mine were out hunting, and
three of those bastards charged out of some bushes and went straight
for my legs. I panicked, dropped my spear, and ran. I was only about
seven at the time, so I wasn't too good at beating up critters. But
they caught up fast, and then they started digging into my legs. My
buddies sure took their damn time killing them. I couldn't walk for a
month after that."
"I thought you said you ran circles around geckos," Jake said,
remembering something Hawks had said once before.
"After that I did."
"Well, my story's better. I actually _do_ something. You just get
eaten."
"Your story's bull. That's probably from falling down on a rock.
There's no way animals are nocturnal here." Jake shook his head and
stood back up, grabbing his sword.
"I'm gonna go find some food. You can tangle with some critters of the
night if you want some." He walked off into the shadows. Hawks picked
up some branches - a few nearby trees had adapted to the low light,
though they were very frail - and threw them into the fire. After a few
moments of staring at the fire, he turned over to Canine. The dog had
been lying quietly by the horses ever since they stopped for the night.
"How about you? You have any scars?"
"None you'd be able to see," Canine replied. "And none of them have any
interesting stories attached to them."
"Do you have _any_ stories? _Interesting_ stories?"
"Yes, I do. Once, about a year ago, I was in a poker game with three
other...'people'."
"I still don't see how you can play poker."
"Oh, it's a thing of beauty to behold. But that's unimportant. One of
the other players was sober, and the other two were drunk. About
halfway through the game, one of the drunks started singing some sort
of song in a high pitched voice. Something like 'you'll think of me'.
Then, the other drunk started singing in a deep, growling-like voice. I
think he was singing 'when I'm alone with my fancies', or something
like that. Then they started dancing, and I won five minutes later."
Hawks stared at Canine blankly. "Um..."
"Well, I never said it was a good story," Canine 'said', laying his
head back down. Hawks started rummaging through his backpack, looking
for a bag of jerky he had stuffed in there. A moment later, he found it
and started eating. Then, he heard Jake dragging something back to the
make-shift camp. It was an animal, though he didn't recognize the type.
"Nocturnal," Jake muttered, continuing to drag the animal towards the
fire.
"All you can prove is it's dead," observed Hawks. He watched Jake cook
animal bits on a stick for a bit before speaking up. "So, do you have
any stories?"
"What type of story?"
"Any story. I'm bored out of my skull, and watching you eat isn't
helping me as much as I thought it would."
"Why don't you ask your dog?"
"I did. His story was boring."
"You're just not emotionally prepared for the epic tales of my
adventures," Canine stated. "They make grown men weep."
"Bullshit. Jake, you have anything?"
"About 12 years in the wasteland, nearly half my life, and you're
asking me if I have any stories?" He shook his head and then shouted,
"Of course I have stories!"
"Then quit stalling and start talking."
"Fine. Um...alright, did you ever hear of the Order of the Cloud?"
Hawks's blank stare was answer enough. "Okay, how about the
Twilighters?"
"Yeah, Gray said they were some sort of warrior clan 18 years ago."
"Well, most people call the Order of the Cloud the Twilighters because
they're idiots. The group was around for about three years before
disbanding. There were some internal conflicts. The end."
Hawks shook his head. "I've got to stop traveling with people who can't
tell a story."
"You tell one then."
"I'm the one who's bored. My telling a story isn't going to help me."
"You're always bored. Throw a stick at the dog or something."
"They're all on fine."
"Your point?" Canine started growling at Jake, and bore his teeth.
"Okay, how about this one? Did I ever tell you that I used to hang
around with the Shadow Raiders?"
Hawks's eyes opened wide. "Oh, so _that's_ why they're after us," he
muttered.
"You want to hear this story or not? Anyways, it was probably about 14
years ago. I had just headed out of Crater Town, when I realized I
didn't have a clue where to go next. So I just pointed myself in the
possible direction of north, and took off for DRR."
"How long did it take for you to get lost?"
"Ten minutes. That was when I lost sight of Crater Town. So I decided
to lie down and take a nap. When I woke up, I saw some horses walking
by. They probably thought I was dead or something so they ignored me. I
got up and started following them. I figured they'd know where the hell
I was supposed to be going.
"A bit later, they stopped in front of a small camp and took out some
riffles. One of them said, 'Hey kid, take care of the horses. Just
don't do anything stupid'. Then, they got off their horses and charged
in. So I decided I might as well do what he said. I didn't have
anything better to do."
***
Jake picked up a bag hanging over the side of the horse, and pulled out
a hand full of oats. The horse quickly gobbled the oats down. As the
horse did that, Jake looked over at the camp. Its residents were
charging at the raiders haphazardly and very few of them got close. The
raiders shot fast and accurate - the campers never stood a chance.
A minute later, the resistance was either unconscious or dead. After
grabbing what they wanted and placing the stuff in their bags, the
Raiders walked back over to the horses. The one who had spoke to Jake
earlier mounted his horse. He turned down to face Jake. "Well? You
coming?"
"Um...sure." He climbed onto the Raider's horse.
"What's your name kid?" a second Raider asked.
"Jake."
"I'm Metz, that's Ron," said the first one. Most of the other raiders
rode off. "Got that?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. Hang on!" Metz's horse took off, followed by the remaining
raiders.
***
"Why'd you go with them?" asked Hawks. Jake shrugged.
"Dunno. I was still lost, and it made as much sense as wandering around
aimlessly. You see, I didn't have the luck to fall asleep and wake up
with a skilled and _handsome_ guide nearby."
"You didn't get drunk, that's the problem."
"Anyways, we rode off to their main camp. At that time, it was around
20 miles away from Crater Town."
***
The raider camp was nothing but tents. There wasn't a single permanent
structure to be found. There were quite a few camp fires around the
area. The horses instinctively walked up to their feed. The raiders
dismounted and dispersed around the camp.
"C'mon, this way," Metz said to Jake.
"Uh, right." Jake stopped gazing around the camp and followed Metz.
They walked up to a large tent near the center of the camp. Inside,
there were tables, lots of tables. There didn't seem to be anything
else, besides some torch posts. However, the far side of the tent was
dimly lit, much to dimly for Jake to see anything.
"Hey Arelen! I found us a new horseboy." Jake, at first, couldn't see
who Metz was talking to. But, after a moment or two, a very large
figure walked towards him from the shadows. He was the largest man Jake
had ever seen. He was also one of the most disturbing-looking. His
jacket arms, above and below his elbows, were covered in what looked
like human arm bones. His pants were similarly dressed. There were even
a few bones on his face. His jacket was worn open, and his chest was
covered in patterned scars.
"_This_ is your horseboy?"
"Yeah." Arelen walked up to Jake and knelt down to look him over. Jake
kept his eyes forward, so he wouldn't have to make face contact and
show fear.
"Scrawny for a horseboy."
"He don't need to be to big to be one. So how 'bout it?" Arelen stood
upright in front of Jake - he was even more massive up close.
"Hit me," he said.
"Huh?" Jake responded.
"I said, _hit me_!" The room shook when he shouted. Jake, not wanting
to anger him, pulled his fist back and punched Arelen in the stomach as
hard as he could. The giant didn't even flinch.
"Hmm...he'll do. Just make sure he doesn't fuck up." Arelen glared down
at Jake for a second, and then walked back into the shadows.
"Well, c'mon," said Metz, walking out of the tent. "I'll show you
around."
"R-right." Jake turned and followed him.
***
"...he was wearing bones?" asked Hawks.
"Yep. He smelled like a corpse, too."
"Why would anybody follow someone like that?" projected Canine. Jake
shrugged.
"Beats opposing him, I guess. Would you want to go up against a guy
like that?"
"Better him than the Reaper," muttered Hawks.
"Trust me, this guy was worse than glow boy. Once, somebody, don't
remember his name, got drunk and threw a punch at Arelen. Bone boy
grabbed his arms and tore 'em right out."
"You have clever names for everyone, don't you?"
"Are you gonna let me finish bird boy? Anyways, I hung out with them
for a few months. All I did was take care of the horses, and get the
guys stuff. They fed me, and taught me about fighting...usually
firsthand. It was a pretty good deal, though. The only real problem I
had was this one guy, Brose. Major asshole, the only reason the others
put up with him was he could cook. But eventually, I got fed up with
him."
***
Brose was approaching. Jake couldn't see his face, but the guy's strut
gave him away. "Hey horseshit, where's my knife?"
"Huh?" Brose growled and then grabbed Jake by the shirt.
"Where's my fucking knife?! I told you to watch it while I was asleep!"
"I take care of horses, not your knife. Now leggo." Brose pushed Jake
down. He got back up and stared Brose in the eyes. "It's not my fault
you're too stupid to keep track of a knife."
Brose shouted, and then threw a punch at Jake's face, which Jake ducked
under. As he did, he pulled out his own knife from his belt and stabbed
Brose in the side.
"I'm getting sick of your damn, ugly face," muttered Jake as he pulled
his knife out of Brose's side, and slashed him across the face with it.
Brose screamed for a second, and then collapsed. Hearing this, some
other raiders ran up to the two. Metz was with them.
"Did you do this?" he asked.
"Yeah. He was asking for it." The mummering that had been going on in
the background quickly stopped. Arelen was approaching. He looked down
at Brose, who was bleeding profusely, and then at Jake.
"Metz," he said without averting his eyes.
"Yeah?"
"Is this your horse boy?" Metz swallowed, buying time.
"Um, yeah. He is." Arelen turned around and walked back to his tent.
Metz followed after him. Jake turned around to face the other raiders.
"What's going to happen to him?" The others whistled, looked away, or
walked off. None gave him an answer. Jake picked up his knife, which he
had dropped when he saw Areleln outside the tent, and walked over to
the horses. His hands were shaking the whole time he fed them. He
figured he had gone too far this time, killing a full-fledged Raider.
About half an hour passed. Then, he heard Metz's voice behind him.
"Hey Jake." That was the first time any of the raiders called him by
anything not involving "horse", "shit", or "boy". He was in it deep
now.
"Y-yeah?" He turned around to face Metz, just in time to see a riffle
fly at him. Jake caught it half a second before it would have hit him.
"Welcome aboard."
"Huh?"
"You're in. Arelen wants to see you. I'd get there fast." Jake nodded
and ran off for Arelen's tent.
***
"Apparently that's how they always did their recruiting. They wait for
horse boys to show they have balls, then they take 'em on a raid. If
they come back alive, they're in."
"Interesting procedure," Canine 'said'. "How many members do they
have?"
"I don't know, about 60 or so."
"...just _60_!?" Hawks exclaimed. "Then we've killed - "
"About a sixth of 'em, yeah."
"So where's this small army you said we had after us?"
"I think 50 guys is a nice sized army, especially when all of them have
guns and horses. And they got Areleln too, remember?" Hawks muttered
some nasty sounds under his breath. So anyways, we were raiding some
camp in the middle of nowhere. This was my 'come back alive' one."
***
Metz, Ron, and four other raiders were already charging into the camp.
Jake, being the rookie, had look-out duty. Some of the raiders had
heard something about Twilighters in the area. Twilighters were about
the only thing raiders would be scared about in this remote area. They
were somewhere in the Crater Town-DRR-Archives triangle. Jake didn't
know where specifically. There were lots of small settlements in this
area, since the three points all had patrols that killed critters on
sight.
Jake could see the camp's denizens either being slaughtered or running
away. The raiders knew how to pick their targets so that the scales
were tipped to them. Jake didn't like that much - it made them seem
like cowards. They could take on bigger targets but - but they didn't.
Someone was behind him, Jake could hear it. He turned around and fired,
not waiting for a target to aim at. It was hard to see if anybody was
there or not. A rock slammed into his head, knocking him off his horse.
He dropped his riffle in the fall. Jake leapt back to his feet the
moment he hit the ground, only to have somebody unseen whack him across
the face with a wooden rod. He was unconscious before he could see who
was attacking him.
***
It was...later. Jake had awoken, but hadn't opened his eyes yet. He
wanted to know how much trouble he was in. If he was with the raiders,
he was probably in deep shit. If he was still in the camp, he was
probably dead.
He heard a voice. "Kill him!" It could be a raider or a camper. Either
way it wasn't the best thing to wake up to.
There was another voice. "Brick said not to. You wanna mess with that
guy? Be my guest." Jake had heard of a guy named Brick somewhere
before, he just couldn't remember where. He might be a raider. But why
would raiders follow orders from anyone but Arelen?
Footsteps now, three pairs. Somebody else was there. A third voice
spoke. "So how is he?"
The second voice spoke. "He should be fine, I guess." _Gee, thanks.
That really helps me out._
Now the first voice was talking. "He won't be much longer. I'm gonna
kill this bastard!" Very likely he was still in the camp, which meant
he was in for a world of hell. He heard somebody pull out a sword. Jake
wasn't sure if he still had his knife, but he prepared to grab it
anyways.
The third voice spoke up. "You're not gonna kill him, understand?"
"Um...sure." Jake heard the sword get put away.
"Now get out of here." There were footsteps, and then silence. Jake
wasn't sure if he was alone or not. "You know - " _well that settles
that_ " - sleeping people don't breathe that way. Sloppy."
Jake decided he might as well open his eyes. There was only one guy in
the room. He was tall, large, and enveloped in a large black coat. His
hair was turning gray, and he had a few wrinkles on his face He also
had quite a few scars, and a cocky-ass grin. He looked sort of like
what Jake thought a Twilighter would.
"They also don't fall for tricks like that."
"Godamnit," Jake muttered. The old man bent down and looked at Jake in
the face.
"What's your name?"
"It's 'none of your damn business', pleased to meet you." The old man
stood back up and backhanded Jake across the face, knocking him off the
table he was sitting on.
"What's your name?!" Jake stood back up, ignoring the bruise on his
face. Before he could answer, the old man grabbed him by his hair and
punched him in the gut. Jake thought he was going to throw up. "Answer
me this time!" The old man let go of Jake's hair, and he collapsed on
the ground.
Jake coughed a few times, and sat up. "It's Jake."
"And what was your father's name?" The old man clenched his hand into a
fist.
Jake didn't bother with his cocky routine this time. "Zed." The old man
nodded his head and relaxed his hand, placing it over a chair.
"I'm Brick. Now get up." Brick slid the chair over to Jake, who sat
down in it. "So Jake, how the hell did you wind up with those asses?"
Jake's arrogance returned. "None of - " Brick raised his hand slightly
" - ....it just happened that way."
"Does Zed know about this?"
He's dead, how should I know?"
"I see." Judging by the look on his face...
"Did you know him or something?"
"He was trying to get into the Order of the Cloud. I was - "
"Order of the what?" Brick growled, and then backhanded Jake again. He
went flying to the ground once more, bleeding from where Brick's
knuckles connected.
"Don't interrupt me when I'm talking" Jake got back on his chair,
rubbing his cheek. "Order of the Cloud! Ever hear of them?" Jake shook
his head no. "Fine. The 'Twilighters'." He obviously didn't like that
name by the way he nearly spat it out. "Your dad was trying to get in,
and I was the one that got stuck training him."
"Oh...did he get in?" Jake had never heard of any of this. His father
must have mentioned it at some point, but Jake couldn't remember
anything about it. Brick shook his head.
"The Order fell apart before he could. Otherwise, he would've." Brick
turned away. "But it's a goddamn shame his pansy of a son's joined up
with those weakling raiders. What a waste of good genes." Jake jumped
out of his seat, knowing that he was insulted even without knowing what
his pants had to do with it.
"What?!"
"Those raiders are pathetic, and you're a weakling if you join them."
Jake, not thinking, launched himself at Brick's back. The old man, more
collected and skilled, easily sidestepped out of the way without even
looking. As Jake passed by him, Brick spun around and roundhoused the
novice raider in his side, sending him flying to the ground. "Like I
said, weak."
Brick slammed his foot onto Jake's back, pinning him to the ground. It
also felt like there were several boulders aiding him. "So, do you want
to live?"
"Huh?" Brick pushed down harder, and Jake thought his back would snap
in half.
"You heard me. Yes or no. Very simple. Which one?"
"Which'll get your foot off my back?" Jake managed to squeeze out.
"Which do you think?"
"Fine, yes." Brick pushed down harder, somehow. Jake started screaming
"Yes!". After a few seconds of that, Brick let up.
"Alright. Let's get going. Leave your shit here, you'll only need your
knife."
"Huh? Where we going?"
"If you want to live, you're going to need to get pass the people
outside. And they want you very dead for what your buddies did out
there. To get past them, you need to be with me. And that means you're
my apprentice." Brick started walking. "Of course, if you'd rather deal
with them, be my guest." Jake got up and rushed after Brick.
***
"And, the end." Hawks blinked a few times.
"What? That's _it_?!"
Jake shrugged. "What more do you want?" Hawks stood up, walking around
in a circle, and throwing his arms up.
"I don't know, what happened after that?" Jake stared at Hawks as if he
was asking if green water was healthy.
"He _trained_ me. That's what masters do with apprentices. Why do you
think I dress like a Twilighter?"
"But why did he train you?" Canine asked. "He seemed to have a very low
opinion of Shadow Raiders." Jake shrugged again.
"He didn't want the Cloud Order to die along with him, and I was the
only person he found who he could train. As soon as I was done he took
off. That was about...11 years ago."
"We really need someone who can tell a story," muttered Hawks. "I'll
die of boredom at this rate."
"We should reach DRR sometime tomorrow. You can look for someone there.
Or you could tell the stories for once."
"Up to about a year ago, I was hunting lizards and worshiping rocks.
There's not much to tell about that."
"Then go to sleep. Maybe the nocturnal animals - you know, the type
that come out when it's _night_ - will eat you. That might keep you
amused." Hawks muttered something nasty under his breath, and then
rolled over to go to sleep.
**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****
[P ALIGN=right]-Draconias Galactica
-http://upperpage.tripod.com
* - Not nesecaraly epic
** - Not nesecaraly a series
*** - Not nesecaraly humanly possible
