Rings of Power

I came to lying on a bench in The Library. My head was pounding with the worst headache I've ever had, each heartbeat was like a hammer striking my head. I spotted Baudric reading a book at one of the tables in front of me. I attempted to move but my muscles felt as if they had endured weeks of hard labor all at once. After a minute of struggling I finally sat up. Baudric heard me and came over with a waterskin.
"Drink." He said giving me the waterskin. "It'll help with the headache." I took three big gulps then I broke for air and took three more.
"Thank you. How long was I out?"
"Hours, it's nearly dark."
An alarm rang in my head.
"Almost Dark?! I was supposed to go to Delilah's and I should've been home hours ago with the bellows."
"I sent your father a letter saying you were going to stay an help me for the day. In exchange he'll get the bellows for free. As for Delilah I'm sure whatever she needed you for can wait. This is far more important. What all do you remember?"
"I had the strangest dream of this dragon and he or it touched me and then everything went white and I was being loaded with history and information. It was hard to discern what the information was. But three pieces of information stuck out from the rest and I was able to see them clearly. "
"Oh? Do tell me." He replied interested.
I told him about each piece of memory or dream and he sat there in silence for a few minutes. Then spoke
"None of that was a dream Gael. Eldran is very real and the history he showed you is now part of your being. It'll all make sense in time, but for now each piece will come to you as needed. Here I'll show you. Who was the founder of The Order?"
"I don't kn-" a name rang out in my head along with when and where.
"Dresmir Vorkem, founded at the peak of Mount Ignis upon it's dormant mouth because even though it's called Mount it's actually just a dormant volcano. The order was founded 2000 years ago when man started to build kingdoms and wage wars." The information just blurted out of my mouth. How had I known that? I've never heard of any of those things before. I guess what he was saying is true. Baudric smiled
"Very good. Now that you know the history. We can begin your training."
"Training? For what?"
"The order falls to you now Gael. It's in your blood. You must bring the order back to it's former glory."
"What..? Me? I can't?" I said stammering.
Oh? And why not? What better do you have to do."
The question hit me hard. I really didn't have anything better to do.
"Also haven't you always told me you dreamed of being a great hero? Well now's your chance. Fate has set you up with an opportunity are you really going to turn it away?" He said.
He was right. This was what I always dreamed of.
"Where will I find time to do so much. Between working the sparring with Father, working the forge, and everything else I won't have much time to train with you. Why can't you lead the order Baudric?"
"I'm not a true member. As you already know." As soon as he said that a piece of history flung itself forward. Baudric was the keeper of this sanctuary. And care taker of the dragon, Eldran. While still a member of the order he wasn't chosen to be a ring bearer or Soul Fighter as was their common name. He continued
"And even if I was it would still be your job to lead us. You're the heir of the order."
"What do you mean heir? I've got no inheritance except for the forge father will leave me."
"Well you must know you're adopted? Correct? Which means​ you had biological parents at one point." He lifted his hands and gestured at the room. "And this is what they left you. You're a direct descendant of Dresmir him self." I looked at him with such confusion then something clicked.
"You knew my real parents!?" I asked standing up so fast my muscles cried out in pain.
"Yes, very well actually. They were amongst some of the greatest leaders​ the order has ever known. I'm one of the few to be able to call your real father and mother my friends."
"What happened to them?" I asked sadness catching in my tone.
"I believe you already know Gael. You told me about it moments ago. Stoic was your Father and Lilly your Mother." I sat there remembering the memory. Thinking about the man and woman. I could see resemblances of my self in them both. I looked most like my father but I had my mother's hair color and I'm assuming eye color. I had the same frame as my father but he was much more built than I, with rippling muscles and legs as wide as tree trunks.
"Ok but what truly happened to them?" I asked "I understand they died fighting some man but why what led them to that fate?"
"That man they died fighting was Suntoex. An extremely gifted member of the order. Far more than some of us realized. He betrayed our order by killing the elders and 8 of the dragons that guarded each sanctuary. Not to mention the countless numbers he slaughtered that stood in his way. He also destroyed the sanctuaries them selves. He would've eliminated all of us had it not been for your parents sacrifice."
"What happened to the people who stayed in the sanctuaries that didn't get destroyed?"
"Most died trying to protect the others. Very few were selected to stay behind, and those that did stay gave up the order once they heard about the death of your parents. They assumed just as I had that the bloodline was no more, but we were all wrong because here you are."
"How do you know I'm truly Stoic's son then if you didn't know about me when my mother conceived me?"
"Eldran has said you are of the leaders bloodline. The blood within you runs so pure he can smell it a mile away. But when he touched you he knew for sure."
"Oh,... This is all so hard to comprehend."
"I know it can be overwhelming but you'll grow used to it." He said shrugging. This was all to much. To much hit me at one time. I knew who my real parents were but they were already dead. I was to lead an abandoned order and restore them to their former glory, and every story I've been told about the old times had been true, and not just legends. Magic, dragons, mythical creatures. It was all way way to much but I found some comfort in the overwhelming information. The idea of the world bring more, much more than I had thought was amazing. A smile touched my face.
"What is it?" Baudric said?
"The world is so much more than I thought. It's amazing.."
"Yes, the world is rather drab these days. Why I remember a time when dragons and Griffins were spotted just as often as a flock of geese. When massive animals the size of houses roamed the woods just as the common deer does. Amazing times indeed." I though about what he had just told me for a moment.
"What changed? Where did all the creatures go?" I asked
"They went into hiding after the order disbanded feeling as if they were no longer safe."
"Why does no one remember them? Why is it they're only stories of myth and legend?" I responded.
"Because the spell Stoic cast on Suntoex had some unforeseen effects. It wiped the memory of all the magic in the world from everyones mind. Including my own. Had I not been tending to Eldran at the time I never would've remembered the order or even Eldran himself​. He restored my memory immediately and informed me of what had happened."
"What happened to the last of the order? The last few members that remained?"
"Caretakers such as my self remained to care for the dragons and the soul fighters one by one all left to live out normal lives." I let that sink in for a few minutes. Then I asked
"When will we begin training, I understand most of what's been said and I think I'm ready to take on my responsibility." Baudric smiled as if that's what he had been waiting to hear. He turned​ around to the desk for a moment and when he turned back he was holding the little chest in the palms of his hand, the lid was open. I looked into the chest and saw a two rings. They were both just little bands of steel. No difference between the two as far as I could tell, but something called to me at that moment. I reached foawrd and grabbed the one on the left. I examined it for a moment and said
"Doesn't seem very special to me."
"Looks can be deceiving. Put it on this finger." He pointed to the his left hand's ring finger. I slowly did what he said and as soon as the ring was all the way on it transformed before my eyes molding into a new shape. It turned dark crimson and aquired a black gem on it's out facing side. The orders insignia set into jewel. The moment it stopped transforming a massive amount of energy began to flow through the ring and into my body. It was exhilarating at first all my hair stood on end, my body was covered with goosebumps, and I felt renewed. My muscles no longer hurt and my headache subsided immediately.
"Woah... This feels amazing. What does it do?" I questioned.
"The ring does many things. It allows you to use magic, live well beyond your normal years of life, it allows you to call upon your soul armor and weapons among many other things."
"Woah again." I said astonished. "How Is all this energy coming from this little ring?"
"It's not. The ring itself doesn't produce energy alone. But once put on it immediately takes your energy absorbs it and redistributes it to your body a thousand times stronger. Making you faster and stronger. Although you won't notice the effect right away. The process takes some time to complete."
"How long?"
"No one can say. It depends on the person. It depends on how well their body takes the change in energy."
"Has anyone ever not adapted?"
"No, but for some it's taken as long as 10 or so years before they're bodies fully adapted."
"After this I'm sure I can do this. When will you begin training me?"
"Unfortunately, not being a ring bearer my self I can't train you."
"Then who is supposed to train me?
"There is one left. The last of the soul fighters. Eldran has known of him for sometime. Making sure he stayed alive, for he was amongst the most powerful of soul fighters and he will teach you what you must know. I haven't been entirely truthful with you Gael." He said looking down at his hands. "You're not here just to lead the order. Suntoex will return soon, and if none stand up to him he will kill us all. He doesn't seek domination or power. All he desires is destruction. You're the only one who can stop him." Then Baudric stood up and left me in silence. Me? I was supposed to stop the man my parents died fighting? How could I hope to defeat him? What if my body took ten years to adapt. Did I have that long?
Then suddenly something interrupted my thinking. An explosion that shook the entirety of the library, stone fell from the roof around me and then Baudric came running back into the room folded paper and backpack in hand.
"Here this is a map showing where the last soul fighter resides. And these are things every soul fighters must have." He said shoving the backpack and map into my arms. I put the bag on and was holding the map.
"What's going on Baudric?!" I asked and then another explosion shook the library again.
"They're here." Was all he said running back to the table he was sitting at.
"Who's here?" I said getting frustrated.
"The ones who follow Suntoex. They must know the rings are here. Take the last ring. It will call to someone once it finds the right person just as yours did to you. The last soul fighter. His name is Abram. Find him show him the ring and he'll know. Tell him-"
The wall behind us exploded where the door used to be knocking us down and sending debris flying through the room. Smoke billowed from the hole and a man emerged from it. He wore armor that was green and resembled a monster I'd never seen before. The helm had two mouths with four rows of razor sharp teeth with beady eyes and a long snout. My ears rang from the explosion but I saw Baudric stand a start talking to the man. When Baudric finished the man seemed to laugh then pointed at Baudric. Then Baudric turned to me quickly and mouth something that looked like "O" what did that mean he did it to or three me times. "O" "O" "O"
Then I realized. "GO" he was saying "GO" then the man made a gesture like he was pushing something with one hand and before Baudric had time to respond he went flying across the room and smacked into the wall. I stumbled to my feet grabbing the chest with the last ring in it and I ran for the door to Eldran's cave. I was running as fast as I could until something hit me in the back and knocked me to the ground also making me slide 30 feet. I turn around to see the man in the armor walking toward me. Then out of nowhere a pillar of flame engulfed the man. I could feel the heat from the flames across the room it was so hot I had to cover my face with my arms. Tables around the room burst into flames, even the stone under the man's feet began to melt. Then my hearing returned almost all at once and over the roar of the flames I heard Baudric yelling at me
"RUN GAEL! I'LL HOLD THEM OFF. GO!"
and with that I sprung to my feet and sprinted towards the door. I swung it open and ran into the hallway. I ran the hardest I've ever ran in my life but even though I ran so hard my body showed no signs of fatigue I wasn't even breathing hard yet. Then I burst through the door and into Eldran's cave. The dragon was already up and he had his massive head on the ground.
"Climb on me, NOW!" He commanded. Still running I lept as high as I could and grabbed a hold of his scales. I climbed to the top of his head which was easily 40 feet tall and ran to a spot behind one of his horns. Right as I sat down the man burst through the door clutching Baudric by the collar dragging him.
"Take off and the keeper dies." Hearing the voice I realized the man was actually a woman. Eldran inhaled long a hard then opened his jaws. As if to block the incoming attack the woman put up her hand. Cover your ears. Eldran said without speaking. Then Eldran released a thunderous roar that shook the whole mountain. It caught the woman off guard and stunned her for a moment she feel to her knees covering her ears and dropped Baudric. Right then the dragon ceased the roar. His giant muscles tensed and with a single leap took us half the height of the mountain the he unfurled his massive wings and flapped sending howling winds downward buffeting the woman in oppressing winds making her fall to her stomach. Eldran flapped again sending another gust down. But this time the woman was ready and the wind had no affect on her. She made a motion as if throwing something then a second later Eldran roared in pain, but he didn't stop he flapped again even harder than the first two times and we emerged from the mountain. The sunlight was almost blinding. It took my eyes a second to adjust. Then what I saw I almost couldn't believe. I saw New Parun but it's Northern wall was obliterated. Smoke was rising from so many places in the city.
"Take me down!" I yelled over the roaring wind. If he had heard me he didn't reply but he tilted down towards the city. The closer we got to the city the louder the cries for help became. As soon as we landed I slid down the side of Eldran's head.
"Hurry!" He told me as I landed on the ground and took off in a spring towards the city. We landed next to the Eastern wall and first thing I noticed as I arrived at the gate was that no one was guarding it. I ran on through and what I saw burned into my mind. Women, children, guards everyone who would've been walking through the streets in this area was strewn about the ground. Tears began to feel my eyes. Mother, Father, Dritre, Delilah.. were they ok. I had to know. I was closest to Laill's house so I took off toward in that direction. Stepping over countless bodies along the way. I ran up to the door to Laill's house and started banging on the door.
"Laill, Dritre it's me open up!"
I heard some stuff moving from behind the door. Then it swung open Dritre was standing in the doorway. Tears rolling down his cheeks. I grabbed him and hugged him. Being thankful he was ok.
"Where's Laill and his father?" I asked him. He just shook his head in response. I looked past him to see Laill lying lifeless in the floor. The body of a little green creature lay on the floor next to him. It had an ugly face that was scrunched together with a long pointed nose and long pointed ears. With a few hairs on his head but other than that he was hairless. With skin that looked more like a tough hide. It was clutching a crudely made black short sword in it's hand and a black buckler that resembled a cooking pot in his other hand. A pool of green blood lie around it and a deep slashing wound lay across it's chest.
"Did you do that? Are you hurt?" I asked him.
He nodded his head and turned around. A three clawed cut ran across his back. It matched the hand of the little creature. It must've scratched him, but it didn't look to deep and wasn't bleeding that much.
"You'll live." I said reassuring him.
"Come on we have to find Mother and Father." He agreed and we left Laill's house running as hard as we could to our house. We were almost there when a group of those little green creature jumped out in front of us. They started snickering and speaking in a language that sounded like they chewed words before they spoke them. They were advancing toward us slowly step by step when from behind them there was a Savage war cry and before they had time to react four of them were sliced in two. Then another four. Emerging from the pile of bodies was Father with his mighty​ Flamberge. He looked at me then from his back he tossed me my two swords.
"Help me take care of them!" He yelled at me returning his attention to the creatures. Then the nearest one to my father lost its head. I unsheathed the swords taking the short sword in my left and hand and half in my right I closed in on the creatures. The nearest one stabbed at me but I parried his strike and retaliated with a counter stab. He blocked it with his buckler. Then quickly I slashed with my long sword and cut him in two. I slashed at another with my short sword spilling his guts and I stabbed another through the chest. They wore no armor and had naught on but a single loin cloth. As I was fighting two of them. One of the creatures from with the larger group growled an order and then they stopped attacking. A big muscular version of the creatures came pushing through to the front. He wore more than just a loin cloth. He had armor that appeared to be made of bones and a head dress made up of a bull's skull and some kind of fur that went down his neck. Clearly this was their commander and they all feared him because they flinched when he walked by them. When he got to the front he pulled a crude black two handed sword from his back and pointed it toward father. The creatures began to chant and circle around us. This creature hardly stood over four feet tall with their hunched backs. But even hunched the armored creature was atleast five feet and he was rippling with muscle. Father readied and then the creature charged. They clashed blades in a splash of sparks. The creatures strength seemed to match Father's as they pushed against one another both grunting and struggling to overcome the other. Then the creature back stepped and reared back and brought his blade straight down with all his might. Father blocked and another wave of sparks flew from the swords as they clashed. The creature reared back again but this time father slashed at it's side forcing the creature to block. Another wave of sparks flew from the blades. Then father was getting ready to swing again and the creature kicked him in the chest. He lost his footing and fell to his back. Immediately the creature was on Father and he brought his blade down into father's abdomen. Tears welled in my eyes and my anger raged like a wildfire. Energy surged through me and I slashed my blade through the air. A line of bright light flew from my sword slicing all the creatures in front of me in two. The one that had stabbed father turned toward me looked down at his stomach then fell over along with twenty of the others. The creatures stopped chanting instantly. They looked at their commander lying on the ground then they looked at each other. They threw up their weapons and arms flailing releasing high pitched screams they ran off through the street.Dritre and I dropped by father's side looking him in the eyes. Blood was already dripping from his mouth. We began to cry and then he put a hand on the back of my neck and pulled me to him until we were forhead to forhead. He said "Take care of Dritre, Gael." Then he let me go. He started coughing and heaving up blood. "You're all thats left of the family. They got your Mother already. I'm sorry I couldn't protect her." He said almost in a whisper tears began to fill his eyes. Then he drew his last breath and lay lifeless. "Come on Dritre we have to go before more of them show up." I said grabbing his arm.
"What did you do to them?" He replied sniffling and wiping his tears.
"I don't know. Some kind of magic but I'll explain later we have to go."
He nodded in response and followed my lead.
We ran through the alleys to avoid more groups of creatures. We only came across a couple that I easily took care of. We we're looking for Delilah's house near the west side of the castle. When it came into view I saw that it was burning. No one was inside then I heard a scream off to my left. A group of four creatures was cornering Delilah. She was trapped. I'm not losing anyone else today. I drew my swords and charged straight at the group. Before they knew what was happening I kill 3 of them. Then the last turned to face me and before he could raise his shield I stabbed him in the throat. It gurgled then fell silent as it fell from my blade.
"GAEL!" Delilah said leaping into my arms. She hugged me so tight I thought my lungs would collapse from the pressure then she stepped back and I realized she had been crying.
"Your family?" I asked her.
She looked down and shook her head.
"That makes three of us. We just watched Father die, but we can't stop. We need to get out of here. And I have a ride but we have to hurry." I took Delilah's hand and told Dritre to follow. We ran from the western side of the city all the to the Eastern gate. You could see Eldran's spines over the wall. We had just made it out the gate without incident and were running toward Eldran when something hit me in the back. I fell down face first and barely caught my self. I guess it happened to the others as well because they ended up lying next to me face first in the grass. I stood to see the same woman from the library. She wasn't holding Baudric anymore and I could only assume the worst.
"Hand the rings over!" She yelled her voice booming across the field.
"What's she talking about?" Whispered Delilah.
"I'll have to explain later." I whispered back. "You'll never get them." I yelled to the woman.
She burst out in laughter. "No matter. Now or later I'll have those rings. You're just lucky your dragon is there protecting you." She said as she turned around and walked back toward the city. I looked behind me to see Eldran bearing his fangs and the woman. I heard Delilah and Dritre gasp.
"It's ok guys he's on our side. He's our ride."
"You want us to ride him?" Said Dritre not taking his eyes off of the towering creature that was Eldran.
"I won't bite, I promise." Said Eldran laughing.
"He talks!" Delilah said gasping again.
"Come on we can't waste time! Let's go!" Then Eldran put his head to the ground and allowed us to climb up. Once we were settled.
"Ready everyone?" Without waiting for an answer he launched into the sky heading north toward Abram. We all gave New Parun one last look and remembering what we had lost the three of us began to cry in each other's arms.