Carmina

A Chapter by DragonBoy

This was written way more recently than the first chapter and is quite frankly much better. Once again thanks for reading!

I wake with a start. “Dillan!” I call, and Freddie flies out of the cave startled. I turn around and finally see the note. Relief fills my whole body. While he is a complete and total idiot, I can’t help but like him. We grew up together.

We grew up in an orphanage in Oakal, the second largest city in Lower Hildaria. We were both three when Ms. Lightwood took us in. I was left on her doorstep first, and Dillan was found three days later.

I don’t remember much of the first three years, except for what Anne told us. Anne was our best friend, our only friend for the entire time we were at the orphanage. She has an eidetic memory, and doesn’t forget anything. She had straight brown hair and huge blue eyes.

According to Anne we refused to leave each others side. During recess we would always play together; during nap time we would either share a bed or sleep in side by side beds; and during meals the three of us would all sit under the willow tree.

One day when we were ten years old, something terrible happened. Anne woke up screaming for her parents to run. By then, Dillon and I both knew that Anne’s parents had both been crushed by an oak tree in a terrible logging accident. She bawled her eyes out, while both me and Dillon were holding her, trying to quiet her down. At this point she had already woken up the rest of the children, and all three of our night clothes were soaked. We just could not get her to stop crying. Suddenly, Ms. Lightwood burst through her bedroom door, seething with rage. “Who is making all this noise?!”

All fingers pointed to Anne. Fortunately she had stopped screaming, but the tears still ran down her cheeks.

“Stand up girl!” Yelled Ms. Lightwood. Anne slipped out of our arms and onto the ice cold floor in front of Ms. Lightwood.

“Why did you decide to wake up the whole town,” Mrs. Lightwood said, without a hint of remorse in her voice.

“My parents…”

“Your parents are dead!” Mrs. Lightwood yelled, cutting her off, “There is nothing you can do about it, so quit your crying!” Then Ms. Lightwood smacked Anne, hard.

“Anne!” I cried out, shocked. Ms. Lightwood stormed off back into her room, satisfied.

Dillon and I jumped out of bed to help her. We finally got her back into bed, and she faded off into sleep.

After that, Anne was never the same. She started sucking her thumb again and tried to seclude herself from everyone, including me and Dillon. This ended up only hurting the situation. Other kids just started making fun of her for it. Calling her things like, “cry baby”, and “baby Anne”.

After a while Dillon got sick of it. Three teenagers had cornered Anne, and was teasing her mercilessly. Dillon walked in between them, threw Anne over his shoulder, and carried her away.

Anne got adopted a day later. Since it was a Saturday, we all woke up late. We didn’t see Anne in the breakfast line, but we just figured she wasn’t hungry, and we went to our usual spot under the willow tree. When Anne didn’t show up there either, we started to worry.

We confronted Ms. Lightwood, and she said, “She was adopted. Thank the gods as well, that little brat was really started to get on my nerves.”

That was all it took. Dillon punched Ms. Lightwood square in the jaw. With the other kids cheering, we grabbed our stuff and all of Ms. Lightwood’s gold yeels and hit the road.

To this day, we still don’t know where Anne was adopted to.

I rush down to the creek to bathe. As I’m running along, I see something strange in the bushes. I stop myself to check it out. I pull apart the branches in the bush, and to my complete horror I find a note. It reads, “We have your partner. If you want him to live, you must come to the palace in Greenburrow at once.” And next to it lies Dillan’s bow.

I quickly pick up Dillan’s bow, throw it over my shoulder, and run back to the cave. I have never really been much of an archer. That’s why I left most of the hunting to Dillan. As I enter the cave, Freddie takes off into the air, startled. When he realizes it’s me he gently glides down, landing on my shoulder. I rub his head and he lets out a faint roar.

I round up all of the supplies I had gathered, throw Dillan’s quiver over my shoulder, and head off towards Oakal. It’s on the way and I figure I can pick up extra supplies, and maybe even a sword.

In the first few days after we escaped from the orphanage, we apprenticed in a carpenter’s shop. His name was Mr. Frankfort. He was the only person who had ever been kind to us after the orphanage. He taught Dillan and I how to defend ourselves, Dillan with a bow and me with a sword. He died of the flu two days later.

I start walking down the long road that will lead me to Oakal. I know there will be bandits, but I think I can rely on Freddie to take care of them. If anything I would rob them. Wouldn’t that be ironic. I laugh out loud and Freddie, thinking something’s wrong comes swooping to my rescue. He notices I’m alright and flies back up into the sky.

I really have grown quite fond of him. While it is by far the stupidest thing Dillan’s ever done, I think Dillan bringing home that dragon was one of the best things that has happened to us. We haven’t had anyone but each other to depend on, now that we have Freddie, we finally have something else.

Pretty soon the road under me turned into cobblestone, indicating we were close. I made Freddie ride in the hunting bag, as owning a dragon is punishable by death. Pretty soon, I came up on a small wooden bridge. I began to walk across when two huge men blocked my path.

“Where do you think you’re going girlie?” the larger one asks.

“You don’t want to mess with me,” I say. I’d rather not use Freddie, but if I get attacked, I won’t think twice. I knock one of Dillan’s arrows, hoping that they won’t call my bluff.

“What do you plan on doing to do with that?” I can tell by the smirk on his face that he already knows the answer. “Just hand over all your Yeels and valuables.”

“I don’t have any,” I say, once again praying to the gods that they won’t call my bluff.

“Liar! Search her!” The smaller of the two pulls out a knife and approaches me. Knowing I have no other option, I unzip the hunting bag. An instant later, Freddie comes flying out. He dives straight toward the man with the knife and in a second he is reduced to a pile of ash. The second bandit dives straight into the river. As much as I want to spare him, I know that deep down I can’t. If rumor got out that someone in The Realm owned a dragon, the government will set a reward to anyone who could bring it in. This would cause more problems for me then I would like.

Freddie, who is now circling overhead looks down at me. I point to the man in the river and in a blink he becomes a pile of ash. Freddie flies back to me, lands on my shoulder, and goes back into the hunting bag without a second thought. I grab the bandit’s knife and hit the road.

I eventually reach the sprawling city of Oakal. Smoke billows out of small cottages, making the city feel warm and inviting. People crowd the main market, selling various goods. I immediately head straight toward the blacksmith shop. I am drawn to a shining steel longsword.

“How much for the steel longsword?” I ask the blacksmith behind the counter. He looks up at me with suspicion in his eyes.

“What does someone like you want with a fine piece of weaponry like this?”

“Self defence,” I say, looking him straight in the eye, “I’ll give you 50 Yeels for it.”

He laughs, “Young lady this is forged from steel mined from highest mountain in the Realm! This particular sword is worth at least 500 Yeels!” He stops talking suddenly as he spies the knife on my hip. “Where did you get that?”

“A bandit dropped it. What do you care?”

“That knife is forged out of Titan Steel, the rarest material in the Realm! Tell you what, I’ll trade you this sword for that knife. I’ll even throw in the sheath.”

“Deal,” and we shook hands.

“I’ll bring my daughter out to make the trade, she needs to learn. Get out here!” A girl, even smaller than me walked out. She has her head down and her thumb in her mouth. “I told you to knock that off girl!” He smacks her across the face, causing her to fall to the ground. “This nice girl here would like to make a trade.”

She gets up, her thumb no longer in her mouth. She looks up at me and I almost faint. I am staring into the bright blue eyes of Anne, our long lost best friend.

For a while we just stare at each other. Suddenly, she bursts into tears and runs around the counter. We hug and I break into tears as well.

“I missed you so much,” I whisper into her ear, tears still streaming down my face.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” yelled the blacksmith. He rips Anne out of my arms and hits her again. “We never do that to paying customers”

I can’t hold it back anymore. My hand reaches the hunting bag, and in no seconds flat the blacksmith is reduced to a pile of ash. The market breaks into complete pandemonium. I grab the long sword and Anne’s arm and together we run out of Oakal.

prev chapter