Derek ran past Austin and the group of elemental warriors. His dark cloak fluttered in the wind and his sword was drawn, glowing blue in the night. Over his shoulder, he glanced at the group, yelling at them to stay put. Austin felt the others huddle closer together, watching the sky and some searching frantically around them for monsters to pop up.
Fear gripped Austin by the neck and he took a step further into the group. Toward the safety of his peers. He dragged in a deep breath and watched the flashes of light emerging from down by the wall. They were far away from there, far from any real fighting. They stood here, by Derek’s command, watching in the night.
Austin glanced around him at the group and quickly realized these people had never seen a battle before. This was their first fight and many of their faces Austin recognized from school. They were like him, brought into the fighting before their time was right. They should have been behind a desk, studying magic this evening, not here in the streets watching for beasts.
He knew what to do then. He knew who he needed to become.
For too long had he ignored his calling, thinking it would go away if he stepped around it. But in this moment, he knew these elemental warriors needed a leader, someone who took their fears in his hand and quenched them. He knew he needed to test the dagger he’d gotten from Melissa and, by being this far away from the battle, he wouldn’t have a chance.
Austin took a step away from the group, meaning to separate himself from the others to show they could follow him. But then a growl sounded through the sky and a dark shadow floated past above them. Austin froze in his step, trying to make himself small. He knew the dragon could kill him in a second if it wanted to.
“What are you doing?”
Austin spun around, hearing a familiar voice to his side. His eyes locked with Marcus and he saw confusion spread over his face. Marcus’ eyes grew hard, and the confused look fell away like a mask. His face was soot stained and his uniform was covered in dark red blood.
“You should be out there fighting,” Marcus said. “Why are you hiding back here like a coward?”
Austin didn’t understand what Marcus was doing. They’d been getting along great during these past weeks, and he didn’t understand why Marcus was suddenly distrustful of him. “I’m following orders. They told us to stay here and until we receive new orders, we have to.”
Marcus shook his head, taking a step closer to Austin. “You’re the one who makes the orders, Taveck. So don’t try to pull that shit on me. You’re just a coward, hiding back here when the rest of us are dying out there.”
“I thought we were friends. What the hell?”
Austin threw his hands out to his sides, and another roar filled the sky behind him. But Austin didn’t look up. He kept his gaze locked on Marcus and his brow creased in worry.
Marcus shook his head. “We’ll never be friends. That would have to make us equals first and we’ll never be that. You’re a Taveck, Austin. You’re a rich, spoiled brat and I’m just a poor soldier. I don’t know what Mel sees in you. She didn’t use to be so superficial. But you changed her alright.”
“Don’t bring Melissa into this. She’s done nothing to you. If you hate me, fine. I don’t care. Just get out of my face.”
A flash of fire shone in Marcus’ eyes, and for a moment, Austin didn’t know if he would leave. Austin put his hand on his sword, still in its sheath, and connected to it. The blade glowed bright blue against his side, and Marcus’ eyes flickered down to it and then back up at Austin.
Marcus took a step back, shaking his head. “You coward.”
Austin watched Marcus as he walked away toward the hospital by the western gate. His shoulders were tense and his back rigid. This encounter had made the hairs on his neck stand up. Marcus didn’t feel the same anymore. Something felt terribly wrong with him. But Austin couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
Maybe it was all in his head and Marcus had just always hated him. That would make sense. Austin had, after all, been the one Melissa had chosen in the end. Not that he thought Marcus knew about all that, but he might have suspected it.
Austin had never really tried to hide his feelings for Melissa and he knew things must have looked painfully obvious from an observer's point of view, maybe even a tad bit pathetic at times. But Austin didn’t care. He didn’t believe one could get anything from hiding what they wanted.
He looked over at the huddled group of elemental warriors. He was standing a couple of steps away from them now, after having followed Marcus a small distance. They looked scared and worried, like they’d been left out here in a battle without their parents. Austin huffed out a breath and his shoulders descended toward the ground. He needed to show these people what he wanted, and he needed to be their parent tonight.
“Listen up,” Austin yelled in his most commanding voice.
The faces of the elemental warriors snapped up to him. Some looked younger than Austin, maybe by one or two years. But some of them looked older, too. One man looked like he might be thirty years older than Austin, and he wondered where his brother had found these people. They couldn’t all be students at Falden, could they?
“I’ve got new orders for us. We have a special mission we need to carry out today. It’s top secret and very important. You’ve all been especially chosen for this mission, because you possess something no other elemental warriors do. Inconspicuousness.”
The group shared glances of confusion at Austin’s words. But Austin ignored their looks and continued. “We need to find a beast, trap it and then I need to put this special weapon inside its flesh and activate it. This is a new sort of magic, very secret, and I need you to not speak a word about this afterward. Is that understood?”
The group said nothing, instead they again shared worried glances. Like they were afraid Austin might have lost his mind. They’d do no such thing as to find a beast and trap it.
Austin let out a sigh and leveled his gaze. “Look, I mean it when I say that you’ve been chosen for this mission. We need the beast to not suspect anything. We need the dragon to leave us alone and we need the void to look the other way. Now, for better or worse, you look like a bunch of new recruits, and that means no one is going to see us coming. I believe in you. I believe we can do this. So, who’s with me?”
Austin unsheathed his blade from its hilt and connected to it, making the blue glow dance in the night. He raised the blade to the sky, like a commanding officer on a battlefield, ready to send his troops into the fight. The older man took a hesitant step forward, straightening his back a little.
“With all due respect, Sir, I don’t think we’re ready for that. I think maybe you chose the wrong bunch of elemental warriors. Our orders, from the commanding Taveck, were to stay here. I think we need to follow those. I’m not even sure you’re allowed to give us orders.”
Austin let the words fall toward the ground like the empty protest they were. He heard the hesitation in the older man’s voice, but Austin also heard him calling him Sir and referring to him as one of the Tavecks, even if he didn’t think he was able to give commands. He knew he had them then. It was just a matter of time and the right words to convince them to follow him.
Austin licked his lips and gave the old man a smile. “That’s right, my brother is the one who leads the elemental forces. But I am the one who carries out the special missions. Because I have what all of you have, a constant ability to be underestimated.”
This wasn’t completely true. People often overestimated him for being a Taveck. But compared to the other Tavecks in his family and in history, Austin guessed he was greatly underestimated.
Several of the elemental warriors in the group now took a step forward and joined next to the old man. Their eyes were alight and Austin knew he had said the right thing. He had rallied them. The last of the elemental warriors joined, and the group looked for him to lead.
“So, will you follow me?” Austin asked.
The group nodded, and a few murmured yes. The old man looked behind him at the younger elemental warriors and he sighed, looking back at Austin. He gave Austin a small nod, and a smile stretched over Austin’s face.
#
It took them a while to locate a beast far away from the rest of the fighting. They practically had to lure one away into an alley and there they trapped the thing between two narrow walls. On one side of the alley, Austin stood with a few elemental warriors behind him, his crude dagger raised. On the other side of the beast, the old man stood with three elemental warriors behind him.
The beast looked at Austin and snarled, leaning back on its hind legs, getting ready to pounce. Austin broadened his stance and held out his arms, the shiv in one hand. He connected to it and the blade glowed orange, attracting the beast's eyes.
The monster seemed to recognize it and shifted in its stance, pulling back from the weapon. Austin's heart pumped and his breath stilled in his lungs. The beast turned, as to run away from the fight, putting his back toward Austin. It was not how he’d planned this and Austin took a step forward, chasing it.
The beast launched for the old man instead, and he wasn’t ready. His fire blade was in his hands, glowing one second, but then, from the surprise, it flickered out. The older man fell to his back, and the beast landed on the side of his torso.
There was a snap, and the man cried out. The beast sank its teeth into his arm and he released his sword immediately.
The elemental warriors around him stared in shock, not knowing what to do, and pulled back against the wall, leaving room for the beast to escape. Austin knew that if he let it go, he would not get another chance tonight to test the crude blade, and all of this might have been for nothing.
Austin jumped into action, remaining connected to the shiv and closed the distance between himself and the beast. He sank the blade into the hind leg of the beast and it cried out in a loud roar. Dark goo seeped from the wound and Austin took a step back. The metal protruding from the beast was still glowing orange, and Austin did what Melissa had told him.
He quenched his fears and imagined his face melting like hot lava dripping down onto the beast. He sent the command to the double imbue. The metal itself melted inside the beast and the piece that was protruding dripped down its leg.
The beast twisted and snarled, clearly in great pain. Austin took a step back, letting it have space to climb away from the older man who still lay on the ground, bleeding.
The beast turned back to Austin, one of its back legs not working any longer. Its brown eyes were sad and filled with pain. But it hadn’t died. It hadn’t been as effective as Melissa had thought or wanted it to be.
Austin swallowed hard, bringing up his sword from its hilt. It glowed blue in his hands and he swung it around, letting ice leap out from the blade and connect with the beast's neck. Severing the head from its body.
Dark goo pooled by Austin’s feet and nausea overwhelmed his senses, but he pushed it down. His sword was cold in his hands and he looked past the dead body of the monster to the older man. One of the elemental warriors was ripping his shirt and pulling it tight around his arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Austin swallowed his feelings, letting himself feel nothing at all. “We need to get him to the hospital. Now.”
The words ripped out of him like a growl more than a command and the elemental warriors all around him scrambled from their dazed states into action. In moments, they had the older man in their arms, carrying him toward the west and Austin trailed after them, feeling the guilt threatening to choke him.
Derek ran past Austin and the group of elemental warriors. His dark cloak fluttered in the wind and his sword was drawn, glowing blue in the night. Over his shoulder, he glanced at the group, yelling at them to stay put. Austin felt the others huddle closer together, watching the sky and some searching frantically around them for monsters to pop up.
Fear gripped Austin by the neck and he took a step further into the group. Toward the safety of his peers. He dragged in a deep breath and watched the flashes of light emerging from down by the wall. They were far away from there, far from any real fighting. They stood here, by Derek’s command, watching in the night.
Austin glanced around him at the group and quickly realized these people had never seen a battle before. This was their first fight and many of their faces Austin recognized from school. They were like him, brought into the fighting before their time was right. They should have been behind a desk, studying magic this evening, not here in the streets watching for beasts.
He knew what to do then. He knew who he needed to become.
For too long had he ignored his calling, thinking it would go away if he stepped around it. But in this moment, he knew these elemental warriors needed a leader, someone who took their fears in his hand and quenched them. He knew he needed to test the dagger he’d gotten from Melissa and, by being this far away from the battle, he wouldn’t have a chance.
Austin took a step away from the group, meaning to separate himself from the others to show they could follow him. But then a growl sounded through the sky and a dark shadow floated past above them. Austin froze in his step, trying to make himself small. He knew the dragon could kill him in a second if it wanted to.
“What are you doing?”
Austin spun around, hearing a familiar voice to his side. His eyes locked with Marcus and he saw confusion spread over his face. Marcus’ eyes grew hard, and the confused look fell away like a mask. His face was soot stained and his uniform was covered in dark red blood.
“You should be out there fighting,” Marcus said. “Why are you hiding back here like a coward?”
Austin didn’t understand what Marcus was doing. They’d been getting along great during these past weeks, and he didn’t understand why Marcus was suddenly distrustful of him. “I’m following orders. They told us to stay here and until we receive new orders, we have to.”
Marcus shook his head, taking a step closer to Austin. “You’re the one who makes the orders, Taveck. So don’t try to pull that shit on me. You’re just a coward, hiding back here when the rest of us are dying out there.”
“I thought we were friends. What the hell?”
Austin threw his hands out to his sides, and another roar filled the sky behind him. But Austin didn’t look up. He kept his gaze locked on Marcus and his brow creased in worry.
Marcus shook his head. “We’ll never be friends. That would have to make us equals first and we’ll never be that. You’re a Taveck, Austin. You’re a rich, spoiled brat and I’m just a poor soldier. I don’t know what Mel sees in you. She didn’t use to be so superficial. But you changed her alright.”
“Don’t bring Melissa into this. She’s done nothing to you. If you hate me, fine. I don’t care. Just get out of my face.”
A flash of fire shone in Marcus’ eyes, and for a moment, Austin didn’t know if he would leave. Austin put his hand on his sword, still in its sheath, and connected to it. The blade glowed bright blue against his side, and Marcus’ eyes flickered down to it and then back up at Austin.
Marcus took a step back, shaking his head. “You coward.”
Austin watched Marcus as he walked away toward the hospital by the western gate. His shoulders were tense and his back rigid. This encounter had made the hairs on his neck stand up. Marcus didn’t feel the same anymore. Something felt terribly wrong with him. But Austin couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
Maybe it was all in his head and Marcus had just always hated him. That would make sense. Austin had, after all, been the one Melissa had chosen in the end. Not that he thought Marcus knew about all that, but he might have suspected it.
Austin had never really tried to hide his feelings for Melissa and he knew things must have looked painfully obvious from an observer's point of view, maybe even a tad bit pathetic at times. But Austin didn’t care. He didn’t believe one could get anything from hiding what they wanted.
He looked over at the huddled group of elemental warriors. He was standing a couple of steps away from them now, after having followed Marcus a small distance. They looked scared and worried, like they’d been left out here in a battle without their parents. Austin huffed out a breath and his shoulders descended toward the ground. He needed to show these people what he wanted, and he needed to be their parent tonight.
“Listen up,” Austin yelled in his most commanding voice.
The faces of the elemental warriors snapped up to him. Some looked younger than Austin, maybe by one or two years. But some of them looked older, too. One man looked like he might be thirty years older than Austin, and he wondered where his brother had found these people. They couldn’t all be students at Falden, could they?
“I’ve got new orders for us. We have a special mission we need to carry out today. It’s top secret and very important. You’ve all been especially chosen for this mission, because you possess something no other elemental warriors do. Inconspicuousness.”
The group shared glances of confusion at Austin’s words. But Austin ignored their looks and continued. “We need to find a beast, trap it and then I need to put this special weapon inside its flesh and activate it. This is a new sort of magic, very secret, and I need you to not speak a word about this afterward. Is that understood?”
The group said nothing, instead they again shared worried glances. Like they were afraid Austin might have lost his mind. They’d do no such thing as to find a beast and trap it.
Austin let out a sigh and leveled his gaze. “Look, I mean it when I say that you’ve been chosen for this mission. We need the beast to not suspect anything. We need the dragon to leave us alone and we need the void to look the other way. Now, for better or worse, you look like a bunch of new recruits, and that means no one is going to see us coming. I believe in you. I believe we can do this. So, who’s with me?”
Austin unsheathed his blade from its hilt and connected to it, making the blue glow dance in the night. He raised the blade to the sky, like a commanding officer on a battlefield, ready to send his troops into the fight. The older man took a hesitant step forward, straightening his back a little.
“With all due respect, Sir, I don’t think we’re ready for that. I think maybe you chose the wrong bunch of elemental warriors. Our orders, from the commanding Taveck, were to stay here. I think we need to follow those. I’m not even sure you’re allowed to give us orders.”
Austin let the words fall toward the ground like the empty protest they were. He heard the hesitation in the older man’s voice, but Austin also heard him calling him Sir and referring to him as one of the Tavecks, even if he didn’t think he was able to give commands. He knew he had them then. It was just a matter of time and the right words to convince them to follow him.
Austin licked his lips and gave the old man a smile. “That’s right, my brother is the one who leads the elemental forces. But I am the one who carries out the special missions. Because I have what all of you have, a constant ability to be underestimated.”
This wasn’t completely true. People often overestimated him for being a Taveck. But compared to the other Tavecks in his family and in history, Austin guessed he was greatly underestimated.
Several of the elemental warriors in the group now took a step forward and joined next to the old man. Their eyes were alight and Austin knew he had said the right thing. He had rallied them. The last of the elemental warriors joined, and the group looked for him to lead.
“So, will you follow me?” Austin asked.
The group nodded, and a few murmured yes. The old man looked behind him at the younger elemental warriors and he sighed, looking back at Austin. He gave Austin a small nod, and a smile stretched over Austin’s face.
#
It took them a while to locate a beast far away from the rest of the fighting. They practically had to lure one away into an alley and there they trapped the thing between two narrow walls. On one side of the alley, Austin stood with a few elemental warriors behind him, his crude dagger raised. On the other side of the beast, the old man stood with three elemental warriors behind him.
The beast looked at Austin and snarled, leaning back on its hind legs, getting ready to pounce. Austin broadened his stance and held out his arms, the shiv in one hand. He connected to it and the blade glowed orange, attracting the beast's eyes.
The monster seemed to recognize it and shifted in its stance, pulling back from the weapon. Austin's heart pumped and his breath stilled in his lungs. The beast turned, as to run away from the fight, putting his back toward Austin. It was not how he’d planned this and Austin took a step forward, chasing it.
The beast launched for the old man instead, and he wasn’t ready. His fire blade was in his hands, glowing one second, but then, from the surprise, it flickered out. The older man fell to his back, and the beast landed on the side of his torso.
There was a snap, and the man cried out. The beast sank its teeth into his arm and he released his sword immediately.
The elemental warriors around him stared in shock, not knowing what to do, and pulled back against the wall, leaving room for the beast to escape. Austin knew that if he let it go, he would not get another chance tonight to test the crude blade, and all of this might have been for nothing.
Austin jumped into action, remaining connected to the shiv and closed the distance between himself and the beast. He sank the blade into the hind leg of the beast and it cried out in a loud roar. Dark goo seeped from the wound and Austin took a step back. The metal protruding from the beast was still glowing orange, and Austin did what Melissa had told him.
He quenched his fears and imagined his face melting like hot lava dripping down onto the beast. He sent the command to the double imbue. The metal itself melted inside the beast and the piece that was protruding dripped down its leg.
The beast twisted and snarled, clearly in great pain. Austin took a step back, letting it have space to climb away from the older man who still lay on the ground, bleeding.
The beast turned back to Austin, one of its back legs not working any longer. Its brown eyes were sad and filled with pain. But it hadn’t died. It hadn’t been as effective as Melissa had thought or wanted it to be.
Austin swallowed hard, bringing up his sword from its hilt. It glowed blue in his hands and he swung it around, letting ice leap out from the blade and connect with the beast's neck. Severing the head from its body.
Dark goo pooled by Austin’s feet and nausea overwhelmed his senses, but he pushed it down. His sword was cold in his hands and he looked past the dead body of the monster to the older man. One of the elemental warriors was ripping his shirt and pulling it tight around his arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Austin swallowed his feelings, letting himself feel nothing at all. “We need to get him to the hospital. Now.”
The words ripped out of him like a growl more than a command and the elemental warriors all around him scrambled from their dazed states into action. In moments, they had the older man in their arms, carrying him toward the west and Austin trailed after them, feeling the guilt threatening to choke him.
