Michael Blackwood

We followed the people we had been training with towards the exit of the summoning building. I couldn’t believe that three weeks had already passed since my friends were chosen to be summoned and I was dragged along by accident. We passed a bunch of rooms and hallways I had never been in before, and saw multiple pieces of art spanning the walls.

We’re finally going outside.

When we finally reached the doors to the front courtyard, I saw the princess waiting for us. Instead of the normal gowns and regal clothes I normally saw her wearing, she was now equipped in a suit of armor which was clearly meant only for her to wear. 

The chest piece gleamed silver, with golden lines etched throughout. The greaves and vambraces looked almost identical except for the fact each one had a ruby about the size of a walnut in each piece, perfectly centered. She had a sword strapped to her waist which looked very similar to the rapiers of earth. Her jet black hair was tied similarly to how Skylar’s was, but looked more elegant.

“Wow princess, that armor looks amazing. I didn’t expect to ever see you wear something like this,” I said, awestruck by her appearance.

I heard a small “Hmph” from next to me, and when I looked, Rebecca seemed like she was upset.

“Thank you Michael,” the princess replied. “I must say, all of you look amazing in the armor I had made. But keep in mind that armor won’t be the only thing protecting you if anything happens today. You will also need to rely on your instincts, and your training. As long as you can do that, you will all make it through anything that happens.”

After she said that, she mounted the horse closest to her and gestured for me and the others to do the same as well.

Once we were all on a horse, the princess spoke again.

“We will be heading East towards the small village, Wayarné. Once we are there, we will leave the horses, and walk on foot to meet the caravan. The village is about three hours away, and the walk we will take afterwards will take about another two hours to meet the caravan.”

“Why aren’t we taking the horses all the way to the caravan?” Levi asked.

“To make sure that if anything does happen, none of the horses will die or be injured. Now let’s go.”

The first two hours of our journey was as simple as can be. We passed several people on the way from neighboring villages, who all stared in amazement. It was clear this wasn’t something the people of this world witnessed on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis.

About ten minutes after they had reached the two hour mark of their journey towards Wayarné, however, Skylar grabbed my attention, and gestured towards what seemed to be a semi-transparent dome in the distance with a village inside of it.

“Princess,” she started to say, while pointing towards the dome. “What exactly is that?”

The princess looked over her shoulder to where Skylar was pointing and said, “That is an Aberration Zone. It’s nothing to concern yourselves about right now.”

Skylar had a confused look on her face when she heard the princess’ reply.

“Aberration Zone?” she asked.

“Aberration Zones are natural phenomena in this world. Think of it as a natural disaster. They typically form in the wilderness, but every so often, they will form around a village or a city. And when they do, everyone caught in the forming process dies immediately.”

“So that village is a graveyard now?” Calvin asked.

“Yes, it unfortunately is,” the princess replied. “You will eventually all learn more about them when you are needed to help prevent the creatures inside from getting out.”

“What? Like monsters?”

“Yes you could say they are monsters. Aberrations, named because they are born inside of Aberration Zones, are creatures who are formed from the souls of the deceased who died in the zone. No more about that though. It is something none of you are ready for.”

I felt a chill run up my spine at the princess’ words.

So the dead turn into monsters. That’s quite different from the typical goblin or dragon you see in a normal fantasy story.

The last few hours of our journey were uneventful. We arrived in Wayarné without a problem, and started our two hour walk towards the meeting place to take over for the previous guards that had been protecting the caravan.

“God my feet are killing me,” Levi started to complain only about a half hour away from where we were supposed to meet the caravan.

“Levi, we only have about thirty minutes left of walking. Stop complaining.” Calvin said, with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“Yeah I know, but after that, we have to walk the whole two hours back to that village.”

The princess stopped suddenly and turned around, a clear look of anger on her face.

“You are one of the chosen heroes, handpicked by one of the very gods, and you want to complain? Soon you’ll have a lot more to face than just a simple walk. You will be fighting people who want to kill you. How dare you complain when you have been chosen to help save my world from complete annihilation.”

Levi looked down at his feet, clearly embarrassed by what the princess had just said. After thinking for a second, he got to his knees, and bowed his head.

“My apologies, your majesty. I understand where you’re coming from. I shouldn’t be complaining. I promise to do my best to make sure I prove my worthiness.”

She walked over to him, but didn’t get down to his level.

“Stand up.”

Levi did as she asked. When he got to his feet, she slapped him across his face, which shocked me. I hadn’t witnessed the princess this angry before.

“You want to apologize? Train as hard as you can to help save my world. And stop complaining.”

Levi looked embarrassed that she had hit him, and knew he was in the wrong.

“Yes, your majesty.”

The princess then looked at the rest of us, and gestured for us to keep following her.

“We don’t have much longer. Let’s go, everyone.”

When we finally reached the meeting place, which turned out to be a small outpost, the caravan was already there waiting. The guard who was clearly in charge, walked over and bowed to the princess.

“Welcome, your majesty. I appreciate you offering the help of the heroes. It is a great honor to have them take over for us.”

“Of course. There is no need for formality. This is training for them,” she said in reply.

When the guard looked up, his gaze automatically shifted to me, and walked over to shake my hand.

“You must be Michael. You were the sixth one to be summoned, correct? And is it true you don’t have a thread?”

I quickly glanced at the princess before looking back at the guard, then shook his outstretched hand.

“Yes, that's true. How do you know that though?”

“I had already informed these guards about all six of you,” the princess said before the guard could reply. “They were all quite eager to hear about the summoned heroes who would be taking over for them.”

The guard looked somewhat embarrassed.

“Yes, it’s quite true that we were all quite excited to meet the six of you. My name is Creelo. Creelo Bosawn. And I am the leader of this group.”

“It’s nice to meet you Creelo,” I said with a smile.

After Creelo finished introducing himself to the rest of my friends, the guards serving under him also introduced themselves. Then they were off to grab horses and head back to the village they had just come from.

Once they were out of sight, the princess gave me and the others the positions we would be in while escorting the caravan. Calvin would be in the front, Dylan would be in the rear, Rebecca and Levi would be on the left, and I would be on the right with Skylar.

Before they started their journey back to Wayarné, I saw Rebecca walk over to Skylar.

I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, and before I could ask, the princess got our attention.

“Alright everyone. Get into position. We’re heading out now.”

We did as she said, and she got into the seat next to the driver of the lead carriage. Then, we were off. For the first hour and a half, I made small conversation with Skylar, as well as some of the people in the caravan.

I was truly enjoying myself getting to know these people and learning about their way of life. Out of nowhere though, I heard Dylan’s voice ring out from behind us.

“We’ve got some bad looking people behind us guys!”

Suddenly, Levi shouted next.

“I’m seeing some over here too!”

I looked around, and saw some on my side, as well as some far out in front of us.

We’re being surrounded.

One of the men, clearly bandits, shot an evil smile towards me and Skylar.

“Looks like we got quite a nice surprise fellas! Kill the men. But keep the women alive.”

I looked over to the princess who had gotten off the lead carriage. She had pulled her rapier out of its sheath and was pointing it towards the bandit who had just spoken

“Don’t you dare think about trying anything,” she said in an authoritative tone. “If you do, well then, we will have to kill you.”

“Ahh looky here fellas,” the bandit said. “It’s the Princess. We could make a good amount of money if we kept her as ransom.”

The princess gave him a small smirk.

“You really don’t know who you’re dealing with right now. Alright guys, let them have it.”

When she said those words, I could see both Dylan and Calvin both jump into action immediately from both of my peripherals. Meanwhile, I drew my sword, and held it out in front of me, settling into a defensive position.

“Looks like we got a little hero to deal with, eh? I’ll handle him. You guys take care of the others.”

The four men surrounding their leader ran off to fight the rest of my friends. I looked around quickly to gauge the situation, but I couldn’t see any of my friends. Instead, I could hear the shouts of some of the bandits, and at the same time I heard Levi laughing.

When I finally focused back on the man in front of me, I saw a flash of silver and barely dodged out of the way. Then, I felt a warm substance run down my cheek. I reached up and wiped my face. When I looked down, blood was covering my fingers.

“Impressive dodge,” the bandit said, with a small laugh. “But you think you can continue to keep up?”

After asking that question, lightning started to coil around the blade of his sword.

“My lightning allows me to move faster. Just how fast are you?”

Then he thrust his sword straight at my neck, which I managed to block the blade just in time. I was shocked at the speed at which this man moved. I’d never seen anyone move at this pace before. That’s when I realized that I was heavily outmatched. The man continued thrusting and swinging his sword at me, and I continued to just barely dodge or block the attacks, but I couldn’t throw an attack back. 

After about thirty seconds, which had felt like minutes, I was breathing heavily, and had small cuts covering my face and arms. Then, I felt a warm sensation. I looked down at my arms and saw a glowing green light covering my body and the cuts began to heal. I looked behind me towards Skylar, who was concentrating on healing me.

“Ahh a healer. You could be a lot of trouble for me. Guess I’ll have to kill you. What a waste.”

I turned back to face the bandit, and glared at him.

“You won't lay a hand on her!” I yelled.

“So you two are close I take it? This makes this even better,” the bandit said with an evil smile.

He swung his sword at a much faster speed than earlier, and I barely managed to get out of the way. Seeing an opening, I thrust my own sword back at the man. At the last second, the bandit twisted his body out of the way, and backhanded me across the face. I hit the ground hard, which knocked the wind out of me, and I struggled to stand.

“Michael! Please get up!”

I could hear Skylar’s worried shouts and slowly got to my feet. When I turned to look at her, I realized that the bandit had hit me so hard, I had flown about fifteen feet away. Then the bandit walked up to Skylar, and punched her in the face, sending her sprawling to the ground.

“Skylar!”

I saw the bandit standing over Skylar's prone form, who had a look of pure fear on her face. The bandit raised his blade with a wicked smile, and prepared to swing down. I heard Levi shout something from a distance, but I knew he wouldn’t make it in time.

“No!”

As the bandit started to swing towards Skylar, I reached my hand out towards them, but knew I couldn’t make it to her. But just before the bandit’s sword cut into Skylar, he stopped. He had a pained expression on his face, then, he coughed up blood.

I realized that there were several sharp blades protruding from his chest. No, not blades. They were claws. And what they were attached to, sent a shiver up my spine. The creature was tall and thin, but what unsettled me the most is that it didn’t have a face. In horror, I watched the creature, which seemed to have come out of nowhere, lift the bandit up into the air, and plunge its other clawed hand through the back of his head, passing clean through to the other side. The bandit's body slumped immediately. Then, the creature ripped the man in half, and roared.