Forbidden darkness I: Wrath of the Black Emerald Dragon

[Lavarion]

Forbidden darkness I: Wrath of the Black Emerald Dragon

Once in a small village there lived nobody for a thousand years. “Hurry-up” called Dustin the eldest with brown eyes who was wearing a vest made of woven leather straps over a gray sweatshirt and light brown shoes. “Remind me again why we came here” complained Thrash Master Guardian the Tenth he was the middle brother who wore a black headband with the ends of it lofting down he left side of his head. His hair was black and short with a few bushels of hair going over his headband; he had deep brown eyes which were almost black, a white tee shirt, black sweatpants, and big black combat boots. “Because we are going to explore our ancestry,” explained Camren”. The youngest brother who had big bushy brown hair with brown eyes to match, he wore a white long sleeved shirt with gray pants and white shoes. “Now Thrash, remind me why it is I have to carry all of our stuff” asked Camren. “Because you are the youngest, you are 13 I am 16 and Dustin…” “Yes Dustin is 22, that’s the thousandth time you have said that” interrupted Camren. “Will you two stop bickering?” ordered Dustin. “My apologies oh great navigator” Thrash said sarcastically. “How much longer until we get there anyway?” he continued “It should be just over this next” Dustin paused “whoa”.

“What, what’s so” Camren looked around Dustin and paused “whoa”. Thrash looked around and saw a village completely destroyed and covered in ash. “Well that’s why they call them ruins now isn’t it brothers” Thrash Said “Thrash you just don’t understand, Dustin what happened here?” asked Camren. “Experts believe that this village was attacked by raiders and burned to the ground. The villagers attempted to rebuild but due to overexposure to ash they fled and built our hometown,” Explained Dustin. “Interesting” said Camren clutching his chin with thumb and index finger. “Ok, boring history time is over, exploring time is now.” Thrash began to walk to a building. “This one is still standing,” said Thrash as his brothers caught up to him while he approached the doors to the large building. Thrash opened the double doors, and all three of them grabbed their faces “oh man” yelled Camren “nasty!” shouted Dustin “ that is rank” exclaimed Thrash. The three of them darted away and began breathing heavily. “Sweet, sweet air” said Thrash. “Thousand year old cow patties” said Camren “let’s agree to stay away from there” said Dustin beginning to breathe normally again. “Well let’s move on,” said Thrash as he began to walk towards another building and started sorting through the ashes. “I found something! And look it has my name on it” said Thrash holding up a few pages roughly bound together with the title Thrash, Master Guardian. Dustin walked over and began skimming through it, and after a couple minuets he said “it’s a poorly written short story set a thousand years about a dragon who is defeated surprisingly, by Thrash.”

“Well I don’t remember ever killing a dragon, and I’m not a thousand years old either.” Thrash said crossing his arms. “Easy” said Camren “the Thrash in this story is simply our ancestor. Your full name is Thrash M. Guardian the tenth, correct?” “Yeah” responded Thrash “so that means it was our our great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandfather killed a dragon.” Said Dustin “Yes and gained the title of Master Guardian”. Dustin said “so that’s why our last name is Guardian” said Camren. “And my middle name is Master” Thrash said excited “do you think the story is true?” asked Thrash. “It’s possible, dragons may be extinct now but they could have existed back then” said Camren. “Dustin what happened to the dragon’s body, I might be able to find some remains or something.” Thrash asked “well it’s kind of hard to read due to the ash but it looks like he killed it in a cave on the side of a cliff.” You mean that enormous mountain; past the dense forest? I don’t think its safe Thrash. Said Camren “C’mon” said Thrash as Dustin followed “wait you guys, argh well I suppose if I let my meathead of a brother have his fun he may actually find the dragon’s body, a great scientific discovery to find intact dragon remains,” said Camren to himself, as he and followed Thrash and Dustin to the tree line.

“This should take care of anything that might come our way,” he said looking at his newly acquired weapon. Thrash began walking through the forest holding the branch in a defensive position. After a while of walking they come to the large cliff “well let’s do this” said Thrash “what, I’m not climbing that, it’s way too high” said Camren crossing his arms. “Camren don’t you want to be a scientist some day?” asked Dustin “yes I do but what do but what dose climbing have to anything to do with that?” “Scientists must take risks for the sake of science” “yeah but… no I'm still not going to climb the cliff, there is no logical way someone of my stature could make it up that high.” Camren said stubbornly, Thrash lifted Camren onto his back and said “whatever you do don’t let go, I do not want to have to explain this to mom and dad, also here hold my weapon” Thrash said as he handed his stick to Camren and they began the long climb up the mountain. “My arms are tired” Camren said “don’t let go,” barked Thrash. They reached an opening in the mountain and Camren collapsed on the floor. Dustin leaned against a wall catching his breath. Thrash just stood and began looking around “now let’s find that dragon,” he said with excitement. “Alright I’m good now,” said Dustin as they ventured deeper and deeper into the cave. “It’s getting dark, hand me a flashlight”. Said Thrash, Camren took off his pack and began feeling around for a flashlight “ah ha, oh wait no that’s a can of soda” said Camren,” “oh toss that over here,” said Thrash “I can’t see you, oh wait here is the flash light.” Camren turned on the flashlight and tossed it and the can of soda to Thrash. Thrash opened it and began drinking until it was empty. Thrash than threw the can in the air and hit it with his stick towards the entrance and let out a belch that echoed through the entire cave. “Well that was rather disturbing.” Said Dustin “why don’t you let me hold the flashlight?” he continued. “Ok” said Camren as he tossed the flashlight to Dustin. They resumed walking until they came to a large black statue of a dragon with a sword in its chest, it seemed to be made out of a strange black gem and towered to approximately 40 feet

“Whoa, look at the size of that thing.” said Thrash “I wonder who built it, and why here” said Camren. “Nobody built it, this is the dragon. From what I can tell the story says Thrash killed the dragon and than it turned,” said Dustin. “What do you mean by turned?” asked Thrash. “I didn’t get it either at first but now I understand, the dragon turned to a statue made of this strange black gem.” Said Dustin putting his hand on the dragon “onyx?” suggested Camren examining the statue. “No not onyx their emeralds, black emeralds” said Dustin. “I thought emeralds were green” said Thrash “yes these are emeralds, normally they are emerald colored Thrash but for some reason they are black. Though there is no mistaking it these are emeralds, and another thing these emeralds are surprisingly dense, in fact they are probably harder than diamonds!” Camren explained “incredible” said Dustin “so diamonds are not the strongest natural substance after all it’s these strange emeralds.” “Hey check this out” Thrash said standing next to the sword in the dragon. Thrash clutched the handle of the sword and pulled as hard as he could. The sword budged a little, he put his foot on the dragon and the sword slowly slid out knocking Thrash on his back when the tip was released. The sword was twice as long as Thrash expected, from handle to tip it reached about six feet and the blade was a foot wide of dense black metal. “Wow” Thrash said gleaming at the sword. He lifted it high above his head and brought it down on a stone, cutting it clean in half. “This is some sharp blade,” he said as he cut two slits in the back of his shirt and held it on his back. “This will have to work for now until I can get a sheath to match this bad boy.” Thrash said. He heard a sound and turned to see what it was. He saw only the statue, but to his astonishment it began to move! It turned around and blew fire at the three brothers. Thrash and Dustin jumped behind a column to avoid the flames. Camren stood like a deer in the headlights and took the full force of the blast. Thrash gasped but Dustin held him down and said, “Quiet or we’ll be next.” The dragon let out an enormous roar and flew out of the cave. Thrash got up and said “I swear dragon I will put this sword back in your heart and avenge my little brother”.

“Whoa, whoa you can’t just go after the dragon like that, he would kill you without even trying.” “Well I have to do something; I pulled the sword out so it is my duty to put it back. Plus we can’t let him get away with barbequing our beloved brother. And if we can’t go after him like this, than what do you suggest we do? We can’t let that thing go free” said Thrash. “I have heard legends of a secret order that might help us, the order of the Forbidden Darkness,” Said Dustin. “We can’t go to the Forbidden Darkness, it’s forbidden!” Thrash said shouting a bit and his voice echoed in the cave “I don’t see any other options” Dustin rebutted “fine then but do you even know where to find them?” asked Thrash “they are fabled to be on the top of a very large mountain. But the question is where do we find this mountain” said Dustin “this mountain seems pretty tall, I mean it took us like an hour to climb about half way,” Said Thrash. “Yeah that would make a lot of sense, this is definitely the biggest mountain I have ever seen,” Said Dustin. They walked out of the cave and began the long climb up the mountain.

Eventually they passed the clouds where there was a chill in the air, the sun to set as they began to see the top. It grew colder and colder until their skin became numb, but they continued up the mountain with only warm memories of their brother and the burning hatred for the Black Emerald Dragon keeping them going. After a grueling climb they reached the snowy peak of the mountain. “We should rest,” said Dustin breathing heavily. “No, we have to keep going and avenge Camren” Thrash said with a huff, he began walking but collapsed in the snow.

[Lavarion]

They awoke several days later in a dark cold room with a hooded figure standing in front of them and other people who looked cold, hungry, and tired all around them. “You all have passed the first test” said the hooded figure in an old dusty voice, Thrash could not tell the gender of the figure by voice and the robe they were wearing was covering any way of telling by appearance “test, what do you mean test?” said one of the men around them. “Your first test was to climb the mountain without dying” said the hooded figure “without dying!” exclaimed a woman in the background. “Yes, something drove you all to climb this mountain, which shows that you have a powerful will and tremendous strength, two necessary traits for those who follow the ways of Xart.” “So this is the Xarthian temple,” said Dustin “correct, here you can learn the ways of Xart. I caution you, the norm is about 30% of you will not survive the training.” Said the hooded figure “if you wish to partake than you may follow me into the next room but know this, once you do you will either come out a Xarthian or dead” and the figure walked through the large sliding door.

“I don’t know what to do “said I woman in the background “I want to find out what’s going on but with a 30% mortality rate I don’t know if I should take that risk” she continued. “Listen Carla, if we do not take this opportunity now it will haunt us for the rest of our lives, thinking of what could have been,” Said the man next to her. “Your right Logan” said the woman named Carla, and the two of them walked through the sliding door into the next room. Three more people got up and walked through the door. A man gets up and walks to the exit opening the door and letting in some snow. “And where do you think you’re going?” said a woman in a sassy tone “I can’t do it, if this is going to be so hard that a third of us are going to die than I’m going back. I mean the only reason that I made it up that mountain is because you kept pushing me to keep going.” “And I will do the same for this” she said, “Jeremy, you never go through with anything all the way. If you walk away now you will never be more than a quitter.” “Your right Linda” he said and they both walked through the door followed by several other people. “Well should we do it Ted?” “We have to Ned; if we don’t our father will surely die.” “But we might die too, there is no sense in all of us dying Ted, are you sure there is not another way that’s not so, you know, fatal?” “This is the only way I know of, and I’m not backing down I would rather die trying to save our father than just quit and let him down. If you don’t want to save dad than that is your problem but I’m going to walk through that door, we may look the same but we are nothing alike.” Ned looked down in shame and said “ok, for father” and the two of them walked through with about five others.

“Well Thrash, what do you say?” said Dustin “we have to do it Dustin, I pulled the sword out of the dragon and I have to be the one to put it back in. and” he pauses “ I will not let what he did to our brother go unpunished. I know there is risk and danger but I need to take responsibility for what I did.” At this time a man left out the door, leaving only Dustin, Thrash, and one other woman. They went through the door to find that it was pitch black and freezing cold. “Twenty four out of twenty five, this means we have an opening.” Said the hooded figure “Octavio, you may retake the training” “yes master Gaurnia” said a voice from the other side of the room. “You may now sit” the hooded figure said. “I am Gaurnia, your temple master. I will be teaching you the way of the Xarthians.” She said. “Why is it so cold and dark?” said a voice Thrash recognized as Carla’s “Xarthians are most at home in the cold and dark any questions?” asked Gaurnia “yeah, what’s going on here anyway?” asked someone who Thrash did not recognize “I am going to teach you the ways of the Xarthian. Xarthians have been around since Xart himself taught Denzai Sepherl ages ago. Sepherl taught those who were willing to learn. The Xarthian arts were practiced openly and freely until the stupid townsfolk classified it as black magic and started to call us the order of the Forbidden Darkness.
Their explanation was that we would steal humans away and turn them into mindless zombies but in reality only a human determined to be a Xarthian can achieve Xarthian status, what they don’t know is that some Xarthians live among them without them even realizing. It is true that we do act less than enthusiastic around humans but that’s because most of us can never forgive them to what they used to do to us, they burned the early Xarthians alive. Being burned alive is the worst nightmare of a Xarthian follower as heat is our natural enemy. Denzai Kentala invented anti-fire which is the opposite of normal fire so they cancel out each other leaving no remains.” “That’s what we need to learn, anti-fire” Thrash whispered to Dustin. “The Xarthians continued to practice in secret and built the four temples, the northern, southern, eastern, and western temples. We are now in the eastern temple, the western is also on a tall mountain at the top of one of the western islands, the northern and southern are at the poles. Now is that enough information for you?” Gaurnia asked “yes ma’am” said the person who asked the question. “Now, what you must do is find the door with your name on it using the anti-energy that fills this room. Draw from it and peer through the illusion of darkness.

Thrash closed his eyes and took a deep breath, honing his focus. When he opened his eyes he could vaguely see the room and the figures of people in it walking around. He took another deep breath and he could make out vague features about the people and the room. He could see that Gaurnia had taken her hood off and had short hair down to her shoulders but he couldn’t tell color or any other features. He heard a door open and close as someone found their door. After a while he gradually got better at seeing, he could still not read the names on the doors but he made out a large symbol on the ground with two parallel vertical lines with a horizontal line under it and two vertical lines down them and a dot in the middle . “Psst Thrash” Thrash recognized the voice as Dustin’s “I found my door, let me help you find yours” “no, I need to find it on my own. If I can’t figure out this task I will not last a second in the next task, you go ahead.” Dustin looked down “ok” he said and walked through his door. Thrash over and looked at a random door, D he said, as he looked at the first letter not this one Thrash thought to himself as he looked to the next door C, no he looked at the next door L, not this one he moved on T! Thrash’s face filled with joy let’s see what’s the next letter Thrash examined the print closely E, no this is the wrong door too. He continued N, V, J, L, D, T! Ok what is the next letter, h, I think I found my door, r, a, s, h. Yes I found it Thrash walked through the door and looked around. He saw a wall with a number of hooks protruding from it, and a long black cloak with a hood and long sleeves. “Just like the one Gaurnia was wearing,” Thrash said to himself, he took it off the wall and put it on, he pulled the hood over his face and said “I am here to teach you the way of the Xarthians and blah, blah, blah” mocking Gaurnia, he then looked down and examined it. “There is no way to close this no button, no zipper, not a thing, what kind of weird coat is this” Thrash put his hands in the two pockets on the sides of the coat “Well at least there a some pockets” He put the cloak back on the wall a noticed that the sword he pulled out of the dragon was hanging across two hooks. Thrash patted his back “I can’t believe I never noticed the sword was gone.” He rubbed his eyes “oh man all this seeing in the dark is making me tired.” Thrash looked to his right and saw a mat on the floor. He lay down on it and closed his eyes.

He woke up and reached for a light but he did not find one. He rubbed his eyes and opened them, he could see! He knew there was no light but he could still see every corner of his room. He smiled but also shivered “oh yeah the Xarthian temple” he looked at the coat on the wall “looks pretty warm, warmer than my tee shirt anyway.” Thrash touched the coat and it felt like cold steel, he put it on and chills covered his torso “I just need to wait for it to warm up, that’s all” said Thrash. He walked out of his room to see everyone sitting on the ground facing the front. Thrash sat next to Dustin who had replaced his vest with the same coat Thrash was wearing “what’s going on?” Thrash asked. “I don’t know, when I walked out here everyone was sitting down so I did the same.” Dustin replied “I can’t believe we are here spending the night in some strange temple when that dragon is probably half way across Altracia by now.” Thrash said in anger. “It would not go too far from its den “said Dustin. Gaurnia walked though the door in the front of the room; she looked old with grey hair but a serious look on her face. “Today you will learn to use anti-energy.” She held up her hand and an object that looked like a shapeless black glob surrounded by some sort of black mist appeared and began orbiting around her hand. The whole room gasped, “That’s amazing” “how did she do that” people started shouting. “So we have to do that?” said someone. “How?” someone else said, and Gaurnia gestured for the room to settle down with her free hand “you must draw energy from the Xarthian energy in the air and simply materialize it.” Thrash took a deep breath and held out his hand, a small flash of black sparks came from his fingertips. His fingers felt extremely cold and he tucked them under his arm to warm them up. He held his hand out again and attempted to focus all of his energy into it, the black mist surrounded his hand and he felt even colder than before. It was too cold, he had to get it out, he forced it and it burst out from his hand and made a hole in the wall that quickly filled with snow. Everyone looked at Thrash as he held his hand under his arm, cradling back and forward. Gaurnia began to clap “it looks like we have a gifted individual” she says as she walked down to Thrash. “But you still need to learn to embrace the cold, only then can you become a Xarthian follower, you may now move on to the next part of your training”. “And what is that?” Thrash asked. Someone stood up with a mass of anti-energy floating around them “a Xarthian duel” he said. Thrash recognized his voice it was Octavio, the one Gaurnia said could retake the training in the beginning. He had spiky dirty blonde hair that went off to one side. He was wearing the same coat as Gaurnia and Dustin. “Clear the arena” Gaurnia ordered and everyone walked to the ends of the room. Thrash was bewildered but he stood up and looked at Octavio who had a smug look on his face. “First to submit loses,” says Gaurnia and she waved her arm up. Octavio quickly held his hand out and shot a blast of anti-energy at Thrash’s stomach. Thrash felt as though he had been punched in the stomach, by someone who had a frozen fist. It was very cold, colder than anything he had ever experienced. Thrash fell to his knees clutching his stomach

C’mon that can’t be it “gloated Octavio. Thrash stood up still clutching his stomach, he focused his hand again, pointing it towards Octavio and shot a wave of black fire at him. Octavio looked surprised and took the full force of the blast. The fire hit him but then turned to black mist and disappeared. Octavio lay on the ground, his hair and clothes covered in frost and his skin looked black as if he had frostbite. He was hugging his legs, shivering “I… s-submit,” stuttered Octavio as he shivered heavily. Thrash ran over to him and held out his hand “I’m so sorry” he said. Octavio got up and shook his hand “goo… good match.” Thrash looked shocked that he got up so easily. “You both showed exceptional skill, you may go back to your rooms.” Octavio started brushing the frost off his cloths and began to walk back to his room. Thrash just turned around and walked to his room. Thrash sat on his mat staring at his hand is he injured? Thrash thought to himself did I make anti-fire a small black spark came off of his hand such power, such destruction. A blast of anti-energy broke through Thrash’s door and disappears in his room. He looked out the hole and saw two women who he did not recognize, dueling. He turned around and lay down on his mat “I feel so drained, like I just ran a marathon.” He closed his eyes, before he knew what happened he woke up the next day.

He got up and looked out the hole in his door, nobody was there; he walked out and saw that the door to the next room was open. He walked through and saw Octavio sitting on the ground and Gaurnia sitting next to a large black stone emitting the black mist he saw earlier around the anti-energy. He sat next to Octavio “what’s happening?” he asked but Octavio ignored him. Thrash just sat and waited for everyone to come in. as soon as everyone did Gaurnia spoke “today is your final test if you pass this test you will achieve novice rank and be a Xarthian. You will also be able to enter the anti-state.” Gaurnia rolled up her right sleeve showing some black bandages. She removed them revealing the symbol Thrash recognized from the floor in the last room. Black steam began to emit off of her skin. “This is the anti-state, when a Xarthian is at their peak of power.” she covered the symbol again with the bandages and the black steam stopped, “the anti-state is only to be used as a last resort in battle. It drains your energy and if you use up too much energy you will pass out for several hours, when you wake up you will be completely restored assuming your opponent hasn’t killed you in your moment of weakness. I warn you for if you are not strong enough, you will die. You can back out now but if you change your mind later you will have to wait ten years before another 100 new Xarthians will be accepted at the four temples. I am going to pull out your soul and touch it to this Xarthian stone; it will then freeze and turn dark into the soul of a Xarthian. If you can hold on long enough for me to do this I will put your soul back and mark you with the Xarthian symbol to stabilize it, you will enter the anti-state and wake up. Then you need to cover your symbol with cloth that I will provide you, then you will then exit the anti-state and become a Xarthian novice.” Octavio stood up “I’m not afraid this time, I want to be a Xarthian,” he walked up to Gaurnia and lay down in front of her. She hovered her hands over his chest, and after a couple of seconds a bright ball of light came out of his it. Gaurnia touched the ball of light to the black rock next to her and the ball turned dark. She put the dark ball back into Octavio’s chest, and he started fidgeting around until Gaurnia touched the dark stone with her finger which turned dark and she traced a Xarthian symbol on his forearm and he fell silent. Black steam began to emit from his body, he opened his eyes and sat up looking as if he had just seen a ghost. Octavio grabbed a bit of black cloth and wrapped up his forearm then he walked out of the room without a word.

“Who’s next?” Gaurnia asked, Thrash stood up, walked over to her, and took off his headband. “Can you put the symbol on my forehead master Gaurnia?” “lay down.” Thrash did as he was told and closed his eyes, he was scared but after a little while his fear melted away, but than his courage felt like it had left him as well. He felt his emotions draining with every passing second. He felt his sorrow for his deceased brother but that was slowly being eaten away, leaving his rage for the Black Emerald Dragon but that eventually got smaller until it was gone. He eventually felt like he did not care about anything, he lost his will to carry on. He knew the dragon was a danger but it didn’t matter to him. A chill fell over him, he felt extremely cold. The cold started making him feel happy; he suddenly felt that he loved the cold. His happiness was overcome with sorrow from his brother and he suddenly felt enraged at the dragon, he than felt determent to find a way to stop the dragon. Thrash opened his eyes; he felt extreme power coming from his forehead. He took a bit of white cloth and tied it around his head. His new headband turned dark where the part over the symbol was and got lighter until it was white at the ends. He felt tired but was back to normal, Thrash walked down and sat next to Dustin.

“Are you ok?” asked Dustin “yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Thrash replied, “You stopped breathing.” Dustin said with a concerned look on his face “really? Well I feel fine now” Thrash said “So what was it like?” Dustin asked, “It’s impossible to describe, you can’t really understand until you actually experience it for yourself,” Thrash said. “Dustin stood up and lay down next to Gaurnia, she hovered her hands over his chest like she did with Octavio. The same bright light came out and she touched it to the black stone just like before, but when she tried to put it back it split into dozens of smaller particles and faded away. “What happened?” Thrash shouted. “His soul was not strong enough,” said Gaurnia as she closed her eyes. “What does that mean, is he dead?” Thrash asked with his eyes beginning to tear up. “Not exactly but he might as well be. His body is still alive but with his soul gone he has lost the will to live, normally he would just lie there until he was to starve or die some other way. In this situation he will freeze to death, but he will feel no pain and die peacefully.” Gaurnia lectured. “We never would have come up here if I didn’t pull out that sword. I swear on my life I will find a way to stop you dragon!” Thrash vowed, “Did you say dragon?” asked Gaurnia “that’s right the Black Emerald Dragon” Thrash said, “I have heard of this dragon, it’s an ancient and evil creature that cannot be killed” “so how do I stop it?” asked Thrash “you can trap its essence, here.” She pulled a necklace hidden under her coat out and handed it to Thrash. “That’s an ancient relic handed down to me from my grandfather, it will most likely trap the dragon’s essence.” “What do you mean by most likely,” questioned Thrash “There is a small chance that it will backfire and make the dragon stronger than you can possibly imagine.” Gaurnia said with a serious look on her face, “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Thrash said as he stood up.

“I must warn you, once the dragon is trapped you have to hide the necklace where nobody will find it, if someone were to wear that necklace the dragons essence could enter their body and who knows what it could do once it has a proper host.” “I understand” Thrash said, and he walked out the door, went his room and grabbed his sword. He then took off his coat and cut it so could hold his sword on his back. He slid his sword into the slit and left the temple. The light was bright reflecting off of the freshly fallen snow with only one set of footprints. He blinked a couple of times until he could see again; and walked to the edge of the cliff where he looked down. He couldn’t see below the cloud cover, but he took a deep breath “for my brothers” he said with determination and jumped.

[Lavarion]

The wind was rushing by him as he broke through the cloud cover; he saw a barren wasteland where his town used to be, and knew the dragon was to blame. Thrash was falling at an alarming rate; if he did not slow down he would be killed on impact. He reached for something and grabbed a boulder on the side of the cliff; it stopped him and he began to climb on top but it loosened and Thrash fell off of it. The boulder fell a few seconds after Thrash and now he was falling with the boulder right above him. When he landed he would definitely be crushed. Thrash was nearing the entrance of the dragons cave. He grabbed a branch growing off of the cliff, it came out but slowed him down enough so that he landed safely when he got to the cave, he jumped forward as the boulder blocked the entrance to the point that no light got in at all. This darkness is nothing compared to the Xarthian temple, this could give me an advantage over the dragon Thrash thought as he walked forward. He walked along the tunnel until he found the Black Emerald Dragon asleep in its chamber. Thrash picked up a rock and threw it at the dragon’s head, the dragon looked first infuriated but than surprised. “Your time has come dragon,” Thrash shouted as he drew his sword.

The dragon swiped at him with its claw, but Thrash jumped over it. He ran up and swung his sword at the dragon’s leg, some of the emeralds fell off but other than that no damage. The dragon kicked Thrash forward and he stuck his sword into the wall, holding onto it. The dragon snapped at him with its jaws but Thrash dodged to one side, the dragon tried again but Thrash kicked off from the wall releasing his sword and jumped onto the dragons head grabbing its horn. The dragon shook its head side to side furiously trying to knock Thrash lose but he held tight to the horn. The dragon slammed its head to the ceiling and Thrash fell to the floor. The dragon lifted its tremendous foot and brought it down on Thrash but he jumped out of the way before he could be crushed. The dragon flapped its wings and blew Thrash down the tunnel. Thrash hit the boulder blocking the entrance, the dragon charged at Thrash but he ducked and the dragon knocked the boulder clean off the side of the mountain. Thrash grabbed the end of the dragon’s tail as it flew out of the cave. The dragon whipped its tail and knocked Thrash high into the air, so high he could see the Xarthian temple. Thrash turned himself around in mid air and pointed his sword straight downward. Thrash fell gaining speed with every passing second and plunged the sword into the dragon so hard it broke clean through its emerald scales and went into the dragon so deep that that the handle touched the dragons bleeding flesh. It let out a roar of pain and attempted to swipe Thrash off with his tail. Thrash jumped but one of the dragon’s scales caught on his boot and knocked him onto the dragon’s wing. Thrash grabbed the wing but the flapping was making him lose his grip.

I'm going to fall Thrash thought to himself I am going to die and leave this dragon to run free, my brothers Camren, and Dustin, I’m sorry I have failed you.

Suddenly a big black blur struck the dragon in the back and it fell to the ground with Thrash still clutching to the wing. He looked up and saw a dark figure standing on the dragon’s back, the figure jumped next to Thrash. “You can’t give up, enter the anti-state it’s our only chance.” Thrash took off his headband and tied it around his right wrist. Black steam started emitting from him and he felt incredible power, he fired a blast of anti-energy at the dragon’s head. The dragon flinched as it hit and Thrash was amazed at how easily he had done that. The dragon shot a wave of fire at him “counter with your anti-fire” said the dark figure, Thrash shot anti-fire at the dragon and when it met the dragon’s fire they both fizzled and faded away. The dark figure hit the dragon up the chin with a strange black stick that faded from existence after he hit the dragon, after the stick disappeared and the dragon fell down. “Who are you?” Thrash asked, “You don’t recognize me? I’m Octavio,” he said as he turned around. “Gaurnia filled me in on everything, now let’s finish th…” the ground began to shake as the dragon stood up, it formed some fire in its mouth and began rolling it with his toung. Thrash moved his arms in a circular motion and began forming a ball of anti-fire, they both launched their fireballs at each other and when they met they exploded and knocked Thrash, Octavio, and the dragon back. Octavio got up and held his hand out; he began forming a mass of anti-energy. “Thrash help me, let this be the finishing blow” Thrash got up and focused all his energy into the mass of anti-energy until it got bigger and bigger until it was bigger than both of them, they darted at the dragon and slammed the anti-energy into the dragons wound where Thrash’s sword still was. The dragon let out a roar of pain than fell silent. Thrash pulled out the necklace and held it up to the dragon, a black aura began to surround the dragon’s body but it was instantly absorbed into the necklace and the dragon’s body turned to dust and blew away into the wind, never to be seen again.

Thrash let out a sigh of relief as he put his headband back on and Octavio covered up his symbol and they both exited the anti-state “that was intense” Octavio said “its not over, we still need to hide this somewhere where nobody will find It.” Thrash said “I say we destroy it” said Octavo “this thing looks pretty strong I don’t think it will break no mater what we do to it, and besides if we do break the thing it might release the dragon. I don’t think I'm up for another fight against that thing” Thrash said “ok in that case lets just chuck it into a volcano” suggested Octavio “tell me do you know where we can find a volcano?” Thrash asked, “The village I used to live Velcen Village is at the base at a volcano, it’s just a couple miles due west.” Octavio said. “Well let’s get going” Thrash said and they bolted towards the volcano with determination until they arrived at the bottom of the fiery mountain. “Ok let’s get rid of this thing “said Thrash panting. They began walking up the volcano, “this is much easier than climbing the mountain up to the temple huh” Thrash said “well this is going up at like a 45 angle the other was like 90” Octavio said “oh man its getting hot” Thrash said “I don’t think I can go any further” he continued. “Just throw the thing,” Octavio said. Thrash gathered energy in his hand and threw the necklace so far he could until it disappeared from sight. “What is next for us Thrash” asked Octavio “I’m going to go dig my brothers a proper grave, I don’t know what you’re going to do “Thrash said as he began walking back to the Xarthian temple

The end

[Linx_is_me]

Here is some picture's I drew of my friends characters from his book . He says it does look like them so , now you can better understand what some of the characters look like . I hope you like em .
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h316/nojo200/Hand%20Drawings%20All/Thrash.jpg
The first one is thrash . This is a back side picture .
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h316/nojo200/dragon.jpg
This one is of just the dragon from book one . It was just a ruff sketch so bear with it .
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h316/nojo200/dragin.jpg
This is thrash outside of the dragons cave . I like this one ...
And feel free to put up any fan art or comments on this thread .

[Dess]

Will you guys please make sure that you are posting everything that goes with this story in this thread.... I've been moving it, but please pay attention.

[Linx_is_me]

I like it , there was less he's in this version . Which is always good , plus even if the first book was not your best it is a core part of the story none the less . Have you posted the other's yet or at least the second one .

[Lavarion]

other, the first one your thinking of was that little bit that Dustin read in the beginning and even he said it was poorly written. its really not that importent, and i will only ask it if five people ask me nicely via PM. also i wont post A Shattered Friendship untill i get a few PMs requesting it, i want to make sure people are reading it. and ill keep them on this thread from now on, i posted this while i was still a noob