Zera_Dawn Of The Redborn

by Lorenzo Lionheart

  “People didn’t want to support his decision, and the people didn’t choose him to be king when it was his right to be king. So, I am just following in my father's footsteps; succeeding where he failed. I will become king of Zera. That's why I had to kill your father… because he was in my spot.”

  Bakari looked at him with distaste, still trying to catch his breath from the beatings.

  “Now that I have you in my custody, I am destined to be the king. Once I kill you, the last living person who could even challenge my claim to the throne of Zera…” Droga said, getting close to Bakari’s face looking in his eyes. “Sorry this is the way you have to die, but, like father…. like son. No one will stop me from becoming the rightful king of Zera now.” Droga kept talking. “This is the dawn of the Redborn.” A smile creeped up on his face.

  Droga snapped his finger very loudly and two Redborn came running up the stairs. “Is the girl still alive like I asked her to be?” Droga said, intimidating the Redborn he was talking to.

  “Yes, sir she is still breathing, I didn’t allow anyone to kill her.” The Redborn said, bowing his head.

  “Get ready to bring her to me… So she can watch her friend die by my blade.” Droga demanded.

  “Yes sir! the Redborn yelled out acknowledging Droga’s orders. He then ran down the stairs to get Nova.

  “This should be fun.” Droga walked back to the broken window, looking out of it and taking deep breaths. “Get this over with quickly so I can go back to my kingdom before those Hunters get involved again.”

  Bakari fell out of the chair, trying to buy himself time. He rolled towards the stairs trying to descend them, but Droga was on him in an instant. “Where are you going? Your funeral is in a couple of minutes. You don’t want to be late for that now, do you?” Droga said, laughing as he tossed Bakari back in the chair. Just then, a Redborn came up the steps to tell him something, but as soon as he started speaking, Droga slapped him silent. “What did I tell you about interrupting me?” he asked the Redborn, who remained quiet. “You may speak now, runt.” Droga said aggressively. Still the Redborn didn’t speak out of fear. Droga pulled his blade from his belt and sliced the Redborn’s neck, separating his head from his body. “Don’t ever disobey me like that again,” he said, licking the blood from his blade. He snapped his finger again, calling for another Redborn to come up the stairs and tell him what the other Redborn intended to.

  “Sir, he was going to ask if you want the girl to come up now or later.” The Redborn asked not looking up at Droga who was glaring at him relentlessly.

  Droga placed his blade on the Redborn’s shoulder. “Yes, I want the girl up here Now! If I have to say it again there will be consequences, do you understand me?”

  Bakari was kind of happy that they didn’t bring Nova up yet. That gave him more time to think of something, and it also gave Axyl and AiLeen more time get here and put the plan in motion. As the Redborn ran down the stairs to get Nova, Bakari saw a white light flash out the window which he knew could only be AiLeen. A smile crept on his face and Droga noticed immediately. “I see you’re happy about death, boy. That's the spirit. I will put you out of your misery soon enough... after I cut your eyelids off and let my army torture you through it all.” Droga laughed, but Bakari didn’t take the smile off his face. A Redborn ran back up the stairs, panting. “The girl… she’s gone.” The Redborn said. As soon as the words left his mouth, Droga’s blade separated his head from his body. He let out a loud roar. “Good help is hard to find, I guess I will have to kill you without an audience. Goodbye king.” He said as he walked back over to Bakari with his blade in the air.

  The moment he swung his blade at Bakari, it clanked with more metal. There was Shara right at Bakari’s side. “A Hunter?” Droga was now pissed as Shara threw oil in his face that burned his skin, and sent him stumbling backwards. “We have to move Bakari. Now! I need you to stand up.”

  Bakari put everything he had into standing up and walking down the stairs with Shara. They heard Droga in the distance roaring and then heard glass shatter as they were walking quickly down the stairs. “Where’s Nova?” Bakari asked Shara.

  “She’s safe. She’s in the basement with Jace, sealed off and awaiting the rest of the Hunters who are in the distance now, coming to assist us.” Shara said, throwing Bakari in one of the rooms and slamming the door. “Here take this. It’s a remedy and should get you back up on your feet in no time. I’ll clear out the hallway.” She forcefully poured the remedy down his throat and walked out.

  14

  Bakari was feeling better after taking Shara’s remedy. He heard the commotion outside the door, and looked around for any weapons just in case he had to defend himself. He heard a lot of Redborns yelling and more commotion. He didn’t know what was going on outside of the room. He saw the silver device he had once been shocked with sitting on the table near him. He grabbed it, turned it on, and proceeded out into the hallway. He noticed two dead Crocs by the door. Must be Shara’s work he thought to himself as he didn’t see her anywhere around. He flipped over their bodies to look for weapons but found none. He pressed on, looking in rooms to see if he could find any weaponry. Then he saw one of the Crocs who tortured him and it brought rage to his mind. He was also carrying a weapon and seemed unsuspecting of an attack. Bakari took this opportunity to sneak up on him and attack him from behind. He walked into the room and changed his mind. Once he walked in, he made sure the Redborn saw him. He went to defend himself, but as soon as he reached for his sword, Bakari swiftly moved in on him, putting the device to his chest. “Remember what you did to me?” he mumbled in his ear as he pressed the button, sending shocks through the Redborn’s body. As the Redborn fell, Bakari grabbed his weapon and impaled it into his chest. Wiping the blood on his body, Bakari made his way back out into the hallway. Walking down the steps, he looked for a way into the basement so he could get to Nova. Then he thought about it. Maybe seeing Nova wasn't the smartest thing he should do at the moment. She was safer without him near her. He then heard a howl in the distance. That was Axyl giving him the signal to let him know that he had lead the Hunters to the house and that he was coming for him. Bakari heard another window break near him, then heard another loud Roar. Droga? He thought to himself as his heart started beating fast. He heard Droga’s voice and immediately began running down the stairs as fast as he could, knocking Redborns over until he came to a dead end at the bottom of the steps. He ran through an open door, and kept running until he hit another dead end. He put his back up against the wall and waited for someone to walk through the door while he thought about a way out. He pushed his sight as far as it could go looking down the hall he had just ran from. He didn’t see anyone or anything, but he did see a window.

  He took in deep breaths as he psyched himself up to ran down that hall and jump out that window into the unknown. “One…two...three...four...” He started counting, then started over, “One...two...three... GO!” He ran as fast as he could down that hall and as soon as he got close to the window a Redborn knocked him down.

  “Going somewhere, child?” the Redborn said, looking down at Bakari on the ground.

  Bakari said nothing as he began getting up from the ground, holding his blade in front of him.

  “A quiet one, I see.” The Redborn said, moving in quickly on Bakari and tossing him back in the hallway towards the stairs. As he fell, he saw Axyl bloodied and hiding behind the door, waiting for the Redborn to come and attack Bakari. When the Redborn walked out of the room, Axyl swiftly impaled him with his sword and kicked his body down to the ground.

  “Are you okay?” he asked Bakari.

  “I’m just glad to see you. What’s going on outside?” Bakari asked Axyl.

  “This place has turned into a war zone. Us, the Hunters, the Redborn and the Crocs are all throughout, fighting. This will be considered an act of war among the Hunters and they will be on high alert for a while. AiLeen is getting us a way into Zera she said there
's a hidden portal in this area that she used once before to go to there.” Axyl said, picking Bakari up off the ground.

  “Can’t she just make us a portal there?” Bakari asked.

  “It’s not that easy to get into Zera actually. You have to actually use Zera’s exclusively made portals to get in and out of Zera. Unless you take years to build your own portal to get into Zera, and not even AiLeen is that powerful to make one. Especially in a matter of minutes. Let's get you somewhere safe. Follow me.” Axyl told Bakari as he slowly began making his way down the stairs, cutting his way through Redborns as he descended. He ran into a Hunter, standing his ground towards her. Bakari got a whiff of her and noticed it was Shara. “Axyl, lower your blade she is an ally.” He told Axyl, who slowly lowered his blade still cautious of her.

  “My people won’t attack you Bakari, but that will only stand for today. I told them you helped them find Jason and they will assist you in getting out of here. Just letting you know beyond this point it is a war zone, and I can’t fully ensure your safety.” Shara said, breathing hard from all of the fighting.

  Bakari acknowledged the risks. “Axyl should be able to handle anything that comes until we can make it outside to AiLeen.” Bakari responded as he yanked a danger from one of the dead Redborn on the ground. “He won’t be needing this.” He said out loud as they looked at him. “Let's move.”

  They both nodded and headed down the stairs into the war zone. Fires raged everywhere, steel colliding. They tried to sneak through the battlefield just to get outside but when Redborns saw Axyl and Bakari, they were on them quickly, not letting them out of their sight. Bakari took up a defensive stance behind the two of them as they ran out to fight the Redborn blocking their way. Bakari didn’t know whether he should help fight them or stay where he was. He chose to stay where he was so he wouldn’t get in the pro’s way. Since he was way more of a thinker than he was a fighter, while they battled he was thinking of how to escape and Droga’s location. Droga wouldn’t let them out of this easily. A Redborn came behind Bakari’s back knocking him on the ground and Shara moved quickly to help him. Then moved back to Axyl’s side helping him clear the floor of Redborn. “Come, Bakari.” She said pointing him in the direction of a room to better position themselves to fight. Bakari sprinted over to the room while Axyl and Shara distracted the enemies. He stood in the doorway while they blocked it back-to-back, fighting off Redborns. Blood going everywhere, with an occasional Redborn making his way through the door. Bakari could handle that, so they didn't worry. They were fighting together so much that their attacks were in unison. She swung left as he swung right they were both protecting each others’ blind spots. As the Redborn stopped coming, they cleared the floor, standing there unmoving protecting the doorway. Bakari walked to the window to see what all the commotion was outside. He looked out and see storms of Redborns outside and lots of Hunters fighting them off and still no sign of Droga. To him, Droga was definitely not the type to leave the battlefield without getting what he wanted from the battle.

  Bakari kept a look out while they moved and Shara and Axyl were fighting off waves of Redborns and Crocs. Periodically, Axyl would look back and give Bakari a wink of motivation, making sure he wasn't getting discouraged because they were fighting for him. Bakari winked back, ensuring Axyl that he was ok. Shara was relentless, not looking back at all. She was focused on protecting Bakari and surviving this attack.

  “I don’t know how things are going to go when this is over, I just want you to know that I will continue to fight for you when this is done. My people will make decisions on what they want to do about this. I won’t tell them your story; I’ll let them figure that out on their own, but I know it's not your fault why this happened. Try not to worry about it too much okay, Bakari?” Shara said to him when the waves of enemies stopped coming.

  “Thank you for that Shara, I don’t think you know how much help you being here is right now. I really appreciate this… don’t ever forget that okay? I swear one day when I can, I will return the favor. I swear it.” Bakari said to her.

  “Don’t be so formal. It doesn’t sound like you.” She joked still holding her daggers up in the direction of the stairs and hallways. “Go check and see if it’s safe?” Shara asked Axyl.

  Axyl gave her a nod as she began walking away to check the hallways and see if the floor was safe and all the Redborns were taken care of on this floor. She walked down the hallways covered in blood, her grey hoodie now pure red as she looked in from room to room checking to see if there were any hidden enemies. She found nothing. She began slow walking back toward Axyl and Bakari to let them know the floor was clear and they can recover a little bit of energy before they go to another floor. She stabbed her blades into the wooden floor and took a knee, taking a deep breath. “So many of them, they are high in numbers.” She said, talking to Axyl

  “They have the highest population in all of Zera, and Droga now controls them all through fear. This isn’t even a fourth of them. I’m sure he underestimated you hunters, and only brought a few because he thought this would be over with quickly. Or he didn’t have a portal big enough to bring even half of his entire armies.”

  Shara started thinking about what he said when he said entire armies. It bothered her that Droga might be the cause of a world war. She had learned about when she was going through the training at the Hunters HQ. She never wanted to experience such a thing in her time, and was still hoping it wouldn’t happen. The way things were going it was definitely going happening.

  As they regained their energy, they heard some very heavy slow steps coming up the stairs. “Prepare yourselves.” Axyl said snarling. “Something very big is coming.”

  They stared at the steps as a big head came up first sniffing for them. “Shit, its Toga. He’s Droga’s pet.” Axyl said as they all stared at the mindless eight-foot dragon blocking their way to the stairs. It saw them and roared deeply. Axyl tried to roar back but it wasn’t intimidating at all, as the Dragon didn’t move one bit. It looked at Axyl, then Shara, then Bakari. When he saw Bakari, it let out another roar and started conjuring fire.

  “MOVE!” Axyl yelled to the other two, who moved out the way with him when the huge flame came at them.

  “Whoa, that thing is big, and it can spit fire! We don’t have anything to handle that, that I know of.” Shara said looking at Axyl.

  “You’d be surprised at what dangerous things you Hunters have that you shouldn’t.” Axyl said. Shara looked at him from the side, wondering what he was talking about.

  She made a mental note as they ran down the halls and away from the dragon. It swiftly followed. Its appearance may have made it seem slow but it was moving pretty fast. Shara finally spoke up while they were running. “I Have a plan. Y’all keep on running. I’ll get behind it.” Shara said to Axyl and Bakari. They both nodded in agreement.

  Shara turned invisible and jumped to the ceiling, not moving so it couldn’t get a whiff of her smell. It ran right past her, and she dropped down and ran the opposite way, Bakari was wondering what exactly her plan was as she ran away from the Dragon who clearly only wanted him and Axyl. She disappeared out of view again when they got corned at the end of the hallway. Axyl grabbed his sword with both hands and turned it sideways, standing in front of Bakari. The dragon stopped right in front of them, roaring as Axyl roared back at it, hoping that Shara would come through with her plan as soon as possible. The dragon conjured up another fireball and shot it at Bakari and Axyl. Axyl blocked Bakari from the fire standing in front of him with his fur and his sword mitigating the damage from Bakari. As the dragon continued spitting the flame, Axyl got a whiff of Shara’s smell again and the fire stopped coming at Axyl. As he dug his sword into the ground, he looked up to see a long spear dug into the Dragon’s mouth, killing it. Axyl took a knee to recover as Shara came back out from invisibility.

  “Are you okay?” she asked Axyl who was breathing very hard.

  “Yes, I am. My fur is so
rt of fire-resistant I’ve just never resisted that much fire at once is all. It's going to take me a second to recovery my stamina.” He said looking up at Shara.

  “Thanks, not the first time you’ve saved my life, Shara.” Bakari said, looking at her with his wolf-like features.

  “Anytime Bakari. Even though I'm a Hunter and you’re a Vakin, we still grew up together and we are still friends so don’t you ever forget that. Remember I have to keep you alive so you can make a whole lot of changes in the world. If I can, I get to see you making changes and that motivates me.” Shara said, still smiling at Bakari.

  “Okay, we have to move. I hear a lot more happening outside.” Axyl said, finally standing up again after absorbing all of the fire.

  Shara and Bakari both gave him a nod. They all took off in a sprint towards the stairs to the next floor: the ground floor. There were a lot of Crocs and Redborn waiting on them, just standing there making sure they didn’t leave. This bothered Bakari as every floor they went down Droga wasn’t there, and now he was curious to as where in fact he was. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind because he had enemies in front of him that needed to be taken care of.

  “A lot more than last time,” Shara said to Axyl and Bakari and they took up stances in front of the enemies.

  “I think we can take them.” Axyl said, letting out a growl.

  “Of course we can.” Shara continued as she ran towards the crowd of Redborns and Crocs. Axyl followed right behind her, leaving Bakari safely on the steps by himself. They were fighting the pack of Redborns viciously, but Bakari noticed they were starting to be overwhelmed and fatigue was starting to take place.They began being tossed and slapped around by the Redborns and Crocs. He didn’t know what to do, so he clenched his teeth thinking of a way to help. Nothing came to him, but he had to help his friends or it would get bad. He ran to the nearest window and yelled, “Avi, get AiLeen!” He hopedthat Avi would hear him.