At his feet laid the mangled and deformed body of his friend and leader. His friend and leader who had sacrificed so much to bring him so far and faced the enemy hordes outside the burning village walls. The brave and heroic man who would one day be emperor of this country. At his feet lay the broken body of the Imperial Ranger Tiberius. Hot tears formed in the corners of his eyes. He looked away from the broken body of his comrade but again reacted in utter disbelief. A few feet away from where Tiberius lay was the daring and courageous Imperial Dragon Knight Shayla.
He rushed to her as fast as his young legs would carry him, and knelt by her side, gathering her in his tiny young arms. Her brilliant dragon-scaled armor was shattered and broken against her body. Blood and heaps of flesh fell from her face and chest. At her side, her powerful ebony and green spear lay in a dozen pieces as if snapped like a tree limb.
He tried to scream against the carnage before him, but no sound would come. Through sheer will, he forced himself to breath and push air through his body, determined to call out long and loud. But, for some reason, he was rendered totally voiceless. Tears streamed down his face, stinging his black eyes. Another sudden burst of lightning erupted overhead, and in the brightness, he could see that more bodies were strewn about their camp.
Even without the aid of his wand to show him, he immediately knew the remaining bodies belonged to the dwarves that had travelled with them. They too were bound for their outpost in the Land Beyond, determined to help in discovering the mystery of the loss of magic in their world. But now, he was all alone, just a scared boy in the vastness of nothing.
More lightning erupted overhead, constant and strobing. The sound was deafening, forcing him to hold his ears in agony and retreat back to the frozen, bloodied ground. The world seemed to spin around him in a cacophony of light and thunder. In the dim shadows, he could see Shayla’s lifeless brown eyes staring back at him, pleading for him to save her. Yet all he could do was curl up on the ground beside her.
At least down here, in the mud and dirt, he was safe. Safe from whatever evil had overtaken his friends. Safe from the oncoming storm that was soon to break overhead. Only now, on his safe patch of ground, the earth began to rumble and shook harder than it had before.
Loud groaning cut through the sound of the explosions overhead as great chasms in the ground burst open around him. The ground began to shift and break apart into giant piles. Fire from within the bowels of the earth began to spew up in large columns. The flames licked the sides of his young face, singed the hem of his robes, and melted the dense snow that had been a fixture of their environment.
In the firelight, he could now see clear as day the mangled bodies of his entire party. They looked as if some unworldly beast had clawed and gnawed them to their bones and ligaments. The earth shifted violently again, broke apart, and pulled the bodies of his dead companions into the seemingly bottomless pit. He tried in vain to save the falling Dragoon as she plummeted into the fiery abyss below, but was too slow to grasp the hem of her armor. He looked past the column of fire at Tiberius, who wore a look of utter remorse upon his cold face. The Ranger’s body lingered on the edge of the pit a little longer before he too tumbled below. Michael rolled onto his back and was all alone now atop his own small patch of earth amidst the flames and lightning.
About The Author
Ryan Copeland
Ryan Copeland was born in south Texas. His family imbued him with a love for all things artistic and enouraged him to pursue his varied interests. He joined the United States Army in 2012 and is currently living in Georiga. When he's not busy discovering the world of the Axton Empire, he can be found spending time with his family and making delicious food on his grill.
The Spirit of The Warrior: The Axton Empire book 1 Page 37