Gone Rogue

by A McKay

  “Captain, who says this is not the man, how would the guards have seen him if you have just informed us.” I wanted to knock that man on his ass, Slade was enjoying the show.

  “Well soldier, they would of, should have,” his speech slowing down as he started to study Slade from the boots to his head, as Slade stood ready to attack or run if need be. The captain’s eyes bulged in and out putting it all together. “Sir are you the rogue that I have said?” Slade had to hide a grin on his face not knowing if he should tell the truth or lie.

  Slade sighed to himself, as he knew he couldn’t avoid the fun of a good fight. “Ah hell,” Slade said, his hand going to his weapons. “Let's see I could take one, two, yeah that should work.” They all waited for an answer, “I see that the Secret Sanctum didn’t bring the smartest agents over here did they?”

  The captain dropped his cup of ale, the liquid coating the ground. His mouth opening, almost looking like slow motion, before he barked out, “Get him.” Slade was about to throw himself at the group as they attacked, but figured they probably knew how to fight for they had no weapons he could see. Slade took off plowing anyone in his way; he hit the dirt street at full speed the soldiers keeping pace. Every corner and escape route seemed to have guards waiting, he could hear a horn going off behind him from the tower and soldiers appeared from every building. One jumped in front of him, with a swift movement, he grabbed two blades from his waist, one for each hand, and the soldier swung, and with his left hand, he blocked it, and his right cleaving the soldier’s arm off, causing him enough pain to drop out of his way.

  He continued his sprint hoping soon that he would run into the dragons for some support. For once, he was glad he listened to himself and ran for he couldn’t fight that many soldiers. He saw the two bigger people in the middle of the road, but they weren’t waiting for him they were fighting. He saw the queen whip at a man about six paces away with her whips, slicing him, his skin and blood shedding to the ground, the soldier screamed and fell to the ground split in half by Gargan’s axe.

  “Phoenix,” he yelled running to her, Gargan turned and saw the men chasing Slade.

  “Human,” Gargan demanded, “what did you do?”

  I couldn’t tell if it was the heat of the battle or if it was just his imagination, but Slade swore, Gargan was smiling. “What did I do?” he yelled back, “What did you do?” he said dodging a sword from another, and cutting his gut open. Slade saw a head roll by from Gargan’s direction. Slade thought he heard him humming a song, like this was a joke to him.

  “Keep on rolling and rolling,” Gargan song as another head came bouncing by.

  “Brother that is not a battle cry.” Phoenix said whipping the next guy, slicing his neck with her weapon. Another man rolled in mid air being unwrapped by the whip.

  “Phoenix we found Slade, can I burn the village now,” Gargan yelled too his sister blocking the sword and pushing the man to Slade. “Human start killing more,” For the heck of it he threw one of his blades hitting the guys face right before Gargan was about to take a swing. He eyed Slade as he broke the soldier’s neck that landed below him from Slade grabbing the man and tossing him to Gargan’s feet. “Keep the men to yourself,” he now grabbed a soldier and threw him to Slade only to be caught by one of Slade’s kukris

  Gargan blew flames out of his mouth engulfing everything around them buildings, soldiers, women, children that couldn’t escape fast enough burned with the rest. Slade barely ducked in time as flames shot over his head. The flames blew high, burning buildings, trees, and human flesh. The city glowed in the red flames, screams could be heard, and there was pain and the suffering. Gargan faced away and just hearing the suffering seemed to make him grin. Slade could feel the heat from the burning victims and the town was destroyed to nothing as they walked peacefully out of the town.

  It made he remember the biker’s bar. How the building burned evenly, how no screams could escape. It was a matter of seconds to burn the village from Gargan. So fast, so large, that it would of took the clean-up crew at least half an hour to get the flames to start. To destroy the entire buildings to nothing but ashes, it would take hours.

  Slade looked at Phoenix, who stood there the flames reflecting off her eyes. Her body relaxed almost like it was absorbing the flames, the deaths. Something stirred in Slade, he almost felt bad for the agents for they just were following orders. They were agents like him coursed in and never released to be free. This was why he was here though, he would make it right, and the agency would pay for these deaths like so many before him.

  As he stared at the flames, he couldn’t help but to start making out the country outside of the village were started to burn. Flames spread on the dry grass to the country side, the country side that Zach and Gabrielle.

  “We need to find Zach.” Slade wanted to run through the flames of the city.

  Phoenix grabbed his arm like a boy running from his mother in a mall. Without much effort she stopped him. He tried to twist from her hold but he was unsuccessful. “Let me go bitch!” His eyes burned not from the flames but from the pure hatred he now felt for the queen that held him at bay.

  “You will burn, the flames are even to hot for some dragons.”

  Slade stopped fighting, “What am I suppose to do?”

  “We go to the hill!” Gargan said without care. A care that made Slade rethink of fighting side of him.

  ***

  They reached the meadow at the top of hill and, after a quick search of the surrounding area; they figured that would be a perfect place to camp. They sat next to a dead tree that was on top of the hill to wait for Zach and Gabrielle to appear.

  “I should go to the town’s edge and find them; surely they saw the flames,” Slade wondered maybe that they were part of the screams, “Gargan if you have even singed their hairs I will…”

  Gargan shot up on his feet to the challenge, “You will what, human?” Gargan came within an arm’s length.

  “Boys enough,” Phoenix ordered. “Gargan wouldn’t have burned the village if he knew they were in it.” Gathering his wits, Gargan tried to ignore his warrior within, his body shaking in anger, Slade’s body as hot as the fire Gargan blew. He didn’t give a fuck if he was a dragon and the queen’s brother. If Zach was burned, Gargan was good as dead.

  Noises came out of a cluster of bushes that formed a leafy barricade around the meadow they were in. Slade’s body tensed instantly as he grabbed his machete, Gargan grabbed a blade that he retrieved from the guy Slade killed in front of him. They stood there watching for a while, and then Phoenix approached the bush hesitantly, as she pushed the bushes aside, two humans popped out causing Phoenix to jump back, and Gargan almost releasing the blade until he recognized the face. “On the edge I see.” Zach smiled at Slade and then eyed the weapons ready to slay him,

  “Bastard,” he sighed with relief, “where were you, didn’t you see the village burned down.”

  "Not really, we came out of somebody’s hut in the county and we could see the smoke. The farmer then went bolting to the village, so we decided to do some snooping." Something in Zach’s eyes said they did more than snooping. Slade studied him, the look on him, the easiness of how he stood. The bastard screwed her, Slade turned to her. Her eyes caught his stare, her face has no concern, her shirt seemed out of place but she didn’t move it. It was as if she wanted to advertise it. Her hand than came up to her belly and rubbed down her skin. Her eyes still stared at Slade, her hand slid under her dress daring him to follow.

  His eyes stared back to Zach, the innocent girl wasn’t so innocent after all as he waited with the other for Zach to continue but he just went over and sat on the ground by the fire and started to warm up.

  "Well?" Slade said hoping something was found.

  "Oh, we found nothing." Gabrielle said now sitting on the other side of the fire. Slade eyed her as she adjusted her dress that was more of a mess than before.

  For the first time Slade couldn’t
think of what to say, his brother lost his marbles.

  18

  Slade started to feel the hunger of the two-day walk. The land was slowly changing from lush green landscape to dessert sand. Gargan stopped several times examining the earth as they walked. Slade could feel his blood stirring for Phoenix, but he knew that was a forbidden lust. Dragons fucked other dragons, humans fucked humans, and they never crossed.

  “O, gods have mercy,” Zach said aloud when he saw several men hung from trees by the path. Slade didn’t know why, but it didn’t bug him as much as he would think looking at the blood dripping down spreading in a pool on the ground. All he saw was the difference of the land; it went from dessert to lush greenery. Something or someone was casting a spell and they needed to find out what was doing it.

  “Gargan… is… this…what I think it is,” Phoenix asked in a slow stutter.

  “These men were destroyed” Gabrielle stated the obvious.

  “It almost looks like a warning,” he said remembering when he entered a vampire lair with Sanctum that dried skeletons hung in the doorway.

  "Aye” Gargan said not giving any other explanation. He walked up to the bodies and started to grab them.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Slade’s blood boiled in rage for the disrespect to the dead. Some rage from the night before, when Gargan burned the village at what he thought was brother. Gargan was cutting the bodies out of the trees, but he didn’t let them touch the ground.

  Gargan went to the next victim and did the same thing. “If it is done in the right hand, blood magic is very dangerous.” Phoenix said eyeing Gabrielle when she stated it. Something was between the two and Slade wasn’t about to get involved. “Gargan is only putting the bodies to rest.” With that, the bodies erupted in flames in his hands before he put them down on the ground.

  Slade watched as everything he was taught about dragons was in question. They weren’t savage beast like the agency thought. A savage beast wouldn’t take a body down and properly dispose of it like he did. A savage would of ate it, let it be. No they wanted to protect other and to respect the lost of the warriors, even if they might have been agents. There was a code they followed that Slade didn’t know yet. He wanted to learn this code, a code that even outshined the code of chivalry.

  Gargan changed his direction and started to walk towards the vast land of sand. Phoenix followed, Gabrielle followed her, Zach’s eyes enlarged, and suddenly he heaved over vomiting the fluids out of him that he needed. Slade patted him on the back and helped him away from the scene.

  “Come on sheriff, this is why we are here, we will find the ones responsible for this and slaughter them, the way they slaughtered these villagers.” Slade took one last glance and tried to see what Gargan gained by burning the bodies. He couldn’t see anything; he was protecting others, put the bodies to rest the only way that possible there.

  The sand was hot, but it wasn’t the thing that was slowing them. The damn wind picked up and they were walking through a sand storm. The sky was covered and made it dark, but Gargan didn’t slow his pace. Phoenix was walking as if it was the clear, and Gabrielle was doing the same. Slade and Zach though were feeling every bead of sand, their clothes not protecting them from the extreme wind.

  “What I would give for those dragon scale clothes you got.” Zach said, the dragons stopping and staring back at them.

  “Relax it was something we bought, I think from a Wizard.” Slade said remembering the old man.

  “We will have to talk to him about that!” Phoenix shouted back over the winds.

  "Gargan you might be strong enough to get through the dust storm but I am afraid this might strip me to the bone." Slade could barely see Gargan when he spoke for the sand was blowing, whirling even harder. "I can barely see you,” Slade sputtered out before he coughed up several lumps of sand that had gone down his throat. It seemed like Zach’s eyes never left Gabrielle a want that Slade was fighting with for Phoenix. A want that he wasn’t sure that he wanted.

  "Yes we will rest in the next town. Phoenix said with a grunt from Gargan on the comment.

  They continued and reached a small village by sunset. The sand blew in the village but the buildings blocked the worse of it. Zach might have smiled but if he did, he quickly covered it with a straight face. Slade had no clue what he would be smiling about, but Gabrielle was talking to him and it looked like they were warming up to do another deed. Slade didn’t think it was such a bad idea, for he wanted to get it out of his system. His plan was to find another girl that quickly changed when he looked at Phoenix. Did dragons believe in a one-night stand?

  The village was made of sand stones reaching only one story high for the most part, only a few were taller. Slade wasn't really surprised by the town's smaller size, the building and living in the smaller city was hard with food and water. Children played in the streets as the villagers traveled among the people visiting the cities. Before Slade caught what Gargan said, he took off to a small inn, Zach and Gabrielle went in the opposite direction, Gabrielle mumbling something. Phoenix was walking toward a very small market area. Slade thought he would be able to get some answers from Phoenix. Not only about feelings, he was bouncing around with but also what the deal was with her and Gabrielle.

  He caught up to the dragoness "Phoenix I need to talk to you."

  "Talk," she said walking into the shop. The shop was a blacksmiths shop full of weapons that Slade couldn’t believe a small city would need. After she looked at a few, she walked out and headed to the next shop. "Speak, or be gone."

  "Well," his tongue seemed to be tied as she looked at another small merchant's cart that had some food on it. She grabbed two legs of what seemed to be ham and handed Slade one. She paid the man the coins and she continued on back through the village. "Thanks,” Slade took a bite, tasting the saltiness of the meat. He was taking his time to ask a question about something that he wasn’t even sure really happened. She took a bite of her ham and looked at Slade waiting for a question. Slade quickly thought of another question. "Gabrielle, something is definitely not right about her,” he said not knowing where that question came from but it just jumped out.

  Phoenix took a big gulp, and took awhile before she answered the question. "Why do you think that?" Then she paused and looked around and changed her answer. "If you want to know, follow me." She said heading to another inn that the village had that Gargan wasn’t in.

  They approached one of the couple two-story buildings in town. They opened the door, and a girl who reminded Slade of his mother who stopped her dusting when she noticed them standing in the door. She had slanted violet eyes. Her luxurious, wavy, gray hair was medium-length and was worn in a utilitarian, severe style. She was tall and with a voluptuous build. Her skin cream-colored, her mouth curved into a smile above a pointed chin.

  "Welcome, Welcome, one room I assume," She spoke a thousand words a minute; the two couldn't even get a word in. "Aren't you a cute couple," she rambled on about how they were so cute and how old the inn was as Slade searched the small room with his eyes. The walls were plain, a large table sat in the middle with chairs around it, but that was about it. No wonder it seemed vacant, it wasn't a dump, but the size would scare anyone besides a dwarf away. Phoenix was handed a key and the lady stopped long enough to put her hand out and waited for the money. Phoenix gave her two coins and the lady checked them. "Very good go on up."

  Phoenix led the way up the steps, "Dinner will be served at sunset." She watched the two rather large guests until they made it up on the second floor. They walked to the where the room was and Phoenix opened the door. The room was clean and had a bed in the middle of the room, and walls all around. A window at the head of the bed, but that was about it. Slade sat on the bed as Phoenix shut the door and locked it. Slade took a gulp, the private room not helping him clear his mind to figure out what he felt for her.

  "We have silence here, and I can answer all the questions you have now. There are ju
st too many uncertainties outside." Phoenix came over and sat on the bed next to Slade, and stared at him waiting for Slade to turn more to her he assumed. He hadn’t felt this nervous since he tried to ask his first girlfriend out.

  "Gabrielle is how to say this in human language since I see that she captured one’s heart.” Slade stared at her for awhile, not surprise she knew that Zach fell for her. “She is a demon that I first thought you two caught. I thought she was your capturer, now I see she is Zach’s lover. She should be killed, and that is what Gargan is planning now.”

  Slade wasn’t expecting her to say anything like that; he was very distraught about the accusation. “Why would you say that?”

  “You say, that she happened to be the only girl by the library when the Sanctum showed up,” Slade was about to say he could have chosen somebody else, but he couldn’t remember if he saw another person out there. “You say you didn’t have to convince her that much to help you, she was willing to go through that portal like she was used to one, she walked through that sand storm without a mark on her skin.”

  “I didn’t get a mark, Zach didn’t get a mark, Gargan didn’t get a mark, and you didn’t get mark,” Slade defended Gabrielle.

  “We are not just human, like she is supposed to be.”

  Slade tried to think back to everything they have seen her do, “No,” he couldn’t see her being so dark, “she’s so nice. Plus Zach, Zach would of said something, he isn’t that naive.” The like as in they past the time by fucking their brains out while they think no one is watching.