Chapters four and five

Chapter 4

I looked at Justin.  "You and Elizabeth see what you can do about the King.  Katrina, come with me."  We walked our of the castle, and moved silently through the darkness.  This was ridiculous.  Daniel had died, then come back to life, killed our King, and now he would die again.  "Go see if you can find any trace of the killer around where they were."  She left, and I made my way to the forge.  As soon as I got there, I pumped at the billows until the furnace was hot again.  I used a hammer to get the blade of my sword off of the hilt.  I threw the blade into the furnace, but also threw in some Adamantine.  I stirred them with a poker, and when they were mixed well enough, I had a dull red mixture.  I slowly shaped it like a curved sword.  I sat and thought while I waited for the furnace to cool down again.  My King was dead, and Daniel was not.  Daniel had killed his own King.  These same thoughts repeated themselves in my head, for about an hour until the furnace had cooled down.  I took my blade out, and re-attached it to the hilt.  I walked out, into the night.  The moon was almost gone now, and I could barely make out Katrina in the lighting.  "Any luck?"  I asked her.

"No," she responded, "But I can guess where he's headed."

I sighed.  "Lets go see if Justin and Elizabeth have made any progress."

She smiled. "Okay." She responded, a bit to lightly.  She hadn't really known our King, but she was still somewhat like a child.  I would have to stop thinking of her like that though, as she proved her worth when Josh nearly killed me.  When we reached that castle, Amy and the Queen were still crying.

"There's nothing I can do." Said Justin.  "He's gone."

I stared at the five of them.  I had served under King Kyle for nineteen years of my life.  But now, he was dead.  Suddenly, golden light filled the room.  The first rays of sun were shining on us.

“What now?”  asked Elizabeth.

“Now we complete the last quest King Kyle will ever assign.”  I responded.  “We’ll go to Gavin’s fortress and retrieve Vroqren.  After that, we’ll find the other two crystals."

"Well then.  Lets get packing." Said Justin.

"We should said for a funeral." Said Katrina.  Everyone nodded.  Amy and the Queen were still silently crying.

"We're leaving in one week, or sooner."  We'll make sure everyone knows we're leaving, and why." I said.  I walked off, and the three of them followed me. We walked in silence, and we reached the training grounds about five minutes later.  There we split up to go to our separate barracks'.

"Were you guys awake all night until I woke up and came?"  I asked Justin.

"No, we took turns watching out for you while the others slept.  When one of us saw you, I think it was Elizabeth, she woke us all up."  We were at the barracks now.  Inside, I looked at my stuff.   I emptied my pockets, to add to the mix.  I had steel plate armour.  That would be coming with me on the quest.  I only hoped it was good enough for now.  Plate mail gauntlets.  I could use those.  The Adamantine-Steel sword.  I would of course, have to bring that.  I would also bring the Godblade hilt.  My cloak, which was so dark I could virtually melt into shadows with it.  That could come in handy.  My obsidian ring.  I always wore that, there was no point leaving it behind.  That was all that was on my bunk. Then I realized there was something else in my hand.  An arrow.  No, the arrow.  The arrow that killed my King.  It felt fit that Daniel should die by that arrow.  I thought for a moment, and then placed it in my chest by my bunk.  That adventure was for another time.  There was still work to do before I left, but I had a decent start.  I decided to walk to the forge and keep my mind open for ideas on the way.  On my way there, I saw Elizabeth training in the arena.  I stood there for a bit, watching.  I briefly wondered what type of Magic she had specialized in.  I didn't have to wait long to know fortunately.  A bolt of lighting came down and vaporized a dummy.  I looked up.  It was perfectly clear day.  She was still pretty advanced.  Most people who specialized in energy couldn't make a bolt of lightning from clear skies until about their fifth year of training.  I realized that I was glad she was coming with us.Another bolt of lightning came down, vaporizing a second dummy.  Her eyes shone a golden yellow for a split second, and her hair was floating up the tiniest bit due to static.  I kept walking, and realized that this was all wrong.  It was such a nice day.  There was no breeze, no clouds.  It should be dark, gloomy, and raining.  A King had just died.  When I reached the forge, I found Katrina already there.

"Why are you here?" I asked her.

"You can't have expected the twenty arrows you made to last forever, did you?"

I hadn't thought about that.  "I guess not.  Is that all you're doing?"  No ideas had come to mind, so I'd rather be alone in the forge to think.

"Yeah, that should be it." Katrina said.  I went to the supplies rack.  There was a pic-axe.  That was weird, as I had never noticed a mine anywhere near us.  I was in here just two days ago, and there was no pic-axe then.  Just my luck.

"Katrina, did you here anything about a mine yesterday?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"I'd like to go look at that.  Do you know where it is?"

"Yeah, they held a meeting there."  Of course, while I was unconscious there was a meeting to miss.  "They said not to go in there though, because it was dangerous and it opened up further south.  It's also pretty unstable, and there are strange creatures."  She was finished making arrows.  She had about five hundred or so.

"That's were we're going in that case.  After the funeral, I want you to take us there and we'll start our quest."

"What?" Katrina said, surprised.

"In fact, forget a week.  We're holding the funeral tomorrow, and leaving right after that."  I said, as I grabbed the  pic-axe.  I walked outside, and found Justin and Elizabeth dueling each other.  Both were using only magic, and stood ten feet apart.  Justin was sending fireballs and waves of water, but every time Elizabeth countered with something.  Justin sent a particularly large wave at Elizabeth, but she electrified it and sent it back at him.  Justin saw me, evaporated the water, and turned to me.  I threw the pic-axe to him, and he somehow manipulated the air to make it slide into his belt.

"Why would I need this?  I'm a magician."

"I get the feeling there will be some really tight corners where we're going."

Justin shrugged. "Alright." he said.

I continued walking, heading to the castle.  The three of them followed me.  When we got there, the Queen and Amy were still crying, but they were picking things up, preparing a bit.

"we're going to hold the funeral tomorrow." I told them.  Everyone had surprised expressions, except Katrina, who already knew what I planned.  "We've got to leave as soon as possible.  Elizabeth and Katrina, go wake everybody up.  Justin, make Elizabeth an electrical staff-"

"She's not experienced enough for a staff yet!"  Justin cut me off.

"If we plan on us all coming back alive, I want her to have a staff.  Amy and Angie, prepare for the funeral please.  I'm going to make more of these cloaks." I said, holding up mine. They all left to do what I had asked them to do.  I left after them, and went to the armoury.  I took three cloaks that had iron woven into them for protection.  I took them to the barracks, and hung them out the window.  They would need to fade for about an hour, and after that they would need to be buried for another hour.  They were pretty easy to make, but not many people knew how to.  The cloaks I had grabbed were blue, green, and crimson.  Not that it mattered much.  Mine was black, and it was woven with steel instead of iron.  I just needed to not confuse mine with others.  I walked outside, and went straight to the forest.I gathered some dead wood and broke it into about twelve pieces, a foot long.  I gathered them up, and put them into a cloth sheet I had brought.  I bundled it up, and walked back to the barracks.  I sat outside, ripping the cloth into twelve pieces.  Once the pieces were all torn from each other, I tied a piece around each piece of wood.  I tied them in such a way that the frayed and ripped edges were all on the outside, so they would light easier, but also so that the cloth wouldn't come off the wood.  When I finished that, I went inside and took the cloaks.  I dug a hole, about a foot deep, wide and long.  I placed the cloaks in, and re-buried them.  For the rest of the day, I made the three cloaks, and made myself a throwing dagger, and a hand dagger.  I walked back to the castle, and saw the Queen.

"We need to get started." I said.  She nodded.

"Well, lets do that." She said.

Chapter 5

I stood outside.  It was noon.  I was next to Justin and Amy.  On Justin's other side was Katrina, with Elizabeth next to her.  The Queen stood next to Amy.  The congregation was in front of us.  Only the Kings body, and the speaker were between us.  The speaker quieted everyone down, and began.

"I feel, as many of you may, as I too have just lost someone close to me.  Kyle David Rigterse was born second eldest to a royal family.  At the age of eleven, he joined the archers of Drekadar.  He fought valiantly, and was eventually promoted to a commander.  At the age of twenty, his father died and his brother took the crown.  Four years later, his brother died, and having no children of his own passed the crown to Kyle.  Kyle served our town a faithful thirty-six years, leaving him an even sixty when he died.  Last night, he was killed by a servant of Gavin.  When Kyle fought in the army, Gavin was only one of Ser'Dur soldiers.  Ser'Dur was a fierce and young leader, until we captured him and got rid of him.  Ser'Dur was the man who originally stole three objects that control the fate of all of our lives.We captured him on his way back from stealing them from our castle.  Unfortunately, he hid all of them before we got to him.  All but one of these objects are now in Gavin's possession.  If he gains the third, he will become unstoppable.  Kyle will not have died in vain though.  Shortly after we finish this meeting, the adventurers behind me shall depart to stop Gavin from obtaining that object.  Justin, I turn the time over to you know."

Justin stepped forward, and moved his hands out.  There was a blinding flash, and when my sight returned, King Kyle's body was no longer there.  In his place was a magnificent marble tomb.

"You may leave." Said Justin.  As the crowds dispersed, Justin, Elizabeth, Katrina, and I headed to the Queen.

"We must go now." I said.  The Queen nodded, and Amy stood on her tip-toes to be almost as tall as me.  She kissed both Justin and I on the cheeks, making us each redden a bit.  I addressed Katrina. "Lead on." I said.  She nodded, and started walking west.  In about ten minutes we had reached a cave opening.  With me in the lead, we descended into the darkness.

Chapters one two and three

Chapter 1

            I remember pain.  That’s about all I remember.  Pain beyond measure, and then everything went black…

            When I woke up, I was on the ground of the battlefield.  The battle seemed to be over.  I stood up and reached for my sword from its sheath by my waist.  It was still there.  “Good” I thought.  That sword was hand crafted by myself and even if it hadn’t been was worth a lot of gold.

            Though my sword was still intact, and in nice condition, my armor was torn apart.  I cursed under my breath.  That armor was worth easily three times as much as the sword.

I’m Jack by the way, though very few people ever call me that.  When someone wants to get my attention they walk over to me and say – “Hey” and then I understand they’re talking to me.  In fact, I doubt that everyone in the barracks knows I have a name.

             I got up off the ground and looked around.  The battle was definitely over by now.  I could see Daniel and Justin helping people in the distance.  Justin.  He wasn’t that bad of a guy, but I’ll admit, I was jealous of him.  There wasn’t a single lady who lived within the castle boundaries who didn’t adore him.  Besides, they only liked him because “He could do magic.”  As I am the head over the warriors, Justin is the head over the mages, and Daniel is head over archers.  We, being the highest ranked three people other than the King, Queen, and Vassals in the kingdom actually got specially crafted weapons.  My sword is made out of Adamantine, which is the most powerful substance in the world.  Justin’s staff is actually imbued with the power of water, meaning basically that he can summon small amounts of water with it.  Daniel’s bow however is made out of polished ivory, with poisoned Adamantine arrow tips.

            I decided there was probably something better to do with my time then stand there thinking so I decided to go and help the wounded warriors.  The first person I came up to was not one I recognized.  I could tell that I had had one of my assistants train this one, rather than training him myself.

  “What is your name sir?”  I asked him. 

“I,” he struggled “I am Ashton”, he said.  I helped Ashton up, and noticed an arrow protruding from his shoulder.  I pulled it out slowly to reduce bleeding, and ripped a piece off of my shirt to bandage it.  I told him to go back to the barracks and rest.  I continued on through wounded warriors, giving them the same advice and bandaging similar wounds.  By the time that all of Justin’s mages, Daniel’s archers and my warriors were all it was dark out.  I went back to the barracks myself, because I good rest sounded great to me.

   I was woken at about three in the morning, which sounds early, but really for us is about normal time.  Justin stood over my bed, his mage robes on. 

  “Follow me,” he said.  I got out of bed and complied.  I followed him for about 10 minutes before we came to an alleyway in the North West corner of the castle.  He pulled something out of his cloak.  It was a sword, in a steel colored sheath.  He handed me the sword and I pulled it out of its sheath. 

  As I did so, he said “While you were still unconscious after the battle, I found this.”  Inscribed in the sword were the words – “Josh – General over warriors” – I had never heard of anyone named Josh, except in tales, but those couldn’t be true…  The tales said that Josh fought under our Kings rule, until he realized how much more power he could have by joining Gavin’s forces.  Gavin is another King, though he’s very power hungry, and lives a quite far away.  He’s who we fought against in our battle yesterday.  He and his many troops.  Anyway, if this really was Josh’s sword, I knew he would come back for it.  If I were to go in depth in all of the stories about Josh I would be explaining stuff to you for quite a while, but Josh is apparently really strong, and full of revenge.  I’m sure he would be coming back for this sword.  I knew I could sell it and make quite a fortune, or I could keep it and risk being killed for it.  So of course, I decided I would keep it.

            A while later, about four in the afternoon I somehow had been convinced to duel with the blacksmith.  Our town blacksmith is a really great guy, but when it comes to swordsmanship, nobody had ever beat him, or at least as far as anyone remembers.  The blacksmith’s name is Timothy, but everyone calls him Tim.  I didn’t have any armor on, because mine had been destroyed in the battle.  I was using my sword, but kept Josh’s strapped to my back just in case.  We had been dueling for at least an hour now, and though I was drenched in sweat, Tim hadn’t shed a drop.  I swung a side cut at him, and as I did so he swung an underhand cut at me.  I’m not sure who hit the other first, but we both hit each other, and called off the duel. 

  “Good fight, but I have some work to do Tim.  I have to make some new chain mail, and I’m going to work on this sword.” I said.  “Which reminds me, could I use some steel for my chain mail?”  I added. 

  “Eh, sure I suppose, just don’t use all of it.”  He replied. 

  As I walked to the forge, I saw Justin training a new mage, and later on the way I saw Daniel shooting at targets, in his full combat armor.  I was wondering what he was thinking, seeing as the sun was blazing down on us, but because of his armor I couldn’t see his face.

     I kept walking, ignoring the fact that Daniel looked disturbed.  When I reached the forge about ten minutes later, I found Tim's stash of different ores.  I took a pair of furnace gloves, and grabbed some iron and coal. I put the two ores into the furnace and waited a bit.  I pulled them out when I had a chunk of steel.  I set it on the anvil, and quickly grabbed a hammer and started shaping the metal.  In about an hour, I had a new breastplate, a couple of bruises, and a new sheath for my sword.  that when I remembered the other sword. I quickly made a tiny bit more steel and melted it into the words on the other sword.  When that steel had hardened you could hardly tell there had ever been words.  I started the mile walk back across the castle grounds back to the barracks.  When I passed the archery training arena I noticed that Daniel had left.  I still wondered what had caused Daniel to be so angry.  I was so lost in thought that when I reached the barracks I was surprised to find myself there already.  I entered the barracks, and places my new armour onto my bunk.  I still had a good hour or two to waste before the sun set.
     For the rest of the day I basically just wandered around the castle grounds looking for something to do, and talking to Justin.  Talking to Justin is usually something I try to avoid because everything he says sounds like a big math equation to me, and I was never particularly good as math.  Today though talking to Justin was pretty much the only thing I could do to occupy myself.  We talked about the battle, about Gavin, and about different rumors we had heard.  I didn't believe any of his, because the basically all involved dragons.  A few hours after the sun had set, I decided to finally go back to the barracks.  When I got there, I took my body armour off my bunk and placed it in my chest.  I sat there on my bed thinking, and by the time I had fallen asleep, there were only about three hours until sunrise.

     I woke up shortly.  I headed outside.  I had been here my whole life, so I was surprised when the guards grabbed me.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I shouted.

"The king has requested your presence in a meeting."  One of them said.

"Well I can walk myself" I grumbled, pulling myself out of their grasp.  I started walking to the Kings castle, when the guards redirected me.

"This meeting is to be held in the infirmary."  They said.

"Why, I wondered to myself? The infirmary for a meeting?" I decided to ignore it, and instead started walking towards the infirmary.  I walked past the training grounds, the female barracks, and the armoury to get there.  When I finally did, I walked in no knowing what to expect.  Inside was the King, the Queen, all of the Royal Court, and Justin.  They were all staring at one bed.  On that bed, lay an unfamiliar women.  She was still wearing leather armour, so I took her to be an archer.  She was unconscious.  I couldn't figure out why we were standing around her, until I saw it.  A blood red dagger, with a thin green line of poison on the blade, protruding from her chest.  

 

 Chapter 2

     I recognized that dagger.  The hilt, the greenish blade.  Even the fang shaped curve of the blade.  That was Gavin's dagger.  Made out of treated Adamantine, with a poisoned blade.  I myself had been cut with the dagger once in my life.  I barely lived, and every now and then my thigh still burns with pain from it.  I only lived because Justin had finished his Life Magic training only three days before.
"Can she be saved?  With a strike to the chest like that?" I asked the congregation.
"There's a slim chance." Responded Justin.
"I don't recognize her." I said.  The King replied this time by saying
"I wouldn't expect you to, she was one of Gavin's Archers.  She was captured yesterday."
"She's Gavin's soldier?" I asked.
"Yes, that is what I just said."  The King said.
"Then why are we here, having this meeting, and why is she alive?"
"Because this is Katrina Hughes."
"I don't know that name." I turned to Justin "Should I know that name?"  Justin merely smiled.  I hate it when he smiles like that.
"Katrina is an extremely powerful  person.  We found her unconscious on the battlefield, and she hasn't woken yet."
"Well, she has a Adamantine dagger in her chest!  Gavin's Adamantine dagger!"  Then it hit me.  "Why was she stabbed with Gavin's Adamintine dagger, if she was one of his soldiers?" I asked.
"Well, now you know why we're here." Said the King.  "No matter what the circumstances are though she is still dangerous, and not to be underestimated.  When she wakes, we'll make absolutely sure she's on our side, or at least not on Gavin's side anymore before she leaves this bed."
"Well then, is there another reason I'm here?"
"No, you may leave now."  Justin and I both leave together.
"What are you going to do now?" I ask him.
"I'm going to go review Life Magic, see if I can't get that dagger out of her before she wakes up."
"Ok then"
     The following weeks are pretty bland.  I train, and when I get bored of that I talk to Justin.  I also look for Danial, but he's usually on overnight shifts, so I don't get much of a chance to.  Every now and then I check on Katrina, with the King, Justin and sometimes the Queen.  Within the first week, we have Gavin's Dagger out of her chest, and it's given to me.  After two weeks she's conscious again.  The day she regains consciousness, the King pulls me outside and asks me to make her a bow, and some arrows.  Normally I would never do this, but the King had praised her, and that's nothing like the King.  Besides, it was an order.  So I went to the forest, cut a nice Maple branch off of a tree, and sat on a rock to carve it.  It took an hour or two, but I had a good bow and twenty or so arrow shafts.  On my way back to the castle, I shot a turkey, and used it's feathers to fletch the arrows.  I got back to the barracks, and took a bowstring from Daniels chest, and took my Adamantine chain mail from my own.  I walked past the training grounds to see Justin training a new student.  She was about fifteen, so about two years younger than he was.  When I got to the forge I threw my chain mail into the furnace, placed a hammer on an anvil, and grabbed a pair of furnace gloves.  I got my chunk of Adamantine out of the furnace, and started shaping it on the anvil.  I fit my twenty arrow heads onto the arrows when I was done.  I put the remaining Adamantine into my pocket, which burned a small hole into the bottom.
I walked back to the infirmary to find that Katrina was not in her bunk.  Confused, I place the items on her bunk, and turned around to leave.  But my way was blocked by Katrina.  No wait.  My way was blocked by Katrina holding a knife to my throat.
     My first instinct was to reach for my sword.   It wasn't there.  Ah, right.  I left both my swords, along with all my armour in the barracks.  Well, that leaves me with one thing to do.  I reached for Gavin's Dagger, which was hanging by my waist.  I hated to wield this.  It didn't feel right in my hands.  When Katrina saw the dagger, she shrunk back.  I didn't pursue her, but held my ground.  "Drop the dagger." I said.
"No" She said firmly.  It was the first time I had ever heard her voice.  She sounded slightly scared, but certainly firm.  I'm sure she was going to hold her ground even if it meant death.  Well, I don't want to kill her.  I'll try something different then.  I put the dagger away and said
"Who's side are you on?"
"That depends.  I'm certainly not on Gavin's side, seeing as the last the last thing I remember was him throwing that" She pointed at the dagger "at me."  She sounded a bit more worried this time.
"If you want to fight against Gavin, this is your team."
"Well then" she said, as she put her dagger away.  "I guess I have no choice but to fight with you."
I smiled.  "So, you're an archer?"
"More or less.  I'm also trained in fighting with short bladed weapons though."  She picked up the bow, studied it and asked "You chose to make this?"
"It was more of an order actually."
She put the bow across her back, and the arrows in a quiver.  This is the first time I had really seen her awake.  She looked like a warrior, with hard leather armour on, and weapons across her back.  Right then, the king walked in.
"I see you're up and about." He said to Katrina.  She nodded, rather stiffly.
"Jack, I want you to train her and to watch her.  You are her guardian now." He said.
"Why not Daniel?  Daniel actually knows something about archery."
"Daniel is extremely busy, as three new archers just applied, and Justin also just received a new student."
"Okay then."
The King left, and Katrina said "So... Jack.  Where do we start?"
"We'll start by getting to know each other.  I am not Jack.  If you want to address me, you say 'hey you' and I know you're talking to me.  You are Katrina.  That's all we need to know.  Now, you said you were trained in short balded weapons?"
"Yes" She responded.
"Take this" I said, throwing her the pouch with Gavin's dagger in it.  She pulled it out with disgust, as we walked to the training grounds.  "This is Justin, and this is-"
"Elizabeth" Justin said.
"Hello." said Katrina.  Elizabeth waved at us.
"Wait here."  I found a crummy looking dummy, who's head was attached to it's body by only a thread.  It was in the corner, with a wooden wall behind it.
"Hit the dummy." I told Katrina.
She looked at me like I had done something wrong.  She threw the dagger faster than I could blink.  The next second, the dummy's body was on the ground, and the dagger stuck quivering in the board behind it.  I smiled, rather impressed when a voice sounded, cause many more to sound.  Over the entire Kingdom three words could be heard.  They said "Defend the castle."

"Stay here."  I told Katrina "I don't want you fighting yet."  She looked at me like I was an idiot.

"If you want to stand a chance, you'll take that back."  she said as she ran to the Southwest archer tower.

 I knew she was faster than me, so I didn't pursue her.  I was still nervous though, as I ran to the barracks to get my stuff.  Inside I grabbed my armour, and my sword.  I thought for a second, and strapped Josh's sword to my back.  Then I proceeded to the battlefield.

Chapter 3

      When I got there, sure enough, I could see Gavin's army in the distance, while Justin organized the mages by class.  I formed the warriors into an eleven by eleven square.  One hundred and twenty-one warriors.  With me, one hundred twenty-two.  At the King's nod I advanced with the armies, and the mages close behind us.  I saw Daniel in the Southeast archer tower.  Good.  At least he wouldn't be in the same tower as Katrina.  When I was about a kilometer away from Gavin's armies I saw Josh leading the army.  Surprised I kept looking for Gavin, but to no use.  Josh was leading the entire army.  He had warriors and the archers mixed together in the front with the mages behind them.

"Tyler, Ashton!" I yelled.  The two ran up to the front.

"Yes?" they both asked together.  They were so similar, they could have been twins.

"I want you to lead the army."

"Why, where are you going?" They were always like this.  four out of five things that came out of their mouths were questions.

"Just do it." I told them, rather forcefully.  I walked ahead of them, and found Josh doing the same thing.  When we were about a yard apart from each other he lunged at me.  I parried his blow with ease.

"Is that all you can do?" I asked mockingly.  He swung an uppercut at me, with so much force that blocking it took the sword from my hands.  I smiled, and pulled Josh's sword from off my back.  Josh saw the sword and got mad.

"Thief!" he yelled.  He yelled some other words to, all of which pretty vile.

I shook my head and said "Finder keepers..."  He went straight for my heart.  I sidestepped, and took a downward thrust for his side.  He was too quick though.  He spun, and managed to cut my cheek a little before I jumped back.  The cut stung.  I kicked him in the chest, and swung my sword around to finish him.  Unfortunately, he rolled away and jumped up, knocking me down.  Before I knew it, his sword was to my throat.  He stomped on my face.  Hard.  He had to add salt to the wound...  I was seeing stars, but I could also see the battle going on behind us.  We were getting trounced pretty badly.  But I also saw an arrow.  It had a turkey feather, and was sticking out of Josh's chest.  He toppled over.  Josh was no more.  I remember hearing shouts, before I - for the second time in a week blacked out on the battle field.

     I was alive, somehow.  I was laying on a bed in the infirmary.  That was embarrassing.  The Kingdoms greatest warrior, out in the infirmary.  There were three people standing around me.  "Why are you guys here?"  I asked.  Justin looked at me, while Katrina and the Queen looked away.

"Who's gunna tell hm?"  He said. I tried to get into a sitting position, but I was shoved back down by Katrina.

"Hey!" I said.  "Tell me what?"

"If you raise your chest above your legs the poison will spread to the rest of your body.  The sword Josh was using was poisoned.  By the time we got you here the poison had spread to your chest, and Justin managed to stop it from spreading further, and if you had stayed asleep for another half hour, Justin could have completely cured you."

"Sorry I guess..."

"Shut up, I'm not done.  You won't be able to move for a while.  Oh yeah, your friend Daniel was killed."

"What?" I yelled, bolting upright, only to be shoved down even harder back onto my bed.

"Just before he died, he said a name.  We believe it was the name of his assassin.  Then he fell out of the window, and Gavin's army took his body.  They left right after that." Justin said

"What was the name?" I asked.

"Miranda."

"Hey wait, I know that name!" said Katrina. "I trained Miranda, she was good!"

I sighed "Justin, I'm going back to sleep.  When I wake up I better not be poisoned."

"Wait."  This was the first thing the Queen had said the entire time.  She handed me a hilt, of fine leather, with steel blade protection, and base.  "We found this on Josh's body after the war."  I looked at it, and noticed that inscribed on the bottom was the word "Godblade"

"Thank you." I said.  I placed it in my drawers, then fell asleep.

     When I woke up again, I was alone.  There was a note on my drawers.  It read - "Jack - Justin has successfully neutralized the poison from your system.  The King has requested your presence as soon as you wake.  - Queen Angie"

I got up, and took my stuff out of the drawers.  The hilt inscribed Godblade on the bottom, my gauntlets, and my obsidian ring.  I put on the ring and took my sword and sheath from the wall.  I clasped it to my belt, and walked outside.  It was night time.  I walked through the darkness in silence.  As I walked I thought about the hilt.  I had never heard of a Godblade before, though it sounded powerful.  I had the hilt now.  All I needed was a blade that fit the hilt right.  I walked up the castle steps, and to my surprise saw the King on his throne, the Queen on hers, and their daughter, Amy on hers. Katrina Elizabeth and Justin were around them.  Strange, how they were all awake.  I wondered how long I had been asleep.  It was probably only the night of the day I woke up.  I walked up to them.

"Good evening." Said the King.   I bowed, but didn't respond.  "I would like the four of you to go on a quest."  Straight to the point, as always.  I was shocked though.  You are technically allowed to go on a quest at the age of nine.  It never happened though.  Everything the King wanted done he had a servant do, unless he didn't trust them.  "I'll need to give you some history first.  There is a crystal, that few have heard of.  The crystal is known as Vroqren, and has the power to change the fate of every man or women on Earth.  It was lost fr centuries, until very recently.  Our side can usually be trusted with Vroqren, so there is a pedestal deep within this castle to hold it.  This is the most powerful of three crystals.  But the other two combined are almost as powerful as Vroqren.  Recently, Gavin found Vroqren.  As you can see this could be pretty bad."

He probably would have said a lot more, but then an arrow zipped through the air and placed itself in King Kyle's throat.  He only just managed to say - "Viylet and Varnich" before he toppled over, dead.  There was only one person who could shoot with that kind of accuracy.  Only one thing  could be possible.  Daniel was not dead.