Chapter 2

And so, after quite a while, it is finally here! Unfortunately, it is now without a drawing. Because Basse, of AOKH, didn't have the time. But enjoy the writing, and please comment.

Chapter 2

While walking the horses along the path, Lucius thought about the recent battle. His victory over that hopeless "hero" Charles made him proud. "One less to take down after I find the secrets of the Serentine," Lucius thought. He could never hope to understand these do-gooders, with their hopeless sense of what's right and wrong. To Lucius, there was no right or wrong, there was only what suited him and what didn't suit him. The horses kept plodding along for hours on end and everything was quiet. There was only the murmuring sound of hooves and wheels against gravel. This was becoming unbearable for Lucius. He felt like going berserk, but knew that this would not be fit for a man of his stature. He was after all, the son of a noble. However, the silence remained and Lucius cautiously studied his men. Perhaps even they were becoming agitated from all of this silence. But they were just as silent, their backs straight, but relaxed. Moving with the horses and looking at the calm, beautiful blue sky and the bronze cliffs. It was a marvelous view. In the background, Lucius could hear the birds singing, adding to the tranquility of the situation. Of course, being the man that he was, this only proved to irritate him further. After another hour of riding, they reached a river with trees of all sorts on both sides of the road. Close by the river, there was a berry bush, and as far as the eye could see just the same dull path as before.

In a split second Lucius looked straight in the eye of a forest wolf. "Die, you spawn of the Serentine!" he yelled. His pupils expanded, and his face became red with anger. He had pushed his patience to the limit and even beyond that. His horse, frightened by this sudden outburst of anger, did what it was told and charged against the wolf. Had it been a less aggressive man sitting on the beast, it would surely run amok. But it was no other man, it was Lucius. He directed the horse to the left of the wolf, then he swung his sword against it. The wolf flew backwards from the blow, leaving the sword full of blood and fur. Now Lucius paid attention to his men, and saw the terrified looks on their faces. However, this did not calm him down. "Comrades, show me to my next prey. There is more killing to do!" His men had frozen in panic. They had seen Lucius be blood thirsty before, but never like this. One of the men pointed a shaking hand towards an abandoned mining camp. "Up there, sir. There's a horse up there!" The man's voice was trembling with fear. "But Lucius, why must it be killed?" Now Lucius stopped, the silence being a much more efficient tool for creating fear then yelling at once. Then Lucius spoke: "Are you a coward?" His voice was calm, but frightening. "No sir, I am not a coward." The man was still frightened, but he was able to hide some of it now. But only until Lucius yelled at him. "Then you'll get out of my way before I pierce your heart with an arrow!" The man threw his horse around and galloped at full speed in the other direction. He couldn't take it anymore. He had to get away from this madman! Lucius let him go, it wouldn't give him any pleasure killing the man now. But the horse had to die.

The horse was standing on its spot, peacefully, as if waiting for its owner to return. It paid no attention to the crazy man on the crazy horse galloping towards it. Almost as if this was an everyday thing. Lucius pulled out his crossbow and shot the beast, the arrow piercing its lung. Then, wanting to show the animal a little mercy, he pulled his spear out and threw it towards the horse. It went straight to its heart, and killed it in an instant.

Lucius gave a sigh of relief, his thirst for blood was dissipating. But it wasn't all gone, he needed one more kill. With one eye closed and one eye squinted, he spotted a deer halfway up a hill. Feeling that his own horse would give in to its exhaustion, he ordered one of his men to dismount. As he led his horse to a nearby haystack, he said to the dismounted knight: "Thank you, I shall be using your horse to charge the deer. Then the blood stain will follow you for the rest of your miserable life!" Then he laughed, he laughed such an evil laugh that even the Serentine would be scared. Lucius mounted the horse of his knight, and made it walk slowly towards the deer. This was to build suspense, as his men watched in horror. Then Iroh, Lucius' spy, spoke: "This man is so unpredictable, let us watch and learn from him".

Lucius used his rains and urged the horse forward. It was a well trained horse, and it knew what was going to happen. And so it rushed forward into a gallop. The speed it was capable of attaining awed even Lucius. But he pushed it even more, and rammed the horse into the deer. It all happened so fast that the deer didn't even know it was hit, before it was in the middle of the air. Being the master of archery that he was, Lucius pulled out his crossbow and actually shot the animal mid-air. It was a direct hit and the deer was dead by the time it hit the ground.

Lucius returned to his men. He said nothing, but everyone could see that he was pleased. His horse, knowing intuitively that it was time to move on, came to him by itself. Silently Lucius mounted his horse, and ordered his men to follow him by a simple wave of his hand.

As they continued riding towards an unknown destination, Lucius thought back to when the Serentine arrived in this land. The first anyone noticed of their presence was the change in the weather. Of course, no one knew that this was because of the Serentine but it was a fact. Before they arrived there were mild winters, and warm summers. But now few even survived the winters, in spring they could barely put the seeds in the ground. In summer it never got really warm, and in fall the farmers would have to collect the grain prematurely. This resulted in too little food for winter, and it all went down in a never ending evil spiral. It had gradually gotten worse since the first sitings of a strange people were reported.

Lucius could still remember when the first Serentine commander came into the capitol. That dreadful afternoon, ten years back. The commander and his soldiers looked like men, but they did not feel that way. When Lucius saw them on that day, all his thoughts went dark. He got depressed, but he didn't understand why. That very same day, he had become acknowledged by his father and achieved a certain status in the community. Lucius would also get his inheritance, which secured his position. But when he looked upon these strange people, riding on even stranger beasts he couldn't shake the feeling that something would go terribly wrong. This inheritance from his father would make him a rich man. This should have made him happy. He also had a girl that loved him, her name was Hannah. She was the most lovely thing Lucius had ever set his eyes upon, and she was his. As the Serentine commander and his guards had passed, Lucius' spine warmed up again. He, Lucius, decided to go see Hanna. Perhaps she would cheer him up again. It was a long walk from the marketplace to her house, but Lucius didn't care. He knew that his well exercised legs would carry him to her even if she was on the other side of the world. The closer he came, the more happy thoughts emerged in his head. He thought of how Hannah and he would get married, the children they would make and all the adventures he could go out on with all his mates. Things actually looked good. Which it hadn't done for a long time. After about thirty minutes of walking Lucius arrived at Hannah's house. It was a beautiful little cottage, kind of the house that Lucius would want for him and Hannah and now with his fathers money he would get it. He had to tell Hannah the good news, she would be thrilled. "Perhaps I should startle her a little, just give her a little fright?" Thought Lucius. He walked over to the eastern wall of the house. This side has a large plant growing upwards, the plant had been there as long as Lucius could remember and it had grown so large that it could support a mans weight. He made no sound as he approached the vine, and started climbing it. The vine cracked a little as he started climbing, but not enough to keep Lucius from continuing to climb upwards. As he neared Hannah's window, he heard two voices coming from her room. One of the voices was a voice he would have recognized at a miles distance, it was Hannah. But that other voice, he had heard it before but could not remember where. However, as Lucius peeked into the window he realized who it was. It was the mayors son, Arikin. That slimy, slick and actually quite attractive young bastard. "But what am I thinking?" Thought Lucius. "He's probably just here on some official business, and as any other guy he would want to say hi to the prettiest girl in the capitol." But Lucius' happy line of thought ended quite quickly. It ended just as he saw Arikin lean over and kiss Hannah, and it was not any kind of a kiss. The whole ordeal was quite passionate, and worst of it all, Hannah didn't object. She kissed him back! Lucius froze into place, he could not move a limb. All he could do was stand there, and watch as Arikin started undressing the woman he loved with all his heart. His instinct was to rush in the window, and just go berserk. Instead Lucius could feel a teardrop forming in the very corner of his eye, and just as Arikin started caressing Hannah's body the teardrop prickled down his cheek. But still he didn't move, the only reaction Lucius was capable of coming with was a weak sobbing and to let the tears continue to stream down his face. Just to top things of the sky had become filled with gray, heavy clouds and it started to rain.

Once home, Lucius was soaking wet. There wasn't a dry spot on him. He took of his wet clothes and pulled a large blanket over his shoulders. Then he found a corner, sat down and wept. It took him three hours of crying before he finally fell asleep. As he woke up the following morning, only one thought was stuck in his head. Revenge!

Chapter Two, almost done!

Hello everybody!

First I want to thank you for waiting for so long. But now it's soon here. Just missing the finishing touches, and the illustrations.

Hopefully it'll be out by next week.

News update, poems

First of all I want to thank you all for the positive comments I have recieved on other pages. Secondly that I am well on my way towards the second chapter.

But something new is in the second chapter. Lucius will get in touch with his creative side. For Palex in world 1 at Tribal Wars has graciously lendt me his dark poems so that I might use them in my story. Hopefully this will create more depth to the character and story.

So keep checking in here for more news, and soon the next chapter.

Regards,
M_M_T