Heroes Aren't Born
I took a deep breath as I walked through the trees and out onto the clearing at the edge of a cliff that overlooked Greenguard Forest.
“This was always our place,” I said softly to myself as I set my pack down and began pulling a small ceramic pot out of it, “This is where you gave me my first sword, taught me how to clean and sharpen it.” My voice cracked on the last word and I had to take another deep breath to recompose myself. Tears had begun to slip from my eyes and roll down my cheeks.
“We made it, dad,” I spoke again, “I made it. Almost entirely thanks to you, how you raised me,” My voice cracked again and I let the silence grow for a moment. Then I walked to the edge of the cliff, pulled the lid off the pot and moved to dump it off the edge
As I upturned the pot and dumped my father’s ashes over the edge of the cliff, the wind began to pick up hard enough that I was concerned that I’d angered an unseen wind elemental. But as I looked around, something flew over me and the shadow it cast was large enough to throw everything around me into shade. Tilting to look up, I saw a very large red thing plummet from the sky. When the thing landed at the base of the cliff, the ground shook hard enough that I nearly lost my balance. As I regained my composure and looked forward again, I found my gaze met with a large pair of glowing amber eyes.
Wait, is that a dragon!?
I began to panic but fought hard to keep it down, instead drawing my sword and preparing to do…anything? As the dragon began to lift its head, I let out a war cry and began to charge forward. Sure, this thing could easily kill me but that doesn’t mean I have to go down without a fight. Seconds later though, I came to a skidding halt out of confusion. The dragon was seemingly bowing its head to me.
As it lowered far enough for the top of its head to be level with the cliff I stood on, it revealed the two riders that were on it; one was a moglin, a small red creature with very large ears. The other was a woman wearing an ornate white and gold robe, with a hood obscuring her face and a large black box held in her arms. I blinked a few times before the moglin spoke, his voice high pitched but not shrill.
“Hiyas!” He said, before turning back toward the woman, “The path is clear, Priestess!”
The moglin hopped off the dragon’s head first, followed by the Priestess.
“Please pardon us friend,” she said as the two of them moved past me, “we’re just passing through.”
Once they were gone, I turned around and my gaze met the same glowing pair of eyes as earlier.
“Uh,” I said, “hi?”
The dragon huffed, a bit of smoke exiting from its nose before it crouched then leapt skyward. For the second time I was almost knocked off my feet, this time from the wind that came from the dragon’s wings as it shot skyward.
Huh. That’s…not something you see every day. I thought to myself, still a little in shock as I tried to casually dust the non-existent dirt off my chest plate. Shaking my head, a small smile spreading across my lips, I turned around and began to head toward the tree line when I heard a scream. It sounded like the moglin from before.
With sword still in hand, I began to sprint in the direction they had gone.
As I grew closer to where I thought the cry had come from I began to hear a man’s voice, though I wasn’t quite close enough to make out his words yet. I slowed a bit to try and gather a sense of what was happening ahead but I heard the man speak again.
“Give me the box Priestess, and we’ll kill you quickly.”
That was all I needed to hear to know that these guys were bad, so I charged forward once more. As I burst through the trees, everybody in the clearing turned to look at me.
I counted two bandits and a third guy, possibly their leader. He had dark hair, a purple cape and what looked to be an iron crown on his head.
“Velyn!” The Priestess shouted, “We must protect the Black Dragon Box at all costs!”
“Got it!” I shouted, swinging my blade at the man who seemed to be in charge.
“I don’t know who you are, or why you want that box but,” I began, but the man cut me off as he blocked my attack.
“My name is DRAKATH!” He screamed and launched his own attack wildly, causing one of the bandits with him to jump back or be injured by Drakath.
“I am the leader of the Darkwolf Bandits!” Drakath continued, swinging his sword again for emphasis.
As I blocked his blade, he went on some more.
“I am the rightful ruler of this land and that box is the key to my throne,” his eyes were wild now as he continued to scream, making him look exceptionally deranged, “and there’s no way I’m going to let a peasant like you stand in my way! Stand down or, like the trash that you are, you will be blown away by the winds of my great destiny!”
“Buddy,” I said with a grunt of effort as I knocked away another one of his attacks, “I was gonna take the box and leave but you just made this personal.”
As he drew back for his next swing, I threw myself forward and slammed my forehead against his nose. I could hear a satisfying crunch that left Drakath stumbling backward.
At that moment a horn blew in the distance, followed by another that seemed closer and then a third that was almost on top of us.
“Boss,” One of the bandits said, “we’ve gotta go, the oaklore guards are comin’!”
“No!” Drakath screamed, “you got lucky this time, peasant!”
The three of them turned and began to flee deeper into the trees. As much as I would’ve liked to follow them and finish the fight, I needed to check on the two that I had come to help.
“Are you two okay?” I asked.
The moglin looked a little dazed and had what looked like dirty boot treads on his chest.
Did they kick the little guy?
“Thank you for coming to our aid,” The Priestess said, “but during the fight a sneevil managed to run off with the box.”
“What? Isn’t that box important? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Well, you were in the middle of a fight with three opponents,” She spoke calmly, “I didn’t think it was the best time to distract you.”
I just stood there blinking in silence, not knowing what to say.
“I can pay you, if you’ll assist us with recovering the box,” She began, but before she could continue a large blonde man in plate mail wielding a very heavy looking ornate war-hammer burst into the clearing. He slid to a halt, eyes going wide as they met the Priestess.
“Lady Celestia,” he nearly shouted, “what are you doing here? The escort party said you never arrived at the meeting location!”
“We were apprehended by some bandits, Captain,” she responded, “but this individual here came to our rescue.”
The captain turned and looked me up and down slowly. I could almost see the gears turning in his head as he seemingly upped my importance in his mind.
“Well,” he said, “Thank you for helping the Priestess. You may call me Captain Rolith. What’s your name?”
“Oh, it’s not a problem,” I said cheerfully, sheathing my sword and holding my hand out to the captain, “I’m Velyn Alfyr. I just happened to be at the right place, at the right time.”
He nodded then turned back to the Lady, “Well, if you’ll at least let me escort you the rest of the way to Falconreach I would be a lot more comfortable.”
“Oh,” I said, “I can help, I’m headed there myself!”
Lady Celestia smiled and nodded, saying, “Yes, I’d appreciate the company.”
