From The Darkness

Burdened with what felt like a ton, Argos painstakingly climbed his way to the top of Mount Mogden. Accompanied by his best friend Trey, leading about twenty-five of the other students to the peak. They had been warned that the School of Dragons was not for the faint of heart and were reminded of that fact daily. Despite Argos’ medium build and athletic physique, the climb was pushing his physical limits. He wondered how his thick friend Amos was handling the journey, and he smiled when he turned around and saw Amos sitting down and huffing about one hundred yards behind the group.

“Eh, come on ol’ boy!” Argos shouted to Amos. “We haven’t even made it half-way!”

Amos flipped him off in reply and struggled slowly to his feet. It was critical that everyone made it to the top of Mogden before sunset, and the sun was quickly fading behind them. If they did not have shelter before nightfall, their chances of surviving the night would be greatly diminished. The Path of Taren that led them to the summit could not even be considered a path. Some areas had ruts and divots, yards wide, and other areas, the group was scaling boulders every three-hundred feet. Argos’ concern grew as he realized how long this trip was going to take them.

Trey could sense the worry in his best friend. “We’re going to be ok…” Trey told him with uncertainty.

Argos and Trey’s friendship was an unlikely one. They were the opposite in almost every way, including physically. Argos had thick, dark hair, which he always kept neatly trimmed. His eyes were a golden hazel but when the sun hit them just right, people swore they saw them glowing. Trey, on the other hand, had icy, blue eyes and shoulder length hair that was the color of wheat. His looks had always been a priority to him, so he was well aware of his long hair sticking to his forehead, dampened by sweat. He tried taming his hair down but to no avail. The humidity was merciless so he would always give up.

“Remember when we kicked Krin’s ass?” Trey asked Argos, trying to change the subject.

“We??” Argos responded.

“Ok, well, you did more of the kicking, but I was there for moral support, and I doubt you could have taken him.” Trey replied.

“Trey, if you had not been hitting on his girlfriend, we would have never been in that situation to begin with, dumbshit. And if I remember correctly, which I do, you weren’t even going to thank me for saving your pathetic life.”

“That’s not true!” Trey argued. “Look, I don’t like other people fighting my battles for me. That’s all.”

“Yeah, well just remember that the next time I save your life,” Argos retorted.

Trey let out a long breath and looked at Argos. “We’ve really been through some shit haven’t we, brother?”

“Hell yeah we have,” Argos agreed. “But I wouldn’t change that for anything,” he grinned. “I’m going to go check on those that have fallen behind. Stay up with the rest of the group, and make sure everyone is drinking enough water. If it’s not the Togels that will kill us, dehydration will.”

Argos turned and started walking back to where the stragglers had fallen behind. Before he could reach them, the beast of a man known as Krin rudely and abruptly interrupted him.

“Getting tired, are we Argos?” Krin yelled at Argos.

“Nope! Just checking on the whole group, as a leader should” As Argos smirked and kept on walking to the back of the group. As he expected, Amos was in the very back of the group barely keeping up.

“Come on buddy! We need to make it there before nightfall or we will be in a shit load of trouble” Argos shouted.

“Argos, I feel like my heart is going to explode, I can hardly breathe, this pack is killing me”

Argos reached over and grabbed his pack and pulled it off of him.

“What are you doing?” asked Amos.

“Saving your sorry ass from dying back here” Argos explained. Without argument, Amos shrugged his shoulders and continued to trot up the hill.

“I don’t think so!” yelled Argos. “I’m carrying your pack so you better get your fat ass up with Trey or I will throw your pack down this hill”

“Fuck you” Amos said as he began to pick up his pace and make his way up to the front.

Argos was a well built man and even though one pack alone felt heavier than a ton, he knew he had to help out his friend in order for the whole group to make it to the top. Right behind Amos was Argos, encouraging him to keep on going.

By the time they had caught up with Trey, he had already made it to the top where a small cave could be used as shelter.

“Damn, what took you two so long, I’ve been…”

“Oh shut up, I carried this fatass’ pack as well as mine almost half way up” as Argos interrupted Trey and pointed at Amos.

Most of the group had already made it in the cave and were starting to make fires and cook the food they were given. They were still in the beginning phase of training, and even though they knew how to use their powers; they were forbidden to. Caught using powers would result in being sent to day one of training.

Each student in that school was gifted a special power by God, most did not even know of the gift until they were between the ages of ten and eleven. Each power was different, some even had the same power; but all the powers meant one thing: They were born to be a dragon rider.

Being a dragon rider was one of the highest honors a single person could have. It meant you were supposed to be a part of a lifestyle sworn to protect the world and all this in it from the evils there in. Your parents did not necessarily pass that honor to you in their genes, it was understood that you were chosen by God to ride dragons. Not all dragon riders were good either, some would rather use their God-given gift as a tool to get what they wanted and become powerful adversaries to the ones sworn to do good. It has been said that each dragon rider will have a point in their life where they were given a choice, a choice to decide to protect the world, or rather to shape it to their own selfish desires.

Argos stood up and addressed the whole group.

“Ok now that we are all in here, let’s find the next set of instructions.” Argos announced to the group. Everyone began to search around the cave using what light they had. A Small, very easily looked over little man held up his hand and yelled;

“I found it” yelled Brin, as he held up a tiny piece of paper he had found wedged between two rocks.

“Give it here,” said Argos. The little man by the name of Brin began to walk over to Argos, when Krin pushed him over and grabbed the paper.

“Who put you in charge? Who said you are the only one that gets to lead this?” Krin glared at Argos.

“Because he is the only one who is acting like a true leader, Krin.” A beautiful dark haired woman named Kya stood up and asserted. She had a dark tone to her skin, with her brown hair, eyes as green as the grass on a bright sunny day. Her body was that of a woman who had been active her whole life and always took great pride in her appearance. Just her presence alone would make most men stare in utter silence at her beauty.

“I didn’t see you going back to help Amos when he was in need. You only care about getting yourself up the mountain, but when someone needs help, you ignore them, sit down before I make you.”

After hearing the attacking words of Kya, Krin was humbled and sat down. Kya grabbed the piece of paper, but Krin wouldn’t let go. Without a second thought, she grabbed his empty hand and manipulated it in such a manner that it would break. Krin’s face went from anger to sheer pain in a blink of an eye.

“Let it go!” Kya whispered to Krin. Krin glared at Kya and yet again, humbled and defeated, let go.

Kya walked over to Argos. You could hear a pebble drop as every man in that cave watched Kya as she walked through everyone with her chest out and chin up. She had just put down the biggest man there, twice!

“Here you go, leader.” Kya stated as she placed the paper in Argos’ hand.

Argos unfolded the paper and read it out loud: “To the top you have made it, as hard as it was, tomorrow will be that much harder. When you wake, not by your choice, you will have a choice. Fight to keep your life, or die.”

After Argos read those words, it was silent again. The whole group had heard stories of the mountain animals who prey on the unsuspecting, but they never thought they would be in that position. Togels, the mountain beasts, were all they worried about now. They were small creatures, no bigger than a full-grown house cat; alone it was a harmless creature. In packs, however, they were more feared than lions or bears. They were the piranhas of the land. They had sharp claws with lightning speed, and could pounce you before you even knew it was there. Any man could fight off one or even two. This situation, however, was different.

“We need to set up a night watch, two at a time, for one hour,” Argos announced.

“Trey and I will take the first watch, then Amos and Ben, then Kya and Beth…” Argos went on naming the whole group, two by two.

The only weapons they had were what they could create. In the cave was an abundance of sticks and rocks. They all began to make spears and daggers. After each student had some form of protection, they all began to fall asleep. Argos and Trey were just as tired as anyone else there, so they knew they had to talk to stay awake.

“We never finished our talk about your parents,” Trey whispered to Argos.

“That’s because I can’t remember anything about them”

“I just don’t understand how your last memory was of waking up in a cave all beat up and bandaged with no recollection of how it happened” Trey said in a puzzling manner.

“I don’t know either,” Argos replied.

“I’m beginning to have these visions of a disaster, I can’t tell what is happening or anything, all I see is destruction, death and fire, lots of fire.”

“Well you know, it’s said that sometimes God gives us visions of the future so that we can change something for the better,” said Trey.

Argos and Trey continued to talk until their time was up, Trey went over and woke Amos and Ben.

“You’re up Buddy” Trey hit Amos on the shoulder.

“Alright” Amos replied as he slowly opened his eyes after having barely any sleep.

After Amos and Ben were up and ready, Argos and Trey fell right asleep.

Argos woke to a blood-curdling scream, he grabbed his spear and shot up, like everyone else did in the cave. They all could do nothing but watch in terror as eight Togels were tearing apart Brin, the small man who had found the paper. They all watched except Argos, he jumped in and began to kick and stab the creatures, trying to stop them. They had already torn off one of his legs, one had realized Argos was attacking them and leaped towards him. Trey was right there with his spear and had caught the creature flying towards Argos’ head. Trey had pierced the Togel’s body clean through. Blood had splattered all over the ground from Brin’s body as well as the Togels Argos and Trey were killing. Their bravery motivated the others in the group to help. They all began to fight off and kill all the Togels. After a short bloody battle with the mountain creatures, the students had won. But with a casualty, Brin was clinging onto life. Both of his legs had been torn off, you could not tell who he was. His face had been bitten and scratched so much. One of his eyeballs was hanging from its tendons, and his nose was completely bitten off. His torso was ripped open, you could see his intestines, and blood was everywhere. Argos knew he had no chance of living; he knelt down next to Brin.

“We won” Argos whispered to Brin

“We killed all of them!” Trey proclaimed.

Brin was coughing up blood and whimpering. He was clinging onto Argos’ body, hoping he could save him. Brin grabbed his hand as he coughed blood up and began to speak;

“Tell...tell my sister to” Brin let out one last breath, the blood began to spill out of his mouth and run on to the ground. Brin’s one eye still attached was still open and staring right into Argos’ eyes. Argos reached up and closed his eye, and sat there for a second then stood up abruptly and asked;

“Who was supposed to be on watch?” as he looked around the room, awaiting an answer.

“Beth and I woke Krin and Chris” said Kya

“Who did you wake up Chris?” asked Argos.

Chris just hung his head in shame, knowing he had fallen asleep, causing the death of Brin. Argos began to storm over to Chris when Kya stood up and put her hand on his chest.

“Enough blood has been spilt, he will answer for this,” Kya said softly to Argos.

“Everyone get your packs together; we are heading out.” Stated Argos as he glared at Krin and Chris. Krin was silent; he knew he had fucked up.

Everyone began to pack and get ready to move on. Their next destination was a giant lake, which was famous for its legendary monster. A two-headed beast with razor sharp teeth. It lived deep in an underwater cave. It used the water the same way the spider uses a web. If you put your toe in the water, this monster will come. He was known as The Sether. It was an easy walk to the lake, for the task when they arrived would be challenging. In the middle of this lake was a tiny island, no bigger than a small sailboat. On this island, however, was a stone, a stone needed to get back home to the school.

As they marched down the path to the lake, suddenly Argos fell to the ground with his eyes tightly closed, yelling in terror and screaming.

“Everyone back!” yelled Trey. “I think he’s having another vision,” he muttered to himself.

Two dragons and their riders in a fierce battle, one rider makes the daring move to jump from his dragon to his opponent’s dragon in hopes to kill the unsuspecting rider. If the rider of a dragon dies, that dragon needs to be killed immediately. A widowed dragon becomes completely uncontrollable, forgets all training, kills and eats everything in sight. But if the other dragon sees him, he can catch him in his mouth and crush him, killing him, and widowing his dragon.

Argos' vision continues.

The rider who jumped to another dragon is now rocketing through the air, sword drawn, and pointing right at the other rider in black. The rider in black sees the flying rider rocketing towards him. He draws his sword just as the other rider’s sword pierces his heart, killing him and widowing his dragon. As they plummet to the earth, Argos can see in his vision that both riders are falling, as well as both dragons. He finally gets a glimpse of the two riders with the sun acting as a backboard; he notices that the black rider had pulled his sword as well and pierced the other rider’s heart.

“No!” Argos screamed.

Waking him out of the vision. Everyone was now standing around him.

“Are you okay?” Asked Kya

Argos stood up as fast as he could.

“I’m fine!” he declared. “Keep on moving! We’re killing daylight!” he ordered.

Trey just stared at Argos. “What the hell was that?”

“Another vision from the future I think, but this time it was a battle between two riders and I felt really emotional when one was killed” Argos Answered.

“Do you think it was you?” Trey asked again.

“No, I could see both of their faces, they looked very familiar but I could not tell you their names.” Said Argos.

“You and your crazy ass visions, maybe you’ll see a beautiful woman, instead of these whales we got here” said Trey as he laughed and looked back. The first girl he saw was Kya, who was just staring at him for what he just said.

“Oh baby, you know I didn’t mean you,” he explained.

Beth, who was very large for a woman, not in a fat manner of speaking but very muscular, she had broad shoulders and huge arms, with a deep voice for a woman. She had long hair but it was in a ponytail, and had been ever since anyone can remember.

“You better not be talking about me!” Beth demanded.

“Save me.” Trey whispered to Argos.

Argos smirked.

“You’re on your own on this one brother," he said.

Beth gave Trey a death stare.

“If you ever call me a whale again, Togels will be the last of your worries” she said.

“Not a problem!” he quickly replied.

They soon made it to the Lake, Cantoney Lake.

“You know they say nobody has ever seen this lake and lived to tell.” Argos heard someone say something from the group.

“Ha! Then how does anyone know where it’s at?” Argos laughed as he said, shortly joined by everyone else’s laughter.

Ignorant to the consequences of his actions, Chris, while in laughter, picked up a rock and began to draw his arm back as if to throw it.

Trey screamed;

“No!” As he dove to tackle Chris to prevent him from throwing a rock into the lake; as they both fell to the ground, Chris dropped the rock. Everyone watched in frozen terror as the rock bounced its way down the bank. Finally hitting its mark, breaking the mirror-like reflection of the perfectly still water. The ripples sent a message through the water, as well as a wave of fear consuming all those who stood next to the lake.

“What have you done?!” Trey barked as they both stood from the ground.

“Now we are all going to...”

Before he could finish, the water broke, as if a giant bomb had gone off beneath the surface of the water. The Sether had broken through the water and landed no more than one hundred feet away from the group. The Sether cannot be out of the water for more than a few seconds. A few seconds was all it needed to strike fear and hopelessness in the heart of all who beheld it. Standing almost ten feet tall, each leg the size of a full-grown man, four arms just as big as its legs, each with sword-like claws hanging from the fingers. One head was that of a man, dark blue skin with black as night eyes, teeth whiter than pearls and sharper than arrows. The other head was that of something you could only imagine in your darkest of dreams, eyes that were glowing red, teeth also very white and seemed to be even sharper than the man's head's teeth. Its whole body was covered in muscles, muscles that helped it move like lightning under the water. Just as quickly as it came, it left, diving back into the water, waiting for the first poor soul to enter.

Each test they were going to be given was going to have a theme, a lesson to teach. The first test was sheer endurance, making it up the never-ending mountain. The second was a test of discipline, staying awake to keep watch no matter how tired you were.

“What was this lake beast going to teach us?” Argos thought to himself.

“How are we going to reach that stone with that monster in there?” Trey asked in terror.

“Distraction!” Kya responded.

Kya then began to explain her plan and how she thought it could get done.

“We will need a boat, something that can move swiftly across the water. Only big enough for two people to cross to the middle…”

Argos punched in.

“The others will be on the opposite side of the lake making all the noise and as many distractions as they can.

Kya nodded in approval as Argos read her mind.

“Kya and I will cross in the boat” Stated Argos

Argos and Kya then ran around to the other side of the lake and began to make a small boat just big enough for them. While the others stayed put and did what they could to fortify their position.

Once both sides were ready, Argos gave the signal to start making noise and again break the surface of the calm water.

The whole group began to scream and yell and throw rocks into the water, making as much noise as they could.

The beast slowly emerged from the deep, this time only sticking out its head as if taunting the humans on the beach. The Sether knew he couldn’t fight outside the water, but there was plenty he could do from the water. His head disappeared under the water, at the same time; the group drew silent, waiting to see what would happen next.

A rock shot from the water as if shot from a catapult, striking Chris directly in the forehead. It was too fast to try and block, Chris’ body didn’t even move. He just stood there, unable to move, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Beth looked over at Chris and could see the forest behind him, through his head. The rock had gone clean through Chris’ head. Blood had splattered all over the tree Chris was standing in front of. Chris dropped to his knees, and then slowly leaned forward, hitting the ground, face down, dead.

“Take cover!” Screamed Trey, ordering everyone to get behind something solid. As they all scrambled to find cover, more rocks came bolting through the air from the water, none hitting their lethal marks, but still striking even more fear in all of them.

This was not going at all how they planned.

Argos and Kya could hear the commotion and thought it would be a good time to start their crossing.

They both began to paddle as fast as they could, in hopes to get to the middle quicker. The Sether was already there. It shot up from the water right under the boat, shattering the wood and tossing the two into the water, his territory. Argos opened his eyes under water and made eye contact with the beast. Both were still, both puzzled and trying to figure out what was so odd. The beast recognized Argos, and Argos the beast. Just then Argos had another vision, but this time it was from the view of someone’s eyes. In this vision, he could see the beast floating in the water with multiple spears in its back. As his vision continued, Argos noticed the person he was envisioning had bite marks, still bleeding, fresh on his right shoulder from the beast. Argos was motionless, but the beast was not, it was out for revenge.

The Sether darted towards Argos with the intent of biting both sides of his neck and ripping his throat out. Just a few feet before it reached Argos, Kya had impaled the human head of the beast with her handmade spear. Argos snapped out of the vision as both Kya and the beast swam into him. Both heads missing their target, one head impaled by a spear from Kya, Argos quickly drew his dagger and shoved it down the throat of the other nightmare of a head. The entire beast was lifeless. Blood flowing from its body, turning the crystal-clear water into a dark murky red color. Argos and Kya both shot to the surface gulping for air.

“Well, that was easier than I thought it was going to be,” Kya said in relief.

Argos was still puzzled by his vision and did not hear or acknowledge Kya.

“Hey! You okay?” Kya splashed Argos.

“Oh, yeah yeah I’m fine” Argos said softly.

They both then swam to the center. The stone was just sitting on an altar in the middle of the island. It was a bright orange color and glistened as the sun beat down upon it. Kya reached out and grabbed it and put it in her bag. Their boat was destroyed so they just swam to the bank where the group was waiting. There was no more fear; the beast was still floating there with the weapons still penetrated in both of its heads.

“They got the stone!” proclaimed Beth as she ran in excitement to the water, the rest followed.

“Are you okay?” asked Trey, he could see something was bothering Argos.

The whole group went back to where they had put down their packs and sat down to take in their victorious battle.

Krin had always hated Argos since the beginning, and now he hated him more. Krin didn’t have the courage or bravery to act as Argos did, but he still wanted the glory that came along with it. He just sat in hate as the whole group praised Kya and Argos for their victory.

They were near water, so they decided they should probably bathe and wash their clothes.

“Ladies first!” Argos said after telling everyone the plan of bathing and laundry.

All the guys sat down with their backs to the water, as the women stripped their bodies of their clothes and got in the water. Argos, being the leader, had to keep watch for trouble.

It wasn't his priority; he shouldn't have been as interested as he was, but he couldn't help but glance as Kya's blouse came off, revealing her perfectly proportioned breasts. He didn't even realize that his breath quickened and his mouth was salivating as he snapped back, but her motions quickly drew him back as her pants slid down those toned legs, revealing the ass that filled his thoughts with images of bending her over a rock and showing her just how hard she made his blood pump.. He immediately tried to hide it, in this attempt he kicked over a rock, causing Kya to look over at him. He knew he had made a loud noise and he looked up. They made eye contact, this time she was facing him, completely nude. The sun was shining off her golden brown skin and making her eyes shine. His heart began to pump as he stared at her in amazement. She did not care one bit; in fact she was enjoying the wonder of his look. She bent down at the waist to pick up her clothes, never once taking her eyes off of him. Argos, however, was looking at her entire body as she bent over, the curves in her back made him want to bend her over a rock and ravish her from behind. Her hair would make a perfect handle to grab onto and pull as he thrust deep inside her. Before he could finish his thought, someone yelled at him.

“Hey! Mind your eyes” yelled Beth as she stood there naked as well.

Argos quickly turned his body to face away from the woman in the water. The women were soon done and put their one other set of clothes on and walked up to their packs.

“Go clean your nasty asses,” Beth ordered as she picked up her bag.

Argos stood up and as he walked down to the water, he walked past Kya.

“Tonight” she whispered in his ear as she ran her hand below his waist.

Argos had to wait a minute to take off his clothes, thanks to Kya, so he acted as if he could not untie a knot on his blouse. After his blood settled down and his body returned to normal, he took off his shirt. He almost immediately noticed old barely visible scars on his shoulder, bite marks from a beast.

“Was the vision me?” he thought to himself. “Have I been here before? Who was I before the cave?”