The Silver Citadel

An atramentous sky covered Cole’s face, he looked up into the raven colored sky as ash fell all around him. As Cole tried to pull himself off the cold, hard ground, he realized that his village was stricken with a boundless darkness that lurked all around them. The dense air stained charcoal gray with a glowing red aura between the two mountains. Which created an eerie backdrop of the fate of what was to become.

As Cole ran toward the village he thought about the orphanage he grew up in and was hoping that it was not destroyed and his best friend Tyler was ok. Cole could see the top of the village church but stopped dead in his tracks when he realized that it was on fire. He could see other villagers trying to put out the fire with buckets of water. As Cole went to grab a bucket to fill with water to help other villagers put out fires the church started to collapse and a piece of wood hit him on the head and knocked him out.

(a couple hours later)the village doctor kneeled down by Cole’s body shaking him, asking “Are you hurt? Can you hear me?” Cole opened his eyes and responded to the doctor saying, “Yes I am ok, what happened?” Cole asked. “The dragon burned down almost all of the village, you tried putting out a fire when a piece of debris hit you on the head. You have a nasty gash on the side of your head but, some medicine and rest will help you with all that.”

“Thank you” Cole said as he sat up, he began to look around and realized that there must have been thirty other people laid out on blankets who were all wounded or dead from the dragon attack.

Cole could hear his name being called but didn’t know where it was coming from, “Cole!! Hey Cole!! Are you there?” “Yeah I am, I am over here”, it was Tyler. Cole’s best and only friend. “How are you feeling?” Tyler asked, with a worried look on his face. “I mean I am still alive but I am a little hungry” Cole said with a smile on his face, then fletcher’s mood changed to worry. “How bad is it?” asked Cole. “It is pretty bad, almost all the houses are gone, and the church is destroyed, same with the market area.”

“What about the orphanage?” Cole asked with a sad look on his face. “It didn’t make it Cole I am sorry.” Tyler said with sad look on his face, “I know you and I grew up there and we have a lot of memories and everything, but what we do now the village is in ruined?” Tyler sat down by Cole and looked up at the sky, “I wonderwhat he is thinking” Cole said.

Cole sat up and started to realize that his home his memories have all been burned to ash. “What if me and you go and get revenge on the dragon?” Cole said with a whisper just enough for Tyler to hear what he was saying. Tyler started to laugh then gave Cole a look as if he just slapped him with a glove.

“Are you serious?!?! Oh yeah let’s just go grab our dragon slaying swords and armor and go kill us a dragon” Tyler said sarcastically.

“Good point we don’t have anything to defend ourselves or any weapons we should probably go to a big city and find us a blacksmith” Cole said. “Do you think that we could make it to another village or city? We don’t have any weapons or armor and barely any money” Tyler said with a sad look on his face. “I have some money stashed away in my chest at the old stone mill, but I know I don’t have any weapons or armor laying around. I bet we could find something at our village’s old blacksmithing shop even though it burn down in the attack. We could find a sword or two maybe even other useful stuff too” Cole said with anticipation.

“Ok. I will go look around and see if I can find anything that can help us for our trip. You go see if you can find anything at the blacksmith shop then head over to the old mill that’s where we will meet up” said Tyler as he ran off. Nightfall has arrived and Tyler and Cole are making their way through the village. “It’s all cold and the ground looks like an empty night sky with no stars, like an Abyss.” Said Cole with a shiver going up his spine. Cole reaches the blacksmith’s shop and begins to look around, “I should try and see if there is anything under all this rubble. And take a look around.” Added Tyler. “I’ll try looking around the building first” said Cole.

He begins to walk around the ruined building when he trips over something. Groaning, Cole says angrily, “I hate not being able to see anything because of all this soot”. He gazes around the room more, when he notices something sticking out from under the soot and ash. “What is this?” he said to himself. As Cole begins to shovel away all the soot with his hands, he pick up the weird metal object and pulls up with almost all the strength he had left. “Damn this thing is heavy. One last good pull should do it”. But, before Cole pulls up the unusual object, Tyler shows up with two leather bags. “I said to look around for weapons not try and lift heavy metal things.” he said sarcastically. “What is that anyway?” Tyler added.

“I have no idea but either way it’s metal and shiny, so maybe we could sell it. Help me pull it up” Cole said. “Ok on 3. 1, 2, 3!!” Tyler screamed as he and Cole launched it above their heads, “It landed over there let’s see what it is.” Cole said excitedly. As Cole and Tyler reach the heavy metal object they stop and stare at each other and Tyler says, “wait before we go see what it, how do we decide on who gets it?” “Um… I get it obviously. I am the one that found it and was trying to pull it out of all that rubble” Cole said sternly. “But I am older, and I helped you pull it out.”

“We are almost the same age and I found it first” said Cole. “Fine… I guess you can have it but, I get the next cool thing we find, deal?” said Tyler all moppy. “Deal” Cole said all happy, “now, let’s go see what it is.Hopefully it’s something valuable, and we can sell it” said Cole. Cole reaches the metal object and he attempted to try and pull it out of the ground, but it took a while. Tyler had to give him some assistance, and the two boys were both happy to find out that it was a steel shield. “Wow this thing is way heavy but, I bet it could stop a bull!” Said Cole.

“Hey Tyler, what is in the big leather bags you brought with you?” questioned Cole. “Oh yeah I forgot to show you, this bag is for me and this one’s for you”. Tyler hands over a big leather bag to Cole and says “I was going to give this to you for your birthday in a few weeks but, might as well give it to you now.” Cole opens the big leather bag and pulls out a nice black leather jacket with black wolf fur lining. ”It also has a hood and a few pockets” Tyler said with smile on his face. “Do you like it? Cause if not, we can always sell it” said Tyler nervously. Cole looks at the jacket, and then back up at Tyler, “No I like it a lot. Thank you Tyler. How did you get enough money to buy this?” Asked Cole.

“It’s a month of pay from working at the Lumber Mill. It wasn’t fun getting splinters everyday either, so you better be grateful” joked Tyler. Cole laughed, “Don’t worry I like it. What else is in the bag that you gave me? And what’s in yours?” asked Cole. “All that’s left in your bag is a bedroll attached to the top of the bag and inside, some kindling to start a fire. Some jerky from a stag that I hunted a few days ago, you also have a water pouch and couple apples that were not covered in ash and soot.”

“I have about the same amount of stuff in my bag, I also found this in someone’s burned down home” Tyler pulls a curved short sword out of the side of the bag. “Whoa that’s cool!” Cole exclaimed, “I can’t believe you just found that laying around in someone’s home!” “Yeah we should try and find you something that goes with that new shield of yours, maybe a longsword or a mace?’’ Said Tyler with a smile on his face.

“Yeah hopefully we can find something like that” Cole said tiredly. “Let’s go check the chest I have at the old mill now. Hopefully, no one took it” said Tyler with anticipation. Cole and Tyler run to the old run down mill at the edge of the village border. “Now if I remember right, I put it under the loose floorboard inside. So, we don’t have to spend forever looking for it, I will go inside and get it and you stay out here” Tyler said as he went inside the cold abandoned mill.

As Cole was waiting for Tyler to come out with the chest, he decided to walk around. While Cole was walking around he saw something moving just pass the tree line. He stopped and tried to see what it was, Cole started to slowly walk backwards to the mill then he saw the big shadowy figure creep out of the tree line, what he saw made his heart stop. It was a Warg.

They are like wolves but bigger and vicious and they always travel in packs but, this one seemed alone. Cole slowly stepped back but the Warg lunged at him so quickly, Cole barely had enough time to put his shield up. The Warg knocked Cole to the ground and tried to bite him but, the shield was stopping the enormous beast from seeking its teeth down on Cole. He started to yell for help just when Tyler comes running out with his short sword and stabs the Warg in the eye, killing it instantly. “Whoa that thing is huge! I wonder if there are more out there” said Tyler panting.

“I hope not. We should get inside the mill for tonight and head out in the morning” said Cole. “Let’s drag the Warg inside too” said Tyler. “Why would we do that?” Cole said with a confused look on his face, “it could attract more of them and we don’t need that.” he added. “We can skin him and sell it for money, we can also sell his claws and his teeth. I know people would buy them” said Tyler looking around to see if there are any more outside watching them. “If you say so but, we better just do it quickly. Ok you grab the front paws and I’ll grab the back” said Cole. Cole and Tyler drag the Warg inside the old mill and begin to skin the black beast.

“We should leave tomorrow morning for a city, so we can get some more equipment. Maybe we can find other people to join us, cause it will be hard fighting a dragon on our own” said Tyler, a bit breathy, for he was exhausted. “Good idea. Well, now that we got it skinned let’s get some sleep” said Cole yawning, he already dozing off. Cole and Tyler both fall asleep in the cold mill, and they get up early in the morning and both eat an apple.

“Hey we should head out and see if we can find another village or some populated area” said Tyler rubbing his eyes. “Sounds good. Let’s go. Oh wait, did you ever find that chest?” Asked Cole. “Yeah I did, there was more than I thought. I bet we both can buy a cheap sword and some armor.” said Tyler with a smile on his face.

Both Cole and Tyler walk out of the mill but, spot a caravan full of soldiers. One of the soldiers stops in front of the mill and askes Cole and Tyler “where are you from?” Cole responds, “We are from a small village from the South. Our village was attacked by a dragon, so we are trying to track it down”. The soldier laughs at Cole and Tyler, “If you really want to follow that demon, he was heading north to the silver citadel. It is about a three days walk from here. It’s where everyone is going that was attacked by that beast.” “Ok thank you, we will head there right now” said Cole. “Well Tyler, looks like we found out where we’re going next let’s head to the silver citadel”.