The Dark World

Chapter 2: Then there were three

Third pov

Ezekiel was climbing the crumbling staircase of an old ruined castle when a blade missed his face a mere few centimetres, it threw him off guard, startling him enough that he lost his footing and fell off the stairs landing at the bottom.

Cairn appeared and descended down the stairs fast as lighting and raised his blade up ready to strike down into Ezekiel’s heart. Ezekiel had less than a second, but it was all he needed as he withdrew his sword and blocked the death strike Cairn had gone for.

He pushed his blade against Cairns and climbed to his feet at the same time. Their swords clashed and slashed as they tried to strike one another. Ezekiel rolled out of the way before Cairn could s***h at where his shoulder had been moments ago. Cairn growled in frustration and was sweating from the fight.

The next strike Cairn made threw Ezekiel off guard for it wasn’t at him but behind him. Turning around, Ezekiel saw a pack of hawkers, the one Cairn had gutted was lying dead on the floor.

Hawkers were ugly creatures that worked in packs. They were hunched over and walked somewhat like a human, but their bodies were covered in dark red feathers, their humanoid hands and feet had bird like talons. Their faces were malformed, orange glowing eyes, two slits for a nose and a mouth that had no lips but lots and lots of razor sharp teeth.

Cairn drew his blade up in defence, ready for an attack. Ezekiel quickly joined his side and held up his own blade, a quick look at one another and a nod, they ran into the pack of hawkers that were twice the size of any man.

They slashed and hacked and rolled and dodged, at one point the hawkers had surrounded them so that both men had to work together to fight, their backs against one another to protect themselves from rear attacks.

When the last hawker had been cut down dead, they finally collapsed to the floor exhausted. Hawkers were not that hard to defeat, but so many at one time really wasn’t fun, Ezekiel thought to himself as his breathing slowly returned to normal.

When both men had regained their composure, they stood up and faced one another awkwardly. Do we start the fight again? Ezekiel wondered and saw the same thought cross Cairns face.

Never before had they had to work together to survive an attack and now the threat was over it felt awkward but somehow stupid to start fighting again. Mystic zerena came along at that moment making Ezekiel silently thank her perfect timing.

“Boys, put your weapons down, there shall be no fighting while I’m around.”

Both men looked at the witch and then back at themselves realising they had been holding their swords up and slowly circling one another.

Ezekiel felt pretty stupid and put his sword away and only once it was sheathed did Cairn follow suit. Both Ezekiel and Cairn went over to mystic Zerena and bowed toward her in greeting as one should towards a lady.

Mystic Zerena giggled and blushed like she always did at the gesture and while Cairn grinned and winked at her, Ezekiel tried not to blush and cleared his throat as he stood back up. Mystic Zerena was a knight in her own right, she was a powerful witch and ally who had helped Ezekiel in battle more times than he could count, but she was also incredibly beautiful.

She was only four foot eleven and wore a medieval red dress that had silver embroidery along the collar and across the midsection, it flowed out from the bottom and was tight fitted around the torso, complimenting her perfectly curvy figure, it showed of her perfectly huge creamy b.reasts and Ezekiel quickly snapped himself out of such crude thinking for mystic Zerena deserved more respect than that.

Her face was almost baby-faced, her skin a creamy Snow White in colour so that the red of her full lips stood out and the ice blue of her doe shaped eyes. Her dark golden blonde hair was all soft curls and would flow down to her hips if it weren’t for her having it pinned up.

Ezekiel was so busy staring that it was Cairn who finally broke the awkward silence and asked, “my lady, what brings you here?”

Mystic Zerena rolled her eyes at them both and answered, “I had a vision of you both in battle here with the hawkers and knew I must come before you returned to trying to kill one another.” She thought about that for a moment and then added, “why do either of you bother when you both know you cannot truly die?”

Both men looked at one another and then quickly looked away, they knew it was a male thing, proving who was the better fighter more than anything and wisely didn’t answer her.

Sighing when her question went ignored, she asked, “so where are we off to now?”

Both men raised their eyebrows at her and Ezekiel, not wanting her to tag along for fear she would be killed, added, “nowhere you can follow. I need to find the dark lord’s lair, I intend to slay him and end this torment.”

Ezekiel knew no one would want to enter the realm of darkness and watched both their eyes widen as they stared at him.

“Are you insane! It will be the death of you, no one who has ever gone in there has ever lived to tell that tale, you won’t just die, you will be cursed and turned into one of those ravaged monstrous things that lurk there.”

Cairn was so angry it made Ezekiel pause, why would Cairn care if he were cursed or not? Cairn, as if reading Ezekiel’s thoughts, added, “I will be the one to end you, fairly, you don’t get to cheat me of your death by doing a suicide mission.”

“Come with me and help then, we are going to be cursed either way, it’s already hell on earth and the darkness is ever growing, our land is the only land left untouched by the darkness, but it will be a mere year before it’s consumed, and then we shall turn into those hideous monsters anyway, so I may as well fight and try.”

He should have known mystic Zerena would surprise him, she always did, and of course, answered, “I’m in and don’t try to talk me out of it, I can make my own choices and decide my own fate.”

Cairn was quiet for a long time and both Ezekiel and mystic Zerena noticed the flash of fear cross his face at the thought of going up against the dark lord, but he pulled himself up straight and said, “I shall join you in this fight if only to make sure I get to kill you after this.”