Chapter 20: Legendary Twin Blades

 

       Skylar spent the next couple of days mourning over the loss of his parents. Their deaths had inflicted a lot of emotional pain on him, and the longer he dwelled on the loss, the more he felt infuriated towards Blade. Luckily, the blond was forced to help repair the damage that had been caused. It helped to keep his mind off of the subject with all the work he had to do.

       During that time, Skylar had also learned that the new gem that was being made had been destroyed too. Not only that, but the people that were working on it were also dead. A lot of the villagers became concerned about this news because they were the only ones that were able to make a gem powerful enough to defeat Blade. Their hopes of stopping the powerful warrior had now dwindled to nothing.

       Skylar was currently repairing the wall of a two-story building. Beads of sweat sat on his forehead as the heat from the mid afternoon sun beat down on him. After hammering a nail into the wood, Skylar stepped back to admire his half-finished repairs. Seeing that he had done an okay job so far, he figured he would take a break for a few minutes. He had been working for about three hours now and taking a short rest sounded great to him. However, before he sat down, he noticed two warriors walking over towards him. The blond turned to face them and looked at them questioningly.

       “We have come to tell you that Blaxton wishes to see you,” one of them said, skipping the formalities. “He will be waiting for you in his office whenever you have the chance to see him.”

       The blond nodded and the two warriors walked off shortly afterwards. Since Skylar was already planning to take a break from his work, he decided he would go and see what Blaxton wanted. He made his way towards the center of the village where the leader's office was. Once there, he stepped inside before walking into the small room where he found Blaxton sitting behind his desk like usual.

       “You wanted to see me?” asked Skylar as he stopped about five feet from the desk.

       “Yes,” replied Blaxton. “How would you like to redeem yourself for your previous failure?”

       “What do you have in mind?”

       “Well, when I was younger, my father told me about the Legendary Twin Blades. Have you ever heard of them?”

       Skylar shook his head.

       “I didn't think so. Hardly anyone has. I can't remember the story behind them, but these twin blades are supposed to be powerful – possibly even strong enough to defeat someone like Blade. However, the only the problem is that I'm not sure if these twin blades really exist. I thought it would probably be worth looking into. They're really the only the hope we have left of killing Blade. So I was wondering if you would ask around and see what information you can get about them. If they do exist, I want you to go retrieve them and use them to defeat Blade.”

       “I'll do it,” said Skylar without a moment's hesitation. He wanted to make Blade pay for all the pain he had caused him and Spike. Not only that, but this would be the perfect chance to maybe free Spike from Blade's control.

       “Good,” replied Blaxton.

       Skylar turned around and stepped towards the door.

       “And please, do yourself a favor and forget about Spike,” advised Blaxton. “He has sided with Blade and there probably isn't anything you can do to change his mind.”

       The blond stopped in his tracks for a moment as if registering what the leader had just said. Afterwards, he resumed his walk towards the door, disregarding Blaxton's suggestion. Once he reached the door, he stepped outside.

       Skylar walked around the streets for the next two hours, trying to ask people if they knew anything about the Legendary Twin Blades Blaxton mentioned. However, he failed to gather any information. The leader was definitely right when he told him that not many people knew about them. If anyone did happen to know about them, they just told him the same thing Blaxton did.

       The blond's hopes of finding out anything new on the supposedly powerful twin blades began to decay with each person he asked. He soon gave up on the whole attempt entirely, or at least for the time being. It was pretty clear to him by now that no one in the village knew anything more about the Twin Blades. But there just had to be someone that knew something about them. . .

       It was then when it hit him. He recalled the conversation that took place at the old lady's house. Steele had asked something about information on swords. Maybe Blade's follower was talking about the Legendary Twin Blades? Skylar was almost certain of it. With this being his only hope of gaining anymore information, the blond quickly made his way out of Wildtree and in the direction of where the old lady's house was.

       About an hour or two passed until Skylar finally reached the old lady's house. When he climbed up onto the ledge, he rose to his feet and looked towards the small home to see Jessica and the old lady standing there conversing about something. They stopped, however, and turned their heads to look at Skylar.

       “Hey Skylar,” greeted Jessica.

       “Hi,” greeted the blond.

       “What brings you here?” asked the old lady.

       “Well, I was kind of wondering if you knew anything about the Legendary Twin Blades,” replied Skylar.

       “What!? Who told you about them?!” the lady questioned almost furiously.

       “The leader of my village. So do you know anything about them?”

       “You won't learn anything about them here! You're wasting your time!”

       “But we need them so we can defeat Blade!”

       “I'm not telling you anything about them!”

       “Grandma, maybe it's time we shared the secret,” Jessica told her.

       “What!? Are you insane!?” the old lady inquired as she looked at Jessica. “We can't let anyone get their hands on them!”

       “But we can trust Skylar. He helped us out when Steele attacked us, remember?”

       “That doesn't mean anything! He'll probably end up just like Blade if he gets his hands on the Twin Blades.”

       “Come on, I need them!” pleaded Skylar desperately. “Not only to defeat Blade, but to help Spike too. He's under Blade's control and if I have the Legendary Twin Blades, I might have a better chance at helping him.”

       “I don't care!” snapped the old lady. “You'll just have to find a different way!”

       “Please, I'll do anything!”

       “Leave!”

       Before Skylar could say anything else, a gust of wind was shot towards him. He was swept off his feet and carried towards the cliff. Once he was over it, the wind ceased and the blond was left plummeting towards the ground. After falling for a second or two though, Skylar managed to grab onto the rocky wall. He immediately began to climb up the cliff at a quickened pace. However, when he reached the ledge, he felt an invisible wall preventing him from getting onto it. For several minutes he worked on trying to see if there was maybe some opening in the wall, but unfortunately, there wasn't. Skylar had no choice but to give up.

 

       Skylar walked through the forest surrounding Wildtree at a somewhat slow pace as he made his way back to the village, staring at the ground in deep thought. The setting sun shined through the gaps in the canopy overhead and colored the sky an orange. A coolness had settled in the area now as the sun's reign of the sky neared to an end.

       Ever since he left the old lady's place, Skylar had been desperately trying to find where the Legendary Twin Blades could be. He searched around the southern area of the continent in hopes that they were maybe somewhere outside the old lady's house. Unfortunately, he didn't have any luck in finding them. The blond was certain that the Twin Blades existed though, otherwise Jessica and the old lady wouldn't have talked the way they did. However, the only problem was trying to figure out where they were.

       The sound of a twig snapping reached Skylar's ears and he snapped back into reality. A hand was placed on the hilt of his double-edged sword as he peered about his surroundings, waiting for whoever was near to show themselves. He then spotted Jessica passing through some brush and entering the clearing he was in. The hand fell from the hilt and a small smile came onto his face.

       “Hey, what are you doing here?” the blond asked.

       “I wanted to apologize for the way my grandma acted,” explained Jessica.

       “Oh, it's fine.”

       “And I also came to tell you where the Twin Blades are,” added Jessica.

       Skylar looked at her in disbelief for a moment before a wide smile came on his face as hope began to fill him.

       “Really, you'd do that?”

       Jessica nodded before saying, “My grandma takes the job of protecting the Twin Blades very seriously, but she doesn't realize that they're the only way Blade can be stopped. I thought about taking them and defeating Blade myself, but I'm not good with weapons. Since my grandma won't do anything and since I wouldn't stand a chance against him, we would probably be better off giving them to you. You and Spike are the only ones I can trust besides my grandma, and since Spike isn't able to help, you're really our only hope.”

       “Don't worry, you can count on me. I'll kill Blade, even if it costs me my life. Can you tell me a little more about the Twin Blades though? I don't really know anything about them besides the fact that they're powerful.”

       “Well, each of the twin blades is infused with magic. One of them has the element of light in it, and it's respectively called the Light Blade. The other one is the Dark Blade and this one has dark energy in it. Together they make up the Legendary Twin Blades, or otherwise known as the Twin Blades of Darkness and Light. Each one holds a lot of power and they can be used separately, but they are much better when used together. Is that enough information for you?”

       “Yeah, thanks. Now where are they located?”

       “Well, since they aren't as powerful when they are used separately, my grandma decided to hide each of the twin blades in two different places so that it'll be harder for someone to get their hands on both of them. The closest one to us is the Light Blade. It's located in a temple hidden in a forest east of here. The Dark Blade is in Blackland, the wasteland far northeast of here that is forever covered in darkness. It'll probably take you a few days before you reach that one though.”

       “Alright, thanks a bunch,” Skylar said appreciatively.

       “No problem,” Jessica said as she turned around and began to walk off. Upon remembering something though, she stopped. “Oh, and one more thing,” she added as she looked back at Skylar. “Be careful when you go into the temples; they're full of traps.”

       “Alright, thanks for telling me.”

       The two said their good-byes before Jessica walked off. With it coming close to night, Skylar thought it would be little pointless to try getting the Light Blade now. Figuring it would probably just be best to wait until the next morning when he would be full of energy, Skylar headed back into the village to get some rest.

Author's Note

I want to thank Amund for the idea about Jessica telling Skylar instead of the old lady. And also, is the dialogue any better in this chapter?

Reviews

[Amund Schofield]

Anywho, I think if Jessica were wanting to fight blade, and that she is willing to disobey her Grandmother, she would try to travel with Skylar and help him. While yes Skylar has some profeciency in magic, he seems to be the type to use his sword more often. Also these temples would seem to have magical traps. So therefor, I would think that Skylar would need some help from someone to get passed these traps. Jessica seems to be the right person to use. One more thing, Jessica disobeyed her Grandmother, I don't think anyone would want to face their Grandmother after going totally against there will.

[Clark]

when she says, "is that enough information for you" it makes me feel that either she's holding some back, or she's being snippy. Unless Skylar is going to fall into a trap for going off half-cocked, that doesn't make sense.

At the beginning, you say "their deaths had inflicted a lot of emotional pain on Skylar." That's another ungainly and ineffective sentence. Also, I'd much rather be shown that he's hurting. How does he mourn? Does he sit around and stare, does he cry, does he pound his head on walls, etc. Is there a special ritual in the town for mourning? Show me, don't tell me.

"A lot of the villagers became concerned about this news" Passive voice should be avoided if possible...the news is what's worrying the villagers, so put the sentence that way. Plus, saying it like that lessens the blow, makes it seem inconsequential. Why say "a lot" of the villagers were? Shouldn't they all be scared witless? "Concerned" really isn't strong enough to convey the fear of the doomed.

Frankly, I'm a little worried for the villagers' lives. Blaxton mentions Skylar's previous failure...and then asks him to do something even HARDER? And not just harder but more important?!

"as if registering what the leader had just said. Afterwards, he resumed his walk towards the door, disregarding Blaxton's suggestion. Once he reached the door, he stepped outside."
A few things... "as if," so is he registering or just pretending to? i'm a little confused. And this must be one mighty long walk...I suggest maybe saying he disregards then leaves. As a reader, I don't need to know all that much about an exit unless something important is going to happen between him and that door.

When Skylar and Jessica "greet" each other, you really only need one greet if you're going to say it at all.

"At a quickened pace" - is he climbing faster than he fell? Because quickened is a relative term. If it's going to quicken, it has to have something to get quicker from. Otherwise, a quick pace works better.

The dialogue is a bit better, especially Jessica's. Skylar's, especially, sounds...pedestrian, like cookie-cutter hero things. Like, "Don't worry, you can count on me." Actually...I think one of your best bits of dialogue so far was the Grandma-Jessica-Skylar argument.