Chapter 3 - Campfire and Dreams

The mercenary found himself dreaming, except it wasn’t the kind of dream a man usually has. It seemed more real and somehow it seemed important. What he saw wasn’t fuzzy like most dreams he had. It was sharp and clear. It was as if he was being guided down a road that only had one direction. At first it confused him, but then after a moment he realized that it was another vision trail, or at least that’s what he called them. He had been on many of these before. Some were visions that came true down to the exact detail; others were only glimpses of what could be.

As he was lead down the trail the mercenary saw a great castle of white stone. The banners that hung on the sides were a dark royal purple with the emblem of a golden bear. As he got closer the castle gates opened and behind the walls of white stone was an arena. In the middle was a throne with an old king huddled upon it. The king was dressed in fine royal garb of the same rich purple as the banners. Behind the king and throne were what appeared to be gladiators of the arena. There appeared to be around fifty or so of these men gathered. What caught the mercenary’s attention was that among the group stood both Dargos and Nigh. Then came a shining light blinding him and from the light stepped a young girl. Except it was not a girl. He was wrong. As his eyes adjusted, he realized it was a woman.

She was wearing a pure white gown and she had long flowing blonde hair. She was the most radiant woman he had ever seen. However, there seemed something even more unexpected than her beauty. She seemed aware of his presence and she was gazing directly at him. As he continued to look, an expression of puzzlement came over her face. She started walking toward him and his heart began to flutter. He had never felt an emotion like this before.  “I didn’t know another could walk these trails,” she spoke.  Her voice was enchanting like the siren of the seas. “But you seem lost and you lack control of the path you walk. It seems our paths may cross soon if everything goes as the gods plan,” she said with a gentle smile. She had walked her way to him and now stood directly in front of him. “I wonder why you are here. If we are to discover the answer you will have to find me.  You need to wake up,” she stated. With her last word the bright light returned and engulfed everything in the vision trail and the mercenary awoke from his curious dream.

He woke to see a blazing camp fire and seven men sitting around it. The sun was no longer in the sky and night had fallen around the forest. He first noticed the magic user was one of the seven. The magic user sat a far distance away from the flames and hung in the flickering shadows. “You’re awake now, boy? Good. Now I can get some information” said one of the men. He was the one sitting directly across the fire from him. “What’s your name?” asked the bandit. The mercenary shot him a sour look. The bandit chuckled. “I see you still have some fight in you. I like that. There aren’t enough people with that kind of spirit.” The mercenary kept his glare. “Let me introduce myself. I am the proud leader of the Black Eye Bandits, which means I lead these former bloodies,” exclaimed the bandit leader. He paused a moment to see the mercenary’s expression. “Alright, since you seem to have lost your sense of humor, perhaps you can tell me about your friends then” stated the bandit leader.

The mercenary sat in silence for a few moments longer.  When he finally spoke his voice was strong and fierce without a hint of doubt, “My name is Jair Vildaro and by the end of this night you’ll either be captured or dead.” His cool blue eyes were like ice.  His silver colored hair was short and spiky and the firelight reflected off it. “My friends are better fighters than myself and I’ve already killed two of your fellow bandits. I would advise you to surrender and we’ll take you to our client alive,” said Jair with the same intensity. The bandits around the fire fell quiet and looked at each other questionably.

The bandit leader, Hect, rose up from the fire and walked towards Jair and picked him up by the cloth shirt under his studded leather armor. “Now you listen here. Speaking about killing us isn’t the type of thing to spook any one of us here. I don’t know what kind of men you think we are but it would be best to keep your stupidity to yourself,” growled Hect. He punched Jair in the face and blood spilled out from Jair’s lip which was spilt by the blow. Jair looked up and stared back at the Hect. After a moment a large grin formed on Jair’s face.

Hect could feel the heat of anger build in his body. How dare this brat try to scare him then act like he was superior? He began to beat Jair with punches to the stomach and after a few minutes Jair was on the ground coughing and groaning in pain. “Just you wait. Your friends will be nothing but corpses when they get here and you will be following them soon after. I sent five of my men to catch them and they weren’t anything like Marcus or Codin. These men were trained to fight,” shouted the leader of the Black Eye Bandits. His scarred face was red and his auburn hair was a wild mess. His green eyes were like poison arrows, sharp and piercing. He looked completely insane and his dirty clothes and thieves cloak didn’t help. “Natas, where are Eado and the others? Have they returned yet?  They should’ve been back an hour ago,” shouted Hect. As if to answer his question, from the shadows of the outlaying camp whistled an arrow and struck him in the shoulder. Hect fell to one knee and grabbed his knife out of his belt. He held its long blade up to the neck of Jair and used him for cover as he backed up to a nearby tree.

Chaos began to unfold around the bandit camp. Arrows came swarming out of the darkness and rained down on the bandits. One bandit was killed by several of the arrows as he tried to escape the deadly shower. Two more bandits were dispatched as knives join in the onslaught of death. Suddenly the arrows and knives stopped and laughter filled the air and echoed off the trees. The laughter was very unsettling and made all but Jair shiver in fear. The sight of Dargos emerging slowly into the flickering light caused ever more terror to take root. His movement was like a sinister creature and he appeared to have been created by the darkness itself.

One of the remaining bandits lay still on the ground while another hiding behind a tree cried out and dashed away from the camp. “No good,” said Dargos under his breath as he started to swing his chained sickle. The chain rotated in the air a few times and was then sent sailing by the master hands of Dargos. The sickle plunged forward and easily passed the distance that the running bandit had covered.  Dargos pulled back lightly and the sickle blade started its return and sliced the throat of the escaping bandit. The bandit took two more steps and on the third his legs gave out and he fell to the ground dead.

Nigh was the next to enter the camp. His armor was lit by the firelight and he looked as if he was the embodiment of the sun itself. He still held the bow he had used to start the assault on the bandit camp. He walked a few paces behind Dargos and faced the bandit leader with him. With both Dargos and Nigh turned away, the bandit, who had been lying still on the ground, started to overcome his initial fear. He slowly and silently crept up from the ground and made his way toward the two. Nigh slung the bow on his back and drew his sword and stood ready behind Dargos, both still facing Hect and his hostage. The bandit crept up and drew his dagger. As the bandit closed the distance he readied himself, for he was within striking distance of Nigh. The bandit lunged forward with all his strength and a clash of metal rang out. Nigh, without even fully turning around parried the bandit’s dagger and with one motion slashed out at him and sheathed his sword. The bandit yelled out wildly and began bleeding from three different cuts across his chest. In seconds the bandit’s yelling faded and he fell to the ground dead.

Hect clung to Jair with his knife touching Jair’s throat. He looked around wildly much like a caged animal. Fear had consumed him. Both Dargos and Nigh stood directly in front of him. While Nigh seemed to be bored, Dargos looked at the leader with an intense glare. Jair knew all would be well and felt a wave of calm overtake him. It was a relief after all of the chaos he had experienced earlier.

“Let him go and you may live bandit. You see, Jair is very important to me and if you hurt him you’ll meet a fate worse than any of your fellow bandits has suffered here tonight,” said Dargos. Hect began shaking and he seemed to have lost all form of control. The shaking made Jair uncomfortable but he did not doubt Dargos’ ability to get him out of this. Dargos had a way of getting people to listen. Perhaps it was his tone or maybe his fearsome looks that did it. Either way, it worked. As Hect continued to tremble, Dargos’ patience began to wear thin. “I swear if you don’t release him it will be your end.  Now let him go!” shouted the now frustrated Dargos. Hect’s tremors caused a small cut on Jair’s neck and upon seeing the blood, Dargos’ composure met its end.  He threw his chained sickle and it wrapped around the Hect’s arm holding the knife. Dargos pulled back the chain and the Hect’s arm became a severed limb. Jair quickly sprang up from his position and joined Nigh behind Dargos. The bandit leader didn’t appear to notice that his arm was missing and that he was slowly bleeding out.  He fell to his knees, whispering incoherently words that went unnoticed. Dargos placed his weapon back in its holder on his belt and wrapped the extra chain around it.

“You okay, Jair?” asked Nigh with a look of concern.  Jair nodded and offered him a weak smile “I have something I think you might be missing,” Nigh stated. He ran back to where he and Dargos had entered the camp and picked up Jair’s swallow.  He carried it back and handed it to Jair.  “Here you go. They left it behind when they dragged you here.” Nigh looked about the camp and shook his head. “These guys were a pitiful bunch. Help me cut off their hands so we can get going and go collect our reward,” he said.

Jair looked about for the last bandit, the magic user. He didn’t see any signs of him and urgency grew in the pit of his stomach. “No, we don’t have time for that. We still have one more bandit to deal with. A powerful one. Plus our client said that they would know once the bandits were dead so we don’t need the proof of death,” explained Jair. Nigh looked confused for a moment and looked at Dargos.

“He’s right Nigh. We counted two at the clearing where we found his swallow. Five we dispatched on the way here and after all of the others we put down we are at thirteen. One still remains after he dies,” explained Dargos as he pointed at the bandit leader who was still muttering to himself as he bled to death.

They all began to look out into the dark forest. Jair knew the magic user was close. He started to walk towards the area he had seen him. Arrows broke under his feet as he stepped around the camp fire. He listened closely to the silent night and heard nothing until a green flaming orb shot towards him and roared as it hit the ground next to him.  Jair was knocked off balance and fell to the ground. He quickly got to his feet and began to head in the direction the orb had come from.

“Jair hold on!” shouted Nigh. Nigh caught him by the arm and held him. “We can take him together,” explained Nigh.

“No, I want this fight. I need to do this!” exclaimed Jair. He shook off Nigh’s hand and started running again. He was now in a dead sprint in the direction the orb had come.  More orbs flew out at Jair. He dodged back and forth while maintaining a forward motion. Within a minute he had closed the gap between him and the bandit. Jair stood, his eyes locked on the bandit. He reached for the swallow on his back and drew it forth. His expression was cool and focused. He was going to finish this with one blow. He lowered his stance and held the swallow in his right hand, slightly behind his back. In an instant he flew from his position and brought the blade of the swallow down at the bandit. Suddenly, bright light lit the dark forest and a force of energy knocked Jair back.

The magic user laughed. He stood tall and looked down on Jair, his arms folded across his chest. “You know for being as great of a fighter as you claim to be, you struggle with simple magic. I will say I was impressed with your combat skills; they are indeed first rate, but magic is where you fail. Perhaps you should've let your friend with the eye patch fight this one for you. He at least knows magic to some degree,” lectured the magic user.

“You’re wrong. Dargos doesn’t know magic. You’re nothing but a fool!” snapped Jair.  He charged the bandit again, but the same magic stopped his blow and knocked him back once more.

“I’m the fool you say? Well at least I can tell when another person is using magic and I also don’t try the same useless tactics over and over. If you are so great then kill me already,” said the bandit condescendingly, further enraging Jair. “You can’t, can you? Well then good riddance. If your friends are anything like you they deserve to be wiped out too. As soon as I’m done with you I will kill them as well,” finished the bandit. He began laughing wildly as he started preparing his final spell to use against Jair. However it wasn’t long until he sensed something wrong. He could feel a large amount of energy in the air, far beyond the normal energy of magic. Then he noticed where it was coming from.

Jair was beyond fury. His body was emitting an aura of black swirling shadow darker than the night itself. His face was twisted with anger and madness. He did not speak or mutter a sound. His eyes were no longer cool blue but crimson. The magic using bandit, overcome by the feeling of despair, created a simple magic barrier. Jair lifted his swallow, which was also consumed with the darkness, and threw it like a spear. The tip of the swallow easily shattered the magic barrier. The bandit could only watch the rest of the events unfold. As the swallow penetrated the magic, Jair within a moment ran and caught the weapon mid-flight. With the weapon in hand he spun and sliced the bandit with the energy covered swallow, disintegrating the magic user’s body.

After the attack Jair collapsed. The swirling darkness faded away. Dargos walked over to where Jair lay. Nigh looked on from where he stood still surprised by what he had just seen happen. Dargos tried to wake Jair, but nothing would wake him. “I’m proud of you Jair. You are finally learning your ability. You are going to be a lot of help for us in the future,” whispered Dargos to the sleeping Jair. He carried him back to the camp fire of the old bandits’ camp.

“So where are we headed next?” questioned Nigh.

“We will meet the client in a small village outside of Trayon. Get some rest, we will be heading out early tomorrow,” replied Dargos.

Nigh approached Dargos after he tended to Jair. He still seemed slightly shaken from the events that unraveled before his eyes. “So that's the powers hidden inside Jair, huh? I would hate to fight Jair if that’s the case,” said Nigh.

“No, that wasn’t even close Nigh. No there is much more. If my senses are even close to right, we haven’t seen even a tenth of the power he has. Today was the first day he has ever used them in combat and it will be years before he masters any of them. All we can do is keep guiding him until he becomes stronger and learns them.” said Dargos.

“Why are we doing this again? What if he ever turned on us?” asked Nigh. “I mean I like having Jair along, but I just don’t see the reason to risk our goals.”

“We need him for the future. If any goals are to be accomplished he must be strong enough to take on any challenge, and I think we'll be okay as long as we don’t upset him,’” said Dargos. A thin smile shone on his face.