A Shadow Rising(continued)

The ending of chapter one "A Shadow Rising"

As Jerrod's eyes began to focus on the brilliant colors swirling before his eyes, the burning red sword stained with his own blood, the flooding light that shifted back and forth and the green tunic of the man in front of him he noticed that it was nothing more than a boy in front of him. "You are a child, where...how did you come to be here?" The boy laughed at the question and moved to sit on Jerrod's cot which creaked under the weight of him. " I was in the field above the ridge, we have a barn up there to shelter our cattle in, I saw the smoke from the house and came running. When I finally made it down here our house was nearly burned to the ground and I saw you running by me with a sword sticking out of you." There was a smirk on the boy's face that did not seem to match the moment. Jerrod grunted with effort but felt that the strength had halted and no longer faded inside him. "Were those your parents I saw fall out of the windows?" A shadow fell across the boy's face that hinted for the first time that he understood the situation fully. He stood and moved to the opening at end of the tent and stared out towards the house that still burned in the distance. "Yes, my father and his..friend. I doubt they will be needing my help but you seemed to have a bit of fight left in you. From what I saw you took on three of those soldiers by yourself and walked away with nothing but that scratch there."

Before Jerrod could respond or even think of how he would respond the tent collapsed and he saw the boy get knocked hard from his feet. Jerrod himself was knocked again to his side where he struggled through the renewed throb of pain in order to right himself and see what had happened. He could see the boy struggling underneath the tents cloth and he saw a figure rising behind the tent in dark armor his sword in hand. The man turned and kicked out hard into the mass that was struggling to free itself from the tent. The boy rolled away from the kick and even from this distance Jerrod could hear the gasp of pain. The dark figure spoke and his voice was deep and resonated power. "Stay down boy I did not come here to kill farm hands." His foot lashed out again to kick the boy hard, even through the dark cloth of the tent blood had stained it where Jerrod assumed the boy's face had just been shattered.

Jerrod looked away and towards the figure just as his eyes turned to look back at him, Jerrod's heart almost stopped there and then, it was Marik. His eyes were cold blue and the distinguishing tattoo that he had heard so much about surrounded his right eye cutting down over his cheek to his jaw line where it turned to a point. This man was known to the army, he was a general who had terrorized them all with cunning battle plans and a fighting style that was both aggressive and relentless. His men fought like lions for him and they attacked from dusk until dawn without stopping it seemed to eat or sleep.

"Ah Marik, I didn't realise I ranked high enough to have you come hunt me down." He said it with as much conviction as he could muster, the fear was almost overwhelming to be wounded and unable to fight back in the face of this man. Marik smirked and spoke in his deep rolling voice. "Ah but sadly I don't even know your name soldier, I was sent to kill the general from our army who led this attack against you actually. It seems he was stealing a bit more plunder from the area than he wanted to relay too our king." Marik had began to move toward Jerrod his sword dragging on the muddy ground. "He was running from me and my men when he happened across your happy little band of soldiers. I doubt he even knew you were here, him and his men were without horses and would not have made it far though I do appreciate the help in dispatching them." He was less than ten feet away now but he did not seem to be in any hurry to finish Jerrod and was content for the moment with the conversation they were having. "I saw your valiant friend there storm in unarmed and tackle the two men that were following you. Quite impressive, unarmed and untrained and yet they were like children with sticks, who is he?"

Jerrod felt a sharp upsurge in the pain in his side and grunted against it. "Aaahh, I don't know Marik, he is just a farm boy who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Your job is done I saw your general fall not fifty feet from here be on your way and leave him be." Marik laughed at this, his laugh cold and harsh clearly he was not a man who laughed often. "Ah but there is a bit of business yet to be taken care of, though I think without help you'll be dead before long. He is a brave one though, look at him I broke a rib with that first kick, I heard it snap and yet he struggles to free himself so that he can come at me again." Jerrod watched as Marik circled around watching the boy who had found the tents flap and was emerging from it. Marik was a large man, about the same size as Jerrod himself and his eyes were taking in the size of the boy the fighter in him wanting to beat the boy down.

He moved back away from the boy then just as the boy's face looked up he lunged forward and smashed a hard right hand into him. The boy absorbed the blow and moved forward unleashing a hard left into Marik's body and slamming his knee into his head. Marik's head snapped up and the look of shock was clear even from the distance from which Jerrod was watching. The boy moved forward stalking Marik as he fell back from the knee, his left arm was down to apply pressure to his side where Marik's boot had caught him under the tent. As Marik fell the boy stepped forward to continue the attack but Marik turned and whipped the heel of his boot into the boy's face. Jerrod saw then that Marik was smiling, he was enjoying this fight as he moved in and slashed a quick left followed by a right that left the boy reeling.

Marik pushed out with the bottom of his boot and it caught the young man in the chest throwing him from his feet to land in the mud. The boy rolled and began to rise onto his knees right as Marik moved in again to kick into the injured ribs. The boy had seen it coming though and had turned to grab the leg and surged his shoulder up into Marik's midsection as he pulled the leg in towards him. They both fell heavily into the mud and rolled the occasional blow landing for both until with the boy on top Marik managed to get his feet into the boy's chest and push off. Marik quickly began to gain his footing and stood up just in time to take a breath taking upper cut that sent Marik flying where he landed deep into the mud, unmoving. The boy fell onto his back where he lay panting and clutching his side.

Jerrod yelled out to make sure the boy was still alive after a moment. "Hey! Boy, are you still breathing over there!" In response the boy rolled over onto his knees and stood, he walked over toward Jerrod but did not speak. He reached out and grabbed the axe laying three feet from Jerrod in the mud and turned walking straight for Marik's unmoving form. There was a slight limp in the boy's walk as he moved over to Marik and grabbed his foot but other than that you would not have known he had just been in a fight. It looked with all the mud more like he had just taken part in a pig wrestling match. The boy dragged Marik over to where a black horse was sitting and set the axe down and with what seemed very little effort picked up Marik and threw him over the saddle. The boy then picked up the axe and moved to stand in front of Marik who he slapped awake and spoke too. "You fight well, I can respect that but I need to find my friend here a healer and I have no time to buy you a drink. What is your name?" Marik swayed in the saddle his head clearly still drowsy from the blows the boy had sank into him. "Marik boy, general of the rising dawn." A small nod  and the boy spoke again this time there was laughter in his voice. "Well met Marik, ride now and tell your men they can water their horses in the upper field before you move on."

Marik stared for a moment and then urged his horse forward before turning and speaking again to the boy. "What name do you go by boy?" There was no hesitation in the response from the boy. "Arrin, you would do well to remember it." Marik laughed at this and as he turned to leave he spoke loudly back to Arrin. "Well met Arrin, brave indeed!"

Arrin turned then and walked back to where Jerrod sat bleeding and utterly speechless as to what had just happened. "That was Marik a general of the rising dawn and you just let him ride off to meet up with his soldiers." There was no humor on the boy's face now as he looked into Jerrod's eyes and spoke. "He told me as much before I let him go."