Mickeles, the Mercenary

Chapter 2

            James woke up early the next morning, or at least earlier than he usually woke up back home on Nelson’s farms. He sat up in bed and glanced at the bed next to his, which was empty. James got out of bed and pulled on his tan leather pants and tunic, fastening the black leather belt around his waist above both articles of clothing.  His tan tunic fell beneath his waist, giving a small skirt-like appearance about two inches under the belt. He walked over to the small wooden desk that was in the room.

On the desk was a note attached to a large dagger. The note explained that it was the one that belonged to the mercenary. The visions of last night’s murder came to James. He remembered the four men advancing on Jax and how Jax disposed of their leader with ease. The dagger that lay on the wooden surface once belonged to the would-be assassin and now belonged to James. James fastened it to his black belt and look in the looking glass. The dagger fit nicely at his left side. He placed one hand on the dagger and grinned at himself through the mirror.

 “Found my present, I see,” Jax said as he entered the room.

  “Yeah, thank you sir,” James said, turning to face Jax. Jax had on his baggy black clothes and had replaced the straw hat. The long sword rested against the wall in the corner of the room instead on his belt. Jax crossed the room to the corner and replaced the sword so it rested on his right side.  It drug on the ground as he walked out of the room and down the old wooden steps to the bar below the inn.  James followed close behind him. Jax stopped at the counter of the bar and placed a few copper and silver coins on the counter for the innkeeper and bartender.

                The two men left the bar and once outside James saw a horrible sight. Jax’s dirty white horse that had been so obedient lay in a pile of blood, a large gash in its stomach and neck.

                “Those men must not have been happy about last night,” Jax said with his voice void of emotion for the dead creature.

                “Why would they kill an innocent creature?” James asked.

                “It belonged to me. When men find someone they can’t destroy with strength, they attempt to take away anything they can from the opposition in order to hurt them inside. “

                “But, your horse didn’t do anything,” James said, “it was innocent, but they killed it anyways.”

                “Such is life. Everyone dies little one. Even the innocent.”

Jax continued on his way, leaving James at the inn. James gave the fallen horse a final glance and ran to catch up with Jax.

                “Are we just going to leave it there?” asked James.

                “The officials will tend to it. Dead animals on the streets are not up to citizens,” Jax responded.

                The two left the town of Oshlam and headed in a northward direction. North of Oshlam was first Randarr and then the capital city of Talbus which was Haditis.

                “How long will it take us to get to Randarr, sir?” James asked a few minutes after leaving Oshlam.

                “It will take a few more hours," Jax responded. The two walked on in silence for a few more moments until Jax began the conversation. “So, you’re a slave. What’s your story?” he asked.

               “Well,” James began, “I told you before, I was sold into slavery when I was young. I was told by the other slaves that my parents came from a town somewhere in the south. They were heading north and had run out of money, but my mother was pregnant.”

               “So they sold you to a man to be a slave?” Jax asked.

 “Yes,” James replied, “they went to Master Nelson and he said he would buy their child for the price of an average slave child. Mother was taken care of until I was born, they were given a fair amount of silver and gold, and they left me in the care of Master Nelson. Master Nelson gave me to the slaves to raise until I was four, which was the working age on the farms.”

“I solemnly detest people who sell children as slaves. People’s freedoms are not for sale,” Jax said.

“Yeah, so what is your story?” James asked. Jax walked on for a long time before answering. James was considering asking again when Jax finally answered.

 “My story starts a long time before you were born boy, in a town way to the south of here. Back when there was only a few villages in each country, no towns and the only cities were the ones where the kings lived. I came from a village of strong men and even stronger women.” Jax stopped speaking for a while to think and then asked James, “Have you ever read the Book of the Shiro?”

 “I think so. That’s the one with the Hasa guy?” James asked.

“Yes, the Book of Shiro is about the creation of this planet and of the beings who rule over all. There are different people for each nation that believes a different story about the Shiro, the only thing in common between them is the high being HASA who created everything.”

“So if there are different writers, how do you know which story is the right one?” James asked.

 “That has been the biggest argument about the Shiro. With so many different tales of the Shiro, only the book from each nation is believed in those nations. The only exception is the book from my village. In my village was an old lady of over two hundred years who was called to write the book by HASA himself.” Jax reached into his tunic and pulled out a small book. The cover of the book was black leather that was stitched together. He handed the book to James who opened it and read a few lines while still walking.

“There are five pages to Eselia’s book, which you hold there. That is the account of the Shiro as written by the prophet, Eselia. In my village, Eselia was the eldest of women and also my grandmother. She was called by HASA to write the book of Shiro. Five pages were all that she wrote, which was thousands of pages less than some books of other nations. Nobody except our village read Eselia’s book. Many believed that her book was foolish and made no sense, but our village believed it. The thing that set our book apart mostly was the mention of the Shiro LEOB. LEOB was the creator of all nature and humans, but also of demons, the first of which was his child, Joolas.

“I’ve never heard of Joolas before,” James said.

“That’s because many don’t believe he was real. Joolas lead an attack against both nature and man. He eventually tried to best the Shiro that created him and attacked HASA who defeated him. He sealed Joolas into a tree that our village called the eternity tree. My race was mostly interested in the story of demons. We found out that humans could drink the blood of a dead demon and become more powerful. That is what our race did. We drank blood of demons that our hunters hunted and our men and women became more powerful than average humans. “

“So your people drank demon blood and became stronger? Isn’t that bad?” James asked.

“It’s very bad. We doomed our deaths to be lived in chaos for eternity and shortened our lives. Demon blood washes out all human blood in the body. Eventually the demon blood is all that is there and it will pump through your veins until there is no more. After the demon blood is gone, your body dies.”

“Why would you choose this shortened life and this horrible death then?” James asked.

               “So our warriors would win every battle they fought. One human with demon blood can kill a hundred humans without. We usually had five warriors at all times who would drink the blood right before they went into battle. The king of our nation did not like our village being so powerful so he sent his entire army to surprise our village. My father was a warrior there and was quickly killed by the king’s soldiers. My grandmother, mother, and my siblings were lucky enough to survive.  We fled during the skirmish and made it safely away.”

               “After we left my grandmother gave us her last copy of her book, which you hold in your hands now. She died quickly after. Some soldiers on their way home to the king found us and raped and killed my mother and was about to do the same to my sister when I made my first kill,” Jax said. He slowed his walking and his story took a slight pause.

               “After that my siblings and I fled to the north. My brother and I were interested in finding the eternity tree spoken about in that book. We were sure that the tree would give us power to kill the soldiers that killed our kin. My sister wanted nothing to do with it and left us to live in the town of Viscilo, which is a ways south of here.”

               “Isn’t Viscilo your last name? Or wasn’t it your last name?” James asked, noticing the similarities.

               “It was. I took the name of the town as my last name when I applied for the army here in Talbus. “

               “Army in Talbus?” James asked.

               “Yeah. After our sister left, my brother and I kept going north to look for the eternity tree. Many days of walking finally led us to our treasure. The peak of that mountain was like nothing you will ever see in your life, boy. My brother and I made it to the tree, but by that point my brother was too weak to carry on. He passed away and I was lucky enough to live long enough to drink the blood of the tree.”

               “Is that why you are so strong?” James asked.

               “Mostly. The tree made me powerful, but it took away my mortality. I was stronger than anything in this world so I decided to get revenge on those who killed my village. I killed the king of that castle at my home country and left to Talbus to live. I lived in Julsis for many years until the king of Talbus came and asked me to join his army. I signed my life away, which was eternity. I grew tired of the wars in which I was used as a killing machine to win petty fights for the king. I left the king’s army and found a woman down in Julsis. We lived in peace for a while until the king came looking for us. A large majority of his army came and killed my wife while I was away. I eventually killed all who were involved in that fight and the king who ordered our deaths.”

            “So you had a wife and they killed her?” James asked.

            “She was beautiful. I loved her with all of my heart and they took her from me. After I lost her and killed the king, his son, the new king, posted a wanted poster with my head and an endless reward. He exaggerates a bit with how many people I’ve killed, but he wants my head.”

            “So exactly how old are you?” James asked.

            Jax stopped walking completely and James walked a few feet before noticing he was alone. He turned and looked at Jax behind him. He turned forward again and noticed a single human in the distance on a horse slowly treading towards them.

            “I am not sure how old I am anymore. I would guess about eight hundred or so,” Jax said, watching the oncoming figure as he got closer.

            “That’s all that has happened to you in eight hundred years?” James asked.

            “Yeah, eight hundred years isn’t a whole lot. When you’re bound here for an eternity, you will see. This man comes to harm us, stay behind me.” James quickly moved behind Jax for cover from the approaching man. Jax waited for the man to slowly clamber towards them. James peaked around Jax to see the man on the horse.

            The man was taller than James by a few inches. His hair was long and brown, tied back in a ponytail. The man’s face was handsome, perfectly chiseled as from a slab of perfection. His eyes were a misty grey. He was dressed in a very expensive looking black suit. On the saddle of his horse were three long swords on the right and two short daggers on the left, all hanging down pointing towards the ground. The handsome man jumped down off of his horse and James noticed another sword on his right hip and a dagger on his left.

            “Are you Jaxson Viscilo, the Demon?” the handsome man asked.

            “I do not go by that name any longer, sir,” Jax said to the stranger.

            “I don’t care what you go by. You have the tattoo over your eye just like him so I reckon your worth about the same.”

            “I am the one you seek,” Jax said, “but death is the only thing you will find if you pursue me.”

            “Draw you weapon, demon,” the man said. He drew two daggers from the saddle of his horse and turned around to face Jax again. When Jax did not remove his sword from its sheath, the man became impatient.

            “Before I kill you,” Jax said, “I would like to know your name.”

            “My name is Mickeles, and I happen to be a mercenary from Zen,” the man said.

            “Well, Mickeles, it was an honor meeting you,” Jax said. Mickeles rushed Jax at full speed and drew one of the daggers upward to cut Jax. Jax moved his arm and the blade cut a small gash along the forearm. The second dagger of Mickeles flew through the air and stabbed into Jax’s stomach. Jax made no movement of pain, he merely placed his hand on Mickeles’s wrist and squeeze slightly. Mickeles’s grip on the dagger loosened and Jax pulled his hand away from the weapon embedded into the stomach. Mickeles backed away and drew the sword from his side. The sword was long and curved, a simple design used by those to the East.

            Mickeles got closer and swung the blade down on Jax’s shoulder. Jax made no attempt to dodge the attack, instead letting the blade slide into his flesh. The cut was shallow, and the blade stopped at where the bone was, which was close to the skin. The dagger came upwards again and cut a long, but shallow, gash across the length of Jax’s chest. Mickeles then stabbed the dagger into Jax’s neck, but the point went in and acted as if it had been stabbed into a slab of metal. Mickeles backed away from his passive foe. Jax was beginning to grow tired of this dull fight.

            Like lightning, Jax had twisted himself behind Mickeles and wrenched both the dagger and sword from his hands. He threw the sword to the ground away from the combatants, and stuck the tip of the dagger into Mickeles’s back. Mickeles leapt away from the sharp point of his own blade. The two enemies circled around each other until Mickeles came to his horse. He drew forth two of the swords from the saddle. One was much like the last sword he drew, but the other was a straight long sword as used by the warriors in the far South.

            He launched himself at Jax, but his sword swipes were not fast enough to penetrate the perfect defense of Jax and his stolen dagger. Jax managed to catch both of Mickeles’s swords with the blade of the dagger and twisted the weapons from his opponent’s hand. Mickeles had been disarmed for a third time. He slowly backed up to the horse again and drew his last weapon. The last of his swords was five feet in length and was sharpened on both sides. James had never seen a sword like this and did not know from which country the sword came from.

            Mickeles slammed the sword down on the ground and it threw dirt in every direction. He drew the sword behind him and ran towards Jax once again for a final confrontation. Jax raised the dagger to block the attack, but it was snapped cleanly in half by the giant double sided blade. The sword slammed hard on the crown of Jax’s forehead and a small trickle of blood started to swim beneath the cut down into Jax’s face. The sound that the impact made was deafening.

            “Enough of this,” Jax said, clearly still alive through the impact. He placed the blade between two of his fingers and applied a small amount of pressure. The giant double edged blade snapped in half between his fingers. Jax threw the piece away that had been stuck in his cranium, while the mercenary backed away from him. Jax placed a steely grip on Mickeles’s shoulder and applied some pressure. A few seconds later James saw the body of Mickeles drop lifelessly to the ground. Jax turned around to face James and a grin appeared on his face.

            “So, shall we continue on our way?” he asked. James gave a nervous nod and the two set off again for Randarr.

Author's Note

Mickeles's name is pronounced like Nicholas except with an M instead of N
criticize the writing as harshly as you want, hope it entertains :P enjoy!