literature

The Tale of the Father

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Literature Text

(Prolog of An unwanted Adventure)



There once was a happy family.

A father, strong and loving. A wife, kind and beautiful. And a daughter, playful and without sorrows. They all lived happily in a great house as part of a small village, far, far away from every kind of civilization. It was a good life.

Until that day came upon them.

The rampant beasts of the north attacked the village, burning people and buildings alike. They were gigantic, horned and winged. Their breath consisted of fire, so hot, that even the air itself seemed to burn. One of the beasts struck the house, the family was hiding in and the father was thrown through the air. He hit the ground hard, breaking nearly every bone in his body and on top of that his legs got crushed by giant boulder. A part of the basement of his once called home. The father watched in pain and terror, as the beast reached for his wife and his daughter, bringing them both up to its mouth and with a quick motion, swallowing them alive. His heart froze in this very moment. The crying of his little daughter never reaching his ears. He screamed. He screamed that loud, his vocal cords were ripped apart, silencing the crying man as he watched the beast move on after eating his family like it had been nothing. His torture finally ended, when a brick struck his head, rendering him unconscious.

Eventually he woke up again, only to be reminded of the massacre by the smoking ruins in his vision. He tried to scream, but his vocal cords were still broken and nothing but a dry croak came out his mouth. The father cried. Still stuck under the boulder he cursed himself for being weak, for not being dead, like his loved ones. He cried for whole two days, day and night, mourning over his family's death.

Then, on the third day, a strange guest arrived in the still smoking village. As the father noticed him, the man smiled with perfect teeth and came over to him. His suit was noble, the shoes made out of the best leather and his hair was dressed like that of a king. With a melodic voice the nobleman asked: "Well, hello there fellow. Everything alright?" The father tried to answer, but nothing came out his mouth. "Ah, I see, let me help you with that." the nobleman said kindly and clicked with his fingers. "Who are you?" the severely wounded man carked, covering his mouth in surprise as the words came out. "Who am I?" the stranger chuckled, "That is actually a good question my friend. Let's say that you may call me Cuthriel, at your service." The father starred at him with misty eyes. "What do you want from me? I already lost everything. Begone! Let me die in peace or at least give me a dagger, so I can end it myself."

"Oh, I won't let you die here, my friend. I'm here to make you an offer. Say, would you like to get revenge on those ravaging beasts?" The wounded man stopped crying. "How?" was the only thing he asked. Cuthriel smiled. "I will grant you the power to fight against those giant lizards. A power, far greater than anything you can imagine." "What is your prize?" "Hah, I like you! Straight to the point! The only thing I ask from you is your death." "My death?" "Your death." The nobleman reached out with his hand awaiting the acceptance of the half-dead man.

Fueled by anger the father happily agreed. His death was a small prize he was willing to pay for revenge. He took the hand, which the stranger had presented him and was instantly filled with a strength he couldn't comprehend. But it felt so great. The giant boulder flew of his lower body and with simple pull, Cuthriel had helped the father to stand up again. The wounds were gone. The lonely man was engulfed in black metal, a helmet limiting his sight. In his left hand a giant shield appeared and in his right a sword as dark as the night itself manifested. Finally his transformation came to a sudden end. Thick vapor began to build around his entire armored body, but it wasn't his own heat. It was the surrounding air beginning to freeze in his presence. As the father looked around, Cuthriel was nowhere to be seen, but he didn't care. He had what the nobleman promised him and his death was assured. With only revenge filling his thoughts the father set out to find and butcher the beasts who took everything from him.

The fire-dragons of the north!

It wasn't difficult to follow the traces, which the giant lizards left on the ground and with his new found strength he followed them south, towards the nearest human settlement. In just a few days the father arrived at the small town, but it was too late. The dragons had already been here, leaving only ashes and burning ruins behind. He was enraged over his late arrival and covered almost half the settlement with a thick layer of blue ice in anger. Then his head snapped to sky, as he saw a shadow passing him by. The father only had to look a second at creature, to know what it was. "Dragon!" he roared so loud, that the ground beneath him began to tremble slightly. Obviously the lizard noticed him and turned around, thinking, that the lonely man would be a stupid and simple snack. "You are bigger than the humans I've seen so far, but nonetheless stupid like the little rat you resemble." the dragon yelled and lunged at the man.

It was the last sentence he spoke in his life.

With unnatural force the father catapulted himself upwards and rammed his black sword in the head of the beast. Instantly the creature froze in his current motion, blue ice creeping along the neck. When the dragon finally hit the ground, he shattered into millions of pieces. This was the father's first victory and many more would follow.

Over the next decades he roamed the lands searching and killing every beast he encountered. He was unstoppable. First it was only a few tens, but eventually he had killed two hundred dragons. On his bloody march the lizards gave the father many names. The Butcher, Black Death, Black Knight, Blue Chill, Annihilator, Immortal, Bane of the Dragons. He didn't care. The only thing he was interested in was killing those cursed beasts. And with that in mind the father was overjoyed when one of the dragons told him with his dying breath, that an army of them were coming for him. The council itself would lead the dragons into battle. Finally the long awaited moment was near. He would get his revenge by killing those responsible for the raid on his village!

Cheered at by every human settlement he passed on his way to confront the army, the father thought happily about the coming battle and his inescapable death. At last he would be able to settle this old score and be together with his family in the afterlife.

A few days later he arrived at the chosen battlefield and smiled when he saw the one hundred dragons in front of him. Especially the five council-members with their enormous height of around 90 foot stood out from the mass. This would be a glorious fight to die! Both parties came to a sudden stop and one of the council-members, a dragoness with bright yellow scales, spoke up: "Black Knight, by the authority of the dragon-council we will bring you to justice for your endless crimes against our race. Here, on the fields of Kaentelun you will meet your end! Do you have any last words?" The father grinned amused. "By nightfall, I'll have your heads and you, your corpse, dragon! As you said, it ends here and justice will be done!" With these words on his lips, he charged forward into their ranks, as the dragoness gave the order to attack.

The battle was a bloody massacre. No one could stop the father. Even when they lunged at him with five dragons at once he simply froze them in place and shattered their corpses like glass. There were one hundred of those horned beasts on the battlefield, but none had the strength to bring him down. Then after mowing his way through their ranks he finally stood before the five council-members, the strongest and largest among dragon kind. Standing over 6 times his height they towered even the largest of the other dragons.

It was a fierce match.

Magic was filling the air, swords clashing, fire burning everywhere. They fought almost an hour on even ground, but eventually the father seemed to overpower the five. The first councilmember was cut of his right arm, the second lost her left wing, the third lost one of his eyes, the fourth lost half of her right wing and her entire arm and the fifth lost both her legs. However, before the man could take their heads, his revenge, the battle seemed to freeze for a brief second.

It felt like he was finally awakening after a long period of sleep.

There, a few hundred feet away, were two dragons holding each other hands. With terror in his eyes he noticed the gaping wound in the lower abdomen of the dragoness and two small oval spheres in the hands of her mate. The eggs were broken and covered in blood. In this moment the father realized what he had done, how much he had destroyed in his blind rage.
With great disgust he threw away his weapon and his shield, sunk on the knees and waited for his death to come.

He felt the metal piercing his chest, the burning pain of the sword splitting the heart, but his body wouldn't die. The agony was unbearable, but he wouldn't pass out.
He felt another pain, drilling through his head. He screamed his lungs out, but his body still refused to die. And it was then, when he remembered what Cuthriel had told him so many years ago.

"The only thing I ask from you is your death."

This man, this demon hadn't meant that the father should die at the end.
He had taken his death, quite literally.

The cursed man began to cry. The dragons paused for moment, witnessing in confusion and shock, how their enemy was still alive and crying, while a sword was buried in his chest and a lance stuck in his head. No one knew what the father finally had realized.

In his search for revenge, he himself had become the same monster, he once set out to destroy.
Well, hello there everyone!
Finally, after many years of watching in silence I got a hold of myself and uploaded this little tale of mine. You could see it as some kind of prologue to a story I had in my mind for a while.
If some of you like this little piece of written art I think I will go on and try to put the story in motion.
Just for your understanding, this is not my first story I've ever written, but until now I wasn't sure how I would do writing completely in English, which is obviously not my first language.
Now you have the honor of telling me how I did, feel free to comment whatever you want to criticize. =)
Best regards, Taxer
© 2015 - 2024 Taxer93
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