A Shadow in the Dark; The House of Gryron

How Things Begin

I flexed my fists around my greatsword. Sweat made it difficult to sustain a proper grasp on it. I stood up to my knees in hot and dirty swamp water. The sun was at its peak and the day felt unnaturally hot. Panting, I struggled to catch my breath as I shifted around the water bank uneasily. My eyes darted back and forth, scanning the edge of the forest. Everything was strangely quiet. Nothing moved. Then, a single tiny green leaf spiraled down and rested in the still water before me. I glanced upwards into the trees, just in time. 

A shadowy figure descended on me as soon as we made eye contact. I quickly assessed my challenger and the battle we were starting before he even touched the ground. He also held a greatsword, which was aimed to cleave me vertically in two, and would have, if I hadn't sidestepped to the left. He sprang back up and faced me after he missed his advance. I took the offensive as I parried him back, pushing him towards the water with multiple swift jabs. He managed to block and evade all of my attacks, but I had the advantage. He was being pushed back into deeper, thicker water where he would have restricted movements. He slightly stumbled for a fraction of a second, his sword wavering, trying to regain his balance, and I saw my chance. I smirked, ducked away from his sword, pivoted slightly, and slashed up at it with all my might. There was a high pitched a reverberating sound as the two swords collided. My opponent yelped and fell back, landing in the water. His sword stood, stuck in the soft ground on the other side of the swamp. I let out my breath as I lowered the flawless point of my greatsword to his neck. His face was expressionless, as it always was in combat. I smiled, out of breath, and sheathed my sword in one clean motion.

"C'mon." I announced, motioning for my brother to take my hand and pull himself up. He looked crestfallen as he did so, so I added. "That was a good match, you really did good dodging all of my attacks, even when you were in the water." One corner of his mouth twitched up for a moment but then slid back down. "You still beat me, like always sis." He pointed out as we walked out of the water, "I'll never be as good as you, I'll never beat you..." We were both silent for a while, I couldn't really deny his accusation truthfully, and we both knew it. I just happened to be the more skilled with a blade. After a few painfully silent moments, I changed the subject. "Wanna grab some lunch on the way back? My treat."I asked as I pushed my sweaty light brown hair back into my long and messy ponytail. Bevol lit up for a second and nodded at me. We made our way out of the forest and out into an open area. There, we pulled out our hidden necklaces. These were not any ordinary necklaces, they were made out of a dragon's claws, teeth, and scales. Each one is different. Bevol, my younger brother, took his dark green figure, shaped like a dragon's head, to his lips and blew through it. Though it made no sound to us, our faithful familiars were sure to have heard it, be they miles away, soaring through the clouds. I did the same. However, mine had no real color to it. It was completely black, the darkest color you could imagine. The color and style of the necklace resembled your familiar, your other half, your dragon.

Just a few moments after we had sounded for our dragons, we heard their fierce roars. They came into sight together, flying side-by-side, the sun shone off of their scales. Luzit was the first to land, his body was sleek and slender, almost like a giant snake with legs and wings. This made him very aerodynamic and one of the fastest dragons in the village. He tucked in his green wings to his side and curved his neck to look at us. Compared to Luzit's graceful landing, my dragon's landing was loud and rather intimidating. As he neared the ground, his brilliant black wings shot out from his sides and pushed together, slowing his decent immensely. He seemed to hover over the ground for a moment before his back legs slammed into the earth, visibly shaking it. He pumped his wings once more and with a little more grace, his front legs came down. Tucking in his huge wings, he walked towards me. I glanced back at Bevol, who had already mounted Luzit. He gave me a dorky smile, "Let's go! I'm so hungry I think I could eat a whole cow!" I laughed and agreed, making my way over to my dragon's side. "Hey, Searinox, some help please?" I tapped his side impatiently. A disapproving sniff and a trail of smoke emitted from Searinox's nostrils. His weight shifted a bit and his front right claws slowly swung back, his hand flat for me to use as a step. I causally thanked him as I clambered up into my saddle. We watched as Bevol and Luzit took off, running and jumping into the wind. Searinox had more pure muscle than agileness, and so he walked a stretch over to a cliffside. Looking over the drop, I estimated it to be over 500 feet straight down. Our hearts picked up pace as Searinox opened his wings and jumped into the ravine. A smile instantly covered my face and I leaned down into my saddle. Searinox pushed out his wings, filling them with air and lifting us out of the ravine, high into the clouds. He pumped his wings and soon we broke through the clouds. I spotted Luzit not far away and Searinox turned to follow him.