Brothers Three

1

This is the tale of legends. The tale of dragons and Vikings. Love and death. War and peace. But most importantly, it is the tale of three brothers.

The eldest of the three was called Stryker. Unlike the rest of his family, he sported bright red hair that stood out against his dark skin. His blue eyes twinkled in delight at what adventures he would face.

The second eldest was called Myrker. He had unruly dark hair that often times covered his bright green eyes. Unlike Stryker, Myrker was pale in complexion.

The youngest was Tyker. He was very different from his older brothers. He wasn't as pale nor as dark. He had light brown hair and cool gray eyes that seemed to hold all the knowledge of the world.

At the beginning of this story, they were of the ages 17, 15, and 10. They lived in the time of dragons and dragon hunters. In fact, their home was the best dragon hunting village ever known. For thousands of generations that was all it was. Stryker was often ignored by his village after an accident in the forge caused him to be permanently scarred in the face and partially blind in one eye. Despite this, he did his best to train his younger brothers and protect them. He watched out for all the children on the isle. Due to his newly heightened senses, he kept them out of trouble.

The adults were extremely grateful for this, since now they can train and build new and better traps without the children running around them constantly. Instead of being known as Stryker the Useless, they began calling him Stryker the Guardian.

"Stryker!" Stryker slowed down on his morning run and waited for the children to catch up to him, "Can we come on a run with you?!" they all asked excitedly.

He laughed, "Of course! This means we can pick up where we left off on the story yesterday!'' With that, he led them on his normal trail, telling them the story of the founder of Bloodbone island, "As we all know, my ancestor was the one who founded and perfected the art of dragon slaying. But what not many know is how he discovered his base. He was just a boy, probably no older than I am now. He was out on his boat..." he told the tale of how Grim Bloodbone fought off hoards of the early dragons in order to protect his family. How he fell in love and he was taken from him. How he found this island and decided that this would be the dragon hunter's base.

---Rider---

As night fell, Stryker led the young children back home. It was quite common for him and them to spend most of the days in the woods as he taught them about the history of dragon hunting. And when they're deemed strong enough by the elders, they leave to begin training how to actually kill. "Stryke!" his mouth curled into a smile as he looked up to see Myrker was running towards him, "Great news, brother!"

Stryker laughed as his younger brother practically bounced around him like a snapper, "Calm down, Mykie. Deep breaths. What's so great?"

Stryker's smile faltered at what he heard next, "I'm finally going on my first hunting trip! Isn't this exciting?!"

"Very." Stryker said, attempting to mimic his brother's excitement, "I'm so proud of you." Stryker feared for his brother's life. When Tyker was still just a babe, their father went on a hunting trip and was killed by dragon riders. Their mother was devastated and jumped off a cliff. Stryker has been caring for them ever since. He gingerly placed the little girl he was holding in Myrker's arms, "Can you take them home. I'd like to speak with the elders." Without giving Myrker a chance to speak, he stormed off in the direction of the great hall, rage burning in his eyes. There were two reasons the villagers avoided Stryker at all costs, his scars made him useless to them, and he inherited the magic of his mother's side in full force. Currently, his veins gleamed and crackled with lighting.