The Rising Blade

Chapter 1

The mercenaries drew their swords and glared at the prospect of fighting Jason, their grins were lopsided and he several missing teeth from brawls in bars. They charged without fear or hesitation. Jason only smiled slightly as he slowly drew his own sword, Hellreaver, and met their attack head on. when the first mercenary lashed out with an overhead feint, Jason caught the blow on the pommel of his sword, then with a flash he swung his sword around and...

Jason woke up with the sun pouring in through the open window. Groggily he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stretched. He thought about the dream as he began to dress quickly so he wouldn't be late for another day at school. When he looked in the pantry he cursed under his breath, thieves had stolen their food once more. It was the third time that month that somebody had snuck into their house and stole all their food while they slept. Beginning to get frustrated he slammed his fist against the table hard enough he instantly felt his knuckles begin to throb in pain. Still cursing he left the small cottage he lived in without eating and started to jog over to the schoolhouse with his bag. On his way he observed the archers on the stone wall protecting the town. He could shoot a bow accurately but it wasn't what he enjoyed the most. If he had his way he would hold the leather grip of a sword. He didn't need a silver or gold one, just an iron one, maybe steel. His family didn't have the money though. His mother worked 3 jobs and his sister was too young to work. His dad was killed by an assassin while he was running border patrol in the surrounding land. He worked too but earned very little due to school, and what he did make went mostly to the family since they had so little income. Soon he reached the school and as he walked up to the building his least favorite person, Gerome, walked out from behind the door along with two of his goonies.

Gerome was a tall muscular guy with an ego bigger than him, his education was poor because he tended to sit in class and shoot spit wads at the back of Jason's head while he was trying to take notes in class. Mrs. Hepher, the teacher, thought Gerome was the best person in the school so naturally when Jason turned around and tried to get him to stop Mrs. Hepher would yell at him and send him outside for being rude and insensitive to others. Gerome on the other hand got off scott free and proceeded to pick on Josn wherever he could... He tormented Jason and stole his notes once and claimed he needed to "borrow" them for a minute and then dropped them into the lake behind the school. Jason couldn't do anything about it though, most likely the teacher would yell at me to leave him alone. After school Jason met up with his best friend Sam like they always did, Sam is very tall by most standards and is fairly muscular. He had a slight temper when somebody wouldn't take him seriously. They would talk for a little while about random topics. Usually they would talk about what the outside world was like and how they wished they could go travel the world and visit places people only dreamed of visiting. Places outside their little town of Lindour.

After a while Jason and Sam said their goodbyes and parted ways. Jason always went outside the stone walls to observe the nature and study the creatures that over time have mutated to the extreme and hostile new environment. Despite everybody warnings about going alone and unarmed, Jason still left for the sake of knowledge and adventure. "Finally" he thought as he sat down in his favorite spot in the fields. "All those arguments with Gerome are starting to drive me up a wall, then through the roof!" taking out his sketch pad he began to finish his drawing of the rat he started a few days ago. In school he learned that long ago when they power was on, rats were smaller than a foot long but now they can get to be the size of lion. They were common in this area but usually docile unless you teased them or bothered them. "It's amazing how much everything changes to survive," he thought to himself. "what would happen if everybody lived together and got along?" while Jason was busy thinking he heard a slight rustle in the bush nearest to him that cut through his thoughts like a knife.

<A/N>
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