Knight Of Swords

knight of swords

Two Worlds among the Stars

4. Chapter

Late at night only the crackling of the fire could be heard inside the cave, as the red-haired giant sat on his chair, with his elbows resting on the table and his face buried in his hands, after spending hours upon hours racking his brain.

Today had been a disaster. Almost nothing had gone the way it was supposed to. Originally, his day had started like any other. The hunter he had seen on his daily patrol this morning had been the first indication that today wouldn't be just another peaceful day. But even then John would have never guessed that this to be fair unexpected encounter would lead to something - that couldn't possibly be further from a ordinary day - like this!

From the moment he had seen the human everything went downhill. But who could have had predicted this day would end with him suddenly being stuck with a tiny human child?

Humans weren't allowed in this area of the forest. It was his job to make sure they stayed out of it. And here he was doing the exact opposite. Now he was the reason why one of them was here in the first place. The irony was priceless. He was sure he would've laughed about it, if he weren't the one, who had to deal with the aftermath.

Honestly, he liked his job. It was easy. His sheer size was enough to keep out most intruders. And when it wasn't, all it took was a simple threat to get rid of them. He was doing this job for years now without a single incident. Until today...

Actually, he had heard the hunter, before he had seen them. When his ears had picked up the sound of a gunshot, he knew what to do. All he needed to do to scare the unwanted visitor away, was to put some extra weight into his steps.

Oh, if only his job would have been done with only that. But, of course, he had a promise to keep. When he had made his way towards the human village, his intention was to teach them a lesson and scare them a little, so he wouldn't have to deal with any other humans for a while. The only thing he had to do was to pay them a short visit, get it over with, and leave again. Simple, right?

Wrong! Of course, the humans just had to make everything more complicated than it had to be. Instead of begging for mercy, like every normal human being would do, they offered him a sacrifice as "compensation". Not only hadn't he been prepared for that turn of events, that alone had already thrown him off guard, to make matters even worse they didn't give him just any sacrifice, like some livestock or something. If that had been the case, John would've nothing to worry about now. But no! Apparently, they thought an innocent child was the perfect scapegoat to make up for their foolish mistake. And they had the audacity to call giants monsters. Ridiculous!

Like most giants John had never been very fond of humans, but as long as he didn't have to deal with them, he couldn't care less about them and what they did.

Today they hit a new low, though. The fact that they were willing to use one of their kind to save their sorry asses without batting an eye was already mortifying enough. But choosing a child was just cruel and straight up heartless. He knew he hadn't been thinking and had made a mistake, when he took his so-called sacrifice with him, but what other choice did he have? If he hadn't played along the rest of the village would have gotten suspicious. And he couldn't let them get any ideas. He was responsible for the safety of his folk after all.

That... and maybe, just maybe he felt sorry for the boy and didn't want to leave him there with the same people, who didn't care about what would happen to him. For all he knew they probably thought he was going to tear the kid to shreds like a starved animal, or do something just as gruesome.

Obviously, he didn't think this through. Because now he had a whole different problem to worry about. Though "problem" wasn't really the word he wanted to use. The child clearly had nothing to do with this mess and didn't deserve any of this. He was just as thrown into this situation against his will as John was and obviously didn't want to be stuck with him either. That didn't change anything, though. John still had to deal with the tiny human in one way or another, no matter how much he didn't want to. The only good thing about this situation - if you could even call it that - was that after everything that happened today, John was sure he wouldn't have to deal with any other humans any time soon. And, as harsh as this might sound, he was also glad he didn't have to worry about anybody looking for them and discovering his home in an attempt to rescue the boy. So at least he had one thing less to stress about. But John still didn't know what he was supposed to do now.

The man let out a long, tired sigh. Despite sitting there for several hours, he still hadn't come up with a solution. He had no idea what he was supposed to do with a child, let alone how to handle a scared human child. Which brought him back to the reason why he was sitting there in the first place, instead of sleeping.

The kid.

That child was... something else. He acted completely different than how most humans would in his situation. No screaming. No struggling. Nothing. That didn't mean he did a good job at hiding his fear, though. No matter how hard the kid was trying to act brave in front of him, John could see right through his mask. He had felt how fast his little heart had been beating on the way back to his home. He had seen how he had tried - and failed - to keep his body from trembling. He had noticed how he had watched him out of the corner of his eye, when he thought he wasn't looking. The child was terrified of him and John didn't blame him.

He was used to being feared. It was a common reaction for humans. Even though it was completely unfounded. It wasn't like giants had nothing better to do than attacking random human villages and killing innocent humans just for fun. Doing such things would only attract unwanted attention. They avoided them even!

But... they pretended to be the monsters that the humans saw in them, when one happened to cross their path. It was the easiest way to get them out of their hair. John could live with being feared. It was even necessary for doing his job. If the humans weren't scared of him, he would have to turn to more... drastic measures to keep them away. The thought alone made him shudder. He was glad he never got to that point and he preferred to keep it that way. So while John didn't exactly like being feared, it was a burden he was willing to carry in order to make his life and that of his folk as uncomplicated and most importantly safe as possible.

But what he really despised about the bad reputation of his kind were all the prejudice and insults that came along with it. He was so tired of hearing to same old phrases over and over again. His personal "favourite" was still "PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!". Like, seriously? Who came up with this crap? Why would he even consider eating something that looked, acted and talked just like him? Hearing it used to disgust him, but after hearing it for so many years, he did his best to ignore it nowadays and tried not to think about it too much. Unfortunately, exactly that was what his little guest thought was going to happen to him. Kinda ironic, considering not even John knew what he was going to do with the human, now after he had taken the kid with him.

The man went through his options. He knew he couldn't just bring him back to his village, where he belonged. The risk that he could lead the entire village to his home was too high. Technically, he knew very well that he was supposed to inform his chief about a situation like this, but that included admitting that he messed up... and handing over the human. That would be the easiest solution. The kid would no longer be one of his concerns and with that all of his issues would be taken care of.

And somehow that felt so wrong.

He had messed up, he was responsible for this, he was the reason why the kid was here, so he should be the one fixing this. Besides, if he went to his chief, more giants would inevitably find out about the presence of a human in their territory and John knew first-hand that not all of them would greet the kid with hospitality. Also today had overwhelmed the poor kid more than enough, the last thing he needed was meeting any more giants. With that final thought John decided not to tell anyone about what happened today for the time being. That left him one last option.

Keep the kid.

Yes, it wasn't his best idea, but he didn't have the heart to even think about the other option he knew he had, which some other giants with a grudge against humans maybe wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of. He quickly shook that thought off. He knew he couldn't do it anyway, even if he wanted. No, the boy would stay with him, at least until he found a better solution.

He hadn't been entirely joking, when he had said that the kid could keep him company. Sometimes he missed someone to talk to. Though, a frightened human child, who wanted nothing to do with him, might not be the best choice for that. Yet again, it wasn't exactly a choice. And it wasn't like he could change anything about their situation now. He guessed he just had to make the best out of it.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all, if there only was a way to help the kid to warm up to him. But that was a question for another day. Now he was way too tired to form any idea.

John rised from his seat, arching his back, and walked over to his bed. Before he went to sleep, though, he checked on the child. As he looked down at the pillow on his nightstand, he noticed that he little figure on top was shivering ever so slightly. John just hoped it was from the cold and the boy wasn't so scared of him that he was trembling even in his sleep. He walked away and rummaged through one of his drawers, until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out one of his handkerchiefs and used that to cover the child. After that was taken care of, he finally settled down on his own bed to get at least a few hours of sleep, before the sun would rise again.

He just prayed that tomorrow would be better.

Here is what my mother told me when I was young: the world is harsh. It is unforgiving and it has teeth. Take no shit.

Here is what I have learned from the world: it is wounded and the humans scattered throughout it are rarely the rats of Rat Park, they are the tired, trembling experiments in need of more kindness, not less. Do no harm.

Here's what I have learned from the world: humans are good. They and soft, and gentle, and they are wounded, all of them. When humans were young and wild, they looked at the snarling beasts that came to their fires, the ones with sharp teeth in their long muzzles, and saw soft fur and the welcome-home wag of a tail.

Here is what I have seen: Given an opportunity, humans will choose to create. They will create art, and music, and community. They will tell each other stories, sing each other songs, help each other heal. Even without safety, even when it wounds them, they will love. They will love each other - their family, their friends, their mates - and they will love the world.

Here is what I have seen: there is hope. Sometimes it is ugly and twisted and burns, but humans will hold onto it with both hands and their entire heart. They will share it with one another. They will use it to tame beasts with fur and teeth as well as the ones that live inside of themselves. They will create because of it; they will say I hope this makes someone smile, I hope this makes someone cry. I hope this saves someone. And it will.

Here is what I know to be true: evidence of a healed broken bone from thousands of years ago reminds us that what makes us human isn't our wounds, but how we care for one another through them.

Here is what my mother told me: the world will gnash its sharp teeth at me. It will try to wound me.

Here is what I know to be true: I am human, and humans heal one another and can turn sharp teeth into wagging tails.

Prompt 3

Hero walked down the dark street, felling absolutely fucking miserable. They could barely even get out of bed that morning, and to fight crime? It made Hero even more exhausted. Hero heard a beep from their pocket, sighing as they took their phone out.

They had a bag of McDonalds in the other hand.

They stopped at a bench, grumbling to themselves. Just some stupid work emergency...

Hero felt a hand on the back of their back, not responding.

"You weren't that good in our fight today." Villain's voice came.

"I'm fucking fine." Hero responded, snapping their head around to glare at Villain. Villain sighed, scoffing as they smacked the Heroes food to the floor.

Hero stared at the food for a moment, their lip shaking as their voice started to break.

"Hero?..." Villain said, snapping their fingers in front of Heroes face. Hero looked to Villain, their eyes clearly having tears building up- Hero just fell apart and started sobbing, trying to control it, but they couldn't.

Villain regretted everything they did in that moment.

Heat index was 110 degrees so we offered him a cold drink. He went for a full body soak instead

Hi! So I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted actual writing & not just me rambling. The reason for this is that I’ve been going through some serious writers block recently which has been veryyyyy difficult to overcome. I will hopefully post more soon, but it’s not 100% rn. :[

I also wanna quickly credit my irl bestie Soldier Blade who was basically my beta for this. I couldn’t have done it without you :]

Based off of this prompt

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Fledgling Part 1

Drahoslava. The almighty dragon who ruled the great mountains of Rosewood, who was said to either protect those who entered her domain, or to destroy them when they entered. The legend that had caused many to steer clear of the towering peaks she called home. That was how she liked it; the lands untainted by humans, inhabited instead by the mystical creatures of the woodlands & wild plants that bloomed with more colour than one can imagine. This unnerved humans, the unknown of what was beyond the peaks. So they built walls to shield themselves from the mythical, to keep themselves safe. Nobody went past the borders, nor did anybody go inside.

 So you can imagine her surprise when she sensed two humans in her lair, an adult knight & an infant.

She narrowed her sharp, amethyst eyes from behind the spiny stalagmites as they limped inside, a small trail of blood following the knight's staggering steps. The knight carried a ragged bundle close to his armoured chest, likely where the infant was. As silent as the night itself, she approached from behind, the shadows blending with her raven-coloured scales. The human paused, looking around for the threat before spotting her in the shadows.

    Without a second to waste, she emerged from her cover, her large stature towering over his. She could see him tense, his body ever so slightly shaking from fear as he stood his ground. Draho was proud to see that she was still as terrifying as she’d been during her younger years, with her midnight colored horns & scales that sent fear into the most brave souls.

    “Do you have no self preservation, human? You know what they say happens to idiotic little knights who attempt to challenge me.” She sneered, looking down at him from the pile of rocks she stood on. He swallowed audibly, his grip on the bundle tightening ever so slightly. She smiled sinisterly, her senses prepared for the fight that would likely come. Draho stepped forward, ready for whatever plan this knight ha-

    “Please take care of her.” He pleaded, desperation & hope evident in his voice. She stepped back, startled by the outburst. “T-this is the safest place she can go. I do not want her to end up like the others..” He rasped, gently bringing the child forward. She looked past the cloth, & there was the infant's face. She had warm, copper skin that was slightly flushed at the cheeks & eyes, as if to indicate she had been crying. Though, she slept peacefully in his arms, completely unbothered. Draho studied the child, her amethyst eyes narrowed in thought. Drahoslava had expected a battle, not begging to take care of an infant. 

    “I’m not sure I understand…” She muttered, not wanting to wake the baby. Her gaze moved to the knight, who held her with care & gentleness she previously saw unfit for humans. He looked up at her, large teary blue eyes shining with hope & begging. Draho surveyed him, noticing the wound that was continuing to bleed sluggishly, the exhaustion that fought to knock him over, his unkempt russet hair that was messily tied back out of his eyes. Overall, all she could feel sympathy replacing the previous malice that she was used to. The knight cleared his throat, snapping the dragon out of her musings.

    “I- The kingdom of Jacaranda was invaded by King Lucius. He ordered his guards to kill all the members of the royal family, including her…” His voice cracked as he said this, small tears beginning to cascade down his pale face. “I was ordered to kill her, &-& I couldn’t do it. She’s barely seen what the world has to offer, & I just- I don’t want to take away a life that's too young to even speak, let alone be a threat.” Draho felt her heart drop at the notion, but before she could speak, he continued. “I doubt I will last much longer, so I beg that you take her, or else she will di-”

    “What's her name?” She interjected, looking back at the infant. His gaze dropped down to the bundle in his arms. 

    “Serenity.” He responded, a small smile creeping onto his face. A smile that showed nothing but adoration & care. A smile with love that Draho recognized when her young had hatched all those years ago. The dragon sighed softly, dreading the reaction that would come of her decision. She knew it was slightly cruel, but she had no choice.

    “What is your name? I cannot keep calling you “The knight” now can I?” She joked humorlessly, feeling guilt seep into her mind. The knight seemed surprised by the question, yet straightened subconsciously as he introduced himself.

    “I am Sir Nathan Del, though I would prefer you called me Nathan.” He chuckled nervously, hestitance replacing the fondness he had earlier. Draho looked at him with eyes full of pity. She didn’t like what she was about to say, but it had to be done. Sucking in a breath, she began to speak.

    “Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Nathan, but I’m afraid I cannot take care of Serenity,” she paused, pointedly ignoring how his face fell with anguish. She would be lying if she said she didn’t feel the slightest bit of satisfaction from that. Old grudges are hard to get rid of, she supposed. “I have already fostered many fledglings of my own. My time as a mother is over, & for that I am truly sorry.” She concluded. Nathan didn’t respond, only stood there, face pale from fear & disappointment. 

    “I- Miss Drahoslava- Serenity has nowhere else to go! I will be unable to make the trek back down & even if I do then I won’t be able to outrun the guards &-” He continued to ramble, his breath breaking into short gasps. Draho felt bile rise in her throat as she watched him hyperventilate, his legs becoming noticeably more & more unsteady until they fell beneath him.

    Without missing a beat, Draho scooped he & Serenity up into her arms before they had landed on the stone floors of her home. She felt something warm & sticky drip onto her limbs, & the sharp metallic smell of blood permeated around the cavern. Turning him over, she saw the previously sluggish wound was now bleeding rapidly. Without thinking, she manoeuvred them to a secure position on her back.Though it was rather uncomfortable, she ventured into the heart of the mountain with her newest companions.

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If y’all like this I can make it a series, which goes true to my other fics lol.

Without further ado, have a great day/night! :D