The Sons of Vengeance

The Sons of Vengeance

    

     The sun was just starting to rise as the pair flew from Bog Bugerlar island only a few hours ago. Connor and StormCloud are making their way to SailBack Island, this island is the main trading port for all the neighboring tribes. 

  When Cami's mother Bertha received word that the Berserkers were head to SailBack it was clear they had to be stop, she was ready to send her strongest warriors to handle this problem. Connor saw this as an opportunity to take out more Berserkers and maybe find their island, it was hard leaving Cami and the rest of the villagers but this was important. 

     From the directions that Bertha gave him he was only a few hours away, he was starting to get impatient "Come on Storm let's pick up the pace!" Connor yelled over the wind. StormCloud's only response was a loud roar followed by a sudden increase in speed, Connor lowered himself closer to the dragon's back as his speed kept increasing, at this speed we are going to reach SailBack in no time. 

   Twenty minutes later and they had come up on something that they weren't expecting. The pair was still a little ways out from the island but in the distance they could see large plumes of smoke coming from the direction they were heading.

  Connor urged StormCloud to go faster, the fear growing inside of him, fear that he was going to be too late. They were only a mile out but they were close enough to see that it wasn't the village that was on fire it was Berserker ships. 

    Connor and StormCloud circled the island seeing if there were any survives both villager and Berserker alike, as they circled from high above all they could see was the bodies of fallen Berserkers and the villagers piling the bodies and burning them. Out of the corner of his eye Connor caught the sight of a Berserker ship leaving the island, he pulled on the reigns of his saddle in the direction of the ship and took off after it. 

    In a matter of minutes StormCloud was fifteen feet above the ship, Connor let's go of the reigns and falls off of the dragons back, he lands on the deck with a loud thud.  The Viking teen walked around deck and found no one, something was telling him other wise. Connor makes his way towards the cabin of the ship, he stops three feet shy of the door as he notices someone walk out and stands in the door way. 

  Connor didn't know what to make of this person, the teen was Native American he wore a wolf pelt over his head hiding his face, a leather vest with an elk pelt covering his waist and a wooden spiral as a belt buckle, tribal bands around his biceps and boots made of elk. 

  Connor watched him carefully waiting for any signs of hostility, just then the stranger in the door way stepped to the side, Connor watched him closely but noticed the reason why he moved. Out of the shadows of the cabin stepped a giant Wolf, the Viking teens mouth turned up into a smile, he had heard rumors of a Giant Wolf but never had actually seen one.

    The wolf stood six feet tall on all fours, a very muscular build and bright yellow eyes, as he watched the Wolf come fully out of the cabin, Connor notice that he was at least nine feet long. 

    Connor noticed something else, the wolfs fur was nothing like he had ever seen before, it was the color of ash but with fire red streaks running through it almost like he was on fire. 

  When the Giant Wolf was fully out of the cabin he began to growl at the Viking teen, a plume of smoke comes from his snout and exposes his teeth, Connor simply smiled "I like your friend, I brought one too" Connor said in an amused tone, the sound of wings beating made the stranger look to the sky, StormCloud descended from the sky, hovering just above the deck before gently landing. The two great beasts stood beside their riders growling at each other...... 

  The giant wolf ignites into flames eyes glow like two flickers of candles.

The Native American warrior places his hand onto his wolf causing his eyes to blaze into a glowing yellow and he ignites into flames just as the giant wolf, he smiles over to Connor. Connor gives a smirk back as if he wasn't scared and raises his sword into a battle position, the native warrior pulls both hatchet's from their sheath ready too start the battle than suddenly both beasts looked alerted towards West of the shore. 

  Connor and the warrior both look towards their beasts, wondering what they see, Connor looks over to the native, he looks to the giant wolf. Shadow: there are a fleet of Berserkers coming, I assume they know it was us that had killed their men, we need to decide now, we fight or set sail? The native looks to Connor we will take care of this quarl later, my wolf Shadow told me there is a fleet of berserkers on the way! Connor gets a sinister smirk on his face, StormCloud and I will gladly help take out the berserker forces, by the way what is your name?, the native looks to Connor, my name is Greyen Elkheart.

  Greyen looks to Shadow and asked, In which direction? Shadow nodding towards the West... And just like that Greyen knew exactly what Connor and StormCloud had planned.

  They sailed towards the fleet of ships, Greyen at the wheel and Connor at the head of the ship, sword drawn and his dragon at his side. Shadow Fire stood beside his rider, both man and beast ready for a fight, the new riders their eyes glowed in unison a golden yellow and bodies in flames. They were only minutes away from the fleet, Greyen dropped anchor and let the Berserkers come to them, Greyen walked up beside Connor, the Vikings gaze was focused and determined, he placed a hand on the Viking teens shoulder, Are you ready for this? Greyen's tone was serious. Connor looked to the other teen with a wicked look in his eyes, I am, let's have some fun.

  Greyen smiled, Here they come, the Berserkers only meters away. Conner begins sprinting towards the edge of the ship, he leaps towards the closet ship to the right and lands on deck. Greyen shakes his head, So reckless...and then follows quickly after jumping on the closest ship to the left. 

  Chaos broke out as soon as the riders hit the deck of the ships, Connor swinging his sword in every direction. Greyen slashing at Berserker soldiers dropping them one after another, his speed matching Connor's.

  They finished the first two ships and then moved on to the next. Greyen slashing and cutting every Berserker that came his way, ducking and dodging every attack that came at him with a speed that could only be described as inhuman. Connor on the boat opposite throws his sword, pinning a soldier to the mast on the ship. Berserker's charging at the Viking teen from every direction, he sends his fists crashing into the face of the closest soldier before swinging around and planting the heel of his boot into the jaw of the next.

  Greyen tilts his head to the side dodging an arrow, which passes through his flames and renders it to ash. The teen turns to see three archers with drawn bows aimed in his direction, they fire but none of them make contact as they turn to ash. Greyen charges at the three archers, hatchets extended at his sides, he jumps into the air as the archers attempt to reload. 

  The teen executes a perfect front flip sending the heel of his boot crashing down on top of the middle soldiers head putting him right through the deck of the ship. Greyen slashes wildly, the two remaining soldiers receiving gash after gash, their minds not fully coming to terms with what is happening to them. The teen spins rapidly on the balls of his feet, the blades of his hatchets slicing their abdomens, blood spraying everywhere until the men drop to the deck of the ship dead.

  Connor pulls his sword from the corpse of the man pinned to the mast, he looks over to the ship opposite the one he's on and witnesses the end results of Greyen's fight, I've seen better, he said to himself grinning. Connor quickly jumps to the next boat, sword raised above his head on his left an a dagger in his right, two Berserkers take notice of the Viking teen and charge towards him. 

  Connor still in the same stance throws the dagger at the soldier to his left instantly killing him. Using the momentum of throwing his dagger at the soldier to the left he spins doing a full rotation and chopping off the head of the Berserker on his right. His eyes follow the decapitated body to the deck of the ship, hearing loud bootsteps on the deck of the ship he looks up to see fifteen Berserker soldiers charging at him swords drawn. 

  The Viking teen raises his sword above his head and draws out his last dagger taking a battle stance, out of no where Greyen drops down then stands up hatchets raised ready to fight. Both warriors run head on at the soldiers, when they get in striking distance, the two soldiers bring their swords down on the boys, as the swords bare down on them they split into two different directions at the last second, Connor going left and Greyen to right.

  Greyen lifts his hatchet blocking a strike to the right, another soldier coming straight at him the boy buries his free hatchet into the other man's chest. Greyen rips the hatchet from chest of Berserker and with the hand he is using to block pushes the other making him stagger back and with both hatchets Greyen slashes across the Berserker soldiers abdomen spilling blood all over the deck.

  Greyen turns to face the three remaining Berserker soldiers just seven feet away, before soldiers could even blink the boy launches his hatchets taking out the soldiers to his left and right just leave the final one in the center. With the final soldier standing in fear, Greyen lunges at the Berserker at top speed sending him crashing into the deck of the ship, the boy looks down at the man and in his native tongue he say "This is for my family" and reaches down and snaps his neck.

  Greyen gets to his feet, looking over to Connor only to find that he is finished. They both look off into the distance and find that there is still one more ship on its way. The Berserker archers ready their bows and then fire thousands of arrows into the air ready to hit Connor and Greyen, a stream of fire comes from behind the teens burning the arrows to ash. 

  Connor smiles when he hears wings flapping and then a thud on the deck behind them, there StormCloud appeared and stood next to Connor, then the sound of paws smashing from ship to ship Shadow comes out from behind Greyen and stands next to his rider. The Berserker ship only a few feet away, both Connor and Greyen order Storm and Shadow to take aim, then from their mouths massive streams of fire engulfed the Berserker ship turning it to ash in a matter of minutes. 

  Then returning to their own ship, they order StormCloud and ShadowFire to incinerate the evidence of the ships. The sun was near setting, the young warriors decide to return to Sailback Island to camp out for the night. 

  Connor and Greyen decide to split up at the island to gather supplies for the night, Connor searches for fire wood, while Greyen goes hunting. A half hour later both return to their camp, plenty of supply in hand, Connor gets the fire started as Greyen prepares the meat for eating. 

  They throw the meat onto the fire to cook, they both sit on opposite sides of the fire Greyen next to Shadow, and Connor beside StormCloud. A few moments of silence pass between the two, Connor removes his coat, Greyen catches a glimpse of the tattoo on Connor's right arm. Greyen becomes curious and decides to break the silence, does your tattoo have a meaning? 

  Connor places a hand on his tattoo and sighs, it's a long story he replies with a serious tone. Greyen looks to Connor we have plenty of time, Connor then sighs once again figuring it's finally time to talk about what happend. They had fought side by side and Connor felt no reason to not trust Greyen after what had happend. 

  Connor looked at Greyen for a moment than spoke, The first thing you have to know is that my people were protectors, we swore an oath to protect both dragons and humans alike... this tattoo on my arm is a symbol of the oath I took while in training. There are three stages of training, each of which put our skills to the test and if we are worthy, we receive a mark that symbolizes the completion of a level of training. 

  The symbol engraves itself into our skin each with a meaning, the first one a symbol of devotion to family and tribe, the second is a symbol honoring the oath to the dragons, and third and final one.... I have yet to receive. Greyen looks to Connor the tattoos you speak of I also bare these tribal bands that had appeared on my arms the day that shadow had saved me. 

  Connor in curiosity asks about what had happened that day in Greyen's life. Greyen than looks to the fire, it was a day like any other the sun had just risen in the morning sky Kota my pet wolf and I had awakened and decided to go out for a run into the woods, I had checked in with my mother and father before leaving they didn't want me wandering to far off from the village I ensured them I wouldn't, my mother than kissed my forehead and sent me off. 

  Koto and I were on our usual trail we always walked nothing out of the ordinary. Greyen looks to Connor and says I have a special gift, I'm able to communicate telepathically with wolves it was said to be a great gift and one day I would know the reason behind it, that is why I communicate with Shadow in ways people do not understand. 

  But that day Kota and I heard men yelling in the distance away from us so curiously we ran to them. Only a few feet in front of us stood about fifteen Berserker soldiers, they stood tall like giants. We knew who they were, they had brought trouble to my people before trying take our land but we soon drove them out leaving there leader alive, he swore they would return one day.

   Kota and I ran back towards the village we saw plumes of smoke from beyond the trees, Kota said he heard people screaming we feared that the village was under attack. We had made it to the village and our fears were right, twenty to thirty Berserker solders slaying my people. 

  Laughing at the fear they had brought I looked to my right to find my parents headless bodies lying in a pool of their own blood, finding their heads on top of spears in the ground. I cried out this can't be happening i started to panic!, my lungs clenched, there I stood surrounded by five berserkers ready to slay me down just as my mother and father. 

  Kota roared, snarled and growled with his teeth baring. Kota said to me he would never let them hurt me, one soldier reared back to swing at me, Kota lunges to his throat tearing the flesh with ease splattering blood all over the other men. Kota looks to me with flesh between his teeth and urges me to run to the trees and he would guide the path.

   I had ran to the left of us where a tall oak had stood, another soldier had swung in my direction, I ducked and Kota lunged once again tearing at his face jaws opened wide biting into his eye ripping it from his face. The man screamed a hellish scream and collapsed to the ground where Kota continued to tear his throat. One of the three remaining solders kicked Kota with great force sending him off of the soldier. 

  Kota jumps to his feet I hear his thoughts he replied looking at the man is that all you got, than lunges for that man again both falling to the ground. Kota clawing and biting at the soldier they rolled around in the dirt, the man landing on top of Kota than plunging a dagger into the side of Kota, he yelps than looks to me and howls with such a force, than he took the last breathe he had. 

  Kota looked straight into my eyes as he died I screamed at the top of my lungs, I couldn't believe my eyes I was crying and panicking. Suddenly out of no where I heard loud thuds coming from the trees and out came this massive wolf, I had never seen anything like it. 

  He stood about six feet tall and almost nine feet in length his fur the color of ash his eyes glowing this bright yellow, he let out a massive roar baring his teeth and licking his snout. Igniting into flames smoke leaving his nostrils he lets out fire from his mouth burning the remaining solders alive there screams like banshees. 

  He looked to me and said that Kota had sent him and I needed to trust him so I did. I left the oak tree and jumped on his back we left the village and never looked back. I never knew what these bands meant... He was cut off mid sentence, they mean that your an Apex Rider like me, Connor said still not looking up from the fire. 

  Greyen looked to the Viking teen with confusion in his eyes, My father used tell me stories about other Riders, how it wasn't just dragons that could be ridden it was other creatures as well. Greyen's curiosity grew even more, What exactly is an Apex Rider? Connor was silent for a moment lost in thought, It's someone who is chosen by an Apex creature to be it's rider, they form a bond, there has only been a hand full of Apex riders in my village and it was for a good reason".

  Greyen looked at Connor with a concerned look on his face. Choosing an Apex dragon is different than choosing a regular dragon the bond is different, it's stronger.  There is a reason there are only a hand full of Apex riders it was because of the effects that came from riding one. Greyen's curiosity grew even further, he wanted to know more, what effects like growing wings and a tail or something, a slight smile appeared on Connor's face, not exactly, it usually depends on the dragon a different ability for a different class of dragon, the Apex dragons bring out the riders hidden talents and make them stronger, the basic one is healing others could be strength, speed, the ability to move threw water like you were born in it or make your skin as hard as stone. There are also others, but those even I haven't seen I just heard from my father.

  Connor remembered what his father said and he repeated it to Greyen, Some of the Riders could handle their new abilities...and some could not, they were consumed by the power and then they went insane. But enough of that, we need the sleep we have berserker camps to find............TO BE CONTINUED!!!