It was a dark but beautiful night, a boy named Argus, age 15, is out in the woods by mistake. He was supposed to be home in the village he lived in by sunset, but he lost his way. His parents must be worried about their adopted son, he must get home soon. The woods is a dangerous place at night and being armed with only a sword and shield is not very much protection without armor or other protective gear. Argus has been walking for a while now trying to find the road to his village.
“How did I get lost?” Argus said to himself. “How dumb can I be just to lose the main road? Hopefully I can find the river.”
Then out came a loud roar of a strange beast; the beast is near Argus since he heard growls. Scared to the tip of his bones he began to walk faster.
“What the heck is near me? Monsters aren’t usually out in the night.”
But he remembered that there are few large wyverns that crawl late at night as they hunt their prey.He felt the growl coming nearer and he tried to hide from the beast. As he waited he saw the beast coming, it was just an ordinary blue bear looking for honey. Argus sighed in relief and continued for a few paces ahead, but then he felt a chill run down his spine as he heard a different growl. He froze in fear, when he recovered he looked around to find what was the growling. East of where he was he saw red glowing eyes. The figure of the red eyes jumped out of the trees that it was behind and came behind Argus. He could now see that it was a jaguar-like wyvern, spikes on its wings and a tail with a sharp end that could come off and instantly recover another spike after it has been shot. Argus was captivated in fear from the wyvern’s cold and fearful look on its face. The wyvern came closer to Argus, he was stepping backwards to try and keep his distance.
“Damn, I have to get out of here, now!” Argus screamed.
Yet before Argus was about to run the wyvern gave out a loud roar; Argus had to stop and cover his ears from being so close to the wyvern. The wyvern then leaped at Argus, but he dove to the ground to avoid getting hit. He then quickly got back up and started running. The wyvern is much more nimble than Argus and can easily catch up with him. Argus knew that so he tried to use the trees to his advantage; it only sometimes worked. The wyvern, unable to hit Argus, became angrier and roared again, its eyes glowed red again and moved much faster. Argus too began to run faster than normal, he’s only barely avoiding the attacks of the wyvern, and now the wyvern is shooting spikes from its tail to hit Argus. Argus still goes toward the trees to avoid getting hit as the spikes pierce through the trees. After a few more moments of running from the wyvern he came across a cliff.
“Not even a cliff will be able to get me away from a winged monster!” Argus exclaimed, “I have to try though.”
Jumping off cliffs that are at least 100 meters high does not offer death but can injure someone in this world; this cliff seemed about 40 meters. Argus then jumped off the cliff and aimed straight to the ground to gain speed; the wyvern followed down after him, roaring and raised its arm in order to pound him when he lands. Before he hit the ground he did a flip for his feet to land first, causing a big crack on the ground. Unharmed by the fall he rolled away from his position to avoid the wyvern from crushing him. The wyvern came down and caused a greater crack from the one Argus had made.
“That was lucky as Hell!” Argus said as he ran away from the wyvern.
Argus, not tired for he is too scared, kept running as fast as he could. The wyvern easily still catching up to him had leaped at him to try and hit Argus with his claws, the wyvern succeeded and with such great force Argus hit a tree and bounced off it. Argus, his back filled with pain, laid there and is now waiting for death.
“This can’t be my last… could it?” Argus moaned to the gods. “Please, I can’t die just yet.”
The wyvern leaped at him again and then- Argus heard the wyvern fall down from the air and landed to the ground, the wyvern was hit by something. Argus then felt a strange aura around his back, not cold but a warm and healing one. His back quickly recovered and noticed someone was healing him with magic.
“Thank the gods you’re still alive. Don’t you ever go off and not come back home again, alright?” said a familiar voice to Argus. Though the voice was yelling, it was a soft and gentle one and sounded as if the speaker was crying.
He got up to see who the speaker was, it was a girl, no not just any girl his closest friend, Brunella. She is a girl with blue eyes that sparkle in the moonlight, she is a cat-like human (who has, of course, cat ears instead of human ears and a tail) who is the age of 13 and is also wielding a bow, with two short swords on her waist that are sheathed. She must be the one who attacked the wyvern.
“Sorry…” Argus said in reply.
The wyvern then got back up and aimed the spike from its tail at the Brunella.
“Lookout!”
Argus pushed her away from the spikes and blocked it with his shield, yet it sent him off-balance. The wyvern then extended its tail and aimed to slam it at Brunella, she narrowly avoided the attack. Argus drew out his sword and leaped at the wyvern and attacked with successful strikes. Even when the wyvern is attacking Argus, he is avoiding its attacks and striking it as he avoids it. Brunella, worried about Argus, is rarely attacking so that when Argus gets hit she has enough time for her curative magic to reach him. The wyvern noticed her again, it extended its tail again but this time it did a sweeping attack, almost hitting Argus but hits Brunella.
“Brunella!” Argus screamed. “Are you alright?”
She was in great pain, there was a big bruise on her right arm, she tried to resist the attack from hitting her ribs.
“Let’s get you someplace safe.”
The wyvern came up to attack the two friends, but Argus slashed its face, leaving a scar on its left eye. He carried Brunella on his back and ran as fast as he could. He’ll soon be exhausted since fighting that wyvern tired him.He came across a river.
“Good we found the river,” Argus said, “I’ll hide you behind those bushes over there.”
“Alright…” Brunella said in a painful tone.
Once he did so he healed her arm with his curative magic.
“Stay here, I don’t want you getting hurt anymore.”
“No, you can’t go off against the monster on your own, you could die!”
“Before you saved me, I said that I didn’t want to die yet, but I’d gladly do it now for someone I care about.” Argus gave her a worried smile and went to face the wyvern.
Finally, the wyvern caught up and attacked Argus with the spike on its tail. Argus was hit by the spike on his leg and was pushed into the river. Brunella, her heart sank as her close friend was attacked so horribly and would possibly drown from being in the river for his leg injured badly. But her thought of her friend drowning was gone since Argus jumped out of the river and landed in front of the wyvern. He took the spike off his leg, painful it was but it became his weapon. He used the spike as a secondary off-hand weapon with his shield. Despite his leg being injured he was able to move normally, only to know that he is bleeding badly on his leg. The fight lasted a long time, Argus somehow is still managing the pain in his leg and is down to his last breath.
“Damn, I can’t last much longer with this damned leg of mine!” Argus said.
Brunella however is fully recovered and can bear no longer of Argus’s suffering and came out to attack.
“Then, please, allow me to help,” said Brunella.
Argus had no choice since she would just ignore him if he told her to stay away. Many of her arrows pierced the wyvern’s tough flesh and as she attacked she healed Argus since she had some distance between them. The wyvern then targeted Brunella, she placed her bow on her back and tied it very quickly and pulled out the two short swords from her waist. Instead of rolling, like Argus, she does kart-wheels to quickly move and regain her footing. She is very quick and nimble with her two swords and feet, the wyvern cannot lay a paw on her. Argus is trying to heal himself, especially his wound on his leg. Feeling only a little better from healing he started to attack the wyvern and aid his friend. Argus yelled out a battle cry as he jumped up high in the air and stabbed his sword through the wyvern’s arm. He knocked it down and got on its back. He then started stabbing the wyvern ferociously as the wyvern is trying to get him off and hitting the ground. The wyvern grew tired and Argus stabbed it even more, he got off and called out a spell for stones to come over his leg that is not injured and kicked the wyvern as hard as he could to knock the wyvern off balance and injure its arm severely. The stones then broke from his leg because of the hard force of Argus’s strength and the wyvern’s tough flesh.
“Now Brunella, attack with all you have!”
The two friends then charged at the wyvern and attacked with all they could.
“Let’s finish this, Argus.” Brunella said with a determined tone.
The two came together and held hands to focus their energy to summon a giant magic sword. They succeeded upon doing so and slashed the wyvern in many directions. As the sword glowed brighter they made a downward slash at the wyvern causing the sword to be released from their grasp and disappear after it hit the wyvern. The wyvern took the hit then tried to use its remaining strength to attack Argus, but it failed to for its end came. Argus remembered about his pain and kneeled down on the knee that wasn’t hurting.
“Are you alright?” Brunella asked.
“I’ll be fine, let’s just find our way back to the village.” Argus said with a smile.
“Yes...let’s.” Brunella returned a worried smile back to him.
Brunella helped him up and followed the river to get to the village they lived in. They made it back, still night after all that time.
“My parents are gonna kill me for being out this late and my leg will be the end of me as well when they see it.”
“You’re not alone, my parents will also give me a big scolding, but it was worth it now I know that you’re safe.” Brunella said with a cheerful smile this time.
They came to Argus’s house first; Brunella opened the door and a bright light came upon Argus, he felt himself getting really dizzy and hit the ground.
Argus awoke, aware that he is on a bed. He touched his face and his leg; he felt a scar on his leg. He then noticed that he felt older; he knew he actually is older and remembered that he is 24 years of age now.
“Another nightmare of that time again…” Argus said to himself.
He felt a small movement beside him. It was that same girl who helped him. Now she is also older and he remembered that she is also his wife, he is quite happy about that..
“Thank the gods that we lived through our first encounter with that wyvern,.” he said as he hugged her and fell silently asleep.
Brunella, wide awake, is a little worried about Argus, but she assumed he had a nightmare; how right she was. She turned around and came closer to Argus.
“You must have had a nightmare about that time again; yes, thank the gods that we lived through that,” she said very quietly as tears came from her eyes. Little does she know, it wasn’t the same thing they were both remembering, she is thinking of something much worse than what Argus’s dream had.




To be continued...