Excalion

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, after tons of headaches and a bout of Writer's Block, I finally managed to get this fledgling story off its feet! This story is the counterpart to Nexus, though how this ties in will not be revealed until towards the end of Nexus or the third book. As with its counterpart, this story will be split into parts, however many depends on how far I want the actual chapter to progress. In any event, enough of my babbling, and enjoy! Don't forget, reviews and/or constructive criticism are always appreciated!

Excalion
Chapter One: The Calm Before The Storm

=[ Part One ]=


Dragons roared as they wove across the skies, making graceful loops then diving low as they opened their mouths wide and breathed fire, scarring the blood-soaked fields. Other dragons landed and ran across the battlefields, their large scaled bodies driving a wedge through both armies, batting aside soldier and horse alike with their powerful clawed feet, immolating armored footmen with their fiery breath, or lunging at the morale-broken fighters, tossing them into the air and swallowing them whole.

Wynncrest Scarner could only watch as the battlefield unfolded into chaos around him. Dread filled him as he felt blood spray on his robes and bare skin, as he heard the cries of the victorious and the fallen, of the dragons that wove through the skies. He wanted so desperately to run, to hide from the clashing of steel, the sounds of rending metal and the smell of blood, but his body would not move. He could only turn his head and watch the carnage unfold around him.

In an instant, he could hear his heart beating like a lazy metronome as everything suddenly went into slow motion. In front of him he could hear the sound of something large stepping towards him, shaking the ground under his feet. The fighting in front of him parted, and in its wake charged a hulking, golden dragon, smoke rising from its nostrils, its eyes fixed on him. With every beat of his heart, the dragon took a step closer to him. As soon as he could see the golden-colored plates of its chest carapace, the hulking beast rose on its hind legs, its neck craned to zero in on him. Just before the dragon opened its mouth and made its lunge, he noticed a female figure atop the dragon’s head, her arms raised high. The crystal blue eyes were unmistakable as darkness overwhelmed him and he felt the dragon’s teeth pierce through his skin as if nothing. One word escaped his throat in a dying scream at that instant.

“Shanavale!”


* * * * *


Wynncrest woke up with a start, his body covered with a sheen of sweat and the sheets on his side of the bed soaked. He clutched at his chest where his heart was, and was slightly relieved to felt it beating rapidly.

“Just a dream…” he panted. He lay back and stared at the stone ceiling.

“What was…?” a female voice asked him. The other person in his bed shuffled around and looked at him with a sleepy grin.

He looked over to her. “I just had a dream, Vale,” he told her. She shuffled closer to him and laid her blonde head on his chest.

“Are you sure it wasn’t a vision, Wynn?” Shanavale asked. “Because if it is, you know you should report it immediately to the Sorcerer Superior.”

He looked down at her with a mischievous grin, the last images from the dream fading away. “You’re one to talk. You were never one to obey your father’s orders, Shanavale Overon.”

She giggled and drew circles with her fingertip on his bare chest. “Yes, that’s true, Wynn, but if I was never friends with Naomi and Kai, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Wynn smiled knowingly. Shanavale’s best friends, Naomi Tammash and Kaijin Haruka, were more troublesome and open in regards to satiating their physical appetites. Wynn quickly became friends with them as soon as his father became the Sorceror Superior, advisor to the King of Overon. It was with his father’s promotion and discovering his friends, too, that he became acquainted with the Princess of Overon and General of the King’s Armies, Shanavale Overon.

“Will you tell your father?”

Wynn shrugged. “I don’t know, Vale. It’s too real to be a dream, and yet it’s too vague to be a vision.”

“I’m sure he would be able to find something in it,” Vale suggested.

Wynn nodded. “I might, Vale. Don’t worry.”

She kissed his chest and laid her head on her pillow. “I’m not worried, because I’ll ask your father about it before the day is through.”

“Vale…”

“Wynn, your father told mine before we first met that you were special among sorcerer blood, that when you were of age, you would be able to see visions most clearly, recite and write down prophecies in a trance, and have much more potent magic than your father.”

She smiled as she looked up at him. “My mother was very perceptive, and my father was once the General of the Kingdom’s Armies before he ascended to the throne. I knew when I first saw you that you knew everything about me the very second you saw me.”

A shiver ran down Wynn’s spine. “You unnerve me to no end sometimes, you know that?”

She winked at him. “Well, it’s good to know that a woman can still keep a man on his toes.” She shuffled closer to him. “Get some sleep, Wynn. You won’t have that dream again, I know it.”


* * * * *


Sorcerer Superior Eron Scarner turned away from the window where he could see a single candle in another window below slowly die out.

“You worry for your son, do you not, Eron?”

“Forgive me, Your Majesty,” the Sorcerer Superior said, bowing his head. “I know you feel differently about your daughter and my son than I do.”

The King of Overon, a tall, clean-shaven man, smiled warmly. “They are young, Eron. I know you were brought up differently, but regardless of what rules we set upon our children, they will find some way to break them or word them to their own benefit. You know that I am right.”

Eron smiled then laughed. “Of course, Your Majesty.” He bowed. “Forgive me.”

“Stop being such a stick in the mud, Eron!” The King stood up and walked over to the other side of the wooden table, clapping Eron on the back. “I assure you, my daughter and your son are a lot more mature than you may think.”

“I don’t exactly approve of their comrades, though…”

“It’s not that I don’t approve of them, because I do, I’m uncomfortable with their…openness,” the King countered, crossing his arms as he moved to the window. “The heir to the Forest Sanctum and the Warrior Princess of the Kingdom of Lightning Peaks aren’t exactly the most…subtle of sorts, but they are honorable and they appreciate the peace that we and their parents have worked so hard to build.” He turned to the Sorcerer Superior again and smiled broadly. “But that is youth, is it not?”

“I guess…”

The King frowned. “There is something else that bothers you?”

Eron shrugged as he stood and walked past his liege lord, looking down at the window where the candlelight had faded. “My son may have had a vision.”

“Are you sure?”

The Sorcerer Superior shook his head. “I cannot say for certain, Valos…” With a look of shock, he turned to the King and bowed. “My pardons, Your Highness…”

King Valos waved him off. “Eron, you have been a trusted friend to myself and my wife longer than she and I have been Joined. Outside of court, you are free to address myself and the Queen informally.”

Eron bowed. “Thank you.” He looked out the window. “As I said, I cannot say for certain. Visions are a sacred and mysterious thing, and no matter how outrageous, they cannot be taken lightly. As well, those that have seen portents of the future must not be forced to reveal what they have seen.”

Valos put his fingers to his chin, considering his advisor’s point. “I can agree with you there, Eron.”

“The vision must be willingly revealed to another person so that together, the one that received the vision and the person that the vision was revealed to may be able to properly discern what it means.”

Valos nodded again. “I see. So it is up to Wynn to reveal his vision to you?”

Eron nodded. “Yes.”

The King nodded as he pressed his hand to his mouth to stifle a yawn. “My pardons, Eron. Maybe I shouldn’t have had a late night snack.”

Eron looked to the King and burst out laughing. “Everyone gets a little hungry towards twilight, my Lord. Everyone from yourself to the most humble young farmhand indulges in a little something once in a while.”

Valos laughed loudly, clapping his friend on the back once more. “Indeed, old friend, indeed. I will take my leave and retire. Kirana worries when I come to bed too late.”


* * * * *


Wynn lazily opened his eyes and stared at the stone ceiling. He was grateful that the remainder of his sleep was dreamless. Though he was still drowsy from slumber, he felt replenished.

Shanavale’s head was still on his chest as he woke, and she stirred slightly as he managed to lay her head against the downy pillows on his side of the bed. Stretching, his feet touched the cold stone floor as he walked over to his desk, his tunic, pants, and undergarments folded neatly over the back of the chair. He silently dressed and exited his bedroom without a sound save for the muted click of the door closing.

The halls of the castle were quiet and dim, the wall torches still unlit and the first rays of sunlight casting a faint glow through the frosted glass windows. He looked down the hall in both directions before looking down at his boots and mouthing out a small spell. He took a careful step, grateful that his boot didn’t make a sound and echo down the hall. As he reached a spiral stairway, he made his way downwards, bumping into a night watchman.

“Oh! S-sorry,” he stammered.

“I’s a li’l early to be up and abou’ this mornin’,” the guard said. “An’ ‘ow come oi didn’t ‘ear you comin’ down the steps?”

He chuckled sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck. “Well, I didn’t want to wake up the Princess. There’s some place I need to be immediately.”

The guard narrowed his eyes. “And where migh' tha' be?”

“Oh, Wynn, what are you doing up?”

Wynn looked towards the source of the familiar voice, grateful that his friend, Overon Kingdom’s Captain of the Guard, had come in at exactly the right moment.

“Captain!”

“What’s going on here, Watchman?”

“I ran into ‘im in the stairway. I didn’ ‘ear a sound as he came down.”

“That’s no reason to interrogate him in the middle of the hall at daybreak. You’ll wake the Princess.”

“Oi understand, sir, bu'...”

The Captain of the Guard narrowed his eyes. “What are you, some sort of clod? Get a move on and finish your rounds. The change of shift is in a few minutes. Apologize to the son of the Royal Advisor and be on your way.”

The Watchman’s eyes widened and he bowed suddenly. “Forgive a thick’eaded man for ‘is mistakes, sir.” Still bowing, he backed away and moved swiftly down the stairs.

“What was that all about?”

Wynn smiled timidly. “I need to leave the castle grounds, but Vale’s a light sleeper and I didn’t want to wake her up. I cast a small spell to mute the sound of my footfalls, but my thoughts were elsewhere. That’s when I ran into that guard.”

The Captain grinned. “Since when were you two so close?”

Wynn narrowed his eyes as they entered the courtyard and walked towards the stables. “I’m not one to talk of that, especially about the Princess and your superior."

The Captain chuckled. “Such a straight arrow, Wynn. If you weren’t so queasy about seeing blood, you’d make a great soldier, maybe even a good Captain of the Guard.”

Wynn raised an eyebrow as they reached the stables. “Maybe with Kaijin’s help, I could get over that and have Vale give your position to me.”

“Now, now, Wynn, I was only joking.” He leaned on the doorway of the stables as Wynn strode over to one specific pen and opened the gate. There was a loud but light chirping as Wynn entered the pen.

“Easy, Asha, it’s only me.”

“I don’t understand how you can stand riding one of those things,” the Captain said. “I prefer riding and fighting on a horse.”

Wynn burst out from the pen mounted on a large harnessed bird with golden feathers, bright blue eyes and an orange-yellow beak.

“Horses are fine, but I prefer riding an opasha or a chamra,” Wynn said, pulling back gently on the reins and calming his mount down.

The Captain frowned. “As I said, Wynn, old friend, I don’t know how you do it.”

Wynn shrugged. “You’d better tend to your duties. It’s bad enough you and one of your Night Watchmen found me. I wasn’t expecting any company.”

“Indeed. May the Goddesses watch over you, Wynncrest.”

Wynn nodded. “And you, Rohadin, and you.”


=[ End of Part One ]=


A/N: That's all for now. I might edit the chapter a bit if I don't upload the next section. Enjoy, and as always, reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated!