Dragon-Warriors
By Darzell Josef Manticliffe
Chapter 1
A woman lay in a room bare of any furniture, except a small desk with a burning candle on it, a bed, and one rickety old chair that was occupied by the village midwife…
“Almost there, you can do it Safor!” Thought the village midwife, Jarkan, as the woman gave birth to a small, sandy haired boy, which Jarkan immediately cleaned off with a rag and wrapped in cloth. “I hope he survives his third year…” Jarkan thought gravely, as many children didn’t make very far in life
In a rasping whisper Safor said, “Jarkan, bring him to me… I want to see him, Cough, Cough” Jarkan jerked around and brought the child to Safor.
“You’ll be alright, sit up and you can hold him, there now.” Jarkan crooned as she helped the tired mother to a sitting position and handed her the small infant. Suddenly Safor slumped, before she even had the baby in her arms. Jarkan was very surprised, and fearing the worst had happened.
“Safor, are you all right?!” Jarkan said in a shocked voice, just as the young woman started to moan. “Safor, speak to me! You’ve got to say something!” cried Jarkan
“Jarkan… moan moan …care of the boy, will you…?” Safor moaned desperately.
Jarkan suddenly understood, “You’ll be alright, it’s ok, just sit up and you can hold him. Come on Safor, don’t die!”
“He… …be kept… …must be protected… …care of him, please Jarkan…” she finished in a whisper her desperate cry, “…Arjen…” and then died.
3 years later
Jarkan watched as Arjen waddled around in the small yard with a few other young children, she remembered the night he was born, she shuddered thinking, “I did not expect to be the one asked for the role, but I will bear it well. He certainly will be chosen to be a Dragon-Warrior, but will he make it to the Molatka?” she did not know.
2 years after that
A growing Arjen walked around in the small hut, carrying the wooden sword Jarkan had bought him. He was quite the expert, for they always taught the sons of Dragon-Warriors young, those who here not sons just had to wait for an older age to try it. But once you made it all were equal…
Chapter 2
Arjen sat down with a group of five boys near to a blazing bonfire, which sent its mighty flames to the sky at the exact center of the village. This was his first time ever watching the Molatka, the Remembrance Day, when all remembered the day before the dragons. . . . There were drums pounding that sounded crazy and reckless to those who had not heard it before. Then the chanting started…
“mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeemmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeee
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeemmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeee” the boy that watched with amazement as they pounded harder and harder on there drums, “jaja jeejee jiji juju chacha cheechee chichi chuchu - lataymoiya - yipchinedoya - hitoymoa! HITOYMOA!”
Suddenly the music and the singing stopped, and then the oldest man in the village, Vorcroan, came forward and said,
“Few of us lived when the dragons were not in our land, but many remember the time we fought them. This is when we remember this, for the dragons should have been eliminated! But no. The one who could have done it, from our own village! He let them live. We suffered greatly because of this. Many died, many more were wounded, and still he had the power to rid us of them, and still he did not. We come here to make boys into warriors, the Dragon-Warriors, that they might some day rid us of this fiery scourge!” Arjen knew not what would happen next, as he was new to this. Though he had practiced his sword play and learned many ways to fight, he still had no sword of his own, and if he was to become a Dragon-Warrior he had to have a dragon sword. He must borrow a sword and kill a dragon, take ten of the scales from it, and before he left the Dragon-Warrior would take a small gem from the many dragons had. When he had done that he would take these scales to the sword smith and have him place the scales in the hand guard of a sword that the Dragon-Warrior would then use for the rest of his life.
The ceremony was over in a flash, all the boys are given a good sword they had trained with, until they kill there first dragon that is.
Arjen then decided to find something to eat; he hadn’t had much that day. Arjen weaves through the huts to his own. He can smell rabbit stew cooking there, so he goes to grab some.
“WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING?” a woman behind him stated in a firm voice as he reached for a bowl, he whirls around, startled, face to face with his long protector, Jarkan.
Jarkan stood in front of a frightened Arjen, he had never really liked her, she had just taken him in because she had been asked by his dying mother to do so, and Arjen knew not what had made her so mad.
“You know that one must borrow a sword and leave without eating after the Dragon-Warrior has attended the Molatka.” Jarkan said in a firm voice.
Arjen felt so stupid about forgetting this, he should have remembered. Jarkan then herded him from the house and he went to the woods to forage, in his mind he thought of the times he would have eating rabbit for every meal, or at least most meals.
He suddenly a whisper, “come here, come over here.” he slowly approached this whisper, aware that it could be a trap. He carefully pulled out his long knife, just in case.
Arjen was startled when he found his old time friend, Zrenza, who had been at the ceremony as well. “I thought I’d never get your attention, Arjen.”
“Well, you did.”
“Ya, I guess so. I thought we could stick together instead of split up, make it easier to kill our first dragon; we’ll help each other find food to live on. Will you come with me?”
Arjen thought for awhile, he knew they were supposed to split up and go find a dragon on there own to prove they were worthy of the title Dragon-Warrior, but Arjen also thought of how much easier it would be to survive. It took no more thought.
“Yes, Zrenza, I will come with you.”
Arjen walked out of the village with Zrenza, always careful not to be seen. They then ran quietly up into the hills, quite far from the village so that no one would see a fire.
Arjen was surprised to see Tolzatr, Kiro and Yunjeen all at a little fire he hadn’t seen, because of the peculiar form of hills right in this spot.
They all sat on small rocks around the fire for a little, then Tolzatr said, “I’d better go find us some food,” as grabbed his bow and headed off into the woods.
“I’ll start water boiling then,” Kiro called after him.
If you think it sucks, PM me with a edited edition of it and i will read it and perhaps accept it changing a few things, this will be published some day. your writing may get in print, so if you don't want that don't be my editor.
Dragon-Warriors
