"Look at your face, it looks like a red apple." My master smiled wickedly as he poked the hunter's face with a stick.
The hunter screamed and begged, not from being poked but from seeing my master's hideous expression. His legs and arms were tight with ropes; he was hung upside down from a tree branch.
"Spare me; I will give you everything I have." He said, tears trickling down his forehead.
"Would you stop doing that?" I told him, sitting under the shadow of a giant tree, my back against the trunk. "His voice is annoying me."
My master looked at me with innocent eyes; not even a devil would be deceived by that look.
"What? I didn't scream when he aimed his sword at me. I'm not even using a sword." He said, showing me the stick.
I frowned, and shadows formed under my brows. This is unacceptable. Lately he has been acting childish; has he lost his mind or something?
He was old, older than the kingdom I'm from. A thousand-year-old Black Elf.
The screams of the hunter had been irritating; I shouted at my master, "Would you stop already? I can cut off those arms of yours." I showed him my blade.
Unfazed, my master chuckled. "Sure, sure." He backed away before poking the hunter again, showing his ugly smile. The hunter shrieked and fainted.
"Even the devil would fear that face of yours." I blatantly told him.
"Only if he existed." He said, walking closer to me. There was a black sword in his hand as he returned it to me.
Plopping beside me, he gazed at the orange sun shyly hiding behind the giant trees towering more than 100 meters. We reside in the forest of the giant demons, a place named because of these trees. At night, this forest becomes the demon's trees. That's what the small forks said.
It wasn't the trees that they should have feared but the monsters that dwelt in it.
"Hey, what will you do if one day I die?" Asked my master, a faint, sad smile lingering on his face.
I looked at him. His pointed ears were speckled with brown dots. He did say every elf does have these dots when they get old, but I was skeptical, and that symbol of three dragon heads on his nape.
I sighed, "If you died, I will bring your soul back from hell."
He laughed hard. "You think your master is a devil to go to hell? I'm kind enough to go to Heaven."
"Everyone believes the same, but when truth is disclosed, they start begging."
"Sure, Craven boy. You win this, but we will see when the time comes."
My master got to his feet and began strolling away, and not long after, I trailed behind. We were criminals, two vile people that were on the hunt for a peaceful life. Away from the signs of two-legged, hair-on-scalp, and brains-brimmed-with-dirt humans. If we saw the species, the first thing we would do is to hang them with ropes, and my master poked them with sticks.
Sigh… This master is ridiculous.
The cries of the hunter recede; it's better he's left behind. A meal for the forest dogs.
Seven massive-sized dragons flew above us. They were my master's pets, each having its own personality and name.
"Where are we heading to?" I asked him, walking over the thick, protruded roots.
The master was silent for a moment, then said. "A place where Khan was born."
Khan was my name, and the place we were going was the city of Azarait within the kingdom of the Flerpit. I didn't want to go, but the look on his face made me not to stop him.
It took longer than expected to reach the city. "Made me walk only to reach an archaic city. You missed it?"
The city was in complete ruin; the walls of the high building had fallen, and the edifices where I once resided had turned to soot, the walls scorched by dragon breath. Bones of the dead strewn on the ground. I remembered the day vividly in my mind.
My master was touching the walls as the memory sparkled in those eyes; the relaxed expression kept back the guilt of killing thousands of people.
"You remember it; the dragons burned them down. No human was spared except you."
"Saying as if somebody else did the atrocity. You're feeling remorse now after fifteen years." I said, looking about to find the orphanage. "Perchance, not all you killed."
He shrugged, smiling, "Why would I kill the innocents? Aside, they would have suffered greatly if I hadn't killed them."
The kingdom wanted to turn the city into an experimental production of mass-creating supernatural humans. They wanted an average person to turn into a supernatural human to make their kingdom look threatening and all-powerful. The city got devastated by the black elf and his seven dragons before any action could be taken.
Several were saved, but most were killed.
"Doesn't matter, Azarait was always teemed with depraved humans. The weak suffered from madness, and the rich were madness itself. This city had no life to spare sympathy for." I told him.
I was an orphan myself. The people killed the fragile woman that I called mother for giving birth to red-eyed monsters, and the father was of no use. He only joined the party he felt safe with, only for him to be slaughtered as well.
People were too frightened to kill me; perhaps, by killing me, a curse might be bestowed upon them. It was a woman; I never cared to remember the name of the person who took me in after seven days of starvation.
I survived that long by eating the weak emotions of people that were within the city. It was a subconscious process.
"It feels like it was yesterday when I took you in, a 7-year-old, rich kid's punching bag." He smirked at me, reminding me of the past. "If he were alive, it would have been him as your punching bag."
A faint grin flashed on my face.
"What was your name before I started calling you Khan? Was it Punny Punch, Small nuts—"
From the northwest, roars of flying beasts reverberated throughout the surroundings. In the sky, several hundred beasts with lion heads and white wings were approaching us; atop them were their riders.
My expression turned grim. I unsheathed my sword and threw my master sword towards him. The seven dragons glided above us, charging at the foes.
"The Elites of the Flame Seekers." I said.
"A trouble in hand." He whistled, and two dragons turned back, landing on the ground.
"We can't fight them; there are too many for us to handle. Better we go away." I shouted at him, but he remained heedless.
The Black elf grinned, ecstatic about the powerful foes. The elites of the flame seekers belong to a notorious organization that ran individually without need of anyone's help. We encountered them only once; it resulted in our defeat. The gulf between the forces and power was too big. Only the elite of the flame seekers leader sufficed for both of us.
It was a woman with blonde hair and pale skin, with speckles of beamish on her cheek. She wore the armor without a helm; her gray eyes had great pride in them.
Without a choice left in hand, the dragon I rode followed behind the other dragon.
"We met again, kind leader. Are we that difficult for you to bring so many?" Black Elf said, halting his seven dragons with a single gesture, his brow raised.
The leader, Razie, jabbed her sword towards the master. Her gruff voice came out of her mouth, "I alone am sufficient for both of you. Only the dragons I need alive."
"A hundred fresh meat, thankful for that." The master quipped, his black hair swayed in the air, and the red eyes mocked the woman.
She commanded her elites furiously, "Charge!"