Fireblood chapter 5

Fireblood chpt. 5
A quest.

"woah, woah, woah, back up!" Daniel said, "you want me, an iriden, one of the keys to opening the seal on the worlds most deadliest army, to collect the other keys and risk getting captured? By myself?!" The king shook his head, "Of course not! You think me an imbecile?" Daniel shruged and the king gave him a terrifying glare. Daniel swallowed hard. The king continued, "As I was saying, you won't be going alone. Samantha will be going with you." Two voices shouted at the exact same time, "WHAT?!" Sam burst through the door and rushed over to the table. "Your majesty!" bows quickly, "I beg your pardon? Did you say i'm going with 'him'?" She spat the last word out like he was a bad taste she was trying to get rid of. "Me going with her?!" he yelled, "That doesn't make me feel any better about this!"

The king raised his hand for silence and glared at them to sit down. They both sat down. The king began to stroke his long, white beard and said, "I wouldn't be sending you 'or' her if I had more capable men of my own to spare. Unfortunately, with that little 'incident' that happened during the festival I need all of my soliders here." Sam catiously raised her hand, trying not to anger the king again, "Then why am I going your highness?" The king replied, "Because your father requested it." Sam looked stunned, M-My father?!" The old man nodded, "Yes, he wouldn't say why though." Daniel, not at all pleased with his current position, stuck his thumb out towards Sam and said, "Well, if you're gonna stick me with her, can johnathan come go?" The king thought for a moment. Then he nodded and said, "I will send for him now."

He snapped his fingers and a male servant entered. The king told him to bring johnathan to him. The servant bowed and left to fufill his kings request. Meanwhile the king began to explain the details of the 'quest'. "As I said before, there are several holy items you must retrieve. Five items to be exact." They both nodded and the king continued, "It seems like a simple task, but, if it were that simple, we would have been doomed a long time ago." "So where, exactly, are these holy items?" Sam asked. "They are well hidden. Even I am not aware of their locations. However there is a man named Carak who does. He was the one who hid them. He was once my most trusted advisor but he retired and now lives somewhere in Passeh. Well, he might still be there." Unconciously his eyes flickered to daniel. Daniel didn't notice, "Great. So not only do we not know where the items are, but the only person who would, may or may not even be alive anymore!"

At that point John walked in and said, "Well. Then I guess we had best start lookin' shouldn't we?" "John!" Daniel stood up as his friend entered, "You sure you want to do this?" "Hmmm. Let me think....go on an adventure and roam the land free, or stay here and rot in a jail cell." He made an exaggerated gesture of balancing the two options. The he dropped one hand and raised the other saying, "Quest it is." The king nodded, "Now go. Prepare for your journey and get some rest. You will stay here tonight and leave tomarrow morning." John and Dan nodded while Sam saluted as they all left. When they were gone the king massaged his temples and said, "Now I just hope those two don't end up killing each other," as he was watching Sam and Dan leave.

Daniel lay awake, still taking in what the king had said to him earlier. "So, my dad was a very deadly dragon, and now I have to finish what that solider couldn't. Perfect." He turned over and went to sleep, knowing that his dreams would be plagued by nightmares of his father and the burning village. Sam lay awake as well thinking what her father had told her after the meeting with the king. After she had left, Sam walked along the corridors of the castle towards the guards barracks looking for her father. She stopped in front of the doors as another question entered her mind. Why had the king sent her out? What did he want Dan to know that she couldn't? She decided she'd 'interrogate' him later and opened the door.

As she walked inside she looked around the room. Torches hung on the walls providing enough visibility to move around without triping over the other sleeping soliders. Swords, bows and other equipment hung on racks around the room. She made her way around the soliders, careful not to wake them. She'd had more than one lecture about not waking a sleeping solider. When she got to the other side she noticed a light comming from her fathers room. She made her way over and stood in the doorway. Her father was sitting on a stool in a corner of the room polishing his sword. Not even looking up he said, "Come in." She entered the room and saluted. Taurus looked up this time and simply nodded his head. She brought down her hand and sat down in another chair across from his.

For a while neither said a word. Sam was trying to figure out how to ask him why he wanted her to go with Dan. As if he had read her mind he said, "I asked the king to send you because I want you to keep an eye on that boy. I don't trust him." She was suprised. That was why? "You don't think he'll come back? The king seems to trust him a lot." She grumbled more to herself about the last part. The aging knight sighed and put down his sword. "The king trusts him because he has too. I don't trust him because he's a......" He was about to say monster but stopped himself. Of all the kings men, only he was told about what Daniel was. The king had instructed him not to tell another soul. Sam tilted her head to one side, wondering why he had stopped. Noticing that she might catch on if he delayed further, he finshed, "Theif..." She nodded, satisfied with the answer. Having no more questions, she stood and left, heading towards her bunk.

As she lie down to sleep her thoughts drifted back to when she had met him. After a while she noticed something about their earlier conversation was still bugging her. 'Your scent. I could tell where you were before you dropped in.' How could any human, without any magical abilities, have that powerful of a nose? And then there was his unbelieveable speed and strength. She quickly sat up as one final, terrifying thought entered her mind. After she had made her comment about the iridens she could feel his tension towards her rising. What if he was a....? She shook her head, pushing the thought from her mind. No. If he was an iriden, he wouldn't be here. He would be off somewhere in a cave preying on people and villages. "He's definately weird, but not a monster."