The Day it All Ended [[Short Story] Closed]

by Aosif Fri Jun 12, 2015 4:08 am

The Day it All Ended

Chapter 1 of 3

The stars are dying, aren't they?

Aosif blinked, rubbing his eyes. Lifting himself up he looked about his surroundings, dazed from his sleep. Confusion overswept his throughts as he lay on a dirt road with buildings set ablaze around him. Bodies littered the streets with large, hulking beasts smashing through walls and running about with blood covered weaponry in hand. It was all blurred, muddled and unclear.

The hair on his neck suddenly stood on end as a high-pitched resounding scream was thrown out of the home towards his right. A human scream, a childs scream.

Aosif vainly attempted to rise to his feet, only to stagger and fall back to the ground, he dragged himself across the dirt towards the home. In a quick once over, he could tell that someone- or rather something had forced its way in from the telltale signs etched into the home. Axe-like marks scarred the front of the building and the door had been completely ripped off of its hinges and tossed to the ground just through the doorway. Parts of the wall were ripped out and a few of the stones toward the base of the wall were kicked out of place. As he had finished dragging himself into the doorway of the home, he took a moment to squint his eyes and cast away his murky vision.

Then he saw it.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, dimly-lit only by the raized homes nearby, his vision clapped upon a large minotaur of which stood several feet above him, nearly reaching the ceiling with its head. At its feet lay a small and crumpled pile of blood soaked rags of which in some parts exposed extreme amounts of gore with limbs bent into unnatural positions. Aosif caught his breath and his eyes widened as fear wrapped its thorny arms around his heart. His chest hurt, he couldn't breathe nor could he make a sound as he opened his mouth, trying to scream with all of his might. The beast stalked over to him and clapped it's large, leathery hand across his throat and lifted him up.

He scratched at the hand that fit around his neck like an iron mitt, desperately fighting for air. His vision dulled, and his efforts became less and less with each passing second. Moments before passing into unconciousness a sickening noise met his ears as he barely caught the glimmer of something hitting the arm that held him.

It was a sword! A deep voice rang out and the monster threw Aosif against the wall of the home. A loud 'pop' resounded through his body as his arm fell out of socket, yet he didn't react nor did he feel pain.

Why is that, am I already so close to the brink of death that I can no longer feel pain? What's going on?

His head spun as he rose it up to see the beast had swung its arm out at its new assailant.

He managed to focus his vision enough to make out the outline of a human man. A human, blazing orange with light that had come to his rescue. He stepped between Aosif and the minotaur, shouting at it. It charged, picking the man up and simply bowling over Aosif. It hit him like a truck, emptying the air from him lungs as it carried him and the man through the wall. He laid there, outside the home with multiple injuries across his own body. Casting his gaze upward without moving his head, as he was at this point too weak to do so, the minotaur had not only carried the both of them through the wall, it went far enough to even carry the man several yards away before stopping. It hunched over his savior with its back to Aosif, swinging its heavy fist and axe into the pinned figure beneath it.

With that... Aosif passed into unconciousness

He woke with a start, springing up from his prone position only to stumble and catch himself on a tree. He looked around for the scenery that had invaded his humble sleep with his hands raised up into tight fists, only to see it replaced with the orchard he had been sleeping in. It was dusk, the sun having just dipped beneath the far horizon of the plains that Aosif and so many others had lived upon.

"W-what...?" Aosif began, gasping for air.

He looked around once more after he had composed himself, only to find that his younger brother sat only a yard or two away from where he had his slumber, casting a look upon him as if here were a crazy man that had just come stumbling out of the wilderness. The look he had received was expected, considering his brother of whom he came to wake had lept up at the slightest given stimulation, swinging about as if he were in a fist fight like some of the watchmen that had too much to drink on occasion.

Aosif cleared his throat, "I uhm... I suppose father told you to come and fetch me?"

The brother nodded. "Father was sayin' that you'd be in big trouble for skippin' out on your swordplay lessons today!"

Aosif groaned. 'Father', it almost made him gag everytime he or his younger brother Etrius referanced him by that. He had been grateful for his father deciding to train him in his yard skills since he wanted him to be a Man-at-arms for the local lord of the estate, but he hated his father with almost every fiber of his being. Aosifs father was a person that would drink a whole lot, recount the past of when he used to be a young and healthy adverturer who travelled abroad and then continue drinking until they either passed out or ran out of pocket money. Not only were his habits bad enough, but so was his faith as he would often bed the local wench. Of course, you could argue that he no longer had a wife, yet he had begun doing this when Aosif was a small child when his wife was still of this world. The only good thing that he had running for him was that he had a good personality. He angered little and was often forgiving, if impatient.

Aosif stood there, scratching his head. Heaving a great sigh he brushed the loose grass and dirt off of his thin cloth tunic and leggings.

"Alright, then lets get home before my clodpole of a father leaves with his drinking money for the night." Aosif announced with a mocking tone.

Etrius winced, understanding his brothers disdain for their father yet displeased with his attitude.

After helping his younger brother off of the ground, Aosif strode down the hill that the orchard was settled upon and down towards the road that cut a divide between the villages orchard and the grain feilds. Looking down from his position you could clearly see the features of the estate, Bredon. Bredon was a small village settled upon a plain surrounded by low and gently rolling hills that stretched only a half mile wide. The village itself was settled toward the Eastern side of the estate numbering few in the way of buildings. It counted around the number of a couple dozen homes with anywhere from a single person to eight in one home. Towards the northern end of the village, a partly stone and partly wooden structure was erected to house the local watchmen, towards the southern end held the local tavern.To the south west of the estate stood the apple orchard and grain feilds with the feifdom owners castle and keep to the north of it and behind that laid the river of which they accessed often for water.

As they walked down and through the village, Aosifs mind became occupied upon the strange dream that he had before. He was still quite confused as to what it meant as he had never had any similar to it beforehand. Furthermore he had only heard, never seen, of a minotaur from passing adventurers or old monsterhunters that had retired in the village, yet it felt more real than anything else. He attempted to dismiss it as he began to walk into the village as an occurance due to something he had eaten that morning that might have messed with his head. As they passed a couple of watchmen who were put on post at night, he heard his brothers voice perk up.

"Hm? Did you say something Etrius?" He tilted his head toward his brother of whom came to a stop and was looking toward the sky.

"I said, whats wrong with the stars tonight?" He repeated as he gazed upward.

At this Aosif knit his eyebrows together, "What?"

As he looked up he blinked a couple of times before realising what his brother was so concerned about. The sky around the village, of often which had nightly rains, was looking quite bleak as apposed to being lit up during the nighttime.

He shook his head, "No, no Etrius, stars don't die. It's just some rain clouds passing overhead and blocking out the stars." Aosif beckoned to his brother.

Running to catch up Etrius looked back as he and his brother walked onward. The watchmen looked toward the sky then back at one another, giving very concerned looks to eachother.

I wonder if they knew about the rainclouds too?

He pondered as they strode on home.

-Chapter 1 END-

Authors Note: Okay! First time I've written something like this, I will be completing this on my own and no, you may not join on into this. However I CAN be flexible with chapter three if you wish to play a role in it. If you have any suggestions feel free to comment! Also, since I'm only about sixteen years old (And wrote this in two hours time at 12 AM) I'd appreciate it if you pointed out grammatical and spelling errors for me! Anyhow, it's going to be a little bit before the next chapter.

Thank you for reading!