I actually accomplished this
2125 Words
“Copper!”
Great, I’ve lost him!
“Copper!”
This is getting ridiculous, not only am I alone while the others are battling trolls but I still can’t find this wyvern! I swear if I don’t find him within the next 30 minutes, I’m calling it quits. So much for my first “mission.” And if I don’t find him, how am I supposed to explain to everyone that I failed my first mission? If I can’t find a damn wyvern, then how am I supposed to play the role of the so-called “hero?” If I do fail, everyone will have doubts about me.
No, stop thinking that, Jesse! I know that this is still new to me and I know that this is gonna take some getting used to. But the ring chose you for a reason, no matter how badly you wanna back down from this. Think, use that brain of yours. A wyvern is a species of a dragon, what attracts dragons?
Treasure, blood, screams... yeah that’s all I can think of.
I don’t see any little critters around to use as bait, although I don’t think I could even do that, I could never kill an innocent animal. And I don’t have anything expensive on me so treasure’s not gonna work. Screaming might attract it, but I’m not entirely sure about that. What exactly do I have that I can use?
Let’s see here- my sword, my ring that’s not glowing anymore but it now blue again (I didn’t even realize I was feeling a bit calm), and um... whoa, wait a minute, what do I have in my pocket? It that- it’s a fun-size Snickers bar. I totally forgot that I had still had it from lunch earlier and was saving it for later. Wait... I know that Copper isn’t allowed to have sugar but, does he actually like the taste of sugar? And if so, perhaps he knows the smell.
I slid the sword into the scabbard as I began to unwrap the candy bar. And just like that, I broke it in haft. And now I wait.
I was actually kinda hungry, I so wanted to eat this real bad. But I couldn’t, especially since I noticed my ring starting to glow again. And that’s when I heard footsteps coming from behind as I turned around, and there he was. That wyvern trying to sneak up on me even though I clearly see him.
“Hey Copper,” I grinned while showing him the Snickers bar “You smell that don’t you?”
He gave me a small growl as he kept crawling towards me as I began to back away.
“If you want it,” I smirked, “Come and get it.”
As I continued to back away, Copper followed me while keeping his eyes on the candy bar. I can’t believe this was actually working. If it wasn’t for my sweet tooth, I would’ve given up. Now all I had to do was lead the wyvern back to the castle. And as I was doing so, I looked up and spotted Aria and the others watching me from afar. Thankfully, they didn’t look hurt from the trolls, and by the look on their faces, they seemed just as surprised and glad as I was as they followed along.
Oh boy, I can’t wait to rub this in everyone’s faces who denied that I could do this. And wouldn’t you know it, I was back at the castle with Copper still following me as we crossed the drawbridge.
“Someone open the door!” I ordered.
As Dale hurried to the door and pulled it opened, I stepped inside along with Copper as everyone else came in and shut the door. And just like that, Copper began to calm down as he began to shake his head. I’m guessing the sugar rush is dying down as the wyvern shook his whole body before resting on the floor, just like a dog.
“He did it!” Aria cheered.
“He did?!” I heard the voices behind me gasp.
When I turned around, everyone’s eyes widened and their jaws dropped. All from Lindel to the King to some of the elven warriors and best of all, to Flint.
“You bet your a*s I did!” I grinned, “Now, who here didn’t think I could do this?”
Just like that, everyone pointed to those who apparently did doubt me, most of the fingers were at Flint, I’m not surprised. Although, I did notice that Dale was pointing to Hazel.
“Really?!” she hissed at him while trying to hide her embarrassment.
“He asked a question,” he replied casually “So I gave him an answer.”
“Stop that!” she slapped his hand away.
“It’s alright, Hazel.” I assured her with a smirk “I knew you’ve always doubted me.”
“Well, you’re still new around here,” she frowned while crossing her arms “So, of course, I’m gonna doubt you.”
I just snickered before turning to Flint who looked speechless as he stood there, too frozen to even move.
“Well Flint,” I kept my smirk on “I took the challenge and succeeded, anything you want to say?”
“The first ones are always the easiest” he scowled before storming off with his fists clenched.
Oh damn, he’s right, the first challenges are usually the easiest. But until the next one comes, I just shrugged that thought to the side as King Hardwin walked up to me.
“Well, I’ll be damned” he chuckled, “Good job, Jesse, you passed your first mission, I never even thought about using sugar as bait for a sugar rush.”
“Hey, everybody loves sugar.” I grinned “They can’t deny it.”
I just realized I was still holding the Snicker bars in my hand. Looks like it’s time for a little reward as I plopped one of the hafts in my mouth.
“Mm,” I moaned as the chocolate goodness melted in my mouth with the crunchiness “You can never go wrong with a Snickers bar. Would you like one, Your Majesty?”
“Oh,” I replied astonished “I’ve never had uh... Snickers bar.”
It felt so weird hearing an elven king say that. I wonder if I could get him to say other modern things.
“Try it” I offered him the other haft of the candy bar.
After giving it a sniff, the king plopped the candy bar into his mouth.
“Mm,” he smiled with his mouth full “Any chance you can bring more of these tomorrow?”
“I’ll see what I can do” I chuckled.
Whoa, I bet that pretty soon everyone will be asking me to bring some modern foods for them. I might as well be the delivery boy.
“Come on, Copper” I turned around to see Dale pulling the wyvern away “You’ve had enough for today. Thanks, Jesse!”
“No problem!” I waved as they disappeared into a hall.
“Well, Jesse” Aria walked up to me with Hazel behind her “You completed your first mission, how do you feel?”
“Well,” I puffed “I’m glad that it’s over with. But like what Flint said, the first ones are always the easiest.”
“He’s not wrong there.” she agreed with a small nod “But hey, whatever your next mission is, we’ll be there to help.”
I smiled when I turned to Hazel who was avoiding eye contact with her arms still crossed.
“Hazel,” I spoke with confidence “Word of advice, don’t judge someone you barely know, they might surprise you.”
“Whatever” she grunted before walking off.
“Don’t worry,” Aria patted my shoulder “She’ll grow on you eventually.”
“It might take a while though.” I remarked, “For all I know, she might never like me.”
“Yes she will,” she assured, “For as long as I’ve known Hazel, she may look like the tough one who always doubts the newcomers. But she does care, and I know that the more she gets to know you, the more she’ll care.”
I bit my lip, “I’ll have to see about that.”
She just smirked while nudging my shoulder. Boy did I just enjoy that.
“Alright, I’ll let you go” she allowed, “You’ll be here tomorrow, right?”
“Of course” I promised.
“Excellent,” she smiled “Thank you, by the way. Pretty soon you’ll be an expert.”
“Not too soon though,” I put in.
“Right. Well, you have a good night, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You too.”
As I watched her leave, I began to head over to the changing room to change back into my normal clothes as I started to wonder what my next mission will be like. Most likely it’ll be more dangerous than this one, will I be ready for it? It better not come quick, I still need to learn how to master a sword and other weapons, depending on how long that will take.
“You did well today.”
I looked up to see Averyl leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and a small smile on his face.
“Good job.”
“Oh, thanks” I smiled back.
“Not bad for your first mission. Although I didn’t really consider that a real mission, but rather a small one.”
“I know.” I nodded in agreement “To be honest, it didn’t really feel like one, but hey, at least I helped out.”
“And you’re still alive and in one piece.”
“Yes,” I pointed with a smile.
“Did you use your sword?”
“Oh,” I looked down at the sword that was still in the scabbard around my waist “I didn’t actually, I didn’t need to.”
“I see.” he responded plainly “Were you at least ready in case you had to use it?”
“Well...” I clenched my teeth “Not really, I was kinda hoping I wouldn’t use my sword, and thankfully I didn’t. I mean, I tried to back out of this cause I knew I wasn’t skilled with a sword yet. But then I decided to give the mission a shot, mainly because I was tired of hearing everyone urging me to do so.”
Averyl gave a small chuckle, “And it’s a good thing you did, it’s always a good idea to take baby steps before the big ones.”
“Right...” I tensely rubbed my arm.
“Hey,” he looked at me with encouragement “You’ll get there, all you need is time and practice.”
I didn’t know what to say so I just gave a slight shrug.
“Trust me.” he reassured, “Now, go ahead and get some rest, we’ll see you tomorrow.”
I nodded as he began to take off when Averyl spoke up which caused me to stop.
“Oh, by the way,” he added, “You know about the ruler of evil, right?”
My eyes widen, “Ruler of evil?”
“Well, we don’t actually know his name, or if he even is a male.”
“Hold on a second,” I held up a finger “Are you talking about the beginning of evil that no one knows who started it and could possibly be hiding in plain sight?”
“So you do know about it” he concluded.
“Well, it’s all I know at the moment. Does he or she have a name by any chance?”
“Not that we know of.” he shrugged “But until we know, we call him Z.”
“Z?” I raised an eyebrow, “Why Z?”
“I guess it sounds mysterious.” he presumed “I don’t know why exactly, it wasn’t my idea. But that’s what everyone’s been calling him so I guess we stuck with it.”
“Uh... okay?”
Why is it that most villain names start with Z? I get that it’s supposed to sound mysterious but at the same time, it’s kinda cliche. They couldn’t have picked another name like... like... yeah, I have no idea.
“Um, is there anything else I should know about this ruler?” I asked.
“Well, since you said that you know that he could be hiding in plain sight, that must mean you know that he can shapeshift, right?”
Once again, I felt my eyes widen, “I didn’t know that.”
“Oh, well he can. He can shapeshift into anyone or anything. However, for some reason, he can’t do any harm to the hero whenever he’s not in his true form. And that’s why he tends to send out others to do his dirty work for him. And over the years, he would always send out the one big and toughest soldier to take down the hero as a final act, and if the hero succeeds, the ruler of evil is temporally put to a stop.”
“Uh, what does that mean exactly? Does that mean nothing bad will happen in this land until he rises up again or what?”
“Not exactly, the ruler will become weak so that he could barely do any harm. But as you know, it’s only temporary. The moment he regains his powers, that’s when the ring does its job to find the next hero.”
“So, he can’t shapeshift during his weak state?”
“Exactly.”
“And is there a way to know if it is him when he’s shapeshifted?”
“There are multiple ways,” he nodded “If you look closely, you’ll see that the eyes turn red in the light. Also, he never casts shadows. Basically, he tries to stay out of the light, so look out for that.”
“Got it.” I affirmed “Anything else?”
“Not that I know of.” he shrugged “But it’s getting dark so I’ll let you go.”
“Alright. Thanks for the information on, well, Z. I’ll keep those in mind.”
“You better.”
“I will,” I promised.
I sure will.
- Writer
