Blood of Fire - Chapter 1

Holding onto Julia tightly, Alex’s worried face scanned the forest clearing they were in carefully, with both his eyes and ears. If this whole world was covered in creatures like he had encountered before, they should get as much sleep as they could. He couldn’t let Julia keep watch though. The thought of her sitting there watching out for all the things that go bump in the night turned his heart cold. It was better to put on a brave face and take a few sleepless nights. He didn’t need much sleep after all. Besides, no one seemed to want to even touch him with that black sword in his hand. I wonder what is so terrifying about this sword…

Finally feeling Julia’s body relax completely, he glanced down to her slumberous body. Brushing back her soft ginger hair away from her eyes, Alex smiled softly to himself. “Rest easy, Julia. With this sword, I will protect you with my life.”

Not having time to think, Julia’s hand suddenly shot up past Alex’s head, and lashed around his neck. Widening his eyes in surprise, a set of black full plate armour appeared on him from out of nowhere, waking the sleeping Julia. Opening her emerald eyes to a very confused Alex cradling her in his arms, she smiled in interest.

“Have you come to save me?” She asked softly, receiving a gob smacked look in return. Noticing his confusion, Julia ran her hand to his cheek, stroking it gently. “My knight in shinning armour. Your love for me has finally come- Have you come to take me back home?”

“You must be sleep-talking, Julia.” Alex suddenly realised, trying to reposition her into a more comfortable looking position. “Sleep talking… that’s it. Go on and explain the armour then smart guy…”

Alex’s sentence was immediately cut short, by Julia leaping up his body to land a kiss onto his lips. Reaching his hand out to protest, a wave of emotion flowed into his body then, relaxing the hand. Closing his eyes as the silky touch of her lips against his own put a complete halt on his heartbeat for a moment, before the cool feel of adrenaline swept though his body. He couldn’t understand why, but for that moment, the only thing that mattered was her touch. Her lips… her mouth…

His legs pushed the two of them forward, landing him in his full plate armour on top of her fragile body. Lifting the bulk of his extra weight off her body, his heart slowed down for a second, as he looked into her eyes. Her glowing green eyes blinked a few times- her smile perking up in the sides in happiness. Alex leaned over her, panting a few frosted breaths. So much desire. So many emotions- but something was not quite right. The feeling slowly started petering away, as his eyes glazed back into an alert look. He scanned the scenery once more.

No one around us. No animals, no birds, no danger. Completely care free. There is something I’m not seeing. What is it?

Squinting his eyes at his surround, Alex’s expression darkened in frustration. What happened to all the confusion, noise, and danger around them? Julia’s eyes narrowed, as his attention was dragged away from her, and onto the world around him. Stroking his cheek so his head would tilt down to her, he completely ignored her.

“Alexander, my knight, pray tell what the matter is?”

“This is!” Alex replied harshly, slamming his eyes closed, shaking his head violently, “This is all false- no forest is this quiet. Definitely not this one! I don’t care where we are. This is sort of crazy hallucination, and I need to be out!”

“No you don’t my knight!” Julia cried, grabbing his wrists tightly, “Our love binds us- you can not leave me!” Feeling a brushed of breath on his lips, Alex squeezed his eyes tighter. He knew that if she kissed him once more, he’d never be able to let go.

“You will not hold me ransom!”

Opening his eyes suddenly, his arm lashed out in recoil, throwing some dark creatures away from himself with the violent action. Alex’s eyes flashed a red colour, as another five of the black creatures leapt toward himself. Quickly glancing around, he was back leaning on his tree, with Julia in his arms, and the sword by his side. Suddenly realising that he was now void of all bodily armour, he bit his lip in frustration- he must have fallen asleep. Trying to protect Julia and he fell asleep?

“I’m such an idiot!” Alex cursed, clenching tighter onto his sword. A flood of adrenaline shot through his body, slashing the broad sword into the air, and through a few more of the black creatures. Grabbing more with his other, he yanked them off his skin, chucking them aside with little effort. “Julia! You need to wake up, now.”

Throwing back the next five creatures, Alex hoisted Julia back to her feet, shaking her awake. “Julia! Wake up! We need to run, now!” Blinking her eyes open tiredly, Julia turned to Alex, turning a bright red colour. Giving her a stern look, Alex nodded to the creatures, then the sword. “I don’t know what this sword can do, but it must be more than a simple hunk of steel. We’ll get through this.”

“What happened to your armour?” Julia cried, as the creatures scattered out of sight, clinging onto Alex tighter, “put it back on before you die too!”

“Armour?” Alex nearly dropped the sword in shock as black creatures started flying towards the pair in swarms. Julia blinked a few times questioningly, before noticing a few of the black creatures leap onto Alex’s back. Feeling their talons gauge into his muscles, Alex gritted his teeth, encasing Julia in his arms, and started tearing more of the creatures off himself again. Feeling one set of the talons slash his back open suddenly, Alex let out a lungful of pain, dropping his sword- this wasn’t just a cut, it felt like those claws were tearing out his soul. Feeling the claws hack deeper into his back, digging out his strength, Alex constricted on Julia so tightly that she whimpered in pain. “We have to run Julia. When I say, you have to run as fast as you can. Understand me?”

“Y…yes?” Alex grinned darkly, a bright flare of light suddenly emitting from his eyes. Feeling the burning feeling on his left arm in the back of his mind, he ignored the pain, as he continued to muster up the strength to fight these creatures. A tear rolled out off Julia’s eyes, as his body heated up more and more from on concentration. Her tear fell off her face then, evaporating in mid air, as Alex burst into a ball of flames- an image of a dragon burning through his ice hockey jacket. Yelping in surprise as his grip forced her not to run, Alex rammed his back into the nearby tree. A squeal of pain rang in their ears, as Alex then threw his left arm into another nearby tree. Julia cried in pain, as the sound of the creatures rang in her ears- the silvery coloured blood splattering all over her already muddy uniform. Alex threw his other arm against another tree, before driving onto the ground to crush the last of the creatures. Rolling back to his feet against, Julia was finally released to his firm hand.

“Run, Julia.” Alex said. Chucking Julia towards a clearing first, Alex tore off the remainder of his jacket, grinning devilishly at the black creatures approaching him. Frozen in fright on the spot she finally stopped stumbling at, Julia’s eyes glazed at Alex’s stance. It wasn’t the fire surrounding him at that moment. That was just an illusion. She hadn’t become burned at all from touching him while he was in his flames. It was his passion. He wasn’t just angry- he was infuriated. Wideneing her eyes as Alex’s body bolted round to face her, she whimpered as his burning eyes narrowed at her.

“Femina abire discedere!” Alex commanded, pointing towards the clearing, grabbing a branch on a nearby tree with his other arm and snapping it off. “Aut occidere!”

Julia immediately fled in the direction she was commanded, as Alex used his hefty branch to bat a group of the black creatures away as a swarm of countless numbers of these creatures bounded towards him. Bashing more back with his piece of wood, a few got passed, and latched back onto him. Bearing his teeth in annoyance, Alex threw a few off before bounding off after Julia.

Losing his veil of fire as he chased after Julia’s tracks, Alex still felt the burn of the dragon on his left arm, still red hot from the confrontation with the black creatures. Spotting Julia in the distance, he threw in a bit more speed as he grabbed her back into his arms again.

“Alex!” Julia yelped in surprise, immediately changing to a greatfull look. Latching her arms tightly around Alex’s body she cried into his black vest. “Alex, you hero. You’re going to get yourself killed someday.” Patting around his back slightly, her hands slipped slightly, loosing her grip. Widening her eyes, she felt his back more.

“Alex- your back is in shreds!”

“So will the rest of us if I stop,” Alex bleated, his strength slowly starting to give in. “Most of it is those creatures’ blood anyway.”

“Don’t lie to me, you monster!” Julia whimpered. “You are injured. Let me run for myself!”

“You are too slow.” Alex rasped, his vision starting to blur, “Although you may just get your wish yet…” Stumbling over his suddenly clumsy footing, Julia used her own strength to keep him upright.

“Not without you, Alex.”

“Don’t be so foolish, Julia!” Alex ordered, throwing Julia forward, as he stumbled over a tree root. Landing face first into the ground, it took most of Alex’s force of will to push himself back to his knees. Turning around back to where he came from, a black creature suddenly latched onto his face. Grabbing the creature with both hands, Alex ripped the claws off his face to rip the creature off, slumping back to the ground as the blood started pouring all over his face. Alex’s eyes took a few micro pauses as the burning in his left arm started to wane off. Closing his eyes for a moment, Alex turned to Julia. “Go, Julia. Find a hospital and get looked at. I’ll stop these things from following you.”

“Aaalex!” Julia cried, as the swarm of glowing green eyes stormed Alex, covering him completely. Biting her nails in fear, Alex suddenly threw half of the creatures off with a weak sweep of his arm, and kicked the next few off. Bellowing out a lungful of frustration, Alex’s whole body suddenly flared into a ball of flame once more. Hearing Julia scream form the distance, Alex felt his heart die down. Squinting from the blood flooding his eyes he fell to the ground, not even feeling the slashing of the black creatures tearing the flesh off his back as his fire disappeared…