Wolf Chronicles Chapter 3

Friends

'Ugh...that drink has a hell of a kick' Tyrone thought as he opened his eyes. When he opened them he saw nothing but black clouds pouring rain onto the ground. He was laid on a cold, hard path, in front of a building that was a ruin of a church. Tyrone rose to his feet and gazed upon the massive doors. 'Where am I? What am I doing here?' he thought as he walked over and pushed them open. When he entered, he saw a few wooden benches scattered, broken and on fire, the alter smashed, the floor covered in shards from the broken stained glass windows, a huge amount of blood covering the floor with dead animals, some of which he'd never seen before, and a figure in blood red armour almost demonic in its appearance, holding a body wrapped in a blood stained cloak. As Tyrone approached, he noticed that the figure in the armour was crying. The figure rose to his feet, with the body in his arms, turned and began to approach Tyrone. The figure then gave Tyrone the body and said in a deep tone "You take care of her.....there is nothing I can do for her now, I couldn't protect her...” Upon saying this, the figure walked slowly to the exit. Once the person left, Tyrone's attention turned to the body. 'Whoever this was, they must have been important to them' he thought. He began to wrap the bit covering the head. As he unwrapped the blood-stained cloak, Tyrone immediately knew who it was and started to scream out...

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Tyrone screamed as he leapt up from the bed, tears streaming down his face. He looked around, startled by the nightmare. His eyes darted round the room quickly only to realize he was at the Inn. It was night; the dark room was illuminated only by the pale blue moonlight that shone through the window. Tyrone suddenly felt something grab his arm. He spun round, frightened, to see Reina there looking with a worried expression. "Honey....what is it?" she asked. "What’s wrong? You suddenly leapt from the bed…did you have a nightmare?" Tyrone looked at her and looked into her brown eyes. "Yeah...sorry about waking you" he replied. Reina wrapped her arms round Tyrone and hugged him tightly as Tyrone did the same to her. He then kissed Reina on the forehead. "Come on, we'd better get back to sleep" Reina said. As Tyrone got back into bed, he gazed at Reina yet again and thought 'She's the best thing that’s ever happened to me....I'd gladly protect her with my life'. He then pulled the covers over himself and went to sleep.

The next morning came very quickly. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The light shining through the window woke Korius from his slumber. ‘Hmmm, Morning already? Guess I’d better get ready…’ He thought to himself half asleep. Korius usually woke up around dawn to do training before getting ready for work, but obviously he couldn’t really train without waking the rest of the town. Its not that he minded missing out on early morning training occasionally, as it gave him an excuse to have some more precious sleeping time, but he really would have preferred the training with the tournament starting today and all.

As Korius was getting changed into his gear, he heard a crash down the hall. When he looked outside his door, he saw Faye, sat against the wall, tangled up in coat stands, trying to untangle herself from the mess she got herself into. As he looked at her clothes, he recognised that it was the first time he hadn’t looked only at her hair. She was wearing a pink shirt, tied with knot on the bottom, and she was also wearing blue trousers along with dark blue boots. Korius went over to Faye. "Do you need a hand?" he asked. Faye spun round and blushed in embarrassment. "Oh my, Ah din' want anyone ta see me like this, please help me 'fore anyone else sees me" she replied. Korius helped her to get free. While he was doing this, she gazed at his face. Korius noticed, causing Faye to blush even more. As soon as she was free, she took off down the hallway and out of the inn. Looking puzzled, Korius went back into his room to get prepared for the tournament.

Once Faye got outside, she walked on through to the centre of town. As she was wandering all she could think about was Korius’ blue hair and the scar over his eye. "Damn that scurv' looks familiar...but wouldn' he remember if we've crossed paths before...?" she pondered. When she reached the centre, she sat down and begun to think hard about what made him so familiar to her. As she sat there, images started to flash through her mind. She closed her eyes to try to get the images to mean something…

"Ah, twas beaut'ful!" Faye smirked as she downed yet another drink "Keep em commin' Matey!""
"Yes Cap'n!" the cabin boy replied.
(‘This be me....ah reckon ah be in ma cabin at th' time, celebratin' a great haul from plenty o’ nearby merchant ships...ah thought ma crew woulda' ben 'appy wi' me leadin' ‘em after that tide...')
Then, the cabin doors burst open. A tall figure came into the room. She could only make out the figure's hair. ('...! It’s ‘im! ah remember now!') Suddenly a bright flash fills the room and when the flash subsides, Faye is looking through her own eyes as her body beings to sink to the bottom of the ocean. All she sees is the figure sporting blue hair ordering the rest of her crew to set sail and leave her to drown. As the figure started to fade away, Faye opened her eyes. 'So... he's ‘ere an’ ah bet tha’ scurvs after th’ loot...ah won let ‘im ‘ave it!' she thought. With this she got up from her seat and ran towards the Arena.

Meanwhile back at the Crescent Inn, Korius was just checking out when Reina came up to him. "Wolf, have you known your brother to get really bad nightmares?" she questioned with a worried expression. "A couple of times, but it’s usually nothing to worry about" he responded in his usual calm way. "Why? Did something happen last night?"
"Yeah... he woke up in the middle of the night looking very frightened. I've never seen him so scared"
"It's probably nothing; he most likely just had a nasty dream or something." With that he turned and left for the Arena.

As he slowly walked to his destination, he looked around at all the others that had gathered in the town. He saw a fair variety of opponents wielding all sorts of weapons, from Short Swords and Katanas to Spears and Tridents. 'Hmm... A decent bit of competition this year' he thought to himself as he approached the doors of the arena. Thousands of people flocked to the arena to watch the spectacle. Once he went inside the arena, he headed towards the competitors section. As he approached a guard asked Korius for proof that he was registered to participate. He showed the guard the strip of paper he was given the previous day and the guard gave him it back and cleared him to go through. Once he passed the entrance, he headed inside the armoury. "Name please" A guard asked.
"Korius Sorian" Korius replied
"Ah Mr. Sorian, please pick a weapon to use in the tournament" After taking his time to look through the assortment of weapons available, he chose a basic longsword. "Mr. Sorian, as you know we will retain any weapons and items you are currently carrying here. Please hand in all your items and you may pick them up at the end of the day." Korius handed over his gear and lastly handed over his sword. While doing so he said in a very low tone "Take very good care of this." The guard nodded and stored his gear in a container. Korius then headed off into the waiting room to await his first match.

Tyrone finally woke up after his turbulent night. He'd still been haunted by the images in his nightmare. When he opened his eyes, he saw a concerned Reina stood over him. When his eyes fully opened she kissed him. "Good morning honey" she said "How are you feeling?" Tyrone sat upright and faced Reina.
"Ok I guess" he replied "Considering the night we had, waking up and all" Reina smiled at him, then handed him some of his clothes. “We have to get going, your brother is already at the arena”
Tyrone quickly got up from the bed and began to get changed. While he changed into his normal clothes his thoughts drifted back to the nightmare he had. 'Ah hell, I'm thinking about that damn dream again. It’s only a dream it doesn't really mean anything right?' He thought to himself. When he was finished changing he turned round to face Reina again. “Are you ready to go?” she asked cheerfully. Tyrone nodded and the two of them set of for the Arena. On the way, Reina linked arms with Tyrone and smiled at him. Tyrone smiled back “You're cheerful today, I thought you didn't like things like going to big events” he said as they went through the Arena entrance.
“Oh I don't mind big events, so long as you're with me” she smiled. They moved towards the spectator’s entrance, purchasing a chart with the fight details on, when they were seen by Faye, who was just entering the arena. 'Ah wish they'd get a room' she thought to herself as she went in.

Korius had been waiting a while, he didn't mind, after all his job was to stand guard in the village, but he would rather get the first fight started quickly so that he could get used to the conditions of the arena. One of the guards came in with a piece of paper. “Welcome to the 73rd fighting tournament” he stated proudly. “I have here the first round fixtures”. He started to read out the fixtures of the first round one by one. As he read through them, Korius looked around the room at the other competitors slowly; they were all different shapes and sizes, used different weapons and styles. 'This could well be a healthy challenge' he thought. As he gazed round, he suddenly caught a glimpse of lilac hair in the corner. He turned to see Faye sat there with her dual cutlasses. Korius could see that she was wearing armour, though he thought it was surprisingly light if she were to fight in the tournament. 'So she was a participant' affirmed Korius. Faye noticed Korius at this time and gave small smile and waved. Korius waved back pondering how much of a threat she'd pose.

He also saw a tall, busty, attractive young woman with dark red hair, leaning against one of the walls, with a sword by her side. She had green eyes, pale skin, and from what Korius could see, she was also reasonable muscular but not enough to detract from her beauty. She was wearing a red v-necked silk top with a mysterious symbol on the collar that he couldn’t quite make out from where he was sitting. She was also wearing dark red shorts that stopped just above the knee. She was also wearing brown leather boots. ‘Heh… guess she has a thing about the colour red. Though with those clothes, she seems oddly suspicious’ he thought.

As Korius started listening to the list being called out again, the guard turned to face him. “Fight # 19 Korius Sorian Vs Drake Debore”. A six foot six mammoth of a man with rippling muscles, wearing considerably heavy armour, Eagle style headdress and wielding a giant hammer looked at Korius. “Heh! Me fight this toothpick of a boy? Are ya kidding or what?” He laughed. Korius took an instant dislike to the man. “So the oversized parrot can speak...” he responded.
“Well well, the lil' bastard has balls, we'll see just how much of a man ya are when we fight” he smirked as he flexed his muscles. “I shall overpower you in magnificent display of power.”
“Strength does not always mean brute force, although a knuckle-head like you wouldn't be able to comprehend such a thought due to your low level of intellect” Korius laughed
“YOU LITTLE SHIT! IM GUNNA RIP YOU A NE-!”
“SHUT IT!” snapped Korius. The guard then settled both of them down and began to read the fixtures out again. Faye had watched the spectacle with keen interest. Seeing how Korius had acted gave her an idea of his personality. “If it’s ‘im, he's changed...no worries, ah still won't forgive ‘im” she muttered under her breath.
“Fight # 28 Mileena Korai versus Jacob Zakuran” the guard called out. A thin young man with flowing black hair and a katana stepped forward. “Sorry miss, but I don’t intend to hold my punches against you.” He exclaimed confidently.
“Don’t worry about that honey, worry about what you’ll say when you lose to me.” She replied, the young man laughed “A woman with spirit! I like women like you, especially once I’ve tamed them.”
“I just hope you can keep up with me” she laughed at the young man as he sat back down. The guard then resumed announcing the rest of the list. After all the names of the contestants were read out, the first two warriors were introduced to the crowd. ‘My match isn’t for a while, so I might as well go and watch’ Mileena thought to herself. She rose from her seat and headed for the door. As she passed Korius, she bent down and put her head to the side of his. “I saw you looking at me, don’t worry, I’m also watching you…” she whispered. After that she lightly kissed him on the cheek and left. Korius wondered as to her true intentions, as well as the intent behind that phrase.

Mileena headed up to where the spectators were and found an empty seat. She sat down and began to watch the matches as they unfolded. As she did so, she noticed a blonde haired woman and a red-headed man sat next to each other. She saw them talking and started to listen to what they were saying.
Tyrone and Reina had been watching the fights from the very first match. Tyrone was a good fighter in his own right, but he considered himself lucky that he wasn't in the competition this year. From the fighting he saw in the first round, he wondered how his brother would cope in the face of such strong opposition. Reina was sat next to him looking cheerful, knowing that they had some time finally doing something together. “I wonder when your brother’s match is and who he'll be fighting” Reina said
“I'm not sure, let’s have a look at the chart” Tyrone replied. Reina retrieved the chart from the pack on her belt and looked through the fixtures. “Hey! It’s your brother’s match next!” she exclaimed
“Really? I wonder what his opponent is like…”

“Did everyone enjoy that!?” The announcer boomed from his stand. “Now, onto match number 19! Korius Sorian VS Drake Debore!” Both Korius and his opponent walked out into the arena. The arena's floor was sandy mixed with the blood spilt from previous battles. It was surrounded by a large wall with thousands of spectators on the stands.
“Bloody hell!” Tyrone was awestruck at the opponent his brother would be fighting “THAT’S his opponent!? One wrong move and they'll be sweeping the bits off the arena!”
“I’m sure your brother will do just fine…” Reina reassured him. Unknown to them, Mileena overheard their conversation. ‘So…this is his little brother hmmm?’ she looked at Tyrone for a few seconds, then her gaze went back to the arena.

“ARE WE READY!?” the announcer screamed. Korius and Drake held their weapons ready “THEN LETS GO!” Drake charged Korius furiously, holding his hammer in both hands.
“Let’s see you laugh when this hits you!” Drake raised the hammer as thought to strike from overhead, and then suddenly swung the hammer from the side. Korius just barely managed to dodge the blow. “That all you have? What a pathetic excuse for a warrior” Korius taunted. Drake then tried to strike from overhead. Korius anticipated the move and dodged to his left. As the hammer hit the ground, Korius swung wildly and lightly caught Drake’s arm. “Well well, the lil shit actually touched me, I'm impressed” Drake exclaimed with a grin. He swung his right arm, catching Korius in the stomach and sending him reeling from the blow. 'Dammit, that was fucking careless' cursed Korius. As Drake swung his hammer horizontally again, Korius jumped onto the hammer and sliced Drakes index finger. “AHHH! DAMN YOU!” Drake screamed in anger, as a small amount of blood began to ooze from the light wound. He begun to swung the hammer like crazy. Korius dodged the blows, each time coming very close to being crushed. Drake swung at the ground again. Korius dodged and lightly slashed his right arm. “COME ON BRO!” shouted Tyrone “WHY AREN'T YOU GETTING IN CLOSE!?” Drake backed off as Korius charged him.
“Foolish boy, do you really think that you'll get through this hammer to me? Not a chance” Drake said smugly. Korius swung at him, but it simply bounced off the hammer as Drake blocked the blow. Drake followed by slamming the end of the hammer into Korius, sending him flying and winding him as he hit the arena wall a few meters away and slumped to the ground. 'D-Damn no effect at all. I guess I'll have to use it' Korius thought. He got back to his feet and started muttering words under his breath. “Spell casting eh boy? You won't be able to hit me with it” Drake prepared to dodge the spell. When Drake lowered his guard, Korius charged again. “What!? A fake!?” Drake went back to guarding himself with the hammer. ‘I hope to hell that this works’ he thought to himself. As he neared Drake, the sword Korius was using suddenly glowed dark red. 'What the hell!?' Drake thought 'It must be a trick, no matter he won't get past my hammer so easily!’ Korius got right up to Drake and swung his sword diagonally from the ground up over. “ZURIKAN BREAKER!” he screamed as he hit the hammer, demolishing it with one blow and even tearing into Drake's armour. The blow created a whirlwind of dust in its wake, so much so that it shrouded the two fighters completely from view. When the dust subsided, the spectators saw that Drake’s hammer was split into pieces as was his armour. Drake was laid on his back with blood pouring from the serious chest wound he’d just received, with Korius stood above him. The glow suddenly dispersed from Korius' sword. “u-ugh...damn...heh I guess I was wrong...you win boy” Drake admitted as he fainted.

“KORIUS TAKES THE VICTORY!” screamed the announcer yet again. The crowd cheered the victor. “That's Wolf for you” Reina said “He still took quite a blow though, and what was that move he used?” she inquired.
“It was the Zurikan Breaker; it was a move that our father taught him. I haven't quite got it myself yet.” Tyrone replied “He has it almost perfected, but it still doesn't work from time to time.”
“It could have failed!?” she stated looking very surprised “Then why did he use it!?”
“He made an educated guess. If it hadn't worked, Drake could well have won. He needed to get through that hammer to Drake.”
“Still at least he made it I suppose” Reina then went back to watching the rest of the fights, not knowing that a figure in the crowd had been watching her and Tyrone from a distance. The figure left the arena hastily, running towards the centre of town.

Faye was in the waiting room, when she saw Korius come in from his fight. The guard followed soon after. “Our next fight is between Faye Hargreaves and Jade Loken”. A fairly young, thin dark skinned woman stood up. “Alright, I'll do my best” she said “I hope we have a good fight Miss Hargreaves.” With that she sauntered out of the waiting room.
“Wha’s up with ‘er? bein’ all polite...it’s like she don’ belong ‘ere. No worries, ah won’ go easy on ‘er” She rose from her seat and set off for the arena. As she did so, Korius also left the room to see his brother in the stands.

As he approached his brother, he walked past Mileena in the stands. When they both noticed each other, she winked at him. Korius felt a chill go up his spine from that and was unsure as to why. He continued on and sat down next to Tyrone. “Faye’s match is next…” Korius told him as he sat down. “She was a participant all along then.” Tyrone pondered if their encounter was premeditated or just happened by chance. His thoughts were cut short, however, by the roar of the crowd as Faye and her opponent walked out onto the sandy, desolate, blood-stained surface.

“Here we go ladies and gentlemen! FIGHT NUMBER 20! Faye Hargreaves Versus Jade Loken!” the announcer screamed with enthusiasm. Faye stared at her opponent with her cutlasses ready. ‘ah don’ care who she is or how well bred, she’s between me an’ mah loot.’ The young lady opposing Faye also readied her weapon, a steel quarterstaff. “I’m sorry, but this competition belongs to me” Jade mumbled under her breath.
“LETS GO!” shouted the announcer. As he did, a rock hit him in the side of the head.
“For hells sake man, stop shouting!” the assailant screamed. After doing so, two guards swiftly grabbed hold of the man and escorted him from the premises. “Ok then, Lets get this show on the road” the announcer said quieter than normal.
Jade immediately began to close the distance between herself and Faye. Faye also charged but was caught off guard as her opponent changed direction and tried to flank her. Jade swung her quarterstaff sideways at Faye’s waistline. Faye reacted by diving over her weapon, landing and rolling to face her opponent. ‘That….was fast’ she thought. She stood up with her weapons ready, awaiting the next attack. A smile came across Jade’s lips as she started to chant. ‘….!! Tha’ spell! OH SHIT!’ Faye recognized the spell and got ready to evade it.

“Impaler!” Jade screamed. Faye managed to jump out of the way just in time, before a massive spike quickly rose from the arena floor. Faye landed on her feet and a sudden gust of wind filled the arena. “Gale Slash!” Faye roared as two crescent waves fired from her cutlasses as she attacked with them simultaneously. Faye’s opponent dodged one of the projectiles, but the other just grazed her shoulder, lightly cutting it. Faye began to close the distance between them slowly. As she got near, Jade tried to use the reach of her weapon to her advantage and thrust the weapon at Faye. Faye dodged and leapt towards Jade, delivering a spinning kick to her head knocking her to the ground. Jade jumped to her feet very quickly and took a swing at Faye, catching her in the stomach and followed up with a roundhouse kick sending Faye flying, eventually hitting the floor with considerable force. As Faye was trying to get to her feet, Jade jumped high into the air, and started to descend upon Faye’s location rapidly with her quarterstaff in front of her. Faye managed to roll out of the way before the quarterstaff hit the ground. As it hit it cracked some of the floor. Using the quarterstaff as support, Jade swung round, almost kicking Faye in the head, and used the force of the swing to leap out of striking distance with her quarterstaff still in her hands. Jade quickly started chanting the Impaler spell again. Faye saw her chance and sprinted towards Jade. However Jade started to chant words different than that of the Impaler spell. “Rockslide!” she yelled. A dark portal appeared overhead, suddenly rocks and boulders started smashing against the arena and Faye was caught off guard, taking several hits from the rocks, knocking her to the floor. When the portal closed, Jade dashed towards Faye and swung her weapon vertically at her. Faye managed to block the attack using both her cutlasses and attempted to push her assailant’s weapon back. Both were equally strong, but this gave Faye the chance to roll to her right, out of harms way. This caused Jade to crash towards the ground as Faye swung her right cutlass wildly, slashing the young woman’s cheek. “I will win this!” Jade shouted in anger. In an error of judgement, she held the quarterstaff on one end with both hands and swung horizontally. Faye countered by smashing it out of Jade’s hands with her left cutlass and holding the right cutlass to her throat. Jade could only look on as she saw her weapon hit the ground, all but ending her hopes to win the championship. “D’ya give up now?” Faye asked her. Jade remained silent and held up her arms, signalling that she had surrendered. “It’s over! The winner is Faye Hargreaves! What an astounding match!” The announcer bellowed with enthusiasm. Faye withdrew her cutlass from the dark skinned beauty’s neck and sheathed her weapons. “Tha’ was good” Faye said “ah ‘ope ya’ll improve.”
“You too, are skilled, I hope you win” Jade replied, picking up her quarterstaff from the ground, she turned and bowed before leaving the arena. ‘Hmm, she sure was strong’ Faye pondered whether she would be good enough to progress through to the final as she left the arena.

“Well, she was good. A little reckless but still good” Tyrone stated.
“You’re calling somebody reckless? Perhaps you should learn to be more careful yourself before you criticize others.” Korius replied. Tyrone glared at his brother in anger, whereas Reina laughed. ”Well it’s been fun boys but I have to go do something” she voiced happily as she rose from her seat. “Where are you going?” Tyrone asked.
“I have an Uncle here that I haven’t seen in a while. I’m going to go see him” Reina replied
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“No it’s ok, you stay here and have a good time watching the rest of the competition with Wolf, I’ll meet you back at the inn later tonight, he gets a bit carried away with his stories whenever I see him.” Reina kissed Tyrone and left the arena leaving both Korius and his brother. As they watched her leave, Korius glanced over to where Mileena was sitting. There was no trace of her to be found. Korius wondered where she could have disappeared to, but came to the conclusion that it’s almost time for her match and turned his attention back to the arena. After the day's matches were over, both Korius and Tyrone headed back to the Inn.

A Few hours later…

“You take care now Reina!” her uncle said as she left.
“Don’t worry, Uncle I’ll be ok” She said as she set off for the inn. She walked through the dark, creepy, cold and cobbled streets, with only the moonlight and the occasional street torch to illuminate her surroundings. ‘Man…this place is eerie at night’ she thought to herself ‘Perhaps I should have asked Tyrone to come’. As she began to enter the city centre she heard footsteps behind her. She spun round and lashed out with a punch, missing her target. She was smashed over the head by an incredible force, knocking her out completely. “Heh heh, the boss will be pleased about this” one of the thugs whispered “Now our man will have nothing to worry about” The men picked her up and began to carry her away. They had not known that a person in a cloak had been watching. Once the thugs left, the cloaked figure walked towards the Crescent Inn

After having won a first tough battle, his thoughts are now focused on progressing through the rest of the tournament

After fighting against Jade Loken in the tournament, she has managed to progress to the second round. So far, for some reason, only Korius and the others know that she is the pirate that was rumoured to participate in the tournament. She also seems to be trying to regain something from her past.

A very unusual, but seductive, woman who has a strange passion for all things red. Despite this passion, she seems to trying to seduce Korius. Korius is certain that her moves towards him are to give her a better chance in the tournament, however, he wonders if there is more to her intentions than merely winning.

Opposed Korius in the first round. A mammoth of a man, usually seen adorning an eagle headdress with his hammer. Korius has inflicted a severe wound to Drake of which, he will likely take some time to recover. A belligerent and tough talking character, he is willing to prove himself if and when needed.

Opposed Faye in the first round. A well mannered young lady participating in the tournament. She seems oddly out of place compared to the rest of her competitors, though she is a force to be reckoned with. Her staff attacks and spells gave Faye a pretty rough time until she was forced to surrender. Despite her loss, she seems to be content, and hopes to get another chance to fight Faye in the future.

After leaving the tournament early, leaving Tyrone and Korius to watch the tournament, Reina was knocked unconscious as she made her way back to the inn after leaving her uncle's house by unknown assailants. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

A young man with flowing black hair, wielding a katana. Has been known to be exceptionally cruel to women, especially those that attack him. After serving a jail sentence, he has decided to participate in the tournament to earn himself some gold.

All characters in Wolf Chronicles are owned by Richard Goddard (A.K.A KSorian) unless otherwise stated.