Chapter 2

His dreams... he was losing memory of them...

He heard sounds he didn't hear in his dreams.

Voices.

He stirred. Make them go away...

The dream sharpened again.

That man....

That evil smile...

The feeling that he had already been dead....

Wait... how could he prove he wasn't now?

The voices.

He felt like he was about to surface from swimming underwater, but he wanted to stay under. He thrashed mentally to stay under.

Finally his eyes popped open in a sudden rush as he felt like ice water had been thrown over him.

He looked down at himself.

Nope.

Dry.

He was sitting with is back to a barn wall, still outside.

His nose scrunched up against the smell of burning village.

The burnt wood.

The charred trees.

The smoldering remains of the death of a livelihood.

He couldn't move.

So tired...

Before long, he heard the voices again. The villagers, inquiring upon someone...

the Mayor?

...No. A deeper, more powerful voice.

More noble.

More fair.

So he wasn't crazy... or was he-

He shook his head.

No.

If he thought that way, he'd soon BE crazy, no doubt.

He waited, his eyesight focusing still and his ears not quite making out what the villagers and booming voice were saying.

He let them yap.

He was drained.

He leaned back against the wood of the barn completely, sighing loudly.

After a moment, he opened his eyes a little, and they popped all the way open, "GAH!"

A strong, beard-infested jaw and big nose set just so for the audience of sharp, small eyes under big, bushy eyebrows looked at him from behind blonde locks. Apparently the villagers had heard their fill, "Boy, are you alright?"

He experimented by moving his head, rolling it about on his neck first, then straightened, and nodded.

The man smiled, "Good lad." He then stood. He wore brilliant red plated armor with silver ring mail laid beneath.

Rubies were set in the cuirass and gauntlets, and his boots were of heavy studded leather.

The boots were also red.

Leon was a bit speechless at first, but his curiosity tackled his Awe and threw it aside, "You're a knight...?"

The man blinked, caught a little by surprise, "Why, yes... Yes, I am. I'm a very... well accomplished knight, in very high rank, known by title as the, "Red Lion."

Leon shrugged, 'We don't hear of knights often. Sir.... if I could ask-"

"You want to know who that man in black armor was." He ruffled Leon's hair, "Don't worry about him, Kiddo. I'm hot on his trail." He straightened once more, his mail and plate armor, which must've weighed a ton, shifted and almost made a melody with the movement.

"He stole something from me." Leon managed.

The man smiled, "He did. It was the Piece of Power. One of three... Be glad you no longer have it, and you lived after he got it. if I hadn't been so hot on his trail... ... He'd have killed you to eliminate risk."

Leon couldn't breathe for a moment. Had he been that close to death...?

No way.

Unthinkable.

No man was that crue-

As if reading his mind, the man looked to him with those cold eyes, the eyes going from sympathetic and optimistic to sharp and to the point, "Learn from the evil man from the Desert, boy." He turned his back to him, "Live a peaceful life.... and do not suffer, knowing that man is out there. Revenge is something you cannot have against this man.... for he is invincible."

With this.... the Red Lion walked away, the light seeming to bend around him, for he just simply vanished from sight, like a cloth that hid living beings had been thrown over him smoothly.

Leon knew: That day, he had seen magic.

Light Magic...


And Dark Magic.

He shuddered.