Dregan

I walked forward in dense and tall grass. Distant screams of pure terror made my heart race. The rain from the night before had made the grass heavy and the mud beneath it sticky. My metal greaves and boots felt as if they weighed 100 pounds. I listened attentively to my surroundings with my body tense.

A low growl came from my left, cementing me in place. Slowly, I moved my body to face the direction the growl came from. A cold sweat started to form on my brow and on my spine. My body started to get sore from keeping my muscles tense and ready.

The grass in front of me parted and I got to see what I was being hunted by. The creature looked like a mix between a wolf and a lizard. Its face was both scaly and hairy. Its mouth was lined with long sharp teeth that dripped with blood from a fresh kid. The creature's eyes were blood red and had a crazed tinge. Cuts and open wounds lined the creature's body. The wounds likely came from another of my companions fighting for their life.

I leveled my sword at the monster.

"Wragggg. Smelly human…..tasty human….." a warped and distorted voice came from the creature.

"By coming to me you are begging to die, monster!" I snarled.

"Hrang….. Haha…..foolish…..human…." The creature chortled "You….will be…..left with a…..mangled corpse….when I…. am done…." It lunged forward abruptly with its large maw opening going for my head.

With a start I woke up. I took in a deep breath and tried to calm my erratic heart rate. The sun had still not risen so I sat up and rekindled the fire.

"4 hours or so of sleep isn't too bad…" I muttered to myself. I poked the fire with a stick moving the logs into place so they would burn longer. But I felt strange. Why can't I hear any of the horses?

A low growl from behind me made my blood freeze. 'That growl….I know it….' I discreetly reached for my sword and slowly but methodically turned around.

I unsheathed my sword and pointed it towards the tree line behind me. Red eyes glowed in the forest. Out of the corner of my eyes I looked at the others in the group and sighed in relief.

'They are all still here which means I woke up just in time….these bastards go for the weak targets first.' I looked at where the horses were tied up and my left eye twitched at the sight. All of the horses were dismembered. 'It did that without waking me? Also…..' I felt a trace of pity. 'That battle charger was quite a nice horse.' I then focused all of my attention on the creature in the forest.

"Come here into the light vile creature. Vile Dregan." I said.

The creature moved forward through the forest and came into full view of the campfire light. "Tasty humansss." It looked hungrily at the people sleeping beside the campfire.

"You will taste no flesh this night beast." I tensed my muscles.

The creature looked at me and a slight look of derision appeared on its mangled face. "....Move….away…..unclean one….. I eat…."

I clenched my teeth in anger. "I'll move not a step away from them."

"Then…..I ssssend….to lord early." It sprinted forward and roared loudly. The roar woke the group sleeping at the campfire.

"Back away!" I yelled back at the drowsy and confused group. But I had no time to worry about whether they listened to me as I lunged forward and stabbed the sword into the creature's chest. I tried to pull the sword out but it was stuck. It swung its left claw down but I caught it with my right hand. In retaliation I pushed the sword deeper into the monster's chest.

The monster howled in pain and lashed out with its right claw. It slashed my shoulder going through my armor cutting deep into flesh and bone. "Argh!" I screamed in pain but didn't dare let go of my sword nor the creature's other arm.

The monster raised its claw and swung down again. But its claw was stopped by two arms wrapping firmly around it.

"Conran no! This is far too dangerous, boy! Run!" Conran shook his head and gritted his teeth even hard as he tried to resist the monster's insane strength.

The fight reached a stalemate as the two parties were contesting fiercely. Listen was the one to break that stalemate. He ran up behind the creature with a knife and stabbed it into the creatures back over and over.

"Damn humanssssss!" The monster opened its mouth wide and bit down towards my head. No doubt if it clamped down on my head helmet or not I was dead.

I moved my body and head to the side narrowly avoiding the bite. I raised my free hand that was bawled into a fist "STRENGTH!"Magic channeled into my fist as I punched the creature's face aiming for the eyes.

It moved its head in an attempt to dodge but was unable to completely dodge the blow. My fist connected with the side of the creature's jaw breaking half of it off.

The monster roared and threw conran off its right arm. It jumped up with its legs and put them in between us and shoved me away from it. In doing so it also freed the sword from its chest. I rolled on the ground over the fire sending the burning logs rolling to the ground. The dry ground quickly caught fire lighting the area up.

I scrambled to my feet with my eyes still firmly trained on the monster. It roared and charged forward.

I locked my sword into both hands and yelled "SPEED!" I felt power gather into my legs. I broke out into a sprint towards the creature. Holding my sword in front of me I slammed into the creature at full power.

A crunch of bones from the beast and my own armor breaking echoed out. The sword slid easily into its chest once more. My momentum was stronger so I won the charging exchange. We rolled across the ground briefly and I positioned myself on top of the monster. It thrashed and swung its arms at me. I dodged to the best of my ability but I was still struck many times. One of its blows hit my right abdomen and cut incredibly deep. I almost passed out from the pain. I bit down on my tongue to stop myself from passing out and locked my legs around the monster to keep it from throwing me off. I pulled the sword out from its chest and plunged it back down where the heart was.

"Ahwoooo!" The creature howled in agony.

I pulled a knife from my boot and stabbed it into the creature's eye and into its brain. The creature paused briefly and then all of its body went limp.

"Huff…huff" I panted trying to get more air to my lungs. I canceled the magic in my body and it instantly made me feel a hundred times worse. I struggled with my eyes. The adrenaline from the fight was fading quickly.

"L-lord Demrian….is it dead? Are you alright?" The worried voice of Amara woke me up and stopped me from passing out.

"Come…..help me…" I said weakly. The grip I had on the sword and knife loosened and I fell off the creature's body onto the ground.

Hurried footsteps approached me. I saw Amara with her resplendent eyes looking at me with worry. "Quick Listen, put out the fire! The rest of you come help me!" She unclasped the buckle on my helmet and slid it off.

With the helmet off I took in a deep breath and received far more air to my greedy lungs.

"He is bleeding a lot on his left abdominal! Conran quick go get me a cloth and clean water!" Katriana placed her hands over the bleeding wound trying to stop the blood from flowing.

"Right!" Conran nodded and ran off to where the horses were.

I heard him exclaim in shock briefly as he had likely seen what had become of the poor horses. Shortly he returned with 2 bottles and several different shirts.

Listen who had just finished putting out the fire came behind me and pushed me up into a sitting position. "Come, we have to take this armor off to treat the wound."

They all worked together to take the heavy armor off my body. They took off the armor and also took off the chainmail that rested underneath it. "I still can't get to the wound….take of his shirt as well." Katriana said.

They held my arms over my head causing me to groan in pain. By sliding the tunic over my head they revealed a shocking number of scars. There was no part of my body that hadn't been scared. Katriana looked at the scars and I could see her confusion 'How am I alive, right?' but after her slight pause she set off to work treating the wound.

"Is he going to be okay?" Amara asked worriedly as she watched.

Katriana frowned "He is losing too much blood. The cloth won't be able to stop this much bleeding. I need to sow this wound up. If I can't he will bleed to death."

Amara seemed visibly panicked. "What do we do?!"

"Calm down….." I said weakly. I pointed towards one of the bags near the dead horses. "That bag has a sewing kit for wounds."

Katriana nodded and looked at Conran. Conran ran over to the bags and hurriedly searched through them. "Found it!"

He yelled happily. He ran back over and handed off the kit to Katriana. She opened the kit and started to sew the wound together.

"Argh!" I dug my fingers into the ground and tried my best to not move.

An hour later the agonizing pain was over. My wound was sewn shut and was wrapped in several layers of cloth. I looked at everyone and saw exhaustion written all over their faces.

Especially Katriana. Fatigue showed clearly in her eyes and added with the fact that she was covered in my blood she made for an exceptionally miserable sight.

I moved slowly into a sitting position "Thank you…Katriana."

She smiled "You saved us twice now! So, we aren't even until I save you one more time."

I chuckled lightly causing a shooting pain in my abdomen. "Ah fuck."

Amara pushed me down gently "You need to rest." She grabbed a bedroll and placed it under my head and started to stroke my forehead.

It felt….wonderful. I hadn't experienced care like this since I was a child, that is unless I had paid for it.

I let my body relax. My eyes slowly closed as I drifted to sleep.

I woke up the next morning slowly. Light shone through the trees at the perfect angle at my eyes causing me to squint. I moved slowly and tried to sit up. But I felt an unusual weight on my right arm. I looked and saw Amara buried deeply in my shoulder sleeping. Each time I moved her face scrunched together cutely in protest.

"Hah…" I looked helplessly at her. I returned to my previous position and lay still so as to not disturb the rest of her slumber.

For as long as I could remember I could never go back to sleep after waking. So, I looked around and saw the aftermath of the battle.

Parts of the ground were scorched from the time the ground caught on fire along with numerous indents in the ground where the monster and I had rolled around. The monster's body still lay in the same place where it died. My armor lay a short distance away from me. The armor had already repaired itself because of the enchantments that lined it. Though it was not in perfect condition like it had been when it was first made it was usable once again.

"Hmmm?" a tired cute voice stole my attention.

I turned my head to Amara "Good morning."

Her groggy tired eyes opened widely in shock. She looked down at my arm that she had been laying on "Ah my apologies!" her face grew red from embarrassment when she saw the slight amount of drool that accumulated on my arm.

Seeing her embarrassed face I laughed. I winced slightly from the abdomen pain but ignored it. "Don't be sorry." I moved my hand and brushed the hair that was stuck on the side of her face before placing my hand on her shoulder. "That was the best sleep I have gotten in years. If anything I am thankful."

She blushed again and hurriedly stood up separating my hand from her. "I-I have to go wake the others!" With that she scuttled off.

'It seems…..she likes me?' I scratched my head. 'Maybe it's more in a father daughter way?' I waved the thoughts from my mind. I grabbed the pieces of my armor and strapped them on one by one until it was all on once more. With the armor repaired a slow healing energy permeated my body directed at my newly acquired wound.

I sighed in relief. I grabbed the helmet last and strapped it to my side. This morning I didn't feel like putting it on.

"Lord Demrian!" Conran ran over to me with a worried expression "We took all of our equipment from the dead horses but we aren't sure how we can carry everything. And also…..we couldn't find the horse you rode on. So your things are probably….."

I raised my eyebrows "You mean that the battle charger was not among the dead horses?"

Canran nodded anxiously. I smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Well those horses have really good instincts so it isn't too surprising it escaped." I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled a unique melody. The melody was what trainers used when they trained the battle chargers.

After 5 minutes of waiting nothing happened. No sign of the horse. Conran opened his mouth to say something when he was interrupted by a soft neighing in the distant forest.

We looked over and saw a horse trotting over proudly with 2 horses behind it. When the horse got close I patted it on the head "Good job escaping my friend!" The horse bobbed its head as if understanding my words. I looked at the two timid horses behind it. 'Two mares huh...Looks like I got a ladies man here.'

I looked back at Conran "Well it doesn't completely solve our carrying and traveling problem but it helps a little."

Conran smiled in agreement but also seemed hesitant.

"What is it?" I asked.

"That creature last night…..what was that thing?"

I mentally slapped myself "Right most folk don't know what those are….That was a Dregan."

"Dregan?"

"Right a Dregan. They are a part of the invading Abyssal army. They are like the kingdom's elite foot soldiers. But they are obviously more dangerous."

Conran swallowed nervously "So then on a battlefield there would be more than just one of those?"

I grimaced "Yes. And there are things far worse than a Dregan on that battlefield." But then I smiled reassuringly "Don't worry. Those monsters are handled at the Therdan Wall by the four races. Only the dregs of the abyssal army can eke through the defenses. There are also hunting squads that hunt these monsters for coin." I looked over at the dead monster's body.

"Speaking of which….." I fished out my knife and walked over to the body and slowly sawed off the head." The others gagged slightly as they watched. Finally cutting through the neck I stood up and wiped the sweat off my brow. "Whew!"

"This head will probably be worth 100 gold coins." The group gaped at me.

"100?!" They said collectively in shock.

"Well, after going through that fight I certainly think we deserve 100 gold." Conran and Listen shivered visibly when they recalled the experience.

I clapped my hands together "Okay! The two ladies will ride on the two mares and most of what needs to be carried will be placed on the horses."

"So, we must walk?" Listen whined.

I nodded. "You boys showed courage befitting the professions you chose. So, if you are not opposed to it I will train you a bit."

Both Conran's and Listen's eyes lit up. They nodded fiercely.

I smiled approvingly "Then the first step is to train the body. You two have muscles but they are untrained. We will fix that problem."

Conran and Listen looked at each other helplessly. They then went over to the remaining bags on the ground and hefted them off the floor.

"But sir you are still wounded! You must take a horse and rest!" Amara said with worry.

I waved my hand "I am fine. I heal fast and am already almost recovered." I lied shamelessly. Though I do heal fast and am recovering at an abnormal speed I was still quite exhausted. But to train the two boys I have to lead by example.

Amara opened her mouth to contest but I interrupted her first "I understand your concern but there is no point in arguing about it as I have made up my mind."

Amara looked at the rest of the group in the hopes of receiving support but only got helpless looks instead. She humphed "Fine."

I rolled my eyes. After helping both of the women onto the tall horses we set off down the road. For almost an hour the only sounds that could be heard was the huffing and puffing of Conran and Listen.

Katriana broke the silence "So….Lord Demrian can you continue where you left off?" I smiled helplessly.

"Sure. The story will be shorter today because I am rather tired. But it will be long enough to tell you how I met William Fallere."