Dragon Crowns: The Broken Throne - Chapter 1
Welcome to Fantasy Friday! Every Friday from now on you’ll get one chapter of my serialized fantasy novel. Enjoy!
Blaze Ironclad did not think his heavy body would have the strength to run from a giant spider bigger than him in an open field where he hunted for deer. The spider was slower but persistent. Blaze’s breath was catching up to him. What was a spider even doing in an open field? Don’t they hang out in caves? Cornwood was not known to attract spiders, so it might have strayed away from some caverns in the mountains nearby.
Should he run up a tree? Such a big spider might not come after him in a tree. But Blaze doubted his body was strong enough to climb up a tree.
Blaze noticed Lake Crescent’s still waters out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t know how to swim, but perhaps the Spider would not follow him into the water. He ran into the waters as far as his chest, standing just before the edge where he would have to swim. His gamble worked. The spider did not follow but stood there for a while to see Blaze’s next moves.
It was his father’s seventy-fifth flame day, and he wanted to surprise his parents with a meal. The Gods knew how much his parents helped him with his royal debt problems. The empire of Draco Imperium was a lonely place, a shadow of its former self when Dragons roamed this land, and yet, every few months, they would come to look for Blaze Ironclad to ask about his debts like those people didn’t have anything better to do. They were not dragons, but they were cunning much the same.
Blaze looked down at himself, soaking wet in the water, and pondered how he got to this point in life where a giant spider is trying to eat him, and he barely escapes it. He was a man in his thirties, unmarried, and out of shape. His big figure always bothered him. He tried to do something about it but always found himself giving up too soon. This was his lot with women as well. Whenever he started a relationship with a woman, the relationship would not grow beyond the point where he needed to open up about his insecurities and his debt. Blaze rationalized that he would save the poor woman from getting into his mess. What woman would want to be with a man who doesn’t want to be who he is?
The spider eventually left when it realized Blaze was not coming out of the water. The sun was setting, and it was too late to start hunting for deer again. Besides, Blaze’s hands were shaking. He couldn’t hold a bow to aim while rattled as he was. The village doctor once said Blaze was a “Heightened Soul,” meaning he was more sensitive than the average person. Blaze knew it to be true because friends and family would always misunderstand his sensitivity to different things he didn’t intend. A long day of meeting people would be so exhausting. That’s why days like this one, where he spent most of it alone until that spider came along, were so sacred.
A greyish hand suddenly emerged from the water behind Blaze and grabbed his cheek. Rattled and frozen, Blaze watched as Talon Greyfin, a Selachian living in the lake among other Sharkfolk, emerged from the water.
“Blaze! Come to feed me bread again on your lonely walks across the water?” He said with a smile that revealed his perfect white teeth. Talon wasn’t a typical Selachian with a shark’s head. He looked mostly human, only with the flesh of a shark and fins on his back and tail. His eyes were glowing a distracting yellow. Many of the village girls swooned when they saw him emerge from the water on occasion. So, naturally, Blaze was a little jealous of the Selachian’s physique.
“No, a giant spider tried to eat me,” Blaze said, gently removing Talon’s hand that was still grabbing his cheek. I hid here in the water until he left.”
“I don’t see a spider anymore. So why are you still here?” Talon asked.
“I was planning on hunting a deer for dinner for my father’s flame day. It’s too late now,” Blaze said, looking at the setting sun.
“Congratulations to your father, Blaze. Why don’t I help you catch some Salmon instead? I know you humans like to eat them just as much as I do,” Talon said, putting a hand on Blaze’s shoulder.
***
“This salmon is great, Blaze. Thank you so much,” Adelaide said to her son. “Don’t you think so, Samuel?”
“Yes, very tasty,” Samuel said.
Samuel and Adelaide Ironclad were kind people living in a small household. They could have moved to ScaleHart, the empire’s capital, if they wanted to, as Samuel had some savings in a bank there to sustain them in the city. They much preferred the quiet of the village and Lake Crescent.
“I hope we will be lucky enough to enjoy these meals with your family when you start one,” Samuel said in dismay.
Here we go… Blaze thought. This was a recurring discussion with his father. Blaze knew his father meant well when he tried to push him into a relationship and start a family, but his father’s generation’s only way of doing this was to berate him.
Adelaide was silent while Blaze tried to explain. It was like Blaze’s mind turned off while he lied to his father about trying to find the right woman to marry. He couldn’t handle it, and his mind was handling speaking while he dissociated from the situation. It usually ended with a fight or negative emotion between him and his father. Tonight, however, his father seemed content not to go further in his questioning of his son. Maybe that was his Flame Day gift to Blaze.
“All I’m saying is we aren’t getting younger, and neither are you. Thirty-six is not young. You could have had a kid half your age by now.”
“I know; thank you, Father,” Blaze said politely as he excused himself from dinner. After a quick wash, he went to bed, thinking hard about how to improve his life while his tears stained his pillow. How? That word haunted him to sleep.
***
In the morning, Blaze woke up to an empty house as his parents left to buy groceries in Cornville, the town next to the village on the royal road.
He made himself some coffee and drank it in silence. This was a good way to start a day.
A Knock at the door.
“Just a minute,” Blaze called out as he stood up from the table.
A whiff of purple smoke blinded him as a man appeared out of nowhere, knife trained on Blaze’s neck. The door smashed open as a royal soldier kicked it from outside. Bits of wood fell off his armored leg.
“Blaze Ironclad?” The soldier at the doorway said.
“…Yes?”
“You’re coming with us. Judge Rooster wants to see you in ScaleHart Court.”
To be continued…