It was a dark november night

It was a dark november night...

It was a dark november night and Stryke woke up, his head aching and dizzy, tasting blood in his mouth. „Guess I didn’t pay heed to my surroundings when I walked in here”, he pondered, looking around in this dark, ghastly cave, surrounded by desolation. He took his sword from the ground, wiping the blood off its abrased blade – the remains of his last enemies trying to stop him taking something, which truly belonged to him. As he wondered what happened to the rest of his warband he saw a blood-stirring light at the end of the cave. „Can that be it?” he asked himself in arousment and quickly began moving towards the light, not letting it out of his sight, not even for a moment. Stryke felt the agonising pain at the back of his head, but still kept moving on, his eyes glazing at the lights which started, or at least in Stryke’s eyes, to take shape. He saw the star, it was in his reach and finally, after all these years, he and his warrior-brothers would be set free. If only he could hold it in his hands.

Darkness fell pounding unto him. Losing the sight of the star and himself again, he felt his legs growing weak and eventually the hard, watery surface against his face. He fell unconscious again.

“I say we kill him now, before the bastard makes more trouble!”

“You heard the boss, Leamerd. We need to keep him alive!”

“To hell with this! If that...thing...even dares to look at me I’ll slash its freakin’ throat.”

Serpentus and Leamerd were too busy arguing each other, so they didn’t notice Stryke opening his eyes. He saw them – those scaly creatures he had heard of when his grandfather was still alive and telling bedtime stories, not quite appropriate for children. Until now, he has fought numerous of different creatures, but lizards he saw for the first time. By gods, he didn’t know that they even existed! But here they were – an elderly race, grown up to live below earth’s regular surface, hidden from the sunlight. Stryke silently observed those mighty creatures. Standing on their hind legs, almost 2 meters tall, those monsters were no regular lizards – they were symbiosis of man and lizard, created in some obscene and disgusting way. They were covered with scaly skin, resembling something between a fish and a snake, and simple leather armor made out of sheep’s intestines. Serpentus and Leamerd, Stryke understood their conversation because they were quite adept in human language, were holding a pair of meter-long spears each – a weapon told be common among that race.

“It’s going to be one hell of a fight,” Stryke thought when reaching for his sword, which the lizard-men didn’t see a need to take away. He, after all, was a mere human, but they were born warriors, whose traditions went back for centuries. He stood up, body still aching from the blows he had probably recieved earlier and spoke out:

“Are you short-arses going to talk forever or are you going to give me the pleasure of killing you in battle?”

The lizard-men turned around, looking astonished and a second later they sprung forward, wanting to finish the battle quickly.

“Don’t underestimate me, freaks!” Stryke yelled out, dodging the incoming spears with some elegant footwork, while slashing upwards with his sword. He managed to slash one of the spears Leamerd was holding. The so-called freaks of nature, as Stryke imagined them to be in blissful ignorance, were furious and were striking and thrusting with violent incompetence. That gave Stryke the edge he needed. After parrying Leamerd spear thrust he quickly stepped in, barely dodging Serpentus's other spear ripping a hole in his thigh, striking his sword forward with all his might. It was a good hit. A gush of blood was sent flying from Leamerd's mouth when the sword penetrated his chest. Stryke viciously raked upwards, breaking the beasts huge ribcage and watching how bloody organs came dropping on the floor with little splinters of white bone covering them. He then turned to Serpentus, who looked angry yet there was a small hint of fear in his eyes.

“I want the star. Give me the star and I’ll spare you. Perhaps.”, Stryke said with a vicious grin.

“Like hell I will ground-walker. I’ll slash you to pieces like a freaking rabbit!”

Serpentus lunged forward holding his spears like teeth in a mouth of a wolf or a tiger. Stryke deflected both of the spears with ease and purposely cut the creatures arm - enough to hurt him badly, but not so much to actually kill it. Serpentus cried out in agony and fell to the floor dropping his spears.

Stryke stood in front of him. “Where are the other stars?” he asked pointing a sword on Serpentus throat. The lizard spat to his face. Angered by the behavior of this foul abomination, Stryke rised his sword and cut horizontally with all his might. It was a clean cut which sent the beasts head rolling to the floor.

“Now for the star,” Stryke thought and reached his hand for it…

Thomas Stryke woke up in his L.A. apartment, covered in cold swet. “Shit, that was scary as hell,” he thought getting up from bed, wiping his face with a towel. He lighted a cigarette and called to his secretary. “Mary…I really have to stop working on those computer games…”

Sten-Robert Pullerits, ´10