Degin
“You must save her,” said The King.
“I don’t want to,” said Degin.
“But you must, you are a Knight of Ihop,” The King said.
“That doesn’t mean I want to save the princess and get all that glory and fame,” Degin said.
“Then I shall give you enough gold to buy anything you should ever need,” The King said.
“I suppose it would be worth it then,” Degin said.
Degin didn’t want to go, but he knew he had too. He was a Knight of Ihop, trained for combat. His spear was his main weapon, and he has had it since he had started his training. Most people thought his skill with it was amazing, but he didn’t think he was so great. He never lost any sparring matches, but he knew he would lose a fight some day.
He was supposed to save The King’s daughter, but he wasn’t into that kind of thing. He preferred to fight for fun rather than to have a purpose. He is a very violent man. Plus, he had no idea where to look for her.
Degin spent his last days before his journey at his home. His home was very small. It was located just behind the castle. He spent most of his time here. He would train all day long, and then train some more at night. Some people were afraid to go near his house, thinking he might impale them with his spear.
On the day he set out to leave, he left. That was the plan after all. He was to set out for the town of Aldeir, to look for clues and mercenaries. It wasn’t far away from the castle. He took only his spear and his gold. He needed nothing else. There was a road leading from the castle directly to Aldeir, and that was the path he chose to walk.
He walked for more than 4 hours without a random encounter. I mean, without seeing anything of interest. At around noon, he saw a giant bear walking towards him. Without thinking, Degin quickly fell to the ground and played dead. He knew that you should play dead when a bear is near. The bear passed Degin without taking any notice. As the bear passed, Degin got a good idea. He jumped up and charged the bear with his spear, catching it in its back leg. The bear growled in pain and turned towards Degin, and caught the tip of the spear in its eye. It fell dead before him. Degin felt happy. He had just killed a bear for no reason. He had a good meal that night.
The next morning he entered the city of Aldeir. It was a small town. He headed towards the center of the town. The town had a large market place in the middle. Today there was no one out there because it was Labor Day. Degin saw a man sitting on the side of the street. He was tall, and had a scimitar and a rapier in his belt. Degin knew that he would need help in his quest, and this man looked like he could help.
“Hello there, good sir!” Degin called out to him.
“What do you want?” the man asked.
“I am a Knight of Ihop, on a quest to find The King’s daughter. I am in need of help, would you like to join me?” asked Degin.
“Ok,” the man said, without even thinking about it.
“Well, that was easy, but now I would like to test your skill in combat,” Degin said.
Before he knew it, the scimitar was touching his neck, and the rapier was in his stomach. He did not know this guy would be so fast. Perhaps he was better than Degin. Degin thought he was because Degin didn’t think that he was good himself.
Four weeks later, when Degin got out of the Ye Olde Hospital, they continued on their journey. He had found out that the man’s name is Kerek. Kerek trained himself to use a scimitar and a rapier, and was a very speedy fighter. Degin would definently benefit from his skills.
Their next destination was the metropolis of Oonchicka. It is the capital of this realm, and is a popular vacationing spot. It could be because of the beaches and ladies on them, or because of the horrible stench. Regardless of its attractions, Degin thought this to be an excellent place to search for clues. There was only two problems, they had to go through the Forbidden Forest of Dangerous and Ferocious Creatures That Could Tear You Up and Kerek had lung cancer.
They decided to take the long way to the forest. The longer they had before they got there, the better. They weren’t very hopeful. The journey there took them nearly 8 weeks, but it was well worth it. The trip gave them time to think about stuff. Degin found out the meaning to life, and Kerek discovered the cure for lung cancer, which solved half of their problems.
They saw the forest ahead of them. They new it was the real forest, because they saw the dragons flying around and heard the roar of man-eating lions. They were extremely frightened, and held their weapons high as they entered. Before they even stepped in, a giant flying man-eating fire-breathing lion-man didn’t attack them. In fact, they didn’t even see one, but they were afraid to.
They walked for hours without seeing anything, not even any trees. They decided to turn around and go back to the forest. During the time of walking away from the forest like morons, they decided they would burn the forest away. After all, no one would care about a forest full of evil creatures.
The forest burned well. It was very bright and the smoke caused by it blackened the sky. The screams from the animals were most enjoyable. After it had burned for a few days, they decided to continue on through the path created. They loved to do things the easy way.
What Degin and Kerek didn’t know aboutt the forest was that more than evil creatures lived there. Serahe declared it her home, and she wasn’t going to let those who burned it live.
