Two Worlds Collide

Two Worlds Collide Part 1

Ryndal

This is the time of the year, where you feel the crisp chill starting to settle across the land. Not many elves appreciate the cold, but me, I love the cold; it reminds me that, though immune to time, I am mortal, and can die. It is also the time that you appreciate the beauty of the world as it starts to sink into a cold slumber as winter starts to descend. I sit with the other members of my squad. Though, in the beginning, we all hated each other, we all ended up becoming the best of friends. As Garret, Allyana, Zordan, Kreesha, Jarlin, and I sit under the mighty trees of the forest, we watch as the crisp autumn leaves fall to the ground. We all laugh and tease each other, saying that we were the best squad in the Queen's Elite, and that all the other squads were not needed. That was when Garret, one of the few humans accepted into the Queen's Elite, stopped in mid laugh, with a blank look on his face and collapsed forward, dead. We all look in surprise and horror at the barbed black arrow protruding from Garret's back. That is when we all snapped into action. Everyone ran for cover behind the numerous trees, and tried to find the killer. What we saw caused ice to run throughout our veins; an army of orcs, armed to the teeth, and ready to spill blood.

Our sorceress, Allyana, quickly cast a speech sending spell to all other squads in the area, telling them of the situation. As we waited for their response, we prepared ourselves to become immersed in a battle the likes of which we have never been in. As time passed, and no response came, I came to the realization that there was either a magic nullifying aura in the area, or the other squads were killed. I quickly grabbed my twin swords from their sheathes, attached the two ends together, causing hidden wooden rods to break free from the back of the blades, I then grabbed the string that I kept wrapped around my wrist, attached it to the tip of both of the rods, and finished setting up my blade-bow. All of this took less than fifteen seconds, but to me, it felt like forever.

As I nodded to each of my fellow squad members, all of which I would trust my life to in a few seconds, I knocked my first arrow and started to aim at my first target. I decided to see if there was a magic nullifying aura. I muttered the words to a split arrow spell, silently praying that it wouldn't work, for if it worked, then it meant that the other squads were lost to us. To my horror, the arrow started to glow a faint green, and tears started to slide down my face. That is when I vowed to avenge all of those who had died this day. I released the arrow, and watched as it burst in a flash of green and multiple streaks of light flew at the nearest orcs. Within the span of a few seconds of releasing the arrow, over a dozen orcs feel, never to rise again.

That is when the battle truly started.

Ethan

Why is it that whenever I find a guy that is halfway decent, he ends up being a total dick? Living in New York, there is no shortage of gay men, but there are very few who are actually interested in having a relationship. I am one of them. Sure, sex is great...ok in many cases, it is more than great, it is mind blowing, but that only has so much appeal. I want someone who I can talk to anytime of the day, someone to love, and know that they love me unconditionally. However, I have had no such luck finding such a person. The only kind of guys that I keep finding are guys that take the line "hump it and dump it" to heart. Why is it that I only keep finding the kind of guys that only think with their cocks and not with their hearts?

As I take a short break from all the hustle and bustle at the hospital, I think back on all of the so called relationships that I had been involved in. The sex was amazing, but there was always something missing. No matter how hard I try to make a relationship work, they just move on to their next fling. I have had enough of all of this heartbreak. I am just going to give up on relationships and just keep away from everyone. I have had enough of being used and then just thrown away. I had been on call for the past 36 hours, and am bone tired. That is the life of a med student. I look up at the clock, and realize that my shift was almost over. I start to pack up my things and get ready to leave, then punch out my time card, and set off for home. I live in a nice, comfortable apartment, in one of the few parts of town where you don't have to be afraid to walk out of your door.

As I get home, I set my things down, stretch my neck, and then decide that it is time for me to take a shower, to try to loosen up my muscles. Afterwards, I decide that I am not in the mood to cook, so I just pop in a microwavable dinner and just sit back and wait. When I had finished eating, I decided that I am just too tired and decided to crash. I slowly made my way to my bedroom, undressed, and curled up in my bed, unaware of what was about to happen.

Ryndal

I must keep going. They are all around me, trying to cut off my escape. I must make it back to the city and warn the queen, before all is lost. I am the only survivor of my squad, and as such, it is my duty to carry on their will. I MUST make it back in time. With those thoughts, I bow my head down even further, and pump my legs even faster. Compared to humans, we elves are superior in speed, as well as in magic. As for me, even compared to my own people, I am faster than most, my skill with a blade is matched by few of the same age as I, and magic comes naturally to me. Had I not drained my magical energy fighting against the orcs, I could have teleported to the outskirts of the city, seeing as how I cannot teleport directly into the city because of all the numerous wards. Though many people consider me a prodigy, the truth is that I am still young and naive, and because of that naivety, my squad was annihilated.

I watched in the heat of battle as one by one, my closest friends were cut down. Though they died, they died heroes, taking down many orcs before they were overwhelmed by the tide. It was just Zordan and I, back to back, surrounded by countless orcs, waiting for them to strike. Both of us had killed many orcs, but not without a price. I was covered in cuts, and Zordan's left arm was hanging limp, having been crushed by a rampaging orcs hammer. As we stand back to back, we know what must be done: one of us had to survive to carry the news of the invasion to the city, so that the city has time to rally its defenses. We both know that I am the most likely to escape from this foray, but that would mean sacrificing Zordan. I tell him that, while I create a break in the orcs formation, he should make a break for it, but he refuses to do so. He tells me that I am the one that must make it back to the city, that I am the one that has the greatest chance, and that he would hold them off for as long as he could.

I know that I had no choice in the matter, so, as the tears cascaded down my face, I strengthened my resolve, and made myself ready to break through the opening that Zordan would create. That is when he made his move. He whispered the words to a fireball spell, threw back his right arm, and brought it forward, releasing a ball of fire that exploded as it hit the wall of orcs. As we raced to the opening, the orcs started to close in on us; Zordan moved to block their path, sweeping his blade in the path of the orcs, causing them to back up a bit, giving me enough time to make it through the opening. As I make it through, I look back only to see Zordan get impaled on a spear. With his dying breath, he gasped a spell, which caused his body to liquefy and explode, spraying the acid that his body had become on the surrounding orcs.

As I continued to run at full speed, I notice that some of the shadows were moving. As I sprinted past a shadow, I saw a claw reach out of the shadow, trying to grab me. Continuing to race forward, I look back, to see a four legged beast that resembled a panther, only it was pitch black, with two tails, glowing red eyes, and had a mouth full of two inch fangs that were visible because it had no lips.

What is a shadow fiend doing here?

As I continued to run, I spotted glints of light up ahead.

That must be Glasmiera Lake.

From there, it is a half a day walk from the city, but with me running, it would only take about three hours.

Unbeknownst to me, as I continued to look towards to the lake, a shadow fiend continued to catch up on me. As I raced along the side of the lake, the shadow fiend pounced, landed in my back, causing the both of us fall into the water. Still maintaining its grip on me, it continued to claw my back. I grabbed my sword, and pointed it to where the beast would be, and stabbed it in where its heart should be. It released its grip on me, but I lacked the strength to swim to the surface, and continued to sink. With blood pouring out from my wounds, I started to sink into the darkness, as death reached out its hands to claim me. Before the darkness claimed me, I saw a bright flash of light, and I felt myself falling.

Ethan

I just lay in bed, my mind racing.

Why can I never find the one guy that I can just fall in love and be loved in return?

That is the one question that has been playing through my mind for many years. Being 20 years old, it is not exactly hard to find a fuck buddy, but to find a boyfriend, it is like trying to find the lost city of Atlantis; it is impossible. As this runs through my mind, I begin to picture the perfect kind of guy: shorter than me, but not too short, handsome, but with a great personality, thin, but not weak, and he must be faithful and caring. That is the kind of guy that I have been searching for, for all my life.

I roll over to try to get some sleep. I am on the verge of sleep, when all of a sudden, it looks as if the sun was positioned in my room and, the next think I know, I feel something hit my bed at the same time that I become soaked to the bone in cold water. By the time this all happens, the like that so suddenly appeared, disappeared just as fast. As my eyes adjust to the darkness once again, and try to get used to the chill of the water, I begin to make out a human shape on my bed. I tentatively reach out to touch the shape, and I feel a leathery texture, and realized that it is someone wearing leather clothing. I get up from my bed, flip the light switch on, and turn around to a horrific sight. Before my eyes is a boy who looked as if he were around my age, with shoulder length hair, covered in what would have look like medieval styled leather clothing, if it had been whole; the entire back was completely shredded. But that is not what draws my attention. What draws my attention is that the boy was covered in numerous cuts, and his back looked as if he had been whipped with barbed wire.

I stare on in shock and then come to my senses. I rush over to the boy, carefully roll him over, and quickly check for a pulse. My heart sinks as, for a while, I don't feel anything. His skin feels warm to the touch, and he didn't seem dead, even in his condition. Then, I remember the water that soaked the bed; his lungs must be filled with water. As I remember the steps for CPR, I slowly start pumping his chest, trying to expel the water from his lungs. After a while of doing this, I lean over to breathe into his mouth. After a few breaths I start pumping his chest again, then breathe into him again. After the third time, he begins to weakly cough out the water, gasping for breath. I begin to relax, then remembered the cuts all over his body. I run for my bag, grab my tools, and hurried back to the bedroom. He had not moved an inch, and seemed to have passed out.

I carefully take off his shirt, roll him onto his stomach, and start to clean the wounds. As I examine the wounds on his back, I realized that they do not look like they were caused by blades, but by claws. After cleaning them, I began to stitch them up, making sure that they were not too tight, nor too loose, and decided that he had not lost too much blood, and that he would survive. I was finishing up a cut on his right shoulder blade, when I caught something from the corner of my eye. What I saw looked like a bow made out of metal, but with blades on it. I become curious about the person that appeared out of nowhere. I look at his face, and realize that he had a beautiful face. His lashes were long, his eyebrows were moderate thickness, and his hair had a deep green streak of hair on the left side of his head. I push back his hair and gasp; his ears are pointed. It could have been a birth disorder, but considering what I have seen of him, I don't think that is so. The only word that pops into my head that describes him perfectly is: elf.

That is ridiculous. Elves only exist in stories.

One side of my mind thinks.

If that is so, then try to explain what he is.

The other side of my mind asks.

Since the bed was completely soaked, there was no way that I was going to sleep in it. I grabbed out a few blankets from out of my closet, walked out into the living room, set up a bed on the couch, walked back to the room, picked up the boy and walked back to the couch. I laid him down on the couch, and wrapped the blankets around him. I grabbed the rest of the blankets and made myself a bed right in front of the couch, and drifted off to sleep.

I woke up later, and looked at the clock. It read 12:23 a.m. I looked up at the boy and saw that he was blue at the lips. I reached out my hand and checked for a pulse. I found it, but his skin was as cold as ice. I then grabbed the blankets that I had been using and spread them out on the boy. Then, I lifted the blankets, crawled under them, and wrapped my arms around him. He unconsciously melded himself to me, seeking the heat that his body just couldn't produce. I held him until he had stopped shivering. That is when I realized that he smelled good.

He smells like pine...

my mind thinks as I drift off to sleep.

Ryndal

As I watched as all of my friends were gutted and beheaded by the orcs, I realize that I am next. Tied up, I am unable to run, unable to fight. As the orcs start to make their way over to me, they start to swing their blades, trying to increase my fear, and succeeding more than they could possibly imagine. They reach me, one on each side of me, with one in front of me, looking down on me with intense bloodlust in his eye. The then points his blade at my stomach, tenses up, and jabs. As I look, they blade seems to be going in slow motion, getting closer and closer to my gut. I try to close my eyes, but I am unable to, my eyes are glued to the scene that plays out before me. The blade is now just a few inches away from me, and then, time seems to return to normal. The blade jumps for my gut and pierces my skin.

At that point, I gasped awake, and tried to remain calm. I look around my surroundings to see that I am in a strange place. That is when I feel a deep breath on the back of my neck. My instincts kick in, and I roll away from it, jump up, and put some distance away from me and the breath. When I land, I look back at what had breathed on me, and see a rather handsome human. He had blonde hair that came to about the middle of his neck, a body that looked to be in shape, but not too muscular. What really got me were the eyes. They were a deep brown that seemed to draw me in. Right now, those eyes were darkened in confusion and sleep. As the adrenaline starts to wear off, I feel sharp pains across my back and start to feel dizzy. I start to fall forward, but the stranger caught me.

As I start to writhe in pain, he holds me and starts whispering soothing words that I can't hear, so caught up in my pain. As the pain starts to subside, I realize that I am cradled in the stranger's arms, with him caressing my back, still whispering soft soothing words.

"It's alright. I have you. The pain will pass, just relax."

As he continues to whisper those words, I start to relax against him. That is when I remembered what had happened, why I was in such pain. I started to remember how, one by one, my friends were killed, and that I was the only one who had survived, and that I had been attacked from behind and was on the verge of dying. That is when the tears started to fall. I started to sob, tears cascading down my cheeks. The stranger notices and wraps his arms even tighter around me, rocking me very gently. As my crying subsides, I start to fall asleep again, wrapped in the arms of a stranger.