Lockwood Part I: The Journey

This is the story of someone named Ian Lockwood and his marvelous adventure that he had. The junk stores bell’s jingled as he walked into the junk store. There were old, dusty, miscellaneous objects everywhere. But the one that intrigued him the most was the one covered in a tarp. He slowly took the heavy piece of cloth off, and when it was off, he saw a yellow light. It was a golden clock.
It was the most beautiful clock he had ever seen, but something was strange about it. It had thirteen numerals on it. Wouldn’t the 13th numeral throw off the time and therefore make the clock useless? Ian wound the clock. Without warning, it suddenly chimed thirteen times. The store started to shake. Colors and all light started to bend and swirl around him. His feet lifted off the ground. And the store in front of him disappeared with a great crash.
In its place, there was a foggy wasteland. Everything was grey and pale. There were dead plants and cracks covering the ground. Ian was confused, he had a few cuts on his arms, but the strangest thing was that he had a burn on his right wrist in the shape of a key. Ian saw a few figures in the distance coming toward him. They were wearing black, masks covered their faces, and their eyes glowed red like flame. Their swords were grafted to their arms. Their weapons were part of them.
There was one whose eyes did not glow red. He was wearing a dark brown cape with intricate designs on it. He had a goatee, dark, with hints of silver. It looked like he was the dark group’s captive. They surrounded Ian with swords pointed. The one with a shimmering purple crystal on his chest, who was the leader, told the group in a nasty, whispery, cough-like voice, “He is obviously from the Homeland. He is not dressed like one from this world. Kill him before he gives us any trouble.”
The right-hand man came rushing towards Ian, who was still on the ground from the crash. The captive in the brown cape performed a neck-snap and snatched his sword and it began to glow with dazzling brilliance. He started shooting balls of light out of his sword, striking down Ian’s would-be killer. His sword swung beautifully and struck down the other members of the evil posse. But the leader disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The stranger looked depressed, “The Lords of the Legion always get away. Oh well. What is a young person like you doing in the wasteland of Crowe?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh, this reminds me of my father. I never used to believe him about such things, but this…”
“Where am I?”
“You are in Dragonis, the kingdom of the West, of Murdoy, the Island of the three kingdoms.”
“One second I was at Carl’s Resale now I’m here. What happened?”
“Time for a history lesson; Five hundred years ago, a village found an oak that had a consciousness, and it was the gateway between that world and this one. The wise and mighty oak said that men could go in and out as they pleased, but they couldn’t take or harm anything in this world. Many obeyed, but there were visitors to this world tried to disobey. They called themselves the Legion of Brothers, led by Nai Duwkol. They wanted to take ogres and goblins with them to help fight a war.
But the peaceful oak denied. Nai Duwkol was outraged, and so he vowed that if he couldn’t take the ultimate weapons, they would turn themselves into monsters that could effectively slaughter their enemies. The entire legion drank dragon’s blood, which gave them the ability to breathe fire. They all cut off their left hands in honor of their warlord leader, who lost his in a duel. Duwkol wanted them to always be ready so they attached their weapons to where their hands used to be, so that they could never be disarmed, always ready to kill. The Legion of Brothers was transformed into the Legion of Darkness. In anger, they slaughtered many of the innocent travelers from the other world.
The Knights of Murdoy used powers fused into their swords by the smiths of Ochnet. They fought nobly, but were no match compared to the numbers of servants of the Legion of Darkness.
They were going to escape to the other world, but the oak, before it was destroyed, sealed the passageway between worlds only to be entered by the chosen one who is from noble descent who shall be given the key to open the portal between worlds, who shall inherit a power greater than anything this world has seen before, free the slaves of Sandor, and destroy the legion and lead the people back to their homeland! You! What is your name, anyway?”
“Ian Lockwood”
“I am Leonard Eldin. Let me see your wrist.”
Eldin took his wrist and touched the burn. Ian Cringed
“We must go to the Village of Galub. You will get an Ochnet sword, eventually, but until then, take this battle staff to defend yourself. We must get moving.”
The two travelers moved from the Wasteland of Crowe to the Village of Galub. They arrived at nightfall. They came to the inn called Geluli’s Inn and Junk Shop. That night, Ian had a nightmare.
He was in a dark room, holding a sword pointed at a Lord of Darkness. The Dark Lord took off his mask, and underneath was Ian’s own face.
Ian and Eldin awoke to screams and carnage. They both went to the junk shop section where Geluli was. Everything was surrounded by a crackling red glow.
“Ian!” cried Geluli, “Take this!”
“We need to get you out of here!”
“Never mind me, take the carpet and run and run!”
Ian and Eldin ran out of the burning in to find the whole village being attacked by the Dark Legion.
Eldin raised his voice over the crackling of the flames, “Ian, Geluli gave you a flying carpet. Go! Meet me at the crossed bridges of Nimbon. King Tennant has an army of ogres waiting for you. Now go! The Road will guide you.”

So Ian set out for the bridges of Nimbon, piloting his enchanted carpet. He looked down and saw several travelers, some human, some not. As he was flying over a convoy of gnomes on rickshaws, he spotted a shimmering line amid the trees and brush. The river! Ian’s carpet gained speed. Underneath him, a dark, spacious landscape was zooming past. He followed the river until he reached a great stone structure.
It was the aqueduct. The aqueduct was a large beam of stone being held up by massive pillars. The pillars whooshed past him as he spotted some dark creatures on top of the aqueduct. The evil Dark Servants used their spindly, long, sharp, spikes to climb up the structure.
The evil beings shot fire at the vulnerable carpet rider. To avoid the fireballs, Ian weaved around the pillars. As he dodged pillars, he heard, to his horror, an evil growl. He turned to find a Dark servant standing on the back of his carpet. The Dark Servant’s swords swung as Ian dodged and almost fell off. Ian whacked once with the battle staff. He ended up with two pieces of one battle staff, both on fire. He threw the two burning pieces away. He kicked the Dark Servant in the chest and spun the carpet around. The dark man plummeted to his death. Ian reached the crossed bridges of Festivad, where a lone figure stood. Ian descended and landed on the stone bridge.
He said to Eldin, “Eldin! Some Dark Soldiers tried to kill me!”
“Then we must make haste at getting that army from Tennant.”
Suddenly, there before them, stood a Dark Swordsman.
“It’s a Dark Soldier!”
“No, Ian, It’s worse! See the Purple Crystal on its chest? That means he is a Lord of the Legion of Darkness.”
“You are going to die. I will slaughter you, and the Dark Legion can go back and conquer using our newfound weapons and abilities.” The dark servant hissed.
“You will not kill him. You’ll have to go through me. Get behind me Ian.” Eldin and the evil Dark Lord’s swords clashed as they fought. A large flame burst from the Dark Lord’s mouth. Eldin deflected the Knight’s attack with a blinding flash of his sword’s shield of light.
“Your sword has power, too bad you don’t have grip to match.” The knight’s dark swords gave the old man’s hand a blow, and sent his sword into the hands of Ian. The evil dark demon roasted the old man with his fire as he fell off the bridge and into the abyss below. The evil, scarred, pitted mask of the murderer turned to the weak idiot with the sword. The glowing red eyes of the masked figure struck fear into the heart of Ian, but Ian felt anger boiling inside him. He wanted to avenge the death of his friend. He ran towards the evil Lord of Darkness yelling a battle cry, but he kicked Ian back. Ian looked down and saw the slot by his feet. A slot just big enough for the sword. He stabbed the sword into the slot and pried the block between him and the terrifying demon. The bridges crumbled, leaving only the pillar on which Ian stood. Ian realized, “He died to save me.”

When Ian arrived at the end, the streets were filled with parties and great rejoicing. Elves, orcs, and even a few creatures I do not know flooded the streets expressing gratitude. Deep down, Ian knew that he couldn’t have gotten nearly this far without Leonard Eldin’s help. Sadly, Ian stood before the door of Tennant’s castle.