Dragon's Tears

The sound of men and women screaming in the streets woke Serenica up in the middle of the night as the displaced tavern patrons were heading back to their homes. She sat on her bed and looked out the window at the rowdy group of men and women as they laughed, joked, and stumbled toward their houses. Serenica chuckled at the disposition of these people and the fact that most couldn’t even stand up straight. She yawned and was about to lie down again when she heard a scream.

Jumping up again, her eyes shot out the window in the direction of the scream where she saw a woman being dragged deep into a nearby alley. Almost upon instinct, Serenica threw on her shoes, grabbed her knives and the key, then stuck her leg out of the window. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and jumped.

Her groan of pain filled the air when she landed on the ground.

“Next time, use the door, Serenica.” She scoffed as she rolled her eyes and stood to her feet. Quickly, she pushed through the drunkards, who continued to stumble out of the tavern. Finally, she reached the alley where the men had pulled her. A man had the helpless woman pinned up against the wall by her throat. Tears were streaming out of her eyes, and they had ripped her clothes from her body.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Serenica yelled to the three men who had held this woman hostage.

“The Shadow demanded we take his payment from her any way we could.” So move along, little girl, unless you want to be next,” the brute aggressively said as he nonchalantly waved Serenica away. Then he turned back to the woman, gave her a lewd smile, and began kissing her neck.

The cringing, petrified look on the woman’s face instantly made Serenica angry, and she knew she needed to step in and help. She had left her bow in the room so all she had were the two knives she had grabbed. With a deep breath, she reached down, grabbed one of her knives, aimed, and threw it at the man. The knife landed right in the temple, and it caused his body to fall limp on the ground, pulling the woman with him. His body went limp, and he fell to the ground, pulling her with him. The two men who stood behind him instantly became enraged as they screamed and turned to face Serenica. The woman jumped to her feet and ran as fast as she could. The men were locked on to Serenica and allowed her to go.

Suddenly, two more men came out of the shadows. “Oh shit,” Serenica whispered as she realized she was outnumbered and had only one knife remaining. She slowly backed up when a hard object stopped her and grabbed her. Panic began to fill her as soon as she understood she was completely surrounded and one of the men had her in his grip had a firm grip on her. She checked her surroundings and saw a small pathway; she had no choice but to run for it once she was able to figure out how to break free from the man’s grip.

The weight of the dagger that remained on her belt reminded her that she was not completely helpless. She noticed that one of the other thugs began to approach her and mentally braced herself for what was about to happen. She lifted her feet off the ground and used the man holding her as a crutch. A well-placed thrust kick was sent to the man’s gut, which caused him to stumble backward. The man crashed into the other three, and they collapsed into a pile on the ground. Serenica then used this opportunity to pivot the hold on her dagger and slam it into her captor’s thigh. Pained screams filled the air as his grip broke on her, and he fell to the ground, clutching his leg. Serenica grabbed her other dagger from the dead man and quickly sprinted for the small alley.

She sprinted through the dark alley, made countless turns, threw down boxes, and did whatever else she could get her hands on. However, the men still pursued her. Her breathing became heavy, and she panicked. She was in unfamiliar territory, and the men were closing the gap. Serenica was beginning to think that giving up would be her only option. She turned the corner of a new alleyway to her right but realized that she had come to a dead end.

Unable to stop herself in time, all she could do was brace herself and scream. “Shit!”

As soon as she slammed into the wall, the force of the hit caused her to scream out in pain and fall to her knees. The world around her spun from the impact, and she hurriedly turned around and returned to her feet. The four men had stopped running and slowly began to walk up to her. With a weary gulp, Serenica gripped her knives and adjusted her body into a defensive position.

“The Shadow doesn’t like people who interfere with his tasks, and he sure doesn’t like people who kill his men. We will save him the trouble of finding you later and take care of you now.” The closest man spoke with an unattractive smile that revealed his black and yellow teeth. Step by step, he grew closer to his target, and his eyes roamed over her body. Serenica shivered in disgust and tightened the grip on her knives in preparation. However, before he could get to her, he was stopped in his tracks by an item that whizzed by his head. A loud groan behind him caused him to turn around, and he noticed one of his friends had fallen dead. Once he looked up, another dagger ended up in one of the others. He yelled in anger, then turned towards Serenica, who stood there with a confused expression on her face.

“The Shadow doesn’t have any power here, and neither do you.”

That sentence caused the thug to look up quickly, and he turned when he heard the gurgling of a man. He looked over and saw his last man with blood spilling out of his mouth and slowly dropping to the ground.

“Kaiden, you Bastard!” He yelled as he began to shake from anger and turned to face the murderer of his men. “Don’t think you will get away with this. The Shadow and his men will ensure you pay.”

He turned with an evil sneer and began to approach the Rogue. However, he forgot all about the girl whom he had chased into the alley when a sharp pain radiated from his back.

“The Shadow needs to find a new group of thugs because you aren’t going to be around anymore. Serenica declared as she pulled the knife from his back and brought it across his throat. The coughing and gurgling of the man choking on his blood caused him to fall to the ground, dead. Serenica shook her head in annoyance and began to wipe her dagger off the dead man’s shirt.

“Three of the Shadows’ men, not bad for a Country Bumpkin,” Kaiden said with a smirk.

“I guess you are waiting for a thank you? Because if you are, you will be waiting a while; I have nothing to say to someone who tried to steal from me.”

Kaiden looked at her and smiled a sexy half-smile that almost made Serenica rethink her stance on apologizing. He chuckled lightly and walked closer to her. “I’m going to give you a warning, Bumpkin. You need to leave Estme now. The Shadow isn’t one for forgiving someone who has killed his men, and you have killed three.”

“So have you, but you are good enough to stay, and I’m not?” She retorted.

“There’s a difference: My goal is to eventually take out The Shadow. You are just passing through and completely out of your league with the thugs in this town. These aren’t rabbits, deer, or anything else you can easily kill. These killers will not think twice about killing you or that pretty little girl you were with earlier to get to you. Get out while you can!” He ordered more firmly.

“I’ll think about it,” she answered as she brushed off his warning and walked away in the direction of the tavern.

“Stubborn...” Kaiden mumbled to himself as he watched her leave. He then turned around and disappeared into the darkness.

Serenica rushed back to the tavern to ensure her sister’s safety. She acknowledged Kaiden’s advice to leave the town without delay. Climbing up the stairs, she approached the door and heard frantic groaning sounds from the other side. She quickly unlocked the door and flung it open.

Adrianna lay on her bed, where she tossed and turned. It was as if she was in the middle of a nightmare. Serenica quickly ran to her and began to shake her frantically to wake her up. “Adri! Adri, you need to wake up!” Serenica frantically demanded as she grew more scared that her sister wouldn’t wake up.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Adrianna jumped up and screamed away the pain of her nightmare. She grabbed Serenica by the shoulders and pulled her into a tight hug as she cried out her emotions.

“Adri, it’s ok. It was just a dream. Please calm down,” Serenica whispered.

“It’s not ok... Serenica, I had a vision.” Adrianna spoke in a shaky voice.

“Don’t be silly; it was nothing more than a nightmare you had,” Serenica said with confidence.

“No, it was a vision. We need to find that Kaiden guy now! If we don’t, he will be killed soon!”

“Why do we care what happens to some thief?” Serenica asked as she rolled her eyes in disgust.

“Because, Serene, he is the bearer of the purple dragon’s tear.”

Serenica gasped in disbelief and stared at her sister, unable to find any words.