Aldric Thorne's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Aldric Thorne counted three tents, four sleeping bags, and no walls. Two nights ago the sky had cracked open and the system arrived, and now something hunted them in the dark. He was a rugby player, not a soldier. But he was the biggest man left standing, so the survival of his buddies was his problem now. Gus dropped an armload of branches by the dead fire. He wore the same striped shirt he'd packed for a weekend trip, torn now at the shoulder. "I stacked wood again," Gus said. "It won't stop them." "I know." Aldric had watched last night's monsters push through their thorn barrier like it was grass. Two of their group hadn't survived it. He looked at Gus and made himself say it plain. "We can't defend this camp. We have to leave before dark." Gus stared at him. They had shared a dorm room for three years. Aldric knew that look. It meant Gus was scared and trying not to show it. "Leave to where?" Aldric remembered a shape he'd seen from the ridge at dawn. Stone walls. Towers. An old fort built for keeping things out. "There's a fort east of here. Real walls. We fortify that instead of this." They moved fast. Aldric carried what mattered and left the rest. He found a pair of swords near the treeline, dropped by someone who hadn't made it. The blades glowed faint at the edges, marked with symbols that pulsed when he gripped them. The system had rewritten them into weapons. He took both. The fort sat farther than it looked. They reached the gate as the light failed. The walls stood tall and thick, cracked in places but solid. Aldric shoved the wooden door shut and dropped the beam across it. For the first time in two days, something stood between his people and the dark. Gus laughed, short and shaky. "We made it." Then Aldric saw it in the courtyard. A crystal flower grew from the cracked stone, tall as a man. Its petals caught the last light and threw color across the walls. It was beautiful. It was also a beacon, glowing bright in a fort meant to hide them. Outside, something answered the light. Scales scraped against the far wall. Aldric climbed the tower steps and looked down. A drake circled the fort, iron-dark and lean, wet metal sheen across its ridged back. Its yellow eyes fixed on the glowing flower inside the walls. It knew they were here. Gus came up beside him and went still. "The walls," he whispered. "Can it get over the walls?" Aldric didn't answer. He gripped the twin blades and watched the drake pace the stone. The fort would keep out the small monsters. But he had traded an open camp for a locked cage, and something far worse now knew exactly where to find them.