The Books of Azric: The Beginning (The Prologue)

Lukar stands on the only hill in sight and waits for the carriage. “It’s late.” Carl walks up next to him.

“It doesn’t matter whether it is on time or not. We still wait,” Lukar hisses back.

“But for how long?”

“As long as it takes,” he stares at Carl. His eyes piercing his very existence, Carl looks down at his tattered boots kicking the dirt softly.

“Look, it’s coming,” points Troy. They watch as the oncoming carriage makes its way down the road with steam rolling out of its little smoke stack. He can hear the steam engine puffing louder the closer it becomes.

Lukar lets out a ferocious scream “Attack!” All of his men race down the hill on foot yelling at the top of their lungs.

John sits on the driver’s seat of the steam carriage driving the same route that he has driven for the last twenty years. “Excuse me, sir” he hears his passenger calling to him over the puffs of his steam engine.

“Yes, ma’am?” he hollers back to her.

“Are you sure this route is the safest?” Her head is out the window with one hand keeping her hat on.

“Yes ma’am. It’s the safest route from Portal Town to Darksto” he says “Besides, this here is the fastest carriage in all of Realm 4. Sheriff Brighton used a lot of our tax money to give safe travel to our visitors. This baby is faster than any horse team alive.”

“I thank you for that reassurance, but I have a very important package that needs to be delivered safely. So please take every precaution to reach Darksto safely.”

“Well, ma’am, I assure you that I have taken every precaution needed for yer travels.” he yells back at her over the engine, mocking her with her sophisticated words. “Besides what do you Realm 1 folk want with us poor folk in Realm 4. Y’all only comes here when ya wanna buy slaves.” He wasn’t expecting an answer to that from her. “Why didn’t you use APS for the package like everyone else?”

“Well if you must know. This is far too important to entrust it with the Azric Portal Service, besides I am here to find my brother as well. He is here doing a humanitarian project.” They ride in silence for quite some time after her comment.

“How much longer do we have?” He barely heard his passenger over the steady puffing of his engine. He reaches over to the stack of wood to his right.

“I’d say before the sun goes down.” He grabs a piece of wood and throws it into the little fire pit in front of him that he opens with a foot peddle. Once the log is in, he releases the foot peddle, allowing the lid to slam shut.

He is checking his gauges when he hears the war cry from afar. “Ma’am, hang on.” He shouts to his passenger. Out of instinct, he reaches for the reigns. In his panic, John has forgotten that he’s driving a steam carriage.

He fumbles around trying to remember how to make it go faster. “Is everything alright up there?” his passenger asks, the fear in her voice apparent.

 “Shut up!” he shouts back at her. In his frenzied state, he doesn’t realize he is yelling at her. He’s looking around frantically for the stupid acceleration lever when he sees how many are attacking.

He counts at least twenty men and what appears to be a large lizrac. His panic goes into overdrive, sweat drips into his eyes. He wipes the sweat from his brow and he places his hand back down on the acceleration lever where it was resting before. “Idiot” he yells at himself as he pushes the lever forward.

The steam carriage picks up speed as the first arrow thumps into the side of it. The tip lodges in the door of the carriage. “Everything is under control!” John yells at his passenger. The arrow makes him worry that he has taken too long to accelerate. Pressing the lever full open, the carriage picks up speed once again.

“You were right” John spins around with a shocked look on his face having almost forgotten about his passenger. “This is fast!” she yells just so he can hear her over the loud and rapid puffing of the motor. “Everything is going to be…” before he can finish his statement, he sees the trap ahead.

He has no time to react because of their high speed. The attackers have dug a trench across the road in preparation of their arrival. John pushes with everything he has on the breaks trying to stop the carriage before they hit. He slams the acceleration lever to full off but the fire is burning too hot and the pit is coming fast.

The front wheels hit first, throwing them into the air. John hits hard ten meters away from the carriage. The carriage has flipped over onto its top trapping his passenger inside. John tries to get up but he finds that his leg is broken from impact.

He tries crawling over to the carriage to help his passenger. Her moans of pain are unmistakable. “She’s alive.” He tries motivating himself to move faster. He notices the fire pit door is wide open. He can hear her cries of pain as the flames dance all over the carriage.