INSIGNIAS: THE REGALIS

The inside of the manor was darker than usual. It was always dark but tonight, it looked like darkness settled permanently in the Hunter family’s house. A gush of eerie cold wind entered through the broken glass windows, pieces of which lay on the dark marbled floor; the white drapes danced frantically and violently with the stormy wind. The fluorescent and bulb lights had exploded earlier; their broken parts mixed with the pieces of woods from the trashed furniture. The round moon’s light spotlighted pools of dark red liquid flowing from several unmoving bodies spawned on the cold floor, the dining table, the hallway, and the stairs; until it was impossible to determine whose blood was whose. Long and short streaks of blood decorated the white walls. In the middle of the storm stood a young body staring wide eyed at the still forms near his feet.

His breathing was fast and shallow; his heart drummed fast beats in his chest; his bloodied hands trembled. The words he wanted to say were caught in his throat.

“Where are you?” The muffled voice reached him from deep in the house. Someone called his name but he was beyond hearing. The moments an hour before replayed in his mind like a permanent broken record. He remembered the shadows, the loud and shrill screams, the bodies protecting his frozen form, the voices pleading and begging to be spared, evil laughter filling the air. He remembered the scary silence that followed and the blood covering his body that wasn’t his.

When Fazhiar Hunter returned to consciousness, his heavy silver-coloured eyes slowly opened. He was used to the nightmares that his body refused to react anymore. His breathing and heart remained calm, but his mind was racing. He had made a mental map of his plans and repeated it in his mind a couple times a day.

Looking around, his eyes wandered along the dry treeless yellow earth of the South Edgeburn. Twilight illuminated the interior of an abandoned grey citadel shifted to its left, the lower half of which was already swallowed by the ground. He sat by the darkest corner; his back against the wall; his feet pointing to the open entrance. He rarely sleeps because danger lurked everywhere but the fight in the maze yesterday left him exhausted and frustrated.

After checking his surroundings through the broken windows, he stepped into the early morn. His wary eyes scanned the barren land which houses ugly monsters of different kinds and shapes. He passed by a collapsed building after an hour of walking when he felt the slight tremor of the ground. Monster serpent.

He quickly ducked inside the abandoned building. Dust piled everywhere; the floor was earth; the walls were decorated with graffiti of black and blue. As he stood beside a window, he felt the ground shake stronger. In a distance, he could make out something red and tall. The dust cleared revealing a 20-feet tall red snake. Its red scale sparkled like countless of rubies in a desert. Its yellow-green eyes shone brighter than the rising sun. Its long dark tongue hissed loudly; it sounded like a serpent laugh. Its round slit eyes stared at the ground as it slithered. Faz followed its gaze and startled when he noticed a small shadow in front of the giant. The man, based on his figure, was obviously running from his predator. Once in a while, he threw rocks behind him but it only amused the serpent.

Careless humans venturing into the South Edgeburn and getting killed by monsters wasn’t unheard of. Humans who aren’t elemental users thought that the place was full of scorpions and snakes so it was abandoned by their ancestors. Humans like the man Faz was staring at decided that the desert and the surrounding areas had more treasures than their lands so they took risks. And they end up in monsters’ stomachs. How the man evaded the eyes and senses of the fortress knights, Faz had no idea and didn’t care. He himself found ways to stay under the radar of sentries, legionnaires and knights looking for him.

Faz exited the building through a window out of the view of the monster and human. He was only a few kilometers from the border of North Edgeburn. He had plans to follow, people to meet and threaten, and enemies to kill. Anger boiled inside of him when he started retracing his steps a few days ago but it never leaves him even for a second. He couldn’t be bothered to save a careless person. The last thing he saw before turning away from another hopeless human was him gripping a rock as if it was his way of salvation..