Age of Conan

Xuan Huong, who was a lovely little girl, was sitting on the edge of the sea cliff with her feet hanging in the emptiness above the beach. A fresh breeze was coming from the ocean as the sun was slowly going down. Her voice was a faint whisper as if her parents would appear at any moment to blame her for anything stupid she may have done. “I wanna go hooooome!”

There was noone around to be seen her yet a cold and dark voice answered. “That cannot be allowed, human!”

“I know! Nothing’s allowed with you! You’re just no fun!” Her bravery tone was obviously trying to hide her fear and terror but that was only half a success.

“You should be thankful of my protection and patience. Many would have decide to take more… drastic measures regarding your insolence.” The quiet way in which it was said was frightening and Xuan Huong hid her head behind her arms, clearly understanding there would be no change in her “friends’s” attitude today. “Maybe you want me to be more convincing? Maybe you want to rule your life in my way?”

“No! No! No! Please stop it! I don’t want that at all!” Xuan Huong was crying and weeping and she had completely forgotten the postcard landscape surrounding us. She staied like that crying slowly, the head burried in the sleeve of her dress and after quiet some time she asked in a whisper. “Are you going to kill, Azhi? He is my friend!“

“Your… friend? You are indeed a stupid and silly idiot! Don’t trust him, he’s a mislead idiot and he will try to harm you as often as he can.”

“You are wrong! He said he would protect me!”

The dark and terrifying voice laughed loudly. It was filled with a malevolent pleasure in the young girl’s future mistakes. “A friend to protect you! Don’t that remind you of Siu Chang? Poor little one… I had such an exquisite pleasure in ripping off her eyes.” The memory of the five years old Siu Chang running around without her eyes and slowly dieing, almost made Xuan puke whatever she had eaten before. Poor Siu Chang paied her betrayal more than she should have! “Of course you didn’t listen to my advices until it was too late. And tell me, human! Who helped you flee Khitai? Which frend of yours protected you from the witchhunters?”

“You did…” She mumbled. “But you’re not my friend and you’re not funny!”

“And I never said I was, human, yet I will protect you as I always did.”

“So you’re letting me see Azhi and your not going to kill him, right?”

“He will have his own use and will be allowed to live for now. If he does anything stupid, I promise I will boil the blood in his vains and smack his head on a wall until his brain turns into a juice!”

“He will not, he’ll protect me as he promised.”

Another voice suddenly appeared, old and broken. “Aye! That one nice lil’ girl, we got here! Who ya talkin’ to?”

“I am talking to anybody, sir!” Did she answer politely.

“T’yar myst’rious protector, huh? Where is he, huh ?”

“He is shy and do not want to be seen but he will do what must be done.”

The ugly pirate of Tortuga was looking between the girl and the large two handed sword laying near her. “T’is one big shiny sword ya got. We’ll maka a deal, I’ll take it and don’t snap your lil neck.”

Even before Xuan could do or say anything, the filthy rascal grabbed the heavy two handed sword. He had already turned his back and started to go when Xuan jumped on her feet yelling it was hers. Of course, the thief didn’t dare to turn and face the girl, would be a waste of time. What could a small teen like that do?

Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder, an iron grip preventing him from moving any further. A burnig-hot breathe fell on his neck and a deep voice came straight from the gates of Hell echoed darkly and malevolently.

“You have something that do belong to me, human. I see you need a small lesson on who you shouldn’t steal. Taking from the weaks is stupid when the weak have friends stronger than you’re. For stealing my sword, I will take your arm.”

The iron grip kept on tightening around his shoulder. Slowly it was becoming painful until the head of the man’s humerus suddenly broke. It was painful and the man let a shout of pain go but the hand kept on squeezing his shoulder more and more until the arm could be ripped apart. The sword had already felt on the gound and it was washed by a large amound of blood. Released from the iron grip, the thief also felt on the ground, rolling on his back and spattering the area with more blood.

As painful as the situation was for the pirate, he stopped screaming when he saw the sword laying and a large handgrabbing the large and long blade. It was no human hand. The dieing man gazed at the hand for a few moments before looking up at the evil daemoniac creature standing in front of him. A daemon out of Hell was standing right in front of him, surrounded by dancing flames and an evil smirk all over his face.

“If you somehow manage to survive, I bet you’ll think twice before robbing again.”

Bleeding to death, the thief saw the vision from Hell turning and walking away. As he slowly started to fell into uncounsciousness, he saw the daemon shapeshifting and a second later there was only a little girl with a big two handed sword in her back…