Journey of the Dead King - Landon G. (phonics reading books .txt) 📗

stance herself.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Ready,” I replied.
“GO!” She yelled, and charged at me.
I stood there, waiting for her to get the right distance, when she was, I held out my hand, palm facing her, and let out a purple lightning bolt, which she dodged with inhuman speed. She slashed at me feet, and I jumped, and smacked her over the head with my staff, and flipped over her. I jumped back a few feet and waited for her to get back up, but she didn’t.
“Razor,” I asked, “Are you okay?”
No answer.
“Oh no!” I yelled, “Razor!”
I rushed to her side and rolled her over on her back. In her hand was a fireball.
“Shit!” I yelled, and she hurled the ball at me.
I flew back a few yards and she jumped to her feet. “I’m no pushover little girl you know!” she said, “I can kick your ass any day!”
I groaned, “I believe that... Okay, you win.”
She helped me to my feet, I walked over to my bag and swung it around my shoulders, then told her, “Okay, go and get everything you’ll need for the journey, and only pack the essentials, you’re carrying your own luggage.”
“Yeah yeah,” she replied lazily, “I’m not planning on bringing much.”
Once she had everything, we set off through the Arcane Forest.

Chapter 3
Meridian

The first few minutes of walking through the forest were boring and uneventful. A few critters scurried under bushes and in trees as we came near, the wind blew, and if I was thinking about the wind blowing in a list of events, then it’s quite obvious that it’s been boring.
Though eventually we came across a large, wooden, rather badly built tower with a rope ladder coming down on one side. It didn’t really look like it would hold up any weight at all; it was surprising it was still standing. We walked past the tower and soon found ourselves in a little trouble.
A small orc horde was camped nearby, and they didn’t look friendly. I wanted to sneak past them but Razor insisted on kicking their asses so hard they’d kiss the moon, so she did, or at least she tried, they soon overwhelmed her. I had to go in, kick their asses, cut Razor free, and tried telling her that she can’t kill everyone she comes across, but she didn’t listen.
As we continued through the forest I wondered whether Razor wanted to see the world or just wanted to kick a little ass before she got tired and went home, but it soon left my mind as we came across a clearing, in which was a man who was having his own fun. He had orange spiky hair and a collage of different armors, he wielded a broadsword and was hacking his way through a small group of imps.
Once he finally realized we were there, he yelled, “Hey! Who’re you? Ah, never mind, think you could give me a hand here?”
So, we did. We spent about three minutes hacking, burning, and knocking out imps. It was surprisingly dull, though once we were finished we finally got to introduce ourselves.
“My name is Dart,” said the spiky haired man, “thanks for helping me back there.”
“No problem,” I said, “I’m Darian and this is Razor.”
“Nice to meet you,” added Razor.
“So what brings you two out here?” Dart asked.
“Uh... it’s kind of a long story...” I started.
“I don’t mind,” said Dart, “I didn’t have anything to do today anyways.”
So, I told him my story up to now, with some added commentary from Razor, and once I was finished, he looked bewildered.
“Hell, eh?” Dart said when I finished, “Always wanted to go there, see how many demons I could kill before they finally killed me... Hey, how’s about I help you on your journey? It’s the least I can do after you helped me.”
“Well,” I said.
“We’d love you to come along!” said Razor before I could say anything.
“Awesome,” said Dart, “We’ll head into town and stock up on supplies, then leave.”
We went the rest of the way through the forest without any hitches, same as before only 1 more person and sore feet from kicking so much ass.
When we got out of the forest, we could see the outline of a town against the sunset.
“That,” Dart said, “is Meridian, the town I was born and raised in. It has everything we need to get ready!”
“Nice,” commented Razor, “Does it have a blacksmith? My scythe is getting dull.”
“Of course,” answered Dart, “how else could I get this sword, and keep it sharp?”
“Oh, right.” said Razor.
While Razor and Dart went to get new weapons and armor, I explored town. The blacksmith was the first building we saw, then next to it were the General Store and Inn, and in back of those were the houses and an alchemy shop; I decided to go there first.
When I entered, the strong scent of herbs and burned tea leaves quickly greeted me. The shop looked more like a living room. There was a couch in front of the fireplace, a few pictures hung on the walls and a table with a crystal ball sat in the middle of the room. Behind the table was an elderly woman wearing a shawl over a purple dress.
“Come in, come in,” she said, “I’ve been expecting you, Darian.”
“How did you-“I tried to ask.
“The inner eye sees all,” she interrupted, “Now, I have a feeling that these will aid you on your journey.”
She handed me a pestle, mortar, and a box full of herbs and bottles.
“This is a standard alchemy kit,” she explained, “use it to make potions, inside the box somewhere is a paper with potion recipes on it, make good use of this.”
I exited the shop and went to the blacksmith; Razor was there, probably waiting while her scythe was sharpened.
“Hey, Darian,” she greeted, “what’s that?”
“An alchemy kit, the woman at the shop gave me it for free. She said I should make good use of it.”
“Wow! Lucky! It’s costing me fifty gold coins just to sharpen my scythe!” she said.
“I’d be happy to pay for it,” I offered, “I have plenty of money.”
“Okay,” she said, “I mean... if you really want to...”
“Are you kidding? I’d be honored.” I said.
“Thanks,” she said, blushing slightly, “I’d be broke if you hadn’t come along.”
“It’s no problem, really.” I insisted.
After Razor’s scythe was sharp enough to split a hair down the middle, we went into town to find Dart. At first there was no sight of him, then after a few minutes of searching we saw him running down the street toward us.
“Hey guys, come on, we’re sleeping at my house.” He said.
“You have a house?” I asked “Where did you get that kind of money?”
“I’m kind of a mercenary... I guess I forgot to tell you guys that.”
“Well, at least we don’t have to pay for our rest,” Said Razor.
“Yeah,” I said, “and I won’t be passed out for once.”
This made us all laugh, after which, we headed down the street to Dart’s house, which was surprisingly large, not the largest house in the town but still pretty big.
“Unfortunately, I only have one extra bedroom,” said Dart, “one of you will have to sleep on the couch.”
“I will,” I said, “I’m used to uncomfortable sleeping spots by now.”
“Okay,” Dart said, “Everyone get a good night’s sleep, and we’re leaving first thing in the morning.”
As I tried to go to sleep, I got more restless, I couldn’t tell what it was. Could it be the thought of getting revenge on Delacroix, or something else?
About midnight I heard the door open behind me, Razor came out of her room.
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t wake you, did I?” she asked.
“No, besides even if you did, I wouldn’t mind,” I said
“Mind if I sit with you?” she asked.
“No, not at all,” I answered.
She sat next to me on the couch and stared into the fire, like I was. She was wearing a black silk night gown; I had only removed my robe and bag.
“So, you couldn’t sleep either?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m still a little anxious about getting away from home,” she answered.
“You know” I said, “this is kind of romantic.”
She blushed harder than before.
“What is?” she asked.
“This, sitting alone, by the fire, in the dark,” I said.
“Yeah.” She said, blushing harder.
We turned to each other and got closer; we leaned in to each other. Our faces were only inches apart now. I put my hand on her waist, we were so close I could see the whites of my eyes in hers. We leaned in a little closer, and our lips met...

Chapter 4
Journey Through the Mountain

I woke up on the couch lying next to Razor, it was earlier than Dart wanted us to wake up but hell, it was worth it. I didn’t want Dart to see us like this, so I was going to wake Razor, just after I got to admire her at peace for a few seconds.
“Razor,” I whispered and shook her lightly, “Razor, wake up.”
Her ear twitched.
“Hmm? Oh, hey, why wake up so early?” she asked drowsily.
“Remember?” I asked, “Dart wanted to set off early, and I don’t want him to see us like this.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“He might get the wrong idea, now go get dressed and I’ll wake Dart.” I told her.
“Okay,” she said, and with a quick kiss on the cheek she went off to the guest room.
I quickly got on my robe and bag, and was going to wake Dart when he came out of his room.
“Ah, so you got the right idea of getting up early,” he said, “Okay, now let’s go wake Razor and we’ll be off.”
“Oh, she’s already awake,” I told him, “she’s getting ready.”
“Okay, once she is, we’ll head off.”
I nodded and went over to the fire, while I was waiting, I thought, I’d might as well see if this alchemy works. I pulled out the pestle, mortar, and box and found the recipes, and looked at the simplest one, Healing Potion. Seemed pretty simple, I pulled out two of the herbs and started grinding them down to a fine powder, then I took a pot I had in my bag, filled it with water, and started mixing the powder in. Once that was done I put it over the fire to boil.
By the time Razor was done I had put five bottles of potion in my bag.
“Alright, you two ready?” Dart asked.
“Yes.” Razor said in a rather dreamy voice.
“Uh-huh” I mumbled while putting the alchemy kit away.
Razor came over and kneelt down beside me.
“So did that alchemy kit thingamajig work?” she asked.
“Well, we’ll have to wait until someone’s hurt to use the potions but they should work, or else I got five bottles of crap in my bag.” I answered.
She giggled at that which made me feel good. Dart took no notice, for he was getting ready to head off.

About an hour later we were heading down a path away from Meridian, and away from the site of mine and Razor’s first kiss. Dart almost never looked back at us or fell behind which were the marks of an excellent leader, when I get back to being king the first thing I’m going to do is appoint him head of the military, I thought.
“So,” I said to dart, “where exactly are we going?”
“There’s