Stuck in my Game World.

8. The burning forest.

Eric ran a very good distance away from the village and came to the woods where he took shades from the dragon. The trees there grew too close to themselves that it was impossible for the dragon to fly inside the forest. So it flew above the forest and began to burn the trees so that Eric would come out due to heat and smoke.

But Eric maintained position in the woods since the dragon could no longer sight him. What he did was keep avoiding the fire that had consumed the forest.

The forest was large one but it did not stop the dragon from making sure that every corner was set ablaze, and when it was done ensuring that there was no part of the forest that was on fire, it vanished into the air with the hope that Eric must have been consumed by the fire.

The fire in the woods was everywhere that there was nowhere for him to hide anymore. He tried coming out of the forest since he sensed that the dragon was gone.

As he made his way out of the forest, coming to its edge, he could no longer continue because he had inhaled a lot of smoke, so much that his body systems could not bear it, so he fell down and passed out while the forest kept burning.

Now Zach and his son had waited for over seven hours, to the point that darkness began to fall. So they became too worried about him. Although Zach was not too anxious, Harris was and he did not cease to trouble his father so that they will go after Eric and find out what has befallen him.

Due to the persisting disturbance of Harris, Zach had to consent to going after Eric because he had realized that he would know no peace until they went out to find him.

Following the direction which Eric had taken when they separated ways, they came to see the smoke coming from a distance after a long walk in the dark, so they turned that direction since they knew that it was only the dragon that would cause such smoke to be going up into the atmosphere.

So they came before the forest that had been burnt, although some parts were still on fire but the majority was already burnt to ash.

Without wasting any time, they began to call out Eric's name aloud because they were confident that he had come that way.

It took them till first light before they found Eric lying unconscious on the ground in the midst of the burnt environment. Then Harris rushed and began to shake him to wake up. Little did know that Eric was not breathing.

Zachary noticed this but he could not tell it to his son because he knew how painful and heartbreaking it would be to Harris. So he just stood still and watched Harris try to wake him up.

Harris noticed the stationed position of his father and it was not what he was expecting, so he looked up to Zach. "Father, do something…" it was obvious he had noticed that Eric's breath had ceased, but he believed that everything was possible.

Zachary had watched and seen a lot of his friends die in battle and after battle so his heart was not too moved with that of Eric, to see dead people seems like a normal thing now to him even though it has been a long while since the last death he saw.

"It's enough son. He is gone. You can not do anything to bring him back." He then tried to help Harris back to his feet.

"Nooo. He is not gone." Harris hits aside his father's hands and continues to hit Eric to wake up. "You can do this Eric. Wake up. Palind needs you. I need you. Your daughter needs you."

As his daughter was mentioned, life seemed to come back into his body as he coughed continuously while he asked. "Where is she? Where is Jodie?"

Both Harris and Zach were surprised that the name of his daughter had brought him back to life, so they were startled not knowing how to answer the question he asked.

He repeated himself, he had not yet taken note of the fact that he was still in the mystical world, he probably needed someone to remind him. It was as if he had woken up in the hospital, that was how he was seeing the whole place, and the two of them were seen as a nurse and a doctor. "Why aren't you answering me? Where is my daughter? I heard her name."

Then Zach answered, "You are still here in Palind, Eric Claus."

It was now that his eyes were open to see the environment he was in. He was disappointed without a doubt but then he was still certain that he heard the name of his daughter. "But I heard my daughter's name. Who was calling her name."

Zachary looked at his son who could not answer the question, and from those Eric could tell that Harris was the one that mentioned the name, thus he asked, "Did you see Jodie?"

"Uh-uh." He shaked his head. "I thought I did. Maybe it was my late sister. The fire here reminds me of them." He uses that lie to cover up.

Eric fell for the lie as he could remember how he got there and what had happened to him. So he got to his feet as they came out of the woods and returned home.

****

Words spread very fast. The news that the dragon had returned earlier than supposed reached Raychester castle and to the ear of King Luca Cole. Not only the news of the dragon's return was told, it was also told to him that it had burnt down the village of Hillcrest, killing a good number of the people there and some survivors are beginning to rebuild their village while others have moved to find refuge in Warcton fortress.

Then King Luca recalled that Hillcrest was the place where Zachary and their savior, Eric, was staying so he asked the soldiers that had brought this news to him. "Any word concerning Zachary?" He did not ask them about Eric because they were yet to know about him. He did not bring any news about him to the public because he was yet to be sure if the prophecy was real, besides not everyone knew of the prophecy.

"No, your majesty." The soldier replied. They did not even know that was the small village where their great warrior Zachary had hid himself all these years. Even the King did not know that was his dwelling until the day he brought Eric to him.

So King Luca dismissed the soldiers as he got himself ready to leave the castle. He took on his armor and a few of his best warriors rolled with him to Hillcrest to inquire of Zachary Hawkins and Eric Claus so as to bring them to the castle where he can be sure of their safety.

When he arrived at the village, it was scanty as reported, only a very few people who refused to leave were rebuilding the village, putting up their tents once again. It was one of the smallest villages in the whole of Palind, so it was barely recognized since they could count the number of soldiers that came from there and in Palind, a city or village was honored and recognised based on how many soldiers it had produced for the defense of their lands. Zachary the great warrior was not even from the village so he did not count for them, that was why he built his shade a bit far away from the main village and was barely recognised. These were these factors that also contributed to him choosing to stay there in the village.

Hillcrest was happy to see the King in their village, they did not really know what had brought the King to their village, they saw his coming as though he valued them and came to see how his people there were fairing after the attack of the dragon.