The Kracogviex

The Kracogviex

“Craw,” a raven croaks in the forest. I know that this is probably a really bad idea but I am in a really desperate need of food.Oh yeah I forgot to tell you, my name is Liam(probably an important side note). Anyway life has been pretty hard these days ever since, well like forever. My family is running low on food which is why I go hunting more often. It’s currently night, and I have been searching for food for nearly an hour now. I am thinking of going home but then I hear a bird. I aim with my bow, then the bushes rustle behind me. I turn behind me and I think I see a flash of black but when I look again, there is nothing. “What just happened”, I think. “ Meh, it must be nothing,” I think. I then look back at the bird only to see that it flew away due to my sudden movement. “ I’ll just get some food tomorrow,” I thought before starting the walk back home. Little did I know that I was not alone…

By the time I get to my house, it is nighttime. I open the door and my father is standing there. “Where have you been?”, my father asks me.

“Hunting”, I say before thinking.

“Son, You can’t go into that forest, it’s too dangerous there”, my father says. I sigh sadly, my father doesn't like that forest because that is where my mother disappeared. “Ok Father”, I say before heading up to my room. I can’t sleep at all because I am thinking about mom. The town says that the Kracogviex got to her. Almost no one has seen a Kracogviex, but we know that they are magical killers. They give off some black shimmery particles that make them invisible to most people. All my life I have wanted to get revenge but I know that they are dangerous. To protect us, the king sent his soldiers everywhere. Although not many people know, he was the one who ruined everything.

Thinking about the king brings back memories of when I first learned the truth about the king. It was a warm summer afternoon at the tavern. We were talking about the King when a foreign storyteller told us the story.

“ A long time ago, there was a group of people called the Raden”, he began. “They were very powerful and were good people, but not everyone liked them. One day a person named adyan wanted power. He tricked a Raden member and killed him. After that, he started practicing dark magic that should have not ever been practiced. Other evil people joined him and became the 7 Krolls. The 7 krolls went on killing every Raden member and with every kill, they siphoned the power. Eventually the leader was the only one left. And then the killed the Raden Leader. Ever since, Adyan appointed himself as King and has ruled over us”

Everything was quiet after that and the mood was broken. Everyone went home shortly after. Ever since I learned the truth I have made it my mission to stop him, but those dreams were impossible. I look out the window into the distance. Suddenly I see a flash of black. I gasp. “Did I just see a Kracogviex?” I think. When I look again however, there is nothing there. I want to tell someone about what happened but exhaustion washes over me as I fall asleep. In the morning when I wake up, it is already noon. I rush to get ready and then I head to tell someone my story. I eventually settled on Tanuj.

Tanuj is basically our town storyteller. He’s been around for ages so he knows almost everything. I figured he would know something about what I saw. As I am walking to Tanuj’s cabin, A poor man suddenly almost crashes into me. “Oh my gosh oh my gosh I’m so sorry” I say. The man does not respond. “Uh hello” I say. “Are you alright?”

The man looks up at me and I back away. He has red eyes. “We will come for you soon enough”, he says in a raspy voice. Then he vanishes into thin air. My heart is pounding as I try to think about what in the world just happened. “That didn't happen right?” I think to myself. “That's so impossible right? I’m just imagining this right? RIGHT?” I tell myself. “Kid are you okay?”, a farmer asked me. Apparently I accidentally said that last part out loud. “Yeah I’m okay, just had a crazy night”, I replied. I wasn't exactly lying about that. The farmer looks at me suspiciously for the most intense moments of my life. Then he goes and walks away. I then continue my journey. Eventually after walking for ages, I arrive at Tanuj's cabin.

I walk inside and see Tanuj sitting and writing some things down in a book that seemed older than my home. When he notices me he immediately shuts the book and puts it away. “Hello Liam”, he says. I am surprised because to be honest, I didn't think he even knew my name.

“Uh hello Tanuj”, I say. “I have to tell you something”.

“If this is about the crack in my house then the door is that way”, he replies pointing to the door.

“No um, it's about… A Kracogviex”, I say. Tanuj’s gaze hardens and his face becomes serious.

“Well tell me more about this'', he inquired. I told him everything from when I was seeing the Kracogviex to it vanishing. Once I finished, Tanuj sat there in silence for a moment. “Boy”, he says at last. “Are you absolutely sure you saw a Kracogviex?”, he asks me.

“I saw it with my own 2 eyes”, I reply. “But what should we do about it?” I ask.

“Well if you actually saw a Kracogviex, then we should watch later tonight and see if it comes”, he says. “Although humanity must hope that you are wrong about this”. I agree with him.

The rest of the day I try to act as normal as possible but inside me, my mind is racing. I have so many questions like why is a Kracogviex here? And what would it do if it found us? I can’t wait until night but I have to be careful. In my town people who tell rumors, disappear. Tanuj has barely avoided this a couple of times and I wanted to do that too. Later that night I meet up with Tanuj and we sit behind a stack of hay. We wait, wait and wait even longer. Just around midnight, I hear something. Me and Tanuj both look into the distance and I gasp. A Kracogviex is there. It looks just how people described them, pure evil. I watch and see that it’s mouth is moving, it seems to be talking? It seems like their is a shadow behind a fence but when they step out of the fence. That is when my entire perception of life changed.

The person who the Kracogviex was talking to was a King’s soldier! And it didn’t seems as if they were enemys. In fact it seemed as if they were allies! Me and Tanuj looked at each other and Tanuj gave me a look that said don't-explode-with-questions-right-now. So I didn’t start talking yet. I waited until the king’s soldier and the Kracogviex disappeared then I exploded with questions. “The King is working with Kracogviexs!”, I said. “When did this happen?”, “Why did this happen?” “WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING” I say. “Okay okay chill out”, Tanuj tells me.

“We have to do something”, I said

“ Yes I know”, Tanuj replied. “But it's late, let's go to sleep for now”. So that's what we did.

In the morning I wake up and get my dad to go to the market. That will hopefully buy me some time. I then go and meet with Tanuj. “So I was thinking about what we should do”, Tanuj said. “And I decided that we should go to the King’s kingdom”.

“We have to leave this place?” I ask.

“Well do you want to stop the king or not?”, Tanuj replies. I think about it for some time.

“Ok we should start packing then”, I eventually say. While we are packing, I notice something on Tanuj’s hand. I gasp at it. On his hand was the sacred symbol of the Raden! I quickly try to hide my surprise. Apparently I didn’t do a good enough good though. Tanuj sees where I am looking and he stops packing.“ I guess you noticed, I am apart of the Raden”, he says.

“But how?”, I inquired. “Wasnt the Raden destroyed years ago?”.

“No there are still some of us left”, he says. “In fact our first proioirty is finding the Raden”. We then go back to packing.

We then leave with all of our supplies. And we go walking. We walk for some time until we set up camp and go to sleep. In the morning Tanuj trains me with magical spells that would help me a lot. We then go walking again. The next couple of days kind of pass as a blur. Its just a cycle of walking, training, walking, stopping, some more walking and eventually sleeping just to walk again in the morning. After a couple of days I am kind of hoping for some fighting, and then it happens. In the morning one day, we reached an abandoned town. We go and see if there's any supplies left. There are a small group of soldiers there but we easily take care of them. “Well that was easy”, I say. I then hear a raspy voice behind me. We whirl around and come face to face with a Kracogviex. “Uh Tanuj?”, I say.

“Yeah don't worry I have a plan let's just…. RUUUUN!”. We take off very quickly but the Kracogviex is surprisingly fast and starts closing in on us. “Go without me”, Tanuj says.

“Wait what is happening”, I say. Then Tanuj stops and whirls around. He mutters a spell that sends a massive explosion in a 10 feet radius. When the smoke clears I see the monster is dead, but so is Tanuj. I know that if I stop though, I'm dead so I continue the journey. Eventually I reach a hidden cave. I head inside, and come face to face with the Raden leader! I quickly explain my story and we stay up all night planning on what to do. In the morning, we attack. We breach the first line of defense easily but while we are celebrating, an ambush comes. An army of Kracogviexs attack us. Our entire army gets scattered and in the chaos I come face to face with the Kracogviex leader, Yojna. “Join us or be destroyed”, she says in a raspy voice.

“I think i'll go with destroying you”, I replied before attacking her. I expect this fight to be easy but every spell I do, Yojna repels. Eventually she attacks and I fall down on my back.I decide to unleash the god spell. I use all my strength and send a lightning bolt to Yojna. After that, I passed out. I wake up in a bed with the Raden leader, Rasem in the room too. “What happened?”, I ask. I suddenly sit up.“The monsters!”, “I have to stop them!”. “How did I even get here?”

“No, don't worry”, Rasem says. “Yojna must have had some kind of spell to control all the Kracogviexs. “When you killed her, every other Kracogviex got confused and started fighting each other”. “After that, it was easy to get everything back under control” “However while we were busy with the Kracogviexs, The king Adyan escaped to somewhere unknown”, Rasem said. I breathe a sigh of relief. The Kracogviexs were defeated and even though Adyan escaped, this fight was not over. In fact, this was just the beginning…….