Hellbound

Hellbound

By: Yesterday

∂

        "Murrrr... ugh! What was that?" I instantly bolt up, standing attentive for any threat.

I pull out my bow, nocking an arrow, and head around the shallow mouth of my cave. My feet scrape across the cold floor of stone, and a chilly wind picks up, waking me up further. I shimmy around a large staglagmite and barely cover a gasp when I see the threat.

There was a dragon asleep in the cave, its large mouth belching out smog.

'Well, I guess its time to move, there's now way I could take out a dragon. a couple of timberwolves, maybe, but a dragon absolutly not. I doubt I could even peirce one of those hard scales...'

I sigh, this was the first place I had ever lived in in Equestria, this is where I grew up, my childhood. This is where I learned to make and shoot a bow... It is also where I saw my parents die.

I am the last of my race, I am a human. My parents and a couple others were magically transported here by Discord, about twenty-five years back. Unfortunately my mother was the only female to come and my father was the only one to mate with her. They were disappointed to have a son and not a daughter.

I grabbed my quiver full of the few weapons I own, and I pick up my dagger, a gift from my father. It was the only piece of metal to be made into a dagger, most of the rare substance was made into tools to help us survive, but because he created me he was proclaimed to be king. And a king would need a weapon.

I guess that makes me a prince by blood. Prince Ambrosius... I like it. My mother always told me that Ambrosius was the name of the most feared warriors in Ancient Greece, because they were rarely if ever killed. I never knew what 'Ancient Greece' was bacause no one would tell me about their past. I like it because it fits.

I was the only one to live after the timberwolves...

∂ Flashback ∂

There were fourteen of them and only nine of us, one wounded. We had an advantadge though, we had bows. We tried to kill them by shooting them in the head, but they just ignored it and kept on trying to kill us. Thats when the first of us died.

I shot one through the heart, and that stopped them. I began to tell everyone to shoot them through the heart, but they ignored me. Two more died. I shot another, making it five fighting to twelve. We all felt the dread.

I dispatched one of the wolves as they tried to kill the wounded man, lowering the count to eleven, but another wolf killed him before I could reload. That wolf died, and I felt a rage build up in me as I heard the pained scream of another dead. Four to ten.

My rage blinded me, the world was drenched in a blood colored red. My shots seemed to become more accurate, and the world slowed down. I killed three more wolves before I heared the next scream. Three to seven, only me and my father were fighting though, mother was never taught.

More red.

I killed three more, and my father killed one, only by luck. The shot ricoched off the stone floor and punctured the wolf, tearing the heart in half. Three left.

Mothers' scream.

More red.

I killed another before the last two wisened up and charged my father from both sides, making him choose which one to kill. The red drained away quickly as I began to panic, I prepare a shot and shoot it hastily at one wolf. Unfortuantly in my haste its missed the heart and only hit it's stomach, slowing it down slightly.

Father pulled back his bow and shot one arrow through the heart of one of the beasts. The wounded one jumped and bit his neck, killing him instantly.

My arrow was not far behind as it quickly killed the final being. I quickly run over to my father, not dropping the bow incase of reinforcements. As I see his mangled body, my legs become jelly and I colapse next to him, tears flowing freely from my eyes.

I look towards my bleeding mother, my dead family laying sadly on the floor. The fear was still etched on her face... I look to my friends... dead... everything is dead... My tears begin to mix in with the huge puddles of blood that drenched the floor of the cavern.

Exhasusted, I slowly fall asleep, clutching my dead father protectively, and ignore the possible danger.

∂ End Flashback ∂

I pass a quick glance over to the nine roughly made gravestones that surrounded the cavern, each of them reminding me of the danger of this world each time I leave to get food. My eyes pass over each of the graves, sending my sorrow to the lost souls.

My eyes stop over the final name, 'Jason.'

"Jason..." I whisper, partally out of fear of waking the dragon, and partially out of respect.

∂ Flashback ∂

"AMBROSE MOVE!" someone yelled to me. I wasnt paying attention because I had recently shot the hydra in the eye, killing one of their brains. The other was dead too, leaving only the last one left, and full of anger at the little creature who killed part of it.

The final head lunged at me, only for me to be pushed away by another one of the puny beasts.

I looked at the mans face and instantly remembered him to be called Jason. Fortunately, neither of us were killed by the hydra. Unfortunately, the hydra bit off Jasons leg from the knee down.

"RROOOOAAAAAARRrrrrrrr..." the giant hydra's body slowly crashed to the ground after it reared back in pain.

I looked at it confused, and noticed the longbow sticking out of its eye, going through the brain and Jasons' lack of a weapon. It dawned on me that he must have shoved the bow into the beast before it could have recovered from the strike.

Jasons' leg was bleeding horribly, and would probably get infected in the bog. That is, if he will even survive before he runs out of blood.

Horrified, I tear off the bottom of his shirt and press it to the wound, "hey... kid. I need you to work harder," he began to cough, and only started again when it died down, his voice becoming more strained, "I want you to protect them."

Tears began to leak out of my eyes when I realized, not only is he going to die, but I have failed. I let someone die. I let my family die.

I watched as the light slowly began to fade from his eyes, leaving only darkness. I cried into his chest, muttering for him not to die even though I knew it was pointless. My father gentally pulled me off him and embraced me fermly, and I cried into his shoulder.

∂ End Flashback ∂

I looked down at the hydra-skin tunic, pants and shoes I had on, remembering the night my father walked up to me and put them down. He told me it was a way of keeping Jason close, I interprested them as a reminder of my failure, and that I must get stronger.

The tunic was a meanacing orange color, cut from the head of the hydra, while the pants and shoes were brown, and carved out from the stomach hide of the foul beast. They were extremely durable, and put up some resistance in a fight...

I sigh, and conjured a small blue flame in the palm of my hand. I watched it flicker, hearing some sizzling as one of my tears hit it. One of my old guilts haunted my, 'I could have used this to heal Jason... but I only learned of it after he died...' It was true, mother only told me the stories about magic after he died, but I still felt it was my fault.

Once my tears died off, I knelt down before the stones, and prayed one last time to my family, apologizing for not being able to help them, and for them to please forgive me and help me find a new home. I kissed my mothers' stone and stood up, and turned around walking into the dangerous forest with only my bow and arrows, and the small amount of medicine I could bring with me in my pouch.