The Dragon of Bronze

Chapter 1: The Horror Beneath

Huh, huh... HUH!"

Jason's Mum rushed in clutching a spoon and a bowl of Coco Pops. "Jacob honey, what's wrong?"

She talked with such elegance and calmness. She was dressed in a black t-shirt and a light blue blouse. She had a green flower-printed pair of jeans that looked worn out and rugged. She had long, brown hair that swayed from left to right and lovely blue eyes. Her red, bushy lips stood out the most out of everything. She was 46 but looked like a 23 year old.

"I heard a screaming coming from down the hall so I rushed in. Did you get it again," She said as she tried to dodge the Lego pieces laying about on the floor.

"Yeah, the same dream, at the same time, on the same day. What is it Mum. It can't be a coincidence that this is happening."

Jacobs Mum handed him the bowl of cereal and ruffled his hair. "Don't know, but we'll get it checked tonight, after I do all these activities on my list," And she got up and walked out of the door.

"10 minutes,okay," She shouted.

"Okay," and he got out of bed with a struggle to reached for his wardrobe. He put on a baige t-shirt with an orange collar saying 'Deal With It' in the centre of his shirt. He wore blue jeans with rips on the knees and a silver loose chain hanging from the left of his belt. He always had his wooden carved balls on a piece of old string (which is what his dad gave him before he disappeared) and his leather, no-sleeved jacket.

His hair was brown and swerved to the left and he had brown eyes with some mad bushy eyebrows added to it.

As Jacob walked through the hallway, his nostrils were filled with a strong scent of perfume-his Mum was covered in it-from the room on the right which was his Mums room. He walked down the stairs and saw his hatocran (half elf, half dog) barking at the door in a low pitched squeal.

Jacob was walking to the door and said "Mum, the mails here, I'll get it." And reached for the doorknob.

"NO, NOT YET!" Shouted his Mum running in with a glass and a rag.

Before Jacob could react, he flung open the door and the Hatocran burst through the frame "Hello, here's your AAAAHHHHH..." And the postman was covered in green slobber and a puddle of drool.

Jacob's Mum called him back and helped the postman up. "Hmph!" He wimpered and gave her the wet letters.

"Next time, keep 'im on a leash" and stormed down the path, cleaning himself off.

Jacob tried to cower behind the door, but his Mum had already called him over. He sulked and said. "Maybe I should have a wander in the forest for a bit." His Mum nodded with a slight sense of angriness and slammed the door shut, leaving Buckter (the hatocran) whining outside the door.

"Well pal, I guess it's just you and me." And he stroked him on the back.

"BARK, BARK" and they both ventured off into the woods.

* * * * *

As Jacob and Buckter walked through the forest, Jacob looked at the sky. It was an orangy-purple, but it was usually like that as it was Spring. The trees were a dark green with grey tree trunks below. Buckter kept on picking up different sticks to take with him. Jacob was doing the same with stones, but was throwing them at the trees.

"Rraah!" He screamed "Why can I never do anything right. I always screw things up around Mum."

He picked up a pebble and threw it at the nearest tree, and it landed wit a big CLANG.

"Huh" Jacob whimpered as he started to walk towards it slowly. Buckter slowly walked away from the noise.

The tree he hit looked different from the other ones as it looked more solid and dull. Jacob knocked on the tree and heard echoes inside the tree. It was made of iron but there was a door handle on one side of the tree. When he opened it, there was a radio kit with flip-switches and different buttons and a headset as well.

He put on the headphones and started flipping the switches. Buckter looked at a hill and stared hard at it. The rubble suddenly fell and there was a hole in the hill. Then, there were these green torches being lit up on either side of the wall in the cavern. Buckter scampered to Jacob and tugged at his trouser leg.

"Ehh, not working pal, betta just lea..." When Jacob turned round, his mouth was wide open

."Where did...how did...what did..." He couldn't say anything until he got over it.

"Well, I don't know about you pal, but for one in my life, I'm quite happy we walked in the woods" and he started walking-cautiously-into the cavern.

Buckter (stupidly) followed in with him. Jacob grabbed one of the torches and continued through the hallway. The walls had different carvings and runes drawn all ovens them. Buckter kept on whining and stopping so he had to be carried through the endless passageway towards the discovery.

As they delved further through the tunnel, the hall opened up to a large room, all lit up with green fires. In the centre of the room was a coffin/grave. Jacob urged Buckter to follow, but he was too tired to carry Buckter any longer, so Jacob left him there and creeped down to the coffin.

Jacob felt a sinister touch laying on his skin. The cave was filled with mining equipment like pickaxes, mine carts, and many other things.The walls were carved out perfectly, as if they were crafted with enchantments. There were so many mine shafts that any one of them could be endless.

Jacob climbed down the stone cold ladders and reached the dead grave. There was a pedestal with a letter saying "Here lies the body of Fertinus Sapractel Bartention, or mostly known as The Mictah. To not be conjured, at all costs."

Jacob looked around the coffin and found some some armour, but the thing that stood out the most was a pair of gauntlets. They had a green energy source flowing through it, like it was being powered up. There were also a staff and a skull. Jacob was feeling very frightened at this point and felt like running, but he stayed. Buckter was standing guard at the entrance, and then started to lie down. Jacob picked up the staff and it felt scaly, like a lizards skin and then started examining it.

It had a glowing rune at the top of the staff, which was enclosed in a pair of sharp ,thorny sticks growing from it. it had a red blade-not blood-on the other end of it that was sharpened till it was sharper. Jacob started striking magical poses with the staff.

"Heh, what'd ya thing Buckter, heroic enough or what." Buckter had his head where his paws were and didn't take any notice of Jacob.

"Hmm, wouldn't expect you to have an opinion, ooh maybe I might look better with the gloves", so he slipped on the gauntlets and he done more silly poses.

Buckter had started to bark like mad from the tunnel entrance. Jacob didn't notice as his attention was drawn to something else. The light flowing through the gauntlets started to crackle and spit with magic. As he dropped the staff, his hands started to shake and glow even brighter, without choice.

All the mine carts and equipment started to shudder a bit as the gloves sent out green pulses. Jacob attempted to pry them out from his hands, but they were stuck in place and he wasn't strong enough to try.

Buckter was pouncing from ledge to ledge to get down but he took a long time. Meanwhile, a green light shot out from his fingertips and aimed at the grave but then turned into electricity. Jacob averted his eyes away from the electricity and tried to resist. When Buckter had jumped down, the coffin was rumbling and shaking. One big shot of electricity went into the coffin and everything went silent.

"Oh crud" said Jacob and the coffin exploded pushing back Buckter and Jacob.

After the explosion, everything was pushed to the far corners of the room. In the centre of the room, a dead body was hovering in a praising pose. He raised his hands and his body had started to fill with the armour from the table. He then held his hands out and the gauntlets (which were at the other end of the hall) slipped into his hands. He then lowered onto the floor, bent down and wielded his staff.

"Bow to the rising of The Mictah, mortals" and he shot a fire bolt out from his staff to the roof,then the ceiling was filled with inferno.

Jacob was buried under rubble, and had a blurry vision, but could still see. It was visible to him that Buckter started to take a form of a human and summoned two knives from her back. The body jumped at The Mictah while he was about to strike, then Jacobs eyes closed...and all went silent.