Tbou: Hopebreaker

Chapter Eight

Test of Mettle

William's Perspective

My heart raced, thumping in my chest and reverberating through my shirt. The world spun around me, a dizzying blur of double vision. I strained to bring everything back into focus, but all I could make out was a tall, fuzzy black figure a few meters away. It emitted a sound, perhaps a roar, but it was lost in the deafening silence that enveloped me.

My attention is pulled away as another blurry figure appears before me. Its brown mess on top matches its blurry face. It looked familiar, but my mind didn't process what was happening as the world turned and rotated.

Eventually, the world started to come back into focus.

It was my father. He was speaking, his words lost in the piercing ring in my ears. My body felt a sensation, a discomfort that I couldn't quite place. It was like pain, but not entirely.

I felt my whole world jerk in many directions as my father shook me, I presume. He looked behind him, then turned back to me as I saw him open his mouth.

His voice was odd, sounding soft and quiet like a whisper. "William," my father said. "William." The more he said it, the louder it became.

That was until it felt like my head was slammed into the ground. My head throbbed every few seconds like someone was applying pressure. Everything returned at once, snapping me out of my daze as the black blob behind my father, Doctor Apple's bear, gave off a thunderous, earth-shaking roar.

"William! Snap out of it," my father bellowed. I could see the frustration, anger, and fear in his eyes. I shook my head as he let go of me to face the bear. "I need you here with me!"

I looked around to realize my sword, still in its sheath, was on the ground, and I started to crawl to it desperately as my lungs tried to collect as much oxygen as I could inhale.

Slamming my hand onto the hilt, I stood up and swung it onto my belt behind me, hearing the same click as the one back at the house. Pulling the blade out of its sheath, I readied myself as best as I could, lining up behind my father as he faced towards the bear.

The bear slammed its front claws down, forcing parts of the ground upward, making small boulders. Then, the bear swung its claws, smacking the boulders as they hurled toward us.

My father and I scattered away as he shot a few magic arrows at the bear, forcing it to cover its face. A few arrows started sizzling around the bear's claws until they exploded, but the bear didn't flinch. It didn't even recognize the attack.

The bear's roar sent shockwaves that made it difficult for me to move closer to it, so I took cover near the trees.

Even behind the trees, its roar made the whole forest tremble. Looking down at the black veins that plagued the floor, they connected to the trees. I soon watched the trees start to wither away, eventually twisting and contorting till it was nothing but a disfigurement of its glorious self.

I soon watched as the bear dashed towards my father. My father, however, shot an arrow at his feet as a wall of earth erupted underneath him, sending him over the bear as it charged straight through the wall, making it crumble on top of it and knocking over a few trees.

The ground rattled from the tremors as I came out of hiding to see the current condition of the bear.

"Well, silver is no good here!" my father proclaimed as he continued to fire more arrows at the bear as it emerged from the rubble.

"How so?" I ask, trying to collect my breath as much as I can, my mind still reeling at the idea of this being a companion to one of my father's friends.