Epic Fantasy Adventure: The Bard's Tale: A Mysterious Journey (Sword and Sorcery Epic Fantasy Adventure Book With Elves and Magic) by Blaine Hart Read Free Book Online Page A

was actually a human, he would have mistaken him for a beast.

    A tuft of red hair now licked the man’s forehead. His hair had the color of the setting sun, the twilight red that reigned between night and day. Vygarast thought of backing away, but the air currents didn’t let him move. The man slowly raised his hand to the same height as Vygarast’s neck, and with his fingers tensing like claws; the Bard could feel his throat closing, to the point where he started to choke.

    “You back-stabbing, dirty, half-breed, I tried to be reasonable with you and you chose the uncivilized half of your origin. If that is what you want, then so it will be,” and with a disdainful expression on his face, he threw Azy away. Vygarast somehow wrenched free from the invisible grip on his neck and hurtled forward, catching her before she hit to the ground. A crackling sound echoing through the woods was the last thing that Vygarast heard before the man left in a flash.

    Now that he was gone, Vygarast felt the air around him grow lighter, and the shadows of the trees receded to let the light pass. The Bard hadn’t noticed that the man had made such a difference to everything around him, but gasping with Azy in his hands, Vygarast felt relieved he didn’t have to fight him. His instruments were of no match for the man, at least not at his current level of training. However, something inside him warned him that not even a fully trained Bard would be enough to take down that man… and by the way he was talking, he was starting to think he wasn’t a man at all.

    Vygarast? Are you okay? Do you want me to heal you? Finally, the little fairy’s voice was back to normal, like only just a moment of silent had passed by between them, but it felt like an eternity to Vygarast. He didn’t realize until just that moment just how much he adored little Azy.

    “Yes. I’m okay. How about you? Did he hurt you?”

    The fairy didn’t answer, but Vygarast caught a glimpse of her head shaking. He put her gently on his shoulder and the little fairy rested her back against his neck. Thank the great Mother. Consider yourself very lucky young Bard, very lucky indeed. There are few people that get away alive when meeting with a Meddler.

    The title ringed a bell in Vygarast’s mind, but still he couldn’t quite remember the meaning behind the word. “A Meddler? I have heard about them before, but not much. Who are they?”

    Meddlers are the name that people gave to people like him. We call them Darkens, humans taken by the corruption of the magic. A Darken is someone who can cast without instruments, making him a very dangerous and very bad creature, as doing this twists their souls to evil.

    “Creature? Didn’t you just say that Meddlers are humans?”

    No, they are not anymore. After shedding away their humanity in order to be able to cast more powerful spells, Meddlers stopped feeding on fruits and meat, and started feeding on destiny itself. Darkens are indeed meddlers, but in a twisted, unimaginable way. They can sense the hidden potential of a person’s destiny and by subtly driving them away from their path, they get stronger on what that person missed from his life. For example, imagine if a Meddler appeared and convinced a young man to not talk to the woman who could be the love of his life? The hidden potential of a destiny like that is tremendous, and Meddlers feed on that. What if that man was destined to be a mighty hero with the help of his new found love? The potential ramifications of events like these are immense! The lives of hundred, thousands or even hundreds of thousands can be influenced by these Meddlers of fate!

    “So that’s why they call them Meddlers. But why didn’t he just kill me then? Wouldn’t that waste my hidden potential?

    It does not work like that. Your destiny is shaped around your own choices. If you’re violently pushed into another direction, like if a Meddler killed you, your hidden potential would