The Crimson Claymore Read Online Free

rough ground covered in pinecones. He noticed that he was alone and that the arrogant wizard was nowhere to be found. His horse was also nowhere to be seen, and besides the animals and chilled breeze, sound remained absent. He rubbed his neck, looking at the various bushes on the ground with small green leaves and red berries. His hand brushed against one plant that he’d always heard tales of but had never been so deep into the forest to see. It was a fern, one of the most beautiful plants that Searon had ever seen. The branches came out with a scattered variety of leaves that tapered off the long branches and grew shorter until reaching the end, each branch looking like a long triangle. A smile reached his face as he studied the forest surrounding him until his stomach rumbled from hunger. Behind him, hooves patted against pine needles, crushing them. He felt the hilt of his claymore and swiftly turned around.
    Behind him he saw the wizard riding a large, shining brown horse, and his own white-and-black striped horse traveled alongside. The wizard held three rabbits in one hand and two ducks in the other, with a grin upon his face. He tossed the animals toward Searon, who was about to say something about being dragged to such a place, but fell silent as his stomach grumbled even louder.
    “Well, don’t just stand there. Prepare a fire!” the wizard barked.
    Searon hurriedly organized small branches and logs in a cube, wedging dried pine needles and bark between the legs. Carefully, he pulled out his flint and steel, making sparks to light the dried needles. His stomach barked with hunger, and he carefully tied the rabbits and ducks to branches that he spun around the fire.
    “What is wrong with you, old man? You can’t just force people to go where you choose,” Searon spat.
    “Of course I can. I’m a wizard. You’re just being stubborn,” Karceoles smirked.
    “Who’s more stubborn, the one who doesn’t agree, or the one who drags him along anyway?” Searon grumbled staring at the orange pool of water at his feet.
    “You’ll learn that I always get my way. If you weren’t going to come of your free will, then I knew I would have to pursue other avenues of convincing you,” Karceoles snickered.
    “What is it going to take to get rid of you?” Searon snapped.
    “Come with me to the kheshlars, and ask for their assistance,” Karceoles said, motioning forward.
    “What makes you think they will join our cause?” Searon asked. The course of action the wizard wanted to take seemed useless, knowing the stories of kheshlars. Searon remembered the stories told of a selfish race that only cared for themselves and the trees.
    “ They won’t…but one will.”
    “One? One. You froze me in a block of ice to drag me halfway across Calthoria for one bloody kheshlar!” Searon spat.
    “Yes,” Karceoles paused. “Let me explain,” he sighed and pulled out a long-stem pipe that he carefully filled with tobacco. “A long time ago, a kheshlar touched the untouchable. She did what every other kheshlar was too scared to do, in an attempt to save her own mother. For the kheshlars, dark magic is forbidden, but that was precisely what she studied. Foolishly, she thought dark magic was the only way to save her mother. The problem with dark magic is it is too powerful for a single person to control, and she was consumed by it. Her sister was forced to murder her to prevent her use of the dark magic further. When they looked for her remains, they were nowhere found.
    Dark magic is a powerful thing, and it very powerful. It can reverse death, but it comes with a cost. The dead walk in a shell of their former selves. That particular kheshlar, filled with dark magic, strayed away from the other kheshlars until she found the draeyk settlements. With her intelligence, she united the draeyk tribes with her as their leader. Then she launched an attack against her own kind. The only thing she had left was revenge, revenge for