SSS Chapter 1: The Hand You're Dealt (6)

When Ferris opened his eyes he was no longer in the auditorium, in its place was an empty plane of grey that stretched out as far as his eye could see. The ground was covered in a dense fog that went up past the tops of his boots, and a thin silvery mist seemed to permeate the air, giving the place a dream-like feel. Ferris took a few cautious steps forward, testing to make sure the floor was indeed solid; he had read about this place before…

The Formless; A plane of existence in between the world of man and the world of fey; believed to be born of the leftovers from the two worlds’ creation. It is home to the symbiotic Familiars, shapeless fey who derive their appearances and power from the imaginations and thoughts of humans and other fey alike. It is from this place that the Silver Slayers derive their weapons and their aspects through a contract with a Familiar, as per the agreement with the Monarcha Monstrum. No other man nor fey is permitted to make contract with a Familiar, and they are forever bound to serve their Slayer masters till such a time their services are no longer required…

Knowing what he did his current task was obvious; He was meant to find a familiar…but how?

Confident that his question would not be answered by simply standing around, Ferris began trekking through the mists of The Formless. After what seemed like an eternity the fog at his feet began to dissipate, revealing a gravelly path that led Ferris to the edge of a gentle cliff.

As the mists cleared from his eyes Ferris gasped, before him was a stretch of mountainous landscape, from rolling hills to steep peaks. Covering almost every inch of the area were hundreds upon thousands of flags. Each one had a different shape and design. Some of them he vaguely recognized and others that he had never seen before. Atop a small hill a short distance away was one that caught his eye.

Ferris carefully climbed off the short cliff he was standing on and landed softly on the ground below. He walked forward, marveling at the colorful flags billowing in the wind around him. Before long Ferris reached his destination, taking a moment to catch his breath before looking up at the flag he had been eyeing.

It was a short, trapazoid banner hanging downward on the top of its pole from a crossbar. The flag’s design consisted of a mossy green backdrop and a monstrous reptilian creature; a beast with five serpentine heads along with five snaking tails, its four limbs split off into a total of eight talons each, a Hydra. Clutched in four of its talons was a shield, engraved upon it a stylized letter ‘H’ made out of moss covered logs.

Ferris chuckled; this was the last place he expected to see the flag of his hometown. As a child he had always found the design to be gruesome and scary, but here it provided a sense of comfortable familiarity amidst the mysterious world of The Formless. He had the strangest feeling that he was being watched as he reached out to touch the handle; it felt cool and smooth to the touch. Ferris suddenly felt strongly compelled to pull the flag out of the hill…

So he did.

There was a flash of light as he yanked the flag free from the dirt, forcing Ferris to shield his eyes and stumble backward. When the light faded he found himself returned to the Formless mists, the flag in his right hand all that remained of the field of flags. When he regained his bearings Ferris noticed that something was different about him; his slayer ensemble no longer consisted solely of solid gray, but was now decorated with crimson red hearts on his shoulders and the center of his zipped up coat. The dark green on the flag he was holding was now dazzling silver and the Silver Slayers coat of arms had taken the place the shield of Hillmoor in the hydra’s claws.

He stared at the Flag’s new form in wonder and disbelief…was this…his weapon?

“Well this is…unexpected.” Ferris thought, testing the weight of the flag. He looked down at the heart on his chest, “Heart suite,” he chuckled to himself, “my dad always said I’d end up a support class…if I’m not going to do much fighting a flag as a weapon shouldn’t be too bad...”

Before he had too much time to ponder further a shimmering green rectangle appeared before him, similar to the portal Scroll had opened in the auditorium earlier. The portal flashed brightly once or twice, as if hurrying him to enter.

“No time to be thinking about that now I guess.” Ferris grit his teeth and gripped his weapon tightly with both hands, “Time to break a leg.”  Taking a deep breath, he stepped through the portal and into a lush grassy field. As the gate vanished behind him Ferris now found himself in a small clearing in a dense forest, the sky overcast with dark clouds. His surroundings were eerily quiet, not even the chirping of a birds or the scurrying of rodents.

A soft beeping noise caught Ferris’ attention; lying on the ground nearby was a small metallic disk, hovering above it was what appeared to be a countdown timer from twenty minutes. After staring blankly at the timer for a good several seconds Ferris breathed a sigh of relief: His exam hadn’t started yet, a good thing too.

He really wasn’t sure if he was ready to break anybody’s legs yet.

SSS