Joseph Stephens and the lonely road

It was dusk, light was quickly escaping from the sky. Joseph trudged through the mire as he watched the sun slowly setting beyond the horizon. His sword hung loosely from his hand, his clothes were covered in mud, his face was covered in sweat and his sword was covered in blood. "Its been a long day without you, my friend" Joseph said out loud with a sigh. This world was hard and unforgiving but it didn't always seem that way. Joseph thought about the days when the road was less hard and journey was filled with laughter. That was before Joseph lost his way and had to travel alone.

Joseph wanted to go to sleep but there wasn't any dry land to sleep on for miles, so on he walked. it was one of those days that he wished would just end, but seemed to drag on without thought or consideration of Joseph's feelings. The water in the mire began to ripple all around Joseph. the tall grass shook and the earth rumbled. a giant human shaped creature emerged from the swamp waters. It was over eight feet tall and easily five hundred pounds, it was so large that it must have been sleeping in the mud under the water. the water from the mire wasn't over a foot high.

Joseph let out a hard and tired sigh and drew his blade, bringing it up in front of him. He assumed his battle stance in front of the swamp giant. Its skin was muddy, yellow brown and looked hard as stone, its hair looked like it was made of swamp plants and covered most of its face and head. Bright red eyes shone out from under the tangle mess of plant hair on the creatures head. the beast roared and lifted its over sized hands, clenching them into fists.

Joseph brought his sword down low and charged forward, in the corner of his eye he could almost see his friend the wizard floating over the muck and mire, grinning at his dirt covered friend. Joseph sloshed through the mud and sliced the giant's leg as he ran passed the creature. The swamp giant slammed his fists down, splashing dirty water everywhere and missing Joseph completely. Jaye the wizard would have been blasting this create with every lighting spell he knew if he were actually here fighting. Joseph smiled at his friends overzealous nature and continued to move quickly through the murky water, slashing the swamp giant across the legs and arms and dodging the beasts giant fists as they slammed down around Joseph. if the swamp giant landed even one hit, the strike would be so strong that it would shatter bones. Joseph had to keep moving, despite the muddy water being hard to run through and the fact that the swamp giant's skin was almost as hard as stone.

After every time Joseph slashed the giant, he would have to immediately have to dodge the next on coming attack. Each time the swamp giant swung his fist it grew closer and closer to actually hitting Joseph. "I can't do this alone" Joseph muttered. He imagined his friend fighting there with him. the giant's fists never found their mark because two quick moving humans were too hard to hit. Jaye would send out blinding light and burn the beast with fire and electricity. the battle would be won and it would be added to the vault of memories that they both shared, but Jaye wasn't there and Joseph had to survive long enough so that he could see his friend again some day.

the swamp giant's fist struck right next to Joseph and the force sent him flying. Joseph always imagined his death would be a last stand against an overwhelming army or at least dying in a blaze of glory while possibly also being on fire, but dying to a swamp giant ranked pretty low on ways to leave the world. "What are you some kind of chump? Gonna die to a big dumb giant like a big sad baby?" echoed Jaye's voice. Joseph almost laughed out loud when he heard these words. Jaye hadn't shown up to save the day, but his memory did. "Lets waste this fool" Joseph said with a smile. "you're dumb" Jaye replied also smiling.
Joseph charged up all of his energy into one strike. His body began to glow and his sword's blade bursts into flames. . "X Strike!" Joseph shouted as he ran forward, the heat of each step sizzled the surrounding water. Joseph ran so fast that flaming sword sliced through the air and his feet parted the water. The memory Jaye the wizard charged with electricity and charged forward with equal speed and force, both friends charged through the swamp giant with the force of a tornado or an earthquake. the attack pattern looked like the letter X with the swamp giant in the middle. Jaye flew through the Giant  releasing huge amounts of electricity into the creature. At that exact moment Joseph was slashing his fire sword through the beasts chest. they both ended with their backs to the monster. The swamp giant let out one last roar before collapsing back into the mud. Joseph coughed and felt woozy from exhaustion but kept the smile on his face. Jaye's memory smiled back at Joseph.

Joseph was able to defeat the swamp giant on his own, but it took the memory of his friend to encourage him and bring out his inner strength. Sometimes the road gets hard and sometimes it gets lonely, but if you can find a friend you can enjoy the time together and look forward to that time when you are apart. When you find a real friend they never leave you and no matter what has happened they always will have your back.