The Answer

The room was dark. Almost too dark to see . . . Almost. I cautiously stepped through, trying to make out anything as my eyes adjusted. Not far from the door, the room opened up. I stayed behind the opening. As my eyes adjusted, in the back right corner, I saw a man. He had a large belly, somewhat compressed by a red and gold colored jerkin, with wide, long white sleeves, and pants just as fancy. He reeked of spent money, unlike everyone else in the town. He must be Cornelius.

He spread out his arms. "Welcome to my home, my boy." He smirked. "You certainly had a difficult journey."

Lightning flashed, illuminating the room long enough for me to see everything much clearer. All my attention left him to the back left corner, where I saw a silhouette. I focused my vision to try and make out what it was. It was too dark in that corner to really tell, But it looked like a person, I didn't want to risk entering further quite yet, in case it was a trap.

"How about I make it more homely."

Cornelius walked over to a sconce hanging off the right wall, and lit it with some tools from his pocket. With the new light I could see him even more clearly. He was balding on the top of his head, and had greying blonde hair. His face held a curly, greying blonde mustache and goatee. He then took the tiny torch off the wall and walked it around the room, lighting each sconce along the way.

As he slowly passed the back left corner, I saw it much clearer now. Hanging from her bony wrists, shackled and chained, was a woman, a girl maybe. I couldn't quite tell her age. She was hanging just low enough to stand, but it was clear she wasn't able to. She was dangerously skinny, like a skeleton, wearing what could only be compared to a sack. Her nails were long and her whole body was dirty as if uncleaned for many years. She very well could've been dead. My breath, which I had barely been able to calm any point tonight, hastened more. My eyes opened wide as I saw her height-lengthed, unkempt hair. As dirty as her hair was, I could still make out, from root to tip, it was pale white, fading into the greens, yellows, and reds of an aurora ending in a light blue. I knew this hair.

Immediately, before I could process, memories sparked and flashed in my mind; memories I hadn't remembered since the massacre. Memories of me and her, sitting under a tree with Mosz and Jankub—Of the apple I gave her—of the games we played—Of the books she helped me read. She didn't have a name, or at least, I couldn't remember hers. Suddenly I remembered my dreams. The scream that kept popping up. The voice that spoke to me when I met the original Ladon. It's her. It was always her. How long has she been here? Is she alive? Deaf and blind to anything that wasn't her, I stepped further in. I could barely think, barely do anything but walk, arms outstretched. By the time I was almost halfway through the room, her head slowly lifted as her dried, tear-covered face rose to me as her dry, deep pink, green-ringed eyes met mine. I've never seen anyone look so weak, let alone a demidragon. It looked like just staring at me, recognizing my face, and the ever-so-small smile she gave was costing more energy than she could spare. Just as I was ready to rush to her, her eyes turned to my left, opening wide as a voice echoed softly and whisply in my head.

"Watch out."

Suddenly I became aware of my surroundings. I heard the air displace to my left, and quickly turned my eyes to see a large metal hammer coming my way. My body reacted before I could, blocking it with my arm and messer as it impacted, bludgeoning me off my feet, through the air a meter or two before I hit the ground, rolling until my back hit the wall. I held my sword out instinctively, shaking through the pain. I saw who I could only assume to be Malkan. He was a tall man, maybe two meters tall, incredibly wide, and fat like cornelius. His arms were huge—more than fitting for his hammer. He wore a near-complete set of shiny steel plate armor, minus a helmet, and he was walking to me.

"Always wanted to kill a demidragon for real. Too bad you're weak . . . and pathetic. I'm glad that Randen cunt tipped us off, saying a demidragon was coming."

I looked to Cornelius, who was laughing, anticipating what would come next. I turned to Malkan who was now almost close enough to prepare a strike. I looked back to the girl. Her eyes were filled with worry, though it was a matter of seconds before they colapsed with her head. My thoughts swirled like a tempestuous cyclone, overwhelming me. I thought about all the terrible things they must've done to her; all the abuse. Exhaustion, pain, worry, fear, and rage circulated, consuming me before the pain and exhaustion left, and then the fear. And as I focused back on Malkan, who was raising his hammer, I boiled over with only rage left in my blood. Malkan smiled sadistically, swung his hammer down at me. From a crawl, I jumped out of the way, rolling across the floorboards until I returned to my feet, got up, and turned around. Screaming with all the rage I held, I ran at Malkan, driving my blade through his armor, to the hilt, shoving him into the wall. I tried to pull it out, but it was stuck. Malkan punched me in the head with his offhand. I didn't let go. He struck me again, this time harder. I fell to the ground, still holding the handle, spitting out blood before I pulled myself back up. With all the force I could muster, I yanked my messer sideways, tearing through his armor, until it exited with his agonizing scream.

"YOU FUCKING CUNT!!"

He rose his hammer again for another attack. He swung diagonally to the left, so I dodged to the right, slashing steeply up through his off-arm."

Like me, he was seething like a wild boar, pain serving to only anger him more despite the blood loss. He swung his hammer at me again. I rushed into his face, grabbing his hammer, as I plunged my blade back into the hole it made. I shoved him back into the wall, punching him several times in the face. After every punch I just wanted to hit him harder, and HARDER, AND HARDER, until I noticed his face was just a choking, coughing, bloody crater. I pulled away, tugging my sword out with me. I took a second to breathe, realizing what I just did. Anger turned to horror as I heard him trying to sound any words through his pulp of a face. Nothing intelligible came out. Before long, the last of the blood boiled out of his throat as the rest escaped his torso. He was still.

I was even more exhausted now. I turned to Cornelius who's smug grin was now replaced by shock and terror. Smoke was filling the room, escaping through the cracks of the floorboards that no, light flickering through the miasma. I need to get her out. Now.

I looked at the girl and noticed her shackles had a lock. I looked back at Cornelius. "Keys. Now!"

He quickly and sporadically rummaged through his pockets until he found them, and threw them at me.

I caught them before walking to the girl, wiping my messer against my pants to clean the blood off on my way. When I reached her, I saw even clearer how beaten, malnourished, and just close to death she was. I scabbarded my blade. Cornelius huffed away, squealing through his breath as he ran. I didn't stop him. I was more worried about her. I unlocked her shackles, catching her before she could fall. I carried her on her back, holding her as gently as I could, supporting her head. She was light . . . too light.

"You're not getting off that easily you fucking perv. We're not done with you."

I turned around to see Gin-me holding her new sword to Cornelius's throat. He stepped back as she stepped forward, backing him into the middle of the room. Gin-me looked at the girl in my arms, her expression holding only the strongest combination of disgust and anger I've ever seen.

"Do you have any fucking remorse?! Huh?! You fucking sadistic degenerate!"

The whole building creaked and moaned, through the sounds of the inferno and thunder.

"I-I . . . She's a demidragon! S-she deserves it!"

I started walking toward the door.

"Deserved it?! For what you fucking creep?! What in the hels could she have done?!!"

As I took a step in the middle of the room, I felt the floorboards bend. When I took my next step, the next board snapped under my foot. As my foot fell through, I instinctively twisted my body so I'd fall on my back. My back impacted, crashing through the floor, and another, and another, until suddenly my back, right along the spine, impacted the long edge of something flat, knocking me to the side, loosening my grip on the girl as she bounced off of me. As my body was about to hit the ground, a massive pile of wood, metal, and other rubble fell on top of me, pinning me with its weight. If it wasn't for the wind that got knocked out of me I would've screamed as I've never felt so much pain before.

Through the cracks and slits of the rubble, I saw the girl, laying down, hopefully unconscious, by a wall. I also saw Cornelius slowly getting himself back up, under a pair of wall-mounted swords. It seemed the impact from the higher floors squashed much of the flame that was in this room, not that it wouldn't return quickly. I tried to push myself up, but between the weight of all the burning rubble, and an object poking into my stab wound, I could only barely budge.

I saw Cornelius look at the girl, then to me, then the mounted blades, and back to me with a cocky, sadistic grin.

"If everything I've ever worked for is crumbling, bursting at the seams . . . " He turned to the mounted blades, grabbing one. "And I'm going to die . . . " He yanked it off, almost falling over in the process. "Then I swear by all the gods, by the dictations that will decide which of the holy spheres I go to, I will take you all out with me and my justice."

He turned back to the girl, intent on using the sword for its purpose.

"NO!!!" I pushed again, harder, through the pain.

I lifted myself and the rubble. I watched Cornelius get closer to her. I started to crawl, scraping my back against everything on top of me. I was a quarter of the way through before my arms gave way to collapse under the pain.

"FUCK!!"

I pushed again, grunting and groaning as loud as yelling as I tried to force everything up. Cornelius raised his blade before looking back at me, feeding happily off  my reaction.

Before he could turn back, his eyes shot up above me, opening wide as I saw Gin-me swing from above as she flew her feet into Cornelius's chest, kicking him into the wall, just next to the girl.

"You… fucking… bitch!" He struggled to get back up.

Quickly she checked the girl's pulse. "She's alive." She got back up and turned to me.

Cornelius, who finally got back on his feet, swung his sword at her, from behind. Without a changing expression, she spun around, grabbing his arm before the blade could meet, twisting it until a pop rung. As he screamed, she spun him around with her, before letting go to let herself twist into a backwards kick, impacting his head with her heel, knocking him out of my view. She then walked calmly to the same place I couldn't see. Before long I heard something heavy crash, shaking the ground for less than a second as Cornelius screamed and wailed.

"MY LEGS!!"

Gin-me came back into view, walking to me quickly. "Alright, let's lift this up." She grabbed the bottom of the pile, not far from my shoulders, and started pulling. I pushed, lifting it with my back, as she helped ease the burden. Eventually, I was able to reach a crouch, to get it on my shoulders long enough to escape. The pile of wood, metal and stone crashed back into place. Both of us sat for a second, to catch our breaths.

"Thank you, Gin-me."

"Hey, we're not done here yet." She stood up, reaching out her hand. "Let's go."

I grabbed it as I stood up. Looking around the room, I saw a window in the back,  and the giant pile over the large rectangular table. I saw Cornelius sitting against a wall with a wardrobe on his legs, still wailing.

"Please . . . g-get me out. I-I'll do anything—give you anything."

Gin-me walked to him. "I want to kill you so badly right now, you know that? I want to kill you, but I won't. I won't make your death painless, quick, or merciful. I hope you get brought to the third sphere of Hel, so you can burn forever for what you've done. Even if you're brought to a different one to suffer a different punishment, I don't care. I want you to burn here first."

"N-no… PLEASE!!"

She walked away from him.

Ignoring his cries and pleads, I saw the girl, not far from the arch-shaped doorway. I rushed to her and gently picked her up just like before. We need to get out. I looked out the doorway to see a couple men, one being Yennen, rushing out of the front double door. So they made it after all. The hall was bursting in flames. I can't get through that right now. Suddenly, I heard glass shatter behind me. I turned around to see Gin-me on the other side of the room, wiping shattered glass off of a windowsill.

"Come on! I'll go through first!" She hopped through with ease.

I rushed to the window, carefully lifted the girl out, and handed her to Gin-me. Once she was through, I went through myself, breathing in fresh air that felt missing for forever. Gin-me was still holding the girl, leaning her against a kneeled leg.

I took my cloak off and saw plenty of my blood on the bottom half of it. I layed it on the ground, created a cozy warmth in front of my hand, increased the heat by a bit, and ran my hand over it, drying the blood while warming my cloak.

"What are you doing?"

"Heating it up. Drying the blood."

"How?"

"Demidragon magic. You can feel it if you want."

She wiped her sweaty, soot-covered forhead with her hand. "I've had enough heat tonight. I can see the blood dry anyways. What's the plan? Where are we going?"

"Does this town have an apothecary, physician, or healer?"

"No. Our last physician left a year ago."

"Wise woman?"

"No."

"Fuck." I exhaled heavily. "We need to get her to camp. I know someone who can help her."

I could hear Cornelius's hoarse scream as he was most likely burning alive.

"Camp? As in, ranger camp?"

"Yes."

"How far is it?"

"Too far."

"Is your back okay? I can wrap it."

"No. There's not enough time. She needs help now."

"So do you."

"I can get help after. She's more important."

"Okay. Then, what do we do?"

"Dannas and Tulas, the ones I traveled with, got a head start. If we can catch up with them, south on the road, they can help."

"Alright."

Cornelius's hoarse screams stopped.

"Place her on the cloak."

Gin-me did just so.

I detached my messer and handed it to Gin-me. "Here. I'm gonna need you to hold onto it for me. If you have to, you have my permission to use it."

"Alright." She took it.

I wrapped the girl up in my cloak, and picked her up, standing as I did so.

"Can you run fast?"

She stood up. "Yeah."

"Good. I won't wait."

She smiled. "I wouldn't want you to."

I smiled ever so slightly, before taking a deep breath. "Let's go." I leaned forward, then sprinted. We rushed around the burning, collapsing mansion as a rainless lightning storm bolted flashes of light, occasionally illuminating the sky and town. When we reached the front, we moved down the hill and through the gate, never slowing down. Over time, I slowly sped up, trying to run as fast as possible, faster than I've ever ran. We went straight on the crossroad, then past the bell. Eventually, we took a left, then a right, and the gate was in sight.

"Open the gates!!" Gin–me commanded.

Nobody budged.

"I SAID OPEN THE FUCKING GATES!!!"

All of a sudden, some men up top jolted, rushing to a large metal wheel, and started turning it. The gate started to shift as we got close to it, opening just enough for us to pass through without slowing down. I kept sprinting, ignoring the pain, ignoring the exhaustion, the weakness in my legs, and any thought that could come with them. After a minute, they still weren't in sight. I didn't know how far they went, but I didn't care. I just needed to run as fast as possible for as long as it takes. A bolt of light stuck a distant tree in the field to our right. Come on! Keep going! Keep going! My feet were becoming numb. I kept running down the road. I couldn't hear Gin-me's steps anymore. Eventually speeding past tree after tree, I passed where we set up camp the night I fought Tarwyn. I ran faster. I've got to be close now. Not long after that, I smelled a campfire and cooked meat. Rounding the edge of the forest, I saw the wagon, the light of a decent campfire, and one figure sitting on the wagon.

"DANNAS!!!" I yelled.

I saw the figure stand up on the seat, and raise its hand to its forehead.

"DANNAS!!!" I yelled again, still running.

The figure quickly hopped off of the wagon, ran near the fire and kicked something. Another figure sprung up from the ground. They both started running to me.

"DANNAS!!! TULAS!!!" I yelled, now getting much closer.

Both the figures became clearer as we reached each other. They were indeed Dannas and Tulas.

"What?! What happened?!" Dannas asked.

"Breathe, friend. Breathe," said Tulas.

I stopped in my tracks, taking the heaviest breaths I've ever taken, walking slowly to the wagon. I passed them before they followed, gently placed the girl in the wagon while my breath slowly relaxed. I leaned against the wagon, holding myself up with my hand.

"What happened to your back, Ladon? Are you okay?!" Dannas had never looked more worried. "Who's the person wrapped up in your cloak?"

"We . . . need to . . . get her to camp." As my breath relaxed, the exhaustion ran its course, making me feel weaker than I've ever felt. "She's not well. She could . . . she could die soon if she doesn't get help."

He walked up to me. "What about your back? You have a thin trail of blood."

I looked up the road to see Gin-me catching up on the trail.

"Shit, it's that guard woman!" Dannas shakily reached for his daggers.

"No . . . she helped me. She's the only reason I'm alive. You . . . you can trust her."

My eyes were getting heavy. My whole body was heavy.

"We . . . need . . . to help the girl."

My eyes began to close as my arm gave way to my weight. I saw Gin-me catch up just before my eyes closed and I hit the ground. Muffled to near unrecognition, I heard them all speak frantically.

"Shit!"

"Patch him up!"

"How much blood has he lost?!"

"Gods help us . . . "

It all went black, and silent as everything faded.

The original Ladon's voice echoed in my thoughtless mind. "You did it, boy. You failed to do everything as I told you, but you still completed the task. Prepare for what's to come. It's not over yet."