A Short Tale

Chapter 20: Purging Flames

With spear in hand, Travian practiced several swings. He swore spears were stabbing weapons, but it worked so well when he swung it. Maybe that had to do with the two spikes on the sides of it's blade, but it was the thought of stabbing that helped make the moment better. He tried several techniques he had seen several champions used. Of course, in the middle of his training he had to feel a presence approach. He swung around in a full circle and then threw himself backwards and stabbed forward, barely missing Mayella's cheek. "Oh hi." He pulled the spear back, keeping it away from a terrified strangeling.

She paused for a little while before speaking. "Y-you could have k-killed me." He really didn't see how he could. He intentionally missed.

"Well hey, next chance you get, you can almost kill me. How bout it?" He looked off to the forest, imagining a target.

"Um... I guess I can... By the way, I need to tell you-" Travian interrupted her.

"You never said hi back."

"Well I can't say hi to your back. I have to say hi to you!" He turned around, rolling his eyes as he did. "Hi. Okay, so... I think I should tell you something..." He turned around again. He saw a flash of a familiar color in the forest. "It's about you. See now, I haven't, well, been telling the truth to you. You see, I-" He started walking off to the familiar color. "Hey! You can't just leave me when I'm having a moment with you!" He turned around while he was walking to see her with some angry gesture.

"Watch me! Tell me later double B." He turned to the forest and started jogging. His spear was firmly in his grasp. He needed live practice. He saw the exact creature to extract his practice from. He was rapidly approaching the forest, ready to fight that blasted manticore. It's mane was red, and was probably stalking something near the edge of the forest as the red of it's mane was low to the ground. The only thing he needed that would make his vengeance complete would be his hood. It was probably in the hands of his nemesis... Or rather, hooves. He would have to threaten her with his mighty spear.

He was nearing the first tree of the forest when he saw what he thought was a manticore. It wasn't such a being, however. It was worse. It was a fiery red being in some clothing exploring the outskirts of the forest. It was very short, but he knew of the dangers of them. Its gold horns never melted from the heat of the being, which was quite high. Maybe he could talk it away. "Well, if it isn't a mere torchling." So far, so good.

The being turned around and revealed itself. It was horribly ugly. "When did you hideous creatures get here!?" Things were going pretty well.

"Before you, and that's all I know. May I request you leave the planet? This is not a refuge at the moment." One of its hands went to the hilt of its tiny blade at its side.

"We are an entire race, running in fear, and here you of all things are, telling us to just leave! You know what? No! We won't run anymore from you, Zashaisr!" They knew who he was. "You lead those dark tides of death before in the days of old just as you hunted us down one by one, but now we will hunt you down." He pulled out his tiny dark blue sword. Obviously, they weren't very advanced. They had magic to a small degree, but that was another thing. Its other hand erupted into flame.

"Wait no!" He just realized what he said. "I'm not him! I just look like the-" The flames in it's hand shot forth. Travian pushed his spear forward, getting rid of the flames. The fiery horned midget backed away in fear. Travian looked behind him to make sure nobody was behind him.

"I see you found the little rascals. Good job, cousin. Unfortunately, I cannot end them here. Too much magic interfering with my ability to kill. I must have you slay them for all genocidal purposes." Travian gaped at the audacity of his brother. Genocide was okay, apparently? "These beings are made of magic and are therefore not real creatures. Kill them all. Leave none alive. I expect some hung fools when I warp back in. Anywho, ta ta." He zapped out of there. He looked back at the sentient being.

"I have to warn the-" Travian stuck his spear directly into its forehead.

"Huh. They are just magic. Guess they aren't real." He picked up the body and tossed it off to the side. The body started burning away into ashes. It left the sword, and that was all. "And I was gonna give him a burial. Oh well." Something felt off about how easy that was, but he didn't mind too much. After all, practice was practice.

He tried to find where their little base of operations was and he swiftly located it. It was just a small distance off to where the little candlelight, as they referred to themselves as, was facing before receiving a face stab to his fake magic head. His feet picked up after themselves, finding himself within the trees, observing the camp. As he observed the camp, he saw something that was overly familiar. He saw in the middle of the dark green forest setting was a single midget in complete cyan armor with a cyan saber in a sheath.

"That... Idiot..." He couldn't get over the complete incompetence of this guy. He saw how small these beings were, and being easily seen is not something they would want. Something stirred in the camp as he observed. Soon enough, that cyan figure was looking around, saber drawn. It was in complete plate mail, which really didn't fit it at all. Travian, knowing his unfair advantage, accepted the challenge. He jumped down on to the camp, landing on a knee.

He rose slowly and looked around. He saw around him all the candlelights readying their flames. They all halted when their leader in bright cyan stepped forth. "You! After all these years of pain and suffering, I will bring you down. My people have always been fleeing, and now I can get rid of the source of the problem! Duel me, one on one! Man to coward!" He took a double take on what he said awkwardly. "I mean... Coward to man! Yeah!" He looked off to a candlelight behind him. "Right?" The one he was asking shrugged. He turned back around and assumed the most ridiculous battle stance Travian had ever seen in all of his life. It was more ridiculous than the pony's.

"Kay. Duel accepted." He twirled his spear around to his front and prepared for the slaughter that was about to occur. He wasn't prepared for the flames that burst his way, but he rolled out of the way anyway. The leader charged forward with some sort of speed surge, giving Travian quite a bit of trouble. He couldn't keep up with the speed. "Oh gods! How?!" The saber kept striking the shaft of his spear.

"My fury fuels me! Now die!" The cyan idiot jumped up, preparing for a strike to end it all. Unfortunately, Travian wasn't a complete and utter moron. He bashed the leader aside with his spear. The leader rolled over multiple times, obviously wounded. He even dented the armor quite a bit. He tried to pick himself up, but Travian moved over to him. "No... How could I fail... Again..."

"Cause you suck. Deal with it, pal. By the way, I'm not the right guy. The guy you're looking for is a guy in full plate armor and he has a massive scar on one of his eyes." The leader stared at him in complete confusion and shock. "Yes, you just got your entire body handed to you by a random passerby." Not entirely true, but true enough.

"That's... That's... Impossible." Travian lifted his spear up.

"Uh huh. I've heard it before more times than you can count." Travian brought the spear down, but stopped when everything suddenly turned into ash. The ash then drifted away, deeper into the forest. "Hey! I was about to commit regicide! Come back here." He started running after the ashes. His brother gave him one order, and that was to remove the candlelights. No amount of magic will stop him. After all... He had to obey his only family member. He had a strange feeling something was off about the whole ash thing, as he didn't remember that part so well.

His run after the ashes made him more weary and more tired as he started getting deeper into the Everfree Forest. The forest's magic started becoming particularly powerful. He could see multiple shadows attacking him as he was running, but he never stopped for them. It was all in his head, after all. The running slowly became jogging as he tried to keep up with the ashes. His legs were growing extensively tired. He couldn't keep chasing the ashes of a memory, or so he thought.

Finally, he fell to his knees. His spear dropped next to him. He looked around, feeling the magic invading his head weaken. It was as if he needed to be sane for some reason in this infernal forest. Noticing the drop in magic, he looked about frantically and picked his spear right back up. He even rose to his feet albeit painfully. He saw dark red eyes open in the darkness. He then saw black claws grasp logs and rocks that were surrounding his position. These beasts had an atmosphere that told him that they were real, and they looked identical to the creatures he saw in the cave where he found his bow. "You want a piece of me, or do you want multiple pieces of you out!? I do both!" He twisted around multiple times, adrenaline filling his veins.

He thought what happened next was impossible. He saw coming out of the darkness Mayella, the strangeling. He lowered his spear, and dropped down to his knees. "You can't be serious. How'd you get here?" It responded in a monotonous voice. Was it real?

"I am not the one you know. I am here to help communicate between us. We wish to know something." Travian raised and eyebrow, but didn't say anything. "Why have you been attacking the forest from afar and why have you murdered two of us, stealing two sacred relics as you did?" These were those guys. Those guys who always care about the forest and protecting secrets.

"I dunno. Boredom, ownership, fun?" The creatures appeared angered. It was as if his answer had not pleased them.

"Those are poor excuses. You are at our mercy, and you are dangerously close to angering us."

"Seriously. The bow was mine before, the quiver was mine, I was bored, and I went out here originally to practice for fun. What other excuse can I have?" The creatures got closer, and they seemed to be examining him. Possibly even testing him.

"Your heart doesn't say so. Wait... You... Your heart doesn't say anything. How is that possible?" Travian shrugged. "You are an unstable being in this forest, and you are obviously not of this plane of existence. You need to be cleansed from this world." They started moving in closer, but Travian held up his hands. He had to get away from this situation and back to the whole 'we'll warn you but not kill you' thing they had going.

"Wait! Guys! Look, I just wanted to kill something then get out." They all looked at each other for several moments.

"So... You are confirming that you are a heartless being." The eye it had slowly widened as he got closer, eventually stopping him. "Yet... We detected this would be an easy being for you to speak to." Travian was puzzled and looked back to the Mayella. So the candlelights were illusions. Did that mean his brother was an illusion too?

"She was? Strange. You guys are strange. Telepathy and stuff like that, bringing fake stuff out on me. Playing with my mind and apparently feelings and all that. Wait, that actually might be rude and strange." They looked at each other, as if having silent conversations. They then disappeared for a couple of seconds. Travian then saw the fake Mayella move closer to him. "So. Gonna speak, or you gonna-" A vision of his brother hefting his large blade over his head appeared beside the Mayella, making her look as if she were in fear.

Travian, his legs still exhausted, endured an excruciating feel as he leaped forth with his spear ready to block the blade. "No!" he shouted as he launched himself, spear first. The blade came down, but was deflected off the shaft of his spear. The vision of his brother stared at him, and Travian couldn't look back. He had just saved a being from his wrath. It was a fake Mayella, of all things! The vision seeped down into the ground. The creatures returned, looking about.

Travian was down on the ground, properly feeling the pain affecting him. Doing that was not smart. "You defended this being against your brother, or so we can only assume, one who you always obey and trust as right. We thought you as heartless, but now we don't know what you are." Travian started laughing.

"It's a long shot to assume I'm exactly what you think I am." Oh what fun it was to make that joke. It would have been better, had he not been on the ground due to his legs being over exerted.

"You passed our test. You may yet live. We expect you not to attack the forest any further." One of the beasts fell down to the little arena he was in, as he noticed. It came and picked him up. "We shall take you to the entrance of the forest." The fake Mayella seeped back into the ground. The beast then started running through the forest. It was a fast ride, one of which Travian did not enjoy. Thankfully, it was only his pride, his feelings, and his legs that hurt. He wouldn't need any scheduled visits to the doctor. Only a quick visit to a certain strangeling could repair his pride.

When he was supposed to be dropped off at the entrance of the forest, he was actually thrown out of it. He still had his spear, which was good. His legs at this point were feeling slightly better, so he picked himself up and walked back to the cottage. He reached it in an hour or so, but he felt slightly better from walking so slowly. He took a look around and saw Mayella chilling out by the river. She was looking rather lonely and or solemn, so Travian took his rightful position by her side. She hadn't noticed him yet, so he just chilled there with her.

After a while, she sighed and slumped over, as if wanted to sleep next to the river. She accidentally fell into Travian's lap, causing her to be quite surprised. She calmed herself when it was only him."When did you get here?" she asked, almost sleepily.

"I dunno. All I know is that you didn't seem very happy, so I came by and sat over here. Next thing I know, this strangeling just falls on my lap, and asked me 'when did you get here?'. Crazy, I tell you." She was looking a little bit happier than she was, at least. Or at least that was until she decided it was time for something. He knew that look well as he had seen it and had used it several times.

"Look... Longshot... Before you left, I-I was going to tell you... About what happened during your sugar rush... But now, I decided I wanted to tell you a little bit more..." Travian yawned. It was getting quite late.

"Hey, can we finish this conversation another time? It's my nap time, and I don't want to be late! If I miss one schedule then the whole thing is defunct. I just can't deal with that right now." While he wasn't really interested in what she had to say, he could have stayed around to hear it. It was only a few seconds, right?

He didn't have a choice as Mayella tried to keep him there. "No! I have to tell you." She had her legs trying to hold down Travian. That was overly cute, both sarcastically and literally. She gulped awkwardly and continued. "You see, I-I... I had this dream..." she audibly gulped yet again, as though she feared something, "It involved me being there, and then suddenly I see this really big robot looking thing with a really big stick in its hands that I later discovered was a weapon."

"Sounds like a scary dream. Let me guess: It touched you in places you didn't like and you used the weapon against it before it could violate you further?" Travian received a slap for interrupting. It wasn't that hard, though.

"I then discovered it was you." He swore he had seen this before. He just couldn't recall what. "Then I was... I was grabbed from behind by another weird robot. This one was less bulky than you, but it was still like a robot." This was becoming more and more similar as he recalled these details. "I heard this voice that was full of static saying I was some abomination-" He stopped her right then and there. He wouldn't tolerate her saying that she was an abomination!

"You aren't an abomination. Everything's an abomination compared to your utter beauty." Oh yes, how he loved to compliment the ladies. It made him feel nice.

"That's... Actually, I'm not sure how to take that." A common trait of women. "Anyways, so you were getting paid something and saving me got rid of that money. You hesitated before trying to save me... As if you actually wanted that money over a life." Travian was a gold digger, what could he say? "But then... You tried to save my life through words. That mean voice wouldn't have any of it though and... The thing behind me pulled out a sharp thing. You kept trying, but you hesitated even more. Then..." She looked him in the eyes. Wait... Did she have the same dream? "Y-you did something completely unexpected. You raised your weapon and fired some sort of stick into the thing's head. Without any mercy." He did that often enough. "You tried to help me get out of my shock, but t-then... I saw what I could only think of as your brother. He was frightening... He was so much taller than you... He had this gigantic thing in his hand, and his footsteps were extremely heavy on the ground. It felt like an earthquake every time he moved!" If only she wasn't in shock when he showed up. "Y-you tried to stop him. You even placed a hand on him, trying to save me. You were smacked away, leaving me all alone and defenseless.

"But then he picked me up. He threw me over to where you were." Oh. This was that dream. Oh no. "And you told me I could move... A-and that you were sorry for all the pain you caused and all the pain he caused. You told me to run... But I didn't. I couldn't! I knew I just couldn't leave you there." Travian didn't even notice she wasn't holding him down anymore. He was taking time out of nap time to listen to this. "So then I had over a hundred thoughts going through my head like lightning, and I just couldn't think! I acted with the moment, and I-I did something that were kind of unspeakable, well at least for you and I really just wanted to get it off my shoulders and-"

"What did you do, again?" Now he was confused. He was also kind of scared for the reaction.

"I did something like this." She said that really quickly, as if on a drug or on an anxiety attack, and then dragged him into a kiss. Her fangs weren't all that hard compared to teeth he felt before, and her skin actually looked like a carapace. She was like an insect with a very nice feel. At least around the mouth region, that was. She then pulled away. "So I did that and-" She stopped, realizing what she did. She turned slowly towards him. "I just... Did that..."

"Yep." He really didn't see the big deal.

"And... You're mad, aren't you? Look, if you want me to leave, I can, just don't-" Travian couldn't stand for this. She was assuming he was some sort of monster. He was only that on the occasional day in town! His 'rawr' is feared by many, especially when said in quick succession three times.

"Please. Calm down. I ain't mad. You were demonstrating something. Didn't mean a thing to me."

"Oh... Okay that's um... I feel awkward, now." She sat down. She looked almost defeated.

"Will a hug help?" She paused for several seconds before she nodded.