Chapter 3: A Friend In Need

After, both of the stories told by Calliope and Fenrir, I pondered on how they might be connected. Obviously, The Man has something to do with locking them in the books but, that raised more questions than it did answers. Why was he doing it? Was he good or bad? Who is he? Where did he get this power? These were a few of the many questions flowing through my head as I continued my pacing.

“Master, perhaps you should sit down for a moment.” Cally said

“Sorry, it’s just there is no possible way that these two men could be the same. There is way to large of a time gap.” I explained.

“Perhaps it wasn’t the same person, but maybe the same lineage?” she questioned

“That makes sense.” I added

I took out a large piece of paper and a pencil and began to jot down notes. I wrote details from both stories and circled important connections. I was starting to get a grasp on some things, but there was still a lot of holes.

“Hey, you guys hungry yet?” Liz called from the kitchen.

“Food!” Fenrir shouted.

“Perhaps you can explain things later, I might be an ancient being from a book, but I still require food.” Cally said rubbing her growling stomach.

Well she was right, it was late and none of us had eaten all night. Marcia was still asleep but, she was stable. I decided to go check on her before we ate. I walked up the stairs and saw Duke sitting next at her bedside silently, she was awake at least thank god.

“Hey Marci, you sure gave us a scare.” I said walking into the room.

“I did? What happened?” she asked.

“You don’t remember anything?” I asked

“Uhmm…no, not really..uhmm” she hesitated.

“What?”I asked

“Who are you again?” she said with a laugh.

That explains why Duke was silent. Amnesia wasn’t uncommon for people coming out of an accident. I sat down for a moment and just stared at her. Then I smiled, stood up, and patted her on the head.

“We are your friends, and we are going to help you remember.” I said “Now let’s go get some food.”

“Yay!” she exclaimed

We walked downstairs and into the kitchen where Liz immediately rushed to give Marcia a hug. Marcia stopped for a minute then hugged back. Liz stepped back with a smile, which quickly turned to a frown.

“What’s wrong?” she asked “You didn’t make a comment on how soft I was being?” Liz questioned.

“Was I supposed to?” she asked sitting down.

“It appears your friend is suffering from minor memory loss. I’m afraid I cannot help with that.” Cally frowned

“Memory loss!” Liz said in a fit

“Don’t worry Liz, I’m sure I’ll remember who you are.” Marcia said taking a spoonful of soup.

“At least she remembers your name.” I said. “Which is weird since nobody had said anything about your name.” I finished

“Maybe you triggered something.” Duke added

“Maybe you should stop worrying about me and eat before the food gets cold.” Marcia spat.

We laughed, at least she hasn’t lost her personality. After dinner we worked on different ideas to try and jog Marcia’s memory. We tried telling her stories, showing her photos and other stuff but, all it was doing was getting her frustrated.

“This is stupid, nothing is working!” She shouted throwing a pillow at my head.

“You just need to relax, it is going to take time.” I explained

“All of these heartwarming stories, all these photos, but I feel nothing, it’s like I’m looking from the outside in. It feels like there's this wall in my mind stopping me from remembering anything.” She said

“You remembered my name..” Liz said “How did you remember my name?” she asked

“The hug, when you hugged me in the kitchen.” she admitted blushing a bit.

“Perhaps, due to the strong bond you and Marcia share you have a much better chance at helping her.” Calliope said.

“But, I told my stories and stuff and it still didn’t work.” Liz said.

“Perhaps I may be of some service after all.” Cally said bringing up her orb once more. “When Fenrir touched the orb earlier, the images from her past showed up. Perhaps if you were to touch the orb along with Marcia then the memories might pass onto her.

“It’s worth a shot.” Marcia said.

“Okay.” Liz added

Both Liz and Marcia reached out to the orb, but Liz stopped first and turned to us. She hesitated and I understood what she was hesitating about. She didn’t want us seeing her personal life. Maybe she had secrets she didn’t want to tell, but it was none of my business. I grabbed Duke and practically dragged him upstairs.

“What?” Duke shot

“We can’t just watch the girls memories, they shared a lot of them but, chances are Marcia might see some things that only Liz would know and vice versa, what if they have done things they aren’t happy about and don’t want us to know.” I explained

“Dammit Landon why do you always have to make sense. I’m just worried about them that’s all. Can we truly trust Calliope and Fenrir, they came from a freaking book for god’s sake.” He argued

He did have some sense to what he was saying, we truly don’t know much about them. For all we know they could be lying about their stories and playing us for fools, but I highly doubt it seeing how attacked both of them seemed to have become.

“I understand your point of view, but I trust them. If it weren’t for Cally we’d be dead at the expo; and if it weren’t for Fenrir then Liz might have never come home.” I shouted. “Tell you what, go home tell your parents you’re moving in and stay in the extra room down the hall, you already have a job here and now’s as good a time as ever.” I suggested “This way you can keep an eye on Marcia and the spirits.” I finished

“Fine, I planned on moving in next semester, but most of my stuff is rounded up anyways. I’ll be back tomorrow.” He said leaving.

“Take the back door!” I shouted as I heard the back door slam.

I know why Duke is so pissed off. He has treated Marcia like a sister. Duke has three younger siblings at home, and he is always in the constant older brother mode. He just wants to make sure he doesn’t lose any of his family, blood related or otherwise.  Duke and I go way back, back to elementary school. I had his back and he had mine. I remember the one day he stood up for me against a bully and ended up getting suspended for a week after breaking the other kids arm... with a kick.

Marcia was his cousin, but she lived with her grandmother since she lost her parents in a car accident. Needless to say, her being an accident now was more shocking than anything she had been through.

“Geez it’s gonna be one of those nights.” I sighed noticing a slight stir in the hallway.

I looked out and there sat Fenrir cautiously observing me from the hallway. I waved for her to come in and she stood up and sat down on the bed normally for once, which surprised me.

“What’s up?” I asked her as she turned her head to the ceiling.

“Roof?” she said simply.

“No, it means what is going on?” I asked

“Ohhhhh..me just wondering why Duck left?” she asked

“You mean Duke?” I asked

“That’s what Fenrir meant.” she blushed rubbing her ear.

“He just went to get some stuff that’s all.” I explained

“Me also, have question for Land.” she hesitated

“Landon.” I corrected.

“That’s what Fenrir meant, does Landon, Lizzy, Marci and Duck think Fenrir is scary?” she asked.

I wasn’t expecting that, this is a question I thought she’d ask Liz but, why was she asking me? She was staring at me with her eyes wide open waiting eagerly for my response. I had to think about this; she was very powerful which could be scary but, she seemed nice.

“Not scary, just strong. We don’t have powers like you or Calliope so I guess you could say we are overwhelmed.” I tried to say as simple as possible.

“So no scared.” she tilted her head. “Are us...we friends?” she asked

“Sure, why not? We can be friends.” I said this, and it seemed to brighten her day a bit.

“Thanks.” She said as she left  the room.

That was weird, but, it seems she is learning. It might take her a long time to fully trust us but, it was a start. It may also take her some time to fully understand today’s way of life. Come to think of it, how does Calliope not question things? That’s something I’ll have to ask her once everything calms down a bit more.

“Hey Landon!” Liz shouted “We are going to take a break, you can come down for a bit.” she finished.

I left my room and walked downstairs to where everyone was sitting. Cally looked like she was about to pass out and the girls weren’t any better. Liz looked as if she had been crying for a while and Marcia’s face was beet red.

“Master… I do believe we have made… progress.” she said between breaths before taking a step and collapsing.

“I got ya.” I said catching her and laying her down on the couch.

“She must have used up a lot of energy to hold that memory thingy.” Marcia said. “It does work though.” she said holding her head. “Even though some of those I would have prefered to have left forgotten.” she laughed a bit, still out of breath.

“What do you remember?” I asked her.

“Everything up to grade 12ish.” Was I always that up lifting?” she asked with a blush.

“Always.” Liz laughed. “If you don’t mind Landon, I…” Liz said collapsing as well.

Obviously I caught her. I carried her upstairs to her bedroom and laid her down with Marcia close behind, who then instantly collapsed into her bed as well. Must have been extremely tiring, but at least it was working I think. I can’t really tell you what happened but, I’m sure it will be explained soon enough.

“Master...master where are you?” Calliope called

I walked down the stairs to where she was lying down. She was sitting up on the couch, her face in her hands trying to recover from her lack of energy. She went to stand up but, fell back onto the sofa once again.

“Easy now, you need to rest.” I told her.

“Such a caring boy, I wish all mortals were like you. But, your friend still has much to remember. I must help her.” she said passing out once again.

What was it with this nymph. She only cares about everyone else, she hasn’t even paid any attention to herself… I stopped and remembered how hypocritical I was being just then. Those words coming from the guy who jumped in front of a giant hound.

“Land-On, where is Liz?” Fenrir asked coming from the kitchen, a raw steak hanging from her mouth.

“*sigh* you’re supposed to cook that.” I said “Come with me, Liz is sleeping so she is fine. I’ll make you a snack.”

Fenrir tilted her head in question then proceeded to follow me into the kitchen. I took the steak and tossed it onto the stove and began to spice it up. It wasn’t the greatest thing I have ever cooked, but it was something. After it was finished, I slapped the chunk of meat onto a plate and set it down on the table. Fenrir immediately sat down and stared at it.

“Now?” she asked.

“I’m going to teach you how to use these.” I said holding up a fork and knife.

It took some time, but she sort of got the hang of it. She still has trouble understanding why we were using weapons to eat our food. It was going to take a long time to explain.

The next couple of days were the same thing; the girls would eat, sleep, and work on getting Marcia’s memory back. For some reason the last bit of her memory was taking longer to come back. School had been shut down due to flooding as Hurricanes had hit down south, and we were getting the whiplash. I had helped Calliope and Fenrir to learn a few things here and there, and Duke moved into the extra room upstairs. I prepared a few extra beds for Cally and Fenrir, however Fenrir prefered to sleep at Liz’s feet.

“Okay so, that’s the last memories I can remember.” Marcia said.

“Are you sure?” Liz asked her.

“Yeah I’m fairly certain of it.” she said twirling her hair a bit like Liz was. “And possibly a few habits from you.” she said with a laugh.

“It is possible that a few things might have been shared or transferred so please do be careful. Try to forget memories that aren’t yours.” Cally said finally.

“Well at least I’m done with that chapter of my life.” Marcia giggled. “Now care to let me in on who they are exactly. Don’t get me wrong Cal I’m happy you helped me out, but who are you and that wolf girl?” she asked. “Because if there is one thing I do remember, it’s those books.” she finished

Chapter 4: The Explorer, Bus Driver and Uber

“Are you sure this will work?”  I asked Cally as she brought up the glowing orb for the final time.

I was all too familiar with these orbs since we started working with them a few days ago to get Marcia’s memory back. The first time was like a flashback within a flashback. It went all the way back to our childhood. Me and Marci were standing there watching our memories unfold. The first one was how we met way back when.

“Hey give me that!” A young boy said taking a toy from a younger Marcia.

“But, but that’s my dolly give her back.” the little girl said crying.

“You heard her, give her back.” Another boy said as the boy holding her doll ripped the arm off and threw it on the ground.

I was still new to this school so I didn’t have too many friends besides Landon but, I wasn’t going to let that slide. Little me was a badass, and she was about to do a number of those boys.

“Hey you big dummies!” little me shouted.

“Who said that.” the  boy said tripping over his shoelaces.

While they were distracted little me had tied their shoes together I laughed at that memory. The memories continued through time. How I introduced her to London and us to Duke. This would be extremely embarrassing if the boys were to see this. Every now and then we would see an embarrassing memory from one or the other especially from high school.

“You like him don’t you?” one of our old school friends teased.

“I do not he’s just a friend.” I shouted blushing wildly. As I ran off, I came face to face with the boy in question and gave him a punch in the face. He just laughed, he was used to it.

“The big goofball.” I said

Then came the bad memories, stuff we tried to forget or leave in the past. We came to the scene on the cliff, a scene that still haunts my dreams to this day. However this time it was more of a bird's eye view. There we were hanging on the edge of a cliff. I was in a panic, my brother was struggling to get me out of my pinned position. The last thing I remember from that was his smile. The next thing was me waking up on the ledge and looking down to see my older brother’s body crushed by the car. A loud slam broke the orb and caused us to wake up from the visions. Tears rolling down all three of our faces. It hadn’t occurred to me that Cally might be seeing these as well.

“I did not want to see that.” I said

“Neither did I” Marcia answered.

“Hey Landon!” I shouted.

The next couple of days were fairly similar. Although things began going out of order every now and then especially when it came to memories long suppressed. We were back in high school again. This time in a car on the highway. The shock on Marcia’s face showed it all, this was when she lost her parents. I held her hand as we went through that dreadful night. It was raining and they were on their way home.

“Marmar are you hungry?” A man in the front said

“Just say yes Marcia.” She said to herself.

“No not really.” she said.

“Well alright then, don’t say we didn’t ask sweetheart.” a woman in the passenger seat repeated.

Marcia’s parents were nice people and they did not deserve what was coming up next. As they drove, a drunken truck driver hit the car in front of it causing it to fall on it’s side. Marcia’s father tried to stop but ended up hitting the truck trailer head on. He died at the wheel. Her mother, managed to get out and help Marcia out of the car as well. Both of which were dazed.

“Don’t worry sweet heart we are going to be..” another car behind them struck her mother in front of her eyes.

The orb vanished and we all passed out. That was the second to last orb we would have to deal with. As i said earlier we have one more. We decided to give it a day to recover from what we saw, no explanation should be needed. Landon had been busy, he put together beds for the girls, helped Duke move in and even taught Fenrir how to use a fork and knife. All of us sat prepared to go into the final memories, Marcia wanted us to see it so she could explain how she knew about the books already.

“So the last thing you want to remember is the accident you were just in?” I asked her

“Yes, I have pretty much remembered everything else except for when we flew off the bridge.” she responded

Calliope did the all too familiar gestures and brought up the giant glowing orb once more. As we gazed into the orb Marcia brought up the scene. It was her sitting in the back of an uber, or taxi for those who don’t know what that is. They were driving down the road almost at the bridge.

“So young lady, we are almost at your stop.” the driver said, we could barely see his face in the mirror.

“Good I need to make sure my friends are ok we’ve had one crazy week believe me.” she answered back checking her phone.

“When you get home give your friend Landon my regards.” he said with a smile.

“Wait how do you know about Landon, I never mentioned any names?” she said a bit cautious.

The man sighed having realized the mistake he made. He turned and revealed his face to her, a face all too familiar to me it was the bus driver from earlier the one who gave me Fenrir’s book.

“That’s Henry, that’s the guy from the expo.” Landon said “He gave me Cally’s book.

“I met him on the bus, he was driving it at the time and he gave me Fenrir’s book.” I responded.

We looked at Calliope’s face which went pale almost as if she had seen a ghost. Fenrir was showing a similar reaction. Fenrir approached the image and poked him in the nose.

“Man…” she said.

That’s when it clicked, this man is The Man, He was the one from the flashbacks and he has been everywhere where he needed to be to give us the books, and he is the one who we need to find to get answers.

“What happened next?” Landon asked.

As the image continued we noticed a large figure in front of the taxi. The man and Marcia flinched as the vehicle was suddenly lifted into the air off the street. We lived through the experience of falling into the river below but, before the image went dark I noticed the man trying to give Marcia something.

“The next thing that happened was I woke up here with no memory at all.” she finished

“That would be my doing.” Duke said happily.

“My hero.” she giggled making Duke blush.

“Cal can you go back to when they were falling?” I asked.

“Of course.” she said

The orb flashed back to where I noticed good ol’ Henry trying to hand Marcia something, it was a book. A black one but, I couldn’t really make out what was on it. We then flashed back a bit more and in the window was a large claw, no talon gripping the ceiling of the car and dropping it off the side.

“Bird, that was bird.” Fenrir said rushing to a pen and paper. “Big White Bird, Vedrfolnir” she said drawing a picture of a bird sitting between the eyes of a giant eagle sitting atop a tree looking thing.

It was quite a good looking photo given the circumstances of who was drawing it. That's when I realized I had seen this tree before. Landon quickly rushed up to my room and grabbed his deck of Runes and Relics cards. Then he rushed back downstairs.

“That’s the tree of yggdrasil.” he said pulling out a much more detailed card of the tree Fenrir was drawing.

“Yes, yes there bird that one.” Fenrir said pointing to the withered white bird on top of the tree in between the eyes of a giant eagle. “Only smaller then bigger bird but, bigger bird not real. White bird kill big bird.” she said.

“But, that doesn’t work with the legends.”  Landon said.

“You gonna believe old writings or someone that was there?” I said

“Fair enough.” he finished

We pondered over it for a bit when Duke came up with an idea. He quickly ran upstairs and came back down holding both Fenrir and Calliope’s books. He then placed them on a table and rushed to the kitchen coming back with a glass of water.

“Mind if I test a theory?” he asked

“As long as you clean it up afterwards.” I finished curious, to what he was getting at.

Duke poured the water onto the books only for the water to drip off with no damage coming to either one of them. Calliope picked up her book, slapped duke and handed it back to Landon. Fenrir grabbed her book and gave it back to me with a growl.

“You’re lucky that work.” Fenrir snarled

“We are connected to these you know, for all we know we might have been killed if the book was ruined.” Cal finished with a huff.

“But now we know these books are water proof.” He pointed out.

Then reality set in, if the books are water proof, it’s possible they might be indestructible explaining why they are in such pristine condition after all this time. That also mean that the book that Henry was trying to give to Marcia might still be in good condition but, it would be at the bottom of the river. A door slammed behind us and we noticed Marcia rushing to Landon’s car.

“Let’s go you guys!” She shouted

“Might as well.” Landon said as we all hurried into the car.

There was one minor issue, make that two minor issues. Cal could hide her ears fairly easily and appeared mostly human, but, Fenrir had ears and a tail. We were going to need to hide those if we were going to take her anywhere. We rushed inside practically dragging Fenrir behind us.

“So the ears are easy, she can wear one of my tuques but, how do we hide her tail?” I asked.

“Why hide tail?” Fenrir asked.

“Normal people don’t have tails.” Marcia said.

“Fenrir a wolf.”she said crossing her arms.

“But, you are in human form at the moment are you not, and we’ve seen your true form in the flashback it’s not inconspicuous at all so how about this?” Marcia said holding up a skirt.

“What that?” Fenrir said looking at it.

Marcia helped Fenrir into it and gave her a top that matched. Fenrir then struggled but, managed to tuck her tail around her waist which was then covered by the skirt. Of course she was wearing everything else necessary as well.

“Now Fenrir I need you on your best behavior.” I told her and she nodded.

Then we realized we were not all going to fit inside the small car that Landon had.

“ Duke said he will meet us there.” Landon said jumping into the driver’s seat. “We’ll have to follow him anyways.”

The drive wasn’t long, we were only on the road for about twenty minutes or so. Calliope was fascinated by the buildings and vehicles that were zooming by, Fenrir was to distracted with her skirt to notice, she found it really uncomfortable. So far, it seemed they would be able to adapt to their new world. When we got to where Duke pulled Marcia out of the water. We were surprised to find that someone else beat us to it.

“What the hell is this?” I said as we parked close by.

Men in black suits, dark sunglasses and your all around secret agent type outfits littered the entire park. Tents were set up and strange machines were set up here and there. In the middle of the tents was a much larger tent which was guarded by multiple agents.

“I guess, something must have happened with that book.” Landon said unbuckling his seatbelt.

“What are you doing?” I grabbed him by the arm before he got out of the car.

“What’s it look like I’m doing?” he said with a grin as he ran out of the car. Calliope quickly got out and joined him.

I looked at fenrir, who had her tail out wagging with anticipation. She looked at me a devilish grin on her face. I could tell she was excited about something, probably the fact that we aren’t going to be leaving without some sort of scuffle. I let out a sigh and we quickly joined with Landon.

“Are you guys serious right now?” Marcia said arriving with Duke. “This is literally the worst idea you’ve ever had.” she ranted to Landon.

“Even worst then jumping in front of a giant three headed dog?” he smirked.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked

“Calliope can you put them to sleep?” he asked.

“Not while they are wearing those.” she said pointing the the ear pieces on each agent.

I looked around at our surroundings. There were trees, more trees, a couple benches, government agents, electrical wires, trash cans. I looked back the electrical wires, I searched from electrical pole to electrical pole for the right target.

“Let’s knock out the power.” I said.

“Those are wireless headpieces.” Duke pointed out.

“Ever seen what happens to transformers when they explode?” I replied “The built up power lets out an electromagnetic wave which, knocks out any piece of electrical equipment for like five miles.” I said with a bit of an exaggeration.

We all looked at each other for a minute, we all had that are we actually going to do this face. Everyone seemed worried except Fenrir who was already on her way to the transformer. Landon sighed, Duke laughed and Marcia face palmed at the realization that we basically just told her to kill, like telling a dog to fetch.

“So what do we do when the power is out?” Marcia asked.

“Improvise.” He said simply. “The tent in the middle looks important let’s check it out.”

Suddenly, a large explosion sounded causing all the agents to instantly rip off their ear pieces and rush to the location of the source. Some moved towards the center tent and all of them pulled out their weapons. Then in exchange for a nasty sounding explosion a beautiful song filled the air and all of the agents fell asleep. I quickly rushed over to where the transformer was and found Fenrir asleep at the foot of the electrical pole. I picked her up on my back and went to follow the rest of the gang.

“So what do think is in here?” Marcia asked

“The book, someone like Calliope or Fenrir maybe nothing, but let’s find out.” Duke answered charging in.

We entered the tent, it was rather open, a few tables on the sides with microscopes, screens and computers scattered about, all of which fried. In the middle of the room was a chair, chained to the chair was a young looking man. He was wearing a set of black armor. His hair was bright red and he had a scar going down the right side of his face over his eye. His nose was bleeding and he had a few cuts along his face.  On one of the tables sat the black book. On it was a golden symbol of a dragon head. Silver chains had it tied up and the lock contained a bright red gem.

“Looks like they were trying to open the book.” Landon said picking up a very broken saw and a crumbling hammer.

“So then who’s this?” Marcia asked approaching the man in the chair.

“That is none of your concern.” A familiar voice said from the doorway.

Henry walked into the tent along with several agents armed with guns and another man. The man was very thin, he was wearing a grey hoodie and ripped jeans. His eyes were bright red and he had a very malicious smile on his face. He was wielding a strange looking knife which he licked every so often. A psychopath if I’ve ever seen one.

“I don’t know who sent the bird but, clearly they are not a fan of me. The man you see here is the spirit from the book on the table. Now girl which one of you was with me in the car when we went over the bridge?” he said with an intimidating voice.

At first I thought that Henry was a nice guy, he sure seemed like it at first, but now it was clear that was not his true intent. Who was he and why would he give us these books. I backed up in front of Marcia, Fenrir still unconscious on my back. Calliope stood in front of everyone prepared for a fight.

“Please sweet cheeks, you can’t handle me.” The white haired man said with a grin. His smile growing large then it should.

The man’s humanity pretty much disappeared at that moment. His smile looked like it was straight off the Joker’s face. His skin was white as snow and his hoodie shifted to a  black suit and he pulled a top hat from thin air. He aimed his knife at Calliope.

“Now now Jack have your fun later.” Henry said.

“Please master, I’m so bored with this one he doesn’t even scream.” the man said with a laugh.

Henry grabbed Jack by the back of the neck and slammed him into the ground. Jack’s face went from an evil grin to a shocked, fearful face. He was shuttering as were the rest of us. For an old man he was extremely strong.

“Know your place spirit.” he said letting him go.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“That Lizzy my dear is not the right question.” he said simply. “Grab both of the girls I can’t remember who owns what. You know what just grab them all.” he said leaving the tent along with Jack.

Calliope changed into her nymph form and summoned multiple roots from the ground and ensnared the men she then sent one towards Henry but, Jack cut it down with ease. Jack then ran towards Cally and stabbed her in the shoulder. He then punched her in the gut and sent her flying into the one of the tables. Marcia quickly grabbed the book and the chains vanished.

“Looks like it’s your’s” Duke said dragging her to the back of the tent.

“Good to freaking know.” Marcia said sarcastically.

Landon quickly ran over to Calliope and helped her up. Jack kept walking closer to me licking his knife. He laughed maniacally which lucky for me woke up Fenrir. She quickly  change into her armor and summoned her weapons and charged at the skinny villain. They fought for some time, Fenrir cutting Jack’s suit here and there but not managing to land a blow. Jack was excellent at dodging her attacks while attacking back. He tried to slice Fenrir but, she dodged the blade and kicked Jack in the chest sending him backwards.

“Not bad brat.” he said spitting out some blood and wiping his mouth with his hand. “But, not good enough.” He said charging again only to get slapped down by a root from behind. “CRAP!” he said with a cough.

Landon was standing with Calliope who was holding her shoulder, blood dripping down her face from a injury on her forehead. Fenrir pounced once more but, only hit a cloud of smoke.

“Missed me.” Jack said appearing behind her and stabbing her in the back causing her to collapse.

“Fenrir!” I shouted running to her side.

“Now then I’m pretty sure by that reaction, it’s you that I need to grab. Don’t get me wrong I would love to kill all of you but, my master has ordered me to capture you. Sadly.” he said with a sigh as he pointed at Marcia. “I was really hoping for more of a fight though, it gets so boring torturing the same guy over and over again.” he said.

“Don’t you dare lay a finger on her.” Duke said grabbing one of the knives from a table.

“Brave but….” he ran in front of Duke within a bl
ink of an eye. “Booooring.” he said throwing Duke out of the tent. Landon helped Calliope to her feet who had collapsed after her last attack. I rushed towards Marcia but, Jack back handed me sending me to the ground. “Please attack me again,make my day.” He said with a grin.

“Somebody help me!” Marcia screamed as Jack reached for her.

Suddenly, the man in the chair’s eyes shot open and he pretty much flew out of the chair. He grabbed Jack by the neck and lifted him into the air. He summoned a black sword and stabbed him through the back only managing to hit smoke.

“Nice try buddy. You’ll have to do better then..” he got cut off as a metallic fist hit him in the jaw. “Dammit...that hurt.” Jack said vanishing again. “Next time kiddos, you’re dead.” his voice echoed as he disappeared.

The man in black armor bent down and helped Marcia to her feet. He changed from his armor to a black t-shirt and red pants. His flaming red hair covering his scarred right eye.

“So who are you?” Marcia asked.

“I have been given many names, desolator, demon, etc but my name given by humans is Smaug.” he smirked.

“The dragon? The one responsible for the deaths of thousands in a kingdom of olden times?” Landon said

“A bit harsh in the explanation but, yes the very same. I know you’re legends and stories and in each of them wrong the only people I killed was during a war for my king I’m not a monster nor, do I kill for sport and I definitely did not get killed by a ferry man with a windlance. Nor was I slain by a boy with lead. I was betrayed by someone I called a friend.” he looked at the entrance of the tent. “For now let us take our leave my queen.” he said bowing to Marcia.

Chapter 5: The Knight in Black Armor

Once we got back to the house, I quickly laid Calliope down in my bed, then proceeded to help Fenrir into her’s. Liz ran and grabbed some towels to help stop the bleeding. Once Cally felt better she could probably heal the rest of us but, for now they were in bad shape. Smaug had picked up Duke and laid him down on the couch. He then knelt down near Marcia who was sitting in one of the chairs.

“You do know you don’t need to kneel.” she said.

“Of course my queen.” he said sitting down on the other couch.

Our living room had two couches and two chairs. A large television sat on the wall in plain view and a small table sat in front of the furniture. It was a group effort to get it this way, in exchange we went without internet for a few weeks but, it was worth it.

“Why do you keep calling me a queen?” she asked.

“I am a knight, we serve no master nor mistress we serve only royalty, I can call you princess if you’d like.” he smirked.

“No, no it’s okay just call me Marcia or Marci for short.” She smiled rubbing her arm in a bit of discomfort.

I witnessed this from the top of the stairs. I didn’t really want to interrupt their little bonding session. We need to figure out what is going on. The only thing we have discovered is that Henry is some kind of being who sealed these legendary figures into books. Books, that for some reason only we can open. Maybe it has something to do with blood, but that wouldn’t make any sense since most of us aren’t related.

“Master Landon….” Calliope said sitting up slowly.

“Easy, easy now.” I said lying her back down. “You need rest.” I told her.

“But, you’re hurt let me heal you.” she said reaching for the injury I got from when Jack hit me.

“Save your energy, you need it more.” I told her grabbing her hand and laying it down.

She laughed “Always putting others before yourself, just what I would expect of my master.” she said falling asleep.

That’s when it hit me. Each time we opened a book, each of us did something or was part of something that caused the books to be open. I jumped in front of Liz to protect her and the little girl. Liz never let herself get pushed around and fought for her life against the gang that attacked her. What did Marcia do? I thought on this for a minute, maybe she tried to save Henry first or, did she do something else.

“Young, sir Landon.” Smaug said from the living room. “Care to hear me story?” he asked. Did he know what I was thinking.

I walked downstairs shooting a quick glance into Fenrir’s room. She was struggling against Liz who was trying to clean her wounds. Stubborn vikings, must be upset she couldn’t beat Jack, a shot to her pride if anything. I sat down and Smaug stared at me creepily.

“First how do I know I can trust you.” Smaug said simply.

“I should be asking that question.” I said

“I saved your friends life twice now, first when she got attacked by that man at the bridge the second when you were trying to save me.” he said.

“Wait, attacked by the man at the bridge?” Marcia asked

Smaug sighed, he hadn’t really thought about that. He stood up and summoned his sword and laid it on the table. He then summoned a shield and placed it next to the sword followed by a lance and a knife

“I took these weapons from the corpses of my friends as mementos after one of them attacked the rest of us and killed all but, myself. Needless to say I have trust issues for my loyalty. Much like my queen. ” he said turning to her. “According to that man, our books so to speak resonate when it finds someone with similar personalities. I overheard them speaking when they were attempting to torture me. You’re friend, the boy who fished my queen out of the water, he was being threatened by that man, my queen chose him over the myself. Loyalty is a knight's best quality.” he explained.

That explains the memory loss, if Henry had enough power to seal legendary beings, and he planned to betray us he didn’t want Marcia to remember what she had to do. I looked at Marcia and her face was pale white clearly something was bothering her.

“So it’s my fault you were captured.” she said

“You tried to protect us both but, given the choice you chose your comrade over a stranger, do not say you chose wrong.” he said sharply causing her to cheer up a bit.

“Now then who can I trust you with my story Sir Landon, what have you done to prove your worth for me to follow you?” he asked

“Marcia trusts me.” I said

“You all trusted that man.” he replied.

“He jumped in front of a three headed wolf to save Liz and a little girl.” Marcia said, I blushed a bit.

“Lad why did you not start with that.” He said “Where is the head of the beast?” he looked around.

We sat in silence as the knight looked around, was this guy for real, first he saves us then questions us then expects me to have killed a three headed beast and put his head on my wall as a trophy. Can anybody please explain how my life has come to this.

“I didn’t kill it, I almost died until Calliope save me.” I explained

“Speaking of the druid how is she?” He asked.

“I think she’s a nymph actually, other then that she is resting.” I told him.

“For women your friends are quite strong.” he said instantly receiving a slap across the face from Marcia, he instantly got on his knees and begged for forgiveness. “Apologize highness.” He grumbled

For a knight he is easily embarrassed. He said one thing and instantly regretted it, he didn’t even flinch when Marcia slapped him yet he begs for her forgiveness. Such will is rare. He should be lucky Liz didn’t hear that or he would be begging for more than just forgiveness.

“Anyways, that is all the proof I need, knowing that someone will protect my queen gains some trust for me, proof will be necessary for later on.” He said “Now then my story, do we have any drinks?” he asked.

“What kind of drink?” I asked

“Ale boy bring me Ale!” he shouted

“Me to!” Fenrir said walking down the stairs. We all gave her a glare she shrugged her shoulders. “Me viking.” was all she said.

I walked to the fridge, Liz and Duke drink beer every now and then but, only on special occasions. Duke had some left over from a party he went to a while ago, he hates drinking but, they were gifts so they sat in the fridge for a while. I handed a bottle to each of them who looked at me like I was an idiot.

“Oh, Me got it.” Fenri said summoning to rough metal mugs.

“Much obliged lass” Smaug said with a laugh.

It’s come to my attention that an ancient norse demon and a medieval dragon were drinking beer on my couch. A performer for the god was asleep in my room and we are all just sitting here not questioning anything at all. The two of them to a gulp of the alcohol. Well Smaug did, Fenrir chugged it with no side effects whatsoever.

“Now then my story.” smaug said pushing Fenri away with his open arm as she tried to take his drink. “Yes I am a dragon, no I am not a murderer. Many eons ago, I served under the late king Arthur of Camelot, I was given an order to lead the charge against the evil druid Mordrid in the southern swamps. However when me and my group arrived, we encountered the wizard Merlin, the very man we fought against earlier. This so called protector, who we trusted we our lives, slayed my friends one by one in cold blood. I charged at him, but was sealed in this cursed book.” he said taking another sip. “So no I’m no murderer, Merlin was, he framed me afterwards by burning down the towns and killing innocent civilians having me watch from my prison, my knighthood vanished from history and  my image was replaced by a villainous fire drake of the northern realms.” he said sadly.

This was completely different from the stories we read in books. Smaug was meant to be an evil dragon and Merlin was meant to be a wise sorcerer who guided the king, to see it the other way around was confusing. It would give him the perfect cover, a villain hidden in plain sight in a position of power and ways to manipulate the situations as he saw fit after all who would question the right hand of the king.

“What a terrible tale.” Calliope said from the top of the stairs. “ Your story has been twisted more than ours.” she said leaning on the handrail.

I helped her down the stairs and sat her in my seat. I then sat down next to her. A bit closer than I was comfortable with, but I think she was ok with it. I blushed a bit, when she leaned her head on my shoulder. The grin on Marcia’s face teased me.

“Well my lady I believe I would quite like to hear your story.” Smaug asked politely.

As Cally and Fenrir took turns telling Smaug their stories I couldn’t help but think. I ended up blocking out the story telling as I got lost in thought. The biggest question on my mind was why Henry or Merlin, or whatever his real name is was doing all of this to begin with. Secondly, is it even possible for this man to be the same man in each story, how can something live for that long. These were the questions on my mind as images of our encounter flooded my head. I was trying to grasp details of the tent of images that may be helpful when I scared myself out of thought as the image of Jack flashed by.

“You alright boy?” Smaug asked

“Yeah I’m okay, just thinking. Who the heck is that guy anyways?” I said.

“I may have a theory on that, but we should wait until tomorrow it’s getting late. I’m going to go check on Liz and Duke and then I’m going to bed.” she said “Smaug you can have the couch tonight we kinda don’t have much rooms left besides the basement or the attic and they aren’t liveable quite yet.” she explained.

“Fear not my queen for this couch is far comfier than anything I would have ever slept on before.” he said resting his feet on the arm of the sofa.

As we all prepared for bed, I helped Calliope to her’s. She was still very weak and although she said she was alright I could tell she was lying. Her wounds were slowly vanishing but, she still needs time to heal. As for Fenrir she seemed to be healing faster or so it would seem, it’s hard to tell with her because she is so stubborn.  Liz and Duke were still out cold and I was still pretty banged up myself. I walked into the kitchen to grab a quick snack before hitting the hay.

“Man we need to get some groceries.” I sighed grabbing some leftover pasta from the other night.

I emptied the rest of the pasta into a bowl and tossed the plastic container into the sink. I put the bowl into the microwave for a minute or so and sat down on the counter and waited. The humming of the microwave was quite calming, that or I was just completely exhausted. Maybe a bit of both. The microwave dinged and I pulled out my food when I heard Smaug quickly get up and rush into the kitchen.

“Easy, I was just making food.” I motioned as he armed himself in armor and sword.

“Twas not the bell that frightened me, someone is watching us as we speak.” he said walking to the back door.

The front door lead into a hallway which lead into the living room. From there you can get to the kitchen or the stairwell. The kitchen had three two more doors, one leading to the back yard, the other down to the basement. Our backyard wasn’t huge, but it was a decent enough size. Smaug walked outside then stood in the middle of the yard.

“Show yourself.” he said to seemingly nothing.

“Brave words coming from a human.” a voice echoed “Why should I do that knight?” It asked with a small giggle at the end.

“Why are you here, if you are an assassin you will have to be stealthier then that.” he smirked.

I didn’t dare to walk outside, I had pajamas on a pasta in my hand and there was someone outside probably trying to kill us. At least Smaug had weapons and armor. Smaug’s eyes were burning red as he seemed to be tracking something.  Suddenly, a figure went to attack him from behind.

“You’re fast.” Smaug said quickly turning and pinning it to the ground. He then held his sword at its throat. “ not fast enough.” he grinned. “Now then let us find out who our little assassin is.”  he said picking up the small figure and putting down it’s hood.

The attacker was a small girl around 18 by the looks of her she had long black hair and deep purple eyes, and by eyes I meant six of them. Which brought me to the next interesting aspect her arms. She had six arms as well although she seemed to be concealing four of them probably not to attract any unwanted attention.

“Who are you?” I asked her.

“I’m looking for somebody.” she said.

“I believe that was not the question.” Smaug said bringing his sword closer to her throat. “Talk.” he said sternly.

“If I wanted to kill you I would have done it hours ago instead of listening to you tell stories.” she laughed.  “Instead I come bearing gifts.” she laughed holding out a bag, one of the kind of bags you would use to go shopping with, good ones not the shotty pastic ones. “Take a look, I tell the truth.”

I cautiously approached the two fighting spirit s and grabbed the bag the contents made my eyes grew wide. Inside the black colored bag were two books, one purple with a golden spider on the front the other blue with what seemed to be some kind of snake, it was hard to make out exact details in the dark.

“Where did you get these?” I asked

“Stole them from some rusty old man after you and your friends started that seen back at the tents. See while you were all busy fighting, I was watching from within the confines of another tent. I was summoned by one of his agents, I didn’t like what they had planned so I killed him and stole one of the books off the shelves before making an escape thanks to your distraction. Now do you mind letting me up?” she asked

Smaug looked at me, he was still wary about letting this strange woman up. I looked at him and nodded slowly. He raised his sword along with her, keeping her a distance that was close enough for his sword to cut her down, but far enough to avoid her reach. She seemed entertained by this a little too much if you ask me.

“No tricks?” I asked

“Cross my heart she said making an X over where her heart is with three of her arms. “By the by, how did you notice me.” she said raising a few eyebrows in curiosity.

“Your mistake was thinking I was human clearly you did not hear my story, I could smell you from the living room, chances are my friend smelled you from even farther away which is why she is currently standing on the roof watching us as we speak. Isn’t that right Fenrir?” he shouted to the rooftop.

I quickly turned and sure enough there stood Fenrir with her blades drawn and her armor on completely prepared for battle, she must have crawled out of the upstairs window as to not bring up any suspicions. She was probably going to keep watch all night if Smaug hadn’t done anything. Fenrir jumped down and looked at the girl straight in the eyes. They glowed bright yellow for a moment then returned to their normal blue hues. She dismissed her armor and weapons and returned inside.

“What was that?” I looked to Smaug who just shrugged his shoulders. He dismissed his weapons and armor as well. “Apparently you have been given the all clear.” he said gesturing for the girl to follow him inside. She did.

“Now then who are you?” I asked once more

“I’ll tell you my tale tomorrow, I hadn’t planned on revealing myself until I was prepared, but my plans were ruined do to your two Evocates here.” she said stretching out all of her arms.

“Evocates? What do you mean by that?” Smaug asked.

“That’s what my quote unquote master was calling us. His last words were, you damn evocate you were suppose to bend to my every command...yada yada yada.” Then I gauged his throat out with my teeth.” she said abruptly. “Don’t you dare start being cautious, he had it coming, I only listened to them because they threatened me with electrical prods and bullets.”

“I get that, but still harsh isn’t it?” I asked

“I’m a spider, it’s in our nature.” she said.

“Evocates as in evocations, as in the act of summoning a being from the astral plain.” Smaug explained. “Merlin spoke of mystics and magicians who would do such things, turns out he himself was an expert on the subject.” Smaug finished.

We spoke for about a half hour, mainly banter on how she escaped and how she found us. Smaug explained who he was. Apparently she had gotten to our yard by following a thread she planted onto Smaug’s book. She had connections to spiders, that’s all we figured out about her. We asked if she knew much more about Henry and his motives but, she explained how she was mostly left in the dark. We also discovered that this was not her true form and how she attempted to take human form but, this was the best she could do. She tied her arms down and hid her face in her hood under her hair.

“Anyways, the only place left for you to stay is either the attic or the basement.” I said “But they aren’t quite liveable yet.” I explained.

“Do you plan on using the attic at all?” she asked.

“We store all of our stuff in the basement and we don’t even have much stuff to store. It’s actually completely empty up there minus a few mouse traps.” I explained.

“I can make do.” she said standing up.

“Up the stairs, the hatch is at the far end of the hallway in front of my room, I shall show you the way.” I finished

“How generous of you, perhaps I should give you my book.” she said.

“Does it work that way?” I asked

“The hell if I know.” she finished leaving for the stairs.

I was about to follow her when Smaug grabbed me by the shoulder. He turned his head towards the kitchen window then looked back at me. He handed me my bowl and fork then sat back down on the couch.

“What?” I asked

“Keep an eye on her.” he said. “I will keep watch tonight to make sure she wasn’t followed, she might have brought danger to our doorstep if she was. She seemed to have to easy of an escape.” he finished.

“You think she was bait?” I asked turning to her as she stood patiently at the top of the stairs. “You think she’s lying.”

“Wolves have good instincts if Fenrir thought she was lying she wouldn’t have unarmed herself. So, I believe she is telling the truth but, that doesn’t mean her escape wasn’t planned. Just stay vigilant.” he finished.

“Understood.” I said turning to go to my bed.

I walked the girl up the stairs and showed her where the hatch was. I pulled a string which opened the hatch and I was about to pull to fetch my chair from my room when she stopped me. She jumped nimbly into the hatch then looked down at me and smiled before closing it behind her. Interesting girl.

“I have no idea how I’m going to explain this.” I said to myself.

“Explain what?” Marcia said coming out of the washroom.

“Oh hey Marci...uhmm well you see.” I stammered.

“Spider chick in the attic right?” she asked. “Fenrir told me, those were exact words actually I must be rubbing off on her.” she said proudly. “Tell me in the morning I’m going to bed.” she said yawning.

Welp that was easier than expected, but, I doubt I’m getting any sleep tonight. I crawled into my bed and under my blankets. I shot a look at my clock, it was already 2:30 in the morning. I layed my head back and closed my eyes.

“What a day.” I yawned.

Update*

Hello, anyone reading this, first of all thank you.

Second of all I apologize for any misspelling I may have made.

Third of all, I will now be adding a new chapter each week.

That's All For Now updates will happen randomly if anything changes.

Chapter 6: A Web of Sorrow

When I woke up it felt like I was out all last night drinking. Unlike Landon, I drink every now and then so I do know how hangovers feel like. I sat up in my bed and half expected Fenrir to be asleep at my feet. To my surprise she wasn’t. I guess that explains why I slept so good, although I admire Fenrir’s loyalty she snores louder than my uncle Frederick. I carefully stood up and walked to the hallway. The house was silent almost as if I were the only one here.

“Hello Sweetie.” a voice said from above me.

I looked up to the attic and saw six red glowing eyes staring at me. I instantly jumped back as the girl carefully descended on a thread. She was very elegant, almost like a tightrope walker in a circus or one of those dancers in Cirque de la Lune. She reached out her arms to shake my hand. I hesitated for minute to think on which hand I should shake, she had six and was offering three.

“Hi…” I said shakily “Who are you exactly and how the hell did you get in my attic?” I asked her.

“Your friend in the armor and the handsome boy with the green hair let me in. Uhmm London or something like that.” she said.

She was very sketchy to say the least. Although if she was telling the truth then I guess, I can let her off the hook. If she was lying I’m sure Fenrir would have been here already tearing her arms off. I sighed, how many more people could we possibly fit in this house. Do to the flooding and the amount of time the university was shut down we were given notice that the semester was canceled, we were going to be given a free semester next fall to cover for the one we will be missing. I wasn’t to distraught about it.

“Well alright then, why don’t we go downstairs and you can explain yourself.” I suggested.

We walked downstairs and into the living room, I could smell something cooking in the kitchen, Marcia must be awake already she is the only one in this house who knows how to cook. I popped my head inside and there she stood at the oven. Standing next to her was a young red haired man who simply observed her cooking.

“Hey Marci what’s cooking?” I asked

“Oh good, I guess Calliope must be feeling better.” she said

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

She sat me down at the table and sat a plate of lasagna in front of me. I looked at her like she was crazy for cooking lasagna for breakfast. She just laughed, a pointed to the clock. It was 2:30 in the afternoon, I never slept this long.

“Wow how long was I out?” I asked her holding my head.

“About three days, you and Duke got pretty banged up, Calliope too so it took her a while to gather her strength.” she explained.

“You were quite brave my lady.” the man said. “Where are my manners, I am Smaug knight of Camelot.” he said with a bow.

“Of course you are...what about spider lady?” I asked.

“We’ve just been calling her webs, she refuses to tell us her real name until she decides on who to give her book to.” Landon said walking in. “It’s good to see you awake.” he said with a smile.

I blushed a bit. Thankfully only Marci noticed. Once again, I worried everyone for doing something stupid. I looked around when suddenly Fenrir came running in inside from the yard and practically jumped on my.

“Lizzy!” she shouted knocking me to the ground. “I was scared for you, you weren’t waking up.” she said.

“Hey you spoke in first person.” I said patting her on the head.

“Landon and Maria help me, they good at teaching things.” she said.

I looked at them, they shrugged. While I ate they explained how Fenrir kept watch on me the entire time I slept, switching with Marcia and Calliope every now and then. During that time, Landon tried to teach her basic grammar and a few other things, while Marcia showed her images and words for different objects.

“Thanks guys.” I said “Where’s Cal I need to thank her to.”

“She’s in the backyard building a garden. And by building I mean built, and by garden I mean plant paradise.” Landon said.

I walked outside and man he wasn’t kidding. Flowers were blooming all along the fences, a small vegetable patch was set up in the far corner and the tree was sprouting apples already. It’s the middle September, well I guess it’s October now but, still I was in awe.

“Hey Cal.” I said walking up to her.

“Miss Liz it is good to see you well, I apologize for the length of time it took for me to heal you but, well.” she said turning to me, she still had many bruises and a scar where she had been stabbed.

“Geez heal yourself first you big dummy.” I said hugging her she seemed a bit surprised by my sudden embrace.

“You’re very welcome.” she said blushing.

After a quick tour of the yard we returned inside. Duke was still out cold he had a cracked a few ribs from the hit from the guy the knife, he’s lucky to be alive according to Smaug. Calliope had used up most of her stored magic to heal me and was using the plants outside as a sort of charger. She can draw energy from plants, so she used what she had left to make the plants outside stronger so she can can rely on them without them withering up, the tree especially. Webs, was fitting in and even helping out, none of us knew about her very well but, she seemed to be in good terms.

“So what’s your story?” I asked her.

I was in the middle of doing laundry. She had been sewing up the holes in the clothing we were wearing that day. We were the only ones in the basement so I thought this might be a good enough time to ask then any. She gave me a suspicious look trying to figure out what I was up to.

“Why should I tell you?” she asked.

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.” I suggested.

“Deal but you must begin with yours first.” she smirked.

“Alright then.” I said, clearly not the answer she was expecting. “Well, I grew up in a town not too far from here, at first it was just my mother, my brother and I. My dad was always working so we didn’t see him all that much. One day, during summer vacation a few years ago, my brother Ben suggested, we go check out the mountains. The next thing I knew, I was on the cliffside and my brother under the car below me.” I took a deep breath. “The following weeks were hard, a funeral for someone I cared for and faces full of regret or so I thought. I overheard many people talking about Ben saying lies and trying to say he was drunk that day. These were people I trusted and they ruined his reputation,  That day I told myself only trust those closest to you.. I never truly got over it, Landon, Marcia and Duke have always been there to give me a leg up when I need it, sometimes I wake up and find myself in tears after recurring nightmares of the day he died.” I said. “You never get over something like that.”

“Why tell me such a personal story? I am a stranger to you yet, you trust me with that.” she asked.

“Well if you are going to tell me something personal it’s only fair that I tell you something in exchange.” I finished. “I never tell anyone this story, I have trust issues with people so please follow through with our deal.

“You are much more complicated than you seem, I too was betrayed by people I trusted, I refuse to trust anyone until I have proof that they can be trustworthy. Much like Smaug, betrayal can be devastating even life changing. My name is Arachne I used to be an ordinary human like yourself. I was once one of the greatest weavers in all of Greece, so much so I was challenged by Athena herself. I was truly blessed and I accepted her challenge with the utmost respect.” she explained.

I had heard this story before, the story of Arachne had many different versions, some say she won and out of anger Athena turned her into a spider, others say Athena one and out of spite, Arachne was transformed into a spider do to her sheer hatred of the goddess. This would clear up which one was the truth.

“We weaved to the best of our abilities, the both of us creating beautiful works of art. Athena complimented my work and I hers. So much so that the competition was declared a tie. She even invited me to weave the stories of the gods.” she said mimicking her actions as she spoke. “I accepted of course, it’s not everyday you get invited to olympus. Once there I began to weave their stories one by one. When it finally came to thee one God all mortals fear, I chose my words carefully.” she sighed.

“Hades.” I said.

“The very same. He wanted me to weave his story but, along with Zeus and Poseidon he had avery long very  detailed immortal life. I told him it would take some time. That was my first mistake.” I said. “He offered me a gift that would help me weave faster, being as gullible as I was I accepted. Hades then gave me the ability to control spiders, their silk was the perfect fabric. At first it didn’t seem to bad and I finished his weave faster than I ever would have thought before.” she said with a smile. “However not all good things end well.” her smile vanished.

I was completely engrossed in her story. It was as if I could see it in my mind, I pictured her weaving away under the watchful eyes of the gods. I tried to picture her as normal, she would have been much more beautiful.

“After I finished with Hades weave I returned to Olympus. I was about to start on Hera’s, when she asked me how I managed to finish with Hades so quickly. I explained to her my new ability and she glared. VILE WOMAN! She yelled at me. She thought I had tricked them, that I was using the skills of the spiders the entire time. The sky turned dark and I was cast out from the heavens. On my way down I found myself changing, losing more and more of my humanity until eventually I found myself transformed completely into a spider.” she said with a sigh.

“Well that’s not fair.” I said.

“No, but that is the truth.” she explained. “Eventually Athena, the one goddess I could trust found me. She attempted to return me to normal but, only managed to bring back some of my humanity. I still had the lower half of an arachnid, but it was better than anything.  Then she left, she never returned to visit nor did anyone for that matter. That’s when I became rather cold to the rest of the world, the gods shunned me and the humans called me a beast or monster. I kept myself isolated, using my kin to protect my den. Legends of my story began to circle, however nobody truly got it right. Then that man showed up in my den and offered to help me, that’s when he locked me that cursed book.” she said slamming her fist on the washing machine. I walked up to her and gave her a hug. Possibly the strangest hug I had ever given or received seeing how she embraced me with all of her arms.

“I’m so sorry.” I whispered.

“Thank you.” she answered back.

We finished up the laundry and headed upstairs, I was curious to see how she had been living in the attic this whole time. She opened the entrance and held out her hand. She pulled me up into her room and what I saw was awe inspiring. She had a whole studio up here. Her quilts and tapestries dawned the walls, she had a rather appealing hammock set up in the corner and she had an entire set up for weaving.

“How did you do all this in such a short time?” I asked in awe.

“Do you like it?” she asked nervously.

“I love it.” I said.

I wasn’t lying either, for something so feminine it was actually interesting. I personally don’t see the point in anything too girly, I don’t like pink or makeup or anything like that yet this, this was awesome. I turned around and saw Arachne holding out her book behind me. It was out of the blue but, I know what she was thinking.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Only if you promise not to panic to what I’m about to do.” she said

At first I didn’t really understand what she was getting at but, I was about to find out. The entire process looked painful if anything. Her entire bottom half morphed from human to spider rather quickly, two of her sets of arms also, morphed into some of her legs. Her abdomen sprouted out and a dark purple hourglass shaped marking appeared on the back of it. I wasn’t afraid of spiders but, this was in all honesty rather frightening, Marci would have fainted by now but, I promised not to panic. She lowered herself down to my level. I reached my arms out and hugged her. I bet she wasn’t expecting that.

“Aren’t you scared?” she asked me a few tears welling up in her eyes.

“Not in the slightest.” I said.

Much like what happened with Fenrir I suddenly found myself elsewhere, This time in a pantheon covered in spider webs, Although instead of a frozen statue I was met with a giant spider, I patted the spider and found myself transported back to the laundry room.

“Alright then, from this point on Elizabeth Crowly, I hereby pledge my allegiance to you and yours, from now until my end.” She said as serious as possible. “Now what?” she asked returning to her more human form.

“Can you teach me how to weave?” I asked in return.

Her smile grew larger and her eyes brightened, she grabbed my arm and almost dragged me to her work area. The next couple of hours were rather fun, it was almost as if everything that happened wasn’t important anymore for once in a long time I felt relaxed and free. After a bit of practice I managed to get a hang of things, she even showed me how to sew and stitch finally I came out with my first piece of weave. It wasn’t complicated just a scarf. It was a nice purple color with some black thrown in making a stripe pattern. That’s when we heard a scream from downstairs.

“What was that!” I shouted.

“Liz hurry there trouble outside.” Fenrir shouted up to us.

The three of us ran downstairs, we met up with Landon, Smaug and even Duke who was being supported by the knight at the moment. I looked up at him he nodded and then I looked out the door. Marcia was on the floor slowly backing away from the figure in the doorway itself. In the doorway stood the tall lanky man from before. His eyes glowing a deep red and his hair was a mess. He took of his hat and bowed much like how a butler would welcome someone into the house.

“Hey kiddos, let’s have a chat.”  he said.

“Not in your life freakshow.” I said as both Arachne and Fenrir summoned their weapons. Arachne was wielding twin daggers, each a black colored metal with rounded blades, much like a spider fang.

“Now now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I am Jack, Jack the Ripper as some may call me, my master is Captain Archibald Kyle and I am here to strike a bargain.” he said in a very mannerly way.

Was this the same Jack that tried to kill us under the order of Henry, he seemed to be a lot more polite than before. Landon looked at me then back out the door, he looked like he had a plan. I looked at everyone else when I caught a glimpse of moving vines out the window.

“Alright Jack let’s talk.” Landon said

“Finally” he said trying to take a step suddenly finding himself bound in the the doorway by vines. “Of course, safety measures, fair enough.” he smiled showing a mouth full of fangs.

“Of course.” Cally said from behind him.

Cally trapped him in her vines then sat him down inside of the house. We surrounded him everyone ready for a fight if the need shall arise. I looked at Fenrir who was already judging him before I could say anything.

“Judging me are we wolf.” he smiled again, he wasn’t nervous whatsoever. “A quick warning you’re going to find it nearly impossible to read my motives to bad a past if I need to say.” he laughed. “I swear I come only to talk, that’s all.” he said staring back into Fenrir’s eyes.

“Grrrr…..Knife guy telling truth, but I no trust him.” she said breaking the stare.

“Hahaha she blinked I win.” Jack laughed getting another growl from the wolf girl.

We stood there for a few minutes in silence, everyone except the guy tied up were on edge, this was the guy who nearly killed us all not even a week ago yet here he was sitting on the floor of our house.

“So…” he said but got cut off by Landon.

“How did you find us?” he asked.

“I followed your spider friend here after she killed her master and stole those books. Nice job by the way, that venom of your’s would have been enough but, to rip out the throat pure genius.” he smiled.

Arachne bit her tongue, she knew he was just trying to get under her skin. I rested my hand on her shoulder and she calmed down a bit. Cally gave me a look and I held up her book which I had grabbed before leaving the attic. This made Cally smile.

“I didn’t sense anyone else nearby after she showed up, how did you avoid my detection?” Smaug asked.

“Well I didn’t stick around long dragon, I used her presence to mask my own then teleported back home once I found where she was. I can teleport you know.” he grinned.

Yes we were all too familiar with his abilities to teleport it was how he got the upper hand, although I did have to give him some credit, using another presence to hide himself from the others was quite clever, we underestimated his intelligence.

“Last question, does anyone else know where we live?” Duke asked.

“Of course, but not the people you are expecting. As I said my master isn’t Henry or whatever his name is.” he smiled. “Shall I get to the point now or should we just wait until Henry does find us, he still has my book you know.” his smile vanished and he got rather serious.

“Fine then what’s your deal?” Marcia asked.

“Oh I’ll tell you.” he said teleporting out of the vines and next to Landon holding his knife to his throat. “But, first to prove I have nothing to hide.” he spun his knife around holding it by the blade and offering the handle to Landon. “Take it this way i have no way of protection and I don’t need to be tied up.” he explained as Landon quickly grabbed the knife. Jack raise his hands and backed away a few steps.

“Talk.” Landon demanded.

“Well alright then. Let’s begin with why  you aren’t dead yet.” he smiled sitting  down in one of the chairs.

Chapter 7: The Corporation

We all sat there in silence for a good couple of minutes. Nobody wanted to ask about the elephant in the room, so I guess it was up to me. I took a deep breath and took a step forward to the psychopath sitting in my living room.

“What did you mean by that exactly?” I asked him.

“Leave it to the princess to ask the easy questions eh.” he laughed. “It mean I have orders not to kill you sweetheart.”

“Why would Henry not want to kill us?” I asked him.

“Because Henry isn’t really in charge is he?” Landon suggested.

Jack’s smile grew wide and he stood up giving a long slow clap. “Bingo ten points to the no it all.” he laughed.

This guy was insane, not that most of the people I’ve met so far aren’t crazy but, this guy was more insane then even Henry. I was still unsure of having this guy in our house, considering what he put us through I was in the right to be scared. Although I didn’t feel as scared as I usually would with Smaug on standby, it feels good to be royalty. At least by his standards.

“Now then real talk. I have about ten minutes to explain before good ol’ Henry realises I’m gone so let’s make it quick. My master isn’t Henry as I have already said, but Henry is the one currently in possession of my book or Grimoire if you would. My real master runs a small group of rebels who want to protect our kind instead of enslaving them like Henry would. Henry’s Group The Phoenix Foundation want to pretty much destroy the world then from it’s ashes revive it in their own way, while my master’s group Gaia’s Eyes want to protect the Earth even if that means, starting a world war in the process. Not the best choices, but either choose a side or get caught in the crossfire, that’s his message to you all. See Ya!” he finished teleporting away before anyone could stop him.

“What a freak.” I said

“Compared to some people he’s pretty tame.” Liz added with a laugh. I nudged her a bit on that comment.

“So….obviously we go with the Gaia people right?” Duke said.

“I mean they do want to protect people and Henry clearly can’t be trusted.” Liz said.

“Can we actually trust Jack though, he’s a serial killer.” Landon said.

Everyone began to bicker, Cally, Arachne and Fenrir even joined into the talk. I personally hate any kind of confrontation. I took my leave from my friends and went into the kitchen, there stood Smaug leaning on the fridge he seemed to be lost in thought.

“Hey.” I said

“Evening Princess.” he said with a smile.

“Again as much as I like you calling me that, it is way to formal.” I laughed standing next to him joining him in his lean. “What do you think of Jack’s proposal?” I asked

“Personally I don’t trust that man as far as as I can throw him. However, I feel as though we may be looking at the situation all wrong.” he pointed out.

“What do you mean?” I said curiously as the shouting in the other room started to grow louder.

“That man might not be the most stable of people, but he is loyal. His master is not currently in possession of Jack yet, Jack takes the risk to go behind Henry’s back to inform us of another corporation that may be more trustworthy than that of a deceitful old man. However, we have underestimated this man’s intelligence before after his explanation of finding us I realized that he is much more cunning then we realize he might be lying through his teeth with intent of an ambush afterwards. It is to hard to tell, he could easily have avoided Fenrir’s ability to detect lies by telling the truth from his perspective yet not the true motives of either side.” He explained

I pondered on this for a minute, it was funny usually Landon or Liz are the one’s that ponder not me, normally I’m just the one that get’s into trouble and has to be saved. Duke is probably dead set on joining this new group he is to trusting of anyone to realize it might be a lie but, if it helps us in anyway he’ll go great lengths to put in his work. Landon probably wants to avoid any confrontation if possible even though he knows it’s impossible and Liz is probably suggesting to stop both sides, avoiding both war and destruction while bringing both war and destruction of our own she is more the aggressive side. Personally I would prefer to just let them make the decision, but none of those choices really stand out to be the best.

“You are deep in thought as well, perhaps we should take a walk or perhaps a flight even.” Smaug suggested.

“A flight?” I asked

“Well how did you think I got all of you and the vehicles home.” he smiled grabbing me by the arm and dragging me outside.”

“Wait Smaug. What about the others?” I asked as he suddenly transformed from an armored man to a fully grown dragon. “Wow…” I said in awe.

This was the first time I saw Smaug in his dragon form. He was a wyvern more so then a dragon, I was half expecting him to be a european dragon but, he only had two legs and his front legs were attached to his wings. Unlike his armor he was a deep red color, although he did have black scales and horns as well as a black underbelly. He was beautiful.

“I’m sure they will be arguing for quite some time.” he said his voice echoing in my mind telepathically. “Now then my Queen please hop aboard.” he said bowing his head and lowering his wing so I could climb to his back.

Who in their right mind would turn down the opportunity to fly on a dragon, not this girl. I quickly mounted onto his back and held onto his horns. With a large beat of his wings we took off into the sky. We flew as high as we could just above the cloud line so that we wouldn’t attract any attention. Apparently the scales on Smaug’s stomach reflects the light and makes us pretty much invisible to the human eye.

“This is beautiful.” I said dipping my hand into a cloud as we flew by.

“This is the true gift to us flyers from the gods, unlimited freedom in the world.” Smaug said. “What do you think of my true form?” he asked.

“I think you are a wonderfully majestic creature.” I answered.

I could tell he blushed even though reptiles can’t exactly blush, but his reaction to my words said it all. We flew over the city it was quite a sight. The large buildings rose from the Earth like plants in a garden. The trees looked like grass beneath us and the river seemed like a trickle of water flowing through cracks in the sidewalk. It was glorious, but none of those views could top the setting sun.

“What do you think we should do Smaug?” I asked him.

“I will serve you no matter which choice you and your friends make, given the choices before us I must say they are not the greatest of choices I have ever been given. Clearly we may not allow Henry to do as he pleases yet war is not something I yearn to participate in however, much like how the sun will set, war will happen either way. On which front, perhaps we should look into this Gaia’s Arm. Perhaps their aims are similar to ours. However a large group may appear to appealing and they might change their story to win us over. A spy may be of use at this moment.” He explained.

“Do you know where we can find them?” I asked.

“I know where to find Jack. Look there.” he said pointing downwards with his snout.

I looked down in the general direction but, I couldn’t quite make out what we were looking at. I pulled out my phone and with the camera I zoomed in a group armed men in suits walking into a building. Along with them was Jack, he looked up at me and smile pointing to a truck across the road. I gasped a bit that he could see us, but I wasn’t to surprised the truck seemed like an ordinary delivery truck but, surely Jack knew better.

“Smaug.” I said.

“Yes your highness?”  he asked

“Follow that truck.” I ordered.

“Right away my queen.” he answered as we began to follow the vehicle.

It was getting dark and we were still following the truck, we were heading a ways out of town to an old barn where it drove inside. Smaug landed close by and returned to his human form. We stealthily entered the barn avoiding the men that were around. We avoided any area that had a camera and found ourselves inside the truck in no time. Inside we found some uniforms that matched those that the people outside were wearing. Basic suits only with a strange brownish coloration. We slid the uniforms over our clothes. Mine were a bit big but I managed. We hid our faces under the hats and walked out following the truck driver through a very high tech door.

“Any updates on the group of kids?” One of the men said in front of us speaking to the driver.

“Jack delivered the message but, whether or not they believe him is still unknown.” the man answered as the four of us entered an elevator. “As long as they think we are the good guys then they might choose to join us. It is a much better choice for them considering Henry blew it.” the man finished.

“The Captain wants those books, whether he recruits those kids or kills them. We will give the world back to Gaia.” he finished as they exited the elevator, we gave them a bit of a start before following them.

“How far below ground are we Smaug?” I asked

“Not far enough that I can’t get us out of here with great haste. Although, it will be dangerous, perhaps we should make our leave we have gather enough evidence to prove that this corporation cannot be trusted either.” He replied.

We continued to walk, past a few more cameras, to be honest things were a bit too easy. We should have been caught a long time ago or at least noticed, maybe something elsewhere has taken their attention. We passed a room marked surveillance when I quickly grabbed Smaug and dragged him in.

“Let’s see what’s going on outside.” I said

The room was filled with monitors and there was only one person watching them. I say watching very generously he was playing some kind of card game on a tablet and wasn’t paying any attention to the cameras at all. This explains why the cameras didn’t pick us up.

“Hey, it’s time to change shifts.” Smaug said to him.

freaking finally.” He said quickly running out of the room.

“That was easy.” I pointed out sitting down in his chair and circling through the cameras. “Seems like these guys have their hands full with Henry’s group.” I said flipping to a camera which was recording a gun fight outside. Jack wasn’t present so he must be elsewhere.

I took this opportunity to see what else they were watching when I camera marked, Teens. I switched to that camera and found a view of the front of our house, Landon was heading out to do something. A view of our backyard where Cally was tending to her plants and a view of our living room which was currently empty.

“Jack planted bugs.” I said to Smaug.

I pulled out my phone and quickly sent a text to Liz telling her about the cameras. I then turned my attention back to the screens and noticed her run down the stairs. She looked around then pick up the camera.

“I have no idea what you are up to right now, but if you get caught I’m gonna kill you.” She said smashing the camera.

The next view showed her yelling out the back door then the tree the camera was sitting in suddenly crushed the bug. The last view was then pulled from the street light and slammed into the ground I couldn’t make out who did it. I took out my phone and quickly plugged it into the computer.

“What are you doing my lady?” Smaug asked.

“I’m not the smartest person in our group, I’m not the strongest either so to pull my weight I’m going to hack into their cameras.” I answered.

I didn’t really know what I was doing so I just downloaded everything that was on the computer it filled up my phone's memory, but I think it was worth it. I then unplugged my phone and we made our way back to the elevator. That’s when things got a bit ugly.

We got into the elevator and the guy we had dismissed from his post was their with us.

“Hey aren’t you guys supposed to be watching the cameras?” He asked.

I looked a Smaug then looked back at him, Smaug quickly grabbed him by the neck and I closed the door to the elevator. We didn’t have much time and we couldn’t just leave this guy has seen us.

“Please, don’t kill me I’m just an intern I won’t tell anyone I promise.” he squealed.

“Smaug knock him out.” I ordered.

Smaug threw the guy into the wall knocking him unconscious. The doors to the elevator opened and two armed guards were standing outside. We quickly picked up the unconscious intern and dragged him out.

“What happened to him?” they asked stopping us.

“Uhmmm.” I stuttered.

“A defector, didn’t want to mess up the walls.” Smaug responded.

The silence was frightening, I think Smaug was just going off a hunch. I understood where he was coming from, an organization like this needs to stay silent, it was a bit of a risk, but hey we just broke into their base this entire operation was a risk.

“Poor bastard.” One of the guards said tipping his hat, turning a blind eye.

“Make it quick will ya.” The other guard said.

“No promises.” Smaug added.

Once we were clear we walked around the opposite side of the base away from the gunfire. Smaug threw the man into a shed and slammed the door shut. We then quickly ran into the fields out of view then flew home.

“I can’t believe we got away with that.” I said.

“I must agree, however now that their surveillance is out they may try to intervene again. We must warn the others and find another base of operations we are no longer safe where we are at the moment.” he explained.

“You’re right.” I said pulling out my phone. “Hello, Liz we got a problem.” I said.

“Damn right we do!” she yelled, I could hear gunfire in the background. “Where the hell are you?!” she shouted.

“On our way back.” I said “What’s going on?” I questioned.

“Hurry it up will ya! Henry figured us out Jack must have blabbed to him.” she explained.

“FENRIR ON YOUR LEFT!” I heard her shout.

So that was their game. Henry must have known Jack would tell us about the corporation so he launched an attack on them to distract them. He knew at least one of us would go see them and attacked the house while our numbers were down.

“Hurry up dammit this new guy is tough but, I don’t know how long he can hold out.” Landon shouted.

“You heard the man hurry it up.” Liz said when something quickly flew by us.

“This may be a problem.” Smaug said.

“What what may be a problem?” Liz shouted from the other end.

“I’ll call you back.” I said

“Wait Marcia, Mar-” I hung up

Before us was a giant serpent like creature, it’s body was a bright blue snake with feathered wings and feathers going down the line of it’s back. It’s feathers were a bright mix of yellow, red and green. It’s underbelly was a bright yellow color as were its eyes. Standing on top of it’s head was a man dressed in a corporation uniform.

“Thought you’d go unnoticed, a dragon isn’t hard to miss you know. Have you and your friends made a decision on Jack’s offer?” he asked. “Or did you simply come for some recon?” he finished.

“Me in Smaug were just going for a flight we didn’t mean to fly by your base.” I said realizing he doesn’t know we were in the base.

“How did you know you flew over our base?”  he asked he was on to me.

“Well we were flying by and noticed armed men attacking a barn, so we avoided that area. According to Jack you guys aren’t friends with that Henry guy so I figured he must be attacking you guys that’s all.” I answered.

“Nicely done.” Smaug said telepathically.

“That is a fair assumption we are in fact under attack, but we have also been infiltrated by some spies our intern had quite a story of how two men broke into the surveillance room and knocked him out.” he explained.

“Well that’s not good.” I said nervously.

“What are your friends Duke and Landon doing at this moment?” he asked.

I had to think for a minute, if I told him we were under attack as well they might take this opportunity to strike us down, also they probably know that we destroyed our cameras so it’s going to be tough to convince him.

“Well Duke is probably playing video games at the moment and Landon is probably doing Landon things it’s not like I keep tabs on them unlike Jack. Liz found Jack’s camera you know, I don’t know what you guys saw, but she had everyone look for other ones to. I can’t say I agree with your method, but I understand you may wanna keep an eye on us.” I risked explaining

“How on Earth did you find those cameras so quickly might I ask?” he said pulling out an ancient looking spear.

I had to think fast, I might have just blown our cover so I had to bring it back, I’m not good at deception or anything like this hell I don’t know what the hell I’m doing spying in the first place.

“If I might interrupt for a moment master.” the serpent said.

“Of course Quetzalcoatl.” he said patting the serpent's head.

“Dragon! Do these humans treat you well?” she asked.

“Of course.” Smaug said.

“Do you trust their loyalty, as a knight of camelot I trust you would be told of everything that is going on and knights have sworn to tell the truth. As a snake I can see I posses a natural thermal vision and I can tell when one is lying your lady friend had a few spikes in her blood pressure, knowing that this may be fear I will ask you. Was anyone at the house asked to infiltrate our base?” she asked.

“No.” He said simply.

I understood now, a quetzalcoatl is an ancient deity from some kind of religion Astuque or something like that I’ll ask Landon when I have the time, my only question is how it knows Smaug’s true story.

“Well he isn’t lying master.” she said receiving a stab in the back.

“Stupid beast he’s a dragon not a knight we can’t trust anything they say.” stabbing her in the back once more.

“Hey stop your hurting her!” I shouted at him.

“Mind your own business girl.” he said holding out his book. “This book shows that I am this creature’s master and it must answer my commands without question.” he shouted.

I understood her question now. Clearly these people treat the spirits as monsters instead of living creatures, I will not stand for it. I stood up and stared at the man he looked back with a maniacal smile on his face.

“She is not a beast, that beautiful serpent is a goddess and I suggest you treat her as such.” I said as intimidating as possible, Smaug helped by letting out a roar.

“Are you trying to scare me young lady because it isn’t working Quetzalcoatl finish this.” he ordered, but she did not move. “Stupid beast I said move!” he yelled stabbing her once again.

“No….” she said.

The man was furious, he stabbed her over and over again. The entire time the serpent hovered silently no, screams of pain no objections No was the only thing she said. She stared at Smaug who I could tell was growing more and more angry with each stab.

“You are my servant, you have no meaning, you are a tool!” the man repeated.

“Smaug, when you get a chance do you mind handling this?” I asked.

“Are you sure you can live with that?” he asked.

“I can't stand people who treat others with no respect, I can't let him get away with what he is doing, that’s a goddess right there and he is currently torturing her like she was a prisoner. You are a knight are you not, as your queen I order you to protect the innocent.” I said

“Of course my lady.” he said.

“I own you creature now obey me.” he shouted

“I am nobody’s servant and you, you are the creature.” she said throwing him off causing him to drop his spear and his book.

I looked away, the only thing I heard after that was a loud crunch as Smaug’s jaws sliced through the man like butter. When we suddenly began to dive. I held out my arms and softened the landing of a young girl. She had tattoos on her arms and strange marking on her face. She only looked around 14 or 15 years old if I had to guess, why she was so young looking was beyond me. She was wearing only a full leather skirt with multi color feather around the edges. She was holding onto a yellow book marked with a golden symbol of a winged serpent.

“Let’s hurry up and get back.” I said.

“With pleasure my lady.” Smaug answered.

Chapter 8: So Many Allies So little Time

Well this argument was going nowhere fast. I got bored of it within the first twenty minutes. Duke and Landon were still arguing. So I left to go find Marcia, I checked the kitchen and noticed a large black dragon take to the skies. Lucky her, she gets to fly around town without a care in the world. I looked a Fenrir and smiled.

“Let’s go watch a movie.” I suggested. She shrugged her shoulders and I walked upstairs.

I started up my xbox and turned on netflix. It took some time to decide what to watch when I heard the front door slam, Duke must have left in anger. I peaked out and noticed it was actually Landon who left. Duke must have won that argument or ended it either way they were both pissed off. I decided to binge watch the new season of Twice Upon a Time. A few episodes in I got a text message from Marcia.

“Camera under couch?” I questioned and hurried downstairs.

I searched the living room couches for this so called camera at first I thought it was a prank, but when I found it I knew something was up. “I don’t know what you are up to, but if you get caught I’ll kill you.” I said turning the camera off when she sent me another text. I ran to the back yard and shouted at Cally who was tending to her plants. “Call theirs a camera in the tree!” I shouted.

“A what?” she asked

“The metal thingy.” I explained “Crush it.” I said

“Ok then.” she said using the tree’s branches to crush the camera.

I rushed to the front door only Arachne beat me to it as she was holding the camera in her hand. “I got it, I saw it when I first got here but, I thought it was a normal thing.” she said.

I ran back inside and grabbed Duke I then sent a message to Landon telling him to get his ass back home. After a few minutes they both sat down and I explained what we found.

“So where is Marcia then?” Duke asked.

“Good question.” Landon responded.

I went up to my room and grabbed the blue book that Arachne had brought with her. Duke take this and get out of here we will buy you sometime, they know where we live and we just knocked out their cameras. You don’t have any protection so take that book and get out of here.” I said tossing him the locked book.

“Like hell!” he shouted. “I’m staying besides it’s not like they are going to attack us in the middle of town.” he said as a gunshot fired and a bullet came through the window. “I stand corrected.” he said as we ran for cover.

“What do we do!?” I shouted to Landon as gunshots began firing and bullets came flying in.

“We need to hold out until Marcia and Smaug get back we can’t get everyone else out in time.” Landon answered back.

I looked at Fenrir and Calliope who were already ready for battle, Arachne was nowhere to be seen. I opened the door and vines shot out of the ground creating a wall entangling some of the men. The shots didn’t stop and the men stuck in the wall were killed by their allies. We quickly hurried out to cover and grabbed their weapons.

“You know how to use that?” Duke asked me.

“Do you?” I asked back.

“Duke get the hell out of here we will cover you!” Landon shouted.

“I am not backing down from a fight and I will not abandon my friends like some coward. If I leave and you guys lose what do I do then, someone needs to have your backs so get it out of your thick skulls and deal with it.” he shouted as his book started glowing.

Duke spaced out for a minute then suddenly a large blue serpent emerged from inside the book. It fired a large stream of water blowing away the firing line momentarily. It then changed from a large serpent to a blue armored figure holding a large lance. He charged into the battle stabbing through the men in front of him.

“So what’s his deal?” I asked

“I did a good apparently.” He answered firing some shots into the crowd.

My phone began to vibrate and I answered it. Marcia had a tendency to call at the worst times. “Hello Liz we have a problem.” she said.

“Damn right we do. Where the Hell are you?” I shouted

“On our way back what’s going on?” she asked.

She was cutting in and out and she must be in the sky because the background was really loud. “Hurry the hell up will you!” I shouted. “Fenrir on your left!” I yelled

“I’m going to have to call you back.” she said

“Wait Marcia! Marcia! DAMMIT!! She hung up. Hey Arachne where are you!?” I shouted.

I looked back and noticed the men in the back vanishing into the darkness one by one, she was using a very stealthy way of fighting kinda like an assasin from one of my video games. The new guy was putting in some work he was brutal but, effective. Fenrir was right there next to him she was almost hit on multiple occasions, but Cally had their back using the roots from the ground to block any shots getting to close. She couldn’t stop all of them though. Suddenly large tentacles slapped our two fighters into nearby buildings, the new guy seemed alright but, Fenrir’s lack of armor was taking it’s toll.

“Arachne get Fenrir out of their!” I shouted as Fenrir was pulled into a tree by a thread.

“So demon of the sea we meet again.” a voice said as a woman emerged from the rooftops. She was in a dark purple dress but, instead of legs she had multiple tentacles. Her dress had designs of wolf heads going it. “ How long has it been?” she said climbing down into the streets.

“Not long enough Scylla, not long enough.” The new guy said holding his arm, he must have been hurt from that surprise attack.

“Oh Leviathan, charming as always.” she said shooting another one of her tentacles towards him.

Leviathan blocked it with his lance and fired shards of ice from its tip which she blocked them with another one of her tentacles as she began to change forms. She grew larger and the designs on her dress came to life as four more limbs attached themselves to her lower body each ending with a vicious head of a wolf. Her eyes turned deep purple and bright pink armor covered her upper half. Leviathan returned to his sea serpent form and the two of them faced off.

“Landon now’s our chance to get out of here.” Duke shouted pointing to an alley way

“Liz get Fenrir, Arachne and Cally out of here we’ll cover you and be right behind you!” Landon shouted.

I quickly ran to the tree where Fenrir was unconscious in Arachne’s arms, Arachne’s extra arms were spider legs, she was mostly human besides that. “This form helps me with battle ,my arachnid legs are much sharper than human arms but, if I transformed fully I’d be much slower.” she explained.

“Okay then we are getting out of here.” I said.

“Where to exactly?” she asked.

“Anywhere but here.” I answered as we took off towards the alleyway. It was possibly the scariest thing I’ve ever done, but we made it with very few injuries. Leviathan was still holding off Scylla, but he was slowly making his way to the alley as well. He quickly transformed into his human form and stabbed his lance into the ground creating a wall of ice.

“Let’s move people.” Cally shouted.

Once on the other side of the alley we were met by a giant three headed hound. Accompanied by Jack and another group of men, wearing different uniforms than the others.

“Gaia’s Arm I presume.” Landon said as we all raised our arms.

We were surrounded on all sides although it was clear that both sides had a bone to pick with each other. Scylla was on the rooftop and both sides had each other locked in their sights.

“So what now sea witch!?” Jack taunted

“Well you traitorous psychopath now I kill you after I deal with this loose end.” she answered.

It didn’t look good, when suddenly yet another creature landed from the sky. I rolled my eyes, what else could happen. We stared up at the winged serpent waiting for it to do something. That’s when it swung its tail knocking back the cerberus and Jack. Then a stream of fire shot from behind us blocking off, Scylla and most of the gunmen. Marcia and Smaug landed and we quickly hopped on his back.

“So, I see you’ve been busy.” I told her as she held up the golden book belonging to what I assumed was the winged serpent.

“Yeah sorry, about that I picked up a friend.” she laughed as we flew off into the countryside.

As we flew off we could hear the gunshots continue as the rest of the villains battle amongst themselves. After the adrenaline rush was over the only thing I could do was break into tears. I wasn’t alone either, Marcia was already crying, even Landon teared up. Our home was destroyed and we were being hunted. It was pretty useless, but i couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. Arachne sat down next to me and I leaned on her shoulder for comfort. I looked behind her and she smiled a soft smile it made me feel a bit better.

“Where do we go now?” Duke asked leaning on Leviathan limping from his gunshot wound.

Cally had healed most of it, but she couldn’t heal it completely, but she stopped the bleeding and Arachne bound it with thread. Arachne also tended to Fenrir’s wounds, she would heal fast enough, but she hasn’t woken up since being struck by Scylla.

“Well we can’t keep flying, I can keep us in the air for a while, however I still need to land at some point.” Smaug explained as the winged serpent took human form.

“Oh yeah this is Quetzalcoatl, we saved her from one of the men from the corporation. Marcia explained. “We may or may not have snuck into their base while they were distracted and stole a bunch of files and junk.” She smiled.

“Well…...alright then….” Landon said

I punched Landon in the shoulder and gave Marcia a hug then approached her new friend. She looked young, maybe 15 16 at the most, but I knew better to think that, she is probably a couple thousand years old or something. She was wearing an aztec like outfit and she had a spear with her, she didn’t seem to threatening.

“So what’s your story?” I asked kneeling down to her level.

“Uhmmmm.” she hesitated looking at Marcia who nodded. “I’m Quetzal I’m a goddess from the aztec era, Marcia saved me from my last master who was torturing me…” she went on. She was very shy compared to the way she dropped in.

“She is a lot more confident in her serpent form, apparently she looks young because this was the last human form that she had seen before being caught and she can’t remember what the adults were like, something about looking to much like animals.” Marcia explained.

“That makes sense, the aztecs wore animal skins to intimidate their enemies, my question is why a small girl, most of the legends I read even the card I have of her are marked male.” Landon explains.

“Well, the colorful people didn’t really know my gender, I am a snake so it is hard to tell. This girl was who I was protecting before being locked away.” She spoke up. “Besides you humans have a very small lifespan compared to us god's, one hundred years in your time pass in a bl
ink of an eye so this age isn’t to far off.” she explained doing a bit of a twirl.

“Welcome to the group, sorry it’s on such bad times. For the mean time I think I know somewhere we can go.” Landon said.

“Well spit it out.” I said.

We flew for another couple of hours, Quetz flew next to us carrying Arachne and Fenrir to lighten the load a bit for Smaug. Landon’s family had a cottage up north, nobody has been there for quite sometime and it was way out in the middle of nowhere. It was more of an escape then a cottage given it’s size, but it was off the grid so it would be harder for anyone to track us.

“There it is Smaug down there is those woods, The Oakley hideaway.” he said as we landed.

“Looks comfy.” Arachne stated “I think I’ll like it here.” she said walking inside.

The building itself was quite large, the inside seemed even larger, three floors without including the attic, a large kitchen and even larger living room, it was almost like a mansion. I remember coming here one year with Landon and his family, his cousins were so loud I barely slept and we watched a bunch of movies on the large television in the living room.

“Wow what did you guys do rob a bank?” Duke asked.

“My great grandfather owned a lot of farmland, he sold it all and built this place before leaving it to my grandfather who then left it to the rest of my family, nobody comes up here anymore. Most of my family don’t have any reason to since my aunt’s house is much larger. We used to host most of the holidays here, but now it just sits here in the dark.” He explained.

“Dark is right, where’s the power grid?” I asked.

“It’s downstairs, Cally I could use a bit of light if you don’t mind.” he said as he and Cally left down to the basement.

“I’ll go to the nearest town and grab some food and stuff, Quetz why don’t you stay here.” Marcia suggested.

“Alright, Marcia.” she said shyly.

Once the power was on, we all began to clean up, it didn’t take to long mostly just dusting and stuff, Landon hacked into the internet using his data, and set up a makeshift modem off his laptop. I went through the bedrooms and found that all the beds were still made, I dusted off some of them so we had places to sleep.  Arachne had already set herself up in the attic, while Quetz helped me out with the bedrooms, she seemed fascinated by the fabrics and textures of the clothing and blankets. I found her an outfit that would fit and helped her get changed, since we couldn’t risk anyone seeing her wearing an ancient garment.

“So what do we do now, we can’t just sit back and do nothing.” Landon asked Duke.

“How am I supposed to know.” he shouted back.

There they go again, normally these guys never fight, but lately they’ve been at each other's throats for good reason. Everyone was stressed out even Calliope who was already yelling at them to keep it down. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her get angry, it was frightening.

“We don’t even know what’s going on, one minute we are living our lives without a care in the world the next thing we know we are caught in the middle of a secret war full of fairy tales and psychopaths!” Duke said angrily.

“I get it okay man, but fighting each other is going to get us nowhere, if we knew what was going on we might get somewhere, but yelling doesn’t help.” Landon said calmly.

“I know what’s going on.” Quetz said shyly.

“Why didn’t you say something!” Duke yelled at her.

I punched him in the face knocking him to the ground. “Quit yelling at her!, if you don’t calm the hell down I’ll knock you out!” I threatened.

“flip…..I guess I deserved that. Sorry Quetz.” he said picking himself off the ground.

“You’re damn right about that.” I said “She may be goddess or something, but from where I’m standing she is just a kid, so be nice.” I said sitting down.

“Thanks, Lizzy.” She said with a giggle.

I wasn’t lying, all day she has been acting like anyone else her age, I figured she might be acting, but it might be a side effect of her form. For example, when Arachne is in her true form she is much more intimidating both in body and mind. When Fenrir goes full wolf she is much more aggressive, more beast than girl. Their state of mind might be altered  depending on what form they take. So if Quetz is in the form of a tween it explains why she is acting like one.

“So before Marcia freed me from the suit guy, they kept me in a stone room. They told me some guy was looking to use us to take over the world and how they wanted me to help them give the world back to Gaia, if I said no they would not give me food and torture me.” she frowned. “So when one of the men said they needed me to chase down a dragon, I said yes then Smaug saved me and ate him.” she shrugged, that last sentence caused Duke to spit out his drink.

“Smaug ate him?!” he said in surprise.

“Yeah it was pretty cool, kinda like how I used to pretend to eat the people the colorful people used to offer me, I really just brought them elsewhere, but they thought I ate them. Smaug crunched him up he is really cool.” she fangirled.

“You’ve been spending too much time with Marci” I said with a sigh.

After revisiting her story a few times, and comparing the files that Marcia had left us on her phone we discovered the gruesome ambitions of Gaia’s Arm. They didn’t want to just stop Henry from taking over the world. When they said give the world back to Gaia they meant it. They have been capturing the monstrous creatures, the ones who rely mostly on their instincts, the more animalistic ones.

“So, one group wants to rid the world of humanity, while the other wants to rule over them.” Landon sighed. “What have we gotten ourselves into.”

“Technically it was Henry that brought us into it so, there's that.” Duke spat

“So what are we going to do about it?” I asked.

We sat in silence for a good five minutes when a knock at the door interrupted the silence. Landon got up carefully and everyone was armed and ready. He opened the door and there stood a very confused Marcia, her arms full of bags of food.

“A bit on edge aren’t we?” she smiled.

“Are you men going to help my lady  carry those or are you just going to stand their?” Smaug shouted

We all chipped in to help carry in the multiple bags of food, clothing and other random necessities. Where had Marcia got the money, she said not to ask. After a few minutes, our planning session broke up and we all went to put things away. I noticed that everyone was here except for one.

“Hey Duke, where’s Leviathan?” I asked.

“He’s patrolling or something, apparently he won’t settle down unless he knows the area is safe.” Duke explained.

“So you let him go out on his own?” I said throwing a pillow in his face. “Come on Fenrir let’s go find him.” I sighed as we left the house.

“WHAT!!” I heard Duke shout as we left, followed by a crash.

We walked for a good twenty minutes until we came  to a pond, there stood a blonde very feminine figure. She was wearing a blue hoodie and had on a pair of ripped jeans. Her hair was rather short, but to everyone their own.

“Excuse me?” I asked “This may sound weird, but have you seen a man in dark blue armor?” I asked.

She didn’t say anything, she just stared out at the pond. Then she laughed a bit, her voice sounded very familiar, that’s when I put it together. She turned around holding her mouth trying to hold in her laugh.

“I’m sorry, I realize that my armor makes me look masculine, but their is no hiding it now, now is their.” she laughed.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked with a bit of a giggle myself.

“Well where I come from, woman are not allowed to wear armor, nor can they fight in battles. What if I were to tell the king that his most powerful asset was a woman, my reputation would have been ruined. I keep my true gender hidden to avoid such things, and it attracts much more attention from the damsels if I might add.” she winked.

I understood exactly what she meant. I do admit she was quite attractive for a woman. This was going to be hard to explain to everyone else, but I guess it won’t be much of a big deal anyways the house is mostly full of girls anyways.

“That reminds me, give this to Landon will you, he wants to join in our fight, but won’t fight with anyone else but him.” she said tossing me a red book.

I looked at the red book, it had a black tentacle design on the front and the silver chain that bound it was finished with a lock as always. The lock had a black gem embroidered in the middle.

“Tell my master I’ll be back shortly, I just needed some time to myself that’s all.” she finished turning back to the pond.

“Who is in this book?” I asked

“An ally of mine, he and I fought in the wars together, had he not been their half the time I’d be dead, the tentacled beast of the sea, destroyer of ships, pirate’s bane. He has a lot of names, just make sure Landon is outside when he let’s him out.” she laughed “Other wise we might need to find another house.” she laughed.

I turned and looked at Fenrir who just stood staring at Leviathan. We then made our way back towards the house. This was going to make quite a conversation to everyone. I turned to Fenrir who was blushing a bit.

“Did you know?” I asked her.

“Yes, she is very pretty no?” Fenrir said tapping her index fingers together.

I couldn’t help it and I broke into a laugh, something I hadn’t really been able to do lately was smile, so for once I managed to put everything aside and laugh. It felt good, it had been a long time. When we got back to the house I saw Duke sitting on the couch.

“Did you find him?” he asked.

“Yeah, she’ll be back in a bit.” I explained with a bit of a giggle.

“Oh okay…...wait what?” he asked.

Chapter 9: Through The Wolf’s Eyes

It’s been roughly three human weeks, since we got to the cabin. We came up with an idea to fool the parents for reasons why we left town. They seemed to accept our lie. I don’t like lying, but sometimes it was necessary. Lizzy and Landon were in the comfy room thinking of plans. Duck was in the backyard with Levi and the newer guy. Marci was in her room with Quetz teaching her how to read and Arachne was in the attic with Cally teaching her how to weave. I was sitting on my bed lost in thought.

“What to do, what to do.” I said to myself scratching my ear. “What can I do?” I asked seemingly nobody.

I stood up and walked into the comfy room, I saw Lizzy and Landon drawing lines on papers. They were going on and on about things I really didn’t understand all that much, the only thing I did understand was they were making battle plans. I decided to grab something to drink.

“Good afternoon, wolf.” Smaug said as I walked in. “Care for a drink?” he asked raising his mug.

“Hello, dragon.” I said with a smile. My english was getting better, it was fairly frustrating, but I had plenty of help. “Ale?” I asked sniffing the air, and raising an eyebrow.

“Of course.” he smiled.

I quickly sat down creating my mug. Smaug filled it with his ale and sat the mug in front of me. This wasn’t rare, considering we are the only two who actually enjoyed ale, it’s the only time we can stop and remember our times, before being trapped in the books.

“So, what has you been doing?” I asked folding my tail over my lap.

“Have!” Lizzy shouted from the other room.

“Thank you!” I shouted back.

“Worry not Fenrir, you aren’t the only one who has nothing to do.” he laughed.

“Training would be nice.” I tapped my chin and taking a sip from my drink. “Where could we do that?” I asked

“Well with the squid and the sea snake taking up theyard to teach the others how to fight, their isn’t very much room.” he explained.

He was right, it’s not like we could spar anywhere. Unlike a knight I fight rather viciously so I need a wide open area to fight or risk causing too much damage to the house. Last time I cut down the shed. We might be in the middle of nowhere, but there are still those car thingies that go by.

“We could fight in the woods.” Smaug said. “Make a small clearing with just enough cover to keep us hidden.” he suggested.

“Could do that. Would help get back into shape.” I said with a grin. “We need somewhere we can go all out though.” I said

We walked into the comfy room, drinks in hand. Smaug walked up to Landon and came back with a piece of paper. He laid it out on the floor, I sat down my tail swaying side to side. It always acts up when I get curious or excited having not been able to do anything for quite sometime was quite annoying.

“Here would make the best location, apparently the trees here are so large that the leaves cover a vast majority of the sky. The trunks are also very large, but they are much more spaced out. According to Landon Calliope had set up these trees to hide us from the skies even more.” Smaug explained.

“Perfect let’s go.” I said in a rush

“Perhaps we should invite the other two fighters, they must be bored of holding back.” he asked.

I blushed a bit looking outside at the two armored figures, Levi and the newer guy have been fighting for quite sometime, they also smile at each other a lot. I don’t know why I was blushing, maybe I was scared or something.

“Yeah, let’s ask them.” I said very hesitant.

We stepped outside, I moved my head slightly to avoid being impaled by a flying lance. The look on Levi’s face was quite entertaining to see. She gave her red armored companion a deadly look. He just laughed, taking off his helmet revealing his bright red hair. Unlike, Levi the new guy was wearing bright red armor with tentacle designs running down it. He wielded twin greatswords, although they were shaped like large twisted tentacles.

“Kraken you almost killed Fenrir!” Levi shouted

“Oh come on it’s not like I saw her coming we were mid battle.” he laughed throwing his blades into the ground. “Besides she dodged it, clearly her strength is her speed. I mean it clearly isn’t her physical strength.” he laughed taunting me.

I grabbed the lance out of the side of the building with one hand and threw it at the laughing squid. It flew by his head catching a few of his hairs on the way by. He immediately stopped laughing and gave me a surprised look. I was going to kill this man, at least I wanted to, but Smaug grabbed my shoulder before I could get to him.

“I would advise not aggravating our friend here, I'm sure she could beat us all into a pulp if she wanted to.” Levi said which made me fluster a bit.

“Please look at her, she is but a little girl.” Kraken spat.

“Smaug, move!” I said with a growl.

Smaug removed his hand and I instantly armed myself. My claw blades appeared on my wrists and my garbs replaced my shirt and skirt. My hair undid itself and it’s white locks tied themselves into viking braids. Kraken grabbed his swords and put his helmet back on, it looked like the head of a crab upon further inspection. I charged at him and placed my blade at his throat, not giving him a chance to react.

“I might look small, but unlike you I’m not even at half strength.” I said with a grin.

I jumped back with an acrobatic flip, had it been Levi or Smaug I would have approached it differently. For instance, Levi’s lance and shield combination is something I am not used to, so I would have attacked much more cautiously, but like Kraken both or their armor’s leave their necks and faces exposed. Unlike Smaug, who’s helmet covers his face and his armor covers his neck. However, unlike Leviathan and Kraken Smaug’s armor is much more restricting  giving far more blind spots, not that I could even scratch his armor to begin with. Kraken has the biggest disadvantage though, he wields two swords, something that I am used to seeing and fighting giving me an edge on his combat style.

“I small, yes but not weak.” I growled powering down.

“Perhaps we should fight elsewhere.” Levi said.

“Twas the reason we came, the wolf and I have found somewhere we could fight at full force. I for one would love to stretch my wings.” Smaug said cracking his shoulders.

“Fine then, but I get first crack on the wolf.” Kraken grinned evilly.

I shrugged and walked up to Duck. “Duck you come to?” I asked, Duck was a nice guy, he needs to battle experience although he has proven to be quite good with those gun things they use. “You can learn how to use a sword.” I said

“No thanks, I trained enough today thanks for the offer though Fenrir, make sure to tell Liz where you are going or else she might worry.” he said nervously. I could tell he was lying.

I walked back into the comfy room and walked up to Lizzy, I explained to her where we were all going and she said that we should bring the snake. I thought about it, there were four of us so it would make it uneven if we brought the snake, but it might be fun to see how good a fighter she is. I walked into her bedroom and found her and Marcia still reading.

“Oh hey Fenrir, what’s up?” Marcia asked.

“I came to see if Snake wanted to come practice.” I said. The girl nodded jumping off the bed, but Marcia stood up as well.

“Fine, but I’m coming along to. I am extremely bored.” she said

The six of us moved along an old path through the woods, avoiding the giant stone road where the big metal things travel. Marci said most people aren’t used to seeing armored people with swords. Don’t know why I grew up with people like that, well the sword part anyways armor in my culture wasn’t very common besides helmets.

“Here we are.” Smaug said as we came to a clearing.

I say clearing but, it was more like an opening. The trees made a giant circle and the branches and leaves covered the sky from view, where just enough sunlight came through. Kraken forced his way passed, nudging through Marci and I.

“Hey Fenrir.” Marci said. “Do me a favor and knock his block off.” she whispered.

I smiled, clearly I wasn’t the only one who thought that this squid’s attitude needed some adjusting. “With pleasure.” I grinned.

I stood on one end of our makeshift arena while Kraken stood on the other side. The both of us battle ready, Smaug stood on top of a rock and gave us both a look. He was going to make sure neither of us killed each other.

“Now then, before we begin a few rules have been put into place. Rule number one, nobody is to pierce our cover. Rule number two, the battle is over when either side yields victory or their opponent is knocked unconscious. If I decide that either side has had enough I will intervene. Finally if anyone tries to kill the other, I will knock you to the floor before you can even react.” He said with great intimidation.

We all knew Smaug could easily take us down, well them anyways he might have trouble with me if I wanted to. Not that I would ,after all we are all on the same team. However I will not be pulling my punches. I looked at Smaug who payed almost no attention to me anyways, his sights were locked on Kraken. Most of us knew I wouldn’t go that far, but according to Levi, Kraken wasn’t one that would give up easily and he has quite an attitude we all knew would be an issue.

“This won’t take long.” Kraken grinned swinging his sword around trying to intimidate me.

He must think I’m a weakling, just another human for him to push around. Well it’s about time I showed him just how wrong he was. I stood in a battle ready position, I didn’t plan on holding back and he was about to get quite a wake up call. I’m not a human he can push around, i’m a wolf and last I checked wolves Rule the forests.

“Begin!” Smaug shouted.

I dashed at the armored man, he swung at me trying to block my attack, I jumped onto his blade and used it to land a powerful kick to his jaw. Hee growled and charged at me using his swords to trying to land a single blow. I knew his fighting style all too well. Greatswords might be powerful, but they are slow he uses both swords to act as both sword and shield. However against an enemy like me it was useless. I was far to quick.

“Why do you dodge fight back!” he roared. Swinging down.

I blocked his sword with my claws, running them up the blade and punching his chin knocking off his helmet. I then retreated once again to a safe distance. Unlike what most people think, I too can learn from watching. I used to just attack on instinct, no defence no regard for my own safety a berserker. Although I haven't changed much of that i know now that sometimes I need to avoid getting hit. Lately, I have been training with Smaug, he taught me how to read my opponent's movements, use all of my senses to attack properly.

“I’ve had enough of this!” he shouted changing forms.

His humanity all but melted away. His arms changing into large claws. His lower body being replaced by a great number of tentacles. His skin turning a bright red completely covered in armor, his head melding with his head being replaced by the head of a large crustacean. He doubled no tripled in size taking up nearly half the arena.

“Well this just got interesting, now what will you do wolf of the north?” I heard Smaug ask himself.

He had a bad habit of doing that. Smaug tends to ask question to himself. Landon tends to do that to. I hear him sometimes mutter Unaware to the others, I’ve faced creatures like Kraken before, not exactly like him, but certainly ones his size. If he wanted to go full out, I guess I had no choice.

“Hey Marci want to see something cold.” I smiled she laughed a bit, she later explained that it was something cool, not cold.

My hair began to glow a bright white. It then began to cover my entire body. My arms and legs shifted putting me on all four. My blades merged with my hands and became large claws on my paws. My tail shot out in size as did the rest of my body. My mouth grew out into a snout and my teeth became fangs sharper than a sword. I was still much smaller than him, but that meant nothing. The air around us grew much colder,  a steel collar covered my neck and silver bracelets covered my ankles. Each of which dawned by gemstones from Jotunheim. I stole them from Asgard long ago, the same goes with the gemstone in my collar, only that was a gift from Thor. Considering they wanted to end Ragnarok I was nor enemy nor a friend to the gods of Asgard. I stood their frosted winds blowing through my fur and electricity sparking from my claws.

“Well then it seems we finally get to see the full force of our friend.” Levi smiled.

I charged at Kraken, not losing any of my speed despite my size, he swung one of his tentacles which I landed on then proceeded to rip off with my fangs. He let out a laugh attempting to regenerate it only to find it frozen solid. The ice grew up his torso causing his to become completely motionless. I then charged at his head releasing a stream of electricity causing the ice to shatter and him to collapse. I returned to normal and sighed.

“A shame I thought you’d put up a better fight.” I shrugged walking towards him who was now back in his normal form. I offered him my hand to stand up, but he slapped it away.

“I don’t need your sympathy.” he growled.

“Hey she was just being a good sport.” Marcia said shoving him.

“Why you little!” he said pushing her to the ground and raising his sword.

I quickly acted and tripped him to the ground. I stood on his chest and held his own sword to his throat. My eyes glowed a bright white in anger, my tail twitched and I couldn’t help, but growl my teeth showing as bright as day.

“Well then get it over with already! I didn’t ask to be here, I didn’t want to be here.” he said.

“None of us did!” I yelled “You really think any of us asked for this? You don’t think we don’t miss our homes, our friends our families. Do you not think that the rest of us are feeling the same way. You are a selfish squid, you think you can walk around and act all high and mighty well guess what.” I released his blade and grabbed his neck. “You aren’t as strong as you think you are.” I said shoving him into the ground.

“You don’t even have the gaul to knock me out.” he tried to retort.

“That’s not my job, you were going to attack Marcia. That was possibly your biggest mistake yet.” I said helping Marcia to her feet.

He stood up and grabbed his swords. He turned around then dropped his swords once again. His face went pale with fear and his cocky attitude all, but disappeared. For what he was met with was a very big, very angry dragon. Smaug opened his mouth as his throat began to glow a bright orange. I was half expecting him to incinerate him. Instead he let out a large intimidating roar causing Kraken to collapse in fear.

“Fenrir do you want to talk about it?” Marcia asked.

“No, I’ve learned things, I’ve gained things I never had.” I explained

“Like what?” she asked.

“I learned how to speak and read. I learned how to make friends, and how to accept family. I even learned how to love.” I said instantly realizing what I just said and covering my mouth.

“Oh no. you are not getting away with that one wolf girl, we are going to get to that later.” she grinned evilly. “Also, I’m really impressed.” she smiled.

“With what?” I asked.

“You just had an entire conversation without making one mistake.” she laughed.

I laughed along with her. She was right, I was slowly adapting to this new world. However, Kraken had hit a nerve that still bugged me to this day. All of us, those of us trapped in the books, we had lives, we had family and friends that were lost in the passage of time.  I looked at everyone around me. Quetz seemed to be alright, but Smaug and Levi seemed quite affected from what was brought up. I could swear that the Serpent had tears in her eyes. I myself nearly cried, which has only ever happened once before, and that’s something I do not want to experience again the images flashing through my mind.

“Fenrir, as you know it is your task to bring about the end of the world as we know it.” A booming voice echoed in the golden halls of Asgard. “To this we ask you, after all these many millennia of following your role we ask of you to end it here.” the voice finished.

I was chained to the ground, bloodied, bruised and injured. The strong silver chains tying me to the halls of the throne room. Odin sitting atop his chair, his sons sitting on his left and right. I growled at them, for eons I have done what was asked of me. Begin ragnarok so that life may start anew. Now after these many years of service to the gods they ask me to stop it was uncalled for.

“Father please, was the torture and chacals necessary, Fenrir is a living being who has done their part as they were asked, the least we could do is show some grace for their loyalty.” The thunder god pleaded.

“Hold your tongue Odin speaks.” Loki said with a wicked grin.

It was clear that the trickster was up to something, he was always up to something. Although I agree with the thunderer, I did not need him to plead for me. It made me feel strange. I had killed him so many times, I had killed many gods many times, yet for some reason he was always the one that was on my side. Every time we found ourselves in this situation, he pleaded to remove the chains. I never felt guilt, the only time I do is when I am ending his life.

“How many times has she killed our past selves how many!” Odin shouted at his son. “How many more must we got through, I refuse to take any chances that this creature start the war here and now if we let them go.” his voice boomed.

“Father please..” he said, but I cut him off.

“Enough!” I shouted, this was the first time I had spoken in their tongue during this reincarnation. Their faces showed great surprise to my voice, knowing them they probably thought I was a male. “I do not need your sympathies thunderer!” I roared through my fangs.

Loki’s smile grew wider, he looked to his brother i could tell he was scheming something. I never truly trusted Loki, it has happened on multiple occasion that he had come to ask me to start Ragnarok on earlier days. He has asked for my aide in murdering innocent frost giants. He once even demanded for me to fetch him an elf like I was some kind of dog.

“You do not control me All God! It was not you who asked me to play my role!” I shouted. “I remained loyal for all these eons and this is the treatment I receive every time you try to negotiate. I thought you might learn from your past mistakes, but it is clear you are incapable of learning anything!” I growled receiving a spear in my side from one of the guards who were keeping my chains.

“Foul beast. I order you to respect you better!” Loki spat.

That was his plan, he wanted to infuriate me. He wanted me to rage and kill everyone here. In all honesty I’d probably die. Perhaps that was his goal, if I were slain it would take a long time for me to regenerate myself. A man then emerged from the doorway holding something i have become all too familiar with. A cloaked figure would enter the hall holding a chest containing their attempt at sealing me away it never worked.

“I do not serve you trickster, nor will that relic work, many times you have attempted to use that, but everytime it fails.” I shot

“That is the case when you are in your current form.” Loki said pointing his staff at me.

“Brother what are you up to?” Thor asked a trace of nervousness in his voice.

“Showing this creature some restraint.” he said as a beam of light fired from the end of his staff.

This was something new and i did not like it. My fur shot into my skin revealing a beige colored flesh. My paws shifted into human appendages and my face contorted, my muzzle shrinking. I sat on all four in a form I wished I’d never be trapped in. I sat covered only by the fur that had fallen out. A small human girl, something that nobody here would find intimidating. I grit my teeth, covering parts of my body I had never been ashamed of before. The bastard son had gone to far, as laughter filled the room.

“Now we will not have to fear anything from her.” Loki laughed, Odin joined in.

For once in my life I felt weak, I felt exposed, I even felt fear. The emotions of these beings was far to overwhelming as tears began to stream down my face. I was confused, and frightened when suddenly Loki was sent flying by a hammer. He flew right out the front doors to the hall as the room fell silent.

“Is this what it has come to father, torturing an innocent creature, trapping her grace in this form, vile in her eyes. I am insulted to be here and I will not stand here and watch as you torture her for much longer.” Thor said removing the chains and covering me with his cloak.

“What are you doing?” I said sternly ignoring the tears.

“I’m helping a friend.” he said with a smile.

A tap on the shoulder woke me from my memories. I opened my eyes and realized the tears rolling down my face. I looked around and noticed faces of concern from Marcia and Smaug. The sky had grown dark and clouds had begun to circle.

“Are you alright wolf, you are not one to cry for any reason?” Smaug asked.

“Yeah is something bothering you?” Marcia asked.

I looked to the both of them and smiled a bit with a laugh. They must have thought I was crazy. “No, I was just thinking about someone.” I said  with a toothy grin.

“Who?” Marcia asked.

“An old friend…” I said looking to the clouds as a bolt  lightning flashed across the sky.

Chapter 10: Act of a Father

Twas a busy day after the training session. I say training, but the wolf and the crab took up most of it. I must say the Kraken is someone who needs to learn his place. His selfish acts were not suited for a knight like himself. Calling him a knight is a disgrace to my career.

“Smaug are you alright?” Marcia asked me

“Of course your highness.” I smiled

To say the truth, calling her royalty wasn’t against my will. The truth is Marcia reminds me of someone whom I lost long ago. I lied of course when she asked me if I was alright, things were said today that reminded me of our predicament as so called Evocates as we were told. We all have lost people we all knew and loved and chances are as selfish as it may sound. I lost more than any of them.

“You lying.” Fenrir said falling back as we walked behind everyone else.

“Whatever do you mean?” I said with a grin.

“You not fine, you are feeling the same thing I am.” she sighed putting a hand on my shoulder.

I couldn’t pass anything by the wolf, she was to perceptive. She was also very familiar in a way to someone I used to know. Her caring nature underneath her dangerous atmosphere.  Showing no weakness on the battlefield. If she were human and had black hair, she’d be the spitting image of one of my daughters. Perhaps that is why, we get along so well. I could compare almost everyone to people of my past, young Landon would be a fitting example of the king and Elizabeth reminds me of the princess’s bodyguard, attitude and all.

“Hey Dragon!” Leviathan shouted snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Is there a problem serpent?” I asked with an intimidating glare.

If there was one thing I knew about knights, they respect strength and from what I’ve seen of these two it was no different. I have some respect for Leviathan, although her culture does not accept females into their ranks, she stilled risked it, I see now why the wolf shows interest in her, perhaps more if I am not mistaken.

“No, no of course not.” she stuttered. “Quite the opposite, I wanted to thank you for putting Kraken in his place. Had you not done something I was about to.” she said resting her lance on her shoulder.

“He needs to learn some respect, and deal with his attitude.” I said shooting a glare at him, he was quite ahead of us. “If he tries another stunt like that, I’ll have his head.” I warned resting my hand on the hilt of my sword.

“If he does, then you might have no choice.” she sighed. “Just please, have mercy on the man. We have all been through many hardships.” she said.

Her words spoke sincerely. Ii may have been a bit harsh, but his acts were unacceptable. Perhaps, I should speak with him, Leviathan is trustworthy from what I’ve seen. Perhaps a bit, to strict at times for my liking, but a true knight nonetheless. I believe we have met before very briefly I will ask her on a later date.

“Alright guys let’s we’re almost back I do believe we should all get some rest.” Marcia suggested, the snake fast asleep on her shoulders.

That is another thing that worries me. Some of us have a theory, that our human forms might have an impact on our mentality. Much like Quetzalcoatl, I myself take a human form to avoid detection and although I may look like a young man, in reality I am nearly 900 years of age. However, the snake is a deity and is very possible that she is much older than I and has never needed to take a human form before. With that in mind and the impact of her treatment by the men at the corporation she seems to act just like a young child would. This changes in her true form, her voice personality and spirit almost completely invert. The theory is that her mind is affected by the form she has taken and as far as we know we cannot change them.

“How is the young lass?” I asked Marcia picking up the snake and putting her on my shoulder.

“Oh, I think she is just exhausted from all the excitement.” Marcia said, rolling her shoulders.

“I was speaking about you?” I teased.

“Oh, I’m fine just a bit stressed out, who knew taking care of a kid was so taxing.” she said running her hand through her hair. “Is this really what it’s like to be a parent?” she asked.

“It is much more difficult at a younger age.” I smiled. “I have raised three daughters myself so I understand the difficulties.” My smile vanishing for a moment.

“How long do dragons live?” she asked.

“Unlike some stories, we dragons only die if we are killed, that is if we can find enough food to sustain us. Most of us take a human form to help in that regard, but we end up being hunted if anything were to happen.” I explained.

“So it might be possible that some of you might be around today.” she winked.

Leave it to her to try and swing things to the positive. Although, she might not be wrong, there is most definitely still some of us around to this day, in deep cover amongst humanity or isolated elsewhere in places humans have yet to discover. I understand what she is thinking, however the last time I saw my girls two were being captured and one was fighting alongside me against Merlin. That day still plays through my mind.

“Father! Father wake up!” my youngest called out.

“Why hello Felicity good morning.” I said opening one of my eyes. “A bit early to be taking human form is it not, we aren’t going into town for a while yet?” I said picking her up in the palm of my hand.

“I know, but look I managed to make a dress this time.” she said with a curtsy.

Being the youngest at only 100, around the age of six or seven for a human. she was still struggling with her human form. However she was always practicing. Her bright yellow hair twirled with her as she proudly showed me her nearly perfect form.

“Yes, that is all and good, but your horns are still showing” I said poking them carefully with my oversized hands.

“Now, now father she has been practicing very hard to make that dress.” my middle daughter said emerging from the shadows of the cavern.

Unlike humans, genetic traits from dragons can be a bit unpredictable. As a fire drake, my offspring will either be born with powers fire, earth,  lightning or ice. Their mother was a dragon on wind and as the combination of fire and air is lightning one of our dragonlings were guaranteed that feature. That youngling being Felicity, Ice and Earth were the opposite elements to my wife and myself this is how nature keeps the balance between elements, Daza my middle daughter was that of Ice.

“Show her that you are proud.” Daza said lowering her head so Felicity may climb her.

In dragon form, Felicity’s scales are bright yellow covering all, but her underbelly which is white like my wife’s. Daza is has bright blue scales and a white underbelly as well. Much like myself Falicity has two large horns on her head and larger scales running down her back. The only trait she doesn’t share with myself besides color is her for like tail. Daza, has four horns on her head and one on her snout, her tail ends in a fan on crystal like scales. Unlike my eldest Ember we all have four legs and two wings.

“Where is your sister?” I asked on the subject.

“She had some duties to fulfill with the prince this morning so she has left already.” Daza explained taking her human form. “Are you not joining her?” she asked.

Daza’s hair was the only thing rather odd. Being 300 she took on a more developed human form being that of a young woman around the age of 18 or 19. Her hair was the only thing she has yet to master, as is the issue with most of us, myself included. Human hair acts much like our scales so the color remains relatively the same sharing it’s color with either our body scales or that of our underbelly.  As Daza said, my eldest was also, a knight for the king she was the only one to share my element, but as a dragon she had taken a rare form known as a wyvern, meaning her front legs and wings have merged and become much larger. This also mean she also had a much more difficult time learning how to take human form, as we are normally taught to make arms out of our front legs and make our wings vanish. She has done relatively well given the circumstances, but her arms still have slight fins protruding from them. I helped with this by forging her customized armor when she became a knight.

“No, not today unless called upon, the king hath given me the day to rest. A day I would wish to spend instead with the two of you.” I grinned a toothy grin before changing forms myself.

Unlike the present, my form back then was much older. I had to make it that way to keep my identity hidden from the townsfolk. The only few people who knew my true nature were his highness, Merlin and a few trustworthy knights. I served as a direct guard to the king and my daughter was the prince’s appointed guard. I stroked my beard, I hated having to constantly change my age now and then, I have done so great many times, humans live only fifty or so years before passing on however unlike elves we must change our form so that we do not attract attention to ourselves until introducing ourselves as new people once again.

“Well I’d like to eat before we head to town.” Daza said.

“Me to father me to.” Felicity jumped.

We ate, a stew made from some sheep Daza had stolen from a few towns over, unlike humans our tongues are not built for certain tastes only agreeing on a few things such as meat and ale. Bread and such pastries taste much like sand or dirt, as do vegetables and other plants.

“Now then, do you have the list of material we need to pick up from town Daza?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

We may not live in a house, but we do own some of the human inventions such as a cauldron, a few playthings for children and a few pieces of furniture as well as torches to light up our humble abode. Although we prefer our normal forms, we must act as humans do sometimes to remind ourselves how to blend in.

“It’s right here father, a few pieces of clothing, bread and spices as well as wood and some wool and straw. I still do not understand why we must spend our precious coins on such useless items.”  Daza said with a sigh

“We must keep our true nature hidden, as so we must purchase items that humans would think essential, as most humans feed on bread, wear different clothing and must stay warm during winter, we must also purchase such things to keep them from thinking that they are not essential to us as well.

“Why can’t we just buy more sheep?” Felicity asked drinking from her bowl as she would from a running stream.

“Because humans only sell the meat Felicity, we would not be able to feed on the blood, bones and organs that sustain our bodies.” Daza explained. “Now try using a spoon, it’s how humans do it.” she said handing her younger sister a wooden spoon.

After eating our fill we headed into town, as a knight my family and I were treated relatively well by the townspeople. Some had their fair share of hate, but stories of Smaug the fire wielder were spread through the land. We purchased the items on our list when my eldest daughter and the prince rode into the marketplace, the merchants bowed as did Daza and I, I had to push on Felicity's back to remind her.

“Sir Smaug, you seem well on your day off, are these your other daughters?” he asked.

Prince Carnan was around the age of 12, slightly older than Felicity as anyone was concerned. However, unlike some royalty I have met he was much more well mannered and polite to those around him. We rose to our feet and Felicity hid behind me.

“Yes, your majesty, this is Daza and my youngest Falicity.” I said introducing them.

“Good morning your majesty.” Daza curtsied “And good morning to you sister.” she said with a smile.

“Good morning to you as well sisters, father” she said in return dismounting her horse and giving me an embrace, before patting Felicity on the head.

“Ember and I were coming in to collect the monthly taxes, I hate to take money from others, but that is the law of a kingdom.” he said with a sigh. “Perhaps I will only ask for two thirds of the usual price today if perhaps your youngest daughter will join us for diner tonight accompanied by the rest of you of course.” he smiled.

“Perhaps his majesty should ask his father first?” Ember suggested.

“Right of course let us continue then.” he said with slight embarrassment.

I pulled my eldest aside and she gave a wave to the prince to hold on a moment, she looked into my eyes her white hair tied behind her head. She gave me a stern look, we both knew that the prince would have never thought of asking us such a question without reason.

“Persuade him to rethink his invitation.” I whispered to my eldest, “The last thing we need is for an accident to happen and the prince blowing our cover.” I explained.

“Of course father.” she replied.

That night, we were forced to attend the diner at the royal castle. Apparently if the prince wants something he is going to get it, only we were greeted with something a bit different then we expected. We entered the castle's dining hall where only the king and the queen sat in waiting for our arrival.

“Good evening Sir Smaug, please have a seat.” Arthur said gesturing to a chair next to him.

“Good evening your highness, and to you my queen.” I bowed, my daughters entered behind me wearing proper attire. “For what do we owe this invitation.” I asked.

“Leave us!” The king ordered the rest of his men in the room, as they all left closing every door behind them. “I apologize Smaug, I was the one who asked my son to propose the invitation, although it was meant for only you. However you and yours are always welcome here as you know.” he explained.

“So what is it that you need?” I asked.

“Merlin is worried for you and your family, he fears that a group of bandits have discovered your true identity and is worried they might tell the kingdom about you.” he warned. Felicity nearly in tears with fear.

“Might I ask why Merlin has yet to tell us then!?” Daza demanded.

“DAZA!” I shouted, she bowed her head and took a step back.

I don’t normally shout at my girls, but when I do you know something was not right. She was right though, why had Merlin not told me of these bandits, why make the king tell me instead of himself.

“I fear Merlin has not yet returned, which is why i have asked you here today. I want you and your men to find him and return him safely, I fear he might have been captured.” he explained.

“In the meantime, your girls may stay here, we have cleaned out the castle keep and made room for them to sleep in their normal forms if they so wish.” the queen explained giving a soft smile to Felicity.

“What of the prince?” I asked.

“He will have to learn of our family's secret eventually, perhaps Felicity might show him, I fear he may have fallen for her at first sight and to no offence to your family, but I cannot have him falling in love with a dragon.” he said sternly.

That was understandable, in truth Falicity will not age with him even with the power to change her form and she would far outlive him as well. Although some humans have married dragons before it has never truly ended well for either side.

“No offence taken my liege, I will leave right away. Daza, sorry for shouting at you, now please take your sister and go to the keep.” I said ,she nodded and grabbed Falicity dragging her behind her.”Ember gather the others, we leave in one hour.” I ordered.

“Yes father.” she said quickly changing into her armor and leaving for the barracks.

“It is a three days ride.” The king said raising an eyebrow.

“For a mission like this your highness, we will not be taking a horse.” I grinned.

After an hour we had gathered Sir Lancelot and Sir Kai and Sir Tristan. We rode a few miles before myself and Ember changed form to fly the rest of the way. Ember’s colors were quite unique for a fire drake, her white scales and black underbelly were quite different from the usual red. I only ever flew on mission in dire circumstances rescuing someone as important as Merlin was one of those circumstances. However as I explained before it was not as we expected. Once we arrived we changed back and prepared for battle.

“Greetings, dragon.” Merlin said, in a very malicious way.

“Merlin, you are safe why have you not…” Lancelot could not finish as Merlin pulled his staff and froze him solid.

“Merlin what are you doing!” Sir Tristan shouted only to be tied up in vines and impaled through the throat.

“You traitorous wizard!” Sir Kai shouted as the three of us charged him.

The man raised a barriers knocking sir kai to the ground. I swung my sword shredding his magic as my daughter pierced his side with her lance. He retorted by impaling Kai through the back with a stone spike, then vanished into thin air. I knelt to the ground having lost three of my closest friends and released a booming roar that could be hear for miles around. He was not going to get away with what he has done. I grabbed my comrades weapons to bring to the king and we took off back to the castle.

“Father, what will we do?” Ember asked me.

“We speak the truth and hope the king believes our side of the story, then we grab your sisters and we leave, we fly as far as possible away from Camelot and we never return.” I explained, but when we arrived back at Camelot we were met with fire, smoke and arrows.

We landed at the castle, not caring for the people who could see us. I roared and used my tail to slap away our attackers, I will apologize later. We quickly changed forms and rushed through the gates, we were immediately stopped by guards and the king himself. Merlin behind him and my daughters in chains being held by more guards.

“I trusted you dragon!” he shouted “How could you kill your fellow knights, how could you burn the town to the ground and still show your face to me!” he yelled some more.

“Your majesty please, I did not do such things.” I pleaded catching a flash of green pass through the king’s eyes.

I noticed then that Merlin was grinning, his magic tampering with the king. I noticed my daughters struggling to free themselves of their chains, enchanted no doubt. My wings sprouted from my back and my claws sprouted from my armor. The faces of the guards around us were speechless as they dropped their weapons in fear. The king drew his all powerful sword and held it to Felicity’s throat causing me to hold my approach.

“Move another step and I slit this beast's throat.” He said evilly.

“Your highness, you are being controlled by Merlin, he was the one who killed Lancelot and Tristan and Kai.” I explained.

“Then why do you have their weapons?” he asked the magic in his eyes vanishing. “You carry their weapons and blame one of the men I trust and expect me to believe the words of a monster.” he said.

“I am a knight, and you are holding a blade to a helpless girl’s throat and you dare say I am  a monster.” I flared that was the last straw. “Let my daughters go and do with me what you would, just let them go.”

“Father!” Ember shouted in her dragon form not breaking sights with the king.

I raised my hand as she stood down. The king lowered his sword and the king approached me holding a book. I know now what it would do. I sheathed my sword and gave him the most horrifying look I could.

“What is this?” I asked.

“According to Merlin this book will tell me if you are telling the truth.”

“My king you cannot trust that man.” I said

“He lies, I have done nothing, but protect this kingdom if he wishes to harm it like he has then we have no choice.” Merlin grinned

“Let my daughters go.” I said my eyes burning with anger from this betrayal.

“They will be safe.” he whispered

“No they will not.” Merlin said hitting the king upside the head with his staff knocking him unconscious. “I will see to that.” he laughed.

“EMBER!” I shouted as she grabbed the girls in her talons.

That was the last i saw of them, the next thing I remember was being chained in an empty courtyard. After millennia of waiting i was woken up in that tent where Landon and everyone found me.

“Smaug?” Marcia asked nudging me. “You are not alright.” she said

“No, no I am not.” I admitted.

“You zoned out and was just standing there on the porch, you were crying, I’ve never seen you cry before.” she said.

“I’m sorry Da-Marcia.” I corrected myself

“Now I know you are out of it.” she smiled as we entered the house only to find everyone, scorched and burned their hair sticking up like they had just been struck by lightning “What happened to you guys?”

“Oh hey guys.” Landon said with a cough. “Smaug you have a visitor.” he said collapsing on the couch pointing to the back yard.

I walked outside to the yard, almost fainting at the sight before me. A young girl around the age of 16 or 17 stood there yelling at Calliope, sparks flying from her hands, but what proved to me who she was, were the horns sprouting from her head. I stood there in awe staring at this girl who turned to me and broke out into tears.

“Father? Is that you?” she asked.

“Felicity?” I broke out in tears as she jumped into my arms.

I hugged her tightly against my chest, afraid that if I let go I might lose her once again. She must have let out years of tears that were welled up inside her, as her cries sounded throughout the house.

“Someone want to let me in on what’s happening.” Marcia asked Liz behind us.

“Well Marcia meet Felicity, apparently she’s Smaug’s youngest daughter.” she said raising a scorched arm, her hair standing up from the static.

“Oh…” she said simply.