Protector of the Enchanted

Words cannot describe what I am feeling right now, the disgust and horror that went through me as he told his story. The strange satisfaction of hearing that his kingdom sank. It is a good thing that the disgusting ‘king’ disappeared as soon as he was done telling the story.

 

Otherwise, I would have straight up found a way to punch him in his ghostly face. The only good thing to come out of that is that the door swung open on its own as he disappeared.

 

Beside me, Ryan has frozen into a statue, a mixture of disgust and rage visible on his face. However, there’s also a heartbreaking sorrow in his eyes. As if he’s recalling a bad memory from his past. It’s a look I’ve seen in the mirror more times than I’d care to admit.

 

Strangely, when the ghost was telling the story, there was a tingling in my mind, as if my brain was telling me to remember something. It’s frustrating that I only saw flashes of a memory before it was gone, as if being locked behind a door.

 

“Are you alright?” I ask, pushing the thought to the back of my mind.

 

Ryan turns his head towards me, his eyes moving to meet mine before softening from their cold state. The glance seems to have broken him out of his reverie as his muscles relax and a sigh escapes his mouth.

 

“Yes, I’m alright now.” A small smile. “Let’s go inside.”

 

Whoosh! As soon as a foot enters the room, another wave goes through the air. The water swirls and forms a shape before becoming solid. There standing between us and the throne, are about twenty hostile figures. Each holding a spear of some sort, as they stand in lines positioned to fight.

 

I feel a smile coming over my face, “Well then.” My hand goes to my sword. “Seems like we need these after all.”

 

“Why do you look so excited?” My partner asks with a chuckle.

 

“Maybe I’m just looking for a fight.”

 

He tilts his head, “Why?”

 

“Because.” I pull out Storm Cleaver, “I need to let my annoyance out somehow.”

 

“Alright.” He notches an arrow to his bow, “A fight it is.”

 

Loud screeches surround us as the sound of metal sweeping through water drew closer. A battle cry for war. Dodge. Attack. Dodge.

 

 

Metal clashed as the fight ensued, my mind focusing only on dodging and attacking. I soon realise that just dodging and attacking isn’t enough. I need to move. My feet move towards the throne, where I can see a skeleton hand clutching a golden trident.

 

Screech! Dodging the attack, I feel a sharp stinging on my shoulder as blood mixes with water. Ow… I don’t think I can keep this up much longer. My eyes search the room for anything that could be of help in between my dodges.

 

Ryan is in a better state, but there aren’t many arrows left. There doesn’t seem to have been any change to their numbers. As we cut through them, they just regenerate. There has to be a way to beat them.

 

Clang! In my frustration I hit a spear too violently, making it fly across the room and causing for a large piece of marble to fall from the impact. To my surprise, it falls on a water demon and it does not regenerate, the one without a weapon vanishing into water. That’s it!

 

“Try to make them drop their weapons!” I shout at Ryan, “Or, maybe make a pillar drop on them!” He nods in understanding, aiming his arrow at the weapons themselves instead of the water demon.

 

After a while, the demons are down to five, but Ryan is almost out of arrows. To make it worse, I can feel my shoulder growing numb as this goes on, my breaths growing laboured. It’s getting a little sore and I don’t think it’s good to let it bleed too much.

 

Suddenly an idea forms in my mind. I run towards Chess, making sure that the water demons follow me. I lead them towards a corner of the room, and turn to face my partner, our eyes meeting.

 

“Now!” I yell, swimming towards the ceiling as an arrow makes the pillar fall on the spirits, crushing them.

 

“Ha!” I laugh in relief, “We did it!” I can’t hide the grin on my face as I swim towards him. He understood what I wanted to do even without me telling him.

 

“Yes, we did.” He laughs along with me, his eyes brightening. “Let’s get that trident and go.” I only nod in reply, still unable to make the grin fade from my face.

 

Our hands grab hold of the trident at the same time, the decomposing hands easily falling apart as we pull out the trident. The trident, it seems, was the only thing holding the palace together. For as soon as it was removed the walls start caving in on themselves.

 

A bright light surrounds us as we’re about to be crushed by a large piece of rock. The next thing I know we’re back on the beach, water dripping from our clothes, trident still in hand. Before I can say anything, a throbbing migraine takes over my senses, the sound of my name being screamed out the last thing I hear before losing consciousness.

 

The sun cast a red hue on the sand as it made its final journey across the sky, its rays reflected on the water. There on the sand, sitting on a blanket laid across it were Celeste and Theo, a picnic basket lying in the middle. For a moment, they were content to just take in the scene, munching on a sandwich.

 

“I told you this would be fun.” Celeste stated, finished with her sandwich.

 

Theo shook his head, “I never said it wouldn’t be, only that it would be strange.”

 

“Why would it be strange? It’s just a picnic by the sea.”

 

“The fact that it’s by the sea is what makes it strange.” Celeste only gave him a curious glance, motioning for him to explain what he meant. Theo sighed in resignation; he knew she would never let it go unless he told her why he hadn’t wanted to have a picnic by the sea.

 

“There is legend about this sea. They say that this is where Poseidon went to create his trident. It is said that he took a drop from every source of water in the realm and forged it with an Olympian crystal so it would hold power over the seas. The trident was able to move anyone that came in contact with an ocean to wherever it saw fit.”

 

“Wherever it saw fit?” Celeste interrupted

 

“Yes. You see what Poseidon didn’t realise at first was that forging it using an Olympian crystal gave it a small consciousness as well. Not strong enough to go against a god directly but certainly stronger than that of a mere mortal.”

 

“So, what happened to the trident?”

 

“It was lost in one of the many altercations between the gods. Without a god to wield it, it might have just sunk to the bottom of some ocean.”

 

“Wouldn’t it just be able to teleport back if it has a conscious?”

 

“Not without a wielder.” Theo clarified, “It can only teleport itself when it has someone to teleport with.”

 

“The sea is still Poseidon’s domain,” Theo states after a while, “that is why I don’t want to be too near to it.”

 

“And yet, you came here with me anyway…” Celeste softly smiled.

 

“Yes well,” Theo ran a hand through his dark hair, a smile in his sapphire eyes, “I can’t seem to deny you anything.”

 

Celeste chuckled, a cheeky smile on her face before she pressed a kiss to his cheek, “Nor I you.” A full-blown grin, “I can’t deny you anything either.”

 

Sharing a smile, they turned back to enjoy the view before they needed to pack up and leave.

 

A soft blanket is the first thing I feel as I open my eyes, the sky outside the tent is pitch black. When did I get in a tent? Who carried me here? The last thing I remember is collapsing on the beach.

 

Turning, I see the trident placed next to my sword. The next thing I notice is that the pain on my shoulder is gone. A warm feeling wells in my chest. Someone bandaged it for me while I was asleep.

 

Moving to go outside, I can still feel a phantom ache in my mind, the weird dream still present in my mind. Who were those people? I feel like I should know.

 

“What happened?” Gem asks as soon as she sees me, “I was so worried when you collapsed out of nowhere!”

 

“Are you feeling alright?” Cylen asks from his spot in the circle near the fire. Ryan tilts his head, concern evident in his eyes, yet makes no move to say anything.

 

“I’m alright.” I decide to answer the easiest question first.

 

Gem sighs in relief, but still makes her way towards me to check for herself. “What happened?” She repeats in a less frantic tone.

 

“I don’t know.” It’s the truth, “I just remember feeling a flash in my mind, and then this really weird dream.”

 

“A dream?” Ryan speaks for the first time.

 

“Do you remember what it was about?” Cylen adds.

 

“It’s weird, the more time passes the more I forget what it was.” I state, “It also…felt more like a memory than a dream…” Although I still have no clue who those people were.

 

“What do you remember?”

 

“Just that it was two people on a beach…and something about a trident.”

 

“Maybe it was something the trident showed you.” Cylen suggests, seeming a little apprehensive but less worried than earlier.  

 

“Maybe…” Didn’t feel like it though. But I think I’ll just keep that to myself for now.

 

“By the way…” It’s something I need to ask, “Where did these clothes come from? This wasn’t what I was wearing before, or anything I own.”

 

“You would have caught a cold if you kept wearing those clothes!” Gem reprimands. “I couldn’t find your clothes, so I put you in one of mine.”

 

I nod in understanding. A part of me wants to ask who bandaged my shoulder, but ultimately decide it doesn’t matter. There are more pressing matters. Like the growling of my stomach.

 

Since it’s so late, we all decide to eat our food and get some rest so we can continue in the morning. It’s really warm by the campfire, the silence filled by Gem’s chatter and Cylen’s stories, with me making some contributions in between eating. This is nice.

 

Eventually, I feel myself dozing off again, my head falling towards Ryan’s shoulder. He hasn’t said anything since I mentioned my dream. But everyone deserves to have their secrets, he’ll tell me if he wants to. My last thought before sleep takes me is that I should ask Cylen why he’s so afraid of the water.

 

“No, don’t leave…” The little girl cried as her mother breathed her last breaths, “Don’t leave me all alone.”

 

“Darling,” A weak voice whispered. “You still have your father.”

 

“What kind of father isn’t present when you need him!” Exclaimed the girl.

 

“My dear daughter.” Her mother muttered sadly, “The world is a messy and cruel place that taints even the best of men. Learn to forgive him.”

 

The girl wanted to refute this, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything when she saw how hard it had become for her mother to breathe.

 

“Promise me that you will be happy.” Her mother pleaded as her eyes clouded.

 

“I…promise…” The girl sobbed as her mother grew colder in her arms.

 

The funeral was a cold and dull affair, her mother was lowered into the ground in an overly eager manner. Relatives she had never met offered insincere condolences before they hastily fled in their carriages. None of them cared to stay to make sure the girl would be alright, leaving her to sob alone at the grave. Her father hadn’t even bothered to show up.

 

It was only a week after the funeral that her father returned home. But not alone. There was a woman next to him, dressed properly yet she seemed to have an air of pomp, two girls following behind.

 

She felt her heart drop. A sick feeling in her stomach as she greeted them, yet still chose to keep hoping. That is until her father opened his mouth to speak, although it would have been better if he hadn’t spoken at all.

 

“I have decided to remarry.” He stated coldly, “I believe it would be better if you had a mother figure in this home.”

 

‘Did he think it was that easy to replace her mother?’ She wondered yet chose to bite her tongue. “Understood father. Who are the other girls behind you.”

 

“These are your new sisters.” He said with a smile, “Now you won’t be as lonely.”

 

She had never been lonely. A fact that the man who was supposedly her father had chosen to disregard. So, she was forced to welcome the trio into her home, powerless to refute.

 

They carried a lot of luggage with them and needed to quickly be shown their rooms. Why had her father decided to marry so soon after her mother’s death? She couldn’t help the rage that welled inside her, forced down by her disciplined upbringing.

 

“I’m sorry about your mother.” The girl with the brown hair whispered as she moved past. She only nodded in response, emotionlessly taking the condolence offered.

 

She would have said something, yet she had seen something that rendered her mute. The girl’s emerald eyes were a reflection of her own, the same eyes as her father. She feared she may become ill.

 

“Where to next?” Cylen asks as we pack up the tent equipment and attach the wagon to the horses.

 

Over the night, the trident had fell on top of the scroll that was laid beneath it, which meant I awoke to both the sun shining through the tent opening and the glowing scroll near my head. I’d decided that it’d be better to see what it says once we were all gathered. Which brings us to this.

 

“Let’s see.” Gem states unfurling the scroll, “One down six to go. For the next part of your journey a ride is key. Found in the patches of a broken manor, Is the magic used to change a pitiful fate to one of glamour.”

 

Sparkling vines appear from the scroll, surrounding both us and the wagon before a bright light once again shrouds our vision. Once the light has dissipated enough for me to see, I find that we are standing on top of a dirt road. Neighs make my head turn to the wagon, only to see that it can no longer be called that.

 

What was once a wagon is now an enormous white carriage. With our belongings being stacked neatly in a compartment at the back. I really do love magic.

“I’m guessing,” I begin, as we all stand there staring at the carriage in silence. “This time we need to travel further than just the edge of a beach.”