A sunflower blooms — Ferris

“This is a good place.”

It’s a small, muddy clearing. The bare-chested man throws Maribelle down into the dirt.

She immediately stands up and spits a mouthful of blood at him. He slaps her across the face and she collapses back down, stunned by the force of the blow.

“Feisty,” he notes.

“She’s a bit too young to be useful,” the archer comments.

“Doesn’t mean she won’t sell,” the woman with daggers replies.

“Oh, we’re not selling her. She took my sword. First, we’ll get some entertainment out of her, then we’ll kill her,” the well-dressed man explains.

“Entertainment?” The woman looks at the well-dressed man with her eyebrows raised.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, Catherine. If that’s what I wanted, I would have taken her mother instead.”

“Then what did you have in mind?” Catherine asks.

The well-dressed man props Radius up against a tree.

He walks over to Maribelle, then squats down beside her as she lies in the mud.

“Little girl, what’s your name?”

Maribelle cries. She doesn’t want to tell him her name.

He stands up and kicks her in the stomach.

“You should respond when I talk to you.”

She cries harder. He kicks harder.

“What’s your name?”

She hesitates.

“Maribelle.”

He squats back down beside her.

“Good. Maribelle, you took a sword of all things. You fancy yourself a warrior, don’t you?”

He slowly stands back up before kicking her in the stomach again.

“Don’t you?”

I can see flames of rage burning in Maribelle’s eyes.

“Yes! I’ll cut off all ten of your fingers with your own sword!”

For just a moment, the well-dressed man seems surprised. Then, he smirks.

“Oh? How about I give you a chance?”

He draws his sword and drops it on the ground in front of her.

Maribelle wastes no time in picking it up and slashing at his hand.

He pulls back, stepping out of her range.

“Not so fast, Maribelle. If you want to fight me, you’ll have to beat my subordinates first.”

The well-dressed man gestures towards the huge, bare-chested man.

“Maribelle, meet Harris. Harris, meet Maribelle. You two will have a duel.”

Harris chuckles. He tosses his huge greatsword up into the air as if it weighs nothing. It flips once, then he catches it.

“Now, Maribelle, since you’re just the little runt daughter of a whore, you get a handicap. You can hit Harry ten times before he’s allowed to hit you back. Until you hit him ten times, he isn’t allowed to defend himself in any way, or use magic. Does that seem fair?”

Maribelle gulps.

“Does it?”

“Yes,” she says.

“Good. You can attack him now, Maribelle.”

Harris drops his greatsword on the ground and holds out his arms in a welcoming gesture.

Maribelle takes a few deep breaths. This is the same man who dragged her through the woods by her hair. He was incredibly strong. She wasn’t able to do anything.

But now, she can finally get revenge.

Maribelle runs towards the giant man and stabs her sword into him as hard as she can.

The tip of the weapon penetrates slightly into his stomach. Blood oozes out of the cut.

He doesn’t react in any way.

She withdraws the sword and stares at the wound she has caused. It looks painful, but the huge man doesn’t seem to care.

“Not bad. You have nine more,” the well-dressed man comments.

This time she aims for Harris’s arm. She slams the sharp blade into his wrist, leaving a sizable cut through which his bones can be seen. Once again, Harris doesn’t react. Blood dribbles down his hand onto the wet dirt.

“Eight more.”

There is a spark of hope in Maribelle’s eyes. Even if the man isn’t reacting, he is still bleeding.

She is causing damage.

Maribelle turns and walks away from Harris, then stops at a distance of around ten paces.

She sprints at him, her sword held over her shoulder. With a giant leap, she gains enough height to get her foot on his hip. She kicks up, and swings the sword into his neck with all of her strength.

She cuts deep.

She falls down into the mud, landing on her back. Blood spurts out of the wound in Harris’s neck. Still, he doesn’t react in any way. He stands there like a breathing, bleeding statue.

The well-dressed man is laughing.

“Amazing! You went for the neck. You’re a little monster, aren’t you?”

“Seven more,” Maribelle says.

“Harry, you might actually die at this rate! You’ll be killed by a little girl!” The well dressed man cackles hysterically.

Harris remains silent. Maribelle once again attacks with everything she has. This time slashing into his side. Every time she attacks, she cuts deeper. Her fury manifests as her strength.

I’m closing in on her, but I’m not sure if I’ll get there before Harris is allowed to retaliate.

I sprint through the woods at my top speed. Occasionally, when there is a straight stretch without a tree, I propel myself forward by blasting fire out of my ankles. It’s fast, and the resulting wildfire is irrelevant. All that matters is that I bring back Maribelle safely.

“Two left.”

Maribelle is catching her breath, panting heavily. Harris has eight progressively deeper wounds in his body. He is bleeding profusely, and he still hasn’t moved an inch.

Maribelle swings the sword upward, chopping into Harris’s groin. Even then, the stoic man doesn’t even flinch.

“Oh damn! She got you good!” The well-dressed man exclaims. His face is red from laugher. He looks like he’s having the time of his life.

“You’re nuts, Damien,” Catherine points out. She’s smiling too, though.

“Sorry, Maribelle. You can only hit him one more time,” Damien sighs with mock-sorrow.

Maribelle is completely focused. I recognize the look in her eyes. She isn’t a helpless little girl being bullied. She’s a true warrior, fighting to the bitter end. Where before there was rage, now there is nothing but the unbreakable will that seeks a path to victory.

She charges at Harris, leaping into the air. She jumps up a full two meters, higher than most adults ever could. She brings her sword down on Harris’s head with a brutal crunch.

She cleaves half-way through his skull.

The sword gets stuck in Harris’s head, and she falls down. She flops into the mud, utterly exhausted.

For a moment there is silence. The adventurers are stunned by the unbelievable strength Maribelle has just displayed. They don’t seem to know if Harris will die from this or not.

They never expected her to actually kill him.

I’m not nearly as surprised. Maribelle is Maribelle.

Harris reaches up and pulls the sword out of his head. He tosses it back to the little girl. A small chunk of brain matter is stuck to the blade.

“Paybwack twime,” Harris slurs.

His eyes are unfocused, his pupils are different sizes, he can barely talk, but the brain damage isn’t enough to kill him.

His body glows with golden light. All ten of the wounds Maribelle inflicted begin to close, even the one in his head. In just a couple of seconds, the giant man is back to full health.

Maribelle watches on in horror as all of her hard work is erased in a mere moment.

“Payback time,” Harris repeats, properly this time.

Damien smirks.

“She almost got you, though. She even awakened her magic just to kill you.”

“That’s why I’m gonna chop her fucking head off,” Harris replies, picking up his greatsword.

Maribelle picks up Damien’s sword again. Her eyes say everything. She hasn’t lost yet.

She repeats the words I once said to her, when she asked me why I go out to fight monsters.

“Power blooms in battle.”

Harris walks towards her menacingly, his greatsword poised to kill.

She ignores him, instead moving towards Damien faster than anyone imagined was possible.

He doesn’t have his sword.

Damien holds out his hands in an instinctive, defensive gesture. Maribelle slashes.

Ten fingers tumble onto the ground like a pile of sausages.

“Kill her!” Damien shrieks, kicking her in the chest.

She is sent flipping through the mud from the force of the kick. She loses her grip on the sword as she rolls.

When her body eventually comes to a stop, she is rendered defenseless at Harris’s feet.

The huge man swings his greatsword down towards her neck in a vicious, murderous strike.

It’s okay, though. I’m finally here. I heat up Harris’s sword.

Mid-swing, the greatsword melts in an explosion of sparks. The white-hot molten steel splashes into Maribelle’s face, as harmless to her as warm water.

I go straight for Radius. Nobody stops me. They are too shocked by the sight of a girl covered in molten metal, unharmed, and interpreting it as a sign that she is now completely safe.

Spear in hand, I turn my attention towards Harris. I’m up against a full party of adventurers, so I need to go all-out. l should get rid of their healer while I still have the element of surprise.

Harris hadn’t been strengthening his body with magic when Maribelle was attacking him. Now that he is, I don’t know how durable he will be. No point in taking chances. I’ll hit him hard.

I point Radius behind me, and a torrent of fire erupts out of the spearhead. Trees burn in the blaze, but it only lasts for a second. The flames immediately condense, concentrating all of their heat into a two meter long blade of white hot fire that extends from the end of my spear.

I’ve learned from experience that the biggest and flashiest fire isn’t the most useful. I prefer something more potent, more concentrated. You can’t punch through fire resistant monster hides with weak flames, no matter how much of them you make.

Everyone turns their heads towards me. In the night, the brilliant light of Radius’s fire blade blinds them all for a moment. I use that opening.

I dash forward, blasting fire out of my ankles to move at maximum speed. The world blurs around me and a line of scorched earth is left in my wake.

I slash through Harris’s stomach, and he is cut in two. My flame blade burns through his magically strengthened body like paper.

After the two pieces of Harris fall to the ground, the top half glows with golden light. Damn.

Hopefully he can’t regenerate the bottom half of his body too quickly, because I don’t have the time to finish him off. Catherine is coming at me fast. Her daggers are enchanted. I can’t let her strike me.

She clearly knows how to fight a spearman. She ducks past my flame blade, closing the distance as much as possible. Indeed, a shaft of wood is far less dangerous than a white-hot blade of fire.

Fortunately, I also have a couple tricks up my sleeve.

As I step back just enough to dodge her dagger strike, I pull back my spear and quickly swing it around in an upwards strike. If the blade had been physical, it would have been stopped by the ground, but my flame blade passes straight through the ground and melts it.

As I swing my blade up, a surge of molten earth comes with it. I cleave through Catherine from her hip to her shoulder. Unlike Harris, she dies.

“No!” The archer screams.

I never caught his name, not that it matters. He fires an arrow at me. I sense something extremely dangerous about it and dodge by turning to the side. I feel the arrow narrowly whoosh past my belly.

The arrow hits a tree, and the wood rots. Within a second, the entire tree is reduced to nothing but smelly black mush.

Yeah, I don’t want to get hit by that.

I point Radius at him and fire off the flame blade. It flies across the clearing, pierces through his chest, and explodes. All of the concentrated fire in the blade erupts outwards. After a moment, all that’s left of the archer is ash and charred bones.

Nobody is currently swinging or shooting anything at me, so I take a moment to asses the situation. Harris has successfully regenerated some of his hips, and his fingerless leader is staring at me with a dumb expression.

I am shocked by how weak these people are. Are they really adventurers?

I walk over to Harris. With a sharp jab, I stab Radius through his skull. I release a blast of fire, exploding his head.

“Heal that.”

Sure enough, he stops glowing. Good. Just one left.

I turn towards Damien. He is using his fingerless hands to spread open his suit jacket, revealing his chest to me.

What?

There is blood all over his jacket. I realize that, for some reason, he spent the entire battle trying to unbutton his clothes, a task made significantly more difficult without fingers.

I hesitate to kill him, curiosity and confusion briefly halting my murderous rage.

“You can’t kill me,” he declares.

Hanging on his neck, right beside his iron adventurer’s tag, is an intricately decorated golden medallion. It’s a noble crest, signifying his status as a member of a powerful family.

On his face is an indignant smirk. If I kill him, his family will probably hunt me down to the ends of the earth in search of vengeance.

I couldn’t care less.

Radius pierces his throat. There is shock in his eyes. He legitimately wasn’t expecting me to kill him. He looks like he is trying to say something.

It’s way too late for that.

I send a powerful blast of fire into his neck. With a satisfying bang, his head flies off like a cannonball.

Bye, Damien.

I walk over to Maribelle. She just watched me brutally slaughter four people, but the only things I see in her eyes are relief and admiration. I drop Radius, sit down beside her, and hug her.

“You were amazing,” I tell her.

She cries into my shoulder. I gently rub her back. We sit this way for a while.

Eventually, I remember that I started a wildfire on my way here. The thick smoke doesn’t take long to reach the clearing.

Smoke is just fire that hasn’t finished burning. It’s bad for the lungs, but not if you help it burn away first.

I envelop Maribelle and I in flames that incinerate the smoke, letting us breathe easy.

She breathes in my flames, letting the harmless warmth tickle her lungs. To her, fire isn’t pain and danger. Its warmth and safety. Perhaps that’s a bad instinct, but it can’t be helped. She’s known me since she was two.

“Take me with you to Salsvale,” she requests.

I want to say yes, but I can’t promise such a thing.

“Natalia would kill me.”

“Mom can’t kill you. Nobody can.”

I’m not so sure about that.

“When I’m an adventurer, it will sometimes be even more dangerous than today was. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’ll get stronger. I’ll become as strong as you one day.”

“You will. I’m certain of it. Before that, though, you should take it easy. Spend time with your mom while you still can.”

“Okay, but I’m gonna fight monsters like you did.”

I’ll let Natalia figure out how to convince her not to do that.

“Sounds good.”

She smiles and snuggles up to me. After a minute, she falls asleep in my arms.

I stand up, carrying the sleeping Maribelle back towards her mother. A wildfire rages around us, but the falling branches are more dangerous than the flames themselves. Of course, Maribelle sleeps through it all.

We emerge from a flaming forest to find all the villagers fighting the fire. Natalia immediately sees me and runs towards me. I hand Maribelle to her.

She relaxes as soon as she sees her daughter breathing.

“Thank you,” she cries.

“Of course. Don’t worry, those people aren’t going to come bother you again.”

She sits down on the ground, hugging her sleeping daughter.

“Oh, by the way, Maribelle figured out how to enhance her strength with magic during that little ordeal. She could totally beat you up if she wanted to now, so be careful.”

Natalia seems mildly confused.

“Why would she beat me up?”

Memories of Maribelle attacking me with a sword flash through my mind. I promised not to tell Natalia about that.

“It’s a hypothetical. She did say she wanted to fight monsters though.”

“Oh, yes. That’s a problem.”

“I couldn’t tell her not to. Double standards and all.”

She looks at me with a betrayed expression.

“You didn’t tell her not to?”

“Nope. That’s your job.”

She blinks a couple times.

“Anyway, I should probably help them fight the fire I caused.”

I excuse myself, eager to escape the conversation.

Even after months of training, repairing a roof, and saving my sister from thugs, I cannot rest. Now, I have to spend the night preventing a fire from burning down my village.

I just want to sleep!

The fire rages all night before it finally dies. Now, the sun is rising over the charred remains of trees. Lika village still stands. Unburnt sunflowers are turning to the east to soak up those earliest rays of warmth.

There’s just one more thing I have to do before I can finally go to bed. When I carried Maribelle, I left Radius at the clearing where I fought the adventurers. I have to go retrieve it.

I hike through the charred forest. Some of the embers on the trees are still hot, and there is ash in the air. It would be hard to find the site of the battle if I couldn’t sense Radius. When I find the place, it looks completely different. Fallen trees mask the clearing, and little is left of the corpses of those scumbag adventurers.

I pull Radius out of a pile of ash and charred wood. It is, of course, unmarred by the flames. It wouldn’t make much of a pyromancy focus if it was flammable. My bond with the weapon makes it as durable as my spirit is strong. On the flip side, if someone does manage to break the spear, it would cause me severe harm, or even death. Not that I’ll let that happen.

I notice a glint of gold in the ash. It’s Damien’s noble crest. Right beside it is his iron adventurers tag. I pick up the two trinkets and examine them. Both are endowed with enchantments, perhaps for durability and authentication.

The adventurers tag is inscribed with Damien’s full name.

“Damien Valbeck”

The last name rings a bell, but I can’t recall from where.

I hold the adventurers tag and noble crest in my hand, heating them up. I’m going to destroy them. If someone comes looking for Damien, I don’t want them to know he died here.

White hot flames spew out from between my fingers. The adventurers tag goes first. When I feel my flames overwhelm the durability enchantments, the iron instantly melts from the heat, dribbling down onto the ashy ground. The noble crest takes much more effort to break. I keep turning up the heat higher and higher, pushing the limits of my power. The protective magic strains under my assault until it finally breaks. A loud bang reverberates through the quiet morning air. The raw magic released by the broken enchantment bruises my hand. Molten gold splatters everywhere. The noble crest is gone.

“Ow.”

I shake the last drops of molten metal off of my hand and inspect the damage. Injuries from raw magic usually take a while to heal. The bruise hurts, but it’s not debilitating. I’ll manage.

After some searching, I find two more adventurers tags, belonging to Catherine and Harris. The tags of the lackeys meet the same fate as that of their leader, becoming drops of molten iron in the ash. I can’t find the archer’s tag. It probably melted when I killed him. I suppose I really am destined not to know his name.

I find three weapons, Damien’s sword and the two enchanted daggers that Catherine had wielded. There are engravings on the sword which make it quite distinctive. It’s probably unique enough that someone could identify it as his. I should destroy it. It’s not enchanted, so melting it would be easy.

I hesitate, briefly considering giving the sword to Maribelle. I’m not sure if she would even want it though. She stole it to cut off Damien’s fingers, and that’s exactly what she did with it. If I give it back to her, it might be a constant reminder of something she would rather forget. Besides, it’s too big for her anyway. Catherine’s daggers are a much better gift.

I heat up Damien’s sword, and I’m surprised to find that it’s much harder to do so than expected. It must be made of some kind of special metal. This revelation is enough to change my mind about trashing it. The metal itself is probably valuable. I turn up the heat, and with considerable effort, I manage to make the metal soften. Then, I fold it in half a couple times and crumple it up into a lumpy ingot of whatever the sword was made of. I put the ingot in my pocket, not allowing the hot metal to set my pants on fire.

I put the daggers through my belt, carry Radius over my shoulder, and I head back home. Now, if anyone comes across the burnt corpses in the woods, they’ll hopefully just assume that a group of unlucky people perished in the forest fire.

On the way to Natalia’s inn, a small sunflower catches my eye for some reason. I pick it.

The sunflowers that grow in Lika Village are special. Their scent repels monsters. Where other cities have high stone walls, we have bright yellow fields through which the wind can blow.

I’m going to miss this place.

Inside the inn, Natalia and Maribelle are nowhere to be seen. For a moment, I am worried, but then I find them sleeping together in Natalia’s bedroom.

Yes. They have the right idea.

I lay the sunflower on their nightstand. Then, I leave them to sleep and I climb up to the attic.

My bed!

It’s a bit dusty, but I haven’t slept on a proper bed in months. I drop my stuff on the floor and flop onto the wonderfully soft mattress.

I’m out before my head hits the pillow. The day passes in a blink of my eyes. When I open them, orange afternoon light is filtering through the window.

Maribelle and Natalia are shouting at each other.

“No! I’m going out to fight monsters!”

“You’re not going anywhere! Look at yourself! You’re still covered in bruises from last night!”

“You can’t stop me!”

The door slams open with a bang that rattles through the whole inn.

“Maribelle! Maribelle, wait!”