One Thing After Another

Cel

Cel threw his arms up as he leaned back in his wooden chair and stretched his stiff muscles. He was sitting at his desk, in the corner of his dim room. Cel smiled wryly as he looked at the puddle of wax that his thirty centimeter candle was reduced to. Cel had been spending more time than he would like learning about politics. Unfortunately, he was forced to continue if he wanted to keep the orphanage. Verline spread the word about the orphanage being up for grabs. As it turns out, it was valuable property and land, especially considering how much land he had. In the beginning, Cel only had to learn the etiquette in order to properly refuse their offers. Once they realized that Cel was adamant about keeping the orphanage, they resorted to getting him evicted. They gave Cel a run for his money, and almost succeeded on more than a few occasions. As time passed, they recently resorted to bribing the morally ambiguous mayor, forcing Cel to memorize the pertinent laws and get experience negotiating in order to not be wrongfully evicted. Luckily, because the main law enforcers in the town were the guards, he was able to avoid a direct seizure of his property with the mayor’s authority alone. A year ago, Cel thought he would be able to peacefully live the rest of his life without any problems, like the ending of a fairy tail. He gets proven wrong everday.

Cel got out of his chair and decided to get some fresh air on the roof. He leaned on the railing as he relished the air quality and admired the view. His orphanage was located on a hill, mostly separated from the town. The increased elevation let him overlook the entire settlement. Cel would never admit it, but sometimes he imagined himself as a noble overlooking his territory. Cel’s ears twitched as he caught the sound of someone talking. He focused on the sound, walking to his right along the railing and craning his neck. From there he could see Mebel, Roland, Gerald, and Delroy whispering to each other.

“Were walking together, I saw it!” Cel caught the end of a sentence.

“Who was the girl?” asked Mebel.

“Don’t know, but she looked like a noble!” answered Delroy.

“That’s raptor shit, why would big brother Cel be with a noble?” Roland shared his skepticism. Cel smiled at the conspiratory buggers as he realized who they were talking about.

“You kids should be asleep,” Cel called from the balcony, causing the kids to jump in fright. They all shouted an apology and ran inside, except for Gerald. Gerald stood there, looking up at Cel with a nervous expression. “What is it Gerald?” inquired Cel.

“Are you going to leave us?” he asked with tears in his eyes. Cel couldn’t help but quietly scoff, there was nothing in the world that could possibly tear him from his family.

“Of course not. I would never leave you guys, I swear,” Cel vowed. Gerald nodded and ran inside. Cel sighed, yet another situation he would rather not have to deal with.

“We are all wondering when you will introduce her,” Travis said from behind him. Cel knew it was Travis because of his voice, he could recognize the voice of anyone in his family instantly.

Cel turned and took in the battered Travis. He was glistening from moonlight reflecting off his sweat, his face was marred with dirt, and he was holding his golden spear. He held his spear near the head, the body of the spear ran up his forearm and continued behind him, past his elbow.

Travis had changed since his near death experience a year ago. He dedicated himself to growing stronger in order to not be a burden on, and instead help, those close to him. He’s made astonishingly swift progress. As early as half a year ago, Cel failed to notice whenever Travis walked into his room. Unfortunately, Cel wasn’t able to track exactly how strong Travis was because he refused to train or spar with Cel: saying that Cel would always hold back. He was right, Cel could never bring himself to try and harm him, but it was still disappointing. Cel was his number one supporter nonetheless. He asked Eliot a favor and gifted Travis the engraved, golden spear he was currently using to celebrate his progress.

“Soon,” Cel answered vaguely, “Did you want to talk?” Travis nodded.

“Captain Keizer wants to speak with you, he's waiting outside.” Cel frowned in consternation.

“Is it another orc raiding party? But they already attacked today,” Cel asked Travis to elaborate.

Ever since that day, when Klause Crucible decimated an orc army single handedly, orc raiding parties have attacked the village every twenty four hours. Cel wouldn't have been surprised if the orcs went extinct from the amount of carnage that day. Now, he has no idea how those orcs have enough numbers to send a raiding party to pillage or die trying every single day.

“It's not about the orcs, but he refused to tell me exactly what. He simply said he urgently needed to speak with you,” explained Travis. Cel jumped down to ground level while shouting thanks behind him. He landed right next to Craig.

“What is it?” Cel queired. Craig was startled into gripping his sword handle, but calmed down when he realized who it was.

“The mayor requests your presence for an important matter,” Craig told him. Cel asked about the situation, but Craig didn’t know anything else.

“Varkus!” Cel called into the night. A shadow bubbled up into smoke and formed into a young man in servant attire.

Varkus was the most cooperative and conscientious of the nine shadow slaves he received from Eliot a year ago. At first, Cel found it awkward to order other people around like he had any semblance of status, but he quickly got used to it once he saw how much of a help they were, especially in managing and keeping the children safe. Though it was another thing Cel would never admit, he began to wonder if he was getting closer to Camie’s lifestyle. Over time, the shadow slaves grew more and more elemental. When Cel asked Varkus why this was, he told him that it was because Cel possessed a special constitution called False Spirit. Someone who possesses a False Spirit constitution has an extraordinarily strong spiritual body, mana, and soul. And, as more time passed, they were infected with the strong desire to serve Cel, and Cel relied on them more. As a result, the shadow slaves subconsciously started drawing power from their connection and transforming themselves to better serve Cel. He also told Cel that they would all eventually turn into full fledged elementals of their affinity.

“Yes, Master?” asked varkus.

“I’ll be leaving and I don’t know when I’ll return. I want Sarah and Levi out keeping watch until I do,” ordered Cel.

“Right away, Master.” Varkus seamlessly sunk back into the shadow and disappeared. Craig waited until he was finished and escorted Cel to the mayor’s house.

The mayor’s house was similar to the orphanage, a big wooden box painted white, located in the middle of the town. Craig led Cel through the doorway and into the mayor’s office. The room was fairly small, only around twenty square meters. There was a large desk in the middle of the room, on the desk was a map detailing the Town of Flora and its surroundings, along with a bright candle that lit up the room. There was a long dresser against the back wall with two unlit candles sitting idly on top, and a door in the right wall that Cel assumed led to the rest of the mayor’s house.

Mayor Damien Caldwell was a plump, but not exactly wide enough to be called fat, man. He had short brown hair and wore the ceremonial mellow orange and deep blue coat of a mayor. It looked almost identical to the attire of a noble: folded collar, embroidered buttons, multiple pockets, and cuffs. He had an irritated expression and stood on the right side of his desk.

Surprisingly, the mayor wasn’t alone. Standing with a cold expression to the left of the desk was the elf Cassie, captain of the rangers.

“Cel. You’ve finally arrived,” Cassie greeted.

“Sir Verrus, I hope you can tame this elf for me,” Mayor Caldwell discarded the pleasantries and got straight to the point. Cel had interacted with the mayor multiple times in the past due to the orphanage and was already used to his rude manner. In fact, you could say they were on amicable terms. As it turns out, the mayor came to respect Cel’s political abilities after seeing him defeat anyone vying for the orphanage, even when the mayor was bribed to set the rules against him. Cel was called in as a mediator because he was on good terms with both parties.

“What’s going on?” Cel asked.

“I wish for Mayor Caldwell to restrict the area where his people are felling trees,” Cassie filled him in.

“And, they are threatening violent action if we don’t comply,” added Mayor Caldwell. Cel’s brows furrowed and he looked to Cassie for an explanation.

Cassie had her arms crossed as she tried to explain, “We would simply warn them to stay out of the area. We wouldn’t actually injure anyone, unless they resist.” Cel frowned, no matter how you look at it the elves are being unreasonable. If Cel didn’t know better, he would assume this was the elves making up an excuse to start a conflict. After mulling it over, Cel finally noticed the map and examined it. He suddenly realized what the problem was. On the map, it showed the Town of Flora, the elven village, and their respective areas of control.

An area of control is the area outside of the actual settlement that the settlement could draw resources from and retained a minimal amount of control of. Areas of control were introduced when the first humans migrated to the Feral Continent and they had trouble with neighboring race’s civilizations.

The problem was: areas of control are decided based on the level of settlement, and the area of control given to the elven settlement was the level of a village when the actual settlement level was a city, it’s hidden after all. Looking at the border lines, Cel could tell the the area of control the Town of Flora is allocated infringes on the actual area of control that the city should have, it even comes close to the city limits. With the mayor trying to expand the town, the lumberjacks will end up crossing into city limits with another half week of work.

Cel mentally sighed when he realized the difficult position he was in. Fortunately, Cel had a fortuitous encounter that could be used to clean this mess up.

“If I gather things correctly, what ranger captain Cassie is trying to say is: the forest is too dangerous to send have your men there,” Cell told the mayor.

“The forest is usually a safe place, are you saying things have changed?,” Mayor Caldwell asked.

“Precisely,” Cel followed up, “In fact, I ran into a Treant the other day.”

“A treant!” the mayor and Cassie were both taken aback.

“Are you hurt? I have a few potent rejuvenation potions,” Cassie queried in concern.

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t injured,” Cel ensured her, “But, the point is, the forest is growing extremely dangerous. The weaker monsters are even appearing in the outskirts of the forest. I’m sure that your laborers have been attacked by a few jackalopes already.” Cel wasn’t deceiving the mayor when he said the workers were in danger. He first realized that the monsters were changing when he was on a hunt and came across a human sized orange feathered raptor that was much faster and deadlier than the regular red ones. It’s escalated so much that he ran into a treant last week.

A treant is a high tier monster that feeds on the life force of captured living beings. That doesn’t mean they’re weak, though. On the contrary, they were extremely difficult to deal with. Treants can deliver devastating blows and are practically immune to most physical attacks. The only reason Cel managed to kill the treant unscathed was because Camie was with him. Cel was absolutely amazed by the level of knowledge a noble woman possessed. She knew what the treant’s main weak point was and supported Cel with ranged magic.

“What Cel says is true,” Cassie was quick to solidify their argument, “We’ve recorded increased levels of monsters and more sightings of higher level monsters in recent times than ever seen before.” Mayor Caldwell was sceptical, and for fair reason. This was the first he’d heard about the forest changing.

“Do the elves have any idea what might have caused this change?” the mayor probed.

“The ecosystem is changing because of a rise in ambient mana levels. As for what caused the rise in levels, we don’t know for sure. We suspect that a mythical beast has migrated near here. The only thing we know for sure is that the levels continue to rise and they don’t seem to be stopping,” explicated Cassie.

“Well… I can postpone the expanding project, however, we can’t just stop cutting down trees. The Town of Flora needs a constant supply of wood to keep functioning. The main support of the town’s economy are the carpenters,” Mayor Caldwell shared his grievances.

“Perhaps we can do trade. We elves know where the best wood grows and we can guarantee a constant supply,” proposed Cassie. Mayor Caldwell was visually displeased with the notion. It wasn’t because of anything Cassie promised, though, he knew the elves were an extremely skilled race that would fulfill their end of the deal.

“What would you have us give you in exchange?” Mayor Caldwell asked with narrowed eyes.

“Your flora,” Cassie answered eagerly.

“Absolutely not,” the mayor refused, “You elves have been trying to obtain our unique plant life since before I was mayor.”

On the easter side of the town was an expansive field of flora that ranges from extremely rare herbs like fate roses to common but useful plants like mana flower. It was the reason the Town of Flora received its name. Since the founding of the settlement, the mayors have protected it more than a dragon protects its hoard.

Cel knew Mayor Caldwell could be persuaded to trade it, though. He was only trying to get a better deal since he knew how much the elves coveted it. Mayor Caldwell has a reputation to wave ironclad rules and has no problem going against common practice. In fact, Cel knew they discovered a large and valuable ore deposit near the Floral Lake that the mayor plans on excavating, despite the fact that it would disturb the surrounding flora.

“What if they were to also trade a supply of rejuvenation potions?” Cel interrupted. “Our physicians are extremely under qualified to treat all of our people being injured in orc raids. Having elven witchcraft would save a countless amount of injured. You could plan annual meetings to decide all the details.” After saying his piece, Cel suppressed a smirk. The mayor stroked his chin in thought, but Cel could read him like an open book. Mayor Caldwell was completely sold, he was only putting on airs.

“...If the terms Sir Verrus has laid out are agreed upon, then I accept,” Mayor Caldwell said with feigned hesitation.

“That settles it,” agreed Cassie as she shook the mayor’s hand.

They went on to draw up the official documents, deciding the details of the first two months of trade. Cassie left after they were done, her eyes were grateful as she bade Cel goodbye. Cel was about to take his leave, when Mayor Caldwell asked him a question.

“When did you first get involved in politics, Sir Verrus?”

“I can’t recall exactly… it was more than half a year ago.”

“Let’s skip the other pleasantries, then. How would you like to work as my assistant?” Cel was caught completely off guard by the random job opportunity.

“What would that entail?” Cel’s interest was piqued. A job working with the mayor of his town could benefit him greatly, and it would be a shame to waste all the time he spent studying law.

“You would mostly assist me with trivial affairs and occasionally matters concerning the elves. The pay is ten gold coins per month.”

Cel mulled it over before answering, “I accept, when do my duties begin?”

“Wonderful! I’ll send a runner tomorrow morning,” celebrated the mayor with a toothy smile.

Cel walked out of the mayor’s office completely satisfied. He managed to smooth everything over, and he landed a valuable job. He started on his way back to the orphanage, admiring the night sky as he walked. Suddenly, an upside down face dropped into his vision. Cel yelped as he jumped back. In front of him was an upside down boy, somehow staying completely stationary in the air. The boy was around Cel’s age and had brown hair with peculiar eyes. They didn’t look like the eyes of a human. Their pupils were in the shape of a rounded plus sign, and they were orange juice yellow, while the boy’s irises were a sparkly red. The boy wore a black cloak that covered most of his body with a pointed and rimmed hat that somehow stayed stuck to his head.

“So, you’re the one she chose. Honestly, you don’t seem like much at first glance,” commented the boy as he scrutinized Cel.

“Wha… who are you? What are you talking about?” asked Cel, completely baffled. It was only then that the boy decided to obey gravity, he flipped and landed on his feet with his back to Cel. The boy turned and looked Cel directly in his pale brown eyes.

“And yet, your soul is deeply aligned with fate. You might even be able to channel fate power-oh! Yes, my apologies for not introducing myself earlier. I am Caelen, the Second Fate,” he said as he bowed, only just realizing that he was conversing with a sentient being instead of examining an object. “Come here, let me take a closer look,” Caelen said as he moved closer and felt Cel’s arms. “I see… multiple special constitutions, your body is put together as if you were made for the sole purpose of battle. However, there's nothing that hasn’t been seen before. What would make her interested in you? Perhaps it’s your talent? Do you have any ideas?” Caelen muttered, before looking up and addressing Cel. Cel pulled away in bewilderment.

“What the Abyss are you talking about?” Cel put up his guard, his hands wandering toward his daggers.

“Oh, I seem to have startled you. Looks like Chandler was right,” Caelen muttered more nonsense. “Well, I’ll come back later, then. Sorry again for scaring you.” Caelen suddenly lit up in intense rainbow light before disappearing, leaving Cel’s eyes blind in the dark of the night.

Cel rubbed his aching head as he tried to make a semblance of sense of what just happened. In the end, he failed and was left feeling extremely unsettled. I’ll have to ask Eliot if he knows about the Fates, the next time he visits.

Cel sighed as he resigned himself to ignorance and started his walk back home. That was when a powerful gust of wind blew past him, and with it, a voice.

“Master, we desperately require your assistance!” Cel recognized the voice and ability to send messages through the wind as Sarah’s, his half wind spirit servant. Cel tsked. One problem after another. Cel frowned.

He chose to temporarily flaunt the rules of gravity as he ran up the side of a building and traversed across the rooftops. With the wind aiding him, he soon arrived at the base of the hill that the orphanage was built on. He could make out four silhouettes whooshing around each other near the top. One silhouette jumped up and attempted to slam a second silhouette. The second silhouette rolled under the first and twisted in an attempt to slash the first silhouette. But the shadows under the second silhouette suddenly came alive, forming vines that ensnared and dragged down the silhouette. A third silhouette in the air swooped down to attack the second silhouette, but then the silhouette seemed to partially turn into shadow and passed through the shadows vines keeping it stationary.

It was then that Cel grew near enough to see exactly what was going on. The second silhouette from before was a man dressed in all black, dual wielding daggers. The third silhouette in the sky was Sarah, the first silhouette was Levi, and the last silhouette, who was a short distance away from the actual fighting, was Varkus.

“What’s the situation?” Cel asked Varkus as he rushed forward, brandishing his blood red daggers.

“The man is an extremely skilled assassin. He attempted to sneak into the orphanage, but I noticed him lurking in the shadows and we broke out into a fight,” Varkus summarized what happened. “Be extremely cautious, Master! Whoever it is, they are far more skilled than us humble servants.” Cel ignored his warnings completely

“Don’t interfere, I want to kill him myself,” Cel growled an order to his shadow slaves. That bastard was targeting his family, and that was unforgivable.

Cel rushed forward with anger in his eyes, throwing his left dagger. The assassin easily deflected it, but came under siege by Cel’s one-daggered attack. Their daggers fazed into blurs as they traded attacks, lighting up the dark night with sparks. The assassin grew wary: Cel was matching his attack speed with a single dagger while he had two. But, the assassin still found an opening; Right before his dagger clashed with Cel’s for the hundreth time, he loosened his grip on it and twriled it around Cel’s dagger, holding it upright as he thrust it towards Cel’s chest. Before the assassin could injure Cel, a spike of earth shot up between them, jolting the assassin’s left arm up and making him lose grip of the dagger. The spike sunk back into the ground and Cel immediately re-engaged. The assassin was forced backwards as Cel practically controlled the assassin’s dagger’s movement because of the sheer amount of times he hit it. He was still unable to land more than a few shallow cuts on the assassin’s fingers and wrist, though.

As the fight continued, the assassin could feel the corner he was in coming closer each passing second as he stepped uphill. But he wasn’t feeling pressured, on the contrary, he performed the best when in a corner. With this thought in mind, the assassin regained his vigor and increased his pace, matching Cel and launching attacks of his own instead of solely defending. Meanwhile, Cel wasn’t used to combat, so he was feeling weary even from the short exchange they’ve had so far. His emotions came in potent spikes that passed quickly; he was regretting telling his shadow slaves not to interfere and he lost some of his edge due to his anger subsiding. Especially since the assassin was only a step away from the trap he set.

The assassin grew used to the flow of battle and pressed Cel harder, he even landed a particularly good slash on Cel’s forearm. But, that was when Cel found the perfect opportunity. The assassin moved forward and aimed his next attack based on Cel moving backward in turn. Instead, Cel jumped forward and pushed the assassin. Caught off guard, the assassin lost his balance from the push and tripped. Cel’s eyes shown, he got the assassin in range. He activated the rune on his left dagger, causing it to shoot towards his hand. He caught it in a reverse grip and lined it up with his right dagger to behead the assassin. Unfortunately, before the dagger tips made contact, an orange tinged barrier flashed to life on the assassin’s skin in tandem with an amulet the assassin wore beneath his clothes. Cel’s daggers uselessly bounced off the barrier. But, Cel was amazing at thinking on his feet. He dropped the dagger in his left hand as he caught the assassin’s right hand before the assassin could sink his dagger into his back. At the same time, he pulled the assassin’s left arm and made him fall forward instead of backwards. After the pull, Cel seamlessly stepped around the assassin and slammed him into the ground while locking the assassin’s arm behind his back. Barriers only deflect external damage, so Cel was completely free to break his arm. While the assassin was screaming in pain, Cel moved as fast as he was able. He flipped the assassins over, ripped the amulet off, severed the assassin’s right arm, and plunged his hand down the assassin’s throat. Cel sighed as he pulled out a small blue capsule of poison. Now, he could question him for information and he was less of a threat with one arm gone and one broken.

Cel never learned how barriers work, so he mistook the orange mana around the assassin's skin as a barrier. However, it couldn’t be a barrier because barriers are fixed in the same position and it isn’t common knowledge how to get around this drawback. In actuality, the amulet has an engraving that takes the assassin’s mana and fashions it into a pseudo Mage’s Armor, condensed mana at the edge of his aura, that would dissappate with time.

“Varkus, quickly go and get Larus!” Cel ordered as he cut the tendons in the assassin’s legs so he wouldn’t be able to run away. Levi and Sarah exchanged looks, Cel was usually gentle and kind, but this event showed how far he could go if pushed.

Suddenly, Cel came to his senses and let go of the man’s throat in a hurry. His breathing came in short gasps as he looked at the disabled man hacking his lungs out and with blood pouring from where his limbs were supposed to be. Cel stifled a gag and stepped away. He would have killed you without a second thought. Cel told himself. If you didn’t do it, he would have killed your family! It was absolutely necessary. Over the past year, Cel had been slowly working up an immunity to hurting living beings, but he was still far from being fully immune. Fortunately, wrapped up in the high of combat and the addictive feeling of his heart pumping pure adrenaline through his veins, Cel could manage to push himself. After all, it was a split second window where he wouldn’t be able to imagine the consequences.

Larus, the half fire elemental, was gasping for air by the time she made it to their position, but quickly seared the wounds shut, once ordered. Cel took deep, steadying breaths before steeling his resolve and morphing his face into a hard expression. He walked back towards the assassin and unwrapped the man’s face and mouth.

“Why were you trespassing on my land?” Cel started the interrogation with a menacing voice.

“You should just kill me, I’ll never talk,” spat the man. He had an accent that suggested he wasn’t from around here.

“If you don’t talk, you will be forcing my hand,” Threatened Cel.

The assassin scoffed, “I can handle torture. Besides, you aren’t very convincing. I can see the hesitation in your eyes, you are a coward!” Cel flinched at his words, but managed to keep his calm.

“You’re right. I don’t like inflicting pain… but pain is only one way to get answers.” Cel had a bone chilling smile as he walked out of the assassin’s view and returned with one of his severed arms. The assassin noticed the shift in Cel’s eyes and grew wary. Cel took his dagger and cut off the man’s pointer finger. He let the arm smack wetly against the grass before leaning down and shoving the finger in the man’s mouth.

“What the Aby-” the man exclaimed before being cut off by Cel, who forced him to chew on the finger. The man’s face morphed into utter disgust and he started uncontrollable gagging. It wasn’t long before he was throwing up. Cel turned him over to make sure he didn’t choke.

“You fucking sick bastard!” gasped the man. Cel walked over and whispered something into Levi’s ear. Levi’s face wavered from its usual stony expression as he carried out Cel’s order. Not long later, Cel had a bowl of dirt with the man’s vomit in it. Cel had a wicked smile as he stirred the vomit with the man’s finger and put it to the man’s nose.

“Talk.”

Finally unable to bear it, the man screamed, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” Cel sighed, he was feeling fairly disgusted himself. He set the bowl near him, though, just in case.

“Why were you trespassing on my land?”

“To kill the owner of the orphanage,” the assassin gave a short answer. Cel rolled his eyes.

“Why were you trying to kill the owner?”

“It was my mission objective.” Cel sighed and reached for the bowl. The man grimaced and quickly protested, “Wait! I’m from an organization. I took a mission to kill the owner of an orphanage in a small town. It had a low difficulty level and paid a lot.” Cel retracted his arm and continued the questioning. After some time and some more convincing, the man spilled everything they needed to know.

He was from an organization called Rex Mortem. Rex Mortem is a massive organization that specializes in killing and assassination. They were founded in the Kirlandhil Empire, where they don’t have to hide themselves because the only law is strength. It did begin as an underground organization, but as they grew in strength and popularity, the king decided to hunt them down. When their main base of operations was found, they successfully defended against the guards for three days and nights. In light of this, the king decided to praise and hold them up as an example of strength. Since then, they’ve served kirlandhil nobility and expanded across the entire continent. The assassin that tried to kill Cel is from a recently formed branch formed in the Feral Continent.

After learning about the organization, Cel asked him about what would happen if he were to fail his mission. If the assassin didn’t return or failed to complete the objective, the organization would contact the original mission requester and ask for a greater sum of money. If they agreed, the mission would be put back on the mission list available to members with a higher difficulty level than the first time. Cel asked if there was any way around that, but the man failed to provide Cel with an idea. So, for the time being, Cel had Levi build the man a dirt cell near the servants’ quarters.

Cel was absolutely exhausted after that fight and made for the orphanage. He quietly entered and shut the door. Cel had enough innate finesse that he could casually walk through an area without making any sound at all. Despite this, Cel heard someone shift under their blanket. Cel stopped in his tracks, only taking the shallowest of breaths and being completely still.

“Big brother Cel… I’m scared,” whispered Mebel. Cel was astonished that she managed to see him, but he discarded those thoughts and made his way to her bedside.

“It’s ok, there is no need to be scared. I would never let anything happen to you, I swear,” Cel assured her.

“But I hear monsters,” Mebel responded.

“Hear what?”

“Monsters,” answered Meble. “Under the ground.” Cel smiled softly at her.

“It’s only your imagination. How can there be monsters under the ground?” Cel continued to comfort her. Mebel shook her head wildly.

“No! That's not true. I know I heard it, I know!” Mebel started crying. Cel hurriedly wrapped her in a hug, whispering it was ok in her ear.

“Do you want to sleep in my bed for tonight?” Cel asked her after she stopped crying. Mebel rubbed her eyes as she nodded. Cel carried her up the stairs and into his rooms. He tucked her in and pulled up a chair next to the bed for himself. Even in the bed, Mable refused to let go of Cel’s hand. “Don’t worry, I’m here,” Cel lulled her to sleep. Seeing her resting peacefully, all the exhaustion from before hit Cel like a freight train, and he passed out.

What felt like an instant passed by, and Cel was awake, feeling a pull on his arm. Cel yawned as he looked at Mebel pulling his arm.

“What is it?” Cel asked half awake.

“You won’t let go,” Mebel said softly. Cel felt a tinge of embarrassment as he let go, fully awake now.

“Sorry, were you awake long?” apologized Cel. Mebel shook her head as she got out of Cel’s bed and started for the stairs. Cel sighed,Mebel was being more distant than usual and he couldn’t tell if it was something he was doing wrong. Mebel came to an abrupt stop in front of the door and she stared at it intensely.

“Big brother Cel… your door is wrong,” She said in her soft voice. Cel couldn’t help but laugh a little bit at how weird that sounds.

“What do you mean?” Cel asked as he got up from his chair and joined her at the door.

“You don’t see it?” She asked extremely vexed.

“No, it’s the same,” Cel shook his head.

“It’s not the same! It’s different, I can see it!” She shouted. Cel opened his mouth to say something, but Mebel stepped forward and threw the door open. Through the door frame, they couldn’t see much past the sinister darkness of a cave. Cel instantly stepped in front of Mebel and stared down the inky black. But Mebel didn’t stay behind him, she walked ahead instead. Cel had a small panic attack as she casually walked into the room. Cel lagged behind for a few seconds because he felt something extremely dangerous, possibly even life threatening, in the cave. Unfortunately, he wasn’t left with the choice to flee. Cel frantically searched his room for a light source, but ended up having to make an improvised torch with a chair leg and some supplies he used for his beginner witchcraft. When it was lit, Cel ran in after Mebel.

Contrary to Cel’s expectations, the cave wasn’t too creepy. Sure it was too dark to see more than a meter in any direction even with his torch, but that was it. In truth Cel had never been inside a cave. He’d read how people described them: as if something was lurking in the darkness, making the adventurer feel vulnerable. Cel didn’t feel any of that, in fact, he was comfortable in the dark, it even felt warm for some reason, like an old friend. What Cel did feel was paranoia for Mebel. While the darkness itself wasn’t threatening in any way, Cel didn’t know what was shrouded, and when it came to the safety of his family, he would take no chances.

When Cel caught sight of Mebel, she was standing in the middle of the room with an exuberant look on her face. She breathed in until she shook from the amount of air in her lungs and exhaled refreshingly.

“Mebel! We need to leave, we don’t know what’s in here!” Cel whisper screamed at her. Mebel turned toward him and put her finger to her lips before pointing up with an annoyed expression. Cel looked where she was pointing, but he couldn’t make anything out of the darkness. Cel grew slightly annoyed as he made his way to Mebel, intent on dragging her out if he had to. On the way, Cel accidently kicked a small rock that bounced and clattered across the room. The rock sounded like the rapture in the silent room.

“You woke it up,” Mebel whispered shakily. An angry screech originating from the roof of the cave pounded on their ear drums as it echoed. Cel desperately sprinted for Mebel, feeling the eyes of a predator on his back. As soon as Cel reached Mebel, something big slammed down on the floor from the ceiling, causing the entire cave to shake. “We are with the monsters, under the ground,” Mebel told Cel as she flattened herself against him in freight.

“Stay behind me!” Cel yelled at her as he slowly backed up. The monster was outside of his light radius, but he could hear the giant creature rustling.

“The right!” Mebel yelled from behind him. Cel shifted his gaze to his right and saw a thick tail flying towards him. With no time to react, the tail whipped Cel’s left arm and threw him a few meters to his right, his torch clattering out of sight. Cel’s senses turned fuzzy in response to the excruciating pain. After a few seconds, he regained his senses and jumped to his feet, on guard for the next attack. I need to use my sixth sense. If I can’t do this, Mebel is as good as dead.

As crazy as it sounds, the existence of a sixth sense for danger is widely accepted and has been proven to exist. The sixth sense isn’t something that is usually available at birth, it’s something that you temper through countless battles and experiences; to this date the only exception to that rule is someone who has a unique constitution that concerns their perception or senses.

Cel closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to visualize his surroundings in his mind, unsheathing his daggers at the same time. With this being the first time Cel ever attempted to intentionally use his sixth sense, he didn’t have enough skill to actually visualize his surroundings beyond a vague outline. Fortunately, he was in a flat and open cave with no obstacles to worry about, allowing him to successfully utilize this.

When the tail came again, Cel jumped and his back slid across the top of the tail while he raked it with his daggers. The creature screeched in pain and anger. Cel landed awkwardly on his feet and had to stop himself from falling, but he broke out in a smile of relief, nonetheless. He wasn’t convinced it would actually work before he tried it, only desperate enough to try.

Cel dashed through the darkness and stopped when he got to Mebel. He kneeled down and gave her a piggyback ride, then he changed direction and ran toward the monster.

“It’s ok, Mebel, I won’t let you get hurt,” Cel promised. Mebel gripped Cel tighter in response.

As they grew closer, the monster roared in anger and Cel saw something coming in his mind, extremely fast. He stepped to the side and could feel the wind woosh as something flew near him. Cel couldn’t make sense of it at first, but the thing retracted and returned to the monster just as fast. He figured out what it was once a burning liquid landed on his skin. That was the creature’s tongue. It works like a gromp’s tongue Cel made an analogy to what was basically a giant poisonous frog in order to help him visualize the threat. Cel flinched slightly as he saw the tongue rip out of the monster’s mouth in his mind. He dodged it easy enough, but it came again the next moment. The monster’s tongue stabbed the air a countless amount of times, and the window of error Cel had was getting smaller and smaller as he had less and less time to dodge. Each time the creature shot out its tongue, it was faster and more accurate. Cel opened his eyes once he figured out why that was: they were growing closer to the monster.

Cel sighed as he relaxed his senses, using his sixth sense was extremely tanxing. But, that sigh turned into a choking sound as Cel saw what the monster looked like.

It was a giant green scaled lizard with purple eyes of a chameleon and the tail of an iguana. It was over twenty meters tall and forty meters wide from leg to leg.

With a final slide, Cel managed to get under the beast and out of its tongue range. He was plenty terrified of something so big, but he took solace in the glaring weakness of these types of monsters: they were incredibly inflexible. Once Cel got under it, the beast could only thrash about trying to stomp on him and roar.

Cel’s eyes locked on the door, still open and bleeding light into the pitch black cave. He just needed to run a little more and Mebel was safe. But, as he made one las mad dash for the door, he felt Mebel pull at him.

“Wait!” she told him. “We need to save the fairy.”

“What fairy?” Cel asked in confusion.

“The fairy trapped in the monster,” she said as if it was obvious. Cel sighed in exasperation.

“Well, if the fairy is trapped in the monster that means it's ok right now. We can come back for it later,” Cel tried bargaining. Suddenly, Cel’s ears twitched as he noticed that the monster’s roars were significantly more quiet. He looked up and saw that they weren’t under the beast anymore. It was as if it just disappeared. Cel didn’t ask why, instead he ran for the door with renewed vigor, ignoring Mebel’s protest.

Cel was filled with relief as he practically reached the door, only a few seconds away. But, that was when a drop of liquid splashed on the floor in front of him and he slipped. He hugged Mebel protectively as they rolled and slid, stopping just four meters from the door. After they stopped, Cel looked up and his face blanched. The creature’s head was looming over them, its mouth dripping acidic saliva that Cel tripped on. The went invisible before repositioning itself to catch Cel off guard.

With no other options left, Cel grabbed Mebel and threw her through the door, the next second he threw his dagger into the door and activated its engraving, making the door slam shut as it came back to him. That was all the time he had before the creature attacked.

The monster's tongue hit him like a bowling ball, then he was slapped by inertia as he suddenly changed directions. He heard the jaws of the beast snap shut as he was swallowed, and the lizard’s mouth squeezed the air out of his lungs. Knowing he was done for, the least he could do was try and kill the monster in case Mebel ever found her way back here. So, he strained his burning muscles to fish out the bags of gunpowder he kept in his pockets. During the process, he lost a few, but he managed to light most of them. An explosion bigger than Cel could image bloomed in the lizard’s throat and Cel felt himself jolt through space.

By the time he came to his senses, Cel was lying on the hard stone ground, outside of the lizard’s mouth. His whole body was screaming in pain, his right arm in particular caused his vision to grow blurry with tears. Every one of his breaths was a laborious task of heaving that he knew he couldn’t keep up for long.

“Yes! Thank you gods for finally freeing me from that monster!” celebrated an unfamiliar voice next to Cel’s left. Cel choked as blood worked its way up his throat and got stuck. A ball of white light fluttered into his fading vision. “Oh my gods! Are you alright? Of course not, he’s missing an arm, after all. Uh- don’t worry, I’ll save you! I can’t let you die until I repay you for freeing me,” the voice switched between muttering to itself and talking to the half dead Cel.

Cel was reaching the end of his will power and he couldn’t be bothered to try and understand what this voice was. Instead, he embraced the encroaching warmth of death. The memories of his family and friends caused Cel to sprout one last smile before losing consciousness.