The horrifying face of a huge monster about to rip my head off. That image made me wake up screaming, I was sweating like a pig, my heart was pounding and I was still afraid of losing my beautiful red head.

Luckily, I was no longer in that dungeon fighting that Fallen man, but lying on a stretcher in a quiet white room, close to an open window overlooking the street.

The wind ruffled the curtain, soft as waves on a sleeping beach. For the first time since arriving in Nebula, the sun dared to show its big face. But, it is true, it did it shyly, because the clouds were not yet completely gone.

Claws tearing at my belly. My hands holding my guts so they wouldn't spill out onto the floor. It was an image that embedded itself in my mind like a bullet and I tore off the sheet that covered my body. I was quite naked because the only thing I was wearing was bandages covering my belly.

I took off the bandages to discover that on my stomach there were three scars forming lines, they were quite deep and I didn't think they were going to go away in the rest of my life, but at least they seemed to be healed.

I didn't lose an arm, I didn't lose an eye or an ear, my nose was still where it was and my wonderful hair was still as curly and beautiful as ever. I was in one piece and that was all that mattered.

After seeing that I still looked as good as ever, I decided it was time to get the hell out of there, but first I had to solve a small problem: I was completely naked

This problem was solved in no time, because on a chair there were some panties, a bra, shorts, a tank top and, under the seat, some sandals. I quickly got dressed, driven by the tremendous desire to go outside, get some fresh air and some sunshine to warm me up a bit.

As I got dressed, I discovered that a letter was hidden under my clothes, and I opened it at once: the writer’s handwriting was quite nice, but its contents caused me quite a bit of confusion. I read it aloud again, to see if it made more sense:

“If you do not have news from me within forty-eight hours of receiving this letter, prepare your defences: the Nightmare Nation is coming,” I read aloud.

What defences? Who would have sent me that? Why would someone have written me such a strange letter? I slapped my forehead; it was the letter I was supposed to deliver to the headquarters of the Children of the Sun of Nebula!

I had no more time to waste and I must go to the barracks to deliver the letter to Melon and the most important thing was to do it as soon as possible, so I decided to jump out of the window instead of going out the door, as I didn't want to have to talk to anyone.

When I was already with one leg over the window, almost ready to jump to the street, I heard a scream coming from right behind me.

“What are you doing? Don't kill yourself, girl!”

As I turned around I saw coming towards me the girl I went to rescue in the dungeon, and she sort of ended up rescuing me.

“I wasn't going to kill me,” I replied.

“Then why were you going to throw yourself out of the window?” she asked me, putting on his glasses that were slipping down his nose.

“I'm in a bit of a hurry and I thought it would be quicker to go out the window.”

“Well, that makes sense,” she said, nodding her head.

“Hey... and thanks for saving me from the Fallen, you were the one who killed him in the end,” I said.

“A Fallen is nothing to a talented wizard like me, Melinda Forte!”

I found it curious that she had the same surname as me.

“And why are you here? Are you hurt?”

“No, no I’m fine! You're Sabela, aren't you? Well, you can say that you also helped me with the Fallen, so you deserve your share of the reward, here you are!” she said, handing me some Suns banknotes: it was quite a lot of money, but I didn't count it because I was in a hurry. “Besides, I met the strange man who goes with you... I think his name is Fermin.”

“Valentin”

“Yes, more or less what I said... Well, he told me he was very sorry, but he had to go away to do some things.”

“Things? What things?”

“I don't know... He went off with a lady called Amanda.... I think she worked here or something. They started talking, giggling like fools, and then they left... Hey, what do you think they're doing? Do you think they're...?” Melinda lowered her voice and looked furtively left, right. Do you think they're doing adult things?”

“Adult things?

She nodded vehemently.

“Do you know what that is? My mother never told me anything... And I've always wondered what that was.... Anyway, anyway... I've already given you the message, so I've already done my job," she commented, smiling with satisfaction.

“Well, thank you, Melinda,” I said and thought that with all that money I had I could eat something nice in Nebula, and at the thought of the food my stomach let out a lioness roar. At the sound of my belly, Melinda let out a loud laugh.

“Your belly is like a cat! You're hungry, aren't you? Well, we can go and eat at a place where I always go to, because it's cheap and tasty. What do you think? Maybe we'd better get out of town right away though, things seem to be getting ugly...” sighed Melinda.

I jumped out of the window onto the street and it was quite satisfying. However, for dwarf Melinda, jumping out of the window was not a pleasant thing to do, to be honest. She was clinging to the windowsill with a pale face.

“But how can I jump from here? It's so high!”

“It's not even five metres high, you chicken. Come on, jump, I'll catch you,” I said, raising my arms in his direction.

“You're not going to take your arms off at the last moment so that I’ll crash on the ground, laugh at me and then go around telling everyone about it and have everyone laugh at me, are you? You're not going to do that to poor Melinda?” she asked, with wet calf eyes

“No! Jump right now!”

“Oh, for Helios, without courage the woman is nothing but a mouse!” cried the girl and jumped into the void.

And she really jumped because she didn't just let herself fall, but jumped with all her strength, as if she were a kangaroo instead of a child, so much so that she went over my head and landed behind me. I imagined her with a broken head, but when I turned around I discovered that she landed on top of a man who, due to the impact, was lying on the ground, unconscious.

“Oh, oh, oh, oh....” I said to myself, plunging my hand into my red curls.

“Wow, thank goodness that this kind gentleman caught me! Sabelita, how much you said you took me, but in the end...?” she said, giving me a disapproving look.

“Boooss!” a guy shrieked, kneeling down next to the man who served as Melinda's mat. “Are you all right, boss? You two! How dare you do this to the boss! We want a pay off!”

He was a guy with a rectangular head and a moustache that barely gathered four hairs. He wasn't very memorable, the kind of guy you see and forget. In addition, there were also two henchmen who were even more anonymous than him, trying to bring the fainted man back to life, but for the moment every effort was a failure.

“What pay off and what a shit? It was an accident,” I said.

“Oh, Sabelita! You don't have to explain yourself or anything... What you just saw was nothing more than a ruse," said Melinda, with a smile on her face that didn't fit in well with the situation.

“A ruse?” I asked, not understanding half of the mass.

“Yes, yes! One who, having seen a lot of TV series, knows about these things, and I'm one of those who went to street school! Actually, that man is perfectly fine, but he's faking he’s injured so that we have to give him money. Those gentlemen are nothing but two-bit thugs, nothing more than a bunch of miserable dogs who bark and bark and never bite. Ha! But they didn't expect me to unravel their plan!”

“Perfectly...” I murmured, but he didn't look fine to me at all: his face was deathly pale and his forehead had a cut from which he was bleeding.

The man with the rectangular head was not overly impressed by Melinda's conclusions. He was rather insulted, which was quite understandable.

“Hey! You think I'm an idiot or what? I'm from Little Nito's gang, you pair of assholes! You're going to give me all your money right now as pay off, otherwise you'll have a pretty powerful enemy,” he said and drew a gun that was hanging from his belt.

He immediately pointed it at me and at first I didn't recognise what it was because I had never seen anything like it before. But it didn't take me long to understand: it was a pistol, a firearm, one of those things that you pull a trigger and you're shot to hell. In no time, all my calm vanished.

“How one of them have you? Firearms forbidden in all the Kingdom be! Only Royal Army have them can!” I roamed and stepped forward.

Seeing me advance, showing no fear of the gun, the thug gave a horse's whinny and pulled the trigger. The bullet went off, but fortunately for me, the guy wasn't much of a marksman.

Was it fear, or was it because he was cross-eyed, or a mixture of both? Who knows! The thing is that it was the bullet whizzed by my right and my hand moved like lightning towards it, catching it on the spot.

For a second, we were all impressed by this feat of unusual bravery and impressive agility, but when I opened my hand, I discovered a bullet hole. I gritted my teeth, barely stifling a cry of pain.

“Ah, Sabelita, but why did you do that?” Melinda asked, grabbing me by the wrist and examining the bullet wound, then looked up. “You're a bit of a brute, aren't you?” she said, and I couldn't really deny it at the time.

“PUUUEEEHHH! You're crazy!” he shouted, trembling, pale, scared to death, he raised his pistol again, but couldn't find the courage to fire, besides, down the street there were a few guards coming with batons raised high in the air.

“Flee the city, flee the city, the darkness is coming!” the guards shouted, and I thought maybe they weren't coming because of the gunshot.

Anyway, the man with the horse's face ran off with his two henchmen carrying the unconscious man.

“You're both dead! You're more than dead, you're dead as hell! Nobody messes with Little Nito's gang!”