Chapter 3

"Did you hear the singing last night?" the sound of a hissing voice floated up from downstairs. I wondered to myself why I could hear them from a floor up, they had not shouted or anything just talking in normal voices.

"Yes mother, I did hear it, what was it?" asked another one.

"I don't know that's why he sent us, to find out what interrupts his rest. We are so close to finally striking at the gods. Like we did five years ago, that is where your father and I met. In that glorious battle, we destroyed many heroes that day, and we sacked many villages and temples." laughs the mother as I hear them slither up the stairs.

What I heard made my blood boil. She was a part of the attack on the school and the killing of my friends. I attempt to jump over the desk in my haste to get to the door, I scraped my shield against the desk. It made a loud screech noise.

"Did you hear that, mother?"   

"Yes, daughter, I did. Let's go see to our guest." They cackle as I hear the rasp of a drawn sword and the click of a spear hitting the ground. I wonder why my device did not work, then I realized they only keep out those that bear ill will towards me, not those who happen to find me. "This is so typical! Ever since that day the accursed gods never give me a break." I thought to myself quite harshly. The gods are pissed, well at least some of them are, that I let so many of their Favored die that they seek to punish me every chance they get. You would think after five years they would at least give me one night of peace. Do I not at least deserve that after all, I had done for them in the past. I have tried to make amends, and from what I have been hearing there were other survivors but it seemed as if they only want to punish me.

I posted up to the right side of the door as it is thrown open. I wait for the creature to slither into the room then bring my blade down straight through the creature's skull. Unaccustomed to the weight of my new shield I am thrown off balance as I try to pull my blade from the creature's skull I lose my grip on the hilt as it falls to the ground. I jump away from the doorway as a sword flashes right were my arm had been. "No, mother! What have you done, boy?" roars the daughter as she throws her blade at me, which misses. She grabs the spear and dips it in her mother's blood. "I am Kerlesse daughter of Keria and leader of the wingless ones. By the Blood of Keria you shall die you foolish BOY!" she yells as she thrusts her spear at me.

I only receive a scratch from the blade as I spin to the left. "Is that all you got?" I ask trying to make her angry enough to make a mistake.

"Young man, you are already dead!" Laughs Kerlesse evilly.

"How is that?" I ask though the answer is clear as the scratch starts to burn. "Poison I should have remembered your blood contains a deadly poison to those it infects. Well, it can also heal just depends on which part of the body it is taken from." The pain starts to spread through my body making it hard to hold my shield up so I reach over and deactivate it.   

"That's a right boy, so just kneel there and beg for your life!" she laughs as I draw the dagger I keep sheathed in the small of my back.   

I yell, "It's not over yet!" as I charge forward. She laughs at my futile attempt to kill her.

"Boy, you should have begged, I would have made it quick, but now I will enjoy torturing you slowly." She thrusts her spear at me and I am able to block it. Jumping back to avoid her next jab, I look around for a better weapon, her sword is the closest to me but I cannot get it without some kind of distraction. I do the only thing that comes to mind, I throw my dagger at her and it hit her right shoulder. She yells in pain giving me just enough time to grab her sword off the ground and turn to face her. "What good will that do you can't even get close to me, and that dagger trick won't work on me again." She laughed as she stabbed at me again.

I am barely able to block her stab with the sword, as the pain increases. My strength fades and I realize that if I don't do something quick I will die. I hear an echo from my haunted past. The voice I only hear in my dreams, Selena's beautiful voice. "Focus watch the way she moves, the way she fights. Watch for her tail the sign of where she will strike next." Focusing through the pain, I watch her as she stabs and slashes at me until I see it. She will start her next attack with a stab at my injured left arm, which I block. Next is a hard slash to my right slide, I step back to avoid that attack. Then I see my opportunity her next attack will be an attempt to stab me through the heart.

I wait for it, then block by using the flat of my blade to off balance her strike. Before she can draw her spear back in, I turn my blade on its edge and bring it up with all my force, as she starts to retract the spear. My attack lands where the wood meets metal and shears off the blade. "See, that's what I can do!" I smirk.

"It won't be enough." She cackles at me as I lunge at her she batters away my strikes. I am so tired I just want to lie down and sleep, but if I do that I know that it will be over. I lash out with a wild strike towards her, that she batted away like it was nothing. Her next strike had enough force to knock the sword out of my had.   

I hear a voice, I hate almost as much as I miss her whisper "Do not die here your punishment for the loss of one of my favored is not over yet, this is not a gift I give it is a curse. Now, live, fight and may you never find rest anywhere!" Laughs Guerrant the god of war, as his strength flows through my blood giving me the power to fight to the end. I see the spear blade lying to my left, which gives me an idea so when she hits me again I fall towards the spear. I fall on top of it and hide it behind my arm. I struggle to my feet, pretending that I am still weak. As she batters me with her staff, her first strike lands on my shield arm, the next of the side of my face. I glance away from the blow stumbling towards her as her finale strike misses my face; it puts me right up in her face.   

"Now is this enough?" I ask as stand up to my full height and push her into the wall, I plunge the blade of the spear into her heart.  

"How did you do that? You should be dead by now! Though it does not matter," she hisses "You will still die." She coughs up blood trying to laugh at me.

"If it were only that easy for me to die, but I am destined to suffer for so much longer. Sorry, today you die alone." I say bitterly it's just as Guerrant promised what he gave me was more of a curse than a gift I walked away from the corpses thinking about that fateful day. I let so many good people die. All of my friends lost in the blink of an eye. I start to remember the rest of my dream. The poison surges through my veins as Guerrant's power recedes from me. I stumble towards my bag and pulling a small stone box that was a gift from Volcanoes (the god of the forge, fire, and creativeness) himself for saving one of his forges from an army of giants. I spin the dial on it to the combination of 3-2-6, which is where I keep my different potions and nectars.

Typing on the built-in letter board I spell out the antidote, as I hit the enter key it brings up all the different antidotes I have stored in it. I look for the Gorgon blood antidote and take a swig of it. I cough and almost spit it out I had forgotten just how horrible it tasted and smelled. Though you may think that this box is amazing it has many limitations like the more complex the request the longer it is before you can use it again. Also to use something you have to put it into the box, it can't just make them appear out of nowhere. I close the box and put in another combination this time its 3-4-3, where my stored foodstuffs are at. Pulling out some dried fruits and meats, I sit down and eat while I let the antidote take effect. Closing the box, I put it back in my pack and close my eyes to rest.

I fell asleep almost as soon as I leaned my head against the wall. That is when the dream started again almost exactly, where it left off last night.