Let's Go

There wasn’t much we could do with our wagon and horses gone. We were both injured, though Aggie’s injuries were already starting to heal. I used parts of my cape to tie my arm against my chest, easing the pain and keeping me from moving it too much. We made a small fire and sat around it, saying nothing but sitting together in silence. I didn’t know what Aggie was going through, but my pride was severely wounded. I closed my eyes and tried to rest.

I dreamt again, nearly the same dream as I had before.

I was panting, my heart beating in my ears as I ran. My feet slapped against the stone floor, the skin smacking against it and being rubbed raw.

I was barefoot, and little legs propelled me forward, skin a touch darker than my own. Shadows crept up around me, as if they were reaching for me trying to pull me down.

A figure stood before me, his grin unusually wide. The fangs were clearly visible. This time, I could make out two horns protruding from his head.

‘I’ll have you go in my place.’

The man shifted. His dark hair was wild around his face. It trailed down his back. He wore white robes that were torn and stained with blood and dirt. I still couldn’t see any detail on the face itself.

My legs collapsed beneath me. I was similarly dressed as him, in my own white robe though mine was ripped at the bottom, revealing my tiny legs from the knee down. It was just as dirty, also stained with blood and dirt.

The strange man approached me with deliberate, delicate steps. My whole body trembled, but it refused to listen to me. It was paralyzed in fear by the creepy guy closing the distance between us.

He knelt down in front of me. Reaching out a bony hand, he caught my chin and lifted my head up to meet his eyes. They were red, and they glowed eerily in the darkness that shadowed most of his face. His fangs seemed to grow as he grinned. It felt as if he were going to devour me whole.

‘You did well. Think of this as a…lighter punishment. I think death would be too easy for you.’ He whispered in my ear. A chill ran down my spine.

I tried to speak up, but when I opened my mouth, no voice came out. The fear was too overwhelming. Something in the back of my mind told me that death would have been preferable. These weren’t my own thoughts I was hearing; I had become someone else.

He pulled back his hand and let me slump back down to the ground. My head drooped and I could see all the wounds and blood that coated my arms and legs. I wish I knew what had happened. This wasn’t right.

The man reached down and yanked me up by an arm. He easily held me up, dangling me off the ground. This body was much smaller than his, as if it belonged to a child. I tried to lift my head, but my body was still frozen with fear.

He squeezed my wrist so tightly his long nails dug into my skin. His grip tightened further and it felt as if my bones would break. I managed to let out a pitiful yelp. His grin only widened even more. This crazed villain took pleasure in hurting a small child.

I felt the anger rising within me, but it didn’t answer me the way I hoped. The fire wouldn’t come forth. I knew it was a dream, but I still wanted to free the little boy from the villian’s grasp.

There was a sickening crack as the villain snapped the boy’s wrist. The child let out a pained cry. The man just laughed and threw him to the ground. The boy cradled his damaged wrist in his hand. The tears that stung his cheeks blurred my view of the psycho bullying him.

‘Blame this on the misfortune of your birth.’

The child managed to lift his head. The tears still dotted his vision, but he blinked them away. Despite the fear and pain, he managed to glare up at the man.

“No matter what ya do to me, ya ain’t gonna win. One day, for sure, I’ll getcha.” His voice cracked as he spoke.

‘I look forward to it.’

The psycho brought up his hand to his own chest. He stretched his fingers out and locked them together. With a crazed grin and a wild laugh, he stabbed his hand into his own shoulder. The blood splurted out and splashed onto the child. The man kept going, digging deeper into his own body.

With a dramatic flip of his wrist, he severed his arm at the shoulder. It flopped to the ground, splattering more blood across the child and leaving an ugly, dark stain on the stone ground.

With the arm still attached, he reached out and grabbed the child by the face. The muffled shouts were trapped behind the villain’s hand. Even dripping with blood, he kept grinning.

‘Until we meet again, little brother.’

And he threw the child across the cave.

That was when I woke up, my eyes snapping open as the sun started to stretch its first rays across the land. I was laying on my back, staring straight up at the sky. Dawn was quickly approaching. The fire between us had long since gone out. I grunted as I sat up.

Aggie was sleeping on the other side of the fire. He was curled up against himself, looking smaller than I was used to seeing him. I wished he would tell me what that was all about, but somehow, I knew he wouldn’t.

I crawled over to his side. He was still sleeping, but he looked miserable. His brow was furrowed, and he shivered every few seconds. He muttered to himself, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. I reached down gently and tapped his head where the wound once was. The blood had dried on his hair and skin, but beneath it, the cut had healed cleanly. I checked for any other wounds, but it looked like they were completely gone.

“Stop poking me, Mage,” Aggie groaned. He uncurled himself and looked up at me. His eyes were redder than they were before. He had cried a lot.

“Are you okay?” I asked him. I moved back to let him sit up. He rubbed his head as he did so. He didn’t want to meet my eyes again, but he knew I had already seen them. He sighed.

“I mean, not really? But my injuries are all healed now. Sorry about your arm.”

“It’s not your fault. And it’s not like it won’t heal with time. Just takes a tad longer for me than it does for you demons. I can deal with it. Still can use magic just fine.”

Aggie grimaced. “We really can’t keep going like this. If that guy can get over here now, he’ll keep coming after me. Yer just gonna be a toy for him. He’ll break ya just to get to me. That’s how he is.”

“I’m not planning on letting him get too far ahead of us. I’m still training. I have to grow stronger. And we still have to get the rest of your magic back.”

Aggie gave me a sharp look. I just shrugged. “What? I told you I wasn’t going anywhere. I asked you to train me and you promised. I intend to hold you to it. I definitely don’t want to go back to where those villagers are or something.”

“He can kill you in an instant…” Aggie choked on his words.

“Yeah, I know.” And I meant it. I might not have been able to understand everything when the demon was attacking us, but I had time to figure it out. I was certain it was the demon from my dream, the one who abused that small boy. I was also certain that small boy was Aggie as a child. No wonder he was so terrified of him. His older brother used his power over him, to control him, to torment him. I didn’t know their whole relationship, but I knew it wasn’t a good one.

Aggie finally met my gaze. His expression was still full of sadness, not a look I was used to seeing on his usual jovial face. But I had always known it was hiding his real feelings. His mask was happiness as mine was anger. We were a lot alike, even though our reasoning was completely different.

“If ya die, I’ll…” Aggie tried to get out. He stumbled over his words again.

“I told you before, right? I ended up here because I was trying to kill myself. I slit my own throat with the dagger on my hip, or at least one that looks exactly like it. I thought I was dead and that was the end, but instead I woke up here.” I leaned back, watching the sun rise.

“Ya killed yerself? But ya ain’t dead! I can tell yer as alive as me.”

“Yeah, weird, right? I figure there has to be a reason for it. I was brought here to do something, and that isn’t follow the legend like they expect me to. I’m not going to let myself be bossed around. Sorry, but that means by you, too. So, you’re stuck with me for a bit longer.”

I flashed him a grin, taking one out of his playbook. He looked up at me, biting his lip. I could tell he was uncertain, but he could feel my resolve. I was as passionate about this as I was angry. Fire represented more than just rage. It also represented my obstinacy.

“Yer serious, ain’tcha?” Aggie frowned at me.

I nodded, the grin still playing across my lips. “Yup, serious as they come. I’m very stubborn. You won’t be able to get rid of me easily.”

He sighed and rubbed his head. He busied himself with picking pieces of dried blood out from his hair. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet. “I was just a kid when they did the trial to find the next Demon Lord. Gathered up all of the first Demon Lord’s children, even the ones like me that were young and spawned from one of his many mistresses. That guy ya saw earlier, he is born from the Demon Lord and his concubine. In my world, makes his status way higher.

“Anyways, they got us all together, then they shoved us into this cave. Told us we had to fight until only one was left standing. Didn’t matter if they were dead, but most of them took it as a fight to the death. There was so much carnage. I just watched all of these other kids die and I got scared. Killed some of my siblings myself even. In the end, it was just down to me and my brother.”

“That dream I had.”

“Yeah, I’m guessing because I was carrying ya at the time, ya managed to link to my magic. It was just a glimpse, but ya were able to see the darkest moment of my life. I thought I would die there, that it was the end for me, but my brother had other ideas. He always hated those of us who were just his half siblings, but he especially hated the young ones like me. He took advantage of the situation. He should have won, but he made me go instead.”

“And that’s how you ended up here. You were just a child the first time you had to fight a Mage.”

Aggie slowly nodded. “Yup, and I thought maybe she would understand, maybe we could try to talk things through. Not a chance, she came at me trying to kill me. Instead, she only managed to recklessly use her magic and kill herself. I on the other hand got sealed away. Next time I woke up, years had passed and I was growing up. It was like my life was passing before my eyes.”

“That sounds awful.”

“It was.”

Aggie closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Honestly, I always wanted to be able to talk to a Mage, a being like me from another world. Neither of us belong here, but both of us are stuck here. We didn’t get to decide and from the moment we were summoned, they wanna make us bend to their bidding. That just ain’t right.”

“Yeah, that’s why I decided to chose my own path.” I nodded my head in agreement.

He gave me a small grin. “Yeah, yer a lot different than the others. Yer head is as hot as yer flames, but I suppose that’s what gives ya the strength to go against the odds. I envy that. It’s hard for me to be that brave.”

“Hah! Did you not forget that I thought Elena was going to actually beat me, the true Mage, in a magic contest? I get plenty scared. The only reason I’ve been able to come this because I wasn’t alone. You’ve been a good friend, for a demon.”

Aggie laughed. “Yer not such a bad friend yerself, for a human.”

I stood up and stretched my one good arm. There was a dull pain in the other one, but I couldn’t do much more than keep it braced. For now, it was good enough. I found myself wondering just how advanced their medicine was in this world. Sadly, I already knew there wasn’t going to be any magic that could just fix me. A fantasy world with barely any magic…how ridiculous.

Aggie stood up next to me. He glanced at my arm and winced. “That’s gotta hurt.”

“Like hell, but as I said, it will heal. And if this is what I get for standing up for a friend, that’s fine by me. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

Aggie reached up and ruffled my hair. “Yer ridiculous, but I guess I am too.”

I took a few steps forward, the sun rising behind me. I turned back towards him, truly smiling. Having a friend was nice, even if it was the would-be Demon Lord. I think it suited a manic Mage like me.

“Come on, we still have four more pieces of your magic to get!” I held out my hand towards him.

He stared down at it for a moment, but soon that usual grin of his was spreading across his face. He firmly grasped my hand. “Yeah, let’s go, Mage.”