[The Tale of Pernell] by Cortex2 - The Dazzling Lads

“Ohh, that was close.” Lucy sat on the ground.

“Don’t sit, we need to go. That blockade won’t hold them for long,” George was making another torch.

“One minute, it is all I ask.” Peter was leaning on a wall, catching his breath.

“Jeez, did you forget that those guys want our heads? We need to find an exit, no one builds an underground…” George took a good look, now with more light of his new torch, at the underground building they were, “Whatever this is, without a second exit. Let’s go.”

The group started to wander throughout the place, it looked like an old dungeon, filled with abandoned cells and traps which no longer worked. It wasn’t dangerous at all, but there was no sight of an exit and the three started to get anxious, since no exit would mean their deaths.

“Let’s hide in a cave and wait for the guards to walk away, they’ll never seek us here.” Lucy was imitating Peter, “WHAT A TERRIBLE IDEA.”

“Don’t you dare blame me, you took a lifetime to hide yourself, of course they would spot us.” Peter angrily replied.

“It’s not you who is caring this damn bag full of-”

“Can you guys shut it already? It doesn’t matter who is to blame anymore.” George stopped the arguing. “Come here, I found something interesting.”

They all approached a door made of stone hidden in plain sight, in it was a few weird marks and an old paper on it, which connected all the marks.

Peter tried to open the door, “Nice finding, a door that won’t budge at all. Can I go back to complaining?”

“Wait you moron,” Lucy was analyzing the door, “this marks look like sealing marks”

“You are talking about magical sealing marks?” Peter was a little confused. “But there is no more magic since-”

“The fall of the Golden city.” George completed.

“So this seal shouldn’t work, right?” Lucy asked.

“Exactly, therefore we can do this…” George drew a knife and cutted the paper. “A hidden room, maybe a secret passage, or just a place for us to hide, either way is-”

While George was talking, a wind blew through the doorway, enough to raise dust through the dungeon. And shortly after, the door began to open, as someone on the other side pushed it. The group backed off in fear, afraid they had awakened some sort of curse or monster, even though none of this existed anymore.

“Did the queen of hearts send you to free me?” A man, who opened the door, calmly asked.

“W-who?” Peter asked as they were getting back up on their feet.

“How can you possibly not know her?” The man replied as he walked from the door. “The one and only queen of hearts.”

“Let's see if this helps,” George said, “Who are you?”

“I am one of the four seasons of Pernell, Autumn”

They once again backed in fear, stunned by the reply of the man. “There is no way he could be Autumn because-” Their thoughts were interrupted by the guards who were sprinting towards them.

“Oh shit!” Peter exclaimed as he and George started running, but Lucy had an idea.

“Pernell is in danger,” Lucy hastily talked to the man, “the queen sent us to rescue you for help, but-”

The man stopped hearing her, he had already understood the situation, and quickly engaged the soldiers. The guards were all well equipped and he only had some dirty clothes. Yet, that can’t be said it was a fight, but more like a massacre, the first soldier recklessly attacked him, the man stole his weapon, and after it, the slaughter began as all of them fell to his flawless technique.

The three were astonished and scared by how easily he killed them all, and did it without receiving a hit, “He truly is Autumn,” is all that passed on their minds.

“So, did you guys bring my sword? I can’t fight properly without it.” Autumn said while stretching himself.

“Pro-per-ly?” Peter was in shock.

“Y- your sword… Mr. Autumn,” Lucy was trying to think of an answer.

“Autumn is fine”

“Oh o-okay, A-Autumn,” and also shivering, “Your s- sword is…”

“Outside!” George complemented.

“Y-Yeah, outside.”

“But there may be more soldiers, Can you please clear the way for us?” George was only trying to make an excuse for Autumn to leave.

“Oh, sure.” He grabbed the torch of one of the soldiers and left.

They all fell to the ground in some sort of relief, only the presence of that man was making them more nervous than ever before.

“Oh gosh,” Peter exclaimed, “We better find this second exit now.”

“Okay, no need to panic, he may be scary, but he is on our side, right?” Lucy recomposed herself.

“Yeah sure, just wait for him to find out about your lie about his sword,” Peter was complaining, “Or better, your lie about the queen sending us!”

“We can keep up the lie,” George suggested, “and, if he finds out, he should be grateful for us freeing him”

“No no no no no no no, this does not work like this, did you not know the tale of Pernell?.” Peter was nervously explaining, “The Seasons are humans-like-gods, who used to live only to answer for the queen of the Golden city, Capital of the country Pernell, and for some reason, he calls her, queen of hearts. Then, the Seasons were sealed by the queen herself, No one knows why, and, shortly after, the country was invaded and the Golden city fell, and, because of that, all magic disappeared.”

“But now we told him that the queen, who no longer lives, sent us,” George continued as he started to deduct. “And that the guards we said were evil, were soldiers of Pernell, which we were stealing from.”

“Oh,” Lucy was frozen. “T-then to the second ex-”

“What?” Autumn was standing in the entrance of the hallway where they were.

“W-whatever you heard, y-you proba-” George tried to make an excuse.

“We are in the underground, everything can be heard”

None of them managed to think of anything to reply, and slowly, Autumn was coming closer and closer. George, Lucy and Peter were all desperate, but unable to fight against their fate, they all know, from the old stories, that the Seasons had more power than any other magical being that ever walked on land, and from what they saw, that man was the peak of fighting skills. They didn’t want to die, but death would come at any moment.

Then, “this is why I can’t use any of my magical powers,” Autumn said, with a truly sad expression. “If the queen is dead, then…” He looked at them trembling, “I mean no harm to you, besides, I am now no different than an ordinary person”

He casually turned his back and walked away. After a moment, he said: “the path is clear for you,” and kept walking.

“What the hell happened?” Lucy asked.

“I guess... He just doesn’t care anymore??” George suggested

“I’m not asking any questions.” Peter said, “we will never talk about this guy, this room, this dungeon, nothing. Let’s just be thankful and pretend it never happened, okay?”

They all agreed and walked away alive, to never speak about what happened, neither hear about what occurred to Autumn.