Ancient Cardos: The Knight Life

Chapter 24: Nightmare Or Hell

The screaming died out and I opened my eyes. I was alone in a dark cave surrounded by lava. I had to be inside a volcano.

"Correct you are, Claire." A voice called out.

I stood up to see that figure with the red eyes. "Good job on reading my mind." I yelled back at him.

We stood on separate platforms with the lava flowing past us. He stood there watching me.

"Go ahead Claire, make your move."

I made the ground beneath the lava split apart. Making the flow of the lava go down the large hole. This allowed for more rock to be walked on.

"Clever, making the lava go away."

"Don't mock me." I yelled and lava shot out of the hole and towards the figure. Even the figure was surprised by this and had to make a rock wall to protect himself in time.

I forced the walls on the side of me to break apart, allowing water to rush in. "Some dark mage you are, Percy."

"How do you know my name?" He called out.

"I've done my research on the Warden Stones. I have two them buried, the last one I can't seem to find."

He picked up his rock wall and tossed it at me. It shattered into rubble along the way. I tried to dodge all of it, but one of the pieces of rubble smashed into my face and left a nasty cut. I lost my balance and fell to one knee.

When I looked up I saw lava coming down on me. I put my shield up to it and made the rock surround me in a circle. I then forced the rock to bend and flatten out. The once round boulder around me turned flat and then re formed the boulder into another boulder. A boulder filled with lava.

The true battle of the dark mages was happening inside a volcano. I rolled the lava filled boulder out to him and he tried to smash it and forgot about the lava inside of it. The lava poured all over the figure and the rocks added and extra pounding.

In probably the last efforts of the figure, he shot out a bunch of fire with small pointed rocks. I kept my shield in front of me deflecting all the fire. The heat was so intense it began to radiate onto my armor.

My armor was burning and my shield was doing a good job keeping away the fire. I felt the rocks scrape across my face. My armor began to melt and drip. The rocks began hitting where my armor was falling apart.

The fire stopped and the figure was standing in front of me. He dug his hands into my armor and ripped it apart. His hands turned into massive claws and dug into my body. I felt the pain of his hands inside my stomach.

I was starting to fall asleep, but then an elder man out of nowhere showed up and blasted the figure out of existence.

I fell down onto the ground. I felt my armor form back a little before I passed out.

I woke up in a lot of pain. My face felt like it got hit with a boulder and my body felt like I bathed in a pool of lava. I was laying down in a cabin.

I looked around to see no one, but that elder fellow. My grandpa, I had forgotten about him. He saw me wake up and came over to my side

"Gramps, you saved me?"

"Dam right, Claire. You were going toe to toe with the greatest evilest dark mage of all time. Do you realize that?"

"I do now." I looked at my stomach to see five scabs on it. Where Percy shoved his hands into me.

"My dear grand daughter, you are no longer a dark mage."

"What?" I tried to do magic over and over again, but nothing happened. I couldn't do a single thing.

I felt lost without doing magic. I felt dead. "How the hell am I suppose to destroy the stones now?"

Without my magic I can't dig up the two stones I had buried.

"The two stones will have to stay buried forever. If only your magic can dig them up then they are gone."

I tried to get out of the bed, but my whole body ached. Everything hurt.

"Where am I?" I finally asked.

"You are back in Cardos."

I was back home. I had no more magic. Two of the three stones are buried forever and I was in bad shape.

"Where is Jason?" I asked.

"He left moments ago to get you cleaner clothes. You have been asleep for a few days."

"Can I be alone for a moment. Only let Jason in here when he comes."

My grandpa left the room and I laid back down. I tried to focus on using magic. Still nothing would happen.

After a long time Jason walked in with the new clothes. I wanted to get up and hug him so bad. I only looked at him and smiled.

He came by my side and held my hand. He placed the new clothes at the edge of the bed.

"I was worried about you, Claire." Jason said. He looked so happy to see me.

"I was worried for myself." I said back and laughed a little. It felt good to be home.

"Well now you are home, my queen."

"I need to find Chris, we have to destroy the stones."

"You mean the one stone that you can." Jason said.

"So you know?" I asked.

"Yea, your gramps told me everything. Its fine, Claire. I didn't fall in love with you because of magic. Your body needs rest. I'll be back later tonight."

"I'll be here." He left the room and I laid there defeated.

I forced myself out of the bed and out of the room. I walked outside avoiding everyone. If anyone saw me they would put me back in the hospital.

I took a horse from the stables and rode out of the kingdom and headed back to Faldin. He mentioned the stone being there. I had to find it and bring it back and have him destroy it.