Solomon's Challenge Book 1: Zerek the King

Chapter 6: Shadow's Aftermath

"Vania that was incredible!" Sol happily chimed.

Vania did not reply, she was to surprised. Sol held the stick out, so that it was pointing the opposite direction to the sun. The sunlight flashed on Vania, while the stick flashed on Sol. The doorway reappeared in between them, this time fully visible.

"Let's go in" Vania said, seemingly calmed down from the surprise of the fire.

Sol opened the door. Inside was a bird's eye view of a large room in the forest. Sol jumped in, followed by Vania. They both fell to the ground, and looked up to see the doorway floating in the sky.

"This must be where the riddle was leading us, but where is the aftermath?" Sol asked.

Suddenly, there was a loud roar, that caused the entire forest to shake.

"I think we're about to find out." Vania whispered with a shaky voice.

The roar grew closer. And closer. And CLOSER. Suddenly, a shadowy figure burst out from within the trees. It roared so loud that Sol and Vania fell to the ground.

"Ready your sword Vania" Sol demanded.

The creature crawled closer from the shadows. It was a chimera. It had three heads, a goat, a lion, and a dragon. It had the wings and tail of a dragon, the back legs of a goat, and the front legs of a lion. The chimera roared again, and charged towards the two. Sol jumped up, and struck the chimera on it's lion head. The chimera shrieked and recoiled back, but quickly pounced back up, striking Sol twice as heard right in the chest. Vania, who had been underneath all of the fight so far, jumped up and stabbed the chimera in the stomach. The chimera suddenly flew up, and the dragon head inched ahead of the others.

"It's gonna shoot!" Yelled Sol, in a weak voice. Clearly the chimera had winded him.

Sol was right, and the chimera shot a fireball at Vania with lightning speed, but Vania was fast enough to dodge it. She was not fast enough however, to dodge the second fireball. She was smashed in to the ground, but not burned at all, just injured.

Sol stumbled to his feet, preparing an attack, but was quickly shot down by another fireball. Vania stood up as best as she could, and pointed her sword at the chimera as she got into an attack stance. The chimera shot a fireball at her. She raised her sword, knowing that there was no way she could block the shot, but she had to do something. Only, when the shot reached her sword, despite all reasoning, the shot was absorbed. The power however, was too much for the sword to handle, and it flew out of Vania's hand.

Sol stood up again, heavily bruised, with an arm covering where the chimera had rammed him in the chest. The chimera shot him to the ground again, nearly killing Sol. Suddenly, the pulsing feeling shot through Sol, and he raised to his feet. He recognized the pulse, but this time, it felt more powerful than ever before. Sol's sword started to glow, and he shot a huge water blast at the chimera. The chimera tried to counteract the shot with a fireball, but the water shot right through it. The chimera flew to the ground, landing on one of it's wings. Sol looked at his sword, and the glass-like bar in the middle seemed to have a blue-ish tint now.

The chimera roared louder than ever, and rolled onto it's feet. Sol quickly realized that it's wing was broken. It had lost its ability to fly. Sol got ready to fight the chimera, but it instead turned to Vania who had been watching in awe. The chimera's goat legs started to charge up, then before Sol could blink, the chimera slammed Vania into a tree with its goat horns. Vania shrieked, and fell to the ground unconscious. Sol's power surge grew even more powerful. Sol roared louder than the chimera could ever have roared, and he charged at the chimera with his sword ready behind him for a massive strike. He jumped, and slammed down on the chimera's necks, cutting off all but the lion head. The chimera had lost its ramming ability, and its fire shooting ability.

The chimera wriggled on the ground, trying as hard as it could to get onto its feet. When it finally did, it ran at Sol with full force, keeping its last mouth open, ready for a giant chomp. As the chimera grew closer, Sol got ready to fight back. Right as the chimera reached Sol, he roared again, and drove his sword right through the chimera's throat. He had slain the chimera.

"The shadow's aftermath" Sol whispered angrily under his breath. He ran to Vania, and tried to shake her awake. She moaned in pain, but she was alive.

"Did... did you kill it?" Vania asked weakly.

"Yeah. It's dead." Sol replied in a calm voice.

"I'm... I'm not dying you know." Vania said, seemingly regaining some strength.

"Thank god for that." Sol chuckled.

"Yeah. What happened to you back there? Right as the chimera hit me, your eyes turned blue, and all of a sudden, you looked so powerful. And crazy." Vania asked, as she began to stand back up.

"I don't know. Sometimes I get this weird pulsing feeling, and I get some crazy water powers. I assume I get it from my Draekon family. It's weird though, it only seems to happen when I, or somebody close to me is almost dead, or dying." Sol explained.

"Interesting" Vania replied, now back on her feet doing stretches.

"So now what do we do?" Sol asked.

"I don't know. I assume that was the shadow's aftermath. Something bad must have happened to bring that creature here. Maybe the shadow was Zerek or something." Vania theorized.

"Maybe. I just want to get out of this place now, but the door disappeared." Sol said.

"What's going on with the chimera's body?" Vania asked, pointing at the body that was now disappearing.

Sol turned and saw that the body looked like it was transforming into something. He and Vania walked over, and realized it was a chest.

"Open it." Vania beckoned.

"You do it. Maybe it's a sword or something, looks like the last one exploded." Sol said, pointing to the pile of ash that was once one of the blacksmith's best works.

"Fine" Vania said. She opened the chest, and pulled out a staff. "It's just a staff. Oh, and there's a door at the bottom."

Sol sighed at the disappointment of only getting a staff, and opened the door. In it, he could see Vania's Village. The door led them to the middle of the village, where there was a strange stand surrounded by fire that had turned black since the demons took over. Everything was still completely frozen in time.

"Pass me the staff, I think I know what to do with it." Sol demanded. Sol suddenly was overcome with the feeling that the staff they had just received had to go into the stand.

Vania passed Sol the staff, and Sol jumped through the door, and slammed the staff into the handle as he landed. A huge pulse of light engulfed the entire village, and the demons where blasted away at all sides.

Sol wasn't exactly sure what had just happened for the past, well time didn't pass so he couldn't tell, but one thing was for sure; the villagers had some explaining to do.