A New Hero

Returning Home

"Tenna, please," the Queen begged, "we can rebuild. We can become stronger, and you can be a part of this still. Stay with us. Help us."

She stared longingly into the Queen's ice blue eyes, her fingers itching up and down her mother's shoulder as if she was waffling away from her decision. "No," Tenna spat out, shaking her head, "No, this is a farce and I will not play it. I am finishing you, finishing all of this."

"Then we will die."

"And something else can grow. The dwarves as we were are gone forever," Tenna hissed. "Turn around."

Nerazda tipped her head in surprise. "No."

"I said turn around! I will not..."

"You will not murder your own mother while she stares you in the eye? Well, I refuse to look away, Tenna. I birthed you, nursed you, taught you, and when your father passed led you. All of you. And now, in this dark turn of yours, I shall not look from you."

The Queen lifted her chin, glaring her daughter straight in the eye with a dare. Tenna's lips began to whiffle, a breath wheezing in and out of her nose. Her form started to wilt, the armed hand drifting limply down and she took a step back. Nerazda breathed a sigh of relief when Tenna lifted her arm up again.

"Fine," she hissed, and drove the dagger straight for her mother's heart.

Out of the shadows, a sword swung right between mother and daughter, deflecting the dagger from its target. Tenna spun on her heels, her hands gripping tighter as she spied the secret watcher stepping out of the shadows. She blinked a moment, no doubt expecting it to be the assassin. "Who are you?"

Gavin shifted on his feet, getting a feel for the dwarven lower sense of gravity. "The man chosen to stop you," he said. Tenna sighed and rolled her eyes at the dramatics, when he struck. She whipped her dagger fast in an attempt to block the blows but it had nothing on his blade. The sword had the reach, and with his arm length it was a matter of time.

Scrabbling backwards, both combatants drifted away from Snowy's corpse and the mother pinned beside it. Gavin swung wide, his eyes drifting from Tenna's sharp dagger to her free hand. At the last second, he swung hard left, then reached out to slap her hand down. A small ceramic ball helplessly tumbled to the ground. Whipping his foot out, he kicked it away into the darkness where it crumpled against a wall.

The dwarf hissed in rage at him. "Your last one, I take it?" Gavin guessed.

Tenna dug her foot in and prepared to leap up, her dagger slashing for Gavin's exposed stomach. Its silver bite cut right above his flesh, the air wooshing past, when he twisted backwards, spun his sword, and sliced right into Tenna's arm. The dagger clattered from her fingers, blood welling up at a cut deep enough to do real damage. It was doubtful she'd lose it, but her chances of picking up a weapon again greatly diminished.

But she wasn't out yet. Even weaponless, the dwarf hissed and tried to swing a punch at him. The first struck into his hip, crumpling his stance, but Gavin swung wide. Air was all the blade caught, but it kept Tenna off balance. She was exhausted, out of all of her clever little tricks, and had nowhere to turn.

Backpedaling, one hand clinging to the blood gushing from her arm, Tenna found herself pinned to the altar of her dead brother. A man she couldn't bother looking in the eye before she killed. The one she decided to murder even though he saved her life and all the other dwarves. Tenna moved to kick him, but Gavin easily deflected that. He bashed the pommel of his sword into her nose and, when Tenna dropped her head, grabbed the top of her hair.

Exposing her neck, Gavin drew his blade right beside her traitorous hide. One flick of his wrist and she'd bleed all over the floor, right before her brother. His heart slowed, the anger in his veins switching from a roiling boil to instant steam. It was so simple, it'd take almost no work for him to rid the world of this mistake. For a beat, Gavin let his eyes roll over to the corpse of his friend. There were so many things Snowy didn't have a chance to teach him, to share, to grow with. And she stole them all.