Darrel gaped at the fallen beast, his arms going limp at his sides. She'd done it. She'd really defeated it. He couldn't believe it.
He turned back to look at Michael, who had not stopped firing on the monster until it gave its last breath. He looked just as stunned as Darrel felt.
Relief washed over him in a flood. Every tight muscle relaxed. Every panicked thought vanished. Joy bubbled up from his gut, replacing the nerves that had been plaguing him since the moment they'd stepped foot in the Unknown. "It's dead," he breathed, a smile creeping over his face. "It's dead!"
He leapt into the air, overwhelmed by the euphoria that replaced the adrenaline racing through him. "WE LIVED!" he screamed into the night, not caring how far his voice carried. "Holy gods, we lived!" He fell to his knees, laughing like a madman.
Never in all his life had he been so certain he would meet his end. But somehow, they had cheated death. He whooped and hollered with all the elation of a child who had found the toy they'd wanted under the Christmas tree.
From the ooze of the underbelly of the beast, Alie lifted her sword triumphantly into the air. Breathless laughter spilled from her lips. "We lived!" she echoed.
Shaking with relief, Darrel collapsed onto the ground, spreading his arms out wide and staring up at the purple-black sky. "I'm exhausted," he declared loudly. "We should call it a night and try to sleep."
Michael, the only one of them not out of breath, stood over him with his ever-present disapproving frown. "Do you think that's wise, considering what we've had to fight out here?"
"I think Alie just destroyed the boss of all bosses, as far as monsters go," Darrel grinned. He gave her a flirtatious wink as she sauntered up to them, wiping clumps of black gook from her clothes. "Anything else that thinks they can take her is asking for death, and the Evil will know that."
"I'd rather not fight anything else for a while," Alie admitted, sitting down beside him with a tired grunt.
"You won't have to, Cupcake." He patted her knee reassuringly.
Michael sat down beside them, shaking his head. "Okay, Alie, start from the beginning. What happened out there?"
She crossed her legs and set her sword atop them. Noticing smudges of black along the silver blade, she took the edge of her shirt and used it to scrub the metal with all the vigor of cleaning dishes. "Well, like I said earlier, the crystal opened a door. Or, more like a gateway, actually. It looked just like the one we came through that led us to Safeton. And there was a woman waiting for me on the other side--"
"Was she hot?"
Michael shot him an annoyed glare. "Is that relevant?"
Darrel shrugged. "Probably not."
Unaffected by his interruption, she continued on. "The woman said that it was my destiny for me to take this sword and use it to save the Realm. It's called the Ultimate."
Darrel's eyes widened. "The Ultimate? As in, the Ultimate from the stories?"
Michael closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "And here I thought things couldn't get much worse."
Ignoring Michael, Alie's eyes widened in wonder. "You've heard about it?"
"A little bit. The Ultimate Wielder is like, some sort of mythical hero or something. The Hercules of this Realm. I think. I don't really pay much attention."
"Well, Alie's not Hercules," Michael sighed.
"I don't know, man. She gutted that monster like it was made of butter. That seems pretty Herculean to me."
Flushing pink, Alie suddenly focused very intently on scrubbing the blade in her lap.
After traveling so many hours with the dread of impending attacks weighing heavily over him, he had forgotten how adorable she could be when she became flustered. He grinned at her. "Speaking of which, where did you learn to fight like that? And don't say you just copied whatever you saw on TV, because that's a cop out."
Her flush faded, but her gaze remained fixed on the gleaming blade. "The Ultimate knew," she said reverently.
Darrel had heard a lot of strange things in his years in the Realm. Magical weapons capable of teaching their wielders how to fight was new, though. Still, given the magic sensitivity that Alie seemed to have, he wasn't going to argue with her claim.
"And this lady just gave it to you?" Michael frowned deeply.
Alie nodded. "She said that she had been waiting for the Realm to bring the Ultimate's rightful owner to her, and that my appearance meant that I had to be its rightful owner."
"How did she figure that?"
"Because not just anyone could use the crystal. Apparently, it only opens doors when it wants to, and only for certain people."
Sighing, Michael turned his frown on Darrel. "Care to tell us where you got this mysterious crystal, Darrel?"
Darrel maintained his grin, but only to hide a scowl. "Not really."
"It's important," Alie insisted, setting the Ultimate down in front of her. "And it just saved our lives, so you at least owe us an explanation."
Damn, how could a little bit of confidence make her so cute?! He resisted the urge to tell her so, deciding instead to play along. "Guess I can't argue with that, can I? Not that you'll like my answer."
"We already know you stole it," Michael reminded.
"Yes, but from where? And how?" Grinning, Darrel leaned forward on his knees. "It's quite a story, you know."
Alie's eyes shone. "Is it?"
"Well, I like to think so, anyway. At the very least, it was pretty unconventional."
"Before you start," Michael interrupted, "you didn't kill anyone for this stone, did you?"
"Absolutely not. I may be a thief, but I have morals, you know."
Michael let out a scoff. "Could have fooled me," he muttered under his breath.
Darrel narrowed his eyes in a mockingly fake smirk. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"Oh, don't mind him." Alie waved her hand dismissively. "Tell us how you got the crystal?"
"Right. The crystal." He cleared his throat to give himself time to decide just how much he wanted to disclose. "Well... See, I was working as a guard in the emperor's palace up until a few weeks ago."
Michael's jaw began to clench. "Uh huh."
"I was tired of standing around as stiff as a board all day long. I wanted some action. In fact, I spent a few extra hours a day training in the yard to hone my fighting skills. Being a magic user has its advantages, and I wanted to use them to their fullest. So, I requested a transfer."
"What does this have to do with the crystal?" Alie asked, her brows scrunching together.
"Patience, Love." He gave her a quick wink. "One night I heard my superior discussing the transfer request with another officer. They started talking crap about me and decided not just to deny my request, but to dock my pay and give me the worst shifts they could for the next month and a half."
"What did you do to deserve their scorn?" Michael asked dryly.
"Nothing."
Darrel expected Michael to look completely unconvinced, but he didn't anticipate Alie shooting him a dry look.
"What? I really did nothing!"
Michael rolled his eyes. "I seriously doubt that."
Flushing hot, Darrel bit the inside of his cheek. "Okay, I may have tried to get my superior's sister to make out with me. But she said no, and I respected that, and it was only the one time."
Michael nodded, unsurprised. Alie looked shocked.
Ignoring them both, Darrel fiddled with a stone that had wedged itself into the grooves on the bottom of his shoe. "Anyway, I took the first terrible shift they scheduled me for, and started really thinking about where my life was going. I was making dirt pay, working all hours of the night, and for what? I was in a magical Realm, for goodness sake, and I had allowed my life to become so boring that I couldn't even get a hot girl to make out with me on a break."
Michael didn't miss a beat. "Tragic."
"You know what? It really was. So I decided to do something about it, right then and there. I left my post and started heading for the barracks to grab my things. But I was in a section of the castle that I didn't recognize, because of my stupid, terrible shift. I ended up getting a bit lost."
A small smile began to creep over Alie's lips. "You didn't run into any other guards?"
"Well, not before I accidentally stumbled into a private study. It was nearly four in the morning, so it was empty, luckily. And the crystal was sitting on a pedestal in the corner, surrounded by a mess of books and random junk. I thought it was pretty and might make a quick buck, so I pocketed it.
"Or, rather, I tried to. The second I touched it, it zapped me with so much magic I nearly passed out. That's when I realized it wasn't just some pretty trinket. I found a cloth to wrap it in to keep the magic contained, and then I just left."
"That's it?" Alie stared at him with her mouth agape, her copper eyes wide.
He shrugged. "Pretty much."
Even Michael looked stunned. "No one stopped you?"
"No one thought to. By the time I found my way back to where I was supposed to be, my shift had ended and I could go where I wanted. I packed up my stuff, wandered into the city, and never went back."
Alie stared down at the blade before her. "So, you had no idea what the crystal was or what it could do when you took it?"
"Not a clue."
"Then this really was destiny," she whispered softly.
"That," Michael said, "is up for debate."
"But, what are the chances? Darrel just happened to take the crystal, when he could have just as easily taken a book, or some other trinket of value. He ended up in Safeton at the same time we did. And then he and I just happened to stand next to each other at the fountain. If we had gotten there even one minute later, Darrel would already have been gone."
"It's uncanny," Darrel agreed, "but I don't believe in destiny. Coincidence, yes, but not destiny. No one controls my future but me."
"Either way, it doesn't matter, now." Michael waved his hand at the empty landscape ahead of them, and the fallen beast behind them. "We're here, and all we can do is keep going forward."
"But first, we should sleep," Darrel said. He rummaged through his backpack for some jerky. "I call first watch."
Alie frowned at him in confusion. "We're taking watches? I thought you said the Evil wouldn't come after us since we took down this one."
"Well, that's what I'm figuring, but I'm not taking chances."
For the first time, Michael actually looked at him with a look of appreciation. "I agree. I'll take the morning shift."
Alie blinked at them with a pout on her lips that made Darrel want to pinch her cheeks like a child. "So, I'm up in the middle of the night?"
"Good luck with that," Darrel chuckled.
She stared at the ground as if she had just discovered it was covered in dirt. "We don't have any camping gear."
"You have magic. Imagine something."
"Well, what about you?"
"I've got a bedroll in my bag." He patted his backpack affectionately. "I'll wake you when it's your turn."
She rolled her eyes. "Gee. Thanks."
His responding smile made his cheeks ache. "Welcome to life on the road, Sweetheart."
It took her a few minutes to imagine a comfortable sleeping bag for her and Michael, and for them to settle in. At Michael's suggestion, she imagined a shield to encompass them, so that if any smaller Evil tried to sneak up on them, they would at least have some sort of protection. The golden sphere shimmered like the still waters of a lake.
As Alie's and Michael's breathing slowed to the steady rhythm of sleep, Darrel carefully removed the crystallized butterfly from his pocket. He dared not touch it with his fingers – as it was, he was lucky that the gemstone had lost its powerful sting when Alie first used it. Its magic zapped at his fingers through the drawstring bag he'd kept it in, warning him that it had recharged and would not hesitate to attack him if he tried to handle it poorly again. He set it on the ground in front of him, and stared at the butterfly trapped inside.
Was it actually destiny that had led him to this moment? So far, he'd assumed he'd deserved every misfortune that had befallen him. But what if he really was meant to be here? What if the magic of the Realm had wanted him to bring the crystal to Alie, so that she could obtain the Ultimate, as she'd claimed?
And what did that mean for his future?
For the hours that passed slowly and silently by, Darrel wondered. There were a few things he could do, once they made it out of the Unknown. But, no matter what he decided, if all of this was determined by destiny, would his decision even matter?
No. He was in control. Destiny be damned.
By the time he woke Alie for her watch, he knew what he was going to do. They still had a day or so left to traverse the Unknown World before they made it to the Marketplace. Until they made it there, he'd keep his plans to himself. Better to stay on good terms with the girl who had the power to fell the largest Evil he'd ever seen.
He smacked his backpack into submission as a makeshift pillow, and fell into an exhausted sleep.
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Note from the author:
We made it to 10 chapters!! Woohoo!! I know as a reader, it doesn't seem like much, but having written and re-written (and re-written and re-written) this story so many times, it's a huge accomplishment. It means that we made it past the beginning! And the beginning, believe it or not, was always the hardest for me to write.
We're a little over a quarter of the way through the book, now. I'm trying not to let it go too long; I feel like first books shouldn't drag on and on if they don't have to. But that's okay! There's still lots of adventure on its way!
If you enjoyed reading this chapter, consider giving it a vote, or leaving a comment! It is so encouraging to see you enjoying the book!