"The names Ena. Don't worry, my master ordered me to protect you, and I will not fail him." The mysterious cloaked girl stood tall above Vogef's bleeding body. The expression of despair on Vogef's face was countered by Ena's confident and excited smile.
"Your master? Who is your master?" Vogef begged on the ground as he tried to stand, but the wound in his chest was too deep, his armour was shattered and he was quickly losing too much blood.
"If I may interrupt." The man who damaged Vogef, and manipulated the king, Mata said as he sat at the end of King Dean's bed. "Do you really think you've defeated my shadow puppet just now?"
"Of course not," Ena announced as the large shadow creature scattered around the walls, covering the wallpaper and paintings that hung there as it tried to form itself. "But my job was to protect the King's closest knight."
Mata was uneasy at Ena's confidence, he was aware of his own power's limits and strength. For him to fight in such a small room was his greatest weakness.
"Who are you?" Mata asked.
"I've said,'' Ena slowly stood and lowered her dark hood, revealing her long blue hair that was tucked away down the back of her cloak. Her hair complimented her eyes but no one in the room cared, as they were all focused on her pointy elf ears. "My name is Ena, an elf who will protect others like me!"
"An elf?" Mata started to drool with excitement like the child he claimed to be. "I've always wanted a true elf puppet."
A flick of Mata's hand signalled King Dean's attack. The king charged with a small dagger that Ena was able to dodge with ease, but as she tightly held her one-handed blade, ready for a counter-attack, Vogef interrupted.
"Don't! You can't hurt the king."
Ena had no choice but to switch to defence at hearing Vogef's sudden words.
"Don't be an idiot," Ena said as she continued to protect Vogef whilst defending from the king's flurry of slashes. "I'm here to protect you, I have no obligation to save the king."
"Please, you have to save the king."
Ena looked down at Vogef's collapsed face. A brave arrogant knight grovelling at the feet of a random stranger.
"That'll be your mistake," Mata said as he flicked over another tiny blade to the king, who dislocated his shoulder to catch it from behind like a robot without any real joints. The puppet was pushed past normal human limits, and Mata didn't care if all the bones inside the king broke just to move him how he wanted.
"Gross…" Ena said as she got a closer look at the dagger's tip once it came slasher against her own. "Is it poisoned?"
"Good eye, that just makes me want to add you to my collection even more"
Ena didn't respond as her focus changed. The addition of the poison made her change her strategy. A quick blow to the king's neck with the handle of her dagger was all she needed to win, and she did just that.
"Pretty good," Mata said as he watched Ena steal the dagger from the now unconscious king's hands. Ena didn't need the dagger, so she threw it out the open door behind her, like a professional pitcher, throwing it with far more power than anyone would ever expect or need to get rid of something, sending it out the king's castle grounds, and possibly out into the surrounding city's forest.
"Wait a minute?" Mata started to become unable to control his breathing as he was holding in laughter. "You don't think you can win, do you?"
At Mata's words, the large shadow creature formed, enveloping the entire room with its dark body, trapping the entire room in darkness, and out of those shadows, spikes slowly formed and trapped Ena, who was holding onto Vogef. The sudden spikes ripped apart her cloak, showing just how slim she truly was, and revealing marks all over her body.
"The life of an elf," Mata said as he started to walk closer, dancing through the field of spikes that retracted for him. "Shame you'll go back to that life."
"Oh? But I don't understand, how will you catch me?" Ena smiled but that smile soon vanished along with the entirety of her and Vogef. Mata was uncertain as to what he had just seen.
In less than a blink of an eye, the two vanished.
He couldn't understand where they had gone, but one thing he knew was that they were no longer in the castle.
"That fucking elf!" He said as the veins on his head started to pulse, almost bursting.
In the darkness of the eternal night, running through the forest that leads up to Va, Ena and Vogef struggled. Vogef was injured and unable to walk, he was barely alive and that was only thanks to Ena's basic first-aid which was able to seal the agonizing wound.
"Who are you? Take me back, I can fight!" Vogef continued to shake around whilst Ena, a small but surprisingly strong girl, carried him on her back.
"Shut it, just rest, we'll be there soon."
As the two walked through the darkness of the forest, one that would get anyone lost, a small flame appeared through the trees in the forest. The flames of salvation continued to grow closer as they moved, and as they stepped out of the forest, Vogef and Ena entered a town that was wide awake. Filled with roaring torches and people moving around with smiles, the opposite of the city they just came from. This was the City of Fintan.