"Whatever he said, DON'T listen to him," Emma said.
I talked to her about my dreams, and she seemed really mad about it. I didn't know why.
"Okay, but why?" I said, confused.
"Because I said so," she replied.
As we were walking through the forest, we encountered some other wolves. I easily managed to take them down; I was getting better, and it felt so natural, like I'd done it before.
"You didn't vomit this time. It's quite impressive," I said, laughing.
"You're being rude. It was the first time for me to see the head of a wolf right in front of me, freshly killed."
She was right. For me, it was nothing, but to the others, I might look like some kind of monster.
"Can I ask you something?"
I was curious because she cried when she talked about humans some days before.
"Sure, what do you want to know?"
"Why did you cry when we talked about humans?"
"Oh, it's just that..." She seemed really sad, but something felt off.
"If you don't want to talk about it, it's fine, don't worry," I said, feeling guilty.
"No, I need to face this," she said, her face full of courage.
"Before living here, I lived in a village full of elves with my family. But one day, some humans who wanted to use the woods of the forest attacked us. Everyone in my family died. My dad hid me in this forest and returned to fight for his village. Unfortunately, he never came back."
I felt bad for asking her this, but by telling me that, she really trusted me. I was glad I met her.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I promise you, I will protect you until I'm dead."
She looked at me, running forward with a smile.
"Catch me first!"
"Wait, there could be a wolf."
"You will protect me, I'm sure."
As she was walking, she stopped right in front of me, which caused me to push her.
"Ouch, why did you stop?"
"Look at this."
As she said that, a gigantic dungeon appeared in front of us.
"Woah, it's beautiful. Let's enter it."
"What? No, imagine what kind of monster we will encounter," she replied, scared.
I didn't listen to her and went to the entrance. But the door was locked.
"See? It's locked. Let's leave," she said.
"We need to try something."
"Fine, let me try."
She crouched in front of the door, took a lockpicking tool, and managed to open it.
"How did you do that?" I said, surprised.
"I'm not proud of my past," she said with a trembling voice.
When we entered the dungeon, I recognized it as a prison. In the cells, we saw human skeletons, and there was a door with no lock.
"I can't pick this door."
"We can search the cells to see if there's something."
As we were searching, I saw a book. I could tell it was about 400 pages. If I wanted to read it, it would take hours.
"Emma, there's a book here. I know you're a great reader. How many hours would it take you to read it?"
"Hours? Give me the book," she said, taking it from my hand.
As she opened the book, her eyes glowed, and all the pages turned quickly. In a flash, she finished reading it.
"Wait, you read it that fast? How?" I said, full of surprise.
"It's one of my abilities. I'm full of secrets," she said, placing a finger to her lips as if to tell me to keep it quiet.
"There's a riddle."
"What is it?"
"It's: I am fierce and strong, often found in tribes. My skin is usually green, and I am known for my brute force and wild temper. Battling humans and elves. What am I?"
"Do you know the answer?" My knowledge of the world was terrible, so I wouldn't be able to answer this.
"It's an orc.""How do you know all that? You're very intelligent," I said with admiration.
"Thanks, I just like reading books, that's all.
"The thing is, the door was locked, but there was nowhere to enter the code.
"How can we use the code?"
"I don't know."
"Orc, orc, orc, orc," she repeated over and over again, turning around the room, until she said it in front of a skeleton.
Creak... creak...
We heard the skeletons coming back to life.
"WATCH OUT!" I said, deflecting an arrow with my sword.
How is this possible?"Emma, stay behind me. I will protect you."
As I said that, I ran forward at one of the skeletons who had a bow. I dodged his arrow while delivering a sword strike to the skeleton on my right. I managed to take his legs out and then crushed the head of the previous skeleton.
"HELP ME!"As I heard that, I turned around and threw my sword, cutting the arrow that was about to injure Emma.
"Thanks."
I couldn't even say anything before I saw the skeleton with its head cut off and the one with broken legs rebuilding themselves.
"Adbone, look here."I saw a skeleton with a book in his hand. The book was doing the same thing Emma did before, but it was a little different.
"You wanted to do magic, right? At least you can see what it does!"
"It's magic?" I said, dropping my sword and staring at it in shock.
"WAKE UP!"
"Sorry, it's really impressive," I said, picking up my sword and gripping it tightly.
The skeleton was behind all four skeletons.
I needed to reach it.I struck an arrow coming toward me, then dashed forward, jumping on the head of a skeleton to leap further. This made me reach the skeleton who was using magic.
"Die!" I said, cutting his head off.
When I did that, all the skeletons fell to the ground, remaining inanimate.
"You've done it. You're really strong."
"Thanks." As I replied, we heard a huge sound, like the roof was destroyed by something that fell from the sky in the other room.
"Stay here, I'll go alone," I said with concern.
As I opened the room and entered it, the door closed and locked. There was a creature about my size. He looked really similar to the description Emma read in the book. He certainly was an orc. I looked at the roof, and it was destroyed, letting the sun shine on me while the roof pieces fell to the ground.
"Hey, sorry, but what are you doing here?"
The orc didn't reply. He took his halberd and pointed it at me.
"Can you put your halberd down? I'm not here to fight." Wait, how did I know that? It's not the time to think about it.
I need to be ready to fight.The orc rushed at me and slashed. I barely dodged it. He tried again, and this time I parried his strike with my sword. Then I tried to kill him, but he parried me in return, leaving my sword flying to the back of the room. I ran forward and slid under the orc to get my sword back. He turned toward me, and I struck him in his eyes. I took my sword back and struck his throat.
"I win," I said, exalted.
"ARHHHHH!" The orc screamed, his green face turning red and growing in size.At first, he was around five feet ten, like me, but now he was about nine feet ten. He struck the ground, which made me push back. I had an idea of how to win. I slashed his heel, and he fell to the ground, paralyzed. I struck him many times to kill him. When he died, I saw the door that had closed reopen, and another door opened, leading to a room with a chest.
"Emma, come. I won," I said with a tired voice, walking to the chest and opening it. Inside was some gold. At that moment, I felt a stab in my stomach. I fell to the ground, turned around, and saw Emma with a dagger. She looked at me with a smile
"Thanks for leading me here. I couldn't reach it before. Now I don't need you anymore. I can go to the city and live there." Her voice had changed; it was no longer her annoying voice, but a normal one."
I was getting tired of acting like a defenseless girl with that voice. Pretty annoying, right?"
"How could you...?" I gasped, as I suffered from the stab. I was going to die. I wanted to know who I was, but I guess I won't.
"Last thing before I go, your dream, it was a constellation. You're like me."
"What a constellation ? I'm like you?"
"I don't have time to explain. You're going to die anyway. Goodbye, Adbone."
She turned around. I could only see her back until suddenly she said.
"You wanted to see magic? Look," and became invisible.
My eyes closed.
I died.
"I told you it wasn't going well," said the man, laughing.
"You again? I thought I died." I was shocked.
"You did, actually, but I will give you another chance."
"How?"
"Well, Emma told you that I was a constellation, so I can do a lot of things, including reviving you."
"Why are you doing this? What do you want?"
His smile faded away.
"I will explain later, but I'm not a monster. I'm going to ask you this only one time: I can revive you, but I need you to be stronger for—"
"To kill your dad?"I interrupted him.
"Yes, but for that, even a lifetime won't be enough to get strong enough. Do you agree to come back to life every time you die, or do you want to die now?"
I had no choice but to accept. I wanted to know who I was.
"I accept."
"Then I will give you some powers. Thanks,"
As he said that, he pushed me from the sky, and I landed on the ground.I was in the forest again. I ran to Emma's house. When I arrived, I knocked on the door.
"Hey, can I do something for you?" Emma said with her annoying voice.
I will give her another chance.