Final Fantasy: Complete

Part Six.

Something was wrong. He could sense it.

He hadn’t heard the birds sing since an hour ago. The last flower he had seen was almost a mile away. The more he advanced, the more the surroundings became more menacing. Only the sound of the wind battling with the withered leaves of the lifeless trees around him broke the silence. The howling it made only served to remind him there was no life here.

"Well, almost no life." Kal thought when he saw an old man sitting in a stone. He seemed as he was waiting for someone. "Maybe he’s waiting for me." He grinned at that thought.

He passed by him, muttering a salute. He had walked 10 steps when he heard a voice. The old man was calling for him.

"Young man, please do not go further. If you go back two miles and turn left at the old saucer, you’ll find a better road than this one. If you hurry you’ll be at the town of Oheyo at nightfall."

"That sounds good. But tell me, why should I waste two hours going around the forest instead of walking through it?" Kal asked.

"What value does time has to you? Is it more valuable than your own life?"

Kal thought about it. He had no hurry to get to his destination. Nor did he have a destination. What did a couple of hours matter, anyway? And this creepy forest was not worth spending the next hour walking through it. But he was Kal, knight of the Celestial Dragon Order. A forest was nothing to be afraid of; the only thing there would be trees, and lots of them. And he wouldn’t be scared of a motionless tree.

“What are you talking about? Is there anything dangerous about the forest?”

“Only if you consider demons dangerous, young man.”

“Demons?” Kal was surprised. Demons were not that common. And they only appeared when some fool mage thought their muscle would help him in any mad scheme they had. The only time he had battled against one it was when he didn’t hurry up and let the mage finish his incantation. What followed were some of the worst two hours of his life, but it ended when his sword cut the demon’s head.

“It seems this forest here was the place for some druids old rituals. One night, they called something too powerful for them to manage. It seems they opened a hell mouth in the middle of the forest. Since then, demons have roamed the forest. Once in a while, a traveler enters the forest, just like you, and is never heard of again. So, please, return and take the other road if you value your life.”

“At least, can you tell me what’s on the other side?”

“There’s the Stygian river, and down the river, Aelia.”

“Aelia…” Kal had heard of it. A city where the world’s adventurers and mercenaries converged. Many great tales he had heard began in Aelia. Surely there could be one for him, if he hurried. Kal walked down the path to enter the forest, when the old man grabbed his arm.

“Are you crazy? Take the other path, young man!”

“Sorry. I have no time for it. I’ll cross the forest.”

“Please, think about it! Don’t you value your life?”

“Yes. But I’m a knight. And no power on or beyond this world will make me turn around and walk away like a coward.”

“Discretion is courage’s best part.” The old man said, trying to convince him.

“Yes. But only a part. Maybe I’ll see you when I come back. Later!”

Kal then entered the forest, while the old man muttered a prayer to the heavens for him.

*~*~*~*~

Two hour later, Kal was beginning to feel a little... anxious. The forest seemed to have no end. The moons had hided behind the clouds, and he felt something was following him. He rushed his pace, hoping the moons would appear in any instant now.

He reached a clearing in the forest. He turned around to see, and found nothing. His hand slid to the grip of his sword, ready to take it out and strike at anything that would come out of the forest.

A loud roar almost deafened him. Then the moon appeared again in the sky and what he saw almost froze him.

A Cerberus was there, no more than thirty feet away from him. His three heads snaring at him, the odor of brimstone filling the air around him, fire in his red eyes. The heads glared at Kal and let out another roar. It had been hunting him. Now it was ready to kill him.

As the Cerberus jumped at him, Kal quickly took out his sword and jumped out of his way, tracing an arc with his sword in the air to the left flank of the beast. Blood stained the tip of his sword and a growl from the beast announced it was hurt. It turned around and shot a burst of flames to where Kal was standing a second before.

He jumped in the air, sword pointing downwards, hoping to strike the head who had the only brain. If he remembered well, it was most often the middle head that controlled the rest of the body. A sound like porcelain breaking and a spurt of blood hitting him in the face announced he had killed the head. Unfortunately, a roar of pain and fury coming from the other two heads let him know he had attacked the wrong head.

“If at first you don’t succeed…” Kal thought as he pulled the sword out of the mass of bone and sinew that had been the middle head. He jumped backwards and waited until the Cerberus tried to burn him to a crisp. Luckily he didn’t wait long, and as the two remaining head opened their mouths, he dashed with his sword ready and impaled the right head through the mouth, directly into the brain. The fight ended as the Cerberus’s eyes went black, and it’s body collapsed to the floor. Kal took his sword out and seated, completely exhausted.

“Well, that was quite a fight.”

Kal jumped to a fighting stance, ready to kill anybody who had say that. He saw a black winged demon hovering over him.

“Well, that’s nothing compared to the one that will follow.”

“I’m sure it would. But I’m not here to fight with you. I’ve come to thank you.” The demon said with a smile that let Kal see it’s sharpened teeth.

“What!?”

“That was my son’s pet. It was called Kirby. The damn thing ate a lot of souls and travelers each day. I thought I would have to kill it, or maybe send it as a gift to one of my rivals, but you have saved me a lot of troubles, not to say an explanation to my son on why his pet is dead.”

“Are you saying I killed a kid's pet!?” Kal couldn’t believe his ears.

“Verily. As a way to show you my thanks, I’ll take you out of this forest. I think you were heading to the river, don’t you?” The demon said as he waved his hand towards Kal.

“Yes, but…” Kal suddenly found himself next to the river. He blinked for two seconds to clear his eyes of the flash that followed his sudden teleportation. When he could see clearly again he noticed Aelia´s lights down the river. He washed himself of the blood of the Cerberus before continuing down the river.

“What a night…” he thought.

End of the chapter.