to be born from some hidden absolute certainty. A certainty that Hell was… was my home?
But how could that be, how was that even possible? I was human… wasn't I?
“Okay, now is so not the time to start going crazy, Fae,” I muttered to myself, as now the leader of the barbarians nodded my way. This silent command meant that half the men were now surrounding me instead of the three headed dragon. I couldn't make out most of their features as the lower half of their faces were covered by swathes of black material, reminding me of ninjas. Darkened eyes were surrounded by painted skin, making me wonder if they did most of their killing at night, for they would surely blend in.
Thick, padded material made up for strange boots and the rest of an outfit that looked as if they had been crudely sewn together from the carcasses of the creatures they killed. A strange patchwork of different textures made up a tunic style top underneath long jackets cut into sections for easy movement. Strange helmets were made from blackened skulls of even more poor creatures they had slain over the years of barbarity.
But wherever they were from, it was safe to say it was probably far from here, as this serene ethereal world around them made them stick out like black bruised thumbs. Like marks and stains upon the beauty of this new world. I just hoped that my remains weren’t the next in line for some depressing barbaric fashion statement.
I held up my arms in a universal sign of surrender, hoping that in this realm it didn't just mean fuck off and kill me. Who knows, maybe it was a universal sign for take me to your leader? Either way it was doing at least one thing right, as it was focusing most of the attention on me and not on the brothers who had finally given up struggling.
“Look, I know you may think you've hit the motherload here with a three headed dragon, as clearly killing is your occupation. But I can assure you we are much more valuable alive than dead, skinned or made into a tailcoat,” I said which in turn made the leader, who was the biggest of the lot, push some of his comrades out of the way so that he could take over what I supposed was the beginning of negotiations.
“Yeah, and who might you be then?” the big guy said, and I had to force down the urge to laugh as the sound of his voice was remarkably high pitched considering the size of him. Meaning the sight of him was a lot more intimidating than the tone of his threat, that was for damn sure! I coughed down my laugh and pretended that I was clearing my throat before I answered.
“My name is Amelia Draven and I belong to a King in Hell, Ruler of the Kingdom of Death, someone who will pay a handsome reward for our return.” The leader looked me up and down and then burst out laughing before looking back over shoulder, telling his men,
“It’s our lucky day, fellas, for we will feast tonight, for behold, we not only have the three headed beast to present to our King of Sin, but a lost Queen as well, our dark lord will be most pleased!”
“Err, what now?” I said, but he ignored me as it was drowned out by the sound of all his men raising their weapons in the air cheering as one. Meanwhile, I was still stuck on things like, ‘dark lord’, ‘King of Sin’ and ‘Lost Queen’ playing over in my head like a bad jingle or even worse, 90’s rap!
However, this was cut short, both their celebrating and my freaking out, as a whizzing sound cut through the air. The zip of sound was the only prewarning I had as to what came next as an arrow came from nowhere and embedded itself in the leader of the group. This made the last sound heard from his lips an undignified high pitched squeal that reminded me of a piglet being stepped on. Then he fell on the ground backwards and ignited into blue flames as if the arrow itself had some kind of spell on it.
The rest of the barbarians froze for a heartbeat before they frantically started to look around, now raising their weapons in self-defence instead of victory.
“Dragon fire!” I heard this being hissed from one of the men,