A Tale Of Two Tieflings

Chapter 4 - A Hero's Tail

(... In which we gain an insight into the troubled childhood home of our main antihero as well as the origin of his alias...)

"My name is Sir Earl Duke Lord King Archibald Montgomery and I shall smite thee, evil monster!"

"Ha! So you may think, but I shall burn the world. For I am Tiamat the almighty dragon!"

My sword hit Tiamat's leg, and she cried out in anguish. I laughed a hearty and heroic laugh as I swung at her other leg, which caused her to roar her draconic roar and she leapt on me, pushing me to the ground and pinning me down.

"Hey, you can't do that! I chopped your legs off!"

She laughed in my face. "Have you never heard of a Wyvern? They have two legs. Tiamat has 4 and you only chopped off my back ones, my front ones still work fine. Plus, Tiamat is the dragon Queen, she's super powerful!"

I struggled beneath her, still pinned, and I huffed. "Yes, but I'm the hero, and I chopped your legs off. You can't just jump on me like that, it's not fair."

"Shoulda thought about that before you chopped my legs and not my head!"

Her grip loosened as she stepped up off of me and I stood, brushing myself off. "Kathi, you ruined my cape... It's all torn up now!"

"Oh shuddup Val, it's fine we can make another one when we find another spare sheet."

I suddenly whipped around in a fancy swordsman pose, poked her in the chest and she leapt back.

"Ow!"

"Ha! Stabbed through the heart, Tiamat is no more and the Great and Noble Archie wins again!"

"You cheat!" She ran up to me and punched my arm in return and we laughed, beginning to walk back to the house. As we approached, I could see her brother, Torsten, sitting outside her family's stables on one of the crates near the paddock gate, whittling away at a piece of wood. He lifted his head up and gave us a big wave.

"Val, Kath, perfect timing! Dad's just cooking up a nice stew for us, and in the meantime why don't you help me get ol' Nessie in here some dinner herself." he gestured to the paddock behind him, where an old brown workhorse was wandering around, and Kathi immediately climbed over the fence to pet her.

We spent some time playing outside and then I enjoyed a hearty meal with Kathi's family. It was warm and cosy, everything felt good here, and I wished I could stay forever, but I knew eventually I would have to return home.

"Hey Val, do you want me to walk you back tonight?" asked Kathi's father.

"I can do that, dad, no worries!" Torsten scooped me up in his arms and swiftly sat me on his shoulders. "Besides, this noble knight defeated Tiamat earlier, the least I can do is make sure he has a fine steed to carry his heroicness home."

I giggled as he let go of my legs, my tail moving to keep me balanced, and we set off. My home was a little ways away, but I loved it when Torsten came with me. He would tell me stories to pass the time as we walked, stories of Archibald Montgomery, the greatest knight to ever live, hero to the world and loved by all.

"So, Val?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever heard the one about how mighty Sir Archie the Sixth battled the army of brain suckers?"

My eyes grew wide and I looked down from atop his shoulders. "No, that's a new one! Can I hear it?"

"It's super duper scary, and it's getting dark... No, I shouldn't tell it to you." I gave his round ear a tug and he slapped my hand away gently, chuckling softly. "Alright, alright. So Archie bid his fair lady adieu one day, and went off in search of her favourite flower. It was almost their anniversary, see, so he wanted to do something extra nice. But then suddenly as he's spending all night finding this flower, he's ambushed!"