The Sparkbringer

Chapter Three

   By the time the sun began to set, I was exhausted. I was lucky I was used to walking everywhere, lest I may have dropped into the grass and been unable to get up. I pulled my shoulder bag off and tossed it down on the ground, following suit and sitting in the grass next to the path. I sighed before beginning to sift through the contents of my bag, searching for the small cloth bag of food I bought. My hand finally closing on it, I pulled it out and carefully took out the contents.
    “Of course all I got was bread and water,” I sighed, frustrated with myself.
    I ate as much of the plain, staling bread as I could, and drank my fill of the water. I stuffed everything back into my bag and pulled out my bedroll, laying it out on the grass. I took my armour off, or rather let it take itself off, and left it next to my bag. I sat upright on the bedroll, the dimming light of the sunset illuminating the land enough that I didn’t need to make a fire just yet.
   Out of curiosity, I took the spellbook out of my bag and opened it to the first page. When I began reading, the first few pages seemed to be a guide on how to use the magic in general. After that, each page was a new spell, increasing in difficulty.
    The first spell was just titled “Bolt”, and as I read up on it I decided to give it a try. It instructed to clear the mind and focus on casting the spell. I outstretched my hand, palm facing away from me, and focused my eyes on a stone on the path. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, focusing my energy into my hand. I opened my eyes to look at the stone again, concentrating hard. I thought of casting the spell, of the lightning bolt leaving my palm and striking the stone. Nothing. Determined, I tried once again. Focus. Concentrate. Think.
    With a loud crackle, the bolt shot from my palm and struck the stone. I jumped, surprised, and then my jaw dropped open. The stone was split in half, the edge where the lightning had hit black and smouldering. Wide eyed and eager, I spent the rest of the rapidly fading daylight practicing magic. Once I was able to cast one spell with minimal difficulty, I moved to the next, getting through only a few spells before I no longer had the energy to continue. By then, it had become dark enough that I could no longer see, so I decided to rest for the night.
   
   
   When I awoke the next day, I felt surprisingly well-rested for having slept on the ground. The sun was just beginning to rise, and I assumed it was the light that had woken me. I packed my things away, got my armour back on, and set back out on the path.
    I walked until the sun was high in the sky, and then on the horizon in the far distance I saw very tall roof peaks. It appeared to be a castle, and I grew excited. I truly felt as if this were in a fantasy game, but I was living it. I picked up speed in my walk, until I suddenly heard odd squawking noises.
    I turned around, and running after me from behind were what must have dozens of strange looking creatures. They looked like fat frogs, but ran on two legs and had beaks like birds. They were about three feet tall, and had unproportionally small wings. Panicked, I shot a lightning bolt at them in an attempt to scare them off.
   All at once, as if rehearsed, they stopped running, fell silent, and looked at the place where the lightning had struck. They then looked back to me, and began running and squawking as before.
    I unsheathed my sword and gripped it with two hands, bending my knees slightly and copying a stance I’d seen in movies. I had no experience with a sword, so I was relying on instinct and play fights I’d had with sticks as a kid to get me through this fight.
   When the creatures were close enough, I swung at them, the sword cutting them clean in half. That didn’t stop the others. They kept coming , and I kept swinging. Very quickly, I became swamped. Some tried to jump up to my head, many were chewing at the armour on my legs.
    I was so preoccupied with trying to handle these mostly harmless nuisances that I hadn’t even noticed another person had joined the effort. A blue tinged flurry of sword slashes brought an armoured, black-haired woman back to back with me.
    “Are you the Hero?” She called, having to raise her voice over the chorus of squawking.
    “I guess so,” I called back, continuing to swing at the creatures.
    “Elva Frostblade, Queen of Faircrest,” the woman introduced herself, her sword slicing the creatures with great ease. “Pleasure to meet you!”
    “Clovis, just Clovis,” I called back, seemingly making far less progress in the onslaught as she was.
    “You’re an odd one, Clovis!”
    “That’s what I’ve been told!”
    We continued our fight without speaking after that, making significant progress in the seemingly endless army of frog birds. Bird frogs? Bird frogs. After a while, we had finally eradicated them all. I surveyed the area, the path and surrounding grassland littered with the bodies of the bird frogs. I wondered if they had an actual name.
    “Was that your first fight?” Elva asked, sheathing her sword.
    “Yeah, I uh, I suppose it was,” I responded, breathing heavily and sheathing my own sword. “Oh, um, my apologies, your highness.”
    I remember hearing her say she was the Queen of Faircrest, but she didn’t look like a typical person of royalty. She was clad in armour, and in the sunlight I could see faint scars on her face. Her black hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and, after our battle with the bird frogs, she had splatters of blood all over her. I bowed anyway, dropping to one knee and dipping my head down. It was then that I realized that I too was covered in blood. Gross.
    “Oh stand up,” Elva chuckled. “There’s no need for those trivial formalities from someone such as yourself. You are the Hero after all.”
    “Oh,” I acknowledged, standing back up. “It’s convenient you’re here, I was on my way to find you.”
    “I was made aware of your presence in advance,” she informed me, gesturing for me to follow her down the path. “Unfortunately, it was under disheartening circumstances.”
    “How so?” I asked, following her.
    “One of my knights.” she sighed. “His head was left on a spike, ‘I know he’s here’ etched into his forehead.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that,” I gave my condolences. “But, who’s ‘I’?”
    “The Underworld Queen, Vera,” Elva scowled. “Well, she’s not supposed to be. The true Underworld royalty was peaceful with Annora, but after Vera took over, it’s been anything but peaceful.”
    “The Underworld?” I tilted my head slightly, curious. “So is she a demon or something?”
    “Actually, yes,” she responded matter-of-factly. “She’s an awful demon, the use of dark magic at her disposal. No mortal being has ever fought her and lived to talk about it.”
   “That’s reassuring,” I said sarcastically.
Elva ignored my comment. “Those things we fought earlier-”
    “The bird frogs?” I interrupted “Uh, sorry.”
    She gave a slightly annoyed look. “I suppose if that’s what you’d like to call them, then the bird frogs we fought earlier were low-class minions she summoned to ruin crops and kill livestock. It is likely that she is close by, we shouldn’t waste any time.”
   Elva stopped, gesturing to a pair of horses. “We’ll ride the rest of the way. That one’s yours.”
   She pointed to a beautiful white stallion, pristinely clean for being a white horse. He was a majestic creature, and as I walked up to pat him, he raised his head from the grass and snorted.
   “He’s gorgeous,” I observed, running my hand along his neck.
   “His name is Snowfire,” Elva informed me, patting the other horse on the shoulder. “This here’s Ruby, but we call her the Red Dragon.”
   Ruby was a chestnut mare, and she was scraping her hoof on the ground as Elva mounted her. I wondered about the nickname.
   “Well go on then,” she gestured towards me. “Get on.”
    “Um, I’ve never ridden before,” I admitted, looking at the ground.
   “Gods lend me strength,” she sighed. “Well, getting on is the easy part. Step your left foot into the stirrup, grab the front of the saddle, and push yourself up until you can swing your other leg over his back.”
   I followed her instructions, getting myself to sit in the saddle. I put my right foot in the other stirrup, and looked to her for the next instruction. She told me how to sit, the cues for going and stopping, and laughed whenever I would get it wrong. She told me I was lucky Snowfire was well behaved.

   The whole ride to the kingdom, she gave me tips on how to ride properly. As we approached the gates, the dirt path turned to cobblestone streets, the sound of our horse’s hooves echoing against the large stone walls. Passing through the gates, there were guards on either side who dipped their heads to Elva. Through the gates was the city square, and it was a sight to behold.
   She turned her head briefly to look at me. “Welcome to Faircrest.”
   The square was filled with people, shop stands, and horses pulling carts of various items. Lining the square were wooden houses, like the ones in Amber Meadows, but they were far less rustic. The people in the square cleared the way for Elva and I, dipping their heads to her as we passed. Children pointed excitedly, tugging on their parents’ sleeves to ask them if I was the Hero. I took in the sight with wide eyes and smiled, my excitement to be in such a place difficult to contain.
   Straight ahead, there was another set of gates, smaller than the ones we had already gone through. There was another pair of guards on either side of the gates, and they too dipped their heads as we passed. Through this set of gates was a courtyard lined with horse stables. Towering over the courtyard was a castle, built out of large stone blocks.
   “Your majesty,” an older woman bowed to Elva as she dismounted her horse. “I’m glad to see all three of you have made it home in one piece, and- oh, is that the Hero?”
   I dismounted Snowfire, stumbling slightly as I hit the ground. “I’m Clovis, it’s nice to meet you, miss.”
    “What an honour it is to meet the Hero,” the woman smiled brightly. “My name is Gaia Wildtongue, I care for the animals of Faircrest. I hope you’ve taken good care of Snowfire, and continue to. Come Ruby, come Snowfire.”
   The horses followed her on command, and the three of them walked towards the stable. Gaia seemed to be having a conversation with the horses. Strange.
   “Gaia is as she said, the animal keeper of Faircrest,” Elva informed me, gesturing for me to follow her into the castle. “She can speak to them, such is her magical gift.”
   I nodded in acknowledgement and followed her into the castle. The main room was large, guards posted at the entrance. At the opposite end, there was a throne, I assumed for Elva. On the left and right there were several doors, and a staircase tucked into one corner. Elva led me up the staircase, and down a small hallway. She gestured to a door.
   “This will be your room for the night, I’ll send a knight to fetch you in the morning, and there will be someone by to clean your armour.”
   “Thank you,” I smiled, pushing open the door as she walked away.
The room was much like the room at the inn, but larger, and made of stone. There was a table with some chairs, a large bed, an armour stand, and a weapon rack. I took my armour off and placed it on the stand.
   There was a knock at the door, then a small voice. “Excuse me, mister Hero?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Come in,” I said, confused as to why there was a child’s voice.
   The door pushed open, and just as I suspected, a young boy walked through the door.
   “I’m here to clean your armour, sir!” The child sounded eager, carrying a bucket of soapy water and a scrubbing brush.
   “Faircrest employs children?” I thought out loud.
   “Oh no sir, Queen Elva lets me clean the armour of the knights so I can meet them! I want to grow up one day to be just like them!”
   “Um, ok then,” I nodded slowly. “Go ahead, it’s right over there.”
   The child scampered over to the armour stand and eagerly began cleaning. I shrugged and went to stand by the window, taking in the city from above. When the child was finished, he thanked me and left. I was impressed at how well he did in such a short amount of time. I yawned and stretched, exhausted from my journey, and climbed into the bed. I was asleep before I knew it.