Wait! I Wrote That?

Story Thirty-Four: Evangeline's Flame

Song: "Infra-Red" - Three Days Grace

Genre (s): Short Story/Fantasy

Written When? Senior Year of College

        "People of Fern Kingdom!" King Erasmus, donned out in his jewels, gold, and crown, silenced the busy courtyard. "I stand before you today to tell you which lucky soldiers will hunt down the shapeshifter!" A spring breeze passed over the courtyard's brick walls and blew his long brown hair. Birds soared overhead, flying in a perfectly straight V formation.

"Yeah!" shouted the villagers below the balcony. They clapped for their king. Their leather boots left dirt stains on the white brick.

Erasmus cleared his throat. "These four will visit the sites where the shapeshifter has been sighted, and whoever brings back his head will win a lifetime supply of gold coins!"

The villagers cheered like little children getting out of school.

"Thank you, thank you." Erasmus bowed. "Without further ado, give it up for Percival, Gawain, Axis, and Poe!"

The trumpet players on either side of the balcony's door blasted confetti from their instruments right when four figures emerged from the shadows into the sunlight. The young men wore chainmail armor with silver tunics and brown belts, except for one man, who hid his face and upper body under a black cloak.

He tripped over the blanket-like fabric and fell into the other men. All of them went down via the domino effect. They landed in a heap at Erasmus's feet.

"No! No! No!" shouted the man who wore the cloak. The collision knocked the hood off his... Wait, her head.

It looked like Evangeline had just climbed out of bed with her snarly, fiery-red hair. The freckles around her nose blended with her tan skin because they were just as nervous.

Erasmus's deep brown eyes widened to the point they looked like they would burst.

The other men mimicked his reaction. There was dead silence on the balcony.

Eva tried to free herself from Axis's muscular arms, but his oh-so-handsome, perfectly symmetrical face distracted her. Small, red and yellow flames escaped her hair.

"Yipe!" the men yelled. They quickly untangled themselves and stood.

Erasmus, just as shocked, clutched the balcony's golden railing. "Um," he called down to the courtyard, "we'll be right back."

***

Three days earlier

        "Ahh!"

The scream snapped Eva awake. There she was, sitting at the bar's counter, with her beer mug beside her and the display of different types of beer still visible before her: whisky, rum, and more.

"Young lady, move!" Ernest, the forty-year-old bartender yelled.

"Wha-What?" Eva asked, hiccupping. She nearly fell off the wooden stool.

"Snake!" Ernest pointed at an eight-foot-long snake slithering across the counter.

What a magnificent creature it was! Its green and yellow scales looked abnormal with its bright blue eyes. The spikes on the end of its tail left marks on the counter's peeling wood.