Niah and the Pheonix (Watty's 2024!)

Chapter IV: Dante

"holy cra-" The strange man cut her off.

"Shh, shh, be quiet. You don't want them to know, hmm?" He said. Lani was so confused. The guy had announced that the king was dead, but standing next to him was King Dameous.

"Wait, so he's not-" He cut Lani off again.

"Dead? Oh, goodness no. We wouldn't want that now, would we?" He said, "By the way, the names Dante. Dante Refuge." He said. 

"You're a... a... human?" Lani exclaimed. A human? In the 'Mythic Isles'? Well, that's something you don't see every day, or really ever.

"Yes. well, sorta. You see; years ago, when I was just a boy, I lived in an orphanage. My parents abandoned me when I was just a baby. One day, I decided to run away from that gross, ruin of a house. I went to go live in the big Red Wood forest. I loved hearing the Blue Jays cheep high up in the tree tops. 

"Then one day, I saw something shoot by in a flash. It looked like a wolf, but... snowier. It made no sense to me, a wolf covered in snow that didn't melt, even in the hot afternoon sun. So I followed it until I came across something.

"It looked like a big, white, electric orb of some sort. I was scared, but I didn't want to leave. I wanted to see what would happen next.

"It then went into the orb and disappeared. I looked on the other side, and it wasn't there. It just disappeared into thin air. I was puzzled, for that was the craziest thing I had ever seen. So, without even thinking about what could happen to me, I jumped in, too. 

"Little did I know, I had jumped into a war. I looked around me, hoping to be able to jump back through the portal. But it disappeared, and I was trapped."

"That must have been 'The Battle of King Chaka and the North'," Lani exclaimed, saddened. Just talking about the war made her think of her mom, and now it makes her think of her dad, too. "Everyone knows the story about the war, especially me."

"Yes. It was a dreaded day for the North, but luckily we still won." King Dameous said.

"Anyways, I hid until I felt the war was over. When I came out of hiding, the town was in ruins. I decided to help clean up the mess with a group of people, thinking they were friends, but an Ice Monsie found me and took me captive to show me to the king. I was scared because I had no idea what would happen to me. But Dameous decided to have mercy on me, for I did nothing wrong. Then he taught me the ways of a Northern citizen, and in time, gave me this." Dante said as he twisted his necklace around for Lani to see. It was nothing like Lani had ever seen before; ruby gold, the brightest diamonds, and everlasting flowers decorating it all around. On the tip was a snowy owl figurine made of blue quarts.

"Wait, but does it work? You know, like let you turn into whatever creature you've been given? I thought it would only work if it was given to you at birth, like mine." She asked.

"Well, kind of. It didn't work instantly, but I learned to harness its powers eventually. Dameous brought it to the top of Herason Peak during a full moon, and the light from the moon gave power to the necklace." Dante exclaimed. Lani had never heard of anything that amazing before. Harnessing the powers of the animal necklaces? That's amazing!

"How come I've never seen you before? I know almost everyone here."

"Well, I was hidden in the castle so that no one would freak out over a human being in the 'Mithic Isles'. Although I would sometimes change into my owl form and fly around outside to hear any new news and see how the town re-building was coming along. It's boring being locked up all of your life, you know." Dante said. She felt a bit bad for him, knowing that he grew up without his parents and lost his only home. But he didn't seem too sad about it, so she didn't think to bring anything up. 

"So, what do we do now? I'm sure that the army outside would love to come inside and see that their enemy has been killed, so do we have a plan?" Lani asked. 

"Well, kind of. But it will be hard to pull off..." Dante said, "Because one of us has to stay behind."

"Wait, what do you mean 'one of us'? As in some of us are going to abandon our village? Give up the war and lose?" She asked.

"One of us has to stay behind to fight off anyone that tries to interfere with the plan. And don't think of it as losing the 'war', think of it as just the 'fight'. The war is far from over, and we still have a chance." Dante said. Although I don't think he thought we had much of a chance at winning, either way. The look he tried to hide on his face said it all.

"Well, which of us will have to stay?" Lani asked. Just then, she heard something outside. It sounded like a riot.

Lani and Dante looked out the window to see a hoard of trolls, one in front of all of them. It had red stripes on its back; the leader, for sure. It gave a speech to the rest of them.

"Everyone, attention!" He yelled, and they all stopped talking and stood as still as a rock almost instantly. Definitely the leader.

"Since the king be dead, I shall go inside and retrieve his head! Then, us shall declare to King Nimroth that he be dead, and shall be very glad with us! ha ha!" He yelled, then they all started cheering and the leader walked through the broken gates.

"We don't have much time, he'll be here in about five minutes. One of us has to stay, Lani," Dante said, "so make sure you get him out of here."

Just then, Lani heard someone say her name outside. She looked out the window and saw something that she wasn't expecting at all. How could she forget all about them? Niah and Yoshi stood in the middle of the village, surrounded by trolls. It looked like Niah had fought off a few of them, but she must've run out of energy. Lani had to do something.

"No, I'll stay here. I have something I need to do."

"Alright, if you wish. Good luck on your journey, and don't die." Dante said.

"Good luck on yours, too. Get the king to safety." Lani said as she started to go down the stairs. Now she just had to deal with the leader, but luckily, she had a plan.

As she walked, she saw a shadow appear in front of her, slowly shrinking. The leader must have been close.

The dreaded smell of it filled her nostrils, but she continued walking straight. She turned the corner to see him, standing face to face.

"Who you be," He asked, "and give me one good reason why me no should destroy you?"

Lani hoped her plan would work as she said, "You fool! Ugh, I was the one who killed Nimroth. That scumbag 'Heron' took all the credit! Ahh, and you let him escape? Ugh, I must find him! He took the king's body with him, trying to take all the credit for the kill! We must find him before he gets to Nimroth's castle, for he would believe him much rather than you, no?" 

"Oh. sorry, miss. Don't worry, I shall command my troops to go after him at once! Which way he go?" It asked.

"Uh... South! To the king's castle! You all go, I shall stay here and make sure no citizens escape!" Lani yelled, slightly confused about how he bought that. But I guess that's what happens when you try to trick the least intelligent species in our realm. Despite their size, their brains are only the size of a cherry.

"Okay, I will do that."