Epsilon pulled her into a room and lamp light light the dust filled room that had baskets and shelves overflowing with random assorted items that ranged from clothes to weapons to random glittering jewels. There was also a grinding stone in the corner, long abandoned and still. Tasha noted a few mannequins Standing at attention in the middle of the room covered in armour plating and chunks that were the wrong size lay scattered at the base. Each set was a different; some had extra pieces or missing pieces, some were absolutely huge, other were too small even for her.
Epsilon went over to the mannequin holding a set that was closest to her size and took off a gilded chest plate. Tasha walked over and he to put the chest plate on her and carefully secured. Same thing for one of her forearms. Her left arm was slipped through two leather straps of a shield, before taking it off again. In its’ place, Epsilon gave her a studded skirt made of thicker leather skirt and soft leggings.
"There is a room you can change in over there. Please put those on and then come back." He said pointing to a door. Tasha pulled on the leggings and slid on the skirt. Both stopped just short of her knees. Looking in the mirror, Tasha studied the other armour and noted the details carved into the chestplate, a small snake was wrapped around the waist curling to stop above her heart and tiny lines shaped her to have a muscular man body. In this moment she laughed at the sight of her short, twiggy body with the abs and six-pack.
When she walked out Epsilon was in dark gray armour that covered everything except a small chunk of underbelly on the front of his tail.only the very edges of his tunic stuck out from the edge of his chestplate and interlocking pieces trailed down his tail. He was standing over the grinding stone sharpening a sword.
"Epsilon, you look amazing. But won't you armor constrict your movement?" Tasha said as she stood next to him at the grinding stone, watching as he deftly sharpened the blade while simultaneously working the hand pedal. He shook his head.
"No, one of Hephaestus’ followers made this. It’ll never lock up or break at any weapon." Epsilon put down the sword he was working with and turned to look at her. "You don't look to bad yourself. Not that you ever do. Except maybe when you had blood running down your face earlier.” He stumbled over his words quickly. “Anyway, this is the plan. One of us will be a distraction and the other will free as many people as possible. Then we regroup and attack the Toni and his ‘friend’. Got it?" Tasha nodded solemnly. "All right. Now before we go, I'm going to get you a basic weapon and teach you just a bit." He pulled a dagger out and handed it to Tasha.
After a short lesson on how to use it and where to strike, they left the dark sanctuary. Around an hour of sneaking about, they got to the catacombs. Epsilon led the small girl through the tunnels through dark and dank pathways that dripped with ominous echoes. When the finally stopped, Epsilon roughly turned her to him and smashed his lips against hers before deftly moving away and disappearing around the corner to get in position. Tasha watched him leave before promptly turning to find the prisoners. She found a room and there were cages, sinister scrolls and artifacts and the smell of iron that hung in the air like fog. Being thoughtful, she grabbed a particularly wicked looking dagger that glowed with inert and grim power.
A loud crash came from the direction she knew Epsilon went, as well as screeches and shouts. Tasha took as the distraction and stealthily curved around the fight, making her way to where the mage might be, the library. Slowly pushing the door open, she peered in. Shelves upon shelves had leather bound books, stacks of scrolls, towers of tablets; a sense of reverence and knowledge washed over her, as if the grand splendor of the room was begging for bloodshed to spare its floors and walls. In a matter of moments she pushed away any feelings that could hold her back and crept inwards to the heart of the library; glancing around corners and over her shoulder she came across her target in one of the aisles she was encroaching.
Approaching what she hoped was a distracted medium, gladius unsheathed from the scabbard that rested on her hip. Then with a silent cloud of darkened gray he was gone. Flipping around, with her back to a wall, she ducked behind the shield and with little time to spare; flames licked around the edge of the shield, eating away at the leather bands holding it snugly to her arms. As the torrent of flames ended, she ran up to the magician and slammed the charred wood to the underside of his chin and threw it away from her. Pulling out the plain shortsword that Epsilon had given her, she ran away as a bruise swelled and filled her enemy with hateful anger. Fear in her eyes, she took cover behind a thick pillar;closing her eyes for a brief moments as the magic man launched barrage of ice at the pillar, chipping away the edges. WHen the assault finally ended, she peered around the edge, only to find that once again he had disappeared and wispy strings of smoke diluted the air.
Standing on edge, she twisted to push her back into the pillar when a knife embedded itself in her chest, pressing against the wound, she tried to stop the bleeding as she tried to defend herself from any other attacks. The yellowing teeth were revealed in his crooked smile, he tore the bloodied weapon from her and made to strike again, only to be stopped as Tasha struck against him again and again, putting her all into killing him with her final breaths. A staggered step, then one, no two more, before he collapsed and started to choke on his own blood.
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General FictionA college student named Tasha has one secret She has kept since her childhood. She can fall into books. However, she can't control it. What happens when she falls into a hefty textbook on ancient mythology?
