AS HE RAN, his muscles screamed at him to surrender. He could only pray he had done enough to prepare those he was about to leave behind. The wind howled like a crazed animal, a predator excited by the prospect of a bloody sacrifice, and the curtain of rain thrashed the ground like a drum-roll. His pursuer was getting closer.
He dodged in and out of the trees, their solid trunks strong like silver-barked warriors. Sweat trickled into his eyes, blurring the path he desperately sought. His sodden silver hair stuck to his cheeks. One mistake, that’s all he had made after all these years.
There it was, his house, a promise of safety, whilst each thundering hoof brought the inevitable closer. He twisted over a fallen tree, but his foot hooked a branch, wrenching his leg the wrong way. Pain coursed through his body as he crashed to the ground. His pursuer was now metres away. Pushing his trembling hands into the leaves, he clambered to his feet, gasping for air, and staggered towards a nearby tree. The woods fell silent.
‘Give up, old man.’
He turned. ‘Cerberus, please,’ he heaved.
Cerberus laughed, his eyes bulging from their sockets. A ball of blue light erupted from his cloak and he thrust it at the old man.
‘Acta est fabula,’ he bellowed. The blue ball hurtled through the air. It curved down and struck the old man in his chest, piercing his skin like a dagger. His body trembled and a haze swept over his eyes, then his legs buckled and he collapsed. It was over.
The light soared out in an arc behind him, lighting the trees beyond and slicing through everything in its path. Then as quickly as it had expanded, it shrank back to the original ball before returning to its master’s hand.
Cerberus placed it in his cloak and took out a small purple vial. He slipped off his horse and knelt beside the body. Blood trickled from a wound on the old man’s head. He filled the vial with the blood and remounted his horse.
A smile spread across his face. He had done it. He, Cerberus, had killed the great Evander. He took out the blue ball once more and thrust it into the sky.
‘Si vis pacem para bellum,’ he roared.
The light filled the sky above the woods like a sheet of lightning. Cerberus turned his horse and galloped through the trees. The ball of light returned to him and, with that, he was gone.
***
The storm disappeared as quickly as it had started. All that was left was the rhythmic dripping of water falling from the leaves no longer able to hold their weight, and the distant but constant trickle of the river that ran through the woods.
A kingfisher sat on a branch high above, looking down at Evander. The man’s body was hidden by night’s cloak, but his face glowed in the moonlight. In fact it seemed as though all the light that lit the woods – the shimmering reflections, the glowing fireflies – was now focused on his face, and was getting brighter. It held at its brightest for just a second, then faded and spread out amongst the trees.
A second kingfisher appeared on Evander’s chest. It flew up to join the other and they peppered each other with kisses before flying side by side into the heart of the woods.
