Genre (s): Short Story/Fantasy
Written When? Senior Year of College
319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ45UwrwTNwU
"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
319Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJehvqERpSS
"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.
"Yikes!" Eva did fall off the stool. The white hem of her blue dress fell over her blue headband, revealing her white pantyhose and black shoes. Eva calmed herself before her hair could burst into flames. She tossed her dress off her head.
The snake took her place at the bar. It stuck its face into her nearly empty mug. How strange it was to see a snake drink.
Eva struggled to her feet. She stumbled through the crowd of evacuating customers, past tables and chairs turned upside-down. She was one of the last people out. The top of her head touched the tavern's sign that read: The Dragon's Egg. Flames engulfed it like an inferno.
"Aw!" yelled a pregnant woman. "Nice going, Evangeline's Flame! That was my husband and I's favorite spot!"
Eva chuckled nervously. She turned to the angry customers. "Hey-Hey, at least we won't see an-any more of that sna-snake." She spoke too soon.
The snake slithered out of the building just before the place caught fire. It carried Eva's mug over its tail.
The customers did not move. They let the snake carry on with its business. It vanished in a dirt hole under a few barrels of swords.
The bartender interrupted the awkward silence. "Is everybody out?" he asked.
The tavern continued to burn. Eva's intense flames lit up the whole night. They were so bright that they blocked out the star canopy in the moonless sky.
The pregnant woman mumbled, "I hate that shapeshifter," under her breath. She had no idea why it liked to turn into a snake frequently. She glared at Eva. "I blame Evangeline! We would have him by now if she didn't catch the building on fire."
"He-Hey!" Eva snapped. She straightened her posture but could not exceed the woman's height. "It's not my fault I-I was born like this!" She hiccupped again.
The woman crossed her arms. "Then maybe you should get your pretty, fifteen-year-old butt over to the castle and sign up for the shifter's hunting party."
Eva relaxed her face. "You know, that's not a bad idea." She grasped the woman's shoulders. "Thank you, ma'am!"
The woman could not believe she fell for that. She almost laughed when Eva danced through the crowd toward the alleyway's exit. However, she tripped and fell into a puddle of mud.
The woman cackled to herself. "Yeah, good luck with that."
***
"Sir, you told me I could join the hunting party," Eva argued. Her body tingled from the fear of being called to the throne room. Who knew a king could look so deadly with a clenched jaw?
The room felt bigger than it was. One red carpet led to the bronze throne, where Erasmus sat. The heat of the torches in the room excited Eva's flames.
Erasmus's meaty finger tapped his throne's clothed arm. "Yes, I did," he said, "because you told me you know how to work with fire."
"Which I do." Eva pointed at her hair. "Taa-daa!"
Beside her, Axis snorted snot into his gloved hand. Embarrassed, he tucked his curly, slightly spiky, black hair behind his ear. He had to ensure he looked nice before the beautiful lady. He held his beefy hands behind him.
Erasmus glared at Eva. "Yes, but I didn't realize you were a woman."
Eva huffed. "And what's wrong with that?" She didn't like being bossed around, especially by a man. "Listen, my liege. My hair is made from flames. Last I checked, fire is the shapeshifter's weakness, nay?"
"Yeah, but—"
"So why can't I join the party?" Eva gave Erasmus a knowing look.
Axis stepped in for her. He shuffled his body across the carpet until he stood before Eva, but he kept a fair distance between her and him. He did not want to be anywhere near her flames. "This girl here, um..."
"Evangeline Estiemiéres," Eva proudly stated.
For a second, Axis said nothing as he tried to let her name sink in. "Eva," he finally stated. "My king, she clearly applied, and you accepted her like a student accepted into a monastery school. And she's right. We need her hair to defeat the shapeshifter."
"Thank you, Axis." Eva's snarky behavior clearly showed, but deep down, she knew she was in love—maybe not with Axis, but definitely with his princely voice.
Erasmus thought for a second before he spoke. "You're right, Axis, and you, too, Eva."
"Evangeline Estiemiéres," she rudely corrected.
"Evangeline Estiemiéres." This was why Erasmus did not like women. They were cocky little brutes. Facing Eva made him glad he never had a queen. "Young lady, you made a viable argument, so I guess I have no choice but to let you stay. Axis will teach you the ways of battle."
Eva nearly exploded. She did it! She managed to keep her place on the hunting squad! Even better, the man with the oh-so-handsome, perfectly symmetrical face would be her mentor.
He smiled at her. "I'd be glad to, my liege, but will you excuse me first? This soldier needs to powder his cheeks."
Percival, a big man with long hair and a beard, gave him a funny look. "I thought only women did that."
"Touché." Axis said nothing more. He flicked his wrist and turned on his heel. He went out of the throne room and into one of the castle's painting-filled corridors.
Eva watched him leave, a suspicious look on her young face. She crossed her arms. "Hm, he's hiding something. Just what is it?" she observed.
***
“That’s not how you ride a horse,” Percival snapped at Eva. He, Gawain, Axis, and Eva passed through the busy streets of Fountain Town, careful not to run over anybody with their noble steeds. “You’re supposed to ride side-saddle unless you want to keep the name Poe,” Percival continued.
“Oh, hush,” Eva said. She took one hand off her horse’s reins and snapped her wrist back.
Margery, her tall, brown mare, tossed her head.
The group stopped beside Fountain Town’s fountain, the village's centerpiece. Water spewed from the statue’s open mouth—a snake facing the heavens above.
“She can do whatever she wants,” Axis argued. He dismounted his Thoroughbred, Despereaux, and circled the statue. “The shapeshifter was last seen around here.” Axis patted the statue’s rim for good luck. “Why don’t you guys check here, and I’ll see if he’s around the blacksmith shop?”
Percival rolled his blueberry-blue eyes. “Yeah, sure, oh great and powerful Axis. Leave us here with the woman.”
Eva huffed. “Excuse me.”
Axis gave Percival a harsh gesture. “Just keep her out of trouble, okay?”
“Excuse me!” Eva repeated, but Axis said nothing more. On his way to the blacksmith shop, he nearly bumped into a young couple.
Eva glanced back to Percival and Gawain. “How’s it going, guys?”
Percival sighed deeply, but Gawain merely smiled. He wasn’t much of a talker, but his incredible talent with different facial expressions made up for that. He could look happy one second and then like he was losing his mind the next.
Despereaux and Margery slurped the fountain’s cool water while the hunting party patted the fountain up and down.
Eva’s sword bounced on her left hip. The silver scabbard matched well with her silver and green armor, including her gauntlets. Erasmus made her change before they left. If there was one thing Eva already learned about soldiering, it was that chainmail and sunshine were not a good combination.
She placed her hand on her hip. “Dang, where is that Axis?”
“He probably found a tavern to hide in so that he doesn’t have to do any work,” Percival said. He hopped onto the fountain’s rim and stretched his body toward the snake’s head.
Eva glanced at him. “What are you talking about?”
Somebody tugged her arm. Gawain motioned for Eva to come toward him.
She started to, but a yell stopped her. “Ahh! A snake!”
The blacksmith, an old, scruffy man with a gray beard, rushed out of his one-story building, hammer and sword in hand. A snake slithered after him.
Eva recognized the creature instantly by its abnormal, bright blue eyes. “It’s you,” she mumbled under her breath.
The snake recognized her, too. It dug its spikes into the dirt road, leaving three large, claw-like marks behind. The snake and Eva moved not a muscle until Percival went in for the kill.
“Yahhh!” he shouted. Sword held high, he swooped past Eva and aimed for the snake’s head.
The shapeshifter moved fast. It stood tall, just like the statue.
The hunting party and villagers backed up at the sight of it changing form. Its body, now made from flames like Eva’s hair, metamorphosed into that of a dragon with two enormous black and red wings. It smacked Percival in his stomach with its powerful, spike-filled tail, knocking him right into the fountain. The fountain’s water turned red from his own blood. Percival’s body was nothing more than a mangled mess, with one half at one side of the fountain and the other dangling lifelessly over it like a puppet.
“Whoa!” was all Eva said right when the shapeshifter returned to his snake form. She shrugged. “Eh, I didn’t like him, anyway.”
The snake gave her a look that read, Me, too.
***
The memorial for Percival wasn't a huge deal. Only a select group of people came to the graveyard, mainly to watch King Erasmus chuck his body into the rotting dirt with the other corpses.
The sky wasn't upset. It remained warm and sunny.
"What a shame it is to lose one of our noble soldiers this way," Erasmus said, although it was pretty clear he was holding back a grin. He picked up his wooden shovel and tossed dirt into the hole, accidentally getting some on the tombstone.
A soldier was the only thing written on it.
Eva, Axis, and Gawain weren't even there.
The remaining soldiers took their horses into the clustered woods outside the village. They went for a dip in a pond, the next place where the shapeshifter had been spotted. A small, misty waterfall fed into it.
Gawain stared hungrily at Eva, but she did not remove her puffy-sleeved shirt and brown pants that she hid under her armor.
"Nice try, Gawain," she laughed. Her eyes landed on Axis, who waded half-naked in the pond. Whoa, could those abs be even more charming? They looked like the abs of a man who worked out. Eva tried not to lose herself to his perfect body. "So, Axis," she asked, "where were you when the shapeshifter attacked?"
Axis splashed cool water onto his beardless face. "Oh, you know—"
Gawain interrupted him through sign language. He hopped down from his rock and cupped his hand, dipping it into the pond. He pretended to chug a whole mug of beer.
"All right, Gawain, you got me," Axis said. "I was at the tavern. Not the one you burned down, of course, Eva."
"Don't remind me." Eva furrowed her bushy, red eyebrows. "And excuse me! I thought the rule was for you to call me 'Evangeline.' Now, chop, chop!" She clapped her hands together.
"Chop, chop, what?" Axis questioned.
Eva pulled her sword out of the pond's dirt-filled bank. She held the dirty tip up to Axis. "Training! You're training me!"
"Yeah, about that..." Axis crawled out of the pond. "It's been called off." He flopped down on his bare back and placed his hands behind his neck.
Gawain mumbled, "Awkward," in a small voice.
"What?" Eva nearly screamed. She swiped her sword over Axis's body. "You were the one who stood up for me in Erasmus's throne room. For your information, bub, I'm going to be the one to win that lifetime supply of gold coins."
"Yeah, sure," Axis sarcastically said. "I'm just not interested in training someone with flames in her hair."
Eva lowered her sword. She looked like she was thinking. "What? Are you scared of a little fire?"
"No-No! Of course not!" Nevertheless, Axis shivered.
Eva's curiosity grew. "Then surely you won't mind if I do this?" To Axis's horror, Eva shook her head like a dog. Tiny embers bounced off her hair.
"Ahh! Stop! Stop that!" Axis yelled. He tossed his own puffy-sleeved shirt over his head and quickly crawled away from Eva. Axis dove behind a log, rudely interrupting two squirrels on a date.
They chattered at him.
Eva cupped her hand around her mouth. "You know what's funny?" she called to Axis. "The shapeshifter's weakness is fire, and this is the other place villagers have seen him."
"So?" Axis peered over the log with only half his face. "Maybe he just likes to migrate. What's your point?"
"My point is—"
Swoosh!
A sudden arrow emerged from the woods. It flew right through Axis's left arm, skewering it almost to the muscle. "Argh!" he yelled, falling onto his side.
The squirrels sighed breaths of relief, but then they took off.
"Yahhh!" To the hunting party's surprise, a clan of bandits, all handling crossbows, leaped out of the woods. They wore animal skin tops, gauntlets, and boots sewn from alligator scales. Red and white paint covered their faces.
Gawain instantly surrendered. Three people could not take on a clan of bandits. He held up his hands.
A young bandit with red hair, like Eva, leaped before her.
Eva drunkenly waved her sword, only to have it knocked out of her hand by the girl's crossbow.
The girl's mother, the leader of the party, threw a whole bucket of water on Eva's head.
The weakness seeped in like the pain from Axis's skewered arm. Eva's hair steamed and cackled. She fell to her hands and knees.
The girl bandit kneed her back and knocked her onto her front. She tied Eva's wrists behind her.
Gawain let the bandits tie him up. He did not fight them at all.
The clan leader stopped beside Eva's head.
Eva glared at her. Her hair continued to sizzle.
The leader smiled at her daughter. "Well done, Elaine." She put her feet together and lifted her hand into the sky. "Attention, Meraki Clan! We have found our dinner!"
"Yeah!" the bandits cheered.
Crap, Eva thought.
The bandits marched like soldiers on a battlefield through the darkening woods as the sun started to descend from the late afternoon sky.
Eva took in the scent of their sweaty bodies, paint, and something else. Blood. She sure hoped the smell came from Axis's wound and nothing else. Nope, she was wrong.
Mangled bodies of people started to appear on either side of the trail. Some were piled on top of others. Others lay flat in the middle of the trail. Excited flies swarmed above them.
Eva, Axis, and Gawain carefully stepped over the deceased, but the bandits didn't. They left footprints all over the corpses, ugly ones that picked up their flaky blood.
Elaine popped Eva's back with her crossbow. "Come on, move it." She saw Eva's green, sickened face. "Do you know who these people are? Their shapeshifters."
"Shapeshifters?" Eva smiled. She knew she was right.
"This means you have a shapeshifter in your party," Elaine added.
"We are so screwed," Gawain mumbled behind the two girls.
Despereaux and Margery nodded in agreement. It was strange to see horses scared, but they were. They even crossed their tails together.
The bandits' camp occupied a field the length of a castle courtyard. The tents, made from animal skin and fur, resembled teepees. A large bonfire replaced the camp's center.
Small children, also wearing paint on their faces, raced each other from their tents to the fire and back.
It looked so peaceful; it was hard to believe the bandits were cannibals.
"Attention, Meraki Clan!" Elaine's mother announced over the cheerful voices.
Instantly, her people stopped what they were doing. They hurried to their leader and bowed to her.
Elaine dragged Eva back to let another member of her clan, a young man, pass her with Axis.
His face had turned white due to blood loss. He tried to fight the man holding him, but in just thirty minutes, he lost all strength. He fell to his knees beside Elaine's mother.
She placed her palm on his shoulder. "I have good news. We captured another shapeshifter."
"Ah ha!" Eva yelled out of the blue. Thirty pairs of eyes stared her down like hungry vultures waiting for their prey to die. Eva's face turned as red as her hair. She backed into Elaine's chest. "Carry on."
"Oh, so he's the shapeshifter," Gawain observed. That earned him a rap in the tummy from Despereaux.
Axis tried to escape. He switched his form from a person to a snake, but he had no strength to slither out of the fray.
Elaine's mother grabbed his tail (she avoided his spikes), and a man in the crowd snatched his head. "Elaine," she announced, "take the shapeshifter's friends to the dungeon. We'll get him ready. We're going to have a wonderful entrée tonight."
"Wait! Axis!" Eva shouted. She reached for him.
Axis's voice filled her head. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Eva. I guess this is my punishment for lying."
"Take them away!" Elaine's mother shouted.
"Eee!" Gawain squeaked. "We're going, we're going." He made sure the horses and Eva went first.
***
The Meraki Clan dungeon reeked of sweaty, drunken bodies and dirt. It consisted of a long, stone hallway with cells on either side. Aside from them, torches brewed from their perches.
Eva and Gawain were tossed into a cell at the very end of the hallway. The rocks on its walls were crumbling away, but it wasn't enough to break through. Gawain fell onto the dirt-covered leather bench in the corner of the cell, and Eva landed on the floor. The flames in her hair started to return now that it was drying. Yet, she hopped to her feet and snatched the bars.
"Let us out!" she yelled at Elaine.
"Sorry, no can do." Elaine mocked her by waving the keys in Eva's face. She tossed them into the sky, caught them, and attached them to her belt. With a stomp of her boot, she left Eva and Gawain.
Eva called after her: "At least tell us what you did with the horses!"
No answer.
"Argh!" Eva said, letting go of the bars.
Gawain refused to get up from the bed. He lay on his back and lifted his knees.
Eva glared at him. "How can you lie there when Axis's life is on the line?"
Gawain said nothing. He merely yawned and closed his eyes. He looked a little too comfortable.
Eva tried to think. She had to find a way to bust down the bars and rescue Axis. If he died, she at least wanted to take his oh-so-perfect, symmetrical face home. That was if she won the money to rebuild her bakery. The minutes progressed, and her hair glowed brighter and brighter.
Eva's fire spoke to her. The embers moved down to her eyes and changed her vision altogether.
"Whoa!" Eva yelled, shocked. She tumbled onto the dungeon's hard stone. The area switched from gray to blood-red and black. Infrared. Gawain was red, but the bars were black. Eva studied them for a while, and then she got an idea. "Wait, I know!" She returned to the bars and kneeled.
Eva picked up a chunk of her fiery hair. There, she noticed her hands, too, were red and no longer tan. Was she scared? Yes. Yet, did she give up? No, she did not. Her flames did not hurt her. Eva tied a ponytail of her hair around a bar.
"What are you doing?" Gawain asked. Curious, he sat up on the bed.
"Infrared," Eva whispered. "Help me. Give thy Evangeline's Flame."
"Are you going nuts?" was Gawain's next question.
Eva did not answer. She was too focused.
Gawain's eyes widened. He noticed that the bar the girl tied her hair around had turned bright yellow, like when a blacksmith heated a sword. The cell rose in temperature.
Eva leaped to her feet and took a deep breath. Lifting her foot, she kicked the bar.
Snap! It broke into two pieces and fell with a clang.
"What the—?" Gawain's jaw dropped. "How did you do that?"
Eva did not answer. Her focus remained on Axis, the shapeshifter, and her bakery. "I'm going to make you proud, Mother," she told herself. Her eyes glowed red the second she said that, and her hair extended like Medusa's snakes. She repeated what she did with the first bar: tied her hair around the others and melted them. Snap! Snap! Snap! Before Eva and Gawain knew it, they were free.
Eva ducked into the infrared hallway, released her sword from its scabbard, and ran. "Infrared. Evangeline's Flame, guide me," she begged.
"Hey, hey!" a prisoner called. He reached his arm through his own bars. "Can I have some of your magic hair?"
Gawain nervously stepped out of the cell. He clutched the wall and peered out from behind it. At the sight of Eva, he only said, "That girl is badass."
***
Eva's infrared guided her through the dungeon's dangerous, rat-filled tunnels. She hid behind a wall when a black figure invaded the red. She instantly knew it was a guard.
Eva's sword shook in her hand. She hoped she wouldn't have to use it. She didn't know how to swordfight. Axis was supposed to teach her. That was as if he hadn't yet been turned into liver-kabobs.
Eva knew the tunnel was cold—she could see her breath—but her fiery hair kept her warm. Her boot hit a piece of the wall that had fallen off. Eva hastily picked it up. She juggled the fragment from each hand and then aimed it down the tunnel opposite of her and the guard.
Bang! The fragment must have hit another loose wall piece. It sounded like a cat had run into a vase while trying to catch its mouse.
"What in the world—?" the guard asked. He headed in the direction of the noise.
"Okay, here goes," Eva whispered. Her infrared showed her that no more danger was nearby for the time being. She just hoped it wasn't too late for Axis.
Eva barely made it. When she stepped out of the dungeon, her infrared vision faded, and her eyes stopped glowing, allowing her hair to cool down. It draped over her shoulders.
Unaware of her presence, the Meraki Clan gathered around the bonfire in the center of the hideaway. There was Axis, tied up to a wooden pole, with his hands behind his back. He wanted to change his form, but he had trouble with his wound and the fire behind him. The glowing embers sucked his life force from him.
The sun dipped behind one of the teepees. It cast a shadow that stretched from it to Eva. She stood only a few feet from the dungeon, with her eyes fixed upon the bonfire. Her infrared returned, but instead of the bars and Gawain turning black, it was now the Meraki Clan and Axis.
"Thank you," Eva told the sun. She needed all the fire she could muster. She put one foot before her and the other behind her. She held her sword behind her back. "Time to show these people not to mess with Evangeline's Flame." The grass under her feet burned away to nothing but black corpses. A red glow—Eva's fire—outlined her body. The world may have been black and white, but it wasn't to her.
Eva rushed to the bonfire. She left burnt patches of grass in her wake. Like what she did to Axis earlier, she shook her head like a dog. The embers skyrocketed off it and landed on several of the clan's capes.
"Argh!" they yelled when they noticed they were on fire.
A riot broke out. The clan scattered. They tried to put out the fires on their people.
A few children sitting on logs clapped. It was hilarious to see adults scared.
Eva pushed her way through the scattering crowd. "Hang on, Axis!" she called.
Axis recognized her voice. "Eva?" He squinted his eyes to see her better.
"Don't move," Eva ordered. "I can't see very well. Everything has turned infrared."
"Infrared?" Axis shook out his head of black, now scraggly hair. "Don't worry, Eva. I'm not going anywhere." After all, the clan had tied him a smidgen on the tight side. That did not stop him from trying, though. Axis scraped the ropes around his wrists on a sharp pole point.
Eva kept her hand on her sword hilt. She refused to let it go. She slid across a puddle of mud under the legs of one of the clan members. One can imagine what happened to that poor man.
Eva was almost at Axis. The black glitch of his figure wiggled gently, like leaves in a light breeze. The area grew darker and colder.
Eva closed her eyes. She cheered to herself. "I'm gonna make it!"
Smack! The butt of a crossbow smacked her in the chest before she reached Axis.
Yelling in pain, Eva reached for the bow. She landed at the feet of someone—someone familiar. Of course. Of course, she wouldn't get out of this that easily. Eva coughed mud and grass out of her lungs. She clenched her teeth.
The two girls—Eva and Elaine—were both victims of the infrared. Eva was red, and Elaine was black.
Ready for a fight, Eva met the clan leader's daughter's red and black eyes.
Elaine tossed her crossbow off to the side. She reached back and swiped Axis's sword from his belt.
"Aw," he said.
Elaine ignored him. "Let's settle this like good girls," she told Eva. "Do you see the infrared? So do I."
Eva rose to her feet. Frustrated, she groaned. How could she beat this girl with her crappy sword skills?
The girls paced back and forth before each other.
Elaine pointed her sword tip at Eva's chin. "You and I are on two different waves. Let's see which one is stronger."
Eva hastily avoided the black figures of the Meraki Clan. Her sword wobbled in her hand, but she gave her best thrust, which was not very good.
Elaine positioned her feet. She parried and then countered with a riposte.
Eva placed her other hand on her sword's hilt. She held it up like a shield and managed to block the attack.
"What?" Elaine asked. The force of Eva's attack knocked her back a few feet.
"Oh, my gosh!" Eva removed one of her hands. She chewed on her fingernails. "Did you see that? I can fence!"
Elaine did not let her get off that easily. She rushed into her people's crowd to confuse her.
Instantly, Eva's smile vanished. She searched the crowd, but all she saw were black glitch figures and a red background. "Evangeline's Flame, turn off!" she begged. "Evangeline's Flame!"
Her infrared did not listen to her.
"Eva!" Axis yelled from the pole. He kept prying away at his ropes. Finally, he heard a snap, and the ropes fell. His dark eyes caught Elaine sneaking up on Eva from behind. "Eva!"
Elaine held her sword over Eva's neck.
"Eva!"
"Huh?" Eva noticed a figure running toward her. "Axis?" She whirled around just in time to see Elaine.
Axis pushed through his pain and fear of fire. He changed his form into a large, scruffy, black dog with an ugly scar over its right eye. His powerful jaws caught Elaine's sword hilt, preventing it from beheading Eva. He growled and kicked her with his back feet.
Eva was so surprised that she fell over. "Axis, what are you doing?"
"I'm training you," he replied.
"But you're hurt."
"Don't worry about me. Just get the horses and Gawain and get out of here."
Elaine dug her sword tip into the muddy ground. With a smile on her face, she lifted one knee. "Oh, I see how it is. You're protecting the one you love."
"Love?" Did Eva seriously hear that? Axis loved her?
His black fur turned red, indicating he was blushing. "No-No! I just promised the king I would look after her."
"Oh, how cute," Elaine chuckled. "Very well, shapeshifter. Let's see what you got." She tossed the sword into the pole where he once was.
Her people backed away to give her space. They hugged each other, but Elaine's mother smirked.
Elaine and Axis's bodies glowed bright red through Eva's eyes. She crawled away from the glowing figures. They grew wings and long snouts and tails.
Eva recognized Axis's dragon form from the town but did not recognize Elaine's.
Rough, silver scales covered her body. Her claws matched the size of a Megalodon tooth. Razor-sharp fangs overtook her whole mouth. Like Axis, she had spikes on her tail.
"What?" Eva shouted. "You're a shapeshifter, too, Elaine?"
"I am," Elaine growled. "I am the heir to all the shapeshifters. This is who we are... the Meraki Clan." A silver fireball appeared in her mouth. She aimed it at Eva.
Axis countered with his own fireball—an infrared one. "Run, Eva!" he yelled in her head. The dust settled, and he opened his massive wings. Both Axis and Elaine ascended into the heavens.
They clawed at one another and swung their tails like they were drunk. Elaine bit down on Axis's left wing, the limb that had been injured by the arrow when he was human.
Crying out, he quickly transformed into a griffin to slip out of her teeth. It was a mix of a dragon, bird, and lion.
"Axis, stop!" Eva hated to see him in so much pain. He barely moved his left wing.
Gawain finally found his way out of the dungeon's black tunnels. "Oh, my gosh, I made it." He clutched his sweaty knees. "Where is Eva's fire when I need it?" It felt good to be outside, but then he noticed the dragons. "Ah! Could this day get any worse?"
Axis changed his form from the griffin to the snake. He hissed and landed on Elaine's scaly head, digging his fangs and spikes into her skin.
She roared and threw him off.
Axis fell toward Eva, severely weakened by his wound. He made another attempt to turn it into something else but was unsuccessful. Elaine was too strong. He needed Eva.
***
Eva had no idea what to do. She couldn't catch Axis. He was dead meat, for sure. A whoosh of air beside her said that somebody had joined her.
Gawain placed his hand on her shoulder. "Use your infrared. Remember, fire is the shapeshifter's weakness."
"Gawain?" Eva glanced at him. "My infrared?"
Gawain nodded. "Yes. This is who you are, my dear." It was strange to hear those words coming from him. Despite that, they gave Eva strength.
She closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Evangeline's Flame. My infrared, give me thy strength to thrive."
The setting sun heard her. Rays from it whooshed across the sky, over the village, and into Eva's hair.
She remained calm. She felt the fire surging through her body. None of it burnt her to a crisp. She endured it. Again, her hair extended like Medusa's snakes. Flames left each strand. They crashed into Axis, Elaine, and the rest of the Meraki Clan, including Elaine's mother.
Within minutes, an infrared glow overtook the whole village. It pulsed out. Right when it did, shadows of supernatural beings left the shapeshifters. The blackness, the villain, twirled into the sky. Each shadow crashed into one another. With one last pulse, they disappeared, and red sparkles rained down from the atmosphere.
Axis and Elaine landed gently on the muddy ground.
Bewildered, the Meraki Clan checked their arms and hands, even the children.
Elaine's mother could not believe her eyes. She caught a few sparkles on her palms; then her eyes rolled over to Elaine.
"Mother?" asked her daughter. "Are-Are we free?"
A grin stretched across her mother's face. She held her arms out to Elaine. "We are." Her daughter rushed into them. They shared a long embrace.
"Oh, I get it!" Gawain crossed his arms. He smiled at exhausted Eva, whose flames calmed down. "This whole thing was a test, Eva—a test of who has the true infrared power. The clan was cursed."
"We were." With his hand on his arm, Axis rose to his knees. He met Eva and Gawain's eyes. "By a witch, long ago. She told us that a girl from the future, who has flames in her hair, would save us. So you see, Eva? I did end up training you. I trained you in the ways of the infrared." With a smile on his face, he scratched his nose.
"Ugh! You are so bad!" Eva laughed. Hurrying to Axis, she helped him to his feet. She playfully swatted his arm.
"Ow!" he yelped.
"Oh, sorry," Eva said. When Elaine and her mother approached her, she took a step back.
They grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle shake. "Thank you for saving us," Elaine said. "You are worthy of those gold coins, Evangeline's Flame." To Eva's surprise, the young girl hugged her, too. "I guess my brother did his job, huh?"
"Wait, your brother?" Eva's eyes rolled over to Axis.
He grinned with all his white teeth. "Surprise!" At that moment, Eva realized what a beautiful smile he had.
***
The sunset was the most beautiful one Eva had ever seen. Red and orange sparkles massaged her hair. While riding on Margery and Despereaux, she and Axis held hands as they walked through their celebrating village.
"Go, Eva! Go, Eva!" the villagers cheered.
Gawain, also in the crowd, rubbed tears from his eyes. He grabbed a woman's shoulder and shook it. "That's my girl. That's my Eva."
Eva waved at her fans, grinning, but deep down, she feared for her mother's reaction when she returned home. It had been one year since she last saw her. She and Axis parked their horses beside a burnt-down bakery.
A middle-aged woman, who had red hair like Eva and wore a white apron over her light gray dress, rummaged through its remains. She pulled out chunks of wood and tossed them off to the side. The intense sunset blocked out her face a little. She heard an "Ahem!" behind her and turned her head. Her jaw dropped so far that it looked like something in an anime.
Eva took a deep breath. Her flames dimmed since she was nervous. Nevertheless, she built up her confidence and came within reach of her mother.
Still shocked, her mom rose to her feet. A piece of the bakery fell from her hand.
In the light of the sunset, Eva reached behind her. She unhooked a bag of gold coins from her belt and held it out to her mother. The scent of bread from another bakery in the village reminded her of her childhood when she and her mother baked together.
Her mother retrieved the bag. She stared at it for a good while but then dropped it. She grasped Eva's shoulders and peered into her face. For a long time, there was silence, but then she managed to choke out one word: "Evangeline?"
"It's me, Mother." Eva tried to hold back tears, but it was difficult. She forgot how much she loved her mom. They wrapped their arms around each other. The second they did, Eva's hair sprang to life.
Axis, who stayed with the horses, closed his eyes against the intense light but opened them again. He rested his hand on his injured arm, which he wore in a sling, and watched the reunion. Who knew evenings could feel so magical?
Behind him, a figure stepped out of the shadows. Elaine joined him. "Beautiful, isn't it?" she asked.
Axis rubbed his eyes. He continued to watch Eva. "I love her, Elaine."
"I know you do." Elaine wrapped her arm around his neck. She pulled his head down and rubbed her fist on it. "Maybe one day, Big Brother."
"Hey, hey!" Axis said, laughing.
Elaine released him. She grinned and showed off her white teeth. "I think it's safe to say the plan worked."
"Me, too." Axis got his revenge. He lightly punched Elaine in her arm. "That's for giving me a head wedgie."
"It's okay. I deserve it," Elaine chuckled.
Eva and her mother let each other go. They compared hand sizes, like what they did in the past. "Eva," her mother demanded, "tell me everything that happened."
"Mother, I did it," Eva excitedly said. "I discovered my infrared—Evangeline's Flame."
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