Travels With a Fairytale Monster

by Elizabeth Gannon

  Taylor’s temper flared again and she yanked on the shackles attached to her wrists… and the chains bent and pulled free from the wall like they were made of butter.

  It was hard to say who was more shocked by that, Taylor or Buggane.

  “You’ve hurt Dom for the last time.” She growled out, getting over her surprise and stalking towards the door, slamming both of her hands into it.

  The door hinges crumpled and broke free, the cell door tumbling end over end across the floor.

  Buggane staggered back, trying to regain his balance. “Guards!” He yelled, panic in his voice now. “GUARDS!”

  She charged forward, intent on strangling him right here.

  She got within reach of him, but he pulled his sword and slashed out at her. “Stay back!” He moved towards the door. “You’ve caught some disgusting disease from that thing you’ve been fucking.”

  She pursued him, waiting for an opening.

  “I said stay back!” He ordered again. “I mean it, Taylor! I don’t want to kill you!” His voice rose an octave. “I haven’t even fucked you once yet!”

  “You really need to come up with a more persuasive reason than that for why I shouldn’t kill you, you asshole.” She edged towards the door, trying to block his avenue of escape. “You…”

  Suddenly, the entire side of the room collapsed, as a massive form collided with it. The force of the impact knocked her off her feet and sent her tumbling.

  A moment later, the floor itself gave way, causing Taylor and Buggane to slide down into the debris of the collapsing exterior wall and out onto the street.

  Taylor hit the crumbled stone in a heap, coughing as a dust cloud surrounded her. She blinked in the sunlight, trying to see what was going on as she stumbled through the rubble.

  A distance away, Dom towered above the roofline of the buildings and appeared to be fighting… She blinked in confusion, wondering if she’d hit her head harder than she’d thought.

  Was that another ogre?

  Unlike Dom, this ogre was not on fire, but appeared to be more muscular, as if older. The mysterious ogre punched Dom, knocking him backwards a step, before Dom charged forward, sending them both crashing into another set of buildings and out of view.

  Taylor started towards the scene, intent on helping him however she could.

  Out of the corner of her eye though, she saw Buggane running down one of the alleys, trying to escape with the Magic Wand Thing.

  Coward.

  “Buggane!” She yelled after him. “I’m not done with you yet!” She raced after him, intending to kill that bastard once and for all.

  She ran down the alleyway after the man and arrived at an intersection. She glanced down the cross street and to her surprise, she saw Uriah absolutely hauling ass down the lane for some reason. He dashed towards her, leaping over a cart which blocked his way. “I propose a trade.” He ran past her and cut off to the right, chasing after Buggane for her and not slowing down. “Good luck!” He shouted over his shoulder, his voice chipper.

  “Uriah? What the hell?” She paused momentarily in her tracks. “Wait!” She called after him. “Good luck with what? What does…” She trailed off as what appeared to be the entire Baseland army charged down the road which Uriah had just arrived from. And with him now out of sight, the soldiers immediately refocused their attention on her. “Oh, you unbelievable bastard!” She screamed after Uriah, before running down the street to the left in an effort to escape the men.

  ******

  Dom smashed Stallo’s head into the rocky debris of one of the buildings, grinding the man’s face into the stone and letting out a furious bellow of rage.

  Stallo broke free of the hold and punched him in the stomach, knocking him back. “You think you can defeat me!?! ME!?!” He hit him in the face. “I’ve got a lot of years on you, boy!” He tackled him, sending them both into another building, which Dom could only hope was empty. “I was fighting while you were still hiding up in those mountains with your whore of a grandmother!”

  Dom smashed a large bell into Stallo’s head, producing a satisfying “CLANG” sound and staggering the other ogre. He pressed forward, kicking him between the legs and swinging the bell by its chain again like a mace, knocking Stallo off his feet.

  He would have liked to have some sort of snappy retort to the man’s taunts, but truth be told, Dom was simply still too angry to form actual words. He didn’t care what this guy had to say or how much more power he thought his extra years gave him, Dom simply wanted to beat him to death as quickly as possible and then go find Taylor.

  He swung the bell over his head in an attempt to finish him off right here, but Stallo rolled to the side and the bell shattered against the rocky street.

  “I will not be beaten by a mere ogre!” His opponent bellowed, still missing the ironic self-hate evidence in that statement. “I will rule this world and take my place among the humans!”

  Stallo swept a leg out, knocking Dom off his feet. He pounced on him and they continued struggling, rolling down the street and crushing house after house beneath them.

  ******

  Uriah barreled through the door and out onto one of the rooftops directly across from the fortified wall of the city.

  The man he was pursuing halted in his tracks, seeing that there was no way down except through another one of the buildings, and spun around. His face went from rage to one of confusion. “Who the hell are you?”

  “Captain Uriah, the Ocean’s Shame.” He bowed his head slightly in greeting, still charging forward. “I haven’t the faintest idea of who you are, but it’s an absolute pleasure to be locked in deadly combat with you on this fine evening.”

  The mysterious man dodged to the side as Uriah’s blades cleaved through the air. “Where’s the girl?” He cried, rolling away from another attack.

  “She was unavoidably detained.”

  The man in the pink gemstone tiara held his sword up in an attack position. “I was trained by the best swordsman in Tougia, asshole!”

  “Really!?!” Uriah ducked under the man’s slash. “I killed a man from Tougia once. Was your instructor’s name ‘Carl’, perchance?” He absently kicked out his foot and swept his opponent’s legs out from under him. “Oh, what a crazy coincidence that would be!” He pointed at him, letting the other man rise to his feet. “There’s probably no way of knowing for sure, but in my head, they’re definitely the same man. It just makes for a better story to tell at parties that way.”

  The man swung out with his blade again, but Uriah simply leaned to the side, dodging the attack with no great difficulty. “Do you mind if I ask you how serious your quarrel with the girl is?” He jumped onto a table for no reason other than sheer boredom. This man had no skill with a blade. “Because as her stand-in for this contest, I should like to know if I can just kill you and be done with it, or if I need to make you suffer first?” He parried another attack. “Is she ‘just toying with you’ to draw out your anguish or is this a ‘blood vendetta’ kind of thing?”

  The man climbed up onto the table too, for some odd reason, his eyes flashing with rage and insanity. “Don’t you talk about her! She’s mine!” He lunged forward, trying to run Uriah through, but Uriah merely stepped out of the way and the man ended up falling off the table. The man swore viciously, getting back to his feet and hacking at Uriah like a crazy person.

  Whatever Taylor had done to this guy, it must have been pretty bad, because he was pissed.

  Perhaps she’d cheated him out of his fee as well.

  “Not to distract you from our fight to the death,” Uriah told him calmly, blocking the wild swings of the man’s blade, “because I can see that you’re really putting your all into it, but I was wondering if perhaps you had seen an exquisite little blind woman wandering about during your adventures here today?” He looked around the area. “Because I seem to have misplaced mine.”

  The man raised his sword again. “I’ll kill you, then her!”


  Uriah frowned. “’Her’ meaning ‘Taylor’ or ‘her’ meaning ‘Ransom’?”

  The man opened his mouth to scream some new blithering stupidity but then stopped, his face filling with horror and rage.

  Uriah turned to see the giant fiery face of Dom looming above them. Dom turned away to look at something else, then did a double-take, focusing in on Buggane like the man had a blinking light on his head.

  Buggane swore and dashed towards one of the other buildings which surrounded the rooftop, diving through a window in an attempt to escape the giant’s wrath. Dom moved to the other side of the building in pursuit, his original task forgotten.

  Uriah pursed his lips in thought.

  What could the giant have possibly been…?

  A second ogre’s head appeared above the edge of the roofline in front of Uriah, looking just as angry as the first. It looked around, as if searching for its lost opponent, then glared down at Uriah.

  “Who the hell are you?” It asked, its voice booming across the rooftop.

  He tipped his hat, stunned. “Captain Uriah.” He nodded, taking a step back. “Ocean’s Shame.”

  At that moment, Ryle rounded the corner of the building behind him. “Have you seen Taylor!?! We need to…” He looked up to see the monster, stood completely still, then began screaming hysterically like a teenage girl. “AHHHHH! AHHHHH!”

  Uriah swore.

  The giant reacted, raising both of its hands over its head, intending to smash them down on the building and kill them both.

  “Run!” Uriah grabbed Ryle and dragged him towards the fortified exterior wall of the capital, and several buildings which remained standing. “Run, swab, run!”

  The boy did as he was told, but Uriah could tell they’d never make it.

  The giant’s fists descended…

  There was a loud report, as if a cannon went off close by, and the giant was knocked backwards. The giant staggered for a moment, before being absolutely leveled by Dom who smashed into its midsection with his shoulder, driving them both out of view and down onto the cobblestone street with enough force to shake the entire building.

  Uriah glanced up at the exterior wall, where Ransom stood calmly next to a smoking cannon. “Uriah?” She yelled down at him, concerned over his silence. “You alive or what?”

  “Fine, Dove.” He cleared his throat, trying to decide how to phrase the question without insulting her. “How… how did…?”

  “It’s a giant, Uriah.” She reminded him, her blunt tone obviously implying that he was an idiot. “Even blind, at this distance, I can hit a giant with a fucking cannon.”

  “Still…,” he shrugged, “kudos for the aim, Dove.” He didn’t bother to hide the genuine pride in his voice. “You never cease to amaze me.”

  Footsteps sounded behind him, running across the roof. “Tag!” Taylor yelled, racing past him and ducking into the open window Buggane had jumped through earlier, out of sight. “Have fun!”

  Uriah turned in surprise to see the Baseland army still giving chase. “Oh, fuck!” He stamped his foot in irritation. “That just… sucks.”

  “Taylor?” Ryle pulled himself out from behind the barrels he was cowering behind, looking around for his sister. He turned and spotted the horde of men charging towards him, stood completely still for a beat, then began screaming hysterically like a teenage girl again. “AHHHHH! AHHHHH!”

  Uriah swore and quickly hustled Ryle from the scene, pushing him in front of him as they started leaping from rooftop to rooftop in an effort to escape, the dozens and dozens of Baseland soldiers hot on their heels.

  ******

  “Buggane!” Taylor yelled, dashing through someone’s laundry as it hung on the line. “Come back here!”

  The man ignored her, continuing his flight.

  Ahead of them, Dom continued his battle with whoever that other ogre was, and their fistfight was causing all manner of destruction around the mostly deserted city.

  The road ahead of them was now on fire, so Buggane dashed up the exterior stairs of a nearby building. Taylor had no idea where the man thought he was going or why, but he was sure trying to get there in a hurry.

  “This kingdom is mine!” He screamed back at her, pausing on the stairs to gesture to the city. “All of this is mine!” He pointed at her. “YOU ARE MINE!”

  “So come get me!” She challenged, racing up the stairs behind him. “I’m ready!”

  He didn’t seem interested in that idea anymore, resuming his escape attempt.

  She rolled her eyes. The man couldn’t even die with dignity.

  He reached the roof of the building and turned back to face her. “You don’t seem to understand, Taylor!” A tear of euphoric madness rolled down his cheek. “I’m a god now!”

  “God?” She dashed onto the roof. “I thought you were king?”

  “I can be both!” He defended, sounding insulted. “I am both!”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, your holy royal-ness, are you and your little tiara ready to give this up now?” She raised the sword she’d found in the rubble of one of the buildings. “Or are we going to finish this?”

  “I’ll finish you!” He cried back, tossing aside his questionable choices in headgear. “Like I should have done years ago!” He charged forward, screaming utter gibberish like a madman.

  Taylor deflected the wild swing of his sword, then decked him.

  Hard.

  The man was propelled backwards all the way to the other side of the roof.

  Taylor looked down at her fist and her eyebrows rose in surprised appreciation. All in all, she was liking the effects of The Pyra or whatever. She could get used to magic powers. They were… kinda awesome, really.

  Buggane staggered back to his feet, blood seeping from his mouth as he growled and sputtered in indignant rage. His hands fisted again, obviously now planning on simply beating her to death.

  He started forward towards her, then tripped over something.

  He looked down at it for a long moment.

  The Magic Wand Thing had fallen from his grasp when he’d spun around.

  He glanced behind him, through the flames of the building below them as it burned, at Dom and the unidentified ogre as they continued their struggle.

  A smile crossed the man’s broken and bloody face, as a new idea occurred to him.

  “No!” Taylor started forward, recognizing what his plan would be. “Don’t!”

  Buggane grabbed the Magic Wand. “You really should have just submitted, Taylor!” He spun around, holding it over his head. “STOP!” He yelled at Dom.

  Her giant turned to look at the man, heeding his command and the Wand’s dark magic.

  Buggane began to laugh, turning to face her. “I think I’ll make him crush you in…”

  Taylor slammed into him mid-taunt, knocking the Wand free of his grasp.

  Unfortunately, she’d hit him too hard and sent them both straight over the edge of the building and down into the hungry flames below…

  ******

  Dom screamed in horror as he watched Taylor tumble off the building into the fire.

  He moved forward, trying desperately to catch her, but he was much too far away to reach her in time. He knew that. But he had to try anyway.

  His huge strides ate up the distance between them and he reached out…

  Stallo caught him by the ankle, tripping him and sending him crashing to the street.

  Dom let out another anguished cry as his mate disappeared into the flames.

  “Oh, too bad.” Stallo intoned in mock sorrow, climbing on top of Dom’s prone form and wrapping his fingers around his neck. “She looked like she might have been fun.” He smiled, several of his teeth missing from the fight. “I was looking forward to meeting her.”

  Dom tried to draw in a breath, but Stallo’s fingers were cutting off his air. That did nothing to stop his temper though, which was burning hotter and bigger than ever. It was an all-co
nsuming fury, overcoming reason and horror and grief.

  It was pain and love and anger. Taylor was amazing, and she was innocent, and she was his!

  The Mountain had given her to HIM! She had given HERSELF to him! And now this traitor had just gotten her killed!

  The fire covering his skin grew brighter and hotter.

  Stallo frowned slightly, yanking his hand away as if burned. “Ow.” He blinked in confusion. “How are you…” His entire face contorted in pain and he stumbled off of Dom, trying to get clear of the flames. “Ow! Fuck!” He started crawling away, patting at the fire which was spreading over him. “How are you doing that!?! You can’t…” Whatever he’d been about to say was cut off as Dom put his burning hands on both sides of the man’s skull and channeled every bit of the fire straight through him.

  Stallo let out an anguished cry of pain and fear as his skull itself caught fire, flames pouring out his eye sockets, and then burned away to ash. He dropped the man’s huge corpse to the ground and jumped back to his feet, racing toward the fire to see if he could find Taylor. He didn’t know how he could possibly save her, but…

  Someone stepped casually from the burning building ahead of him.

  “Okay,” Taylor held up both of her hands as if making an important point, “I really like the ‘magic powers’ thing. Check it out…” She extended her hand to touch the flames which surrounded her. “Fireproof.” She smiled. “Pretty cool, right?”

  He was hugely relieved but not altogether surprised to see she had survived.

  His mate was a resilient and clever woman.

  It would take more than a maniac wielding a broadsword and a seven story drop into an inferno to keep her from doing what she wanted.

  He tried to think of something to say, but was simply overcome with adoration. She’d saved him once again. In every way possible.

  He opened his mouth to put that into words, but all he could manage was a thankful sigh at seeing her alive and with him once again.

  She nodded, as if immediately understanding what he meant by that. “I know.” She laughed, a tear tracing down her cheek. “I feel the same way.” She held up the Mace of the Kings. “And look what I managed to rescue from the flames.”