In Antas Forest Part 3 - Fight for a Future

PART 3

“What’s your name?”

“I’ve told you already.”

“I told you to tell the truth. What is your name?” Titus gritted his teeth. His dagger rested in one hand across his thigh. “Is it Arlene?”

“I’ve been called that.”

Titus held back the urge to hurl the knife into her chest. She sat smugly across the fireplace, knees crossed and leaning forward like she was a bored child.

“What did your mother call you?”

“I couldn’t tell you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t remember her. It’s been so very long since I was born.”

“And when were you born?”

Arlene, or whatever her name really was, pointed a finger his direction. “That’s the first quality question you’ve asked. Unfortunately, the truth is that I don’t know the answer.”

Titus rose. “What do you know?”

Arlene’s eyes narrowed. Fire danced, giving her a phantasmal face. “More than you could possibly imagine.”

Titus stood his ground, but internally things were crumbling. This was not the Arlene from the afternoon. She was sharp, humorless, and yet played with her every word. What little grasp he had on reality was slipping down a muddy slope into a dark pit.

“Why did you go to the river? Why didn’t you grab your canteen?”

“I already told you. I was thirsty.”

Titus stamped his foot. “That’s not good enough!”

Arlene chuckled. “You’re right. And it isn’t completely honest. I was hungry as well.”

Titus’ eyebrows scrunched. Now he was baffled. “What? What are you speaking of? Your rations ae there, in the knapsack!” He jabbed his dagger the direction of her travel pack.

“Yes, but I require much more filling sustenance,” she said, her dark locks falling around her eyes, framing them in the flicker of firelight. Her teeth flashed white in the flames. “Something of a livelier nature.”

Titus took a step back, gripping his dagger with sweaty palms. His heart felt ready to bound out of his chest again, and his legs were unsteady as he shuffled backwards. His voice was shaky when he next spoke.

“You are correct. I was wrong in my questions. What are you?”

Arlene rose like a swirl of wind. She beamed wide. “At last. Call me Arlene, Edderis, Canthion, Jenebel, it does not matter. I am all those and more.”

“What did you do to Arlene?” Titus’ voice was a harsh whisper.

“I gave her a choice. One I will offer you, just like I did all those before.”

Titus was speechless. The fire began to crackle and pop. Sparks flew high into the sky and despite no heavy winds, the flames began to swirl and spiral, orange flame swallowed by blue, then hot-white, so bright he couldn’t look directly at it. Arlene held out her hand and the fire jumped for it, like magnets snapping together. It coated her body, and a plume of ashes billowed out, extinguishing the smoldering campfire before blowing away into the darkness.

Titus crouched, putting a hand up to block the intense wave of heat that washed over him before subsiding slightly. He squinted, tears running down his cheeks. Arlene was no more, and what remained was a fiery pillar, spinning like a whirlwind. Arlene’s voice boomed from within.

“Tell me, what are you running from?”

Titus bit his lip and shook his head. “You don’t deserve to know.”

“Ah, but I know already,” The voice rolled through the air, surrounding Titus and bouncing off the trees a thousand times. “Just as I knew why Arlene was running. Would you like to know why it was?”

“It is not our business to know others demons,” Titus hissed, doing his best to stay upright and maintain eyes on the broiling pillar.

"As if she wouldn't have told you herself by dawn break. She had a real penchant for blathering. Did you know that's why she was on the run in the first place? Nasty business, gossip. Gets you into all sorts of trouble."

"I don't need to hear this," Titus said.

"Ah, but you do. Unless you know better than I?" Her tone lost all whimsy. "You will be silent, and you shall listen. Do not make me abandon my principle on account of your insolence."

Titus clenched his jaw but said nothing. Whatever he was dealing with, she was either an incredible illusionist, or something that could swallow him in fire like she had Arlene. Not that he didn't feel on fire already, his eyes were weary, sweat pouring down his head and back, soaking him to the bone.

"Now, where was I? Right. Arlene. She was honest when she said that she told you how she managed in Lovrikane. What she failed to mention was why she left. She was in love with the wrong prince. Are you aware of the families of Lovrikane."

"No," Titus growled.

"Then I shall teach you." she shot a challenging look at him as if he might disagree to the undeniable offer. "Arlene was a commoner, barely even that, and she fell in love with one of two princes, while both had some silly fascination for her. But while she fell in love with one, it spurned the other, who was attempting a coup. She found this out, and so he was forced to frame his own brother, naming her as an accomplice. The prince was hanged, and she would have been to, if not for her numerous talents including lockpicking, bribing, and disguise."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because," and the billowing flames rolled in his direction, licking just a foot away from his boots, "I know you saw the noose."

"I get it. You came to finish the job. You're some sort of judicial spirit."

"Wrong!" The voice laughed merrily. "Everyone thinks that, so I don't blame you. I came to her in that noose, offering her a choice, the same one I intend to offer you: you either go back and face the horrors of your past, or I will consume you like so many before. Any too weak to face their own failings and mistakes cannot be allowed to roam in good conscience. You owe it to those you lost."

Titus could barely breathe. The heat was drying his lips, mouth, licking at his boots and singing his eyebrows and hair. He stumbled back, wheezing. "Wait," he said, keeling over and trying to hold up a hand in resistance.

"No. You have had more than enough time, and look at you, you have used it to flee from your past. You would continue to do so, would you not?"

"I would. I cannot go back!"

The fire hissed. Sparks exploded over top of him, burning through his jacket and pant legs. He cried out and stepped back, tumbling over a log. He struck the ground hard. The damp forest floor was a momentary relief to the heat of the flaming spirit.

"You watched your family burn alive. Heard their screams. You ran! You left them to die!"

"I had no choice!" Titus screamed, his voice cracking. "I am just a farmer."

"You are a father! You are a husband! You are a man!"

THhe fired roared and spiraled high enough to kiss the underside of the canopy, gushing in white and bright blue flame that lit up the surrounding forest. There was no sound save for the rush of the flame, but in Titus' mind he could hear his wife's screams, his children's agonizing whimpers. He squeezed his eyes shut, but that only brought the images of that fateful night to his mind's eye.

"Why are you doing this to me?" He screamed.

The curled overhead, splashing to the ground and surrounded him in a vortex of flame. "Because it must be done. What kind of man leaves his family to die? A coward! Not fit to walk these grounds."

"He had an army!"

"And your family had you! It seems neither was worthy of their salt."

Tears poured down Titus' face, licked up by the heat before they could drip to the ground. His heart ached like a boulder had been set upon it. He could not breathe. Ragged intakes of air barely kept him conscious, but all he could see and hear was fire and screaming.

"Make it stop!"

"You must do that yourself!" The fire wailed. "You will leave this forest now, or you will never leave at all."

"I do not have the strength."

"You dare to defy an almighty being, but have not the strength you avenge your family?" The voice was mocking, anger replaced with dripping sarcasm. "You would fight me, but not the men responsible for the slaughter of innocents?"

Titus said nothing. He couldn't see through the tears. He didn't know where his knife was or how far he had crawled; all he could see was blinding white flames.

"Very well. We shall see if you are worthy of meeting your family in the afterlife."

Titus sobbed. "Wait. If I go, I will surely die. Will the Allfather find my sacrifice worthy of seeing my family again?"

"So, you would seek vengeance for your own relief, but not the relief of your family? That is pitiful indeed. But it is not up to me to decide, I am simply a ferry to the other side." The flames sank a little lower. "But I see no reason to grant you such a selfish desire."

Titus wasn't thinking straight, or really at all. "Would you come with me?"

"What?"

"You are right. And I would die to see my family avenged, but in the end it would be vain. I am but one man, too untrained and weak to defy an army. You could stop them. You seek justice. Come with me."

The flames shot back to the pillar, like wine being poured back into a bottle. "It has been years since anyone offered me that," she said, her voice softer. "They are all so caught up in their denial and survival."

"It is the only thing I have left." Titus wiped the tears from his eyes and the snot running down his face. He knelt, finally taking in some of the forest surroundings for the first time. His heart pounded in his chest. This spirit may be more insulted by the offer than anything else, but he wasn't able to think.

"Would you go alone?"

Titus cleared his throat and stood. "If I am to die, let my wife and children know that I did so trying to get back to them. I will not stop until I have cut down my foes, or they me. This is my vow."

He stuck out his hand. A fiery tendril extended, wrapping his whole arm, but scorching none of it. "Then I will go with you. And when it is done, if you so wish, I will send you to your family, that you may rest in eternal peace and bliss, knowing that you held your vows to all fulfilled."

Titus straightened his back, for the first time turning fully back in the direction of home, true home. "Let it be so."