After three days of “companionship”, I had given up hope of response from the girl. Still, the golem’s side-eyed glances were the only responses I ever received. It drove me near mad. Perhaps it was punishment for my failures.

As days passed, routine grew. We woke within the embrace of the golem. The girl retrieved her store of bland figs, berries, and cave mushrooms as the golem used its power to start her a fire. As snow melted in a hollowed rock above the fire, we nibbled the dry and bitter meal as she chronicled the adventures of various masters and golems. Then she carefully selected a rock from the camp and disappeared deeper into the cave. Following the lead of the golem, I dared not follow this action. I waited and listened to the scratching echo of rock rubbing against rock. Sometime later she would return with a frozen rodent, more ice than meat. As it thawed over the fire, we drank the melted snow as more stories fell from her monotonous mouth. We ate, then it was time for bed. As I stared into the ceiling, dreadful thoughts would invade my mind. Thoughts of a sister’s disgust as her brother entered our home without a Heartstone in hand. Thoughts of a mother’s tears as she analyzed her son’s frail and worthless body one last time. Thoughts of a father’s hatred filling his eyes as he shoved his son from the home’s entry.

I would not cry, not until I knew the girl was asleep. I would not allow such a child to see me so weak.

Those tears were only for me.

Soon, passing days took the blizzard with them, and the sky opened up once more. The sun attempted to vanquish the land of snow, though it was greatly outmatched. Still, the girl selfishly broke our routine and, after diving deep into the caves once more, gathered her possessions and exited. My protests, largely revolving around my ungloved hand, fell on deaf ears. I had no choice but to follow into the invariable forest as the behemoth of warmth departed with her.

Despite cradling my ungloved hand within my coat, daggers of frost still penetrated it when the wind felt vengeful. It was as if the mountain were mocking me, angling the swirling gusts to just perfectly slide between the flaps of my beedliéi. What a cruel jester this mountain was.

“Where are we going?” I continued to ask, at this point asking more to distract my mind than to retrieve an answer. The girl angered me, disrespected me, denying me answers as she casually strutted through the path in the snow created by the golem’s large body.

She may deny me answers, but my education and experience could find them on their own. We traveled north, parallel to my homeland. Good, I did not dare break the banishment for fear of retribution. I could not force my father’s hand to sever my own. It may be frozen currently, but it should not be for long as we traveled at an obvious descent.

By the time we broke for meal, the air had become noticeably more bearable. The snow only bit my ankles rather than thighs and foliage became more abundant.

“To where do we travel, girl?” I queried once more, my voice sounding more disheartened than intended as I nibbled at the overcooked and overwhelmingly bitter rat she had given me. Curse my thawed tongue for being able to taste this blasphemy of food.

“Where is your golem?” she queried.

A response? Maybe not to my question, but it was actual acknowledgment, the first true acknowledgment she had granted me.

My dumbfounded look lied upon me for too long as I processed the question and pondered the answer. She raised a bushy eyebrow, as if asking me once more.

I could lie, but what would be the point? If no golem had appeared yet, it was obvious I failed in my task. “I...uh...I could not retrieve a Heartstone...”

She cocked her head to the side, her one eyebrow still raised. Her expression showed no disgust, no pity, just confusion.

“I asked where your golem is.” Her incomprehensible words and flat voice confirmed the creeping suspicion I had had all along: this girl was lame.

“I finally understand…”

The realization gave me a sense of comfort, release. For days, the fear that this girl was better, smarter than me, despite her young age, had begun to pierce the defenses of my mind. Yet, she was an exile just as I. Golem or not, lame minds secured banishment all the same so in the eyes of my – no, our – homeland we were the same. Equal.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

I could survive as equals.

“You and I,” I continued, “we are going to survive together.” I debated placing a comforting hand upon my new, lame friend’s shoulder, but the glare of her mountainous companion halted me. Still, I felt this new understanding could be the key to our survival. With her golem’s strength and my mind, this girl would survive to see many more moons.

“You are a strange man,” she spoke.

I could not help but laugh, the new lens in which I saw my companion made her words and actions so much clearer.

She did not laugh in return, yet not for any reason of my doing. No, her eyes darted to the side toward her hulking partner and leapt.

I had not missed the flood of snow at all until this moment, for if it still remained, it may have helped break my fall. At least I broke her own fall as she flung herself on top of me, flattening my body onto the root of the nearby tree. The pain was sharp, alarming, even crippling, though it seemed a better substitute than the fate of the previous spot, now fully taken by her golem.

An invisible force had struck, knocking the golem from its seated position to one of defeat. Nothing could move a golem like that, save for another golem.

My suspicions were confirmed as my intolerable bed of roots broke through the ground, throwing us through the air. I clutched the girl to my chest as we rolled along the ground into the grasp of a nearby bush. Snow fell from the leaves, nearly blocking my view of the now opposing golem descending the nearby hill toward us, its arm cocked for another strike.

Vibrations grew with such force that I knew our attacker was upon us. My body shook with affliction. I could barely rise, let alone run. Plus, what man was I if I left this girl behind?

No, I would savor this end and the legends told of me if the girl lived. A banished man giving his life for a lame girl? Truly legendary.

The vibrations halted for merely a moment, only to be succeeded by the clap of a stony body landing upon another. I expected more pain, more torture, even death. I did not, however, expect warmth. A familiar warmth even, one I had fallen asleep to for nearly a full moon cycle now.

I opened my eyes to be struck by the realization that I had not been clutching the body of the young girl, protecting her from certain doom, as she now stood above me with her arm outstretched.

When had she slipped out of my grasp?

As if on command, the world around us grinded to a halt.

I looked past the stoic damsel to the bouldered body around us. It formed an unbreakable crimson and pewter dome above. We were alive, and her golem had saved us.

The dome retreated, the golem now standing at its full height. It faced down the opposing hóloo golem. It towered above our opponent, now truly prepared to burn it and everything else around us to the ground.

The girl’s golem was clearly stronger, larger, which must be why the other chose a surprise attack. It may have been its only chance of victory. It failed though, and it would now pay dearly for its failure. Flames rose from the cracks in her golem’s rocky hide. Behind it stood its master. Her eyes flared with rage, ready to crush the other golem herself. Our opponent readied another attack of invisible force, its own violet pulses resonating from within.

“Wait! Delion! Stop!” A large man came sprinting down the hill, nearly tripping over the splinters of the golem's initial attacks.

The opposing golem quelled its pulses before standing at attention, leaving itself vulnerable to attack.

And perhaps the girl would have attacked, breaking the golem where it stood, had the large man not stood between them.

“I...I’m sorry!” The large man gasped to recover his breath. “Forgive us.” His hands on his knees as he gasped for air, he stood amongst the splintered base of the uprooted tree.

I took in the scene quickly, despite resembling an uprooted tree myself with my bent back, my hand forcefully rubbing the sore spot. Each golem seemed to revert back to their passive versions, mimicking their masters.

“Who are you?” the lame girl asked, her head cocked to the side in confusion once more. Processing the scene seemed to be a bit more difficult for her.

“Whew!” The large man removed his wool cap, wiped sweat from his head, and returned it before answering. “Well, I am this golem’s master!”

“So, you attacked us,” she retorted, her fists trembling. As if feeling her enraged thoughts, her golem’s flames erupted once more.

The large man held out his hands in acquiescence. “Wait! Hold on! It was merely a mistake!”

The girl released her fists and her golem’s flames subsided once more.

“Explain,” she commanded.

“Delion and I are training. I mistook your golem for a wild one and had Delion attack.”

This time I asked the large stranger the question for her. “Why did you think this golem wild, sir?” This should be a conversation between adults anyway.

“Well...” The man pondered how to answer, looking from the girl to her golem, to the ungloved and crooked man behind her. “…because of it still having a Heartstone, of course.”