Scylla had just given a hard choice to the survivors. If half of them surrendered, the other half would be able to live.

“Ho, gracious mother of the sea!” said one of the priests that wasn’t interested in the beach festivity. “Make me one of your children. My only wish in life is to serve you!”

The air seemed to freeze as a snickering voice resounded in everyone’s mind. [Yes, my dear. Come forward and stand proudly in front of your future brother!] Said Scylla which caused the hound to perk up.

The man in a tattered robe walked forward with confidence and a big silly smile on his bloody face. As he looked with amazement at the large creature in front of him, he said: “What now mother?”

Which Scylla responded with: [don’t bite~]

“Huh?” The priest was confused for a moment, the next, the enormous wolf ate him whole.

A lot of people screamed at the sight and tried to scamper away, but Scylla’s voice rang once more in people’s minds. [The bald old man with silver rings, you can go. Who is next in line for my blessing?]

Chaos blessed the survivors as panic stole their reason. People screamed and some scuffles popped in a few places. No one wanted to die, but they knew they couldn’t win against the behemoth facing them.

“Will you allow us some time to think?” said a burly man who was trying to act brave but was in truth an overbearing coward ready to sell the other villagers for his own life.

[Yes, darling. I can wait however long you need.]

The chaos escalated with people willing to sacrifice others to save their own skin. Opposing them were those who didn't trust this evil goddess or those that despised the selfishness displayed. No one wanted to die, and their panicked mind blinded them from the truth. Why would a goddess that wanted them dead need to make such a deal...

“What do you think, Honghong?” said Yuzuha, who had survived this ordeal while being blind by the gracious help of her friends.

“Ima cave in that lying sack of shit's skull.” Responded Rouhong who was already walking toward the giant.

“Wait! Ple—”

“Shut up and live. Flower girl, take care of this lunatic for me.”

Rouhong simply left while ignoring the now screaming and crying girl. Yuzuha knew him well and the raspy tone of his voice gave her a chill. In truth, she didn't feel sad nor was she fearful of what might happen. She played what she believed to be her part: an attempt at a convincing act. Rouhong, for his part, first walked toward Belmond and Guinevere. “Boy, help people escape. Girl, blind that mutt when it squeals in pain, then run.”

He ignored any questions and walked in front of the giant with his flames doused. “Take me and let that girl go.” He said while pointing at Yuzuha who was now crawling on the ground after having tripped on rubble. Her hand dramatically tried to reach for this man.

They created a convincing scene of a man sacrificing himself for the girl he loved, and Scylla didn’t ask any questions. [Deal accepted!] She said and the wolf swallowed the man whole.

Yuzuha Screamed louder as a result. Even if she couldn’t see, she had working ears, and nothing escaped her. She did her best to get up with Tsuki’s help and then walked with unsteady steps forward while Tsuki guided her. “Bastard! Why? Why? Why are you so mean? We didn’t do anything!” She screamed with tears rolling down her cheeks – a convincing act.

[You should know your place mortal! You are nothing to us, God. Don’t let your lover sacr—] Scylla tried to say but her voice drowned in the hound’s pained yelps.

“Run! NOW!!” Screamed Yuzuha with a sharp piercing voice that didn’t get muttered by the low rumbling of the giant.

Rouhong had reignited his fire in the monster’s body. Even if the inside was made from a disgusting mucus that should have protected it from this kind of attack, Rouhong’s fire was overbearing and managed to hurt the behemoth. Back in his country, he used to be called: The salamander of the runic sun. The runic sun being a reference to a song about a salamander eating a phoenix to become the sun.

Guinevere, following his order, shot an arrow in front of the giant eyes which exploded in a burst of blinding light. The giant, in pain and blind, tried to smash its body on the ground in the hope to crush some people and kill Rouhong with the impact. Most people were able to see this giant falling and moved out of the way while a few unlucky became a bloody paste.

[Noooooo!] The so-called goddess screamed in everyone’s minds again only to fade away into nothingness.

But, she wasn’t done as far in the horizon was a monstrous being slowly rising from the sea. It looked like a woman at first glance but as it spun with an eerie orb in its arms, her disgusting back came into view. It was filled with a multitude of deep crevices the size of a horse with some of them filled with squirming mess. The torso itself was a few hundred meters in height. Scylla ascended with the help of three large tentacles the same width as the snake-like wolf. Her body basked in the rising sun behind her, she looked like a demon rising from hell.

No one wanted to know what this creature was about to do and ran away from the village. Alexander, seeing the giant hound paralyzed in pain, stabbed his sword in its cheek and ran along its body while dragging his blade. Tsuki, close to the base of the snake that was coming from the ground, delivered a simple blow that barely cut a scale. Even so, a lone white flower bloomed on this spot. This attack completely drained the girl and she fell unconscious from overusing her weapon. With that, she understood that it was the flowers that were draining her so much and not the attack itself. Luckily, Cain saw her fall and took her on his large shoulder with many more people he was carrying.

In total, around 300 people managed to escape the village which used to have a population of around seven thousand. Some were unlucky and crushed by the hound who squirmed around because of the pain Alexander caused it. Others who were either old, wounded, forgotten, or lost and couldn’t leave the village in time died in a wave created by Scylla that completely submerged the village.

As for Rouhong, the hound’s digestive fluid managed to dissolve parts of his body that weren’t fully protected by his fire. He had lost his right leg and a lot of meat was missing from his body to the point of having many bones visible. He was lucky to survive as Scylla was gullible.

✿

The air felt nice as a young girl with short sun-bleached hair slept on a bed of dead leaves. The warm sun shined on her healthy skin, embracing her in a comfortable sheet of light. A few birds here and there sang while resting their small body on the ruin of an old church made from dark brick.

Leaves crunched from the girl’s movements in her sleep. She was alone in this place and without a care for any danger that might be lurking around. Then a leaf delicately fell by her nose which began to tickle the girl with her every breath.

“Muuuu~” she complained while failing to remove the annoying leaf.

In the end, she had no choice but to wake up as her calm emerald eyes inspected her surroundings. She noticed the broken church not far from her and it reminded her of the dream she had not long ago. The wonderful stained glasses were missing, and many vines were hugging the large structure filled with the wears of time.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She tried to remember how she got here but her memories all felt so distant as if a fog was clouding her mind. She tried to remind herself of her name…but she couldn’t.

“Huh? What was I doing until now?” she wondered even unsure of where she was. “Ha right! I was going back home to cook a duck…ha…did I forget to buy a duck when going home?” She had nothing on her other than her clothes and no ducks were in sight.

“Duck? Where are you? Ducky-Ducky, are you there?” she asked while searching under some logs or behind some trees.

Her crystal voice calmly reverberated in the orange-colored forest but still, no ducks were in sight.

“Hmmm…Maybe Sinorous know where mister duck is hiding. He has a good nose.”

Once again, she searched her surroundings while this time calling for Sinorous. She looked inside some bushes and next to some large rocks but still, no Sinorous were in sight.

“Sinorous…he’s not responding. I hope he’s fine…”

She tried to look around the ruin in the chance that what she was looking for was on the other side but tripped after turning the first corner. She had stepped on a small hole just large enough for her to fit into which a small animal might have made.

“Right! Sinorous always loved to sleep in some hole because of the warm night. Sinorous! Are you inside?” she asked but received no answer. “Muuu~ fine! I’m coming in! be ready~”

And inside she went with her body barely fitting in the dark hole. She moved inside like a snake without an end in sight. “Sinorous? Are you there?” she asked not giving up even if nothing responded to her.

Days and then weeks went by as she kept crawling inside the cold and dry passage. “Mister Ducky? Are you inside? Did you see Sinorous?” she kept asking without tiring.

She neither felt hungry, tired, or thirsty inside the endless hole but she was starting to worry that she wouldn’t be able to get back home to cook the duck.

After an eternity of crawling, she came to a large cave with multicolored lights dancing in the wall. In the middle, was a bouquet of white flowers soundlessly sleeping in a cradle made of fur and grass.

“Miss flowers.” Whispered the girl looking at the sleeping bouquet. “Wake up, Miss flowers.”

And so, the flower woke up as if it never slept. “Hum?” it muttered trying to push the girl to explain what she was doing there.

“Miss flower, what are you doing in this lonely cave?”

“Waiting. Waiting”

“For whom are you waiting?”

“…”

“Miss flower, I was looking for mister Ducky. Do yo– “—No!” ho ok…”

“Name?”

“I don’t know. What about you? Do you have a name?”

“Yes…”

“Really? Tell me tell me.”

“Don’t know…”

“By chance, did you see Sinorou“No”s”

“Wh“o I don’t ? know.’ So,’ why look for him?”

“I don’t know. “… Do you? ””

“Me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Name.”

“You?” “…” “Me” “Hm!”

“Change it? “No “why?” New name?” Change”

The unknown girl simply looked at the flowers waiting for something to happen. Yet nothing more came.

“Did you say my name?” asked the girl out of the blue.

“Maybe you already did.”

“Unusual, it should be, also short.”

“Try spelling it”

“Okay.”

“Did it work? “““““I haven’t spelled it yet!” Maybe you already did” Unbecoming of me to no know.” Tell me your age then.” Older than you, I guess"

“.ylaeR”

“What’s your name?”

“.pu kooL”

“Are you called dirt?”

“… “ ”

Let’s go out.”

“.yrros , detseretni toN”

“do Anyway, Sinorous be you know who might.”

“…”

“Sorry.”

“…You good?”

“do Who—“Stop!” okay”… ? –Sinorous…

“Pronoun!” “Who!” “Noun!” “Sinorous!” “Verb” “Be!”

“You friend?”

! for is and m’I looking myogd” him rousSino“

“…You’re wilting. “OWe Kneed Ato Yleave…””

❀

And so, the girl took the flowers in her arms and left the cave. Weeks and then days went by as she crawled in the warm and damp passage. She didn’t say a word, she couldn’t. The walls closing up on her were so tight that she needed to breathe out before being able to move forward.

After a long while, the warm sun welcomed her emerald eyes. The wind, tired from removing many fiery leaves from trees ready to disrobe for winter, simply caressed her cheek.

Tsuki had finally managed to get out of this strange hole and held high, for the sun to see, a bouquet of black flowers. “Look, mister Sun, aren’t they cute?” But the sun didn’t agree and neither did it disagree as it wasn’t something it could even do. “…Ok…Boring…”

She looked carefully around herself in the hope to know where she was and noticed the large ruins of the church she had dreamed of not too long ago.

“Alice, where are you? Alice…” she said with her delicate voice which the wind amplified. “Are you in there Alice? Where are you, Alice?”

But no Alice could be found outside the broken building. Tsuki did try to remember what she was doing, but it was all too fuzzy and thinking made her head hurt. “Maybe she’s inside.”

She slowly walked inside the building while inspecting the stability of the structure. The stones laid up and around were lacking any cement holding them together and only friction allowed them to not crumble.

The inside was overtaken by nature as a small tree was trying to grow where Tsuki last saw Alice in her dream. “A dream?” She asked herself, trying to understand how she could have dreamed of this place. It was impossible as the structure of the church was similar to what was in this so-called dream. How can a dream create something that was real? She thought with her fragmented memory, that she might have lived in this place before and was now visiting it to take a break from life. “Wait, what was I doing that would need a break anyway?”

*Bang, Bang, Bang*

A loud rhythmic sound coming from somewhere unknown made her swallow her own heart. It kept coming in beats of three which forced her mind to race and find out how to respond to this sudden event. But for some time, she stood frozen in place tightly holding the bouquet in her arms. Every beat resonated in her mind until her right hand started feeling itchy and plucked a few black petals, which grew back instantly, and ate them.

The strange bitter, yet sweet, taste woke Tsuki from her trance. Fear slowly made places for curiosity. She walked closer to the source and found it under a broken pillar. A trapdoor leading to some kind of basement was being knocked on from the other side. The intensity of the knocking decreased as she got closer until she was just above it, and only weak and tired knocking could be heard.

She placed her small hand on the wooden boards that were surprisingly still in good condition. The knocking that was happening just a moment ago changed into a sort of wet ‘splutshing’. Tsuki backed off from the sudden change but immediately tried to pull on the handle to open the trapdoor. The large pillar made it impossible, and the handle snapped off cleanly.

A sense of dread infected her mind such that she felt the need to open this door otherwise something bad would happen. She moved away from the trapdoor to pick a large stone covered in red leaves. When lifting it, an impressive gust of wind came into the decrepit building and lifted all the leaves from the ground such that they hung on the roof.

Tsuki didn’t care much about it, only trying to get back to the wooden boards she had to break. Her left hand held the bouquet while her right one was holding the heavy rock which was suddenly covered in lively green leaves. She tried to move for dear life, but the leaves somehow held the stone in place. Seeing it was a lost cause, dropped it.

Instead, she went back to the trapdoor which she began punching with all her might in the hope to break the supposedly old plank. Pain clouded her mind as blood spilled from her knuckle. In this destructive trance, Tsuki didn’t even hear the sharp cry of a bird flying above her. Neither did she feel its sharp talons digging into her back and trying to move her. Her whole existence was dedicated to destroying this trapdoor in this instant.

Her fist landed in a beat of three equally strong hits. *Bang, Bang, Bang* It resounded in the ruin. Slowly, the knocking became weaker until *Crack* not a cracking sound of wood breaking, but of bones instead. Her bloody hand, nothing more than a hammer of meat, splashed on the wood producing disgusting sounds. She felt as if all hope was gone, leaves were dancing around her, trying to lift her up.

She then screamed while hitting this door one last time ““Alice, save me!!”” her voice echoed with someone else as the trapdoor disintegrated. Her broken hand went down and touched something warm and wet. She saw it for an instant, a girl with short, sun-bleached hair, emerald eyes, a broken right hand, and a bouquet of white flowers. Then, darkness...

❀

Tsuki woke up after some time. Her tired eyes adjusted to the light shining in the old broken church. Sleeping on her back with something comfortable under her head, she looked up and saw a man looking back at her. He wore simple garb made of fur somewhat able to make his lean figure more imposing. Tsuki, who had her head resting on his leg, didn’t feel nervous looking at his warm smile. His carefully braided hair dangled in the air as rings and pearls attached to them gave off a calm presence. It was a strange feeling that Tsuki didn’t really like. As such, she slowly got up feeling refreshed, and looked at this strange man.

His right eye seemed filled with mystery and honesty while his left was covered by a shell that reflected a rainbow of colors. “How have you been, sister Tsuki? A whimsical spirit told me that you were looking for people to teach you some of the world’s secrets, right?” he said with a voice almost androgynous.