Gwen followed the path towards Aquilesca’s gates, the distant, pointed mountains now appeared more like crude daggers jutting up from the earth. Surrounding the land on both sides as far as her eyes could see, the spiked, mirroring mountains seemed to cradle the land tightly. The silhouette peaks impressed now another level of intimidation upon Gwen; the very land she walked on felt like it might swallow her whole at any minute. The solemn trek allowed for many invading thoughts she preferred to keep at bay. Instead, she shifted her thoughts to the Bucket Knight.

Baldwin, while a self-proclaimed low-level Knight, appeared to have been trained in the art of combat, Gwen assumed. And yet, he had been dealt that fatal blow at the hands of what he referred to as a “monster”. What could she possibly do? she thought to herself, defeatedly.

Gwen halted after placing a foot onto something solid and pushing it into the soft ground when she shifted her weight to take her next step. She guided the torch towards the earth, and the warm flames illuminated a round, oak shield. She pulled the item from the mud and used the drizzling rain to wipe away a layer of wet dirt. Indeed it was as Baldwin said, a moderate crack splintered from the center up to one of the shield’s round edges. Though, the oak had been reinforced at the rim with steel, which seemed the reason for it remaining largely intact, if not at peak durability.

Slipping her hand through the leather strap, she raised the shield with one arm and posed in a battle stance. It was heavier than she had expected; however, she felt like a child playing with a toy. Just the thought of using this in an actual fight made her body feel weightless and weak.

A raindrop falls onto the torch’s flame and a wet hiss expels, distracting Gwen.

“Suppose I should keep moving while the torch can bear this misting rainfall,” she says to herself while fully equipping Baldwin’s cracked shield to her forearm.

After half a league or so on the path, the rain fully lets up, allowing for a damp and heavier fog to sit densely on the ground, dispersing the higher it extends into the sky. With every stride, Gwen disrupts the settling mist; each time the amorphous cloud frustratingly breaking and reforming after the girl’s ignorant intrusions. How Baldwin retreated as far as he did was surely a testament to the Knight’s undaunting resolve, she thought.

Finally, the path revealed it had indeed been leading towards an actual destination and was not simply the scenic path for a dreary and forgotten land. Indistinguishable shapes hiding behind the cover of haze began to materialize and unveil the gates ahead.

Clang! Cling! Clang!

A metallic echo bangs up ahead, over and over the sound of steel thudding against stone. On full alert, Gwen’s eyes tighten, her body hunches, and the shield is raised, covering just below her eyes down to her missing navel. Holding the torch in front of her, the flames now reduced to a diminutive glow, providing little light and likely on the verge of expiring.

With her focus so intent towards the thundering sound, Gwen let out a muted shriek when a strange figure from out of the fog shuffled past her, no more than a few feet. The disorientated figure revealed itself in the form of a disheveled man in tattered clothes. Mindless and completely ignoring the frightened girl as he passed, the man also murmuring nonsensical whispers to himself. Gwen watched him, frozen in her battle-ready stance, but utterly aghast at the event taking place before her. With little regard for anything, the man lumbered off, his image dissolving as he melded back into the fog, directionless.

Cling! Clang!

The clanking steel hailed, demanding to be heard as if jealous of Gwen’s petty distraction. She tightened her grip once again and pressed on into the blurring haze; the intensifying pounding of steel affirming the direction she followed. Up ahead, in the distance, she could see two large lights flickering opposite of one another, glowing brighter the closer she approached.

Gwen’s next step kicked into small obstructing objects that rattled as they collided with one another. Lowering her torch, the simmering flames repelled the thick mist to open a space on the ground. Her eyes widened in shock at her discovery.

“Bones?” she couldn’t help but say out loud.

Slowly, she waved the torch left and right, discovering small piles of bones scattered in every direction she could see. The horror which Baldwin spoke rang true; this place was a nightmare. She frowned, let out a woeful huff, and quietly said, “And you yourself belong here. You are just as these bones all around you. Only with legs to carry this ghoulish body of yours.”

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Clang!

The crashing sound screamed at her once more and her frustration quickly devolved into anger, “Then, so be it. If I am to be torn apart at the hands of this monster then it would perhaps be a fate overdue.”

Cling!

Gwen hesitated no more, she would not allow this wretched place the cheap victory it hoped to gain. Unshaken, she passed more of the scattered bones across the area; however, unknown to the girl, behind the stacks of bone lay grotesque mounds of broken bodies obscured within the pitch of the night.

She now stood fifty feet or so from the gates leading into the city of Aquilesca. Sconces secured on both sides of the gates bore powerful flames that kept much of the encompassing fog away. The iron gates stood tall, ruined and decrepit as this kingdom had become, they’ve remained fully intact and mighty.

CLING! CLANG!

The booming clash beckoned its loudest cry yet a refusal to be ignored. With her resolve still yet steeled, Gwen would abide and she carefully drew in on the thundering call.

She proceeded cautiously and with one step forward, the fog seemed to open fully, allowing her to perceive her surroundings with clarity

CLANG!

A huge man on his knees slammed his bucket-covered head into a boulder repeatedly. The bellowing collisions sent a shockwave through Gwen’s body each time his head met with the solid stone. The sound of a tin voice moaning in anguish from behind the bucket followed after each violent collapse.

The morbid sight frightened Gwen deep to her core and a flood of unnerving doubt erased the girl’s fortified resolve. Panicked thoughts of preservation took control, Maybe she could sneak past the monster? It was clearly distracted, all she had to do was find some way past him and search for a way in. To meet this creature in battle, such a task was certainly more than any she could handle. She could turn away. She could run in the other direction. Maybe find Baldwin’s raft and take it as far she could?

Then, an image of the wandering dredge entered her mind. Would that be her fate as well, to mindlessly creep across this rotting place?

No.

She swallowed the dry lump in her throat and flexed her dead muscles. She knew not what this hollowed body was capable of but she would try.

BONG!

Church bells rang from behind the gates in the city of Aquilesca, taking all attention from the Bucket Knight’s clamoring.

He immediately stood up and lifted his head in the direction of the bells. The action revealed his long and ugly body; where bulbous, powerful muscles lie on one side, a puny and unevenly stretched arm hung on the other. The bizarre bucket he wore covered his head and face entirely but Gwen felt his posture staring up at the bells a display of sorrow.

BONG!

The bells tolled a few more times and the giant creature continued to remain captured by their hypnotic trance. This gave Gwen a bit more time to study the weird man. Larger than any normal human, it stood seven or eight feet tall and with skin discolored and ashen. Upon the thickest areas of the Bucket Knight’s body, he wore unfitting armor stretched to the very limit which offered little to no protection. Opposite to that, loose, dangling armor held only by secured and fastened buckles draped the thing’s most pathetic appearing appendages. Gwen’s eyes were drawn to the creature’s bloated belly and more particularly, what seemed to be protruding out from it, though, she was too far away to discern what it might be.

Her investigation had been short-lived when she noticed the bells seem to have missed their repeated chime and now with the metal hum absent, the very air around her felt heavier. She slowly raised her eyes, hoping to find the Bucket Knight still entranced by the tolling bells.

What Gwen discovered was that she no longer had the element of surprise to her advantage. The Bucket Knight’s head was now directed at her. Gwen dug her naked feet into the malleable ground and once again, drew into a battle stance.

Not acting immediately, the Bucket Knight’s chest began to rise up and down in long, deep breaths but inside, a fiery rage surged through its veins. When the pulsating fury could no longer be contained, the Bucket Knight exploded, screaming into the night air a broken, blood-curdling wail. At the very crest of the monster’s exploding cry, it burst into movement and charged for Gwen, each thunderous step exploding the ground below it.