I ran. There was nothing more to it. The demon king is here. He’s breathing fire and burning the city down!

I never looked back. I didn’t need to. The flames continued to spread to the other buildings behind me. The sound of burning wood was unmistakable. So were the cries for help. Both people screaming for help and those attempting to help. But I never stopped, not even slowed down or look.

I needed to run away. The pain coursing through my body from when I got hit by the debris barely slowed me. My only objective was that I had to get as far away from the fire-breathing monster as possible. My instincts tried to push me to the north, towards home, but that wasn’t completely away.

Even as fast as I was, the fires spread even faster. People were running to put the flames out. They formed lines with buckets from wells to burning buildings. Nothing they did even touched the raging inferno that was ravenously consuming the entire city. Knights were streaming through the streets, all heading towards the demon king.

They don’t stand a chance. I’m a knight and I should be charging with them. But I’m not. I just can’t. If there ever was a time to wish I didn’t have pyrophobia, now would be it.

Dinar, carried in Fina’s arms, came into view as the lynx woman passed me. “Go home!” Fina shouted as she ran just in front of me.

She said to. My instincts want some place safe. I don’t disagree with them. So, home it is.

I dug my claws into the ground, turned, and sprinted towards the North Gate. When I turned, the sight and smell of smoke became impossible to ignore. I lowered my head and looked right at the ground in front of me.

Don’t look at it. Don’t look at it.

With the mantra repeating in my head, the sights of last night’s siege were still visible. They had cleared the roads of most of the corpses, but that meant they were just lining the sides. The closer I got to the gate, the more corpses I saw. At least the screams were getting easier to ignore, even though my heart ached when I heard someone.

I can’t go back.

I blocked out as many of the sounds as I could. Each cry for help haunted me. The crackling timbers terrified me. The worst sound was the massive roar of the demon king.

When the road beneath me turned into dirt and grass, I skidded to a stop. I looked up and saw that I had passed the gate and left the city. There was the slightest moment of relief. At least until I saw the flames rising higher into the air, flooding the sky with billowing black smoke. Anna and Lexia barely made it out of the gate before falling to the ground.

I wanted to go help them, but that would take me closer to the flaming city. They all got up and made their way next to me. Both were panting heavily. Anna was dripping with sweat while Lexia looked about ready to pass out. As beastkin, we don’t sweat like elves and humans. Our pads can sweat a bit, but that’s not how we cool ourselves down. Panting is the best way. But my sister could barely keep her eyes open as she swayed on her feet.

Dinar patted Fina’s shoulder. “Put me down, Fina.” She did. “Go and give Anna a hand. I’ll manage on my own.” Dinar started walking to my house, a grimace of pain on her face as she limped heavily on her left side.

Anna dropped to the ground, her arms and legs sprawled out. Her chest heaved up and down as she rested, her eyes shut.

I extended a hand to my sister. “I’m sorry. It was the fire. I couldn’t help it.”

“Yeah, I know.” Lexia dropped to her hands and knees. “But I can’t take another step. I just can’t.”

I picked her up and held her in my arms. “Then I’ll take it from here.” My body ached, but I wouldn’t show my sister how much it hurt.

Fina scooped Anna into her arms. Anna’s body seemed to be a lot more limp than Lexia’s. “Home,” Fina said as she followed the other girls.

I held Lexia even closer as I followed. Our house came into view just as the smoke started to block out the sun. There were more roars from the demon king, but I barely heard them. The sounds of screaming and fire were long gone.

Zenny stood at the door, tears streaming down her cheeks. She was looking at the destruction behind me. I didn’t say anything as I opened the door to our house and led everyone inside.

I took Lexia to her room and placed her on the bed. Gifford followed me from the living room. He looked like he wanted to talk, but at some point, Lexia had fallen asleep in my arms. I gently placed her on the mattress and brushed her hair from her face. Gifford took the blanket and covered her before giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead.

We walked out of the room together. He pointed me to Mom’s room, and I opened the door and saw Mom was still sleeping, too. I let out a sigh as I closed the door. Every ache and pain seemed to return now that I had time to feel them.

Fina placed Anna on the couch as Dinar limped, with Zenny’s help, to a chair and practically fell into it. Zenny started examining Dinar’s wounds, and only now did I notice that a huge gash lined her left leg. Fina and Gifford moved to help Zenny by grabbing a bucket of water and bandages. They cleaned the wound and stitched it before wrapping most of Dinar’s leg in a bandage. Then they strapped on a makeshift splint to hold her knee straight.

Zenny moved to another chair and collapsed into it. Her body went limp as she passed out. I’ll be fine. It’s nothing more than some heavy bruising and a cracked rib or two. Yeah, I’m in pain, but she looks like she needs to stop. A few days, and it’ll be like it never happened.

Gifford and Fina looked at me. My heart dropped. What do they want from me? Do they think I know what to do right now?

I sighed as I looked at Dinar, who was resting her head in her hands. “That was probably the worst possible outcome.”

I lowered my head. “Yeah. It’s my fault for not getting there sooner. It’s Escaeris and Daric’s fault for stopping me.” Where’s Escaeris?

There was a knock on my door. I walked over and opened it. Escaeris stood at the door, covered in ash and soot. “You have to leave, now!”

“What?”

I looked past her and saw people fleeing the city. Every civilian was running in every direction. It was chaos. But then I saw what they were running from. Above the city floated the dragon. He flapped his wings above the entire city as it fed the flames of its own destruction. But in the flames, I saw something swirling. Following the fleeing people were fallen demons.

These fallen didn’t look like anything I had seen before. They weren’t sickly white; their skin was charcoal black, and their mouths glowed bright red. Two small wings flapped uselessly from their backs. A short, stubby tail flailed behind them as they pounced and tore apart the people fleeing Aquittemia.

I turned and went to warn the others. “Run! We have to run.”

Zenny and Anna didn’t move. Dinar stood up, her leg barely holding. “What’s wrong? What is it this time?”

I grabbed her shoulder. “Fallen demons.” Dinar dropped her head. “We have to get everyone out and away.”

“To where?” Gifford asked.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Away.” Escaeris threw her arms out wide. “Anywhere but here.”

“My territory.” Everyone turned to me. “We can go to my territory. We should be safer there. From there, if we need to run further, we can head to...”

Why can’t I ever remember that town’s name?

“Briarford.” Dinar nodded. “But how do we get everyone there?”

I looked around the room. Anna and Zenny were still sleeping despite the noise we were making. “Fina, you take Anna. Escaeris, take Zenny. Gifford, take my sister. I’ll get my mom. You’ll be able to walk, right?”

Dinar shrugged. “I don’t have a choice. But I can use a little magic to help me along.”

I raised an eyebrow. “With sleep magic?”

Dinar rolled her eyes. “No, air manipulation. We don’t have time to argue about that. Get moving.” She shoved me towards the bedrooms.

I shrugged and went to get Mom. She was still sleeping when I walked in. The serene expression on her face brought a smile to my face. Sorry, Mom, I failed. But I promise to get you out of here. I need you. I don’t know what to do.

I gingerly lifted my mother into my arms after making sure she was wrapped tightly in a blanket. As quickly as I could, without jostling Mom too much, I followed the others out the door. Zenny, Anna, and Lexia all woke up a little while they were being carried. Only enough to hang onto the one carrying them.

Dinar hobbled along, her clothes looking like she had the wind to her back, but she was still the slowest by far. We all slowed down, so we didn’t leave her behind. Escaeris kept looking back to the city to see if any fallen demons were following us. She never said anything, so I assumed that it was safe.

We made it to the edge of the forest, where I had marked my territory. We set everyone down, and I made sure to prop my mother against a tree as comfortably as possible. Anna, Lexia, and Zenny all went back to sleep as soon as they touched the ground.

They must be tired. How tired are they? Did they not sleep last night?

I waved for the others to follow me. Dinar, Gifford, Fina, Escaeris, and I gathered a short distance away.

“So, what now?” I asked. “Where’s Daric?”

Dinar and Escaeris both frowned. “He said he was going to cover our retreat. Since the demon king is still alive, I have a feeling he didn’t make it.”

“You don’t have to guess.” Escaeris wrung her hands together. “I saw it. I saw the dragon bite him in half.” I felt the blood drain from my face. My knees started to buckle until Gifford grabbed me and held me up.

Fina helped him. “Sit down.” When they let me go, Fina gave me a hug. “I help.”

I couldn’t hug her back. Everything started going numb. It took everything I had to keep breathing, and I was quickly losing the will to do that. Daric, Victor, everyone in the entire town... Nobody survived but us? Everyone I’ve known is dead. Captain Aenwyn is probably gone. Aurtour, Evalana’s brother, the king, is dead too. Salien, Zenny’s adoptive mother—there’s no way she survived that massacre. Everything we did to fight the Rider of Death was for nothing.

I buried my head in my hands and wept. The demon king is loose, and he destroyed the capitol by himself. I was sent here to stop him? No way. It can’t happen. This world is doomed, and it’s all my fault. I’m not strong enough, and I’m too scared.

“This is why you shouldn’t have waited.” The Rider of Pain and Death groaned loud enough to draw everyone’s attention. I looked up and saw her sitting on a tree branch. “Now my pets are broken and useless.”

Dinar raised a hand. “Now isn’t the time for this.”

Lust looked down at the elf. “You think? Look!” She pointed back towards the town. “Things are only going to get worse from here.”

We turned to where the demoness was pointing. The demon king had landed outside the walls of the burning capitol. Two new forms manifested out of the portal, filling the city gate.

They were too far away to see any real details. The one looked like a giant flower with purple and red petals, while the other was some multi-legged monster with an all-black body. It was hard to tell, but it looked like two bowed to the dragon. There are four riders. Two are dead. So those must be the other two. If Death caused the destruction himself, what are those two capable of? Then there’s the demon king too. What’s the point of all of this?

The two riders headed in different directions. The flower shaped being folded in on itself and shot out an odd pink cloud. The cloud drifted south with an unnatural consistency. Then the plant withered into a husk. The black rider headed east. The demon king took the air again and headed north. He flew past us without stopping or even looking in our direction.

“Both riders are here already, and Ruin is now impossible to stop.” Lust’s voice broke the silence. “My plans to take their powers have just gotten harder, and we don’t have time.”

“Why?” Escaeris asked. “Why is this all happening? What does this all mean?”

Dinar also glared at the demoness still perched on her branch. “What is the demon king’s goal? Why even bother being here?”

“To cause death and destruction.” The words fell lifelessly out of my mouth. “What other reason did he have to kill an entire city?”

Lust huffed. “He’s always been very secretive, always telling us what to do without telling us more than that.” She propped her hand on her arm as she looked in the direction of the plant’s spores. “Doing things for entertainment is one thing. But this? This is calculated. Telling us to make the blood anchors, fooling mortals to summon us, all of it, just to destroy this world...” She shook her head. “No. There is something he wants. But he’s not telling anyone. Something about me learning to absorb the rider’s power upset him. They are after me. Why? This world has always been his objective.”

“Yet you followed his orders.” Gifford bared his fangs at the rider. “You corrupted my home and the entire kingdom, just because he said so? You were following him.”

“The key word there is ‘were.’ And since he was capable of killing me permanently, I did what he wanted, more or less.” The demoness pushed off the branch and flapped her wings. “I don’t know about you, but I like to live. Now that I have a power that has him scared, my life is my own again. And you better believe that I will fight to live.”

Dinar sighed. “The demon’s right, probably.” She rubbed her forehead with one hand. “What has this world come to?” she mumbled under her breath. She straightened up and took a deep breath. “It looks like our best plan is to work with the demon. We need to find the other riders and make sure our rider takes their power. You can do that, right? And if you do, will it be enough? Will it be enough for you to fight the demon king?”

Lust crossed her arms as she floated in the air. “It’ll be close. But I’m not looking for an even fight. You’re going to help me kill him.”

Escaeris’s jaw dropped. “How? All the weapons the knights used bounced off his scales like they were nothing.”

“We’ll need weapons.” Dinar placed a hand on Escaeris’s shoulder. “Magical ones. And an army too.”

Lust laughed. “Leave the army to me.” Right, she can create an army of undead now.

“Where did things go so wrong that we spent so much to defeat an army of undead just to use one of our own?” I lowered my head and stared at the ground. “That feels wrong.”

Fina hugged me even tighter. “It is. But desperation is worse.”

“Where are we going to get these magic weapons you talked about?” Gifford’s tail flicked back and forth behind him as he stared at Dinar.

“You’ll not find any better place than the dwarves.” I snapped my head towards the voice. It was weak, but it was a voice I longed to hear. Mom was crawling out of the blanket I carried her in. “I know a dwarf.”

I scrambled out of Fina’s hug and ran to my mother. I ran up and hugged her tight. “I’m sorry.”

Mom tapped my back. “Honey, please, not so hard.” I eased up on my hug. “And you have nothing to apologize for. I don’t know what’s all going on, but we’ll figure it out together.” She hugged me, but I could feel that her body was still extremely weak.

“And I’ll help you with all the time I have left.” Dinar bowed to me.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

Dinar gave me a dry smile. “I heard The Call three days ago. My time is almost up. But after over two hundred years, I do everything to make sure it lasts another two hundred.” She turned and pulled something out of a pouch on her belt. It was a silver bracelet. She limped over and handed it to me. “Daric wanted me to make sure you got this back. He said that you dropped it.”

I set my mother back on the ground to let her rest some more. Then I took the bracelet and saw the engraving. Without thinking, I slipped it on my wrist and tightened it by squeezing it until it fit on my smaller wrist.

I’m never losing this again. Both Daric and Victor went to fight and died. Both did so, still caring about me. Victor wanted to protect me, and Daric wanted to make sure I got the one thing to remember Victor by before he fought the demon king. Here I am crying because I can’t fight because I‘m scared of fire. I can’t let their memories be wasted like that. No. It’s time I stood up and fought.

I stared at Lust. “So, do you have a name? Or can we just call you Lust?”

The demoness shrugged. “You could call me your majesty. After everything is done, I will be the demon queen.” I crossed my arms. Not amusing. “But I guess you can call me Lust until then. After all, I still lust for more power.” The smile she flashed me caused me to twitch.

“Give us a few days to recover, then we’ll be heading towards the dwarves.” I looked at my mother. “After we get some fitting weaponry, we’ll take on the other riders.” I turned and hugged Dinar. “I promise we’ll finish this and defeat the demon king before the end of the ice season. Then we will do anything you want.”

Dinar hugged me. “The only thing I want is to go home and see the ocean one last time.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”

I then looked at Escaeris, who was the one I knew the least about. "What about you? What are you going to do?"

She glared at me. Her knuckles of her clenched fists were turning white. "I've lost my home twice now and my sister is dead. There's nothing left for me. So, if you're going on a demon slaying crusade, I'd be more than delighted to join." The flatness of her tone was a little unsettling. There was a slight curl to her lips. "After I've helped you kill every demon in this world, I'll go to the demon realm and kill every demon there."

Lust laughed. "I like this one. She's feisty."

Escaeris snapped her head towards the flying demon. "You're on that list too."

Lust only laughed as she flew away.

It’s going to be a busy and bloody year.