A long, long time ago, there was an evil monster called Medusa.
She and her minions wreaked havoc on many neighboring villages.
One day, a village chief sent a witch and a hero to end her evildoings.
Witch and Hero. That's not all they were. They were people, with lives and faces and fears.
When the hero first saw the flyer on the wall of his local tavern, he thought it was fate. He was the type of person who believed in fate, because then he could blame fate when things didn't turn out for the best.
Before that moment, the hero had given a deep sigh and a groan. While he was a hero in title, he hadn't become a hero to much of anyone. His swordsmanship teacher had been lax and cautious, and partially as a result, the hero was a coward. He had said to himself "I will go on an adventure and learn to be brave", and that was when he looked up and saw the flyer. And so he called it fate.
The witch was a very different person. A fiery young woman, the witch was already confident in her skills despite her lack of experience, and she was ready to take on any challenge that could prove to everyone else her strength. The flyer caught her attention on a lamppost, and she had not felt fear at the prospect of facing down the terrible monster it mentioned.
So both of them made their way to the town of the village chief who had advertised for heroes. For their motives; they were the only ones who dared faced the dreaded monster. The two set out on their quest for "justice"; self-improvement, self-actualization; pity and pride.
The trek was long and the monsters on the way many. Quickly the witch, always superior, noticed the deficiencies of the hero.
"What kind of hero passes out at the sight of some jelly with a smiley face!?"
The hero felt the witch to be intimidating and cruel, but the way her insults matched so well with his own musings made him want to impress her, so as maybe to find some worth in himself.
Over time, the two faced challenges that brought them together, that made them strong and made them a team. While the hero would fear the monsters he faced and often lose consciousness to escape the pain and the fear, it would be the witch picking him up when he'd rather sleep through it all; die on the mountain and never left his sword again. And the more battles he survived, the more quickly he got up, because he was starting to think he was invincible as long as she was there.
While the hero feared Medusa, he had relented and agreed with the witch that many of her terrifying powers were no more than rumor. The witch was one to underestimate an opponent, and the heroes cautiousness often worked to balance this when his fears outweighed her pride; but that was happening less often, because she was often right, and he was starting to think he was invincible as long as she was there.
They finally made it into Medusa's castle…
… And lost.
But it was his fear that saved him. When the two finally reached the evil Medusa's chambers, the witch looked the monster in the eye, but the hero, no matter how silly it may have sounded, still believed that she could turn her opponents to stone. He opened his eyes, his gaze low to the ground, to see the stony robes of his friend.
The hero tried to be brave then. He thought he could be, then, with his friend turned to stone and their shared quest nearly at an end. He wanted to be brave for her, at that critical moment.
And it was a valiant effort, but he wasn't strong enough. Neither of them were.
The witch was turned to stone and the hero was beat to a pulp. The hero barely escaped, taking the stone witch with him.
He didn't know how he managed to get away, to scurry out of that castle amongst Medusa's magic and swarms of her minions and still manage to take the life-sized statue of the witch with him, but in the end only the flight of the fearful was capable of outdoing the monster's power.
The hero fled far, far away from Medusa's fortress, back through all the land the he and the witch had traversed together, back even further. Medusa, never liking to leave a job unfinished, sent her largest creatures to guard the way back, warned her hoards of their presence, but no matter how easily she could crush them, it annoyed her that such easy prey had entered her lair and lived to tell the tale.
The tale…
of Witch and Hero.