With a small, thin piece of metal, I managed to unlock the doors leading into the caves where the water was stored. I lit a torch and locked the door behind me. My breath came out in icy mist inside the cold caves. Even with the doors closed I could still hear some form of wind howling. Silently, I made my way through the passageways until I stumbled upon the water source where the afanc lay in wait.
Cautiously, I approached the pool of water. After peering into the water to make sure that it wasn't directly below me I then proceeded to tap the torches end against the water re-enacting a scene from one of those documentaries with crocodiles and buffalos. Every time I tapped the water, I flinched a little thinking that it would leapt out at any second.
Without warning the muddy, mutated crocodile-like afanc suddenly submerged out of the water. Cursing, I let out a shriek and I stumbled back to dodge a swing of its huge hand. I gathered myself up and watched it climb out of the pool and onto the sandy ground. I held out my torch like a sword as our eyes were fixed on one another.
I slowly took a deep breathe in. "Alright," I said to it, expelling their air as I spoke. "So what kills you is fire and air. I've got the fire element at the ready. As for the wind – if I swing fast enough I should deliver a blow equivalent to a harsh sting. God I hope I'm right. Shouldn't be enough to kill you though. Hopefully it won't since that's not my job."
Growling, the afanc swung its hand at me again towards my side. I sidestepped the blow and hit it as fast as I could. My grip on the torch tightened at the sound of it shrieking. I could have sworn I saw its flesh – or mud – start to sizzle and crack where I hit it. I felt a little bad when I saw that. I also felt glad that I was right.
The creature came at me again. I backed away from it, trying not to hit it while also dodging its blows. We backed away, going deeper into the caves while it tried to hit me and I tried to avoid them. On and on we continued with this pattern of swing, dodge and lead. Sometimes it would barely miss me and other times I don't think it was even trying. I never once lowered my guard or dared to look away out of fear that it would take advantage of that.
Eventually, we heard the sound of some people wandering through the caves. Their voices echoed through the rocky hallways. The afanc stopped trying to attack me and turned to the direction that the sound was coming from. I suppose it believed that they were probably easier to kill compared to me. Stupid afanc.
I didn't move from my spot as I watched it disappear into the shadows towards the group. Once it was out of sight I pressed my back against the rocked wall. Lowering the torch, I looked around the corner to see Merlin, Morgana and Arthur pass the passageway the afanc was hiding in and travel further down their own. I watched the afanc emerge out of the shadows and start following them. After it had disappeared, I lifted up the torch again and proceeded to follow it.
I continued holding the torch like a sword as I followed the afanc's shrinking body as it stalked them on its knuckles like a gorilla. What really concerned me about this creature was it decided to turn around and charge me again or it changed course and hid inside another passageway and lay in wait for me to pass. I had a theory that the creature wasn't very bright and I was believe that that was true so that I wouldn't start freaking out.
"You willingly decided to go down here and help," the voice in my head reminded me. "And that's what you're going to do. If you back out now I won't let you live it down. You mark my words I will not."
I began to recognise where we were in the caves. I realised that the afanc was smarter than I thought as it had cut the other group back to the pool. I hid around a corner as I watched them split up leaving Arthur alone. Once his back was turned, the afanc made its way towards him.
At the sound of its heavy breathing and growling, Arthur slowly turned to face it. The afanc roared and stood on its back legs. Arthur dodged a swing from its fists making him stumble back. As soon as he gathered himself the creature sank back into the shadows.
Arthur swung the torch back and forth searching for it as Morgana and Merlin appeared after hearing the commotion.
"What is it?" Morgana asked. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah."
"Did you see it?" Merlin asked.
"Yes."
"What did it look like?"
"It's quick."
The sound of Morgana screaming as she idiotically chose to go towards the shadows echoed through the caves. The afanc screeched and stood on its back legs again. Arthur came towards it, brandishing his sword at it.
Immediately, I sprinted towards the creature. Swinging my torch, I plunged the tip of it into its back where it managed to stay in place. In the confusion, I managed to turn it around and deliver a sharp kick to send it back into the shadows where I shortly followed.
"Where is it?" I heard Arthur question as I walked it around to lead it back to the group in another opening.
"I think it went this way," I heard Merlin answer and proceeded to follow where the echo of his voice was gesturing towards and where I could hear the group approach.
Gradually I luckily was able to slip around the creature and make my way into a T-intersection of the caves. Seeing the trio emerge from one side I quickly backed myself towards them.
"Hello," I said pleasantly, trying to act courteous in front of royalty. For once.
"It's you," Morgana gasped. "What are you doing?"
"I'm helping you kill the afanc of course. I thought that that was blatantly obvious to you all." I hoped that that didn't sound too rude.
"You should…" began Arthur when he fell silent at the sight of the afanc's shadow emerging from where I had just come from.
Slowly, and in such a dramatic reveal, the afanc turned around the corner. It stared at us as a slow snarl escaped from his lips. I saw out of the corner of my eyes, Arthur preparing his sword and getting ready to attack. Morgana was nervously holding her torch and Merlin stood there watching it as it came towards us.
As soon as it swung its hand at him, Arthur rushed towards it, thrusting his sword. The afanc smacked it out of his grasp before turning to Morgana who stood at the wall, frozen in horror as it came towards her. In fright, she swung her torch back and forth at it to drive it off but eventually she became too terrified to do so and turned away, dropping her torch in the process. Again I stabbed the creature in the back, distracting it for a moment before Arthur thrust the torch into its face. It started to back away. I stood at its side to prevent it from turning running into a different area once we reached that T-intersection of the cave.
It wasn't easy. We continuously had to circle it and avoid walking into one another in the process. It was like we were a pair of brats trying to piss off a bull by poking it. I could hear Arthur ordering me to get back and I always ignored him. I could hear the concern in his voice but it wasn't enough to make me go.
"Arthur, use the torch!" I heard Merlin shout.
A few seconds later, I heard the sound of wind rushing through the caves. I speared my torch at the afanc where it landed into its torso. I dropped to my knees and shielded my face.
Arthur ducked and shielded his own face with his hands as the wind blew as hard as they could towards the afanc. It let out a gurgling, mournful cry as the flames mixed in with air swarmed him, wrapping him into a tornado of flames that spread along the ground towards me forcing me to stumble away from them. Everyone else watched the creature's body disintegrate into dried pieces of dirt.
Once the creature was nothing more than a pile of dust, the trio turned to me. Going red in the face I was tempted to run away. But, forcing my legs to stay still, I bowed low to the waist.
"Well I don't think I want to try that out again," I told them before sharply turning to Arthur. "And don't knock on about how what I did was dangerous. That would be slightly hypocritical on your behalf. Your death would be far worse than my own."
Arthur looked slightly stunned. "Well…thanks for your help. You did very well."
I smiled. "You're very welcome."
I found it hard to control my excitement as Merlin, Morgana and Gwen's father made their way to the dungeon after Uther had commanded her release. Merlin and I walked alongside one another which I found hard to do since his legs were longer than mine. Luckily we were in the
"Are you alright?" Merlin finally asked. "You're fidgeting."
"I'm just excited," I explained before I stopped when we reached the corner leading to Gwen's cell.
"Aren't you coming?" he asked, stopping as well.
"You go ahead," I told him. "I'll wait here for Gwen."
I waited there for a few moments before Gwen and her father came out holding one another's hand. Gwen stopped when she saw me.
"It's you," she gasped.
"Didn't I say the next time I see you, you'll be free?" I asked.
The smile on her face grew wider. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you for whatever you did."
I smiled back. "You're very welcome," I said before slipping past them to watch Morgana and Merlin talking to one another in low voices.
"I understand why you don't want anyone to know," said Morgana.
"Well obviously…"
"Well I won't tell anyone. You don't mind me talking to you about it?"
I could see Merlin's confused excitement and I was somewhat happy that they couldn't see me. "No it's…you have no idea how hard it is to keep this hidden."
"Well, you can continue to deny it but Gwen's a lucky woman."
I covered my mouth with my hands to prevent myself from laughing at the sight of Merlin's smiling face vanishing.
"Gwen?"
Morgana tapped a finger against her lips. "It's our secret," she assured him before walking out.
As soon as she was gone my laughter became giggles that echoed across the dungeon walls. Merlin turned to see me standing outside the cell door with a red face.
"I'm sorry but your face," I managed to say before I straightened up and stopped laughing. "I would say that it's a shame she doesn't know the truth but that would be lying."
"What do you mean?"
I shrugged. "Don't mind me," I dismissed. "So, how do you feel knowing you killed a monster?"
He sighed. "I won't be getting thanked by anyone though."
I scoffed. "You're not very humble, are you? Then again, I'm no angel. What I did was really dumb."
"You're lucky you didn't get killed."
"I think the only ones who'll miss me when I'm dead is you and possibly Kilgharrah."
"Will you tell him about what you did?"
"Course. I hope Gaius congratulates you on today. If he doesn't then tell me and I'll make something for you."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it. Hey, do you think with the afanc dead the disease will just stop and the water will be safe to drink again?"
"I sure hope so. What do you think?"
"It's magic so I reckon it will. Still, I'm happy that Gwen isn't going to die."
"So am I."
"I hope you've learnt something out of all this."
"What do you mean?"
"Well…" I caught myself before smiling. "I'll let you figure it out for yourself."
I raced down the stairs, making sure I didn't trip, to the caves. I had a big smile on my face. Kilgharrah was somewhere in the top of the caves when I entered. When I reached the path leading to the base of the caves I was curled up into a tight bowl and rolled myself down. It that wasn't enough to make me giddier, I stood up and started spinning around with my arms held out wide like a helicopter. I knew it was childish but I didn't care.
"I'm not useless! I'm not useless! I'm not useless!"
By the time Kilgharrah flew down I was lying on my back after tiring myself out. I was giggling with the smile still placed onto my face. The Great Dragon landed beside me. I rolled over to him so I lay between his front talons. I held my head in my hands as I stared up at upside down dragon.
"What has happened, Jack?" he finally asked me.
"Well, not too long ago I proved to myself that I'm not useless."
"How did you do that?"
I explained to him everything that had just happened. As I did so, my smile slowly faded as his eyes started to become more like chinks in the curtains of a dark room.
"And how does stupidity prove to anyone that they are not useless?" he questioned.
"It doesn't," I admitted.
"Then how can you prove to anyone – especially yourself – that you are not useless?"
Sharply, I sat up to glare at him with equal ferocity. "You know you're not very sensitive towards others are you? I don't enjoy having my mood being darkened by you and your words you know."
"I should darken your mood if it allows you to gain some sense before you do something you regret."
"I'm very aware that what I did was stupid."
"So why did you assume that this would help you feel better about yourself."
I was tempted to say that I didn't know or shrug but changed my mind at the last minute. "Perhaps it just helped show that I could actually do something besides standing around."
"You told me that you know about afancs. You should know how dangerous they are."
"Of course I know."
"But you still chose to do so."
"Yes I did," we didn't say anything after that as I lay back down. "I'm going to start smoking pipes."
"Why are you changing the subject?"
"I don't have anything else to say whatever you have to say. Besides, taking up smoking is similar to what most kids in winter used to do."
"And what might that be?"
"I used to pretend that in winter I was a frost dragon because of the steam coming out of my mouth when I breathed. I liked playing with it."
"And you think smoking will be similar to proper dragons breathing fire?"
"Nope. It only gives me an idea. Besides, I've always wanted to create smoke rings. Are you able to do something like that with fire?"
"I do not plan to."
"I plan to steal a pipe the next time I go into town. Although it'll take some time for me to learn how to smoke."
"Why don't you have someone show you?"
"Because I don't think it's custom in Camelot for women to be smoking. And anyway, it gives me something to do when I'm not helping Merlin out. I'm glad your cryptic riddle advice helped him today."
"My advice is always helpful."
"Except for when it goes against someone's morals so they therefore won't follow it."
"And who would that someone be?"
"Merlin."
"Why would he not follow my advice?"
"Because he can feel empathy which is something you are not very good at doing."
"I have no need to show empathy towards others."
"You did it to me when we first met."
"That was sympathy."
"You had nothing to gain from it."
"I gained some company."
"True. If it wasn't for me you'd probably have gone mad. Which would be quite shameful for a dragon, right?"
"I would say so."
I sat up and started stretching my arms and back. "By the way, you didn't answer my question."
"And which question was that?"
"When you started laughing after telling Merlin you did help him, how was that funny? And don't give me a riddle or I'll just pester you until you give me a proper answer."
He didn't say anything for a moment. "Guess. You only have one try."
"Oh come on!" I sighed as I thought long and hard. "Alright. He expected you to spoon feed him and just give him the answer but instead you gave him another riddle and were laughing at his suffering. Am I right?"
He smirked. "Very good."
"Yes!"
"However, I did not spoon…"
"It's a metaphor for just giving him the answer. You know, I just realised that you having me guess is equivalent to those riddles."
"I am very aware of that Jack. That's why I had you guess."
I smirked as well. "Smart arse."
I am SOOOOOO sorry that I didn't upload this chapter sooner. I was busy with my personal life and I kept putting it off to do other things.
Well, I've finally got Jackie doing stuff. Even if her actions were pretty stupid. Then again she has very little to lose but don't worry. She'll be more helpful in later chapters while being devoid of fully opening up on what she knows. Just have to see how she worms her way through it.
Don't forget to review and I'll be sure to upload the next time I have the chance.
