Chapter 58

“H-Hold on then, I will grab my power stick,” Tonsil said, not believing what she was about to do. She had risked her life to save these people after giving up months of her existence to be connected to their reality and the only barrier that had been consent, she was finally getting it, yet she was throwing it all away.

The queen was involved in a different mission by now and even if she was not, she wouldn’t keep track of Tonsil’s steps because of Ash’s earlier display and so would care less that the mission had suddenly been reactivated.

She returned with what resembled an abandoned piece of an aged tree. It had drawings of Tonners that must have made significant impact to the lives in their time.

Tonsil took his hand in her free one and swam at a fast speed. “Come on, we haven’t got much time on our hands,” she warned. He, on the other hand was not looking forward to getting there. His bloody tears were drained by now, but the mark was still on his face, and for that reason, Tonsil avoided looking at him. Something about that blood drying to his skin, even underwater, was eerie.

.

They came out of the water and looked around them. “Where do you think she would be headed by now?” Tonsil required to know. She didn’t want them wandering aimlessly. She wanted it over with, she might be unable to have Ash for herself, but it would be relieving to know that no one else could either, and that aided her fantasy life.

"I will follow her scent once we get to the village,” he assured.

Shifting into his Aeu, he lifted her onto his back and sped out of there.

***

They got to the first kingdom to find a population of dead humans. Some people had half their faces gone, melted by Myan's horror. The shock was sighted on the faces of the dead bodies, eyes widened, mouths open, flies hovering around the bleeding skin by now.

"We are too late." Ash swallowed, seeing more reasons as to why they had to stop Myan now. "Come on,” he gasped, racing even faster, if that was possible.

Tonsil knew the power of the demon in Myan should not be underrated but even she didn't think it would be anything like this.

People's houses had crashed, utensils were scattered around the floors, broken arms lying around, broken bones taking the floor, it was unexplainable. The sight of blood flowing like water made her want to vomit but she chose against it.

Ash was scared. Really scared. It was one thing to be afraid, but it was worse when you had no idea why. But he couldn't stop crying, he just couldn't. "I will always love you,” he mumbled to himself, sniffing one last time and then wiping his tears with the back of his hand, before frowning deep, and increasing his pace.

***

"My queen!" A panicking Tonner interrupted the queen's conversation with a few others.

"Excuse me." She cleared her throat and adjusted her ponytail unconsciously. "I'm sorry my queen, pardon my rudeness, this is important,” she spoke in a lower voice.

"What's wrong?" The queen inquired, knowing it had to be of major importance if she had been interrupted.

"The demon death stick, it's gone." Tamil was the Tonner in charge of ensuring that everything went as they should in their world and when she saw that the stick was missing, her instincts kicked off. "At first, I thought someone had taken it out to clean it or something but when I went to look further, I found that it was gone out of Vi. I had to use the spirit line, and that was when I saw who it was."

"What are you talking about? Why would anyone want to steal the demon death stick? Especially here, we would have seen it coming." The queen was bothered. That was a dangerous stick, especially in the wrong hands.

"It wasn't stolen, my queen." Tamil bowed her head a little, a small star birthmark on her neck glowing a bright red, a sign that she was panicking. She had features similar to Tonsil's. "Tonsil has it, she has gone after the fire lord's wife, they are going to kill her. The possession prophecy has been fulfilled; I have no knowledge to why Tonsil has chosen that option."

"What?!" The queen began to swim upwards, ignoring the people she had previously been talking to, "she knows more than any other Tonner that isn't how we would deal with this. Yes, that man is a mad man but why would she want to use that when we can easily suck the demonic powers from the woman, come on, we need to stop her!" The queen swallowed, increasing her pace, Tamil swimming behind her, actively trying to catch up.

"I tried to communicate, but she turned off her link, my queen, I think this is more of a personal and intentional matter on Tonsil’s part, how can we catch up before they get to them?" Tamil wondered.

"Not by talking, that's for sure." The queen snapped, she had a Tonner to teach a lesson and a life to save.

"Yes, my queen,” she agreed.

They swam to the surface and hurried to take the human transformation leaves.

The queen took the form of a wretched looking witch and once they had feet to walk, the queen began to search for something Tamil couldn’t quite place her fingers on. "My queen, what are you doing? We have to go that way."

"We will never make it in time. I'm looking for the pien leaf, it grows around here somewhere, so small and about this wide…" the queen began to describe.

"I know it, my queen. That is smart, it will take us where we wish to be, with just one bite." Tamil nodded in agreement. "But how will we find it here?" She looked around her, there were so many weeds, and it was hard to figure the small plant in the mighty bunch.

"Get to looking."

"Yes, my queen." She nodded, eyeing the area around the Vi stream, better late than never anyways.

***

Ash found Myan when they got to flame kingdom and stopped running at the sight that met his eyes. Her clothes had gone black, and her hair was longer a hundred inches, forming a whirl around her. She had no feet, it seemed. It appeared that she was floating, her fingernails had been replaced with claws and she was actively searching for more souls to devour.

"Myan!" He yelled, forgetting all about Tonsil and dropping her from his back. She fell to the floor with a small crash sound and scratched her elbows along the stony ground, wincing in pain.

Myan tilted her head to the sound. Her eyes were bloody red, lacking pupils. Her mouth was blood stained, was she feeding on the people she had killed?

Ash jumped high in his Aeu, landing on the roof of a house. One leg crashed right through the weak aluminum, but he stood straight and aimed for a tree branch over his head. He had to reach for her where she was high above ground.

He held the tree branch and swung twice before landing on a higher roof.

Myan watched with curiosity, a demonic smile spread across her cheeks.

Ash knew one final jump was all he needed to grab her hand; he wouldn't let go if he managed to. He was smart to tell she had caught on what he was trying to do and would try to dodge.

Calculating that she would tilt to the right if he acted like he was aiming for her left hand, he kept staring at it, ready to jump at it. He left the roof and as he had guessed, she moved to the right. He managed to take a strong hold of her waist instead.

He looked into her eyes, panting hard, out of breath. He could not find his Myan in this demon.

"Myan…" he cried, resuming his tears, "please come back to me." He pressed her head against his shoulder, ignoring the harsh whips from her hair, against his back.

She was trying to struggle free from his hold, but he was stronger. She dug her claws into his chest at his stubbornness, causing him to crane his head backwards, crying in agony, still not letting go.

"Ash, she will kill you!" Tonsil screamed from below.

That distracted Myan. Her eyes wandered to the third party that she had only noticed. In irritation, she let her hair go to the floor, it picked Tonsil up and wrapped around her, ignoring her screams, a few strands holding her neck tight, strangling it.

"A-Ash," Tonsil spoke through the choking, pointing at the demon death stick.

He knew what she meant. He wanted to ignore it, but it had to be now. He couldn't add Tonsil to the list of wasted souls. She had been too much help.

Closing his eyes tight, he let go of her waist, dropping to the ground.

Myan was so interested in ending the life of her captive to care about Ash's actions.

Ash held the stick up, his arms trembling, his lips quivering, beads of blood formed around his forehead in the stead of sweat. He aimed for her, knowing he wouldn't miss.

As soon as he let go with force, he held a loud yell behind him, "Don't do it Ash!"

A teenager and a wretched looking old woman were behind him, a white orb in the older woman's hands.

The deafening shriek that was accompanied by wailing drew his attention. The stick had struck her waist, coming out the other end. Her hair let go of Tonsil. He was quick to catch her before she reached her fall, setting her beside him.

The screams from Myan sounded like a million people crying at once. There was no one in sight as expected. The people must have been expecting the attacks because they had evacuated.

A black puff of smoke was extracting from her body into the stick in rushed motion.

"Myan!" He wailed.

"Why did you do it?!" Tamil ran to where Tonsil was, slapping her hard across the face, "what got into you?!"

Ash was confused. "What do you mean?" He frowned at the new girl.

"There." Tamil pointed at the orb the queen was holding, shock freezing her to that spot. "That orb would have sucked the demon out temporarily, preserving your wife's life until we found a way to heal her fully!"

Ash's breathing changed. He turned to look at Myan's body that was slowly coming down. The stick must have absorbed the demon completely because she looked back to normal. The stick had fallen to the floor, landing by the queen's foot.

He spread his arms, ensuring she landed in his grip. He hugged her tight to his chest. Her white gown had blood stains on both sides where the stick had gone in her.

"Myan." He set her on the floor and cupped her face in his hands. "Myan stay with me!" He squeezed tight, unable to control his shaky fingers. "Please."

Her eyes were struggling to stay open; she was panting hard. Her weak hands held his against her face, "Ash, what have I done? What happened to me? Why?"

It dawned on him that she had no idea of her fire powers and how this was all a result of that abomination.

"Myan, I'm sorry,” he wheezed, finding it difficult to say words. He was back to his human form and his hair was disoriented. "This is my fault, please stay with me, I have to fix this, our child, I need you two, please…" he wailed.

Myan was losing strength, but she had so much to say. Her inability to compose any words hurt her and caused more tears to roll down her cheeks.

"Tell me we can save her, I'm begging you!" He cried for assistance, but the Tonners did nothing, just stood still and watched him suffer, watched his wife suffer.

"I…" Myan was trying to speak.

"No need to talk, I'll save you." He lifted her in his arms and began to run. He wanted to find the closest medicine man. He just had to find one.

"Ash,” she muttered, placing her hand on his chest before moving it up to his face even though he was carrying her bridal style. She pushed his face down so she could kiss him. "I love…you."

He took her lips, not wanting to pull away, knowing if he did, she wouldn't be here anymore. That voice in his head knew it. He didn't believe it, but he knew it.

Her hand slipped from his face and when he let go of her lips, she had her eyes closed, tears lingering under her eyes, hand dangling freely, head tilted to the side.

She was gone.

The woman that had followed him from the palace, she had left him.

Ash did not say any words. He set her on the floor, turned around and headed for the Tonners where they remained, the other two yelling Tonsil’s head off.

He shifted into his Aeu, lifted Tonsil from the ground by holding her neck, squeezing tight. She pressed her hands against his giant hand. Before she could scream, he burned her head off with his fire, dropping her body to burn to ashes. Nobody would be able to put out the fire, so he didn't have to stop when the other Tonners tried to save their citizen.

He went back to his wife's body, lifted her in his arms and walked, far away…

***

I'm Ash. Usually, when lords die, they join their ancestors, but I was the first lord that chose to stay on earth, I preferred to take advantage of my immortality. I wanted to stay on earth.

I remember the night I had burned my wife's body. I thought I deserved to die but it wasn't enough punishment to just go extinct. Here I was, away from any form of life…sitting in this tree stump, legs crossed, my hair in a neat bun and my sleeveless jacket being the only thing concealing my naked chest. My lower half was covered by huge baggy trousers.

I closed my eyes. I wouldn't open them until she came back to me, I promised myself. Until then, I'd remain.

I never helped her feel love. I didn't show her how much I loved her. If I got that chance again, I would spend every second with the love of my life.

I love you, Myan.

***

One Thousand Years Later.

The streets were lit with decorations. Everyone was excited, overnight, they had fire powers and people would not stop using them. At first, they were confused, and then it was worth celebration. The curse had been lifted, the curse they were unaware they had.

Children were running happily with stuffed bears their mothers had made for them, giggling with pure joy and happiness.

A three-year-old was distracted by the flying lanterns and crashed against the huge man's legs. He had been coming in the opposite direction. She fell flat on the floor, wincing as she tried to stand. She widened her eyes when she met the man's gaze.

He looked scary.

"I am so sorry!" A woman in her late teens cut in for the young child, "my sister could be so clumsy." She seemed bothered by the collision, "come on Mylie, let's go." She lifted the child in her arms and turned to leave.

"Sabina, look how big that lantern is!" The child gasped in excitement.

Ash twitched his lips into a small smile, closed his eyes and shook his head a little. People.

He reached for Sabina's wrist, halting her movements. The confused teenager frowned at the action, but he pulled her closer to him, pressing her against his chest, even with the child in her arms. "What are you doing?!" She panicked.

"I missed you Myan,” he whispered, "so much."