Chapter 8 Pain of the Past

 

After a few days in the small town, Ash has fully recovered and was able to get around. Astrid went to a little restaurant with the girls with King's money Isabel "borrowed" from him.

“You know you are going to have to apologize to him right,” Astrid insisted.

“Only when he finds out,” Isabel had a toothy grin.

“So Sophia, are you getting used to King and Jax,” Astrid beamed with joy.

“King has been helping me get used to my armor because it's so heavy. Oh and Jax also has been helping me balance my sword so I don't hurt myself or others,” Sophia praised King and Jax.

“How about you Isabel, are you getting along with Jax and King.”

Isabel guessed, “Kind of I think, I don't know. I was trying to talk to Ash more and he sometimes answered me back.”

Astrid reminded them, “You both still have to apologize to Ash for what happened.”

Sophia along with Isabel agreed and enjoyed their meal. After they finished their food and let their food settle, the two went to Ash's room to apologize. Sophia pushed open the door at a snail's pace to see Ash asleep in his bed. He is sweating uncontrollably and tossing and turning. Isabel slowly creeps towards the bed while Sophia is tugging her to try to pull her away.

Isabel shakes Ash a little, he jolts up breathing hard trying to catch his breath. He frantically looked around until he noticed them staring,

“Sorry I didn't mean to frighten you,” murmured Isabel.

Sophia was also going to say sorry but something was caught in her throat. Ash turned to them still wearing his blindfold,

he breathed, “It's okay no need to be afraid, I just had a nightmare that is all.”

Isabel instinctively blurted out, “Was your nightmare about the kid you loved like a brother?”

She immediately realized what she said and shrieked out “SORRY!”

Sophia went in front of her and uttered her plea, “She is very sorry please don't hurt her.”

Ash reached his hand out, the girls closed their eyes ready for their fate. Ash rubbed their heads, his voice had a warm tone to it, “It's fine, the past is the past. I will tell you later about him okay,”

Ash reassured them with a smile. The two teens nodded their heads almost in sync.

Ash just thought, “Wait, why are you in my room anyway.”

“We c-came to say sorry,” Isabel faltered.

Ash asks, “For what.”

Sophia muttered, “Because we attacked you and the others.”

Ash endearingly said while patting their heads, “Please you don't have to say you are sorry you were given orders by the gods. Disobeying them could put you in danger,”

Ash stopped patting their heads. “I am very sorry for what I did to both of you, especially you Isabel.”

Isabel's nose got stuffy, “Thank you so much for being so kind to us even when we tried to kill you,”

Isabel cried tears of happiness. She gave a hug to Ash, still full of tears. Sophia smiled softly at the sight of them hugging. Ash was caught off guard with the hug but soon hugged her back. Astrid walked in to see them hug, she felt rewarded with the sight. After Isabel stopped hugging him he turned to Sophia,

“I got you a gift to say sorry.”

He opened a black portal then pulled a gauntlet from the portal. The portal collapsed on itself; the only thing left from the portal was a gauntlet. This gauntlet is solid metal but it's made out of a dark red material almost like the color of blood.

“This gauntlet has a cool little rune etched into it. It lets the wearer pick up any weapon and not feel like you are carrying a horse.”

Ash hands the gauntlet to Sophia, “Go ahead try it on,”

he encourages her. Sophia put it on with excitement, it was a little big but suddenly it shrunk to size.

“Woah that's amazing, where did you get this Ash.”

She and Isabel marveled at the gauntlet while Ash explained, “I got this from a dungeon I cleared with King.”

Astrid interrupted, “So how was it like defeating a dungeon, was it hard, did you and King struggle.”

She rambled on with questions until Ash gave her a stare even she can feel without looking at him.

“This dungeon was made for anyone with a godly aura so yeah, it was a rough couple of levels.”

Isabel was so fixated on the story where she ignored anything else, even Sophia being a show-off and rubbing it in her face.

Ash ended the story with “King and I beat the dungeon and the reward was this gauntlet while King got the symbol of war mark on his body.”

Sophia asked, “Umm Ash what does the mark mean?”

Ash chuckled, “That mark fits him perfectly because that mark gives him more power the more excited he gets in a fight.”

The three girls laughed then Astrid giggled, “Yup well he is crazy. Alright, you two let's get ready to head out.”

The girls left Ash's room to get some supplies and meet up with King and Jax to train. When the sun was going to begin to set they went on their journey to Mount Olympus to get answers on the whereabouts of the entrance to the underworld. Ash bought a wagon from a merchant who was going out of business because of the taxes the wars were causing.

They all squeezed into the wagon while Jax was upfront controlling the horses. They strolled along the dirt pathway chatting it up, Sophia hopped in the front next to Jax,

“What you doing.”

Sophia landed with a thud, spooking the horses,

“It's okay, calm down,”

Jax eased the horse's mind. A thought popped up in Sophia’s mind,

“Jax, why aren’t we riding your dragon to Mount Olympus, wouldn't it be faster?”

Jax gave a smile, “Because, we are in no rush to get there and we can make memories that could last us our whole lives.”

“Yeah, Jax is right, all of us can live for a long time but something can happen to any of us at any moment so it is good to live it up before there is no one to live it up with,”

Astrid gave a thoughtful speech. After it was dark they camped out and made a little fire with the help of Ash and his red flame.

“Hey princess, you got lookout, those kids tire me out with all that energy they have, but I can't wait until they can take me on full power,” chuckled King.

"I am also going to sleep. I got the next shift," Jax yawned.

The three girls were up and so were Ash. They were sitting around the campfire looking at the stars. Isabel looked down at her hand, with all her might she mustered together.

She asked with a shrill voice, “Can you tell me about the kid you loved so much please.”

Ash stared at the stars through his blindfold, his eyes turned blue with sadness for a moment then slowly returned to their original yellow.

“That kid was very much like you two, that is why King also gets along with you guys. We both loved him like a brother.”

Ash started to get choked up but swallowed his pain and pushed through.

“His name was Ian Russell, I couldn't protect him with the power I had back then.”

Isabel plopped beside him, looking up to him, “How did he pass away,”

sympathy in her words. The three girls close together waited to see what happened that made him hurt on the inside, to unravel his aching heart.

“He wanted to join us in a dungeon run and I thought he was ready for it since he was training non-stop with King. We went in but this was a trap set by the gods, it was made to split us up.”

Ash's eyes turned into a cold blue then tears started to come down his cheek, he tried to hold it in the best he could.

“All I could do was move forward and hope he made it to the last level. When I got there I met King but couldn't find Ian anywhere. Suddenly a voice roared at us saying our final boss will be our hardest. A little kid engulfed in demonic power walked towards us, shambling its way to us. Ian Russell was no longer alive.”

Astrid gave solace to Ash by just listening to him, letting him let it all out. Ash gulped hard and took a moment to pull himself back together then continued,

“I didn't know how to break a spell that has fully taken over somebody. The only option was to put him to rest, I had to do it. I couldn't leave him like that. I tried talking to Ian to see if I could get through to him. He didn't even flinch when I called to him, he lunged at me like an animal, launching boulders at me and shooting level four fireballs at me. I dodged them, jumped out of the way of them, and dash towards him. He struck me in the gut and King went behind him and restrained him. But anything we did had no effect. I told King to get back then I wrapped my arms around him. I hugged him, enduring the pain for one last hug, then, incinerated him with my blue flames.”

Ash showed his blue flame in the palm of his hand like a soul dancing in a body, extinguishing it when he clinched a fist. Sophia was grief-stricken with the story, his cold-hearted actions made sense to her, you can’t feel loss when there is nobody to lose. Astrid felt remorse, great shame after thinking he was doing this just for himself, all of her ill will towards him vanished. Isabel was tearful, he saw her wiping her tears away and hugged her, his words stayed with them,

“I will never let anything happen to you two, even you Astrid. I will even kill the gods if that means it will protect you,”

Ash reassures them, he releases his hug. After the whole story has been told Astrid put the two to sleep and it was just Astrid and Ash awake. Astrid sat beside Ash looking at the campfire. Ash just stared at the fire, he broke the silence by saying,

“I don't want to hurt anyone I love. That is why I try to push anyone away. So please you have to leave with the girls. I don't want to lose control and hurt you or Isabel and Sophia.”

Astrid said her words in an ardor tone. “I won't leave you by yourself even if it hurts me. Please they will be heartbroken if you leave them behind. You need friends and family.”

She turned to him filled with passion. She hugged him tightly and whispered in his ear, “I love you.”

Ash felt stuck, wordless by her response, his heart racing. She kissed him, warming both of their hearts, Ash’s answer was sealed by that kiss. The two spent the night next to each other holding each other looking at the sky, hope for peace and a long loving relationship.