‘It’s a dragon!’ Elizabeth exclaimed.

  ‘That's not a dragon,’ Gabriel said, brushing a blonde lock from his face, ‘dragons have wings, that’s a drake.’ The drake had scales white as snow and eyes black as night. It let out a ferocious roar that rattled Elizabeth's bones; its unhinged jaw was wide enough to fit a human whole.

  ‘Whatever it is,’ the Red Bear said, ‘it’s blocking our path. You two will need to take care of it before we move any further.’

  ‘Us two?’ Gabriel asked, giving a disapproving look towards Elizabeth, ‘Won’t you also join the fight?’

  After Elizabeth and Gabriel’s duel in the Honor Village, they had embarked on the cross mountain march to the city of Capernaum in the country of Matthew. They were currently halfway across the Falcanan mountain range and were making good pace. However, this monster stood in the way of the only path that continued north-east, to go around could cost days.

  ‘I’m just an old man who needs a rest. Surely a full-fledge honor-knight and a holy-squire would be more than enough to handle an adolescent snow drake.’

  ‘This is only an adolescent?’ Gabriel asked, looking up at the towering beast which was studying them with cold dark eyes. The drake seemed to blend in with the snowy mountains behind, flickering in an out of reality. Inside a blizzard it would be invisible.

  Gabriel placed his helmet on his head, the bronze shackles around his wrists jingling in the wind. The symbol of an honor knight. Another reminder he had succeeded where she failed. But Elizabeth tried not to let it worry her. She drew her blade with an excited grin, finally be able to test her new sword on a worthy opponent, a chance to prove she was stronger than him. The drake, as if sensing her intent, let out a deep growling sound while it barred its hundred teeth; each as long and sharp as Elizabeth’s blade.

  Gabriel grit his teeth, ‘It looks tough, we will have to work togeth— Hey!’

  Unable to wait a single second longer, Elizabeth darted towards the towering mass of scales. The drake roared and swiped its claws at her. She tried to dodge past, but the beast was surprisingly nimble for its size. The claw only grazed her shoulder, but it tore straight through her flesh. Keep moving. In the heat of the moment Elizabeth didn’t even feel the pain, all that mattered was the obstacle in her way. She swung her blade and put every ounce of strength behind her attack, but when the blade smashed against the drakes scales it made a metallic clang and bounced off. It didn’t even leave a scratch. The drake roared into her face, blowing her hair back. The smell was a hundred dog’s breaths, rotting in the sun.

  ‘Oh for heaven’s sake.’ Gabriel drew his own blade, a stunted and ugly thing. The remnants of the greatsword that Elizabeth shattered in their duel a week past. Less than half of the blade remained attached to the hilt in a jagged shard of steel. Elizabeth had no idea why he didn’t simply get a new blade, or even go back to his old one. Instead he clung to the useless and broken.

  The drake tried to bite of Elizabeth, snapping her in half with its giant jaw, but she jumped underneath the its body. She attacked its sides with rapid, furious strikes, but not a single one made any progress. Blood was beginning to run from her shoulder wound. Slow at first, but each time she exerted herself the flow quickened.

  Gabriel rushed in to join the fight, but as he went to attack the drake swiped at him with wicked claws which held him at bay.

  The drake, although unharmed, seemed frustrated as it stomped and snapped, connecting with nothing as Elizabeth danced around it. Then the beast spun its body, leveraging its heavy spiked tail. The tail became a whip of razors that barreled towards Elizabeth. She went to jump over it, but right before she leapt a gush of blood shot out of her shoulder. Her head spun and she faltered. There was no way to dodge the blow.

  A clamor of iron rang through Elizabeth's ears. Looking up she found Gabriel, clad in his shining armor, holding back the immense weight of the tail with his shattered blade. The tail’s momentum didn’t stop, it increased in pressure. Gabriel’s greaves began to slip in the snow, then he was forced down to one knee.

  ‘Move!’ Gabriel yelled, not looking back.

  ‘Huh? You don’t order me.’

  ‘Move! I can’t hold this much longer.’

  Elizabeth ignored him, but as she lifted her sword the pain returned to her shoulder in waves. With no option left, Elizabeth jumped out of the way. Gabriel shifted his blade up and lowered his body under the weight of the strike. The tail slid over his blade and soared overhead. Gabriel retreated back to Elizabeth.

  Marshal across the battlefield had sat down on a folding chair and was pouring himself a cup of ale. Huddled in his warm bear furs, he looked like a father relaxing on a camping trip. The holy-knight's body was that of a young adult, but his ancient eyes - like the scales of the drake - were as white as snow.

  ‘Elizabeth.’ Gabriel gasped. ‘Let me see your shoulder.’

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘Just shut up and let me see it. We don’t have much time before the drake attacks again. Don't you get it? We need to work together if we’re going to have a chance of surviving.’

  ‘I’m strong!’

  ‘I know you are, so let me help you.’

  The drake was still turning its head in a confused gaze, as if expecting Elizabeth to still be dancing around and under it.

  Elizabeth relented and turned her injured shoulder to Gabriel.

  ‘Hold still, this will hurt.’

  ‘What?’ Elizabeth said, then she let out a scream of pain. Gabriel had cast a fireball onto her shoulder, cauterizing the wound. It seared and smelt like burnt pork.

  ‘That should hold until we finish this,’ Gabriel said.

  That bastard. Was Elizabeth’s first thought. Since when did he learn magic? Was her second. She was a prodigy in the village before he arrived. He had only been in Purgatory for a year and he had already surpassed her and found the time to learn spells. He was a freak of nature. But I will prove I can still grow past you, no matter what.

  ‘The drake’s scales are too hard to cut through,’ Gabriel said ‘I can feel a strong coating around its body. I can only see two weak points in the armor. The first is the mouth, but that's sudden death. The second is through the eyes although that target is tiny.’

  Elizabeth stiffened up and moved her shoulder. It had the texture of pork crackling and had the snapping sound to match, but for a short time she could bear it.

  ‘If we time our attacks right and you clear a path for me, I should be able to send a tempest into the drake’s eye,’ Gabriel said.

  ‘I'll work with you,’ Elizabeth said, ‘but I’m not supporting you. You clear a path for me and then I will kill that dragon.’

  ‘It’s a drake…’ Gabriel trailed off and he grimaced as if he didn’t enjoy his own thoughts, ‘Fine. Are you ready?’

  ‘Yeah, just do your job and I’ll do mine.

  Gabriel started first. He ran by the side of the drake, just outside of its range. He flung his sword, not making physical contact with the beast, but from the tip of his sword came a flying strike of noctra. Invisible but for the howl in the air. The tempest hit the drake on the nose and left as little damage as every other attack, but the beast roared and followed. It swung at him and Gabriel blocked, holding its claws in place.

  ‘Now!’

  Elizabeth ran in and after sending a powerful burst of lifespan to her legs, she leapt and sailed through the air, pointing her sword like a skewer. However, Gabriel’s hold broke a second too early and he was knocked back. The drakes gaze shifted to the mid-air Elizabeth, but her aim was true and her sword went to impale the beast’s pitch black eye. The drake blinked. Elizabeth’s blade bounced off the scaled eyelid not leaving a nick.

  I’m not finished yet.

  ‘Gabriel!’ Elizabeth cried as she fell.

  Gabriel - as if reading Elizabeth’s mind - jumped, meeting her mid-air. Elizabeth jumped off his armored shoulders, using his body as a platform.

  The drake reopened its eye and Elizabeth was there waiting. She rammed her sword into the soft flesh. The drake thrashed so she drove it deeper, until half of the length of the blade sunk into the black eyeball. The drake let out a horrid screech as it convulsed then collapsed.

  Elizabeth was flung to the snow caked floor. When it slammed into the ground, its sheer mass stirred an earthquake under their feet. A purple blood oozed from where the blade was impaled. Gabriel came up to her panting, ‘We did it!’ His eyes were wide, sapphire and shining.

  At that moment, Elizabeth felt like she had finally achieved something after her two long years in purgatory. Others said she was a genius, evolving at a rapid pace, but it felt like a snail's crawl when Luis was waiting for her. Now with a holy-knight taking her under his wing, she was finally walking forwards and slaying this drake was her first step. Wait for me Luis, I’m on my way.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Then the drake rose. It climbed to its feet slowly, with shaking limbs. Its movements were twitchy and awkward, but it stepped towards them. It stared at them through its only eye, Elizabeth's blade still deep through the other, and it let out a roar loud enough to shatter glass. The gust of icy wind that escaped its mouth pushed them backwards. Its breath smelt like stale death.

  The drake slammed its claws at Elizabeth. Gabriel blocked the blow, but when it came to finish them with its jaws, Elizabeth had no sword to block. She went to run, but Gabriel remained holding back the drake’s talons. She would need to tackle him out of the way. Only then did she realize her shoulder wound had reopened. She fell to one knee, her head spinning from the loss of blood. All around them in the snow was a crimson slurry and the world was beginning to blur. Looking up she saw a cavern of fangs closing in ready to shred their skin and swallow their flesh. There was no escape. It was all over so suddenly, without a chance to scream.

  Straight between the eyes, a flying crescent of pure light cut through the drake’s skull. It tore through its scales with zero resistance and kept going. The drake’s halves fell beside Gabriel and Elizabeth, spilling its contents over them.

  Elizabeth sat stunned, with heavy breaths.

  ‘I suppose you two still aren’t ready for a snow drake,’ Marshal said, his voice deep and gruff. Elizabeth turned to see him sheathing his sword, but he was standing far across the mountain. Was that a tempest? Elizabeth had only ever seen tempest performed by her instructors in the Honor Village and Gabriel, but the technique was always invisible. That tempest was like a storm of light. Holy knights are on a different level. Elizabeth needed to reach that level and soon, but looking at the gap between her and marshal was like looking at a distant continent on the horizon.

  Gabriel collapsed onto his back with his arms spread wide in the snow. ‘We survived.’ He smiled a beaming grin of euphoria. ‘That was an amazing fight, we almost had her. I want to fight it again.’

  How could Gabriel just accept such a crushing defeat with a smile on his lips? Doesn’t he understand that this only means that we are weak? That I am weak.

  * * * *

  Inside the cave the fire burned roared, yet Elizabeth still felt cold, so cold. Outside the cave, the snow storm raged on. The entrance to the cave looked like a wave of sea foam as the snow raced past and the whistles and roars that echoed off the stone walls reminisced of the drake that lay dead outside. Elizabeth wondered if the roars were really tricks of the wind or if more creatures of the snow were now prowling the storm.

  ‘Stay still,’ Marshall commanded as he untied twine from the scroll. The scroll showed an intricate circular design inked into the paper that repeated down its length. Marshall ripped one of the circular symbols from the paper and wound up the rest of the scroll.

  Elizabeth struggled to stay upright, even whilst sitting. She slumped by the fire waiting for Marshal to do… whatever it was he was doing. On several occasions while she sat there she would have fallen straight into the campfire from her light-headedness. Gabriel now sat permanently by her side with a hand on her good shoulder. All Elizabeth wanted to do was lie down, yet Marshall ordered her to stay awake and to accomplish that she had to stay upright.

  Marshal handed Elizabeth the torn piece of paper, ‘You will need to use your own lifespan for it to be most effective, place it anywhere on your body as long as it makes contact with your skin.’

  Elizabeth didn’t know what was going on, but she obliged, placing the paper on her thigh. She smoothed it out and the sweat on her skin made the paper stick.

  ‘Now place your hand on the spell - that funny looking symbol - and infuse it with noctra.’

  Elizabeth put her hand on the spell and sent her lifespan out through her hand, it felt like coating her sword, yet simpler. It was as if she didn’t need to think, the spell wove the noctra on her behalf, twisting the shapes that would be too difficult for her to control. The ink changed from black to a glowing red that burnt without being hot, then the paper crumbled to dust.

  When the dust settled, Elizabeth touched her shoulder and found it without scar or blister, but her head still waived and vision blurred. Marshal gave a smile that seemed a bit too relieved, as if he truly feared she could have died. Even Gabriel gave her an enthusiastic slap on the back.

  ‘Now that the worst has passed, I need to leave,’ Marshall said. ‘I plan to harvest some of the scales from that drake before something out there drags the corpse off to its layer.’

  ‘Why would we need those scales?’ Gabriel asked.

  ‘They will make a good gift for the city that wants nothing to do with us, but don’t you worry about that. Gabriel I want you to stay awake no matter what, and keep your sword close. This cave should be safe, but you never know.’ Without another word, Marshall stepped into the wave of snow and before he took his second step he disappeared.

  Elizabeth, without waiting for permission, slumped onto her back, letting the cool stone floor press against her feverish skin. She let out a relieved sigh and closed her eyes, not planning to reopen them.

  Sometime later, a gust of wind roared through the cave. Elizabeth looked around, but it was impossible to tell the time of day, or how many hours had passed. The campfire was reduced to embers, but the wave of snow continued to attack the entrance. Gabriel sat across the extinguished fire honing his shattered blade on a wet stone. He would occasionally hold the edge up to his face for inspection then return to his methodical labor. Elizabeth sat up, which strained her more than she would have admitted.

  ‘You’re awake,’ Gabriel said, not turning from his blade.

  ‘Barely,’ Elizabeth said. ‘How long was I out?’

  ‘Only a few hours.’

  ‘Where’s Marshal?’

  ‘He came in earlier, caked with frost, and dropped those off,’ Gabriel said pointing to a pile of shining white scales, ‘but he just stepped back out.’

  Gabriel still wore his full armor, even after the battle was long done. He sat and honed his blade with such tenacity Elizabeth thought it might shatter again.

  A silence fell over the cave, but Gabriel faced her with a cold glare. ‘Now that you seem to be feeling better, let me ask you; What the hell were you doing back there?’

  ‘What?’ Elizabeth asked with a standoffish tone.

  ‘Running off on your own, refusing my help and your general antics.’

  ‘Antics?’

  ‘Your cocky attitude and the way you fight without care for yourself or others. Are you trying to get yourself killed?’

  ‘How is it any of your business?’

  ‘Because I’m fighting with you,’ Gabriel said, then turning from his blade to meet her eyes, ‘and I care about you.’

  ‘Huh? If you care about me, then respect my wishes and let me fight how I want to.’

  ‘How long are you going to keep up the tough-girl act?’ Elizabeth did not respond. Gabriel rolled his eyes. ‘We still have a few days of travelling together until we reach Capernaum, after that we will go our separate ways, but up to then you could at least try to be a team player.’

  ‘I don’t have the luxury of being a team player. I need to fight alone so I can grow stronger as fast as possible. To become strong enough to…’ Elizabeth trailed off.

  ‘To do what?’ Gabriel asked, ‘Die alone on a battlefield?’

  ‘To save my brother Luis.’

  Gabriel squinted at Elizabeth. ‘So you expect your brother to rely on you, but you can’t rely on others?’

  ‘It’s not like that, he can’t survive by himself.’

  ‘Neither can you.’

  Elizabeth groaned. It felt like talking to a particularly annoying brick wall. A brick wall that was mad at her for wanting to live on her own terms. Elizabeth found herself clutching at the wooden cross that hung around her neck. Running her fingers down its course surface, she felt it relieving her anxiety. She felt like Luis was closer to her.

  ‘Sorry,’ Gabriel said, bowing his head. ‘Please tell me.’

  ‘Tell you what?’

  ‘I’ll listen, please tell me what happened to your brother.’

  Elizabeth fidgeted. She had never told anyone what happened. She looked back into his eyes, but they were earnest and terribly blue even in the dim light.

  ‘Back on Earth, my father got involved with a local gang. I don’t know what he did, but when he died he owed them a lot of money.’

  ‘What does that have to do with you?’

  ‘We inherited his debt. As the older sister I began to work for them. Nothing dangerous, just odd jobs, but as I got older, one of Boss's sons became interested in me. One day when he groped me, I punched him. Broke his nose. The next day he had me executed, then the debt passed onto Luis. I was fourteen at the time, he was only twelve.’

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Gabriel said with a softer tone, ‘Has he also come to Purgatory since then? Is that why you are trying to find him?’

  ‘No he is still on Earth.’

  ‘Earth?

  ‘I am certain of it. A witch told me.’

  ‘No, no not that. He’s on earth, but you’re going to save him? How in God’s grace do you plan to return from Purgatory?’

  ‘There’s a way, but I need to become a holy-knight first.’

  ‘Even if that's true, you aren’t talking about any easy task. It takes centuries to become a holy knight. No offence, but you haven’t even become an honour-knight.’

  ‘Maybe, but it's the only way,’ Elizabeth said. ‘So I have to try.’

  Gabriel gave a look of disbelief then, finally satisfied with the edge of his blade, he sheathed his shattered greatsword. ‘Disregard what I said earlier. If anyone can do it, it's you.’

  ‘Are you making fun of me?’ Elizabeth asked.

  ‘I never jape.’

  Elizabeth felt warm, despite the icy wind that whistled through the cave. It felt good to share her dreams, no matter how impossible, with someone who didn’t mock her.

  ‘What about you?’ Elizabeth asked, ‘Would you go back? To Earth I mean.’

  Gabriel sat silent for a moment, scratching his freshly shaved chin, ‘No, not even if I could.’

  ‘Are you planning to repent then? Commit enough good deeds to tip the scales and ascend to Heaven.’

  ‘Maybe one day, but not right now.’

  ‘What then? What do you plan to do?’

  ‘Stay in Purgatory I guess.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I like it better here.’