Dawn- An age of Darkness

The girl cleared her throat. "I\'ll lead you to the ruins."

"I thought you didn\'t know their location."

"I changed my mind."

Meaning, she was lying to me.

"Reason being?"

"I want your help." 

Just some minutes ago she was treating me with respect and \'Sir\' and all that. But when I said I didn\'t want her to call me that, she started to speak like we were friends or something. 

I did like the not using \'sir\' part. But her over-familiarity was getting on my nerves. 

"I already helped you, saved you twice-"

I could see where this was going. The last time when I helped her, she wanted me to go fight for her country or something. 

"And I\'m eternally grateful for that but- I need, no want your help."

The trees were mostly just black. their leaves were also black. And as we walked ahead, the leaves kind of made rustling sounds. Sounds that only got worse with the groans coming from the undead in the background. 

"Sorry, but I\'d rather not get involved with your country. I\'m guessing you\'re the princess of something trying to reclaim your lost kingdom?"

Because no matter how I thought about it, my life always, always included princesses one way or the other and they were always trouble. 

Besides, I had my own shit to worry about. 

She stared at me for a second. "I\'m not actually. I\'m just a royal guard- or was, until my mother- the general fell and got captured. I want to save her and that\'s it."

"So, all that talk about saving the kingdom-"

"Was just some patronizing shit I made up so I could use the people save my mother." She delivered it deadpan.

Wow.

"And you told me that because?"

If she wanted to save her mother, wouldn\'t just hiring some mercenaries or something work just as good? 

"Because I have a feeling, you\'d rather not get involved with me otherwise."

"I\'m still not going to get involved. Besides, there\'s no merit in this for me. I could always just spend some time and find the ruins anyway." 

"I\'d offer you, my body!" She placed a hand on her chest and looked straight. "I\'m not experienced but I promise to be good in bed."

She was serious. 

"Not interested."

She clicked her tongue. "I have nothing else to offer."

"Funny you went around with nothing to offer and hoped people would come and help you."

The world wasn\'t as simple as just begging for help and getting it without any sacrifices. Everything had a price: everything had a cost. And everyone had hidden motives. 

She looked slightly down. "Then what was I supposed to do? I\'d been stripped of my position; all my treasures are gone. And everything that I had were lost in battle. And even my armor, my clothes- What I was I SUPPOSED TO DO?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?"

She almost shook. "You have the power, just because there\'s nothing in this for you, you\'d ignore me? You\'d ignore helping me?" Her eyes threatened to leak. "Even though I\'m begging this much to you? Aren\'t you an honorable fellow?"

The hell was that supposed to mean?

Me, honorable?

Maybe in the past, now, not so much. 

And was she under some impression that just because people have power, they\'d risk their lives for others without a reason?

"Isn\'t that obvious?"

Just because one had power didn\'t mean he\'d go around saving people left and right. I\'d done that before and learned my lesson. 

"Please!" She got on her knees and begged. "Save my mother. If my body is not enough, I\'ll- I\'ll-" I guess she couldn\'t think of anything. "I\'ll forever be your slave. Burn me, beat me, eat me, whatever-"

"For the last time, I\'m not interested in your body."

She sniffed. "Then I have nothing to offer. As per my word I\'ll lead you to the ruins. I have nothing to offer for your clothes either. I\'ll just remove them, then-" Her head was down and she started stripping. 

Talk about a ball of pride. 

This girl was all over the place. 

I rolled my eyes. "Keep them. And you don\'t have to lead me there either." 

I didn\'t want to get involved, no, but at the same time, it felt terrible to leave a girl out here, with not even a knife. 

But I still didn\'t want to get involved. 

Maybe helping her would make me a bit more human than I was.

Maybe that was just me convincing myself.

Maybe that was just stupid. 

\'It\'s best to have a guide. And if she\'s from a noble family, she can be fairly useful.\'  But as usual, the spirit had a big heart despite it being a malicious spirit. Though the fact that it suggested using the girl, was probably for malicious intents and purposes. The spirit never really came out though. 

I thought over it. The girl said she was the daughter of a general and a royal guard. She was probably a noble in that case. Also, I didn\'t know much about the demon continent, and- she didn\'t seem like the backstabbing type. But then again, she was a demon and I didn\'t trust her one bit. 

But-

But I guess that was the push I was looking for. 

"Fine, go lead me. I\'ll think about saving your mother."

For a second there, her face almost seemed to brighten up a little as she looked at me with surprise. 

"Right- this way!" And she was awfully energetic too. 

Oh well. 

In the end, though it was fake, though I knew I was pretending, I wanted to be human.

I chose to be human. 

***

Though I thought the forest was almost over, it wasn\'t. 

There was still about a kilometer left. 

The undead around these parts were kind of harmless though. They never tried to attack me and sometimes I even considered that there could have been an angel statue around. But as these things were targeting the girl with me every now and then, I reconsidered. 

"So, tell me more about these ruins and the monster."

"Legend has it that about five thousand years ago there was a beautiful country here. For some reason, it got destroyed. Around two thousand years ago a famous adventurer came to raid the ruins for treasure. But he instead succumbed to an illness and passed away. His spirit, however, lingered and now he haunts the ruins. It was said that he possessed immense strength and a sword that rivaled the weapons of the gods."

That didn\'t sound very convincing to me. 

"Any chance the story is made up?"

"I mean, it\'s just a story. And I\'ve never actually been inside the ruins." The girl had fashioned a spear from a sharp stone. She didn\'t ask me for anything other than just clothes. I guess she was much more a ball of pride than I initially thought. 

Actually, though she spoke politely, her actions were kind of awkward. Almost as though she\'d never been out in the wilderness. 

Fair enough, I guess. "How far is the capital from here?"

"About two weeks by carriage. Are you interested in traveling there?"

"Yeah." We were nearly out of the forest. "And this kingdom you spoke of? I mean your kingdom."

"Two days."

And just outside, again, grasslands. This time proper grasslands rather than marshes. 

Which meant, there were goblins roaming about. They kind of all stayed away from me though. 

"I\'ve been meaning to ask but-" The girl sat down on the ground, panting.. "How could you understand them? And how did you bargain and convince them to let us go? With so many of them and the Abnormals, I thought they\'d kill us for sure."