Eory gently rocked Them’s knife against his thumb, opening a thin, red line in his skin. The fairy stretched his arm out over the pool, squeezing his cut between his thumb and forefinger. Little droplets of blood emerged from the cut, dripping into the pool below.
Please, please let me meet him… Eory prayed to the fairy goddesses silently.
Everyone in the group held their breath as they watched the blood drip into the water.
Plop…
Plop…
Plop…
Eory counted the drops as they cascaded into the clear pool of water.
One…
Two…
Three…
Eory’s forehead was dripping with sweat. Little beads of perspiration rolled off his face, falling into the pool and mixing with the droplets of blood.
Four...
Five…
Six…
Seven…
The sound of his blood hitting the water seemed to become louder and louder in his ears until it was deafening.
Thirteen…
Fourteen…
Fifteen…
Eory pulled his arm back quickly, letting no more than fifteen droplets of blood fall into the pool, as dictated by the fairytale, Giant Killer.
He could not wrench his gaze away from the water.
The ripples his blood made were mesmerizing.
He was no longer concerned about meeting the Red Moon Knight. He was too enthralled by the ripples the pool was making to be concerned about anything.
The ripples started small, and then grew bigger, obscuring the image of the moon.
The earth beneath his feet began shuddering.
The water, already dyed a light red from his blood, began turning a deeper red at the center. The deeper color of red spread to the edges of the water, turning the surface and depths of it bloody. The sound of his blood plopping into the water continued, despite the fact that his blood had long since stopped hitting the water.
Everything in the world began crumbling away—replaced with an infinite black vacuum of nothingness-- except for Eory and the red pool of water.
Eory was unafraid, however. All of his senses were dulled, including his sense of fear.
The groaning earth shuddered to a halt just as the last pieces of sky and earth crumbled away, leaving Eory alone in an entirely black space with the pool of water. Eory’s eyes were drawn to the bloody image of the full moon reflected in the water.
His senses became undulled, the sound of his blood plopping into the water vanished, the ripples in the pool calmed.
There was peace for a moment, but only a moment.
The rippling started up again, but this time, it was far more violent. The image of the moon became distorted beyond belief.
The ripples formed a red helmet around the moon, followed by a black, vacuous maw below the helmet. A thin neck rippled to life underneath the head of the moon, followed by a red-armored torso.
Eory stood as still as a statue, unable to shake the supernatural horror that was unfolding before him.
He felt cold, heavy, armored fingers gripping him above his elbows.
He spun around, coming face-to-face with the infinite black maw of the Red Moon Knight. Eory backed away from the creature slowly, going ice-cold with horror.
The creature approached him even as he backed away. Their footsteps made no noise.
With each step, the knight grew taller. First six-feet, then seven, then eight, then nine…
Eory stopped backing away, remembering his surge of confidence earlier.
He took a deep breath. I decided to meet him for a reason. A good reason.
When he stopped backing away, the infinite maw of the knight curved upward in a smile.
“Are you the Red Moon Knight?” Eory asked.
The two stood still and silent as if they were a painted picture.
The deep, lyrical laughing of the knight reverberated within the seemingly measureless space three times, growing in volume with each successive echo. It became so loud that it made Eory’s ears bleed.
“I think you know who I am.” The voice was undistorted and strong.
Eory swallowed. “So you’re real, then?”
“Can you not see me before you? You have eyes, haven’t you?” The knight answered.
The foremost question Eory wanted to ask was whether the knight could dispel the doppelgangers, but he thought it would be impolite to go right to that question before anything else.
It might be important to get him to like me… Eory didn’t know how to be likable, as he had told his friends before, but if there was a time to try to be likable, now was it.
Them had given him some advice on being likable earlier that night.
“Them, I just don’t understand how you’re so charismatic and likable. You just made a friend out of everyone at that table… I wish I could be like you.” Eory had lamented.
Them had shaken his head with a snort. “The problem with you, Eory, is that you keep wishing to be other people. You can’t be someone else. You have reach deep down within yourself and find what it is about you that’s so likable. I think the reason why that’s so hard for you is because…”
Eory had been hanging on his every word, as he was desperate to be loved and liked. “Because…?”
“Because I get the feeling you don’t like yourself very much. Taylor… may have been the same way.” Them had murmured sadly.
Eory couldn’t deny it. “What is it that… You find likable about me?”
Them had grinned. “Well, you’re a great listener, you’re very kind—looking for ways to help people who have nothing but disdain for you—and you’re trusting and naïve to a fault.”
Eory snapped back to reality, digging down deep and finding the part of himself that Them liked; the part that Kori worked to hard to cultivate and reinforce.
His kindness.
“Have you been in that pool all this time since your encounter with the dwarven prince?” Eory asked.
“Yes.” The Red Moon Knight said without elaboration.
Eory looked at his feet, finding genuine compassion for the ugly creature before him. “It must have been lonely…”
The Red Moon Knight said nothing for a time, and then, lyrical laughter erupted from him again. “Lonely? I don’t know the meaning of the word.”
Eory smiled at him warmly. “Then I’m glad for you. Loneliness is the thing I have been most familiar with for most of my life…. It’s a cold, empty feeling that makes your thoughts turn sour.”
The knight’s smile widened. “Your blood tasted good, fairy prince. There’s something deliciously sweet about it, and yet there’s a horribly sour aftertaste. It informed me who you are. You are sickeningly sweet, and yet there are ugly, sour thoughts swirling around in your head. I must admit, I am quite charmed by your concern over whether I was lonely. You do know that I am a monster, do you not?”
The creature’s heavy armor reminded him of Pollyanna, and this reminder of a woman who he had deep feelings for made him want to befriend the monster before him even more.
He approached the Red Moon Knight, whose maw became pursed with confusion.
Eory strode confidently with his chin up, closing the space between him and the knight quickly. Eory reached out with a shaking hand, grabbing the Red Moon Knight’s armored one in his. “Even monsters get lonely.” The fairy whispered.
The Red Moon Knight smiled wryly, tilting his armored head to look at the fairy’s thin, gentle hand. “I suppose you would know. We are the same sort, after all. There’s a monster in you, just waiting to get out, fairy prince.” The Red Moon Knight paused. “I am impressed by your bravery. You know I could crush your delicate, unworn hands in mine easily, don’t you?”
Eory looked at the knight determinedly. “Then do it, if you truly are a monster.”
The knight lifted Eory’s hand. “If I crush your lovely hands, I’m afraid they will be of no use to me…” the knight’s voice slithered into his ear, dripping with greed.
“Tell me what you really are. Even if you are a monster, you were not born one.” Eory let the knight raise his pale hand to his maw. The fairy could tell that the knight wanted nothing more than to eat it.
“I am the infinite pit of mortal desires; always hungry and never satisfied. I feast upon unfulfilled mortal dreams, and I become more powerful each time I do. I can no longer swallow them up freely as I did during the Red Moon Night, however. I have been bound inside this mortal vessel that can barely contain me, and this flesh has long required being summoned by a suitable mortal in order to eat.” The Red Moon Knight said.
“So you’re a captive, too, then…” Eory mused. “Who bound you to this flesh? Why is it that only royalty can summon you?”
The Red Moon Knight ignored his question. “Are you ever going to get around to asking me why you have summoned me?”
The armored hand clenched down on Eory’s bare one, trembling with anticipation.
All Eory could think about was the dwarf prince from the fairy tale and his grisly fate.
Eory gulped, feeling the warmth leaving his body. “It’s rude to ask someone I haven’t met before to do what I’m thinking of asking him to do. I don’t want you to feel you have to do it if you don’t want to.”
The armored knight seemed genuinely confounded and amused by Eory. “What’s your game, fairy? Are you intending to befriend a creature who eats mortals because he can’t otherwise feel full? I am an evil creature by nature; nothing can change my heart, least of all your friendship. I will demand of you what I wish to demand of you, and you will either accept or you will spend your life rotting in the Iron Fortress. Your friendship will not sway me.”
Eory wondered how the creature knew so much. Had it already looked into his heart and seen all that was there?
Eory murmured solemnly, “I am an evil creature by nature as well. I am an Arrozan, after all. However, I am willing myself to change, and I’ve made friends who are trying to help me change. I’m sure you could change if you wanted to. If people are willing to be my friend, I’m willing to be yours.”
Eory liked hugs. He wondered if the knight liked them, too. He hugged him, putting himself completely at the creature’s mercy.
The knight was frothing at the mouth, his armored gloves shook, barely able to keep from eating the fairy who he knew would be one of the tastiest mortals he had ever swallowed. The knight laughed at his own misery. “I will be your friend if you want me to be, fairy, though the title means nothing to me. Tell me what it is you want.”
Eory had a feeling that the knight already knew what he wanted. The fairy looked up at the creature, trying not to gaze into his mouth. “Can you eliminate the doppelgangers?”
The knight’s fingers dug into Eory’s back. “I can. The question is, what are you willing to pay me in return?”
Eory blinked sadly. “What do you require? My life?”
“For now, I will take your pinky finger as initial payment. This wish you want me to grant is no small feat. It will take me three years to build up the power to accomplish it. If you agree to my proposition, you will free me from my shackles, and I will be able to build up my power again.” The Red Moon Knight’s helmeted gaze was drawn to Eory’s pinky finger.
Eory stepped away from the knight, biting into his arm without thinking. “What does building up your power entail? You won’t hurt anyone, will you?”
The Red Moon Knight was silent for a moment, and then, “I knew you wouldn’t want me to hurt any intelligent creatures when I tasted your blood. The reason why it will take me so long to build up my power is because I will feast on animals instead of intelligent creatures, per your wish.”
Eory loved animals. He couldn’t abide the thought of killing hundreds of loyal, guileless dogs, even if it meant the world could be free of doppelgangers. “Can you promise me that the animals you eat will already be on the verge of death?”
“I can. If I break the rules of the agreement we come to, I will be shackled again, so you can rest assured that I will eat nothing but what you permit me to eat. It will take longer if I must only feed on those animals that are close to death, though.” The Red Moon Knight informed Eory.
Eory thought it sounded like a good deal, but even someone as naïve as he understood that there must be more of a catch to it. The creature he was making a deal with had killed thousands, after all, if he was, indeed, the Red Moon Knight.
“Is that it? I offer you my pinky and then you build up your power for a few years by eating dying animals?” Eory asked, his brow wrinkling with concern.
“No. I will take more of you when I return after three years.” The Red Moon Knight explained enigmatically.
Eory’s face turned paler than it already was. He whispered, “More of me?”
The Red Moon Knight was smirking with pleasure at Eory’s pallid face. “I will not kill you, rest assured, but… I can’t promise you that you will be entirely unharmed when we meet up again in three years. As I said, I will take more of you, but you will not die.”
Eory clenched his fists. “Tell me what you will take!” He yelled.
“No. You will take the deal as it stands, or we have no deal.” The Red Moon Knight told him firmly. His voice snaked its ways into Eory’s ear, hissing sweetly. “It is only you who will be harmed. I know how you wish for all your friends to respect and admire you. I know how much you wish everyone to see that you are a good man. Now is your chance to prove it.”
Eory, who had been avoiding looking at the hungry maw of the Red Moon Knight, now looked up with tearful eyes. “Just me and dying animals? You won’t hurt anyone else?”
The Red Moon Knight nodded, holding out a hand to Eory. “Think about it. In three years, the doppelgangers will be gone, and you will be looked upon as a hero. You will have proven yourself a good man through-and-through—a man who is willing to offer himself up in order to save others—isn’t that what you want?”
Eory’s face lit up at the prospect of finally being liked. “I...”
Eory didn’t know what the knight planned to take from him; perhaps it was a leg, or an arm, or an ear, or some other body part. All he knew was that it was a small price to pay for getting rid of the endless doppelgangers. Eory said confidently, “I’ll do it.”
The Red Moon Knight nodded, his black smile never leaving his face. “I knew you would—”
“But tell me this; were you the cause of the Red Moon Night?” Eory asked.
“I was.” The Red Moon Knight admitted. “Does that change anything?”
Eory shook his head, his eyes hooded with melancholy. “No. I was just wondering if you felt any remorse about killing all those people.”
“No. I told you, I am an evil creature by nature.” The Red Moon Knight reminded him.
Eory gave the knight a wobbly smile. “I think you underestimate yourself… I think you can change. I believe in you.”
Eory held out his pinky, offering it to the knight.
A horned tongue emerged from the knight’s mouth. He licked his lips. “We’ll meet again in three years, then. I will come to you, you need not come to me.”
Eory looked away as the knight approached on silent feet.
The fairy felt a row of sharp fangs digging into his pinky. He screamed as the knight jerked his head back, ripping off Eory’s pinky and sealing the deal.
Eory’s hand didn’t shake once.
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