The Goddess's Chosen

The Dullahan

As they jumped towards us, I noticed the larger Dullahan pulling his own head from his body, still sporting a wicked, evil grin. We split up and ran in four different directions. I noticed Camden shifting into his wolf-beast form and Varwen magically produced a shining gold and silver bow. The small Dullahan that was racing towards Varwen and Ava stopped dead in his tracks and tried running away but Ava had trapped him with a spell so that he couldn’t run anywhere. Clara had climbed on top of Camden’s wolf and was riding him like a horse. She was growing the vines that I had seen her practicing with back in Nova Scotia at the sanctuary. Before they got too close, she jumped off Camden’s back and was running along a thick vine she had created, and Camden took off, jumping at the Dullahan that Clara had just ensnared in her vines. Rachelle and Kheelan were with the third smaller Dullahan, and Rachelle had thrown a potion at it that caused it to stick in place and inhibited its movement, it sort of reminded me of caulking the way it bubbled up and then became firm, and Kheelan charged the demon with a silver and golden sword. Getting my head in the game, I summoned my elemental spirits and all four of them appeared almost instantly. I used my powers to create a stadium of sorts to confine the demons to a spot so they couldn’t run. I imagined a large ring of earth rising around us and the ground began to shake as the earth answered my call and a wall of dirt and stone circled around us, creating an arena for our battle. The three smaller demons had escaped the confines from my companions and were all lunging and charging again, but my spirits were keeping them busy. I glanced over at Gabe, and nodded, readying my hands to blast the larger demon with my flames. Gabe nodded in response and readied himself to summon his lightning. “1...2...3” I counted down and on 3 we both unleashed our magic, as soon as we did, they began spiraling around each other, creating a beautiful display of power. When our power collided with the Dullahan, it let out an awful, hissing scream, nearly causing me to lose focus and cover my ears, but I didn’t. I held on, and so did Gabe. We slowly started walking towards the demon, bombarding him with fire and lightning. With another push of energy, I pushed my fire to completely engulf the demon in my purple flames. Then, out of nowhere, I was bum rushed from the side and was knocked to the ground, causing me to lose my focus. “CAS!” Gabe yelled, looking from me to the Dullahan, and let go of his lightning and ran to help me up. “Cas, get up.” he said, trying to help me stand, but I looked up into the Dullahan’s eyes and couldn’t move, I was instantly petrified. The Dullahan had a sadistic grin on his face. I screamed in terror and went back as far away as I could from the fight. The Dullahan was now approaching me and Gabe, summoning green fireballs in his head-free hand, never breaking eye contact with me, though I tried to look away, I couldn’t. It kept approaching us, closer and closer and all I could do was scream. I was terrified. “Cas, you need to get up, come on.” Gabe said to me, trying to pull me to my feet, but his voice was distant. “She dropped her medallion.” Brenna was swooping down towards us and dropped the medallion into Gabe’s open hand. I didn’t know she could talk to other people. Gabe thrust the medallion into my hand, and I snapped back to my senses, and the Dullahan let out a frustrated and angry roar. I would have to ask Brenna about being able to talk to other people later, right now I needed to focus on this disgusting demon bearing down on us. ‘Use gold!’ Brenna chirped in my head. ‘They are afraid of gold, use your earth magic to summon it into a spear, and drive it into the demons heart.’ She said, flying off once again. “Gabe, cover me, I need to try something.” I said and squatted down and placed my hands in the dirt. I imagined gold from within the earth coming to me, and forming a spear, and it listened. It took me a few minutes to gather enough gold to make a long and sturdy spear and Gabe was battling off the Dullahan while I was preoccupied. His lightning display was something to be in awe of. I kept focusing on the spear. “Cas, I can’t hold him back much longer!” Gabe said, still throwing all he had at the demon. Alya must have sensed our struggles and came behind us and thrust her powerful wings and blew the demon back, until he hit the far end of the arena with a loud thud. Once she had done that, she went back to assist Hestia in creating a fire devil, incinerating one of the smaller demons that had been foolish enough to be close enough to get sucked into it. With a little more focus, I pulled more gold forth to complete the spear, and a little iron to strengthen it. It was gorgeous, for being gold. Silver had always been my preferred metal, but gold will be a close second if it can kill these demons. By now, the larger demon had shaken off the impact with the wall and was angrily charging at us once more. “CAMDEN, A LIFT?” I yelled to the wolf, and he nodded his large wolfish head and ran to me. As he was running towards me, I began running towards him and jumped onto his back, holding my new weapon. The Dullahan saw us coming and saw the spear and faltered for a moment, before regaining his senses and charging us. I had seen how the smaller ones reacted to gold, but this one was either different, dumb, angry enough not to care, or a mix of the three. We kept charging him, Camden was running at full speed, and I was crouched low, practically lying on him, with my left hand grasping his fur and my right hand preparing to throw the spear into the demon's heart. The closer we got, it seemed that time began to slow. I could hear my heart beating, and nothing else. The world outside of this instant seemed to stop entirely. I took a breath and raised my right arm. I exhaled and aimed the spear at the demon's chest. I inhaled and pulled my arm back. With the last exhale, I let the spear fly. I watched as it flew true right for the demon’s chest. For an evil creature I could see fear and panic set into its eyes as the spear punctured his chest. He dropped his head and fell to his knees. Camden kept running towards the demon, and as we got closer, I prepared to jump. When we got close enough, I lunged at the demon, not looking to hit him, but to drive the spear through his chest the rest of the way. I hit my mark. I had twisted in the air just so, so that my feet landed on the demon’s chest and my hand grabbed the spear and shoved it the rest of the way through him. As I did, his unattached head began screaming, it sounded like the sound a tea kettle makes when the water boils. A moment later, the body disintegrated into a pile of goop. I grabbed the spear and jumped back on Camden’s back as we began running back to the other two demons. Before we reached the fighting, Alya and Vodnik ripped a demon in half, letting its gross, bleeding body fall to the ground in two thumps.  Clara had once again ensnared the other one in vines. I couldn’t see Ava or Rachelle and panic set in. ‘Brenna, where are Ava and Rachelle?’ I asked my familiar, hoping that she didn’t give me bad news. ‘Rachelle had been hit with a fireball, she is hurt bad, Ava and Kheelan pulled her to safety and Cybele created a den of sorts to bring her in where she would be safe. Cybele is defending them right now.’ I glanced around the battlefield and saw a small earthen bubble and Cybele was flinging spears made of stone at the remaining demon. I couldn’t afford to lose focus. When we got close enough to the fighting, I jumped off Camden’s back and reunited with Gabe, who just nodded in approval at what I had done. “WATCH OUT!” Suddenly Gabe and I were thrown to the side by Varwen, who was brandishing a large silver sword. The two pieces of demon left behind by the dragons seemed to regenerate into two more demons. f**k me! I thought, jumping to my feet. “GOLD THROUGH THE HEART KILLS THEM!” I shouted to my companions. I willed my spear to separate into two pieces and tossed one to Camden. Varwen sheathed his sword and reproduced his silver and golden bow and created a solid golden arrow out of thin air. Varwen let his arrow fly, straight and true, shooting one of the regenerated demons right through the heart, killing it. It too, let out an ungodly scream and then turned into another pile of goop. Gabe gave me a look, one that said I’ll distract, you kill this son of a b***h, I nodded. It was amazing how in sync we seemed during battle. He called forth his lightning from the skies and struck the demon in front of us, distracting him long enough for me to get close and drive the spear into its chest. This one, maybe due to the lightning, did scream, but it did not melt into a pile of goop, but rather exploded and rained stinking demon goop down on all over me. I looked to find the other demon, right as I saw Clara holding its arms and legs in place with her vines and Camden driving the spear into its chest, reducing it to yet another pile of demon goop. I fell to my knees, exhausted from using up so much power and energy, then I remembered that Rachelle was injured. “RACHELLE!” I screamed, running towards the small safe den that Cybele had created. When I approached her, I wanted to cry. Her body was burned everywhere. “We need to get her somewhere that we can treat her wounds.” I said, fighting the tears building in my eyes. We had been through so much and had much more to do, I couldn’t lose my friend. Not now. “Alya, we need your help” I screamed and Alya landed in front of the den. We need you to help us get her to Elle’s house, she may know what to do.” I said, urging Ava and Kheelan to help get her up. “I cannot fly her like this, Cassandra.” Alya said sadly. I wanted to scream. I needed to save her, and we couldn’t do that here. “Clara, Cybele, could you make a cot of sorts with your vines that Alya could carry?” I asked. Cybele and Clara looked at each other and nodded. They created a small cot, like the ones the paramedics use when transporting people, and Kheelan and Camden lifted Rachelle’s nearly lifeless body onto it and carried it into the open so that Alya could lift it up in her claws. “I want to be with her.” Kheelan said. I nodded. “You ride Alya and get her to your mother, we will take the Unicorns and meet you there.” I said confidently. And he climbed onto Alya’s back as if it was the most normal thing in the world and she lifted Rachelle’s cot and flew off towards the city. I thanked Hestia, Vodnik and Cybele all for their help, and assured them that we would need their help again soon. Once they had disappeared, we all mounted the unicorns and rode like hell back to Elle’s cottage.  

   As we rode, we could see curious faces staring at us from the windows, but I didn’t care. We got to Elle’s house, and she was waiting for us outside, and Alya was perched atop of her roof. I jumped off the unicorn “She will be alright, lass.” she said as she hugged me. I let the tears fall. I never should have agreed to this. Rachelle could have died. I thought to myself, allowing more tears to fall. “I can’t do this.” I whispered. “Nonsense. You are handling everything so well. You are stronger than you give yourself credit for. You led a small army against five Dullahan demons and you survived.” Elle patted my back. It was nice to have some sort of motherly affection. I missed my mother so much and would have given anything for her to be here with me now. “Rachelle could have died...” I started, “but she didn’t.” Elle cut me off with a stern tone. I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I had been so strong this whole time, but I nearly lost two people I care about in a 24-hour period. The stress of this whole situation was starting to weigh heavily on me. “Listen to me, young lass.” Elle said, lifting my chin up to meet my gaze. “You are strong, and your Goddess would not have chosen you if she did not think you could handle this.” She said, pulling me into another hug. I knew she was right, but I was beginning to think that Hecate was seriously lacking in judgement. “Rachelle will be fine, Kheelan and I have tended to her, and she is healing and resting. She will be better soon.” Elle said to everyone. Then she sniffed me. “OH DEARY! YOU STINK!” She said. I had forgotten I was covered in demon guts. “Take a shower, then go see the queen. Get your reward and continue your journey. You have come too far to stop now.” Her words filled me with hope and confidence once more, even though she had told me that I stunk. “You can wear something of mine, it may be a bit loose, but we can make do.” She said, ushering us all inside. She led me to a small closet in her room. Her clothes were all lightly colored, and not like what I had seen her wearing. Taking one of the dresses out, I looked at it and it seemed more ethereal and goddess-like than a villager should have. I looked up from the dress to Elle and saw that her eyes had changed color as well, they were an inviting golden color. I was extremely confused. “Elle...?” I asked cautiously. “That is a name I am known by, yes. But you may call me Áine.” she said, and my jaw dropped. I mean, it makes sense now. Why Kheelan felt so important, the medallions and how Brenna knew how to kill the demons. “You told Brenna how to kill them, and you gave us the medallions so that we would be safe from its fear magic.” I said, more as a statement than a question. Áine just smiled and nodded. “Who else knows?” I asked. “Kheelan and Rachelle, I have lived many lives as a villager, watching and waiting for the chosen daughter of Hecate to come so I could aid her in saving my sister.” She said, then she transformed into her true self. She was tall and slender with a golden glow on her skin. Her hair was long and chestnut brown, and her eyes were round and golden. She had a slender face and full lips. She was beautiful and everything you would imagine a fae goddess would be. She had translucent wings and a floor length golden gown with intricate floral designs sewn into it. I couldn’t stop staring, I was not expecting the woman I had met before to be an actual goddess. “I will accompany you when you visit the queen to ensure that she stays true to her word. She wants your powers, and you cannot give her any more than you have. Now go shower, I will make my introductions, and we can leave together.” She said, leading the way to a comfortable sized bathroom with modern amenities. I took a long, hot shower to make sure that all the demon guts were off me and out of my hair. Before she left, Áine had handed me a bottle of soap, said it was a goddess’ blend and winked before closing the door and heading downstairs. The soap smelled of all the sweet flowers and honey. It smelled amazing. I scrubbed my whole body with it, even my hair. Once I was satisfied that I was clean, I dressed in the shimmering dress that I had pulled from her closet. It was knee length and flowy, with a V-neck that showed some cleavage and a low back. The material felt like satin and silk and was pure luxury. I walked downstairs to see that everyone else was also freshly showered and dressed and wondered how, if I only noticed one bathroom. “Goddess’ secret.” Áine told me and winked, as if she could read my mind. Everyone was still surprised that Elle was actually Áine. It was definitely a shock. We had all dressed in similar clothing, the girls had on Áine’s dresses, and the boys had on Kheelan’s clothes, and I had to say that Gabe looked very good with tight pants, boots, and long dark blue tunic. We all spoke for a moment, and I went to check on Rachelle. She was sleeping but she looked mostly healed, with some pink spots where the burns had been. “I will stay with her.” Kheelan said, making me jump. “Thank you, Kheelan. She means the world to me, and I appreciate you helping her.” I said, grasping his left hand in both of mine. “She means a lot to me too. I have never met another woman quite like her.” he said, making me smile. “Neither have I.” I said, walking out of the room, leaving Kheelan to watch over Rachelle. Walking back into the living room, I saw that Áine had transformed into Elle once again. “Ready to go speak to the queen?” I asked. Áine smiled and everyone else nodded, and we went outside, mounted the unicorns and rode to the fae court.