Page 56 of Myths and Manuscripts
The hero screamed again, his body convulsing as Dain tried to carry him out of the garden. Small white horns sprouted from the hero’s head along with fluffy ears. He kind of looked like... My mouth dropped open as Dain stumbled back, glancing at mewith wide eyes.
Was the hero actually a demon? No. That couldn’t be right. Except, a fluffy tail sprouted from his lower back too as if his body was saying he absolutely was a demon.
The hero took a few deep breaths like he was no longer in pain. He just stared up at the sky, breathing in and out like that was all he could manage right now. At least he wasn’t screaming anymore. Dain ripped the bottle of medication from my hands, sniffing the tonic inside. He cursed and threw it away.
“It’s Veilshade.” He spat the word out like it was disgusting. “It seals a demon’s aura so completely that their demonic aspects slowly die off. They appear human, but at the price of a much shorter life. It’s a banned substance, so nobody here would have made it for him.”
“Then who?” I was still having a hard time wrapping my mind around it, but the horns and tail were hard to dispute. “Who would go that far to hide that the hero’s a demon?”
The hero blinked up at me then started laughing. “What did you just call me?”
“Um, a demon?” I bit my lip as his laughter grew louder. “Don’t you...feel any different? Maybe your head? Or your backside?”
“Well of course, they don’t hurt anymore.” He sat up, grinning as if the pain was but a memory now. “But I needed a good laugh, so thank you.”
Dain scratched behind his horns. “Uh, I hate to shatter your worldview or whatever, but you’re definitely a demon. Half-demon if I had to guess.”
“This isn’t funny anymore.” The hero stood up, brushing the dirt off his clothes. His cloak had fallen off entirely, revealing those beautiful shimmery-white horns poking out of his blonde hair. His hand brushed against his tail and he froze. “What’s that? Get it off.” His voice rose a few octaves as he tried to pull itoff him, but he winced in pain. “What’s going on?”
He spun around, trying to spot his tail behind him. It was fluffy and white-blonde, just like his adorable ears, and the whole thing reminded me of a dog chasing their tail. I covered my mouth with my hand, determined not to laugh at him when he was in such a shocking predicament. But he just kept spinning and flipping his head over his shoulder like he couldn’t comprehend what was behind him.
“It’s a tail.” I said in as serious of a tone as I could. “You have ears now too and, um, horns. But just tiny ones. People will barely even notice, I’m sure.”
His eyes bulged as his hands clamped down on his head. “No, no, no. This can’t be happening. What did you do to me??”
“Nothing!” I picked up the bottle Dain had thrown away. “It was all this medication you were taking. It was hiding who you really were this whole time.”
Dain nodded. “It’s poison. Nobody should have ever given that to you.”
“It was helping me!” The hero’s shouting was starting to draw unwanted attention from the other people in the gardens, but I wasn’t sure how to calm him down as he kept patting his new ears and horns. “You turned me into a…a monster!”
Dain’s eyes narrowed. “I know this is hard, but you’re going too far now. We are not monsters and if you keep talking like that, we’re going to have a problem.”
“We’ve already got a problem,” the hero moaned. “I’m supposed to be the hero of this land! How can I do that while looking like this?” He rushed over to me, clutching my hands in his. “Take pity on me. Make him turn me back to normal.”
“Youareback to normal,” I whispered. “This is who you’ve always been. You just didn’t know it.” His hands gripped mine even harder as he started to tremble. I felt terrible for him but wasn’t sure what to do. Maybe Thorne could help. “Why don’t wego back to the castle and sort this out?”
He leapt away from me, shaking his head so hard his ears flopped around. “No way. I’m never stepping foot in that place again. You tricked me with heroic stories and tasty food, but this was your real goal all along, wasn’t it? To turn the hero into a terrifying monster!”
“Come on, your tail and ears are far from terrifying. Honestly, they’re kind of cute.”
His mouth fell open. “Cute? You think these are cute??”
Now we were definitely drawing too much attention as apothecaries came toward us from all directions. Dain sighed and hit the hero on the back of the neck, knocking him out. He slung the man over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, threw the cloak over him, and walked straight out of the garden like it was totally normal.
“Dain! You can’t just knock him out like that!” I hurried after him, making sure the hero was still breathing and okay. “We’re trying to gain his trust, not lose even more of it.”
“Do that once you’re back at the castle,” he grumbled. “I swore I’d protect you and there’s no way I can do that if this fool keeps screaming about being the hero and hating monsters and all that.”
He had a point, but it still didn’t feel right. I pulled out my writing board to let Thorne know what was going on.
Get back here as soon as you can. The hero is actually a demon. We need help.
Hopefully he’d see it before the hero woke up because I had no idea what to say and there was no way I was going to lock him up. Dain would, but not me. I couldn’t just let him run back to his people either though, not until he calmed down and we had a chance to talk about this. The beginnings of an idea started forming in the back of my mind, tugging at me to write it down.
If the hero was secretly a demon, then that changedeverything. I’d been looking for a plot twist, sure, but this felt like a plot wrecking ball, and I had no idea where to even begin.
Chapter 24
