NOVEL FROG Ch 16. Phlum’s Story
How are you doing, little reader? I'm gonna walk you a little bit of myself, because this could be the last time we would be able to talk.
You see, right now I’m in the castle’s dungeon waiting for my Lady to come, and when she arrives, I'm going to be punished for what I did. We promised those humans that we'll be sparing their lives if they surrendered and gave our stuff back, but I killed them anyway. I killed them, even after the little human begged the Demon Lord so we could spare some human lifes.
I'm not sorry for what I did, no one would. Yeah, killing everyone one would be a little too much, but killing just the ones at fault wont send a message to anyone! So I needed to do something, something shocking, and that would be worth my own life if at the end Demons could live in peace. I killed like 50 people though, but they were all family members of the stupid soldiers that started this fight between Humans and Demons. That will send a clear message for all humans, so we shouldn be bothered for a while.
Of course, I don't want to die. I've been by my Lady’s side since before she took the Demon Lord’s throne, she knows me better than anyone in this world, and I could say that the other way around is true too. But as I previously said, she needs to send a message too.I disobeyed her orders and acted on my own. I must be punished, even if I'm her best friend.
I really loved living by her side, it was always fun, even after so many years, so I couldn't help but smile everyday. There were days that were hard too, but then I smiled even brighter because she always said that my smile cheered her up. But this time, not even I could smile at the things that happened… But now, now that everything is over I’m trying my hardest to keep the tears away and give her one last big and bright smile, one of those she likes.
You want to know about my life? Well, the first thing I saw when I broke out of my shell was a little girl with short grey hair. She was difficulty carrying with both hands the egg I was in. Her clothes were dirty and torn and her body was thin, she clearly hadn't eaten in a while, maybe she was trying to eat me? She tilted her head when our eyes met, she was confused, so I was. Her tummy growled.
Of course she didn't eat me that time, instead, we started traveling together. It was a really hard life, we were two low rank demons, constantly running from place to place, looking for food and somewhere to rest or hide from the people and monsters that wanted to kill us.
We fought countless battles, becoming stronger as we did. We ended up defeating strong enemies and made a name out of ourselves by doing so, we even got some allies during our travels.
I still remember the promise I made myself one day that we lost one of our comrades during a fight.
We were inside a cave, and outside there was rain falling and a fierce cold wind growling. Our allies were hurt, but we were sitting in the entrance standing guard. We were the strongest there, so we had to protect our friends.
I had my head lean on her shoulder and she had her head lean over mine. We were the strongest there, yes, but even the strongest need some rest from time to time. My lady finally broke the silence of the not so silent night by asking me something.
“Hey dear Phlum, can I ask you something?”
“What could it be, my Lady?”
“What will you do the day I die?”
She looked serious. We have been together for hundreds of years right now, but it's the first time we have a talk like this. Is she worried for herself? No, I can tell that she is worried for me. Maybe she thinks that I'll rampage against the one who killed them? She wouldn't be far from the truth there, but that's never going to happen...
“I don't know what I'll do. But that doesn't matter at all, my Lady. You are not going to die.”
“Huh? Why are you so sure of that?”
“Because if someday you were going to die, I'll die first, protecting you.”
She stood silent, looking at the rain. Then she patted my head. We have been together since the day that I was born, of course we don't want the other to die, but that day will come whether we want it or not.
“If something like that were to happen, I'll do the same of your behalf, Phlum.”
“I guess none of us is going to die then. Hahaha~”
I smiled when saying those words and she smiled back at me. We both care about each other, but I'm not gonna let something bad happen to her, if that day was going to come… Well, I knew deep inside that I was the one who was going to die if we found ourselves in a situation like that. That was the promise I made myself that day, I'll die on my Lady’s behalf.
The day is finally here, and I’m fulfilling the promise I made myself that day. If I die, all is over, we send Humans the message that they shouldn't mess with us, and tell the Demons that they shouldnt disobey our Lady’s orders.
The heavy door of the dungeon opened. There was only one person entering the room, the one and only, the one that saw me born and now is going to watch me part away, my dear Lady, the Demon Lord.
“Hey Phlum, I thought you were going to be waiting me here…”
“Welcome, long time no see. Hahaha~”
“Come on, don't do this to me, I really don't want to do this…”
She looked really sad, disappointed. It looked like her heart was breaking with every second that passed.
“Then, let's finish this faster, my Lady. We have talked a lot during all these years, there's nothing more left to say, we know the whole truth about each other. Hahaha~”
“Thank you, Phlum. Thank you so much.”
She walked to me. I gave her my big, bright smile, the one she likes, the one that always cheered her up, the one that I always loved to give her. I could feel warm tears falling through my cheeks. I didn't want to, but I let out a murmur.
“I don't want to die… Hahaha~”
“I don't want you to die either…”
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
Ch 0.3. Author’s Note #03
TLDR: With this, the first big arc is over. I really loved to write it for you guys. I'll be releasing some extra chapters between chapters 10 and 11 on my Patreon. I hope we'll see each other again on chapter 17 here on Scribblehub.
The first act is over, and we are saying goodbye to one of my favorite characters, I really loved writing about Phlum, and for those who feel the same about her, I'll be releasing extra chapter (that go between chapter 10 and chapter 11) Those are expected to be fluffy slices of life with more Phlum and others of your favorite characters on them.
Sadly I’ll be posting them on Patreon. Why? I hope that someday this work gets printed or an ebook version (edited and with cool drawings), those chapters will be included there. But for that I need support, that's why I’ll let the extras be Patreon exclusive for a while. Another reason is that I don't know when I’m going to write them (it's going to be soon though), and I need to keep the main storyline going too. There's a lot of work I want to do, so cheer me on!
Finally, I am going to thank you all (once again) for reaching this far, giving your opinions and support too! Thank you all.
Lastly, there's no chapter reviewed this time (I really need more time). From now on, I’ll only tell if I reviewed one, I don't want to spam.