“Did you hear that, Jake? Please, tell me you heard that. Tell me I’m not going crazy.” Adam was shivering, but not from the cold. It was just past midnight, the boys were lost in the woods, and they were scared. “Jake?”
“Yeah…I heard it. What do you think it was?” Jake was scanning their surroundings, looking for the source of the blood-curdling scream they just heard.
“It sounded like a person. Or a pig. Or a demon. Who knows? It could have been anything!” Adam stood up and walked towards the sound of the terrified shout. “Are you coming? If that was a person, we’ve got to help them!”
Jake crossed his arms and planted himself in the dirt. “No. I’m not going anywhere. I don’t care what it was.” He watched Adam walking away, cursed, and ran after him. “Why do you always have to do this, Adam? Why can’t you ever just leave well enough alone? Whatever that scream was, it’s not our business!”
Adam kept his eyes forward. “I don’t care. Someone might be hurt. We have to help the–” He stopped mid-sentence and mid-stride. He locked eyes with Jake and put a finger up to his lips, then pointed in the direction they were walking. A tall, ugly creature with bright red eyes was staring ahead, away from the boys. “Do you see that?” Adam whispered. “Come on, let’s go look.”
Jake clenched his fists, but dutifully followed Adam. “I told you it was a demon! Come on, we have to get out of here,” he furiously breathed.
“Actually,” replied Adam, equally quiet, “I said it was a demon. Now look.” The hideous, muscular, black-skinned demon bent down and began devouring the corpse of…something. Must have been whatever let out that scream. Adam studied the mutilated demon-food until a gleam caught his eye, a few feet past the body. “I must be seeing things. Jake, is that a gold necklace over there?” He pointed past the demon.
Jake strained his eyes and eventually saw what Adam pointed out. “It might be. You don’t think…no. No, no, no. No way, Adam. You’re crazy. There’s no way.”
“It’s a worth a try, isn’t it? Why else wouldn’t the demon notice it?” Adam crouched low and started a wide circle around the demon that was, thankfully, distracted by its food. Adam glanced behind himself to see Jake following and shot him a grateful smile. He didn’t want to be doing this alone. He nearly turned and ran when he stepped on a twig, thinking himself given away, but the demon didn’t notice. He and Jake kept walking and passed right in front of the demon’s line of sight. In two seconds, they were hiding behind a bush, hearts near to exploding.
“Almost there, buddy,” Jake whispered with an ironic smile, knowing his crazy friend was probably leading him to his death. “You know, it’s a good thing that demon’s busy feeding on that poor soul, or we’d be dead already. It could rip us to shreds before we could shout.”
“Whatever it’s eating got a shout out,” Adam said dryly, then rubbed his arm after Jake punched him. “Sorry. It’s easier to joke than cry. Let’s keep going.”
They crawled on hands and knees from cover to cover until they could see the necklace clearly. Jake’s eyes opened wide in shock. “That’s Queen Virona’s lost amulet! Adam, how did you know?”
“I just had a feeling,” intoned Adam smugly.
“A feeling that a random gold necklace on the ground next to a feeding demon is not only real, but Queen Virona’s lost amulet? You’re a wonder,” Jake said with wide eyes, then a smile split his face from ear to ear. “We’re gonna be rich! She’ll pay us half of everything in the royal treasury! That amulet is the world to her!”
“Be quiet, Jake!” Adam gently cuffed him. “There’s still a demon there, and we still have to get the necklace. How are we going to occupy it long enough to snatch up the amulet?”
“Easy as pie.” Jake smiled. “You make a whole bunch of noise, run out there and lead the demon away. I’ll slink in and pick it up.”
“Wonderful idea, Jake,” said Adam, “but there’s only one problem – what happens when the demon chases me down and eats me?”
“Oh…good point. Well, you remember the legends, right? The invisibility would work…if I could run faster than you and a demon when you both have a head start. But Mama said that the amulet can also be used as a weapon, if you know the proper words to activate it. Which she told me.” Jake was beaming.
Adam rolled his eyes. “And I should put my life in your dear ol’ deluded Mama’s hands, why?”
“Because that demon’s done eating and it’s gonna come after us next! Go!”
Adam swallowed his fear, got to his feet and charged. He screamed and shouted and flailed his arms, getting the demon’s attention. The chase was on. He didn’t bother to glance behind himself. He knew what was following. He heard Jake shout something unintelligible and kept running. If he stopped, his life was forfeit, and he knew it.
Suddenly Adam crashed into the ground. The demon was on top of him in a heartbeat. Adam screamed…then realized that he was in no danger. Jake had turned the demon into stone! His Mama was right!
“Jake, don’t ever do that again!”
Jake scratched the back of his head. “Hey, I saved you, right?”
“Yeah, just barely!” Adam shouted, still shaken by the now-stone monster whose 5-inch fangs were mere inches from his throat. “Help me out from under here.” Jake dragged him out and pulled him to his feet. Adam wiped the dust off himself.
“There, good as new.” Jake burst into laughter seeing how white his friend’s face was, then abruptly sobered. “You know, Adam, we have a weapon here. We could do something good. We could destroy all the demons where they stand, we could liberate our country from their terrorizing hold.”
“Why don’t we leave that to the Queen’s soldiers? We have the amulet, let’s just go back home and get rich off it.”
“Why? Why take riches and feasts when we could have land and nobility on top of it? If we ended the demonic influence on our nation, imagine the procession held in our honor when we get back! The Queen would make us barons!”
Adam smiled. “Maybe you’re right. With this amulet, we’re practically untouchable, anyway.” He pointed to the east. “That way’s the castle, fame and riches.” Then he pointed west. “And that way is the demons’ stronghold, glory, honor, and a good deed, with riches and fame to boot. Shall we?”
In response, Jake took off at a light jog east. “Adam,” he said in between breaths, “hold onto the necklace with me. It will make us invisible to anything Dark.” Adam grabbed onto the necklace and kept pace with his friend. They kept jogging for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes in reality.
A stench suddenly came over them. Adam crinkled his nose. “Do you smell that? It’s disgusting!”
“Not anymore,” replied Jake with a half-smile, obviously breathing through his mouth. “Let’s keep going. It’s not much farther.”
On they ran until they saw a dark fortress, with more tall, ugly creatures patrolling the walls. They slowed to a walk and finally a stop.
“I’ve never been here.” Adam was looking around with a half-curious, half-disgusted look on his face.
“Neither have I,” said Jake. “But we’re here now and we’ve got a mission. Kelia narennia!” All of the demons on the walls froze to stone with those last two words.
Adam was dumbfounded. “What language is that?”
“It’s an ancient one whose name is no longer remembered, sadly,” replied Jake. “My Mama knows it, but has only taught me a little, those two words being most of what I know.” He chuckled a little. “And a good thing it was she taught me that.”
Jake led the way, both of them still holding onto the amulet and thus still invisible, deep into the fortress, freezing every demon he saw on the way. They were met with shouts of love and joy by prisoners as they released them.
Soon, every Dark thing had been frozen, and they were free to leave. Stealing a couple horses from a nearby stable (what matter was it? They could afford to pay back horses ten times more grand than these as soon as they got to the castle), they road on towards home.
About halfway there, Jake realized something, but didn’t speak it aloud. His fingers were turning to stone. He wondered why. His mother hadn’t mentioned anything about this. But there was nothing he could do but spur his horse on faster and hold on to hope that he wouldn’t completely turn into a statue himself.
Word had already reached the Queen of the two boys and their exploits. She road out to meet them two miles from the castle with a smile on her beautiful face but a grave look in her eyes. Jake knew why.
The heroes dismounted and bent to one knee in front of the Queen, while Jake handed her the amulet. She kept quiet about his stone fingers, for which he was eternally grateful. He didn’t want Adam to know. He would only scold him for not listening.
The Queen led them to the castle, inside and through the labyrinthine corridors up to her royal chambers. She bade Adam stay outside and beckoned Jake inside.
“So it’s already happening,” the beautiful Queen Virona said sadly, looking at Jake’s fingers. “You should not have done what you did. I and my people are grateful and forever indebted to you and yours, but you did a foolish thing. You should have let me take care of it.”
Jake hung his head. “I know, Your Majesty. But the opportunity was there and I couldn’t turn my back. Not if I could help so many people.”
“This is irreversible. You will turn into a statue, Jake. Using the amulet that many times in one day was unwise. Very unwise.”
A look of despair worse than anything the Queen had seen before appeared on Jake’s face, but was gone in an instant. Virona respected how fast he regained his composure.
“That’s okay, Your Majesty. How long do I have?”
“An hour.”
“All right.” Jake left through the secret entrance and went to the fountain in front of the castle. He sat down in front of it, hands on his face, elbows on his knees, and kept the pose. A crowd soon gathered, chanting his name and praising his deeds. He never once looked up.
Adam soon came down from the castle and, being informed of the situation, went right up to Jake. He forced Jake’s head up and they locked eyes. Adam nodded once, then turned on his heel and walked away.
A thousand years later, the statue of Jake still stood, only now a statue of Adam sat right next to it. Legend says Adam, consumed by grief 40 years later, begged the Queen a single boon, after refusing any gifts for freeing their lands. That was to be turned into a statue next to his dearest friend.