Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Powder and Match

The Hero Became a Mousegirl
Chapter 14: Powder and Match

 

“Firearms are pretty simple to use,” Myra noted handing me my pistol. “First you’re going to need this cord. We’ll fit it onto the arm on the side of your pistol and light it. When you pull the trigger it’ll drop down into some powder and ignite the pistol, causing it to fire.” 

“Your blunderbuss doesn’t have a cord.” 

“I replaced it with a burlap wrapped stone enchanted to produce a small amount of heat and fire when it strikes the pan. A little gift Syene gave me like five years ago. The problem with the lit cord match is that rain and moisture can put it out, I don’t have that problem.”

“Got it.” I nodded. Myra continued to give me instructions on how to load my pistol. She made me pour a small amount of powder in a dish on the side of the pistol and then a lot more down the barrel. From there I crumpled up the paper cartridge my powder had been in and forced it down the barrel, followed by a metal ball. 

“Now we just aim and pull the trigger. Pick a tree and ruin its day.” 

Aiming my pistol at a tree about thirty paces ahead of us, I pulled the trigger. The arm on the side of my pistol came down, causing the powder to flare. A loud pop echoed out of the barrel as a cloud of black smoke appeared, trailing behind the metal ball as it rocketed forward into the tree I’d been aiming at.

“Very good,” Myra clapped. “Did you hit the tree you were aiming for?” 

“Yes, though a little lower than I’d intended.” 

“That’ll probably continue until you get the marksmanship skill. I have eleven more paper cartridges for you, we can keep going until we run out if you like.” 

“How did you make yours fire plumes of fire and ice?” 

“Ah,” Myra grinned and pulled a little blue glass sphere from a bag on her waist. “These little gems are the secret behind it. Syene makes them for me. I throw one of these down the barrel of my blunderbuss, pour a little powder in the pan, and pull the trigger. I can load them faster than regular shot, and they’re more effective too. It’s perfect.”

“Syene again huh… are you not able to use magic of your own?” 

“Nope,” Myra replied with a sardonic chuckle. “Having the memories of a sorceress does not make one a sorceress. My class is Scout.” 

“A weapon like yours seems poorly suited to scouting.” 

“A scout’s role isn’t to engage an enemy, it’s to find and observe. In a party I’m everyone’s eyes and ears, alerting them to danger long before it finds them. The weapon I carry is inconsequential to that task.” 

“How often do you party up with other adventurers?” 

“Almost never,” Myra grinned. “But that isn’t the point.”

Myra and I continued to discuss the finer points of her class as I practiced with my pistol. Once we’d run out of cartridges for it, we continued trekking through the forest in search of civilization. After three days of travel we came across a well-worn dirt path through the trees. A day later, we found a village. 

“Ugh,” Myra pouted. “I hope they have an inn with a bath, I feel gross.” 

“A tailor would be nice too,” I replied holding my arms out and looking down at myself. “I’m certain I’ve ruined this dress.”

The village was surrounded by a low wooden wall, one meant more to keep out wild beasts than invaders. Sitting in front of the gate was an elderly man in cracked sun-bleached leather armor. The man looked up as we approached and waved us over. “Hello there travelers. Welcome to Kaelown, what brings you in?” 

“My sister and I are a little lost,” I answered taking Myra’s hand in mine. “We were hoping to get directions from someone so we can make our way home to Belstow.” 

“That so?” The old man laughed. “Well you did good to find your way here. If you follow the road south of the village you’ll wind up in the city. Shouldn’t take you more than a month on foot. If you get lucky, you might find a merchant willing to let you ride in their wagon, that could shorten your journey to about a week depending on how sturdy their horses are.”

“Thank you for the information,” I bowed. “Meeting you has been a blessing.” 

“Now, now, don’t go lowering your head to any old cook just cuz he told you something anyone could tell you. Take care of yourselves.” 

The village of Kaelown was larger than I expected, though it appeared as if the village’s heyday had long passed. None of the buildings Myra and I passed looked less than several decades old, and many of them were in various states of disrepair. 

Looking around, Myra and I found our way to the village’s center, there I felt my blood run cold. In the center of the village was a well-weathered statue. It depicted a gallant hero with his sword raised high, a foot perched on the skull of a dragon. It was a statue of me. 

“Caelan,” Myra squeezed my hand. “Let’s go.”

“Yeah,” I nodded and let Myra drag me away. 

Myra found a tavern with a few rooms for travelers and rented one for us. Apparently there was a rather large roadside inn a couple of days south of the village, and many travelers would stay there. Especially adventurers who’d stay before traveling to a vast ancient graveyard not far from here, to slay undead. 

As the proprietress spoke of the haunted graveyard I got the chilling feeling I knew exactly which graveyard she was speaking of. After the Fell Dragon was slain and our armies began to eliminate the remaining demons, the Emperor order a graveyard to be built. One to house the bodies of all those who’d died honorably in battle. I died before I saw it complete, but I at least knew of it. I’d travelled their to see the first graves, those of my closest allies. 

The Field of Remembrance, Elise and Bahram were buried there, and according to Kaphis I had been too. As bone chilling as it was to imagine coming across my own grave, I knew I had to go there. Holy magic was key to removing the desecration that caused undead to rise, and as far as I knew, I was the only one alive with access to it. 

“We have to look into the undead problem,” I told Myra as we entered our room. 

“There isn’t a guild branch near here. They’ll get pissy if we take action without telling them.”

“Still… those undead, they’re our friends. It’s not right for them to be forced from their graves after all this time, I have to do something.” 

“Caelan,” Myra sighed. “I don’t think you should involve yourself with this. Not until…” Myra hesitated. 

“Until what?” 

“It’s nothing.” 

“Please Myra, tell me.”

“Until you can break free of the past. You’re not the hero Caelan. You’re just, Caelan, a cute mouse who’s fun to tease. You can smile with all your heart as you are now, and yet all it takes is a statue of your former self to hollow you out. That’s not healthy.” 

“Sorry,” I hung my head as Myra busied herself with counting how much money we had left. “It’s only been a week since I woke up like this, and you’re right… I’m happy. I feel like I can see the world in color for the first time. Food tastes better, I sleep more soundly, everything is nice. But so much has changed that it just baffles me. What if living in this new age, living unbound to the needs of people, living free of the titles thrust upon me, what if this is the part I’m happy about. What if my new body… what if this is wrong, but everything else is right?” 

“Caelan,” Myra turned to me, gazing into my eyes. “Sit down on the bed and close your eyes.” 

You are reading story The Hero Became a Mousegirl at novel35.com

“Okay.” 

“Now I want you to think back on the memory of your mother destroying your stuffed rabbit. You mentioned that to me the first night we were together, and it seemed to be an extremely painful memory for you. As you play it back in your mind, I want you to change one tiny little thing.” 

“Which is?”

“I want you to imagine that you appear as you do now. It may be difficult, but do your best to rewrite the memory.”

“What is this supposed to accomplish?”

“I’ll let you know when it’s over. For now Caelan, just do as I ask.” 

———

“Get up Caelan,” Father growled. I tried desperately to do as he commanded, but my left arm was shattered, and my right wasn’t much better. With all the force of will I could muster I sat up, only to feel Father’s boot collide with my jaw. Something snapped, I tasted blood. Try as I might, I couldn’t muster the will to move again. 

“Pathetic child,” Father spit on my face. “Gregory, heal her. You’d better do better tomorrow Caelan, or I’ll leave you lying out here with your wounds untreated. Why Eynhilda chose a failure like you to be hero I’ll never understand.” 

Father left me lying broken in the dirt while his associate healed me. Even after my wounds vanished, I still felt broken. I didn’t want Father to hit me again, I didn’t want to be hero anymore. Afraid that Father might return I forced myself to my feet, and trudged forward to my bedroom. There standing in the hall, Mother Kubarev was waiting for me. 

“Caelan,” Mother Kubarev grabbed me by the ear. “Come with me.” 

“Wait… Mother!” I squealed as she drug me out of the manor and back into the yard.

“Now then Missy, just what is this?” Mother Kubarev asked holding a stuffed rabbit in front of my face. 

“It’s… a rabbit.” 

“And what is a rabbit doll doing in your bedroom?” 

“I… don’t know.” 

“Don’t you dare lie to me like that, I’ll call your Father out here to beat some sense into you little girl.” 

“Nana gave it to me.” 

“Nana gave it to you? And why did she do that?” 

“Because,” I clenched my hands into fists. “I was lonely.”

“Caelan,” Mother Kubarev glared at me, tossing the little rabbit on the ground. “You are the hero. You must carry with you an air of confidence and composure. Can you imagine what would happen if one of our soldiers saw you with such a childish bauble?” 

With the snap of a finger Mother set the little rabbit ablaze. “Return to your room and think about what you’ve done. I will see that Nana is sufficiently punished for giving this to you, and ensure you never speak with her again.” 

“You can’t,” I looked up at Mother Kubarev in horror. “It’s my fault for keeping the rabbit, you can’t punish Nana for this. Please, it’s not her fault.” 

“I am her Mother, I can punish her if I see fit to do so. And as long as you live in this house little lady, I can do the same to you. I will not allow you to bring shame on this house.” 

———

Myra’s arms were around me, shaking me. “Caelan, Caelan, come on, you can stop now.” 

“Myra,” My voice cracked as I spoke. My face felt sticky with tears. 

“It’s okay Caelan, you’re here now, I’m here, I’m not going to let you go.” 

“Why?” 

“It’s a bad memory, a terrible memory, I know. But compare it to the one you knew, did seeing yourself as the current you change anything?” 

“Not really,” I grumbled burying my face in Myra’s shoulder. “Father still beat me until I couldn’t stand, and Mother still torched my only toy.” 

“Well… it may have been a flawed plan. But the idea was to make you think, what if being a girl was the only thing that changed? What if you looked like this when you were fighting alongside… alongside Elise and the others.” 

“You picked the worst memory imaginable for your little thought experiment,” I pouted. “Why not pick a memory that should’ve been happy? Like when Elise said she loved me. I think… I think if I looked like I do now, I think I would’ve accepted her feelings.” 

Myra froze. “Caelan…” 

“I know you’re not her, but I just… that’s the memory. I thought my heart would stir, I respected her, I cared for her, I should’ve loved her, but I couldn’t. Looking back on it now, you’re right… if I was a girl then, I would’ve loved her back. I can see it now.” 

Myra hugged me tight. I thought for a moment that she’d say something, but every time she opened her mouth, no sound came out. She just sat there, hugging me as tightly as she could. 

“I… you chose a bad memory for your experiment,” I said after we’d sat there in silence for awhile. “But, you’ve really helped me Myra. I think you’re right… maybe this version of me was always meant to be the right one. If only I’d known, maybe Eynhilda could’ve spared me all of those years of suffering. I’d still have been the hero, but maybe I’d have lived a better life. It would’ve been a longer life at least, since I wouldn’t have made such a vague wish on Eynhilda’s Scepter.” 

“I’m glad I could help,” Myra muttered as she stood. “I’m going to go get a bucket of hot water so we can clean ourselves, since there isn’t a bath around here. Umm… I’ll wait in the hall when it’s your turn, so you don’t—“ 

“Myra,” I placed my hand on Myra’s shoulder. “Let’s bathe together.”

“B-But, you… naked.” 

“We’re sisters, so it’s okay, right?” 

“R-Right!” 

You can find story with these keywords: The Hero Became a Mousegirl, Read The Hero Became a Mousegirl, The Hero Became a Mousegirl novel, The Hero Became a Mousegirl book, The Hero Became a Mousegirl story, The Hero Became a Mousegirl full, The Hero Became a Mousegirl Latest Chapter