“Lost for words?” asked Minator with a sneer as Arc continued staring at the large golem standing on the bridge before him.

  “We should probably leave,” said the spellslinger, his hand slowly moving towards his revolver.

  “That was not a threat,” scoffed Minator, silently ordering his golem to step aside. “You’re welcome to come inside for a short while before I resume my stasis. As I said, I expect your discretion regarding this temple’s location.”

  “What about the cliff outside?” asked Julie.

  “It can be repaired by my golems,” said Minator, waving his hand dismissively as he walked back towards the temple. “If you want to leave, leave. If you don’t, come inside.”

  Arc looked to the twins who were uncertain. With a shrug, he followed Minator, intrigued by the strange man who was so determined to wait out the ruined world for a time less harsh.

  Minator walked down the corridor and into a side chamber. With the snap of his fingers, he illuminated a couple of emeralds sitting on a stone table. He sat himself down on a stool and gestured towards three others.

  “I thought you only had two powers,” said Arc, nodding towards the emerald pendant hung around Minator’s neck.

  “Snap your fingers,” said the man.

  Arc did as he was told and the lights faded into nothing. He snapped them again and the light returned. Unable to resist, Julie did the same after him while Jack sat there frowning, unamused by the magical gemstones.

  “You were alive before the Arcanaclysm?” asked Julie.

  “Yes,” said Minator solemnly. “I’ve been in and out of stasis over the years. Physically in my mid-thirties, but I’ve been alive for twice as long. I couldn’t tell you my exact physical age because you start to lose track after a while, but I was in my late twenties when the world collapsed.”

  “What was it like?” asked Arc, having heard tales from a few people he had met during his life. Each story brought a new illumination of the old world and its fall to him.

  “I missed the entire thing,” said Minator, tapping his pendant. “I woke up one day, only to find the world I was in was not the one I’d left behind.”

  “That must have been awful,” said Julie, holding her hands to her mouth.

  “It was,” sighed Minator. “Very few of the people I knew survived and even fewer of the ones I loved survived. I tried to make the best of things, but this barren world is not worth living in, so I chose to wait until it was something better.”

  “Why not make it better?” asked Jack haughtily.

  “Excuse me?” asked Minator crossly.

  “We all have to live with the hand fate dealt us. We don’t get the luxury of sleeping in an emerald cocoon until the Nuvaria is lush and green again. I think you’re a waste of space.”

  “Jack!” shouted Julie, embarrassed by her brother’s words.

  “Well,” said Arc, leaning forward on his knees. “I’m with Jack on this one, I’m afraid. Every monster I kill, every person I help…that’s progress to a better world. Could I find a quiet little outpost away from all trouble and live peacefully for the rest of my days? Probably. But I don’t do that.”

  “Why?” asked Minator. “Don’t tell me you have hope that things will have improved in any measurable way before you die.”

  Arc grinned and stood up. “I do have that hope. All of our actions ripple through time and our good deeds can outpace the bad ones if you spur them on enough. It just takes a little faith and a lot of action.”

  “You’re an optimistic fellow, aren’t you?”

  “How can I not be? I’m alive and well, aside from a few cuts and bruises. When you’ve been through hell and back a few times over, you realise that every second is a blessing.”

  “That’s a pile of—”

  Minator stopped dead upon hearing a cacophony of screeches echoing down the corridor. Arc, Jack, and Julie’s hearts jumped into their mouths, having heard similar screeches mere days ago. It was the horrifyingly familiar screeches of a band of goblins.

  The four ran to the bridge where the emerald golem stood waiting and the screeching only grew louder, but it was now joined by at least a dozen thudding footsteps.

  “Kill them all,” ordered Minator to his golem as he ran back across the bridge to hide within his temple.

  Content to let the golem deal with the ugly little beasts, Arc, Jack, and Julie followed. Before they had cleared the bridge, a spear whizzed past the trio and struck Minator in the back, tearing through his flesh and penetrating his stomach from behind. He fell flat on his face and the twins continued to run, but Arc spun around and pulled his revolver out.

  The golem grabbed goblin after goblin and hurled them into the abyss while Arc picked off three of the goblins with well-placed shots before running over to Minator who was weakly trying to climb to his feet.

  “I’m not…going to…” groaned the emerald master as Arc helped him up.

  “You’ll be fine, bud,” said the spellslinger as he spied Jack and Julie peeking out from the dark doorway ahead. “You just need to—”

  “Yeee!” screeched a goblin as it leapt on Arc and sank its claws into his shoulders. He released Minator who stumbled over to the bridge wall and held onto it for dear life.

  “Arc!” cried Jack and Julie, rushing to his aid, but he had already flung the goblin over his shoulder and onto the bridge.

  He didn’t want to waste a round and pinned it down while slamming the butt of his gun into its jaw over and over again, breaking the bone with a series of sickening cracks while the desperate goblin tried to escape. With his foe dazed, he stood up and grabbed its arm, pulling it up and swinging it through the air. He released the goblin and it flew over the wall and fell into the chasm below.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “I…” grunted Minator as he leaned on the edge of the bridge. “Hope…you’re right…Arc.”

  The last of his strength faded and he fell over the wall, plummeting into the abyss, following the many goblins into the unseen depths below.

  “Minator!” cried Arc, looking into the darkness below, but the emerald master’s body was already consumed by the chasm.

  “What do we—”

  Juile’s words were cut off by the emerald golem taking strides towards her. As it reached up and swung an arm downwards, Arc tackled her out of the way. The golem’s fist left a small crater of broken bricks in the bridge and it stood up straight again.

  “Run!” Arc called, scrambling to his feet and pulling Julie up with him.

  Jack didn’t need to be told twice and sprinted straight around the corner with them, following the tunnel towards the light of the outdoors. The emerald golem thundered after them, its docility gone with its master’s death, leaving it an unrestrained brute who was taking its master’s last command too literally; it was trying to kill them all.

  The trio burst back into the light, leaping onto a rock to cross the river before landing on the sand-dusted and dried-out soil. Arc dared to glance over his shoulder and saw the emerald golem clear the river in a single leap, landing only a couple of yards behind the trio. He shot at it with his revolver and the bullet plinked off it, leaving only a minor dent.

  “What do we do?” cried Jack as Arc spied the exact tool he needed nestled between rocks in the distance.

  “Use the tank; I’ll be the bait,” he said, stopping and turning to face the golem as the twins sprinted away.

  The golem raised its hefty green arms and thrust them down at the man who leapt aside, his blonde hair and vibrant scarf blowing from the draft created by the thump of the golem’s fists on the earth.

  “I’m not so slow,” said Arc with a smirk as the golem stared at him with its featureless face before making for him once more.

  “Come on!” Jack cried to Julie who was lagging behind him.

  “Just keep going!” she yelled as her brother charged straight towards the still-rumbling tank he had never wanted to see again.

  Knowing that it was Arc’s only hope of survival, Jack pushed himself hard and ran furiously towards the hunk of metal. When he drew close enough, he jumped and landed on top of it before swinging himself back inside. He was surrounded by the overwhelming collection of buttons, dials, and levers.

  “Which one was it,” he muttered, looking around in a panic for the controls he needed to blast the golem into a thousand pieces.

  As Jack settled on the large red button he was semi-confident was the correct one, he looked out the narrow window and saw that the golem was a few yards too far to the left and only getting further away as Arc desperately dodged the massive emerald beast’s heavy stomping.

  Jack slipped his head out of the hull and called out to his sister. “Julie! Make Arc move to the right!”

  “What?” she wailed.

  “To the right! To the right!”

  Jack slipped back in and watched as Julie fearlessly ran closer to the emerald golem. Arc was tiring and the monster thumped him in the side, sending him flying further to the left. Wishing he knew how to turn the beast of a machine, Jack looked from control to control; a glance upwards and he saw Julie pointing to the right and Arc scrambling across the sand to do as she had told him. In pursuit of its prey, the golem followed behind, ready to pulverise the human desperately crawling away.

  “Please,” whispered Jack as he took aim and waited for the golem to be led into position.

  It held its arms high in the air as Arc lay flat on the ground, covering his face, and Jack pressed the red button, praying for success. The tank let out an explosive bang as a shell flew across the desert, faster than anyone’s eyes could keep up with.

  Jack knew his aim was true within a second as, before his eyes, the emerald golem’s upper half was turned to fine crystalline dust. The shell flew straight through the tunnel opening and struck the back wall, sending a wave of smoke billowing out while the golem’s legs crumbled into dozens of smaller chunks that thudded upon the ground.

  The young man breathed a sigh of relief and slammed his head against the tank wall. Slowly, he began laughing. It was a miracle that it had worked. He climbed out of the tank and hopped back onto the ground, following Julie over to meet Arc, who was sitting upright and juggling a pair of emeralds with a stupid smile on his face.

  “Catch!” he called to Julie, tossing one to her, but she sidestepped it and it rolled across the sand. “No? Nothing?”

  “I’m not feeling especially jovial right now,” she said, drawing close to him.

  As Julie helped Arc back to his feet, Jack flopped onto the ground and put his hands over his eyes. “Can’t we have a day without trouble?” he asked.

  “If I get five days without trouble, I’m doing well,” said Arc, “but I’d happily take two days at this point.”

  “What do we do about Minator?” asked Julie shakily.

  “There’s nothing we can do anymore,” said Arc, talking out of one side of his mouth. “Poor guy fell into that bottomless pit after being run through by a spear. That’s something that even the best of us couldn’t survive. A real shame. Cowardly as he was about the state of the world, I don’t think he was a bad fella.”

  “We never did get to hear the full story about life before the Arcanaclysm. All of the older people I’ve spoken to either refused to talk about it, saying it was too painful, or they were too young when it happened to remember it.”

  “It’s best not to dwell on the past too much, Julie,” said Arc, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You’ll just end up getting depressed. And when you get depressed, you fall into despair, which can end far worse. We keep on moving along, seeing where the road takes us and finding out what we can do to help others.”

  “For you, at least,” said Jack. “Our road ends in Pembroke and I can’t wait for it.”

  Arc smirked. “Don’t pretend you didn’t have fun blowing up that golem.”

  “I would have rather not seen it in the first place, but…yes, it was fun. That said, you’ll never see me climbing into a tank again, even with a hundred assurances that it’s broken.”

  “Don’t you feel guilty?” asked Julie sternly.

  “About what?” asked Jack, pushing himself up on his elbows.

  “Minator!” she shouted. “If it hadn’t been for you playing around, his hideout wouldn’t have been exposed and the goblins wouldn’t have heard the noise to know to come looking.”

  Jack frowned. “Now I do,” he said quietly. “Damn…”

  “Don’t dwell on it, Jack,” said Arc, walking over and pulling the young lad to his feet. “Stupid as it may have been, you didn’t know. Dozens of things could have led us down a different path.”

  “Like what?” asked Jack, looking over his shoulder at the tank.

  “If we’d kept on moving rather than stopping to rest, if I hadn’t suggested going into the temple, if Minator hadn’t come outside to hear the goblins. And that’s just a couple off the top of my head. Learn from your mistake and move along.”

  “Can we say a prayer for him?” asked Julie.

  “That, we can do,” said Arc brightly, leading the way back into the temple. “I reckon Anateer is watching over us right now because the timing of Jack’s shot couldn’t have been more perfect. I was maybe two seconds from being turned into paste.”

  “Are you going to take any of the emeralds?”

  “No. Out of respect for Minator, I’ll leave everything as it was when he died. It’s different taking things from bandits or ruined towns, where we don’t know the face of the dead. Taking the emeralds doesn’t feel right, having known who the owner was. There’s a fine line between looting and scavenging and I think we’re right on it today.”

  Julie sighed. “Things will be better when we get to Pembroke, won’t they?” she asked, not sounding convinced.

  “Better than being attacked by goblins, ghosts, and golems?” asked Arc. “Yes, you won’t have to worry about those too much in Pembroke. Don’t get me wrong, nowhere is perfect, but you’ll be able to handle yourselves in a town like that. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “Then let’s get back on the road once we’ve said a few words for Minator,” said Jack. “All I want right now is to be somewhere safe.”

  “And I promise, I’ll get you there,” said Arc, looking towards the tree under which he had been sleeping no more than an hour before.

  He led the way over to it with a disgruntled Jack and a relieved Julie following him. He fully intended to make good on his promise, but he had been a trouble magnet lately. The second that thought crossed his mind, he knew that trouble had been following him for much longer than lately.