A Love In Dark Times

When night fell, it seemed to be raining on tin tiles, only it was the fluttering of thousands of vampires, arriving to abduct Luisa under the pretext of avenging their fallen comrades,

The barrier of trees and rocks will not last long, lady gaya,” warned the king nomo, preparing himself with his 10 weapon and thinking that this would be his opportunity to prove his worth and that of his people, “my warriors are ready, no one can fight us.

Well king, remember to stick to the plan and you Luisa, you must flee, a group will take you to safety through a system o tunnels.

1am a warrior and I was not trained to flee.

-Luisa, my child, sometimes you have to run away to fight another day, take care of yourself, you matter a lot.

“You matter more than me, lady gaya, if those bugs are strong enough to make you nervous, we'd better run away, let's go these beings can't fight during the day, let's make time and kill them all’ said Luisa raising her huge sword.

- don't think we can do that, they are thousands and very strong, as well as clever and tricky.

-Lady Gaya, you cannot leave here, your heart is in this fortress,” said King Nomo looking at the floor.

-If that is true, even if I flee in this body, if they find my heart I will die and maybe with it all the flora of the earth, we onl have to fight and try to hold on until the sun rays or reinforcements arrive, by the way king, what's up with that?

-My lady, we have sent emissaries to some allies who are not interested in their protégé and those we sent with gold to human kingdom to get mercenaries, they are missing, we can only count on what we have and it is enough, in a short tim we will make a bat sweat with the remains,” and the Nomo king grabbed his belly.

The green barrier broke down, and in came the flock of bats dancing with the spears of the little nomos, tearing off their little heads full of courage, the catapults left the bats under the stones, some wings were torn off by the fierce little rock swords, the nomos boasted of being the best warriors, but they had never had a real war, They had faced wolves and oths beasts, which defeated them thanks to numerical superiority and rudimentary tools, also many humans of those who we; lost in the forests, who died believing that these little men were hallucinations of the dying, now they were not, but food, hunting prey, hindrance and stones in their shoes; the real fight centred on Luisa, the Mother-Mount Gaya and the vampi who changed from bats to men with sabre fangs and knife claws.

The vampires, on the other hand, moved barely out of the swords effective field and attacked her from behind with the intention of sapping her energy and her barrier of enchantments, the mother-mountain throwing sharp rocks from the ground and stakes from the trees at them, Luisa was left alone wielding her sword, throwing lightning bolts that hit one o those monsters without needing to aim, until a booming voice articulated something like: “Wait child, stop, stop, stop, st stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop:

-wait girl, stop, look at this, -it was another vampire who brought in his hand a huge multicoloured stone full of roots, -tf is the heart of Gaya or mother-mountain or any of her names, if we destroy it she will not be able to constitute herself again, surrender and we will not harm her, or keep fighting and you will fall tired, anyway you have already lost.

Luisa stopped without lowering her sword, it is true that she could not go on in this hustle and bustle until dawn, maybe the only sensible decision would be to surrender, saving Gaya, stopping the massacre of nomos and maybe she would fig another day or what could she expect, a saviour would arrive, a reinforcement or a miracle, and then it happened.

“You know Luisa, vampires don't fool around, we only bite," he buried his fangs in the stone, breaking it into pieces and ordered: “Keep attacking, I want her alive, but not unharmed.

Again they attacked her with viciousness, the flapping wings covered the little light there was and their swords, although accurate, were not enough and each time it increased its slowness, soon she would fall, she could feel how even her eyes seemed to close, at that moment she only thought of Luis, I wish he would come to save her, she almost fell asleep if it wasn't that when her barrier was turned off the vampires began to hit her with care not to scratch her, she tried to screar asking for help to a walker that maybe would pass by there and if by chance some Samaritan could have heard her, Every time she tried, her mouth was kicked shut or she moaned, now her eyes were trying to close, but because she was at the limit of pain, it was not, but even the first part of her miracle happened, she managed to see between blinks how some vampires shot out in pieces, She tried to look for the cause, her saviour was a man of medium height, with abundant hair and bright eyes that illuminated the place, he was El Mohan, since she was a child she had heard his myth, there was alsc another similar being with a hat made of bushes, only that he had no feet, Luisa took advantage of the fact that her attackers were focused on the new threat and got up to go to check if she could help repair the heart of the mother- mountain, She tried to join the pieces that dripped sage, that puzzle was missing pieces because of the disembowelment she joined them together, she tried to do what she did with the eggs and nothing, she started to pray, she wet it with sali and tears, even the stones fell apart in her hands, increasing her desperation, A faction of the vampires became aware of her actions and went to stop her intentions, then in desperation she cut her wrist with a piece of a fang of a dead vampir that had not yet turned to ash, and her blood spurted out on the stones, closing her eyes and shouting the prayers she knew, The vampires were distracted by the smell of their natural food, causing their cravings to overflow and they turned on Luisa, who with her eyes closed did not observe how those little fangs approached her, even though her two saviours took advantage of this oversight to finish off hundreds of them; A glow came out of those stones and they rose forming a heart that turned into a whirlwind of light that tore up stones and trees forming a giant the size of a mountain that kicke away the vampires as if they were geckos, and lifted Luisa trying to protect her from those flying knives.

“Thank you Luisa, you saved me, I hope you can save my nomos too, I feel radiant, young as fifteen million years old,” anc bandage her wounds with a healing sage, trying to calm the attackers’ anxiety, it still didn't seem enough, even though Gaya was attacking them with stakes shot like a porcupine, In a matter of seconds Gaya collapsed leaving his glowing hez exposed, a confident vampire without seeing any opposition went to destroy him again, Luisa looked for the Mohan and I company and did not see them, -maybe they had eliminated him? , -she thought, and with difficulty she got back to her feet, her anguish rose to critical levels, she began to run, she ran like a zombie because of her wounds and pushed the vampire with her shoulder, discovering how hard they were, -he broke my back, -again she reflected as she fell to the ground again, although her attack served her well, as the vampire changed his objective towards her, She tried to crawl backwards, backwards when she was blocked by something, she turned her head and she was surrounded by vampires, with no escape, she would need another miracle and it happened, although not in the way she expected, the vampires’ wings and their cloaks caught fire, those beings grabbed their necks choking themselves or desperately scratched their pleading faces.

-My dear Luisa, I told you to call me if you need me," interjected a mysterious, familiar voice.

“Who are you, let me see you, who has so much power to destroy these powerful beings in seconds?

“You insult me by not remembering me,” and he appeared as if a 30 printer had moulded him, a large man with chunks tt added size and fright.

-Don Lucifer, is that you,” asked Luisa, looking at the enormous wings that covered him like a cape.

-My dear Luisa, besides being pretty, you are very clever, it seems I did you a favour.

“No, I didn't ask you for anything.

That doesn't matter, if I hadn't decided to intervene, you'd be in their jaws or worse, they would have kidnapped you, wanting your virtues.

-I thank you for making that decision, now please let me go, I have to check on mother-mountain.

she will be fine," said Lucifer appearing in his hand the great multicoloured glowing rock, “this heart will sprout again an by your grace, it will have more power, that was what she wanted, suddenly this war was a farce for you to do this, it is ve strange that she lost against these avechuchos, she would have sent them a storm of sulphur garlic, like I did, for that yo don't need much power, only knowledge.

- don't think she cheated me, she wanted to help me.

“Wake up Luisa, everyone wants something from you, Gaya wanted you to empower her, the vampires wanted you to brin them out of the darkness, even your beloved Luis only wants the pleasures that you can give him as a woman or your mother, the affection and pride that children give.

If itis true what you say that everyone wants, then what do you want?

-My dear Luisa, I'm already over wanting something or desiring, I'm just a force of destiny, the only thing that matters to r is change, that doesn't catch me with my trousers down, my plans will be fulfilled in due time and in some way, since cha is the nature of everything.

50 1 can go.

-Luisa forgive my syntax, I can't tell if that was a statement or a question.

-Don Lucifer, I suppose if you don't need anything from me, you'll let me go.

“You're guessing almost right, only I'm a force as in for every action there's a reaction, so for every favour of mine there's payoff.

-1 guess my choice would be to refuse and fight.

-No Luisa, even with all your strength you couldn't even scratch me and you can refuse, only you would never come back this kingdom.

will you kidnap me?

-No Luisa, I'll take you on a tour of my domain with only the one way ticket, the return ticket you'll have to earn it in a fai way just by paying me this favour and that’s it.

That's not fair, 1 didn’t ask you for any favours.

-All right, you're right, I propose something, come on, I'll show you what I require you to do, that way we'll be even and I'l bring you back no matter if you refuse, I can also offer you something in exchange for that matter, you'll choose and besides I won't explode in fury destroying this valuable stone.

-All right, I don't have much of a choice.

The demon king shook his head in affirmation, and a flaming portal opened from the ground,

-First the ladies,” Lucifer waved him through, pointing to the portal.

Luisa entered, turning her head before the portal closed, she caught a glimpse of the heart of the Mother Mountain once again assembling a body overflowing with flowers.