“What are you talking about? Who are you?”
His body was shaking badly, and he could barely speak. However, that did not make him stop. It was then when I understood how much I admired him. I admired his strength, his determination, his perseverance. There was one more thing that finally was made clear to me. I did not want him to die. He had just entered my life and I did not want him to be gone. That might be one of the few times in my life that I was not egoistically thinking. I did not need him to safeguard me. I needed him to teach me how to become a better person. From the moment I met him, he kept repeating that he would be by my side, to support me and to protect me. And that is what he did after all. When I was cowardly hidden in the guestroom, he was fighting against the man who had come to get me killed. And now, he was dying in my hands. No! That could not be the end. I would not let that be the end. There had to be a way to save him.
“Arthur, I can’t let you go! Just tell me what I need to do to save you. There must be a way.” I could not hide the desperate tone in my voice.
“Yes, there is something I need you to do. Please, go to that bastard’s ashes, get the ring he was wearing, and put it on your finger,” he said. “Please, do as I say. I’m running out of time.”
I placed his head carefully on the floor, and I went to what had left from the intruder’s body. I cleared the ring of the ashes and I put it on my finger. Then it hit me.
“Why are you still alive?” I asked him.
“Excuse me?”
I ran back and knelt over him. “You said that you have been injured by a Carnwennan. From what I have seen, once a Time Hopper’s skin is torn by a Carnwennan, their body is set immediately on fire and ashes is what’s left of them. But that did not happen to you. You’re still alive!”
“It’s because I’m still wearing my ring. Thousands of years ago, a protection spell was cast on this ring. This ring has saved my life many times, but I have never been hit by a Carnwennan before.”
“So, you are going to be okay.”
“No,” Arthur said dramatically. “Death will be slow but will eventually come. The power of Carnwennan is bigger than the ancient protection spell. I will suffer a slow death. I do not want that. I want you to take my ring off my finger and put it on yours. Then, I can die sure that you will be double protected. Please, at least give me the pleasure of knowing that I’ve done something good for you.”
“What will happen to you when I take the ring off your finger?”
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” he said and projected his hand with difficulty to me.
I got my hand into his hand and looked at him in the eyes.
“No way, Jose,” I said.
“Excuse me?” he asked puzzled.
“Don’t excuse-me me. I am not doing it.”
“What?”
“I am not doing it,” I insisted.
“What do you mean you are not doing it? I am dying here.” Still lying on his, back Arthur looked at me confused.
“I have seen many Time Hopper movies. There is always a chick who gives her blood to the Time Hopper she loves and then they live happily ever after.”
“What does blood have to do with Time Hoppers?” His breath was now normal, and his cheeks were rosy again.
“Oh, I think you are right. Those were not Time Hoppers movies. They were vampire movies.” I pretended that I was embarrassed by my mistake.
Arthur was now on a sitting position looked at me with an eyebrow raised.
“Oh, you are alive again,” I said casually while playing with the ring in my hands.
“How did you nail me?” He stood up slowly.
“You are a terrible actor, Arthur. You almost got me, but you went too far with the drama. Carnwennan and bullshit. Aww, and you were so deeply sorry that you barely kissed me. What a joke. Catch!” I threw the ring towards him and he grabbed it in the air.
Before he argued his point, a wheezing sound coming from the other side of the spacey living room made us turn our heads. Everything happened so fast and with such an amazing accuracy like it was well orchestrated by a supreme force.
A black-clad creature, man or woman I could not say, came flying straight at us, pointing a fiery blade sword. I instinctively raised my hand projecting the Carnwennan dagger as a spear. The creature got nailed on the dagger, and then magic happened.
A glowing white light erupted from Arthur’s ring, passed through my body, and ended to the edge of Carnwennan. An enormous otherworldly power possessed my body. The cosmic vastness accommodated my tiny human body and little explosions of knowledge shook my soul. My long loud cry stopped when the creature evaporated, leaving its sword and its ring drop down in a haze of golden mist.
“What was that?”
“That was ancient magic,” said Arthur. “There is something in your past, Gwen, that has given you a power you do not know you have.”
“Am I not just a Time Hopper?” I panicked.
“You are. A very gifted one. Centuries ago, there was an ancient legend about the powerful Sorceress that will appear in our world and will bridge the differences between the two enemy cults of Wizards.”
“You believe that I am that Sorceress?”
