Well, here it is, the finale of Phantom Dawn, and paradoxically, the longest installment of the story to date! Somehow, when I want to write a lot, my brain seizes up, allowing only a modest trickle to come out, but when I don't want to write a lot, I can't seem to stop myself. As it was, I coukd have kept going...
Before we get to that though, let's catch up with Brennan and Riz shall we?
The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
I bet he'll look fabulous by the time morning comes around. Hope Valarie does get them back though!
Tried my hand at drawing the same panel three times in a row essentially. Not perfect by any means but I think there has been some improvement there. Could have done this with Brennan but I thought I'd be nice and give him a week off, allowing Valarie to swoop in and get the spotlight. One thing I hope to achieve with the comic this year is to increase her appearances.
Short Diversions: Phantom Dawn Epilogue
So this is it, the ultimate end of the story. What awaits our heroes when Rose speaks out her own choice...
Phantom Dawn Chapter Index
Epilogue
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Epilogue: New Journey
It had been a few days since peace had fallen on the town. The new monstrous guardians had settled into their new roles and been praised accordingly. What fear existed amongst the town people had been washed away.
Rose spent the time either mingling with people more than happy to share the praise with her, or watching the monsters that had once been trying to kill her. Her thoughts, though, were focused elsewhere. Every night, she’d had the same recurring dreams featuring the shadowed figures of her parents. They always said the same things, and always, at the end, she saw flashes of the sword. One the last such occasion, she’d managed to find a pencil and something to draw on, doing her best to transcribe what had existed only in her dreams. She’d already made up her mind that she had to leave, but she still had to tell everyone else.
The moment she’d chosen to reveal her decision came at the end of the day, when light was fading. She, Kurz, Neal, Mason and Si, had gathered around a small camp fire. Rose waited until there was a lull in the conversation. She cleared her throat, a move to get the others attention.
“I…I’ve got something to say,” she began. “I’ve been thinking a lot about this…” the words seemed to be tumbling out of her reach, a speech she’d prepared was in tatters in just a few syllables.
“It’s okay, Rose,” Neal said softly. “Take your time.”
On hearing that, Rose settled herself, before continuing.
“I’ve made up my mind…Tomorrow morning….I’m leaving this town.”
Her words shocked everyone.
“Wha-What? Why would you want to leave now!” Si was the first to actually say something.
“Maybe we should let her continue first, I’m sure she’ll have a reason,” Neal put his hand on Si’s shoulder to settle him, he noticed that Mason and Kurz were listening intently. Her decision had shook him as well, but he also wasn’t surprised by it. She clearly wanted to find what was missing within her, and there was nothing in this town to spark those memories back into being.
“I can’t explain it fully, but I feel like that if I find this…” Rose took the crude picture of the sword from her dreams out of her pocket, holding it up for everyone to see. “This sword…holds the key to more of my memories, it might even restore them all. Touching the one that Mason gave me allowed me to see my parents again, even if I couldn’t make out their faces. I can’t sit here while the answers I seek are out there, waiting for me to find them!” Rose’s words quickened as she tried to get all the words out. It still didn’t match what she felt in her heart. Despite only knowing the people gathered around her, nay, the people of the town for a few days, she didn’t want to part from them. The emotions she was feeling were conflicting, her need to know who she was fighting tooth and nail with the desire to stay and learn from all her new friends.
“Are you dead set on going?” Mason asked, disrupting her train of thought, and dragging everyone’s eyes to him.
Rose didn’t answer straight away, but she clenched her fists, as to make her decision permanent.
“Yes.”
“Then, I’m going with you!” Mason declared standing. “I refuse to let you wander these lands alone.” He sounded gallant saying it.
“That, and you reckon you’ve got nothing keeping you here. Oh, and your connection to Finch being scrutinised by the townspeople every time they see you,” Kurz said snidely. “That being said though, I guess your heart is in the right place, but it’s not like I’m going to sit by and watch the two of you disappear into the wastes. I’m going too,” Kurz stood, showing his intent.
“Wait, what’s going on now? Why are you both going! You do know what it’s like out there don’t you! Not to mention the wannabe warlords like Finch! Speaking of, without you guys, Finch is going to run roughshod over us!” Si wailed.
“He might be put off by the two new guardians this place has…Eros is strong but that comes at a price, and Finch isn’t going to want to rely on that. Plus, he’ll probably be more interested in who stopped him anyhow,” Mason’s eyes drifted back to Rose, who took in what he was saying.
“You mean that he’ll want me?” Rose asked.
“Sadly…Not that I’ll let it happen of course!” Mason boasted.
“Then, me moving away from here will be good for the town anyway…” Rose reasoned, before turning back to Si to see if he had anything to say.
“If it turns out like that, then, great. I mean, I’m not going to risk my life following you though. I’m staying put!”
“No one can blame you for that decision. I feel like we’ve all got our own reasons for wanting to leave with Rose,” Neal said, looking at everyone in turn.
“Does that even mean you want to go with her old man?” Kurz enquired. “If anyone should stay with Si, it should be you. I think your wandering times are over.”
“That’s precisely why I should go with you all, I know these lands well, after a lifetime and then some, of wandering over them. We’ll be looking for a veritable needle in a haystack. No harm in having a guide to help out is there?” Neal replied.
Kurz had to think about that, trying to come up with any argument he could in order to keep his grandfather where he’d be safe. When it became apparent he couldn’t, he didn’t hide his frustration.
“Well, I think that settles the matter,” Neal smiled. “I know you’re worried, Kurz, but you needn’t be. No one is going to take unnecessary risks under my watch, and that includes you. Our mission is to help Rose.”
“...And dealing with Finch? If he wants her, we’ll have to face him at some point,” Kurz kicked the dirt, knocking dust into the wind.
“Then we’ll deal with that as and when it comes to it.”
“Your gramps is right…I mean, you’re right too, I guess,” Mason added. “Finch is that shadow looming over to us now, but that shouldn’t stop us from doing anything. We’ll all have our own reckoning with him…” He wasn’t looking forward to that. Betrayers got special attention in Finch’s eyes.
“We’ll take him on together!” Rose promised, jumping up to put her arm around Mason and Kurz, the former starting to blush. “I can’t thank you enough for all of this…” She lowered her head as tears started to fall.
“Given what you’ve already done for us, this is the least we can do…I suggest we leave with the first light of day, once we’ve assembled some supplies of course. We delay at all and we risk not leaving altogether.” Neal’s proposals were met with a nod of heads.
Rose thought back to her conversation a few days prior, where she’d thanked Neal for finding her, but he’d replied by thanking her for finding them.
Is this what he’d meant? This feeling we are all sharing? Our goals aligning as one? She asked herself.
Well, it looks like things are finally going to get interesting, I certainly hope you don’t kill any of them next time you use that power of yours…The other voice laughed.
Rose shrugged the mocking laughter away. She chose to focus on what was to come the next day…
Elsewhere…
“Finch! Where are you! This place is a damn labyrinth…” Eros muttered. He’d returned to his employer with only bad news to share, while also knowing that his boss would already know the jist of what he was going to say.
“I’m over here with my newest prize…Don’t worry Eros, I know what you’re going to tell me already,” Finch said, sounding pleasant.
“About the town surviving and how some red haired girl tamed two of the worst monsters out there, defeating one of the very worst ones I ever came across…That what you heard?”
“Tell me about the red haired girl. I assume she’s the same one that beat Mason up so readily?”
Despite hearing his voice, Eros still couldn’t see Finch, the room he’d entered was pitch black.
“Can’t you turn a light on or something here? I don’t even know if I’m talking to a wall or not?” Eros protested, reaching out with his hand to probe his surroundings. He’d been in the trophy room several times before, and each time, the layout had shifted as Finch collected more and more. Relics from before the Fall were scattered everywhere, ranging from the mundane to the best military hardware recovered. It was from these spoils that he equipped his forces. Even Eros had been allowed to take advantage of these wares.
“Don’t make me ask again, Eros. Despite you doing a lackluster job, I’m in a very good mood as some of my men secured a rare prize indeed. I’d hate to be upset at this point by you dodging my question.” While he sounded as jovial as before, there was a more serious edge there, one that made Eros take pause.
“She’s incredibly strong, and from what little I was able to observe, doesn’t even know who or what she is. While I wouldn’t say her powers are too out of the norm compared to what is out there, they are unique.”
“What? Her strength? Nothing an old exosuit couldn’t manage.”
“No, I’m talking about the power she used in the last fight… .I can scarcely begin to describe. It goes beyond being super strong.”
“So, what you’re saying is, she’d be a mighty prize?”
“A prize?” As Eros mulled those words, lights were turned on with a blinding glare. When his eyes adjusted, Eros saw that Finch was standing ahead of him next to a reinforced glass cabinet, where a sword was being held up by four chains. The blade looked pristine, with an ornate handle that held a red jewel on the centre of the hilt. Strange writing was etched around the edges. The whole sword was mesmerising to look at, and while Eros had seen swords before, he’d seen nothing like this one.
“Where did you get this from?”
“I’d heard talk about shooting stars a few nights ago, so I sent men out to scour the area. Aside from a couple of craters, they found this,” Finch stroked the cabinet. “It’s as light as a feather, but capable of cutting most materials we have. Don’t you think it’s funny though, that strange girl appears, and so does this sword.”
“What are you getting at?”
“I think they’re connected, and if they are, I want the set. That’ll be your new job. Bring me the girl. You know I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Is that all you want? She’ll be with that traitor and the old man and his grandkid, the ones who’ve been causing trouble.” There was no way that Eros was going to pass up a job like this. He had reservations about how strong the girl was, but at the end of the day, he’d killed worse.
“Well, I don’t want them. Do what you want with them, consider it an extra with the reward. That suit you?” Finch asked, he hadn’t pulled his focus off the sword, constantly getting lost in the beauty he perceived.
“Yes, I’ll make sure it’s done.”
“Good, I’m counting on you Eros. Oh, with that grandkid, make sure you actually finish the job this time. If you’d killed them all in the fist place when I sent you after his mum, I doubt we’d be in this position now.”
“I won’t let him get away again.”
“Good, now go, I think I need to reorganise things here for when you bring her back here.”
“Whatever keeps you amused,” Eros muttered under his breath as he turned. He had his new mission, that’s all that mattered.
Neal had been the first to awake the next morning, rising as he did with the early light. Having done journeys like this before, he knew what supplies they’d need, and set off gathering them. It didn’t take long for the others to awake as well, Rose included, and they all attended their own business, except Mason, who had nothing to sort out. Rose herself didn't know what she could do to help prepare, so she sat watching till Neal gave a nod to Kurz and that was that, they were ready and could leave at any notice. It was at this point that Si took his leave, but he didn’t say a word, his head bowed as he walked out of the door, which struck Rose as a bit odd given what she’d learned about him. To her, it seemed that talking was a specialty of his. She wondered what was going through his mind about the fact that his friends were leaving and he wasn’t.
“Are you ready, Rose?” Neal asked. Rose nodded, giving a faint smile that belied the guilt that started to build on her shoulders.
“I am but…”
“We can only know if this is the right course of action once we’ve started. Staying has its own risks. If there’s no answers here, then you’ll regret not having the courage to leave, to find the real you.”
“What if the real me isn’t worth finding? What if I’m better off not knowing.”
“Do you believe that to be the case? When you find out the truth, you’ll still have a choice whether to embrace the person you were, or cast it aside to be who you want to be. We’ll be by your side the whole way, I promise,” Neal said sagely. He held out his hand for Rose to grasp, which she did willingly.
“In that case then, let’s go.”
“I’m ready, just as the bird that decides to spread its wings wide,!” Mason declared poetically as he came in from another room. “I’ll be with you to the end, my sweetest Rose.”
“You keep coming up with bad poetry, your end will be faster than you think,” Kurz commented. “You can make yourself useful though.” He tossed one of the bulkier bags at Mason.
“I’m not a pack horse!”
“No, I think you’re more of a mule.”
“Very funny.”
Rose started laughing at this point, leaving Neal to settle things before any brawl could erupt.
“This is getting us any further is it? I think as long as we’re all travelling together, you too should learn to get along.”
“This is us getting along though,” Mason admitted.
“He’s right, otherwise we’d already killed each other several times over,” Kurz backed him up.
“Well, if that is all sorted then, I guess we should head out?” Rose suggested, pointing at the door.
Stepping beyond it wasn’t as bad as she’d assumed it would be.
“I think we should start by heading towards where I found you,” Neal suggested.
“Okay, that sounds like a good plan…What are those people doing?” Rose pointed ahead at the large crowd that was ahead of them, till they saw Si step forward from it. In contrast to how Rose had normally seen him. Whereas before he was highstrung in stressful situations, but lax otherwise, now he wore a somber expression.
“Don’t think you were going to leave without everyone having something to say about it,” he said, motioning to everyone who had gathered behind him.
“Si…” Kurz muttered, knowing that his friend was hurting too.
“Rose!” Cecily burst from the crowd and wrapped herself around Rose, who knelt down to her level. “Why are you leaving us? Don’t you like us anymore?” the little girl blubbed.
“That’s not it at all! I’m leaving because I have to. You know who you are, I don’t. You have a life here. Mine…That’s what I want to discover,” Rose tried to explain but wasn’t having an easy time with it.
“But you are you!” Cecily couldn’t understand what her friend was trying to say.
“Maybe I am, but I need to see that for myself. I do have an important job that only you can do though…” Rose hugged the little girl tight. “Those new guardians of the town. I need you to make sure they don’t feel lonely. Go to them every day, talk to them, let them know you and look after them for me, please.”
This request caught the child off guard, making her forget her sadness briefly.
“Look after them? I can do that!” Cecily beamed.
“I know you’re going to be brilliant at it!” Rose smiled back.
While that exchange had been going on, the rest of the townsfolk were thanking Neal and Kurz, while giving Mason a wide berth, which he completely understood.
When she was finished with Cecily, Rose stood and turned to the crowd, who seemed to be waiting for her especially. One man stepped forward, seemingly speaking for everyone else.
“On behalf of everyone here, I wish to offer our thanks for all you’ve done for us, in the short time you’ve been with us. You helped to break Finch’s hold on the town, then gave us two new protectors that can stand against the threats that the Phantom Dawn dares bring down on us. We pray that you find what you’re looking for. You will always have a place here with us.” He bowed his head as he spoke, bowing in respect.
“I don’t know what to say, except thank you,” Rose replied. “No matter what I find out there, I’ll never forget my time here, and with you all.”
Kurz, Neal and Mason gathered behind her.
“I echo her sentiment,” Neal added. “This town will always be my home, for all my memories here, so we may say good bye now, but our paths will cross again. Si…” Neal addressed him personally.
“I hope you can look after this town.”
“Yeah, and not have the people look after you constantly like I had to,” Kurz joked before taking a step closer to his friend. “Still, going to be odd not having you by my side,” he bumped elbows with him.
“Nah, you’ll go faster without me to slow you down,” Si admitted. “Take care of yourself.”
“Same to you.”
With their goodbyes said, the small group made their way through the crowd, as the onlookers sent their wishes of a safe voyage around them.
Rose took one look backwards as they moved away from the crowd.
“Thank you,” She whispered, then she turned round again to face the journey she’d chosen, and with Mason, Kurz and Neal by her side, she set off for the next horizon, and all the secrets she’d hoped to uncover there…
The End
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There! It's done! It's finally done! It certainly was a task and a half to get this story done, but was it worth it? You'll just have to check back soon to see my post mortem on it, and I assure you, it won't be pretty...
That being said, I would like to thank everyone for putting up with it (and me). Defiantly want to give it some time before I launch myself into another large scale writing project like this one.
I do have one last thing to share though:
I think our heroes will be alright...for now at least!
Till next time,
Keep on writing.
Peter James Martin
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