WHAT HE DID was the most sensible thing he could have done that night.
He ran.
A roar from behind him made the ground shudder and the nearby ruins of a building collapsed further to the ground. Cyrus reached behind him and grabbed Magdeline, holding her carefully to his chest. He sprinted, trying to avoid the center of town where he knew the rest of the city folk were.
But every stride the monster made was ten times the length of Cyrus's. They would soon be overcome. He ducked into a dilapidated building and tensed his body, trying to come up with a plan. He was given only a second or two before the monster found him and reared its head to cover him in fire.
Suddenly he was no longer in the building but several feet behind the monster, watching as it doused the spot in white-hot flame where he had been only moments before.
Magdeline wriggled from his hands and breathed heavily.
"Thank you!" Cyrus breathed. "I can see why Heroes favor faeries as companions."
She made some clicking sounds and he really didn't know what it meant.
A large crack exploded in Cyrus's ears and he saw a flaming timber from the building was knocked down, falling roughly on the monster's back. The beast screamed and tore the crumbling wood off. The scales beneath the fire bubbled sickeningly and its golden mane smoked into a dead black.
Magdeline pointed and flew in circles in front of Cyrus's eyes. This time, he understood the signs she was making with her hands.
"So it can be hurt by its own fire," Cyrus whispered, clambering to his feet to duck behind some rubble before the monster could turn around and see him. He rested his back against the pile and tried to think. He grabbed Magdeline so that her light didn't draw attention.
"How can it be hurt by its own fire?"
Magdeline had no answer, just a shrug of her tiny, tiny shoulders.
He thought for several seconds. The fact of what could hurt the monster didn't matter as much as that it could be hurt in the first place.
"We just need to find a way to make it fall into its own destruction. If we can get it near the fire, we should be able to do something."
Magdeline squirmed free again and fluttered to a small collection of flames a few feet from the rubble. Her light expanded and she dove into the fire. Cyrus reached out to stop her but she came out unharmed, surrounded by a ball of white flame.
"You can carry fire?" Cyrus asked in wonder.
She nodded tiny nods with her tiny head. He beamed.
"That thing has very flammable fur on top of it and underneath. If you can ignite them, I'm sure that would at least get us somewhere. I'll draw it over here but you have to be ready, okay?"
The light pulsed and Cyrus took it as a yes.
He jumped out from the pile and waved his arms with a yell.
"Hey...dragon-cat! Over here, you ugly thing!"
The monster heard his yell over the crackling of the fire, looked up from the flames, and growled.
Its enormous tail swung against the side of a burning building, reducing it to a pile of useless rock before bounded towards him in an incredible speed that had him frozen for a second, one brief terrorizing moment while Cyrus wondered if he should have thought his plan through.
It was too late for second-guessing, however, and he sprinted off in the opposite direction in the desperate hope that Magdeline would be able to fulfill her part.
And then a gut-wrenching roar confirmed that she had.
He turned his head and saw flames engulf the beast. A crash. Cyrus stopped to look back, and saw the monster toppling to the ground.
Enclosed within her ball of flames, Magdeline whirred around it, brushing against it, catching every part of the monster she could reach on fire. Its red skin bubbled and its fur was singed off.
Magdeline flew back to Cyrus, casting off the fire from her body. She stood on his shoulder and they both stared at the sizzling creature.
Cyrus cringed at the noise it made.
It screamed while its flesh popped. It must have hurt like hell. But he thought of the many victims that perished on the same fire and he thought the monster deserved this kind of death.
Within minutes nothing was left but a burnt skeleton and foul-smelling ash. And this time he knew it was dead. People were climbing out of holes, chattering, laughing, whispering... making noises. But not afraid anymore.
He let out a sharp laugh, too. He couldn't believe it. He and his faerie had slain a monster. They had defeated a scourge of evil that no one else could.
They had saved a city!
I'm a Hero!
He plucked Magdeline gently from his shoulder and hugged her to his chest. "Oh, thank you," he whispered. "Thank you."
With a chirp, Magdeline pushed away and flew up to his lips. he knew by now why this was so. And as the still-unfamiliar warmth came over him and a bright light dotted his vision, he felt his heart start its now familiar race.
"I definitely need to have a word with that witch," Magdeline ominously as soon as she turned. "Soon."
She stood before him naked but for the long and thick hair covering her where she should be covered, brushing ashes from her hair. Then she smiled at him as his face was enveloped in red.
She leaned in closer with a smirk, her face again infront of his face as he froze.
"You really do deserve a real kiss for that stupidity, Hero. I have some thanks for you as well."
That was when the men of the city flooded onto the path from behind the ruins of buildings, hollering and shaking their fists in applause. They had apparently been watching at a distance and only felt ready to emerge when the coast was clear. He suddenly found himself on a shirt, his tunic now covering Magdeline's nakedness. Magic. Magdeline had pulled back and crossed her arms in a huff as the men gawked at the new Hero.
"You did it, Sir Hero!" one of them called. Other men joined the cheer, shouting their praises.
Some of the men paused at the sight of Magdeline but most ran to Cyrus to offer him robust thanks. They slapped him on the shoulders and laughed in celebration.
"Sir Hero?" a man questioned when Cyrus did not move.
The group looked at Cyrus's face. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head and his face was still a vivid crimson.
"He's fainted," they laughed. "That monster must have been some task!"
Magdeline sighed, knowing the real reason why. My Hero is a complete moron, she thought, shaking her head as she thought of a way to get him over this particular problem.
They certainly had a long way to go before he could save her. Noone had needed a true Hero as Magdeline.
But the unlikely hero Cyrus would find that soon enough.