FicWad

Julius woke up about an hour after dawn, shaking. The dream had seemed to vivid, so real. Could it have been real? No, of course not. He shook his head, shaking of the effects of the dream. It was only then that he noticed Usha wasn't present. He got to his feet and scanned the forest.

"Great." he muttered. "She's skipped town."

He turned around and cried out in surprise. Usha was right behind him, her face practically touching his. He clasped a hand to his heaving chest and sighed.

"Did I scare you?" Usha asked innocently, her eyes smiling.

"N-no!" Julius stammered. "You just ... startled me."

"But you screamed."

Julius flushed. "No, I did not! It was a ... surprised ... uh ... yelp. Now, lets get going before we waste anymore daylight."

He set off, but Usha made no attempt to move. She stood smiling in the same spot as Julius walked past her, in the opposite direction. "I knew the mountain was this way." he mumbled. "I just wanted to take the scenic route."

-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Nightfall]

After almost a whole day of trekking, Julius and Usha arrived at the base of The Mountain. Julius collapsed on a pile of leaves while Usha showed no signs of tiredness. He glared up at her. "No fair, you hovered the whole way here!"

Usha shrugged, looking up at The Mountain's peak. "If we started climbing now, we could probably make it half-way up by morning."

Julius shook his head. "No way. Climbing in the dark is too risky. We didn't have any problems on the way here, so climbing is just pushing our luck. No, I vote we rest. All in favour, say 'Aye'. Aye!"

"Nay." Usha mumbled, looking over her shoulder into the forest.

"Hang on, I brought up the vote!" Julius protested. "So I vote that -"

Before he could finish his sentence, a howl echoed through the woods.

"- press on." he finished. "Wolves can't climb mountains."

Usha nodded, and the two started up the mountain side. They had barely been climbing when the golden wolves bounded out of the forest. "Great," Julius sighed. "It's the Golden Years, come back to haunt me."

Usha snickered, still climbing. "There's a cave up ahead, hurry!"

"How do you know?" Julius asked.

The demon hesitated. "Um, I remember it in one of the scrolls. Just come on!"

After a few minutes of climbing quickly, the pair reached the cave. But something had been bothering Julius. And he voiced it. "Usha, you said those scrolls had been written by demons?"

"Yes ..." she replied, clearly uneasy.

"You also said that no demons had ever set foot on this island!" he accused. "How did you know the cave was here?!"

In answer, Usha muttered something in Demon Tongue under her breath. Julius felt himself lift off the ground. "I'm sorry, Julius, but I can't go on! And neither can you! You can't finish this!"

"Why?" Julius demanded.

"Because!" Usha screamed. "Because I'll die! If you take down the Dark One, I'll die! For real, I'll actually be gone. And frankly, I'm scared. I don't want to die. I just want things back the way they were, before Delilah Devonshire was ever born!"

"So you'll let Delilah just die, so you can go on being a zombie?" Julius cried, tears welling in his eyes. "I thought you'd changed. I really and truly did! But I guess I was wrong."

"Shut up!" Usha screeched. "Just shut up!"

And with that, she sent Julius flying out of the cave, up into the air. As he whistled higher and higher, he couldn't help but feel disappointed. He had thought he could trust Usha, trust her to help him. But she had betrayed him.

The next thing he felt was the painful impact of landing on a ledge (a/n and one that didn't magically appear!) as he came down.