Epic Hero: A Short Story

Long ago, in a very distant land, there lived a man who was known by all for his bravery. Enemies flinched at his name while ladies swooned, and other hopeful heroes scowled in jealousy. He was famed for his good deeds: slaying dragons and thieves, saving damsels, winning wars; all the things one expected of a hero. However, no one had ever seen him do any of these things; they had only heard by word of mouth of his greatness.

One night, a curious girl who had been told the stories of this epic hero many times before bed and during meals snuck out of her cozy home to finally see the hero in action. As she wandered through the kingdom, her mind was filled of possibilities of the great story she would return with; maybe she would catch the hero

returning from some great battle, and he would stop to give her his helmet, once gleaming but now charred by the fire of a dragon’s breath.
After some time, she came upon the hero’s dwelling – just in time to catch him sneaking out the back door.

She crouched down as she followed him, her innocent heart beating fast. The hero ducked into the woods on the outskirts of the kingdom and fought through the underbrush for quite some time before coming onto a path. Little did he know of the girl trailing behind him as he trotted up to a well camouflaged cottage.

The girl watched with wide eyes as the hero rapped his knuckles against the worn out door. Almost as soon as he had knocked, a witch stepped out, her green complexion gleaming in the moonlight. The girl gasped from her hiding spot; she knew this witch – the grotesque thing matched her mother’s many forebodings to a tee. She was infamous for her perfidiousness and many attempts at stealing the crown. Frightened and fearing for her life, the girl scrambled back to her home before she could be caught.

After that night in the woods, the girl spent many sleepless nights trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for the hero to be visiting the witch. After imagining many very unlikely scenarios, she decided to go back to the woods to uncover the truth. She followed the hero for ten consecutive nights and even overheard some of the conversations he shared with the witch, eventually realizing that he had made a deal with the witch: fame and fortune for the king and queen’s secrets. The girl knew then, now that there wasn’t even the slightest chance the hero was up to any good, that she had to do

something.
Carrying a heavy pail of water, the girl set off into the woods again, this time an hour earlier than when she usually left to follow the hero. Since she had travelled to the cottage so often in the past fortnight, her body moved almost without her thinking, and before she knew it, she had arrived at the end of the path. She hesitantly knocked on the door, ducking away from the window as she waited for an answer. When the witch opened up the creaky door, the girl jumped out and splashed the water onto the witch. As soon as the liquid touched the witch’s skin, steam began to rise and she sunk down to the ground. The girl was left to watch as the witch’s body melted away, turning to dust as it hit the ground. She wept as the wind pulled the dust into the air, erasing any trace of the witch’s green body, for she knew there was no undoing what she had done.
The following morning, the whole kingdom was alive with chatter; the hero’s treachery had been revealed with the witch’s death and everyone now knew of the deal he had made with the kingdom’s number one enemy. They also now knew of the girl’s courage and altruism and threw an extravagant celebration in her honor. She was awarded a great deal of money, which she used to buy food and a better house for her family, and a position in the king’s court. She happily spent the rest of her days helping the people of her kingdom and caring for her family.