Chapter 21
And Loss
Alessandra struggled to get up. She wasn’t hurt too bad, but she did land on her back. It was oddly cold all of a sudden, and after she checked to make sure her baby was ok, she stood up. She looked around and couldn’t see much. Above her was the sky, but all around her was black. Then she realized it. Where was Knight or Bri…? She couldn’t seem to find them. In her panic she started to run across the black mount that she had landed on, not questioning what it was. As she ran to what she thought was the highest point, she noticed protrudes that formed what looked like spikes. They were all lined up, getting bigger as she ran. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath and placed her hand on one of the spike. It felt warm. Looking down, she noticed too that something was amiss. The ground that she had been running on, it was symmetrical. All of the round circles over lapped and ran in straight lines. Where in the world is she? Who created this place? She picked up her pace, and looked around, observing everything that she could.
After what seemed like hours of walking she made it to a point where she could no longer see taller spikes. She ran to it, and as she neared Knight lay against it. Both ballista arrows were next to him on the ground.
“Ricardo!”
“…”
He turned his head to look at her and slowly started to smile. Forcing his body to stand, Knight stood trying to get to her, only to have blood start to pour slightly faster out of his wounds. Alessandra stopped frozen in place and covered her mouth in horror. He was sitting in a pool of blood, and it kept growing.
“Dear Lord… Ricardo, I love you.”
“I love you too Alessandra. Please, come here. Don’t be scared.”
Slowly she inched to him, her mind still wrapped around in the horror of what she was seeing. The father of her unborn child, Lord of castle Talson, Her lover… was dying before her. She felt as if it was the end of the world. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, shining in the day’s sun. As she knelt down to level with him, her tears started to mix with his blood.
“Ricardo, please don’t die… I love you please don’t.”
“I won’… Not yet. I give you my honor I won’t die yet. Now help me make bandages…”
She took his pack off of his back and removed her white dress, already covered in blood. He took it and pressed it to his cheek softly, smiling at her as the fabric caressed his cheek. Memories of the dress, the events it had been in flooded his mind. The nights that they both sat out in the fields, under the stars, in each other’s arms, clouded his thoughts. She ripped two long strips and lay then next to her, then took a few squares and folded them in to pad. He took the pad and pressed it to his chest, still lost to his world. She wrapped the first strip to the wound in his chest, and then tightened it best she could. As she pulled he winced in pain, coughing up a bit of blood. She hurries to finish the other wound and in doing so she noticed that the pack of his lay another gem. Only this one was an emerald. She only paused slightly then tightened the last bandage.
“There… all patched up, once we get out of this place we can wash you up and get you healed.
“This place? What do you mean?”
“This dark area we are in. I don’t like it much, whoever built it is insane.”
“Built it… Alessandra, do you realized what we are on?”
“No, wait, what? We are on? It’s stone right?”
“It’s scale…”
“Scale?”
“Alessandra, were on a Dragon… Armageddon to be correct.”
“A… a… Dragon. Isn’t Armageddon your dragon?”
“She is, but she should be in Lavisna. Not here. I didn’t even call her.”
“Maybe she sensed you needed her.”
He stood up and shook his head… Blood started to pour from him. His legs, chest, arms, all if was soaked in blood. Alessandra was shocked to see him standing with that much blood loss. He did look pale, but somehow he was able to stand, and for that she smiled.
“Don’t strain yourself.”
“Where’s Bri?”
“I’ve not found her yet.”
The two of them walked. Alessandra kept close, fearing he would drop at any second, but he kept his pace. They walked along the spine of the dragon. Knight ran his hand along each spike as they pasted it. They didn’t say much. Knight had a look in his eyes of both desire, and sorrow. She watched as with every step he was closer to dying.
His right hand never left her left hand. His grip was weak, not as strong and sweet as it normally was. She knew the reason, but still craved for him to just magicakly heal himself, like he’d done for her many times before. Sadly his gift didn’t work on himself.
The sun was half way to setting when they reached the neck of the dragon. She could see massive spikes pointing at them. There bottoms are the base of its skull. She had come to realize that the dragon had been flying somewhere, but had stopped several minutes ago. They stood together at the start of its narrow neck and looked down to the ground. It wasn’t too high but still, in the state that Knight’s in… it was too high. She climbed down first, pulling back a scale for his foot to step in. Each scale she slightly pulled back was met with his boot. Carefully she helped him to solid ground. It felt good to be standing on grass, instead of scales.
“Now what…”
She was almost too scared to know. But she had an idea on what he was going to say. Let’s go to her head. See why she’s out here on her own. Then have her take them to Celestial’s Haven. During the trek she had come to assume that Bri hadn’t been caught as the two of them had been.
“We move on. I think I know why she was there to catch us, and why she took us here.”
He pulled his cape off and tucked it in his pack. She helped him with it, again noticing the emerald. As she pushed it in she tried to arrange it so that it wasn’t awkward in shape. With one strong push she forced it down to the bottom, but pushed the emerald up on top. Her brace didn’t react to it. But her ruby did shine slightly. Softly she pressed her finger tips to it.
The next thing she knew, it disappeared.
