As I threw an arm over the crumbly ledge I heard a cry of pain that wrenched my heart away from my own being. My wounds and bruises, so often reworn over the past two days, ceased all communication with my attention.
It was her cry.
My blood rushed so quickly that all I felt was a tremble ravage my muscles; these muscles that have been twisted and jerked for more hours than their limit. The buzz of blood filled my ears. The sands seemed to have slowed the ocean again.
I saw her and I cried out.
Those horrific hulks of metal were swarming around her, her eyes of glossy ebony wide in panic. There was a fear in her eyes that all at once struck a primal dread in my soul. I had seen that once, in the eyes of the birds that were struck down by my arrows in the hunting grounds, in the eyes of the men that were stuck down by my blade in the battle grounds.
I screamed into the world.
The sword gripped in my throbbing hand thrust into the beast: it swirled into a golden mist of dust. Again I threw my blade ahead of me, teeth clenched, air filling with vibrating screeches and luminescent sand.
Her cry.
My blood lust froze.
There a slender hand clutched, shivering, on the hilt of the Dagger of Time, its iridescent tip driven shallowly into the rock. My heart seized in my chest.
I slashed my sword into the remaining monster looming over the crag and threw myself at the edge
just as that blue light slipped over.
In all worlds, in all times, no! my soul screamed
my hand continued, not to be believing
I grasped
and an incredible pain slathered my hand.
Hold on! I yelled down at her, shivering in fear, knuckles white, seized around the timeless sharpness of the Dagger. The warmth spilt out of my palm.
She was trembling, her pupils like pools of night.
I know I saw, I know I knew...
but I had seen so much not true, not that was...
time preserve me
my mind swam in the ocean that churned virulent in a storm
her eyes suddenly calmed
...a vicious peace that was...
The strain of agony on my hand was numbing, and I winced
"Kakolukia."