➶Yona➴
It's all such a… blur.
A spiderweb of cracks whorls out. Rocks splinter — shards, chunks, and boulders slam into the ground, and batter our shoulders, and cascade down the sides of the mountain valley.
Trees tremble like twigs in a breeze.
Shadows sweep over the ground. They race towards us and they're not shadows — they're chasms, gouging wounds in the earth with a wild hunger.
It feels…
Everything's blurry. Gija's claws streak above my head, glistening in the sun. Rocks shatter into dust.
He's bleeding. Too many rocks, it's not safe, we should go.
The ground's tilting. I drop to my knees, and a rock hits my shoulder as I fall. This hurts. Someone, help. Help me!
It feels like…
Yun skids past me, flung towards a gaping edge by invisible hands. 'Y-Yun!' I can't hear my voice. I reach out a hand. Sinha lunges forward and drags Yun back up, muscles straining. Ao hides under the fur of Sinha's mask, chattering in terror.
Someone drops to my side and crushes me against him. Rocks pour down like hail, shattering against my protector. …Zeno.
I feel him speak, my skin pressed so close to his, but I can't hear… It's all too faded.
It feels like it…
Hands snatch me from Zeno's grip and and I'm dragged, pushed, a few steps, limbs flailing, sheltered under someone's robe. Gold and silver flashes — the swing of a glaive.
I stumble and fall, and arms reach out to catch me.
It feels like it should be…
I land against someone's chest and shoulders, like a doll. Hak stands in front of me, spattered with blood, glaive chipped.
'Take her — get her out!'
It feels like it should be louder.
Hak lashes out with the glaive, dust rains over us, and the ring of the metal shatters my fog.
'Hak!' I scream.
A pair of arms sweeps me up — deep blue and gold, a snarl of dusty green hair: Jeaha, and he tenses like a drawn bowstring. 'Hang on, kiddo…'
And we streak into the sky.
The wind is… immense. The raw noise floods my ears and rips at my clothes. I fling my arms around Jeaha's neck, and bury my face in his shoulder. I don't know which way is up, all I can see is fragments, through a veil of green and falling rocks. A sick feeling fills me, we're falling, heading down. A crack of shoe hitting rock and we soar up again, even higher. Step, leap, step, leap, in massive leaps, in a tangle of arms and legs and robes.
We're so high, but the mountains tower over us still, and rocks fall all around us still. I'm dizzy. I've been holding my breath. My heart's beating so hard that my ribs could break, and I can feel a heartbeat pounding under Jeaha's robe.
A glimpse of below. A speck of silver. A flash of white. Trees like moss.
So. High.
A sob rips from my throat.
'Don't let me go, Jeaha! Don't let me GO!'
For one second, the world stops. Jeaha's earring grazes my cheek, and a ragged voice makes it through the storm.
'Yona, I —'
The rock hits us hard.
It crunches into Jeaha's back and the force almost jars my bones out of their sockets. He chokes out a raw cry.
We tumble, heads over heels. I've never held on so tightly in my life. His fingers dig into my skin, his arms crush me against his chest.
And we fall, birds with broken wings.
Into blackness.
To be continued...