How had this happened?
In a matter of seconds, everything had fallen apart. The unforgiving stone below her feet seemed to shoot cold arrows up her legs, rooting her to the spot. The dreaded sound of laughter rang in her ears, slamming inside of her brain and leaving her dazed, almost distant—or even nonexistent. This stone 'table' had stolen away everything in the span of her heart's dull pulsing. To make everything worse, this had all happened by her hand.
That thought alone made her sick beyond belief.
"Oh, what a shame," That harsh, grating sound evolved from slashing laughter into the quick jabs of speech, each word feeling like the thrust of a knife and the twist of the blade. "Looks like the little princeling isn't so good at dodging magic after all!"
Her head whipped around to find a pair of gleaming orange orbs glaring down at her feet, focused with a twisted satisfaction at what lay before her. Her own eyes, now a fainter shade of tangerine, shivered at the sight of this spindly, robed figure beside her own. This voice and gleaming eyes belonged to a man she knew too well, a man she was forever linked to by the worst thing possible—by blood.
She futily tried to gulp down the fear, that burning nausea at what she had done, but it was all just a dry, quivering lump of disgust in her throat. All warmth fled her form as she stood there, gasping for air and staring with horror at the dark, black rings around his yellowing eyes. Her mind raced to process what had just happened, to comprehend how everything had gone so wrong within so little time. The cold slowly spread through the trails of veins inside her paling skin, trapping her with chilled nails and gripping her tightly, holding her rigid and taunt. She wanted more than anything to grab this man by his scrawny, bony throat and choak the life out of him, or better yet, to watch him bleed at her feet. Instead, all she could do was feel that burning in her throat and the cold shiver in her palms.
"Now, my dear," She couldn't even move as that disgusting man slowly hobbled over to her, his long nails clawing at the scruffy bread that adorned his pointed chin. "There's no need for tears." Tears? She hadn't even been able to process that the itching, burning sensation inside her eyes was the reason behind the blurring of greys and purples in front of her. She had been far too fixated on the cold hysteria in her bloodstream at this point.
The man continued on with his rambling, his voice wheezing out between withheld chuckles. "Such things are necessary for larger gains, you know." He smiled at this, even though she was drawing ragged, half-finished breaths at this point. "You will see soon that all that little prince was doing was holding you back from reaching your full potential." Her eyes, still an orange shade despite the end of the battle happening long ago, narrowed into slits. "That man was worthless compared to what you will soon become, what you will receive as your most generous reward!"
It was at this point in time that something inside of herself, something she held back so tightly, burst free.
Before she could even think, her body lunged for that monster in human flesh and attacked with an inhuman fury. Her bloodied blade, soiled with so many fallen foes, jumped out of its sheath and raced to cut down this twisted man. The dark crimson, almost blackened blade struck him right in the stomach, leaving the satisfying sight of a ripped robe and a trickle of ruby liquid leaking out from his broken, grey skin. Despite the shrunken size of the cut, the metallic stench of blood still raced to fill her nose, encouraging her on with the promise of his demise.
However, the man had other plans.
With a quick swipe of the air, an overwhelming burst of magic grabbed her thin form and flung her backwards, forcing the blade from her hands and sending it crashing to the stones below. Only a few seconds passed before the blade's wielder joined her weapon, her right cheek scraping across the floor and burning with pain. The woman cringed from the pulsing in her face before weakly lifting her eyes. The familiar burning of horror and anger seeped back into her throat.
The sight before her, lying motionless on the ground, was too much to even process. To see him like this, his blue locks swept around his forehead, plastered to his whitened skin by sweat and blood...to see the man she loved so much just gone... It was a horrible thing. Something like this should never have happened, not to him. This fury bubbled up in her throat, forcing her muscles to push upon the ground and force her up, her chest only mere inches from the stained stone below.
"Y-You monster," her voice gurgled out of her mouth, obscured by the sharp blade of pain and the raw hatred in her chilled chest. Her eyes lifted to shoot a dangerous glare at this man before her, focusing on the glowing eyes and split grin. "I would never see you killing my husband as a gift!" The man gave her a glare of his own before letting his claw-like fingertips drift down to the fresh wound, allowing them to become covered in the oozing red. "I'm going to kill you, Validar!" The woman was growling at this point and was just starting to rise to her knees. "I'll cut you down with my own blade and watch you take your last breath, I swear it!"
At her threats, Validar simply laughed and shook his head.
"Silence your tongue, young one." His voice shifted to a mocking coo, each sound still wet with that disgusting darkness. His eyes narrowed as he went on, a smile growing upon his lips. "You seem to be forgetting the very simple fact that it was your hand that dealt the blow, not mine." The woman's orange-tinted browns widened with both horror and tears as the man continued. "Do you so soon forget that rush of power that flooded your veins in that single instant?" Validar's grin cracked his face in two, giving more fuel to the brunette's rage. "That my dear was the blood of a dragon racing through your very soul; it was the very essence of power! You hold so much at your fingers, and yet you refuse to simply reach out and grasp it—"
"I don't want power!" The woman cut him off swiftly, her eyes slamming shut as she struggled to regain a firm stance on the floor. "Bloodlust is the makings of a monster, and I refuse to fall to such a level!" The man's grin faltered as this woman, his very own daughter, defiantly glared at him. "I want nothing to do with Grima or your obsession for power!"
Validar just shook his head before lifting a crimson-kissed hand and waved his long fingertips. "Ah, but you already hold Grima within yourself, dear daughter! All you simply have to do is listen!"
It was at this very second that a harsh ringing invaded the woman's ears, forcing her to clutch her head and let out a yell of pain. Her short-lived standing crumbled below her and sent her crashing to her knees. Her vision blurred and swayed as suddenly a sharp whisper invaded her mind, lacking in words but overwhelming in tone. Tears streamed down her face as she found herself overwhelmed by a wave of violence, forcing in her mind the stench of blood. Instead of the horrible knot in her stomach, a disgusting sense of embrace filled her body at the smell, as if she was a beast in human flesh. The rush of adrenaline beckoned her back with the thrill of battle, replacing all systems with only thoughts and sensations of battle, victory and worst of all, ruthlessness. The terrified brunette shook her head, trying to clear her mind, but it was of no use. Her thoughts were now far beyond her own control.
"Robin..." A whisp of a voice merged with these dark thoughts, calling out her name despite being unfamiliar to her. "Robin..." The young woman groaned with an inner pain, but such protests were nothing to ward off such conflictions of the mind. This voice carried on with its haunting whispers, taking a grip on her subconscious. "Let go...release the energy...embrace the power within yourself..."
"I-I...can't..." Robin gasped out her words, arguing with the very voice in her head. "If I give in...I'll die...I'll die to it..."
"You will not die." The voice was calm and hushed, like a mother soothing her grieving child. "This power is your gift. Why would you push aside such a lovely thing as this? Imagine what you could do with such a thing; imagine the rush of having so much simply handed to you! You could be invincible—immortal! You would never need fear of death again, Robin."
Just as a wounded animal is lured in to a trap, so was the young woman to the voice's promises. Her resolve, once so solid, had now started to crumble. "I-I...would never fear death again?" A slight glimmer could be seen within Validar's eyes as his daughter's lip quivered with a weak fear. "I would...be stronger?" Pale hands curled their fingers as the thought of such a wonderful thing fluttered in her mind.
"You wouldn't fear a single thing ever again..." That little voice sounded quite pleased with her sudden wavering will. "Just let go...everything will be just fine." Robin's mind nearly numbed within the dark cloud inside her thoughts, but not before trying one last effort in keeping her from straying. Abruptly, a flash of a smiling face filled her mind, a man with blue hair and eyes to match. This man was not just any man, but her husband, sworn to be her second half to her whole. But, because of a sudden switch, he was now lying on the floor, motionless and silent forever. This one face was enough for her to falter, for her to regain some sort of warning against such an offer.
Unfortunately, that little voice was more than ready for such a counter.
Within only a heartbeat, a warmth over flooded the woman's veins, overtaking her suspicions and erasing that one last hope against this mental intruder. This newest sensation filled her skin with what felt like a gentle flame, warming her insides until her fingers curled with comfort. Robin let out a sharp exhale as her fears—those horrible, overwhelming monsters within herself—suddenly vanished with the face of her fallen love. That horrible fear of death was gone and instead replaced with something far more superior.
Her fear had been replaced with power.
Validar, being the patient man he was, grinned at the sight of his daughter's even breathing. Such a sign could only mean one thing and one thing alone; Robin had accepted Grima's offer of power after all. His shrewd eyes gleamed at the thought before he regained some sort of composure, the man forcing himself to hold his thoughts of triumph.
"Well my dear," his best efforts of a whisper instead came out as an echoed speech, loud and scratching upon one's ears. "How does it feel to have so much in the palm of your hand? It's a wonderful feeling, isn't it?" The brunette on her knees said nothing, only closed her eyes and breathed in a muted chuckle. The sorcerer waited for a few moments before pressing his question once again. "Robin, can you hear me?"
The young woman let out a terrible, echoing laugh before rising to her feet ever so slowly, her face twisting into a terrible grin. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment before snapping open and revealing horrible orbs of orange surrounded by a sea of yellow, glowing in the place of her brown eyes. The woman lifted her chin with a smirk, her eyes piercing straight through the thin man before her. She then spoke with a voice that was not her own, dripping with hate.
"I am not Robin. I am the mighty fell dragon, Grima."
Author's Note: Took a hiatus for a few months and came back with a new project. Sorta wished I could have used that time to work on a few other things as well, but I'm more than content with what I did accomplish.
So, hey there! Knightinggale here with "The Flight and Fall of a Dragon"! As you may have guessed, this fiction follows Grima!Robin instead of the usual Robin-centeric views. So, in a way, I guess you could say we're following Grima's point of view? Either way, we're going to be having a bit of a different journey. This series is almost like a collection of important moments in time, not just a linear, day-to-day fiction. Otherwise, we'd have just chapters upon chapters of Grima killing people, burning villages and causing massive destruction. Sounds exciting, but it gets boring when you're constantly reading/writing that.
Anyway, I hope you stick around to see the rest of Grima's story unfold!