(AN: Here is your warning: Ke'ri gets raped in this chapter. TLDR, that happens, then Lon'qu kills the guards responsible, but Ke'ri dies in the melee. Lon'qu uses the money that was on the guards to board a random ship that so happened to be bound for Ferox. Now you can skip this chapter if non explicit rape bothers you.)
Lon'qu woke to hear muffled sobs among the laughter of guardsmen. He had a splitting headache, and he smelled the tang of his own blood on the cobblestone. He sat up slowly. Luckily, the men were absorbed in their new prize.
Lon'qu saw a sight that made him sick to his stomach. It etched an unhealable scar on his mind. The woman he loved, the woman he vowed to protect, prostrated before danger. Her body was wracked with sobs as a growing pile of gold formed beside her.
"Don't you cry!" The man beside her laughed. "Your earning a lot of money today!"
Another gold piece hit the rest with a cascade of clinks. Ke'ri screamed once more. The guardsmen laughed. Lon'qu felt his soul fill with hate. He touched his back where his bronze sword sat among the folds of his clothes. There were five men. He had them, quite literally, with their pants down. He had faced worse odds on the street. The crux of it however, was that every time he moved his head he felt hot knives dig their way into his skull. He didn't give it a second thought. He had to move.
One fell with his face forever now stuck in that perverse grin as he waited to ravage Ke'ri once more. Lon'qu realized now that he had no idea how long he was out. It didn't matter. He had failed to protect her.
The second fell as he was reaching for his blade, surprise flashed in his eyes as he put his hand on his blade. Then he thought no more as his head flew away from the rest of his body. Lon'qu stepped over the decapitated corpse.
Two more had blades in hand as they stepped toward him. One bloomed a rose of blood from the center of his chest before Lon'qu moved the blade to parry the strike from the other guard. The one with a rose blossom stumbled a couple of steps back, and watched as Lon'qu destroyed his friend's face. He opened his mouth, and blood bubbled from his lips. He fell to the ground dead.
The last man had a nude Ke'ri with a dagger to her throat.
"Stay back! Or I'll kill her! Help is bound to come!" The short twitchy one managed.
"Who's going to help you?" Lon'qu said with danger in his eyes as he flicked the blood off of his sword. "You're the guard."
"Not a step closer! I will kill her!" The guard threatened. "Put the sword on the ground!"
Lon'qu and Ke'ri's eyes met. They both knew if he put down the sword, they would both die. The guard adjusted his grip on the dagger so that the point was on her neck- a deadly mistake. She purposely fell forward and impaled herself on the point of his dagger.
Blood blossomed on her neck. She closed her eyes. Lon'qu's mouth opened in a silent scream. Her body fell to the ground. Her last act was to give Lon'qu the chance to live on.
Lon'qu acted as a man possessed, easily cutting down the last man. He scooped up a dying Ke'ri into his arms.
"You will be fine!" He lied with tears in his eyes. "Let's leave this city. We… we will get that farm with land, and cows, and chickens, and pigs, and-"
"A Pegasus…" Weakly. Barely there. But hope still.
"Yes." Lon'qu sobbed. "A Pegasus."
She touched the blood seeping from her wound- as if shocked it was there. She then caressed Lon'qu's cheek.
"Love… You… Lon…"
Her hand fell, leaving a streak of blood down Lon'qu's cheek. The world turned watery, and Lon'qu looked at the almost fifty gold pieces beside her.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
"We don't take passengers." The sailor told him.
"I'll pay." He said, throwing 47 gold in a bag to him. Four times the normal fare.
"We are going to-"
"Are you leaving tonight?" Lon'qu interrupted.
"Yes but-"
"Then I don't care. Leave me be." Lon'qu boarded the ship he chose arbitrarily, to meet his destiny.
