Chapter Eleven: Wind
(The Next Night)
Blade opened his eyes and immediately felt a slight sting to his head followed by the feel of a soft cloth while, at the same time, surveying his surroundings with a hint of confusion on his facial feature.
The place he was in was like a briefly narrowed cave with nearby torches illuminating the area. Then, he looked down the open passageway up ahead that was also littered with torches.
Then, he could hear fainted voices from the distance; some that he instantly recognized.
However, before he could come to that conclusion, he halted upon seeing three silhouettes entering the area and approaching towards his position; one of them seemingly being taller than the others, and one seems to be emitting some small glow of sparkling light.
With the purple dragon's fear in check, the silhouettes images grew illuminated by the torches in the form of, to his relief, Dawn and Sparx while the third silhouette, regardless of the slightly dim torches, remains shrouded in the shadows.
Upon notice of his awakened state, Dawn and Sparx made their way to the purple dragon's position with a hint of anxiety on their expression.
"Blade, you're awake. Are y-Are you okay?" Dawn asked.
"Yeah, Spiky, you were out like a light when we came to. You okay?" Sparx asked.
Before Blade could answer, he felt the same slight sting to his head as he cringed and groaned slightly from the pain while the dragonfly noticed.
"Aside from the sharp headache, I'm fine." Blade replied.
"Yeah, you can thank old feline for the wound patch." Sparx spoke.
Upon that comment, Blade's expression grew of surprise.
"Hunter's here?"
Silence, Dawn lowered her head a bit and shook her head in response, which issued Blade's confusion.
"Then who—"
"I think they mean me." A voice spoke, which issued Blade's stunning attention.
Approaching from the brief shadows, a tall, early 20s muscular cheetah made its presence to the purple dragon. Aside from his muscular build, he has green eyes, whiskers to his white cheeks, and black spots surrounding his orange fur. He also had hair between his small cat-like ears, a med-inch tail at the buttock, and a strap that withheld, not only arrows, but his signature weaponry of choice: The Crossbow!
Upon sight of this stunning feature, Blade mentally took this individual for their archery feline back at their village. Yet, his confusion has set in to who this feline was.
"Who are you?" Blade asked.
Silence, the feline's expression grew stern as his eyes droned downward to the purple dragon.
"My name is Wind. And I take it that you're the purple dragon known as Blade?"
Blade nodded.
"Yeah."
Wind nodded in kind.
"Nice to meet you." He spoke as Blade started surveying his surroundings again.
Wind noticed.
"Where are we?" Blade asked.
"You're in an underground cave beneath the island. Don't worry, you're safe here."
Momentarily, Blade slowly diverted his gaze downward in wonder before issuing his gaze to Wind, who has sat down against the wall in the opposite direction.
"How long was I out?" He asked as Dawn and Sparx positioned themselves next to him.
"For over a day." He answered.
Blade grew stunned by that news, yet he was anxious to know more.
"What happened with us? How did we get here?"
"You were washed ashore. And before I got there to your position upon sight, I saw a few riders on dreadwings headed here from up far. So I scooped you guys up and brought you down here. What happened afterwards, I wasn't sure. But I wasn't going to stick around to find out."
Blade grew silence for a while in order to register the cheetah's words to mind. However, before he could say anything else, images immediately issued at the core of his mind on the incidents that transpired at the village.
Upon those images, a startling gasp issued from Blade's maw as Wind and the others noticed with concern.
"Blade, what is it?" Dawn asked.
Silence, Blade's expression slowly grew of determination as he strained his body upright until he was on all four and started departing away from the others towards the hatch entrance to the cave.
Upon notice, Wind and the others immediately made haste towards him.
"Blade, where are you going?" Wind asked while walking.
"I have to go back to our village." Blade stated as he walked without making eye contact.
Wind shook his head.
"I'm afraid that's impossible."
"Nothing's impossible."
Immediately, Blade halted his hasty walk upon seeing the dragonfly at his face with a stern gaze on his facial feature as Wind and Dawn, upon notice, halted and watched.
"Listen to him, Spiky. You'll get yourself hurt."
In silent anger, Blade briefly grinded his teeth upon the comment while issuing his glare to the dragonfly.
"Sparx," He peeved. "I told you before that I am tired of hiding."
"And I told you that the place was going to Hell!" Sparx shot back with a hint of anger in his voice. "Come on, Spiky! You saw what was happening!"
Blade nodded.
"I saw what happened, and I told you that I wasn't liking it one bit. So I'm willing to do something about it."
Sparx snickered incredulously upon the comment.
"Oh, what, by getting yourself killed?"
"You—" Blade halted and issued a sigh of irritation before speaking. "You know what, Sparx? If you don't want to come, then stay here with Dawn and Wind. But I am going!"
As Blade waltzed passed the dragonfly, Dawn started to call out to him as soon as she got to Sparx's position, but it grew in vain as he continued his walk.
But he was only a quarter of an inch from Dawn and Sparx's position before the point of an arrow linked to a crossbow halted him at his position.
Blade nearly grew startled by this reaction, but kept his fear in check with sternness etched on his face as he slowly looked from the crossbow up to the weapon's holder known as Wind.
Sparx, and especially Dawn were dumbfounded as to how Wind was able to get from their current position up towards the purple dragon.
But they disregarded that issue with a hint of anxiety on their facial feature upon witnessing this action.
Both were silence during their standoff as Wind kept his aim and stern gaze to Blade's face.
"You still want to go out there?" Wind spoke in an emotionless tone.
"You wouldn't understand." Blade spoke.
Wind shook his head.
"No. It is you who don't understand, purple dragon."
Slowly, to Dawn and Sparx's relief, he lowered his crossbow from aiming view, yet their stares remained the same.
"Let me show you." He spoke.
On the surface of the island, numerous pulsating crystals were embedded on the soil on each sections of the island, which resulted in trees, bushes, and vegetations rusting away.
Also, upon results to this, a dome-shaped force field has entrapped the entire island to prevent any means of escape.
The many armor-clad apes, whether small or large, were on guard for these crystals in hopes to ensure no surprise attack from anything.
Only a day ago, they were ordered to infiltrate the purple dragon after the siege, which lead them to the island. Yet, they had no luck. But regardless, they were issued a secondary order to place the crystals into the few realms, including the island to commence with the procedure of the plan.
However, many of them were oblivious to the fact that they were being watched at the moment.
Wind and Blade were observing the activity from a small hatch entrance door from up far in the shadows to cloak them from detection.
Blade grew in stunned surprised by the activity taking place at the moment as Wind noticed, but kept his gaze forward for observation.
"This happened shortly after I got you guys to safety last night. When those crystals came, almost every life on this island started to deteriorate into nothing while those apes somewhat grows immune to the effect. Luckily, we had reinforced steel that prevents those crystals from draining anything from underground, which is also why you see me alive today."
As Wind looked to Blade, he saw that the purple dragon had the same expression on his face upon what he's witnessing.
"Now you see why you can't leave? Besides, even if you wanted to, you can't. That force field guards the island. Anyway, to my guess, if anyone gets close to those crystals, their energy source is sapped away." He said as he diverted his gaze forward and shook his head. "So I couldn't risk it."
Regardless of his expression, Blade spoke.
"Have you tried to destroy at least one of them? The crystals?"
Wind nodded.
"I tried, but it was useless. In the process, I almost got myself caught. Thank God for speed and stealth."
After a while of observation and silence, Wind and Blade resided back down the entrance and silently closed the hatch without notice.
Well, Rurik, I hope you like the description considering that I had to trail back to Memories for it. Sorry it took me long, but I had other things on my mind at this point in time. Anyway, the next chap is guaranteed to be long, so keep on the lookout everyone. And my deepest thanks for not diverting away from the story. Ciao!
In the next chap, as Blade is issued his next test, he is greeted with a celestial figure for the first time.