The Winglies of Hellena
Chapter Twelve: Reunion
Disclaimer: You know the Characters from LoD aren't mine, but all the others are. No stealy. .
Dart looked around his living room and at all of the people assembled there. Sitting on the couch and in the chairs were Albert, Meru, Miranda, Shana, and Haschel. Kongol was standing slightly off to the side. Only Albert, Meru, and Shana knew the reason for the meeting here aside from Dart, and the others were waiting expectantly for the meeting to begin.
"Before we start, I'd like you all to meet somebody. Shana, you've already met her." He looked into the guest-room where Lloyd was laying, out of sight from the others, tucked underneath the blankets. Lily was sitting beside the bed. "Lily, would you come out here and join us, please?"
Lily looked up and nodded, stepping out of the room. She looked around at all of those assembled and smiled at them. Dart continued, "Everyone, meet Lily. She was the one to alert Shana and myself to the problem at hand that we will now discuss. She came to me last week to tell me that Hellena had been turned into a sort of slave camp for Winglies. A traitor to the Wingly race named Dominic helped the humans accomplish this. By the use of these shackles I suspect Dominic had made, the Winglies are unable to use their powers, and trying to gives them quite a nasty electric shock. They work in the mines six days a week for some fifteen hours a day, and on the seventh day buyers come in to do whatever they want with their very own Wingly that they purchase. The Winglies are undernourished, beaten, and tortured constantly. We have to figure out how to put an end to this."
Everyone nodded, their faces grim, but Miranda raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Why did she come to you? Why not go to someone in authority like Albert?"
Dart nodded. "There's another thing. There was a Wingly in the prison that she came to alert me about. A Wingly we all know very well." Ignoring the confused expressions on their faces, he continued, "Lily and I worked together to get this particular Wingly out of the prison last week. He is right now laying in the guest bed in this room." He gestured to the guest bedroom and motioned the others to come in. Curiously, they all rose and followed. Every single one of them gasped at the sight of Lloyd's gaunt, bruised face.
Miranda furiously strode forward, drawing a knife from her side, but Dart stood in between them. "You will not touch him, Miranda!" Dart growled. "He's been through quite enough and over my dead body will I allow you to hurt him any more!" This, more than the sight of their former enemy shocked them. They all knew Dart's hatred for Lloyd because of the death he inflicted upon Lavitz.
"What has gotten into you!" Miranda asked in shock. "I thought you hated Lloyd! And for another thing, he's supposed to be dead, isn't he!"
"Apparently the blow by Melbu Frahma missed the vital organs. In any case, Lloyd has been in Hellena for these past six months, and as you'd probably guess, he didn't take being a slave well. He was beaten, whipped, tortured, and starved to the point where he is not in his right state of mind. When he's awake, his eyes are blank and lifeless. He isn't aware of where he is. I don't know if he'll ever recover, but I do know one thing. Lloyd has more than paid for his sins in these last six months in Hellena, and I will be damned before I let any of you hurt him."
Miranda backed down slowly, sheathing her knife back at her side. It wasn't until Meru gasped that everyone's attention went to her, and in turn to where she was staring. Lloyd had awakened from the commotion and his wide, hollow crimson eyes slowly gazed at everyone in the room. Albert stepped forward slowly to Lloyd's side, and his movement drew Lloyd's gaze. "Lloyd? Can you hear me? It's Albert," he said softly, kneeling down next to him. He got no response other than that constant, unblinking stare.
Albert's hazel eyes narrowed in thought and he reached out to lightly brush away some of the hair out of his face. His movement caused some emotion to stir in the Wingly's eyes - fear. A small whimper escaped him as he tried to pull back from Albert's hand. His hand froze in midair, just inches from Lloyd's face.
"Oh, Soa..." Meru whispered. It frightened her to see this once-proud and defiant man now whimpering like a whipped puppy as Albert's hand neared his face, and she wasn't the only one. Everyone else was shocked to see Lloyd in this state as well.
Albert, his hand having hesitated, slowly neared Lloyd's face again. In response the beaten and broken Wingly tried to draw back again until he was pressed flat against the headboard. His sitting up caused the blankets to fall from his bare torso, exposing the innumerable scars on his torso, including the diamond-shaped scar in the middle of his chest where Melbu Frahmaís tentacle impaled him. Albert's eyes widened in horror at all of the scars. But it wasn't just the scars that scared him - his ribs jutted out grotesquely, and his stomach and sides were pinched in, exposing his hipbones above the waistline of his tattered and ripped black pants.
"Oh Goddess, Lloyd..." he whispered softly, his hand finally coming forward to gently touch Lloyd's face. He whimpered and cried out as if he'd been struck, trying to get away, but Albert kept his hand there, hoping to reassure Lloyd that he meant him no harm. It took a couple minutes for Lloyd's pitiful keening to subside, his wide scarlet eyes staring at Albert as his hand gently continued to rest against the Wingly's cheek. He was no longer able to hide his emotions behind his usual cold mask, and this unusual display of emotions was endearing to the tender hearted King.
He suddenly thought, How might we reach him and bring him back from this madness? The answer popped up as fast as the question did. Wink... of course! "Miranda?" Albert asked, looking over his shoulder to the blonde-haired woman behind him. "Would you please contact your sister and tell her about this? If anyone can bring Lloyd back, it's Wink."
"Wink's not coming here," Miranda growled. "Over my dead body will I allow her to come here to see him again."
"Miranda!" Albert said in shock. "Everyone knows how torn she was upon hearing of Lloyd's so-called death. It would bring joy to her heart to know that he is alive."
"Alive, but insane," Miranda sneered. "What if she can't pull him out of it? She'd get him back only to loose him again. I don't want that to happen to her." Everyone blinked. For once, Miranda had made a good point. That was a rarity for the usually brash Sacred Sister of Mille Sesau.
"I think she'd want to take the chance," Shana said quietly. All eyes turned to her. "Wink always believed in giving everyone another chance. She wouldn't want to just give up on him. We could warn her he might never come out of it, so she'd be prepared if it did happen, but at least she'd have gotten to see him again, right?"
Everyone nodded slowly, except for Miranda, who simply clenched her jaw and turned to pack up her things and head out to journey to Bale, where Wink was currently visiting. Albert looked back to Lloyd and sighed, gently brushing his hair out of his face in a comforting gesture. He hesitated in shock. The Wingly's hair was soft and silken to the touch, softer than the hair of any he had ever felt before. Not that he'd felt that many, but such softness just didn't come naturally. He continued to stroke through the silken strands, and could visibly see the calming effect it had on him. And as his eyes drifted closed, his quiet voice said the first full sentence he had uttered in over a week. "...Neesha used to do that..."
Everyone's head whipped back around to him in shock, but Lily suddenly remembered something. "Neesha... Was that the name of that little girl that was in your cell when you first arrived at Hellena?" A slow, hesitant nod was his reply, and she smiled. "She was a cute little one, wasn't she?" She walked over and sat down on the bed next to Lloyd, whose eyes opened slightly. Some of the hollowness was gone, but it lingered behind the spark of life that had flared again, ready to take over again at any moment.
Lloyd's eyes caught something on the counter - the Dragoon spirit of the Divine Dragon. Dart noticed his gaze and walked over to pick it up, bringing it back to show him. "Do you remember this?" Dart asked softly, and Lloyd slowly nodded. His eyes suddenly grew apprehensive, as if he was expecting Dart to strike him for what he said next.
"...They have the Red-Eye and the Black Spirits..."
Dart's eyes went wide. "What! Who has them!"
Lloyd flinched and huddled against Albert unconsciously. "The guards took them from me when they captured me," he whimpered, closing his eyes, fully expecting to be beaten for it. Yet when no blow fell, he cracked an eye open to peek out at Dart, who was staring at him with horror.
"What else did they take from you?" he asked in a hushed whisper. Everyone was staring at Lloyd with equal amounts of horror, but Dart was bordering on furious. What had he been doing with those Dragoon Spirits! He must have taken them from the corpses of his fallen comrade and father.
Lloyd's eyes darted around nervously, his breathing quickening. They were trapping him with their gazes, and he felt the need to struggle free and run. It was almost overwhelming. "Nothing else important..." he whispered, and Dart's hand grabbed his arm suddenly.
"Are you sure they took nothing else important! What else did you steal from Rose's and Zieg's bodies!"
"Dart!" Albert yelled out, smacking Dart's hand away as Lloyd began to hyperventilate, pressing himself against Albert's body to get farther away from Dart, his chest rising and falling in fast, jerky movements. Dart backed off and left the room to recover his composure while Albert encircled Lloyd in his arms, rocking him slowly to calm him. Lily leaned forward, gently rubbing Lloyd's scarred back as well. Lloyd's cheek rested against Albert's chest, his eyes wide and blank once again.
Great... Count on Dart to ruin what little progress we made... Meru growled mentally with an exasperated sigh. Most of the others left the room, leaving Lloyd with just Albert, Meru, and Lily by his side. "Hey Lloyd," Meru said as she sat down on the bed, "Don't listen to mean old Dart. He doesn't know what he's saying. We won't let him hurt you."
"I don't think he can hear you," Lily said with a sigh. "He's withdrawn into himself again."
"Aww, Lloyd!" Meru sighed and flopped down on her back, sprawling out gracelessly on the sheets. Stupid dummy! He never let anything anyone said make him cringe like that before!
Albert meanwhile continued to hold Lloyd in his arms. His old hatred for the Wingly had died out completely upon hearing what Lloyd had been through over the past several months. No one deserved the torture he had been through. He was broken, lost, and helpless. There didn't seem to be a scrap of his old pride anywhere. Albert had always had a soft heart; even though Lloyd had been responsible for his childhood friend's death not too long ago, he couldn't bring himself to hate Lloyd now. We'll get you back, Lloyd Albert silently promised. We'll get you back, somehow.