A/N –This is dedicated to Lindsey, a friend from my school who's always there to cheer me up, go figure why she wanted a depressing fic…
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The King's Champion stood at the center of a field, tears streaming from her crazed violet eyes, the coppery taste of blood in her mouth as she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming and falling off into the brink of insanity. Her sword was drawn, and she was tensed for a fight. "Come on!" she yelled, "I haven't taken on an immortal in a while!" A strong breeze was blowing, but Alanna received no answer. "I haven't fought against any demons since the Ysandir and Chitral for the Dominion Jewel; it should be a nice change!" she spat and wiped her mouth slowly to free it of the blood of her cut lip.
"Are you listening to me? I'll take on any of you!" she waved her fist in the air, as if demanding attention from the Divine Realms, "Come down here and fight me, I want back what you have taken from me! You had no right to take him, it wasn't his time! You took him and I'll fight every one of you get him back!"
Lioness sank to her knees, dropping the sword to one side, "Every one of you." Tears were dripping off her face and she beat the ground with her fist. Dark clouds drifted closer to the sun, letting infrequent sunbeams slash through and souring Alanna's mood further. "I'm MORTAL!" she yelled, completely losing her mind, "I'm a mortal and I can't take it anymore! Do you hear me, Mother?! You, Mother, who told me I needed to love, you have taken my love from me! You have done this to me, you have caused this all, all of it! If you had never told me to love, I never would have hurt any of them! Not Liam, not Jon, not George!"
"Can't take it, can you? You can't understand the fact that I loved him so much I'll do anything to get him back." she screamed, "Cowards! All of you, you're all gods, supposed to be watching and protecting us, caring for us; loving us. But you're nothing but cruel, heartless beasts! You're cowards! Will no one hear my plea?! You took him too early and you won't let him back! How could you take him from me? How dare you?!"
Her mind was torn in so many different directions, eyes flooding now, images and visions passing in front of her eyes; Alanna's life was in rewind, playing back all the times since she had met him. How he taught her street moves to beat Ralon of Malven, the first time he kissed her, how he had smuggled himself in the palace disguised as a monk to talk with her, every smile he had given her was imprinted in her mind. Each was cherished and now coming back to torture her with a terrible vengeance. The street lilt called back through her mind, back to when she was only eleven years old. How he used to call her 'his lass;' she remembered the look on his face when he had galloped over the sands of the Great Southern Desert and proposed to her; when he found out she was pregnant and when he first held his son, Thom, in his arms.
George had been there for all her life, a constant source of support that was never really appreciated by anyone except herself... And now they had taken him from her in the blink of an eye. Just suddenly gone, leaving Alanna with nobody to lean on; leaving her to tumble away into darkness. It was as though a rug had been pulled from under her feet and there was no floor to crash down on underneath it, just a bottomless void, spiraling ever-downward; a void Alanna couldn't escape from falling into, with no hope of being caught by his strong arms again.
"How could you?" she whispered hoarsely, looking up to the sky as if hoping to speak to the Great Mother Goddess herself; to beg on George's behalf. But Alanna was rewarded with nothing. No visions, no magic, no gods; the only movement around her was the harsh, whipping wind that made her hair fly crazily and the tears that couldn't stop their heartbroken course down her face.