On Sapphire Wings
Chapter 9
Nothings quite the same now.
I just say your name now.
But it's not so bad.
You're only the best I ever had.
You don't want me back.
You're just the best I ever had.
So you stole my world.
Now I'm just a phoney.
Remembering the girl,
Leaves me down and lonely...
**
In many ways, Winglies and Humans were complete opposites. In fact, the amazing differences between the two races were probably what started the Dragon Campaign. However, there were a few similarities.
One of which was the stubbornness of a teenager, as Lloyd had learned somewhat quickly.
"I'm not staying here!" Artewa shouted in a tone somewhere between anger and dejection. Her crystal-coloured eyes glared up at her foster father rebelliously.
"Ari, it's too dangerous out there." Lloyd replied in the firmest voice he could muster.
Another amazing similarity is that if you tell either race what's best for them, they always want the opposite.
"I can handle it! C'mon, I'm not gonna let you all get butchered out there!" Artewa snorted. "I'm not just a stupid little girl."
"No, but you are young and inexperienced."
"Bullshit! Are you aware that half of the wingly fighters in the Dragon Campaign were below adulthood?"
Lloyd froze. Giving him a funny look, she asked, "What?"
"You sound like your sister."
"Oh." She sighed. "This is weird. But Lloyd, come on, what have you got to lose? Let me come, and if you won't even let me fight, at least let me be there."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because you're all I have left."
"Then why do want to leave me here?"
Once again, words fled from Lloyd mouth, leaving him simply staring.
"Answer me!"
"What if you get hurt? I'm not going to lose your sister, then turn around and lose you too." He muttered.
"Then protect me. Don't let me get hurt." She looked darkly at him, and her emotionful eyes fixed on him. "But don't restrict me. Do you know how many years I've spent lying awake at night wishing that I could be with you and my sister?"
Lloyd looked at the floor, wishing that it could somehow tell him what to do. He wondered if this was what parenting was about? Finally, he closed his eyes in defeat and said. "Promise me you'll be careful."
"Really?" She leapt forward with astounding grace and hugged him in delight. He smiled lightly.
"Yeah."
Like with Lenus, he just couldn't say no.
The night was a fitful one all around the castle, full of nightmares and disturbing visions.
As she slept, Wink thrashed and muttered in her bed as if possessed by a demon. The visions were too terrible.
It was like a continuation of her earlier dream in the forests of Serdio. She was just suddenly standing back on the clifface, and before she had time to get her bearings, blood splattered on the ground in front of her feet.
Kyris took a step back to inspect his work, and smiled. It was the smile of a man that had nothing left but a need to make others suffer.
Lloyd dropped to his knees clutching his gut, and his eyes closed as he fought down his agony. Even in her dream, Wink knew that there was far too much blood.
She rushed over to him, but suddenly it was not Lloyd, but the assassin from the forest on the ground. And then the screams that she had tried to bury in her mind began. As he had before in real life, the Black Man began to burn as if doused in acid. Wink tried to turn away, but she couldn't move. Couldn't escape.
Couldn't even scream.
And the figure once again changed, and it was Miranda there now. She was covered in bruises and deep gashes that caused Wink to want to eject the contents of her stomach. And the dragoon was coughing hard.
Kyris seemed to notice the change, and with a growl he kicked Miranda hard in the side. The blond woman fell onto the ground and began coughing. Then she was choking, and though Wink desperately tried to help her, her body would not obey.
Slowly, Miranda began to shift in shape once again, slowly becoming other people Wink loved, some living and some dead.
As Kyris stood watching the torture with laughter, the shifting victim began to crawl back to its knees weakly, screaming and coughing and gasping as it went.
Then it was Lloyd again, the blood running down his waist and falling onto the ground in pools.
And though throughout the whole dream, no one but Kyris had seemed to notice her, Lloyd looked up at Wink and said,
"Help me…"
"I can't…" Wink tried to call back, but all of the sudden she couldn't, as if she'd forgotten how to speak.
Kyris grabbed Lloyd by the throat and hauled him up viciously. With his other hand, he slashed along his bicep, drawing a long red line, which slowly bled, down his arm. Lloyd tried to struggle away from his grasp, and finally escaped the death hold.
Suddenly the knife in Kyris' hand was a sword, and Wink recognized it as the Dragon Buster, spiked and fiery.
Kyris held it up with both hands, and then brought it forward.
The sound it made as it slid through Lloyd's chest was too horrible for words. Instead of stabbing, it pierced all the way through, a wound no man or wingly could survive.
Lloyd lurched slightly and then fell backwards onto his back as the sword was yanked back out of his flesh. He began to cough, and blood flowed onto his thin lips.
Without out taking the time to acknowledge that she was able to move again, Wink bent over and began to puke violently, amplified by the liquid choking of her friend in the background.
Finally she stopped, and she stood slowly. Pushing her hair out of her eyes, she took her limited control as an opportunity, and she began to run to Lloyd's side.
However, Kyris was there first. He kicked her aside, and once again dragged Lloyd to his feet. The injured wingly's eyes were half closed and a small stream of blood dripped down his chin.
The sword became a knife again, as if Kyris was carefully selecting weapons for the most sadistic result.
Lloyd looked at it, too weak to resist, and Kyris brought it up to his right eye and plunged it in.
As if the vision had been too much for her, Wink awoke with a violent gasp that she would have sworn would have woken the dead. She sat there shivering a long time with her wide eyes watching the wall, not trusting herself to sleep again. And so she lay for a long time until sleep crept up and stole her away again.
At the same time, Lloyd was also having a dream, but for some reason it didn't show an illusion, but a memory instead.
He was in his home in Hisara, and facing opposite to him was Lenus. Her face was grim and hard-set, and in a low voice nearly a whisper, she said,
"You're really going to leave, aren't you?"
And at that moment, there seemed to be two of him. One was watching the proceedings with sad eyes, remembering everything as it happened, and the other was simply a manifestation of the dream and his memory. Despite how much he desired it, this version of Lloyd could not be controlled. Its choices had already been made.
"I have to. The human may have the answers to how to bring the winglies back, and I can't just let that go."
"Someone else can help that sonuva cow!" Lenus cried angrily. As he watched, Present-day Lloyd felt a deep jerk of sorrow overtake him. Even in the dream, his thoughts were clear as if it were day.
I should have listened to her. If I had, none of this would be happening.
"How do you know that?" Lloyd asked as he picked up a blade sheath of the oak table in the middle of their dining room and began strapping it to his leather sling belt. "Who do you know who would care enough to bother?"
"It doesn't matter!" Lenus replied. "Don't pretend to be so self-righteous!"
"Lenus, I don't like it either. But stop and think about it. What if this actually does work? And even if it doesn't, I'll come right back, I promise."
I was being so stupid…
"But what about all you have here?"
"It's not threatened, is it? I'll just be gone a little while."
"What if the human hurts you and you're by yourself?"
"I can defend myself."
Yeah right.
Lenus exhaled in exasperation. "How long will you be gone?"
"A month or so."
Like hell.
"What about me and Artewa?"
"You can wait that long, Lenus."
Why was I so sure?
"So, you're saying you don't care?" Lenus demanded.
The dream-Lloyd flinched, and then shook his head. "What choice do I have?"
Lenus's eyes widened, and a heartbreaking look of betrayal crossed her face. "So you don't care at all then?"
Oh god…"Of course I do." Lloyd tried, but the words were lost as a fierce expression of rage swallowed the sadness from Lenus' face.
"Lying bastard!" She cried.
"Lenus…"
"Shuttap!"
"Lenus, you know I love you." Lloyd said gently.
"Then why do you want to leave me here?"
As he relived the moment that quite possible was the beginning of all his pain, the dreamer felt his heart sink. He felt like dying.
In response, the Lloyd of the dream paused. "I'd never leave you."
The Wingly woman looked downwards with another gut-wrenching sigh and shook her head. "Make sure you're back soon, Lloyd. I can't live without you."
"I can't either."
Lloyd stepped forward and held his love close to him, and they both simply stood a moment, both knowing that the tasks ahead of them were not going to be as simple as he'd claimed.
The watcher felt his body tighten up with an intense longing that ate through him like a cancer. He wanted nothing more than to have Lenus here with him for real. How could he have lost her?
She was everything to me…As the couple in the dream exchanged a long, amorous kiss, the dream slowly faded into a sort of darkness. But it was not long the darkness before awakening; it was more like a physical version of the pain in Lloyd's mind. Not a darkness but an absence of light.
He now had a body again, though he had no desire of it. He hated himself.
A voice echoed through his head, and he squinted around through the shadow, trying to place it's owner.
"It's your fault she's gone…""I know." Lloyd replied, calming slowly.
"It was fate that took her from you…but it's been proven that fate can be overruled…"
"What do you want?" The wingly snarled into the false darkness.
"I want you to suffer…"
"Why?"
"Because you are a killer…"
Lloyd said nothing, unable to deny it.
"…And you are going to fail again. Someone very close to you is going to die."
Lloyd barked out into the shadow, "Who?"
"You'll see…"
"Tell me!"
"You nearly lost this person once before. Now you're going to again…"
"Artewa."
"Perhaps. Or perhaps the human…Wink…or perhaps the people of your hometown? "
"How do I stop it?" Lloyd demanded frantically.
"You can't. I will make sure of it. I will wait until you have no strength left, and then, when you're back is turned, I will make her scream for mercy!"
"Kyris?"
"Heh heh heh…even as we speak, the blond woman is suffering. Her dreams torment her, much as yours do to you."
"Leave her out of it!"
"Why do you care? Do you love this woman? Have you already replaced Lenus?"
"Shut up!"
"Be careful, Rowan. You never know what fate will bring…"
Lloyd tried to find some way to reach the speaker, but as the voice left, the dream began to end.
Seven people left Bale the next morning, each one privately wondering what would happen next. Meru, Dart, Albert and Miranda - four of the Dragoons - had been obvious candidates for the dangerous journey to Tiberoa, and, to Lloyd's surprise, Albert had actually recommended that he come as well. After much discussion, Artewa and Wink had come too. Artewa was accepted due to her surprising sword skills, and Wink because no one felt safe leaving her at Indels Castle to be attacked by more assassins.
The five humans were given horses to ride from Albert's stables, and though they were offered to Meru, Lloyd and Ari, the three preferred to fly alongside instead, mostly because none of them were experienced or skilled at riding.
The pace was fast and desperate, and by nightfall, they were already on their way towards whatever time brought them.
A/N: Gak, I hate my computer.
On a more important topic, thank you for continuing to read my crappy little story, hehe. Yes, I realize that this chapter was supposed to be a more action chapter, but it was WAY too long, so I'm gonna do in two parts. The good news is, the next chapter SHOULD be put up pretty quick. Yay! ^_____^