On Sapphire Wings

Chapter 10

On the road again.

I can't wait to get on the road again! (^_^)

**

Lloyd smiled absently to himself.

It had been a long time since he'd flown with others of his kind. He felt happier in the air – like he was free. At least more free then walking. He wondered how humans managed that all the time.

Habit, he supposed.

Beside him, Meru and Artewa were chasing each other through the air, laughing and making idle threats like a couple of children. Lloyd chuckled as Meru tackled Artewa in midair, tickling her mercilessly.

Far below them, Miranda and Wink were watching in amusement, but Dart and Albert ignored them, deep in morbid thoughts. It mattered little to Lloyd, however.

Perhaps it was because of the weather, or the simply atmosphere of the forested world. Even Lloyd himself was in a good mood, watching his Wingly friends flutter through the air like birds.

He grunted as Meru was pushed into him, and Artewa giggled wickedly.

"Evil!" Meru cried at her.

As Lloyd was watching the proceedings, he nearly missed seeing the horses halt below him. Flying down slowly, he landed on the ground beside Wink and asked, "What's wrong?"

"We're being followed…" Miranda said for her.

There was a moment of silence, and then Dart suddenly turned towards the tree line beside the path and raised his sword. "Come out!"

Silence, and then a familiar figure came dutifully out.

"Kian?" Meru demanded from behind Lloyd, startling him slightly, "What are you doing here?"

Kianako smiled grimly, and in the wingly language said, "I didn't want to sit around while Kyris was out there."

Meru translated, and there was a pause, and then Miranda asked, "Why would you think we'd let you come?"

"I didn't, but I came anyways." Meru translated again.

Dart smiled lightly. "Then there's no stoppin' ya. What do you think Albert?"

Albert shrugged. "I don't see why not. Welcome about Kian."

Kianako grinned.

"I won't disappoint you. I gotta score to settle with our buddy Kyris!"

The next days past in a blur. Wink was not used to the monotony of travelling, and it seemed that everyone but her was fine with it, but she could not help being restless. Fortunately, Artewa was also having trouble adapting to the long silence of it, and the two of them spent most of the trip getting to know each other.

Wink learned a lot, not only about Artewa, but also about Lloyd and the Wingly culture. She learned that Lloyd and Lenus had raised Artewa, though she claimed that she never thought of Lloyd as a father, and more of a brother. She'd still been small when she was forced to live with a friend of Lenus's, but not too small to remember and long for her caretakers.

Artewa talked a lot about her adoptive parents, and Wink was surprised at how it put a strange new light on her perspective of the two. Apparently, Lenus, who Wink had only seen once, had been an emotional, hard-working woman who had been very clingy to her relatives and friends, and had had a bright sense of humour, and a fairly easy-going demeanour. And Lloyd had been very quiet, even shy, but fiercely protective.

A fierce attack of longing awakened in Wink at this, but she struggled to ignore it, knowing that it would not help her to consider it. Even if Lloyd returned her feelings, he would likely not be able to recover from Lenus. And how could he love her? She was so meek in his glorious shadow, and she felt like dead weight as it was.

She blushed slightly as she thought of the night in the woods, and Artewa looked at her curiously.

"What?"

"I – nothing." She smiled gently, shaking her head.

After a seeming eternity, the odd group reached the coast, and Albert hired a vessel to take them across the ocean with all speed possible. The trip across the sea was just as dull as walking, but at least she no longer had the aches and pains of riding horses all the time.

Finally, they reached Tiberoa, and a nervousness began to fester inside Wink as they rode across the fields, nearing the imperial capital. Her nerves felt like they were a cord, being pulled cruelly taught, and the shears were nearing slowly.

Suddenly, Albert, Dart and Miranda stopped, and with liquid precision, the four winglies floated eerily to the ground. Wink's eyes flickered nervously.

"What is it?" She asked. A couple times before, they'd had to stop to avoid a monster, but she didn't see anything, and that in itself worried her.

"I see someone…" Albert murmured, squinting into the blazing sunlight.

Wink followed his lead, and eventually spotted a small black dot on the horizon.

They waited until the figure came into focus, and Wink bit her lip in surprise.

It was a Tiberoan man. One eye was open wildly, and they other closed, and blood squirted out from the empty socket. His face was scarred and oozing liquid, and his clothing, once jaunty and colourful, were ripped and tattered. He ran towards them with terror covering his face, and pleading in his one honey-coloured eye.

"Omigod…" Wink sighed, and then, without thinking about, she brought her steed to a charge towards him, knowing that he was in desperate need of help.

"Wink!" She heard the cry from behind her, but ignored it, intent on what she was doing. She leaned forward, the whipping her hair in a maddened frenzy, and clung to the hair of her horse.

A sudden impact from behind her hit her in the shoulder, and suddenly she was in the air with muscled arms wrapped around her waist protectively. She looked back at Lloyd, then back down at the ground.

There was a tense moment were nothing moved, and then a huge tendril reached seemingly out from the ground and, driving through the fleeing Tiberoan as though he didn't even exist, wrapped around the horse and crushed him, splashing blood and gore all over the dead grass of the plains. Wink made a small choking noise, and clung terrorfully to Lloyd's hands, unable to do anything else.

A huge beast rose slowly from the ground, and roared in rage. It was a terrible thing that struck a new kind of fear into Wink.

It looked like a gigantic worm, sandy yellow in colour, but it had eight long tendrils protruding from it's gut, four of which it stood on like legs, and the other four waving about, searching blindly for the human it had thought it had trapped.

And suddenly, the front of the thing opened up into a huge mouth, and eyelids that had seemed invisible before shot open, black and pupiless and completely devoid of mercy. Slowly, the maggotish creature's front seemed to appear, becoming a demonic face that was almost human seeming. It grinned through purple lips and called out.

"Human!" It cried, the words hardly distinguishable from the snarls of a beast. "Wharrr' oo? No hide 'rom Rachesis!"

It gazed left and right, seeming somehow unable to see Wink's companions in the distance, then chuckled bestially and looked up.

Wink felt Lloyd's chest heave out as he tensed, and she bit her lip, trying to stay silent as night-shaded eyes glared up at her.

"Drrragonflyyy…" It said, and it sneered, revealing row upon row of jagged fangs.

"Hang onto my neck." The wingly whispered into Wink's hair breathlessly. "Don't move suddenly."

She did as he said, wiggling around until she was facing him, clinging to his neck and trying to stay as close to his as possible, as though doing so would somehow make the creature leave.

The Serdian sword let out a steel cry as it was pulled from its sheath, and Wink saw her companion trying desperately to wield it past her. She tried to turn her head to see the worm, but only succeeded in straining her neck.

Lloyd sucked in a breath and began to dive down, sword first, towards the creature, and suddenly an amazing impact hit the two of them, and then the world disappeared as Wink shut her eyes instinctively.

They plummeted a moment, and then there was a jarring pain as they hit the grass; a sort of hardened lightning that shocked throughout her body, numbening her.

Opening her eyes, she sat up shakily, and saw that Lloyd looking past her with pained, half-closed eyes.

"Fools! No rrrrun from Rachesis! No get awaaay…"

Wink turned slowly, and her mouth hung open as words failed her. The strange, anamorphous face of the beast, Rachesis, was stretched out right near her, the terror-inducing grin on its lips. "Masterrr kill-ed drrragonfly…now Rachesis kill!"

Wink screamed as one of the hand-less tendrils shot past her and wrapped around Lloyd's neck. His mouth opened and he made a dry coughing noise as he was jerked upwards.

"No!" Wink cried, and she cast about desperately. Her other companions were riding up as fast as they could, but it would not be fast enough.

Seeing Lloyd's sword on the dirty ground, she picked it up, surprised by it's weight, and threw it clumsily, resulting in it simply spinning in the air and hitting the monster painlessly in the arm with the handle. It slowly began to fall, and then stopped suddenly.

Lloyd, who was beginning to look faint, held out one hand, and the blade quivered and moved towards him. Slowly it floated arcanely into his hand, and he had just closed his gloved fingers around it when Rachesis hissed in surprise, spotting it. He stared at it a moment, then a look of angry mirth crossed his face, and his tentacle tightened around Lloyd's neck. There was a crack, and Lloyd cried out weakly. His eyes rolled back halfway, and he went limp.

Rachesis smiled, and through him aside, where he hit the earth and didn't move. Then the beast looked about, searching for Wink. She froze, fearing to move lest it see her.

The head turned left then right slowly, and then it finally honed in on her.

"Human…" It smirked. "The drrrragonfly 'as weak. I bring you to him…"

Wink jumped aside as a tentacle flashed through the air, driving towards her. She dove to the dirt and then rolled aside as two more followed, and then suddenly she was lifted again, though the feel of her barer was unfamiliar. She looked back, and Kian smiled, though it was a preoccupied smile. "Hold on!" He shouted, and then flew sharply sideways as a tendril lashed out. Rachesis hissed, spraying saliva, and tried to slap the two out of the air, but he was too slow for the wild-eyed wingly who now opposed him.

And then it reared up as a fireball hit it from behind, where Meru and Artewa faced it bravely. Kian, taking this advantage, shifted Wink's position and flew up higher.

As he did so, the humans finally arrived, having had to leave the horses behind. Weapons flashed in the sunlight as the dragoons and Artewa began to attack feverishly.

Kian paused a moment, trying to remember the human language, then said, "You Lloyd get, yes? I have to fight."

Wink nodded in recognition, and he smiled and began to fly downwards towards Lloyd's lifeless form.

"Careful!" He said, putting her down gently, then he rose up, pulling his halberd from its straps on his back and flying towards the beast.

Wink bit her lip, and then hurriedly began to dig around in her pouch for a potion.

Albert licked bleeding lips and clutched onto the leather handhold of his lance tightly. The worm was very fast, but the six of them were beginning to draw violet blood from the creature.

He ducked the creatures salivating maw snapped down by his leg, and forced his weapon down on a passing tentacle, digging it in with the force of his weight. Even as he did, Kianako flew past his head, slashing the things shoulder with his halberd.

But the thing was not even slowed by it. It gazed around, bleeding and snarling, and searched for the easiest target.

"Fly-kin!" It cried out at Artewa, snatching her out of the air before she could dodge away. Albert tried to stab the thing in the stomach, but it bounced off Rachesis' tough hide.

"Damnit all!" He growled. He held his spear up high, and was about to drive it down again when a voice interrupted him.

"That won't work."

He turned slowly, and nearly walked into a man in a black and silver robe, the hood pulled down to reveal wingly features. The man had a sword held high, and before Albert could duck away, the blade began downwards.

Albert gasped as the sword slashed along his arm, and he dropped his spear, clutching it helplessly. The black wingly brought the blade up again, but something collided with his head and he fell to the ground.

Albert squinted as the figure stood in the sunlight, a makeshift wooden stave in its hands offensively.

His rescuer was definitely female, and her long black hair reflected the sunlight in a violet sheen. She was tall and slender, and was dressed in dark indigo armour that was all too familiar.

Albert's eyes widened.

"Rose…"

**

A/N: Another Black Man? Rose? A big wormy? What could it all mean?

Hehe, once again I must say I'm sorry I take so long to update, I hit writers block halfway through the making of this chapter. Fortunately, I think it's pretty good, and it will lead into a very…interesting…next chapter. And I swear I'm REALLY trying to get better about updating! X_X

PS: Yes, the lyrics were a joke. I couldn't think of any… ^_^