Kel brought herself to her feet at Raoul's command. Although she didn't know where it was they were going, she knew better than to question him. He did outrank her, after all.
Griffin still clasped in her hand, Kel followed Raoul out of the fort and straight into the mass of dead and dying bodies. With a repressed shudder, Kel carefully made her way across the ground, still trailing after Raoul.
He led her in a definitive path, bringing them to the fringes of the forest. Raoul headed straight into it as his pace quickened with every step, as though he felt the sudden need to rush.
Kel caught a feeling of tension radiating off of Raoul. The feeling slowly settled its ice cold grip around her, and by the time they could no longer see the fort it had Kel trembling.
Ironically, Kel found herself walking almost the exact trail she had the day before, when she had been headed for the river to do nothing more than think. Her thoughts briefly wandered back to Solan, but when Raoul suddenly cut off on a tangent into the woods, Kel's mind snapped back to the present.
Coming to a sudden halt, Raoul whipped around and gestured for Kel to come to his side. Upon seeing what lay in front of her, a harsh pang ran through Kel's heart.
"Dom," Kel murmured, her voice choked with emotion.
He lay sprawled out on the ground, one hand resting on the fallen trunk of a tree, his head half hidden by the leaf loam. Eyes closed and body still, he resembled nothing so much as a corpse.
"Oh gods, no!" Kel's voice came out as a broken wail. Without command, her feet folded under her and she landed on her knees at Dom's side. Tears streaming down her face, she grabbed his hand.
"You, you can't be dead. You can't be!" All the world seemed non-existent to Kel at this moment, the only thing she saw was the body of her one true love, it filled her vision and her mind with an all-consuming energy.
On her knees, rocking back and forth slowly as though she intended to do so the rest of her life, Kel held tight to Dom's hand, oblivious to the efforts Raoul was making to try to get her attention.
Don't be mad at me, okay! Things may not turn out as you expect them to! I mean it:cowers: Don't hurt me.
As I just wrote that, I was listing to the song "Dust in the Wind," by Kansas. I find that rather ironic… Or am I just weird? No, that's defiantly ironic.
Enough about irony and songs. I'll head off to write the next chapter (It'll be a lot longer, I promise. This one is kind of mean, now that I think about it, I'm sorry) as you guys read and review this one for me, okay? Thanks everybody, for all the reviews and support and stuff! I mean it!