Yay! someone reviewed! and you are all going to be happy because this is when we learn how Zhay didn't loose his sanity..or did he loose his sanity and was really good at hiding it? -.-
Chapter Five: Now This Is How You Live…And Living Sucks
I could have died and gone to heaven for the past week, but I did come pretty darn close. Who knew that spending so much time with one girl could be so much fun? The past week with Kaltezira had contained the best days of my life.
Everyday, we would fly to where ever the wind currents took us, talking about what ever crossed our minds. We talked about everything from how we had grown up, to some of our deepest secrets. I never brought up my reoccurring nightmares about my father's murder, although those dreams had not haunted my nights since the day Kaltezira had shown up. I think the fact that she fell asleep in my arms and me in hers every night had something to do with it.
Did my mother care about all of this? Hell, no. She was overjoyed to tell you the truth. I think she was just happy to see me happy. I don't think I had ever been this happy since Worzreng died.
Today, I was the one overjoyed. The wind currents carried us towards the mountains I knew like the back of my hand. I had flown in these mountains ever since I was younger, just to get away from everything. I had even lived here, for like two days, after my father died. Today was my day to show Kaltezira how to live.
"So you've never flown in the mountains before?" I asked Kaltezira, flying up beside her.
"Nope," she replied, popping the 'p'. I smiled.
"Then you haven't lived," I said, stealing her words from a week ago. She recognized the words and chuckled.
"I bet flying in the rain is much more fun than flying in these mountains," Kaltezira countered as we approached the mountains. I rolled my eyes.
"You can't say that considering the fact that you have never flown in these mountains, but it's not. You're just going to have to keep up if you really want to have fun," I challenged, diving into the mountain range, weaving between the peaks.
"You're on," I heard her call as she dove into the mountains. After about two minutes, I heard Kaltezira's wings beat against the air, the sound echoing across the rocks. I looked over my shoulder to catch Kaltezira watching me, probably wondering how I could fly through these mountains without looking. I smiled and laughed when she almost crashed into the side of the mountain. Maybe laughing wasn't the nicest thing to do, but the expression on her face was hilarious!
"No fair!" she complained a moment later, flying up next to me. "You had an advantage!"
"So did you when we flew in the rain, so now we are even," I said.
"No we aren't," she told me. Kaltezira could arguably be the most stubborn person on the face of this planet.
"How so?" I asked.
"You distracted me," she accused. I laughed again. Like she hadn't done the same for me on countless occasions.
"You've distracted me on several occasions," I informed her. I smiled as she blushed and we flew on though the cloudy sky. I flew through a couple low lying clouds, enjoying the water droplets on my skin.
Soon, I was able to see the cave I had hung out in when I had run away. I angled my wings down and landed on the edge of the cliff that marked the mouth of the cave. Silently, I watched as Kaltezira circled around the mountain's peak and landed beside me.
"How long have you known about this place?" she asked.
"Found it when I ran away for a day when I was eight," I replied as I wrapped my arms around her waist, her wings, which were now tucked against her back, pressed against my chest, as my chin rested on her shoulder. She turned her head so that her warm hazel eyes met mine, asking me a million and two questions.
"I wasn't the smartest eight-year-old. I ran away because I was really lonely, I didn't have many friends," I lied with a shrug. Kaltezira nodded and glanced down at her feet. I could tell, even by her silent response that she understood my partial lie.
It wasn't like I was completely lying. I had few friends during my childhood, the only reason I had come up here was because of my father's murder. We stood there in silence for a long time, eventually sitting down so that our legs dangled off the side of the cliff.
"Zhay," Kaltezira said, breaking the peaceful silence.
"Yeah, Kalte?" I answered, looking at her as she sat beside me.
"What was it like to grow up, knowing about everything? Your position, your title, our destiny?" she asked. This aspect of our upbringing we hadn't talked about.
"Well, it wasn't the best. I always got treated different. I don't think people accepted me for who I was, just my title and my destiny."
Even when I didn't know it myself, I silently added.
"I would have preferred to grow up like you, free of it all," I explained.
"Trust me; you were better off than I was. The Rez people are probably the most annoying people on this planet. They only get to be four feet tall, so you feel like a giant among them. And the never ending feeling of loneliness," she explained, shuddering at the end. "I just felt so alone all the time, like there was no one else like me, no one I could relate to. I even felt that way in Zlhorv, it just wasn't right."
"And then you showed up on a watchtower one morning, looking like you were going to kill us all," I recalled, smiling as I enjoyed the memory. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kaltezira smile too as she brushed a piece of hair out of my face with her fingertips.
"And then you almost kissed me in front of your entire city," she said. "And it started raining and you fell on your back in the mud." That was probably the only downside to that day, and Kaltezira was laughing at it.
"And you just laughed." I murmured.
"You would have laughed too, if you just saw your face," Kaltezira told me, still laughing. I glared at her and she just laughed harder.
"Just like that!" I was about to roll my eyes, but then the corners of my lips upturned into a smile, more of an evil grin than a smile. Kaltezira stopped laughing and looked at me for a moment, fear glowing in her eyes.
"I'm dead, aren't I?" she asked.
"Yeah, you are," I replied. Her eyes grew wide and she scrambled away from me and ran to the other side of the cave.
"You're going to have to be faster than that if you plan on torturing me," Kaltezira taunted. I snuck up behind her and locked my arms around her. She glanced over her shoulder as I smiled and poked her in the gut. Her reaction gave me probably one of the biggest shocks of my life.
One of things that Kaltezira had told me that she had never done was giggle. But now, either my ears were playing tricks on me or I was dreaming. This girl, who looked like she would kill you in an instant, was giggling like a giddy schoolgirl in my arms.
"What was that?" I asked, my shock reflecting in my voice.
"What? I giggled. So giggling is illegal here I guess?" she told me.
"You've never giggled. Ever. You told me yourself." She seemed to remember that after I told her.
"Well there's a first time for every thing," she said as I poked her in the stomach again, causing her to giggle again. Kaltezira's giggles turned into laughter as I started tickling her. She tried to escape again, but ended up just squirming in my arms pointlessly.
"Zhay," I heard her manage to say in between laughs, "Stop…it...I'm gonna…bust…a gut….or something…"
"Nope," I answered, popping the 'p'. I doubted that she had laughed this hard in her life and her laughter made me smile. Soon, my own laughter mixed with hers in the air. I couldn't help myself, Kaltezira's laughter was contagious.
"Zhay…really…stop," Kaltezira gasped between laughs. I obliged and stopped laughing as I watched her catch her breath. Only when she opened her eyes and our eyes met did I realize what the heck happened. I had managed to pin her on her back, my knees on either side of her hips and my palms pressed onto the dirt floor of the cave on either side of her head as her hair splayed out in a hundred directions. My cheeks grew hot as a light blush formed on Kaltezira's face.
"Kalte, I'm sorry," I whispered, ripping my eyes from hers. If she hated me now, I could understand why. I had gone too far, way too far. As I shifted my weight so I could get up, Kaltezira stopped me.
"Don't be," she reassured me. She had pulled herself up onto her elbows, her gaze fixed on me. I started to move away, but she stopped me as she rested her hand on the side of my face, her fingers warm and gentle against my skin. I let my ice blue eyes meet Kaltezira's warm hazel and I melted. In the instant they met, her eyes were begging mine to not kill the moment, to stay here, pleading that I kiss her.
When our lips met, a new fire erupted from within me. This fire made me reckless, made me want Kaltezira even more than I already did. I poured all the love that I had ever felt for this girl, even before I had actually met her, into this kiss. Our lips weren't slow and cautious against each other's anymore. My lips became fierce against hers as my fingers trapped themselves in her hair. I felt her wrap her fingers in my hair and wrap her other arm around my neck. My free hand traced her spine downward from her neck to the small of her back, causing her to shiver in delight, her lips not leaving mine. With my hand on her lower back and my lips upturned into a smile against hers, I pulled her closer, pressing her body against mine.
Kaltezira curled her legs around my waist, pulling her body even closer to mine until there was no space between us, as I let my tongue trace her bottom lip. I didn't have to beg for long before her lips parted, sending a wave of hot air onto my face as her breath escaped in a ragged gasp. My tongue slipped past her lips, exploring her mouth and battling with hers. My lips upturned into a smile again as a soft moan escaped her newly parted lips as thunder rolled in the distance. I would have loved to have stayed there forever, to just stay this close to her forever, but the lightheadedness was beginning to become a problem.
I felt her hands slide up my shirt to trace the plains of my bare chest as my hand subconsciously slid up the back of her shirt to rest on her bare back, stroking the tips of her wings that had now slid under the fabric that separated her body from mine. That's when she pulled away. We kept our heads close, our foreheads pressing together and our lips brushing against each other as our breath mixed between us.
"Were you planning to take off my shirt or something?" Kaltezira asked me, a smirk hinted on her lips as they moved with mine.
"No. Were you planning on taking off mine?" I countered hesitantly. Her cheeks turned a deep scarlet as she realized where her hands were.
"No," she answered, hesitant as she pulled her hands from my chest and wrapped them around my neck. I smiled and kissed the bridge of her nose. Shifting my weight so that I could stand, I wrapped both of my arms around Kaltezira's waist.
"You might wanna…" Kaltezira started as I stood. Our heads hit the roof of the cave with a thunk. "…never mind." She looked confused for a moment, but then blushed scarlet again as she realized that her legs were still curled around my waist. I chuckled, just loud enough for her to hear, and pressed my lips against her forehead as she let her feet touch the ground.
As Kaltezira strode over to the entrance of the cave, with me on her heels, thunder rolled through the mountains again, louder this time.
"We should be heading back soon," I said as the wind picked up. "Looks like it's gonna be a big storm." Kaltezira nodded in agreement and loosened her wings from her back. The wind blew through the cave and her eyes grew wide as she seemed to hear something I didn't. She took off without a word and flew to the peak of the mountain, looking at something. Her expression changed from panicked to fear and back to panic.
"What is it, Kalte?" I asked. I watched as her lips moved but what she said I couldn't hear over the thunder and the distant crack of lightening. We had to get out of here before the storm hit.
"What is it, Kaltezira?" I shouted over the increasing wind.
"We are closer to Zlhorv than we are to Arez," she replied when she flew down to the mouth of the cave, hovering just over the edge, the wind wildly tossing her hair. "And I think they know we are here."
Holy shit. My thoughts began racing at three hundred miles per hour. What should I do? Get the hell out of here, more importantly, get Kaltezira out of here. They were looking for her, I wasn't important. I jumped off the cliff, grabbing Kaltezira and pulling her into my arms as I took off at top speed through the mountains.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"This will be faster; I'm not losing you in these mountains. I'm not losing you period," I told her. "Once we get out of here, I want you to dive into the forest and head back to Arez. I'll stay here and hold them off."
"No!" Kaltezira objected. This girl was as stubborn as hell.
"Kalte, it's you they are after, not me," I said, trying to make her see reason.
"They probably want you too," Kaltezira explained. I managed not to kill the both of us as she pressed her hands to the side of my face, forcing me to look down at her.
"They know about the real painting, Zhay. They know you're involved. No one's getting left behind and I am as sure as hell not leaving you. If we fight, we fight together." There was no sense in arguing with her. It was going to come to a fight, and we would most likely lose. I sighed and Kaltezira's hands dropped from my face, satisfied with my lack of argument.
As I flew out of the mountains and the forest lay below us, I let Kaltezira fly out of my arms. And that's when the rain started to fall.
I dove into the forest, weaving between the trees like Kaltezira had taught me how on that first day that seemed like a life time ago. Her wings beat in time with mine as she flew down beside me a few moments later.
"Itrantia's on our tail, and she brought her entire army," she told me.
"At least we know how to fly here," I said, smiling at her. She smiled back before disappearing into a thicker group of trees, taking Itrantia and a group of soldiers with her. I turned into a dense group of trees, losing a majority of the soldiers as they followed me to the trees.
Twenty of them were still on my tail when I crashed into a tree limb about five minutes later, misjudging my speed and the distance between me and the branch. I rolled with the momentum of my crash landing in the middle of a clearing and stood with my sword drawn as the soldiers surrounded me. With both of my hands on the hilt of my sword, my eyes darted from soldier to soldier, waiting for one of them to attack me. I heard someone land behind me and press their back against mine.
"I got your back," Kaltezira whispered as I heard her sword slide out of its sheath.
"And I got yours," I replied. Just then, Itrantia dove into the clearing in front of me, drawing a light brown sword of her own. Kaltezira turned at my back so that she could watch her mother and the soldiers.
"Okay, lovebirds, I'll make you a deal," Itrantia offered. It took every ounce of my self control to prevent the snarl that bubbled in my throat from surfacing. I glared at her, waiting for her to continue.
"Kaltezira comes with us, and the boy gets to live." Nice. I had no name. I was disposable to them. I was just the boy that gets in the way, and totally proud. Despite my lack of name, there was still no way that either of us were going to give up.
"Over my dead body," I said, allowing the snarl to slip past my lips.
"Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?" Itrantia asked, sounding like she was talking more to me than Kaltezira. A low growl echoed through the field and in my ears. That growl I knew, much to my regret. A black wolf emerged from among the soldiers to stand next to Itrantia. Vdzr growled at Kaltezira first and then looked at me. He seemed to grin as he recognized me, obviously seeing the resemblance unseen to me between me and my father.
"Vdzr," I growled as the wolf growled at me.
"Still want to stay and defend your girlfriend, boy?" Itrantia wondered. Did she think I was going to give up that easily? It takes more than the wolf that murdered my father to make me back down. Vdzr had already taken Worzreng, but he wasn't going to take Kaltezira from me.
"So be it," Itrantia said when neither Kaltezira nor I moved. "You both will die, and Kaltezira's power will be mine."
"Over my dead body," Kaltezira snarled from behind me.
"Gladly," her mother replied. As by some unseen command, the soldiers attacked, and I dove for Vdzr, losing both him and Kaltezira in an instant. My rage toward the wolf-man was quickly pushed aside by my need to defend myself and to find Kaltezira. The soldiers stopped coming after me as if by another unheard command. Just as I found Kaltezira's unconscious body lying on the wet ground and Itrantia smiling above her, I heard Kaltezira's name slip through my lips before I succumbed to the darkness that suddenly came over me.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I woke not long after ward forced on my knees and a sword at my throat. Glancing from soldier to soldier, I found at least half of them holding down Kaltezira, ropes tying her wings and her hands together and a sword held to her throat. She stirred in her unconsciousness; every time the soldiers jumping five feet, like they were terrified that she was going to tear their heads off. I smiled at that fact. She was a person worth fearing.
"What are you smiling at, lover bird?" a voice snarled at me. The grip on my hair tightened, pulling my head back as the sword was brought closer to my throat. I looked over my shoulder to find the man holding the sword to my neck, glaring at me. As soon as his black eyes met mine, his gaze softened, his eyes still a cold and heartless black, as he smiled down at me.
"I knew you looked familiar, boy," he whispered in my ear. "I would have never expected Worzreng's son to be involved." This time, I let the snarl bubble in my throat and escape my lips. All Vdzr did was smile at me.
"There's no need for that," Vdzr said. "I'm just a concerned uncle making sure his niece isn't hanging out with the wrong people, which she obviously is." No, it couldn't be. If Vdzr was Kaltezira's uncle like he claimed, then Vdzr was Balvor's brother. But that wasn't important now. Did Kaltezira know this? I doubted it.
Just then, Kaltezira stirred and her eyes opened. She didn't bother to scream, to wonder what had happened. Her eyes scanned the soldiers, finding me and Vdzr. She didn't seem to recognize the murderer since he was human.
"What do you want, Itrantia?" she asked as her mother stepped before her, leaving me to stare at the queen's light brown wings that protruded from the back of her shirt. The color reminded me of the light brown color of dirt as it sat in the palm of my hand.
"You know what I want," Itrantia replied. "Surrender and I might not kill your boyfriend." Kaltezira glanced at the ground the best she could with the sword at her throat. Her eyes reflected her only option and my heart sunk.
"If you die," Vdzr growled in my ear, "send your father my regards." I struggled against his grip so I could try to hurt him in anyway I could, but gave up as he let the blade touch my throat.
"Why haven't you taken me back?" Kaltezira demanded. "You had me unconscious." Itrantia only shrugged. This was all my fault. Because of me, Kaltezira had lost some of her ferocity she had arrived in Arez with only a week ago. I was her only weakness. I had given her a weakness and brought this upon us.
"If I go with you, you promise not to hurt him?" My jaw dropped and I stared at her like she was crazy. I was not worth being imprisoned by a psycho woman and her pet wolf. How could she give up so easily? Kaltezira read my expression like an open book.
I don't want them to hurt you, her eyes told me. I silently begged that she wouldn't give up, just for me. I was not worth it by any means. If anything, I should be giving myself up for her, but that wasn't an option here.
"I promise," Itrantia agreed, silently overjoyed that she had achieved victory so easily. I could detect the fear in her voice, the fear of her own daughter. My heart broke as I watched the soldiers tighten the bonds on Kaltezira's hands and wings.
"I love you," I mouthed the next time Kaltezira's hazel eyes melted mine. "I'll come for you. I'll always be with you, never forget." My heart broke again as I mouthed the words.
"I love you too," Kaltezira silently replied as the soldiers led her past me, "and I'll never forget." Then the soldiers took off, dragging her into the sky with them.
My heart shattered now into thousands of pieces as I watched her watch me as she was dragged to our death. If they had either kept her conscious or had knocked her unconscious when they took her away, my heart would have shattered all the same. She looked so helpless and I could only imagine I did too as I had hundreds of arrows aimed at me. If I took one step towards her, Vdzr would draw the sword across my throat and the soldiers would shoot.
"I'll see you later, boy," Vdzr whispered in my ear, releasing me from his grip and bolting into the forest, not bothering to fly. When I picked myself off the wet ground, they were gone. I was alone as the rain fell, feeling like thousands of nails against my skin. Thunder crashed directly above my head and the rain just came down harder.
Okay since the stupid line is being stupid....
I think that was one of my longest chapters yet! WARNING: the next couple are a bit short. just a bit.
But please review! they make me happy inside. you know that feeling inside when u eat chocolate/your favorite food ever..for example CHOCOLATE FROSTING (my sis and i were eating chocolate frosting and she was like 'i bet edward would taste like this' and i was like 'no. he'd taste better.' LOL)? well thats a feeling i get when you review....and if you enter that contest i mentioned like 2 chapters back...ill feel even better. :)