Aaaand, we are back with another chapter! Sorry it took so long. I wrote this offline a while ago. Then saved it when I got online, but the next day, it disappeared! So I had to rewrite it. Took me a while to get my lazy butt off of videogames and not leave you guys hanging LOL. I hope you all enjoy! Now, my favorite part, answering comments!!
THRONE WARDEN: NO! Not another cliffhanger! This is great! Keep writing!
RainyDayReading342: Thanks! Will do!
Writer-Rabbit-Newsie-Grace: *Sobs* Not...Liam...Save...The Prince...*remembers no one knows where he is* *more sobbing* Aw, thanks for the shoutout!
RainyDayReading342: But of course *bows* And yes...there is much sadness regarding Liam. He is one of my favorite characters, after all. *wipes away tears*
KGWingfeatherFan: *slaps strander and punches him in the face* LEAVE. HIM. ALONE. more more more pls pls pls
KGWingfeatherFan: *sobs and cries harder* NO! DONT TOUCH HIM! *cries with Writer-Rabbit-Newsie-Grace* STOP WITH THE CLIFFHANGERS! AKA most horrible form of torture...
RainyDayReading342: Its pretty amazing to know Liam has loyal supporters out there. And ohhh, don't you worry, that Strander WILL get what he deserves! Hehehehehe cliffhangers are inevitable
ANNOUNCEMENT: 50th commentor will get the GRANDEST PRIZE of getting to choose a scene that they request in the epilogue. From interaction between characters you would like to see, or anything. *couldn't think of more examples, but you get what I mean LOL*
Thank you for always reading and being there faithfully, all the comentors! I can't believe this story is coming to an end...*sniff* Please enjoy this chapter!
Five Days Earlier...
Itzel woke with a start. She heard the crashing of waves and the warm sand under her curled up body. Her head was resting on the scaly heated body of Ash.
She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Ash nuzzled her.
ITZEL! MORNING!
"Good morning, Ash," Itzel giggled.
Itzel turned to Arthie. He was curled up on the sand, his chest rising and falling slowly. His mouth hung open, and his eyes were closed peacefully. Soft snores came from him. His cheek was squashed against the sand, and his hair was waving in the warm wind.
Itzel reached out a hand and shook him awake.
He groaned and swatted her hand away. "No, I don't want any carrots, Ma..."
Itzel felt a pang of sadness run through her at the mention of her mother, and she missed her so much. She would have done anything to be resting in her motherly embrace.
"Arthie, wake up!" Itzel commanded.
"Whu...what?" he yawned as his eyelids fluttered open. He sat up and stretched.
Ash gave a huff, then laid her head back on her claws and closed her eyes.
"No, Ash, it's not time for sleeping," Arthie instructed, standing up and shaking the sleep from his limbs. "You have to fly us off the island."
FLY? asked a very skeptical Ash, who side eyed Arthie.
"Yep. Fly! You have to flap your wings. Don't you know how to fly?"
Ash only blinked.
Arthie started flapping his arms up and down. "Like this, see? Flap your wings."
Itzel snickered at his antics. Arthie rolled his eyes.
"Not a word," he hissed. Then he turned back to Ash. "Come on, Ash. Fly!"
Ash lifted her wings and gently started flapping them up and down.
"That's it! But you have to flap your wings harder."
Ash did as he did, and slowly, she started to lift.
Itzel jumped up. "Yes! That's it!"
But Ash couldn't steer herself anywhere. She started tilting, and she let out a startled yelp. Then she started scraping her talons on the ground, wildly scratching the sand and sending it everywhere in a cloud. She groaned and then collapsed.
Arthie and Itzel coughed, trying to clear the cloud of unwelcome particles from their lungs.
"Its progress, I guess..." Arthie said in the middle of a coughing fit.
Ash lifted herself from the ground, squatting on her four legs again.
Arthie ran a hand down his face. "Well...you still can practice. We'll work on it today, right?"
Itzel blinked at him, her eyes full of worry. "I hope so," she said.
Suddenly, Ash's eyes grew wide. In one, swift movement, she swooped up Itzel and Arthie onto her back using her wings. Itzel let out a squeak as she was pressed to Ash's back. The dragonet quickly stumbled across the sand, and then dove into the forest beside the cave. She hid them behind bushes and pressed herself flat to the ground.
Twigs and leaves caught in the children's hair, and in their shock they were about to ask Ash what she did that for, when they heard voices.
And footsteps.
On the beach.
They sat there and listened to them approaching, which seemed like hours, even if it was only a couple seconds. Arthie and Itzel peered through the thicket of leaves.
They bit back their screams when they saw a beast lurch onto the shore where they had just been. It had spiders legs underneath a burned cloak, and tangled briar of hair resting on its head, with bald patches. The left half of its face was charred and burnt and black. The left eye was missing from the socket, coated in dried blood, and its right eye was red and puffy with weeping. Ugly fangs protruded from its ruined mouth. And when it turned its head fully, the children had to stop themselves from gasping.
Amrah stood there, seething with pure hate as she studied the marks on the sand of where the children and Ash was.
"Looks like..." Amrah growled. "...to me, it looks like footprints and claw marks. Does it not to you, Snort?"
To the children's surprise, they saw Snort, the Grey Fang, step into view. Its tail was singed and shrunken. The tip of its left ear was completely missing, the stump black and charred.
"Yes, it does to me as well," Snort said. Amrah slowly turned this way and that, as if she was expecting her prey to leap out.
"Its fresh," she said, with a dangerous kind of calm. Her broken lips twisted into a terrifying smile. "The kiddies are nearby..." she whirled around in all directions, pure hate in her eyes as she snarled,
"I WILL FIND YOU, AND I WILL AVENGE MURGAH! ITS YOUR FAULT SHE'S DEAD, YOU ROTTEN, SNOBBY, PRIVILEGED RATS! I WILL FIND YOU AND THAT...THAT...WORM!! AND I WILL SEE TO IT YOU RECEIVE THE SAME TREATMENT AS MURGAH!!"
The kids flinched from behind the bushes, and Ash had the faintest growl in her throat.
Amrah turned to Snort, her right eye swollen as if she was crying, but had no more tears left in her body. Small sobs wracked her wretched body.
"Find...them..." she mumbled, retreating back to her small squad of Fangs.
"We have to hide," Arthie whispered, terror ripping through him. Itzel clung to him, completely mute with fear.
Ash moved from under them, and they slipped off of her back as soon as Snort followed Amrah.
The children could also sense the dragonet's fear, and Ash said to them,
FLY, SOON. NEED.
Shudders sent though Arthie and Itzel as they agreed. They had to get off the island now.
Or else Amrah was going to kill them.
Five Days Later...
Marissa and Shadowblade galloped through the woods, following the faint trail of wagon wheels. She was tired, hungry, and cold. But she would stop at nothing to rescue Liam. She didn't know why it mattered so much. And it wasn't because she was afraid about Liam not being able to help her with her Inn. He had labeled her as a nobody, compared to his royalty, after all.
Though she kept on following the trail as she had been for two days.
"Oy, princess? Its been...two days...longest mission...I've ever had...any idea when we'll get there?" Shadowblade gasped.
"No. Why do you think I would know, SB?" Marissa shot back. She called him SB because she found that calling him "Shadowblade" triggered a wave of flirtatious comments. And sometimes it took to long to say.
They had been looking through the East Bend, where they were positive the tunnel led to. And there, they found a closed tunnel door, collapsed. And from it, wagon wheels led all the way forward.
So they had followed it.
And here they were, two days later, still following the trail. They had camped a couple times, but only very late at night and they left early in the morning. It was exhausting.
The only sound was the pounding of hoofbeats on the muddy ground, the swish of forest trees along the path, and the grunts and huffs of the horse's nostrils flaring.
And SB's complaining.
But Marissa tuned him out most of the time.
The afternoon was leading to sunset, not far off. Marissa was starting to feel very tired.
She was thinking that they should stop for the night, when suddenly, the trail made a sharp turn and led thought the woods and onto...
"A beach?" Marissa gasped. She reined her horse in, and SB did the same. They both slipped off of their rides and SB walked slowly over to the sand.
The lapping waves reached for his fingers as he crouched down and trailed his hands over the marks and footsteps.
"It seemed there were wagon wheels here...and then they were hauling boxes of...well, something...and then went here," he was crouched down, brows scrunched together, and slowly following the marks. "...and they got on a...ship."
He said the last part quietly. If they were at sea, that explained the ended wagon wheels. But...they couldn't track them from the sea. SB stood up quietly, and stole a glance at Marissa.
She was standing on the edge of the shore, the golden sunlight bathing her in orange light as the waves lapped at her feet. Her golden curls framed her face and blew with the wind. Her fair cheeks were a warm pink, lips heart shaped, dazzling green eyes staring at the sea. Her skirt blew in sync with her hair, wrapping around her legs.
She was the exact image of beauty.
But she felt anything but beautiful right then.
SB mumbled something about needing to set up camp in the forest somewhere, and he trudged away, leaving Marissa alone.
A traitorous tear quietly slipped from the corner of her eye. She reached up and angrily wiped it away. Her heart felt broken, splintered into tiny pieces inside her. As if the only thing left holding it together were her ribs.
If Liam was on a ship, at sea, sailing away, how would she find him? How could they track him? He was gone.
This was what happens when she let herself care.
She had broken her vow.
And now look where it had gotten her.
She didn't want to care anymore. She hated caring. She hated the overwhelming feeling of sadness, anger, and loneliness.
The last feeling, she realized, was because Liam was one of the first people to care about...her.
Ever since her brother had been taken away.
No, she thought, commanding herself. He didn't care, remember? He riddled me away as nothing. A nobody.
She watched the waves lapping at the shore over and over.
It wasn't fair. How come the sand and the waves got a do-over?
She set her sights upon the darkening sky, the massive golden sun spreading its rays all over the ocean on the far horizon as it sunk into the sea.
Maker! she cried. Take these feelings away. I don't want them anymore. Why would you give them back to me if you were only going to let it turn back on me!?
She didn't understand.
She sunk to her knees, allowing the waves lapping at her soaked feet to wash over her lap.
"Take them away," she whispered to the sky, as the tears that she had been fighting to withhold broke free.
She sat there for a few minutes, letting herself cry. She stared at the dusk and the sea, and the darkening indigo sky. After a few minutes, she finally wiped her tears from her wet face and took a deep breath. She stood up and tried to wring out the water in her skirt, cleaning herself.
She blinked, hard. Now, she had to figure out how to get back to her life as normal. Mr. Grell would probably cut her wages even worse, but she would manage. She always did. She was done crying. It was time to forget about him, be strong, and move on.
"I promise that I will never let myself care about someone again. It only ever gets me hurt, and this will never happen again," she quietly renewed her vow.
For now, she had to get back to SB and they would camp that night. Then they would leave for Dugtown the next morning.