Just one thing before you start: in this story, Firnen is a girl, so don't be confused :)
Also, thank you to Chris, the proofreader of this chapter!
Leum flew as fast as an elven arrow despite the flames that lashed the palatial spires, the screams of the suffering people below him and the driving rain. Hot tears flowed down his scales and were immediately swept away by the raging wind. Only one thought crossed his mind: I have to find her. I have to protect her. That's what he asked of me. I have to protect her.
Ahorin had just been ambushed by the Forsworn. The oath-breaker's ally had stabbed him with a poisoned blade and then escaped stumbling through the ruins, a hand pressed to the gash that Ahorin's blade had opened in the traitor's stomach.
Whilst Ahorin was in agony, eyes wide and face pale as marble, Leum had tried to cling to his conscience with all his might, but it had escaped him like a breath of wind impossible to grasp with bare hands. His last request was clear and unequivocal:
"Protect my daughter, Leum. Don't let her die here, please..."
The whispers that had followed these words had become weaker and weaker, the light in his eyes faded, and as they exchanged the last goodbye, Ahorin had fallen into the shadows.
At first Leum had felt only emptiness, and he was immersed in a foreign silence. Then the awareness of what he had just lost fell on him like an icy waterfall as he tried in vain to nudge the body of his Rider with his scaly face. A part of Leum was gone forever; half of his mind, a half that had been there for his entire life, was dead. And it would never return.
His sense of self had just been irreversibly mutilated. The mere effort not to succumb to the pain had immobilized him. A sneaky cold dagger suddenly crept into the space that until a few seconds before was filled with the warm, reassuring and familiar presence of Ahorin. He could not even give his Rider a proper burial.
Leum tilted his long, sinuous neck, roaring in anger and pain, and then took flight, flapping his wide emerald-green wings, trying not to look back. He flew to the citadel, and when he spotted the renegade who had mortally wounded Ahorin, a blind fury overwhelmed him. Beating his membranous wings, he swooped down, opened his jaws wide and then tore apart the traitor's flesh, but simple revenge could never compensate him for what he had lost.
And now he was alone. Alone for as long as he had left to live. But could he really call it life without Ahorin by his side?
Now his sole purpose had become protecting Firnen. But where could she be? How could he find her in the chaos of death and destruction, of fire and screams?
The Forsworn were winning. By now there were few Riders with the strength to fight, it was only a matter of time. He had to find her and escape from Vroengard as soon as possible.
Flapping his large wings he fought against the wind, fire and rain as he flew over the city, trying to ignore the Riders fighting among themselves.
A gloomy thought made him hesitate: perhaps the little girl was already dead, perhaps he would never find her. He chased away that possibility, confident that Firnen had managed to hide in a safe haven. But how would he find her in that hell?
He had no other choice. The Forsworn or their nameless dragons might discover and kill him instantly, but if he lingered any longer the chances of finding Firnen alive would soon be zero.
Hesitantly, he extended a tentacle of consciousness outward as he walked away from the fortress and its flame-engulfed towers. He made sure the enemies were too busy fighting to notice him and began sifting through Doru Araeba from top to bottom, his heart pounding in his chest like rumbles of thunder.
Beneath him stretched the panorama of his slaughtered comrades, on the island that until then had been a safe nest for the Riders and their dragons. Vroengard had never been a hospitable place for the two-legged beings other than the Argetlam: the jagged and sheer coasts, the sparse and dry vegetation and the steep slopes of the extinct volcano that towered over the island gave it a rough and brutal appearance. The hands of the elves and men had only intervened when Vroengard had been chosen to become the stronghold of the Riders in the far west of Alagaësia.
He was about to lose all hope when he felt a faint, familiar pulse of life just below him.
His heart filled with joy. He tried to send a reassuring thought to Firnen, but found her mind blocked by an impenetrable wall. Ahorin had taught her well. The little girl must have sensed Leum's familiar presence, but she was probably too upset and scared to allow anyone into her thoughts.
Leum landed and raised a cloud of dust. He folded his wings and stretched his snout towards what looked like a small bundle. How small the elf children were!
Firnen was huddled in the rubble of a house razed to the ground by the fires. The little girl looked at the imposing dragon as if a vision had appeared to her and immediately she ran towards him to embrace his snout. Looking into her eyes, Leum realized that they were the same shade of green as his scales. He had never noticed it.
His iridescent eyes scanned the thin figure of the little elf in search of possible wounds, but apart from the scorched tips of her ebony braid Firnen seemed unharmed.
Leum breathed a sigh of relief and touched the child's mind with his deep voice: Firnen, are you okay?
She nodded uncertainly, "Where is my father?"
The dragon dodged the question as a new pang of pain filled his chest. He was not able to face the matter openly, not at that moment: He asked me to take you out of here. It's too dangerous.
Firnen abruptly pulled away from the embrace and looked at him with a severity that was out of tune with her childish face: "No! The others are still struggling! You can't abandon the battle like that. My father needs you."
Leum drove away the shame he felt by puffing a cloud of smoke. A cowardly dragon that ran away with its tail between its paws. Here's how they would remember him. But he didn't care. He had made a promise to his partner in heart and mind and nothing would stop him from fulfilling it, not even pride.
He crouched low on the ground, touching it with his broad belly to allow Firnen to climb onto his back: Do as I tell you, little elf. We don't have much time.
Firnen clenched her small fists with determination: "Go to him. I will wait for you here. I promise I will remain hidden."
The cries and clashes of battle seemed to echo closer than ever. Leum stretched his neck in that direction impatiently and then turned it back toward the child. Firnen had also turned in the direction of the clamor of combat.
Leum saw an unusual shift in the little girl's emerald eyes, which had suddenly darkened as they peered into something invisible beyond the ruins. A lonely tear rolled down her cheekbone: "You would never do that. You wouldn't leave him here alone..."
At that moment the dragon knew that Firnen had understood. Her mother, Ahorin's companion, had fallen into the shadows in a previous battle only the year before, and now she would have to face the death of another parent.
Take heart, little one. Let's go home.
He gently touched her shoulder and transmitted some of the magical energy he had left as she climbed on her paw, trying to hold the sobs back.
Suddenly the earth shook and Leum heard a deafening roar rumbling in his ears. Firnen lost her grip, slipped on the dragon's scales but landed on the bare ground with feline agility, her hands pressed over her pointed ears to muffle the din of the explosion.
Leum turned and his dragon's blood froze in his veins. He saw clouds of fire and light rising to the sky and expanding in all directions at a speed impossible to match even with the wind in his favor. He understood that there was no escape. It had to be some magical explosion, a source of power from who knows where.
Ahorin, I'm coming for you.
In a last desperate gamble Leum spread his wings and lowered them on the child as if to form a strange, gigantic chrysalis. He hoped with all his heart that the daughter of his partner in heart and mind would be saved. He reserved his last thought for Ahorin.
He felt the flash of light that hit and blinded him as a magical power of unparalleled proportions ripped through his body, destroyed his scales and tore through his flesh and bones.
Then, he felt no more.