A/N: I'm slowly getting better. More slowly than I'd like, but, I am. Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. I've taken them to heart.
Thank you Mokki Takashi, cheesepotassium, Othaeryn, Moon ninja Luna, NewCanvas, Branded Lunacy, Bluebadger, Kyoki no Megami, Fluffy Kat, Guest, Onoskelis, nxruhodou, FallenwaterTheFallen, Alter Ego Bob, Anonymous Prayer, Just a Fan, TasteOfPie, Meta-Akira, and Ninja Squirrel for your reviews. I read them all carefully. Thank you.
Someone asked if I could recommend any stories with Ghirahim in them. I'd like to recommend 'In Another Castle' by Verati. It's not a Ghirahim/OC story (it's villain centric) but the scenes with Ghirahim are done superbly, at least in my opinion. He's kept very much in character—and there's some dark funny bits too.
Chapter 28
"Why don't we just chill for a bit?" I say and sit, weary from the pressure of Ghirahim's overbearing glare. The grass is cool beneath my legs, the early morning sun soft. The crisp breeze whispers through the canopy of leaves overhead. For a moment I just take in the serenity of my surroundings.
"As I was saying, little bird. You aren't well enough to be out and about."
I sigh. He's been like this for days, it seems, and long before we left the castle. The battle to let me come along only succeeded due to my inability to read a map.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Ghirahim had grumbled earlier. He leaned over a map splayed across a table in the main chamber off our rooms. "Look closely, darling."
"I don't see squiggles and lines in my visions; I can't tell anything from this."
He kept trying. "This is a lake. These lines represent rivers. These are mountains." He pointed out each thing to me, his white-gloved fingertip sliding across the aged paper, making little shh noises as it did so.
I stared at the map. Stared some more. Then, leaning in, I whispered, "Squiggles."
"…You daft little twit."
"I have to see the river to know if it's the right river. I have to see the lake, the mountain, to know if they're the right ones. I don't know how many times I have to say it." Who's the daft one? I left unsaid. "You're just trying to keep me cooped up here. Seriously. There's no harm in me coming with you."
"No harm?" he hissed. "No harm, you say? No, of course no harm. It's not as if you would ever wander away and stumble into danger like some flightless bird off the edge of a cliff! No, no harm at all!"
I pointed to the red gem fastened at my throat. "You can find me if I get lost, though, right?"
"That isn't an instant solution! It takes time! More so depending on distance and when your aura is nonexistent. How can you be so dimwitted?"
After pausing in thought, I asked, "Have we had this conversation before?"
"For one so knowledgeable, you are so—!"
"We've definitely had this conversation before."
Ghirahim drew in a deep breath, putting his face in his hands. "…I, too, am feeling a sense of déjà vu."
"Then we should just stop and go find that waterfall. Right?" I said it with a hint of pleading hope.
He dragged his fingers down his face, revealing the most deadpan glare I've ever seen. "You'll not wander off? Or do anything foolish to get yourself killed?"
"I won't." I smiled.
His glower didn't abdicate. "Why do I not believe you?"
But eventually he relented. How couldn't he? A promise of a temple of Hylia's hidden behind a waterfall? Where he could possibly find something to help his master and king? Of course he had to relent.
Doesn't mean he hasn't been a pain about it, though.
"I'm fine," I say, and start to stand.
Ghirahim moves closer like he intends to catch me should I fall.
Well, I don't fall. So he can back himself up.
He doesn't.
I back up instead, grimacing. This isn't helping me convince myself he doesn't really care. The opposite actually. I squeeze my eyes shut, try to banish the thought.
"Kya? What is it?"
It does no good, because though his voice is sharp, it does little to mask the undertone of honeyed concern.
"I'm fine," I say for the second time. A knot is building up in my chest—like my heart is twisting and turning just to get away from itself.
"You're not convincing me." Ghirahim tries to say it harshly. It fails halfway through; warmth permeates that silver tongue of his—a tongue that usually lashes with icy words.
It must be my imagination; it can't be real. It's not, I'm not worth—
"Stop. St-stop distracting me." I tromp forward, making a show of looking around. Trees, trees, shrubs and undergrowth, outrageous fungi…pretty typical of Faron Woods.
A metallic chime sounds, and then he's in front of me. "Look at me." He grasps my chin, angles my head so that I must look. I'm faced once again with that black glare, accentuated by deep-set and ominously shadowed eyes. "I will not stand for disrespect or deceit. Is that understood? Is it?"
I suppress a shiver. "Yes."
His grip tightens, pinching. "And I will not tolerate my concerns being dismissed or scoffed at."
No, I think. No, don't say it out loud. It makes it too real.
"Especially considering your past behavior more than validating them. You will stay at my side. You will tell me should you feel any pain anywhere, or if you feel weak or faint. Immediately."
I shut my eyes, mumbling, "I don't wanna be weak."
He laughs softly. "I imagine no one wants to feel as such. Nevertheless. You will not hide it from me, nor will you push yourself to do anything foolish. Understood?"
I reopen my eyes, try nodding, but his hand holds me in place.
"Say it."
"Yes, Master."
He smiles then, slow and sweet. "That's my darling," he whispers, eyelids lowering, stare drifting to my mouth.
My mind sputters, stopping all thought, refusing to believe.
It's when he leans in that my hearts stops too.
He can't mean to—!
He halts, inches from my face, my lips. His softened expression becomes clouded with confusion. "What is it? You look frightened. White as a ghost. Darling?"
"I'm not." My mouth restarts before my heart and brain. "I'm just, just— How 'bout that waterfall? The one the goddess hid a temple behind? Let's find a river! If we follow it up stream—"
Ghirahim releases my chin. His head falls back and he laughs exasperatedly. "This is why we were perusing the map, you silly thing! But not to worry. I studied it extensively. Tell me, my sweet. Tell me what you've seen and I'll take us to what most closely resembles your descriptions." He steps back, raising his arms out, gesturing to all that's around us. "And when we find the temple, my darling, I promise you may explore and prod about to your heart's content."
I blink, surprised. "Really?"
He grins. "Really. Provided you stay within earshot, and within the temple—not a foot outside of it. Agreed?"
I knew there'd be some sort of catch. No way he'd let me wander outside without him. But, it's something, and I'll take what I can get. "Y-yeah. Thanks."
We go, searching out winding rivers and glittering falls. I don't mean to take him on a goose chase, but the wilds are so much larger and denser than what they seemed. I feel lost among clustered trees and scattered sunbeams. Even so, I cherish it. I want to chase those rays of light. They look like treasure—bright coins of gold on the forest floor. The musky scent of soil, flora, and fauna breathes life into my blood with every inhale. The silver slippers he gave me allow me to feel every nuance of the ground without pain—the brush of moss, the bump of pebble and stick—and makes me feel all the more integrated into this reality.
Ghirahim is beside me the whole way. Where imprints of small feet are left in damp ground, a larger pair of footprints trails beside them.
We teleport here and there and everywhere. He takes me to falls of water tall and gleaming like towers of light in the sun. We traverse through grassy gorges to looming forests, all with peaks of water swooping down. It's none of those, but the sights take my breath away all the same.
I tell him of the cluster of waterfalls. Of the twin moons spooning a circle—symbols on stone.
Concentration draws his brows. I watch him root around in his memory. A memory that must go so far back it's no wonder he forgets.
A snap of his fingers and a chime later, we're standing on a branch high in the Great Tree of Faron. Where had we come from? I don't know. I only know we were far enough away that the Great Tree wasn't even in sight. Now, I think, I should be able to tell where to go, but…
How large the world is that once seemed so small.
And how high up this is.
The branch where we stand is thicker than the trunk of a regular tree, yet I can't stop myself from pushing into Ghirahim's side and clutching his crimson cape for comfort.
I'll never get used to heights.
I glance up. He's smiling down at me. I don't like the look in his eyes. I don't like how warm and gentle it is. It's a look that has no business being on the face of a demon.
And oh, how I loathe how it makes my heart thump.
Neither the ewe or the she-wolf can help. Confusion dulls fang and horn alike. All they can think to do is pretend it's not there; the she-wolf turns her nose skyward; the ewe shoves her face in the grass.
"Looking familiar?" he asks.
"Uh, yeah." I clutch to him tighter as I look down. Far off I see ruins of what was once maybe a prestigious temple. Cracked stones and statues litter the area. It's not Skyview. It's too sparse and in even worse shape. That's why it catches my attention. It's something new and I want to investigate further, but Ghirahim has other plans.
"We'll go to the falls to the south, then. I believe I may have seen something similar to the symbol you described there."
He puts his arm around me and, before I can stop myself, I do the same to him. Just as he's about to snap his fingers and whisk us away, I look up to the sky, wondering for the thousandth time what's wrong with me. Then, there in the clouds I think I see something. It's there for but a moment before being re-enveloped by cloud cover. A flying speck of gray and green.
It becomes just another thing I wish I could chalk up to my imagination.
"This is it!" I run up to the twin moon stone gate and splay my hands on the gritty ancient surface. My finger brushes the leaf of a climbing vine and catches on a rough patch of lichen.
Ghirahim stares out at the group of waterfalls situated beyond the sealed entryway. "Which is it?"
"None of those. But we're on the right track." Sliding over, I move from old stone to cold iron. The tall fence has a pattern of three leaves woven into the metal bars, just as I remember it. When the game was just a game, I had tried to get Link to climb the dang thing. But, no. Of course, he just had to use the door—a sealed one at that—and I was forced to continue the proper way.
Ha. Not this time.
The leaf pattern is so intricately done, what with the veins and center stems—it makes for a perfect step ladder. I put my feet in and hoist myself up.
"What do you think you're doing?" Ghirahim watches me lean and throw a leg over the top railing.
"Going over," I say simply. And then I do so.
I'm so excited to give a metaphorical 'screw you!' to game restraints that no longer exist, I forget how long the drop into Lake Floria really is. Or maybe I never really knew, could never really appreciate the danger and depth from the other side of a silver screen.
I do here and now.
Unfortunately, I have only a split second to understand the gravity of it all.
Because my foot slips on the other side of the metal fence, I lose my gripping, and the last thing I see is Ghirahim's disbelieving expression before I plummet.
The gentle breeze becomes a screaming gale in my ears as I pinwheel downwards. I'd be laughing, I think, if the air hadn't been forced from my lungs. Colors of Floria spin in a blur. My brain knocks around in my skull. My heart beats to a sonorous crescendo of terror.
I hit an edge of a tree's canopy before I hit the water. Leaves scream and branches pop and pain blooms on my arms and legs. Then it's cold and my ears and nose fill with water's roar.
I'm clawing, clawing, my dress swishing in currents and bubbles created by my violent entry. Up, up, up my frazzled brain tells me. But which way's up?
If I'd held still and paid attention to where my body floats, I'd have my answer.
I don't get the chance, however, because an iron grip has me by my pitiful bicep and I'm yanked to the surface.
Ghirahim pulls me onto a platform made of magic; translucent like glass, in gathered shapes of yellow and gold diamond panes, conjured just above the water. The same he'll use at the final battle with Link.
He hoists me to a sitting position, dithering between rough and gentle, like he can't decide how to handle me. I can't see him—my wet hair has slapped itself over my face. But I can feel him. His cool skin, smooth and silky as the water he's pulled me from. His hands are shaking. I can guess why.
Afterall, I can practically hear his teeth grinding.
He whips my sopping hair off my face and I'm inches from his glower.
"When I said you'd go to the edge and fall like some flightless bird," he hisses through clenched teeth, "I didn't think you would literally try to replicate it! YOU STUPID TWIT!"
The last of his words boom in my face, echoes around the ravine.
I shake, shocked and cold. The fall and the water jarred me, and numb me to his outburst. A part of me wonders if I'd be scared regardless. I bat that passing thought onward. I have to remain afraid…
Oh, it's too late, isn't it? Please tell me I'm not…
I bare my teeth at him, rage at myself fizzing up to meet his. "It was a frickin' accident! It's not like I jumped!"
He pulls me to my feet and then swoops me into his arms. "I don't care if it was intentional or the result of carelessness," he snaps. "I told you to be careful! And now you've lost walking privileges."
"What?" I curl my lip and tilt my head. "Are you serious? No! Put me down!"
His arms tighten around me. "Go ahead and try to get down. Try." He bares his teeth right back at me, his prominent canines making my teeth look like a chihuahua's in the face of a wolf.
My snarl fades with my anger. I know it's no use. I have to use reason. "Master, seriously. You can't swim with me in your arms. I'm sorry I'm a stupid dork with butterfingers, but this isn't going to help."
He looks as if he's going to argue, but then, "…Swim?"
If I didn't know better, I'd swear I heard an element of timidness in his voice. But with Ghirahim, the closest he'd come to that is uncertainty.
"Yes, swim. We've got to go in the water, swim through a tunnel, get through—"
"Swim?" he says again, this time more forcefully.
"…Yes," I repeat slowly.
"I. Do. Not. Swim." He bites the words out like curses.
"O…kay. Why?"
He sneers at the water as if it were some sort of dirty peasant that bumped into his royally cloaked ass. The audacity.
But then I stop, think.
A memory pops to the forefront of my brain. Of a glimmering ocean he would not let me go to. How could I forget? No further, he'd said. We'll not go to the sea. You'll stay away from the water, Kya, especially the salt water. Those waves will drag you out and down…
He was hurt once by waters of unfathomable length and depth. It left a deep scar on him—in the only place a scar could be left on someone like him. He can't drown. But he can be dragged out and down, down, down. Into water so deep it's its own pocket of hell. The Abyss, he called it. When Hylia separated him from his master and cast him into the sea, she made sure she got him in the deepest and darkest part, as far from Demise as she could get him. He clawed and fought his way back, blind and in pain.
He's hated the water ever since.
The edge in my tone dissipates. I relax in his hold. "You don't have to. I'll—"
"You better not be suggesting what I think you're about to."
"—do it." I press my lips together. "Look, it'll be fine. I can swim like a fish. I'll find the way, you use this"—I grab at the golden choker around my neck—"to teleport to me and voilà. Come on, we're practically already there," I wheedle when I see this hard expression.
"I don't like this," he says quietly.
I fall silent. I lay my head on his shoulder and breathe deep. There's nothing else I can say. He'll either let me or he won't. All I can do is wait for his answer.
I count his breaths, the rise and fall of his chest, the slight way in which it moves me. The tensing and untensing of muscles in the arms that hold me as if I were a glass feather. The way his thumb moves up and down on my arm. Rubbing. Caressing. Agitatedly so. He doesn't want to let me go.
But in the end, I guess he decides he has to. For his master. For his king.
"Fine. Fine! But you'll stay within my sight if you can, and if you cannot, you will get to a space where you can wait until I catch up. Understood?"
"Understood, Master."
He sets me down, slowly, gently. Reluctantly.
I take to my feet, go to the edge of his conjured platform. I stare down at the water he hates so. Kinda funny, in a way. He's a sword spirit that hates water. Water rusts metal. Ha, he wouldn't like it regardless of his past, would he.
Before I dive in, I throw a smile over my shoulder. "Thank you, Master. I promise I'll be good."
So many what ifs in life. There was an uncountable amount in my previous one. What if I don't get that job? What if I can't take care of myself? What if my family doesn't love me anymore? What if I die alone? And now in this one too. I guess that's one of the ways I can tell I'm alive. There weren't many what ifs on Skyloft. There was just blue sky and perfect breeze. I wasn't alive up there, where no danger or fear ever reminded me of the heart beating behind my ribcage.
But, here and now, it does.
What if there's no end to this freaking tunnel?
I strain and strain, arms and legs working, my lungs losing what oxygen it holds with every passing second. Did I even choose the right tunnel? It wasn't like in the game where there's only one. There were many. I swam close, let the strong current take me into one of its choosing. After all, that's what happened to Link in the game. The current took him right in.
This isn't the game.
The water goes from murky to clear, murky to clear, and I can't tell if it's the water or my vision. My heart slams against my ribs, shouting for its precious oxygen. The body needs it. It's calling for it. Give it, give it!
It's too long. The tunnel's too long.
And the only thing I think of behind my fear is: Ghirahim's gonna resurrect me just to kill me again.
Then, there, out of the corner of my eye I see air bubbles floating from a crack in the bottom of the channel. I dive for it just as the air in my lungs punches out of me. I lock lips with the crevice, suck in as much air as I can before I'm dragged off by the current again.
The passageway I'm in finally pukes me out of a mini waterfall into a cavern. It's there I wait for Ghirahim, doggy paddling pathetically near an earthen wall because it's too tall and I can't vault out of the water like a freaking dolphin to get up there.
The red gem tingles at my throat.
It's a relief when I hear those metal chimes.
He pulls me from the water to stand beside him, allows me to catch my breath in his arms.
"Is this the way?" he asks.
"Yeah." I nod in the direction of the mini-fall. "I recognize that. I'm getting your cape wet," I pant.
"I couldn't care less at the moment."
"That's not like you—WHAT is that!" I point to the thing sticking up from the water. Its bulbous eyes and round gaping mouth gawk back at me. Immediately after my initial shock I recognize the coral-crested head and jellyfish-like body. "I mean, I know what it is—I've seen it in my visions—but…I forgot what it's called…"
Ghirahim wrinkles his nose. "It's a Parella."
It speaks, its open-ended snout emitting sound like a megaphone in the enclosed cavern. "Humans? In this day and age? Wow!"
My hands shoot to my ears, and my 'frickin' ow!' is quickly followed by snorts and giggles, because Ghirahim's face at being called human is pretty special. "You're half right," I tell the Parella.
It blinks at me, not knowing how to take my statement.
"It's kinda stupid, isn't it?" I say to Ghirahim in English.
He responds in kind. "They are a stupid species. What else could you expect? Just look at it. Disgusting."
"Geez, totally. It looks gross. I mean, are you a seahorse or a jellyfish? Pick one."
We snark, the stream of maliciousness in me coinciding with Ghirahim's. It reminds me of times long gone, of when Nikki and I would toss words of derision back and forth to let loose steam. We were too thick skinned to hurt each other, and as for others? We rarely let them hear us unless we thought they deserved it. Like those girls in high school that picked on Lezzie. Maybe it made us not good people. Maybe we weren't. Maybe we were. It didn't matter. I was just glad I'd found someone like me, with that same black river running inside them. It made me feel not alone.
Like now. That sense of comradery I felt with Nikki washes through me. I guess I should be nervous that the comrade in this world turns out to be a demon lord.
The Parella swims closer. "Hello? What are you saying?"
An idea hits me. "We're lost. We need someone to take us through. Will you?"
The Parella considers it. "You're in the realm of Her Excellence, the Water Dragon. I can take you back—"
"No," I cut in. "We need to go through. It's important. Please. We won't bother the dragon. She won't even see us. We just want to pass through."
It shakes its head. "There's no way I can take you there! Her Excellence's domain is a sacred place!"
I throw a sideways glance at Ghirahim. "How do we get it to cooperate?"
"I can think of a few ways."
"That doesn't involve maiming it?"
He's silent.
"Okay, I've got an idea. Play along with me." I kneel down by the edge and clasp my hands over my heart. "Please!" I plead to the Parella. "We lost our child in the water. She was taken down this way by the current. She's a good swimmer, but she's so young! I worry so! Please just help me look! I know she went through here!"
"Yes," Ghirahim adds, smirking. "Help us find our baby." It sounds like he's trying not to laugh.
The Parella's entire body jolts, its toad-like eyes flaring. "Oh! Oh no! Why didn't you say so?!"
And that's how I end up swimming with a Parella to a place I've seen only through a screen in another world. A few times I have to hold one of its fins, but it isn't so bad. The creature is kind, kinder than me, if slimy feeling. A part of me is saddened for tricking it, but the other half deems it necessary.
I'm small enough I can squeeze between obstacles Link will have to break through. I glide past fish and squirming eel, surging up to get air when possible. Soon we're in the chamber of the Water Dragon. I have every intention of her not noticing me, and to my luck it seems she's not home.
I hoist myself out of the water, the cool streams running down and off me. The center platform I'm on is made of blue stone with etchings in it. Massive columns curve upward, creating a dome amongst the cavernous area. Stalactites and stalagmites reach down from ceiling and floor like the teeth of a colossal beast. And I am in its mouth, poking around, looking for the exit that will take me to the waterfall I seek.
Water droplets create a song with the stones. A timid breeze enters the room from above. The water trickles and swishes just as uncertainly.
All else is quiet.
I scan swiftly; I want to be out of here before Ghirahim teleports to me, want to avoid any altercation. The collar prickles my skin and I know I'm running out of time. Then, there, by the far wall I see the exit I'm looking for. I rush across the central dais, get ready to dive in to swim when the water erupts right in front of me, the fallout spraying me with a shower of rain.
A deafening roar assaults my ears, seems to shake the very cavern. A giant blue dragon with a humanoid face is suddenly before me.
Faron, the Water Dragon, guardian of the woods.
My jaw falls open as I crane my neck to look up at her. Tall, tall and wide. To say she is a giant feels like an understatement. What's going on? I wonder. She wasn't that big in the game. Was she?
"You!" her voice booms. "Human! What do you think you are doing in my hall? This is a sacred place few may trod. Well? Speak quickly, child!"
I say nothing, still gawking. The scales of her neck and underbelly glow, flowing with magic like a river's current. It's like she's a living, breathing waterfall.
"I have little patience. I'll ask only once more. What are you doing here?"
The dragon smells like both sea and freshwater lake combined. But the sense of smell dallies at the back of my mind. What has my upmost attention is those jagged teeth in that big, wide mouth that could swallow me whole and not think much of it.
"Uh," I manage to say. "I swam…in a straight line?"
"This place is not so easy to find! Do not mock me!"
"I, uh…wasn't?"
The Parella that led helped me speaks up. "She said she was looking for her child that washed down here!"
"A child?" Faron glances at her servant. She returns a glare on me. " You are the only human that has disturbed this hall in centuries! This doesn't bode well for you. You've lied to get here!"
A squeak comes from the Parella, and it sinks into the water amongst the others of its kind, shamefaced at being duped. The others gather around it in comfort. They remind me of ladies-in-waiting, their jellyfish bells like dresses, their coral crests like fanciful hairdos.
The dragon bends her neck to get a better look at me. The action puts her shark-like dark eyes and sharp teeth that much closer to me.
I step back, put a hand on the dagger attached at my crimson belt.
Faron narrows her eyes. "That wouldn't be very smart, child. What could you hope to accomplish? I'd tear your head off before you could so much as scratch me!"
With a single, fluid motion, she arches down, baring those spears for teeth in my face. I stand, unable to move, unable to breathe. It is the ewe that keeps me still. And it is the force of the she-wolf that jerks my arm, unsheathing the dagger in my grasp. The dragon's face becomes a blue blur of jagged lines and odd colors. All but the eyes, which I focus on.
As if sensing my intentions, she rears back, eyes going wide with anger. "You dare!"
And then she swoops down at me, mouth open.
A blast of rhombus panes and metallic chime herald my master's arrival. He stands in the dragon's way, knocks her back with a single swipe of his sword.
Faron slams against a stalactite, cracks the thing from the ceiling. It falls into the water with a thundering crash.
Ghirahim brandishes his blade, laughing cruelly. "That is but a taste of what you would have received had you touched what's mine." He gives me a look over his shoulder. "She might not be able to do much"—his gaze returns to Faron, who is shaking off the blow—"but I can. Rest assured if you touch a hair on her head, well, I'm afraid you'll be losing yours!"
Faron unsheathes her teeth, a growl resonating from her chest so deep it shakes the stones. "You—! You—!" And then she roars, too angry to form anymore words.
"Now, now," Ghirahim admonishes. "Temper, temper. Allow us to pass and I promise no more harm will come to you or your ridiculous cohorts."
"She won't; she's a persnickety bitch!" I'm tensed to spring away at any moment. I'm not helping with the insults, but I know it's too late for etiquette now. As if I ever had any.
Faron answers with a lunge and snapping jaws.
Ghirahim whirls around and grabs me. A chime and a jerking motion that makes my stomach lurch later, and we're on the other side of the cave. Ghirahim sneers. "Very well. Have it your way."
With a snap of his fingers the entire cave fills with demons. Bokoblin, Moblin, Lizalfos, and aquatic monsters as well. Those with legs gather upon the strips of land, charging, swarming the dragon. Blades of all kinds glint and flash in the light filtering in from above. They slash, they stab.
The Parella squeak and squeal, diving down, swimming as fast they can, only to meet the water dwelling monsters that ram them to and fro.
I stand amidst the chaos, dagger gripped tight. Too fast—it's happening too fast!
The water has turned red.
Faron's jaws clack, some bites taking demons whole, some severing heads and torsos. Bright red runs down the front of her neck and belly, which had flowed with such a pretty blue before.
"Stop," I whisper in terrified awe. Then louder, "Stop." Louder, "Stop! Stop it! Stop it now!"
The dragon curls and weaves through the hordes, eating whatever lies in her path.
"Leave them alone! Let us through! Just fucking let us through, you bitch! Stop it!" I rush forward on a land strip toward the devourer. Faron's tail whips in front of me, slaps stones into the water with a rumbling boom. I leap for her tail, sink my blade between scales and she roars with pain, twists and turns towards me.
The she-wolf howls defiance. She knows we can't take the dragon, but if it's going to get us, we're at least going to blind it before it does.
I bare my own pitiful fangs, dash to meet her, dagger aimed for the eye.
We hurdle towards each other like arrows.
Faron's mouth opens wide.
A black figure appears before me, swirling to life in an array of dark diamonds. At least seven feet tall and muscular, he is a giant in his own right. He has no sword; he does not need one. He raises a black fist, the shadowed skin of which is interwoven with glowing white rhombuses. He meets the dragon's forehead with an iron fist. The hit is so strong it jolts the dragon's body into a sudden stop. I think I hear bone crack, and it is not Ghirahim that breaks.
Faron emits a pained cry—a cry that gets smaller and smaller as she does, until she's no more than a person in height and width. Silently, she slides off the land bridge and into the water, sinking, sinking, until I can't see her anymore.
I return my attention to the real threat in the room.
The demon made of living metal.
He rolls his shoulders and I watch the muscles of his back ripple under dark diamond skin. He was forged from the deepest fires in the earth, no doubt. Those fires still show themselves within him, burning just beneath the surface, making the rhombus pattern covering him dance along his menacing figure. More diamonds and stripes adorn him, cutting stark lines amid the molten black. One such diamond pattern goes up his spine, marking the vertebrae that's made of God knows what.
He turns, and I come face to face with glowing white-moon eyes. "Darling." He smiles, elongated fangs—oh, and I thought they were frightful before—flashing. "I can't leave you be without you doing something reckless." His voice carries with it the echo of metal.
I say nothing. I only stare up from where I've fallen on my butt, struck with awe.
A/N: I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. Thank you for reading.