"Dust!?" Dust's eyes slowly peeled open at the sound of his name being called.
"Fidget! There, I see him!" Dust could've sworn that he heard Ginger's voice, but his mind was too foggy and tired to know for sure.
"Dust!? Dust!" Fidget sped toward him as fast as her little wings could go.
"Fidget, get out. Go." Dust told her sharply.
Fidget rushed forward and pulled at the folds of Dust's cloak. "Not without you! C'mon, Dust! Get up! We did everything right, Dust… everything we were supposed to do."
"But sometimes that's not enough, Fidget. When the Life Thread calls…"
Fidget's ears drooped down and she struggled to hold back tears.
Dust turned toward her and gave his long-time friend a small smile. "Fidget… thank you." He said with what little energy he had left in him.
Fidget gave him a watery smile, only now noticing that her emerald green eyes were once again brimming with unshed tears. She swallowed the lump in her throat, met her best friend's own teary gaze with her own mournful one, before slowly lifting her watery gaze up toward Dust's near-identical tear-filled blue-green eyes.
"Fidget, I-I'm so sorry…" The young Wormbload choaked out, his voice shaking. "I-I don't want to leave you, nor Ahrah like this - b-but I-I don't think I have the strength to even attempt escaping the predicament I'm currently literally drowning in." The young Warmblood tried to smile, but his face crumpled like a colapsing clifface, and he choaked on a sob as the truth finally began to finally sync in.
The little orange Nimbat blinked away tears from her eyes as she looked up at the sad, mournful face of her best friend for what was indefinitely the very last time. "Goodbye… Dust." She manages to say before turning and flying away from him.
From high above him, Dust could see Ginger staring down at him, he closed his eyes and smiled at her in farewell.
"Dust… No…" Ginger cried, covering her face with her hands.
This is not how I expected my life to end… Dust thought glumly to himself as the lava engulfed him.
As the lava slowly started to engulf him, the five white markings on the Blade of Ahrah slowly start dimming out, one-by-one as the sword fell deeper and deeper into the unknown.
•••
"Through the actions of our Sen-Mithrarin… Dust… the Moonblood race is finally free. We will never forget his sacrifice, or the deeds that saved our very world. We shall always remember what happened here. Dust's sacrifice will allow the Moonblood race to rise again - to rebuild our glorious civilization and live peacefully amung the races of this world. Though it may appear that Dust has fallen here today, a force of good is not so easily extinguished. Sen-Mithrarin was born of the dust… a current caught in the winds of change, a harbinger of storms yet to come…"
As the Moonblood elder continued to speak, a cyan-colored glow caught Fidget's eye. She blinked and tilted her head and stared off into the distance.
"Hey!" she whispered under her breath, not quite sure if what she was seeing was real or not. But upon seeing the Blade of Ahrah floating after the wisp of cyan, Fidget knew that something was most definitely indeed happening.
"Hey!" Fidget yelled, a bit louder this time as she chased after the sword for the second time.
Ginger's face lit up and she turned around to where Fidget had flown off to. "Dust?" she said with a hopeful smile forming on her face.
•••
It had been raining non stop for the past six days. The rain reminded her of what happened to her younger sister 2 months ago.
I think I know we were making memories, I was just having some fun with my only 2 friends. The little orange Nimbat mused silantly to herself as she looked up at the darkening smy above her.
She shook her head, and stared up at the black inky darkness up above her with a mornful, yet bittersweet exprestion ghosting over her face before returning bback to the gloomy dimeaner Fidget was by now rather acusmed too.
"I accept the love I think I deserve." The young orange Nimbat whispered sadly to herself, wishing her friend could return from the clutches of the life thread.
Dust gave me the greatest gift anyone could give me, he believed in me when none of my Nimbat clan would.
Days and weeks had past since Fidget last saw Dust. He had let himself be called to the life thread.