419. Heroess, 3

(Rose)

I woke up from another peaceful night, all cosy and warm under one of Yaelun’s wings. As usual, he sleeps for a few more hours than me. It gives me the time to explore the surrounding area a little longer on my own.

I can also visit places Yaelun can’t get into given his size.

While I explored a few nearby buildings, including an enormous industrial area, a storm unlike any usual one came over.

The clouds carrying rain came rapidly, while a wind from the nearby peaks suddenly blew all warmth away. The temperature dropped by ten degrees or more in a matter of minutes.

As I came out, with a new cloak from the changing rooms of a factory, I noticed the cold air and the leaden sky.

I know only of one being able to carry storm like that along his path.

I fear for Yaelun if Priest has found us. Even though he’s a being-like-her as well in his own way, I don’t think Priest would see him as a friend anyway.

I run, cloak in the wind. I feel my heart beginning to beat faster. Fear and excitement are waking up inside of me.

With or hopefully without use of T.I., I might have to use my thorns in a short moment.

Even if I still have no way to fully destroy Priest today, we could still go for another round.

He gets stronger every time. That fully irrational part of me that I hate, it enjoys the idea of that challenge.

Overcoming fearful odds as they say. The heroic thrills, it forces life to shine with an intensity when there’s more at stake. You feel like you could be changing history, or making it, to have them written about you and your deeds.

Something that will mark time and be remembered.

These very human emotions, this desire to rise and shine like a sun over Earth, to win a gamble, for a brief moment of joy and brightness, of course I have these desires as well.

Of course I fantasised of being in heroic tales, with daiûas.

The irrational me is happy.

I have a new opportunity to play this dangerous game of life and death.

The heroess’ life and death challenge as Bleue would have called it.

~

The darkest little voice inside of my head, putting its pitch black hand over one of my shoulders, grinning at what’s to come.

O - You’ll have a chance to kill something today. At last. It’s been too long.

The clear little voice reaches me as well and puts a pale hand on my other shoulder.

L - Yaelun should be protected from any danger. He deserves your help.

I’m reaching the clearing under the cold storm, laughing at my inside voices.

They should be my inner demon and angel, but what they said aren’t incompatible or mutually exclusive.

They both grin as I am inside my mind.

The grey skin on my right arm is itching me. Though I know it isn’t related in any way to Ogre’s skin colour, it feels like a tattoo that would symbolise my darker thoughts.

My left hand isn’t the part of me that would symbolise Licht though. I guess it would be the sword itself. The one my greyish hand is holding.

They are both with me on that one.

~

Yaelun spat his alcohol and ignited it.

I cross a wall of flames in a long jump.

This fire he makes isn’t strong nor sticky at all.

What I found is not what I expected precisely. Yaelun is indeed under attack, but not from the Priest I feared.

A pack of wolves is attacking Yaelun, from every side at once.

And while he is able to bite them with enough strength to cut them in half, his very long body and clawless wings are a huge weakness against multiple enemies.

The wolves saw it.

Yaelun did kill two of them before I got back, but the six others keep escaping his head now, attacking his wings and long body from all sides.

Yaelun is voiceless, but I can feel in the air his pain and terror. He is being stuck to the ground and severely wounded already.

They’re a little scared of the fire, but Yaelun himself not being fire-proof, he doesn’t just burn everything around himself at the risk of wounding himself.

I’m running ahead, and these wild dogs saw me. They have heavy fur, they must travel along this cold weather. They all are bigger than me, and are not scared, far from it. They come at me as well.

I breathe in as I slow down my run, tensing my arms. It’s there.

My sword swings swiftly across the first wolf that came at me.

I’m stained with blood as it’s sprayed behind, while the open corpse falls on my side.

These dogs are not new beings. This means that sufficient swordsmanship could be enough to bring me victory.

I rush closer to Yaelun, toward the wolf biting one of his wings strongly.

Yaelun’s nerves must have been damaged already, for he has enough strength in these wings normally to just blow the beasts away.

They really have hunting tactics. First they nailed that bird down by attacking its wings.

My tactic is currently far more primal.

I get one jump away from my target, whom feels compelled to take her chance and attack me.

I make them panic aggressively, and they fall one after another over my blade. They jump at it almost, unable to realise they fall into my simple tactic of pressure and lure.

The wolves go down one by one as they were scattered, with a single wide strike for each. They should have tried to regroup, but my sudden presence surprised them too much.

The last wolf however do not fall for my trick. I miss my strike even, and it doesn’t miss me as it retaliates. I’m pushed down and it’s about to rip my throat out.

My thorns grow. My wrist moved fast enough to bring my blade on the way.

His teeth fall on the blade. It’s spitting saliva over my face, but isn’t reaching it. I’m pushing it back strongly enough for me to sit and stand up, the blade stuck between the beast’s jaws. It stopped trying to bite me and attempts to take my sword away instead now.

My hand and arm holds on long enough.

There’s this warmth rising inside of me. I want to see more.

I put my foot back on a better stand. I hold the sword with both hand, push a sudden strike through the mouth and head of the animal. It’s violent. The upper part falls a little further. The headless wolf collapses at my feet.

I’m catching my breath back, feeling the immoral thrill vanish.

Yaelun is still turning around himself fin blind panic, surrounded by his own fire and wounded everywhere, looking for other wolves trying to kill him.

He finally realises the situation, noticing the bodies all around. They’re gone.

I know how much he would have yelled since this begun, if it only could.

He suffered a lot. I never realised before, that it had no voice. It can’t roar nor yell.

And I feel it’s pain right now.

He realises what I’ve done while the fires die around us. I’m still breathing a little heavily, catching my breath back after this. My inner demon and angel are probably shaking hands, this time around. Weird.

The cold weather, like another nomad entity, slowly moves away from us. The wolves that followed it and worked along are no more. I’ll skin them later.

First I’m getting closer to Yaelun, ripping the clothes I just found to use them as bandages for his wounds.

You made a mistake Bleue.

Today, I haven’t killed a dragon, I saved one instead.

~