A Dream Worth Chasing Part 2

Something had gone wrong.

The first sign was the tremor.

Then came the roar.

For several long moments, the sound tore through the forest before suddenly disappearing.

Sam waited.

The Reaver was supposed to have been driven toward their position.

Instead, nothing came.

“Any sign of the beast?” a soldier shouted.

“We’ve been ordered not to abandon this position!” Lord Ophelia called back. “We hold our ground!”

Then Sam heard hooves.

A rider burst through the trees atop a white horse, the insignia of the Royal Guard across his armor.

“The vanguard has been breached!”

Sam’s stomach dropped.

“It’s headed for the King’s encampment!”

She moved before anyone else did.

“Sam!”

Gavin shouted after her.

“Wait!”

But she was already running.

The King’s encampment wasn’t far, but none of this made sense. Lord Ardent was powerful, how could they have fallen so easily?

Then she reached the clearing.

And stopped.

Miasma hung low over the ground like a curtain.

Bodies lay beneath it.

Dozens of them.

Sam slowly approached the nearest one. The man’s skin had hardened into something dark and stone-like, his face frozen in terror.

Corrupted.

He was dead.

They were all dead.

Something caught in Sam’s throat.

Then another scream echoed from deeper within the forest.

She forced herself forward.

She wasn’t going to let anyone else end up like this.

By the time she reached the encampment, there was hardly any order left. Soldiers ran in every direction, carrying the wounded and shouting for retreat.

At the center of the chaos stood the dragon.

Sam craned her neck to look up at it. The surrounding trees barely reached past its limbs, while the rest of its enormous body disappeared beneath layers of dense purple-black miasma.

Swords bounced from its body.

Blessings vanished into the darkness surrounding it.

Nothing was working.

“Get the King out of here!”

“Retreat!”

The Reaver raised its head as purple light gathered between rows of jagged teeth.

Nearby, a group of soldiers struggled to drag several wounded men to safety.

Sam followed the dragon’s gaze.

It was looking right at them.

She ran.

Her sword tore free from its sheath as she threw herself between the soldiers and the beast.

The attack erupted.

“Kgh—!”

The force slammed against her.

Sam planted her feet.

Stand firm.

Brace your core.

Breathe.

The blast forced her backward several feet, but she held until the attack finally stopped.

She barely had time to breathe before the dragon’s forelimb swept toward her.

The impact sent her flying.

For half a heartbeat, Sam expected to slam into a tree.

Instead, someone caught her.

“Got you!”

“Dad?”

Gavin lowered her onto her feet.

His armor was covered in dirt, his dark hair a mess and the white streak plastered against his forehead.

“What do you think you’re doing?! You can’t just run ahead like that!”

Sam lowered her head.

“…Sorry.”

Gavin sighed and glanced toward the Reaver.

“Running at this thing without a plan isn’t going to work. If you really want to save everyone, then think.”

His blue eyes settled on hers.

“They might be right. Your Blessing may be the only thing that gets us out of this.”

The dragon began turning toward them.

Gavin drew his sword, rubbed the top of her head and then charged.

His blade flashed across one of the dragon’s forelimbs, severing a talon cleanly.

Sam’s eyes widened as miasma immediately rushed into the wound and rebuilt it.

Gavin struck again.

And again.

He slipped beneath the beast’s attacks with movements so practiced that Sam almost forgot what she was supposed to be doing.

Think.

The dragon was made almost entirely of concentrated miasma. Every wound Gavin opened simply repaired itself.

Every Veyrath had a core somewhere inside its body, an orb of condensed miasma that held the creature together.

Destroying it would kill the beast. Reaching it was another matter. Especially with something this large.

Then the Reaver opened its mouth again.

Miasma rushed toward its jaws, condensing into another attack.

Sam’s eyes narrowed.

There was far more gathered there than she could ever pull from the battlefield little by little.

Maybe she didn’t need to reach the core herself.

Maybe she only needed to give Gavin the chance.

“Sam!”

Lord Ophelia and the others finally reached her.

Sam turned.

“Can you send me onto the dragon’s head?”

His eyes widened.

“What?”

“Quickly!”

For a moment, he looked at her as though she had lost her mind.

Then he grinned.

“Alright!”

Wind swirled around Sam’s boots.

“This will be one strong blast!”

Sam tightened her grip around her sword.

“Okay!”

The wind erupted as he thrust his arm up into the air with a grunt.

Sam shot into the sky.

“W-Whoa—!”

Her hair whipped across her face as the dragon rushed up beneath her. At the last moment, Sam twisted and drove her sword downward.

The blade sank into the top of the beast’s head.

The dragon roared and thrashed, but Sam held on.

Then miasma began gathering around its mouth again.

Perfect.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Sam drove her sword deeper and reached for the attack itself.

Cold, heavy miasma surged through the blade and into her hands far faster than she was used to. Her fingers went numb as the Reaver’s attack weakened beneath her pull.

The purple light between its jaws collapsed completely.

Still, Sam kept pulling.

Her breathing turned ragged as pressure built inside her chest.

She had enough.

Maybe too much.

Sam opened her amber eyes and pushed everything she had gathered toward her sword.

The gem near the hilt began to glow.

If this worked, her dad would have his opening.

Sam tightened her grip.

“Sacred Genesis.”

White light erupted from the sword and tore through the Reaver. 

Layers of miasma broke apart beneath the blast. For a brief moment, Sam caught sight of something dense and round pulsing beneath them.

Then the world tilted, her strength gave out, and everything turned black.

~~~

Three days later, Sam stood before the same curved table. 

Her body still ached beneath the bandages wrapped around her torso and arms, but she had insisted on dressing herself before entering the chamber.

The familiar noble faces surrounded her.

The throne was empty and King Landon was nowhere to be seen.

Sam shifted uneasily.

She could barely remember what had happened after using Sacred Genesis, but she knew they had survived and that the Reaver was gone.

She had done what the King asked and had protected people.

Some small part of her had been looking forward to hearing what they would say.

Maybe they would praise her. She began rocking on her heels then toes.

Maybe—

Lord Ardent rose from his seat.

Whatever excitement Sam had been holding onto vanished beneath his cold stare. She stopped moving.

There was no gratitude in his expression.

Sam stiffened and glanced toward Gavin.

Her father wasn’t looking at her. His deep blue eyes remained fixed on Lord Ardent, his jaw clenched. But it was a gaze she wasn’t familiar with.

Something was wrong.

Then Lord Ardent spoke.

“For the attempted assassination of His Majesty, committed under the guise of assisting us with the miasma beast…”

Sam’s breath caught.

“These two individuals are hereby charged with treason.”

He pointed directly at her and Gavin.

“They will spend the remainder of their lives in the dungeon.”

Sam could only stare at him.

Assassination?

Her?

Her gaze slowly drifted toward the empty throne.

She had saved them.

Hadn’t she?