Act 2 - Part 3

Nightfall.  Kythe brings them up onto the shore of an uninhabited beach.  Not too far from the side of the group, is a row-boat with holes in it and that seems like it hasn't been used in ages along with a short pier.  Kythe lowers itself and Atina slides off its body.  Naiven’s broadsword also falls flat on the sandy bank beside her.  She has not fully recovered from her exhaustion and nearly drowning experience. So when she tries to stand up straight, both of her legs give out and she falls back onto her side, with both hands on the sand.

Kythe hears a few bullets in the distance and looks up to the sky. It lets out a low growl. Atina tries a second attempt at standing up, only to fall onto her stomach after having Naiven’s unconscious body dropped onto her; courtesy of Kythe. She glances at that oversized reptile as it takes flight over a cylindrical-shaped hut that has seen better days. Bits of erosion stains and peels on the walls along with various holes on the straw cone-shaped roof. While it’s not the best choice, at least it will keep her from the outer elements. She places her ear on Naiven’s chest. His heartbeat is slightly slower than normal but not to the point of life-threatening. That gives her some sense of hope at least.

She shakily rises back on her feet while she holds Naiven on her back at a hunched level. Then she makes her way to that hut.

It takes quite an effort but she arrives at the wooden-panel front door of the house. At the side of the door are a couple of pots with purple rose-like flowers that look fresh. Atina does not see the pot of flowers there and knocks twice on the door with the back of her hand.

"Excuse me. Anyone home?"

No response. Atina is about to knock again. The door loudly creaks open by itself then it falls off its hinges inward, whipping up a cloud of dust upon impact. Atina puts one arm over her mouth, so as to not inhale the dust. She slides her foot sideways farther inside while looking at her surroundings. Near the hut, wind blows as purple mist rises from the purple rose-like flower then flows towards the gap in a decayed window.

The interior of the hut looks as terrible as the exterior; not to mention its foul odor in the air the closer to the center Atina gets. The floorplan is similar to how a studio apartment is. Dust spread out on the floor and surfaces, including the fireplace where the logs are placed; multiple patches of moss at various spots on the damp wooden floor; cobwebs hug every corner; a rusty fishing rod leaning parallel to the doorway.

Atina glances around until her eyes land on a twin-size straw bed. An extremely skinny corpse of a man in the mid-to-late 70s hangs off the side of the bed. The toes touch the bed; the head is on the floor and one hand stretches out farther than the other. No doubt the remains of the hut's only inhabitant who tried to get help but was too late. Also, the corpse is the source of the foul odor as flies fly around the body.

No other spots that are less dirty for Atina to lay Naiven on; so that bed will have to do. She scoots herself as close as she can while leaning her upper body away.

“I’m deeply sorry.”

She holds the hilt of Naiven’s sword in one hand as an extension then nudges that lifeless body off. The bottom part of the body falls on the wooden floor, whipping up a dust cloud. She gently lays Naiven on the bed then sets his sword leaning against the wall hilt-side up beside the straw bed. She does a double take, noticing cracks going down along the spine of the sword.

“Has that always been there?”

Atina shakes the thought away, thinking nothing much of it.

In Naiven's sleep, a bunch of Blood Crows raided a village and set it ablaze. They ran here and there shouting to one another; using a pair of horse-drawn wagons to gather the loot. Valuables on one and young women on the other. The one guiding those horse-drawn wagons was Naiven in his pre-teens. The older Blood Crows go around slaughtering men who get in their way and children who wouldn't let go of their mothers regardless of their pleas. The elderly and other children hide away in fear.

A middle-aged male villager in a tan blouse, wielding a broadsword, sneaks up to young Naiven from behind, thinking he’s an easier target. The man charge-yells then swings the broadsword diagonally down. In a split of a second, Young Naiven reflexively stabs the man in the chest with a dagger young Naiven has on himself. The swing of the broadsword stops midway. However, a gust of wind comes from that broadsword and it leaves a cut on young Naiven’s left cheek. Young Naiven removes the dagger from the man’s body and he falls on his stomach, eyes wide open but dead.

A loud, freakish scream from one of the ladies, presumably the wife of that deceased man, in one of the carts. She has her hands tied at the front, but she makes it out and over the cart she’s in; then lays her stomach on top of the man who has just been killed. She glares at Young Naiven.

“Kill me. I dare you!”

Young Naiven stood there in place and stared at her.

“Do people really go so far for someone they hold dear?”

“Kill me, you heartless monster!” The woman repeats, screaming.

Young Naiven gets wide-eyed at that remark. One of the Blood Crows comes up to the woman from the opposite side.

“If you want to join him that badly…”

That Blood Crow plunges a sword down onto the woman from behind.

One other thing the Blood Crows were not aware of was that the village contains that same-looking purple flower.

Afterwards, they haul their loot back to base. However, there's a drastic reduced amount of Blood Crows journeying back. Only young Naiven, with the sheathed broadsword that man has in one arm, guided one of the horses pulling the wagon with the female hostages in them. Another Blood Crows pulls the other wagon containing the loot. Additionally, there’s less amount of women in that wagon than there were when they raided the village. The Blood Crow coughs into his hand. Young Naiven leans his head to the side to look at that Blood Crow.

By the time they arrive back to their main base, only Young Naiven is the only one to arrive bringing the horse-drawn wagon. Both of the wagons were attached using a rope tied together at the wheel axle. The wagon only has one woman remaining on it while behind that is the one. Zar awaits him in front of the main door that’s slightly ajar. Another Blood Crow, who was standing beside Zar, came to the wagon and guided the horse away. Zar steps closer to Young Naiven.

"Where are the others who were with you?"

Young Naiven coughs a few times into the side of his fist.

“Yes. But some virus got to them.”

“A virus?” Zar contemplates the meaning of that term.

The horse that’s pulling the wagon suddenly collapses on its side. The Blood Crow tried to heave the horse up to no avail. Seeing that made something click in Zar’s mind.

"So that's how it is. So that's how it is! Very good, my boy. You're dismissed."

Young Naiven slips in through the gap in the door while Zar begins to gradually laugh maniacally. Young Naiven stopped and glanced over his shoulder as the large door closed on its own. For a young kid, Naiven doesn’t quite understand why Zar’s reaction to him being the only one back when there were lots before.

When the door closes completely, Naiven wakes up abruptly from his sleep with a gasp and quickly sits up. Atina sits on the edge of a wooden barstool in front of a sink. She is topless; having her blouse and vest hanging on a clothesline above the sink to air dry when Naiven was sleeping. Her long ponytail hanging off the front of one of her shoulders.

She quickly turns her back to him and wraps her arms around her breast. Naiven looks in the opposite direction, then down at himself.

It’s unclear whether Atina’s clothes have been fully dried or not; but she grabs them anyway with one hand and begins to put them back on her.

Naiven sneaks a glance at Atina as she puts clothes on; somehow mesmerized by the moonlight shining down on her petite physique. That thought gets interrupted when Naiven catches a glimpse of purple gas. It rises from the outside, seeping in through the window corner opposite of the sink. Naiven reactively grabs the hilt of his broadsword then swings it almost horizontally. Atina finishes putting on her vest by the time she feels the wind from that sword go past her to push the gas away. She flinches.

Naiven gets another round of coughing fits and places his elbow in front of his mouth as he does so. Atina turns around to face him.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Naiven looks at her with one eye open while trying to hold back his coughs.

"You didn't inhale any of that, did you?"

Atina blinks in confusion.  Suddenly, Kythe crash lands onto the center of the hut on its back with Vulgan on top of it.  The latter dragon doesn't look too happy at what Kythe did.

Atina quickly steps to the side, away from the sink, and takes out the small dagger.  Naiven leaps out of the way.  Both dragons claw at each other.  Kythe's rear side flails about in an attempt to get itself free from Vulgan.  Parts of the decaying hut begin to crumble down on them.  Kythe's tail slams into part of the wooden beams of the ceiling; accidentally bringing it down on Atina.  She looks up then memories from 7 years ago flashes in her mind.

An unmanned wagon careened downhill towards young Atina. It struck a bump on the ground, which sent it and the cargo-load flying.  Jadice ran up to Atina and pushed her out of the way; the cargo from the wagon then fell on top of her. The wagon, itself, is in an upside-down position on top of that pile. The rubble covered all of Jadice's body, save for one arm laid out on the ground. Young Atina had her mouth open and on her knees, reaching her hand toward Jadice; but was held back by Young Riley.

Back to the present time. Atina drops her dagger and it falls in front of her facing sideways. She falls to her knees; her hands cover her ears and her eyes shut tightly.

"No!" she screams the loudest she ever screams in her life.

The wooden beams that fell pin her ponytail up before it lands in a triangular position. The rest of debris falls on her in the formation of what looks like a tiny teepee.

Naiven glances at Vulgan then to the rubble Atina is under. Vulgan looks like it’s preoccupied dealing with Kythe. So Naiven dashes toward Atina, in an attempt to free her.

Vulgan brings one of its claws, intercepting his path then swings at him. Naiven halts then jumps backwards. The claws come a little too close to his chest.

He swings his broadsword diagonally then from right side all the way to the far left; unleashing a tornado at the debris in an attempt to free Atina from it. The wind only leaves a small graze along the side of that dragon’s face. Either Vulgan’s scales are as tough as tungsten, Naiven’s wind power is diminishing or a mix of both.

Vulgan inhales deeply, then releases a great fireball at Naiven. The 2 elements collide, creating a strong gust of wind on both the left and right side for a few seconds. It charges through the wind gust; once it’s close enough, it brings up one of his claws. Naiven holds his sword diagonally and horizontally above his forehead. Wind swirls around him in a dome formation then Vulgan’s claw comes down on that. It’s claws grinding against that wind force. Kythe, who was on its back earlier, gets rightside up; gets on top of Vulgan’s back and chomps down on the side of Vulgan’s neck. The bite doesn’t phase Vulgan as it continues pressing its claw down on the wind dome.

Over to Atina, her body and breathing shakes uncontrollably from the trauma that renders her immobile. Even her voice gets slightly high-pitched.

"I'm sorry, mother. I'm so sorry."

A pair of ghostly arms, one feminine and the other masculine, reaches down and touches Atina's cheek. The female hand is on her cheek while a male hand is under Atina's chin. Atina opens her eyes and glances up to see apparitions of Jadice and Riley. She stares at them for a few seconds until the floor shakes from the tussling of the 2 dragons; causing the weight of the pile on top of her to drop ever closer. Atina faces downward, eyes close tightly and whimpers.

Ghost Riley taps the bottom of her chin a few times. Atina slightly reopens her eyes. Ghost Jadice and Riley part ways, showing Atina the scene of the 2 dragons and Naiven.  It’s as if they ask her 'which is more important, your past trauma or the situation in front of you?' Atina stares at what Naiven is trying to do. How foolish she's been; letting an incident from her childhood shackle her all these years when there are other things more dire. 

"I understand. Thank you, Mother. Brother."

Ghost Jadice and Riley vanish after seeing that Atina has chosen her answer.  Atina speaks softly to herself.

"Yes. Everything –" she picks up the dagger and lifts one knee up not too far off the ground.

Vulgan presses that same claw down more. Naiven grits his teeth. The tiny crack on his sword increases in length as he continues to try maintaining that position. He drops on one knee, faces diagonally downward and coughs some more. Three drops of blood, from his mouth, fall to the ground. Kythe shoots white electricity from its mouth at point blank range on Vulgan's neck.

"– will be," Atina places her hand that holds the dagger under her ponytail. Vulgan brings down another of its claws down on Kythe; closing its mouth.

"Fine!" Atina's eyes shoot open. She slices off her ponytail then dashes ahead right before the debris collapses down completely; whipping a dust cloud in a mushroom shape.

Atina charges along the side-length of Vulgan’s body. She holds the dagger parallel to her lips; slides to a stop at the base of Vulgan’s neck; then, using her palm on the base of the dagger’s hilt, thrusts it to that part of the neck. The tip of the dagger grinds upward, nearly knocking off her feet backwards.

Vulgan turns its head to her. Their eyes briefly meet. Vulgan opens its jaws and flames swirl at the inside of its mouth. Atina is left defenseless and, this close of a range, she’ll be burned to a crisp beyond recognition.

Kythe snakes its head in between Atina and Vulgan, facing the latter. Kythe opens its mouth then white lightning streaks from it. The flames and the lightning collide. A powerful gust of wind erupts from that impact, blowing the rest of the hut away. Atina also gets sent flying backwards against Kythe’s neck.

The wind dome around Naiven disperses; his sword falls with the blade pointing backwards; his hand on one knee and his other hand clutching over his heart while he breathes heavily. Vulgan’s claw that’s been pressing down that whole time crashes down on him. A pebble zips to one of Vulga’s claws. The tiny rock bounces off before falling to the ground; but it was enough for Vulgan’s claws to miss Naiven by an inch.  Vulgan moves its eyes in the direction that pebble comes from. Standing beside a tree, red hair from a certain Blood Crow flaps in the wind. Vulgan proceeds to grab Naiven, pumps its wings and takes to the skies. The wind from its wing-flapping works like a turbine as it blows away the pieces of the already-decimated hut.  Naiven’s sword drops horizontally on the ground with a clang.

Atina first places her arm horizontally at eye-brow level.  When the wind dies down, she lowers her arm then.  She lets out a gasp then begins to pursue the red dragon; but Vulgan continues to ascend and get farther away.

Suddenly, her strength leaves her body and she falls on her stomach.  She pushes herself up with her left arm and right hand.  She coughs a bit then looks upward.  Her vision is slightly blurry while Vulgan and its captive get farther out of reach.  She falls unconscious with the side of her head on the ground.