Sodina climbs out of the pool and rushes over to Amanda's lifeless body. She runs her fingers through Amanda's hair and then down to her eyes closing them slowly. A pool of bright red blood surrounds Amanda's body lying limp on the ground.
Lorenz runs to grab his bow.
"Augh!" he screams in pain.
Both of his legs are taken out by a twirling scythe.
"Augh!" he screams one last time as his upper body falls to the ground with a thud.
"Lorenz!" Slash bellows, pulling out his sword.
The terror climbs through his back as he runs over to grab Sodina's hand. Lorenz crawls as the scythe comes around again and cuts his upper body in half.
Panic eclipses his mind. "You bastards, show your face!" Slash shouts demanding the unknown assailants reveal themselves.
Ella puts up a magical barrier around Slash and Sodina.
"There is nothing you can do for them, young ones," she echoes with a sorrowful look.
Ella carves a circle in thin air as a portal opens, revealing the mouth of the cave. She puts out her hand as Slash and Sodina levitate, flying through the portal.
"Young ones, never come here again," Ella warns them as the portal closes behind them.
Slash slams his fist into the ground in frustration.
"We cannot get their bodies," Sodina murmurs as tears slowly form in her eyes.
Slash screams towards the night sky, his lungs about to burst. Sodina puts her hands together, bowing toward the ground, tears flowing down her cheeks.
"Goddess Astra, please receive our dear friends into your presence," she says.
Slash looks around, lifting his view toward Sodina. He notices a small dart buried in her right shoulder. His eyes widen in fear.
"Sodina—"
Her eyes meet his, her lashes fluttering, and then she stumbles and falls forward. Slash runs over to catch her before she hits the ground.
He embraces Sodina in his arms, running down the same hill they came up a few hours ago. "From the look of the dart, it must be poisonous. The area around her shoulder is already starting to turn dark purple."
Slash makes for Dalton, the closest town to his location. He takes a right turn and runs through the night. The moonlight pierces through the gloomy fog, revealing the dirt road ahead. In the distance, he sees the light of town.
Month of Dragons
Day 12
The human existence is a never-ending cycle of choices
Those choices lead to actions that cannot be undone
Two graves of that time will forget
Where do I belong?
Do we fight to free ourselves from oppression?
What is life? What is freedom? Why does man bleed? Have the Gods betrayed us?
I fall in failure awaiting the stinging blade of death!
Fight! Kill! We will rise above!
What are we but humans? The breath in our lungs propelling u forward!
We will create a new path toward the bright horizon!
On a hot summer's day, Slash stares at the graves of his two friends he swore to protect, Sodina's hand in his. Slash's wavy black hair blows in the wind, and his sword rests on his hip. Five years have passed since they set forth on that fated journey.
There is such emptiness within my heart.
The minutes feel like hours and hours like days.
The grief of my decisions is almost too much to bear.
These past several years have been difficult on them. The mayor exiled Slash and Sodina from their hometown of Ifer due to the deaths of his children Lorenz and Amanda.
That fateful day when darkness intertwined with our lives.
Sodina started aging slowly, since she was poisoned in an attack by an unknown enemy. The poison gravely altered the effect of the tears they drank from the fairy goddess's fountain. The tears from the fountain added one hundred years of life for each drop, and they had each drunk only one. The effects of the poison were slowed as a result, but Sodina still shows some pain. Her joints spasm for hours at a time without warning. She experiences weakness that is out of the ordinary for someone her age.
We will reverse this and claim back what was stolen from us.