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Darkness and Light
"ZANA!" I yelled as I saw the blade fall. I had turned
at the sudden screech of Dorono and was stricken with the horror that I had
tried so hard to prevent. Zana couldn't be lost to me. I couldn't believe it.
From behind me came a dark laugh. "So you have
lost that which you wanted most now," Jown mocked my horror and sadness with
an evil gleam.
"You are a monster and a fiend!" I shouted and
rushed at him with my blade ready to tear through his pelt.
***
As Dorono saw Dsupa's blade hit Zana he let out another deep screech that
was long and mournful, before a sudden change wrapped over him. His green eyes
shifted to black, and a fire seemed to burn in them as he stared blankly at
Dsupa, a dark fire starting to form around him.
It was the very thing his mother had warned
him about. To loose control would bring out the dark side in him, but he ignored
the warring words of his mother, and stared at Dsupa, the magic boiling around
him.
How he wanted something horrible to happen to
him, how he wanted to crush him beneath his paws as he had done to Zana.
His thoughts of darkness crept forward like
so many poisonous snakes. Each one of them moved at Dsupa, and then all struck
at once with a lightning speed, and started to wrap themselves around the Nimmo
warlord. Without thinking of what he was doing, Dorono held out his paws as
Dsupa, and than suddenly squeezed them together.
As he did so, all of the dark power he had flying
around Dsupa closed in with all the force of his anger. A deep sound echoed
out as all the power smashed into Dsupa, and for a split second, the Halloween
Nimmo remained motionless in mid-air, his pupils dilated. Than, he fell, arms
falling away from Zana as he did so. He fell out of sight right off of the cliff's
edge.
The black fire disappeared as quickly as it
had come and Dorono's eyes returned to a horror-struck green. What had he just
done? He didn't have time to dwell on his thoughts, for he saw her.
Zana Taru was floating in the air where Dsupa
had let go of her. A bright white light was shimmering around her motionless
body, and for the first time, Dorono noticed her necklace, which was slightly
levitated above her body, creating a shield of white light, which kept her from
falling down the cliff with Dsupa.
"Zana!" he cried and with a few flaps of his
wings, he had her in his arms. Her eyes were closed, and if he hadn't known
better, he would say that she was sleeping. He leaned over her and started to
shed tears. Each tear fell upon the limp body of the young girl he had come
to know so well and slid away from her fur softly. He reached forward to rub
his paw over her head to wipe away her lop of hair from her eyes, when it fell
out from his mane. He caught the small thing as it fell as studied over it.
It was a tiny vial, appearing as hardly more
than just a pretty decoration. It was the healing broth that had been gifted
to him from the darkness Faerie Tron. Being a Faerie of darkness she would not
be gifted in the arts of healing, but it was still Faerie made. Perhaps? No,
Dorono would not let his hopes soar where they should not. But what if it did
work?
He has to test it; perhaps he could save the
young creature he cared so much for. He popped the cork off of the top of the
vial and sprinkled most of the liquid over the wound and waited. He stared at
the motionless body of Zana, hoping with all of his heart for a miracle, but
nothing was happening. The wound slowly closed up, but Zana did not take in
the breath of life. She wasn't wakening up.
He had failed. Another tear rolled down the
edge of his beak, and lingered over the dragon amulet for a split second before
falling down upon it. The second it touched, a bright light started in a circle
around the amulet, and quickly got bigger and bigger.
Dorono opened his eyes and stared at Zana startled,
not averting his gaze away from her face as the light grew bigger and radiated
brighter as it soon circled all of Zana Taru's body.
The bright light that had grown into a circle
around Zana suddenly burst away in all directions, and with a rasping cough,
Zana took in breath again. Her eyes shot open, and the first thing she saw was
the tear-filled face of Dorono right before he smothered her in a massive hug.
"Thank the stars and the moon and all the faeries! You're alive Zana!"
She just let out a giggle, but Dorono lessened
his hug, and his eyes fell back upon the battle below them, which was taking
a new turn.
***
Kirin jumped to the side as the blade of the Lupe slashed at him again. Flashes
of light and darkness had flickered at the edge of his vision, but he could
not turn his head unless he wanted to loose it in the process.
Things were looking down for him. He could not
keep up the fight with the colossal Lupe forever. While he was already tiring
out, the Lupe seemed to be ever going at the same pace, still looking fresh
into battle despite the wounds already inflicted upon him.
Kirin stumbled in his step, and fell to his
knees in the snow as the Lupe raised his sword for a strike. His attack could
not come, for Shadow rushed forward and dug his blade into the tendons of the
Lupe's left arm, disabling it.
"Took you long enough to wake up!" Kirin said
as he pulled himself to his feet.
"A creature needs their beauty sleep." Shadow
grinned as the Lupe put the sword into his right paw and readied for another
attack. He had knocked Shadow unconscious with his strong blow to his gut, and
the black Aisha wasn't about to let it happen again.
"Com'n Kirin," he said spinning his stilettos.
"Let's show this Lupe what we are worth when we attack together."
***
Kalzar, along with the creature he was fighting both lowered their weapons
to stare at the strange sight of Dorono as Dsupa pushed his sword down into
Zana. First there was a sudden rush of darkness, and an ominous wind started
to blow. This blackness surrounded Dsupa, and let out a sound like an explosion
before disappearing and letting Dsupa fall out of sight.
Then came the light. It was blinding, and yet
it was beautiful. It had come from the motionless form of Zana Taru and breathed
life back into her once again.
This spectacle had hardly ended when Kalzar
had found himself faced with attack again. The creature before his tried to
jab his sword into his gut, but Kalzar quickly hopped to the side, bringing
his blade up wards in an arc, and the creature fell before him, adding to the
list of casualties.
Kalzar tried to rush to the aid of Shadow and
Kirin, but two more creatures stood before him, and he was forced to attack
them as well.
His life was on the line as he swung his sword,
and dodged about trying to avoid the cut of a blade wielded by one much more
experienced than he. That factor did not matter to Kalzar who attacked as if
he had known how to use a blade since the day he learned to walk, and he slowly
cut back his foes.
Things were looking good for him, and he felt
sure that he could reach Shadow and Kirin's side when he saw the fight that
was going on between Zarrel Charmain and Jown; the fight that was attracting
the most attention of all.
***
Blind anger and rage shot through my heart and blinded my eyes from what was
happening with Dorono and Zana Taru. All I knew was that this Kougra in front
of me, Jown, was the reason that Zana Taru was gone, the reason that I would
probably never see Kowl again.
I didn't care any longer. All that mattered
to me was to have my blade pierce the fur and skin of Jown. To have him pay
for blood with his own blood. I fought with a newfound frenzy, daggers slashing
and weaving so fast I even had trouble following them. Jown was surely having
a hard time keeping the daggers from hitting him.
He swung his sword down at me, and I dodged
it with a quick hop to the side, and I slashed my dagger down at him before
he could recover. I gleamed with a mad look as I saw the wound I had inflicted
upon him. He growled at me, and slashed with his sword once again. I was slower
to dodge this time, and a gash opened up on me, but it didn't matter to me.
I attacked again and again, inflicting more
wounds upon Jown as he inflicted wounds upon me. In his eyes I saw a flash or
fear. He had never known rue fear before, but he had never pushed an assassin
of my caliber to the breaking point before either. I was at the point where
I expected to loose my life with the battle, but at the same time, take Jown
out with me.
As we fought, out footsteps brought us nearer
the edge of the cliff. We fought upon its edge as if we were in a large room,
oblivious to the steep drop-off in front of our very noses.
The metallic ring of blades clashing together
was ringing throughout my ears, and I was very dimly aware of all the eyes set
upon Jown and I as we fought our final battle.
Jown took a wild lunge towards me, and as he
did so, some of the rock beneath our feet crumbled, and we both landed in a
heap upon the ground, Jown on top of me.
A sudden silence fell over many of the creatures
as they looked at the still heap of the two who had been locked in battle seconds
earlier. They look forward trying to see the outcome of he battle when Jown
twitches very slightly in front of their eyes. Kirin and Kalzar released a sudden
gasp thinking that Jown had crushed me beneath his sword, and Shadow just stared
forward with a saddened look upon his face. Dorono shook his head in disbelief,
and many of Jown's creatures grinned with malice.
It was than that I rolled the limp form of Jown
off of me, My eyes were cold and hard as I stared at all of Jown's creatures
who stared in disbelief at their leaders downfall, and at me, the one who had
caused it. I wiped my blades clean upon the snow as they all stared back at
me.
Before a move could be made by any of the creatures,
the ground below me suddenly shifted a few inches. I looked down at me feet,
and saw nothing, so I looked back up and started to take a step forward. As
soon as I shifted in weight however, the edge of the cliff that I stood upon
crumbled beneath me, and with one last cry at the figures of my friends, I fell
off the side of the cliff and after a forever of falling, landed in a pit of
darkness.
To be continued...
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