Amidst the cold peaks of The Spine swooped a pair of draconians. There was nothing elegant about the sight in the light of the purple morning sky. The early sun rays shown clear on a seen of struggle and determination. One female draconian named Lessa lay in the arms of the other, a male named Vayden. Vayden’s wide black and dirty-white speckled wings were all that kept the two aloft. Exhaustion was evident by the uneven an shaky nature of each flap of leathery wing. He pushed as far as he could and, when his strength finally began to wane, he did his best to find a secluded spot hidden from an airborne eye. When they landed it was beneath the cover of some tall needle laden trees. Utterly spent and over extended, Vayden did his best to drop his weak companion onto the duff covered mountainside as gently as possible. Putting weight on his injured leg caused them both to spill to the ground in a heap ruining his attempt utterly.
Pain no doubt screamed in Lessa’s also injured leg as they landed. Unlike his wound the arrow that had caused hers still sprouted from the woman’s thigh all blackened wood and raven feather fletching. It worried him that she didn’t voice her pain. She simply winced before flopping over and moving minimally to find some small comfort. Her wings were still bound in shackles for which Vayden had no key. No doubt they too had been bruised at the very least in their landing. Some guilt at the damage edged into Vayden’s mind but he could do little more than collapse black muzzle first into the earthy smelling mountainside himself. There they lay for a few minutes while the male mustered the dregs of his strength and pull himself up to crawl over to Lessa. “I think we might have gotten away,” he said softly to her as he really took a minute to regard her damaged form. He hadn’t even a moment to spare during the night before despite flying though most of it. It had taken all his focus to get them this far. His draconic face grimaced with what he saw. Despite her being a passenger for most of the night her breath was somewhat labored. Setting a hand against her jaw he encouraged her to meet his fiery eyes with her cool blues. Her scales where too hot to the touch. When she opened her eyes it seemed like she was struggling to focus on him. “Is it the pain? I can remove the arrow. That will make it better… eventually.”
Lessa’s eyes wandered down to her thigh weakly as if noticing it again. A quiet pause hung between them for a moment. “There is some pain,” she said so tiredly she almost sounded hollow. “But it’s not that,” her eyes stayed on the wound longer than he expected, as if she didn’t want to meet his eye. When she finally did he could see tears. She locked gazes with him and horror began to settle in his stomach. “It’s poison, Vayden. I’m going to die.”
The proclamation seem to echo in his mind as it refused to understand. After all they had done, after their dive into the Blackrock River and their great battle… how could this be the end? Then he looked down at his own leg as another thought occurred to him. They had both taken an arrow. He too was poisoned. Was it a mercy to die with her, he wondered? “No,” sighed Lessa easily deciphering his look, “You were given the antidote.”
Confusion spread over Vayden’s face, “…when?”
She smiled weakly though one of those tears ran down her jaw. “During our fight. It was on my blade.” The cut on his arm wasn’t deadly but the blade had bit him. The man’s eyes grew large as memories of his disarming her flooded into his mind. He could still hear the sound the metal made as it skipped over ice. “I didn’t think you could disarm me so easily…” she chuckled weakly, half-heartedly, “but it was the only way. They checked me for vials and the like.”
Another more sorrow filled silence settled between them. When he could force air though his lungs Vayden choaked out three words, “I’ve killed you.”
“No!” What strength Lessa had toughened her voice for the rebuttal. “No Vayden, I chose to step up. It was my choice to risk my life. I was too confident… maybe I always have been.”
The truth of it resonated in Vayden’s heart as his mind was filled with memories of her courage and confidence. Fluttering memories of danger among mountain peaks. Firelit nights of bad dancing. Her proclaimed love for him. The ringing of these beautiful memories nearly shattered Vayden and hot tears fell pronounced in the cold mountain air on his face. He saw a shiver run through her where she lay and so he stood painfully then with every limb and joint protesting. Some effort later and he had pulled her over to a nearby tree. He propped himself against it and pulled her to him. Soon she lay against his chest and he folded one dark wing around them, doing what little he could to warm her and make her comfortable. Unfortunately his other wing was blocked by her still manacled and pulled back set. There the two lay there for a moment as he tried to summon words that refused to come. What could he say? His heart wanted to plead to her that she might live but that wasn’t fair to her. Yet there was an inescapable truth within his heart, “I will be lost without you.” His tone was flat and pained.
“…Promise me,” she croaked a moment later, “I know it will be hard but you have to promise.” Her fluttering eyes found his, “Promise me you will live. Make this… make it all worth something.” He took a breath and tried to speak but how could he lie to her with some of the last words they ever shared? A shaking pale claw touched his chin then. The resigned and weary look her eyes took on tore his soul. Weak resolve lay in them too: a dying shadow of what she likely felt, “Please Vayden.”
He tried like had so many times to catch every detail of her lovely eyes. She had given everything to save his life. How could he throw that gift away no matter what pain he felt. “I promise, Lessa Strongheart. I will live. I love you.”
“And I you Vayden Flamerider. I always will,” she replied with the weakest of smiles at the surname he gave her. She had never been given one by their people. Likely they would be appalled if they knew he had presumed to do so. That didn’t matter anymore to Vayden. She was his heroin and deserved that honor at the least. He hugged her then and the two spent what time she had left locked in a bittersweet embrace on the cool mountain slope.
************
Eyes the color of amber fire opened some time later. The sun had retreated behind the horizon. His muscles ached from both the position he had been in throughout the day and his previous exertions. Gently he extracted himself from Lessa and with equal care lay her against the ground. His claws refused to feel how cold she was. His eyes pointedly did not see her now still chest. Numbly he stood and moved away toward the cliff’s edge. They needed water because their last had been a long night. He moved mechanically to go find some then. He fell from the cliff only opening his wings at the last second. Every flap was nearly complete agony but he didn’t have to go far. A daze settled over him as he moved down to a nearby creek. Vague thoughts surfaced in his fogged mind about where they might take shelter and where food could be found but when those thoughts strayed to close to Lessa they just melted into the background like a snowflake on a warm breeze.
Eventually Vayden touched down in the small, secluded outcrop of trees where he had spent most of the day. In his claws he carried two water containers improvised from a pair of wild gourds. Numbly his black clawed feet took him to where Lessa lay. She hadn’t moved. He knelt heavily next to her and reached down to move her jaw. Those blue eyes… they were vacant. What else had he expected? Lessa was… Lessa was…
Dead.
More tears fell then. They had taken his sun and sky now leaving in its place a dark hole. This void beckoned to him. It offered sweet relief from the crushing anguish. Darkness called and it took everything he had not to throw himself from the cliffs to meet it. It would have been so easy to give up and he knew that is why she had made him promise. He could not make his last promise to her a lie. His only option was to step away from the pain. Numbness bled into his heat like cold into a frozen limb. His love deserved a proper memorial and no one else would give it to her.
Some hours later a pyre burned bright on the cliff’s edge. Vayden kept Lessa’s belongings and armor, a few of her bones to create something with, and the arrow that had taken her. He would immortalize her in craft as all draconians wished in death. The arrow he would keep until he sunk it into the hearts of those responsible. The rest of what remained of Lessa Strongheart was greedily consumed by a hungry blaze atop that unnamed mountain. Vayden was gone long before their pursers found the pyre and a small stone memorial. They left it. This was just one of two condemned dark souled in their draconic eyes. A memorial far from the Bastion for a nobody mattered little. The redeemers knew they would make good on their title for the other soon. They vowed that it was only a matter of time before death would redeem Vayden too.
Pain no doubt screamed in Lessa’s also injured leg as they landed. Unlike his wound the arrow that had caused hers still sprouted from the woman’s thigh all blackened wood and raven feather fletching. It worried him that she didn’t voice her pain. She simply winced before flopping over and moving minimally to find some small comfort. Her wings were still bound in shackles for which Vayden had no key. No doubt they too had been bruised at the very least in their landing. Some guilt at the damage edged into Vayden’s mind but he could do little more than collapse black muzzle first into the earthy smelling mountainside himself. There they lay for a few minutes while the male mustered the dregs of his strength and pull himself up to crawl over to Lessa. “I think we might have gotten away,” he said softly to her as he really took a minute to regard her damaged form. He hadn’t even a moment to spare during the night before despite flying though most of it. It had taken all his focus to get them this far. His draconic face grimaced with what he saw. Despite her being a passenger for most of the night her breath was somewhat labored. Setting a hand against her jaw he encouraged her to meet his fiery eyes with her cool blues. Her scales where too hot to the touch. When she opened her eyes it seemed like she was struggling to focus on him. “Is it the pain? I can remove the arrow. That will make it better… eventually.”
Lessa’s eyes wandered down to her thigh weakly as if noticing it again. A quiet pause hung between them for a moment. “There is some pain,” she said so tiredly she almost sounded hollow. “But it’s not that,” her eyes stayed on the wound longer than he expected, as if she didn’t want to meet his eye. When she finally did he could see tears. She locked gazes with him and horror began to settle in his stomach. “It’s poison, Vayden. I’m going to die.”
The proclamation seem to echo in his mind as it refused to understand. After all they had done, after their dive into the Blackrock River and their great battle… how could this be the end? Then he looked down at his own leg as another thought occurred to him. They had both taken an arrow. He too was poisoned. Was it a mercy to die with her, he wondered? “No,” sighed Lessa easily deciphering his look, “You were given the antidote.”
Confusion spread over Vayden’s face, “…when?”
She smiled weakly though one of those tears ran down her jaw. “During our fight. It was on my blade.” The cut on his arm wasn’t deadly but the blade had bit him. The man’s eyes grew large as memories of his disarming her flooded into his mind. He could still hear the sound the metal made as it skipped over ice. “I didn’t think you could disarm me so easily…” she chuckled weakly, half-heartedly, “but it was the only way. They checked me for vials and the like.”
Another more sorrow filled silence settled between them. When he could force air though his lungs Vayden choaked out three words, “I’ve killed you.”
“No!” What strength Lessa had toughened her voice for the rebuttal. “No Vayden, I chose to step up. It was my choice to risk my life. I was too confident… maybe I always have been.”
The truth of it resonated in Vayden’s heart as his mind was filled with memories of her courage and confidence. Fluttering memories of danger among mountain peaks. Firelit nights of bad dancing. Her proclaimed love for him. The ringing of these beautiful memories nearly shattered Vayden and hot tears fell pronounced in the cold mountain air on his face. He saw a shiver run through her where she lay and so he stood painfully then with every limb and joint protesting. Some effort later and he had pulled her over to a nearby tree. He propped himself against it and pulled her to him. Soon she lay against his chest and he folded one dark wing around them, doing what little he could to warm her and make her comfortable. Unfortunately his other wing was blocked by her still manacled and pulled back set. There the two lay there for a moment as he tried to summon words that refused to come. What could he say? His heart wanted to plead to her that she might live but that wasn’t fair to her. Yet there was an inescapable truth within his heart, “I will be lost without you.” His tone was flat and pained.
“…Promise me,” she croaked a moment later, “I know it will be hard but you have to promise.” Her fluttering eyes found his, “Promise me you will live. Make this… make it all worth something.” He took a breath and tried to speak but how could he lie to her with some of the last words they ever shared? A shaking pale claw touched his chin then. The resigned and weary look her eyes took on tore his soul. Weak resolve lay in them too: a dying shadow of what she likely felt, “Please Vayden.”
He tried like had so many times to catch every detail of her lovely eyes. She had given everything to save his life. How could he throw that gift away no matter what pain he felt. “I promise, Lessa Strongheart. I will live. I love you.”
“And I you Vayden Flamerider. I always will,” she replied with the weakest of smiles at the surname he gave her. She had never been given one by their people. Likely they would be appalled if they knew he had presumed to do so. That didn’t matter anymore to Vayden. She was his heroin and deserved that honor at the least. He hugged her then and the two spent what time she had left locked in a bittersweet embrace on the cool mountain slope.
************
Eyes the color of amber fire opened some time later. The sun had retreated behind the horizon. His muscles ached from both the position he had been in throughout the day and his previous exertions. Gently he extracted himself from Lessa and with equal care lay her against the ground. His claws refused to feel how cold she was. His eyes pointedly did not see her now still chest. Numbly he stood and moved away toward the cliff’s edge. They needed water because their last had been a long night. He moved mechanically to go find some then. He fell from the cliff only opening his wings at the last second. Every flap was nearly complete agony but he didn’t have to go far. A daze settled over him as he moved down to a nearby creek. Vague thoughts surfaced in his fogged mind about where they might take shelter and where food could be found but when those thoughts strayed to close to Lessa they just melted into the background like a snowflake on a warm breeze.
Eventually Vayden touched down in the small, secluded outcrop of trees where he had spent most of the day. In his claws he carried two water containers improvised from a pair of wild gourds. Numbly his black clawed feet took him to where Lessa lay. She hadn’t moved. He knelt heavily next to her and reached down to move her jaw. Those blue eyes… they were vacant. What else had he expected? Lessa was… Lessa was…
Dead.
More tears fell then. They had taken his sun and sky now leaving in its place a dark hole. This void beckoned to him. It offered sweet relief from the crushing anguish. Darkness called and it took everything he had not to throw himself from the cliffs to meet it. It would have been so easy to give up and he knew that is why she had made him promise. He could not make his last promise to her a lie. His only option was to step away from the pain. Numbness bled into his heat like cold into a frozen limb. His love deserved a proper memorial and no one else would give it to her.
Some hours later a pyre burned bright on the cliff’s edge. Vayden kept Lessa’s belongings and armor, a few of her bones to create something with, and the arrow that had taken her. He would immortalize her in craft as all draconians wished in death. The arrow he would keep until he sunk it into the hearts of those responsible. The rest of what remained of Lessa Strongheart was greedily consumed by a hungry blaze atop that unnamed mountain. Vayden was gone long before their pursers found the pyre and a small stone memorial. They left it. This was just one of two condemned dark souled in their draconic eyes. A memorial far from the Bastion for a nobody mattered little. The redeemers knew they would make good on their title for the other soon. They vowed that it was only a matter of time before death would redeem Vayden too.