Under the Oak Tree (Riftan Calypse POV) - Painful Discovery

Painful Discovery

(Riftan POV)

News had reached the Allied Forces about the massive landslide that sealed off the entrance of Ethylene Castle and cut the troll army in half. Instinctively, they quickly had to turn back to defend whatever advantage they had before hundreds of crushed trolls regenerated their limbs. Riftan however had questions about the occurrence itself about how it happened as they rode back to the castle. A massive landslide doesn't just occur by itself. The ground needed to shake with enough force amid a considerable length of time to cause a large track of soil to fall from the side of a cliff while unbalancing a gigantic rock. And they were not that far from Ethylene either, perhaps half a day of riding so they should have also felt the ground move. Ruling out natural causes, Riftan wondered if it was due to magic... 

"Maxi..." It was the first thing that came to his mind.

At that realization, Riftan's fears quickly surfaced and he immediately raced Talon as fast as he could, with the Remdragon Knights taking his cue.

As soon as they arrived at the outskirts of the castle, the magnitude of the field of soil and rock spread out before them. It only confirmed Riftan's hunch that only very powerful magic could have done this kind of damage. But he didn't have time to dwell on these things as he held out some small hope that perhaps his wife did not do this. Surely she would not have been capable in releasing that much magical energy. Nor did the messenger provide information whether his wife was injured or not. Riftan already gave prior instructions to the rest of the Remdragon Knights to sweep the enemies that were still buried in the soil as they approached the blocked entrance. So Riftan quickly went around the wall and looked for another way into the castle, immediately seeking the barracks wanting to be reunited again with Maxi.

As he approached the barracks for Whedon soliders, now filled with many bodies with various degrees of injuries being cared for by priests and priestesses, he got off his horse and tied him to a post. He had always secretly picked up Maxi's scent back from when he was still a vice-commander of the Remdragon Knights attending banquets as guests of the Duke of Croix in his castle. He knew her presence was close by when suddenly, he noticed a very busy gathering of priestesses and soldiers hovering over a body on the ground. He only saw their backs and a blanket was laid out on the grass, presumably to transport the body to a healing tent.

He was straining to see who it was at first, but Riftan's blood instantly ran cold as soon as he had a good look at the bloodied face.

"NOOOOO!!!"

Riftan immediately let out a madman-like scream and ran to his wife's seemingly lifeless frame, knocking off soldiers who were just about to put her body on the blanket.

He got on the ground, kneeling and lifted Maxi's body and held it close against his armor, with her face against his cheek. Hard, visible tears began to flow from Riftan's eyes in anguish at the shock of it all.

"Why?...Why?, Wake-up Maxi... wake-up, please wake-up..."

He hugged his wife's body crushing it almost and kissed her forehead and her cheeks repeatedly as if it would bring her back to consciousness. Tears, blood, and sweat, mixing with his pained voice.

"Wake-up Maxi... wake-up, please wake-up... wake-up for me... please... I'm here now... please wake-up..."

Idsila was among the first priestesses to respond before Riftan ever arrived on scene and was in charge of instructing the soldiers what to do and saw everything. She, along with the rest of the small crowd of witnesses who saw this tall and intimidating man who hardly showed any other emotion other than stoicism and anger, were quite surprised to see him express his private pain openly. Riftan was crying and begging on his knees for salvation for his love to come back from the dead. They had never seen anyone so powerful and heroic, looking so helpless and completely lost. Isilda felt sorry for this man and pitied him.