The Beast Within

Chapter 19

Just casually watching Disney movies as I write this...

I couldn't look away.

Both Francis and I stared at the horror in front of us. I wasn't seeing things when I saw the black in the water. It was Zeke.

Parts of him.

He was ripped into dozens of pieces. Blood soaked the ground and burned my nose now that it was pushed into the ground. His blood was everywhere.

Zeke's head, severed and serrated and jagged edges, hung from a tree. He was still alive as they cut off his head. His struggle clear in the uneven cut. Pieces of his spine stuck out past his dark scales.

"No!" I roared as Francis got off of my back to let me up. "Zeke! No!" Tears stung my eyes.

I could feel the slickness of his blood on the ground and on my belly from being pinned.

Pieces of him were floating in the water, the pieces I saw earlier. His wings lay on the ground, each one in three pieces.

They cut him apart while he was alive and cut his head off last. Anger boiled in my veins.

"Sam, let's go. There's nothing we can do here." Francis said as he walked up behind me.

"No. I have to give him peace. I have to honor him and his life. I have to burn him."

"Sam, he would want you to find the assholes that did this and take them out. He would want you to fight and not spend this precious time here. Sam. Sam look at me." I turned and looked at him. His eyes searched mine.

"Zeke is gone. I know it's harsh but it's the truth. You can honor him by helping the rest of us. You will honor him by taking down the Hunters."

"Can we at least put all of him in the water? I know how much he loved the water." I said. Francis nodded.

We spend the next hour putting all the pieces of the baby in the water so he can swim forever.

Afterwards we left the cave and the waterfall for good. Zeke is at his final resting place and no one will disturb it.