My dreams were fractured and frightening, full of pain and strange flashes of light. I dreamed that I was wielding two swords but I couldn't hold them upright, they were too heavy for me and kept falling to the floor. Wynn and Ffi were there too, telling me that I had to keep them up, that I would be a failure if I let them fall. I tried, I really tried, but nothing seemed to work.
They started to scream at me, their eyes turning black and disturbing as they approached me, their forms distorting and changing, like they were monsters changing forms. I wanted to scream but it felt like iron bands had wrapped around my chest.
It was only when I couldn't breathe any longer that I woke, coughing hard and sweating like a pig going in for the slaughter.
I sat up too fast, my head whirling and I coughed and coughed, faintly registering hands holding back my hair and putting a bowl next to my head. The cough was hard and hacking and it felt like I had swallowed glass and it was being vomited up again, scraping the sides of my throat. Maybe I had swallowed a hedgehog, I thought before I was consumed by another round of hacking coughs.
I had closed my eyes while I coughed, so I didn't see the liquid eject itself from my mouth and into the bowl. I saw it when I opened my eyes, that round of coughing over for now. It was a white bowl, I noticed. Clean and white like all hospitals. My gaze moved to the inside of the bowl, which almost made me retch.
It was spattered with a dark, reddish purple liquid, which was slowly dripping into the centre of the bowl. I felt my stomach turn slightly, and I looked away.
"You okay?" someone asked softly, and I leaned back onto my pillows, my body feeling wracked and tired. I felt like I had been repeatedly beaten by rounders bats over a long period of time.
I groaned in response and closed my eyes, only to be overcome by another bout of coughing. The bowl was held under my mouth again and I heard the blood-stained liquid splatter into the bowl.
"You've been out for two nights." the voice said, which I identified as Celie. She seemed to be the watcher-of-invalids-who-are-incapable-of-staying-uninjured.
I groaned again, holding my head. I was sure my brain had been cut open and lava poured in and sewn back up again. "What happened?" I asked after a while. Celie took a while to answer, and when she did, it came with a sigh.
"We...were attacked by King Balthazar's forces," she began carefully, and I nodded, feeling the pain explode slightly. I remembered seeing fire, fire everywhere, and the sounds of battle - clashes and smashes of swords, the cries and screams of pain and grief. And the dark shapes fighting one another, not knowing whether they were friend or foe...
I shuddered. "We...lost about a fifth of our ranks..." Celie managed before bursting into tears. I opened my eyes reluctantly to see the Faerie Princess sobbing hard, her blonde hair matted with mud, blood and something else, but I didn't quite know what. A cut stood out starkly against her pale forehead.
"Celie..." I managed to say, heaving myself up and touching her arm gently. "Hey. It's..." I began, but stopped myself. Okay wasn't the word she wanted to hear.
"I-I'm sorry," she hiccoughed. "I...shouldn't be..."
"I..." I began, but settled with just patting her back and hugging her as she sobbed.
"I-no, I'll..." she pulled back and wiped her face. "Thank you, Autumn," she said, managing to get a full sentence out without crying. "I'm...overemotional." she said, laughing weakly.
I smiled. "And...what about Angel? And...Ffi and Iris? And Wynn?" I asked, my memories of that night fracturing and fading. I couldn't remember...
Celie made a strangled noise, and buried her face in her hands once more. This time, I didn't do anything, for the gesture made ice strike deep into my heart. What had happened? Who...I didn't want to think this.
"They...Wynn has..."
"Wynn has what?" I asked frantically, searching through my memories for anything useful and coming up with nothing.
"Wynn was..." Celie stopped. "Wynn...was taken home. By his father." she told me, and my world stopped.
YOU ARE READING
Eyes of Emerald
Fantasy"The thing on top of Keira got up, slowly, and stood smaller than I thought. It stood on four legs, like a dog, and growled like a wolf. I swore under my breath as it leaped at me, claws extended, and I knew I was about to die." Behind the clouds on...
