Tales from Frostbourne [Cancelled]

Chapter 7 : The End

Azura POV

I guess that was the conversation over. I followed him back, and sat on my spinning chair, and span around, wondering what to do. If even Patrick couldn't trust me, who would? We stayed quiet for a while, and I knew they'd heard us, I was literally shouting. Suddenly, Stella broke the silence.

"Wait! I've remembered something! I know someone who can help me!" she cried, leaping to her feet. We all looked at her, interest piqued.

"Who?" Patrick cried.

"Zeganirn, the End Dancer! I remember when I was younger, he came to the Coven, and helped us to recover from an outbreak of this! He knows the cure, I'm sure of it." she told us with certainty. I gazed at Patrick to see how he'd react to this, he was very sensitive about the subject. He didn't do anything for a bit, but he stared at Stella, as if he was in a trance.

"No, I forbid you to go to the End." he said quietly. I raised my eyebrows. This wasn't like him, the Patrick I know and love would want to help. I opened my mouth to protest, but he stopped me. "No, Azura, I don't want to hear it, OK?" 

He ambled over to the stairs, and ran down them two at a time. I nodded at the others to follow me, and I walked down, to where I knew he'd be. He doesn't usually let people into his study. He gets a bit grouchy, like me when Daryll or Theo bursts into my lab without telling me. I didn't think he'd particularly mind if I did, and I was right. I ran through the door just as he was closing it. He took one look at me and sighed, not in a mean way or anything, just with tiredness or something.

"Azura, I know you're going to try and change my mind." he rolled his eyes jokingly.

"Ha, you know me!" I smiled. "Look, Patrick. I know what you're going through now is hard, but trust me, it's just as hard for me. Dominic was basically a father to me, you know that. I felt exactly like you did when Rio died. But I know that now Stella has Wither, it's making life so hard. I know you want to help her." He just stared at me for a second.

"I just don't like the End because of how Rio died. I do want to help her, I really do, but I... I just can't. It's too hard." he cried, a tear rolling down his cheek. I'd never seen him cry before, even at Rio's funeral, he just stood there with an unreadable expression. I moved in to give him a hug, and surprisingly he accepted it.

"Patrick, even in the toughest of times, you can't just give up and go cry in a corner. This girl needs urgent help, and you're not going to give it to her? If I'd caught the Wither, you'd want to help me, right?" I asked him, hoping he'd say yes.

"Of course I would. I love you with all my heart!" he smiled weakly through the tears.

"Then how is this any different?" I replied, tilting my head a tiny bit. He wiped his eyes, and thought for a moment.

"OK, I'll help her then." he decided. "How can you always change my mind?" I just laughed and tapped the side of my nose knowingly.

"Scholar's tricks, no one else knows." I winked. We climbed back up the stairs to the roof, where everyone was still waiting, apparently they'd come back up after I'd slipped into Patrick's study. He sighed, and hung his head in defeat.

"You may go to the End, however, I will not be accompanying you. Azura, Daryll and Rain will go with you instead." he announced. I was surprised he was sending me too.

"Why are you not going Sire?" Daryll asked, before Patrick could turn away to avoid any arguments.

"You know perfectly well why I'm not going Daryll." he nodded, then left again. "Get ready to leave!" he shouted up the stairs. We glanced at each other, then gathered supplies, armour and weapons in case we encountered trouble.

Twenty minutes later, we were all set to leave. I watched Daryll, Rain and Stella stride through the portal. 

"Good luck Azura. Stay safe, OK?" Patrick told me before I left.

"I will. Don't worry, we can defend ourselves." I smiled, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. I saw him blush and laughed before running into the portal. 

I met the others on the other side, in the End. I hadn't been there in years, but it hadn't changed much since the attack that we last helped them in. We'd come out in a different portal to the normal one, but we could see Dragonspire in the distance. A few minutes later, we were entering the main gates of the city. Zeganirn was who we needed to see, so we wandered around for a while, searching for the Ender Watchers. Suddenly we heard a shout, probably in Ender, and we were immediately surrounded by guards. We heard a teleportation sound, and a cry in our language.

"Stop! They are Frostbourne, our allies!" I breathed a small sigh of relief when I saw Ceris approaching us. She smiled as well as she could with her mask on, and welcomed us back. "What do you need?"

"I believe your colleague Zeganirn can help me with this...?" Stella asked hopefully, showing Ceris her hand.

"I'm not sure, I'll get him to have a look though." she replied. "What is it anyway?"

"It's a Nether related disease. Don't know how I got it, but... I did." Stella shrugged as we followed Ceris through the corridor we'd been standing in. We reached a quarter of the main building I'd never been in. It must have been the Ender Watcher's home. She led us through to a room where Vordus and Zeganirn were waiting. Ceris spoke to Zeganirn in Ender, and he muttered something back.

"He said he can help." she turned to us, and motioned for Stella to sit by him. He spoke some ancient incantations for around ten minutes, and slowly, Stella's hand returned to it's normal look. She took a glance at it and yelped in delight. We all laughed at her, but I understood her happiness. Wither is a horrible disease after all.

--Time Skip Twenty Minutes later--

We trudged back to the portal, but happily. Suddenly, a flash of movement appeared nearby, and we saw a girl and another figure run to a portal.

"Abi?" Rain whispered, then he shouted again, but more sure of himself. "ABIGAIL!" Then before we could stop him, he sprinted to the portal, and to Abigail.

"No Rain! STOP!" Daryll yelled after him, then sprinted toward him too. Abigail disappeared through the portal, after seeing Rain, along with the other figure, and unfortunately for us, Rain went through just as it closed. Daryll wasn't far behind, but it closed before he got to Rain. We regrouped with Daryll, and exchanged a series of worried looks.

"Should we go find Ceris, or do we just go back and tell Patrick?" Daryll asked uncertainly.

"I think we should tell Patrick first, then if we need them, tell the Ender Watchers." I nodded, sure it was the right thing to do. We agreed, then jumped through the portal back to Frostbourne. I think I should have been more panicked, but I had to keep calm for everyone else to keep calm.