Mythical Guardians

♧35. Promises and Trust♧

  Gordon groaned as he groggily opened his eyes. There was a heavy curtain of sand in front of him. He blinked, startled, just to realize that it was just wet sand that was stuck on his glasses.

  He took them off, trying to get the sand off them as he surveyed his surroundings. Everything was blurry around him, and the sun bore down upon him from above. He was on a beach of pristine sand, the skies were a clear, beautiful shade of azure, not a cloud to be seen. What time was it? It seemed to be in the afternoon, but it was impossible, was it? It was late afternoon when they left the Sirens' island, and then, and then...

  It all came back to him like he had been hit by a sledgehammer. The sea dragon. The ship breaking apart. Cedric hauling them out of the ocean with his telekinesis. Without him, they would had died. Cedric being attacked from behind and knocked into the ocean. Aquarius brought him back to Johnathan and him, the blond pale, cold, and in a coma.

  Aquarius drew the dragon's attention, drawing it away from them as they both disappeared into the depths. His quiver was almost empty, with only less than six arrows left. Their magic ship was destroyed, and just when they were floundering aimlessly, tossed around by the violent waves of the storm and having spat out seawater for who knows how many times, those things shot out of the stormy sky.

  Jason and Johanthan went to engage the dark coloured creatures that attacked them with spikes flung from their bodies. Creatures that seemed to be made of wisps of cloud attacked them as well. The two fliers were badly outnumbered, but kept on fighting, intent on keeping him and the unconscious Cedric safe.

  After an arrow passed through one of the cloud creatures, he went for the dark coloured flying reptiles while struggling to keep his balance on the wood as well. He shot arrow after arrow until his quiver was empty, bringing down as many of those reptiles as he could, but other than that, there was nothing he could do to help the two.

  He tried to wake Cedric, earlier on, he had tried to force the remaining water out of his lungs, but as he touched Cedric's chest, the blond writhed in pain, blood welling vigorously his chest and staining his dark shirt.

  It was probably the wound that he talked about, Gordon thought, but if it hadn't healed since the last Angel Demon War, the guy's probably gone through literal hell.

  Nevertheless, he was glad he brought some bandages along with him. Before the creatures attacked, he had tilted Cedric's head from side to side, allowing some of the water to trickle out out his nose and mouth, but unless he forced the water from Cedric's lungs, he might as well be good as dead.

  He quickly bandaged Cedric's chest the best he could, trying to stop the flow of blood while Cedric writhed and twitched, still unconscious. It clearly caused him a lot of pain, but on the upside, he coughed out a huge amount of water that was probably previously in his lungs and trachea. His eyes fluttered, but then stayed shut, after he had finished coughing out all that water. As Gordon contemplated whether what he should do next, a screech caught his attention.

  He looked up. One of the cloud like creatures spiraled towards him, taking the form of a lean, feline predator with startling amber eyes, lightning dancing around them. The cloud panther ran on the air like it was already solid ground, lashing out with its paws at the centaur.

  Gordon instantly ducked, the wood wobbled, almost spilling him into the water, but then. Even the thing was made of cloud, he still didn't fancy his chances of not being decapitated just standing there. The piece of wood he was standing on wobbled even more violently than the way it already was, threatening to send him tumbling back into the icy cold seawater for the umpteenth time. The creature charged past, screaming in outrage as it missed him. Gordon shouldered his bow and drew his hunting knife, staring it down as it hovered above the rocking waves, snarling in a strange, unfeline like way.