Chapter 31 - The Last Survivor

Much as Leon had predicted, Skyle immediately agreed to help and in fact seemed driven by a sense of urgency as they moved in the direction Leena had fled from.

The boys did not even have time to dig out the crystals inside the dracolings’ corpses, and Skyle only paused briefly to extract as many arrows as he could before nodding to Leon.

Curiously, Leon felt rather awkward as Skyle climbed on his back under the surprised eyes of the two strangers they had agreed to help. However, Skyle didn’t seem to think much of it, deftly climbing up before Leon could refuse, and then Leon could only wordlessly go along with it. After all, it was only logical since Skyle still couldn’t move with any kind of speed due to his injuries.

The farmboy sure could shoot, though.

In regards to this, Leena seemed more surprised by how young Skyle was more than anything else. When she saw the bow in his hands, her eyes had widened while she looked around the forest, as though trying to find the true owner of this bow. After all, she had clearly witnessed the astounding prowess of the arrows fired by Moonshadow.

Now that a lame twelve year old boy had limped out of the forest to claim the arrows back into the quiver at his back, the initial surprise slowly gave way to open admiration.

Leon’s brow tingled slightly at this, as his natural sense of vanity felt just a little threatened by Leena’s reaction. After all, he had been well aware of the young girl’s awe when she thanked him, and to a certain extent he had come to expect it. In truth, he had long become accustomed to a multitude of such admiring gazes everywhere he went. Not only that, but as a wealthy noble, he was no stranger to a woman’s embrace, and he had already plucked quite a few select flowers from the countless girls blooming all around him.

After all, he was the heir to the House of Draxas, and as such he was expected to produce as many offspring as possible, in hopes that a strong bearer of his bloodline would eventually emerge. As such, beautiful, eligible girls were thrown to him in droves, and if he impregnated any of them, then so much the better.

All for the glory of House Draxas.

Of course, being tacitly regarded as a breeding stud had left a bitter taste in his mouth. However, now that he had finally found a rival he could both respect and like, Leon found an unfamiliar feeling swelling deep within the most remote confines of his heart. It grew with every furtive glance the young girl threw in Skyle’s way, even though most of the glances were thrown in Leon’s own direction in the first place.

This was Leon’s first tentative brush with the strange emotion called envy.

After all, in Leon’s privileged life, when had the young lord ever wanted for anything, or had cause to look upon another with wishful eyes? After all, a mere offhand comment of displeasure was enough to send the patriarch of a wealthy merchant house to his knees in groveling supplication. What could possibly incite the jealousy of Leon Draxas, the heavenly talent who was always two or three steps ahead of even the brightest, most gifted of his peers?

Now, as he swiftly wove his way through the trees while Skyle vigilantly scanned his surroundings, Leon struggled with this unfamiliar feeling rising from his heart, but thankfully he had more pressing matters in his mind at the moment.

“Stop.”

Leon instantly stopped, as did the two people following immediately behind him. Both Leena and Emil were panting harshly, their legs shaking from the exertion. However, Leena had refused to be left behind and had instead insisted on following them.

Thus, Skyle had quietly passed her his knife and told her to be careful, and had missed the frown that had clouded Leon’s brow at the gesture, since it had come and gone in a moment. Leon’s face showed nothing of the distrust that he naturally felt towards any strangers, and could only suppress his frustration at how naively trusting his friend was.

Even now, as they came to a stop and Skyle scanned the area ahead, Leon stood in a casual stance that nonetheless made certain that he did not have his back turned to Leena.

Leena seemed oblivious to all this, as she bent forward with her hands on her knees, breathing raggedly. Long strands of silver hair fell in waves over her shoulders, revealing a few errant drops of sweat that trickled down the snowy skin on the back of her neck.

Leon unconsciously licked his lips, his eyes hovering over the sight of the young girl’s gleaming skin for a moment too long to be mistaken for mere wariness.

“Leon, two dracolings seem to be, ah, feeding up ahead,” Skyle’s words slowly floated down, but it was enough to instantly capture Leon’s full attention. “We have no time, so I want you to do a long hop when I tell you. Ready?”

Leon squinted as he looked in the directed Skyle had pointed, but could distinguish nothing beyond the endless trees that covered the horizon. Meanwhile, Skyle inched his way up Leon’s back until he was positioned over the bigger boy’s shoulder.

“Should I prepare a barrier?” he asked, lifting his hand.

“No need, I’ve got them,” Skyle coldly replied.

“Then I’m ready,” Leon called out helplessly.

“Then go,” Skyle said, who had already prepared his bow and had nocked an arrow. “Leena, you and Emil stay here. It should be safe. Come to us as soon as I call for you.”

Leon began to trot forward as Leena nodded, her hand clutching Emil’s as her eyes stared back and forth in confusion between Skyle and Leon. Just who was leading whom here? At first it had seemed that Leon should be the leader, with the evident aura of nobility and command that the bigger boy exuded. However, increasingly she had found that it was instead the smaller Skyle who made all the decisions.

In the end, Leena gazed thoughtfully at Skyle's back as Leon began to rush forward.

Thankfully, the forest ground was flat and the ground was even. Thus, Leon found it easy to move with a smooth, even gait. He had an idea of what Skyle intended to do, and while he wasn’t as certain that it would work, Leon had to admit that if it did, that would be far better than using his fire blasts. After all, the disturbance they typically produced due to the ensuing explosion, as well as the thunderous boom that followed, couldn’t be compared to Skyle’s arrows. Such a clamor might draw unwanted attention. That was even without taking into consideration the fact that Skyle’s deadly arrows likely outranged his fire bolts by at least eighty meters, perhaps more.

“Hop!” Skyle called out softly.

Leon had been eyeing the ground this whole time, and as soon as Skyle called out, Leon jumped forward in a long, smooth arc that was powered by the might of his element strengthened muscles. It brought both boys a full two meters off the ground, almost brushing against some of the lower hanging branches.

Just as they reached the apex of their jump, at the precise moment when their upward motion had ceased but right before they began to move down, a deep thrumming sound rang out by Leon’s ear and an arrow flashed away into the distance.

Leon followed its trajectory for over a seventy meters until it vanished behind the screen of the thick undergrowth, but didn’t hear anything after that and frowned slightly at the missed shot.

“Perhaps it couldn’t be helped,” Leon thought to himself. It was an unreasonable shot to begin with.

Leon had kept on moving forward, and was startled when he heard Skyle call out once again.

“Hop!”

Leon hopped, trying to match his previous jump both in stride and height.

Once again, at the exact apex of their jump, another thrumming sound rang out and his shoulder vibrated from the recoil transmitted from Skyle’s own body as another arrow was launched.

It vanished into the same brush, though this time it went about two meters wide from the spot where the first arrow had gone.

“He missed by that much?” Leon thought to himself, surprised.

Skyle was already preparing another arrow, however, and Leon didn’t have to wait for long before he heard the familiar words.

“Hop!”

Leon dutifully did his part, and another arrow was unerringly launched at the proper moment.

There was still no sound nor any reaction to any of Skyle’s arrows at all. Still, Leon kept moving forward, though he couldn’t help but throw continuous glances towards the brushes, expecting two angry dracolings to come charging forth at any moment now.

Strangely, after his third shot Skyle seemed to relax a little, sagging in his position behind Leon’s back. Leon kept expecting his friend to call out for a jump once again, but he never did.

Scowling, Leon began to slow down as his fingers closed around the hilt of his sword. The brush now lay only about forty meters away, and he was familiar with the terrifying speed of the scaly beasts.

“Why are you slowing down?” Skyle asked calmly.

“What do you mean? Why aren’t you shooting?” Leon retorted, then closed his mouth as he realized there could only be one good reason for Skyle to stop firing his arrows and then complain about Leon slowing down.

“You actually hit them?” Leon coughed, once more surprised by his friend’s uncanny skill.

Skyle didn’t answer, and Leon scowled deeply as he grumbled to himself.

“You missed at least one of the shots,” Leon muttered in his mind. “What are you so proud about?”

“Leena, Emil! It’s alright, you can follow now,” Skyle called out behind their backs.

Moments later, as Skyle crouched down and retrieved his arrows, there was only a stunned silence hanging in the air as three pairs of wide eyes stared at the corpses on the ground.

Lying discarded by the shade of a great tree was a foot long bundle of flesh, torn and mangled beyond recognition. Blood was spread in a great circle all around it, and obvious markings left by teeth and claws could be seen upon its surface. However, this was not the source of the surprise in everyone’s eyes.

Instead, they were all staring at Skyle like they were looking at a demon made flesh, as the small boy slowly walked up to the corpse of a dracoling with a single arrow protruding from its eye, the shaft driven deeply down to over half its length. Then he stood up and moved to the next corpse, another dracoling who had its own arrow driven straight through its left eye, this time stopped only by its fletchings. Finally, with everyone’s stunned gazes still upon him, Skyle calmly knelt before a third dracoling, placing his foot against its forehead and slowly wrenching a third arrow from the place where it lay buried, deep within its ruined eye socket.

“Bullseye three times in a row, while on the move on another person’s back?” Leon shook his head in disbelief.

Leena’s eyes seemed full of her own questions as she gazed wordlessly at Skyle’s back. Then her eyes seemed to drift, almost inevitably, towards the broken bundle of flesh lying to the side. Her face lost all color, and she immediately averted her gaze, moving away while pulling Emil along with her.

“Leon, we need to make haste. These beasts were just lying on the ground, toying with their food instead of devouring it,” Skyle muttered worriedly.

“It means they’re not hungry anymore,” Leon sighed as he followed the other boy’s line of reasoning. “We’re probably too late and there are no survivors, but you’re right nonetheless.”

Skyle nodded grimly.

***

In the end, their words proved wrong. Only, how they wished they had been right instead. Still, it is always too late for regrets.

After slaying five more beasts in two separate occasions, during which they found increasingly large pieces recently savaged from human bodies littering the ground, and in his growing desperation, Skyle increased the pace of the pursuit to a recklessly dangerous speed.

Finally, a full hour later they arrived at a small gully where a small stream of water trickled by under their feet. The mud was painted crimson, as was the tiny trickle of water coming downstream. The walls of the gully were narrow enough that Leon could touch both walls if he stretched out his hand, though they did rise to about fifteen feet in height. These walls could very well serve as a refuge, but they could also just as easily become a deadly trap.

It was the latter that they found as the party moved forward. As soon as they ran under the shadows of the gully, the blood-stained mud splashing under their feet, Emil gave a small cry of terror as he realized that the walls were not empty, and fell back toward the entrance.

Under the merciless light of the sun, countless streaks of red were painted along the wall. They were handprints, complete with heart-breakingly small fingers tracks, as though telling the grim story of the brutal tragedy that had befallen in this place.

Leena’s eyes began to waver as her heart seemed to give out from within her, but at the last moment she seemed to draw from an admirable reserve of courage not often found in one so young. Thus armed, Leena gripped the small dagger that Skyle had given her fiercely in her bloodless hands as she followed Leon deeper into the gully.

“Bastards,” Leon growled, fury boiling over in his eyes.

Skyle said nothing he climbed down.

“This is it,” he said in a sad, empty voice. “This is where the tracks end. Where it all ends.”

At this, Leena let out a choked sob, and she lay a hand against one of the bloody handprints on the wall next to her while tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, a pitiful, ragged sound that barely made it past the knot in her throat. “I’m so sorry..”

Skyle shook his head, letting out a deep sigh as he lifted a hand in Leena’s direction. His lips parted, and he seemed about to speak, when he felt a hand upon his shoulder.

Turning his head, he saw Leon gazing meaningfully at him, then wordlessly shaking his head.

Skyle’s lips compressed into a bitter expression, but he lowered his hand back down to his side.

It was only in this uncomfortable silence, punctuated only by the heart-wrenching sounds of Leena’s sobs, that they finally heard it.

“H.. Help..” came a barely audible voice from within the shadows of the passage ahead.

Instantly, their heads came up with, each face reflecting a wide range of emotions. Leon seemed shocked, yet instantly wary at the same time. Skyle’s was one of surprise, and of a firm resolve as he immediately stepped forward. Leena’s was one of hope, one that was so tenuous and fragile, yet so painfully bright that it would have burned the eyes of any who beheld it.

“B.. Bryan?” Leena called out, her voice still raw from the depths of her disconsolate grief.

“Lee.. Leena?” came the hesitant voice.

“Bryan, I’m back! I brought help. Thank god you’re alive! Leena cried out, instantly rushing forward in a rush of emotion.

Abruptly, her motion was stopped and Leena frowned as she looked down. It was a small hand, one that shook uncontrollably as its fingers tightened over Leena’s wrist.

Following the hand to its owner, Leena frowned at Skyle.

“Let go of me.”

Skyle didn’t speak a word. In fact, he didn’t even look at her. Instead, he simply bowed his head while his grip on her wrist only grew more firm.

“I said, let go of me,” Leena repeated plaintively, her gaze dismissing Skyle as it returned towards the shadows at the end of the gully.

“...”

“Leena?” came the small voice once again from the depths of those shadows.

“Let go. Let go. Let go right now!” Leena cried out, her voice rising sharply as she wrenched desperately at her hand, though her eyes were still searching the shadows ahead.

“...”

“Leena, pl.. please help me,” came the fragile voice, barely audible though it pierced into the heart of the listeners with painful clarity. “I’m.. I’m scared.”

“I’m right here. I’m here with you. It’ll be alright, it’s over now,” Leena called out in a voice that shook from the raw emotion infused into the simple words. It carried warmth, love, but most of all, it carried hope. Hope, not towards the child lying lost and lonely in the dark, but rather the hope of a young girl whose entire life at this moment revolved around the ability to save this single solitary life calling out her name.

“What are you doing? Why would you do this? Let me go right now!” Leena turned her head back to Skyle, screaming in anger and frustration.

In her desperation, Leena began to dig her fingers into Skyle’s hand, her nails carving nasty trails of red into the soft, yielding flesh.

Still, Skyle said nothing. Instead, he slowly pulled back on Leena’s hand with surprising strength, until his other arm lay firmly wrapped around her waist.

“Leena?”

“Let go! Let go you bastard! Let go right now!” Leena cried out, her voice finally disolving into fitful sobs. “He needs me, don’t you see that? I must help him. I must help him..”

Finally, the last of her desperate strength exhausted, Leena collapsed in Skyle’s arms as she continued to cry disconsolately.

“Please,” Leena finally whispered, her voice low yet imbued with a quiet calm that had not been present before. “I must go to him. At the very least, I need to be with him. Do you understand?”

Finally, Skyle lifted his eyes to gaze into Leena’s purple orbs, glittering from under the slow and steady onslaught of an ocean of grief. There, a small light seemed to float over the turbulent waves, a firm resolve that dared to brave over the stormy waters.

With a tired sigh, Skyle slowly relaxed his grip and opened his fingers, releasing Leena at last. Surprisingly, the girl didn’t immediately react, and neither did she turn towards the voice she had so desperately sought just moments ago.

Instead, her trembling eyes sought Skyle’s gaze one final time, speaking volumes though not uttering a single word while her lips bled scarlet blood from where her teeth were biting down on it.

Skyle slowly nodded to her, offering a look that spoke loudly of the deep emotion that had finally forced him to open his hand.

This emotion, it was nothing as crass as mere pity, nor anything as cheap as simple sympathy.

Instead, it was respect. The respect he held for her choice, for her courage, and for her love.

From this look, and the emotion conveyed from it, Leena finally seemed to gather herself, and with a final breath, turned around to approach the shadows beyond.

There, she found sweet, innocent Bryan, or what was left of him. Little Bryan, who would often ask her why water was wet, and if the sun was ever tired, or where the wind came from.

As she knelt down in front of the small boy and saw the bloody stumps where his limbs now ended, and the snaking coils of the few intestines that had not been devoured through the ghastly gap in his abdomen, Leena’s face showed none of the grief or terror beating wildly in her chest.

“Leena,” Bryan breathed out, his dazed eyes struggling to find her even though she knelt right in front of him.

“I’m here,” Leena whispered, and was surprised at how calm her own words were. “It’s alright now, I’m here.”

“Leena, the bad things came and I couldn’t run,” Bryan coughed weakly before continuing. “You told me to run, but.. but I couldn’t. I’m sorry. So sorry..”

The words came in a rush, though gradually growing fainter as though they were the last surge of some desperate reserve.

“Shhh, it’s alright,” Leena smiled, and it was the most painful thing she had ever done in her life, but she did it nonetheless. “You did well. Don’t worry now, it’s going to be alright.”

“Really? I’m.. so cold.. Hurts..” Bryan’s small, beady eyes began to grow dim, his breathing more ragged.

“Just sleep, and when you open your eyes, it will all be over,” Leena comforted, the smile on her face beginning to waver as her eyes continued to mist.

“Will.. will you.. ruffle.. hair?” Bryan breathed.

A pale, bloodless hand slowly drew closer toward the little boy’s head, trembling violently. However, when it finally landed upon Bryan’s brow, the fingers smoothly brushed back the errant locks of hair.

“Hurts.. so much..”

“Bryan..”

“Hurts.. hurts.. Hurts..” the small boy began to sob.

Leena’s fingers began to shake once again, and the smile on her face finally began to crumble, giving way to dark, painful despair.

“Bryan, no..”

“Hurts!” Bryan cried out again, and suddenly his words seemed to draw strength to give voice to his agony. “It hurts!”

“I’m sorry, Bryan,” Leena suddenly burst out, sobbing disconsolately. “I’m so sorry!”

“Leena, it hurts, I’m scared!”

It was then that a heavy hand landed on Leena’s shoulder, slowly but firmly pulling her back.

Leena’s head turned around in surprise, only to find Leon drawing her away his time. He moved with a gentle grace that nonetheless was irresistible in its strength.

“What are you-” Leena began, but gasped as she caught the grim light in Leon’s eyes.

“But he’s just a boy!” Leena cried out.

“All the more reason why we should relieve his pain,” Leon said slowly but firmly.

Leena’s face crumpled as she turned her head to look at Bryan once again. The small boy was still crying out in agony, his brave little heart still beating in spite of the horrific injuries.

Leon exchanged a wordless look with Skyle as he motioned towards Leena.

“I’ll do what is necessary,” Leon said softly.

Skyle shook his head, then opened the flap on the pouch where he had his healing potions.

Leon frowned deeply, and only said a single word, “No.”

Skyle looked up to meet Leon’s gaze, and paused for a moment, regarding his friend. Then he nodded slowly.

Leon let out another deep breath, and released Leena, who had now stopped struggling. Instead, a look of horrified understanding flashed in her eyes as she regarded the exchange between Skyle and Leon, following its ramifications.

Leon moved forward then, knowing what must be done and also aware that he was the only one who could do the deed.

Abruptly, a hand stopped his advance by gently pushing against his chest. Looking up, Leon saw Skyle’s sad, grieving eyes looking at Bryan.

“I’ll do it,” Skyle whispered, not even turning to look at Leon.

Leon raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? I can do it if-”

“I’ll do it,” Skyle repeated, this time more firmly, then moved towards Bryan before Leon could say another word.

In the end, it was the stark, lonely silhouette of this small boy that was left all alone within that gully as another innocent life breathed its last.