Pain. Sharp, heart-wrenching, overwhelming pain the likes he had not felt in a long time shot through ZaiWin’s entire body and he couldn’t help but scream, his voice swallowed by the loud rumbling sound of falling rocks. Hot tears flooded his eyes and slid down his face. Breathe! He had to breathe, he told himself, forcing his panicking mind to clam down, forcing his burning daitai to remain under his control. He had to remain firm. He had to ignore the pain. Losing control in a place like that would be the same as signing his, and everyone he knew, death sentences.

“You son of a bitch!!”

The furious roar that cut through the ensuing silence froze the blood in his veins. It hurt so much that he could hardly breathe but he still turned his head, trying to blink his tears away, to see FeiWan, his face a mask of pure rage, climbing the mountain of rocks that had erupted from the ground on all fours, looking a lot like a red-haired enraged animal.

His heart drumming painfully against his chest, ZaiWin tried his best to focus, but the pain was so strong that he couldn’t clear his mind. And he was stuck! He tried to move but couldn’t, the horrible pain only getting worse, stealing his breath away and leaving new tears streaming down his cheeks.

Looking to his side again he saw that FeiWan was almost upon him and he readied himself for certain death. If he had been furious before, now he was the personification of pure rage, a golden, fiery aura surrounding him, his long red hair falling loose over his face.But then … he didn’t stop, ZaiWin realized, blinking in confusion. Reaching the top of the rocky mountain where he’d gotten stuck, FeiWan quickly started running down the other slope, stumbling here and there, his hands cut and bleeding from recklessly holding on to the rocky sharp edges. He had just passed by him and hadn’t even glanced his way.

The bronze-haired boy still sitting on the ground at the base of the pile of huge rocks he himself had conjured, widened his amber eyes in horror at the sight of the red-haired beast FeiWan had become, and quickly tried to get up, nervously stumbling on his own feet, constantly mumbling the same desperate words.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

“I will fucking kill you!!” FeiWan roared and jumped all the way to the ground, landing on his feet but immediately falling on his knees, since he’d jumped from way too high for his legs to bear.

Rolling on his side, he sprung to his feet again and ran after the other boy, looking every bit like a maddened beast. It didn’t take him long to catch up with his prey, the other boy screaming in terror when he grabbed him and pulled him back, tackling him down. And then, to ZaiWin’s surprise, he didn’t burned him to a crisp. Instead he punched the other kid, over and over again, barely granting the other boy a chance to catch his breath.

“How dare you!! You son of a bitch!! I will freaking kill you with my own two hands!!”

Already dizzy and bleeding from his nose and mouth, the other boy could only sob and whimper, all fight gone from him, his body completely limp on FeiWan’s hands. Raising his fist to hit him again, FeiWan clenched his jaw, his green eyes burning, his arm trembling in fury, but he was finally able to restrain himself.

“I should tear your heart out and feed it to the pigs!”

FeiWan violently pulled the other boy by the collar of his tunic and literally dragged him back to the pile of rocks he had called forth from the ground, hoping to squash ZaiWin and the El’Gin within it.

“Release him right now!” he commanded in his most imperial tone, shaking the almost unconscious boy awake, and the other one nodded weakly, waving his shaky hand.

The grumbling sound returned and ZaiWin immediately readied himself for some more excruciating pain. Much slower than when they had appeared from the ground, the rocky formation loosed up and retreated to where it had come from, burying itself underground. It would have been an amazing spectacle to see, all those huge rocks simply sinking away. That is, if he wasn’t in so much pain.

Once his left leg was released from the smashing grip of stone pressing against stone, he immediately fell to one side, clenching his teeth hard so he wouldn’t scream again, but unable to stop the tears from streaming down his face. As the rock disappeared from beneath his limp body, he fell helplessly on solid ground with a thud that stole his breath away. For an instant all he could do was lie there, on his side, his leg hurting so much he didn’t dare look at it, didn’t dare touch it.

The sound of footsteps and something being dragged pierced through the buzzing sound in his ears and ZaiWin snapped his eyes open, to look up at the boy staring coldly at him. For a moment he was sure that FeiWan would not lose that opportunity to finish him off. If nothing else, he would not lose the chance to kick him, like he used to do. But the green eyes staring hatefully at him looked away, a deep frown marking his forehead, his red hair glistening in fiery shades down his back.

“Don’t think I owe you something! Scum like you are born to die instead of people like me!” he haughtily declared, still holding on to the collar of the other boy who seemed to have lost conscious, or worse. For an instant his green gaze fell on his leg but, instead of looking happy at the sight of his obvious disgrace, he actually looked even more angry. “Stay here. I will send people to retrieve you,” he simply said and, without an other word, turned around and went away, mercilessly dragging the body of the other boy as if he were no more than a ragged doll.

ZaiWin watched him go, suspicious until the end, expecting to see him change his mind and turn around at any moment. But FeiWan didn’t even look back and, soon enough, he was out of sight, disappearing amongst the trees.

^_^ FeiWan got angry ...

If you’re enjoying this story and want to read ahead, feel free to look for it on Tapas. I’ve managed to upload around 80 chapters there and I update on a daily basis! Thank you all for your support!! ^_^