Chapter 11: Well...

Kalon groaned in pain once again as the air left his lungs and he felt a burning sensation across the back of his body. He slowly rolled over on to his chest and placed his hands down on the ground to help him stand but as he did so he felt the same burning sensation in his hands as shards of glass dug into his skin.

The feeling of warm blood ran down from his back and hands as he pushed himself back up off the ground.

“Mom!” He called out with a weak and hoarse sounding voice. He wasn’t sure if she was still okay and he had let his anger consume him for a moment. He had never felt like that before and it scared him a little. But he had no time to worry about that. His mother was still outside in the cold.

As he turned to look back outside of his partially destroyed house he saw the bigger of the two men standing over the lifeless body of the leopard man before he looked up and gazed directly into Kalon’s eyes.

‘I will kill-’ Kalon said to himself before feeling a cold chill down his spine and a sharp pain in his head before falling onto his knees and then falling down onto his face.

“It’s okay. I’ve got you now.” A voice called out as he felt weightless before closing his eyes. Despite the dangerous situation, he was in the voice that he heard was reassuring and made him feel safe. As soon as he heard it he succumbed to his injuries and passed out in the arms of a large muscular man with glowing yellow eyes.

“He was running off pure adrenaline.” The man said to himself as he confirmed that Kalon’s injuries were far greater than a child his age should be able to survive. But he had seen it before. People who had a reason to fight were always stronger than those he didn’t. He smiled before picking him up into his arms and walking outside.

“Who goes there? Are you an envoy of the king?” The man said while still leaning over the body of his partner who was now dead.

“Now that’s funny. A member of the proud leopard clan was slain by a twelve-year-old human boy.” The man said before stepping out into the beaming light from the moon. But as soon as he did the man recognised who the man was that had saved Kalon and he froze with fear.

“Master Ranwald… You… You!” The man stuttered upon seeing Ranwald step out from the darkness cast by the house and immediately turned his back and began to run towards the forest.

“You think I will let you escape after harming my student?” Master Ranwald smiled before drawing his sword from his hip and driving his feet into the ground. Then in a single movement, he covered more than two hundred metres and slashed his sword towards the man’s chest.

He then sheathed his sword and watched as the man’s body split in two and he fell to the floor within a puddle of his own blood.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner.” Ranwald apologised to Kalon who was still sleeping in his arms before he directed his attention to Michaela who was still laying on the floor. He reached out his hand toward her before rolling her over onto her back.

Michaela’s face was pale and her eyes were dim. Her previously green eyes were now a muddy red colour as blood ran out from behind her eyeballs.

Ranwald reached down to check her pulse but as soon as his hand made contact with her skin he withdrew it. Her body was cold to the touch and she had stopped breathing.

“I really am sorry Kal.” Ranwald apologised again while looking down at his student resting within his arms.

He felt guilty that he couldn’t get there sooner. He knew how much Kalon loved his mother and wanted to make her proud of him. Now there wouldn’t be a way for him to do that. His dream of making his mother smile was now ruined and at what cost?

Ranwald knew that the kind had planned this and there was no way that he could sit by and watch as such atrocities happened to a child just because he was born as a human. Although he had fought against humans on the battlefield before, he didn’t hold a grudge like the rest of the Sylton empire.

He stood there and pondered on his thoughts for a while in the silence of the night before returning to the barracks to take Kalon to the medical ward. He was in need of medical attention before his wounds got any worse.

He walked for miles with Kalon in his arms before dropping him off with the nurse at the barracks and then heading out into the darkness of the night once again.

Kalon awoke in a panic as rays of light beamed in through the glass windows of the infirmary. He looked around the room to see lines of beds surrounded by curtains that hung from the ceiling before feeling something soft against his hand as he tried to move it.

“Where am I?” He asked himself out loud before feeling a tightening around his hand. He looked to his left to see that Luna was sitting on a chair next to his bed with her head on the mattress while holding his hand. She had gripped a little tighter in reaction to hearing a noise during her sleep but it was nothing too uncomfortable. Especially compared to the pain he felt all across his body.

His arms were stiff from the bandages wrapped tightly around them and he found it hard to breathe since his whole torso was also bound with bandages and he could barely draw a single breath. He lay back down and thought about what had happened the night before.

“Mom!” He shouted out in a panicked voice as he remembered seeing his mother laying on the ground. But as soon as he shouted Luna woke up and grabbed his hand even tighter.

“Kal!? You’re okay? I thought I was going to lose you!” Luna shouted out and then jumped on the bed before pinning him down kissing his cheeks over and over again.

“Agh,” Kalon yelped in pain as her knee made contact with his ribs.

“Oh no, I’m sorry. I got too excited again didn’t I?” Luna cast her gaze down to the ground. She had a habit of acting out feelings of happiness with physical contact either through hugging him as tightly as she could or being overly affectionate.

She couldn’t help it though. She had become almost like a mother figure to Kalon from the lack of affection that Michaela showed him. She thought it was her duty as his older sister to take on that responsibility.

“Ugh… It’s fine Luna. I’m just a little bit weak today that’s all…” Kalon said with a forced smile. He sat back and rubbed his head.

“I forced our father to tell me what happened. I just didn’t expect Ranwald would do such a thing. I thought that he was nice all this time. Yet he was actually planning to overthrow the empire.” Luna sighed as she spoke. She seemed disappointed.

“What? What did Ranwald do?” Kalon asked. He didn’t know what she meant by what she had just said but it seemed important.

“I guess you wouldn’t know yet. You’ve been sleeping for three days now.” Luna said and then grabbed his hand once again before explaining herself.

“It turns out that the attack on your life was coordinated by Ranwald. The guards searched his room and found dozens of letters to the human kingdom stating that he was going to kill the king and all of his descendants. There was even an attack on Octavian but it was stopped by the guards by his Chambers.

He had apparently contacted the humans after falling in love… Well, he has been secretly visiting your mother during the night and they claim to be in love with each other…” Luna said.

“Ranwald and my mother? No, that’s not possible.” Kalon stated in a voice that said he was certain of it but Luna wasn’t so sure.

“I thought so too. But think about it. Why has he been teaching you for free all this time? If father wanted someone to teach you then he wouldn’t ask the best knight in the empire. It would just be a random person. He probably did it so he could make your mother feel at ease.

I doubt that she wanted to harm you but apparently, something went wrong with the plan and he didn’t tell the people he hired to help him about his relationship with your mother and they attacked you since you are also a descendant of the king. Then he went to visit your mother one last time before he carried out his plan.

That was when he found out what had happened and killed both of the men responsible. He must have thought that his plan might be ruined so he rushed to finish what he started but he couldn’t stand a chance against father’s strength and was defeated.” Luna explained more about what she had been told about the situation.

“I… I don’t believe it. Could there be some kind of mistake? What if he was framed?” Kalon asked. No matter how hard he tried to believe what Luna was saying he couldn’t believe it. He thought back to the voice that he heard before he passed out and assumed that was when Ranwald arrived to save him.

“I understand. I felt the same but it’s true. He stood trial yesterday and he admitted everything. He even gave information that wasn’t available to the public and he didn’t seem sorry about what happened. I guess he has been playing us all along.

Even father didn’t see it coming.” Luna added before going quiet.

‘There’s no way… I trusted him. How could he do something like that? Why would he do something so stupid? Didn’t he know that it is impossible for a werewolf to fight against a vampire? Let alone one as strong as my father.’ Kalon thought to himself while coming to terms with the fact that Ranwald had lied to him all along.

“Then… What about my mother? Where is she?” Kalon asked. Luna gulped and stood back, shocked by his sudden answer. She reached out and lay both of her hands on his before preparing to speak.

“Well…”