A Change of Nowhere (A Centaurworld Fanfic)

Chapter 19: Crumbling Down

Elk charges for the griffontaur and Keres gets up and limply runs towards him and they fight once again. Adalie pants and she tries to stand but she was so weak she couldn't. Hadeon and Adron manage to break out their gunk bonds and rush to Keres's aid. They attack the elktaur from all angles, biting and scratching, the castle rumbling and more rocks falling down until larger ones begin coming down. He nearly gets blinded by his own blood and gets tackled by Keres, and avoids her sword and he kicks her off before being held down by Hadeon and Adron as she punches him. He coughs blood and gets thrown to a pillar, and it nearly falls onto him and he gets out the way in time. He pants but then his eyes widen when he feels something sharp in his back, and sees that Keres had stabbed him with her knife.

Adalie gasps, "ELK!" He looks back at her, worried and then gets kicked down to the ground next to her and he pants, blood dripping from his lip and nose. The trio stands before them and Elk wraps his arm around Adalie, protecting her and he growls. Keres pants, stepping forward, wiping the blood from her face, "You really think you can stop us? Like you can stop me?! If we go down in this castle, we're taking you with us!" The ground shakes around them and Elk looks at Adalie and then the exit and he kisses her, "Thank you for giving me another chance." Adalie looks at him and he carries her as now parts of the castle started falling down, running towards the exit. Keres growls, "After them!"

The castle starts falling behind them, the trio following behind them and with the last of Elk's strength, he throws Adalie out the castle, one of the coldtaurs catching her and then the castle falls to the ground, dust filling the air and nearly blinding everyone. Once it cleared up, the castle was now in ruins, rubble and rock were all that was left. Adalie looks around for Elk, or hoping he was alive, but there wasn't a sign of him, "Elk!" She tries to move the rock to get him out, tears falling down her face, but Josiah stops her, "Adalie, honey look at me....he's gone..." She cries softly and the centaurs gather around, and mourn with her. Despite everything he had done before, he proved to them that even the worst can make a change and he earned their respect because of that.

Adalie cries in her father's arm, then hears something moving in the rocks, "Elk?" She looks as something was trying to get out and hears a cough. She takes off one of the rocks and sees his face and gasps, "ELK!" She hurries to get the rocks off him and soon everyone around helps as well until he was visible once again. She hugs him gently, crying, and he coughs, barely able to move. He pants and smiles at her and hugs her back, and gets picked up by one of the coldtaurs and gets carried and the Woman walks over, and touches his cheek, smiling at him, showing him he did good. He smiles before closing his eyes, wincing in pain and the centaur shaman looks at everyone, "Let's head back to the village. There will be plenty of medicine and healing." The centaurs all walk to the village, and Emilia carries Adalie and smiles at Elk, "Thank you...." Josiah nods, "Despite you hiding that you were....him....You still have my respect. Thank you for saving our daughter." Elk nods, and he rests again as everyone gets to the village to heal up.

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