Eladea: A Hopeless Age

Chapter 14: Viserion

Chapter 14: Viserion 

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"Viserion?" The voice of my mate floods my mind as I hear her heavy footsteps behind me. I turn my head slightly, acknowledging her. She moves to stand beside me, looking up the short way to my face. 

We stand just outside the camp, the side nearest our enemies. It's my turn to stand guard, but I guess she got bored and came to find me. In front of us stretches a large field, maybe a few miles wide, with rolling hills and long grass swaying in the wind. The warm sun beats down but doesn't drown out the bitter cold of the breeze flowing through the trees. We trudged through the hillside, only a few miles to make it into the trees before collectively collapsing. We needed to move for the safety of our numbers, but after the attack, we were all so tired. Now everyone was on guard, waiting for squadrons of enemy knights to come parading over the hills. Though we were supposed to be resting, no one could with the threat of attack hanging over our heads and the tension buzzing in the air. 

"Hello, my love." She says, her teak eyes twinkling. I try for a smile but it fails miserably. Her face falls. 

"What's wrong?" She asks, shifting her position to look at me better and tilting her head. 

"Nothing, darling," I answered back, glancing at her briefly. 

"I know you're lying." She says playfully. "You get some tension right….there!" She takes the end of her tail and taps my cheek, right above the few spikes lining the sides of my jaw. When I don't react, all the humor from her eyes disappears and her face falls. 

"Viserion, what's wrong?" She tries again. 

"I told you, nothings wrong, Mysh." I answer firmly, not taking my eyes off the slowly darkening horizon. 

"Well, obviously something is." She's moved so she's facing me head-on off to my left.  "We've  been mates for a little over five years." She moves a bit closer and brushes my shoulder with the end of her tail. "If you can't tell me, who can you tell?" She says softly. 

I don't let my eyes waver from the horizon, clenching my jaw to keep them there. Thank the goddesses dragons can't cry because otherwise at that moment I would have. 

"Myshica…" I start, speaking quietly into her mind. "I- I can't- I don't-" I stutter along. I feel her eyes burning into the sides of my face, boring holes into the side of my face. Goodness, how I want to look into those eyes, but if I do, there's no doubt I'll break down. But her kind eyes are so enticing. I crack, letting my eyes drift from the horizon to the face of my mate. She tilts her head, her motherly eyes searching my face for evidence of what's troubling me. 

"I-its…it's my fault." I finally admit, my voice wavering despite being in my mind. Immediately her face fills with sympathy and understanding.

"No, baby, it's not." She moves so our bodies are pressing together. "Tell me." She whispers. 

"Myshica, I'm the protector. I'm supposed to, well, protect! Sage entrusted me to keep her people alive and I'm failing. So many people died because I didn't see Ivar's troops coming. Mothers and fathers lost kids, children lost parents, people lost siblings and friends. Now I'm failing to find a safe place for them. I almost let them all be killed by a dozen knights and I let Ren get hurt." I choke up on that part. "Now I can't even achieve the simple task of keeping everyone warm," I say, defeated. I slump against my partner, her presence the only thing keeping me together.