Dragon's curse

chapter thirty nine

I remember this feeling, the feeling of losing someone that I care about, there are so many people that I wish I could have rescued on my travels before I met Jeff. My master helped me through those times but I still blame myself for not being able to help them but I have to keep pushing forward even though I have no choice but to push on.

Ash giggled slightly for a second and slowly continued, “Well, alright. It may help keep my mind busy while we wait. I was going to get some supplies for any future hunts that may have happened, I was running very low on supplies at that time. Well, anyways there was this thief that was running away from the people that he stole from and he managed to get the jump on me while holding a knife to my neck.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You are a hunter but the man was able to get the jump on you even though he was a hunter?” Jaff asked through laughter and tears of joy.

Ash sighed as she replied, “Yea, not my best moment.”

Jaff smiled as he asked “I would like to hear more if that's ok?”

Ash smiled as she said “It's alright. Well, Jeff decided to play hero when I was trying to calm him down.” Jaff turned to face Ash with his back to the wall and instantly he noticed that there was a small smile as she continued “He got onto one of the rooftops of the houses with a bow and arrows. He um… this is embarrassing, he shot the thief in the shoulder while hitting me in the process.”

“Oh shit, that had to have hurt.” Jaff said in understanding.

Ash quickly asked “That is enough about me, why don't you tell me about yourself?”

“Oh come on there has to be more to that story than that.” Jaff said with a playful expression.

Ash sighed as she said “There is more but I don't want to talk about it at this time.”

Jaff sighed as he asked “What would you like to know?”

Ash replied instantly, “Tell me what you did as a little kid.”

Jaff's smile grew even wider as he said “There isn’t much to tell. My mother had me study history and learn about other creachers, I had to learn about the rare ones too. Let's see… I started studying from the day I could start walking until I hit three years old. After that my father taught me about magic, math science, potions and had me exercise as much as I could but he didn't finish teaching me about magic though. He tried to teach me until the day he died, after that I was on the run from anything and everything, even hunters. I slowly learned what changes my body would go through and at first I didn't know but the changes were just a part of life.”

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, Jaff and Ash quickly jumped their feet in shock. They looked at each other for a moment for confirmation if they should open the door or not and Ash quickly nodded her head yes in confirmation.

A voice came through the door and said “It's me.

Ash instantly realized that the voice belonged to Count, she instantly went to the door and opened the door while stepping to the right side of the doorway.

She then said “Come on in.”

Count slowly walked into the room while closing the door behind him. Jaff immediately noticed that his shoulders were slumped and there was blood covering his hands as they swayed next to his side.

Jaff quickly said as he walked into the bathroom, “I will go get you a towel.”

Ash asked in a shaky voice while Jaff entered the bathroom, “How is he, is he doing ok?”

Count shook his head from side to side for a moment as he said in a sad voice, “I’m sorry, he lost too much blood and…He…He didn’t make it.”

Tears streamed down his face as Jaff came back into the room with a white towel in one hand, he stopped when he was standing in front of Count only a few feet from him. Jaff handed the towel over to Count, for a moment he was still and after a few more moments, he took the towel from Jaffs hands. Slowly he whipped the blood from his hands, the feeling of sticky, dried blood filled him as the towel slowly soaked the blood from his hands, taking most of the blood off of his hands but leaving a little bit of dried blood on his hands like a tomato. Ash’s knees started to feel weak until she could no longer stand anymore, she quickly fell to the ground, her knees collapsing from under her while she broke out crying in pain from the sadness that filled her heart. Jaff quickly ran over to Ash, he sat on the ground next to her in an instant and pulled her into his arms tightly as if he was shielding her from the world. Ash quickly hugged Jaff tightly as she cried into his chest, tears soaking his white shirt as he let her cry for as long as she needed while rubbing Ash’s back with one of his free hands. 

Jaff slowly said in a calming voice, “Shh, It’ll be alright Ash.”

After three hours of crying into Jaffs arms, Ash fell asleep in an instant against one of his right shoulders. Her arms were still wrapped around his shoulders tightly to keep herself anchored to him, Jaff smiled lightly while looking at Ash. Slowly, Jaff pulled Ash’s arms from his shoulders and slowly picked her up in his arms. He carried Ash over to the empty bed and placed her gently onto the bed with ease, Jaff slowly covered her with a few blankets that covered the bed like a sheet of water surrounding a lake. Ash slowly turned to her side towards Jaff while moaning in her sleep and slowly moved her hand towards Jaffs hand. She slowly clenched his hand lightly, for a moment he thought about pulling his hand away but he kept his hand where it was while Ash held onto his hand as if she didn’t want him to leave. Five minutes later, she slowly released Jaff from her grip, Jaff quickly exited the room as quietly as he could in an instant. He shut the door behind him as he exited the room and quickly walked into his room. Jaff quickly let himself fall into his bed and quickly fell asleep in an instant as his eyes drifted shut as soon as he hit the bed. Sounds of crickets and other animals in the night filled the air outside of the motel as if it was normal to wander the towns roads while looking for food.