gaeistis-fields of red (Original)

when the clock ticked the midnight hour

"Why is it taking so long?" zelana pondered, resting her body against the carriage as she looked towards the royal palace, the cold frosty weather began to run up zelena's body as she slightly shivered from the cold, the palace itself looked now darker and more grimmer then before and she could not help but see all the places where walls had been torn down or glass which had been shattered in pieces, she glanced to her left, seeing the line of children following the jormungers to the orphanage all talking to each other and holding hands, she sighed, noticing xena walking alone, her head facing down as she sulked on further, "I don't want to go unless she comes back!" she could remember her saying. As she glanced back, she saw two outlines appearing out of the thick black fog, her mouth opened slightly in confusion, she saw blood stains both on the little girl and what seemed to appear elisia, she squinted her eyes and saw that they were pushing a chair upfront, to her horror, she quickly ran towards elisia and told the jormungers to make a makeshift bridge, her thoughts ran haywire before almost slipping on a piece of rock below, "don't come down!" zelena said as she ran up the stairs, she froze as she saw the unconscious body of veranos and luxia, "i know it looks like alot has happened," elisia tried to say, but he gulped as zelana pointed her sword against elisia's throat, "what did you do?" she asked calmly, elisia raised his hands above his head as he looked her right in the eye, "i swear to god i did not do any of this," "then tell me," elisia glanced to lanei and zelana looked over towards her too, lanei stood as frozen as a statue, not uttering single word before looking over, "i-" elisia looked back towards zelana who looked at him in suspicion, "the whole palace is covered in blood and bodies," he said softly, "i just wanted to see" lanei said in between breaths, veranos grunted slightly as he awakened slowly, elisia and zelana looked towards veranos and luxia as the stains of the drying blood stained luxia's hair. "Have you..." elisia took a deep breath before continuing, "Have you seen a girl fall off the palace's garden railing?" zelana frowned, confused and she said, "elaborate." "one of the maidens who you probably knew ambushed us and asked for luxia's whereabouts, she almost killed me had i not played along with her game," as elisia explained what had happened,

Zelana could only chuckle in confusion, "first of all, elisia, yalana never was one of the maidens, but she simply pushed the king to get closer to him, originally she was a top class night whisperer, i don't know what happened that day, but ever since she had been keeping a low profile,.." Zelana sighed, "to be honest, I don't really know where she went after a few weeks ago, she just disappeared without a trace like all the other royal men and the king," zelana said. " So you did not see a girl fall off into the rocks below?" he asked again, "no i did not.." elisia scratched his head as he glanced around, "who was i fighting then?" As they stood still, a few specks of snow crystals fell onto their body, "well enough pondering, let's get all of you to a safe place and get yourselves cleaned before you take on other matters, and elisia. I need you to come with me." zelana said, sounding harsh but kind, zelana gestured to a few jormungers to bring luxia veranos and lanei to a doctor while zelana stepped onto one of the horses, "do i have to saddle on one too?" Elisia asked. Zelana rolled her eyes and sighed "you are old enough to realize that elisia.. follow me" the cold breeze picked up as the snow slowly blanketed the streets, freezing up the river and eulithia's port until all was as white as the clouds. By the time they had exited the palace, people had finished up the restoration of some buildings and went back home.

Elisia frowned, "so you really did not see the stream of blood running down the wall where the garden was" "for heaven's sake elisia! No I did not! Nor did any other jormunger in the vicinity." Elisia wanted to inquire further, but held his breath as he read the cold atmosphere around them. Gazing at the church in the distance. A sudden clicking of gears and metal louded as out from one of the corners a giant grendal appeared. Both zelana and elisia stopped dead in their tracks as the machine stepped before them. Towering over them as it observed them. Its red glowing bulb. Staring deep into their souls as it just stood there. Both the horses did not mutter any sound. Feeling fear and confusion, they held their breath. Its gears clicked and clicked. Like a mechanical clock. Before it turned back where it came from and disappeared into the dark alley's of eulithia. After a while they all sighed in relief, zelana giggled slightly "that was close for comfort" she said. Elisia could only smile as inside he felt a gut wrenching angst that he could not describe. A giant machine capable of killing one in a split second. "We should get going," he said. Patting the horse's neck before continuing