Tales of Raiveirn: Leon

Chapter 3

Leon's eyes slowly flickered open after a long and dark silence filled his mind. He felt something around his muzzle, limiting his speech, along with his body being tied to some kind of chair. He writhed around, trying to get control back.

"Oh, quit it. You're fine." Lana said to him, coming into his line of view. Leon growled at her, practically jumping forward to snap at her.

Lana walked towards him, growling back. "You're a big help, you know that? I didn't expect you to trust me again so easily." She admitted, pulling the cloth down from his muzzle. Leon began shouting, "What are you talking about? Why are you doing this?!" He demanded to know.

Lana grew tired of Leon's questioning. "It doesn't matter to you! You're not gonna survive to find out!" Lana screamed at him, quickly charging toward him. Leon gasped, dropping his head to make the chair fall back, it hurt, but he was able to dodge the attack. Lana went right back in to kill him, slashing at his throat.

Leon put his paws up, having Lana cut through the rope.

She stared at him with confusion, he could tell something was running through her mind. He took this chance to quickly slash at her face, hitting her near the eye. She shouted in pain and started swinging wildly for him, Leon jumping back and watching her.

He heard a creaking noise, getting louder, he didn't know what it was, and it didn't matter what it was. He opened the hatch on the attic floor, hopping down and rushing down the stairs. Leon caught a glimpse of his mother in front of him before he slammed in front of them, causing the two to roll down the stairs.

Verona groaned and sat up, shaking her head. "Leon Mayflower! You need to be more careful like that, you could've gotten hurt." She scolded him, sighing and turning and heading back up to the attic. Leon panicked and shouted for her, but she did not turn around. Leon raced back upstairs but was shoved back down by a large force falling backward. He tumbled down, rolling onto his feet and looking at what had hit him... he saw his mother, a slit in her throat and her eyes wide with hurt. Leon breathed shakily, only staring before he dropped to the ground and screamed in pain.

Lana slowly made her way down the steps, stepping on her mother's corpse as she got close to Leon. "Now, you know how I used to feel." She whispered.

Leon couldn't handle this, it was all too confusing. He didn't know what she was talking about, he grabbed Verona's body by the neck and started to drag it out, staring at Lana while he did so.

He brought it out to the open field, not knowing what to do with it for a long while. He felt guilty, but at the same time, he couldn't say that it was his fault. Was he supposed to bury the body or leave it out? He soon decided that the best and most respectful option was to bury it. Leon began digging slowly, occasionally looking back at her body.

Once he was done, he grabbed her body by the neck and dragged it over to the hole. However, he tripped on his scarf and tumbled into the hole, the body falling on top of him. Leon screamed as he tried to shove his mother's corpse off of him, but it continuously fell on top of him. He kept shouting and eventually jumped off the corpse and climbed his way back up, as he stood on the ground, his body was only shaking. Leon kept thinking, believing that Lana could not be this violent. This wasn't her. He heard footsteps behind him, he could only pray to the Gods that it wasn't who he thought it was.

But his prayers were not answered, he only saw his father approaching with wide and pained eyes. Leon gasped for an explanation, trying to begin the words. He couldn't speak, only watching as his father stepped to the edge of the makeshift grave he had created. Neither of them said anything, Leon's thoughts were racing, and his heart finally began to feel something other than hatred.

He felt betrayed, he knew this person was not his sister, but they used her likeness to torture him. He looked at his father, his eyes reading a silent promise. Hayseed did not look back, and the one time Leon wanted him to care, it didn't matter.

Despite the years of hatred, and the distrust Leon had always felt towards Hayseed... he did truly care, and he could understand what he was going through at this moment. Leon could not be mad at Hayseed, he figured he should let him have this moment. Leon sat beside his father, opening his mouth and letting the words flow out.

"Dad... it's okay." Was all he could manage to whisper... but to Hayseed, it meant everything.

The two sat in silence, Leon didn't know how long it had been, and that didn't matter. He just wanted to stay there, but he eventually got up and watched his father sit as he walked away. As he approached the shed, he continuously looked around for the person pretending to be Lana, but found no sign of them,

He figured they must have disappeared after Leon had discovered who they were. He finally lay down on his bed and felt at peace for once. The comfort of sleep soon grabbed hold of him and dragged him in.

And that was the worst mistake he could have ever made.