When All You Have are Embers

XXVI

Klara

The dark stone walls surrounded her, and she had been here far longer now than she had anticipated. She tried her best to keep her eyes open, but she had been awake for days now. Terrified of what would happen if she closed her eyes and actually slept she forced herself to stay awake. The strange woman didn't seem hostile, in fact she seemed quite friendly. But to a child like Klara, her appearance was still bone chilling. 

As she laid against the cold rock she felt her eyes close only for a moment before a deafening explosion, that seemed to come from above her, cracked a hole in the ceiling. 

She screamed and flung herself out of the way as she watched pieces of the roof come crashing down where she was sitting only moments ago. She then found herself cornered and surrounded by debris, and the dark. 
    She could hear shuffling footsteps around her, and as she closed her eyes out of fear the boulders keeping her trapped were ripped and thrown away. Light began to peek through the cracks in the rocks as they were taken away one by one. 

The bone-y woman reached her hand through the cracks and felt Klara grab her fingers tightly, and she carefully lifted her out of the debris. 

"Please... can you get me out of here?" She coughed. 
    The woman put her down on her feet and looked her in the eyes. 

"I cannot bring you towards the light. I must go myself."

"No! Please! Don't go. I know what's happening. They're attacking the castle aren't they?"

"Just wait here, I will be back."

"Wait... You're so tiny. Not like when you took me. Aren't you tired? Hungry?"

"My child, I cannot eat what you offer me." She knelt down. 
"Human blood is sacred. It is to never be touched by any creature as vulgar as myself."

"But I'm not human." Klara smiled, still lifting up her sleeve to reveal her wrist. 

The woman stared at her arm for a moment and wondered if it would be alright to take a small drink. Klara was right, she wasn't human. There were no sayings that Elven blood was pure, like human blood, and therefore could not be consumed by Demons. 

Her long claws wrapped around Klara's delicate forearm and she lifted it up to its lips. As Klara felt the teeth of the creature sink into her skin she winced. 
It was over in a matter of seconds and when it was done feeding Klara lowered her arm and watched as it wiped her blood off its lips. 

"You don't look so much like me anymore." Klara said. 

"Human-like forms are not easy to assume. I had it on only so you wouldn't be so scared." It confessed. 

"Hmm. You don't look so scary anymore." 
Klara hugged the creature tightly as it draped its wings over and around her body. 

"Now listen. War is no place for a Princess. If anyone finds you they'll either kill you or shove you in with the other women and children, I know deep in my heart you can find a way out of here. Don't show yourself to anyone."

"What about Loriath?"
"I don't know where anything is."

"Especially Loriath." It said urgently. 
"He is not who you think he is, he has darkness in him."