ꜱᴄᴀʀ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋᴇʏꜱ

Chapter 42: Reylyn

 The crimson dragon nudged up her arm with a dramatic snort. Her snout was warm, like campfire flames. Reylyn smiled softly at the animal's willingness for attention. She was back in her skeleton form. Being a ghost was only fun to explore, and maybe play some pranks. "You like attention, don't you?"

Scarvern laughed from above. He was already on his own dark blue dragon. He had already told her the story of how he met these two. Reylyn didn't believe it that much, but that wasn't important. Finding Rheton and Cazzlyn was important at this moment.

Reylyn stepped back and let the warm dragon nuzzle up her hand. The dragon huffed as a form of acceptance. She bowed her wings down to Reylyn, nothing else. Their webbing was maroon in the center, and the outline of the scales were crimson red.

"That's the form of acceptance!" Scarvern called as his dragon dragged his wing across the ocean. "She probably loves flames if she's choosing your fiery personality!"

Reylyn scoffed and swung her legs over her dragon's ribs, who blew smoke out of her nose in annoyance at Scarvern's commentary. "Do you have a name?" Reylyn attempted to rest her hands on the spikes of the dragon, but they were blazing hot. "Yep, Yep. Not doing that again. But I'm guessing I get to name you?"

The dragon let out a snort of smoke, her way of saying 'yes' in dragon.

"You would be a good tempter if you were a human," she paused to tap a few fingers across her chin. "Tempest,"

Tempest lifted up off of the ground suddenly. Reylyn gripped onto the dragon's horns, which were not steaming.

"Woah there girl!" she laughed. Tempest flew with the way the breeze was going, close to Scarvern and his dragon. He looked back at her and gave her a smug grin as they flew.

Reylyn dismounted Tempest as they neared the palace of Alnao. Everything about it screamed.. Rich and ungrateful. The pillars had bands of goals around the middle, and the rest was porcelain. Tall green birch trees surrounded the doors. The whole castle was gold and porcelain for that matter.

"Do you have a plan?" she turned to Scarvern, who was just barely dismounting. He swung his leg over to the ground.

"Depends on if you're a thief," he swooped his light hair to the side. "I hope you have experience with thieving, or we did this for nothing,"

Reylyn smirked. "I definitely have experience. I've been part of a thief group since I was eight. This is right up my alley." She reached for her backpack she brought from her home and tossed it over to Scarvern. He caught it swiftly. The sound of them talking must have alerted the hidden guards. Metal and footsteps echoed on the balcony.

Reylyn gripped her knife and threw it in the direction of the footsteps, she was too late. Blood trickled down from her stomach. Scarvern's face dropped.

She clutched her stomach and tears fell down her face. She looked off into the distance to distract herself from the pain of the sword wound. Scarvern was suddenly behind her side in seconds.

"Hey look at me," he muttered softly.

'Reylyn couldn't. She couldn't will herself to. Not at anyone, she couldn't die without saying goodbye. Scarvern gently tugged her face in his direction with a hand on her neck, but she just looked off into the distance again. He tilted her chin up with one finger, making eye contact. His brown eyes were full of concern and anger, all building up.

"You'll need to lay down. It will help the bleeding slow,"

"O-Okay," Her vision was starting to slightly blur. Scarvern gently helped her down, he kneeled down and cupped her face in his hands. He shifted her to lay her head on his shoulders

She closed her eyes. "I don't wanna die like this," Reylyn pleaded. Her breaths were starting to become more labored.

"Shhh," he could feel him stroking her hair. "You're not gonna die, k? Follow my breathing," He took a breath. "One," Reylyn followed his breathing. "Two. Three,"

Her heart rate had slowed and her breathing was slightly calmer.

"This might hurt," he put pressure on her abdomen, but Reylyn felt her wound seal up.

She looked up at him. "How did you get that power?"

"The ghosts gave it to me after helping her friend while you were trying to figure out the walls," He helped Reylyn. She was about to respond, but there was metal scraping across the floor suddenly. Her hand felt heavy. She opened it to reveal the key. The final key.