An Airan's Quest

Chapter 15: A Swordsman's Sudden Appearance

Evanity's POV

I crash-landed on the hard ground with a loud thud feeling every bone in my body break because of the strong impact. Dark spots danced across my line of vision and I blinked them back and tried to focus on where I've landed. I lifted my head ignoring the dull pain that it brought and peered around my surroundings immediately noticing that I've fallen in the middle of the rock face of the fjord with nothing but the sheer drop of the cliffs behind me and the tall rock formations and boulders ahead of me.

Pain shot through my back as I slowly pulled myself to my feet. I staggered once then caught myself in time before I could fall on the ground again. Something sticky began trickling down from my forehead and when I reached out a hand to see what it was, I gasped horrified when I saw it was actually blood. Wiping it away with the back of my hand, I stumbled forward feeling like my knees were about to buckle underneath me any moment now. But still I continued to walk steadily, trying to figure out who sent that arrow in our direction.

The answer to my question came too soon. Twenty dark hooded figures appeared from the boulders: all of them swinging their weapons menacingly and snickering evilly at the sight of me. Somehow, I wasn't the least bit surprised to see that it was actually them who attacked us since I had already gotten used to the fact that they kept chasing after Tarah and I over the last few days.

As I braced myself for their assault, Fallon emerged out of my milaire, his whole form illuminated in a dazzling silvery light momentarily. The arrow that pierced his right wing was still stuck into it dripping blood profusely and making his dark brown feathers disheveled. He tried to stretch his bad wing and squawked in anguish while I winced, feeling the pain coursing through my arm at the same time.

"Fallon! What are you doing? Get back to our milaire," I glared at him irately. I didn't want him to be involved in this fight and get even more hurt in the process.

No, Vann. This is my fight too. I want to stay here and battle against them. We're in this together, he told me stubbornly. I wanted to argue with him and convinced him to return to our milaire but the Cabrians were fast approaching towards us and we only had limited time to defend ourselves. I nodded my head reluctantly, completely aware that we have little chance of winning this battle since we were both injured and there were twenty of them waiting to be the first one to shed our blood.

Fear rose up in my heart when I came to the conclusion that there might also be a possibility that the Cabrians would also steal my milaire like what they did to Tarah. But then I put these thoughts aside and tried to focus on the battle. I couldn't afford to lose now when Fallon's everything that I've got. Then I remembered Tarah and how she seemed so miserable when she lost Tristan but still she never gave up and continued to fight until the end. And so would we.

Let's do this for Tarah, my seclaire's voice came in my mind. We'll avenge her. I nodded once again and with that thought in my mind, a certain kind of strength filled me, which took away all the pain and doubts that I was feeling at that moment. Then we charged forward to attack the Cabrians.

~~~*~~~

The renewed strength that I had experienced awhile ago had already abandoned me and I fell down on my knees in exhaustion and tried to catch my breath. The pain that I was feeling in my right arm had already worsened after I had created a strong gale which lifted five of the Cabrians off their feet and sent them tumbling into the ground killing them directly. Fallon had already gone back to my milaire after trying unsuccessfully to generate a gust of wind by beating his wings, leaving me all alone with fifteen other Cabrians who were moving leisurely towards me as if they had all the time in the world - which they probably do. Or maybe they just wanted a slow kill in order to have fun torturing me to death.