Wars of Heaven and Earth

Old Stones and Broken Bones

I jumped forward and slid, narrowly managing to catch Leucos before he hit the ground. The ring of steel against steel drew my attention as Tyra had knocked his knife aside. I stood Leucos up and pushed him behind me. Immediately afterward, I began forming the needed magic circles to obliterate the man who had attacked us. However my emotions were jumbled, and my fear caused The Flow to overpower my constraints. "Tyra move!" I shouted just before I lost control of the magic. Jets of fire erupted from the circle and sped toward the dueling pair. Tyra dove out of the way at the last second, while the man was engulfed in flames. After the fire and smoke cleared, nothing but fused glass was left where the man once stood.

"Well. Now that we're finished with tha-" Tyra's sentence ended in a slight gasp of pain. She spun and rammed her elbow into the ribs of the robed man, who had somehow appeared behind her. The robed figure disintegrated into sand upon the contact, while Tyra sank to her knees gasping.

"Are you alright!" Leucos said as he ran forward and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"It's nothing. Just a scratch." Tyra responded, although her voice sounded strained.

Something glinted nearby in the sand, as I walked toward Tyra. I stopped and retrieved the item. Pulling it out of the sand, a curved dagger was revealed. The steel was black, and the details were done in gold. However it was the edge of the weapon that troubled me. Smeared along the blade of the dagger, was a sickly pale white fluid.

"Damn it kid, I told you I'm fi-" Tyra stopped again and began to cough, I turned around and noticed that her small scratch was bleeding heavily. It had already soaked through her undershirt.

"Tyra, the blade went right through your chain mail..this is not a scratch." I said.

She was breathing heavily now, and her skin became a sickly shade of white. Leucos managed to get her to lay down, while I continued to freak out over the situation.

"I don't know what poison this is, and I don't remember reading about it during my studies..this is bad.." I muttered to myself while inspecting the cut along Tyra's side.

"Damn it, now or nothing, Leucos, run on ahead, find the temple. We'll need somewhere safe to stay." I said while fitting my arms under Tyra. Leucos nodded and sprinted toward the distant city.

"This is probably going to hurt, so please bear with me." I said to Tyra, just before I lifted her from the ground and began carrying her towards the city. 

Initially it was hellish for her. Tyra barely managed to keep a grip on her pain, only muttering a few words in her native language, or gritting her teeth when I took a wrong step. By the time we reached the city, the sun was setting, and the shadows were lengthening. Once inside the city gates, everything was a mixture of red sunlight, and shadow. Everything acquired a dark and frightening look. Leucos found me stumbling through the city and led me back to the temple. 

Upon climbing the sandstone stairs and entering the building, the first thing that I noticed was how dim it was, even with the many windows. A large statue of a figure cloaked in flowing robes and holding a staff was the centerpiece of the temple. A circular bench around the statue was filled with old offerings. Nothing looked recent, and signs of disrepair were everywhere. 

An old man in tan colored robes emerged from a doorway on the right and approached us.

"The small traveler said you would come. And so you have, give me the girl, I know this poison well, and she will be safe by tomorrow. If she is strong." He said in a low voice.

"And what if she isn't strong." I deadpanned.

"Then your friend should never have entered this desert. Only the strong survive here." He replied, and with that, he took Tyra from my arms, and walked back through the doorway he had entered from. I went to go follow him, however Leucos grabbed my arm and stopped me. He shook his head and then pulled me towards the statue. Thinking we were stopping in front of it, I began to slow my pace, however Leucos, it seems, had other plans. He dragged me around the statue so that we were facing the back of the figure. In the shadows near the base of the statue laid a boy. 

He seemed to be about as old as Leucos, and around the same size. However the similarities stopped there. Where Leucos had fair skin, this boy's skin was a light shade of brown, as was similar to many in this part of the world. Unlike Leucos's platinum blonde hair which was almost always in a state of disarray, his hair was cut short, and was jet black. He remained sleeping until Leucos walked over to him and rudely shoved him off the offering bench. Before I had time to run forward and drag Leucos back, the boy's amber colored eyes shot open.

His eyes fixed on Leucos and a wide grin spread across his face. "You're kind of a jerk, you know that, right?" He said while shoving Leucos lightly.

I looked back and forth between the two. "You two know each other?" I asked with what I assumed was a very suprised expression on my face.

"Well duh, how could I not know my own counterpart?" The strange boy said while poking Leucos in the ribs.

Leucos let out an annoyed sigh. "He doesn't know about any of that." Leucos said in a slightly annoyed tone of voice.

"You mean you didn't tell him!? Wow, lazy and a jerk. You're just on a roll today aren't you." The boy replied, to which Leucos huffed and rolled his eyes.

"It wasn't the right time to tell him. Besides, unlike you, I haven't been asleep for gods know how long." Leucos deadpanned.

The strange boy put his hand over his heart and fell to his knees, with his left arm raised towards the ceiling in a theatrical manner.

"Oh! How you wound me! How shall I ever recover from such an insult!" He said, while pretending to faint.

"So..is anyone going to explain what's going on?" I asked while looking expectantly at Leucos.

"Lukey, you better get on that. Stories don't tell themselves after all." The boy said, still lying on the floor as if he had been killed.

Leucos let out an exasperated sigh.

"I don't get paid enough to put up with your ass."

--------------Authors Note----------
I finished this chapter at 11:07, in bed, on my galaxy s7. You're welcome. Oh lord, what to say.
I'm enjoying this book immensely and I'm ever thankful for the support of all of you who've decided to stick with me on this Rollercoaster of an adventure.

Fanart is by my number one fan PenguinGirl2033, she's amazing and I couldn't ask for a better fan xD

Without further ado, we enter the fan theory section.

Who do you think that stranger that attacked them was?

Who do you think the old man is?

Who's the strange boy and how does he know Leucos?

What is Leucos hiding?

Will Tyra be okay?

Vote! Comment! Follow!

See you next chapter!