The Fallen Throne

Chapter 7.1 ✦ Land Of Sky

"You touch me, I ignite;
Like a wildfire."
~ ♡ (Sam Tsui, Wildfire)

♟ ♜ ♞ ♝ ♚ ♛ ♝ ♞ ♜ ♟

"What was that?" Lloyd breaks the silence, "technically speaking, it's impossible for someone to do that!" he exclaims, fumbling around in his bag for scrolls or books. "No human can even stand such heat, and let's not even get started about a human conjuring up fire!" he begins to mumble something about his logic being challenged.

"Shut it, we are lucky enough to be walking out of this alive," Lancaster says after a moment. "It is a miracle he decided not to burn us," grateful for this fact, Lancaster silently hopes that they do not cross paths again.

Alaina helps Rose steady herself while Lancaster and Lloyd are bickering. "Are you fine?"

"As good as new."

"What happened back there?"

"I don't know, but it happens sometimes," Rose admits.

"Have you not seen a doctor about this?" Lancaster questions, as both him and Lloyd rejoin them.

"It doesn't really happen often. Besides, whenever I get in touch with nature, I feel better."

"Like how you felt better when you had the poppy?" Lancaster raises his brow in disbelief.

"Definitely," Rose smiles. "That's why we live in the outskirts. I haven't experienced something like that since a long time -- until now, that is."

Alaina begins to recall that Rose once told her she used to live near the city centre. "Does that mean you suffer from this problem frequently, back when you lived around the city centre?"

Rose nods. "I'm sorry I didn't tell any of you about this, I didn't expect it would happen -- or be a problem, after so many years."

"The important thing is that you're safe and well," Alaina smiles, and Lancaster nods in agreement.

Lloyd rubs the back of his head furiously, messing his hair in the process, as frustration takes over his body. He still can't manage to make out the logics and reasons behind first, the boy who can produce flames; and second, how Rose would have been in a very critical condition, but is able to appear as if it never happened after her little pleasure on the flower.

"Shall we?" Lancaster asks.

"Just a moment," Lloyd says quickly, checking through his bag. He turns around and starts walking back to where they'd come from, "I think I left something -- be right back."

Ignoring the annoyed sigh from Lancaster, he returns to the place where the poppies grow. He hears complaints from Rose in the distance, but he has much more things in his spinning mind to bother. He picks a poppy carefully, and then keeps it in his bag. Just in case, he thinks.

"I'm ready," he says, returning to the others.

Lloyd glances back one last time at the place where Rose laid not too long ago as she struggled to gasp for air. He spots the wilted poppy immediately, lying dead in Rose's place; an ominous feeling inevitably, viscerally rising within.

*****

After what seems like an eternity, the four finally stand in front of the grand walls that shield the Kingdom of Caelus -- their intended destination from the very beginning. Taking in the majestic sight, they brace themselves for what is to come -- after a series of interesting events, they aren't too sure if they would be surprised for anything else in store for them.