I Am: The Saviour

Chapter 4

I turned and ran, pushing past everybody. Faceless, shapeless masses that fought me as I pushed against the current. Fear gripped my heart, fuelled by the claustrophobia. Did I even have a heart anymore? I was numb, couldn't feel anything yet my emotions were at an all time high. I'd killed him. I'd killed Knox. I couldn't save him, couldn't heal Knox. The names, the voices, they all swirled around in my head in an endless taunt.

Your fault. The voices whispered. You killed them. The world weighed heavy on my shoulders, trying to force me to a halt, but I didn't stop moving. The beat of my heart echoed through my body. I tried to stop thinking about them but that only made me think of them more. I was sinking into a black pit of despair. Would I be able to get up again when I finally fell to my knees?

Cold smacked my face as I emerged onto the ledge, bringing me back to reality. I was breathing heavily, and I looked down to see my dagger in my hand, still dripping with blood. Blood that should never have left Knox's body. I dropped the weapon as though it had burnt me, and the blade shone in the light of the waning Moon, wordlessly taunting me. It had taken so many lives, held a flood of victims inside the smooth obsidian. I had once held that dagger with pride, relishing in the sense of purpose I felt, but now all that I felt was disgust and anger.

Without a word I picked up the dagger and hurled it into the air as far as I could, watching calmly as it was swallowed up in darkness. I stood there for a few seconds, before the pain returned. I broke down, falling to my knees as I looked at the Moon, begging for it to take away my pain, begging for it to give back Knox...to give back him. Tears flowed unhindered. My lips parted in a soundless cry for help, and my screams echoed through the vast wasteland.

I don't know when I fell asleep, but it was plagued with nightmares of flying dragons and a laughing king. When I woke, it was quietly and with no words. No screaming, no cold sweat, no frenzied intake of breath. My eyes were crusty with dried tears and remnants of sleep, and my throat screamed for water. Someone had draped a blanket over me during my slumber.

Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes, trying to wake myself up. I instantly regretted it. Everything came flooding back. The pain, the loss...Knox. In stark contrast to last night, I felt numb to the grief, felt nothing as I looked out over the ledge, past the desert wasteland, past Ranwick Forest, to the vague flying flags of Norwell Castle. A splash of red blemished the landscape, and my stomach twinged as I remembered those vicious claws that had come so close to catching me.

Where had the dragon come from? Was King Zelrox its Rider? But how had I never seen the beast before? Genetics played no part, as inheriting the Rider was almost impossible. Basically, he and I were one in a million. The gene was random and non-specific, appearing wherever and whenever it liked. The legend I had learnt spoke of seven brothers, but they weren't related by blood and were of varying ages when they found their dragon. It was then that they stopped aging, the mortal form mutating and the DNA strand reshaping itself to preserve the essential life force of the dragon. The seven brothers were the first I had ever heard of the Riders, but there surely would have been more throughout the history of Amphilias.

I suddenly remembered something, and the dagger cut a little deeper when I envisioned his pale face, his cloudy once-chocolate eyes. His dying words spoke of a dragon horde that lived beyond the borders of Amphilias, among the dead wastelands of the dead world that our ancestors had left behind. Ravaged by battle and torn by volcano activity, the world beyond the borders of Amphilias was a place I had no desire to go during my lifetime. But then again, a lot of things had happened that I wished hadn't. Swallowing hard against the pain, I pushed away the vision of him, of his pleas, of his tears and his pain. Standing up, I wrapped the blanket around myself and walked to the edge of the ledge. A flock of unnamed birds flew in the distance, and I watched them quietly until they had left my field of vision.