Timeless

The beginning

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"Get them out of here!" she screamed to the man, pushing the two children into his arms.

"B-but-," he began to protest.

"They aren't safe," the woman insisted. "I can hold them off long enough for you to get them out of reach."

"I can't just..." The pain in his eyes tore at her heart.

"Please... Just keep them safe, Axl. He's looking for me. Their existence is unknown to any but us," she pleaded with him to understand. This place wasn't safe for their children, not with their heritage.

"Elyza," Axl sighed. He knew. He knew, but he didn't have to like it. She was making him choose their children over their love.

Horses whinnied in the distance and hounds bayed, ending their painful goodbyes.

Elyza shoved Axl and her children towards the cave, "Go." She was fighting tears, but keeping her brave mask in place.

Axl wasn't fighting his. They fell freely down his face. "Promise me!"

At this the facade slipped and Axl saw the pain and fear his love was hiding as she said, "I promise."

Both knew those words were likely the first and only lie that would be spoken between them.

When the first horse broke through the surrounding brush, Elyza rose her hands and shouted, "Kenaz!"

The brush, horse, and rider immediately caught flame. The horse and rider screamed as they burned.

Axl didn't stay to watch. He gripped the children closer and ran through the cave entrance.

When he came to the divide, he took the left path without slowing. He saw light up ahead.

The cavern was vast. Reaching higher than even the eldest dragon could from the floor, the ceiling arched overhead. There were specks of gemstones that radiated power and the light he had seen from the tunnel in the ceiling and the walls all around the small underground lake. Although the cavern was beautiful, Axl never slowed.

Through another tunnel he went until he came out into a small, wild clearing. A woman stood, clad in nothing but leaves, waiting to either guard or close the opening.

"C-close it!" Axl choked out between his sobs.

With a saddened expression, Verbena waved her hands and the plants around the opening pulled the dirt and stones loose, filling the way back to Elyza with immovable refuse.

"Come," a beautiful, slant-eyed woman said from where she stood next to a large, red-skinned man.

They both seemed pained at the happenings, but Axl didn't believe either could feel as he did. It was as if his heart was being torn from his chest.

Axl handed each of them one of the children so he could travel as fast as they.

After some time, they came to the place they were headed. It was a magnificent waterfall. Four hundred feet from top to bottom.

This was it. The last place of his home, his birth place, he would see.

"You ready?" the red one said in a gruff voice.

"How can I be, Lizane?" Axl stared at the path he would be taking. "Portals are few and far between. I won't be able to see her again."

"Shhh," Verbena had followed them. "Do not say such things! As long as magic lives so does hope. Did you not tell us that when we were giving up?"

Axl nodded. "I did. Thank you, Verbena."

The dryad nodded.

Axl held his arms out for his children. Lizane gave him the infant boy first. Before the elf, Nika, could hand him the girl, an iron bolt hit Verbena between her shoulders.

"No!" Lizane roared as his scales covered his vulnerable skin. He began shifting, trying to protect his family.

The growing dragon forced Axl closer to the waterfall and pushed Nika away.

Nika called to him from beyond the enormous dragon, "Axl! Go! I'll protect her until I can reunite you! Go!"

With only a moment more's hesitation, he saw that there were too many soldiers lining up along the ridge. Axl turned and disappeared through the waterfall, leaving his home, his baby girl, and the only woman he'd ever loved behind.