What Lurks Behind The Trees

Flowing River

Venkalth stood up, stretched his arms over his head and released a long breath, puffing his cheeks.

"that worked better than I had anticipated," Venkalth said.

"Don't doubt the powers of the flower of healing," Raymond smiled "Now show us what your dragon can do, we're counting on you,"

"Pull our soldiers back without attracting any attention or the king will notice," Julian said.

Zaveo appeared from behind Venkalth, the fierce glint in his amethyst eyes mirrored Venkalth's. Venkalth climbed Zaveo's back and saluted the King before taking off into the battlefield.

He was going to finish what he started, he was going to end his brother and with that thought in his head, he summoned his dragon to release his biggest breath of fire. Zaveo flew above the mess of the battle, casting a dark shadow over everyone's head. He leaned his head back as he breathed in deeply and let out a cloud of flames that ripped through the crowd. The Night Slayers crumbled under the heat along with all the other creatures.

They all watched the horror before them. Celia frowned, something was different, the flames weren't their usual deep blue colour, they were almost white. She walked closer and watched as all the creatures crumbled to nothing, they certainly weren't burning from the heat.

"Something's different," she said.

"What?" Julian asked, trying to find what she was looking at.

Her eyes focused on a Night Slayer digging its teeth into a soldier who had been left behind. She flinched as the man screamed in pain, but soon her vision was blinded by a stream of flames and when the smoke cleared and the creature disappeared into dust her eyes widened. The man who had been bitten was now sitting amongst the dust, confusion written all over his features because he was fine, he was alive.

Celia gasped. "Julian we need to get Gregor to those flames!"

"What? Why?"

"Help me!" she ran to Gregor's side and tried to drag him somehow across the grass.

"Celia stop! I know you're upset but these flames will kill you," Julian said "Leave him, let him at least die in peace,"

"Julian, these flames, they don't burn, the flower is giving Zaveo some sort of healing power in his fire, please you have to trust me,"

Julian looked back, watching as the place was engulfed in fire.

"Remember the book that Isabella bought? 'The light lies within the possessor of pure magic', that's the light right there," Celia said pointing at the flames.

"Celia this is insane," Julian ran a hand over his face in distress, "You seriously don't want to run straight into these flames?"

"Yes, and you'll go with me, now help me with Gregor,"

Julian sighed, he put his arms around his brother, holding him towards his chest. "You hold his legs," he told Celia.

They both carried him and ran.

"Stop right there!"

"Where do you think you're going?" Raymond yelled.

"What are you two doing?!" Dyron yelled at his children, but they both ignored and went straight for the battlefield.

On the other side of the woods, King Edmund's eyes shone with the reflection of the flames. His fists turned white and his veins popped on his neck as he clenched his jaw in anger.

"SHOOT IT!" he roared, "NOW!". He watched as his army of dark creatures died before his eyes.

His men began to shoot arrows at the dragon, swarms of arrows filling the sky. It was all such a mess, an image of calamity.

"I thought you took care of him?!" Edmund looked at Rogerus.

"My king, the soldiers said they shot him multiple times, clearly he managed to escape before it was fatal,"

"And you tell me this now?! You said he was dead!" Edmund paced around, trying to keep himself from bursting into flames himself. "I have to stop this."

"My king, it's dangerous for you to go, we'll take care of this,"

"Well it's clear you haven't done that, look at the mess we're in now," Edmund summoned his dragon, swirls of silver gathering to make one whole giant dragon. "Haha, there she is," he smirked as his dragon spread her wings wide.

Celia and Julian ran towards the battlefield, panting as they carried a limp Gregor. They stopped right in front of the massacre, hoping that what Celia was saying was correct and that they wouldn't all just burn to dust.

"Let's hope you're right about this," Julian glanced at his sister and braced himself before heading straight into the bright flames.

They both gasped as the flames hit them hard, making them fall to the ground and close their eyes in a hurry.

The first thing they noticed was that their senses were in action, taking in all that was around them before their eyes could open. The feeling of a slightly warmer surrounding, the sound of a dragon growling and hissing, the smell of something burning.

"Julian?" Celia called out quietly before opening her eyes, scared of what she might see beyond the darkness of them.

She heard a low chuckle and a sigh of relief, "I think we're safe, or we're dead and already in hell,"

"Okay, I'm going to open my eyes," Celia opened one eye first, "We're safe,"

Julian opened his eyes and laughed, "I can't believe this actually worked."

They looked around them, they were surrounded by a white sheet of warmth, the ground was almost sandy from the remains of the creatures. What surprised them was the sight of other soldiers wandering around in confusion.

They looked down at Gregor who was still limp and lifeless. Celia's heart dropped in disappointment. She had the slightest hope that this would heal her broken brother, she knew there was a high possibility that it wouldn't work but she still felt defeated.

"He's breathing," Julian said, snapping her out of her grief.

She looked at Gregor's face and noticed the black veins disappearing slowly, retreating beyond his brown locks and under his destroyed armour.

"Take off his armour," she said.

Julian began taking off his armour, noticing how all the black veins were retreating back to his bite scar that looked very much new and open.

"What is happening?" Julian asked.

"I think it's working," Celia smiled. "The curse is exiting the wound, look,"

The wound had opened, black liquid seeping out of it like a flowing river. The curse had been lifted. 

---------------------------------------------------

It's been a looong time. I know I haven't updated in a long time but honestly these days I have no inspiration, and I only write when I'm inspired so here's what I came up with. 

As I have mentioned before, I will not abandon this story so stay tuned for the next final chapters! 

Hope you enjoyed :) 

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