The Throne is Mine

Arlette/Damon/Lucretia

Arlette's POV

"Jade! Help! I am about to fall off!" I scream with all my heart. The scream grinds my vocal cords. My eagle swoops in from the skies and tries to pull me up.

An arm snakes from in front of me and grabs the hem of my dress. Deja takes off to the air and dives to attack a man coming up on us.

"It's going to be alright Arlette. Hold on!" Jade screams as Lily nearly hurls us off a cliff. Her massive body shudders and turns the way we had come.

"There's no other way!" Jade shouts as an arrow whizzes past her ears. My heart beats rapidly and my eyes start to water. We have only been running for thirty minutes. But every minute since we ran into the strange army, it has been chaotic.

On the back of Lily, I feel a source of comfort. I feel like we won't be caught.

Lily rushes the soldiers that pursue us on foot. At first there were only a few, but as we retreat deeper the way we had come, more are revealed to us. Coming up on us is a massive Kapok tree. It's majestic branches curl down towards us, almost as if it wants to snatch us up and cataplot us into the sky. It is around 150 feet tall and it is towering over all the other trees in the clearing. Something shifts on one of the branches closest to us and as we near closer to pass it, the shadow throws itself onto us.

Lily, Jade, and I all scream, and Lily almost collapses from the newfound weight. The intruder wrestles Jade for control.

Little does the intruder know, Lily is a familiar.

I pound the man's back with my fists and he raises his hands to slap me. Deja appears again and rips his ear off. The man cries out and falls off the horse. Tears of joy fill my vision as I take to hugging Jade.

"Are you alright?" I can hardly get the words out before someone hidden in a nearby bush jumps out with a blade.

Dread overtakes my body as Lily has no other choice to jump. Her back leg catches the man in the shoulder. He falls to the ground with a thud.

"Yeah! Let's go! Who's next?" Jade shouts as Lily comes to a halt. We take a moment to look around before we get off to check Lily.

"Have you tried taking control of Deja yet?" Jade asks breathlessly as she pats Lily's side. Lily bends her neck down to nip at the grass.

"No, it's never occurred to me. I didn't know you could do it." I look around. My nerves tell me it wasn't a good idea to stop.

"Yeah, not a lot of Naturalists can do it anymore. But you're spe-" Jade is cut off by a nearby branch cracking. Whirling back around, we both jump onto Lily and take off again. I squeeze my eyes shut and think of Deja. It's no use. I have no idea what I am doing. How does one take over a familiar?

I open my mouth to ask Jade if she knows how to get home. However, my vocals lay limp in my throat and I can't seem to make a sound. Depression seeps through my bones and I worriedly scan the woods for Deja.

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Damon's POV

I was sprinting through the trees as fast as humanly possible. My feet felt like they were barely touching the ground. My body twisted past obstacles in such a way that if you were looking at me from a distance, you would think I was passing through them. The pure panic under my skin is what fueled me to run faster, faster than I have ever ran. I ran like a hound dog on a mission. Some of the plants that were in my way, were cut down without a trace. All I knew was that I had to find her, that I could finally feel her, and that I had to save her.