> “Flee! Fly! Run as fast as your feet can stride! Hope runs out soon as the end comes to this place of hubris. Pity not the fools that stay, but only yourself that remained when the warning was clear and present for all to see.”
>
> -Last known words of Samantha Sasker, scrap merchant turned bodyguard turned escort turned seer, right before she went out of Blood Falls like a bat out of hell.
He found her.
----------------------------------------
She saw him.
----------------------------------------
And now they wrestle, and scream and curse, unwilling to surrender or forgive, as the harsh desert light shone on them both with not even the wind to mask their scuffle. Their eyes could not meet, nor could their face bear the shame of remembrance, of when each other was their most trusted one, the beloved hearts to which the world came second. This could not be changed, even if memory failed or even history were to be erased.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!” She cried, half a plea and half a challenge as her mind swore to tear his ribs to pieces, but her heart mourned for the loss of what could have been.
“I WANT, YOUR FUCKING HEART!” He snarled, as the mouths spoke with one voice for once, of the one that once was whole and loved the woman that was now his enemy. Each spike of pain relieved the knot of guilt and made it easier, made it bearable to endure the distance closed between the two again and again as they struggled to kill what has caused them the most pain.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
An eye was lost for the man and the blood dripped onto one of the woman’s own, a tear mixing with the sweat and disappearing as soon as it formed. There was more torn, with a curious hesitance and delicateness as the man felt and searched for something on the woman’s back, but soon the anger came back and so did the pain. It went on until it seemed the two would be lost forever in their entanglement, but as quickly as it started, the fight was over.
One breathed in when the other breathed out, with what senses they have left no longer caring about the other, simply taking in the world they lived in, with all of its terrible and beautiful majesty. What day of the week was it? What month? What year? Time played coy with all in the Retribution Fields, and in this case the two found themselves wishing that the time spent in this tussle wouldn’t have cost them much of anything. Five minutes, or two minutes, if the powers to be were willing.
Only five minutes had passed.
----------------------------------------
Two found two, side-by-side and barely clinging to life. One was a hogdragon, dim but kind; a loyal companion to all that would show it care. The other was a made thing; a bipedal, self-interested, capricious and greedy being. A moment passed before the crueler of the two broke character and started loading the drifter and the fallen bird onto the hogdragon’s back, taking its own spot right between the beast’s floppy ears.
With plodding steps, and one last look back, four left Blood Falls.