Cabrin sat shifting uncomfortably in his seat by the fire as Akane eyed him, amused by his apparent stress. His head jerked to the side as he heard the ringing of metal momentarily interrupt the steady sound of grinding behind him. He grumbled as he watched the forge master sitting at the grinding wheel. The hilt of his katana could be seen sticking out to one side of the old man’s wide shoulders as a shower of sparks danced upon the cobblestone.
“It’s going to be fine, Kaburin-kun.” Akane assured him cheerfully in their own language. “Don’t worry so much or your face will get stuck like that.”
Cabrin tried his best to relax, but winced when he heard his blade skip on the grinding wheel for the fifth time. “These barbarians don’t know how to handle our weapons.”
“I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.” She said. Cabrin only gumbled in response.
Like most rangers, Cabrin kept all of his possessions on his person at all times. This included his whetstone, which had been lost in the fight against the Nest Mother.
The Nest Mother. His brows only grew more furrowed as he remembered that night. In their travels across the wide world between the Shogunates of Asu and the continent of Ereb, he and Akane had heard rumors of what lay within the nests from where the Chimera spawned, but never had they encountered such horror as what they had faced that night first-hand.
As the two of them had tried desperately to pierce the resilient carapace of the Nest Mother to no avail, he had wondered if that would be the end of him. He had wondered if he had finally entered a fight that the two of them would not walk away from, but nothing compared to the hole that opened up in his chest when he watched Sera disappear over the edge of the piled carcasses with that terrible creature in pursuit.
Cabrin had gone his entire life not believing in the legends that the elders told of Celeste. Perhaps she did exist at one time, but he had given himself to believing that Celeste had simply been an inspiring figure. Nothing more, nothing less. He had believed that any mention of her return was nothing more than stories told to children so that they would be able to hold some hope that the world would not be lost to the hordes of Chimera who roamed the wilderness.
If meeting Sera had led him to believe in the truth of the old legends; of angels and demons and the magic that they wielded, then seeing her drop into the abyss with the Nest Mother in tow had brought his soul to a far worse place than it had been before he became a believer. If he or even Akane, as much as he loved her, were to fall in battle, then nothing of value would really be lost from the world. But if Sera were to perish, it would surely mean the loss of the world itself.
Now he knew the truth. Now he knew that if something were to happen to her, then the light of Celeste would be gone, possibly for another thousand years. That was a time for which the world could not afford to wait. Without Sera, all hope was lost.
It had taken them over an hour to find rope with enough length to lower them into the underground ravine, an hour longer before they managed to come to the place where Sera had made her final stand. He remembered the feeling of awe when they had stumbled upon the steaming corpse of the Nest Mother and the immense relief he felt when he found her laying outside of the crevice where she had escaped the cave. But as he saw her body beaten and torn, as he saw the look in her one good eye as she crawled into his embrace, he feared that Sera would never be the same again.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Cabrin paid no attention as the forge master skipped his blade on the grinding wheel once more behind him. His mind was too immersed in worry for Sera now. As he looked up to the window of the room where he knew she layed recovering from that terrifying night, he wondered how much of her was still left in that cave.
----------------------------------------
It had been over a week since Sera had barely escaped with her life after having destroyed the Nest Mother. In that time, she hadn’t left the bed she had been given. The room around her once belonged to a man of some importance who had perished in the Chimeras’ sacking of the city. The bed was comfortable and the covers were cozy, but they were wasted on her. In her mind, all Sera could feel was the hard stone floor digging into her back with the Nest Mother’s hot rancid breath as her blanket.
When she had been brought there, Chilse and Akane saw to it that she was cleaned and her wounds dressed. Since that time, her friends frequently visited her. Some would talk about how the kingdom had been saved by her actions and of how the extermination of Chimera was going. Others simply held her hand as she wept, reliving the nightmares that she had faced in the cave.
It was nearly noon when she stirred for the first time since she had been brought back to the garrison which had served as the resistance’s base of operations. Her breath was shaky as she rolled over to sit at the edge of the bed, her feet trembled as they reached for the floor. On wobbling legs she slowly made her way over to the tall mirror which adorned the corner of the room.
She looked at the reflection as the oversized gown she had been dressed in slid off of her shoulders and pooled round her feet. The cuts on her face had vanished, the swelling in her left eye was all but gone. The various scrapes and bruises which had covered her body were nearly completely healed and the gashes that had been left across her arms and legs were now little more than scabs. Her body was healing, but it would be some time before her mind followed suit.
She slowly dressed herself in the clothes which had been left folded neatly on a nearby chair before going out of the room and walking woodenly down the hall. The floorboards creaked loudly in the silence. The wing where she stayed had been reserved for officers, those who had not perished were likely out performing their duties. She was alone.
Her stomach growled as she made her way towards the stairs which led to the courtyard, she had barely eaten since having come here, but before searching for food, Sera desperately wanted to see her friends. As she stepped out onto the cobblestone with bare feet, her view passed over the busy men and women as they carried on in their various activities.
Chilse and John bickered teasingly as they lounged nearby, Akane sat poking at a fire with a whimsically distant look on her face, and Cabrin stood scrutinizing the blade of his katana with the forge master standing next to him with a sour expression. A moment passed before a man looked up and saw her standing there before rising up from where he sat, shouting loudly as he announced her appearance.
Sera stared blankly as she was swept up on the shoulders of twenty or so men and women who cheered for her.
“Celeste, the hero of Volknest!” They cried. “Celeste, slayer of the Nest Mother! Celeste, savior of mankind!”
Cabrin and Akane rushed to her. Chilse berated the men who held her aloft and ordered them to let her down. The celebrating crowd did so but the songs of praise continued on.
“Celeste, downfall of Sephra!”
Sera put on a smile for them. It was a weak smile, but it was all she could manage. They looked to her for hope and they needed that hope, but they cheered for her as Celeste. They didn’t truly know what she faced in the darkness beneath their castle. She was no Celeste. Not yet.
“Cabrin.” She managed to get out in the midst of the jubilation around her. “I need to get to Bastion.”