Shifting Shadows - Chapter 11

Ch. 11

“Mortal”

Halfy is now standing by my side. Zanir is looking out at the lake, his body ridged, but he is not running, or fleeing. As if he has forgotten he had no powers, no he is mortal and powerless.

“I traveled for days by myself and did not run into as many wicked creatures as I have with you two.” I hiss through clenched teeth.

Fucking shit. Honestly, other than the simple creatures, such as wisps, Ieles, or your typical fairytale fairies, a few trolls, and an Anhanga, the magical white stag, I didn’t come across too many things that usually fill people’s nightmares. Most of the night creatures did not dare to mess with me, but after meeting vampire man and taking his power…we have become magnetic…

Halfy. You need to guard him. And I know how disgusting that sounds and how much you’ll probably hate it, but for the clan, for mother, for me. We need any information we can get that can help prove my worth. The forest is changing, people are going missing…

I wonder if that is why some of the scouts haven’t been coming home, and they increased the roll names of new scouts. I snap out of my thoughts and continue…Creatures are being binded, and we need to figure out why. I am changing, too. Hopefully I can figure out why along this journey. This increasingly straining journey I have gotten tangled up in. We need to protect our clan, our people, our friends.

Halfy growls and his eyes skim at me. The water is now pounding against the shore. The creature is moving quickly through the water. Halfy for a moment, looks like he is pleading with me, that we could just run and continue into the forest. I cannot, not from this power. I can taste it in the air. Angry and strong. Burning through my nose, but at the same time it is wrong. Wrong like the Samca. It is too strong. Not to mention the way home is right past the creature that is surging through the water.

Halfy. Now.

Halfy snarls at me, his golden orange eyes requesting once more, before he grabs the remainder of Zanir’s shirt and drags him back into the trees. Zanir stumbles from the force of Halfy and glances back at me. His faces is holding too many emotions at once confusion, unknown, apprehension and then it is gone.

I am most definitely not a bat, or the little bat he likes to say, gross. I am so much more, more than that, even more than I like to admit, more than I have already admitted.

I am already at the edge of the water. Analyzing everything that I can take in. The smell, the visuals, the sounds, all senses buzzing through me. The center of the lake is nothing, but darkness as colossal shadows are rising from the water. Three moving parts, all in different directions. Each with a set of eyes, bright yellow eyes, staring towards us. Three heads, three necks, connecting to a giant body. I see the scales as water runs off the large body rising out of the lake. Ranges of blue and yellow scales shining. The sun is now moving into the sky. Why was this creature out? Why was it risking being exposed to the pure light of the sun? What does it want? I look over the creature now covering the mountain range that lies behind it. I feel my mind racing, searching, running through literature. All the books Oana made me study. There must be something. We had to have read something about such an enormous beast. I look back at the three heads… and then it clicks. It is a dragon. A damn Balaur dragon.

No wonder it did not care about the rising sun. A three-headed violent water dragon. Why was it in a lake? In the endless forest? Not in the commanding sea along the coast. Balaurs are known to take down ships and feast on the crews, leaving just the bones of the ship at the bottom of the ocean. I wonder for a brief second if the people of Uscia have ever been able to ride a Balaur. Although this one doesn’t seem like it wants to be tamed. I see the gills and fins that lay along each side of the long necks of the beast. I am not surprised it was triggered by our presence thinking about it, the screaming of the Samca, Halfy in the water, me in my true form washing off all the blood. Or maybe it was because of Zanir babbling into the unknown about our dealings, my own dealings. He really does talk too much. Either way, I am in its sights, we are in its sights. Big mistake my dragon friend. You picked the wrong girl, the wrong woman. I cannot allow a Balaur to remain this close to the human village, and even this close to my clan. Damn it, fucking damn it.

I take in everything, every inch, every moment. I feel the feral instinct knocking on my mental doors. The Balaur’s eyes, all its eyes, focus, and pick me out of the fading darkness.

Shit.

The Balaur roars out of each mouth, hundreds of pale sharp teeth gleaming as the skies starts to turn into dark purples and pinks behind it. The Balaur’s wings stretch and flap causing rips of waves in my direction, capable of knocking this form completely out. The feral instinct is pounding and clawing at my mental doors. I close my eyes. I kick the doors open and wide, the walls down, everything down, opening to anything, and for the feral power inside of me to consume the space within my skull, my mind.

Oh, Lady Mihaela…. What an honor to be allowed out yet again… Kiza purrs through me; I hear the sound echoing through my head. Oh, what a sight…Hmm…May need to fight a dragon with a dragon. I doubt you have any dragon bane…. A chuckle runs through my skull, down my skin. Echoing through my bones. Shit. This, this is why I prefer to be ALONE.

 I take a deep breath, and open my eyes again, yellow glows above my cheeks. I roar into the night, as my face begins to change, my arms, my legs, my body, into a mirror image of the beast that lays before me.

I faintly hear a howl in the trees behind me. Halfy is far enough away with Zanir, but close enough to keep me in his sights. My beast. My precious guardian, no matter what, our bond keeps me sane, mostly.

I feel my body rip into scales, fins, gills, and wings. My bones are cracking and forming into new shapes. Long necks develop from my shoulders, biting at the air as they appear. My form, this form, is power, but with me in control it is energy, it is a force. I have only once before transformed into a dragon species, and its…raw and the definition of pure power. It makes sense why many try to use them as weapons and why the people of Uscia have learned to ride them.

I roar into the night, my other two heads following suit. The trees shake behind me. It bellows into the mountain range. Mother knows now for sure. The Balaur stops, the middle head tilting slightly and then it starts flapping its powerful wings, moving quickly. I am in its sights, and it is coming…to me. Gusts left in their wake after each flap of their wings, waves crashing back to the mountain ranges with each movement. Its wingspan is at least seventy-five feet if I had to guess. Thankfully Balaurs are not the largest of the dragon species, but that does not mean it can’t do some destruction. Water fleeing off the Balaur’s body as it moves. I roar into the air again, challenging this Balaur, before using my new intense wings to fly and dive into the water. Come for me if you can, but you will have to fight for it, fight with everything you have.

Balaurs are aquatic dragons, they thrive in the water, and I will use that to my advantage. As soon as my face is under the water, I feel the water passing over the gills on my neck. Water replaces the air that filled my lungs before. Being able to see out of six eyes would make any mere mortal vomit, but not me, not quite yet anyway. I trace the bottom of the lake, way deeper than it appears, but I should not be surprised with being a lake in the endless forest. Where was this Balaur hiding? That Halfy himself missed such a giant beast while in the depths of the lake. Large cave systems fill the bottom, faint fae lights flicker from the entrances of one of the caves. That is not normal. What is going on down there?

I start in that direction while using my other two dragon heads to watch in front of me and behind me. A surge is felt through me, one of the dragon heads is looking up above the water surface, so clear with these yellow eyes. The Balaur is about to dive towards us. With the force of the wings now on my back I push myself backwards barely missing the impact of the Balaur. It launches itself through the water. One of the dragon heads attached to me, starts ripping its teeth through the wings on the Balaur as it passes. Copper, Iron, and darkness fill my own mouth, fill the water around us. The Balaur roars under the water, thousands of bubbles rising to the water surface. Its heads snapping in my direction. My wings thundering through the water backing away. My own two dragon heads snapping their jaws back at them. I run into something, something hard. Part of the mountain was hidden in the depths of the lake. I feel my wings twist into it, and my back rings down with aches from the impact. The ground shakes from it.

Snapping of jaws rings as my other dragon heads reach for the Balaur as it comes barreling toward me. I feel teeth sinking into one of the dragon heads attached to me, and a roar comes out of me, out of the depth of my soul. I feel the feral instinct slam into the side of my skull, my mind…

Let me in, completely…NOW. Kiza screams, demands, in my ears. Echoing through me.

I feel my eyes flash and everything, every part of me turns feral, untamed, savage. While one of the Balaur heads biting into one of my own, I turn and rip into it. I use my wings to engulf around the Balaur, making it difficult to move from me, my attack, my need, my thirst. Tearing through scales, through gills, through bones. I feel the cracking against my fangs and then weightlessness. One of the Balaur heads falls from my mouth, down into the depth of the lake, its yellow eyes only filled with blackness as it continues down the depth. I was taught if you are going to go for the kill, make it count. So far, my head count, or throat count is three tonight.

The screams of the Balaur rip through the water causing powerful waves to form up top. The Balaur thrashes within my wings and snaps at my throat. Bubbles filling the voids of their screams. I launch another attack on one of the remaining Balaur’s heads. My fangs ripping through it, twisting, and pulling. The Balaur with every ounce of might it has left pushes against me with its legs, kicking into my chest. It breaks my grasp and immediately swims to the water surface. Strong, forceful movements. I am now the one snapping, my teeth crashing into and through anything I can reach, at its legs, its stomach, its wings. Anything within reach of the hundreds of teeth that fills my mouth, the taste of copper blood gushing around them with each cracking of my jaws and the smell of iron filling my nose. Murderous animal instincts coursing through my veins, through my mind, through this form. The Balaur cries trying to reach the water surface. The lake water is turning into a dark cloudy maroon liquid. The Balaur breaks the water surface and the head I ripped off, the head I gnawed into…is dangling down it’s body, only hanging on by some loose ligaments. Blood, blood is everywhere running down its body back into the vast lake below.

Once I break through the water surface, I feel the blood raining off the Balaur, showering every part of me. Red drops fall on my body until my blue Balaur form is bright red. I instinctively lick the edges of the massive fangs that fill my mouth and a smile creep past them. Which probably looks terrifying as a fucking dragon.

The Balaur limps through the air. Chunks missing from its stomach and legs. Its wings, the membranes torn and left in pieces. Much like Zanir’s tunic after running from Halfy into the trees. As the Balaur flaps into the sky, blood runs down its body, leaving a trail of its departure. A black mark is almost hidden as the blood flows from its now missing heads. A rune…a binding rune. The one remaining Balaur head screams into the air. The sound traveling through the air for miles, and miles. Shaking everything in its path. The sun is peaking past the horizon now. Pinks and oranges start to fill through the skies. In what seems like mere seconds the Balaur is past the mountain range. Out of my sight, like it was never there to begin with. The red lake below says otherwise.

I feel my veins pulsing along my skin, the feral instinct I let course through me. That I let walk through my mental doors and take over.

I make it back to the shoreline before my body falls to the ground. My form changing, bones snapping back into place, my mind still raging. I feel the thud of the ground against me. As if that pushes everything back into place, but I manage to crawl unto my hands and knees. Every part of me, shaking under my own weight.

I hear a faint whisper in my head…You are always in control…I snarl at the thought and then wince as my body rings with agony. I slam down all my mental walls, every door slamming, with whatever force I have left in me.

I manage to crawl onto my hands and knees. My lungs shaking within, grasping at the air, trying to fill where there was once water, coughing replaces breathing. My hair clings to my face, my neck, my back. Balaur blood has stained my entire body red. Pieces of fabric are all that lay across me. Shit. I can sense Halfy before he arrives, Zanir following closely behind him, their smell burning into my nostrils, the earthiness and mint. The beast is still raging inside of me, but the walls remain quiet. Zanir’s eyes move to me, from my face to my red stained skin.

“What did…” I try to say between coughing fits and gasping breaths, “I say about looking at me… without permission.”  A tangy taste of iron moves across my teeth. A warm sensation runs down the side of my neck. My knees start to buckle under the weight of trying to hold me up. As if they snapped, I experience nimbleness.

Halfy is all I see at first his white giant paws glittering in the increasing sunlight, but its arms I sense around me. A slight chill as our skin touches, but heat moves across. I can feel the stickiness of the blood that coats me as hands move across me, across my waist and spinning me slowly to my back. Laying me down against the sand. I can feel the feral claws caressing my mental doors again. No. My breaths coming out more as wheezes now. I feel the tenderness moving from my neck down my shoulders, and feel, my blood moving, dripping to the sand below me. My clothes are drenched with the gore of what happened or at least what is left of my clothes.

Blood is everywhere. I wheeze again, breathing is becoming increasingly more difficult. All the water is gone, but heat is taking its place, blood, my blood, but I feel cold…I feel my body shift and twist and then a hand reaches for my throat, applying pressure.

“No weapons, but you… and you’re hurt… so I think I have good chances…” so faint it is almost hidden by the small breeze.

The sun is now reaching the first peak of the Zis mountain ranges. The sky is turning blue and bright. Zanir’s face shining now as the sunlight touches it. Every sharp edge coming out of the shadows. When was the last time he saw a sunrise? Felt the sunlight along his skin? Vampires can’t be in the sunlight, right? My head feels like it is in a different realm of existence…

My eyes glance at him. Blood filling them quickly as blood continues to drip off me, from me. Too much blood.  His cerulean eyes staring at me, fully, brighter than I have ever seen them. No flame, just light. Looking me over, at my injuries. I am covered in blood, the Balaur’s blood, my blood, copper tasting blood. I wonder if any of his vampire needs linger…

I feel drops, like rain. The rain clouds have finally reached us. To wash me of this horror, the gore, my beast.

“Does this answer your question?”  I wince. My eyes flicker and the sunlight is no longer shining. The rain is no longer falling. Darkness engulfs everything.

We fight good together. It is a shame you keep shutting me out … shutting yourself out…the beast purrs as the walls fall. Sleep well Lady Mihaela.

Ch. 11 Mortal Halfy is now standing by my side. Zanir is looking out at the lake, his body ridged, but he is not running, or fleeing. As if he has forgotten he had no powers, no he is mortal and powerless. I traveled for days by myself and did not run into as many wicked creatures as I have with you two. I hiss through clenched teeth. Fucking shit. Honestly, other than the simple creatures, such as wisps, Ieles, or your typical fairytale fairies, a few trolls, and an Anhanga, the magical white stag, I didn't come across too many things that usually fill people's nightmares. Most of the night creatures did not dare to mess with me, but after meeting vampire man and taking his powerwe have become magnetic Halfy. You need to guard him. And I know how disgusting that sounds and how much you'll probably hate it, but for the clan, for mother, for me. We need any information we can get that can help prove my worth. The forest is changing, people are going missing I wonder if that is why some of the scouts haven't been coming home, and they increased the roll names of new scouts. I snap out of my thoughts and continueCreatures are being binded, and we need to figure out why. I am changing, too. Hopefully I can figure out why along this journey. This increasingly straining journey I have gotten tangled up in. We need to protect our clan, our people, our friends. Halfy growls and his eyes skim at me. The water is now pounding against the shore. The creature is moving quickly through the water. Halfy for a moment, looks like he is pleading with me, that we could just run and continue into the forest. I cannot, not from this power. I can taste it in the air. Angry and strong. Burning through my nose, but at the same time it is wrong. Wrong like the Samca. It is too strong. Not to mention the way home is right past the creature that is surging through the water. Halfy. Now. Halfy snarls at me, his golden orange eyes requesting once more, before he grabs the remainder of Zanir's shirt and drags him back into the trees. Zanir stumbles from the force of Halfy and glances back at me. His faces is holding too many emotions at once confusion, unknown, apprehension and then it is gone. I am most definitely not a bat, or the little bat he likes to say, gross. I am so much more, more than that, even more than I like to admit, more than I have already admitted. I am already at the edge of the water. Analyzing everything that I can take in. The smell, the visuals, the sounds, all senses buzzing through me. The center of the lake is nothing, but darkness as colossal shadows are rising from the water. Three moving parts, all in different directions. Each with a set of eyes, bright yellow eyes, staring towards us. Three heads, three necks, connecting to a giant body. I see the scales as water runs off the large body rising out of the lake. Ranges of blue and yellow scales shining. The sun is now moving into the sky. Why was this creature out? Why was it risking being exposed to the pure light of the sun? What does it want? I look over the creature now covering the mountain range that lies behind it. I feel my mind racing, searching, running through literature. All the books Oana made me study. There must be something. We had to have read something about such an enormous beast. I look back at the three heads and then it clicks. It is a dragon. A damn Balaur dragon. No wonder it did not care about the rising sun. A three-headed violent water dragon. Why was it in a lake? In the endless forest? Not in the commanding sea along the coast. Balaurs are known to take down ships and feast on the crews, leaving just the bones of the ship at the bottom of the ocean. I wonder for a brief second if the people of Uscia have ever been able to ride a Balaur. Although this one doesn't seem like it wants to be tamed. I see the gills and fins that lay along each side of the long necks of the beast. I am not surprised it was triggered by our presence thinking about it, the screaming of the Samca, Halfy in the water, me in my true form washing off all the blood. Or maybe it was because of Zanir babbling into the unknown about our dealings, my own dealings. He really does talk too much. Either way, I am in its sights, we are in its sights. Big mistake my dragon friend. You picked the wrong girl, the wrong woman. I cannot allow a Balaur to remain this close to the human village, and even this close to my clan. Damn it, fucking damn it. I take in everything, every inch, every moment. I feel the feral instinct knocking on my mental doors. The Balaur's eyes, all its eyes, focus, and pick me out of the fading darkness. Shit. The Balaur roars out of each mouth, hundreds of pale sharp teeth gleaming as the skies starts to turn into dark purples and pinks behind it. The Balaur's wings stretch and flap causing rips of waves in my direction, capable of knocking this form completely out. The feral instinct is pounding and clawing at my mental doors. I close my eyes. I kick the doors open and wide, the walls down, everything down, opening to anything, and for the feral power inside of me to consume the space within my skull, my mind. Oh, Lady Mihaela. What an honor to be allowed out yet again Kiza purrs through me; I hear the sound echoing through my head. Oh, what a sightHmmMay need to fight a dragon with a dragon. I doubt you have any dragon bane. A chuckle runs through my skull, down my skin. Echoing through my bones. Shit. This, this is why I prefer to be ALONE. I take a deep breath, and open my eyes again, yellow glows above my cheeks. I roar into the night, as my face begins to change, my arms, my legs, my body, into a mirror image of the beast that lays before me. I faintly hear a howl in the trees behind me. Halfy is far enough away with Zanir, but close enough to keep me in his sights. My beast. My precious guardian, no matter what, our bond keeps me sane, mostly. I feel my body rip into scales, fins, gills, and wings. My bones are cracking and forming into new shapes. Long necks develop from my shoulders, biting at the air as they appear. My form, this form, is power, but with me in control it is energy, it is a force. I have only once before transformed into a dragon species, and itsraw and the definition of pure power. It makes sense why many try to use them as weapons and why the people of Uscia have learned to ride them. I roar into the night, my other two heads following suit. The trees shake behind me. It bellows into the mountain range. Mother knows now for sure. The Balaur stops, the middle head tilting slightly and then it starts flapping its powerful wings, moving quickly. I am in its sights, and it is comingto me. Gusts left in their wake after each flap of their wings, waves crashing back to the mountain ranges with each movement. Its wingspan is at least seventy-five feet if I had to guess. Thankfully Balaurs are not the largest of the dragon species, but that does not mean it can't do some destruction. Water fleeing off the Balaur's body as it moves. I roar into the air again, challenging this Balaur, before using my new intense wings to fly and dive into the water. Come for me if you can, but you will have to fight for it, fight with everything you have. Balaurs are aquatic dragons, they thrive in the water, and I will use that to my advantage. As soon as my face is under the water, I feel the water passing over the gills on my neck. Water replaces the air that filled my lungs before. Being able to see out of six eyes would make any mere mortal vomit, but not me, not quite yet anyway. I trace the bottom of the lake, way deeper than it appears, but I should not be surprised with being a lake in the endless forest. Where was this Balaur hiding? That Halfy himself missed such a giant beast while in the depths of the lake. Large cave systems fill the bottom, faint fae lights flicker from the entrances of one of the caves. That is not normal. What is going on down there? I start in that direction while using my other two dragon heads to watch in front of me and behind me. A surge is felt through me, one of the dragon heads is looking up above the water surface, so clear with these yellow eyes. The Balaur is about to dive towards us. With the force of the wings now on my back I push myself backwards barely missing the impact of the Balaur. It launches itself through the water. One of the dragon heads attached to me, starts ripping its teeth through the wings on the Balaur as it passes. Copper, Iron, and darkness fill my own mouth, fill the water around us. The Balaur roars under the water, thousands of bubbles rising to the water surface. Its heads snapping in my direction. My wings thundering through the water backing away. My own two dragon heads snapping their jaws back at them. I run into something, something hard. Part of the mountain was hidden in the depths of the lake. I feel my wings twist into it, and my back rings down with aches from the impact. The ground shakes from it. Snapping of jaws rings as my other dragon heads reach for the Balaur as it comes barreling toward me. I feel teeth sinking into one of the dragon heads attached to me, and a roar comes out of me, out of the depth of my soul. I feel the feral instinct slam into the side of my skull, my mind Let me in, completelyNOW. Kiza screams, demands, in my ears. Echoing through me. I feel my eyes flash and everything, every part of me turns feral, untamed, savage. While one of the Balaur heads biting into one of my own, I turn and rip into it. I use my wings to engulf around the Balaur, making it difficult to move from me, my attack, my need, my thirst. Tearing through scales, through gills, through bones. I feel the cracking against my fangs and then weightlessness. One of the Balaur heads falls from my mouth, down into the depth of the lake, its yellow eyes only filled with blackness as it continues down the depth. I was taught if you are going to go for the kill, make it count. So far, my head count, or throat count is three tonight. The screams of the Balaur rip through the water causing powerful waves to form up top. The Balaur thrashes within my wings and snaps at my throat. Bubbles filling the voids of their screams. I launch another attack on one of the remaining Balaur's heads. My fangs ripping through it, twisting, and pulling. The Balaur with every ounce of might it has left pushes against me with its legs, kicking into my chest. It breaks my grasp and immediately swims to the water surface. Strong, forceful movements. I am now the one snapping, my teeth crashing into and through anything I can reach, at its legs, its stomach, its wings. Anything within reach of the hundreds of teeth that fills my mouth, the taste of copper blood gushing around them with each cracking of my jaws and the smell of iron filling my nose. Murderous animal instincts coursing through my veins, through my mind, through this form. The Balaur cries trying to reach the water surface. The lake water is turning into a dark cloudy maroon liquid. The Balaur breaks the water surface and the head I ripped off, the head I gnawed intois dangling down it's body, only hanging on by some loose ligaments. Blood, blood is everywhere running down its body back into the vast lake below. Once I break through the water surface, I feel the blood raining off the Balaur, showering every part of me. Red drops fall on my body until my blue Balaur form is bright red. I instinctively lick the edges of the massive fangs that fill my mouth and a smile creep past them. Which probably looks terrifying as a fucking dragon. The Balaur limps through the air. Chunks missing from its stomach and legs. Its wings, the membranes torn and left in pieces. Much like Zanir's tunic after running from Halfy into the trees. As the Balaur flaps into the sky, blood runs down its body, leaving a trail of its departure. A black mark is almost hidden as the blood flows from its now missing heads. A runea binding rune. The one remaining Balaur head screams into the air. The sound traveling through the air for miles, and miles. Shaking everything in its path. The sun is peaking past the horizon now. Pinks and oranges start to fill through the skies. In what seems like mere seconds the Balaur is past the mountain range. Out of my sight, like it was never there to begin with. The red lake below says otherwise. I feel my veins pulsing along my skin, the feral instinct I let course through me. That I let walk through my mental doors and take over. I make it back to the shoreline before my body falls to the ground. My form changing, bones snapping back into place, my mind still raging. I feel the thud of the ground against me. As if that pushes everything back into place, but I manage to crawl unto my hands and knees. Every part of me, shaking under my own weight. I hear a faint whisper in my headYou are always in controlI snarl at the thought and then wince as my body rings with agony. I slam down all my mental walls, every door slamming, with whatever force I have left in me. I manage to crawl onto my hands and knees. My lungs shaking within, grasping at the air, trying to fill where there was once water, coughing replaces breathing. My hair clings to my face, my neck, my back. Balaur blood has stained my entire body red. Pieces of fabric are all that lay across me. Shit. I can sense Halfy before he arrives, Zanir following closely behind him, their smell burning into my nostrils, the earthiness and mint. The beast is still raging inside of me, but the walls remain quiet. Zanir's eyes move to me, from my face to my red stained skin. What did I try to say between coughing fits and gasping breaths, I say about looking at me without permission. A tangy taste of iron moves across my teeth. A warm sensation runs down the side of my neck. My knees start to buckle under the weight of trying to hold me up. As if they snapped, I experience nimbleness. Halfy is all I see at first his white giant paws glittering in the increasing sunlight, but its arms I sense around me. A slight chill as our skin touches, but heat moves across. I can feel the stickiness of the blood that coats me as hands move across me, across my waist and spinning me slowly to my back. Laying me down against the sand. I can feel the feral claws caressing my mental doors again. No. My breaths coming out more as wheezes now. I feel the tenderness moving from my neck down my shoulders, and feel, my blood moving, dripping to the sand below me. My clothes are drenched with the gore of what happened or at least what is left of my clothes. Blood is everywhere. I wheeze again, breathing is becoming increasingly more difficult. All the water is gone, but heat is taking its place, blood, my blood, but I feel coldI feel my body shift and twist and then a hand reaches for my throat, applying pressure. No weapons, but you and you're hurt so I think I have good chances so faint it is almost hidden by the small breeze. The sun is now reaching the first peak of the Zis mountain ranges. The sky is turning blue and bright. Zanir's face shining now as the sunlight touches it. Every sharp edge coming out of the shadows. When was the last time he saw a sunrise? Felt the sunlight along his skin? Vampires can't be in the sunlight, right? My head feels like it is in a different realm of existence My eyes glance at him. Blood filling them quickly as blood continues to drip off me, from me. Too much blood. His cerulean eyes staring at me, fully, brighter than I have ever seen them. No flame, just light. Looking me over, at my injuries. I am covered in blood, the Balaur's blood, my blood, copper tasting blood. I wonder if any of his vampire needs linger I feel drops, like rain. The rain clouds have finally reached us. To wash me of this horror, the gore, my beast. Does this answer your question? I wince. My eyes flicker and the sunlight is no longer shining. The rain is no longer falling. Darkness engulfs everything. We fight good together. It is a shame you keep shutting me out shutting yourself outthe beast purrs as the walls fall. Sleep well Lady Mihaela.