“This shiny blade?” Mogh so caustically asked, shoving William away. “Not a chance!”
Like the nightmare couldn’t get any worse, he then howled out and, as sure as can be, the thick carpet of flame began bubbling towards William again. Restlessly, he shifted.
Then, “Fetch some sacks, you lot!” he ordered, going over Muxzer’s head again, but they did as they were told, whereas Muxzer tried to make out like it was all his idea by adding in a, “And be quick about it! There should be some left back at camp! Bring as many as you can. I’ll see to this Noddy here.”
“The one time you’ve actually come in useful!” scowled Mogh, holding his arm in place. “Now yank it out. No messin’.”
“Wake up, Stell.” the lad begged, nudging the Elf with his foot. “Wake up! I’ve lost my bloody sword and I need help.”
He didn’t move. William then spotted the flask by Stell’s arm, so he snatched it up, removed the cap with his teeth, and doused a good lot of it over both the Elf and Pew.
At last, Stell regained consciousness. The water worked. Using his bow as a crutch, the Elf hobbled upright and looked wearily about to see what was going on. Pew awoke after, and adopted the duty of waking the others up whilst the Glogs remained distracted.
Not feeling so alone anymore, the lad looked at Stell and smirked, “Am I glad you’re alive!”
“Maybe so,” the Elf whispered, barely able to stand, “but…for how long?! In fact, I’m not sure if I’m all that glad you woke me up now, considering. And where’s your sword?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” the lad stressed. “It’s after getting stuck in that Glog’s arm there. See!”
“Oh!” gasped the Elf, just then spotting Thérn, and in tilting his head awkwardly, he deliberated, “That’s…um….that’s…”
“…a pickle?” William proposed.
“I’ll say.” said the Elf. “Suggestions?”
“One.” whispered William. “I need ye to get out o’ here. Climb through that hole there and make for the other side. Do it quietly, while they’re not looking.”
With complete disapproval, Stell whispered back, “That’s not a suggestion. That’s you planning suicide! Need I remind you of what happened the last time you tried something like this?”
“Don’t worry. I may be the last out by the time I snatch Thérn back, but at least we won’t have to worry about anyone else. I’ll be fine. Now hurry up. Please! I need you all out o’ here.”
Meanwhile, Khrum was so delirious that he kept trying to climb up William’s leg, but he just slid down every time, like a dozy little squirrel on a greasy post. Grumbling incoherently in the process, he was so disorientated that he could but question as to why he wasn’t getting anywhere. William assisted him before he could do himself any serious injury, or kick up a fuss.
The others were just as doubtful of themselves as he. Yet a simple state of delirium was a much better prospect than the alternative of being burnt alive, or being marched into the clutches of their dark adversary, for that matter. Thus grateful of their fair fortune, they soon regained their wits.
As Muxzer and Mogh kept working on the stubborn sword, William pointed out the gap, and said, “Come on, all o’ you! Squeeze through here. It can only fit one at a time, so hurry.”
“What about you?” asked Icrick, having missed out on the boy’s plan.
“I’ll be grand.” said William. “I’ll follow ye in. But first I need to get my sword back.”
“Well, let us help you.”
Afraid of putting their lives in any more danger, when he thought he’d lost all of them but minutes ago, William exclaimed, “No! This was my doing! So I’m going to get it back. There’s no time to argue. Follow Stell.”
Ever jaded and befuddled, Icrick crammed through first. William passed Khrum through next, and Pew followed with Stell thereafter. They had almost all found sanctuary. Almost.
Wren was about to go in next.
But in remembering what she’d said to him earlier at death’s door, William stopped her, and said, “Wren! I just want to say…”
Distracted by the stress of the moment, he faltered. But he had to tell her before it was too late. In case he didn’t make it out of there alive. It was now or never. He had to explain, if only in a nutshell, how bad he felt for the way he’d be treating her of late. How he understood that she may have had her skeletons, but those were her own business, and that he knew she was trying to make up for it.
Just as he was about to reveal all, the unthinkable stopped him.
Finally relinquishing to the intensity of those crying flames, the hissing steel jerked so loudly that it vented a terrible boom.
“WREN!” William yelled out. “NO!”
The gates were giving in. Not much at first, but enough to clamp down on her poor leg.
In fright, she cried out, “WILLIAM! MY LEG! IT’S STUCK!”
Muxzer turned and snarled, “Our sleepin’ beauties have fled, I see. What is it with you people ‘n’ runnin’ off all the time? What harm. We’ll catch them quick enough through the pass. We have who we need for now. An’ even if we don’t find the others, somethin’ else in Lór will! Don’t forget your whereabouts, boy.”
Angry and scared, William screamed back, “I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!”
Muxzer laughed it right back into his face, and returned his attention to Thérn. It was wedged in so tightly that the Glogs were growing more and more impatient. Anything their size would. It was embarrassing. But their two prize captives were going nowhere, so they could afford to take their time.
Those metallic panels proceeded to bend and screech, swell and soften. Even through the powers which safeguarded them, those gates could not withstand the amount of destruction which had befallen them that night. But how devastating it was for them to collapse now, in this crucial moment.
Behind the gates Icrick, Khrum, Stell and Pew (none of whom had fled) strained to help with Wren’s escape. By utter chance, the Poppum detected something of a prosperous find. He had been sniffing about and knocking on things, when he spotted it.
A result of that ever pulsating metal, a flap of steel by their feet was raising slowly upwards the hotter it got. This presented Wren and William with a secondary route of escape, should he reclaim his weapon and Wren squirm free.
“Wren, we’re goin’ ta try ‘n’ ease your leg back through.” Khrum explained, wishing to appear calm, when really he was terribly anxious. “There’s another way through at the bottom, so ye can still make it through safely! We’ll try ‘n’ make it as painless as possible, right! But, at the same time, we’re gonna have ta be quick about it. Time’s against us. Ready, ye guys?”
“Just do what you have to!” William said, who was already having a hard enough time as it was, worrying about Glogs, too.
Without hurting her, but without squandering any more valuable time, they continued to manipulate her leg. But it wasn’t going to be as easy as they first presumed.
What started out as ginger movements swiftly elevated into a frantic shoving as they wrestled to get her free, but nothing was working. The iron was clamped so tightly that it wasn’t showing any signs of letting up.
Outnumbered by Glogs and enfeebled by the oncoming lava, the two younglings didn’t stand a chance, and only one of them was willing to face up to that truth. Alas, she stopped fighting and, giving over to defeat, she sailed out into a mind afar.
“You shouldn’t have come back for us, William,” she whispered in a carefree way, like she was no longer afraid. “You should have kept moving. But, it’s not too late. You can still make it, William. Leave me. You go.”
“Don’t be so stupid!” the lad disputed. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Losing her patience, she shook his arm, and said, “Stop being so stubborn and listen to me, for once in your bloody life! I’ve gone as far as I’m going to go with you, William. But it wasn’t time wasted, because you have shown
me things that I never thought I would see. You’ve given me hope. You’ve given us hope. And for me to live long enough to know that this world still stands a chance of freedom, is all I ever wanted. Now do as I say for once. Go with the others. They need you. Please, William!”
Despite his conflictions, it aggrieved him so very much to hear her speaking like this; vulnerable and accepting an early end. He knew, deep down, that he didn’t have the heart to desert her. There was no way he would have been able to simply pick up and ‘walk away’ like she’d asked him to. It then became clear to him.
Misgivings and all, he desired, more than anything, to have her by his side till the bitter end. He didn’t care about anything else. He just wanted her there, because it wouldn’t have been the same otherwise. Such behaviour is not uncommon when newfound feelings of perpetual joy, devotion, angst and, occasionally fear, are involved. But these feelings, these strange and novel sensations—whilst they may seem clear to you—had yet to be truly deciphered by William, irrespective of whether or not he had any clues, at that point in time, as to what they may have truly meant.
“I’m not going anywhere without you.” he contended, but he appeared so upset, and Wren could see it.
She regarded him with sympathy, as his once untiring self now addressed her with a swell in his throat.
“J-Just hold tight!” he whimpered. “We’ll have you freed in no time. Now, on the count of three, we’ll both pull and get you free. Understand? One…two…three!”
She played along with his effort, but she knew, without question, that it wasn’t going to work. Again they tried; then again, and one more time after that. The desolation upon William’s face was absolutely heart-breaking for her. So upsetting that she could not allow him to keep up hope.
With that, she whispered, “William…”
Ignoring her, he kept trying to free her leg.
Delicately, she repeated, “William.”
Conscious, somehow, of the reason in her tone, he halted, but he wasn’t able to look her in the eye.
“My time is over now, William,” she explained. “I’m sorry, but we need to accept it.”
“NO!” he vented angrily. “IT’S NOT OVER! NOT YET!”
In the wish to invoke his power from within, he tried to manipulate the gates like before. This, he did, without triumph. His grief had disrupted him, and he simply could not focus. He tried it a second time, then a third, and a fourth, but he wasn’t able to summon that power again.
“Why isn’t it working?” he sobbed angrily. “What the hell is going on? Why won’t Mysun help me? What’s he playing at? He gives me his strength one second, then he takes it away the next. What’s that about?”
As one’s love would do when comforting, Wren emitted a tender ‘hush.’ She then rested herself in his arms, and placed her forehead against William’s cheek, as he quailed in anguish for whatever tragedy was about to strike.
Amongst the anarchy of ruin, a closing whisper then drifted, like a rose through fire, over William’s being, replenishing his longings like a warm cloak.
Accepting her fate still, the girl uttered, “How we behave in the company of those whom we care so deeply about is a curious thing, is it not? The moods. The happiness. The bitterness. But they all amount to one thing, really. Don’t they? One feeling. A sensation that’s so real; so powerful. Like love.”
Stifling his sorrow, William snivelled and kidded, “Oh, what are you blathering on about now? Girly stuff again?”
“Can’t you tell?” she asked, regarding him, like his face would be the last she would ever see. “I think I’ve fallen in love with you, William.”
More dazzling than a summer’s sun, his eyes lit up. Had he only understood the real import behind his own feelings, to truly classify them, without any question whatsoever, he would have said, ‘I love you,’ in return. But that would have felt like too much of a goodbye, and he wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her yet, heedless of how much he wanted to say it back.
“I only wish I’d told you sooner,” she continued, “when we had more time. For I had so much to tell you, William. So many secrets that I needed to share with you and you alone.”
William was astonished by this apparent wish to confess. Her beautiful eyes captivated him all the more as they twinkled with a tear for everything she was about to lose, yet also for all those glorious things her precious homeland stood to gain.
He then asked, “You mean that? About your feelings? About wanting to share things with me?”
“My feelings were always there, William.” She smiled, and in an attempt to toy, she twinkled, “I’ve merely explained them to you now. Boys! Need to have everything written down for ye, don’t ye.”
“I guess,” he said and chortled, but anguish seeped through. “Don’t think I’ll ever understand girls. Especially weird ones, like you.”
The other Glogs came clomping in with ready sacks, and Wren went on to explain, “William, I needed the right moment for me to share other, more specific, particulars of my life with you. When it was just the two of us. No other time would do. Often I tried, but in light of our recent arguments, it never came.”
“Tell me now then!” he insisted, on the verge of his inevitable capture. “I’m here. I’m listening.”
“I can’t,” she answered regretfully, “not like this. But I will say one thing: Understand, William, that all I wanted was for you to remember me as the girl you’ve always known…and not somebody else. And rest assured when I say that, given more time, the hour to divulge all would’ve arrived sooner or later. But it is not this hour. And whilst this is the way things must be right now, I pledge to you, from the very bottom of my heart, that you will discover everything in good time. With me, or without me. I’ll make sure of it. If not in this life, then in the life hereafter.”
She sounded so exceedingly penitent for not saying anything sooner.
By a thrusting lift in the gales, and as the rains pelted down with brute force, William’s eyebrows converged with the will to drive against those dark and unfeeling forces of injustice.
Showing fortitude, he replied, “And you understand this! I’m just as bloody stubborn as you can be. And that’s why I’m not leaving you behind.”
Then, “COME ON!” he demanded, clutching her leg again. “I’M GETTING MY SWORD BACK, THEN GETTING THE HELL OUT O’ HERE! AND YOU’RE COMING WITH ME! NO ARGUMENTS!”
As he spoke, the ash-filled skies of the west reeled into a frightful pyroclastic flow. The Glogs were about to fling the sacks over William’s head and leave the girl to whatever fate.
“Bah, let me do it!” Mogh barked, grabbing Thérn’s hilt and shoving Muxzer away.
Turns out it was stuck worse than he thought, and Muxzer smirked, “Have it your own way. I care not! An’ what of these young turtle doves?” he asked William and Wren. “Both willin’ to suffer the consequences over somethin’ as vain as love? Come now, I expected more from you, boy. Nevertheless, whatever makes my job easier…” he said, taking a sack in hand, “…now C’MERE!”
With a shuddering screech he lunged. William shut his eyes as he tried guarding Wren from his attack. But Muxzer’s intentions had already crumbled to the sound of an almighty cry. A thousand times greater and more monstrous than his own, it detonated from beyond those walls of scaling ash. Pursuing its formidable echo, the surrounding temperatures dropped dramatically, and the rain’s mist thickened.
Muxzer and the other Glogs swung around in dread to see what was happening. First, they could see nothing. But before they could return to their mischief, three black figures, immense and strong, broke through those murky clouds of rippling smoke and coasted towards them. William was at a loss for words when he saw it for himself. As there, sailing over those racing winds, were three powerful dragons, armoured and battle-ready, and they were coming to their rescue.
“JIMZIN!” he hollered, displaying such elation. “YOU’VE COME BACK!”
Thinking
she’d misheard him, Wren peeked through one eye and said, “W-What? Did you just say J-Jimzin? Where? Where?”
“UP THERE!” William celebrated, pointing overhead. “LOOK! LOOK!”
Wren actually had to blink thrice before saying, “IT…IT IS HIM! IT IS HIM! AND TUROGOTH! AND VARMANNA, TOO! HURRAY, JIMZIN. YOU DID KEEP YOUR WORD AFTER ALL.”
Whatever she meant by him ‘keeping his word’ was something of a wonder, but it didn’t matter much, as they were on the brink of being rescued.
Those marvellous creatures delved in with such grace, with such heroic grace, and such an unbending lust to overthrow their common foes, that every single Glog perceived and scattered like frightened mice. They were like mere insects trying to scurry from the hobnailed sole of fate as it came to crush them.
Leading the dragons, and the first to strike, was Turogoth. Gigantic was he. Donning black, iron-hard scales, lined with a brilliant ice-blue sheen, and carrying wings so great that even Jimzin’s could not compare, he swooped in low. Nigh on skimming the dust with his white belly, this majestic rescuer froze the entire spread of lava to a swathe of frost and sludge. How that cool air was of instant relief to William and Wren. Making way, Turogoth glided back into the skies, and Varmanna came in.
Being the female, Varmanna was a much sleeker beast. Slim and smooth, sporting wings like flying scythes, she was clad in an awesome coat of flaxen and green. More bird-like than dragon, she sang in place of a roar. Her whistle nurtured just as much menace and passion as that of her spouse, if not more. In one swift move, she shot high into the winds, where she slowed into a beautiful, balletic twist before darting straight back down at the Glogs and, by Jove, did she carry that storm with her.
Chinks of pronged lightning divided the sky about her as she hurtled in at her enemies. They attempted to flee, but it was worthless. Regurgitating a smog of murky vapour upon Muxzer and his brethren, Varmanna proceeded to skim across them with all her deadly force, dusting fumes afar, sparing none.
“William, cover your mouth.” Wren ordered, taking her own advice.
The Glogs choked and rasped and were thrashing about in the now-bracing conditions. But, even at this, it was not the end for those foul scum. They needed to be finished.
The Other of One: Book Two Page 43