by C.L. Mozena
Chapter 38
Exhausted after two full hours of training, Orion sat down on the edge of the stone fountain in the courtyard a few days after sending Nunu home. He drained his water bottle and splashed himself until he was soaked. He gazed at his reflection in the water and remembered a time when he sat there, defeated. But I overcame pyrophobia, he thought, smiling, and Father made me a warrior. I know my real mother, and that I have brothers. “If only I could get Tanya to like me,” he whispered to his reflection, “then life would be perfect.” He stared at the water, daydreaming of how happy he would be with Tanya by his side as queen when he became king. Only two more years, he thought, and I’ll be getting married, crowned king, and celebrating my twentieth birthday all on the same day! Lost in daydreams, he was vaguely aware of all the people around him, or that pleasant talk had erupted into screams of terror as lunimorves descended from the sky.
“Protect the prince!” The voice startled Orion. He forgot about his daydream and surveyed the scene before him. Lunimorves had just begun their attack on the people, and I have to help them! Orion thought as his aching muscles argued. I am, after all, a warrior now. Ignoring the soreness in his legs, he shed the weighted wristbands and anklets he used for training, and leapt into battle. He was much stronger than any of them, and he proved it by cutting down many lunimorves in his path. The battle raged on for hours, each opponent stronger than the last. Orion wondered how much longer he could keep this up when he heard very familiar voices cry out from behind him. He beat his current foe down and turned around. Backs against a wall, Tanya was cowering as Lee did his best to defend them both. More lunimorves were advancing and Lee was knocked out of the way, leaving Tanya open to attack. Orion dashed to her aid as a lunimorf raised a double edged sword and thrust it at her heart. Orion threw himself between Tanya and the lunimorf. Terrible pain, unlike any Orion had ever felt since losing his eye, burst from the middle of his back as the sword sank into his flesh. He screamed as he fell onto Tanya’s lap.
The lunimorf, realizing what the prince had done, and seeing him lay there, injured, cackled evilly. He pulled Orion up by his hair and bent him backwards, gripping the sword that stuck out of his wing, and lodged in his rib cage. Tanya stared in horror at the grimace of pain on Orion’s face. He was exhausted and completely helpless; he couldn’t even raise his arms to defend himself. Tanya was paralyzed with fear as the lunimorf raised Orion up off the ground and swung him around by his long braid.
An arrow, shot by Alex, hit the lunimorf in the throat, killing him. Orion was sent flying into a wall as the lunimorf’s dead fingers released their grip on his hair. He smashed the stones, causing the ten foot wall to come crashing down on top of him.