thanks...but it aint over yet! MWHAHAHAHHAA!
Chapter 7
Spider made his way to the village center, feeling rather down. He would have gone to the lake but that's were Jas went...and he had a feeling he didn't want to see him anytime soon. Once there he flopped down onto a bench and let out a heavy sigh.
Bea's dead...so is Drek. Hak is handicapped. Xar in a coma and a lot o' other people dead too. he thought. He sighed and shook his head, fighting off the depression that was threatening to take hold. No...I won't let it bring me down...not like last time. I vowed ter not let what has happened in the past control my life and I intend ter keep it that way.
"Not easy is it?" a female voice said suddenly, causing Spider to jump and fall off the bench.
"Ish..." Spider said annoyed, as he picked himself up, "What did I say 'bout readin' peoples minds?"
"Sorry..." Ishtar said as she jumped up onto the railing and perched on it like a gargoyle, "Just that...ever sense I came back the only way Hak could talk to me was for me to read his mind....It's become a habit..."
"Yer mean yer couldn't heal him?"
Ishtar sighed and shook her head; he could see the sadness in her eyes. "No." she said, stiffing a sniffle.
"But I thought...yer kind could heal anything...."
“Normally…” Ishtar said sadly, “But the magic that caused this is a kind my kind doesn’t know about…like it was from a different dimension. We can only work with what we understand…and this magic we don’t understand, therefore, we can’t do anything with it.”
”So even Gods have limitations…”
“Yeah…I suppose it’s a means for the fates to keep us in check. It still hurts though…I…we can do is make the most of it and move on.”
“Ain’t that the hard truth…” Spider grumbled.
“You know…if you want…I can tell you where Bea was buried, so you can give your last respects.” Ishtar said, softly, “It would be the least I could do for you.”
Spider didn’t need to think about it.
“Yes please.” He said.
******
Jas pushed onward, uncaring which way he went, just needing to keep going, to clear his head; the thick foliage had already slowed him to a walk, but he didn’t care, he just knew he had to keep going. Dammit, why did that stupid crossbreed have to open up all them old wounds again? He thought he’d got over losing his foster-mother and longtime pack Alpha, but no, just as he thinks he’s getting over it he has to come along and then it’s all brought back to the surface, clear as if it was yesterday it happened, not five months ago…
He skirted the lake, taking the long way back to town, and scrubbed at his outsized eyes with the heel of one hand, determined that he wasn’t going to cry, he was tough, he was a Guardian, and sligs don’t cry anyway…
Oh Jas, he seemed to hear her words in his head. Try not to take things so much to heart – poor Spider wasn’t to know, was he? And you know I did not die in vain…
I know, he replied, sitting on a rock overhanging the lake and pitching stones at his reflection. It still hurts, t’know yer gone.
It will do. It always hurts. But… no-one lives forever Jas… you know that. And you know I wouldn’t want you to be sad.
“I know,” he turned his muzzle skywards, feeling the slow warmth of a tear on his cheek. “I know you wouldn’… but… it don’ make it no easier, y’know…?”
And opened his lungs up in the song of the fallen warrior, the song they all sang for comrades lost in battle, expressing his grief in one of the few ways he knew how. He sang until his voice broke into sobs, and the old hurt was back, as fresh as if it had never been away.
******
Spider approached the cave entrance Ishtar told him about, the cave where Bea was laid to rest. There was a stone on the outside with intricate wall carvings on the outside and Spider felt this was the best place to show his respect.
"Bea..." Spider said softly as he gazed at the stone, tears of sorrow running down his face, "I was hopin' yer would still be 'round when I came back...looks like it didn't happen that way. I..." his voice cracked slightly, "n'ver got the chance ter really thank yer...fer all yer did fer me. Yer stayed with me...even through my darkness of times and fer that I can't thank yer enough...fer if yer hadn't a lot of things wouldn't be like they are now. I wouldn't have found my mate, hell I wouldn't have found out that I wasn't the only one...that there were others like me out there. Where ever yer are yer can probably see them..." he chuckled lightly, "who knows what headaches they are causin' Shriek while I am here. But the main thing is that I am not alone anymore...and probably won't be fer a very long time. And all because yer were there fer me when I needed yer...and I know now yer will always be with me where ever yer are. Thank yer..."
Spider turned to leave but then remembered something. A chant Dragadon had taught him while he was on his own nearly a year ago, one of the many things she had taught him about dragon kind. She said it was a chant that showed the greatest respect for those who had left the land of the living. He turned back toward Bea's grave, cleared his throat, and began:
With life must come death, as night must follow the day.
The sun has set on your life and with it comes eternal peace.
May your spirit be protected by the Golden One and forever free from the clutches of the Dark.
Your trials and triumphs of your life will always be remembered through the power of our songs.
Farewell...my friend.
Tears flowing anew, Spider threw back his head and let out a long mournful howl, the howl carrying far across the land….
|