Jalel’s jaw had dropped when he saw what she held. It only took him a second before his face twisted in a strange mix of desperation and greed, rage, and hate, and their newfound acquaintance pulled out his dagger. He dropped his bag without even thinking while simultaneously lunging forward toward Athela and pulled out so sort of white potion.
Riven’s eyes narrowed, and it was as if ti stopped as she stood unaware of the impending attack.
“Athela, move!”
In an instant, Riven had ramd his foot into Jalel’s chest—expelling the air from the man with an abrupt wheeze and sending the man off course. The potion that Jalel had been about to throw smashed against the ground, blinding everyone montarily with a loud pop of sound like a flash-bang. Riven cursed and blindly slamd his staff into Jalel’s chest, managing to hit him straight on. The man grunted, scrambling back across the ground, trying to get to the weapon that’d loudly clattered against the stone.
It took about ten seconds for everyone to recover. Riven blinked rapidly to clear his head, Athela screeched irritatedly while trying to rub her eyes, and the man on the ground groaned and coughed.
Athela was confused and disoriented by the blast, but she began to laugh at Riven’s display of violence when the light cleared, and she slipped the stone back into Riven’s pocket. “I would have been fine, Riven. This man is far too weak to kill , and even if I died—I’d co back. Though I do appreciate the sentint…you didn’t address by my royal title! Address as Princess, you peasant slave!”
“I was worried about the stone!” Riven snarled and angrily kicked the downed man in the gut while he ignored the crazy arachnid demon nearby. He’d certainly felt that this guy was…off. Jalel had seed desperate, untrustworthy, and all-around shady since the first conversation Riven had with him—but to see the miracle stone and go on the offensive to attain it…
He was going to die here.
Riven closed his eyes and grunted in agony when he felt another chunk of his back get torn out by large, hooked talons—squinting them shut to ntally deny the pain and trying to hold back the tears that wanted to co. In so ways, death would be welco…it’d stop the agony, at least. But it was still a hard pill to swallow, knowing that he’d wanted to do so much more and had spent so little ti doing things he enjoyed in life.
“Sorry, Allie…”
His most treasured mories flashed before his eyes as he realized that these were probably the last monts of his life. The ti when Riven had gone with his little sister to the mall and she’d bought him caral apples with what little money she’d earned as a waitress that day. The ti they’d gone to see the animals at the zoo, and how he’d let her feed the brightly colored fish after picking up so quarters they’d found by chance. Spending long nights walking through Chester’s Grove when they were at their worst, a park in the city with a swing set he’d push her up high in.
Then the mory of when their mother vanished finally ca…how Riven had spent days looking for her and how he’d filed nurous police reports only to co up empty-handed. His mother had been Riven’s world, and suddenly that world had shattered. The final mory of visiting Chester’s Grove to swing on that rusty swing set one more ti before visiting the tree at their favorite spot with Allie… Their mother had always taken care of them since their father had disappeared. How was he expected to go on after losing both his parents? But he couldn’t just give up; he had to get out of here and look after Allie. His sister needed him.
He hadn’t believed in an afterlife, but he hoped he’d been wrong now with the system in place and the things he’d learned after integration. He wanted there to be a heaven, because if there was…maybe death wouldn’t be that bad. Maybe he’d get to see his mom and dad again after all…because if that was true…then this would all have been worth it. He’d not been able to make the life for himself that he’d wanted, but at least he’d t Athela. It just turned out that this strange new world had unexpectedly decided to treat him unfairly…and he’d simply not been cut out for it. Not that it was any different from his old life.
Simply put, life just wasn’t fair—and that was a pill he had finally decided to swallow.
A warm sensation in his pocket began to grow as he accepted the finality of it all, and he lifted his eyelids just enough to see the larger orange harpy raise his taloned leg overhead with a malicious grin unbefitting of a nonhuman creature. It just looked…wrong, out of place, and warped. Riven just barely had enough ti and willpower to glance down at his pants, where the warmth was beginning to spread, and in that mont—the world went black.
Reviews
All reviews (0)