The Last

The streets of the capital were easy to navigate, he had spent more time thereafter all than anywhere else. Rollo was out of town before the sun had fully set. He ‘borrowed’ a horse from a local tavern and raced through the thick woods of Helki headed straight for Druha. Despite everything, he never once forgot his true home. As he left the woods after nearly a week of nonstop travel, his horse unable to continue, Rollo dismounted and continued on foot walking alongside the poor beast as they hiked up a thickly overgrown hill. At the top, he slowed to a stop and pulled a deep breath into his lungs as he looked out across his old home.

The plains stretched for miles, gently rolling hills with systems of intricate caves below all gently rising to the highest point. The mountaintop city of Delenmai its mighty white palace, a sparkling jewel in the late day sun. The sprawling mountains behind it a jagged backdrop beneath the highest peak. Rollo closed his eyes for a moment, memories of his youth surging up around him. He swallowed his mouth dry the smell of the ash in the air flooding his nose at the reminder of the last time he’d seen this place. He opened his eyes once again and continued forwards, it would be days still until he reached the palace where he could nearly feel Amira’s presence. She was close, his instincts had proven correct, she’d come home.

~

He arrived in Delenmai just as the sun was beginning to set, he left his horse behind in one of the abandoned stables, the creature content to rest and eat what remained of food. He went to the palace first, eyes shifting around the city warily. So far he had come across no sign of life, no threat, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. He went to the castle first, he had never been inside before, but its grandeur had always been an inspiration of his childhood.

The outer walls were still covered with vines, and tattered banners but as he walked into the castle shock settled into his bones. It had been cleaned, immaculately, the courtyard was spotless. The vines that had once been there having been burned away, the remaining flowers carefully nurtured back to a hesitant state of life. The lawn singed down to a perfectly manicured height. He continued on, moving into the castle whose doors still remained down, but as he looked around inside there was no sign of struggle. Everything had been straightened and tidied the faint smell of smoke accompanied the entire building as all the dust had been burned away.

It was gorgeous and Rollo could only imagine how it had looked in its prime, with children running about, lords and ladies visiting the royals. What his life would have looked like, bonded with Amira at a younger age most likely. They would have grown up together, he would have lived here alongside her performing the idle tasks he now did for Caldwin. The difference is that here he would be regarded as an equal. A sort of royal in his own right, a representative of the human faction of Druha, not just some fancy bodyguard to be ordered around like a puppet. Resentment grew in his chest as he wandered through the halls alongside guilt.

It wasn’t his fault that this happened, and there wouldn’t have been anything he could do to stop it, but the survivor’s guilt was more than enough. He made his way up the mighty spiral staircase, each glossy white step having been cleared of all debris. He walked the long hallways of the second floor, filled with all sorts of rooms where guests and servants alike would have stayed. It was always an honor to work for the Lightbringers. Not one servant ever resented their position and it was said they could choose to leave at any time. They were paid a fair wage and loved to serve their royals.

Rollo climbed more stairs and explored more hallways climbing higher and higher until he reached one of the spires that scraped the sky. All sides were open to the elements and wind tore at his hair, his coat billowing behind him as he stood in the center of the small hexagonal platform. He closed his eyes and he was instantly transported back to that first ride with Amira.

The air was warm around him, the heat from her massive body radiating around them and keeping him warm yet the wind that ripped past them was cold as ice. He hunkered down close to her body eyes admiring the intricate beauty of her scales, his hand tracing along the edge of one before he looked up to really take in the rest of her. Her wings were scarred, remnants of an accident or attack, Rollo wasn’t privy to this knowledge. He admired them though, the scars made intricate lacework through the thin membranes of her wings, it told a story of her life and struggles it was a part of her just like anything else. Her legs were as round and large as tree trunks, the talons that branched off her claws long and curved. Power was written all over her muscular body as if she had been hand sculpted by a god.

She was showing off, maneuvering quickly through the clouds cutting this way and that. He maintained his balance by muscle memory alone, all those practice rides with weaker dragons finally having paid off. However, none of them could compare to this. Amira’s beast was massive, powerful, and fast. Gods she was fast. She moved with a lazy precision that gave away the fact that her training majoritively came from her beast. It was a unique style, and Rollo loved it. It was so her, and all of this the flying, the bond, it all felt so right. He tilted his head back to the open sky above and laughed letting himself scream and whoop his excitement overwhelming his entire being.

She broke into a lazy circle, but lifted her head to roar, the sound tearing into the universe and challenging anyone before her. It was everything Rollo had ever been looking for, his missing piece, the other half to his very own soul. If he’d had any doubt before it was long gone now. She was and forever will be a part of him and he a part of her. There was no rejection of the bond, not in the way that one could reject a mate. Once you were paired that was it, you either learned to live with it or suffered for the rest of your existence. The ancients said the bond originated from when the gods created the Druheran race. The soul and power of a dragon were too large to be placed into one body, therefore the gods split them into two. One half being more human than beast, and the other more beast than human. Thus the Druheran and their riders were born.

He was freed from his memory as a bird flew by through the open spire just past his face. He blinked once in surprise and shook out his body before approaching the low railings around the small space. That’s when he saw it, in one of the great fields they’d once used for training was a massive hole and besides that hole, a pile of bodies haphazardly thrown into place. He swallowed against the pain stabbing in his chest as he realized what she had been doing all this time, and knowing nightfall would soon be upon them, he descended the staircase and hurried through the halls to find the Princess. This shouldn’t be something she was doing alone.

By the time he reached the edge of the field, she had already begun. She had lost a lot of weight, he noticed, her eyes were dark and lacked their usual spark. He lingered by the edge of the field, not wanting to interrupt and still uncertain of her reaction to him being there in the first place. She must not have eaten this entire time… and to then expend more energy by using her magic to cleanse the place and drag all these bodies out here… His eyes swept up the pile of remains, separate from those already carefully arranged in the hole. She had placed the ones in her grave with great care and respect, but those left on the pile she had merely thrown with no care at all, the height of the pile easily 15 or 20 feet.

He held back tears as he watched Amira fill in the graves of her loved ones, of her people, his people. They couldn’t save them, and all this time they had been left out here unable to find true rest because no one had come back to bury them and give them a proper funeral until now. As she shifted the last crown into place Rollo could nearly hear the sigh of relief from the dead. His gaze lifted to meet the reptilian slits of the mighty dragon standing across the field from him. His princess, his other half, his world. He would give up anything for her and would do anything for her. He felt nothing but a fierce pride as she coiled back and blasted the pile of hellhound remains with her fire, melting the bones within moments. He began walking towards her without thinking. Before the fire had even fully vanished in the night.