CHAPTER TEN
RAVINN KEED
We flew hard over the ocean toward the small island with the mountain ridge. I flew beside my father and the king. Then behind us was a brigade of warriors numbering two hundred. We knew that it was best not to take any sort of spaceships to the island because they would cause too much noise. We were planning on a surprise attack. Flying low along the water, just a few inches above the surf was the best way to do it. It felt good to be in battle again. This was where I was at my best. I loved a good battle. It was what I lived for. But now, the stakes were higher than they ever had been for me..
As we flew in formation, I thought about how this came about. Talia. I did not know how she got a message to the opposition to begin with. I knew that she did it because she was angry. She did it because she was heartbroken and she was using her rage to make her decisions. It was not like her at all.
I realized that I really did not know her like I thought I did. Talia was always the symbol of purity. But realizing that she was capable of plotting the death and murder of another being was not matching up with that at all. I had been blind to all of it. I realized that it was simply because I had been very adamant with my father about not marrying a human female. Because he was so resistant to it, I rebelled against it and made Talia the object of that rebellion. I had thought that I was in love with her but really it was just my defiance against my father that drove me to her. Now that I was searching for Amelia, I knew what real love felt like, and it was not what I had with Talia. It was what I shared with Amelia.
“This way,” I said to the king and my father. “I will lead you to the cave that I hid in while I was here. We can scale the wall and do a surprise attack on the other side from above without them knowing,” I said to him.
“Lead the way, Ravinn,” the king said.
Moments later, we all piled into the large cave. I stood with my father and the king.
“King, I thank you. Let me go quietly alone at first. I want to see if I can find Amelia. I am scared that when we attack, they will have the time to kill her. I do not know where she is, so when we attack, I cannot go straight for her. I beg you to let me go in and quietly scout and possibly rescue her before the attack,” I asked.
The king looked at my father. My father nodded yes to the king. Then the king looked at me and said,
“You have exactly 6 minutes before we invade. That is all that I can give you,” he said.
“That is enough time. I leave you now,” I said as I flew out of the cave and then followed the same footsteps that I had the first time that I scouted the space camp. I flew up to the top and then scaled up to the top of the ridge. I looked down at the base camp. If I had humans held captive, where would I keep them? I thought. Humans cannot fly. So I would put them up high where it was hard for them to escape.
I looked along the side of the mountain ridge that faced the ocean. There I saw a fire burning from inside of the cave. There was a long ledge, and then there were bars on a door. That had to be it. But I could not get there from where I was on the bridge. They would see me if I flew directly over. So I climbed down a bit and flew around the outside of the ridge to the other side where the ledge was. I did so quietly. I did not hear shouts, and that meant that I had not been spotted. I landed on the ledge inside the bars.
“Amelia?” I whispered as I stepped toward the cave entrance. I could see that there were two being us inside. I only hoped that they were not Draqua warriors.
“Amelia, it is me. It is Ravinn. Are you in here?” I asked.
“Ravinn?” I heard her voice say. She came out of the cave. She smiled a big smile and then ran to me. I hugged her tightly.
“Be very quiet,” I whispered to her. She shook her head yes, and then another female came out from the cave.
“Ravinn, this is Michelle,” Amelia said to me.
“Michelle, I have heard so much about you. You should know that Amelia never stopped giving up hope and bugging the crap out of everyone to come get you. She is a true friend,” I said to Michelle as I hugged her. She obviously was very frightened.
“I know. Amelia has a good heart,” Michelle said as she hugged Amelia and gratitude. She was right. Amelia did have a good heart. Why was I so blind to that before? She never gave up hope, and she never gave up the fight to find her friend. That was the sign of a woman with a good heart and a good nature. It was what I thought that Talia had, but she did not. But Amelia did.
“Are you all right, Amelia? Have they hurt you? Do I need to get you to somewhere where you can be looked at and repaired?” I said as I looked over her body. I did not want to scare her by telling her that it was possible she was carrying my offspring. I needed her to be focused in this crucial time with a battle on the way.
“No, I am fine. Just a few scratches, but Michelle took care of that. What is happening? Did you come alone? Where are the others? How are we going to get out of here?” She asked one question after another.
“I am not alone. There is a large force of warriors with me. Even the King has come. They are in the cave that you and I visited before, remember?” I said with a smile.
“How could I forget?” she said.
“Amelia, I have to apologize. I did not believe you about Talia. Now you are here, and it is because I did not take you seriously. I apologize for that now and forever. You were right about her. I could not see it because I wanted to see the good in her. But she is the one that has done this, I know it,” I said to her, feeling very sorry.
“It is okay. Love is blinding,” she said to me.
“No. It is not love that I have for her. I am in love with you. It took me a long time to get here. But the moment I heard that you had been taken, I could not stop until I got to you. I would do anything for you. I had to find you. The moment I heard you were gone, I thought I would lose you forever. I thought that Talia would say that you were killed. I was in complete fear, and I don't want to feel that ever again. I do love you. I do not love her. I am sorry for everything I've put you through,” I said as I pulled her to me. I did not give her a chance to reply. I pressed my lips against hers and kissed her deeply. It felt good to kiss her. It felt good that she kissed me back. She did not hate me like I thought.
“I knew you would come for her,” I heard a very deep and familiar voice say. The bar door opened and I was completely shocked by who stepped in.
“Urtrik?” I said.
“Ravinn, it is good to see you again. Good to see you so that I can kill you,” Urtrik said.
I pushed Amelia and Michelle behind me.
“I thought you were dead, Urtrik. You died two years ago. I remember Talia going through the mourning. It was very hard for her. How are you here?” I said as I pushed to Amelia further back. I whisper to her over my shoulder, “Get in the cave.”
“Michelle,” I heard her whisper and heard their footsteps as they retreated backward.
“Yes, my fake death. It was the only way to do it. It was the only way to join the opposition once and for all and not have anyone find out. You see my sister wanted to stay in the village because she was in love with you. Even though her heart belongs with the opposition. She was very adamant about staying in the village and pretending not to be opposition. But because I did not want her to be questioned about me, I faked my death. It was easier this way. This way I could just leave, and no one would question where I went. No one would question my sister, and I care very much about my sister, unfortunately for you,” he said as he stepped toward me.
“Stay right there,” I said to him.
“Or what? I am stronger than you, Ravinn. I always have been. My sister said that I am not to harm you. She only wanted me to harm the human female. But she does not have to know what really happened here. I would just tell her that you put yourself in front of the human female to save her life. She will be so angry that she will be glad that you are dead,” he said to me.
“They are here! They are here!” Shouts came from down below in the base camp. Urtrik was startled. He was not expecting there to be a raid, and that was a good thing.
“I see you did not come alone,” he said in anger.
“Yes, you are responsible for this raid. We have known about this base camp for many days now. But we were going to let it go by order of the king. He was merely keeping an eye on it. But because you decided to take a human female from the village, your actions brought the entire warrior army upon you. You are to blame for this defeat that you are about to experience,” I said smiling at him. The sounds of battle exploded all around us. It had started.
Urtrik growled. I knew what was coming. I would have to lead him away from Amelia and Michelle. Urtrik growled again and shifted into the red dragon. While he was shifting, I flew straight at him and knocked him off the ledge. He shifted before he hit the ground and his wings unfolded as he flew. I heard Amelia shout out my name in the distance.
“Ravinn! No!” she shouted.
But I could not pay attention to her. I hoped that she had the sense to hide in the cave with Michelle. I had to fight Urtrik, and I had to kill him. If I did not kill him, then he would kill me, and he would kill Amelia and my offspring if she was possibly carrying my child.
I flew in the direction of the battle over the base camp and into the chaos. Urtrik followed. It was good. It was exactly what I wanted him to do. I flew low and then high. I swerved in and out of trees, nearly hitting them. Just as I wanted, Urtrik crashed into one and bounced off of it. He did not have the practice that I did swerving in and out of trees; it was something that I did for fun. But he was a large and clunky dragon; he could not do the maneuvers that I could do in flight. After he crashed, he was stunned for a second, and I hit him with my blaster gun. It did not pierce his thick scales, but it knocked him down to the ground. I had him just where I wanted him. I landed on his chest, but he had already regained his strength.
The battle raged around us. Draqua were fighting Draqua. The village warriors were fighting the opposition. Blaster guns were shot and their lasers swept by us. It was an incredible battle, and the opposition was outnumbered. I could already tell the defeat was close. But I only had one enemy in this battle, and it would not be over until he was gone.
The red dragon beneath my feet growled. I could see the belly of the beast growing warm and glowing. It aimed its mouth at me. It was going to shoot fire. I flew off of it and behind it. It could not move its head in that direction and would not be able to shoot fire at me. I was so occupied with getting away from the fire that I did not think to turn around and fight it. When I did, I saw it flying straight up in the air.
“No! Amelia!” I shouted as I realize that he was going for her. If he got to her before me, he could kill her in less than a second. I took off, flying hard, harder than I had ever flown before in my life. I could see the red dragon in front of me. It landed on the ledge where I had found Amelia. It started towards the cave entrance that she was in. The belly of the dragon glowed orange.
“No! No!” I shouted as I flew hard for the ledge. But before I could get to the dragon fire burst from its mouth. It filled the cave with fire. I could not believe my eyes. I did not get to her in time. She would not last in a fire like that. I was in such a rage. My heart was broken. I pulled my long knife from my boot and screamed, “Aagh!”
I landed on the dragon's neck, just above his wings, and brought my knife down hard into the soft spot on the back of his neck. The dragon screamed. In seconds, it fell to the ground, dead. I stomped it over and over again. He had killed the love of my life, and possibly my offspring as well.
I jumped off of the dead dragon and ran to the entrance of the cave. “Amelia! Michelle! Amelia! Amelia!” There was no answer. The cave was smoldering as flames slowly went out. There was a lot of stuff in the cave, and I could not tell where Amelia was. I moved a bundle, but it was just a burnt mattress. I moved over to the table that had been kicked over. They were not behind it. I searched every inch of the cave for their burned bodies. I did not think the fire was hot enough or burned long enough to burn them to dust. Finally, I realized that they were not in the cave. I came out of the cave and looked at the bar door; it was wide open. They had escaped. I was so relieved. I flew past the door and followed the rock path down the ridge. “Amelia? Amelia?” I said over and over as I flew looking for her. I did not see her. I got down to the ground of the base camp. The king and my father were taking the prisoners. The fight was over. We had won.
“Father, where is Amelia? Do you have her?” I asked.
“No. Did you find her at all?” he asked.
“Yes, I found her and another female. But I left them in the cave in order to fight Urtrik,” I said to him.
“Urtrik?” he said in shock.
“Do you mean Urtrik, the brother of Talia? The Urtrik that we thought died two years ago?” the king asked.
“Yes, the same. It seems that he faked his death in order to be with the opposition. According to him, Talia is also with the opposition. I am sorry to say that. Please do not punish her harshly. I think she is merely a Draqua female that is scorned by the fact that she cannot produce offspring and that human females are taking the love of the Draqua males. She is young and misguided,” I said, hoping that Talia could be changed. I still had love for her even though I was not in love with her. I did not wish harm on her. I understood where she was coming from and how much it must hurt.
“I will see to it when we return,” the king said.
“But where is Amelia? She has another human female with her. We must find them,” I said.
“I will come with you, son. Let us find them,” my father said.