With a snort, I got up and walked away from my rocky ledge. I hadn’t stepped foot inside Cinderhollow for four hundred years, and I wasn’t about to start now. My mate was gone. My child was gone. I had nothing left to do except wait to die.
My stomach felt empty and hollow. I hadn’t eaten since yesterday, but I couldn’t muster the willpower to hunt. Maybe I would dig mice out of the cavern crevices and eat those before passing out again. Anything to get my mind off these sudden intrusive memories of Halo.
“Don’t you dare come near me!”
As soon as I heard the sudden voice, I stopped. It echoed from somewhere in the distance.
Was my mind playing tricks on me, or did the voice sound achingly familiar?
I didn’t move, or dare to breathe. I strained my ears, listening for more words. A muffled, angry conversation could be heard somewhere in the valley, too far away to make out anything meaningful.
I was torn between wanting to investigate the noise and lumbering back to my hole and sleeping. I didn’t need any trouble. I could easily ignore the voice and go back to minding my own business, like I’d been doing for the last few centuries.
But that voice…
Something inside me screamed to investigate, a nagging urge I couldn’t ignore. With a frustrated growl, I spread my wings and shook them out. They felt sore from disuse. Nothing like the powerful wings they’d been in my prime - during my time in the Knights.
I rolled my shoulders, hearing themcrack.Then with a massive effort I pushed myself off the rock ledge and took to the sky. The cold wind felt refreshing under my stiff wings. I followed the source of the noise, preparing myself for whatever I would find.
I caught the tail end of the conversation before it died out. Not wanting to reveal myself, I stayed a healthy distance away from the source of the noise, which I recognized now as coming from the two figures below the canopy of trees. Swooping down quietly to the ground, I shifted to my human form to keep as small as possible. I didn’t want anyone to know I was alive, not even after all these years. The last thing I needed was for my strange curiosity to blow my cover.
The voices went quiet as the sound of a chain rattled. Narrowing my eyes, I focused on the figures ahead as they began to climb the mountainside. The one in front was tall with brown hair, and the other behind him -
My world stopped.
My jaw fell open with an airless gasp. The second figure, the one whose chains rattled; the one with the smaller, lithe frame; the one with golden blond hair that glowed like sunlit wheat -
It was my former mate, Halo Fire-Eater.
My head spun so fiercely that I had to sit down. I clutched my hair, tugging on it painfully to try and bring myself back down to earth. I needed logic and reason, not overwhelming and conflicting emotions.
No, it wasn’t Halo. It couldn’t be. Halo had been gone for hundreds of years.
But I knew all this time that he wasn’t dead. The Cinderhollow barrier - bright and strong - was still standing.
My mind screamed in rebellion at the thought of Halo’s return. I refused to believe it. He was gone, and it was for the best. Good riddance. He proved long ago that he wanted no place in my life. In the life we built together.
But my refusal slipped. I glanced back at the figure, walking listlessly behind the first as the chains continued to rattle. Could it be my mind was playing tricks on me? That person could have been anyone. Halo wasn’t just blond hair and a lithe figure.
A frown crossed my lips as I recognized the bigger picture. Why was there someone chained up on the outskirts of Cinderhollow? Whowerethese people?
All my experiences as a Knight flooded back to me. No matter who the figures were, something was definitely wrong. As a Knight, I stood for justice and fairness, and I always helped the weak. Despite the overwhelming drag of my depression calling me back to my cavern to ignore all this and sleep, I couldn’t let myself fall into that trap. I needed to dosomething.
But despite the sudden rush of determination, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I was incredibly weary. My muscles and bones ached, my wings grew more sore with every flex, and even the short flight from my cavern had exhausted me.
Is this what I’ve become?I thought sadly.A pathetic shell of my old and proud self?
As much as I hated the thought that I was incapable of helping someone in my current state, I knew I had to retreat for now and recuperate.
Just for a day or two,I promised silently. I thought of the blond being led away in chains and felt a pang of sympathy.I’ll come back for you, I swear.
I waited for the figures to disappear, then shifted quietly back into my dragon form before taking to the skies. The return flight to my cavern was quick yet tiring, but despite the fatigue my veins were filled with a new fiery determination, like a lit spark. I wouldn’t let myself spiral any longer. Someone out there needed a Knight to save them - they neededme.I wasn’t going to let them down.
A dark voice nagged me.What if it really is Halo?
I paused, unsure. Could I face Halo again after all we’d been through? I’d given up on him centuries ago. I never expected him to return to my life, and especially in such an abrupt way.
Was that why today felt different? I could have chosen to stay in my cavern and ignore the outside world, but I didn’t. Somethingpulledme - a deep, thrumming sensation I couldn’t ignore, like a buried and untouched magnet.
