Brain looks over at AJ as he slowly walks up over a hill with his eyes cast towards the ground. He looks up at Brian and the others, as he gets closer to them. A soft smile spreads over his face and Brian couldn’t help but smile back.
“Well someone is in a good mood,” Josh says looking at AJ.
“Let him have his happiness,” Quest says from beside him, the streaks in her hair a deep purple color now.
Brian looks over his right shoulder at Death as she smiles slightly as AJ walks up, “You did it for him didn’t you?”
She looks at him and only smiles sweetly in reply.
“Thank you,” Brian says to her.
Justin looks from her to Brian and then to AJ with a puzzled expression on his face.
“We have to go back now don’t we?” Lance says.
“Yes,” she nods.
“But if the mountain is gone where will we go?” Nick asks.
“Beyond the mountain to the land you were trying to get to,” she says as AJ finally reaches the others, “Goodbye ring bearer,” she says to Brian.
“Thank you for your help,” Kevin says to her.
She shakes her head no, “Thank you for your help. Goodbye to you all.”
“Wait,” AJ says as she looks at him, “Why do you look so sad when you come to get someone like with me.”
“Your life Alexander was taken away, but not your soul. Many the years have past when I have come upon a vampire, old in their age, that want nothing more then to die. You…were too young when you were changed.”
AJ nods.
“Goodbye fair Roman,” she says lifting a hand up and suddenly the whole world goes black again before their eyes.
“Beware of the darkness, Nick,” a voice says to him in his head through the darkness, “Beware of the darkness and the breaking.”
Nick’s eyelids flutter as he opens his eyes and the shields them quickly from the sunlight that was pouring down onto him from above. He was laying flat on his back on a patch of soft green grass staring up at the sun. He sits up quickly as he finds everyone else doing the same blinking or rubbing their eyes trying to make sure everything was real.
“Beware of the darkness,” he says to himself, “Beware of the breaking.”
“What was that?” Kevin asks looking over at him.
“Nothing…just thinking out loud,” Nick says.
Josh looks at him across from him with wide eyes and a skeptical look on his face.
“Fox glove,” Quest yells springing to her feet landing without a sound and running over to a horse as it approaches, “How did you get here?” she asks as the rest of the horses appear walking up beside her.
Josh stands up and walks over to Nick slowly as he stands up also dusting himself off, “Beware…” he says and trails off.
Nick stares at him with wide eyes, “You heard it too.”
Josh nods, “Something is going to happen Nick.”
“I know,” Nick says, “but what?”
“Something horrible. I can feel it,” he says.
“We need to keep moving north,” Kevin says mounting his horse, “We will rest when night falls.”
Nick looks at him and nods, “Lets go everyone.”
They stopped as Kevin said when night began to fall over the land shrouding it in darkness. Josh once again started up a small fire to keep warm by as some of the gathered around it to keep warm. Justin though was curled up underneath a tree fast asleep. AJ was perched one again on a tree limb looking out over the horizon as his head dropped once and a while only to have him snap himself back awake.
“I don’t understand what it meant,” Nick says to Josh.
Josh shrugs, “They know a lot more then we do.”
Kevin looks over at them, “What’s wron…” but he wasn’t able to get the rest of his sentence out. Instead it almost seemed as if a flood of people poured into their small clearing catching them by surprise.
One by one they all reached for their weapons. Justin being caught fast a sleep was grabbed by five different people pulling him from his place on the ground and holding him as he struggled.
Brian noticed though that these weren’t people and didn’t resemble any in the closest. They reminded him of what he always pictured goblins as when he was little with dark black skin, pointed teeth, large yellow eyes, hunched over, but the size of a man and no beauty whatsoever. He heard Kevin yelling in the distance, ‘Pendragons!’ He looks over his shoulder as Quest lets an arrow fly hitting one in the head knocking it over and no doubt killing it. Kevin was spinning around sword flashing in the moonlight trying to fend them off from getting to Brian.
AJ was trying to fight three of them off as they all lunged at him tackling him and dragging him to the ground in a fit of hisses and screams. Lance was off in a corner trying his best to keep them from getting to Josh who was on the ground at this point holding his side while looking up at the sky. He was hurt and Brian knew it. He could feel it.
“Help me!” Justin yells to Brian’s right and he looks over quickly to see him being dragged away by fie different figures off into the darkness, “Help meeee!” he yells again as Kevin looks up in time to dodge around a few Pendragons and go running after towards Justin.
“Kevin!” AJ yells as three of them pick him up, “NO! STOP!”
Brian looks over as an arrow sails by his head from Quest hitting a Pendragon as it approaches him from behind.
“Kevin!” she yells loudly.
Brian’s eyes grow wide as an arrow soars from within the crowd cutting through the air and hitting Kevin in the chest.
“STOP!” was the only word Justin could make out before he vanished completely into the darkness of the woods.
AJ’s face goes pale as another arrow hits Kevin again in the chest finally knocking Kevin to his knees, “Kevin!” he yells as he too is pulled off into the darkness, “KEVINNNNNNNN!”
It was almost as if everything was in slow motion to Brian then. He looked over as Kevin dropped to his knees and the sword falls out of his hand. Nick was screaming as he fought off the others helplessly. Josh was still slumped against the tree now he had his eyes closed tightly shutting out the fighting. Lance was still fighting beside Nick though with Chris close behind. Quest was next to him staring at Kevin and then up into Brian’s eyes.
“Take the elves,” a voice says from somewhere.
Brian looks at Quest quickly before a Pendragon on horseback rides up out of nowhere scooping her from the ground and riding off with her. He looks over at nick helpless as Nick’s eyes grow wide and Brian too feels his body being lifted from the ground and being rushed off into the night as the camp is left far behind him.
“We need to run!” Lance yells at Nick.
Nick stares at him and the nod. It was the only thing they could do.
“Josh c’mon get up,” Lance says.
Josh shakes his head no slowly before Chris reaches over and tosses his body over his shoulder sword still in hand.
Lance whistles loudly as the horses come charging toward them and he grabs onto one as it passes.
“Kevin,” Nick yells as he sees him lying on the ground, “Kevin! KEVIN!”
“Nick we need to go now,” Lance yells as him as Chris mounts a horse holding onto Josh still and riding off quickly to safety.
“KEVIN!” Nick yells once more.
“NICK NOW!” Lance yells as Nick finally mounts a horse and rides off quickly into the night with Lance by his side and Pendragons in the distance.
Nick sits on a rock with his face pressed into his hands crying as Chris sits beside him looking at the ground. Josh was sitting on the ground being helped by Lance. There was no fire this time. They had only managed to save three horses. The one Nick had been riding with Fox Glove.
“We left them. We left them,” Nick cries.
“We didn’t leave them,” Chris says softly.
“WE LEFT KEVIN.”
“KEVIN IS DEAD,” Chris yells, “We need to focus on trying to get Brian back now.”
“Brian…oh God Brian,” Nick wails, “We failed. We failed.”
“We won’t fail,” Chris says to him.
Josh opens his eyes slowly and stares at them, “You’re our leader now Nick.”
“No,” Nick says, “No. No. I can’t be. I can’t be in charge of helping them all. They rode of with Quest and Brian and Justin and AJ were carried off. You’re hurt. Kevin’s dead. We are a broken team!”
“We are still a team though!” Lance yells.
Nick shakes his head no, “I can’t do this guys. I can’t.”
“The white Rider,” Josh says, “The reluctant hero.”
Nick stares at him, “Is that what this is supposed to mean,” he cries, “Fuck fate!” he says and begins to cry again.
“Nick we need to help them,” Josh says softly.
“They need us,” Lance says, “We just can’t leave them like that.”
Nick closes his eyes tightly and looks up at the stars, “Is this what you wanted?! Is it?! You wanted us to suffer?!”
“Nick…” Lance says.
“How are we supposed to go on now!” he yells.
“We go on alone,” Chris says.
Nick stops and looks down staring at him, “I can’t do this guys. Kevin was the leader…not me…not me.”
“Please Nick,” Josh says, “They need your help.”
“You need to rest Josh,” Nick says.
“It will be healed by tomorrow,” he says, “We are almost as good at it as vampires are.”
“Where would they take them?” Nick asks.
“They went two different ways,” Chris says, “On foot they went north. On horseback they went east.”
“We will be able to track the footprints easier then hoof prints,” Josh says.
“AJ and Justin?” Nick says.
Lance nods.
“We’ll set out tomorrow then,” he says wiping his eyes of his tears and walking up to Josh and Lance and sitting down.
“We’ll find them Nick,” Chris says.
Nick nods not saying anything, “We need to go back and bury Kevin,” he says softly.
“We shouldn’t go back that way,” Chris says, “They won’t let us that close.”
Nick looks up at him, “Kevin deserves more then to let his body go unburied without the honor it deserves. He died helping us trying to save us. I refuse to let him be unhonored.”
“Ok…tomorrow then,” Lance says looking down at Josh who had already drifted off to sleep, “Try and get some sleep Nick.”
Nick shakes his head no, “You think I can sleep after this.”
“No, but at least try,” he says.
Nick nods and lies back down next to Josh.
Chris walks over and sits down next to him leaning on a tree trunk sword still clenched in one hand as his eyes start to close against his own will.
Nick shuts his eyes, but lays there surrounded in his own darkness as the images replay themselves again and again in his mind. He opens his eyes back up after a few minutes and stares at Lance who is standing off a few feet in the distance with his back turned toward Nick. Nick stares at him as Lance drops his head and slowly pulls off his cloak. As the elfin cloak falls to the ground a pair of translucent wings slowly unfold glowing in the moonlight shimmering like the stars above him.
Josh was fast asleep next to him and so was Chris still clenching his sword in hand. Nick props his head up to get a better look at lance as he slowly sinks to his knees covering his face with his hands and letting out a loud sob as his body starts to shake. Nick lies back down and stares up at the sky holding the tears back for as long as he could.
They fell anyway.
“When the cold of winter comes. Starless night will cover day. In the veiling of the sun. We will walk in bitter rain. But in dreams I still hear your name. And in dreams we will meet again. When the seas and mountains fall. And we come, to end of days. In the dark I hear a call. Calling me there. I will go there. And back again.”
