Kingdom Fall: Chapter 17

 

Chapter 17

Henry, sweet Henry. Sara was finally back in his arms. She could feel his warmth in her heart. They were together, holding each other. Her heart swelled with love. She felt like her heart would burst with the love she was feeling. It had been so long since she felt his him. And it was real. A love so real and so pure. It was a true love. Her heart would not stand for anything less. She had missed him so much. Until this moment, she did not realize how much she missed him. For a moment, she feared she was dreaming, and she would awaken to find him not there. As quick as the thought entered her mind, it was pushed aside. What did it matter if she was awake or asleep, he was here now. She reached for him, but he was not there. How can this be? She was sure he was with her. Again, as soon as the thought crossed her mind, it was gone. He was not here, but he was so close, she just had to go to him.

She stood up and started walking. She could hear his heart beating and feel his love. The yearning for his love that she had been suppressing, that she had to suppress in order to get through the day and this mission was now finally released. The mission, there was something about the mission. She could not remember if she was successful or not. How had the mission ended? Did they destroy the Citadel and defeat Queen Hellicus? She could not remember. Then again, it did not matter. All that mattered was that she was with Henry. Henry was there with her. No not with her, but close. She kept walking to him.

She could see every line and freckle in his face. She could feel the taste of his kiss. She could smell the sweet smell of the mix of his natural musk and cologne that he always wore. She could feel the warmth of his embrace. At last, she was with Henry, together, never to be separated again. She continued walking, but as she did, she started bumping into something. She used her full concentration to try to see what she was walking into, all the while, in the embrace of her sweet Henry. It was dimly lit, and she could make out some music, but she finally saw that there were people around her. They were all walking too. It took all her concentration to recognize one of them as Private Corval. What was Private Corval doing with her and Henry? She would never allow citizens in her private chambers. This was all wrong. This was private time between her and Henry. Henry, sweet Henry. Her heart swelled with more love than she could ever imagined it could. She had missed him so, and now he was here, in her arms, holding her tight. She continued to walk.

How far did she have to walk to be with Henry, it did not matter as he was with her the whole time. She never let go of him, and now she was finally here. She was with sweet Henry and the music that he had playing somehow made the moment even stronger. She was sure that her heart had exploded, and her life had given release into a high plane of existence. A place of sweet pure love. Somehow she and Henry had become one. Their love had been so strong that they would be bound together forever. She could not tell between herself and Henry, and it did not matter. Nothing mattered. The only thing that mattered was Henry and her love for him. How long she could survive this ecstasy she had no idea but she did not care. If she were to die, then this is how she wanted to die. She had always believed that there was nothing more important in life than love, and now she knew she had been right all this time.

Sara could not remember the last time she had felt so happy. She had thought nothing could have surpassed her wedding night, the night that her love became fully and completely hers. The night of unbridled passion as she fully gave herself to him; mind, body, and spirit. However, she had been wrong. She stood there, lost in love. If time was passing, she was not aware of it. She could stand there forever. But standing, why was she standing? Something was not right. As this thought entered her mind, it was quickly suppressed as it was her Henry. Henry was all that mattered. 

Suddenly she heard a sound. It was a sound that did not belong to her and Henry. It was a cry, but not just any cry. It was a cry she recognized as it was one her heart had cried out late at night when she feared what might have become of her sweet Henry at the hands of Queen Hellicus. But then again, that did not matter as Henry was here now, her heart could feel it. She was too happy standing here in the embrace of Henry. Standing, why was she standing?

Then she heard the cry again, only louder and followed by an ungodly screech. A sound she had never heard before. What was going on? Why was she standing? Why was someone making that heart-wrenching cry and what was the horrible screech? Something was not right. Again, she focused. She focused on the fact that she was standing. She focused on the cry that someone was making. She focused on the screech she heard. She was able to open her eyes and what she saw was a nightmare. The light was dim, but there was some source near her, and it allowed her to see a creature that was worse than any Elven Mythology she had heard. The creature stood as tall as her but had four legs. These were attached at a central point. Back of that point protruded a body part that reminded her of a back end of an ant. Attached to the legs and the ant-like back-end was a human torso. Like a normal human, two arms came out from the sides of the body only at the ends of the fingers were long claws. What was even more disturbing was the head. The head of the creature was larger than a normal human head. There was no hair on its head. It had to giant eyes that were bigger than Sara's fists. She could not see any ears or nose, but it had two mouths. A small one was off to the left of the creatures face. It was a normal human mouth, and it was singing. Directly under its eyes was the biggest mouth she had ever seen, filled with sharp teeth.  There were rows of teeth.  Sara was about to defend herself but there was the normal human mouth and the song it was singing. There was something about that song. It had a way of making you feeling love. Love, as in Henry, sweet Henry. She was in his arms, and that is all that mattered. No nightmare could touch her as Henry would protect her. She fell back into his arms. Love was all that mattered, and Henry was love.

Again, Henry was interrupted by that cry. That pain filled cry of lost love. The cry of a heart which yearns for its true love and knows it can never touch it again. A cry so painful it is almost more than a person can bare. Now she could hear the sounds of a battle and more of the horrible screech. She shook her head and again focused. She was standing. There was the cry of heart pain. There was the horrible screech sound. And there was also that nightmare creature. She found it took all her willpower. She opened her eyes again and this time, the creature that had been standing in front of her was gone. She found it very hard to focus on what she was seeing as all she wanted to do was feel her sweet Henry. His sweet love was intoxicating. No, she refused to fall back into that. She focused hard and looked around for Henry. She would see him with her own eyes this time.

As she looked around, however, she did not see Henry. She saw the rest of the squad all standing there, staring blankly with a look a bliss on their faces. A couple of them were still wearing the mining lamps, so she was able to see around the cave they were all in. They were not alone in the room, however. The cave was also full of those creatures, those horrible creatures. Off to one end, she could see a man fighting with the creatures. He was the source of the cry as he continued crying out every time he brought his sword down on the creatures. It was the Woodsman. The creatures did not seem to know what to do with him as they did not all attack him at one time.

She shook her head again, trying to clear her mind. She found that every time the Woodsman killed one of the creatures, she found it easier to stay focused, although the urge to just meld with Henry was almost too much. She then looked at the rest of the squad and to her shock, she found that two of the creatures, along with several smaller versions of the creatures were eating some of the members of the squad. To her complete horror, one of them, Sergeant Mohana was still alive while two of the smaller creatures were eating. Instead of fighting or even crying out, Mohana just had a blissful smile on his face. That smile she recognized. The song they were singing made her want to forget all she was seeing and just embrace Henry, but she could not. Henry was not here. Henry was in danger. Henry needed her to save him. No, she would not give into the lie. She would save Henry. Henry was not here; Henry needed her. This gave her the final strength she needed to break the spell of the song. Now she could move, and she wasted no time. She grabbed the knife she always had on her when she slept. She moved quickly over to Mohana and thrust the knife into one of the beasts that were eating him. It stopped its chewing and turned. The giant mouth with all the teeth gave out horrible screech while the human mouth still sang the intoxicating song. However, the creature did not make a move to her nor did any of the other creatures try to stop her. She thrust the knife into the chest of the creature, and it screech and then collapsed to the ground. She did the same to the other one attacking Mohana. She took a quick look at Mohana and still he had a look of bliss on his face, a bliss coming from that music the creatures were singing. Sara shook her head and refused to give in. Henry was not here; Henry needed her.

She refocused and quickly dispatched the creatures that were eating her men. It was clear that some of them were juveniles, but the adults never came to try to protect them. In fact, none of the creatures seemed to know how to defend themselves. They would just screech at her when she stuck them with the knife. Sara then looked over at the Woodsman. He was in a frenzy, crying "NO!!!!" as he slashed at the creatures. Even though he was a trained fighter with a sword, he was just slashing wildly. Sara moved to where more of the creatures were and started killing them. It took the two of them little time to kill all the creatures. The mesmerizing song continued its power until the last one was finally killed. Sara took a moment to look around to see if any of the creatures were still alive but the lack of the song told her they were all dead. However, the cave was far from quiet. The Woodsman was still crying "No!" and slashing at the creatures, although instead of a cry of anger and pain, it was more of a cry of pain and sorrow. Then she heard the cry from behind her. She quickly turned around, ready to attack whatever this new threat was but what was making the noise was Mohana. The look of bliss was gone, and now he was in great pain. Most of both legs had been eaten away and without the effects of the song, he was feeling the pain of his injuries.

The cave was dark save for a few of the soldiers that were wearing the lamps. Two of them were among the victims. These lamps did provide enough light to see around the room but cast many shadows. Sara also noticed that the rest of the squad were all coming out of their trances. She walked over to General Lateaf, glad that he had not been eaten by the creatures.

"How are you feeling General?" She asked as she cleaned the blood from her knife.

"Ok, I guess. What happened to us? What are those creatures?"

"I am not sure, but I think they are Harpies."

A look of horror came across his face. He seemed to be at a loss for words. It made sense as they had all just mindlessly all walked into the lair of the creatures. He said, "But how did they do this to us? I was unable to do anything but stand here."

"Let me ask you this, how did you feel when they were singing?"

Topher's face turned a little red. He said, "Well I felt love, deep love. It was my wife and it was so real that I would have sworn that she was here with me."

"Me too. I think that is how they do it. The song they sing makes a person feel love, a true deep love. A love so strong that it blocks everything else out. It is all a person can think about. Even if you try to focus, the love is too strong. It also explains why it does not affect children. They are too young to know true love. They have not gone through the change."

"Oh, dear Elf. How in all of Anon can such a creature exist?" He was horrified as he looked around. Then he said, "But why did it not affect the Woodsman. Why was he able to fight them while we were all helpless?"

Sara looked at their guide who was now sitting on the floor of the cave, crying. "I think I know why." She turned back to her general. "Okay, I want you to get a head count, find out if we are missing anyone. Also, see what you can do about the wounded. Get an assessment of our situation. I am going to talk to our guide."

Out of habit, Topher snapped to attention and said, "Yes ma'am."

As Topher started barking out orders to the squad, Sara turned to look at the Woodsman. She took a deep breath before she started walking to him.