As she pushed through the soldiers scrambling for their weapons, several corpses—so mangled they were barely recognizable—came into view among the collapsed tents.
Fear tightened painfully in her gut. Yet the thought that Varkas might end up like that made it impossible to stop.
She dashed frantically across the debris-strewn camp, trying to catch up to Varkas, who had already pulled far ahead.
Then, a heavy thud shook the air.
Talia turned toward the sound, the color draining from her face. Not far off, a wyvern had landed and was swallowing a soldier whole.
Every time the beast’s massive jaws ground down, blood spilled over, drenching its dark underbelly.
The sight was so surreal her mind could barely register the terror. Her legs shook violently as she took a faltering step back. Then, catching sight of Varkas amid a line of soldiers leveling their spears, she cried out at the top of her lungs.
“Varkas! Varkas!”
She ran toward him with the desperate fury of a lost child spotting a parent in a crowded market. Varkas, barking orders to the knights, turned back to look at her.
The moment their eyes met, his widened slightly before narrowing hard. He looked furious that she had ignored his warning and run out into the open.
His sharp gaze sent a momentary chill down her spine, but Talia did not stop. A single thought consumed her mind: she had to reach safety with Varkas.
‘Don’t fight. Just let your men deal with it. You have to stay by my side.’
Words that amounted to nothing more than a selfish tantrum tangled messily in her ragged breaths.
Though there was no way he could have heard her over the din, Varkas strode toward her as if he understood. Talia reached out a hand.
At that moment, a faint scream pierced the air from another direction.
“Varkas!”
Varkas’s head snapped toward the cry instantly.
Talia followed his gaze, her eyes going wide as she spotted Ayla, left entirely alone amidst the carnage. Apparently separated from her escort in the fray, Ayla was stumbling blindly as a dark shadow loomed over her head. Seeing this, Varkas threw himself forward without a second thought.
Talia’s mouth hung open in a daze as she watched him tear away from her in an instant. A wretched plea tore from her constricted throat.
Don’t go.
Don’t go to her.
A sob like molten lava surged up, searing her throat.
He scooped Ayla into his arms and rolled clear just in time.
Having missed its prey by a hairsbreadth, the monster let out a savage roar, raking the dirt with black talons.
Varkas drew his sword and shoved Ayla behind him, shielding her from the beast’s fury. Yet the creature did not linger on the target it had missed. Its massive head swung back and forth, sniffing the air, until its eyes locked onto Talia.
She froze, pinned beneath a pair of gleaming red eyes. As if thrilled to find another quarry, the beast’s pupils dilated. In the next breath, its heavy body shot toward her like a serpent skimming across water.
The strike came so fast she did not even have time to scream. Talons hooked into her flesh, and Talia felt herself jerked violently into the air.
Gazing down at the ground as it rapidly dropped away, Talia looked frantically from side to side. Below, the scrambling soldiers shrank until they were no bigger than a palm.
Overwhelmed by impending doom, she thrashed her limbs desperately. But the pressure crushing her chest only tightened. It felt as though those razor-sharp claws would pierce her flesh and rip her in half at any moment.
Looking up into the monster’s face with terror-stricken eyes, Talia finally managed to force out a cry.
“H-help me…! Someone, please…!”
Yet the voice sounded pitifully weak, even to her own ears.
Gasping heavily, she struggled to open her mouth again.
Just then, a flash of light tore through the bluish gloom, and a blast of scorching heat swept across her face. Talia shrieked. The beast holding her let out a piercing screech and convulsed violently.
The talons clamped around her ribs felt as though they would snap her in two, and her vision flashed white. Overcome by bone-deep exhaustion, her limbs went limp. A moment later, she was flung free, tumbling downward through empty air.
After several seconds of free fall, a crushing impact slammed into her entire body, and everything plunged into blackness.
She could not tell if she was conscious or not. The thought brushed her mind that she might already be dead. Yet soon enough, an agonizing wave of pain tore through her, disproving it.
Talia let out a low groan, wheezing for breath like slaughtered livestock.
It hurt. It hurt so much. Yet she could not even tell where the pain was coming from.
“Ugh… huff…”
Crawling blindly over the earth to escape whatever was bearing down on her, Talia could no longer endure the mounting agony and pressed her forehead into the cold dirt. Then, catching a sharp, acrid stench, she forced her head up.
Her eyes, adjusting to the darkness, made out the limp carcass of the wyvern. Talia, who had been weeping in terror, blinked in bewilderment as she realized the beast was dead.
As if caught in a blast of fire, half of its wings were scorched black and shriveled, and red embers still smoldered along its heavy, scale-stripped hind legs.
She stared blankly at the ruin for a long moment, then pressed her palms against the dirt to push her upper body off the ground.
Only then did she see the heavy rocks and mound of earth crushing one of her legs. She must have tumbled down an embankment during the fall.
‘I have to get out of here…’
Talia twisted frantically to drag her lower half from beneath the rubble, but she collapsed again, unable to withstand the agony. Not just the pinned leg, but her chest, shoulders, and arms—every part of her burned with pain.
She wondered if every bone in her body was broken.
It certainly felt like it. In truth, she could not understand how she was still breathing at all. Or perhaps she was simply dying slowly.
She looked around with terror-stricken eyes.
A thick, impenetrable dark had settled over the ground. She wondered if this was what it felt like to be buried alive. Drawing a breath grew harder by the second.
She wished she could faint, yet strangely, her senses only sharpened. Unable to endure the searing agony, Talia scraped her torn fingernails through the dirt. Tears streamed down her face without end.
“It hurts… it hurts so much… Varkas…”
She did not know why she was muttering that name. The memory of him turning his back on her to run toward Ayla flashed through her thoughts.
She would never matter to Varkas. To him, the only ones who had to be protected at all costs were Ayla and Gareth.
Hot tears soaked her cheeks.
“No… still… he’ll come for me.”
She murmured the words as if to convince herself. She was the Emperor’s daughter too. He was a man ruled by duty; surely he would come to find her body, if nothing else. He wouldn't simply leave her like this.
Clinging desperately to that belief, she stared fixedly into the deepening dark.
Before long, even the embers on the beast’s flesh died out, and the world sank into utter blackness.
When no one appeared no matter how long she waited, she forced her dry, cracking throat to speak a little louder.
“It’s all right. It’s all right. He’ll be here soon. Soon…”
Yet her voice was quickly swallowed by a burst of sobs.
Talia bit her lip and clamped a shaking hand over her mouth. She didn’t want to cry.
‘If I cry, it’s like admitting it. That no one is coming for me…’
She fought to swallow down the bitter wails of pain and despair. Then she told herself once more:
If she just held on a little longer, Varkas would surely come. And just as he had once pulled her from the mire, he would save her.
Surely he would. Surely…
END