“OH?”
“Something wrong?”
“My breath’s coming out white. Now it’s like yours.”
There’s a reason why we’re chattin’ casually to each other while I walk: to ascertain how close I’ve come to the barrier.
How much time has passed since I first began walking this underwater tunnel? Dragon’s voice is beginning to sound distant.
“Your voice is getting quieter.”
“Aye. It appears the barrier is already affecting our bond.”
“Just goes to show how much closer I’ve gotten to the castle. Pretty soon I can stop shakin’ in my boots worrying ‘bout when the ceiling’s going to collapse in on me…”
“Gideo…be caref…”
“Spike?” Dragon’s voice breaks off right after I pass the nth pillar I’ve seen today. “Our link was cut?”
My visibility suddenly darkens too. I forgot how limited the range of the torchlight is. Was human vision always this dark?
I look over my shoulder and up at the pillar I just passed by.
What to do? Turn back?
…No.
“Sheesh, he’s such a worrier.”
I predicted this would happen. It just happened sooner than I expected is all. Now then, it’s time to advance onward. Princess is waiting.
My thoughts keep returning to Dragon. It’s one of those things that linger after you lose something that has been with you for so long. Things have only returned to the way they originally were, but I feel strangely helpless…or to be more precise…
“I’m lonely.” I can admit it because I know he’s not listening. I can’t let my worrywart partner hear my idle complaints.
✦ ✦ ✦
“RAH…” Dragon opens his eyes. “Our shared connection through the scale has been cut. It appears he entered the barrier.”
“I see. Good for him,” Witch answers.
Her fickle and vague tone is just like a willow bending to the wind. Her amber eyes, turned to the sky, are looking towards a distant time. Searching for a place that’s not here. Witch narrows one eye, distorting the inner canthus, as she responds mechanically, displaying little care for the conversation. Dragon’s pupils contract vertically.
“Why are you siding with us?”
Raising a silver eyebrow, Witch looks up at Dragon. “Didn’t you hear me earlier?”
“You have not informed us of everything. Have you?”
“Don’t be silly. You should sincerely accept favors from others, Spike.”
“I have aged as well. Time has worn on my past naiveté and caused me to grow a tad more doubtful since those days.”
The distortion around her eyes spreads to the rest of her face, screwing with her expression. “...I’m going to test him. Does he really plan on rescuing the princess?”
Her smile is both fearless and pained. She bares her white teeth and grabs her chest, clenching where the golden pendant, inlayed with Dragon’s scale, once decorated.
“My knight wouldn’t protect me. He offered me on a platter to the enemy in return for his own safety.” Dragon lowers his head and lets out a long sigh as she continues, “This is a test. There are actually three black magic items supporting the barrier. The third is at the heart of the castle, in the middle of the throne room!”
Her eyelids peel back wide enough to split open and her eyes change color. Jet-black paints over the whites of her eyes, her pupils, and dark irises. Red beads burn in the center.
Witch sneers while shedding tears that are darker than black, almost as if the darkness dyeing her eyes is overflowing. She cackles in a shrill, demented voice, shaking her entire body.
“I wonder if he’s capable of seeing it through until the end…” She shrieks, laughing. “Will he be the type to give it all up for a chance at victory? Will he succeed where my knight so utterly failed?”
Dragon spreads his wings, blocking out the poignant moonlight that illuminates the tears drenching her cheeks. “You underestimate the kind of man he is, and his dedication to Princess. No matter what may happen,” Dragon’s body begins to glow a blinding red that illuminates the shadow enshrouded forest, “it is all for the Princess!”
As the light dims, Witch’s cackles fade, and a hint of hope creeps in at the edges of her ice-cold soul.