4

If there's any doubt in her actions, it isn't evident. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a beautifully woven necklace. She clenches her eyes shut and whispers to the necklace, finally pulling back as the necklace begins to glow brightly, then slowly dims. She sighs, placing it on the sleeping baby's chest. She then stands up and removes another figure from her back, softly unwrapping the many layers from it as well. She trembles as she takes off the last layer and eyes the small dragonling, it too snoring softly.

She holds back another sob, this one threatening to tear her apart. She lays the dragonling next to the baby. She holds herself with a loving smile as the small child naturally crawls closer to its companion. The two wrap themselves in each other's warmth. She's tempted to stay, but she knows what rests on the other side of the door. What crept in the shadows in the nearby depressed forest. Leah had allowed herself to leave that unforgiving world, but she can no longer stay. That world was hers, and not facing it would be even more dangerous than doing so.

"May you forever be safe, my love." She gives one last kiss before wrapping herself up and heading towards the door. She opens it and immediately hears the shrieks of reality, daring her to come and join them. She turns to look at the small child and dragonling one last time; this was for them. She steps back into the world of snow, running fast, with a newfound purpose as a series of shrieks rings out.

She shakes her head—she won't do this to herself—but his face appears despite what she tells herself.

She vividly remembers everything. His loving embrace, his calloused hands against her skin. His sweet words said in the most playful of voices; she would laugh if the pain wasn't so intense. Oh, how she longs to be in his embrace one last time. If he were here, he would wipe those tears away. He would tell her that it was okay. And even if she knew it wasn't, she would believe him. She would believe him, even as she laid there dying.

Her memories shift to more recent events. The blood coating his face and his screams of pain and agony. He was broken. He was never broken, not even when he stubbornly faced death. He was the strong one. She remembers watching those brown eyes slowly close. She remembers hearing his dragon roar in anger and torture, fighting to get to him.

Her memory fades as a pool of blood grew around his body.

It matters little now.

Next

She runs.

Her energy quickly wanes as the pain in her chest grows and her knowledge of the inevitable rises. The approaching shrieks come closer, and they soon join her path. Leah, all too knowing of the danger, knowledgeable about the destruction they wrought. She doesn't hurry, if anything she slows down, her eyes now void of all emotion and color. Her steps lessen until she finally falls to her knees, the shrieks growing closer and closer to ceasing, along with her breath.

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