CHAPTER 13: THE STRANGER

“Who are you?”

As soon as Seraphin entered the circle, everything turned black around her and there was only a woman in front of her. Her beautiful appearance was ruined by her pale skin and black veins all around her body. her eyes which were like a starless night were especially scary.

“I am you, my dear.”

The unknown figure then disappeared and nothing more could be seen or heard. Was it the end, then? Did the stranger lie to her in the end? Will her father be okay? While she is thinking about all that, a voice suddenly resounds in this dark place.

“And I was never able to answer her, SO YOU WILL LEAVE US BE AND SCRAM!!”

That voice, the stranger. Is he trying to save her? Really? Even though she didn’t know him and was rude to him, would he really save her? As hope starts to come again, spreading through her body, Seraphin says the words she couldn’t say ever since all this began.

“Please, SAVE ME!!!”

As if she was heard, light comes, chasing away the darkness where she is in and Seraphin instantly feels her heart relieved and her spirit fading into a warm pool.

***

The young draig suddenly felt like he couldn’t move. He couldn’t see nor hear either. Did the outsiders do this? Were they trying to hurt the matriarch after all? He knew he shouldn’t have trusted them. He should have killed them; kill them all. But then, he could suddenly see and hear again. However, what he saw was the worst possible scene: the matriarch is dead, lying on the ground, her heart pulled out. The outsider is standing with an arm missing and is bleeding all over. The female outsider is sitting in front of him, and a new female outsider, with an ominous aura, much darker than the demn king himself, is on the ground, like she got smashed on it.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!!”

He starts advancing, and soon after him, other draigs who also woke up to this scene are doing the same.

“Traitors!!”

“Kill them!!”

Lekas sees that this is not a situation that can be explained.

“I am sorry.”

With just that, the strangers disappear, the old man as well, leaving only the other outsider there.

***

“W-where are we?”

Hithindil wakes up in an unknown place again. In front of him now are the ruin of a castle. Looking around, he sees his daughter lying down on the grass.

“Seraphin!!”

He runs to her and when he reaches her, she also wakes up.

“Daddy?”

“Yes, my daughter!! It’s me!!”

They embrace each other while crying. Was everything until now a bad dream? They want to believe it but they know it wasn’t.

“Where are we, daddy?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know at all.”

“And where is that guy?”

“I don’t know. I just woke up like you.”

“He was so creepy anyway. It’s a good thing he disappeared as well.”

“Don’t say that. Didn’t he save your life?”

“Hmph! I could have taken care of myself alone.”

Seeing his daughter’s character is back, Hithindil feels that the nightmare is behind them. He uncontrollably makes a warm smile while embracing his daughter again.

“W-what is it, daddy?”

“Nothing, don’t worry. It is nothing.”

After a moment of silent crying, Seraphin finally spots something at the base of a tree a bit far from them.

“Daddy, wait, look over there.”

When he looks as well, he sees a figure sitting on the tree, and green hair.

“Could it be…?”

“It must be him.”

Seraphin is still hesitant but Hithindil stands up and goes to the tree. As he is approaching, he starts to discern more and more the person, his body is covered with wounds. His head especially seems to have a serious wound, with blood still spilling out of it a bit. His right arm is missing and little droplets of blood are falling from it. What kind of fight did he get into to end up like this? Did he have to fight that whole village to save them?

“W-what happened to him?” Hithindil's feet stop near the man. His whole being feels like getting too near could cause the inevitable to occur.

Seraphin, for her part, cannot believe what she is seeing. The man who looked extra confident when he saved her and her father, her hero is all beaten up, bloody, and looks like he was about to die.

“Are you okay?” She runs to him like a mad woman. The fear and disdain she felt earlier has completely disappeared. When she reaches him, however, the stranger doesn’t react, he is breathing but his eyes are closed.

“Do you hear me? Hey!!”

She starts smacking him, covering her hand with his blood. “Don’t you die on me like this, you hear?! I don’t even know your name so don’t you dare die on me like this!!”

“Stop, Seraphin. It won’t help at this point.” Hithindil has finally managed to move and after reaching his daughter, he places his hand on her trembling shoulder.

“But…But…” Seraphin starts crying. She thought she was finally going to be happy but fate had other plans for her again.

“I wanted to at least thank him.”

“T-then…”

Seraphin’s eyes open wide, hearing the voice of the stranger. Hithindil also approaches a bit more but doesn’t kneel.

“Hey! Are you okay? Can you hear us?!” Seraphin gets more enthusiastic when she hears him speaking.

“Then…K…Kiss me…before I die.”

The stranger’s voice is getting weaker and Hithindil has a hard time understanding what he said. But seeing Seraphin’s face turning red, he understands that the situation has changed somehow and what the nature of the request could be.

‘I suppose it is not too much as a parting gift.’ Hithindil turns around so as not to make his daughter too embarrassed.

“I…I-”

“P…Please.”

The stranger’s voice gets even weaker, becoming almost inaudible. Seraphin takes a deep breath and then her face starts approaching the stranger.

“Just know that this a thank-you gift for everything you did. It doesn’t mean I have fallen for you.”

Seraphin knows that these might be the last moments of the man in front of her but even so, she doesn’t want him to die while thinking she loved him. She cannot bear to face his ghost if, later on, it turns out that it wasn’t the case.

Like a delicate petal falling on a lake, Seraphin’s lips press again the stranger’s. His lips are hot and clean enough since there is no blood on them. She gently and tenderly kisses him. Her lack of experience as it is her first kiss doesn’t allow her to do more than that. The stranger’s lips are just slightly moving, answering as best as they could to Seraphin’s lips. Lekas never kissed willingly before so he doesn’t exactly know what to do either.

Finally, Seraphin backs up, her red and crying face proof of the mix between embarrassment and sorrow she is feeling right now.

“I am sorry that I can’t do more than that. If only…”

Seraphin lowers her head, Hithindil closes his eyes as well. The fact that they are powerless to save the man who did everything to save them was a cruel reality that they cannot escape.

“Well, that was a hot kiss for sure.”

Suddenly, as silence was filling the place and only Seraphin’s crying could be heard, the stranger’s voice resounds, with such normality no one would believe he is currently injured.

“What?!!”

Seraphin lifts her head in surprise while Hithindil turns back like a typhoon.

“Hey.” The stranger raises his only arm and greets them. His eyes are wide open and he is smiling brightly.