Falling, Scene v1

Kismet dangled from the edge of the roof. She latched her feet onto the side of the tower with her claws. Focusing her energy, she softened the stone and slid down the outer wall of the tower. As she descended, the stone grew hotter and hotter. She reached a gap half way down the tower. Her foot slipped, followed by her hands. The Catheran found herself staring at the sky, at the soldiers on the roof who leaned over the edge and stared back at her. The stones of the wall became nothing more than a blur of grey.

Kismet shifted her focus to the air around her, creating as strong of a vertical wind as she could to slow her fall, but it wasn’t enough. The fear-struck faces of her comrades drew further and further away, until her eyes were forced shut under a crushing pain that shot through her body. She coughed out a small mist of blood. Her body was wracked with pain, but she pressed forward and laboriously brought herself to her knees. She crawled to the wall of the tower, relinquishing what remained of her stamina into deconstructing the stone. As the tower’s side crumbled, Kismet dragged herself away.

Elena held Garrick’s hand tightly, her eyes closed in silent prayer. He returned her prayer with both his hands around hers. The soldiers braced themselves as the tower began toppling over. The soldiers leapt for the trees with all their strength. One of the Lokem soldiers fell violently to the ground after losing his balance during the descent. The remaining soldiers jumped into the trees as a cloud of dust filled the air from the tower’s crash. Lucas lost his grip on a branch, but managed to recover on the next nearby branch. Elena grabbed onto a thin branch, but it snapped like a twig under her falling weight. Frantically she reached for the branches nearby but they all seemed out of reach. Her body twisted painfully as she collided into several branches during her descent. Tears of fear and frustration stung her eyes as the branches eluded her grasps. A brief surge of pain shot up her spine with a loud crack, but only for a moment. The pain had suddenly disappeared and her body no longer responded. She watched herself fall through the tree, feeling no pain, until finally she found herself staring at the branches above her from the ground. The autumn leaves showered over her in a cascade of red and yellow.

The survivors quickly descended the tree and searched for the two soldiers. The arm of the soldier who had fallen peeked out lifelessly from under the fiery ruins. Garrick rushed over to Elena, crying out her name. He dropped to his knees and held her battered body in his arms. “No…no…” he repeated over and over in disbelief. He gazed into her bloodied face with tear-stung eyes. She gazed back, because it was all she could do. Sadness overwhelmed her. She felt her life slipping away. She wanted nothing more than to hold him one last time, to tell him how much she loved him. But she couldn’t. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t speak or move her body. All she could do was stare helplessly at his tears and listen to him call to her, but she could not respond. Although she couldn’t feel the pain in her body, it was unbearable watching Garrick in such anguish. A thin stream of tears escaped from her eyes, as the color faded along with her life. Garrick hugged her body tightly, rocking her back and forth, unable to fight back the sobs that shook his body.



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