I sat up and gasped, and came face to face with Amber, who was crouched beside me with a worried expression on her face. The channeling weapon was still clutched tightly in my hand, and it felt like it would literally take a crowbar to pry it off anytime soon.
"Violet?" she said softly, and I slowly began to climb to my feet, although very shakily. For a split second, my legs gave out from under me, but I quickly caught myself and began to stagger towards the doors. My limbs felt stiff like they had been glued in a specific position, and now they really didn't want to budge from their spot.
"We need to move these," I said and grabbed a chair that was stacked on top of a dresser drawer and tossed it to the side, while I had the spear still wrapped tightly in my grip. The chair landed with a loud thud across the room, and one of its legs splattered off.
I then proceeded to scale the mountain of furniture Amber had stacked in front of the doors and tried to knock off as many pieces from the top as possible. I succeeded in my mission and managed to knock down half the pile and almost buried Amber under a coffee table and three wooden chairs.
Amber managed to dodge the falling furniture in the nick of time, but she did give me a sour expression before saying, "Violet, are you going crazy!? What are you doing!?" She said and placed her hands on her black pants and stared up at me.
"I returned all of the souls that I could, and now the completely soulless are agitated and want them back, and they're coming to rip them away again from the people outside this door, so we need to move fast!"
"Violet, even if those things out there are human again, we can't let them in. We can't fit all of those people in here!" Amber said, a little bit of panic in her voice.
I turned away from the chair I was trying to pick up, and looked at her for a very brief second, and saw she was moving towards me. She looked mad, and I knew I had about five seconds to explain myself, or I was about to be on the ground with my arm behind my head.
"I'm not moving these so they can get in", I motioned towards the door where the hypothetical people now stood behind, "I'm moving all this so we can get out."
"Oh..okay, Amber," said slowly, "So what's the game plan here then? Get out of here and kill these things before they take the souls again? All the while distracting them from the people you just returned to normal, so they don't get in the way again?"
"Yeah, pretty much, and that plan involves Arnold, so I need to find him. I didn't see him when I was out of my body. So, if you wouldn't mind and help me move this stuff so we can get these doors open."
Amber nodded and climbed the significantly smaller pile of furniture until she stood beside me and began to help me move the furniture away from the door until we could push it open enough so we could easily slip out.
I opened the door a little and peeked outside, and saw ... absolutely nothing. The streets were empty of life. All I saw was a couple of dead bodies scattered here and there in the space in front of the building. Everything was completely silent, except for a couple of distant screams and banging sounds that echoed eerily off the buildings.
The banging wasn't that of a gunshot going off, but they were the sounds of something throwing itself violently against something else. Exactly what was being thrown against what, I did not know; all I knew was it wasn't good, though.
"Well, you don't have to worry about a mob rushing in here," I said, quietly closing the door behind me. "It appears that they left to find their own hiding places, but they didn't take their dead with them; they did take the injured, instead of leaving them behind like last time. At least that's what I'm guessing," I turned and looked at Amber, "Are you coming? I need you to look at something for me."
Amber nodded, "I'll be right out," she said, "I need to grab something."
"Alright," I responded.
As soon as I was once again under the blue sky, I reached down under the collar of Emily's pink shirt and felt around until I was able to find the gold chain around my neck. I tugged on it until the tiny gold whistle emerged. Then, I brought it up to my lips and blew hard on it.
In the distance, I heard the faint sound of a dragon roaring. A couple of seconds ticked by, and I saw a shape flying towards me. Another couple of seconds, and Deception was in front of me and had my hands wrapped around his head, while he nuzzled underneath my arm. I pulled back from him and saw that his wings had a sort of wooden splint attached to his delicate black wings.
"My boy, I missed you," I cooed to him while I gently examined his wing with the hand that was not holding the channeling weapon and wondered if this little adjustment would possibly allow him to take my weight.
I heard the door open from behind me with a squeak. "Where did he come from?" Amber said and walked over and placed a hand on Deception's speckled neck. Deception pulled back from me and stared at Amber with his cat-like yellow eyes before he gave her a quick sniff and brought his head back and continued to stare at her with an almost uncertain look.
"Through the portal in the sky," I replied and began to rub Deception's neck gently. Deception closed his eyes and began to purr, "He was just lurking in the shadows behind us while we were gathering the channeling weapons and must've seen me ..."
"Get thrown into the portal?" Amber interrupted me. "Yeah, he let out the loudest roar when Arnold's creature tossed you into that portal, and it got the whole camp's attention, and a whole bunch of people showed up, and we had to rush through the portal without strategizing," she said bitterly.
I gave her a sheepish smile, "Sorry, me and this guy have an unbreakable bond, and we aren't going to be separated without at least a little fuss," I replied, and that's when I noticed that she was holding the gun in her hand. I felt like telling her it was a very useless weapon to be using on the things that we were fighting, but I figured she would find out for herself.
"Yeah, I notice, but I wonder why he didn't dive into the portal immediately after you, but now I can see why. You see that blue stuff under his chin?" Amber asked.
I looked and saw that Deception indeed had some blue power under his chin, "Yeah?" I responded.
"That's called goddess dust. Animal healers use it to sedate dragons while they treat them for medical purposes. Otherwise, no one could care for a dragon that is in pain."
"I'm amazed that he was able to come through and keep his soul," I said and brushed a black curt out of my face, "There must be something special about dragons that allows them to slip through worlds like that. Or maybe it's just intelligent life that has a problem traveling between the worlds. But anyways, since it seems that you know a little about a dragon's medical care, could you tell me what you think about Deception's wings?" I asked and gently took the delicate black wing in my free hand and ran my fingers along it until Deception unfurled it.
Amber crouched down on the ground so she could see it at a better angle, "Well," she began and stood back up straight, "I think that they have just been badly broken and need some serious work done to them. But I think what you're asking me is if he could hold your weight?"
I nodded.
"I think he could, but only for a short period of time, but only with that splint on, but I'm like talking less than an hour and no turning. Any more than that could stress his wings out too much, and he might lose his ability to fly for years."
I cringed at the prospect of him not being able to take flight again, but I needed to be in the sky. It would make finding Arnold three times as fast, "That's good that he can fly and hold me," I said reluctantly. I walked around and gently whispered a command for him to get down so that I could easily climb on his back, which he did.
I somewhat clumsily scrambled onto the leather saddle still attached around his middle, and when I did, he made a small sound of pain that absolutely tore at my heart. "I know, I'm sorry, boy! This is truly hurting me more than it's hurting you," I said apolitically and rubbed his spines right behind his ears, and he leaned in to it and closed his eyes. I stopped rubbing and placed my two hands on his back and tilted forward a bit in the saddle, so I was closer to his ears. "But you're going to have to fly with me just for a little bit."
I looked down at Amber, who was standing on the ground, looking up at me, "I'll be back. Can you wait here for a moment?
Stray strands of brown hair that had escaped from her ponytail clung to her face while she stared into my eyes, "Okay, but I still don't know what this 'plan' is, and I never like to be kept in the dark about what is happening," Amber said, and I noticed that she sounded somewhat exasperated.
"I need to just clear some things up before I'll be able to tell you exactly what I have in mind," I said, "But I'll tell you as soon as I see you next, promise." I smiled at her. She did not return the smile.
Without another word, I gathered the reins in my hands, which was somewhat difficult while trying to hold the channeling weapon at the same time. Once they were in a tight knot in my fist, I tugged them and we, somewhat unsteadily, climbed into the sky.
Once we were leveled out, I could try to see the horror of this town. There were bodies scattered everywhere on the street, as well as injured people. Some were trying to drag themselves to safety, while others stared helplessly into the sky. They all looked at me with a mixture of confusion, amazement, and fear when Deception passed over them.
After about another three minutes of flying, I was able to see where the distance banging sounds had been coming from. The soulless were trying to enter some of the buildings lining the various roads that crisscrossed through this town. And I did not doubt that it was because they were trying to get to the people who were trapped inside.
The worst, though, was seeing the soulless chasing terrified people on all fours through the streets, while I watched helplessly from above, unable to do anything to help the intended victims. Some managed to get away, but others weren't so lucky. I watched while one of the soulless pounced on a lady and dug its teeth into her shoulder while she screamed for help.
Deception was already barely able to fly in a straight line, and I didn't want to try and push my luck by trying to maneuver him and end up getting us grounded. If we were grounded, I wouldn't be able to help anyone.
When I finally found Arnold, he was marching down the streets surrounded by his clay men. He looked like he was a general of an army surrounded by his loyal soldiers, which, in a sense, he was
He had moved from the park, where I had last seen him. The park was the first place I had checked when I was looking for him, and I didn't find him, but I did find numerous bodies positioned in a somewhat of a circle, the center of which him and hid clay dolls had been standing.
Arnold must've sensed me because he tilted his head up and stared up at Deception and me in the sky.
I gave him a small wave and went to land. And I was so preoccupied with that motion, I didn't see the soulless woman scuttling along the building wall beside me until it was too late, and it pounced onto Deception.