FALDREY & EREN

He was standing in front of Tonshire; a boy in his Stoichi lessons and warrior training class back in Delta, his village.

"Faldrey?"

Faldrey was stopped in his tracks, he couldn't move. His mind was racing faster than he could comprehend his thoughts, but he knew he had to do something quickly.

"I thought the Westies took you to the west during the last raid?" He approached Faldrey with a genuine smile on his face.

"I wasn't," Faldrey tried to stay calm so Tonshire wouldn't notice his uneasiness, "I was taken into the castle as a servant for the Mistress."

"You were?! That's great, thank the sprites you didn't end up as replenishment for that vile Mage. You needed to see him dying, mate, that was completely grim." He'd walked up to Faldrey now and was examining him. "How come you weren't with our tribesmen who gathered in the servants' quarters?"

"I was—" his impatience got the best of him.

Holding out his hands and placing them on the boy's chest, he caught Tonshire completely off guard. He froze the blood in his legs, keeping him in place.

"What are you doing?!" Tonshire scolded, looking at Faldrey in complete shock.

"I'm very sorry, just get a healer to look at your legs and you'll be fine," he answered hastily.

"What did you do to my legs?! I can't move them!" Tonshire tried to walk but his legs pushed him forward and he fell face flat like a statue.

Faldrey scrunched up his face and held a hand over his mouth. Bitting his lower lip he answered, "I'm so sorry, I just froze the blood in your legs. Get a healer to look at them and please stop trying to walk it'll only make it worse," he tapped Tonshire awkwardly on the head before he started sprinting away.

Luckily for him, Tonshire had come to this side of the castle to relieve his bowels, it was not crowded with warriors and it was another path which led to the watchtower.

"Get back here Faldrey!" He bellowed into the ground.

"For Zaal's sake, please stop shouting like a child, Tonshire. I said you'll be fine. Someone might hear you!" Faldrey whispered harshly at the boy who still had his face planted in the ground and couldn't move a muscle.

Bolting in the direction of the abandoned watchtower, he was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Despite his heart battering his ribcage, he didn't stop running. His legs pushed him further and faster until he got to the watchtower.

Sprinting up the spiral staircase to the top, he heard a restless Eren and an always rational Ursa trying to calm him down. The sounds stopped when they heard footsteps, Faldrey slowly came into view.

They'd both braced themselves for whomever it was but when their eyes settled on Faldrey's slender figure the tensions dropped and their nerves settled.

Eren hadn't been so happy to see someone in his entire life. Darting towards his beloved, he smashed their lips together with so much passionate force which still managed to feel so tender and familiar.

Eren reached down to Faldrey's buttocks and cupped them, before applying a little force and taking a handful of them in his hands. The action made Faldrey jerk and moan into his mouth, his hand carding through the still wet strands of his hair and touching the bloody wound at back of his head.

They dared to take it even further but Ursa gawkily cleared his throat behind them, getting their attention.

"I thought something had happened to you," Eren whispered in his face, his breath still very hot from the kiss.

"Nothing can keep us apart, I've told you that countless times," Faldrey whispered back, his breath just as hot. "What happened to your head?" Faldrey held out his hands which were now red with Eren's blood.

"It's nothing, just a minor injury. Everything is fine now you're here."

Eren released Faldrey from his warm embrace, looking around he asked, "What about Aphrodite?"

Faldrey's eyes lost the light it had gotten from the kiss he'd just shared with Eren who was still holding his arms.

"What happened to her?" He rephrased his question.

A tear escaped Faldrey's eyes, then another, until he started crying. Pulling him into his chest, Eren smoothened his hair.

"The Mage took her earlier as life replenishment," Faldrey continued sobbing into Eren's chest.

His heart felt heavy, his eyes hurt even more. He was tired of crying but he couldn't stop.

"I'm so sorry." Eren was trying to be strong for his beloved, but even he couldn't control his emotions.

He loved Aphrodite, and she was the reason they were together now. Spanning from the time she suggested to tell Faldrey that he sent for him, to the time she urged him to send another flame butterfly after a whole year. He owed a lot to her and it hurt him that he wasn't there to say his last goodbyes.

"I'm so sorry, Faldrey," he sobbed again.

"We've to leave now, we can't spend anymore time in these castle grounds. If Eren gets caught he'll be killed for being the Tal Dane's son, and Faldrey as well for being an accomplice. And well, you all know what will become of me," Ursa announced.

The both boys took a moment to get their emotions under control, while soothing and calming each other. Wiping their eyes of the mourning tears of their lovely friend, they put their straight faces on. They were survivors and they were going to remain survivors.

"You were not followed, were you Faldrey?" Ursa asked.

"No I wasn't," he shook his head vigorously causing his hair to bob around messily on his head.

The knot had almost loosened completely, and the wet parts of his hair were still blue.

"Then we must leave now, we'll go down to the base room and pass through the oubliette then into the tunnels. That's how we're going to escape," Ursa explained their escape plan again so Faldrey would understand, because Eren had already understood everything there was to it.

Racing down the spiral staircase closely together; Ursa in the front and Eren at the back. They bent under the staircase and made it to the base room.

Ursa stomped on one side of a floor stone and the other side propped up like a seesaw. Sliding the metal railings aside they slid in one after the other into the dark room. Eren and Ursa both made blaze torches, keeping it afloat above their palms to light up the room.

"Oh look, there are old torches here," Eren called out, pulling a torch out of its hook.

He lit it and it immediately caught on fire, lighting up the entire room.

"Woah," he exclaimed, holding it away from him before the flames settled. "What are these made of?"

"Reeds, river cane, bark or bamboo just like regular torches. Be careful with your flame," Ursa cautioned Eren, picking out two more torches for himself and Faldrey.

"Here," he held it out to Faldrey, then touched the flammable end with just a finger. The flame slowly built and in less than five seconds the entire torch was lit. "That's how you light a torch," he looked at Eren who just nodded his head like a child.

There were boxes which looked over a millennium old, almost everything in the room looked well over a millennium old.

"What exactly is this place?" Eren cooed, "Why have I never heard of it?" He looked around the room.

On the walls there were incised carvings of people riding dragons, fire Stoichi Dakyres owning phoenixes as pets. One particular carving caught his eyes; three Dakyres were joggling all the four elements at once.

He gasped. "Are these the Aether Stoichi Dakyr—"

"This place was shown to me by Faldrey's grandfather, the special adviser before me. Only very few Dakyres in the Red Stoichi Tribe know about the tunnel under the castle that leads straight to the Lava Sea. Your father doesn't know because power always blinded him, he didn't care about anything that wasn't politics," Ursa informed the boys.

"His greed and taste for power is our only saviour today, so I suppose it's good for one thing," Eren replied with a shrug.

"I suppose it is," Ursa pushed open the towering wooden door which made a very loud creaking sound. Anyone around would've heard it.

"That was terribly loud," Faldrey stared displeased at the door.

"Come on then," Ursa made a swooping gesture with his free hand, motioning for them to follow him.

They walked through the door and into the tunnel which was incredibly cold, and hot at the same time. Faldrey felt the exact same temperature he felt when he rested on the walls of his dungeon cell.

They hadn't walked too deep into the tunnel when they heard voices and footsteps of people coming in through the oubliette, so quickly they didn't have much time to act.

"We've to hide!" Eren hissed harshly.

"Where? This is just one straight stone tunnel!" Faldrey harshly whispered back.

"There's no where to hide, they're already here. Brace yourselves," Ursa centered himself and took a deep breath, the flame on their torches became more intense and the light reflecting on his bare, sweaty muscled upper body.

"There's no water here, and we're too deep underground. I might not be able to freeze their blo—" Faldrey stopped talking when he saw the three persons who just made it through the loud creaking wooden door. "For Sprite's sake, Tonshire! I told you not to follow me!"

Standing in front of them were three Crescent Moon warriors. Tonshire and two other warriors. Tonshire was still limping, his feet still hurt from having the blood flowing through them frozen. One of the warriors, the one carrying a keg of water, had healed him to an extent.

"Where are you going with these pe—" he stopped when he saw the faces of the people standing with Faldrey. "Isn't that the Young Tal Dane? Where are you doing with two fire Stoichi Dakyres? You're helping the Young Tal Dane escape?" Tonshire assumed for himself.

"You know this boy?" Ursa asked relaxing, after realising centering himself wasn't necessary.

"Yeah he's my tribesman, he gets too excited sometimes,"  Faldrey answered nonchalantly.

"I get too excited sometimes?!" He'd started walking up to them, with the sharp edge of his spear pointing right at them. "You're a traitor, a betrayer just like your grandmother who married a Blazing Sun and your father who took in a traitor and then wed the Blazing Sun child as his wife. You're the one who gets excited, your entire family, they're obsessed with betrayal!" He barked while slowly limping towards them. The other two warriors trailed behind him, their hands shaking in fear.

Everyone was silent for a while until someone spoke.

"Oh shut up Tonshire!" Eren surprised himself when he spoke the boy's name. It was wrongly pronounced because of his accent.

They all stopped and stared at each other in confusion, before Faldrey spoke up and supported Eren.

"Yes, shut up Tonshire. How did you even make it into the army The Sphinx put together?" He tried to get him to stop, but Tonshire kept limping towards them.

"I'm going to kill every one of you and I'll take glory for it," he hissed, anger and disgust very audible in his voice as he gimped.

"This is just pitiful. Cover your ears," Ursa ordered, stepping ahead of them.

"What?"

"What?"

Eren and Faldrey both asked at the same time.

"I said cover your ears and look away from here," he repeated himself.

"Oh, he's going to recite a coaxing poem to them," Eren informed Faldrey and they both did as Ursa said.

"Don't you dare use a Blazing Sun coaxing poem on me," Tonshire sneered and continued to limp closer while pointing the sharp edge of his spear at them.

Ursa completely ignored him and threw his torch to the floor. Stretching out both his hands he recited:

"The night is cold but your bed is warm.
The night is old but your mind is young.
The bedtime stories you were told are all you yearn.
So now you will sleep because you are tired and you yawn."

Ursa finished the poem and instantly a warm gust of wind blew around the water Dakyre boys, in seconds they fell to the ground, asleep.

"That solves that," Ursa picked up his torch from the stone floor

"How long will the effect last?" Faldrey asked.

"At least, two days," Ursa answered with a indifferent shrug and they continued down the tunnel without saying a word about it, despite sharing looks.

They'd walked quite some distance away from the sleeping boys when Faldrey thought he heard footsteps. Turning to check behind them was Tonshire limping but dashing with full speed towards Eren with the sharp edge of his spear.

With little to no time to think, he didn't know when he brought himself in between the sharp end of the spear and Eren. Tonshire thrust with a force that drove the spear into Faldrey's chest, piercing through the thick flesh, breaking through the ribcage and meeting his heart. Bursting it open.

When Tonshire realised what he'd done he pulled the spear out of Faldrey with a force equal to the one he used to thrust it in. Eren and Ursa both turned the second they heard the sqwerp sound of knife piercing through thick flesh.

Faldrey immediately slumped to the stone floor, blood had already started gushing out from the stab wound and dripping from his mouth.

Eren gawked in horror, he couldn't believe the sight in front of him.

(Play the song.)