Chapter 14

Remembering Sparrow

Marlene

Sparrow was gone. She fell into the pit. It was hard to wrap my head around. I would never see my best friend again.

Sparrow was dead.

We quickly returned to Purple Meadows. Now that Abyss was in the Pit of Eternal Doom, the war would be over in a few days. One dragon was a small price to pay for the end of a war that was affecting millions, right?

It didn't feel that way to me. If things had worked out a little differently, Sparrow would still be alive. I would give anything to be in the Pit instead of Sparrow. I was the one who deserved that fate, not Sparrow. Sparrow was only trying to do good. I was the one who helped kill Abyss.

I could tell the others were also mourning Sparrow's death. Scàth constantly talked to himself, bashing himself over Sparrow's death.

"The prophecy," he often muttered. "Why didn't I listen to the prophecy? I should've known Sparrow was the one."

Cara was almost always on the verge of tears. I knew she wasn't very close to Sparrow, but she was definitely the most emotional out of the four of us. Ethan, on the other hand, seemed to keep some form of sanity. I couldn't tell if he cared at all about Sparrow's death, but if he did, he seemed to hide it well.

When we returned, I saw Queen Ríoga and King Monarc waiting to greet us.

"Congratulations on your successful quest, Marlene," Queen Ríoga said. I noticed that she had a new marking. It was black, signifying that she was the mother of a fallen war hero.

"Sparrow's dead!" I wailed.

"We've already heard," King Monarc said. "What you deserve after all of those adventures is a feast in your honor."

"Your Majesty, Marlene's right," Ethan said. "Sparrow deserves a proper funeral before we do any celebrating."

"I agree with Ethan," Cara said. "We owe that much to Sparrow."

The next day, we held Sparrow's funeral. I can't remember that much of it. I was crying too hard. Mostly, I remember Ethan trying to comfort Cara and I.

A few days after that, the Fangpyres surrendered to the Altimas and Aquidraki. This officially ended the war. As promised, the King and Queen held a feast in our honor. I knew I should have been celebrating with the others, but I didn't. I was at the pool again, trying to relax. I was surprised to see that Ethan was there too.

"Hi Marlene," he said. "So we stopped a war and killed the leader of the Blood Seekers. What's next?"

"I don't know," I said mournfully. "Maybe I should get back to living a normal life?"

Ethan laughed. "That exists?"

"Of course it does," I said. "Don't you have one?"

"Kind of. Speaking of which, I needed to tell you something," Ethan said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'm leaving," Ethan said. "I need to get back to New York. You're home and now I need to go home too."

"Do you have to?" I asked.

"I'm afraid so," Ethan said. "Don't worry Marlene. I'll always remember you." He gently stroked my wing and went back into the hotel.

Ethan was gone. Everything was finally at peace, but everything I loved was destroyed.

There was nothing left to say.

THE END.