Chapter 28: Liam's POV

Ok this one was a challenge for me-

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The rain moved in early in the day. It woke us all up before the sun had risen, the soft, slow rain drops pecking at our faces and sizzling on the still smoldering campfire. Having already been woken up, we decided to get an early start on the day.

That was a mistake.

The rain pelts on us in thick sheets, the mixed cacophony of the precipitation making it almost impossible to hear each other. The wind howls, making it difficult for Amber to keep us airborne. She pumps her wings hard against the force, water pouring off her wings. Lighting streaks down into the ocean below, lighting up the dark afternoon for a split second. Thunder follows shortly after with a low rumble that seems to vibrate my eardrums. Giant waves crash down beneath us, adding to the deafening sounds.

"We need to find land!" I yell at Amber, squinting my eyes against the painful assault of water.

"Obviously!" Kate yells from behind me.

"I can't see anything for miles!" Amber's rough voice is like a brief safe haven from the other horrible sounds penetrating my mind all at once.

"Well we can't go back to the shore, it's already miles away, too!" Reid yells up from her spot at the back.

I quickly wipe away the water from my face, a fruitless effort because the water returns almost immediately. My hair is plastered to my face, getting in my eyes occasionally and making it really hard to see at times. I rack my brain to think of a solution but I can't find one.

"There's no good answer here, guys. I'm sorry Amber but I think our best option is to just keep flying and pray for the best!" I grip on one of her spines for dear life, the wind tearing at my jacket and my clothes. Amber doesn't reply, just angles her wings against the increasingly powerful gale.

As she gets wetter her crimson scales become more slippery. It's becoming harder and harder to keep balanced on her back. My legs hug her sides and my arms wrap around her spine. I grit my teeth, the combination of our speed and the wind makes the rain very painful. I glance up at the almost pitch black sky. We better find shelter, and soon.

"I think I see something!" Amber says after a long time, the statement punctuated by another crack of lighting. I lean forward, squinting against the rain and try to see something, anything on the horizon.

"I don't see anything!" I yell back.

"Trust me! It's an island. A small one but it's still there!" An especially strong gust of wind takes her by surprise and she stalls slightly, flapping her wings rapidly to try and right herself. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to project myself to anywhere, any place but here, on a dragon's back, flying over the open ocean in a borderline hurricane.

My eyes fly open as a small yelp sounds behind me. I whip around to see a hand disappearing over Amber's side. A scream pierces through the air. I meet Reid's panicked eyes before leaning over to see a female form falling through the air.

"KATE!" The yell forces its way out of my lungs before I can stop it. I reach a hand out as if she can grab it, though she's way too far down to even come close. Immediately Amber's head snaps backwards to see me, and she follows my gaze down. Her golden eyes widen with fear.

"Hold on!!" She yells, and me and Reid comply. She folds her wings in, turning herself downwards into a nosedive. I flatten myself against her back, hugging her with all of my strength, my eyes wrenched shut. My gut sinks into my legs. I'm too scared to even scream. Sharp pellets of rain pelt me all over, stinging worse than ever before. My vision goes blurry from the water, making it hard to see what happens. I hear a scream-sob-mixture come from Reid behind me.

I see Kate's flailing form come closer as we gain on her. I watch as Amber's wings slowly open, making them into a V shape. Then, we're right on top of Kate. On one fluid movement Amber extends her wings, the wind catching them immediately and snapping her body downwards. She uses that momentum to wrench herself under Kate and snatch her with awaiting claws.

I breathe heavily, my grip shaking on Amber's body. Me and Reid are almost at a 90° degree angle, forcing us to hold ourselves up. But Kate's safe. Thank the goddesses.

But that moment of bliss is almost immediately ruined as one of the biggests waves I've ever seen in my life comes out of nowhere, towering above us. Amber shifts her weight, diving down into the valley the growing curve of water is making, then in a sharp U, pumping her wings to accelerate upwards. The wave crashes down right behind us, and she follows the rest of the water up.

We make it safely above the waves and pause for a moment, gliding on the air. Amber looks down at her stomach at Kate she had been cradling there with all four of her legs.

"Are you okay?" She asks the shooken up girl. She nods hesitantly, gripping the dragon's claws so tight her knuckles are white.

Amber climbs up to a safe altitude, riding on the new stream of wind. It changed directions, now flowing the way we want to go. Amber simply extends her wings out fully and glides on the stream of air, only meedi g to flap occasionally. The rain still pummels us, but at least the wind is on our side.

I take a deep breath, calming my racing heart and peel my hands off of the spine I had been gripping. I flex my now aching hand, glancing back at Reid. She looks just as shaken up as I feel. Her white hair hands in front of her eyes, almost obscuring them completely. She doesn't seem to want to let go of Amber long enough to fix that. I reach back with one hand and push some of the hair back behind her ears.

"Are you alright?" I yell over the rain. She's shaking. She doesn't reply. "Hey, I need you to take a breath for me, okay?" She just stares back blankly.

"Just do it for me real quick. Please?" She still doesn't do it. "Hey, do you smell that?"  She looks at me weird and breathes in shallowly through her nose. She shakes her head. "Are you sure? Take a deeper breath, I'm sure it's there." Her chest expands slightly more, and she still shakes her head.

"Try a deep breath with your mouth. Like a really deep breath! Engage your entire diagram, I was told once that helps your sense of smell." She shoots me a questioning glance before taking a big breath. She lets it out slowly, her body relaxing slightly. She looks up to see me grinning and realizes my trick, offering me a small hesitant smile. I pat her on the shoulder and look back forward, through the rain. I now notice a small gray silhouette sitting on the horizon.

Combined with my almost drowning the day before and this, I'm really starting to despise water.

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We jog through the streets, searching for an inn or a hotel or something of the sort. Eventually we find one, the sign swinging above the porch blowing in the wind.

"Where will you stay?" I turn and yell up to Amber. She straightens and looks over the tops of some of the smaller houses and seems to find something.

"I think there's a barn right outside of town. I'll hold up there. Come and get me in the morning." She says.

"You're not sleeping in a barn while we sleep in warm beds!" Kate says, her arms crossed over her body to try and stay warmer.

"No, it's alright! I'll be fine! Cows are good company." She says with a smirk before trotting off through the streets. I glance at my other two friends before opening the door to the inn for them.

The place is quiet, no one but a few drunk stragglers left in the bar. A server stands behind a small counter, the old wood so old it appears to be rotting. Only a handful of tables, a dozen chairs, a few potted plants and a fireplace decorate the room. We stand shivering at the entrance, wet and cold, our shoes covered in mud from the streets and multiple equally wet bags on our backs and in our hands.

The bartender behind the counter waves us over, reaching for something behind the table. With squeaking shoes we reach the old wood. The server hands us three towels and I accept them graciously, handing them out to my friends. I feel the stares of the other guests on my back.

"I'm guessing you three want a room?" The server says.

"Oh yes please! That would be amazing." I wipe my face and scrub my hair, the hair tie keeping the majority of my locks up having previously fallen out.

"Well lucky for you folk we have one room spare for tonight." He slides a key across the counter.

"How much is it? Will this cover it?" I fumble with my bag and manage to find my small sack full of the money we had been using the entire quest. Only three gold coins lay at the bottom of my pouch. I place one on the counter next to the key. I watch in confusion as the server's eyes go wide.

"Oh my goddesses! Yes! Yes, kind sir! That'll do nicely! This'll pay for six month's rent. Thank you, you god send!" He picks it up and admires it in the lantern light.

"Um, happy to help." I smile, confused still. Back home one gold coin can get you, if you're lucky, a nice bouquet of flowers, or a cheap dress, or half a chicken, not a room at an inn for a night.

"Oh! Here! Take this. As change." He reaches under the counter and throws two handfuls of tiny, misshapen silver coins that are as thin as paper. So as not to be rude I rake the coins into the sack and close it up, stuffing it back in my back. I hesitantly take the key, glancing at the man still gazing at the golden coin.

I shrug at my friends, who also look confused, and lead them up the stairs to our two-bed room. Kate offers to sleep on the floor but is overruled by me and Reid who tells her that she should rest after almost dying today. And apparently since I almost died the previous day, I got the other bed, leaving Reid to a few blankets and a pillow on the floor.

And together, listening to the howling wind beating at the walls and the rain tapping at the window, snug under our blankets and dry with a roof over our head for the first time in weeks, we drift off to sleep.

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When we woke up we gathered our things and returned the key, then set off to find the barn Amber stayed in the previous night. We found it almost immediately and stepped inside.

"Took you guys long enough." Her voice sounds in our heads almost immediately.

"Sorry, Amber. Did you sleep alright?" Reid asks.

"Surprisingly, yes. Though the cows weren't very talkative. What about you guys?" We follow her outside and mindlessly start walking down the streets.

"Great! It was so nice to sleep on something other than grass for a change." Kate says with a chuckle.

"Yeah, but something was off about how the innkeeper reacted when I gave him the gold coin. He said he could pay six months of rent with that. Six months!" I say.

"Really? One good coin?" Amber asks, looking down at me.

"Yeah, just the one. He acted like it was a diamond or something." We turn the corner and enter what I believe is the main street, and even in the gloomy light of the morning I see why one coin was so precious to him.

People walk the street but there is no life like back at Derynas castle. The people walk with almost a dazed look in their eyes. Each one is so small, so brittle and fragile it looks as if they could break apart in a strong gust of wind. Their cheeks and eyes are sunken in and their limbs are as small as twigs.  At least half a dozen people, just from what I can see, are begging on the side of the road, pleading with each passing person to offer food or money. There is no life, no color, no joy or happiness. I feel as if life is being drained out of me just by being here.

We walk in a stunned daze, barely able to comprehend what we're seeing. I spot an old shriveled woman sitting against a building, an empty can in her hands as she pleads for food. I approach her, rustling in my bag for my money pouch.

"It isn't much but I hope it helps." I say, throwing a small handful of the silver coins the innkeeper gave me into the old ladies can. Her eyes immediately begin to water as she looks down at her mini fortune.

"Thank you kind sir…oh thank you…" her voice wobbles and shakes as she looks disbelieving at her hands.

"Ma'am, can u ask you something?"

"Anything! Oh, anything to repay you for this kindness you have done for me." She looks up with a small spark in her eyes. I smile lightly. I see her falter as she looks up at Amber who had come up behind me.

"Can you tell me what happened here? Why is it so….dead."

"It looks that way, doesn't it? A few months ago this was a prosperous farming island, everyone grew what they ate and what they couldn't eat, they sold. That's how things worked. But then when that damed new king came to power everything changed. He needed food for his armies, so he picked us because of our remoteness. The knights came and ravaged everything, burned our land so we couldn't grow anymore crop, took everything of value, stripped us of our food and offered us no mercy. Then they just left. No one has food, no one has money. Our economy here has collapsed and no one will do anything to help us." She grips my arm tight, her eyes teary as she explains.

"Don't worry, I'll fix this, I promise." She gives me a strange and confused look. "Look, me and my friends need to go, but I need to trust you with something." She nods.

"Take this pouch, it's filled with silver coins. Distribute this how you see fit to the poorest and the sickest of you. Please, don't take it all for yourself and make it last as far as it can." I slip the last two gold coins out of the bag and place it in her hands. She looks up at me and nods firmly.

"You truly are a saint sent from the goddesses. Your kindness will not go unremembered. Thank you." She gives me one last look before disappearing into a nearby alleyway.

"Liam, we have to go." Kate says softly.

"I know." I say, getting one last look at the glory town. "One day, though, I'll come back. I'll right Ivar's wrong and I'll help these people. I swear it."

But even as we're flying high above the ocean, the island almost out of sight, I can't get that woman's poor, broken face out of my mind. And perhaps I never will.

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Word count: 2858

Yaaayyy I updateeeddddddddd.

Yeah so the reason this was hard was because the description I had to go off of for this chapter was literally "Ruined city want helpy tey give helpy"
Like wtf am I supposed to do with that?!??! Thanks a lot, past me.

Also, I know this is super, super late but I really wanted to show you guys something I've been working on for way too long. And it was all to wish you a….

Also, here's just some random drawings I've been doing recently.

Anywaayyy what did we think?? Theories? Thoughts on the town? On the storm? Maybe any thoughts on some certain parallels with a certain previous book~
You know I love to hear em!!

Cya next week!!!!