The Five Realms

Chapter 15 - Death . . . Been There Done That

The things I learned about elves within the first five minutes of being in a camp full of them is that they're hoverers, maternal and protective; not so good a combination when dealing with me since I am fiercely independent and lose my temper so easily. On the good side, I wanted for nothing. I even had one of them give me a foot rub. As soon as I asked who wanted to give me a foot rub the elf warrior Artanian instantly volunteered. Harper laughed loudly, covered it up with a cough and then smirked at me wickedly the whole time Artanian was rubbing my feet. I had to admit, he was very, very good at rubbing feet.

I started getting weak fast. Soon I could hardly sit up and then my skin started turning blue. Harper, trying to keep people in high spirits by tormenting me, called me a Smurf - which of course no one else got the reference to, except me, and I didn't really appreciate his humor so much.

Soon, breathing began to be laborious. I could see how concerned Harper was for me, looking up to the skies for signs of a dragon, his head jerking up at the smallest crack of twig to look for Oren trailing Sameal. I had to make his worry and sadness go away. I caught his eye and winked before slipping into my old time dramatic acting using the wheezing for dramatic effect.

"Harper," I croaked out, making my voice hoarser than it needed to be. Harper eyed me suspiciously.

"Come closer," I gasped, lifting my hand to wave him forward and then dropping it like it was too much effort to hold it up.

Harper smiled for a split second and then rushed over and knelt by my side, taking my hand and grasping it tightly, his face overly frantic. I was hard pressed not to smile.

"I'm here my love, I'm here. What is it?"

It took me a moment to maintain character. I wheezed some more labored breaths. "I see . . . I see a light." I turned my eyes up toward the heavens and squinted.

Harper shook his head dramatically. "Don't Jenny, don't go toward the light! Stay with me!"

We had a group of elves looking on, some were giving us curious looks, and others really looked panicked.

"It comes to me," I said quietly. I stretched out the hand Harper wasn't holding straight up like I was reaching for something.

Harper caught me off guard by actually laying over top my body, making me jack knife and the air whoosh out of me. "NO! IT CAN'T HAVE YOU!" He roared up to the skies.

Now, I started laughing, and then Harper laughed, and then we got angry glares from the elves around us which only made us laugh harder. I gasped for breath, since it really was getting harder to breath and looked at Harper affectionately - so glad that after everything we'd been through together; all the crap that I had brought into his life, he

was still my best friend, still my Harper.

I started coughing then and Harper's smile vanished. I brought my hand up to cover my mouth and then gasped when I saw my blackened fingers. The blackness looked like it was spreading though my veins lining my already blue skin with what looked like black ink. Harper was looking at me anxiously.

"How bad is it? Do I still look like a Smurf?"

Harper tried smiling at me but it didn't reach his eyes. He grabbed hold of my hand and hid the ugly blackness beneath his beautiful olive toned skin.

"It's not so bad. Looks like you're wearing some seriously bad-ass Goth make-up, though."

I chuckled, which ended up turning into a sick wet cough.

"Do you kiss Goth's?" I asked, not really myself since my head was somewhere at the same level of the clouds after the coughing attack.

Harper smiled and then smirked, "Jenny, it doesn't matter the name or ethnicity or label or caste of the person I kiss, just as long as her lips always belong to you."