Defenders of Destiny Book One: Conflux

Chapter 7: Recovery

Celestia's sparkling blue eyes looked down into Graham's shining silver ones. Their lips, warm and moist, were still pressed together. Her mind was screaming and exploding with a thousand different thoughts and emotions and her heart felt hot and almost fuzzy. She didn't know if she should pull away or just remain as she was. She noticed Graham's face redden considerably and it was he who pulled away and looked elsewhere, overcome by embarrassment and shyness.

"I'm sorry," he said, not looking at her. "I...I didn't know what I was doing, Celestia. I was caught in the moment and you were...well, you were..."

Celestia said nothing and listened, hoping he'd say something she was hoping to hear.

"You were so scared..." he continued. "I thought maybe that would calm you down..."

Celestia's heart grew in considerable weight and she felt herself slump in disappointment. "Oh," was all she said, her eyes on the ground.

There was a grunt and sound of movement and she looked to the side to see Elmar lying on the ground, his body covered in scratches, gouges, deep stab wounds, bite marks, and lacerations. Blood stained his mantle and trousers and his white scarf was spotted in red. Celestia stood up, brushing down her large dress, and ran to him. Behind her, Graham was slowly rising, groaning in pain and holding his head.

"Elmar!" Celestia said, trying to pat him somewhere that wasn't covered in blood. "Can you get up?"

To her amazement he nodded his head.

"Will you be ok...?"

His words came out strained and rough. "I'll...I'll survive, Celestia. I'm tougher...than I look..."

She didn't want to try to move him and somehow hurt him so she sat beside him and waited. She glanced back at Graham as he managed to sit up, his head bowed low as he took deep breaths. She looked up at the huge mushroom and didn't see a single shadow creature. She gazed down the length of the long tendrils branching out of the stem and saw no black shapes swirling around them. Looking across the clearing she could see Aragol walking towards her and Ivory moving towards the stem, where she could see Karmen, Casandra and Victoria standing before it. She saw no shadow beasts and the swordswoman and the man with fiery hands were both gone.

Had they succeeded? Was the anchor cured?

She watched Boog walk right out of the base of the stem as if it was just a trick of the eye and heard loud cracking and crumbling sounds as the black surface of the stem began to break apart. Those standing around it backed away as large chunks of the black shell tumbled to the ground in large piles. When it was all over the stem was now bright and white and colour appeared everywhere. The caps of the mushroom trees all around her, nearly black, lightened in colour, lost their wrinkles and became red, yellow, or purple. The cracked earth rumbled slightly and before her eyes soft soil filled the fissures and shoots of grass began to grow at an amazing rate. She gazed at the clearing and gasped as a wave of green spread out from the base of the mushroom's stem and expanded out everywhere. Flowers sprouted in myriad colours and species, giving the scene before her a rainbow of brightness. The air lost its pungent odor and was replaced with the pleasing smell of vegetation and flora. She couldn't help but smile and turned to Elmar, hoping he was watching.

He was propped up on one arm and was indeed watching the scene with a warm smile of his own. The grasses near his arm tickled him and seemed to rub against him, as if offering comfort. He felt renewed strength and the pain that had rocked his body before abated and lessened greatly. He gazed at his other arm, where a gruesome gash had split apart his skin and flesh and revealed white bone beneath. The flesh closed in upon itself, reattaching and closing the wound and within moments it was completely gone, no scar left behind to even tell its tale.