A Dragon's Heart (Book Three in the APK Trilogy)

Chapter 20 | Pride and Respect

Holy moly this Chapter was a B*tch to write. I honestly have four different versions of this Chapter sitting in my Documents, that's how conflicted I was over how to play it out. I had hoped to upload it last weekend but realized it wasn't going to happen when I read over the draft and promptly proceeded to rewrite half the chapter again. 

Still here it is at last and, (I think,) I am satisfied with it. You will soon find out that this is not a Chapter about Circe, although some of it is from her POV and I can't wait to hear what you guys think of it. 

I think that part of the reason it was so difficult to write is because I knew that a lot of people wanted a lot of different things from this Chapter and although I'm sure it won't please everyone, I wanted to write something that was semi realistic in it's outcome. 

I hope you love it, I'm sorry for the wait.
Love Always,
Daisy xox

________________________________________________________

CIRCE

Waiting for them to start was like waiting for a nightmare to begin. It was as though I had fallen asleep and was powerless to the happenings below, my unconscious mind embracing the horror and welcoming it with open arms, while the small part of me that knew what was transpiring cried out for it to end.
But this wasn't a nightmare, it was reality and as much as I wanted to, I couldn't turn away. It was my body had become disconnected from my brain, acting on its own accord as I dismounted Anthemin my hand sliding down his neck as we both turned to observe the two warriors as they faced off in battle.

Like yin and yang, they stood opposite each other, one as dark as the night, the other bleached white by the unforgiving light of the sun. One on one combat that was what this was. Looking at them now and the hatred that sparked between them, I knew that I was foolish to have thought that they could have chosen to simply walk away. There was no walking away from this, no talking it out, no ignoring it. The bad blood between the two of them had grown to immeasurable levels and there was nothing that I could do or say that would prevent this collision of wills.

'I fight to the death!'

His snarled words echoed through my mind and I closed my eyes briefly. When they opened once again my face was hard. It would not come to that though. I would not let it come to that, no matter what. I had strength enough to stop it, this I knew with absolute certainty.

The two fighters below began to circle each other slowly, their pace and each step they took a calculated decision influenced by the movement of the other. Watching them was almost trancelike, their movements so elegant and poised that it almost seemed as though were dancing steps that had only been shared between the two of them.
However, behind each deliberate stride they took I could feel their overwhelming power radiating outwards through the ground and in my mind's eye they became, no longer dancers, but coiled snakes, holding back with their fangs bared, waiting for the exact moment to strike.
I could hear a faint rumble in the background that I had taken for the might of the ocean, but now I felt as though the noise was emitting from the two of them as they faced off, their eyes locked in a fatal embrace.

High above them dark clouds gathered and although it seemed inevitable that rain would fall, the soil beneath us stayed dry and as though the sky couldn't help but let something leak through, a clap of thunder sounded, the booming crash resonating out around the cliffs, a short burst of lightening flashing afterwards.