Moving Along Remastered

Chapter 31: Her

Moving Along Chapter 31: Her

This couldn't be real, it just couldn't be. "Roxy?" I gently shook her limp form in my paws. She showed no signs of life as I supported the back of her head to stare into her clouded over green eyes. I looked upon her still face in desperation for any form of movement. "Come on, stay with me," I begged her even when the blood from her wound began to dampen my legs. A low uncontrollable whine escaped from my lips, "Roxy, please stay with me!!!" My eyes were burning and I could feel my throat drying up. "Just say something!!"

But Roxy couldn't say anything anymore. She couldn't smile, laugh, or even cry. Only lay motionless in my paws. "..Roxanne??" I lightly shook her once more, causing her eyes to shut. "No, please!!! P-please!!" I squeezed her close to me as tears rolled down my muzzle and onto her. "Please don't go!! I've come so far!! All I wanted was to save you!! To tell you how much I-...oh god I'm so sorry. T-This is all my fault..."

I began to lick her face in desperation. This couldn't be happening. Not when I had wished her and my old life away like it was nothing. Not when there was so much more that needed to be said. She deserved better than that. "Please, don't be gone, you can't be gone," But even as I said this I knew my world had just gotten that much darker. With a somber whine of grief, I stopped licking her and simply held her in my paws.

As I looked upon my fallen friend, a deep burning seared in my chest. "It's not fair!!!!!" I howled out as loud as I could and squeezed my eyes shut. My head hung low near her face so only she could be a witness to my look of despair. A look that no one living would ever get to see. "You, you gave me my life back and I-I stole yours..."

"That you did," the cold tone of a familiar lizard spoke out. I could feel my blood turn to ice and I raised my head up. A lean and tall white lizard with red cracks between his scales and black eyes with white slits to match was standing a few tail length's distance away from me. He was dressed in just tan cargo shorts that only barely hit the knee line while his white chest was left bare. There was a dark presence around him that filled me with a sense of dread. I instantly knew who he was the moment I saw him. "Had you been a bit faster though, my lion companion would've been your latest victim~" Zuboi gestured to Kurona kneeling next to him. I couldn't make out his expression and I didn't care to.

"Lucky for me," the lizard's eyes flickered red for a moment. "I just so happen to be faster than most." For a moment I didn't understand what he meant. Then I thought back to the moment right before I thought I was striking the finishing blow on Kurona. "That's right," Zuboi snickered with a slither of his snake tongue when he saw the horrified realization in my eyes. "That was me. I'm great at illusions, you see. All I had to do was put your friend in my servant's place right before you struck. You did the rest~."

For several seconds, I couldn't breathe. Every ounce of oxygen in my body had left me instantly, leaving something putrid and inhuman behind. But I wasn't human anymore was I? I was an animal just like the rest of them. Just like all the lizards I'd cut down and all the monsters I've had to protect myself from. Maybe it was time I acted like one. "Rrrrrggg.." A low growl escaped my muzzle as I glared right at Zuboi and summoned my scimitars. In an instant I closed the gap between us, arching my blades right at his neck.

However, before I could even blink, he was gone followed by a sharp blow right against the back of my neck. I crumpled into the dirt and rubble below me, along with my blades. I tried to get up again, but my knees buckled from the effort. "Ohhh so much anger.~ I tell ya, it really is refreshing to see such unbridled rage from you. Didn't think you had it in you," the lizard king picked up one of my discarded scimitars. "Still using that borrowed power, I see. It's a shame. You've got so much of your own that you're just too scared to utilize. That's changing fast, though."