Fen'Tarasyl

Chapter 31

She was walking through a meadow, running her finger tips along the soft petals of the tall, vibrant wildflowers that grew around her. The wind carried the soft, sweet songs of the trees.

"Tarasyl, Tarasyl." They sang a greeting to her, their emerald branches swaying with the breeze. The wispy tendrils of a weeping willow reached out to her as she passed underneath it, it's song as soft as a whisper.

She smiled and lifted her face to the sun.

She heard a dragon's roar, and she saw a horde fly over the sun. She laughed and lifted her hands out to them. They dipped low to the ground, close enough to brush their claws against her palms in a warm greeting. Each and every one of them made sure to pay their respects to their Sky Sister.

The sight of the dragon horde filled her with a hope she had thought was diminished. Everything was going to be alright. She could feel it in her bones.

***

She woke in a soft bed, a canopy of lavender above her. The crystalline bedposts glimmered with rainbows as the sunlight hit them, and dark curtains were pulled around the bed. She looked down to see white furs covering her up to her chin. And then the pain hit her.

Excruciating, agonizing pain. Her skin felt like it was melting, like she was taking a bath in molten lava. It was when a muffled whimper escaped her lips that she realized her entire face but her nose and eyes was covered, and that sent a wave of sheer panic through her.

A shadow behind the curtain stirred, and it was pulled back. A slender woman with fiery red hair sat down on the bed. She had beautiful eyes, they were the color of emeralds and shone with an ethereal light. They were looking at her in concern.

"Shhh, don't try to speak. You've been through hell." She said softly, her voice sounding like a song. "Do you know what happened to you?"

Her whole body trembled with pain, even the simple motion it took to shake her head made her tired.

"Do you remember anything at all?"

She shook her head faster this time, panic overriding everything else.

The woman put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, calm down, you're going to make it worse."

No, no it wasn't alright! What was she doing here? Why was she in so much pain?!

A calm, terrifying realization dawned on her.

She breathed through the pain as she lifted her arm out from under the blankets, and a muffled scream left her lips.

Her entire arm was bandaged, blue liquid seeping through the fabric. Blue, not red.

The woman forced her hand down, and a calming warmth washed over her. She stopped screaming.

"Something horrible happened to you." Tears filled her eyes. "Do you feel it in your soul?"

She frowned, and then tried to understand what the woman meant. She looked past the pain of her body and tried to feel what was missing.

She felt dread again. She lifted her arm, and with a painful flick of her fingers, she tried to make the curtains move.

Nothing, there was nothing. But more blue liquid seeped through the bandage, and her arm felt worse, if that was even possible.

She felt the tears slide down her face. No. Where was her mana? Her magic?

"Someone stole your mana, da'len. I am so sorry."