Knowing The End (SAA Book 2) ✔

21: Paralyzed

Clayton was able to teach Hunter two new words, "yes" and "no". He stumbled mostly, but got the hang of it rather quickly. Despite the constant worry for his lover's health, Clayton watched over the dragon and his child. Oren was upstairs for about two hours now, and he hasn't come down to confirm his condition.

The worry soon turned to brooding, and Clayton brought Hunter with him as Xenia trailed along by his feet. The opened the door to their bedroom, coming to a motionless elf. His eyes were closed peacefully, breathing steady and soft. The blankets were thrown far from his body, half of the sheets draping onto the floor.

"I wonder why you're in so much pain.." the human muttered to the sleeping elf, watching with saddened eyes as his lover slept. "It's that woman, Euthenia was it, I bet it's her."

A glimmering light materialized next to Oren's slumbering body. A woman, tall and firm, stood next to their bed. Her hair was in a bun, long silky dress, soft yet malicious eyes. The Goddess herself stood calmly next to the body of his lover. Clayton tensed, and Xenia began to growl, baring her flaxen, edged teeth to her.

"Easy now, draken." she purred, making the black dragon take a quick step forward as a warning. "I do not mean any harm.. Instead, I came to chat."

Her eyes directed towards Clayton who was protecting Hunter behind a warm cage of his arms. "What do you want with us? You're just making us suffer. Why won't you leave us alone?" Clayton whispered to her, careful to not wake Oren up.

"Oren, as you call him, is my creation. I was simply messing with humanity; created a family that I could control, and his parents defied me. They birthed this abnormality, one with a mind of his own; along with another, Heath, I believe it was. The giver of Xenia's egg." Xenia paused, lowering her lids to Clayton, scrutinizing his dull reaction.

"I am putting him under a paralysis poison until he recovers his powers. It might take days, weeks, months or even years. Wood elves tend to be stingy when it comes to their abilities." she let out a little sigh, "I despise helping the mortal, and for what reason? I do not know why I am so aggressive towards him. I guess his departure triggered my recent, and utterly abrupt misdemeanor."

"We're an innocent family and you're tearing us apart. Can't you see that? Why can't you get your head out of your-" The man looked down to Hunter and changed his wording, for the boy's sake. "Stop being so arrogant; yeah, you're royalty and maybe a few million years old, but that doesn't give you any right to treat others like garbage." Clayton reposted, clutching onto Hunter's small shoulders.

For once, the ancient being was silent. She seemed to muse for a moment before speaking. That smooth, fluid voice played like the plucked strings of a golden harp. The sound of her speech was almost relaxing. It would have calmed Clayton if it weren't for the elf so close to her.

"You've got a sharper tongue than this one.. Though you must understand; all I want is this mortal to return to my control."

"Over my dead body." Clayton rejoined, making Xenia lurch forward and snap her jaw towards the woman with a dark, animalistic snarl. Euthenia simply waved her hand towards the sleeping elf, a bright honey colored light trickling from her palm. The wisps of magic wrapped around Oren's limbs and tickled the edges of his hair, tracing over every crevice and curve of his body as a transparent film of yellow covered his entire being, swirling and creating patterns over his torso.

The Goddess bid the family a farewell and swept herself up into thin air, taking off in the blink of an eye. Alone with her disappearance, a small human-shaped skull dropped to the floor, rolling onto the temple with a clenched jaw.

Upon further inspection, the skull had two large, shimmering gemstones wedged between the eye sockets. They were cut precisely, edged without any curves. The two were different in color; one aquamarine and another dusty crimson. Both were equally iridescent and stunning, appearing to be crafted and worked with effort and skill. The finest of adventures must have discovered such rarities.

"Dada?" Hunter looked up to his father, watching as the angry expression quickly dissipated from his father.

_

"You know, I wanted to name you Floga, not because it was an absurd name or crazy, but it means something to me. Flóga is the English pronunciation of φλόγα; which means "flame" in my tongue." Oren said to his son, grinning as the toddler listened, despite not knowing a word he was saying.

"I wanted to name you this because I thought it was a strong and confident name to give a child. But Clayton, dada, he disagreed. He said he wanted something English, something understandable, as he put it." The elf rocked his son back and forth, looking down to the boy.

"He finally decided on Hunter, an equally proving name for your future defiance. We all know that teenagers can be crazy with hormones, so that name fits well. We expect mistakes from you, but don't fret."

Oren laughed softly, brushing his knuckles across his son's puffy, childish cheek.

"Everyone makes mistakes, Hunter."

The toddler's eyes gleamed, showing a hint of understanding.

_

"Miss..." Hunter uttered, remembering the blurry memory. He looked up to Clayton and tried out the first few sounds of the word, "mistake."

"What?" Clayton chuckled at the boy.

"Miss. Mis. Tah," he tried, but soon gave up on the talking. Talking was hard for someone as young as him.

He was asleep in about five minutes.

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Thanks for reading!

Sorry for the shorter chapter ;;