Chosen Champion

How He Died

It didn't take everyone long to gather our fallen and injured. I helped carry one side of the stretcher Ace was on. The other person helping me carry him was Thorn. Thorn had insisted we strap him to the stretcher. Which in hindsight was a good idea but I still felt guilty about it. Fia rode right behind us on her mare.

I hadn't noticed before, but her unicorn's horn and face were coated in blood. Which explained how it fought and protected her rider.

Shadow kept running laps around our large group of soldiers, checking each corpse and striking down any stragglers. We couldn't afford to take any more prisoners. Fia was only willing to take in Ace because I knew he would join our side. Well, I hoped. I had this sickening feeling the Light God had done some psychological damage to the poor man.

He may need some time to learn to trust us. No one had any idea what happened to a Light God's creature when they were separated from the others. They all seemed linked in some way. Either telepathically or by magic. Vine would have to take a look at Ace to check.

This also reminded me I needed to speak to Liera and learn the truth. Why had she attempted to put a spell on me? I assume is what she had done. It would explain why Vine was so pissed when she stormed off to go speak to Liera. Also, what was that memory about?

I took a deep breath and attempted to think back into my memories. Unfortunately, nothing came to me. It was like that memory had been locked away. Odd. This made me feel uneasy. I shook my head and attempted to put it away from my mind for the moment.

I looked down at my own wounds and noted most were healed. My flames had incinerated whatever arrows had been shot into my body. And my natural healing abilities took care of the rest. Although I was still covered in blood. Both from my own wounds and my enemies I had slain.

"How are you holding up, my Love?" Fia startled me from my thoughts.

I hadn't even noticed her riding beside me.

"I'm alright. Are you okay, Little Mate?"

Fia blushed and nodded with a bashful smile.

"I think it's going to take me a long time to get used to this. Not that I mind. It's almost like we get to fall in love all over again."

"Well, I look forward to it, my Goddess."

Fia giggled and returned to looking in front of her. Her smile soon turned to a sad frown the closer we got to her Kingdom. Our people awaited her, excited to see their Queen return home. But she couldn't see all the smiling faces.

All she could see were the tears upon the faces of her people who lost a loved one. I could feel her guilt, even as she put on a brave and happy expression for the outside world. When we reached the gate, she jumped down from her mount and ran to her people with open arms. It was a heartwarming sight to see her comfort her grieving creatures.

She loved each and every one of them like they were her own child and it hit me that this was one of the many reasons why I fell for her as fast as I did when we first met. Although I couldn't remember how we first met, I hoped the memory would return quickly.

Thorn changed to take the lead and kissed his wife hello as she joined us. Vine was quick to shift into her professional medical persona and immediately began attending to Ace. The first thing she inspected was his pulse and then lifted his head to look at his neck. I cringed as I noticed the forming bruises.