Chapter 41 – Vylet’s Seaside Chalet
The building was collapsing!
Without thinking, I summoned my Spectral Wings. The big pieces of rubble were easy to dodge on instinct alone. While the smaller ones painlessly bounced off my scales. No biggie, only the sharper ones hurt.
I desperately searched for my companions amongst the falling rocks.
Zombie corpse. Zombie corpse. And...another zombie corpse. A layer of dust already coated my body. Every breath burnt. After the battle and the explosion, I had nothing left to give. If I kept this up much longer, I’d fall from the sky!
But my mate! And Teetri and Cleyre too. How could I leave them?
Reckless. That’s what my mate would tell me…dammit! The smart thing to do was leave, recover, and come back.
My body and my instincts screamed at me stay. I ignored them, steering myself away.
From a distance, the extent of the disaster was clear. The entire building was gone. A massive dust cloud was in its place. I flew higher. Stretching to the north were more ruined towers and streets. The south faded to black beaches and the ocean.
I'd never seen the ocean on the Southern Continent. To think, the first time had to be in this dead place.
No time to cry over this shitty beach. I needed to land somewhere! A place where I wouldn’t find myself swarmed by zombies.
I spotted it–a tower–poking out of the ocean. The windows were mostly broken on one of the upper floors. Welp, good enough.
Should be an easy landing. I tucked my wings, building up speed.
Zrip.
Something flew past my head! A bug?
Zip. Whizz.
More of them?!
Another collided with my horn. Definitely wasn’t a bug. Was I being shot at?!
A sharp pain from my tail. Fucking ouch!
Couldn’t slow down. If they were this accurate when I was going fast, slowing down could be a death sentence!
I crashed onto the upper floor of the seaside tower–rolling several times on the concrete. Finally an internal wall stopped my tumbling.
I leapt up with Tanglewood, ready for a fight. False alarm. No zombies.
Many many years ago, this may have been a family's home. Sea air had decimated the furniture. Now it was only a bare stone room. Besides the rusting metal bedframe adorning the center of the room. Whatever human lived here must’ve figured themselves quite the lover.
I sat down, checking myself for wounds. So much worse than I expected! Using my claws like tweezers, I removed a six inch crystal needle from my tail. The thing went right through my defenses.
Suddenly, the building lurched to its side!
Really?! This place was gonna collapse too?! But the bedframe wasn’t moving. This was vertigo. The walls closed in–my stomach tightened into a knot. Poison! I could be poisoned?!
No way, no way–
I woke up.
My head felt like I’d spent the last night drinking nothing but the cheapest vodka. The small pool of vomit near my mouth also supported that analogy.
One needle put me out of commission for a day. If two or three hit me, I could’ve died…
But that didn’t change what I needed to accomplish. Find Windthrow. And Teetri and Cleyre.
I flew back to the city. This time, I'd focus on identifying whatever was taking potshots at me. Incidentally, this would also help me look for my buds.
Ziiip.
Like clockwork. I fly. They shoot.
A glimmer at the top floor of a nearby tower. I flew close, dodging more needles on the way.
The thing was clearly undead. But like…super messed up. It had a long and fleshy snout. The strange zombie knelt on its knees, holding it’s grotesque nose like a rifle. And its body was encrusted with the same orange crystals as the others.
So so so tempted to throw Tanglewood at the ugly bastard. But, more of them might see me–I’d only end up dodging more poison needles if I did that.
Instead, I flew low to the ground, tracing the streets. This way only 1 or 2 could aim for me at a time. Which was great since I really wasn’t in the mood for wasting another day poisoned. Cleyre’s Mage Armor would be perfect right now.
That first day, I didn’t see anything around the collapsed building. Lots of nasty zombies. Ruins I wanted to explore. But no members of my party yet.
The night was spent lonely and shivering in the seaside 'chalet'. I wished I had my pack. Or food. I was starving!
For water, I was reduced to sipping from a puddle. This. Sucked. Hard.
The next day, I mixed my strategy up.
My visual search had failed miserably. I needed to use my next best sense. Smell! Windthrow’s scent was my catnip. How hard could it be to sniff him out?
I flew through the streets. Sometimes daring to close my eyes–and risking a stray poison needle. Just so I could focus on catching my mate's scent.
Until I finally caught it! But something was wrong. He wasn’t well. I landed near a small ruined hovel–perched between the taller buildings.
I followed my nose through the doorway. There was an enemy here too. No, not an enemy. They were far too skinny and weak. Battered and bruised like I was.
“Teetri! Thanks for taking care of Wind for me.”
Poor girl was worse for wear. She looked like she was about to cry. A silver dagger dropped from her shaking hands. Clearly exhausted.
But behind her was…Windthrow! I ran over, crouching beside him. Thank the gods he was alive! I pressed my face into his chest.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you Teetri! You took care of him, didn’t you?”
She nodded silently.
“He’s through the worst of it. But we can’t stay here, it’s crawling with the…monsters.”
She looked scared. As if they could swarm us any second.
“Gotcha. Guess we got no choice but to shack up at my spot."
We waited for nightfall. As soon as the sun set, I flew them over. One by one.
Teetri (the wonderful girlie that she is!) had saved our packs. Each was full of supplies. That night–thanks to her–we set up a fire and a two person tent.
Together we "enjoyed" emergency hardtack. And we boiled seawater into somewhat salty freshwater. Not ideal. But it worked.
Our situation improved, but Windthrow still hadn’t stirred. I insisted that Teetri sleep in the tent, alongside him. She was so exhausted. It seemed like the most fair arrangement, apparently not...
“I wish he called for me, but he only ever called out for you, Vylet,” She clutched my wrist. “I can’t do anything more. He needs you.”
That was that. Come nightfall, I slept beside Windthrow in the tent.
His every breath was shallow and weak.
I wanted to feel my mate’s heat. To sense every beat of his heart. I nuzzled tightly against Windthrow’s body–no choice but to be completely naked. I’ve never felt more anxious. Not once in both my lives.
Between each breath, I worried that his next wouldn’t arrive. He had to get better! Could I survive in this world without him? Without Windthrow...I’d still be in the deep forest, alone.
“You have to get better. You have to,” I whispered to him, and myself.
No answer. Teetri said that he feverishly muttered my name. I wish he would speak now.
Eventually, the burden of the last few days caught up with me. Even my anxiety couldn’t hold it back.
I fell asleep.