Chapter 428: Blood & Smoke
The scent of ash filled Yara’s nostrils. The crackling of a fire and the ocean waves echoed in her ears like a distant storm. The taste of iron filled her mouth. She opened her bleary eyes and slowly looked around. She was lying on the sand of the beach. In the far-off distance columns of smoke rose from the smoldering remains of the island’s village. Roaring fires blazed across the small docks and every fishing boat there.
“No…!” she muttered in horror.
“You’re awake,” Caligo said calmly.
Yara turned around and saw him crouched on the wet sand, stroking Lin Lu’s head. The small white fox squeaked in an anxious voice while Caligo whispered quiet reassurances. Behind them lay Meldor or what was left of him. The sapphire dragon’s body had been mutilated almost beyond recognition. His limbs were broken and his wings were shredded into tatters. The chest cavity had been torn open, and his organs had been ripped out and strewn across the water, bathing the shore’s waters a dark red. Meldor’s jaw was hanging loosely by the skin and scales, the bone having been wrenched apart from the skull. There were no eyes, only two hollow bloody holes.
“What have you done…? What have you done!?” Yara cried out.
The young boy smiled, his eyes shifting colors in an erratic pattern.“I saved you.”
“Saved?” Yara sat up abruptly, “Where are the children, Caligo!?”
“You mean the aberrations? I killed them, of course.”
Yara staggered to her feet, blood dripping from the side of her head. “Y-You–! How could you!?” she screamed.