It used to scare me to think that one day I might lose him. And now that I have, I left without looking back. I had adored him, fixated, lusted, and love him. Although he did not.
I knew I’d fall for him, the second I saw King Armand. At that moment my heart starts to feel again. The fallen angel was gorgeous, he was tall with a warrior figure and a strong handsome face showing off his perfect masculinity. His wings were as elegant as himself. It stretched wide and had the blackest, softest feathers and the strength to knock down his enemy with one swoop.
But all those were in the past. I was determined to forget about king Armand.
*****
Never in my wildest imagination that I would be away from him. And when the moment came, I knew I was done. I had been walking for days. The night was the darkest while I hid in the cave that was shielding me for the time being. Tomorrow I need to keep on walking. I was thinking about visiting other kingdoms but then to think that I might betray the only King I’ve ever loved made me re-think my plans.
Sleep. That was the first thought that came as exhaustion runs throughout my body. Physically I was tired, but mentally I was defeated. I didn’t know exactly when I woke up, but there was a noisy disturbance outside my secluded cave. My instinct told me to stay in my hiding spot, but the growling, the sounds of flesh being slashed, and the eerie quiet, later on, made me shift from my sitting position.
Getting myself up, I groaned in annoyance before curiosity beats me and I made my way to the mouth of the cave. Then I saw it, a battered body, it looked familiar but I did not recognize it until I pulled the mangled body into my hiding spot. I couldn’t let the being left outside to die, my natural instinct was to help, but I second guessed my decision when I had a clear view of the gargoyle-like being that I managed to drag in.
“You…” I was half cursed and half surprised seeing that he was still alive with the kind of wounds on his body. I thought I had beat him up real good back at King Armand’s.
“Oh, crap…” the human-gargoyle groaned and tried to back away from me, then miserably failed when he tried to crawl his way out of the cave.
“No, don’t, you won’t last a day out there, not with your wounds.” I dragged him back and start digging in my carry-on for some healing concoction that Daegal, our demon sorcerer gave me.
“W… why… are you helping me?” he stuttered then hissed when I started stripping his clothes to look at his wounds. Some areas were already covered in dry blood, it had stuck to the cloth and his skin.
“Because apparently, I am nice. Stop talking and let me work, you may just convince me to throw you back out so whatever demon you encounter earlier can finish you off.”
“Nggh…”
That was all he managed to say before he passed out and I start to work on his wounds. I stitched a couple of the large mangled flesh before putting the sticky concoction that was supposed to heal all wounds. Taking care of him for the next couple of days managed to keep my mind off Armand. Instead of thinking about my unrequited love, I gave all my effort to healing the human who managed to almost kill the only angel I ever loved.
It was day three when he start regaining consciousness. I was just back from my hunt and managed to get food and water when I saw him sitting with his back on the cave wall. He looked delirious, most likely from hunger and thirst.
“Thank you,” he managed to say when I gave him my water container and he took a sip, almost too scared that he would drink it all and I’d become furious and throw him out.
“So, you managed to run away? I should get you back and let the king deal with you properly.” I asked knowing Titus would feel grateful if I brought Savaric back to the palace grounds. I do not in any way intended to meet Armand. I was done with my feelings for him and I need to stay away from the kingdom.
“He already did,” his shoulder slumped and tears roll down his cheeks. It didn’t take long before his quiet cry became a panic sob, “he… he… let me go, saying not go back there and not to go back to Ranulf’s, he… he said he rather send me out here to die than keeping me fed in his dungeon and waste his energy torturing me…” he covered his nakedness with his bloody clothing, he was trying to put it on but fail when his body was still too weak.
“Eat,” I ordered not wanting to hear the rest of his story. All beings made mistakes, even I was sent down to this god-forsaken land and now managed to make a fool of myself by leaving the one place that would make me live comfortably until my final days.
It wasn’t until day five when Savaric woke up with a high pitch painful cry. We never talk much. Mainly, it was me ordering him around after his last unwanted admission about how he ended up outside the palace grounds.
So when he let out his most embarrassing scream I sauntered to his side to check up on him. He was healing nicely and was supposed to heal perfectly in a couple of more days. But I was not ready to see the sight of his gargoyle skin start to flake off. The tender-looking skin underneath looked human and I know the human exterior would not last long in this hellish terrain, and his screams had turned into painful sobs where it looked like he couldn’t even muster his strength to even let out a proper cry.
“Okay, you owe me big time for this. Come on, I know someone.” I packed all of our stuff and helped him up but not before covering his whole exposed skin with a heavy rag we usually use as bed mats.
Savaric was giving up when he shook his head telling me to leave him there, “I can’t,” he said in between his sobs, “it hurts too much,”
“I’ll take you, fuck, come on Savaric, it’s not in my nature to leave someone behind,” to think that all the time I spent in hell should make my conscious fade, but the second my enemy got hurt I came to his rescue anyway. I cursed on the inside and blame my elders high up in heaven for casting me down to hell. I did not fucking deserve this fate.
It didn’t take long before I got him up in the air, my wings took us as high as I can to avoid other demons that might be looking for trouble with a fallen angel. Killing our kind had always been a privilege for the low-life demons and a fallen angel that had gone rogue and lived alone would be an easy target, hence my hiding space.
But I was taking Savaric to a portal, it had been decades since I visited my witch friend who lived in between earth and the hellish land that I live in. I did intend to visit him, but then Savaric messed up my plans and now it looked like he’s going to mess up Gerold’s plans as well.
That is if we managed to find him first. Let’s hope we do because spending time patching the human gargoyle made me realize that he had worse luck than me and strangely I wanted him to be free of his fate and sent back to his kind. Okay, maybe let’s not try to get ahead of ourselves.
First thing first.
Find Gerold.