Dawn- An age of Darkness

  "What are you two doing, so close together?" A voice reverberated in the air and I took a step back. 

Lianne also dropped out of nowhere. I had a bad feeling about this. 

Why were women falling out of the sky like it was normal?

"Ven was just checking if we could free that girl from the crystal." My voice came out flat. I tried my best not to stutter. I'd already made a fool out of myself earlier, after all. 

Lianne sighed and came closer to us. She had two glasses in her hands. 

She handed me one. "Here, this is juice. I made it." Lianne was basically holding the other glass for herself. I guess Ven wasn't invited. 

"Now, if you'll excuse me." Ven grew wings and left the two of us alone. I guess he could take a hint. 

There was only one stool. So I just stood there. 

"Well, sit down."

I didn't want to argue, so I just sat down. And a second later, Lianne sat down on my lap. "Ummm, what are you doing, you're highness-" I didn't just have a bad feeling: I had a very bad feeling. 

She placed her fingers on my lips. Her eyes came very close to mine and she removed her veil. "Let's just say, I'm planting some insurance."

"Wha-"

She removed her finger and kissed me. I kissed back. 

The juice didn't matter anymore. 

Her lips moved away from mine. My whole body got hotter. 

She placed a hand on me. "What to take this inside?" It wasn't a request, it wasn't an order. It was somewhere in the middle. 

I took a deep breath. "As I said before, I don't plan on settling down in this world. I don't think we should." 

I kind of wanted to though. 

But since I was getting too hot, I downed the juice in one go. This was actually pretty good. 

Her eyes wavered as she stared at the distance. "I don't care. My heart wouldn't listen. I don't have much time, Daarc. That's why, I wanted to be with you… one last time… our last time." She looked straight into my eyes. 

"You're turning?"

"Yes, I've seen the first signs. I don't have much longer."

I hugged her tight. She hugged me back. 

I really didn't know what to say, I didn't know what to do. And more importantly, I didn't know how to cure her. 

She giggled. "That's why let's not hold ourselves back. Even if you were to leave, even if you were to love someone else, my love for you won't change. Daarc I love you."

She moved her head back and smiled. 

My whole body shivered. 

Love?

Seriously?

Are you kidding me?

After all this time, she just had to drop the L bomb on me?

I hugged her again. Boy was hugging with one hand hard! "I love you too, Lia." And this was the first time I called her by that name. I already fell for her a long while ago. So it didn't hurt to at least admit it. 

She looked at me a bit puzzled but smiled anyway. I guess she liked it. 

We went back inside, locked the doors, and got down to it. Our comrades were asleep anyway. 

Lianne's body was definitely more attractive than in my dreams. Why did I have such dreams? Did you really have to ask?

And I sure took my sweet time undressing the hell out of those multilayered clothes. 

Her breath was rapid and so was mine. We were both drunk, not with alcohol, but with love. 

Well, I had done this before, but it was more of a one-night stand. But this one, this one I wanted to last. 

There were kisses, there were touching, there were feelings and there was a whole bunch of other stuff.

Our biological cords connected and as moans and pleasure reverberated in the air, true bliss descended upon us.

And so, the night passed.

***

I woke up with a sore back the next day. Lianne was already up and I was pretty much alone. With a yawn, I picked myself up and got out of the hut. 

Everyone was ready with me being the only exception. 

I got glares from two particular people. I guess it wasn't a secret. 

"How could you!" Dick sniffed. "Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse."

Was he overreacting? YES!

Alisa just glared, not a word. 

I didn't know why but I didn't mind, and I didn't really care. The world was beautiful and I felt great. I wasn't going to let anyone ruin that, at least for this one moment. 

"Well, get fresh, let's eat breakfast, and be on our way." Lianne came towards me. She acted as usual. 

I couldn't look at her the same way I did before, but honestly, this wasn't so bad. And now I had another reason to beat that demon and not die. 

***

We finished everything way before noon. The bunnies were kind enough to give us food and supplies. But we only needed them for half a day, since we'd be past the borders by the afternoon.

"Please, take good care of her." All the bunnies had tears in their eyes. 

This felt awfully surreal, unreal even. 

But I guess it wasn't so bad. "I will."

I climbed on the crow and just a second later remembered all the horrors. 

I instinctively shivered for a second. 

"Here!" Just when I was about to take flight, someone threw something at me. 

I caught it. It was a scroll of some sort made of animal skin. "This is?"

I stared at the thrower but I didn't see anyone. The bunnies just wept as we slowly took flight. I put the scroll inside my ring and quickly took the reins. 

I could vaguely recognize the voice but I couldn't remember. But it didn't matter now. 

As we hovered, my past traumas ignited. This time, Lianne and Alisa were on one crow while I was alone on mine. I did have Biteria though. 

I was shivering but the crow was a lot stable this time around. 

"We will never forget you." The bunnies were being a bit too dramatic but I liked them, or more like their children. Again, I wasn't a pedophile.

We picked up more and more altitude. The crow was rather stable though. Or was I just freaking out all the other times?

But now that I had time to think about things, I couldn't get a thought out of my brain. Lianne mentioned something about her having the signs of turning. And though she said soon, I didn't know how soon. I didn't want her to turn into a goblin-like thing of all things. She'd suffered enough. But since she already lived for a long time, maybe her soon wasn't that soon? Honestly, I didn't really know. 

"We'll be by the borders before just afternoon at this rate," Dick yelled. 

I guess we'd be arriving earlier than I thought. 

"We'll have to set up camp just before the border till the afternoon," Lianne also yelled. 

"Why?" If we could cross the border at noon, then why wait till the afternoon?

"I have reasons!"

The wind was pretty strong. So even yelling wasn't doing much. So instead, I just made a fine sign. "Alright, alright, geez," I mumbled. 

The crow was shockingly stable. Enough so that letting go of one of the reins and patting my lovely bunny wasn't impossible anymore. But the moment I patted her, she bit my finger and as I screamed the crow flapped hard with shrieks of its own. 

Speed was life and everything else was irrelevant. And boy was there speed and screams as a bonus. 

By the time things calmed down, I had tears streaming down my eyes, they were involuntary and my heart was racing like crazy. Even last night it didn't go this fast. 

Catching my breath, I massaged the crow's neck, I might have scared him big-time with that scream. 

I really wanted to kick the little bunny off the crow right about now but those big luscious eyes didn't let me do that. But more importantly, I only had bite marks and no blood. 

Did she hold back or something?

Just how wicked was this damn bunny?

***

There weren't many clouds and the ground was mostly covered in grass. I really hated these types of places. But at least there weren't any forests around. 

Come to think of it, I probably hated most of the things in this world. 

We reached the border at noon: just like Dick had predicted. But there was a problem, there was no border. There were no soldiers here, patrolling. There was nothing that separated the two countries. Just plain grasslands with little to no trees. 

"Why did we stop here?"

"I'm expecting a messenger." Lianne was acting calm as usual. 

It was a bit hard for me to manage my thoughts but I contained them anyway, 

"Someone? But we've got birds and-"

"Not someone. It's also a bird."

"Oh." I had a bad feeling about this, but there wasn't anything I could do about it.