Fledgling: Part 125

Greetings Readers

I am so looking forward to the long weekend coming up. I have so much I want to do in terms of writing. I definitely want to wrap up the twin arch before getting back to Kay.

But for now, please enjoy this update.

It didn’t take too long to get to the castle and have the supplies gathered. It was a lot. More than what Saita thought she could transport back and forth with her skills.

“She thought of that, too. He should be here shortly.” Said Martin.

“He?”

“Fledge. He pops up now and again. Not sure why, but he and Rubar have been a great help with this.” Martin continued as he indicated the pile of resources the twins would need to survive on the planet Saita had trapped them on.

“How is he?” asked Saita carefully, remembering that the young man and Wolven had been spirited away when her future self had made her appearance.

“Different. Not sure exactly how, but different.”

“And talking of the devil.” Arra’s head snapped up.

Saita wasn’t sure how the queen had sensed the time corridor opening, but within the next breath, she could see the disturbance in the veil and then the claws. Rubar still looked exactly the same as he had, and there was almost no change in the young man who followed him. However, the longer Saita looked at the two of them, the more odd things she noticed. There were fine blood streaks on Fledge’s hands, and both the man and the Wolven had mud coating their feet or shoes.

“Track through a mire?” asked Martin.

“Something like that.” Said Fledge quickly.

A little too quickly, as Rubar fixed him with a dirty look.

“We both know that we shouldn’t have done that.” He growled.

“And we both know if we didn’t do it then…”

“Then what? Did learning the truth make you stupid? You know about the maw now, you can’t go playing…”

“Gentleman.” Said Arra calmly.

Years of royal breeding had made that single word control the room far more than a shout would have. Saita was very impressed and couldn’t help but smile, wishing Saasha and Baks could see what their female line had produced.

“Don’t worry about it.” Fledge waved a hand nonchalantly.

Then he noticed Saita, and a small smile came to his lips.

“Just in time! I thought we would have more time to clean up before you arrived.”

“Why does it seem that everyone has some invisible clock that I am unaware of?” The woman chuckled.

“Because we do, and you gave it to us.” Said Rubar. “So, take note.”

Saita rolled her eye and groaned internally, but she still made note of everything.

Maxine was sure that Saita had abandoned them to their fate. A small flame of panic was starting to creep up from her stomach as she fed another piece of wood to the dying fire. It was dark, and the wind howled just beyond the entrance of the cave. She was cold, tired, angry, distraught, and so many other feelings that she was exhausted.

She looked over to where her brother lay sleeping. He was even more tired than she was. He had given so much energy to the woman who wore their mother’s face. He needed to rest, but what was really left to them on this dead world?

It was hopeless. She had abandoned them, but he couldn’t see it. She could, and it made her so angry. She hadn’t fought her way through surviving the Academy only to die on a freezing wasteland, but was there any other choice than that? Neither of them could travel as Saita had. Not that it mattered. Maxine could feel the energy of this universe, and there wasn’t much left of it. Nowhere they went would be able to sustain them for long.

“What am I going to do?” she muttered under her breath as she looked to her brother.

It didn’t matter that she was older than him by thirty minutes. She was no leader. The Academy had drummed that into her. She didn’t have the skills to lead. All she had ever done was to dig herself and her family into a deeper hole of despair.

She softly got to her feet. She needed to clear her head. Needed…

There was a soft sound and a breeze behind her. She turned, catching the briefest glimpses of a shimmering curtain before it disappeared, leaving several containers that hadn’t been there a second ago. Resting against the containers was Saita, and she looked pale and exhausted. She was shaking her head and muttering under her breath.

Maxine wanted to demand answers, but then Saita bent over double and vomited violently. Martin leapt to his feet from a dead sleep, his eyes focusing on the scene that had drastically changed from the last time he was conscious.

“Wha…?” he mumbled out.

“I knew I was pushing it.” Muttered Saita as she slid down to her knees. “I can’t do that again.”

“What?” Maxine found her voice at last. “What’s all this?”

“I told you. Resources.”

Maxine wanted to scream at her. She could have taken them somewhere safe, but instead, they were trapped here with no way to get help. What good were resources when they eventually ran out?

Martin seemed to sense her anger and immediately went to her side. He understood her frustration, but he knew the truth as to why they were here. And looking at the number of boxes that Saita had brought with her, she didn’t expect them to be here for very long. A year, maybe two at most.

“We don’t have to be here for too long then, do we?” he asked Saita.

“No.” she waved her hand before wiping her mouth. She wasn’t even looking at them.

“What is the first step we need to take?”

Maxine was reaching her limit with what was going on. She couldn’t understand why her brother trusted her so implicitly. No, she didn’t want to understand.

“Shelter. I’ll stay to help, but I can’t stay longer than that.” Said Saita. “I just need to regain my energy.”

That was when Maxine noted the black lines that were scattered in patches over Saita’s arms. She had seen those marks on her mother’s arms. Knew that the thicker and darker they were, the more power and vitality she had. The way Saita’s marks looked now looked just like her mother's before she lost her fight.

She gritted her teeth. She could fight the way she felt about this Saita, but that would get them nowhere. This woman had drained what power she had to come back. She could have left them, but she had come back.

I hope you all enjoyed this update. See you next week!

For those of you who have never heard of Fell Dragon you can find Book 1 here, Book 2 here, Book 3 here, and Book 4 here, Book 5 here, Book 6 here, Book 7 here, and Book 8 here
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I love discussing my books!
As the series continues, it will combine with another book series I wrote. To avoid confusion about what is happening, introductory chapters will be introduced separately so that you don't have to be lost. However, these chapters will contain spoilers. You can find these chapters here:
Races Explained
Banishment
Royal Guard
Saasha’s Direct Family
Saith Characters Recap
Human Characters Recap
Alternate Timeline Brucel
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