Fallen

Chapter Nine

"Wake up, worm!" I heard Bruniikloksivaas snarl as I opened my eyes to blinding sunlight. I stared in horror at the golden male as he rolled me onto my back with his savage wing-claws.

"What do you want?!" I growled viciously, my soul burning with passionate hatred.

"Just to inform you that I now have the 'privilege' of looking after you!" he chuckled, digging his wing-claws into my tender belly, one of the most vulnerable places on a dovah. I screamed in agony as he began to yank his wing-claws through my flesh, jerking them in every possible direction that he could.

"Look at you! Pathetic! You sorry lizard! I might even rip out your stomach like you did mine. You wouldn't stand a chance against me in a real fight! I wonder what Brityolvadin will think when she hears her former lover was a krivaan, a murderer!" he continued.

I groaned in pain as I watched Bruniikloksivaas twist and yank out his weapons. Blood dripped off of them as he backed away from me, permeating the air with its stench. My blood. I felt the warm, sticky liquid run off of my stomach onto the brownish-yellow grass underneath me, staining it red.

"Kill me, then, and get it over with!" I snarled, locking eyes with my attacker.

"Are you that eager to die, Alduin? Do you wish for me to tell you what happens, especially since your bones won't exist to resurrect you when I'm through?" His eyes scanned me as he spoke, filled with the glee that comes with triumph. "Besides, what fun would it be to kill you quickly, anyway? I wish to savor this, be able to picture your humiliation clearly even after millennia."

"It won't change the fact you'll always be a revolting, sniveling snake!" Immense coughs began to wrack my body as I tried to speak. I could taste the sharp tang of my own blood in my mouth. "And as for my beautiful fire maiden, LEAVE HER ALONE!" I struggled to breathe as I stood to my full height, trying to ignore the stinging pain in my belly and the dizziness of losing so much of my blood. "SHE'S MINE!!! If I have to burn the flesh off of your bones to—!"

Bruniikloksivaas only flashed me a large smirk. "How? You're too weak to even try! It's too bad there will be nothing left of you for her to mourn over. Yol-toor—"

A blood-curdling roar interrupted him, and he growled in annoyance. I watched in confusion as I caught a flash of gray-green streaking directly toward Bruniikloksivaas. 

 "ENOUGH!" Numinex's angry bellow seemed to shake the ground as he sprang in between my enemy and me. "Bruniikloksivaas, what's going on?! Why does Alduin have such deep wounds?!"

"That's my business, you half-crazed fool! Why don't you go fly away and find some remote place where you can mumble to the clouds to your heart's content?" Bruniikloksivaas snarled, baring his long fangs. I couldn't help but cringe in disgust at the pale yellow color of his teeth.

"The killing of another dovah is completely my business! Now, tell me what's going on, or do I have to report this to Tahrodiisqosu'um?" Numinex locked his amber eyes with my attacker's.

"And just how are you going to do that?" the golden dovah scoffed, giving him a wide smirk. "Are you really so stupid, that you would dare testify against me? Need I remind you that I am among Tahrodiisqosu'um's closest officials? My word against a young troublemaker and a fool...."

"What if it were your word against yourself?" Numinex's eyes darkened to a deep gold as he spoke. Fangs bared, he stared intensely into my attacker's eyes.

"Do you really think that little trick you can pull will work on me?" Bruniikloksivaas purred, creeping toward my defender until he stood nose-to-nose with him. "Maybe you've forgotten my power...."

He shoved his legs into Numinex's belly and flung the gray-green dragon into a nearby boulder. The familiar crunch of bone cracking echoed in the still air as Numinex's body made contact with the rock. The gray-green dovah's intense cry of pain made me flinch.

My legs began to quiver uncontrollably as Bruniikloksivaas slowly approached Numinex. Chuckling at the sight of the weakened Kruziik, the golden dovah lifted his wing-claw to give the death blow. I gasped at the odd angle at which Numinex's leg hung.

Broken for sure.... He's going to die.... We're going to die!  My heart began to race in my chest, and I felt the midnight-black chill of fear engulf me.

"There's no need to kill Numinex! Why spill innocent blood, lizard?!" The words spilled from my maw in a deep growl. "Leave him alone! I'm the one you want!"

Why would you say that?! Provoke a dovah who could kill you in a heartbeat?! Alduin, you fool!

Bruniikloksivaas trained his eyes on me, both emerald-green pools of light filled with passionate hatred.

"Such brave words!" the golden dragon sneered. "Such a sense of justice! Such...stupidity! That rashness was always going to get you killed someday...."

I collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily as my dizziness increased. The world seemed to spin as I watched Bruniikloksivaas approach me. My eyelids grew too heavy for me to hold open any longer, and I felt myself slipping away into a dizzying darkness....

I hope it'll be a quick, painless death....