From Sea to Sky

b o n u s 2

b o n u s  2

This was a special request from Princess_Laeya. She was wondering how the scene where Arlo stabs Skye would be like from Arlo's perspective and because I'm evil and love to torture my characters, here it is (just kidding I love them)!

Enjoy!

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Arlo couldn't move.

Days ago aboard a ship similar to the Sea Terror, Vyanna had trapped him with her magic. There was this horrible smile that her features contorted into, it was far too wide for anyone normal. Anyone human. Her eyes seemed to glow maliciously but no, there was something empty in those dark depths. Something emotionless as her magic filled his vision like a heat wave, rippling the air around him in a clear, oppressive cloud.

Then pain.

There was blinding, bone crushing, absolutely overwhelming pain that had him wishing for anything to make it stop. She was cruel enough to comply but the price was too steep.

It was the immobility that terrified him. The fact that though he feels every part of his body with the stiff bed beneath his limbs. He smells the salt of the sea in the air mixed with the musty stench of men and aged wood, and he could see his greatest enemy sitting before him but he couldn't move. He wanted to just reach out, end it all, but his limbs wouldn't obey his desperate commands.

He could do nothing as his body strapped on armor and chased his nephew for the next few days. He saw the young mans' wide eyed pain and felt it stab into his heart.

He wanted to cry out that he was still here. He was still alive and trying, oh he was trying, to get free. But he could do nothing and could only watch as he hurt the boy he saw as both his closest companion and surrogate son.

What Arlo once familiarized himself with as his own voice, his own muscles, his own body, became something alien. The only thing he owned was this small corner of his mind where he could only watch as people cowered before him, and could only watch as he destroyed the world and the family he cared about.

As he killed his own dragon and hurt his nephew.

Now, Skye is before him, flying his fiery colored dragon and with an expression so hurt that it sends a stab of pain through Arlo's chest. Predictably, his body betrays him and holds itself pridefully, his limbs itching with an excitement at the confrontation that disgusts him.

"Surrender." His voice calls out and his arm moves to point his wretched sword forward. "Or die."

Skye's gaze hardens, his limbs coil, and he raises his own sword with a curled lip. "What happened to your other dragon, Arlo? What made you forget about Sapphire so easily?"

Her name is like a punch to his stomach and he momentarily feels weightless with pain. This body forgot about her! If only he could tell Skye, make him understand that he could never forget about her. Arlo could never forget him either. He is trapped, but he is still here!

He's so used to his body acting against his accord that he's surprised when both him and his body are frozen at the comment, ignorant of Skye's oncoming attack which nearly slices him in half before he raises his sword to parry. But Skye doesn't stop his attacks, raining them down upon Arlo's body, who is screaming on the inside as he sees tears start to form in his nephew's eyes.

"What about me? Did you even care what your death felt like to me? Did you even care that you left me alone in a world where I needed you?"

I do!

His body starts to slow down as this pain, different to Vyanna's magic overwhelms him. It blooms from his chest and expands, sending a blazing heat through him. It's like his body is starting to wake up after his limbs feel asleep, and he can feel himself controlling the tips of his fingers, the individual tendons in his arms as feeling slowly returns to him. He grapples for this control, clawing for it, because he can't stand seeing his family this way. He has to—

A sharp pain shoots up his arm, and he looks down to see Skye's bloody sword escape from a fresh wound in his bicep. Icy cold rage that doesn't belong to him devours his body, turning this lifeless shell of a form into something more— he can now feel Vyanna controlling it like a puppet.

The demonic dragon beneath him roars to life at the Morai's presence and swings his tail forward at Firedust, the pure strength of the beast sending his nephew and his dragon to the city below.

Watch.

The voice snakes into his mind and he sees Skye fall, hears him scream, and Arlo is screaming too but Vyanna won't let him go. He was wrong about her being empty before because now he feels a cold, hard satisfaction race through her at the sight of Skye struggling to stand when his body reaches the ground.

Arlo feels horrible fear as the young man tries to put one foot beneath the other, his dragon motionless behind him and blood and dirt covering him but also immense pride. He's not weak and Arlo needs to protect that. Protect him.

Skye collapses just as he thinks that, and as his feet take him to his nephew he just begs for Skye to get up.

Kill me, he begs, Save yourself!

But Skye just waits motionless and as Arlo towers over him with pure self hatred racing through him, he points his sword to his boys' neck.

Skye stares up at him, his body absolutely wrecked. His left leg is mangled and bloody in a way that makes Arlo want to drop to his knees beside him and just by looking into his eyes, wide and horrified as they stare up at him, Arlo suddenly finds himself transported to another time.

He'd been waiting outside the house for hours but felt endless impatience. He'd wait days to see his newborn nephew. It was the moment when he was finally allowed into the house, when he saw his brothers' and wifes' proud smiles, and saw the small child that something amazing stirred in him.

And when baby Skye has been placed in his arms with those same bright blue eyes that he knew he had to protect this child with everything he had in him.

And when he was there for Skye's first steps he knew he would never stop cheering him onto his nexts goals.

And when Skye cast his first magic and bonded with his dragon, he promised to teach him everything he knew.

And when he stood by Skye at his mother's funeral, he vowed to be his constant companion so the boy would never feel alone.

And through it all, Arlo felt a powerful feeling within him that conquered anything, that gave him the power to help him do anything for the boy in his care. This invincible love that could conquer even Vyanna's supposedly impenetrable magic.

With everything he had left in him, he moved the blade away from Skye's neck as it started to press down against his will.

"Forget about me" he begs as the sword stabs downward through flesh.

I love you but I can't do anything anymore. I tried but she's too powerful.

He's breaking as he hears his nephews screams but has no strength to stop his body from turning away and leaving.

I'm trapped.