River had forgotten the last time she saw a clear sky, rain, night, dawn or dusk. She had even forgotten about how it would feel when the wind caressed her skin. She had forgotten how gently her mother and grandma Anne would touch her or the stories they told her before she went to sleep.
These awful people had caged her for so many years, she was no longer aware about the outside world. They would chain her, inject her and force her to do things she didn’t want to.
It was only Vanesha, who was willing to talk to her about those things, describing the outside world to her. Not to mention, she even told her stories.
Yes, the organization had been using Vanesha to provide emotional support to River, making the girl emotionally dependent on her, so they could control the girl more easily.
“I can see... the sky?” River asked carefully, she looked at Vanesha expectantly. “Am I such a good girl that they allowed it?”
“Yes, of course. Are you excited?” Vanesha unlocked the last chain that bound her and helped her to stand up.
River nodded, she held Vanesha’s hand tightly. She was afraid those people would touch her and cling to her closely after they walked past the door, because all this time, only Vanesha could make them back off.
Sure enough, once they were outside of the door, there were around twelve armed people who had been waiting for them and this made River nervous.
“Back off a little bit,” Vanesha said grimly and they took one step back, that was the most they could do, but when she spoke to River, her tone changed slightly. “We will go out now, but you need to behave, okay? Or else, I will get into trouble.”
.....
River raised her head and then looked at Vanesha, as she spoke softly. “I don’t want you to get into trouble.”
“Good girl,” Vanesha patted her head and both of them walked down corridor after corridor.
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“Your idea almost killed me,” Norbeat grumbled, as he walked through the soldiers with Zuri close to him. He gripped her arm a little bit tighter, until she grimaced and shot him a dagger look, but he ignored that, since he was too upset with her.
And every time a soldier asked him about Zuri and reminded him that no civilians were allowed in this area, Norbeat stared them down, as he grumbled that he needed to take her.
It was Zuri’s idea to let Norbeat possess the person in charge of this battalion, since that was the only way for them to go through without being stopped.
But the problem was, Norbeat was too exhausted, since he had changed bodies consecutively three times in just one night.
And one of those times was solely because the person he possessed died, from being burned down in the dragon’s fire. Norbeat managed to escape to the woman’s body just before he literally died.
“No, it’s brilliant,” Zuri said in a hiss, since Norbeat tightened his grip again, as if he wanted to punish her.
“Loosen your grip, if Chaos sees this, he will take your soul immediately.”
“Don’t worry, you will heal before he can see it.” That was what he said, but he loosened his grip. Even though there was no evidence, it didn’t mean Chaos wouldn’t believe what this girl said.
Norbeat found a jeep and then he shoved Zuri inside; when a soldier asked him about this, he simply didn’t answer and drove away toward the burning city.
“This is crazy...” Norbeat said, as he wiped sweat from his forehead. The result of his nervousness and the heat around him. “If I die here, I will not be able to find a suitable body for me.”
“Easy, just don’t die,” Zuri answered simply.
“It is easy for you to say that,” Norbeat grumbled and Zuri turned around to give him a dirty look.
“Easy? Look at you, how many lives did you take to preserve your own, while I have only one,” Zuri scowled. “Don’t complain.”
That was right, if someone could preserve the only life that they had, Norbeat shouldn’t be so reckless as to let himself ‘die’.
Even though if something bad happened to Zuri, Chaos would do everything to save her, yet that was not the point. She wouldn’t allow him to suffer anymore than this.
“What if Chaos is not in that house anymore?” Norbeat watched in horror, as the dragon drew closer, but because of this fire, that monstrous beast couldn’t see them in this smoke.
“We will find him.” That was the only answer that Zuri could give, since she just followed her instinct.
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Nikolai’s team was the first to leave Artzees city and they went by an operational cargo plane, as it could take around one hundred fifty soldiers.
After that, there would be another six. And lastly, one more for their experimental object, River and Vanesha, along with their team.
But the experimental object would leave after the third operational plane departed.
“Are you nervous?” Mohan approached Nikolai when they flew past the border to go to East Draghar. They couldn’t see the dragon from here, but the tension was real, since they had never dealt with something like this.
Dragon was a myth in their heads, something that was not real, even though they had seen shifters, vampires and other supernatural creatures. What else would they find were real later on? That was still a mystery...
“Meeting a dragon?” Nikolai raised his brows. “I am excited,” he said with a bitter laugh.
Of course, they were nervous, everybody was nervous to see such a creature, something that they had never seen before and pondered about what they could do to take it down.
“Great,” Mohan said. “Just don’t get too excited and get yourself killed. No one will buy me drinks anymore.” He had this sense of dark humor, which only a few people could handle.
“Don’t worry. We will go back and drink more after this.” But then, Nikolai remembered what Vanesha said.