#q'donis devrahn

Haine’s boots clacked against the thick layer of glass that made up the flooring. The flooring itself made her stomach lurch with each downwards glance into the abyss several leagues below. Golden eyes shifted to her valiant partner, the scarlet-haired miqo’te. He danced around the manticore that kept rounding on his position to try to snag him in its jaws. Haine tightened her left hand on her tome and in a flourish of her right she whipped her hand through the air to fire another burst of a quick-spell at the manticore’s head. As expected, the manticore straightened and lunged towards her. A drop of her wits and she felt panic swell to propel her form in a lunge to the left. Palms slapped flat against the bordering railing of the platform, but the manticore’s claws just narrowly missed crushing her in its effort.

 The miqo’te aligned himself back behind the manticore and struck out once more. Clang. The manticore straightened its spine to throw back its head and roar into the open emptiness of the ruins. Despite the deceptively large underground ruins the pair had descended into, the manticore’s mighty cry rang out to echo. Ear drums protested and joints below creaked in response. The sheer power reverberated in the glass and Haine stumbled back to grip the railing of the platform tighter. Blasted- A blur of motion far too close caught her attention. It occurred to her that perhaps the manticore hadn’t switched targets.  Her head snapped up just as the manticore’s red eyes bore into her own.

It had not turned.

Haine did not often feel fear. She had spent most of her life running out of fear. Fear was the humanistic behavior that defined a person to avoid the inevitable. One day she loathed herself enough to stop running. Haine did not wish to run from fate any longer. Yet now- she felt fear for everything she was about to lose.

“I’m not giving up on you!” Q’donis yelled as he broke into a sprint and slid across the glass. He glided underneath the manticore that had ignored him in a blur of red, black, and bright green. Then there he was- his hand outstretched to her. Just like always. The Manticore was none the wiser as its wide jaws lunged for her head. Haine did not hesitate to reach her hand out to place it in his outstretched grasp. Q’donis neither broke his gaze nor allowed himself to falter as he immediately tugged her down and into his waiting arms. The two adventurers fell back beneath the manticore and Q’donis gripped her frame tight to his to roll them out from under the manticore that moved to stamp at where they had just been. Not a moment of reprieve was granted as Q’donis swiftly shoved her away in trust the railing would halt her slide. Haine grunted as the railing knocked into her back and Q’donis rolled to his feet to draw the attention once more.

Both were quick to stand as the manticore whirled on them both. Its broad frame crouched and was ready to pounce to crush them both. Despite being a mass of fine marble- neither was willing to underestimate its ability to catch one of them. The pair both exchanged a brief look. A look that bordered on hope and weariness. One of them believed they wouldn’t make it out of this. Ever the pessimistic, she hoped to be proven wrong. 

Once the manticore lunged towards their position at the edge of the platform, Haine led the sprint with Q’donis hot on her heels. The manticore closed in second by second to bet its entire weight into the lunge. A beast fueled by pure fury and hatred to destroy it all. Even itself. They made haste with every force of their limbs to propel them forward, yet the animated beast was too angry to relent. Too fixated on its target-  its large left paw snapped at Q’donis at its passing. The briefest of adjustments snagged Q’donis’ footing just in time as the sound of shattering glass crashed in their ears. 

Time slowed despite the entire exchange occurring too fast. The manticore’s large frame impacted the glass and it was enough mass and momentum to crack the surface. The metal framework that intricately webbed underneath the glass screeched in protest as cracks angrily webbed outwards from the manticore that slipped through the broken platform taking security and history with it. The glass gave way faster than they could run and Q’donis’ only fell further and further behind in the wake of destruction due to snag in his ankle. 

Haine reached her hand back to snag his reaching arm to pull him more than they held onto one another.  The sprint across the flat terrain slowly became an incline. The flooring gave way to bend to the manticore’s weight. Haine grunted as she pushed her boots in to gain footing on the metal that remained of the platform, but to no avail as gravity was a much stronger force to reckon with. The pair began to fall as the platform suddenly swung downwards. 

She had gasped the moment her boots slipped off the metal. Yet, Q’donis lunged with his other hand to grip at the framework madly in their descent. His hand fumbled against metalwork until a sudden snag halted his fall and brought an awkward pop in his shoulder to occur. The miqo’te’s arm strained at the jerk of halting his fall, but even more so when he tightened the grip of Haine’s hand as she fell over him. His frame snapped to suddenly twist so that both of his arms were fully extended to support them both. Haine lifted her head to stare in bewilderment up at Q’donis who bared his teeth in agony at the joints that were beginning to burn in strain.

“Hang on!” She shouted to him. She swung her legs inwards to latch them onto the bars of the platform. Any support she found was met with another creak in protest from the joints that held the platform in tact from separating from the remaining walkway above. Haine’s heart lurched in panic as she released Q’donis’ hand so that he could be free of the burden of holding them both. Her hands and feet scrambled for placements to use the metal framework as a ladder to ascend up to Q’donis. “Come on- lets go. Lets go.” She hastened in tone. Q’donis groaned as he gave a nod and heaved his body to move. 

The pair worked to scramble to the top, but as time wore on- so did Q’donis’ energy. He was worn and damaged. She had a few knicks in places, but she worried for him above all. Her right hand reached to push between his shoulders in support. He spared her a glance in acknowledgement. “Just a bit more. We can-” His voice cut out over the large groan of the metalwork.The platform lurched as the left side of the connecting metalwork gave. They both quickened their pace as more and more bars that had been intricately woven together snapped. The remainder of their safety lessened by the moment and it only grew faster as less support held them up. 

As luck may have it- she reached the top first. She gripped the edge of the platform to pull herself up onto her knees and whirl around to assist him. Her right hand outstretched to him and he reached for her without pause. The trust and faith were there. The support was not.

The remainder of the demolished platform gave and snapped right from under her hand and Q’donis had to lunge his entire body against the giving platform to latch his hand to her arm. Even if it would pull her down, she would not let go. Her hand tightened to his no matter the cost and she felt her back ache in protest as she was yanked down to bow closer to the platform. Her right arm burned in strain. “I’ve- got you!” She gasped between breaths.

Q’donis glanced down and then back up to her in panic. His legs swung in emptiness and nothing could grant her strength no matter how much she heaved for her arm to pull. Her arm remained taunt and stretched. Q’donis narrowed his eyes on her and saw her frame slide to the edge of the broken platform. She ignored his decisive glances as she still tried with every budge of her shoulder yanking upwards to make even an inch of progress. The flooring of the remaining glass was slick against her trousers and the broken edges dug into her knees as she gripped with both of her hands. His hand loosened its grip. A flare of panic resonated in her heart. A babble of words tumbled out in haste to reassure him,  “Just hang on to me! I can get you up here! We’re almost out!”

Q’donis smiled weakly at her effort for his sake. He gazed up at her like she were the world. There was a lot to admire in his eyes. Her sense of humor, the glint in her eye and the corner of her lip that quirked often in amusement- sassy- and yet so endearing. He felt his heart skip and ache all at once. He recalled the last he had thought the very same things. A far more peaceful time. Now he could only focus on the time left before she would get pulled over the edge and both would be condemned to the depths.

“I have to let go.”

Haine snapped her head up a slight to stare at him, bewildered at such an idea. “What? No- No. I am not letting you fall. We can figure this out, we can both ge-”

“You can’t support us both, you have to let go.” He spoke to her softly. As though he had to prepare her for the fall. He was terrified for it to end here, but, she would make it out.

“No no no. Q’donis- please just help me!” She shook her head fiercely against all notion to the idea. He simply regarded her with the same look. An acceptance of reality. His fingers slowly uncurled from around her arm and that broke her voice into hysterics as she only tightened her grip with pleadings, “Hey- Stop. Please- Please don’t do this.”

His voice broke his guise just a slight. He wet his lips and whispered gently to her. “Hey.. It’s okay.” His emerald eyes begged. “Let me go. It’s okay.” Her eyes burned and obscured the image of him before her. A blurry understanding of the tan skin, bright green eyes, and sangria hair. Her vision cleared once the moisture began running down her cheeks with the fierce shake of her head. “I don’t want to- I don’t want to let you go. Not you.” He simply smiled weakly up at her as his arm slipped through her hands. “Wait- stop. Q- Please!” 

Q’donis did not heed her. Her hands struggled to maintain her grip. Her body ached painfully in strain until suddenly the resistance gave. A void of weight remained with her as she watched him drop into the abyss. She stared and stared. Mouth open in dismay. Her eyes shifted to find any trace of his red mane of hair. Her lungs expelled withheld air unsteadily. Her hands trembled into the open air until she slammed them down. She gripped into the serrated edges of glass that remained. She felt the bite of the glass slice into her palms yet it did nothing to lessen the loss she felt.

She sucked in a breath and her scream rang out through the emptiness longer than she could recall, until the only thing that remained was silence.