A Wish
The Red String

“STEIN!!! RISETTE!!!” Lisa frantically shouted as shehovered over the fallen debris.

The damage was extraordinary. Everything crumbled toobliteration. They were most likely to be alive because if not, this realmwould’ve crumbled along but no. The realm was still intact with the exemptionof the cave.

Lisa looked left and right in hopes for a response, “STEIN!!!RISETTE!!!” She let out a tired sigh as she glanced to Luke who was tending tothe other guy. Apparently the other guy was injured during his stay inside thatcave. She let Luke do his job while she continued to look for the two of them.She was stressed over the fact that she can’t seem to get their presence. Theyhad to be somewhere but she couldn’t feel them.

A little later, Gale and his team came rushing into thescene. They were told of the circumstances and immediately responded to therequest of search and rescue. Gale ran to Luke and his little brother.

“How?” He said.

Luke just shook his head in confusion, “It all happened toofast.” Luke replied. He glanced at Blind who was busy massaging his hurt wrist.Luke let out a long sigh, “Stein and the little miss are also missing in themidst of destruction.”

“And so I heard...” Gale said. He ran a hand through hishair, “First we lose the immortal... Now we also lose the supervisor.” Hetiredly said. He glanced at Blind, “I see that you popped at the wrong place..”He commented at him.

Blind let out a tired chuckle, “I can’t help about that youknow...”

“Touché.”

...

It was cold, cramped and hopeless. Even though those werethe best description for their situation, neither of them could feel any of it—thespace, the proximity, the bodies, their breaths. Nothing.

Both of them had dead eyes. Dead because of their situation.Dead because of their exhaustion. Dead because of excruciating experience.

Dead because

Stein can feel Risette below him. He knows that she is alsoalive. She just happened to be in the midst of transformation. He knows becausehe has a clear view of the girl. For some reason, he felt uneasy and anxious.He wanted to stand up that very instant and help her get out of that mess she’sin.

Thump!

He felt something move in his chest.

Ba-bump!

There it was again. Stein wanted to shift his weight andlook at whatever was causing it but a slight movement might become fatal forboth of them. He wanted to use his magic to get the debris off of him but hischipping body doesn’t approve of his action. Rather, his movements might alsocause his body to give away to the weight of the debris.

“S... Stein..?” Risette weakly said. She forcibly rolled hereyes to meet Stein. She let out a weak yet caring smile, “... I’m glad to seethat you’re alright...” She managed to breath out. She weakly giggled as thoughto reassure Stein about something. Then she looked at her chest armor thatalready had a hole.

Stein also rolled his eyes to that direction. His eyeswidened in shock.

There was a red string attached from the skin on the chestof Risette connecting to Stein’s.

Stein looked back at Risette who gave an apologetic smile inreturn, “You..?”

“I’m so sorry....” Risette plainly replied. She cuppedStein’s face. Her hands hard and leathery as Stein felt. Risette giggled oncemore, “This is weird.... because... It’s not even seven days...!” She let out agiggle that turned to a hard cough. Her eyes changed shape—especially the iris.It was as though it became sharper and hostile even though it wasn’t supposedto be like that. She let out a smile as blood trickled out of it, “I don’t minddying... at the same time I do mind dying.... Isn’t that weird..?”

Stein let out a curt denial of her thoughts, “That’s the partof life...” he breathed out. He can feel his arms about to break under pressurebut kept silent about it as he frown for the first time in his life, “... Idislike the idea of you dying though...” His vision blurred then let out alittle rain.

As though on cue, the outside was already raining—heavily. It was as though to expressStein’s deep distress and grieve. Lisa instantly changed her searching fromflying to trudging as the rain was making her wings heavier.

Blind was already under supervision from the other soldieras request of Luke.

Luke joined the search party before the search be called-offbecause of the heavy rain. He dashed to Lisa, who sighed for the nth time. Hewent ahead of Lisa then stopped right in front of her, “You should rest...” hesuggested to which Lisa rejected.

“Don’t want to... Not until they’re found.” She said inprotest, even though she was shaky herself. She greatly inhaled then let it outall in one go, “I have a bad feeling about what’s going to happen next.” Afterthat, she continued to yell out Stein and Risette’s name despite Luke’s effortof having her stop.

“You need to rest, Lisa... please.” Luke begged only to falldeaf on Lisa’s ears. With a sigh, he decided to just help out with the searchand rescue. Like the rest of the workers, he began to lift up the debris inhopes of replaceing any body. He looked left and right, turned every stones andboulders that could be turned. He looked around to see whether there were anymore free hands that could help hasten the search since the rain wasn’t gettingany lighter.

It was raining, and it has been awhile since this lasthappened. Rain was very unusual for them because Stein never really sheds atear.

Until now, that is...

Luke saw a rock move a bit. As though a light of hope lit inhis mind, Luke dashed to that rock and threw it over, “I knew you guys—” Lukesuddenly went silent as he saw the deranged necromancer giggling at him like amad man. He grabbed the necromancer by the neck then dragged him to the nearestdanger—currently, Lisa. He tightened his grip around the necromancers neck thencalled out to Lisa, “Guess who I found...” He said as he threw the necromancerto Lisa direction.

Lisa instantly saw a despised flying person. In a heartbeat,her tail whipped it way to the necromancer, piercing him on the spot. Bloodspewed the opposite direction. The heavy rain made the color of blood look moregruesome than it is.

Luke took cover from the splash of blood, partly thankfulthat it was raining so that the rain would wash off any if it ever did comecontact with his skin. He dashed to Lisa’s side who was letting out a lethalglare towards the deranged necromancer.

Gi just maniacally chuckled again as gripped Lisa’s tail,“It’s starting!!!!!!!”He burst out into laughter, much to Lisa’s disgust. Lisa opened the mouth ofher tail, making the deranged necromancer to burst into bits and pieces. Hislast words: “The endis STARTING!!!!!” Was he said as those wordsreverberated around the large space for everyone to hear.

The moment everything went quiet, the world—literally—shook a great magnitude. Theground started to form cracks. Everycracks opened and revealed an endless abyss. Luke and Lisa were lucky sincethey had wings.

The poor others though.

Some managed to keep themselves out of harm’s way but somewere unfortunate enough to fall into the abyss. They were panicky knowing thatthey might die anytime, and the rain wasn’t even helping. A heavy tail suddenlyemerged from below. It was white, thick and leathery. Most of the people diedthe instant the tail hit the ground. A heavy hand heaved up and used it tofully emerge from underground.

It was a dirty white dragon.

In its free hand was a familiar figure.

“STEIN!” Luke and Lisa flew to that hand, despite thestruggle of flying against the heavy rain and winds.

The dragon threw away Stein to Lisa and Luke. The twomanaged to safely catch the supervisor. Surprisingly, Stein was back to normal.There were no signs of physical damage from the last time. He didn’t even seemto take any damage from the dragon. The two were much surprised of the simplefact that he wasn’t even gathering magic from around him.

Stein was alive, just not awake. He’s weak but not weak tosuch extent. He was breathing, so smoothly that it was making them raise somequestions.

Lisa ran a hand across Stein’s chest. She got surprised asshe felt heartbeats. She directed her eyes to Luke then back to Stein. Shewasn’t so sure whether to be happy or to be worried. Happy because Stein gotwhat he wanted, worried because it might repeat history.

Luke took Stein in his arms then hoisted back to ground. Hewent to the shelter where Blind was being kept. Lisa followed in cue.

Gale greeted the two of them with a curt nod as he tookStein from Luke then put him just beside Blind. Lisa let out a high-pitchedwhistle. Moments later, her minions on patrol assembled before her. She gaveout instructions in regards about defence from the dragon.

“I’ll try to keep the dragon here in check.” Lisa said asshe followed her flock of minions flying towards the dragon.

Luke wanted to help but there was nothing of help that hecould offer. Gale gave Luke a reassuring pat on his shoulder, “You shouldn’tunderestimate a queen who has her pawns.”

Luke just dumbly nodded, “I guess so.”