A Place to Belong - Chapter 16
#17 of Malakye's Story - Part 1 (A Place to Belong)
Chapter 16 of 'A Place to Belong'. Vireon has reappeared and he is pissed off!
As you may have noticed I'm posting pics with a chapter of the story below, each of the pictures are a commission I've gotten from various artists of characters from the story and I'm still requesting more.
If anyone fancies doing a picture or piece of fan-art from the story using any of the characters or places then they are welcome to do so, let me post the pics with the story and I'll give a link to your user-page when I use it.
All the pictures I've used so far and more are available to be viewed in my gallery with info on the relevant artists that drew them for me.
I'd like to give a big shout out to 'Roderick the Rhodesian Ridgeback' (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/zizixmp3/) for proof reading my story. He's a great fur with a big heart and I can't thank him enough for doing all he's done to help with the story,
You may notice a few words have been highlighted and an explaination of what it is is given, these are words that only exist in this story and are there to help you understand whats happening, these descriptions only appear the first time they are used and won't appear in future chapters but soon I will be posting an encylopedia of sorts contain all of these word and more allowing you to discover many things about the world that may not even appear in the story. If you feel like I've missed a word then please let me know and I'll make sure to add it to the chapter and/or the encyclopedia for future reference.
Chapter 16
"I don't think so!" Vireon yelled and his goons launched into action. I reacted as well. Drawing my knife I charged the mob. The first body I came into contact with was a large Bull, easily twice my weight and at least a foot taller than me; not including the horns. My charge was unexpected so I took the advantage while I had it. Ducking down low at the last second and then launching my full body forward I drove my shoulder into the bull's stomach, knocking the wind from him and making him fall like a sack of bricks. A pair of paws grabbed me as I tried to get up off the bull and I spun round and slashed a dragon across the muzzle with my knife, making him roar out in pain and release his hold of me. I quickly got to my feet and had to immediately dodge the swing of yet another Dragon. I got out of the way of the swipe, and then retaliated with a punch of my own to his muzzle. As he reeled backwards from the blow I gave him an uppercut to the chin, which ended up levelling him rather effectively. Next thing I know my face is being driven into the ground hard as someone smacked me in the back of the head with something. I tried to get up, ignoring the pain and wooziness but several of Vireon's goons began to kick and stamp me, and I couldn't do anything but try and protect my head from the blows.
After who knows how long, the beating stopped... my whole body ached ruthlessly. I'm sure I had a couple of broken ribs and there were cuts all over my body. I could hardly see, the number of blows I took to the head had left me dizzy and one of my eyes was so badly swollen I couldn't see out of it. A couple of Vireon's goons picked my mangled body up and held me up by the arms, I looked over with my good eye and saw Vireon standing next to Rose, who had been restrained by a couple of the Felines. I hadn't been able to protect her! I felt so weak, the one time I was fighting to protect someone other than myself and I failed, I had never felt weaker. My promise to Zalamar rang through my head, I had sworn to protect her, and I felt angry at myself.
"So you thought that you could play the hero eh?" Vireon walked up to me, grabbed my muzzle and spat in my face. "This here is my town and I don't take kindly to anyone who interferes in my business!" Vireon bent over and picked up my knife from the ground before turning back to me and running the tip of the blade across my chest. "I should gut you where you stand!"
"Vireon! Please! Just let him go! I'll do whatever you want... just don't hurt him!" Rose pleaded, tears streaming down her face.
"Rose, no!" I yelled but was quickly silenced with Vireon's fist across my muzzle.
"Quiet you!" Vireon turned his attention to Rose and walked over to her, rubbing the side of her muzzle with his hand almost affectionately. "I loved you, did you know that Rose? I gave you chance after chance to come back to me, I figured 'hey, she's probably just intimidated by my love and affection, but she'll come round.'" Vireon's expression became a savage snarl and he slapped Rose across the face. "But instead, you decided to go and try and run away with, with... with this fucking runt over there? Unforgivable!" Vireon looked up to the sky and took a deep breath before returning back to earth and looking again at Rose. "You know Rose, I'm a jealous guy, I can't help it. It's in my nature, and because of that when I can't have something I want... I make sure no one else can have it."
Rose let out a pained grunt as Vireon thrust my own knife into Rose's abdomen three times. I let out a roar, and despite my condition struggled to free myself from the two that held me, they obviously weren't having an easy job of it but I still couldn't break free. I continued to struggle, calling out Rose's name as she fell to the ground, three bloody stab wounds in her, her eyes streaming with tears and not once leaving my own. I watched as her life was draining from her and I was helpless to do anything. The world around me began to darken, my vision focused on nothing but the dying dragoness in front of me, my beautiful Rose... I could see her lips moving silently... 'I love you'... the world went black.
When I regained conscience I was kneeling down, holding Rose. After however long I finally took the time to look around me. Everywhere there was smoking husks of furs and Dragons alike, nothing was left of any of them but the smouldering ash on their twisted bodies, none of the bodies could be even identified... all except one. Unlike the others that had been burned to a cinder, Vireon, that bastard, was pinned to the wall of a nearby building by the weapons of his own men, driven through his arms and legs to suspend him three feet off the ground against the stone wall of a building, his face was stuck in an image of pain and fear even after his life had been extinguished. He had literally been gutted, his organs lay on the ground before him. I looked at my paws that held Rose, they were sticky and covered in blood, and from the scent it was Vireon's blood. I had done that to him... I felt the bile rise in my throat and turned to the side to spew the contents of my stomach onto the street along with the ash and blood that already stained it.
All too soon my attention returned to the lifeless form of the dragoness in my arms, and holding her like this drove home the undeniable truth, Rose was... Rose was... dead. I let out a heart broken howl that would have made any wolf proud and buried my muzzle in Rose's hair, I drank in her scent as I cried my heart out. Rose was the first to make me feel complete, to feel accepted and loved, and now that feeling was gone. The pain in my chest was unbearable, it felt like someone was trying to rip my heart out of my chest. I heard the sound of furs approaching, someone was running towards me but I didn't care, I just continued to look at Rose's face, her peaceful face. It was like she was sleeping but only this time she'd never wake up, never smile, never laugh... all those things that made my heart flutter.