Dance of the Damned

Connections

The strawberry blond-haired man stared at Alexander, remaining straight-faced while the smiled widened on the latter's face.

"Your highness?" Florian asked, looking at Alexander who cleared his throat before walking to the man, who was getting off his horse.

"Then I will entrust her in your care." He said, pleasantly, before lowering his voice. "Carvill."

"Of course your highness." The man said, giving him a bow before walking to the woman. "Do you think you will be able to sit and hold him up behind me?"

For a second, the woman stared at the man in front of her before shaking herself out of her stupor. "I can."

"Good." He said, getting on his horse first as Florian helped the woman up and then placed the injured man in between them as gently as he could. "Thank you and hold on tight."

"I wi-"

Elizabeth did not have the time to complete her sentence as the horse took off at lightning speed, making her grab onto the man otherwise she would fall out of the horse before she could even realise what was happening.

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"That woman, she is Nameless's daughter, isn't she?" Carvill remembered asking Micah as they rode back home.

"She is." The boy said, slowly falling asleep in front of him.

"Why did you need to be there? And why did you need to be injured like that?" Carvill asked, gritting his teeth while trying to keep his cool.

"She would die from the fire, either trying to find her fiancée or trying to rescue three children, who still die from the fire despite her best efforts.

"Her fiancée then died, trying to find her.

"Don't you think it is best if disasters like that are divided up between two people instead?"

"I don't understand that kind of thinking," Carvill said, sighing. "But I suppose you were able to do what you set off to."

"This isn't the end yet," Micah said, leaning into Carvill's chest, struggling to keep awake. "Today is only the fourteenth. Make sure Britton is well taken care of. I will come to a decision after two days."

"Ok."

"And come to me on the fifteenth night. You know where you have to take me."

"Yes, I remember."

"Good. Wake me up when we get there. I ... just ... need ..." He fell silent immediately, going limp in front of Carvill who caught him before he could fall over.

Idiot. He thought, holding him with one hand while holding the horse's reins with the other, speeding it up.

________________

"Get down slowly." The stranger said to Elizabeth as she attempted to get down, legs shaking, while he held Nameless up.

Landing on the ground, Elizabeth had to take a second to steady herself before almost falling over twice.

"Are you alright?"

"I am fine." She said, pushing wisps of her chocolate brown hair out of her face and turned to the man. "I will hold him now."

Nodding, he climbed down from the horse while she held her father's limp body as tightly as she could to keep him from slipping from the horse.

"Allow me." The man took Nameless from the horse and carried him, bridal style into the hospital.

After that, everything passed by in a blur.

The man found a doctor to look after the man and they took him into a room to check him up while Elizabeth and the man waited outside the door.

She was too worried to think of anything else and it helped that the man stood by her side, he did not say a word but his presence alone is enough.

As soon as the doctors came out, she did not have enough strength to listen to everything they told her but the man came to her rescue again.

While she sat in the corner, he talked to the doctors, clearing any doubts that may be there and also talking to them about the medicines along with every other detail that she could not hear.

Just like that, the hours passed by and the sun was over the horizon.

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"Here." The man said, giving her a small piece of a warm loaf of bread and a small bowl of soup. "You need to eat. It is already morning."

"Huh?" Elizabeth asked, looking at the loaf and the bowl, along with the table below her confused as to where she was. "Where-?"

"You are in the cafeteria." The man said, also biting into the loaf of bread, sitting opposite to her. "I had to pull you here so I assumed that you were not entirely aware of your surroundings."

The cafeteria is a white room with tables and chairs everywhere. At the very front is a group of women standing behind a counter with several pots in front of them.

Other than Elizabeth, the man, and those women at the front, there is no one else there.

"Sorry." She said, playing with her spoon in the soup. “And thank you.”

“You don’t have to worry about it.” He said, elegantly eating the bread. “I am sure you are in quite a shock.”

“No, I am fine.” She said, smiling at him but he only furrowed his brows at her.

“It is ok if you are not. Emotions are powerful things, don’t shove them down and force yourself to not feel a thing.” He said straightforwardly as the woman started biting into her bread, tears streaming down her face.

The man in front of her place his bread down and handed her a handkerchief that she used to wipe her tears, refusing to stop streaming down her face.

“There. There.” He said, holding her free hand. “Cry as much as you need to.”

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“Would you like me to come with you inside?” The man asked as they stood in front of the door where Elizabeth’s father was kept in.

“Why are you so nice to me?” She asked, looking at him cautiously. “I am sure you have a busy schedule yourself, but here you are, with me. Why is that? I don’t have anything to offer you. Who are you anyway?”

“I suppose I haven’t given you a proper introduction yet.” The man said, giving her a bow. “I am Oscar Lewis, a friend of your father’s. Well, he is several years older than me but I still consider him a friend.”

“Friend?” She asked, confused. “But I have never heard of you before. Though you look familiar.”

“I was with him when he went running to the neighbouring kingdom the moment he saw the fire.” He said, turning away from her. “I couldn’t stop him, I am sorry.”

“You were with my father?” She asked, sniffling. “Does that mean … you were the man I saw that day?”

“That is possible.” He said sheepishly. “I remember seeing you once or twice before. Though I doubted that you remembered me. I apologise if I behaved out of turn in any way.”

“You have been such an incredible help to me. I would not have gotten that job in that kingdom without you.” She said, beaming at him. “It also helped to know that my father was with you. He can be a … handful sometimes.”

“He can.” The man agreed, smiling at her. “Now, why don’t you go in and check on him. I will be here if you need me.”

“Thank you.” She nodded, staring at the door before sucking in a breath and opened it.

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In the single room is a man covered completely in bandages, even his face was not spared as the bandages surrounded his entire left half and almost his entire right too.

The room is about the size of three elephants placed together with a single-window beside the bed where the man laid on. There is a spare bed for any family member and a table in the middle with a vase and unbloomed flowers on it.

“Father,” Elizabeth said, walking to the man and taking his hand in hers as gently as she could. “It’s me, Elizabeth. The doctors said that you do not have very long left to live because of the burns.

“There are so many things I want to tell you, you can’t just leave yet.”

Sobbing, the woman looked at her father on the bed, wanting to shake him awake or something but she knew that would not do anything, except injure him even more.

Wasn’t there anything I could do? She thought, remembering back to the incident and the boy that rescued them before the sudden burst of fire happened. Is he alright? I hope he is.

There is something strange about that boy though. This is the second time I saw him, back in the kingdom of Kloham and now here, though he looks a little different.

Why was he there? So many questions.

“-Zabeth.”

Pulling her out of her thoughts, Elizabeth turned to the man on the bed, hands reaching for her.

“Father! Doctor! Nurse!” She shouted into the hallway before turning to him. “Father, I am here. I am here.”