His Quest for Raine

Under Siege

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Raine

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It’s hard to decide if she did the right thing, turning into her purest form and flying away from Melchoir but he should have known better. She was already sort of high strung trying to ease her nerves about Peter and if he was alright while coming to terms with what they were able to overcome as if it was meant to be. She just laid down her life--exploded! Raine found herself hissing at the thought. It burned terribly, as if that was even the word to describe it, only to be launched into oblivion. Her temperature fought to maintain her natural heat against the frigid cold. The energy she expelled to get herself moving again should have killed her… 

Being called stupid by at least half of her soulmate cut her deeply despite it all and he was too bull headed to understand what he did by saying it. If they were truly connected, wouldn’t he know? Couldn’t he feel it? 

Mating wasn’t that, exactly. It was more like an exclusive relationship between two people, she snarled at the word again, as if she wasn’t going to turn back into one herself when she returned home. 

That wasn’t really the plan though. 

The plan, as even Melchoir saw it while she trained with Brandon, was to get to Peter, show off her little dragon form and leave him the blade. Even then it was shotty at best. His campaigns were far more involved. They would go deeper than an errand somewhere. It was a shame she didn’t formulate a better plan, or at least talk it through with Melchoir to see if there was anymore they could gain from Nerranne before setting their plan in action. 

Her plan. 

It was hers mostly. 

Brandon helped with some crucial developments that she’ll be forever thankful for, especially the last one where her energy could hide items within her form. Raine began to wonder just what else her form could do which distracted her from just how far she had flown. 

Was Nerranne always this spacious, she wondered.

Raine’s brow furrowed as she listened to the world she flew through. A rhythmic pulse, similar to the one she felt just above the ground in Melchoir’s arms still reached her. It thrummed through energy, lifting ribbons of herself out of her center, slowing her down… and she had to wonder if it was that weird connection she thought she felt to this place trying to keep her in. 

She’s not sure why she said it or why it even came to mind but there she was promising her return to an unseen entity only to be released deeper into the night. 

It was hard to want to move after that, after being violated. It felt as though she was being torn apart, layer by layer until it found her core. It felt like the darkness had examined her and found what it needed to defeat them as if it hadn’t already happened. 

Raine’s unease forced her shift early into dusk’s sky.

She hoped the change made her look like a shooting star breaking up as it fell to the ground, but there was no way the people that lived in the town below didn’t see her display. There was no way that they didn’t have recordings of it or happened to all be inside at the same time. 

As she descended, she remembered Brandon’s message. Perhaps her energy could remove her display from electronics there as well. Raine continued down at an angle, only to barely dodge the bright red flare that burst in her face. 

Who would shoot a flare on a main road, she wondered, hoping it was a mistake. 

A pop, then a whistle sounding off that a second would show up at any moment had Raine panicking, desperate not to flap as she continued falling. The second flair cracked high over her head, the bright red light seemed to hang in her airspace while she managed to locate the nearest rooftop to fall on.

There were calls from the ground and movement she’s only seen in military propaganda that they feed the locals with to drum up more joiners. Their town, she realized, the place she got an actual chance to grow up in, with the gentlest people around, was under siege!

Raine felt the cool metal against her lower body first as she flew into a wall which knocked the wind right out of her. Her tiny legs and tail rotated swiftly but her body seemed to stay stunned. She could hear her claws as they scrambled along with her, scraping the metal of a fire escape ladder and striking brick along the way.   

She could hear herself, distantly, as if she had been pulled from her accident, promising her energy as it escaped her that she could do this. 

“I have to try,” she exclaimed, silenced by a snap of energy releasing itself from her hold. 

Pressure behind her eyes began to build, before the bright light took over, blinding her further. 

Raine groaned at the dryness rimming her eyes. No matter how often she blinked, she couldn’t relieve it. 

Heavy footsteps and a call for coordinates spooked her only further. They sounded close and unfriendly. Loud and angry, as if she was foreign to them. 

She was kind of, being what she was, but Raine was a citizen of this town… she shouldn’t feel oppressed just for returning. Questions about what happened here flew through her mind while others were quick decisions on what it was she should become, or if she was simply safer in the over piled garbage between the buildings. 

It would be weird if a human was sitting in stacks of garbage bags, she assured herself. To top that thought off, where would she have come from? No one would have seen her prior to finding herself there. If the town really was under siege, there was more than a chance that she would be detained for even lying about her status. 

Men’s voices called out as they filed into the alleyway, searching around for her. It’s what made her move further back until her tail tapped the wall and the bag before her let out a crinkling sound. It called three soldier’s to it, eyeing the pile suspiciously. 

Raine began to panic. Her long, quiet breaths became short and desperate, worrying about what would happen if these people found her now. 

Their guns were loaded, ready to fire when Raine opened her wings to make herself as flat as she could against the wall the garbage leaned on only to be sucked up into another energy current, hurling her high and fast through copper wiring encased in piping that ran the entire height of the next building. From there she could see just how close she was from losing her life as all three men blasted blindly into the stack. 

Raine manipulated her own movements through the wiring, blipping televisions and lights as she rounded each floor before making it to the roof. Finding a place to be spit out was a challenge, but eventually she found a darkened doorway off to the side where a light shone dimly just off to the corner. There she forced herself into her old blend of ratty jeans, a hoodie, crappy tennis shoes and a small copper ring around her third finger shaped like Melchoir’s claw to remind her of her promise to him, Brandon, while she worked on a way to find her brother and get back.