Courage (2 page)

A few blocks later, Aerigo found his hospital waiting for him across a wide street. Rox fidgeted in his grasp, as if in response to his findings, or as if trying to tell him to hurry. She frowned with her eyes squinted shut, then buried her face in his bicep.

Aerigo hurried to the ambulance drop-off entrance, sweating profusely all over him and Rox.

Chapter 2

610 year ago... Aerigo woke to the smell of burning wood. The scent was faint. It had to be coming from another home. He never left a fire going in the hearth overnight. He reluctantly opened his eyes, wanting to go back to sleep, but instead looked across the home he and Sandra had built together in Drio. The place was all shades of black, grey, and silver; no cozy colors of fire.
Moon must be full tonight
. Its silver light poured in at crisp diagonals through the curtains and onto the stone floor.

Sleeping next to him was his wife, Sandra, whom he’d met decades ago through Antares’ father Rahnjar, the current Druid. She had been just a toddler when they’d first met, and had taken an instant liking to Aerigo, despite being no taller than his knees. Back then, his visits focused on meeting with Rahnjar to discuss current affairs, and progress with the Balvadiers. Toddler Sandra would play with her dolls under the table, using Aerigo’s boots as part of her toys’ landscape. When she grew tired of that, she’d beg her tall friend to get down on all fours so they could play Horsie, an invented game. Unless times were dangerous, or he had a terrible sleep debt, Aerigo would comply, even if it were just for several minutes at a time, before returning to his daunting task keeping warring to no more than a simmer.

In his 2700 years existence Aerigo had rarely spent time with children. Sandra had spent the most time of any with him after just one week. Maybe he’d finally gotten old and mature enough to welcome children into his life, or Sandra simply had something about her he couldn’t resist paying attention to. Whatever it was, they forged a special bond of friendship through all the games of Horsie and hide-and-go-seek with younger brother Antares and their royal friends.

During Sandra’s pre-teens, Aerigo left her and the world Druconica for several years for a side mission. When he came back, the Druid’s daughter was all grown up. She’d grown from cute to beautiful, and Aerigo had to give himself a week to let his mind catch up with what his eyes were seeing. He kept expecting a twelve-year-old; not a woman every time Sandra appeared. Yes, he was used to people aging, and even dying before he returned, while he remained more or less the same, but for some reason his brain took a while to register the decade that had allowed Sandra to bloom. Once his mind settled, Aerigo began to notice how Sandra looked at him attentively and with more than childish interest. She often made sure that she sat next to him during meals, and they took many a walk together along the river bordering the Wildwood, a path few Durians considered safe grounds for a pleasant stroll. Both of them knew better than to fear the forest.

Aerigo realized that Sandra had a crush on him and was flattered, however he had no intention of pursuing emotional affairs. Many women had taken interest in his physique and quiet calmness since before he’d reached his triple-digit years, but the way he aged differently kept him emotionally disconnected from the rest of the mortal realm. Sure, Sandra would be with him for centuries, but Aerigo would still have millennia before he expired. But what mattered more was that the Balvadiers had brought the warring to a boil during his absence. He didn’t have time to start a relationship, much less the opportunity to stay on any world he wanted to for as long as he wanted.

One day, Sandra made an attempt to kiss him on the lips as a way of saying good morning. Aerigo had barely managed to turn his head to receive it on the cheek instead. Sandra confessed her love for him, then tried to kiss him again. Aerigo had apologized and tried explaining his role as an Aigis. When he tried to hug her, she shoved him with her Durian strength and ran out of the temple. Not wanting to disrupt royal affairs, Aerigo went to Rahnjar to explain what had happened between them but, to his surprise, the Druid encouraged him to settle down and get married. The only catch was that the Balvadiers had to stop warring with them for their land. After that, Rahnjar would allow his daughter to marry outside of royalty. Another family from the Green Province could forge an arranged marriage with Balvar.

Aerigo argued against marriage, but Rahnjar had a sound counter-argument to all his points, the most vexing, yet compelling one, being how the two of them truly cared about the other. Aerigo admitted his feelings, but was it even the kind of love that led to marriage?

That pivotal day left Aerigo feeling confused. He constantly analyzed his emotions, trying to understand what it was he felt. Once Sandra forgave him for turning down her kiss, an awkwardness cropped up between them for a good few years. They greeted each other formally, small-talk was hard to sustain, and they stopped hugging altogether. Even with the war and this awkward phase, Aerigo’s thoughts often drifted to Sandra-what she was doing while he was out fighting, how beautiful she looked, what she really thought of him. Things like that. His feelings for her, he realized, were something more than what one felt for a sibling. The awkwardness between them dissipated. They smiled more and talked endlessly, but Sandra never tried to test her bounds with him.

It wasn’t until Sandra turned thirty three that the Balvadiers finally agreed on a peace treaty with the Green Province. The Durians celebrated with weeks of feasting, music, storytelling, and wrestling; however, Aerigo felt detached from it all, worn down by all the royal intrigue.

And then there was Sandra on top of that.

During one of the feasts in the temple’s entrance hall, Aerigo and Sandra found themselves sitting next to each other on a bench in one corner. Sandra had grown up even more as of late. She was still impish, but it was something alluring about her. The changes made Aerigo’s heart try to beat out of his chest. They chatted away the first few hours of the feast, until they both drifted into a silence, gazing into each other’s eyes while joyful music strummed in the background.

Before Aerigo realized what happened, they were kissing. This time, he found no reason to resist. He put his arms around Sandra and she did the same. It felt so right to have her in his arms, so right to be kissing her--so right, in fact, that he had to pull her up on his lap so she sat sideways on him, hiding from the rest of the world exactly how much he was enjoying the moment. Once he could get his emotions under control, they departed from the feast.

Months later, they got married, despite Baku’s protest. The old god posed the same argument Aerigo once had, but the Aigis didn’t care. He was going to enjoy love while it lasted. She was the right woman for him. The next few years proved true to his heart. The only thing that gave them a slight issue was learning to live as a couple, instead of two single individuals. But once they settled in with each other, it felt like they’d always lived that way.

* * *

Slightly concerned and wanting to know why anyone had a fire going at this hour, Aerigo sat up and stretched. He tenderly stroked his wife’s hair, then got out of bed and put on some pants. He thought of waking Sandra, but decided against it. He’d come back for her if anything was wrong.

Aerigo snuck out of the house and into the openness of Drio. Everything lay dark and quiet, even the goats, sheep, and cows. The wind moved so sleepily it made no sound as it caressed Aerigo’s bare torso. After passing several thatch-roofed homes, he thought he was the only one awake, until he gazed beyond the roofs and saw the source of the burning smell.

Half a mile away the angry glow of fire lit rooftops, and a funnel of black smoke blotted out stars. Aerigo’s stomach sank to his feet. How had Drio caught fire?

A distant scream unglued his feet from the cool grass. He ran towards the scream but, after several strides, he stopped. A giant fireball appeared overhead and arced straight for him, turning everything shades of flickering reds and oranges. Aerigo tried to calculate the ball’s trajectory, but thought better of catching it once he realized it was the size of a house. It wouldn’t crush him, but it was too big to handle. Besides, he wasn’t fireproof. He ran forward out of its path.

The flaming ball grazed Aerigo with a blast of heat as it sizzled by, then he heard it crash on wood and stone, and explode. The detonation knocked him off his feet and shattered every nearby window. Shards of glass and debris rained on his unprotected body but his resilient skin kept him whole. Once the debris stopped falling, he uncovered his head and looked up. Ashes, smoke, and flames littered the air. He rose, letting chunks of wood and stone slip off of him, then patted himself down as he glanced at the impact site. He gaped at it and froze.

Their home had suffered a direct hit.

“
Aerigo!
” Sandra’s terrified voice screamed over the roaring blaze. The foundation shifted and the whole roof collapsed.

“
Sandra!
” Aerigo bolted for the blazing ruin, jumped over a door lying on its side and into the inferno, heedless of his safety. It felt like he’d jumped into a kiln turned on full-blast. His eyes watered and stung from the smoke and heat, and his tears dried up before they could stream past his nose. He shielded his head with both forearms and choked on the smoke as he waded farther in. He gritted his teeth as the hairs on his arms burned off and the stone floor blistered his bare feet. All this pain was worth rescuing his wife and bringing her to safety.

One of the roof’s broken support beams shifted. Aerigo flinched at the flurry of sparks that rose to meet his face as bits and pieces of the roof rained on him. He strained to hear Sandra call his name again. The interior was a mess of burning objects and smoke that obscured all the furniture and flooring. He couldn’t tell where he was in his own home. He pressed forward and was soon rewarded with sight of the green rug their bed was centered on.

The bed was most certainly there. It was on fire with its legs perpendicular to the smoldering mattress. A roof support beam lay down its middle, pinching the mattress under its massive weight. A blackened leg and arm were sticking out from under the burning blankets sandwiched under the two-food-wide beam. Those were her limbs. She was there. He could save her now.

Aerigo rushed to the bed and heaved off the support beam with a heavy grunt. The beam clanked onto the stone floor, cracked, and spat sparks. He reached out to cradle Sandra in his arms, but stopped and stared. And stared.

Aerigo swallowed. The right side of his wife’s face had been bashed into her left, and it oozed dark blood. The rest of her body was flattened and bent and at odd angles, with bones sticking out here and there. He had to be just seeing things. The heat made the air shimmer and his eyes water. Sandra had to be knocked out. That’s all it was. She’d just called his name a minute ago.

He scooped up the woman he loved and ran out of their home. Sandra’s body felt jagged, slick, and too hot. But it had to be the milieu of burns on his skin distorting what he’d become intimately familiar with over the past thirty years.

Once he ran into the shadow of an intact home, Aerigo dropped to his knees. He doubled over and coughed and spit until the last of the smoke and soot left him.

Sandra hadn’t joined him in coughing. Why?

He lay his wife on her back, and tilted her head so her windpipe wouldn’t be obstructed. He thought he heard a bone snap in her neck, causing him to flinch, but he dismissed it as the sound of the nearby fire crackling. He put an ear over her mouth and broken nose and watched for the rise and fall of her chest. Her lopsided breasts didn’t move in the slightest and his ear felt nothing. Aerigo kneeled before Sandra’s sternum, then began pumping her chest with his hands, a technique he’d learned on another world, but recoiled after two pumps. Her lungs felt like a sack of jagged rocks under his hands. That wasn’t right at all. He tentatively touched her sternum and felt broken bones.
Oh, gods
. He carefully dragged Sandra’s body into the moonlight and fully took in her appearance. The world blurred.

Somewhere closer to the first fire, an alarm horn sounded. Within seconds, screams filled the air and panicked footsteps beat the grass all around him. More explosions detonated near and far. He wiped his eyes and tried to block it all out. Every sound stole a piece of his focus on his wife. He needed to figure out what just happened.

He had woken, he had left her behind, their house exploded, he ran in to save her, then came out with a... Aerigo swallowed again, feeling the mess of ribs, even though he was too far away to touch them.

Overcome with grief, he bent over his wife and touched her burnt hair. He choked on tears he wished would go away. The only woman he’d allowed himself to love was gone. His despair desperately wanted to turn to rage, to kill the ones who had thrown the fiery boulder, and then further punish himself for not waking her. If he gave in to rage, then the despair would have no room in his conscious thoughts. But his wife was
gone
. Rage and despair roiled inside, but despair was winning hold over him.

In all his life, he’d gotten attached to people, but never to a degree where their deaths would send him into a bout of depression. If he’d allowed such closeness, then his life would’ve been nothing but funerals and holes in his heart. The distant compassion he felt for the mortal realm helped him cope with his longevity. But, for some reason, with Sandra, the scenario playing out before him had seemed impossible. She was too lovely of a person to die years and years before him, without him. Once he caressed the depression in her face, his throat constricted and he felt sick. He pulled her body to him, pressed her face to gaping hole he felt in his chest and began crying.