Misunderstood Destinies (2)

Layla sighed as the moon rose over the sky. She laid down beside Jargos, unable to sleep or give herself any comfort after the situation. Even she had nearly lost control of her powers earlier in the fight when Balthazar purposely angered her. It felt like hours went by to her, but despite her exhaustion she couldn't rest.

Jargos began to reign his thoughts and emotions in, then slowly began to wake up. He growled in a stretch, his muscles creaking and aching. He did his best to open his eyes, but couldn't

When Jargos began to wake up, Layla realized he was probably weakened like she was. While the aura still surrounded her arm, she placed her hand on his chest. "You were trying to heal me. Right now, you need it more than I do. Just rest for now." She forced the aura to focus around her hand and heal Jargos rather than her, channeling it back to him.

"L . . . Layla . . . I'm sorry . . . We failed . . ." Jargos slipped back into unconsciousness as the green aura surged onto him, revealing her perfectly healed arm

Layla knew she needed to get Jargos somewhere to rest in safety. "We lost the battle," she said quietly. "Not the war. Don't give up on me. Now isn't the time to give up." Layla did what she could to get the unconscious Jargos back to Darkwoods. It was too far to get to Zeiza, and Darkwoods would be the safest place for him.

People from the Darkwoods helped as soon as she got Jargos back far enough, taking them both to his hut. They got him onto his bed, and motioned for her to use the spare bed

Layla sighed and shook her head. "After what we just experienced, I can't rest." She glanced at her arm, noticing it was fully healed. "Besides, a part of me won't let me sleep."

"Suit yourself" The villagers left and Jargos rested

Layla walked over to the window and glanced outside. "I want to fight, but I'm just not strong enough. I try to protect my friends, my family, and I'm the same reason why they're all going to get killed if Balthazar takes the throne. Life put us on this path for a reason..." she sighed. "So why is it that, as a result, we have to lose everything we ultimately care about?"

Jargos began to wake once more, but once again, his eyes would not open. His muscles were tense and his bones were stiff

Layla noticed Jargos was awakening once more. "To reply to your statement," she started. "We lost the battle and not the war. At least, that's what I'm still trying to convince myself."

Jargos coughed and growled as he pulled himself to a sitting position. He could not open his eyes, but he could smell Layla and nodded. He was beyond furious with himself

Layla walked over to Jargos and sat beside him. "If you're hurt, the only way I can heal you is if you channel your power through me. You have healing abilities through your Rune, I saw. Before I brought you here, you used your Rune to heal my arm. I had burned it from the blast because I was unable to use my shield."

"I'll be fine . . . I just can't open my eyes . . ."

"Is there any way I can help?"

"If I knew what was wrong I could tell you, but I don't even know" He tried to get up, but stumbled back onto the bed

"The only person that I know that could figure this out would be Mother, and she's practically a week away from here. I wish I could help you, Jargos."

"Don't worry about it, It's my fault, I'm sure of it" He laid down, his arms spread out

"Jargos, you gave it everything you had and so did I. I don't know if you heard me from before, being that you didn't seem to notice what I said, but I told you that in the case that my attack didn't even scratch him then we'd need to retreat and regain our strength. That it wasn't over yet because it was just a battle and not the war.

You and I both were already weak from the fight with the mages, and I'm sure he planned that to put us at a severe disadvantage. He's planned this entire thing every step of the way, and now he expects us to no longer interfere. Well, I'm sad to say that he's wrong. Because as long as we both still stand, he won't win the war."

Jargos did not respond. Though her words were true, he had still failed to help his friend. He did little more than bark at Balthozar, and even in his primal state, he did nothing. He was at the limit, and there was nowhere else to ascend to. He had no more hidden power, no more aces up his no existent sleeves. Even if they were at a disadvantage, they did absolutely nothing. Jargos got up and left the hut without a word, navigating by memory and scent

Layla sighed. As much as she wanted to go after him, she knew it'd be best if he had some alone time.

Once he was far away from his hut, he slashed at a tree, tearing it down, roaring out. He raged and clawed at everything, then ignited and started scorching everything. He did well to keep the conflagration to a minimum and contained in a small area, but he couldn't think of anything else to do. Failure was not acceptable while lives were at stake, and he failed. His roars could be heard all over Darkwoods, along with the sounds of falling trees

Layla could smell smoke from a distance, though she was sure it was Jargos. She left the hut in search of her friend, hoping to calm him down.

Jargos felled almost 100 square feet of trees, either through flame or fang. He was standing in the middle of the crater he had made. He felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders, and it had all crashed down on him. He had trained to fight off such evil his whole life and it made no difference. He was 137 years old, and everything he had ever learned had amounted to nothing against the darkness that he failed to stop. Only one person could understand how he felt, but she was burdened enough without his self pity party

Layla stepped into the clearing, minutes after hunting Jargos down. "I know you're concerned," Layla said. "But I did tell you that you wouldn't be satisfied with retreating. We had no choice, my friend. We need time to regain our strength and to come up with a new strategy. We fought him once, and we can fight him again. Now that he has become one with the creature, we, too, can fight like one and make this an equal fight instead of an unfair one."