Seventh Crown XIX

Do not read if you had not read the previous parts.

Seventh Crown XIX

~

Cody.

Cody.

"Cody, wake up, man!" Skye slapped Cody through the face to wake him up. Cage kneeled down and touched Cody's forehead.

"Cody," He bit his lip and continued. "You can not continue this journey with us. You know it very well," He said to him even if Cody was not opening his tight closed eyes. "Do you hear my voice, friend?" Cage whispered in Cody's ear but all Cody could hear was the voice of his fears.

What is wrong? Do you feel scared? Humans are really weak beings. Even more the male ones. One day, I will let you suffer these last hours. You can live. For now.

Then his eyes suddenly opened and he jumped out from the blankets of his. "Ah! Cage? Skye? Who the heck whispers in my ear all the time? You guys are weird." Everyone stayed around Cody and stared at him. "I only wanted to make sure you hear me." 

"So, you whispered to me to die only because of this reason?" Cody said, shocking everyone else around him. Jon was the one who tried to answer to this question. "Cody, I do not know what is happening but no one told you to die and the condition of yours is starting to mess up your head. We are so close to the gates and.. I think you need to return back to the kingdom. When we pass through the gates and enter the town, we will still need to come back after we treat you. "

Cody did not answer. He only sat down on the blankets and looked down to his feet. "Guys, so you are telling me that I can not stay with you anymore?" He stood up and grabbed Cage by the arm. "Cody,"

He grabbed Cody's arm and tightened his grip. "I know what you think of. I know that you do not want to leave us when we are on a such dangerous journey but this is how it is. You need to leave if you want to live. Just...accept the defeat and treat yourself." Cody nodded his head and turned away. "My legs feel numb. I will take a walk around the river. I can not stay on one place. I had slept enough."

He changed the subject fast and turned away, taking small steps towards the nearly river. He felt kind of useless. The weak one in the group of men.

Maybe it was for the best to leave him behind and hurry to the North without him.

Yes, you are useless. Just leave them go without you already! What are you waiting for?

This voice was getting louder and louder in his head, and it was not only a low whisper anymore, it was a clear shout.

"Something about this place is creeping me out." These were his last words before he felt like someone hit his head with a rock and he fell down on the floor near the deadly river. Earlier the weather was on Cody's side but a deep fog turned out to be the group's biggest enimy. The sun was going down and together with it, Cody's hopes to live on. There was no time to waste. For a moment the others thought that Cody had left already without caring about his own health back to the kingdom with no warning. It was not something that Cody would do. Usually. They expected everything from him though.

They had no time to waste. Cage turned back to check if his sick friend and soldier is actually running to catch them. He could see none because the deep fog that suddently started bothering his sharp eyes that usually could see trough a normal fog, above human's possibilies. Something was odd and he knew that. he was asking himself how that sunny and bright weather turned into such a windy and foggy disaster. Before the sun went down and left the sky field, they stood up on their own feet, entering the mysterious town through its gates.

"And who you might be?" The tall guard asked, looking down to the travelers in front of his sight. "We do not allow travelers to enter through these gates without agreement from our dearest leader. Are you allowed to pass?" These words kind of made them feel kind of panicked what the answer needs to be.

"We have no permission to go through this gate and into your city, guard,but we will gladly meet your leader to talk with him so we can actually stay in." None of the group's men decided to start the talk so Rebecca did so. She looked up to he amusingly tall guard and gave him a polite smile.

"Talk with him? Do you know a thing about our city, miss? Our leader is a woman like you. I hope you understand that and still respect her in the same way." The guard answered sharply to the ask of the Queen and looked at her with not a very good expression on his face. She realized she had made a very huge mistake before even thinking about it. Rebecca scolded herself in her mind while looking at the ground and then bravely looking up again at the guard. "Please excuse my rudeness! I did not know that and I deeply aplogize for my kind of rude commentary towards the leader of your town. I wish I could ask for forgiveness from the leader also." She thought of a way to meet that female leader which was still something incredible for her. Well, she was a ruler of very big lands also but she had her father and a big amount of helpers for this job. She was not doing it alone. Doing this alone was something she dreamt doing someday but she felt like it was not going to be any day soon. Meeting that strong woman could help her in some kind of a way. "Then come with me. Do not slow your pace down. We close the gates after the last one of you had made their step in."

Cage stopped and looked behind himself for the last time. He remembered where Cody said he will be. The need to go and find him fell on his shoulders. "I will be fast," He mumbled close to Rebecca's ear. "I will waste no time. Next time you see me will be with Cody, I swear."

"He is somewhere around the river, right?" Rebecca said kind of too loudly and the tall guard heard it clearly. "Is a man near the river, miss? This is not allowed. He should not be there."

"Why a man is not allowed to go near the river?" Aaren asked just out of curiosity, not looking in the eyes of the scary guard in front of him, who was one one head taller than Aaren.

"Looks like we have a lot to explain to you, lost travelers, you know none about this area. Well, what else to expect, I suppose." The man gave them the cold shoulder and gazed at Cage who was just walking towards the river. 'What is this man thinking? He will die if he comes too close to this devilish water killer, and from the creatures living inside. Do I even need to wait for the return of a man who is going to die and never come back?'

~

"Cody, I knew it was not a good idea to wander around alone. I am an idiot to leave him in such a state. Anyways I will find him." He was talking to his own self, knowing that Cody is somewhere there and maybe hearing his voice. No time there was left for him to walk around the whole river and find Cody. Good that Cody turned out to be lucky.

Seeing a dead-looking body laying on the dirty ground make him freeze on his place for seconds. Was it Cody? Yes, it was, who else. Cage was expecting the worse out of this situation. When the guard said man needs no stay away from this place, this was the last warning he needed to hear to know that Cody was in a very big trouble already. As soon as he came closer to Cody's body, he heard it. The whisper of the creature that was making his friend go crazy.

One more joined you on your funeral? Hello there.

-to be continued-