They lay together on a soft bed in a candle lit room. Leo watched Matilda. She lay naked, stretched out on her side, facing away from him. He reached out and stroked down her leg. She shivered slightly. He continued to stroke her body, tracing patterns into her skin. He pressed himself against her, letting her feel how much he needed her. His hand dipped down to her front, feeling her breasts and then as he started to softly kiss her neck, his hands travelled down further to her sex. She pushed herself into his hand as she moaned. He pushed himself into her. She hooked her top leg around him and together they moved, he could feel waves of pleasure as he...
Leo woke with a start.
Groaning, he collapsed back on his small canvas bed roll and gazed up at the stars. He had dreamt about her every night for the last six nights he'd been travelling. He longed for her. He missed her. He probably would never see her again he thought. It would be enough to know that she was safe. He had provided for her, the crushers would be gone and Jacobs would make sure she was safe.
He travelled alone to avoid detection to the eastern border of the Woods of Valha. To where they were told the Stone of Vrai was. He would reach it by tomorrow.
The stone of Vrai would close the portal between worlds. With the portal closed and the demons known as the crushers gone, this blasted War would finally be over.
He thought of the prisoner who they had tortured to find out where it was. He was a crusher, he had once been one of the head guards to watch the stone.
Leo had been told by his King to find one of those who knew where the stone was and do whatever he had to do to find the stone. Leo felt like he'd lost a little bit of his soul making the prisoner tell them. It wasn't over though, he still had to get the stone and with it close the portal.
The prisoner had told them that the crushers had tried to destroy the stone but had not succeeded. The stone exerted a strange kind of power. If you were with it too long, you'd slowly go insane with blood pouring from your nose and ears. The crushers were afraid of it.
So the crushers had locked it under a heavy guard on the eastern border of the Woods of Valha, a place they already conquered. They kept it in a locked iron casket and with a new guard every few days.
There Leo now travelled in secret to steal the stone.
***
The next day Leo had finally made it to his destination; he surveyed the grim looking castle where the stone was kept, with its thick stone walls. Everything about it seemed impenetrable. He went about making his preparations and then settled down to wait till darkness.
At midnight, he stood in the shadows, watching the castle wall. He watched the guards circling the roof and then head inside. He waited for the exact right moment to sprint to the castle wall, then using multiple small blades that he stabbed into the wall to use as handgrips, he began to climb. He slowly and silently edged his way up. At the top, he secured a rope and hid it from view, he would use it as his escape later. Then he soundlessly made his way through the castle, avoiding the guards, until he found the right door. There were two guards in front of it. He shot them both in quick succession with the cross bow before they could cry out. Then he went to the door, knelt and examined the lock. Two minutes later he was in the room; he was running out of time, it wouldn't be long before more guards arrived in their nightly sweep. There was a safe in the middle of the room. There was a red light leaking from it, suddenly it flashed and the door to the safe clicked open. Leo paused. What the fuck was that? There wasn't time to have second thoughts now. He grabbed the stone and secured it safely to his person and then he ran back for the roof.
Just as he reached it, he heard a loud shout, his time was up, he ran and jumped off the roof, he felt the air rush up beneath him, as his gloved hands grabbed for the rope he'd left there. He slowed himself and scaled down the building at a forward run. As he reached the ground, he let go off the rope and ran towards the woods.
He heard them behind him as he sprinted through the trees. Arrows flashed past him. The crushers were chasing him. He leaned forwards, not daring to look back even at the inhuman howls and grunts they were making. He finally reached the river, which swirled further away from them; rushing away in a torrent. He jumped into the small boat that he had left there, pushing it away from the bank. He looked back as the boat carried him away from them. The crushers stood twisting and howling.
At the first dawn of light, when he had been on the river for several hours, he guided himself towards the bank. He used his knife to stab several small holes into the bottom of the boat. He got out and pushed the boat back out into the swirling river. It would sink, but not directly where he had landed. Then making sure to cover his landing and his tracks, shouldering his pack he made his way back into the forest.
He had been running for several hours when he felt the ground give way beneath him, he landed with a thud at the bottom of a large dark hole. His head hit the ground and he lay unconscious and twisted. For a second all was dark and then the cave was filled with a red pulsating light emanating from the stone.
***
A long way away, Matilda suddenly sat up straight in bed. For a second all she could see was a pulsating red ruby light. Then her vision cleared and she stared at the tent around her bathed in the morning light. She knew that Leo was in trouble. She felt it right down to her bones. She had to go to him. She went to find Jacobs.
"Matilda, I know you care for him, and he cares for you too, and of course you're going to worry, maybe even have bad dreams, but that's no reason for you to go haring off to find him, you don't even know where he is! You can't help him!" Jacobs was looking at her like she was crazy. This was not going well.
"Jacobs please! He needs us!" She pleaded.
He looked at her "Like I said Matilda,I'm sorry, I get it, I worry about him too, but I can't just send men off based on your sudden feelings, and not even know where they're going. Leo knows what he's doing, if anyone can do this, he can."
