Oasis: Zarah and Royalty

6: Pain is inevitable

"Lord Vixan," one begins to say, as he steps out from behind the trees, "we are here for the girl, only her. Give her to us and we will do what needs to be done."

His eyes are colourless just like Vixan and his hair though in a ponytail has two distinct colours, red and black. His armour unlike Vixan, is a red colored armour with a black belt around the middle, holding him and a red sword at his side.

"If you want the girl, you will have to go through me and we both know that that is impossible, so I advice you return to Lord Lox and tell him you failed your mission. I've killed enough of you already, I do not plan on taking anymore life." Vixan speaks up as he swings and adjusts his sword, I don't need to see him to know his eyes are blazing red.

The man nods and laughs, not really fussed by Vixan's threat as he steps forward. "You're right it is impossible to best you, but we have sworn an oat to not return to Oasis if she's not dead, and unless you plan to kill us all and increase your suffering, you will let us take her,"

"Sir Elix, Oasis needs you, all of you," he says to the others bringing themselves out from behind the trees, having the same armour and hair as Elix. "Go home! We don't have to do this."

A warrior runs towards him from in front, but Vixan lifts his hand and the warrior is taken off the ground and when Vixan crushes his hand, I hear the crushing of the bones of the warrior and finally he let go and the body of the warrior fall to the ground just like the detective did yesterday. I watch as he too is shredded into pieces and the pieces leaves the ground and is carried up into the sky.

The rest rush forward and Vixan and his conscience fall into full warfare, swords slicing, and bodies of the warriors falling to the ground and  turning into shreds. I notice Vixan getting weaker and slower with every warrior body that falls to the ground, while I stand in between them completely unable to do anything.

I see Elix lift a spear on the ground up and sends it flying towards me, but Vixan pushes me out of the way and he is pierced by a spear and he dropped down on one knee.

"Oh my God," I gasp out, completely terrified at what is happening and my eyes are almost popping out of their sockets in shock.

A lot of things are happening at the same time and I think I need more than a minute to ease into it.

Vixan has saved my life for the second time in less than ten minutes, and I think that he has saved me this time at his own expense.

"You're hurt Vixan," I tell him, my hands still trembling as they touch his shoulder before turning to his conscience. "He's hurt!"

"The more of us you kill, the weaker and vulnerable you become," Elix explains, sounding more delighted at Vixan weakness even though it's at the cost of his men. "So you need to ask yourself one question, is she worth it?"

"Take her and go!" Vixan says to no one in particular, but I know he's talking to his conscience and feel my hand is taken hold of as the ground under us begins to shake and I realised that this is Vixan's doing.

"We need to get out of here!" His conscience says as his hand around me tightens and he mumbles, "Hold on to me."

Vixan takes hold of the spear that's still in his chest and begins pulls it out, and in the same time stretches his hand towards us. I see him on his knee, groaning out in anguish and the pain and t*****e visible on his face and the quake increases greatly in the process and I fear that the pain might end up killing him, but he persist until every inch of the spear is pulled out and he throws it to the ground and gets up onto his feet. Vixan stretches his hand towards us and in that instant, a powerful whirlwind circles around us and lifts us up from the quaking ground and away into the air.

I don't know for how long we traveled because I am unable to see anything  through the powerful whirlwind, but soon the whirlwind dies down and we find ourselves on the road.

"Where are we?!" I asks more to myself and to the one with me, looking around on the road, looking for a signboard or something that will give off the location where we are, but when I find nothing my worry continue.

"You are safe, that's what's important."

"Safe?!" I demand that word sounding even ridiculous coming from him I run my hand though my hair and messing it up. "I am not safe, hell I am not safe anywhere. I am wanted as a murderer back at home and I'm not still safe away from home I'm tired of being hunted like a criminal or some kind of animal and Vixan wasn't lying when he said his Lord wanted me dead and since he didn't killed me, his Lord sent those who will and Vixan might be dead and we may never know and these men won't stop coming after me as long as I live. How is it even possible that you can travel such long distance from your host? Is it even safe?"

"It is possible, but the most important thing is keeping you safe. Are you okay?"

"No I'm not okay, I'm sad, weak, hungry and scared out of my freaking mind. I'm tired of being afraid and my whole world is upside-down and all that's left is death and I just want this to be over. I wish this was all some nightmare I could wake up from." I close my eyes trying to mentally wish it all away. I run my hand through my hair and tug against it hardly, "There is existence of an alternate universe and we've been lying to ourself since the beginning of time. Oasis is real and I'm a threat to the Lords of that universe and I'm being defended by Vixan who was initially sent to kill me and let's not forget he's also a freaking prince and he has magical powers and can do unbelievable things with the wave of his hand. This sounds so crazy but yet it's all true." I begin to run short of breath and I go into a state of panic and I know I'm melting down and I can't help it. I sob out weakly and crumble to the ground, but I don't care I really care anymore, because at this stage I don't care how I look to him.

I feel a tender hand on my shoulder and I tense up a little before easing into the touch, "I'm sorry." He murmurs silently.

"Why is he helping me? Why is he protecting me?" I asks with a small voice.

"I... I —," he trails off and I sense him trying to avoid the question.

I turn to him and cut him off, my eyes searching out his colourless ones. "Don't lie to me please, I know people don't randomly just put the life of someone they know nothing about before their. I know there's a lot going on in there so tell me."

"I can't tell you that, only Vixan can, all I can say is we won't let anything happen to you, you can trust me on that."

"I can't trust you and I'm sorry, but I don't think you are being honest and you're supposed to be his conscience, a purer version of him." I pull myself up from the ground and move away from him, "even if you are going to protect me I need to know why and I know there is a reason behind everything everyone does. I remember clearly that he told me he was going to kill me so I don't even know why he's back there defending me."

He gets up and follows behind me, "You need to calm down and stay close, we are not safe."

I wipe my tears away, "I need answer and you're not planning on giving them to me. I'd give anything to go back to this time yesterday."

"Yesterday you didn't know we even existed."

I look back at him, but continue moving forward, "That's the point, my life was normal, it wasn't perfect but and now it's a complete mess!"

I collide with a solid form and the impact takes me by surprise and I fall to the ground and groan out in both irritation and pain.

That's what I get for not watching my way.

I rub my aching head slowly and I don't know if it's the impact of running into him or the weakness I have been feeling for a while now. I look up and I see Vixan staring down at me with a straight face.

"Need a hand?" He asks gently, extending a hand to me and I can't tell if he's mocking me or being genuine with his offer.

I take his hand and he immediately pulls me up to my feet before letting go. "Thank you, but I had it," I say, dusting myself up dramatically.

"You should always watch where you go." He says, a smirk appearing at the side of his face.

I ignore all that, still a little speechless with his sudden appearance, "How did you-" get here so fast? I say the rest to myself because I clamp my lips together when I remember that he has some sort of powers. My eyes travels speedily to the side of his white armour that the spear had ripped through to pierce his shoulder earlier and I reach my hand out to touch it and I gasps when my fingers meet a healed flesh instead of a wounded one. "You a- ar-e heal-led." I stutter nervously and step back from him.

I'm still surprised, but worried that a man of his strength and gifts saved me twice and I wonder what I am not understanding here, but I can't think too much 'cause he's in front of me.

"You saved me twice, you could have let me die. Why did you defend me when those men came?"

"Because they were going to kill you, and we need to get you out of here, this place is still not safe." He says as if he's giving orders to a twelve years ago he takes my hand and begins to walk and pull me along with him.

I pull my hand from his grip, "I can't keep running for my life with you and not knowing why you're choosing to protect me instead of letting me die."

He sighs loudly, clearly frustrated as he turns to me. "I think the right words your people use when someone saved their life is thank you."

I scoff loudly, "Thank you? Can you be honest for three minutes? If I remember correctly, you were also trying kill me yesterday, you told me that today so what changed?" I demand and when he doesn't reply I fold my arms over my chest and stamp my feet. "You can't be honest with me, maybe you're wired that way or maybe you saved me just so you will be the one to kill me." He tries moving closer, but I protest against it. "Stay away from me." I warn acidly and raise my hands up and begin to walk, moving past him and not stopping.

I don't know where I am going or why I'm leaving the only person who's defended and kept me safe in the twenty four hours, or if I have some sort of death wish for myself, but I keep walking. I just know staying with a person who has no truth is like staying with a ticking time bomb and hoping all goes well.

"He's protecting you because when he came around you, he had a mind of his own and felt like he had a choice for the first time in a very long time!" the voice I place as not Vixan's yells out and I know it's his conscience speaking and I pause and turn to him.

"Shut up you fool!" Vixan snap harshly, not so happy that his conscience is speaking up.

"She deserves to know the truth." He says to Vixan before tuning to me "He can't use his powers against you, he can't read your mind and most importantly he doesn't feel obligated to follow Lord Lox orders when he's around you. He feels different when he's around you and that's why he doesn't want to kill you. It's a long complicated story and we are going to tell it all to you, but you can't go and we can't let the others have you, we need you."

This explanation clears up a lot of my confusion and skepticism from the moment Vixan went from wanting to kill me, to protecting me, but at the same time his answer raises a lot of questions in my head, but the most important is how exactly I ended up in the middle of all of it?

"That's why Vixan keeps calling me a witch." I say to myself more than to them before looking up at them, "Is that why your lord wants me dead?"

His conscience nods, "Our lord, Lox sees you as a threat to his throne and thus a threat to his reign, we still don't know why." He adds, taking his explanation a little bit further. "Vixan thinks you're a witch because he can't read your mind."

"But how's that even possible? I don't have any powers and there's nothing special about me, there has to be some sort of explanation."

He silently nods, "We don't know everything, we think it might have something to do with the fact that we aren't under Lox's control when we are around you and that's why we have to protect you at all cost."

I cross my arms over my chest stubbornly, and stare at them for a while before speaking, my attention on Vixan. "Okay then, since you would want to keep me safe at all cost, I'd like you to know that I'm hungry, I want to eat, also I'm filthy, I need to bathe and change out of these clothes." I am proud that I am able to muster up the courage to make that statement but that only frustrate him the more.

"No way you're doing that, " He objects immediately.

I smirk mischievously, "I don't care what you think, you need me so you can't just shut me out like you don't anymore. Is that clear?"