A Life Without Being: Part Three

by silver_eyrie87

Another Eyrie ran up to him, tears streaking down her face. "She was like a sister to me!" Gryphon cried. She ran up to her mate, Kavuu and cried into his mane.

"C-can you excuse me a moment, Arthelia…" Tahovhan muttered then slunk off behind a tree and tried to hold back the tears threatening to spill. He took a shuddering breath and tried to calm his nerves, but Sharianno's body kept flashing before his eyes.

"You're so weak. It's just another worthless pet to add to the long list. Get over it, Tahovhan…" a cold voice hissed.

"Shut up, Kakosenas," Tahovhan spat angrily. "You keep speaking of how you never love so how would you know the feeling of a loved one's demise?"

She gritted her beak, "I wouldn't, but I know that the supposed King of Darkness sheds no tears. How is it that you keep that title with a soft heart like this?"

"I didn't earn my title I was born to it," he said angrily and looked above to see the cold eyes of Kakosenas glaring back at him.

"So why do you keep it?"

He shrugged indifferently. "I'm not as shameful as that."

"So now it is shame? I thought you were living up to your father."

"My father's the one who destroyed her, if anything I'd drop the title but easier said than done. Leave me be Kakosenas. Your insolence is not helping my mood."

"A pleasure it would be to leave, but unfortunately I delight in seeing you in pain."

"That is why you have no right to argue this subject with me. Sharianno is gone and she was a great friend to me. You've never had friends and therefore you can not argue."

She gritted her beak once more but remained silent. "I am merely saying that you do not deserve the title of king of darkness when you need to hide behind a tree and weep."

Tahovhan snarled but she merely ruffled her feathers. "Leave me ALONE, Kakos!" he yelled.

"Fine, but it just shows how weak you are that you can not even live with me insulting you."

"I'm not in the mood, now go."

She leaped nimbly from the branch and turned on her heel before stalking into the shadows. He went back to the others, wiping away his single tear hastily with a paw.

Arthelia turned and greeted him with a nod, "who did this?"

"I think you know…"

She nodded grimly with a scowl. "Why?"

"I don't know. Revenge, maybe?" he replied with a scowl. "Why? I put her in jeopardy just by letting him live… I should have made sure he was destroyed, should've known he wasn't gone. I've put everyone's lives in jeopardy. I have to find a way to stop him and bring him to a fault."

She nodded, "I know that you'll do whatever it takes, but be careful."

He nodded then flared his wings, thrusting himself skyward with one mighty pump of his magnificent, silver tipped wings. As he ascended swiftly a shape that resembled a dragon and an eagle soared above him. Diablos smirked and screeched to Tahovhan in a determined greeting. "You are going to confront him?"

"Yes," Tahovhan said grimly. "But not here, I can't risk their lives for my curiosity."

Diablos nodded then swooped down towards the ground, diving through a waterfall to the rock behind it. His unsheathed claws tore the stone surface and clutched it desperately. He slowly let himself down to a cave in the cliff wall, the crashing of the waterfall not bothering his deaf ears. Tahovhan followed, ears flattened for the deafening crash of water against rock did bother him.

As Diablos took a step in, he shook his drenched coat and ruffled his feathers. Tahovhan followed suit then followed him down through narrow passages and twisting tunnels that seemed to lead only to darkness, and maybe they did.

They finally emerged through a small tunnel in the floor of a room. Tahovhan had needed to pin his wings to his sides tightly enough to fit through the tunnel, but Diablos' bats like wings folded more easily and were flexible and leathery enough to bend with the tunnel.

Tahovhan scowled this place a bleak memory of his past. He approached the small pool in the stone cavern and dipped a talon into its murky depths. The pitch black churned and bubbled as Tahovhan closed his eyes and tried to remember his father, trying to speak through this pool to his father.

Faerodian's face appeared clearly in his mind, a sneer pasted to his bone-crushing beak and his eyes sparkling with seething hatred. His father's face wasn't remotely handsome but shadowed and darkened. Tahovhan scowled at the memory of his father but kept the picture fresh in his mind before opening his eyes and gazing into the swiftly whirling pool.

It was no longer pitch black but a swirling of navy blue and dark purples, the black slowly fading away. It slowly began to resemble a small whirlpool before being splashed by white, like white paint had just been spilled across the pool.

Tahovhan tried not to gasp as his father's face appeared in the pool, starring up at him and narrowing its eyes with menace. "Son…" it spoke coldly.

"Father," Tahovhan replied, trying to refrain from whimpering and holding the panic from his voice. He replaced the fear with equal menace but a quiver in his voice gave his true emotion away.

"What is it you want, Tahovhan? To know why I just hurt one of your best friends, or to know how to stop me?"

"Both," Tahovhan replied. Diablos sat, wings folded and blocking their conversation from his mind as to not disturb them with his oh so sudden responses to unknown questions. He tended to intrude into conversations, a quality he himself despised.

Faerodian smirked and shrugged carelessly. "I thought you were dark enough not to care…"

"I do not wish for your opinion I wish for the knowledge of what you want," Tahovhan said bitterly, hatred in his veins.

"Fine!" Faerodian spat angrily not pleased with interruptions. "I'll tell you." He smirked, menace flickering in and out of his sparkling eyes. His beak pulled into a sneer then he said with relish, "I want your life."

"WHAT!? You can't be serious! Why?" Tahovhan said, fear beginning to seep into his veins along with the anger.

"You heard me! I know you told the whole village of what you saw that night! It ruined my reputation and for that you must pay! I care not that you are my son!" he said, frustration also flickering in and out of his devilish expression.

"And if I don't give it up?" Tahovhan asked boldly.

"Then more destruction and suffering will make its way to your soul until you can't take anymore and live with an eternal heart ache," Faerodian replied, his malicious plans echoing through out the cavern. "Either way, you lose."

Tahovhan drew in a breath then exhaled deeply, knowing what he must do. "Give me one day to say good-bye," he requested.

"I'm not making any promises," Faerodian said with a smirk.

"Then at least one hour," Tahovhan bargained. "Fine, and in turn?"

"… My life…" Tahovhan said, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. With that he slashed his talons through the depths of the water and found that it singed and burned his flesh and fur. "OW!" he shrieked and backed away from the smoking pool where his father's image dissolved. He muttered a curse then took off down through the twisting tunnels towards his friends.

Diablos followed closely, for once speechless. He managed to say, "I'm sorry, master. I will miss you… I'm afraid that I know no other way for you to escape this terrible twist of fate but to walk straight in its wake and face destruction face to face. I know that is what you'll do so these words have no meaning to you, I presume?"

"Yes," Tahovhan replied, no emotion showing in his voice although his heart throbbed with the pain of leaving his beloved and friends as black as it was.

When they flew out of the cave entrance and through the waterfall they ascended quickly and soared towards home as swiftly as was possible in the time limit that was given.

Tahovhan flew over the cliff that hid Dark Moon's land from the whole of Neopia and nearly choked on what he saw.

"ARTHELIA NO!!!!!!!" he screamed in agony. The air caught in his throat as the pain washed through him, starting from his aching heart. He gasped then fell from the air in a dead faint.

To be continued...