A Ballad of Sacrifice

The world came to her in fragments. The scent of blood, the chill of a winter breeze stinging her wounds, the distant roar of a waterfall. But more than that, there were voices. Voices filled with rage and malice. Voices she knew. Sephiran. She wanted to open her eyes, but they felt heavy, as if weighed down by stones. She could only listen as he seethed insults and threats at her. His words pricked at her soul like sharp thorns, but she had no strength to respond, no energy to lash back. Only when she felt the sharp blade pierce her shoulder did she flinch, a strangled yelp wrenching from her lips. Each twist of the blade was a cruel affirmation of his rage - his final betrayal. A sickening, wet sound echoed through the valley as he beheaded one of their own, and Aurelia felt her heart lurch in her chest.

The severed head landing with a sickening thud against her muzzle - a grotesque mockery of her failure. The smell of blood was thick and cloying, making her want to retch. Of all the sensations that came to her in that moment, the sudden silence of the pups tugged at her heart the most. Their tiny forms were unmoving against her. She loved them. She hoped they knew that she loved them.

Their whimpers no longer echoed in her ears, and the warmth that had seeped from their small bodies into hers had vanished. Aurelia lay there, every muscle in her body screaming in agony from the torment inflicted by Sephiran. The scent of her own blood mixed with the metallic tang of her pups' was spreading rapidly through the air, the acrid taste of it lingering on her tongue. The wind swept it around her, as though mocking her inability to protect them, to save them from the wrath of Sephiran. Unshed tears stung at her eyes as she lay there, helpless and defeated. Dying.

She was dying. She thought she could feel movement. But she was dying.

No sound escaped her lips. No protest. No feeling. Just nothing.

Aurelia drew her last breath, a shudder passed through her weakening body; a signal of surrender to the inevitable. And with it came peace.

With it came release.

-Exit Aurelia via Death-