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Max Caulfield
I turned my head to see Chloe struggling to keep up with me even as I did my best to fly as slow as possible. But an Imperial would always have trouble flying slow enough so that a Skydancer could keep up. At least I hadn't been an idiot and offered my lover a chance to rest on my back.
Even if she had agreed, she wouldn't have let me live it down for at least a year.
I grimaced each time that creaks came from Chloe's body. It was good that she was flying slightly below me so that she couldn't see my face. I hated the reminders of what had been done to her after I had flown away. Some parts of her were the Chloe I remembered while others...others were cold and metallic.
After...after I had sacrificed Glade Bay so that my wife could live, I woke up one day to realize the horrible cost. It was like a boulder had been thrown at my head. The guilt of all the lives I had ended was too much.
So one morning, like a coward, I had left before Chloe woke.
If I hadn't left then she wouldn't have been used in an experiment. She would still be a pure dragon with none of those mechanical parts.
Chloe didn't act is if the past bothered her. But I could tell even in the moments when she was being strong for me. Because of me she now had nightmares about what had happened. Those monsters had wanted to test the boundaries between life and death.
So there had been a moment when Chloe had breathed her last breath and then...then she breathed again but her body had been changed.
"We don't have to go back to Glade Bay. Well...what's left of it." Chloe said as she began to ride one of the thermals, her light blue scales a near perfect recreation of the sky. "It was me or an entire clan. I didn't deserve to be saved and you don't deserve to feel guilty. So can't we just move on?"
Chloe was right. It had been long enough that I should have moved on by now. But I just couldn't.
I kept thinking back to when I got my power to rewind time and saved Chloe. But then everything spiraled out of control when a tornado started to make its way to Glade Bay. I could have saved an entire clan but I had been selfish. And yet if I went back in time to that moment, I would sacrifice the clan over and over again.
"I know." I said with a sigh. "There was no right choice and I have to live with the one I made."
"Sounds like you would have preferred to choose the clan over me." Chloe teased.
"I went back every year after I left you. It helped me feel better about my decision to choose you over the clan."
"I don't blame you for leaving me. I should have done more to convince you to choose Glade Bay over me."
I didn't know how to respond to that so we flew in silence for awhile. Chloe's ability to be both the most hatchling-like dragon and yet to also be extremely serious caused me whiplash at times. We both had our traumas but somehow we always found our way back to each other no matter the time. No matter the distance.
We would always feel guilty about what happened at Glade Bay all those years ago. But we had each other to turn to when it seemed impossible to get through the day.
A shiver went down my spine when I recognized the Gladeveins beneath me. We were so close now that I wanted to fly back to Raven Hallow. But I managed not to lose my nerves and soon enough the remnants of Glade Bay were beneath us.
Chloe looked at me and I was reminded about why I had fallen for her in the first place. The usual mischievousness in her eyes had been replaced by a look of concern. But if I brought up that I had noticed, she would have denied it until we both stood beside the Plaguebringer.
"You can go first." I said and tried vainly to hide the pain in my voice.
Chloe nodded and dove down to where our former clan had been. She kept her wings close and I was afraid, for a moment, that she would go straight to Sornieth's core.
I circled around the ruins of Glade Bay. Memories came rushing back to my mind and I could imagine a thriving clan below me. But nothing remained and so I looked out for any Beast Clan that may have decided to call this place home. If we broke the treaty by accidentally scaring them then everything Seitou had worked so hard for would be lost.
"Hey, I thought you wanted to pay our old home a visit." Chloe shouted.
"I do!" I shouted back.
"Then why are you still up there? There's no one here!"
I let out a loud sigh. Chloe was the only one I truly needed but she was reckless. It tended to be up to me to make sure her mistakes didn't catch up to her.
I would never change that part of her even if I could.
After I pushed the last remnants of fear from my mind, I dove down and landed right next to Chloe. Even though I landed mere inches from her, she didn't flinch.
As soon as my claws made contact with the ground I forgot what I came here to say. Hadn't I meant to make some speech in remembrance of all the souls I had sent to the Gladekeeper? Hadn't I come here to mourn?
In desperation I looked to Chloe. She remembered what I had wanted to say. Right?
The moment she looked at me with a Shade eating grin I knew I had made a mistake. Of course she knew what I had wanted to say. But she was also the chaotic dragon that called herself Chloe and was always there for me when I needed comfort. Which sometimes meant she became determined to not be the least bit serious.
"This is an improvement." Chloe said solemnly. "Love what you did with the place, Max."
It took me a moment to realize that my jaw was opened so wide that it currently touched the ground. What the Shade had Chloe been thinking? But when I started to berate her I just started laughing instead. The mischievous look in my love's eyes was quickly followed by her adding to my laughter.
The pain of what I had done would never stop haunting me. But at least I had someone to love and spend eternity with. Chloe could never erase the past but she could help me soothe my wounds.
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