" Just leave me behind. "
It was all a blur to him. The past day. The past few hours, minutes, seconds. In his current state he couldn’t do much except think. Damn. Damn the Hoshido. Damn the battlefield that had given way to such a situation. Damn their soldiers who had outdone the Nohr troops, slaughtered their comrades all the way down to the horses they rode on, and damn those archers. A retreat had been called from the Nohr’s side, yet even with their troops turning their backs and running, the Hoshido were relentless. It began with volleys of arrows, shooting up into the air at an arch that would allow them to rain down on the troops that were unable to defend themselves.
Then they started hunting. He could only assume that an order had been given to rid the battlefield of as many Nohr troops as possible. Diminish their numbers to the point where they wouldn’t even be able to put up a fight next time around. Fleeing on foot, both Silas and his daughter tried their hardest to escape, but those damn archers. They managed to get Silas right in the back of his knee, sending him tumbling to the ground. They would get him for sure. Both him and his daughter. He could hear their footsteps approaching, coming in to get a better shot to finish the two of them off once and for all.
❛ Sophie!❜he called out as loud as he could. However, the sight before him wasn’t what he had expected. She fell to her knees, cowering near the hoof-trampled ground in the dirt. Accepting her fate right then and there, that the two of them would go out in such a way.Slaughtered like animals, soldiers on the battlefield having died among the countless masses of their comrades.
However it wasn’t a soldier he saw before him. It was a young girl. His daughter. Cowering in fear from the thunder crackling in the air outside or the rabid dog that had chased her away from where she’d been playing. Away from Abel, rearing and neighing as she first laid her hand on his nose. He couldn’t let this happen. Not to her. Not to his little girl.
He pushed himself up off of the ground with his arms, his armor feeling heavier than usual. Everything hurt. His shot leg as he limped towards her, his lungs as they futilely tried to continue pumping oxygen through his body, burning him from the inside out with each breath he took. His back and shoulders, tensing up as much as they could as they were pierced with steel and…
He felt himself go numb. Limp, falling onto his side with his daughter still in his arms. Had they gotten her? He couldn’t say. The ground felt so soft against his cheek.
❛ They’re dead. ❜ - ❛ Don’t you want to check on them ? ❜- ❛ We did our job - we’re done. ❜
Thank Gods. He would have said had he not felt something keeping him from speaking.
He feels the warmth pressed against his chest leaving him and a cough forces itself from his mouth, staining the ground and the side of his mouth with his blood. ❛ Sophie… ❜ he whispered, the corners of his lips pulling into a smile as he sees her moving, no more harmed than she had been before. He can’t understand a single word she says to him, everything too muffled for him to comprehend.
He feels her hands on his own, trying to pull his body from where he lay, but it was too late.
❛ Just leave me behind.❜he said to her, ❛ You’ll exhaust yourself trying to– ❜Another cough, ❛ –drag me back. Go. Daddy will be… right behind you. I just need to rest for a little bit, ❜his lungs stung with each word.
❛ Stay safe. I’ll come find you soon, okay? Until then, I’ll pray we meet again. ❜ his thumb brushed up against her cheek, before falling back to the dirt. One last shaky breath filled his lungs before the numbness consumed him, his senses failing him even more than they had been before the darkness consumed his vision entirely.
