"You're okay, it was just a bad dream."
The scent of death was real. Visions of people falling before her in a splatter of red. Children laying upon the fields with half their faces gone because of the brutality of their enemy. She had swung every ounce of strength into bodies of flesh and bone only to slay a few in retaliation. Sting of wounds opened along her spine and her senses were far too gone in her dreams to realize it was a hellish nightmare.
In her slumber she twitched violently and tried to shove Vanille off with her arms but her muscles had become too fatigued even in sleep to do much harm. Her energy was spent out far too low. Everything she had left, she had given on those grounds outside of the village. Her mind replayed the events of losing more people than she could stomach. The pain of laser bullet through a left shoulder, and the marks from more beatings than she could stand. After each blow, she staggered to her feet and refused to yield as others fell for the last time.
Her stubborn streak forced her to rise along with the pain of the brand on her arm. Each strike, each nerve snapped, it all worked to create an even bitter anger deep in the pits of her stomach. As she felt arms around her once more in the land of the waking, she opened her eyes wide and let out a blood curling yell while pain ripped through her entire body.
Injuries along her back and sides strained and she yelled twice more before bitter tears streamed down her face in silence. The cry of war, a cry of deep unbridled pain were all the sounds she had left to give from her soul. The Vipers had stolen everything else from her except the one trying to soothe her out of her hell. Tears continued to fall but Fang refused to make anymore sounds except for grunting and groaning in pain from her injuries.
"I'm sorry, Van." she muttered in a hoarse voice. It was all she could say. What could she utter that hadn't already been said a million times?
