行尸走肉第3季

The Duchess awoke to Volf\'s nudging. She had been asleep for several hours, curled up on her favorite chair. "Let me sleep, Volf," she moaned. "I have nothing to live for."

Volf kept nudging and finally took her hand in his mouth and gently let his teeth brush her skin.

"Volf!" The Duchess sat up, "No, no, baaadddd boy!" Looking crossly at Volf for only a moment, she slumped back to her sleeping position.

"Oh well, you might as well eat me. Look, I even made myself fatter just for your dining pleasure," she muttered as she detangled a sticky piece of chocolate from her hair and popped it into her mouth.

Volf nudged her and looked toward the screen.

Finally, the Duchess looked up and saw Ryan flying through the woods, nearing the cave.

"Ryan!" she gasped. "Ryan, did you find her?"

\'Why was Ryan smearing stuff everywhere? Yuck, what were all those bones doing there?\'

"Bones!" she screamed. "Bones! Are those Emily\'s bones?" Her wailing started, and she threw her arms around Volf, burying her head in his fur.

Volf\'s eyes rolled toward the ceiling. He waited patiently for his master to let his head go.

His mouth raised on one side in a semi-snarl, \'she\'s pulling my fur,\' he thought, letting out a low growl.

The Duchess flung herself back on the chair, "So sorry, Volf, but my favorite baby is dead. Look, there are her bones."

Whipping her head back towards the screen, she began violently pointing, wanting Volf to notice the bones.

Peering closer, she saw that fire was spreading through the trees and racing down through the bones. "Huh?" she said, tilting her head to one side, hoping that might help her see what was going on.

Then she saw the mass exodus from the cave and began screaming when she saw Emily and Roger held by the wolf\'s mouths and dragged from the cave.

"Help! Help!" she screamed and began pounding her emergency button, "Save them! Save them!" she yelled, not hearing the emergency responders\' voice say, "How can we help? We are on our way."

"Ryan, do something," she screamed as she saw Ryan zoom through the pack of wolves and throw Emily on his stick. "Aagh! Aagh!" she cried, "They\'re getting away," as she watched Ryan and Emily grab Roger and fly away from the flames.

She jumped up on the chair, screaming, "Volf! Look! Look! They are safe! My baby girl is coming home!" She leaped off the chair and headed to the freezer. This deserves ice cream!

Volf also thought so and clamored after her, his shaggy tail wagging with glee.

Just then, there was a pounding on the door, the Duchess turned to see her door splinter in half, and a group of rescuers raced through, shouting, "Where did they go? Where are you injured?"

The Duchess stood gaping, her face partway in a tub of ice cream, her hair matted with crumbs, chips, and chocolate. Her dress was ripped, and she looked like she had just rolled in poop.

Volf looked from the Duchess to the rescuers and slunk off to the bedroom. He was staying out of this one.

===

When Ryan and Emily entered a clearing, Ryan lowered his sword to the ground and dismounted.

"Emily w-" but before he could finish, Emily had already leapt into his arms and was balling her eyes out.

Not wanting to show this moment to anyone, Ryan lightly tapped Roger on the side of the neck, knocking him unconscious again for safe measure.

"I-I-I\'mm s-so s-s-sorryyy!" Emily cried in short gasps, snot dribbling down her face.

Ryan retrieved a cloth from his spatial bag and wiped Emily\'s face while looking at her with mixed emotions.

"What happened, my princess, for you to betray your faithful prince?" Ryan asked, lightly stroking Emily\'s hair.

Emily sucked in short breaths to calm her rapid and erratic breathing.

When Emily finally calmed down, Ryan saw a mixture of shame, regret, and love in her eyes.

Seeing Ryan looking at her, Emily tried to pull away in shame, but Ryan didn\'t allow it, wrapping her into his arms.

"Emily, I need to know what happened. We aren\'t in a typical relationship, and I gave you my trust when I allowed you to know my secrets. If you aren\'t going to do the same, I can only assume you don\'t want to be with me."

Hearing the name Emily come out of Ryan\'s mouth somehow dampened Emily\'s mood further, and she shrunk her head in shame.

"I. . . Ryan, do you think I\'m dumb?"

*RED ALERT* Sirens blared in Ryan\'s mind, and his training from Aliza automatically kicked in with a "No, of course not" response.

Realizing his knee-jerk reaction wasn\'t appropriate for the scenario, he added, "I do think you are… inexperienced in a lot of life."

"For instance, the friends you made at school weren\'t the best," Ryan said, remembering Tiffany and her nasty habits. \'When I take down the human empire, her house is the first to go.\'

"But what does that have to do with the oath I made? That was why you were upset, right?"

Seeing Emily lower her head further, Ryan asked, "Then what is it?"

"If me saying I will destroy your empire didn\'t make you betr-" Ryan thought, then changed his wording. "Made you change your mind about me, that what did?"

With a long sigh, Emily mustered her courage and picked her head up, looking into Ryan\'s emerald eyes.

"My mother."

===

After Emily finished explaining everything, Ryan felt both happy and troubled.

\'Does that mean the Duchess is with the human empire or just against me?\'

This situation. . . could have been better. If the human empire knew Ryan made that oath, he was dead, \'But why am I still alive?\'

It had taken hours since he swore his oath to make it back to the academy. If the Duchess watched that happen, he should be dead or hooked up to the \'old brain zapper\' again.

Ryan thought for a while, then asked, "How does one become nobility?"

Tapping her chin, Emily said, "From what I understand, one can become nobility either through inheritance or deeds."

"Inside your Alliances tab, when a person "officially" becomes an enhancer with a heavenly screen, they are added to the human empires tab, which means you can earn merit points."

Ryan nodded. He had explored the Alliances tab in-depth and knew a thing or two about it from his explorations in the library.

"How did your mother come to power?"

Smiling for the first time since her rescue, Emily gazed into Ryan\'s eyes proudly, "She was a founder."

"What\'s a founder?" Ryan asked, cutting off Emily\'s momentum and making her eye twitch.

Sighing, she narrowed her eyes at Ryan. "For how naïve I am, you sure don\'t know a lot."

Ryan raised one eyebrow and said, "Are you suggesting your mother was right and that I am from another planet, come to rid your world of humanity?"

"N-n-n-o, of course not," Emily sputtered, realizing what she had insinuated.

"I can\'t imagine the only male cultivator on Ravier didn\'t come from some prominent background."

Ryan shrugged. In truth, he had his doubts as well. After seeing the Dawn Pavilion\'s insignia and having the flashback, he didn\'t know how he was related to Ravier\'s most significant force.

A cough interrupted the silence as the atmosphere turned awkward, causing Ryan and Emily to jump.

"As much as I love seeing two lovebirds\' makeup, if you want the inheritance, you\'ll need to hurry," Kaitlyn said.

"There\'s no telling how long the test will take, and even though time compression is involved, you were asleep for two days, meaning you have less than three days until you depart from this realm."

Ryan widened his eyes and looked at his bracelet, which confirmed Kaitlyn\'s words.

"Who is this girl? And what is she talking about?" Emily asked, eyeing the long-haired beauty suspiciously.

"It\'s none of your business," the girl replied, huffing.

"Actually, it is, seeing as she\'ll be taking the test with me," Ryan said. He wouldn\'t let anyone talk down on one of his family, especially in his presence.

Scoffing, Kaitlyn replied, "She cannot take the test for you. You must pass it with your own power."

Ryan cocked his eyebrow and said, "We\'ll see."

***

Ryan stood atop a mountain overseeing rivers that flowed from its base to create a large waterfall that eventually emptied into an ocean. The wind was blowing in from the sea, and Ryan closed his eyes while sighing.

Opening them, he noticed Kaitlyn standing next to him. She had a faint smile on her lips.

Glancing back at the horizon, he saw the sun setting and knew the time had come.

They had been waiting for an hour next to the cliff\'s edge. Simply watching the river fall off the mountainside and splash into the ocean below.

Kaitlyn stepped beside Ryan as they both peered into the turbulent waves created by the giant wave.

"Okay, you can jump now," Kaitlyn said, tapping Ryan\'s shoulder.

Looking up at the beautiful brunette standing next to him, only one word came out, "What?"

Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. "The test sight is down there."

Ryan glanced at the ocean below and their dangerous currents, then looked at Kaitlyn. Her arms were crossed, showing how bored she was.

Ryan turned around and peered over the edge feeling his stomach drop from dizziness.

"Emily, enter me," Ryan said, sending a prompt for her to enter his Harem Palace.

Kaitlyn, who was putting on her best \'cool otherworlder\' act, almost spurt blood hearing Ryan\'s words. "You\'re not going to die. There is no reason for a last-minute romp."

Kailyn abruptly halted her bombardment as she watched Emily wink out of existence.

Ryan turned towards the cliff, and before Kaitlyn had time to say anything, Ryan plummeted toward the raging waters.

The ground below disappeared from view as the air rippled with the shockwaves created by the water\'s impact on the cliff wall.

When Kaitlyn heard an almighty splash, she shook her head and began walking back toward her tribe, taking the sleeping Roger with her.