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The Breach had fallen. Thousands of huge splinters of rock had sealed the only path leading to the other side.
Gren got to his feet, not even understanding what had just happened. There was Amaya standing and a second later everything was swallowed up by a giant explosion.
"Amaya..."
The realisation of what had happened slowly occurred to Gren. Amaya, she...
"AMAYA!" he cried, not able to do anything. Again.
He was late.
He was late to do something, anything, late to even get closer to her...
He wasn't able again! He had let her down once again...
No way.
Nothing was decided yet, Amaya needed to be saved, a rescue party needed to be formed...
"We need to get to the other side! General Amaya is probably held captive, we should-"
Gren stopped when he saw empty faces of the soldiers.
"What's wrong, why are you-" Gren started.
"But General... The explosion probably..." a young woman, one of the soldiers, remarked timidly, there was bitterness on her face, like if she wanted to say that...
No.
NO.
No, it can't be, Amaya wasn't...
The wind hauled across like a foreshadowing of something bad; how did it get there, in the place, surrounded by rocks? The blast of wind threw dust in the eyes, forcing tears from them. The wind... like those awful words the young woman didn't have courage to pronounce.
"Commander," one of the soldiers - a long-serving lieutenant - interrupted the frightening thoughts by his firm voice. "I understand, General Amaya was your friend, but you have seen the explosion... She couldn't have survived. And even if she had, the elves wouldn't have been so kind to her. Especially if their leader has died in the same-"
"What are you saying?" Gren stopped him angrily. "Amaya couldn't have died! SHE HASN'T DIED!"
"General Amaya," the old soldier said even more firmly, "was a selfless soldier, and she would have never wanted us to just stand there and do nothing, when our country needs us and Xadia has already-"
"She is so much more than just a selfless soldier!" Gren burst in anger; determination, shining bright like a torch that Amaya had brought with herself, burning in his eyes. "She has definetely thought of something! She is alive and we must do something to find her! So she can lead us forward! We need her to protect Katolis!"
Soldiers started to return to the fortress, heads sorrowfully lowered. Were they indifferent? Did no one really feel that Amaya was alive?
Only Gren, the old lieutenant and Amaya's mare which had come there even before the explosion, stayed on the narrow path. Now, that Amaya is on the other side, separated from them by the flowing lava and tons of dark, heavy rocks, there was no one to take care of it.
Lieutenant sighed. He stepped closer to Gren and put the hand on his shoulder, cheering him up.
"You are still very young and you've been serving as a soldier not for so long. It happens," lieutenant said. "We lose out comrades and leaders. That is the life of a soldier."
But Gren stayed unwavering. He'd never leave Amaya behind, because...
"You don't understand! Amaya is not just a leader, not just a general of a battalion I'm serving in! I l-" Gren stopped abruptly, realising what he almost said.
He stopped talking for a second and, instead of the truth that Gren had just realised himself, instead of the words that nearly opened his heart to a completely unfamiliar man so carelessly, he said:
"I can't leave her behind. Never."
But, despite different words used, the meaning stayed the same and Gren's eyes, full of mixed and hard to define emotions: sorrow, determination, surprise from his own thoughts and feelings and something else - spoke for themselves.
"Is this guy... Yes. Well of course, they are together all the time. But did the General know?" the lieutenant thought.
It seemed that the old soldier had understood everything. He carefully studied the young commander's eyes and, finally, said, closing his eyes and lowering his head:
"I am sorry. But we cannot do anything. We can't even get to the other side. I'm truly sorry..."
With those words he moved towards the fortress. Gren was left alone with his thoughts. He came closer to Amaya's mare and stroked its face. He bumped his forehead with the mare's, relieved that he had at least one little part of Amaya with him, a bit of hope, a little ray of it. Even if it was just her horse.
For some time he just let go of all thoughts and let himself just feel the reassurring presence of someone else. Of someone who didn't say the awful words. The horse stayed still, not trying to pull away as if it understood Gren's feelings.
He parted his forehead from mare's. Gren raised his eyes to the leaving silhouette, which had almost moved out of sight, and said, addressing the void:
"I love her."