Cropper's Sacrifice

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Cropper redeems himself.
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vet42
vet42
16 Followers

"Help me Cropper...I can't stop it!" Sara shrieked, raising her arms against the tornado.

Cropper froze, unsure of himself.

In a pact with the Magician, he'd led her here under the pretense of giving her the Blood Stones. Now, he was beginning to regret his decision.

Of the remaining witches, Sara was by far the most powerful and the Magician sought to rob her of her power and add it to His own.

For his betrayal, Cropper was promised the prize of his dreams: restoration to the full-fledged being he once had been before his encounter with Shadow, twenty-five winters ago.

Wandering into her territory by mistake that day, she'd taken him by surprise, changing him into a lowly elemental. Though he'd managed to escape with his life, time had shown him that death at Shadow's hands would have been more merciful.

Since then, he'd spent his days foraging and scrounging for the tiny scraps left behind by the Powerful Ones, whenever they passed through his domain.

For them, an elemental was easy prey. He'd been spotted a handful of times in all, forced to flee as they chased him into the mountains where he hid.

Until now, his only hope of salvation had been to find Shadow and somehow plea with her to change him back. But that hope had died when the Magician consumed Shadow's power.

Visiting him in a dream one night, the Magician promised Cropper restoration in exchange for brining Sara to the mouth of the mountain cave where the Blood Stones were hidden.

Because the Stones were the single source that would enable Sara to defeat the Magician and restore balance, she had agreed to the quest.

Ironically however, until she possessed them fully, her very proximity to them would weaken her substantially, allowing the Magician to capture her.

In this manner, the Magician planned to use them in an unfair advantage to overpower her.

The chance to become whole again was much more than Cropper could pass up and he agreed to the betrayal. Convincing Sara to follow him to the Stones had been the easy part.

But now, forced to watch helplessly as the Magician destroyed her, the blunder of his hasty agreement was exposed to him.

#

Trapped in the dark undulating mass, Sara struggled to save herself.

"Protect! Protect!" Throwing her arms up in an attempt to buy time, she created a momentary barrier around herself. "Cropper!" "Help me!" Her cries faded beneath the roar of the sinister tornado.

Before he could act, the wind blew him off of his feet, sending him crashing into the jagged rocks behind him.

"Protect! Protect! PROTECT!" Sara screamed with all of her strength. Falling to her knees, she struggled to keep her arms in front of her. The barrier held, but Cropper could see that it wouldn't last much longer.

With the power sucking from her body at an unnatural rate, she would be dead in moments.

His mind raced. What could he possibly do to help her? He was but an elemental.

"The Stones Cropper!" "Please!"

Of course, The Stones!

If Sara survived, his hope of salvation would vanish forever.

Worse, if she survived but failed to defeat the Magician, He would certainly have his way with him, torturing him with horrors beyond imagination.

With the wind pinning him to the rocks, he struggled to his feet.

On her knees inside the tornado, Sara had grown silent, concentrating all of her remaining power on keeping the barrier intact. The white light surrounding her wavered, growing dimmer as she battled for her life.

Grasping the rocks to stay upright against the pounding winds, Cropper pulled himself slowly forward towards the mouth of the cave. The Stones were just inside of it. If he reached them in time, perhaps he could save Sara.

A backward glance at the tornado dashed his hope as he saw her on her knees, nearly defeated. The protection barrier was all but gone now.

#

Stepping inside the cave, the winds were cut off suddenly. He lost his balance and fell, rolling across the hard earth. Rising to his elbows, he spotted the reddish glow of the Blood Stones a few feet from where he landed.

Their power immeasurable, he felt it weakening him. Two Stones lay side by side at the cave wall, and picking them up in his hands, he sickened. But he would have to hurry now, before the Stones overcame him.

From the mouth of the cave, he saw Sara and his heart dropped.

The tornado was enormous. It's dark winds howled, hurling rocks and dust in every direction.

With her protection barrier destroyed, Sara was lifted toward the top of the funnel, hanging suspended in mid-air as the thing drained her life from her.

"Sara!" he called out above the roar. Raising her head weakly in his direction, Cropper saw that her eyes had grown dark, almost lifeless.

He started out of the mouth of the cave, but was blown sideways, nearly losing the Stones. Amazingly, Sara was able to raise one feeble hand in an attempt to stop him.

From somewhere inside of his head, he heard her voice pleading with him, "its too late Cropper, save yourself..."

Her body was beginning to disappear, becoming invisible as it faded to nothing inside of the hellish whirl.

She was dying and it was his fault.

The lump in his throat was nothing compared to the breaking in his chest. Hot tears stung his cheeks and would have dried there if not for the tornado's bitter winds.

This innocent witch, who had fought for nothing more than the rebalance of the universe, was being murdered before his eyes, all because he had accepted a dark pact with a darker soul to save his own skin.

As the Stones drained his own meager power, Cropper summoned his courage and ran full speed at the tornado. The wind buffeted him from side to side and he fought hard, leaning into it. Raising the Stones above his head he gave out a war cry and leapt headlong into the murderous funnel.

The tornado exploded in a thunderous flash of darkness, blocking out the sun as it spewed rocks and debris into the air. Instantly, the ground opened beneath it, sucking it down as if it were a great, screaming whirlpool. Sara was thrown sky high, tumbling head over heels, before coming down hard, breaking one of her arms and her nose as she hit the ground.

Disappearing into the earth with a terrible sound, the tornado took Cropper and the Blood Stones with it. The ground shook violently, as the cyclone swirled down, spinning into the vacuum of nothingness, before closing over it again. In an instant, the whole thing was gone.

#

Some time later, Sara slowly opened her eyes. The pain from her broken arm throbbed and pulled at her. Her damaged nose made it difficult to breathe. But while she knew that her physical condition would take time to heal, it was clear that balance had been restored.

Looking awhile into the clear sky, she marveled at how beautiful it was.

The power of the Magician was gone, broken forever...thanks to Cropper's sacrifice.

END

vet42
vet42
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cancapercancaperabout 17 years ago
is this all their is

sorry felt like i stole into a movie half over and got kicked out before the end i think i missed a lot but tks for what i did get

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