Memories came alive, and he was able to remember every moment. The moment of their beautiful breakup. Robert still loved her and did not forget any of the moments when he was with her.
Eight years earlier, in the town of Cowerdon. A town renowned for being a beautifully decorated town, and its flowers were majestic.
One November day, as nature howled to the sweet moon adorned amidst a starry sky.
Thieves attacked the main bank of Lady Ycan's empire. Lady Ycan stored large amounts of gold, money, silver and iron, as well as creating deposits of oil. Which were her main engines to continue her unstoppable conquest.
─Other bag, there is still room. We should take as much as we can.
"How can I tell Coraline of my plan" Robert thought inside the bank.
─Robert, is something wrong? There's still room.
─All right Coraline, throw in three more bags.
Coraline would pick up each bag and arrange it on the cart.
─Is there still room?
─Not much, maybe for five more bags and a barrel of oil.
Coraline stowed everything in the cart without making too much noise.
Robert tossed the bags of money, and descended with the barrel of oil.
─I think that's it, there's no more room.
Robert brought the barrel of oil up quickly.
─It'll be midnight soon, we have to go. We're still a long way from the bridge.
─We won't be far if we leave right now.
Richardson's bank has been looted by us!
They were both very happy, but Robert wasn't inside.
Hey! What are you doing here? You're not authorized to be here. Thieves!
The foreman doing surveillance rounds pulled out his gun. He reloaded his gun and took aim.
Don't worry, good sir. We were just leaving anyway," Coraline replied, raising her hat.
Coraline hit the reins, and the horses began to trot. The wagon advanced towards the bridge.
The bank has been robbed! Catch the robbers!
The foreman shouted to alert the mounted soldiers. The soldiers mounted the horses and loaded their shotguns to destroy the wagon. The soldiers were not looking to recover the gold, but to kill the crewmen.
─We won't make it ─Commented Robert holding his nerve. A battle was raging inside him.
─I won't give up easily ─Responded Coraline lifting the reins.
The soldiers were approaching swiftly with their horses without missing a mention of their weapons. When they were very close, the soldiers drew their weapons on them.
─¡ Catch them!
Ycan want them dead or alive!
Don't let them get away!
The bridge was approaching in a hurry, not stopping for a second of time. The fog was descending, the cold flooded every corner.
─There's something I want to tell you, Coraline it's urgent!
─Robert, you can wait, keep shooting.
Robert wanted to tell her the truth of what was happening and why the soldiers were ready to follow them when the foreman shouted. Robert aimed his rifle and fired.
─No time, I can't hear you.
Coraline used her pistol to fire as she drove the wagon.
─I'm sorry Coraline, I have to do it.
Robert spoke sadly staring at the bridge.
─What are you talking about, Robert? Tell me what you're hiding.
Coraline waited for an answer from Robert.
─Yesterday while I was at the mayor's office? Ycan proposed me not to kill us and let us go, she suspected this robbery from the beginning. So I have no choice but to turn us in, I love you Coraline, but I don't want you to die.
Robert finished saying those words and unsheathed his sword. It struck the wagon wheel violently.
Coraline struggled with Robert not to let him smash the wheel, but the moment of not allowing him to do so had passed. The wagon violently spun around, ejecting Coraline and Robert to the ground. All the coins sprayed onto the bridge and into the river. Barrels of oil spilled and cascaded from it. The wagon continued to spin until it fell into the river.
Coraline regained consciousness and observed herself in a chaotic situation.
The fog was dissipating and she saw a new group of adversaries coming from the opposite side where the first group of soldiers were coming from. The planned ambush had been revealed.
It can't be happening!
It's an ambush, you traitor, how could you? You're my boyfriend, my future husband.
Coraline's voice was cracking and weak.
─I have no choice, I had to do it.
The place became confusing for Coraline and Robert. Coraline got up from the cobblestone floor.
─How could you Robert? She didn't manage to understand.
Robert wordlessly approached her to grab her and end the stealth ambush plan, he drew his weapon. His adversaries were getting closer and closer.
Gold coins and boxes of clothes on the ground lying on the ground were getting wetter as a light drizzle began. Coraline thought quickly, there was only one choice Jump or Die if that happened after being captured.
Though equally both decisions led to the same end, death.
─I trusted you, I loved you, but I see you're more than a fifth grade traitor, you tricked me into believing you really loved me. I fell in love and gave you my love. I opened my heart for nothing.
Coraline was bleeding from her knees and tears were streaming down her face.
─Coraline, let me explain to you.
─Explain what? That you planned our capture?
Robert looked at Coraline and started walking to her.
─I don't want your explanations. I thought you were braver than you said you were, there's still time to change, this doesn't have to be like this, let's both jump off the bridge but don't give up like this. We will continue fighting somewhere else.
Coraline took a bag of gold and clothes.
─Coraline, give up and let's surrender.
─Are you crazy? For God's sake, it's serious you're crazy.
Robert ran to grab her but Coraline acted.
─That's cowardly, forgive me Robert but even if I die I won't let myself be captured.
Coraline without hesitation jumped off the bridge. Robert tried to catch her but... it was too late. His arms did not reach her in time. She had already fallen into the river in a few seconds.
Coraline tried to swim and watched as Ycan soldiers with torches approached from above the bridge. Her past was receding. The river was shaking Coraline hard knocking her unconscious.
No, Coraline come back, come back!
Robert had tears on his face as he approached the edge of the stone bridge.
Don't leave me, Coraline! I promise I'm coming to get you.
Robert repeated the same phrases as Ycan's large caravan of soldiers approached. Ycan arrived on his horse black as his heart itself.
─Don't cry for her, you did well. She deserved it, you will be rewarded for what you did to her she.
─Don't be insensitive, Ycan. I love her and I will love her.
─She's already dead, remember that, you weren't her true love... you were her second choice after I killed Precusa.
Lady Ycan pronounced every word coldly and rudely.
─Your true love is on earth, and now you are both gone. You must understand, now get up.
─Men, collect the gold and set fire to the oil on the bridge so that everyone will know that my greatest enemy is dead. Coraline and you, you are pathetic, this is not oil it is Greek fire and Greek fire neither rain nor water can put out its flames.
─Coraline was planning to burn down Jamestown City Hall, my Lady Ycan.
─Never mind, for me they didn't know. Take Robert away and let him cry.
Neither had gotten what they wanted in the way they first imagined, but only Ycan enjoyed the suffering of both, after all Lady Ycan planned it perfectly. Neither of them knew if they would ever meet, much less Robert would think that there was something that would still bind them together in the future and that whatever happened, he could not break that bond.
The cascade of rainfall of oil mixed with Greek fire (oil) was turned into a torch. The river carried away the flames of that lost love.