My notes: This is a fun story to write, so far. I can't wait to post more. Anyways, as usual, I have no schedule and no idea how frequently I'll update this, though I do hope to finish it. Anyways, leave a review and tell me what you think of it so far. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Souls or the Inheritance Cycle.

Kalameet fell to her side near the mouth of the cave, too wounded to continue. Still she struggled to get up and keep fighting, losing her strength and collapsing to the ground each time. Eventually she just gave up and lay still.

James tore his Dragonslayer Spear out of her side and limped towards her head. Her single orange eye blinked towards him, full of sadness and fear, as he made his way to where she could see him. Her head twitched and she let out a pleading whine as he rested the butt of his spear against the ground and used it to hold himself up.

He just stood there staring at the once mighty beast, amazed that he had somehow managed to survive that battle. He had tracked her back to her cave after she flew away during their last encounter. That was one of the biggest mistakes he had ever made. If she was calm in their last battle, she was absolutely vicious in this one. He had no idea how he managed to survive.

He reached out and patted her gently on the muzzle. "You fought well. You deserve a rest." He told her respectfully. A weak whimper was her only response. Sighing, James stuffed his Dragonslayer spear back into his inventory pouch and pulled out his Silver Knight straight sword and Shield. Sheathing his sword at his hip and putting his shield on his back.

Kalameet was already fading fast and would die soon, now came the worst part of this entire ordeal. Turning away from her he began limping toward the cave, his Silver Knight armor clanking with every step, causing her to flail and struggle once more. If she had been fighting this hard to defend her den, that could only mean one thing. She must have lain eggs inside.

He didn't have to go very far inside before he saw a large nest holding a single egg that was bigger then his head. It's shell was smooth, shiny, and almost pure black in color except for a few faint orange veins webbing across it. It looked absolutely beautiful but couldn't just risk letting it hatch and potentially having another dragon roaming around terrorizing the land if it some how managed to survive on it's own until it was fully grown. He would have to smash it.

He could hear Kalameet hissing and growling at him and her struggling growing more frantic the closer he got to her egg. Finally getting close enough, he reached out and picked up the egg. Suddenly an ear shattering roar rang out through the cave.

Still holding the egg, he turned around and saw Kalameet standing at the entrance of the cave leaning against one of the walls for support, dark crimson blood dripped from her mouth and wounds as she panted in a mixture of pain and effort. Her eye was now blazing with magic, filling the cave with fiery orange light.

James began chuckling grimly to himself. He was impressed. Even now, mere inches from Nito's cold embrace, she still found all this strength just to protect her egg. How long could it last though?

Pointing her snout first at the egg in his hands before jerking her head to point at the empty nest behind him, she roared once more.

James looked at the nest for a moment before looking at Kalameet again and shaking his head remorsefully. He knew she wanted him to put her egg back, but that wasn't really an option for him. Many would suffer because of him, if he didn't get rid of it.

Kalameet's eye grew dim and she whimpered pleadingly. When he still didn't move, her eye grew brighter once more, and she moaned sadly.

Suddenly an orange glow surrounded James. Looking down at himself he saw that he and the egg were both starting to vanish. He began to feel a sensation akin to that he felt when warping, but vastly different somehow. Then the world shifted around him.

When the Undead finally vanished along with her egg, Kalameet collapsed once more. Having used up the last of her remaining strength in sending them away, everything began to grow blurry.

She had hoped to just send the Undead away without her egg, so she could return it to her nest, but as weak as she was she lacked the control she needed to do so. As such she could only hope they ended up in separate places. Most creatures knew better then to bother a dragon egg, so as long as hers didn't wind up with the Undead, and no other humans discovered it, it should be safe until it was ready to hatch.

Her thoughts were consumed with worry and fear for her egg and potential hatchling as she closed her eye and everything finally went black.

(Line Break)

James had no idea where he was. He was in some kind of mountainous forest, but that's all he could tell. He didn't recognize any of the plants at all, even the trees were all vastly different from any he had seen before, even when he had to visit other kingdoms, including the Eastern Lands, when he was still a knight of Astora. The terrain didn't even match any known forested areas he remembered seeing on any maps before either.

All in all, this entire place confused him. Where on Earth had Kalameet sent him? Was this even Earth? Did other worlds besides Earth even exist, and if they did, how could a dying dragon be powerful enough to send him to one? He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

It wasn't Lordran, and that's all that mattered. He would need to get back as soon as possible, but first he had to deal with this egg. He looked down at his arms only to discover the egg was missing.

His eyes widened in shock. How had he not realized it was missing, sooner?! "Gods damn it to Izalith!" He cursed. Not wanting to explore this forest while his armor was damaged and he was injured, and not wanting to waste his Estus, he reached into his inventory pouch and pulled out a humanity sprite and some repair powder. Crushing it in his hand, he could feel himself healing almost instantly. He quickly threw the repair powder over his damaged armor

Now that he was no longer as injured and his armor was now fully intact, he began searching the forest. After about an hour of this he was beginning to grow worried Kalameet may have intentionally separated them. If she did, who knew where it might have ended up? It could be anywhere from the Firelink Shrine to Carim for all he knew.

After yet another hour of wandering aimlessly through the forest, he was on the verge of giving up, when he saw a glint out of the corner of his eye. Walking to see what it was, he was relived to find the egg laying in the branches of a bush, off the ground. Grabbing it with both hands, he picked it up once more.

Turning to a near by tree, he raised the egg above his head and prepared to smash it. He hesitated for a moment, safely lowering it back down to chest height. He just couldn't bring himself to do it for some reason.

He didn't understand. Back in the cave he wouldn't have hesitated to destroy it if he had the chance. If Kalameet hadn't intervened he would have done so immediately and been on his way. What could possibly have changed? It was like something in his mind was telling him not to, that he would regret it if he did.

Maybe it was how much effort Kalameet had put into protecting it even while she was dying, maybe this strange land was starting to get to him, or maybe he was just going soft. Whatever the reason, he still couldn't do it.

Since he wasn't going to break it, he decided he may as well return it to it's nest. Thoroughly ashamed of himself, knowing how many more people were going to die and go hollow because of his actions, he held the egg in one arm while reaching into his inventory pouch with the other. Pulling out a homeward bone, he crushed it in his hand and waited to warp back to the bonfire.

A minute went by and nothing happened. Scratching the back of his helmet in confusion, he pulled out another homeward bone and repeated the process. Still nothing happened. Huffing in irritation, he raised his right hand, still holding the egg with his left, and activated his Dark Sign.

Suddenly an odd feeling appeared on the back of his hand. It was his Dark Sign. It felt... confused, for lack of a better word. It was like it couldn't find any bonfires whatsoever, let alone the last one he rested at. It was as if the First Fire didn't even exist. After a moment, the feeling faded and still nothing happened.

"What in the Abyss is going on?" James wondered, shaking his head in confusion. It seemed he couldn't just warp back to the bonfire like he hoped. That meant he would have to make his way there on foot. First though, he needed to get down this mountain and out of the forest so he could find a village and figure out where he was.

Unsure what else to do with the egg, he stuffed it into his inventory pouch. When that was finished, he started working his way down the mountain.

After a few hours of walking he finally noticed it was getting darker. Looking up through the trees he saw the sun had moved and was getting lower in the sky. "By the gods." gasped in amazement. He hadn't seen either the Sun or Moon move at all since the gods broke time what must have been nearly a century ago. The last time he remembered them ever moving like this was the day he was knighted by the King of Astora.

Ever since then, it has always been perpetually night or day in different areas. This had to be the only place left in the world where time still flowed normally. Now that he thought about it, the fact time flowed normally here may have been why he wasn't able to warp back to the bonfire. He wasn't sure, but it was the best explanation he could come up with, currently.

Deciding to get back on track, he continued forward once more. It wasn't long before the dense trees started thinning out, the slope of the mountain began growing shallower, and best of all James began to see plumes of smoke in the distance. Whenever there was smoke there was bound to be a village or city.

His hopes were proven true an he finally reached the bottom of the mountain along with the end of the forest. In the distance he could see a walled city several miles from what looked to be a massive jagged black rock formation piercing high into the sky. For some reason, the formation lended an ominous atmosphere to the city. He didn't know what it was, but he could tell there was something wrong with the formation. Just looking at it sent chills down his spine.

Shaking it off, he finally noticed the massive lake between him and the city. He looked for a way to go around the lake. There was none he could see that were any easier then just using a dead tree as a raft to cross the river. He did see a number of boats on the lake, however. If he could catch one's attention, he may be able to pay the owner to take him across.

He walked up to the shore of the lake and began waving to to the closest boat he could see, his armor flashing in the slowly fading sunlight. "Hey, you there! Over here!" he shouted in an attempt to catch the owner's attention.

The owner jumped in startlement and turned to face him, fishing rod in hand. "What?!" He yelled angerly back at James. "Can't you see I'm fishing?!"

"Indeed, but I must get to the city across this lake and I would like to hire you to take me there!" James continued to shout so the fisherman could hear him, since the boat was still some distance away.

The fisherman rowed up to the shore, a curious expression on his old and withered face. "You want to hire me, eh? How much are you paying?" He asked.

Knowing humans didn't use souls for currency like the undead did, James reached into his inventory pouch and took out a couple silver coins. "How about two silver?" He asked, holding the coins out so the fisherman could see them.

"Do you take me for a fool? Those aren't real coin! The picture is all wrong!" The Fisherman stated angerly.

"Oh? Well even so, they are solid silver so they should still be worth something." James replied. Reaching into his inventory pouch once more with his free hand he pulled out a pendant. He was reluctant to give it away since it brought back fond memories of his home before becoming undead, but he had to convince the fisherman some how. "What if I offered you this as well? It should also fetch you a few coins."

The fisherman huffed in irritation. "Let me take a look at it." He grumbled, snatching the pendant from Jame's hand. After examining it for a moment he stuffed it in one of his trouser pockets. "Alright, fine. Hand over the coins and get in. I'll take you to the front gate." He stated holding out his hand to take the coins. "At least it's more then I usually make." He mumbled under his breath.

"Thank you, sir." James stated, handing him the coins as he stepped into the wooden boat. Being careful not to knock over the bucket of fish sitting on the floor, he sat down in the seat opposite of the fisherman.

Taking the coins, the fisherman grabbed the ores once more and shoved off. They were finally on their way to the city.