A/N: Welcome back everyone to Age of Eternal War. Sorry about the slight delay, was trying to set up a weekly update schedule, but this one was a little hard to find a natural cutoff point. Hopefully I didn't end it too forcefully while trying to keep the word count similar to the prologue.
Disclaimer: See Prologue. And without further ado, please read, review, and enjoy.
Her mate's yelp jolted her out of her dozing. Her head shot up on her long neck, rustling her green scales as she scanned around, not recognizing the cave she and her mate shared for a moment. After the haze from the rude awakening had faded, she recognized the familiar stalagmites and the shelf she lay on, the rest of her body sprawled out and her tail-tip hanging over the far edge slightly.
'He must have gotten into a rat den again,' she thought to herself. She slowly got to her feet, stretching her sii out in front of her, letting her claws momentarily extend then retract. With some shuffling her wings were back in their regular folded position. The slight stiffness gone, she gave her head one final shake to get some of her fringe out of her eyes as she started exiting the cave.
What she didn't expect to hear was what sounded like a growling contest. "RuuTarth, what is it this time?" she addressed her red-scaled mate, unable to stop herself remembering all the other times her Wyrr love's curiosity had gotten the better of him. 'Maybe it's a drake that wandered over from the Skotl hill,' she pondered.
She increased her pace as her mate's mottled red scales came into view, "Ruu, what is going on, what are you even growling… at…."
She couldn't help but let her jaw hang slightly. Her mate hadn't seemed to notice her even approach; his gaze was focused on what appeared to be a giant of a human. The human was growling back at RuuTarth, leering out of bright yellow eyes and matching her mate snarl for snarl, though she couldn't help but notice a wavering glazed look that flashed over the human's eyes every now and then. The human was armored in what appeared to be a kind of metal or stone, blue-grey in color. On the human's left shoulder was what appeared to be a stylized wolf's head.
It was then she noticed the not entirely human features of the human's face, the elongated canines for starters that glinted slightly red in the human's mouth. Combined with the long grey-streaked red hair that hung around his head and the large axe-looking weapon and the large armored fist he would have likely intimidated any hominid he came across. If anything he reminded her of a feral wolf in his actions.
"Taelia, what are you doing out here?" her mate's statement startled the dragonelle from her observations. She looked to her red-scaled love and couldn't help a stifled giggle at the sight of the bite mark on her mate's nose.
"Did you stick your nose in its mouth or something Ruu?" her mate huffed at her light jab, not taking his eyes off of the human. "I came out here because I thought you had gotten into another rat den when I heard you yelp," she explained, "But it seems I was wrong."
"Then what is it?" her mate's demanding tone caused Taelia's tail to flick in slight irritation, before she could answer RuuTarth continued, "It's not like any human I've ever seen. The other ones certainly didn't bite."
"My best guess is it must be a relative to a human, but with that armor on it could possibly be related to a blighter or an elf or even a troll and we wouldn't be able to tell," she answered.
"That's all your vaunted Anklene mind can come up with? I'm disappointed," her mate teased. She supposed she had it coming for her comment about the bite to his nose, but some shuffling caught her attention. She returned her gaze to the giant human and she found it shuffling backward, the glazed look returning more frequently than before to its eyes.
This wasn't good. Skald inwardly cursed his Emperor-given ability to gain the memories of other beings by ingesting genetic material. He not only had to deal with a single xeno, but another one that had joined it, and on top of that he was dealing with flashes of the damned xeno's memories. One moment he was there staring at the big lizard, the next he was in a cave or tunnel. Even worse, it seemed the xenos had some kind of inherent learning ability, and his Omophagea was reacting strongly to it through the potent blood.
From what he had subconsciously deciphered, the green scaled one was a female while the red one was a male. He probably would have guessed it due to the red's crest and the green's lack thereof, but this new guarantee was not helpful in the current situation. It also didn't help that the two were noticeably bigger than him, though the lack of feats of great strength from the xeno's memories lessened the amount of threat he felt, he wouldn't dare let down his guard.
He had upon arrival instantly noticed that he couldn't smell the Warp taint like he had earlier. His Astartes body and sacred Power Armor still reeked of it, but that had been expected. However, he could still smell something that his mind couldn't place, as if something had lingered upon the place he stood. The xeno's memories weren't providing any immediate answers, a brief flash of a gout of fire being exhaled invaded his vision for a moment, and the Lone Wolf gritted his fangs as he tried to repress the surge of memories.
He could detect fresh air from his left, which mean that an entrance was definitely nearby, or at least in range of his nose. He continued his shuffling withdrawal, ready to commit slaughter should the need arise, keeping his eyes on the xenos in front of him. Another flash of memory obscured his vision; that of a tunnel similar to the one he stood in, of passing caves that held more of the xenos. If that meant anything, that meant that he could encounter other caves with similar xenos in them.
'Outnumbered, unfamiliar territory, and intruding memories from an Emperor-damned xeno,' Skald laid out his situation mentally, both cursing his luck and counting his fortune. He would no doubt have plenty of stories to tell the others should he get back to the Imperium. However he would also have to be careful lest these xenos had some sort of trick he hadn't deciphered yet.
He had now aligned himself so he could back out of the entrance without his eyes leaving the xenos in front of him, and thus he switched from his shuffling to full on backing up by steps. He knew that his gene-brothers would ruthlessly tease and chastise him for such an action in any other situation, but it was the only option he saw working in his favor at the moment.
As he made a true retreat, he noticed the red xeno and its companion begin to follow him, its bright eyes locked onto him. He swung his inactive chainaxe at it, and though the feint made it snap its head back for a moment, it didn't stop the xeno. Skald snarled, inwardly cursing its determination to the depths of the Warp. Any sort of attack on his part would no doubt cause enough noise to bring down any other inhabitants of the cave system, and in this environment the advantage would lay with the scaled things.
The smell of the fresh air was getting stronger, he was nearly out, but a sudden burst of the xenos' growl-like language from behind him made him freeze.
"Ruu, are you sure you should be following it?" Taelia voiced her concern for her mate as she followed him as he followed the strange human.
"Taelia, it hasn't done anything more than bite me, I'm sure it's just lashing out, once it's out of the hill we can send a thrall to the Drakwatch so they can search for it," her mate answered.
This did little to ease the concerns of the Anklene dragonelle, her tail lashing from side to side in her unease. She would admit it was mostly for her own mate, but also for concern of any thrall they sent to get the Drakwatch being possibly intercepted by this human. They weren't far from the exit of the Hill now.
"RuuTarth, it is quite early to see you up and moving," the familiar voice of her brother caused her mate to snap his head up and the human to freeze in place.
"HeNuath, a pleasure, as always," Ruu addressed Taelia's silver-scaled brother. HeNuath was a somewhat scholarly dragon by nature, the red Wyrr standing somewhat taller than the Anklene, and having more bulk as well.
"I assume that this human is the source of that loud noise I heard earlier?" the silver's question got a nod out of Taelia's mate, who returned to staring in the direction of the giant human.
The human in question seemed to be in the midst of processing the situation, the fingers of its huge fist flexing and its grip on its axe becoming tight. Suddenly, as fast as she could blink the human lashed out with its fist, striking HeNuath in the chest. Scales shattered, bone broke, and the silver screeched in pain as his hide underneath tore and blood leaked out from him.
In the span it took for Taelia and her mate to process the violence, the human took off in a thundering run out past the fallen silver. Taelia couldn't help but let loose a terrified scream as her mate gawked.
'That did the job well enough,' Skald thought to himself as he ran out of the cave, the dim lighting inside being replaced with a slightly brighter ambience that also came with a small rush of heat. He didn't take the time to process his full surroundings until he had made some distance from the other xenos and the entrance to the cave.
Looking around, he found he had actually exited what looked like a large hill, with a number of entrances on multiple levels no doubt for the xenos he had encountered. Taking in the rest of the landscape, he saw other hills similar to the one he had just left. They seemed to be slightly clustered into groups of two from what he could see. And in a central position was a much larger one that was made out of a black stone. Dotted in and amongst the landscape were what appeared to be rivers of magma. And rising above and covering the entire thing was what appeared to be a dome of crystal.
'The Salamanders would love this place,' Skald thought to himself idly as he took everything in, the xeno's memories still intruding on his sight every now and then. His thoughts then turned to other more important matters, 'Now where do I go from here?' he thought. He certainly wouldn't be going back to the hill he had just left, not with the xenos there on alert.
Something from the xeno's memories drew his attention, a place the xeno was familiar with. He immediately turned towards a large field of the barren ground and took off towards it.
Excitement ran through her veins, her tail twitched and her claws flexed, kneading the ground under them. Her gaze darted from side to side, eager for the targets to show themselves.
"Nilrasha, steady yourself, you'll give us away," her fellow Firemaiden's caution caused the drakka to get herself under control. She knew in other similar raised shelves of the barren wastes around the Lavadome lay her comrades. They were waiting above a particularly deep depression in the ground, flanked on either side by taller rocks that created a natural chokepoint for anything that couldn't fly over the rocks.
"Sorry Ensella," Nilrasha quickly apologized to her superior, the leader of the ambush waiting for their rivals in the Drakwatch. It was part of a challenge that had been sent to them by one Nivom, an aspiring leader in the Drakwatch's ranks. The Drakwatch would be bringing some of their winnings as well as some of the ore the drakes had raided from the Firemaidens' stores through the depression they now hid above, and should the Firemaidens make off with a significant portion of it they would get the rest as their own prizes.
A sudden noise drew Nilrasha's attention, a constant thud and what sounded like armor moving. "What's that?" Ensella said as the noise got louder.
"I think something's coming this way," piped up another drakka, Simae if Nilrasha remembered correctly.
"Whatever it is, it sounds big," Nilrasha added her own thoughts.
"Quiet, both of you, and stay down," Ensella quickly put an end to it, the three drakka returning to hiding themselves in the shadows of the rocks.
It took all of Nilrasha's willpower to not openly gawk as the biggest human she had ever seen entered the depression, his eyes were nearly even with her hiding place and she guessed that he could nearly touch the sides of the depression if he stretched out his arms. And as the human started looking around, the sight of his bright yellow irises and their predatory gaze nearly drew a squeak from her as they passed over her. His armor had to be some kind of stone or metal she was sure, though it carried with it a rather awful smell that she couldn't place. As the human turned though, she couldn't take her eyes off of the glint of red and chips of silver on his gigantic fist, and the unmistakable smell of dragon blood.
As the human turned around, he seemed to grow angrier and angrier, baring long canines and even growling. She had never heard a human growl like that before, and his grip on his strange axe with what appeared to be metal teeth tightened. Suddenly, he groaned, and his hand went to his head as a glazed look crossed his eyes.
The human stepped off to the side and then put his back to the rock shelf, sliding down into a sitting position. Keeping his axe in hand, the human lowered his head as if asleep. He stayed like that for many long moments, and Nilrasha noticed she had been holding in her breath as she exhaled slowly and as quietly as she could.
A quiet shuffling of scales alerted Nilrasha as Simae scooted along the ground on her belly closer to her, careful to keep to the shadows as she did so. "What do you think it's doing?" she whispered as quietly as she dared.
"I'm not sure, but do you think he's a thrall, or did he wander in from the Upper World?" Nilrasha answered in a whisper herself.
"He? Are you sure?" was Simae's own reply.
"Yes, his features are like those of a human male," Nilrasha explained, "So I'm guessing he's a male."
"But if he is someone's thrall, whose is he?" Simae's question only got a moment of silence from the other drakka.
"Maybe some dragon from the Imperial Rock?" Nilrasha finally answered, "Perhaps the Tyr and his mate?"
"I don't think the griffaran would have a job anymore if the Tyr had a thrall like that hanging around," Simae answered, a small shuffle punctuating her shudder of dread.
Nilrasha could understand, whatever he was, the giant definitely made her feel nervous, as if his very presence projected overwhelming power despite being smaller than a fully grown dragon or dragonelle. The fact that he unnerved her so easily only made it worse for the drakka, not wanting to show weakness in front of Ensella and the other Firemaidens.
The sudden creak and groan of what could only be the carts being pulled by the Drakwatch started to fill the air. It seemed the human had heard it too, as he slowly got up from his sitting position and faced the noise, which came from the opposite end of the depression that he had entered from.
"By the Spirits, what's that?" was the surprised exclamation of one of the drakes at the head of the line, the cart hooked up to him slowing to a slightly noisy stop.
A blue-scaled drake escorting the convoy walked up beside the red cart puller, "I don't know, do you think the Firemaidens enlisted the help of a thrall? That sounds like cheating to me," he answered his comrade.
"Why're you stopping," the unmistakable lisping voice of Nivom called out from further back, the white-scaled drake already trotting up to the front, his red eyes scanning and easily finding the human.
"It's a human, sir," was the hesitant blue's answer, "At least, I think it is."
"I can see that, but why haven't you gone around him or ordered him to move?" was the snappish reply of Nivom.
"We don't know if he's a thrall Nivom, looks pretty free to me," peeped the red.
This seemed to give the albino drake pause, as he fully looked over the still unmoving giant. "Can you understand me?" Nivom finally said to the human.
This got the giant's attention, as his gaze centered in on the drake.
"Can you understand me?" the xeno's voice caught Skald's attention quickly, taking a moment to translate it in his head.
He had taken the time to decipher more of the older xeno's memories before the new group had arrived. What stood before him were what they called 'drakes,' a wingless juvenile male, and an albino at that along with his companions. He also noticed a scar on the albino's face, a large one that exposed its gums and fangs, resulting in the lisp her heard in its voice. He had smelled the others, and was sure he had seen the forms of other 'dragons' hiding in the rocks just out of sight of the drakes that stood before him now.
It was then he noticed the albino that had addressed him was starting to look impatient, so he nodded his head slowly in affirmative. He was still absorbing how to replicate the words he was hearing, though his grip on his chainaxe never faltered.
"Are you a thrall?" was the xeno's next question. The Lone Wolf was quick to glare and shake his head in the negative, being a 'thrall' definitely sounded similar to being a slave to his ears.
"What are you doing here?" the albino's next question got Skald thinking of how to answer. On the one hand he could give the xeno an honest answer and that he was lost and in unfamiliar territory; on the other, he could try and intimidate the diminutive juvenile and his group to stay away. He certainly didn't need the slaughter of offspring bringing the entire population raging down on his head.
'Perhaps I could do both,' he thought. Working his jaw muscles to see if he could at least manage to be intelligible, he spoke, "Lost," he said to the albino. His word came out very stilted, sounding very much like a child speaking for the first time, much to the Astartes' chagrin.
This seemed to get the xeno opposite him thinking, if the movement of its jaw and the clicking of its teeth were any indication. "Then you'll have to come with us, can't have you leading other humans or dwarves to us," the xeno finally said.
At that Skald scowled and clenched the fingers in his power fist closed. "No," he stated with finality to the xenos. To emphasize his point, he lashed out with the weapon, making the rock to his left crunch as it crumbled with great ease under the strike.
Codex:
Dragonelle: Fledged adult female.
Drake/Drakka: Juveniles that have gained the ability to breathe fire, term for male and female respectively.
Anklene/Wyrr/Skotl: The three bloodlines of dragons inhabiting the Lavadome, an underground construction built in the ancient past, possibly by natural forces or magic. United by the Tyr after the First Dragon Civil War.
A/N: And there we have it people, again, sorry if it seems a little hacked off at the end, wanted to make it of a similar length and give something of a glimpse into the minds of some of the personas Skald will be encountering. And with that, I will hopefully see you all next time.