I forgot to say this before: I revamped that short oneshot I wrote about Crysallxius, the creeper. It's…really different now. I'm putting this here because people won't know about it otherwise.

RenThePyro—Her fear problem's not genetic—is that what you meant? Did I word something wrong? Besides that, about things tying together, if there's something like a piece of inconsistent world-building you notice or have noticed anywhere, please tell me. I want to be done editing this by the time I write part 2. Anyway, thank you!

Dark Jelly—Really I don't mind if people are 'good' at reviewing, I just want them to be considerate enough to do it. Shows me you care enough to grace me with your opinion, you know? And you're really not that bad.

PurpleSnow10—Eh, I wasn't trying to be cliché. The way I saw it, it couldn't happen any other way, but maybe it doesn't all make sense to you now. I keep forgetting you know a lot less about my plot and characters(though they're not all mine) than I do. Phoenix abilities are kind of convoluted, but I'll try to go back and edit chapters mentioning it. Thanks for your review, I'm glad you like this story.

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They focused on the small things. Like how the trees looked like darker patches of black in the night. How the stars were barely there at all.

Not their hurting, pounding hearts. Not the screams welling up in their throats.

Xavia squirmed out of his arms, cursing indignantly, scratching at his wrists. "I can run, I can run! Put me down, stupid!"

"Yeah?" he snapped, flinging his arms back, letting her fall to the ground where she stumbled ungracefully, tripping onto the podzol underfoot. "Run this direction. Okay?"

She pulled herself up. He couldn't see her expression, he didn't want to.

"Where are we going, huh?" she hissed, shoving into him with her small shoulder. He didn't budge. "We just gonna keep running till we collapse?"

"Just shut up and move," Jade growled from ahead of them, reaching back to yank at Xavia's arm. She gasped in surprise. "You remember what zombies are? Skeletons? Spiders? They're after us, right now. They'll be after us till the sun comes up, so we won't be safe till then."

Xavia fell silent, but Jordan could almost hear her shock. Could see it, in the way her knees locked in sudden fear, in how her back stiffened with the ice sealing itself in the crevices in her bones. For a moment, she was almost still. The rest of the group forged ahead; they knew better than to wait for the stragglers, for the suicidal. Never mind what they had done. It was about survival now—but wasn't it always? Wasn't every choice he'd ever made somehow linked back to whether he wanted to live or die?

"So run," Jade snarled, voice low. Almost threatening.

They ran, again.

Jordan focused on the small things. The strip of dark silver towards the eastern horizon, on his left. The sun was coming, slowly but surely, unaware of the little needy lives down below that depended on it; that inwardly screamed for it to hurry up and save them. Like it had for millennium—rise, fall. Rise, fall. It was never different. It would never hurry up. It was as slow or fast then as it had been since the beginning of time, when the only creatures that tread the earth were those who feared the day.

Jordan remembered the legends. He remembered his mother's face when she told him; those wide eyes that couldn't match his because they weren't orange.

Creepers were first, she'd said. They had a certain grace about them, you know. Not like people. Creepers were wicked strange, always hiding from light like it'd purify those wretched souls they hide under their fur. 'Cause back then, before they adapted like the smart little things they are, creepers feared the sun just like zombies and skeletons.

And what are zombies and skeletons? he'd asked. Words sounding so different than they did now. Lighter, freer, the voice of someone who'd never killed, never suffered.

Oh, them? Zonbies were scary little buggers. Still are. They're cannibals. They wore the torn flesh and scars of past fights with others of their kind. Not very smart, but intelligence they could achieve with age. They were old when countless battles had ripped away every scrap of skin and guts clinging to their bones. Then they were skeletons. Built bows of wood and the string of dead spiders to fight long-range. They'd never survive up close—a single sword strike would collapse 'em.

Those ancient creatures were all around him now, unaware of their history. Except, maybe the skeletons, who had lived countless years.

He focused on the little things as they flew between the high trunks of trees, over the little ledges and hills littering the roiling floor of the mega-taiga.

Focused on them till something strange caught his eyes—fractured moonlight, rippling through the dark sky above his head.

It was back.

-{0}-

Nathi waited till the sky seemed to glow with restrained light. It was there, the sun's heat, barely held back by night's stubborn grip.

The young soldier led the tiny group onto an elevated ledge, jutting slightly over a hollow where a small lake rested at its pit. They collapsed, sinking to their knees in exhaustion. It had been the will to live that had carried them this far; the same will would knock them from their feet and drown them in tired anguish.

"It's dawn," Nathi gasped, leaning over and resting his hands on his knees. "Relax a bit. We'll be okay."

Xavia tossed herself to the ground, lying on her back with her arms wide. Staring straight up. Jordan watched, waiting to see her blink.

Jade didn't let herself rest. She wrapped her arms around her midsection, stumbled about while gasping for breath. "Well, we lived. Only one of us has weapons and he's overly small and skinny, but we're alive."

Nathi looked indignant, but other than that he ignored the comment. "I don't know where to go from here. We've been moving south, towards…the sea, right? Yeah. The sea."

"So what, we get on a boat or something?" Jordan muttered. "We can spend some days crafting one big enough, and we can get out of here."

"No boats," Jade rasped, almost inaudibly. Her head was tilted down, inky dark hair casting a curtain to shield her face. "No ocean. It's too damn big. We'll drown."

"You lived," Jordan pointed out, somewhat sympathetic even though he really had no idea what'd happened to her before the few days ago they'd met. Only that'd she'd been thrown on a tiny sailboat and pushed out to sea.

"Yeah, I lived," she agreed. "I lived because I went crazy. I hallucinated myself out of that situation. I'm probably still hallucinating now. That'd explain all this screwed-up shit pretty well, huh?"

"Pretty well."

"The point is," Nathi said between breaths, "I don't know how to get to the ocean. We have to avoid villages and generally all pieces of civilization from here to the sea—there are Caelumites everywhere. I bet we can cross to either Wynar or Excilcinus using the cold-strait or the wind-strait, but I'm not sure which path to take to—"

"I'm a public enemy in Excilcinus," Jade announced, sighing. "Sorry if it's a big inconvenience for you, Nathi."

"Y-you're what? Why?' he sputtered, straightening so fast his helmet tried to topple off his head.

Jade snorted, vigorously shaking her head. "Whatever, right? Wynar's less populated anyways. We should cross the wind-strait and go there."

Jade was getting nervous. She kept rubbing her arms, glancing back and forth, biting her lip.

"That means crossing to the other side of Xirnies," Nathi argued. "The cold-strait's much closer."

"Yeah?" snapped Jade. "If you're seen with me in the East, they'll kill us. A few hundred more chunks to walk is worth our lives." She paused—everyone did—before she added, "Or I could leave. I'll go to Wynar on my own, and you can go east. I won't be a disadvantage to you."

Jade didn't wait. She made up her mind, turned around, walked away. The looming shadow of the forest swallowed her, and she was gone.

Jordan froze up, creasing his brow as she stalked away, vanished. "H-hey," he called lamely, stepping forward. "Jade! You don't have to go."

"Maybe it's best if she did," muttered someone from the crowd of limp bodies littering the ledge. He almost turned to say something. Snap at who'd spoken. She's the reason you're free. She saved you. The least you could do is protect her, too.

Instead he just followed her. Weaponless.

"Hey now!" Nathi protesting, grabbing at his arm. "I can't defend all these people! Stay. Help me. I don't even know where to go."

Jordan shook his head. "I'm coming back." Shook Nathi off.

He broke into a run, disappearing into the watery dawn shadows as he descended the steep slope of the hill. Jade was ahead, standing at the base of a tall spruce. "Jade," he called.

She sighed. "I was gonna come back too." Started walking again. "Might as well gather some wood for weapons and stuff."

Jordan shrugged, walking beside her. The dark trees swooped up towards the sky, huge wooden stilts to hold it up. He found the shadows and watched the edges, looking so closely he could swear he saw them move as the sun rose closer to the horizon.

"Actually, I think we should go," she suddenly said, her pace quickening. It was like she wanted to run but held back, for some reason.

"Go where?" he asked. But he knew.

"Caelum." Plain and simple. "Azure and Bailey are probably trapped underground. Or dead."

Jordan doubted Azure would just die. That wasn't her. Azure was unreal, immortal somehow. She just couldn't die. It wouldn't make sense.

And if he was with her, Bailey would be okay.

"Doubt she'd come back to save us," he muttered, hopping down a small slope. Still Jade kept moving faster.

"She's not inhuman," Jade said angrily. "Look, her problem is that she doesn't know that."

He didn't say anything. Nothing to say. He thought about the look in Azure's eyes when she'd threatened to kill him, that time in the tunnels just before the Blithe took her.

The sun rose higher. They forged on.

Jordan felt almost dazed, in a way. Lethargic. The brighter it got, the more unreal everything began to feel, like he was walking in a dream. A yellow haze hung over the forest floor, ethereal in its golden glow. It was like a fantasy world, this place. The North was a fantasy. All this didn't really exist—Jade was an illusion, Caelum was a figment of his imagination. He was about to wake up on the remote island that was his birthplace, in his small bed thousands of chunks away from civilization.

He studied each of the small stone structures that seemed to grow out of the ground like they had roots, siphoning all the life out of the earth so it became cold and dead. Lifeless, still. He'd never known what they were for. His mother didn't, either.

All of it deathly still, besides the occasional wanton rustle of leaves above his head, the ripple of glassy shadow always hanging at the corner of his vision. Why are you still following us?

Jade stopped at a short spruce tree, only a few blocks high. They could easily gather all the wood and have enough for a makeshift crafting table and sticks and planks. She began to pummel the trunk, gritting her teeth at the slight pain it always brought. But the pain was worth it. Worth it to survive.

He crouched at the rickety workbench they were able to make—not very durable, but it'd have to do—and began to arrange some sticks and a few stone shards on the grid. Like it always did the first couple of times, nothing happened, so he chose better sticks and sharpened the stone a bit before trying again. Still nothing.

"Idiot," Jade sighed, kneeling next to him. "Let me show you how it's done." She swept his sticks off the table, choosing longer ones from the pile next to the workbench. She lined up the grid corners perfectly with the ends of the sticks, and flipped his stone shard over and centered it in its box. They watched, smiling, as the materials drew together and bonded—forming a short, relatively sharp knife.

"Where'd you learn to craft like that?" he asked, picking up the knife and tossing it from hand to hand. A bit heavy, strangely. The stone felt denser than usual. But it was good enough.

"Home," she answered quietly. "It's what I did. That, and mining. Forging, sometimes. When she let me."

She turned to their wood plank pile, pushing him out of the way while she set some up on the grid. Some wooden swords for the group on the ledge. Obviously she wasn't going to say anything else about her home life.

Above his head, the half-light flickered and fragmentized.

"Uh, Jade," he said nervously, grip tightening on his knife. She raised her head but not her eyes, focusing on the sword. "I'm going to go off for a bit. I'll get some more materials and bring them back here. Okay?"

Her brow creased. Of course—that lie didn't make much logical sense. She probably knew that.

Nevertheless, she only shrugged. "Sure, Jordan. Do whatever. I'll be taking some of this back to Nathi's little camp."

He nodded. Turned and ran, his direction somewhat southwest. Just away from her, away from Nathi and the survivors of the underground city. He had to get far away.

Jordan kept his eyes up, trained on the rippling of out-of-place light as it snaked through the sky, directly above him. So you are following me.

He kept going, strides steadily increasing as he picked up more and more speed. And soon he was flying, streaking through a forest of an unfathomable size, stretching across a cold, fantastical place. Above him, he could hear the air move, forced downward with what some crazy part of his mind knew were wings.

Winged flying beast. Had claws. The thing that had attacked Swift those few days ago.

It reminded him of a dragon, the way it had acted. Dragons, he knew, weren't extinct—Caelum had a few from the Nether. Helldragons.

They couldn't refract light to shield themselves. They couldn't deafen people with their cries.

"What the Nether do you want?" he yelled, straight up at the sky, arms wide. "To kill me? Then kill me!"

A bluff. Maybe it was a bluff, but the dragon called him on it. A shiver ran down his back as the glassy ripples widened, closing the gap between them. The leaves of the trees bent away, afraid of its power.

His vision went black, every organ in his body crammed into the small space that was his throat as the dragon shimmered into view, its tiny rectangular scales shifting. Pulling its body out of another dimension, out of nowhere.

Jordan cried out, terrified, diving off to the side. Clumsily, painfully landing near a tree.

The dragon pulled its giant wings back, like huge black sails, reaching out with its claws and sinking them into the bark of a tree before pushing off, sending itself hurtling towards the ground. Towards him.

It was about Agro's size, without the wings. Not big for a dragon. But not small.

It slammed into his chest, knocking every bit of air from his lungs. Pain went off like fireworks behind his ribs, centered somewhere around his heart. As he catapulted back, he thought he felt it stop. But he kept breathing.

Claws flashed out. They were silvery-black. He whipped his head back before they tore his eyes out, and instead hot daggers flashed across the bottom of his jaw and neck.

Warmth ran down the outside of his throat. Blood.

Gasping for breath, he shoved the knife blade at the black weight pinning him to the ground, and a shriek like stabs to his ears rang out, and the darkness was gone. The dragon writhed away, wings spread to their limit as it gripped its midsection with its forepaws. It almost looked human, the way it moved and the creases in its face as it screamed.

Jordan drew in as much breath as he could, stabbing pains in his ribs making him choke it out again.

Anger seeped from somewhere in his heart. Anger and adrenaline. He rolled over, forcing himself beyond his pain, to his feet. He had a knife. He could kill it.

But it was fast, and definitely not dumb. The dragon launched itself at him before he could attack, jaws wide, wings wide, deep purple eyes wide. Jordan jumped, vaulted over its back, but he didn't make it to the other side like he'd planned. The dragon anticipated his move, tilting its body so he slammed into its wing. Tipping him onto its unevenly spine-d back as it agonizingly pushed off the earth and began to ascend.

"N-no—" he spat out, gripping with one hand on a spine. Gravity dragged his body vertical as the dragon tilted its head to the sky, wings folded in as they passed the forest canopy. The event horizon.

Jordan held tight to his knife. "W-won't kill me," he rasped. "I'll kill you."

Something in him doubted that. With every bit of inward force he had, he violently crushed down on it, replaced it with nothing but vengeful fury.

The earth shrank, in his sight. The air turned cold, the world turned watery gray-blue, and he was surrounded by nothing but sky. He was pressed up against the dragon, felt a grating underneath his body as each of its scales began to flip, turning their glassy side to the light.

It was gone. He was flying.

Terror crashed through his head; he raised his blade and buried it in the diamond-hard armor of the dragon—much tougher than its underbelly had been. He couldn't make a dent.

The wind howled in his ears. His hand began to slip as reality suddenly flipped on its head when the dragon began to corkscrew. Jordan shut his eyes, yelling in terror till everything righted itself and he felt sane again. He began to inch up its back. Grabbed onto a short spine on its neck, kept moving forward, to its head. Heat of some sort was billowing from where its mouth was; though he couldn't really see it, he knew it was there. If he could focus, he'd be able to make everything out. Jordan wasn't good at focusing three chunks suspended in the air.

The dragon flipped, whipping its head from side to side. It shrieked, screamed, drowning out his own.

But he could win.

Its giant wings thrummed in the air; he could feel their power in the dragon's shoulder. The power that could suspend a creature heavy like it was in an empty sky, nothing to hold it there but sheer strength. Jordan was close—small and weak as he was, he could win.

Corkscrewing again. Diving dangerously close to the forest canopy. Jordan could no longer breathe now, he was running on fear. Reaching far as he dared, he dug the knife in the bottom of the dragon's throat, using it to pull himself right behind the shimmery mass he knew was its head.

The dragon knew what was coming. Its wings stopped pumping, and the blood in Jordan's body drained into his feet as they began to freefall.

Crying out in pain and horror, Jordan ripped the knife from its neck and shoved it deep into the soft part of its head. Its eye socket.

He kept his eyes closed as they fell. Screamed right along with it as they crashed into the widespread stone-hard branches of a high spruce.

Leaves and wooden stalks dug into him everywhere, spearing him through and holding him there as the dragon fell a longer ways, scales flipping to make it visible as it hooked its claws into the bark to keep from falling.

And all was silent. The dragon hung there, he remained suspended, impaled on a thousand branches. With the only working eye it had left, it stared at him. Jordan felt a strange pressure in his head, a sharp-edged thing pushing itself into his gray matter.

He felt hatred that wasn't his own. Fury. Grief.

Then he heard something. Loud and clear in his mind, lighting it on fire as the sun exploded over the horizon, scorching deep into his orange eyes.

S-Sol.

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I don't think it's too greedy to ask for at least 200 reviews by the time this is over. We're only a few away, so please, review!

-Angel