Sorry for the delay, but here we are *yay*. I kinda think that I suck at writing action... but for some reason I feel like I suck less when I write in English XD Enjoy~


Chapter XXXIV

The Forgotten Dragon Palaces"

My wish came true the next morning, and even though I felt the urge to use my pillow against Asuna for waking me up before dawn, I was really grateful to her after we already found ourselves outside.

The birds were greeting the sun that still lurked beneath the mountains with lazy chirping. Even before it decided to flood the city with its rays, we already witnessed a fairy tale like show. The mist approached the forefields in a more dense mass than the previous day, and soon a delicate breeze picked up from the sea and started to dissipate it. The terrestrial clouds started to stir and cluster, forming pillars and walls, until we had the impression of some unreal buildings being created in front of our eyes. And the view became even more gorgeous when the golden rays cascaded upon those structures, started to smoothly flow down them, making the meadows radiant along with the misty chambers and the cloudless sky above our heads. I felt that I was ready to face the last unpleasantries in Tacritia.

I had another brief conversation with the archpriest at breakfast, discussing the last details about the preparation plans we started making yesterday evening. Together with Asuna we drafted the message that was supposed to reach all possible places, carried by the emissaries. We even had the opportunity to see the first few of them leave the city on swift horses.

We thanked the clerics for their hospitality, their help and the provisions they prepared for our journey, before we set off towards north-east, dashing above the crops glittering with gold.

The day was a bit sultry, lone, elongated clouds started appearing in the sky, arriving with the brisk wind coming from above the water. The air was clear, so it didn't take long until we saw the outline of mountains becoming clearer in the distance. The unbelievably high summits, probably reaching hundreds of meters, enveloped with still present snow at the very peaks, didn't exactly make a friendly impression.

I sped up a little, seemingly casual, and caught up with the leading Asuna. Eugeo stayed a little behind.

"Did you manage to talk to him?" I asked just loudly enough for her to hear me above the hum of wing in her ears.

"I did," she admitted rather unenthusiastically.

"Did he tell you anything enlightening?"

"Yes and no... or rather he told me, but without the intention of doing so. I didn't want to be too obtrusive, he was in a really awful mood and that might have been the reason why he let a few things slip, that confirmed my suspicions..."

"Stop talking in riddles."

"This story reaches a little further behind in fact and is pretty long but..."

A sudden shout from Eugeo interrupted her: "I'm sorry to disturb you both, but we have a tail!"

We both turned around and looked in the direction he was pointing to.

Some distance away, around the same height we ourselves flew at, we noticed three blurry, bright shapes, coming closer unnervingly quickly, glistening golden in the sun...

"It's the dragonnes!" Eugeo wasn't able to hide a note of panic in his voice.

"Again?!"

Some word that sounded like a druid curse escaped Asuna's lips. "I guess that only proves that we are on the right path," she turned back to face the ridges again. "Let's hurry, if we reach the caves before them, maybe we will be able to lose them inside!"

She didn't have to say it twice. We dashed forward, abandoning the strolling pace. I looked over my shoulder every now and then, but even though the hybrids seemed to be quicker than us, we stayed at a relatively safe distance. I inwardly thanked Asuna for putting the screws on us a while ago. I was sure that if it wasn't for the endurance training, we would be fighting for our lives right now. With little chances of survival.

The escape wasn't easy, the wind wasn't too strong that day and it seemed almost like the clouds got stuck on the peaks. Finally, after about an hour, which felt like five to me, we passed the dark green border of spruces and pines, interspersed with occasional brighter stains of birches, that were wrapped up around the base of the Dragon Mountains. We looked back once more. The dragonnes managed to get a bit closer after all, we clearly saw the outlines of the unnatural silhouettes and the movement of the huge, copper-gold wings now. It seemed like Sharish wasn't accompanying them this time. They were alone.

We lowered our flight and started to scan the rocky, almost lifeless summits. It was Asuna who spotted the abyssal, dark cavity in the wall of a mountain river's channel, partially hidden by a meagerly overgrown overhang. The ravine was deep, patiently eroded for centuries by the masses of flowing water, which splashed gently like a small stream in some places, then roared and dashed like a herd of horses in others. It embraced a smaller hill around the north, the rock oaks extending their shadows towards our destination.

We fell down almost too fast to be considered safe and landed in the atrium of the cave.

"Where did they even come from...?" panted Eugeo. "If it was Sharish who sent them after us, it must mean he knows where we are and what we are doing, but how...?"

"I think it's rather a coincidence. He intends to search the mountains, so he sent a reconnaissance party first... but that's not important right now," Asuna grabbed his sleeve and pulled him deeper into the cave. "We need to hide."

I cast an unsure glance towards the darkness.

"Do you think one can get lost in those tunnels?"

"If one really wants to, then for sure..."

I would have argued, but it suddenly seemed to me like the small amount of sunlight, that was reaching the bottom of the ravine got further dimmed for a split of a second, as if blocked by a passing wing... I cast one last glance at the fragment of the sky visible between the summits, before quickly following my friends.

We weren't going very fast, wanting to keep quiet in order to be able to hear our pursuers closing in. Furthermore, the strenuous flight took its toll. In the thickening darkness, our footsteps echoed clearly among the ancient walls, and each of our breaths seemed multiplied, as if the rocks themselves breathed in this place. I couldn't help but feel that the deeper we went, the further back in time we were moving. It was like entering the Silivren Forest, in a sense, but different. At last the darkness became so impenetrable, that we were forced to use our fire. What we saw as we did so, caused us to forget about the dragonnes for a second.

We didn't even realize how unbelievably spacious the corridor has become, wide and high, sculptured in the pale yellow stone... which wasn't just simply pale yellow. The surface sparkled with the light of countless, tiny particles with every movement of our flames, mimicking a treasure chest full of all possible gems in all colors imaginable...

"What is that...?" I whispered, absolutely enchanted.

"I assume... it's a relic from the time when dragons still lived here," Eugeo rose his hand with the flame a little higher. "The heat of their bodies probably caused the structure of the rocks to change, the minerals crystallized from them and were polished by the dragon scales, when they traversed these corridors..."

The tunnel was so vast, that the glow of our fire dispersed the darkness to a certain level only, the vaulting remained a maze of shadows. I brushed the surface of the rocks in fascination and looked up. The magnitude of this place, along with the awareness that dragons lived here in the past, made me feel weirdly small... I started to wonder if these caverns, similarly to the crypts beneath the temple in Tacritia, concealed some sort of magic. Because when I closed my eyes and concentrated a little, I had the feeling I sensed something, like dim sparks on the very edge of perception... Water murmured somewhere in the distance, and I felt delicate wafts of air coming from the deeper parts of the underground. Was it possible for anyone to unveil the secrets of those mazes now, after so many centuries...?

There suddenly was the sound of heavy, but soft steps somewhere, coming from the direction we came from, along with a muffled, low growling.

"They found us..." it was hard to tell what was more distinct in Asuna's voice: fear or irritation.

"Put your flames out," Eugeo said quietly. "One will be enough."

He reduced his fire to the essential minimum and we continued onwards, as quickly and silently as we could. The darkness surrounding us wasn't very encouraging. The light of the flame didn't reach far, and the deep shadows lurking beyond its radius could have been concealing a dozen of dragonnes, which we wouldn't even notice until the moment we run into them.

We came across a forking after a while, but didn't waste much time on wondering. Even though we knew far too well, that the wrong decision could mean death... we picked a random path in hope that the beasts would choose the other, but we didn't keep our hopes up. After all, dragonnes derived from wild predators, for which tracking prey was everyday life...

We stopped again after a few minutes to listen to the sounds of the underground.

"Do you think they could be close?" asked Eugeo in the quietest whisper that I ever heard from him.

As soon as he did that, there was a sudden growl behind us. We looked in the direction we came from, completely terrified.

The three bristled beasts walked into the circle of light cast by Eugeo's flame slowly and soundlessly, like cougars approaching their helpless victims.

"Yes..." Asuna rose her hand reflexively. "They are close..."

Thinking that the dragonnes were further behind was a massive miscalculation... I instinctively took a step back, which turned out to be another mistake. One of the beasts roared loudly and leaped towards us.

All three of us dodged skillfully, but this attack must have been too sudden for Eugeo, because the fire in his palm abruptly went out, drowning the tunnel in complete darkness. And causing an even bigger chaos. The dragonnes started to growl dully and it seemed to me as if they were trying to attack blindly, because there was a constant, unpleasant rustle of their scales and occasional swish of a paw cutting the air...

I found the rock wall with one hand and leaned against it, desperately trying to find a way out. I couldn't just attack, the risk of accidentally hurting one of my companions in this darkness was too great. I was scared to light the smallest of flames as well, knowing that it would attract the attention of our enemies. Eugeo and Asuna must have been struggling with a decision as well, because I didn't hear nor see any sort of reaction from them. Long seconds passed, counted by the hastened breaths, which I tried to stifle in order to not betray my position. But we couldn't just wait forever, the eyes of the dragonnes would adjust to the darkness much quicker than our own...

This train of thought was interrupted by the sudden feeling of something rough grazing my side, I distinctly felt the hard scales... I jumped to my right without thinking and heard the enormous paw of the dragonne shattering the rock I was standing by just a second earlier. Almost at the same moment, I heard Asuna's stifled, short scream from somewhere in the darkness...

I barely restrained myself from calling her. I wanted to run over there and help her somehow, even if it meant drawing the attention of all the beasts to myself. But before I could do that, I heard the aggressive growl of one of them right beside me. I took a few steps back and stopped at the last second, upon instinctively sensing a void behind my back... and suddenly a few things happened at once, too fast for comprehension.

I felt myself losing my balance. As if the earth was drawn back from beneath my feet. The only thing I could manage was a terrified scream, as I started to fall. I think I heard Eugeo yell my name, but I didn't get the chance to respond. It lasted maybe two seconds, before I hit some sort of solid ground again, sloped and covered in gravel, and started rolling down it. The thing I expected the least happened a few meters further below.

I fell into water.

Almost startled into numbness, I quickly resurfaced and coughed up the water that I choked at. I pushed the wet bangs away from my eyes and looked around.

I suddenly found myself in a pretty big cave, almost completely covered by a sort of underground lake full of dark, calm water. Countless small, grayish stalactites hung from the high, arched dome, next to them a few tiny holes letting narrow rays of hazy daylight in. Each wave breaking on the rocks and each tiny stone falling into the water after me echoed melodiously off of the shadow-shrouded walls. Somewhere deeper inside the cavern I noticed a gently rising shore and the mouth of some tunnel, drowned in deep darkness.

And that darkness was where I suddenly heard a familiar noise from... a strange rustle, sounding almost like the soft ringing of little crystals... the same we heard in the crypts of the Siracel temple...

Utterly confused, I swam to a tiny, rock 'island' - basically just a big boulder sticking out of the water and climbed onto it. I was drenched and aching all over my body... I took another look around. It was hard to tell which way I even fell in here from, and there was no sign of my friends anywhere. The silent, mysterious jingling faded a little...

I suddenly caught a movement in the semi-darkness out of the corner of my eye. I turned around quickly and saw the silhouette of a dragonne, bristled, lurking in the shadow on another rock jutting out of the lake.

I felt a little more confident this time. The beast was alone and the cave was bright enough for me to follow every movement. I rose my hand, ready to act, but I suddenly had to hold my breath. The almost inaudible sound of soft paws on rocky surface, accompanied by quiet but deep, cat-like purring immediately took all my confidence away. And I wasn't allowed to think about my situation for even two seconds.

One of the beasts leaped towards me like a lynx onto a deer, but I couldn't allow myself a moment of fright. Holding my hands in front of me, I created a vast wall of flames between us and immediately soared up underneath the dome of the cave, to avoid the attack coming from behind my back. From there, I quickly dashed towards the farthest wall - two beats of my wings were enough to carry me there - and the third, with a drastically different angle, caused me to stop right at the rock facade. I turned around.

The two dragonnes collided with each other and tussled for a few seconds in the fire, roaring in pain. Finally one of them unintentionally hit its companion with the mighty paw, I thought I saw a spray of blood, and the unfortunate beast landed in the water with a loud splash. I watched the surface with rising hope, until the echo died out and the irregular rings, that disturbed the water smoothened out and finally disappeared.

I sighed in relief, but couldn't relax yet. My situation hasn't changed much. I was aware that the death of one of the dragonnes was pure luck, and I needed more than just fire to defeat the second one. There was not much space for maneuvers in the air within this cave. I might have been smaller and nimbler, but if I wanted to try escape, then I wouldn't fit into any of the holes in the ceiling. What was more, I started to feel my strength slowly leaving me, drained after the previous, frantic flight... The only hope was the corridor on the other side of the lake.

When the remaining beast attacked again, I dove beneath it, but felt that its claws missed me by mere millimeters. I descended almost to the very surface of the water and dashed towards the dark mouth of the passage, giving it all I had. If I managed to create a wall of fire right there, I would be able to delay my pursuer, if only for a short time. I was getting closer, measuring the distance with the beats of my own heart...

But at the exact moment when I passed the shoreline, the dragonne caught up with me and pinned me down to the ground with its huge paws. I suddenly felt an agonizing pain in my left wing and heard my anguished scream echo throughout the cave.

The impetus of such an attack in flight was so tremendous though, that the beast just tumbled over my head and landed on the rocks by the wall next to the tunnel. Trembling on my whole body, I tried to get up, but the pain in my wing immediately cooled me down. I was barely able to even move...

Suddenly there was a loud swish right above my head and I involuntarily hunched in fear. An almost deafening roar resonated within the cave and I suddenly saw the dragonne fly past me and land in the water, as if struck by some tremendous power. I squinted a bit. I felt dizzy and everything before my eyes was annoyingly hazy... I gathered my courage and turned my head.

There was another golden shape hovering above me, seeming even bigger than the beast that was just sent flying across the underground... but I didn't have any more strength to defend myself. I closed my eyes, waiting for the final strike in this battle...

It was then that I heard a voice.

"Kirito... Kirito!"

I recognized it... it was the same, gentle female voice that we heard in the crypts... but the curiosity wasn't enough to keep my mind conscious. I felt the remnants of energy leaving my body and the last thing I registered was the cruel cold of the stones I was lying on...


Thoughts fly round

Turning into Strength..."


I love this cliffhanger... sorry for that XD

Reviews:

scrambled888: I'm glad you enjoyed it again dear ^^ Remember how at the beginning you told me that it's weird that Kirito regained all his memory at once because it doesn't have much of an effect on him? There was your effect XD

Sn0wk1tty: Sorry then ^^' I'm still glad you've enjoyed it though, thank you so much.

And thanks to all of you who are still reading and liking this story. I hope I can speed up a little, because I love this part of it. See you soon I hope!