The Mountain
It wasn't working.
Three days and it wasn't working.
No matter what she did, no matter what she tried, it wasn't damnit working.
She tried every tool she had, she tried every potion she had, she cut and she closed, she cut and she stitched it all up. Of course, she had to keep her alive during the whole process or the experiment would fail in an instant, so she had to adjust to her cavie's needs, but she was sure that she had tried everything that was to try.
And what was left of three days of hard work? Plenty of frustration and a broken barely alive body.
Nothing. A lot of nothing.
Yet she thought she was so close. She felt inside that this was the right way, the right time. All her studies have brought her here and even destiny seemed to be on her side when it allowed her to find in an anonymous house in the forest the perfect cavie for her experiment: a mother with an egg, and another egg in coming.
She was sure it was a sign, it must be a sign. The Ancestors were telling her that she was almost there, she was almost ready to rise into the newly formed Pantheon as the first Goddess there ever was. She was to be immortal, time unable to touch her and her lover as it passes over the world, taking away lives as the wind would with candles, while they would be always there, ruling together forever…in love forever. He would worship her forever, as would every single being in that mortal world until the end of time and finally she would be happy.
And she wanted so much to be happy, to finally fill that black hole she felt inside. She knew that would be the way, she knew that living forever and ruling forever over the world with her mate at her side was what she needed to fill it for only immortal and untouchable by time and disease and death, she would be without fear, she would be herself again.
She needed it, she craved it, and destiny got her so close that she could feel the sensation of living without fear, something she never felt before, something that Malefor himself brought away from her…only for destiny itself to take it away from her and leave her with a handful of flies.
She roared as she smashed her fist on the nearest table, destroying it on spot and sending everything on it flying into a cacophony of metal and blood and glass and bones on the ground-stained black stone. A metal container tainted with blood, shattered into a thousand pieces of glass, a set of red-stained bones.
"It can't be, it can't be," murmured to herself the black dragoness as she started pacing. "I must've missed something, I must've missed something," she kept repeating to herself as she moved.
Then she stopped, she sat and she brought her paws at her head, squeezing her horns tightly, her claws as blood-stained as the rest of the place.
"What is it I'm missing?" she whispered. "What is it?!" she roared soon after, before returning to the whispers. "I don't understand, I don't understand."
"Of course, you don't, you silly slave," said a malicious voice in front of her. "You really thought you could succeed where I failed?" he chuckled evilly. "I spent centuries studying convexity and the possibility of eternal life, I spent days and nights experimenting, and you really hoped that you, a slave, a nothing, could surpass all this with twenty years of petty studying and three days of experimenting? You are not just a nothing, a slave, you are also a fool."
Cynder growled at the purplish shadow of her former master. She hated him, she always did, but she hated him even more as she let him see her fail, only confirming what the demon has been whispering in her ears for twenty years.
You are nothing.
"Shut it, you damned demon," she hissed. "I destroyed you! You are dead because of me! You may have spent thousands of years studying and experimenting, but it took far less for me to end you for good. I'm more powerful than you could ever be, and I'm going to succeed where you failed, for I'm better than you."
"Are you now?" retorted amused the shadow's voice. "Do you really believe that, my old slave? Do you really believe that you destroyed me, that you killed me, that you are more powerful than me, that you are the reason why the Empire exits?" he asked cruelly and he didn't give her time to respond he went on. "You did nothing. You are nothing. Spyro is the one, he did everything," he laughed. "Maybe you should try asking him to find the secret behind immortality. I'm quite sure he could be far more successful than you'll ever be, as he is the one the always makes the doing. You just…take all the credit," he sneered.
Cynder's blood boiled in her veins upon hearing that. She was furious with the shadow, mostly because she knew that it was right. It was always Spyro. He saved her, he destroyed Malefor, he saved the world, he destroyed Warfang and killed the Guardians, and he pacified the Empire.
He, he, he.
You are nothing.
Her razor-sharp teeth started showing, nice and bare, her growl promised a painful death, and days of frustrations, and weeks of failure started to take their toll on the black dragoness. She was tired of failing, she was tired of destiny mocking her, she was tired of being a simple mortal living in perpetual fear as she was tired of the purplish shadow speaking in her head every time she was upset, always praising Spyro and denying her true value.
But the shadow didn't seem to care, as it wasn't finished with his poisonous words.
"The boy's a fool, but no matter how much time it will take, at some point in the future he will see you for what you really are. Maybe he has started already. And then…" the shadow sneered, getting all too close to her, his shadowy and cruel smile in her ear as he whispered. "Then, he will leave you."
That was it for her. He could mock her, insult her, and say that she is nothing, a slave, but no one could ever suggest the idea that Spyro could leave her.
Cynder snapped, seeing red. A roar broke the air, claws hit, and things around her crushed in a whirlwind of fragments and red.
She wanted to cut the shadow down to its very core, passing through its flesh, making him suffer for what he said. She wanted to feel the gratification of the sensation of her claws opening her way easily into its flesh, cutting through scales, muscles, tenders, and even bones. She wanted to stick her paw into its chest, grab its dark heart, and then sink her very fangs in it, eating it in front of its shocked face, its broken body, seeing its last breath.
A sudden surge of energy ran up her spine, waking her up from her trance, clearing her vision, and bringing her back to reality.
Cynder blinked, once, twice. A void in her head made her confused as she didn't remember the last minutes and how she ended up from the table at the center of the cave, to the broken body of her last cavie.
She watched her last failure for a long moment, taking everything she did that didn't work, so she could learn from that and never repeat the same mistakes in the future. The once-fire orange dragoness was still tied with her special strings, which kept her still as they kept her alive. The purple gems she connected her cavie to not only taking energy from living beings, but they were also capable of giving life to beings that needed it. She had to connect the dragoness to those, or she wouldn't be alive right now.
She lost scales in many parts of her body, leaving very visible the grey and red skin behind, and more were on their way falling on the floor from her, as the stench of sickness and death surrounded the dragoness. She missed a part of her tail, as she has herself ripped it for her days ago, but the dragoness lost also her very tongue cutting it down through her own teeth trying not to scream at the beginning of their game. At some point during it, she tried something new and she needed parts of the dragoness that she found in her horns and wings, so the dragoness missed both horns and one of her wings, never to fly again. But it wasn't a problem, really, she was in no condition to fly again.
The Empress' eyes ran through the clean cut that went from her cavie lower belly to her very chest, opening her practically whole. She didn't want to remember as she experimented on her internal organs, on her egg, on her core. She found nothing important, nothing that would help her become a goddess, nothing that was worth the effort.
She failed, so she didn't want to dwell on the details of what she did. So she brought her attention to herself, already losing interest in the barely-still-breathing dragoness in front of her. In fact, she felt something run up her very spine, as she felt something slimy and slippery in her paws.
But she couldn't help but take a look at her paws, only to remain wide-eyed at the sight.
A heart.
A bleeding dragon heart.
In her paw, gushing with fresh blood.
She brought a paw to her own mouth, finding the same substance there, staining her teeth and muzzle.
What the hell did it end up there? How did she-
She rose her eyes again only to look at the dragoness' chest and find that her cavie's chest had no heart.
Still, she was somehow breathing. Still, she was somehow alive.
Her confusion washed away in an instant as she moved to try and understand what was happening in front of her very eyes. This was something new, something never happened before, something she wasn't expecting and so something she had to study, to understand.
A thrill went through her at the thought that maybe it wasn't all lost, it wasn't all a waste of time.
After hours the Empress smiled, satisfied with the recent results.
She might have been on the right way.
"How's that for a nothing, eh?" she said to no one in particular, as there was just her and her cavie, and the purple shadow was nowhere to be found.
The Empress tried one last time, just to be sure.
She disconnected the convexity gems from the dragoness and she started having convulsions, moving chaotically, flapping, her remaining eye rolling into her head. Through the opening on her chest and stomach, she could see that her organs were collapsing.
She attached the gems again. Immediately they lit with a purple light, and the dragoness' body stabilized. She approached slowly to hear.
She was breathing.
The Empress smiled again, then turned to the heart piece that she left there on the floor, abandoned and useless. She tried to bite a piece of it again, seeing if she would feel the same rush through her spine as the first time.
But she didn't and she had a theory as to why. She just needed another cavie to test it out.
But it seemed it wasn't the time as she heard footsteps down the entrance of her cave. She almost sighed, knowing who was about to enter. After all, she was the one ordering him to be noisy in his advance as it wasn't his style and she would have killed him for sneaking up on her.
Her beloved's freak servant.
Honestly, she despised him for more than one reason, but she knew that her mate liked him as she realized what he saw in him. That dragon, despite being a disgusting half-breed, was capable and skilled, loyal to the Dark Lord and so a very useful tool for the Empire.
That was the reason why she hadn't had him killed yet, the reason why she decided to entrust him with the knowledge of this place, as that was the reason why when he triggered the call her spies used to call for her in the near forest and she went there finding him and not a wandering common instead of killing him, she heard him out.
Luckily so as he came with precious information, giving her the perfect occasion, she had been looking for a long time to make things turn for the better for the Empire.
Maybe destiny wasn't mocking her after all.
When the dragon's footsteps stopped, she didn't turn and he didn't wait for her to before he spoke.
"My Empress," he said, without the typical scared or reverent cadence. Probably, she guessed, he didn't even bother bowing. "It's time."
She couldn't help but smile. Where was that damned shadow? She wanted it to be there now so it could watch and see her taking firsthand the situation in her paws, doing the active job, without letting others, or Spyro doing all the work while she took just the credit.
"Everything's ready?" she asked.
"As you've instructed," Fenris replied.
Cynder gave a last glance to the broken dragoness in front of her. For a moment she thought to herself what reaction the other dragon would have painted to his face at the sight of her lab. But she waved it away. She didn't care and her beloved surely trained his first hand better than that. Back to the cavie, instead, a far more useful plan started to take shape in her mind.
Yes, she could make it work and the dragoness would be alive through it all as long as she was connected to the gems.
Her experiment was good and a big plan of hers, one like she hadn't conspired for twenty long years, was in motion.
"Good," she said, finally turning to face the furry dragon with her bright emerald eyes full of twisted anticipation.
Perhaps destiny wasn't mocking her after all.
"Let's get it started then."
MDT - MDT - MDT
She wasn't sure if the Mountain was more terrifying at day or night.
It's a fact that the night, with its darkness and ghostly moonlight, always tended to make things even more macabre than they really were and something which seemed alive, like dying. These are the recognized features of the night... it lived of appearances.
Nothing that the night transforms was really as evil as it managed to make it appear. Not the macabre is macabre, nor the alive is dead. But the night certainly had this misleading capacity for appearance, perspective, and fiction that nothing else in nature possesses. A capacity that can make fun of even the smartest of creatures, as well as the bravest of them, making them believe that its exaggerated atmosphere is real.
The ruins of Warfang were more than a concrete example of its power, and Fire had been the one who found herself most affected by this ability, the night's tricks.
After successfully surpassing the grumblings' camp, the dragons had camped exactly in the little bushes surrounding the Mountain, waiting for the right time to come. Fire had taken her time to look at the large and dark structure of the Mountain of Malefor. It seemed to break the night cloudy sky like the tip of a tail and only the look of that structure itself had given the dragoness the shivers down her spine more than she would ever have been willing to admit.
Hidden in the bushes, they had then observed the situation around the Mountain: how the guards were arranged, what the entrances were, and anything else that could help them enter inside unseen. Once inside they would then have to figure out what to do next. They were looking for the stolen eggs, but it certainly wouldn't have been easy for them without any knowledge of the inner layout of the enemy base.
What they saw did not seem particularly exciting. A large expanse of land separated the edge of the little brush area in which they were located from the base of the mountain. There were multiple entrances guarded by two large and well-placed ape guards armed with heavy sharp axes. In addition, around the whole base structure, there were other creatures like apes, and grumblings, working around and moving huge carts full of materials in and outwards the Mountain. The whole space around the Mountain was illuminated by big torches large enough to illuminate all the working land.
They didn't seem willing to receive unexpected visits.
Batch had guided them deep into the brushes in what he considered a safe place and, after giving a routine to do a patrol in pairs while the others slept, he would return to the previous position to see the best way to get in.
The next morning or better to say ongoing night as there seemed that it never got really morning, the Mountain had not lost the gloom that the night had attributed to it with her strange magic tricks. On the contrary, it looked even worse now illuminated in all its vastness by the spooky and without sun black cloudy light. The structure was exactly as macabre, off-placed, and dead just as it looked before.
It seemed that here the night hadn't anything to do with the Mountain's appearance because the potential was all there, to begin with.
The ongoing night passed by again and when real night came back, Batch returned and Fire was about to leave for her patrol. Their guide had a plan. A simple, but functional plan, something that probably came from his direct experience in the capital to defy and avoid dangerous encounters with imperials and so a plan that no one in the group would reject.
After discussing their next course of action, and deciding that night was the night, Batch retired to sleep and Fire walked away with Ahmos for the patrol.
It was late at real night, the spooky and milky moonlight clouded in the sky by some passing by clouds, and exactly as Batch said, this seemed to be the time when the work around the base of the Mountain was over and any crowd of apes and grumblings inside and outside the mountain went away not to return, leaving behind them only unused tools and two apes on the sides of each entrance.
It was the perfect opportunity to strike, the perfect opportunity for the plan to come into action.
A breeze of icy wind reached both the torches of the guards, turning them off.
Shooting forward in the light, Phantom and Batch attracted the guards' attention, while Kohle and Ahmos knocked them out before they even managed to give the alarm.
Sonohra and Fire were tasked with rekindling the torches now positioned on the sides of the cave, as well as disposing of the guards' bodies, to prevent some dreadwing from noticing anything from above.
The three groups acted quick, invisible, and silent, like a perfect and oiled deadly machine, and in no time, everything was clear and they could finally enter the Mountain. Fire was sincerely hoping that everything inside could go as smoothly as it went outside, but she wasn't an optimist, never been.
But before she could enter the entrance tunnel, the red dragoness stiffened. She had a strange feeling, something was wrong. All her senses were suddenly on alert and she could hear a tiny whistle inside her eardrum, sending her a frosty sensation down along her spine that she initially could not explain. It was a low, sharp sound, like the wind blowing inside a narrow slit, coming with force, but having to submit to the size of the crack, making a typical noise of when it is forced to blow where an obstacle is. Or even when something goes at great speed from the sky and-
As the realization struck her and her eyes went wide open, she had already thrown herself forward towards the white dragoness and inside the entrance. She pushed her and her puppy with all the force of her leap and her weight inside the cave, just before a large thing landed right behind them, leaving an earthquake at the impact on the terrain, making a scrapping noise and crumpling under what seemed too much weight.
Not at all discombobulated by the leap, she turned defensively positioning herself in front of everyone else who already entered the cave and showing her teeth. She would have protected them. No one would take them away from her, not a single member of their group, not even Batch. She swore it to herself when that trip began and she had no intention of letting anyone down.
But it was difficult to keep her emotions, especially her fear, from taking over at the sight she and all the others had in front of their very eyes:
A black creature, as black as the stairless night itself, had violently landed on one of those metal trolleys that the workers used until a few hours earlier, bending the metal under its weight, breaking through the bottom, and sending flying around all the material that was inside, scrapping and grunting and growling as it ripped apart the car.
It had its back turned on them, its head down in the car, sniffing and deeply inspiring air to verify the smell. It looked like it didn't see them, but Fire wasn't going to take any risk, so she remained motionless in her defensive position in front of the others. After the initial shock, she was all ready for any fight the beast wanted to bring upon them. She would have defended her group. She wouldn't let them down.
She heard a little noise on her left side and, turning slightly to see what it was, she noticed Sonohra by her side, a familiar appearance on her snout that meant only one thing: determination.
To her right appeared Phantom with a similar expression.
She couldn't see them, but she was sure that Ahmos and Kohle were no different.
An unfamiliar feeling warmed her from the inside at the thought of her friends fighting alongside her and then she understood one thing that she ignored the whole duration of their trip up until now.
They won't let her fight this alone. The group was united and focused on survival and anyone has the others' back.
Fire understood now that they would make it in the face of any threat. Together, they could have brought down any threat, even the strongest one and a single dark-looking creature would not be a challenge for them.
Fast, quiet, and clean they would take it down, and then resume their mission.
Feeling stronger in the presence of her friends by her side who would look over her back during the fight, the dragoness put a paw forward, her claws inserting into the earth ready to leap at the right time.
As if it was able to sense her new determination, the beast rose its head and started looking around. Then he was down again, smelling the ground as if it was looking for something on it. Fire remembered seeing those black creatures, those dreadwings at Warfang, but she wasn't sure of their abilities. She hoped it wasn't able to sniff them out by their smell, but at the same time, she was ready for it if it came down to it.
Suddenly the beast's head snapped to the side and they were able to see it opening its large jaws full of razor-sharp teeth, filthy and rotten, drooling black and muddy saliva but still very deadly looking. Then, out of nowhere, the beast roared an otherworldly roar.
Fire brought her paws to her ears to cover them from the screeching sound, but that didn't mean that she was less prepared for an assault. She knew now that it must have taken their scents and, having spotted the intruders, was it ready to turn around and fight them. She would cook it down to ashes before it was even able to scream again, she was going to make sure of that when it attacked.
But the beast did not. Instead, it snapped its head into the ground again, digging its muzzle into it and penetrating under, waving the rest of its body, especially its tail and wings. A few seconds and then it came out with what looked like a huge worm between his jaws. It was too dark to be sure of what it was, but the creature's size between the filthy teeth brought out of the ground was unmistakable.
It had to be some kind of giant desert worm.
The worm fought back, making a strange-sounding noise as sharp as a swarm of insects. But the large black-winged beast did not seem to give up, adding to the tooth bit, a quick movement from side to side at full speed of its head, slamming it on the floor, and then going back up and repeating the process to better penetrate and tear the worm's flesh or whatever it was made of.
The roar of the black beast, as well as the laments it received back from the strange, oversized worm quickly, came to a stop when the powerful jaws of the dreadwings did what they were built for and tore the large, long worm in half. A disgusting, blood-stained sound followed the killing, and even what looked like sticky liquid dripped from the torn-apart worm's body.
The first part of the worm was quickly swallowed whole with only one bend back of its head. Soon after the dreadwings hooked the part that fell on the ground, repeating the process with a voracity that certainly did not seem normal even for a hungry animal. Fire knew how it felt like to be hungry, not exactly that hungry, but she knew what it feels like. Still, she was sure that when she finally found food, she certainly hadn't that voracity, nor did her friends.
After the meal, instead of turning and fighting them as she was now prepared for, the beast took flight with a noisy flapping of wings and sand fluttering in all directions, fading into the night black sky as if it was never even there.
Fire as well as the other dragons remained motionless and silent for a moment. Adrenaline was still in her body for the fight that was supposed to take place, just as stiffness was hard to send away now that it was denied that same fight. Luckily, the beast had been too busy with what was supposed to be its meal, and it completely omitted their smells... or so she liked to think.
"W-wh-what the hell…" whispered Ahmos from behind her.
Sonohra replied while she turned to pick up the puppy she had cleverly hidden behind her so as not to show him the event.
"Keep it together, Ahmos," she told him, trying to sound calm and strong but Fire knew her and she could sense in her tone that, deep down she was just as nervous as everyone else in there. "Better it than we," she merely said. "We spared ourselves a potentially uncomfortable fight."
She wasn't wrong about that.
"Keep quiet now," Batch reminded them. "We are entering a territory we do know nothing about."
"Oh, I love that part," sarcastically said Phantom.
Fire could see Sonohra sending him a deadly glare to which he just smiled.
The whole group of dragons started to enter the Mountain of Malefor, for now, unseen. Fire was closing the group as she decided it was best for them all for her to cover the rear and keep an eye on them all as Batch opened the way inside this place.
But she had to admit it silently to herself. After that recent event with the dreadwing, looking directly to possible death and knowing that Sonohra, Phantom, and all the others were at her side in their fight for survival…now she felt somehow safer as she walked quietly behind as quietly moving paws ahead of her. She wasn't exactly as proud looking as she had been during her time at the base, but she certainly could now feel some of her emotional difficulties, especially fear, fading away as she just figured out something that she seemed to have completely erased from her mind before. Something obvious, something she should have known without dreadwing incident, but that apparently, she needed to learn again after so many years of knowing it down at the base.
Her friends were there with her in all, both good and bad moments.
And even in worse moments, she should know that nothing could go wrong, as long as they're together fighting it.
MDT - MDT - MDT
The interior of the Mountain was a labyrinth.
It was formed by so many long and quite narrow corridors that led to a junction that divided the corridor into three other corridors. Each one of them was made in the same way as the previous one so that Fire and the others had no idea how to distinguish one already taken from the one they need to take.
Some corridors had a difference though, which was the presence of some doors on the right side of the wall. Large brown wooden doors with black hinges. They were apes-friendly, or even grublings-friendly, certainly not adult dragon-friendly. But a teenage dragon could pass through.
When they find the first door on their path, they thought about it for a few seconds if it was wise to open it. They weren't exactly sure what that door could hide and it was never a good option to wake up the enemy when you're in his belly. But they needed to figure out which way to go and where to find the eggs, so they opened the door anyway.
Inside, they found crates like in Blackashes' warehouse. Crates all around filled the large and not so well illuminated room. Initially, they hoped they might be the same crates of Blackashes and so the ones with the eggs inside but as they scoured the place and crates, they would only find weapons such as swords, spears, or axes for the dark army.
The other rooms were no more useful. They were all the same inside and they contained all the same crates stacked one on top of the other, of the same size and workmanship, and that contained materials that were to serve the dark army, and in other some food that they did not bother to steal for their good.
A kind of control room like the one Fire and Phantom found in Blackashes' arena was nowhere to be found, nor something that could at least show them which way to go.
Moreover, the place seemed empty and abandoned and silent like a cemetery at night and they had seen no one other than them throughout their stay inside the mountain, just as they had not heard a noise other than what their claws did in contact with the rocky ground when they walked throughout the place.
Fire felt it was strange. Too strange. Her fear resurfaced and the little optimism she had gathered just before entering the place was beginning to lose its strength in the face of the possibility that things here could go wrong. The others, too, felt similarly. Of course, there should be a problem when the most famous imperial base after the imperial palace itself lacked so evidently staff going around and guarding it from the inside. It is expected that, even in the middle of the night, someone will be left guarding inside the storage room not trusting that the outside guards can keep anyone out. It was true that the dreadwings that obscured the sky above the mountain were a fairly clear clue to anyone that perhaps it was not the best of ideas, but those most reluctant to heed the obvious warnings as a group of resistance members like them exists. The Empire was supposed to care enough for their Mountain to use more internal security measures, a kind of guard or patrol, or something.
Yet there was no one in there. Not even a soul. Just them.
"I don't like this place," whispered Ahmos, sounding all too worried. "I don't like this place at all."
"Shut up, Ahmos. If someone hears you, we are done for and the eggs too," hissed Sonohra.
"Who will hear me? The ghosts?" replied the ice dragon.
Sonohra glanced at him with a deadly glare and he was silent but the problem of the lack of staff in there was one that everyone couldn't help but feel as dangerous.
"He's right, though," said Phantom. "Where are everyone?"
"Keep moving," arrived Batch's voice. "We have little time."
"You don't feel like there is a problem?" asked Phantom to their guide.
He nodded.
"So?" pressed the purple dragon.
"Be prepared," said Batch.
"For what?" asked Sonohra.
"For everything."
The dragons continued to advance deeper and deeper inside the Mountain, following the resistance guard leader. Each dragon was clearly on the edge and everyone could sense that something was not right. Every time they opened a door, every time they changed corridor, there was that half masochistic hope that they would find on the other side some sleeper that showed that they were not alone in the Mountain and that there was nothing to worry about.
But every room they came across was always the same. Nothing of their interest. They were here for something else, and that certainly wasn't weapons or building materials.
Fire was on the verge of paranoia as she kept looking behind her back to assure that no one was following them. It seemed not and the corridors were well-illuminated so it meant that someone must have used them or passed through them to light the torches. Still, the Mountain seemed deserted and, unless the Ancestors suddenly decided to grant them a miracle and make all those in charge to work in the Mountains' security take a sick day, then it must have been really difficult for such a situation to exist. There had to be something underneath and she didn't like the thoughts that her mind was going into, nor the gloomy and dark possibilities that these thoughts were creating.
She tried to think positively, to counterbalance her thoughts. They did not know the regular activity of the Mountain and, considering that there was nothing so important inside that deserved more security, perhaps they had thought of putting only two external levels, the dreadwings, and the armored apes, and no one wandering inside for the nights.
But that was a pretty stupid thought, and she knew it. This is not only because the Empire wasn't one taking security for granted when it came to guarding some of its structure, but also because the Governor said that eggs were brought here and so if they were here, they would have to be defended, controlled, and guarded even if they were to hatch before time. What would the Empire do if some of those had hatched at night without control and then the young dragons had wandered the Mountain aimlessly and without protection? She didn't imagine the Empire caring about the health of young dragons, or anyone for that matter, but if they struggled so hard to steal them and the Empress seemed to care so much for them, at least they had to put someone to control them.
And then, even if the Mountain was just another meeting point before being shipped further elsewhere, that also assumed a kind of cargo guard, right? The Empire would never leave the eggs alone, right? Or were there no more eggs inside because they had all already been taken away, and so every guard was useless here and they were all sent away?
The various combinations built apprehension into Fire's very soul who had long since lost her composure and now found herself once again tarnished with doubts and fears after what had seemed like a tiny step forward in her recovery path.
"Guys, look over there!" a sudden voice interrupted her internal rants.
She rose her head from the ground to look.
They were no longer in a maze. Or rather, it was still a labyrinth but from their new position, they could see what looked like a volcanic crossed cylinder rising to the top. From that kind of window on the heart of the mountain, they could see that they had remained at the base for all that time wandering between corridors without even noticing it and that the path continued upwards from here, with the road being practically bridges suspended above the void inside the volcano-like structure. The very top of the Mountain was too far from their current location and because of it still not visible.
"We have to move on, quickly," said Batch, starting to go on the first of many hanging-on-the-void bridges. "The road to the top is longer than we thought and we have already used most of our time here at the base. If we're still in here when the day comes…" his tone darkened and he didn't need to say anything else for them to understand what he meant.
"I don't like the sound of that," commented Ahmos, gulping.
Their pace became faster as they went up, as did the control inside the chambers on their way.
The strips of soil suspended over the void inside the Mountain were the scariest but also most beautiful parts of the journey, despite the danger. They went from one side of the volcanic cone to the other through these large rectangular stone bridges, ruined by time and that did not seem particularly safe without any kind of side protection. For dragons, it wouldn't have been a problem because they could fly, and they would have done it to the top if they weren't looking for the eggs and if they weren't afraid of their wings being heard by possible enemies. But for apes and grublings, the feeling had to be completely different.
From those bridges, Fire could see aloft where the other bridges were, large bare structures hanging over nothing. Below, she could see those they had already passed. All in an atmosphere of complete silence, greyness, and the rocks of the inner mountain of a dark purple core that looked like Phantom's scales shining opaque in the little light there was and giving a sense of physical and mental pressure on the observer. She could feel this sense of danger and pressure, but maybe this was because of her emotional condition…
As they were walking at a fast pace to get to the summit, they came across something they didn't expect at all. An anonymous room, in an anonymous hallway, with anonymous crates just as all the other rooms they had already sifted through. Here, though, featured what looked like a sheet attached to a central crate in plain sight.
"Uhhh, something's written over here," said Ahmos, who was the first to enter and who had found the sheet, curiously staring at the writing. "What does it say?" he asked.
"Unfortunately, I know nothing about apes writing," replied Kohle little behind his icy friend.
"But I do," intervened Batch, approaching from behind them to take a better look at the inscription. He read very quickly and immediately his expression darkened.
"What does it say?" asked Sonohra who must have noticed his expression.
"It says that these crates must be moved higher up the Mountain to a room called... the eggs room."
All the dragons were initially surprised at this revelation, then excited.
Fire herself was quite happy despite the concerns, for it had to mean that at least they were making progress in their mission, and soon they could get on with this rescue operation.
Once this was done, she was very much hoping that it would all end and that all of them could go back to base, or at least find a safe place to stay out of the Empire's eyes forever. She had certainly lost her urge for adventure for the next thousand years and intended on taking a long retirement with her friends.
"What are we waiting for!" Ahmos shouted, practically jumping like a puppy all over the place. "Let's go get them!"
"Wait," interrupted Phantom, looking uncertain. "What's in these crates if they're to be brought up there?"
Kohle opened a crate as they had already done in the previous rooms and inside, this time, he found no weapons, but ampoules made of a material that exactly mirrored Phantom's scales and the mountain's inner stone. Dark purple ampoules.
Batch took a closer look at the compound. He gently took a bottle with his paw, paying attention not to make it fall to the ground. Inside the ampoule, it wasn't exactly liquid, but the substance wasn't entirely solid either. It was a practically gelatinous compound and, in the center of it, the substance created what looked like a purple crystal.
None of them had ever seen anything of the sort.
"What do you think it is?" asked Sonohra, getting closer and trying to get a better look at it.
Batch shook his head, putting the mixture back with the others who were well arranged in the case between straw and other materials that would prevent them from breaking even in the event of a fall.
"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about it" he answered, darkly.
Phantom voice sliced through the building tension like a knife. His voice was tense, and the warning was evident.
"Someone's coming."
"Hurry, behind the crates!" ordered Batch.
Fire rushed behind one large stack of crates, at the far left of the room. She was alone there, but she saw a lightning-tipped tail disappearing in the stack near hers, so she knew Sonohra and Licht were nearby.
Voices and grunts came from the outside, getting closer and closer with each passing second. Whoever it was, it was clear that they weren't trying to sneak on them, and that meant that they weren't expecting visitors that night. It could have been a good thing, if those imperials were heading exactly towards their room, opening it with a loud rattling sound of wood on the stone floor.
Fire hid completely as soon as the door started cracking open. Now she couldn't see a thing, only hear what was happening in the room.
For a moment nothing happened and she was only able of hearing her own heart beating inside her chest, her throat, her very ears. Then, a voice broke the silence.
"Which one?" said a hissing, low voice that could only belong to a grubling, surely not an ape. She heard some of them during their little excursion in their camp some meters away from the Mountain.
"Pick one," said the other voice, similar to the first, clearly someone who didn't care which one crates the other was going to pick.
A noise of steps followed and the grubling stopped somewhere at the center of the room, to her right. She didn't know if someone was behind those crates, she only hoped the grublings didn't need all of them.
The grubling grunted as it raised one of the crates and what was inside, loudly rubbing one crate over the one below.
"They're heavy," it said.
The other grubling scoffed and noise of steps followed it helping his comrade.
"I can't let you ruin what's inside, or we are both done for," said the second voice.
"What's inside?" asked the first, as she could hear the fatigue in its voice. Probably they were both raising that crate together.
"Not sure," said the second voice. "But the apes need it for the upper stairs and we are to deliver it intact if we want to keep our heads. That thing's expensive, be careful with it." The voice stopped for a moment, before- "What are you doing?"
The noise of wood probably meant that the grubling positioned the crate over another, or on the ground.
"Are you not curious about what's inside?" asked the first voice, hissing mischievously.
"No," said the other. "I like my head where it is, thank you."
"You say it's expensive," pressed the first voice. "Maybe we can sell it or something," he proposed.
"Oh, it seems like a plan," said the second voice, seeming to accept the first's idea. "And tell me, what are you planning to do after you've sold it?"
"It depends on the value," said the first, pragmatically. "If it's a very valuable thing, maybe we will need one or two crates to become rich and start a new life. The desert's a shit, you know?" he said, sounding bitter. "If it's not that valuable, maybe we can do some money out of it and then go ahead with our life like always."
"Like always," repeated the second voice. Then he did a strange sound, that wasn't much like a sigh, but it was the nearest thing Fire could relate it to when she heard it.
"You are quite new here, right?" the second voice asked.
"Yes, but-" tried to say the first before one of the two yelped in shock, fear, and pain.
Fire gasped behind her hiding place. She didn't know what just happened, but she could easily imagine the next words of the second voice.
"Let me teach you a lesson about your job, new one," hissed warningly the second voice, probably towering with its body over the first. "You don't steal from the Empire and live long enough to tell it. Many other apes and grublings tried to rebel, steal, desert, and escape, but they have always a way of finding you, no matter how distant you've escaped, no matter how well you think you've found shelter, no matter how smart you think you are. . .You, got it?" and before the other could say something, the voice continued, hissing louder. "And this," it said, probably pointing at the crate they were to carry up the Mountain. "Whatever it contains, it contains something she made, personally. If you don't want to steal from the Empire generally, you don't want to steal from her directly, trust me. The bitch's crazy, but she's too powerful, and if you steal from her, pray she will send him after you, because if she's the one chasing…well, have you heard the rumors about what's happening in the belly of this Mountain?"
No vocal answer came, but she could easily imagine the other grubling nodding vigorously at that. Of course, it must have understood the dangers, as even Fire understood it, getting who she and he were. About the rumors, she didn't want to know about them, she was quite sure of it.
"Good," said the second voice, now returning to a more stable and normal hiss in his voice. "Take the other side, and let's get out of here. That place smells of dragon, and it is never a good thing, believe me. Maybe he's been here recently."
"And we don't want to be here if he comes back," said the first voice, speaking for the first time after a long time.
"No, we don't," agreed the other.
Next, they were out and the door closed behind them, leaving them in complete and surrounding silence.
"Are you all right?" asked Batch, after a minute or so, probably making sure the grublings left the place for good.
"Yes," arrived Phantom voice first, then the others, Sonohra's as the last one.
The dragons left their hiding position, gathering in the middle of the room in silence after what they had just heard, the elephant in the room too big to be left ignored.
"You heard-"tried Ahmos.
"Yes, we did," answered rapidly Kohle at his side.
Ahmos gulped. "And you think that those she and he…he was referring to-" his voice faded, but everyone there understood whom he was referring to.
The other dragons remained silent for a long time. Everyone thought about it, Fire's not the only one, and that was a non-indifferent complication. Something that could easily transform their mission into a suicide mission.
"They didn't actually say she was here," said Sonohra, breaking the silence.
"They didn't," agreed Batch. "From our spies' intelligence, we know that the Empress likes the comforts of her palace, Concurrent Skies. She rarely moves from there."
"But they said that he could have been inside this room not too long ago," pointed out Phantom, his voice kept strong but only a facade to try and hide his apprehension for the matter. "They smelled our scent and thought it was his." His stare was hard as he continued. "Who do you think him is for them to fear him so much to want to be outta her as soon as possible?"
"We don't know for sure it's him," Batch said.
"But we don't know for sure it isn't," retorted Phantom.
"And what do you propose to do, Phantom?" growled Sonohra. "Escape now? Escape when we are so close to the top?"
"We are also so close to being killed," pointed out the purple dragon. "If he's here and he doesn't know we are here, he will soon know. We can escape now, we may have a chance."
"Or," interjected Sonohra, looking fiercely determined to through with the mission, her lightning, yellow eyes shining with jolts of light. "We can go to the top of that Mountain, find the eggs, and bring them out with us."
"No one's to say we will get out of that Mountain, with or without the eggs," debated Phantom, shifting his attention to their guide. Probably he understood that Sonohra wasn't the best dragoness with whom to discuss the matter as he would have lost against her, so he redirected his attention to their leader, hoping for a good response from the other electric dragon. "You know it to be true," he said to him.
"I know," said Batch, nodding slowly. "But I still think we should proceed."
"Batch, please-"tried Phantom, but was interrupted before he could go on.
"The idea, Phantom, remember? I'm fighting for an idea, I'm fighting for what I think is right and I'm not going to change my mind based on an overheard conversation between two grublings." Then he shifted his attention to the other dragons. "I know we've already talked about it, but we are in a difficult situation and if you don't want to go any further, you are free to leave, no judgment from me."
"I'm in," said Kohle, right after Batch's finished.
"I admit that I'm shitting myself at the thought and I like to think that-" began the ice dragon.
"Ahmos!" admonished Kohle, with a sharp glance at his friend.
"I'm in too," said Ahmos with a little, embarrassed smile.
"Of course, I'm in," said Sonohra, emphasizing it with a step ahead.
Fire, at her side, looked at her best friend. She would have liked to go down that Mountain, to go far, far away from that Mountain, from Blackashes, from the Empire and everything, and never come back. But, alas, she had a mission of her own, and if Batch believed in the idea, she believed in the fact that she had to protect her friends, no matter what. So if they went, she went too.
She silently nodded her agreement when Batch looked at her.
Batch turned to the purple dragon and waited, just like every other dragon inside the room.
Phantom remained silent for a long time, sharing glances with everyone, even with her, as if to analyze them, to watch into their very souls. Then he lowered her head, shaking it slowly, a small laugh coming from his throat.
"What's so funny?" asked Sonohra, sounding a bit irritated by it.
"Nothing," said Phantom, raising his head to meet the white dragoness' eyes. "I was just thinking that this is the second time I've tried to stop this madness, and the second time I've been closed out. I was just thinking that, out of so many dragons on the Realm to encounter that day weeks ago, I could have chosen someone less suicide," he joked.
"It could have been worse," said Kohle. "Imagine encountering Ahmos alone that day."
"I would have never survived that long to make it to the forest," said Ahmos. "But you could have spent 15 years of your life with Cyril. That would be really nasty."
Sonohra rolled her eyes at their antics. "So? Are you in or not?"
Phantom smiled a little. "I'm," he said. "How could I leave you in a moment like that? You'll need someone to watch your back."
"Ok, then," nodded Sonohra. "Now we go up," she added as she started toward the door.
"Wait," said Batch, halting her mid-way. "We have to be more careful now. Now we have known that on the higher floors there is surveillance," he said, gloomy. "So if on the one hand, it helps us to eliminate any doubts that we had before about a potential trap." It was funny that he said that, as it was evident that everyone thought that way. "We also have proof that up there must be something important if they want it to be guarded when the rest of the Mountain looks empty...the egg room."
"Why so high up in the Mountain?" complained Ahmos, snorting. "Why not on the first floor? It would have been so much easier for us."
"I'm not so sure about that," replied Kohle.
"It doesn't matter now," Batch interrupted them. "Now we know where to go, we know we should pay more attention as enemies could be behind every corner, and we know we don't have all night to find the eggs and get out of here. So let's get to work!"
Fire kept having a bad feeling about the whole operation and its success.
MDT - MDT - MDT
Mountain climbing became much more complicated.
Although there weren't many, there were still a lot of guards in the second half of the Mountain, and half of them were huge and ugly-looking apes like the one they had just encountered. Those beasts were hard to kill and they wouldn't go down so easily, especially when they had the backup of some other guard stumbling upon them.
So the climb was ever slower. Not to be caught by the guards, it was necessary to hide inside random rooms throughout the corridors and be careful that there was no one inside the next passage before entering it. Then if some beast happened to be in their corridor, they had to wait inside the room, waiting for it to go away. Which could take time, so much that Fire wondered more than once if it was faster for them to take the guards down on their way up. At least, she thought, they wouldn't have found them on their way back.
The descent factor was also a complicated one. They entered the Mountain and they were going up to the top. They knew where the eggs were, and if everything would go according to plan, they would have found a way to bring the eggs down with them. But they were running out of time, the guards were so many, and the morning was approaching, so that every minute they waited in a dark room with crates waiting for the umpteenth guard to leave, it was a minute lost to do the same thing during the descent.
How would they bring the eggs down? How would they get back down to the base of that monstrosity and past the guards? How could they overcome the dreadwings that were guarding the whole perimeter from high above?
The questions were many, the answers were non-existent. The only thing they knew was that they were going up, they were close to the target, and seemed to be the only thing that mattered.
But the more they went up, the more she felt some odd feeling that she couldn't get out of her skin, and it was making her uncomfortable throughout the climb. It was some kind of inner fear, a warning from her instincts and subconscious, a warning not to go that way, not to climb that Mountain, and the more she climbed the stronger it got.
At first, she thought about some kind of trap, but it was not possible that the Empire knew anything about their arrival or their mission. It was true, they did have some problems at the beginning of their journey in the desert, but the patrols would have no way of understanding a group of dragons was heading towards their stronghold to steal back eggs from them. Much more likely and rational was what Batch said about the Empire keeping in this section of the structure something much more valuable to be guarded and that was because the base was kept mostly unguarded.
So where did this fear come from? She couldn't understand why, but this fear she felt was…different this time, and it scared her. If the emotions she has been feeling these days were based on serious concerns about a real and concrete threat before her very muzzle, this one seemed to come directly from within herself, from her very core.
It had to be her instinct.
Her mother had spoken about instinct in one of her many lessons. She said that instinct could be a useful tool to survive in the darkest of situations, but when it came down to what she defined as "usual things" it was useless, and generally, it kept quiet. Only now, after what she learned about the purple dragon's betrayal and the Empress' take of power, she understood what Ember meant, probably referring to her instinct's incapability of spotting the purple dragon's and the Empress' danger to the old city.
So what to do now? This wasn't a "usual thing". Much more likely the darkest situation option, so it would be good to listen to her instinct and warn her friends of the danger. But she knew that they would turn her down. They thought she was emotionally unstable and she was so if she told them not to proceed, out of the blue, they would not listen to her. Rightly, what reason would she have to offer other than "I feel that something is wrong, let's go back". She was sure that everyone was feeling somehow the same, but unlike her, they were not so unstable internally and so not so keen to stop a journey they risked everything to even start.
Sonohra would never allow her to stop the mission, not when they were so close to the top, not ever. If the group magically decided to follow her and start the descent, she knew that the white dragoness would keep up the climbing alone and to the final objective, no matter what.
Fire tried to swallow her suffocating fear as she could and remained in position at the back of the group, raising to the top.
She did not know where they were, but basing her judgment on the remaining corridors above them, she could say they were almost at the top of the mountain, probably one or two floors down the top. After surpassing the last group of guards without being seen, the dragons stopped in front of a wooden door like many others they encountered on their trip inside the Mountain. The difference was that atop of that door the words "Eggs room" were written on the rock, translated by Batch.
That was it.
That was the door that, beyond, contained what they were looking for since the discovery of what the Empire was doing to the families in Blackashes and probably other cities too. Now they were there, within reach of their objective after yet another grueling journey to the surface that as young dragons of the underground had learned to be afraid of.
Fire watched the others, trying to understand from the looks on their muzzles what they were thinking and the result was diversified. Batch remained neutral as one would expect from a guard leader of the Resistance, Kohle and Ahmos seemed satisfied, smiling lightly at one another. Phantom looked wary as if an ape would break out of that door all of a sudden and Sonohra smiled brightly at Licht whom shily smiled back at her.
And Fire… Fire was scared. Or better, terrified. Her heart was beating faster than it should in normal conditions, her instinct was trying to take control and lead her legs to an immediate escape from the opposite side of that stupid wooden door, and her tail stirring behind her was the only sign of the conflict going on inside. The muzzle and expression, as well as the desire to mix the paws on the floor, were suppressed as well as she could.
Batch watched them, asking silently whether or not to open that door. When he seemed to receive his answer from the majority of the group, he delicately and noiselessly cracked the door open.
They had to hurry, any guard could come into that corridor to find them in the middle of it.
As their guide opened the door, Fire's heart skipped a beat.
A second before they were out in the hallway in front of that door which meant the end of their journey, the completion of their mission; the next moment they were all inside the large square room with the door silently closed behind them so as not to be discovered one step away from the end.
The room was the same as the others they had entered all night, only that this one had a different feature that was noticeable: the crates inside were not stacked on each other but were well arranged inside the room and they were systematically resting along the entire perimeter of the room.
Unable to contain her happiness, Sonohra was the first one to snap out of her astonishing state and reach for the nearest crate, opening it not exactly silently. And what she found inside the crate, fortunately, did not disappoint.
Colorful eggs, of all colors, well arranged in rows of three, all between the straw that filled most of the case and that kept them warm. They also looked clean and in good condition, shining under the orange light of the torches in the room.
"See!" Sonohra said, clearly fighting to keep her voice excitement down in her voice. "We finally found them! We found the eggs! Now we could take them home to their families and the Empire will have fewer slaves for its brainless army."
Sonohra's expression mirrored the raw powerful light that was contained in her very eyes. It was something Fire no longer expected to see from anyone there, not even from her best friend. Happiness and fulfillment were difficult to feel when the world around was so dark and greedy that the only fulfilling emotion would come from surviving to the next day without incidents. Yet, Sonohra found her mission to accomplish, her objective which brought her not only victory but also, satisfying emotions. Satisfying emotions that the white female was not even trying to hide at that moment.
Ahmos, Kohle, and even Phantom and Batch. Everyone shared the same satisfying emotions Sonohra was feeling, it was clear on their muzzles.
Then, why couldn't she do the same? Why her fear only rose with each passing minute in there? Why would her instinct not let her be?
"Yes, we found them," Batch said, approaching to stand by the white female. He smiled at her reassuringly, before his expression became more serious as he faced them all. "But now we need a method to bring them down safely by the end of the night. We don't have much time left."
As usual, Batch was realistic. It was something Fire appreciated about this dragon and that certainly helped her come to terms with reality herself. They had arrived, everything was fine, and there was nothing to worry about because now they would plan and complete the mission... with Batch, the result could only be that she could ignore her internal voice trying to break her for good and do what had to be done to complete the mission and go away from that damned Mountain.
She just needed to keep it together for a while longer. Then, it was through and they were out of there, never to cross the Empire's path again. She swore it to herself.
That was the time when the young dragons would have to choose what to do next to bring those eggs down and into safety. There was no lack of proposals.
"We should bring a crate for all of them down with us."
"They are too heavy and visible and it will slow us down. We will never get off this mountain like that."
"Then what do you propose? Throw them downstairs to get them there faster?"
"Don't mock me, I was just pointing out the reality of the facts."
"So, what would you do, instead?"
Fire detached early from the ongoing discussion among the male dragons and headed for the other female of the group who seemed too interested in the eggs that she excluded herself from the topic of how to bring the eggs to safety. She found them, she accomplished more than anyone in Blackashes could claim, and this seemed to be enough for her to keep a giant, bright smile on her muzzle.
Fire sat next to her as Sonohra gently took with her mouth a red egg from the crate she had opened, and then placed it in front of her as if it were made of glass. The small object attracted Licht's curiosity, clearly searching the egg for something special. After all, the white dragoness has chosen that egg among all. From his confused look, he didn't seem to find anything special.
"It doesn't seem to have anything special," he said, looking back at the white female confusingly.
Sonohra chuckled. "You're wrong," she told him, an amused admonition. "It has something special, you just can see it and you probably won't see it for some other lunar cycles."
Licht looked even more confused, so Sonohra tried to explain it better.
"What you see in front of you is a simple red egg, right?" she asked, and the hatchling nodded his agreement. "To your external senses as smell and sight and even touch you don't see anything different than the other eggs that are in the crate and all the crates in here, right?" He nodded again. "What if I told you that you before you and me and Fire and every one before we were born, were nothing but a small and colored egg with nothing distinctive compared to the others from the outside?"
Licht frowned, clearly thinking about that.
Fire understood what her friend was trying to say and even just watching the scene before she made her feel better, helping her fight against that internal unrest that was keeping its pushing to the outside. The more she looked at her best friend interacting with a puppy and a bunch of eggs like a wise mother would do with her child, the more she was able to keep her anxiety at bay and away in the depths of her insides.
"So does that mean that no one has anything special?" asked Licht, seeming slightly dissatisfied with the logical conclusion he come to.
Sonohra laughed. "Yes and no," she replied. "Yes, because none of us is more special than others. Not me, not you, not even the Guardians or the Empress herself," she explained calmly. "No, because each of us is special in his or her own way!"
Licht's frown expression only deepened before it snapped into frustration. "I don't understand! It's so hard!" he complained.
"Come closer so that I can show you," encouraged Sonohra lowering with her snout a few centimeters from the egg, observing it with excitement. Licht reflects on the pose waiting for something to happen, looking for something in the egg that he did not seem to see at all. Fire merely observed the couple, ignoring the discussion behind her so that she drink in the moment, feeling good and warm at least for a small time.
"What you see now is nothing but a small colored egg," she started to explain. "But inside this little shell is a life with a heart that beats already as strong as yours and mine. When it hatches, it will reveal a puppy with personality, character, interests, strengths, as well as weaknesses. In short, a unique creature will come out of that shell, not completely like the mother or the father, but simply as himself or herself. A special living being is different but at the same time equal to everyone. As I said, special in its particular way as we all are,"
She looked up at Licht who was still looking at the egg, now more attentive as if trying to see through the thick layer of red scales to find this being "special in its way". The puppy was thinking about it, murmuring more to himself than to the older dragons. "Nothing special outside, special in his way inside," he continued to repeat it, like a mantra, until he opened his eyes in total amazement as if he had discovered only at that moment the greatest secret. He raised his head and smiled brightly at the white dragoness.
"Nothing special outside, special inside!"
Sonohra smiled and nodded. Then, she caressed the red shell, which contained hope inside. A hope to defeat the empire one day. A hope that promises a better future.
"That's the key thing, Licht, and you should take care of it as if it was your own. As every one of them as if they were your own."
"Is that why we have come here to save them? Because they are special in their own way?" Licht asked, looking up from the egg and to the white dragoness above him.
The dragoness' expression darkened slightly. "More or less, Licht. We must save them because their specialty is at risk. The bad guys want to take the creature inside which is now special in its own way and kill that specialness, making them all the same," she tried to explain as easily as possible for a child to understand.
"No more special in their own way?" Licht asked horrified, visibly shuddering at the thought.
Sonohra shook her head, sadly and Licht suddenly surrounded the small delicate egg with his wings, hiding it from view as if in that way he could hide it even from the horrors of the real world. An innocent, instinctual move, but he was a puppy who more than him was able of such sentiment?
"We will save them, don't we?" he asked, looking at Sonohra but even at her who had been silent the whole time. "Will we save their special in their own way?"
"Of course, Licht!" replied Sonohra as a matter of fact, determined. "We are here for this. To prevent the Empire from taking away their specialty from them and making them all the same."
Then she looked up from the little one to her, waiting for an answer as Licht directed the question also to her and Sonohra wanted her to answer if the smile she was throwing at her was an indication of that.
Fire inhaled deeply, trying to drive away the always-present feeling of fear and warning. She might be a hypocrite by agreeing to this as she was only there because she wanted to keep an eye on her friends and make sure they will all get out of that cursed place with their own lives. The eggs were never the objective for her. But, she couldn't help but feel more interested in the fate of the eggs after Sonohra's little and softened explanation. What she meant was that the Empire was going to brainwash those little ones and made them their mindless army to keep its iron grip on the Realm. And that was something that, sooner or later no matter how distant and how long she intended on escaping the Empire, she would have to face, a danger she couldn't allow to exist. So yes, the eggs might be a secondary achievement as they were already there.
After a long time, she released her breath, nodding accordingly and for the first time in a very long time, smiling at the puppy and her friend. Perhaps, she ventured to think, she could be all right for once and they would all benefit from it.
A loud bang destroyed the moment.
Fire jumped from her sitting position, surprised, turning alarmed with all her senses alert towards the door of the entrance that lay unhinged and uprooted a few steps from her, abandoned on the floor. In front of them, an army of apes and grublings armed from head to toe was smiling disgustingly from their only exit from that room, from that place.
That feeling that she has tried to choke down until then broke all its bonds and returned completely to the surface telling her that it had tried to warn her, to warn everyone here, but that she had not listened to it. Fire's heart sank into the depths of her stomach at the realization that it was right... all the time it had been right.
And now she could also have given a name to the feeling she had felt all that time, given by the very feeling now free to slam in her face the truth that she had tried to bury under layers of broken willpower.
The feeling was one of danger.
But not of any danger.
The danger of a trap.