Sorry about the delay. Exams are the bane of my existence at the moment.
Ragnarok's POV:
"See anything yet?" Dart called to Meru. We rode on Tygris's back, scanning the rocky coast below him for any sign of the cultist army. After leaving the island that morning, we'd reached the coast of Tiberoa and flown steadily inland, following the trail of the cultist army. We'd been able to track them almost all the way to the barrens, but then had lost their trail as what little trace of footprints there had been disappeared as the ground changed from sand to rock.
"Not yet," Meru responded, performing a little spin in mid-air as she did so. She flew in ever increasing circles around Tygris and Rasqul, keeping watch for any gorges and canyons that the cultists could have disappeared into. "I've seen a couple possibilities, but they're all either too narrow or too shallow. They did a good job of hiding; if I didn't know better, I'd say that the earth just opened and swallowed them up."
Dart grunted, and then turned his eyes back to scanning the ground below. /What about you? Do you feel the dragoon stones around here anywhere?/
//I'm getting a few inklings, but nothing very specific. I'd say that we aren't too far off though// I paused, testing the area once again with my mind. //I'd say try to your left a little more//
Dart repeated my message to Tygris, then took a firmer handhold as the dragon banked sharply in the indicated direction, letting the air spill from under his wings as he dropped into a shallow dive. Pulling out of it about twenty feet above the wall of the nearest gorge he flew along at a leisurely pace, enjoying the feel of the hot sun on his back. //Lazy idiot// I muttered to myself.
/What was that?/
//Nothing. Just reflecting on your mount's behavior. Would you mind telling him to wake up a bit?// I was about to add 'and a slap upside the head' as well when I felt something off to the southeast. I brought my mind to bear on it, but no sooner had I found it then it disappeared again. Not that it mattered: the damage had already been done. //Got them//
/Where?/
//In a gorge to the south. Demara's been trying to shield them, but she slipped up a minute ago. They're all there: Gold, White-silver, Blue Sea, and Jade//
/No Red-eye?/
//There doesn't seem to be. I guess they haven't been able to find it yet//
Dart called out directions, and a moment later both dragons had landed. Meru hovered off south, disappearing and reappearing as she flew in and out of the rock formations. //Where's she going?//
/Scouting things out, I'd expect. Don't worry, she'll be back soon/ Taking off his jacket, Dart found some shade and sat down to take a break from the burning sun. The two dragons flopped down on the rocky ground, relishing the sun. Rasqul in particular seemed to enjoy the heat, but he was a fire dragon after all. Eleven thousand years or so ago this could have been home to his breed. Even now, in a world that had changed vastly for us dragons, the sight of him lying on the craggy earth with his rust colored scales blending almost perfectly with the jagged stone still seemed perfectly natural. It both angered and saddened me: for all those years both humans and dragons were ruled over by the winglies. Only by combining our powers were we able to free Endiness from their tyranny. And yet in the end it was the weaker of us two, the humans, who rose to take power over the continent. The dragons were forced to leave Endiness for the lands to the east, a continent untouched by either the hands of humans or winglies. And while all this happened I had been sealed away in my own lair, unable to prevent it. For some reason the very thought of it all made me want to maim something.
/Let it be, Ragnarok/ Dart's voice swam through my mind. /What has happened has happened and there's nothing you can do about it/
//I know. I'd still like to kill something though//
/Save it for the cultists. I don't know how happy they'll be to oblige, but you can still take it out on them/
//I can live with that//
/I doubt they can/
//Too bad for them. Is Meru coming back yet?//
Dart glanced off in the direction that she'd left in. /Not yet, but she shouldn't be too much longer/ Closing his eyes, he pulled his bandana down to cover them and leaned back against the rock. After a moment or so he started to doze, the heat of the wasteland beginning to take its toll. The only sound was the warm southern wind as it sighed through the twisted rock formations, occasionally accompanied by the lonely sound of a solitary hawk riding the thermals somewhere far above us.
It was another ten minutes or so before Meru arrived back, breathless and shaking from excitement. "Found them!" She announced triumphantly. "They're all holed up in one end of a canyon a little ways away from here. You should see 'em. They're all packed in there tighter than apples in a barrel. I doubt anyone would have enough room to so much as sneeze."
Dart pushed his bandana back up onto his forehead. "Must be a small canyon," he remarked as he sat up. "Who's in charge? Could you tell?"
Meru shrugged. "I dunno, but probably those hypocrites with the dragoon stones. I think they're hoping that we'll miss them and keep on going north." She gave a wicked little laugh. "As if that's going to happen."
/Well? We have a good portion of the Tiberoian chapter of the cult right here. This is too good an opportunity to miss/ Dart got to his feet and pulled his jacket back on. Shuddering loose sand from their scales, the two dragons followed suit. Watching the pair as they prepared to take off, I had a sudden brainwave. //Dart, let me talk to those two for a moment. I just had a thought//
Wordlessly, Dart moved to one side and let me take over. When I was positive that I was in complete control, I called "Wait!"
Tygris paused, halfway through takeoff, and swung his head around to look at me with a startled expression on his face. "What?" he asked. Beside him Rasqul settled back down to earth with his wings kicking up a small dust storm and dwarfing us all in his shadow.
"When we get to the gorge, I want you two to hold back for a little bit and let us go ahead. When we're ready, I want Rasqul to circle around to the very back of the gorge. Tygris, stay on their left side: I want both of you out of sight. When the front line has almost reached us, I want the two of you to strike from the back and the side. They don't know that we have dragons, so they won't be expecting you."
"But you told us before we left that these cultists are fanatics," Rasqul rumbled. "Fanatics don't tend to run from a fight."
I nodded. "I don't expect them to. But they will hesitate." I glanced over at Meru. "What do the walls look like?"
"What?" She asked, clearly confused by the question.
"The walls of the gorge. What do they look like?" I snapped. "How high, and what do they look like?"
Startled by my response, Meru forgot to put the edge in her voice she usually used when speaking to me. "I dunno. Quite high, but like I said the gorge is narrow. The walls are all rocky and sort of curved inwards and there's a lot of overhangs."
Turning back to Rasqul, I finished outlining my plan. "When they are attacked from the front, back, and sides, the cultists will be forced together at one side of the gorge. One clean shot from the cannon ought to bring the whole side of the gorge down on them. They can't fight with a couple hundred tons of rock on top of them."
Rasqul thought it over for a moment, then broke into a grin. Well, it was a grin to me. To a human it would appear as though he were preparing to rip off my head. "A well conceived plan, divine one. And the best part is, it may actually work."
Dart's POV:
The gorge was more or less as Meru had described it, a narrow winding channel carved into the solid rock with an old dried up riverbed twisting along the bottom of it. The concave walls offered partial protection from the boiling sun, and the temperature at the bottom of the canyon was infinitely more comfortable than the heat on the sun baked land above. Here and there were piles of broken rock where chunks of the wall had already broken away already, adding to the clutter of the old worn boulders of the riverbed. Meru led me down into the gorge, to a spot she claimed was 'just around the corner' from the cultists. When I paused to listen I could hear the distorted echoes of murmured conversations, the words sounding senseless and intelligible to my ears. I ran one hand through my sweat- streaked hair, brushing a few errant strands out of my eyes. "About how far away will they be once we come around this bend?"
"A hundred meters, maybe less." Meru gave her hammer a few swings, warming up her arm muscles. "We'll still have time to prepare though. All those old boulders in the rivine are going to slow them down some." Shouldering her weapon she struck a pose, the way a dancer would before executing a difficult move that was the key to a routine. "Well then. Why don't you put on your wings, and let's get this show on the road!"
/At least someone's optimistic about this/ I muttered quietly to Ragnarok.
//Who's saying she's the only one? You haven't let me kill anything in almost a week// He told me accusingly.
/Do you really need to destroy things so much?/ I asked, my thoughts sounding surprisingly wistful in my mind.
//It's all instinct, Dart. I couldn't help myself even if I wanted to: that's probably the reason I ended up trapped in this damned stone. And anyway, you want this cult out of the way as much as I do//
/Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about doing this/
//You're inconsistent, Dart. Sometimes you want to kill things as much as I do//
/Then it's probably a side effect of your character. You've been inside my head too long, Ark. I think you're starting to rub off on me/
//That's good to hear//
/Shut up/ I told him irritably as I activated my stone. /Keep your mannerisms to yourself. I was quite happy with the way I was before you came along and started messing with my head/
//Whatever you say// Ragnarok said passively. //Let's just get on with it//
The armor finished forming with a burst of light that clearly lit up the shadows of the overhang. Seeing Meru already hurrying ahead, I flared my wings and took off after her. The bend in the gorge was much longer than I thought it would be, so I was unprepared when we at last rounded the corner and found ourselves facing a rather startled army of cultists across a couple hundred feet of broken ravine. We stared at each other for a moment or two before, with a startled cry, the fanatics raised their weapons and charged forward in a stumbling, disorganized mob.
It was over so fast that the cultists probably never knew exactly what had hit them. Just as the front runners of the mob had almost reached us, there came a startled cry from the back ranks as Rasqul's fire poured down upon them from the sky above. Beside me Meru had dropped her hammer and was letting off the fireballs that were the trademark of the wingly race into the hoard as fast as she could create them. Pulling energy into the shoulder of my cannon I added my own spell to the fray, watching as the pellets of light showered the front line with death. Unable to move backwards or forwards, the cultist ranks collapsed inward, losing what small semblance of order they had managed to obtain. At that exact moment Tygris hit their left side, forcing them hard against the right side of the gorge. All this happened within a matter of seconds. With a wrench of pity I raised the cannon, aiming for a spot halfway up to the lip of the canyon wall, feeling the power building up within the gun like a swollen river held captive by a dam. But even through all this, I couldn't help but wonder: Where were their dragoons?
//Now!// Ragnarok's voice cracked through my mind like a whip.
The dam broke. The blast of energy the surged out of the mouth of the cannon lanced forwards, stabbing through the rock of the rivine and disintegrating a portion of the wall entirely. For a moment nothing happened, and then there was a huge groan that seemed to come from the earth its self as the rock face began to break apart. First stones, then boulders fell, until finally the whole side of the gorge collapsed with a sound that could have easily drowned out thunder. Kicking off hard against the ground, I forced myself into the air just as the dust cloud caused by the catastrophe began to fill the gorge.
Above the mess, I took a moment to make sure everyone was safe before letting my breath out. Meru was doubled over in the air about fifty feet away panting heavily with the sun catching in the silver-blue light of her wings. Both Rasqul and Tygris were settled on the lip of the gorge, watching disinterestedly as the dust cloud swirled and billowed beneath them. We'd all made it out in time. /Happy?/
//Good enough, I suppose// Ragnarok said dubiously. //But couldn't you have-// He broke off suddenly; I could feel his mind probing the wreckage below us. When he spoke again, it was in a yell. //Damnit! They made it out!//
For a moment there was nothing besides the sound of the still crumbling cliff, still groaning and crashing beneath the veil of swirling dust. And then a sound caught my attention, so faint it was a wonder I even noticed it over the rumbling of falling stone. But hear it I did. Surprisingly calm, I turned to face the north, realizing that I should have expected this all along. I hadn't seen the cultist dragoons during the attack because they had never even been directly involved in the fight. All the fight had been was a distraction, a way to delay us so that their dragoons could get a head start on us as we all raced to reach the Forest before they did. Even now I could see them, four bursts of light streaking off towards the northwest at incredible speed. Just before they reached the edge of my vision, they winked out of sight, probably teleported away by Demara. They'd probably reappear somewhere near the coast of Northern Tiberoa, then make the flight across Illisa Bay to Millie Seseau and the Forest. Wings slowly beating the air, I flew wearily down to land beside Tygris.
"What do you think you're doing?" Meru demanded, landing hard beside me. "We have to catch them!"
"It's useless, Meru. They're already crossing the bay by now." I hung my head. "They've outsmarted us. There's no way we can catch up to them now."
Meru exhaled sharply, and for a moment I thought she was going to slap me. She probably would have too, if she could reach. "It doesn't matter. We still have to try!" She yelled at me, then paused to take a breath. When she looked at me again her face was calm, but I could still see anger burning behind her eyes. "The Forest is where I was born Dart. You should know better than anyone should what it's like to lose your hometown. Let me ask you something: If the same thing were happening to Seles, would you give up this easily? Or would you still try and catch them?"
I suddenly felt ashamed of myself. Meru was right of course: if this were Seles, I wouldn't even consider not trying to save it. /Ragnarok?/
//I hate to admit it, but she's right. If those cultists can get the locations of the cygnets from Blano then we're going to be hard pressed to save them. We can't let that happen// Typical. He was looking at things on a practical level rather than an emotional level. But either way, they were both right. Raising my head again, I looked over at Meru. "How good are you at teleporting?"
"Not too great, but I can jump us to Doneau from here." She looked critically at the two dragons. "Not them though. They're too heavy."
"That'll have to be good enough, I guess." Turning to face Tygris, I pointed west. "Start flying that way. Sooner or later you'll come to the Death Frontier. The winglies from Ulara are expecting you, so someone will come out to fetch you once they realize you're there. Stay with the cygnet, and get used to guarding it. If we're lucky, you'll be doing that for the rest of your life." Not waiting for a response, I faced Rasqul. "You go north. Once you hit snow and mountains, start looking for the Mountain of Mortal dragon. It's north of a big evergreen forest, and is volcanically active, so it's sort of hard to miss. Same drill as with Tygris: find where Guraha left the cygnet and guard it with your life. I'll be by from time to time to check on you ."
Wordlessly Meru pulled herself up into the crook of my arm. Taking a firm hold onto the armor, she took a small breath and concentrated, her silver brows furrowing with the effort. There was a rushing sound and the now familiar pang of pain in the back of my mind, and then the world around me dissolved into a seething globe of electric green. The world remained like this for about a minute or so, then flickered back into its normal appearance. The pain in my mind disappeared, and it was replaced abruptly by the falling sensation in my stomach. Wisps of cloud flashed past as we passed them or went right through them, falling towards the rocky ground below at a tremendous speed.
//Dart, use the wings if you don't mind// Ragnarok said calmly.
/Quiet, you/ I muttered, stretching my wings to catch the air, and then beginning to beat them again once the rate of our fall had slowed enough. /How was I supposed to know she'd drop us out again in mid-air?/ I glanced down at Meru, who was lying limply across my armored arm. It must have taken most of her energy to move us this far. "You alright?"
"Yeah," she responded, although she didn't lift her face from the place she'd planted it into the armor. "I just need to rest a bit. We should almost be at the coast, so just keep going north. If we're fast, maybe we can catch them before they teleport again."
I didn't think that we could, but I wasn't about to tell her that. Grimly I set my sights on the northern horizon, noting as I did so Illisa Bay glinting in the distance. Gathering my energy, I prepared myself for the last leg of our flight, across the bay and into Millie Seseau.
I could only hope that we wouldn't be too late.
Meru's POV:
Teleporting is very tiring for me, even if I have a lot of rest before hand. So you can guess how tired I was teleporting Dart and I right after a fight that had consisted mostly of chucking fireballs at people on my part. I honestly didn't mean to drop us off in mid-air like that, but I didn't have enough energy to take us the rest of the way to the coast. And to tell the truth, I didn't really have too much time to think of a way to say "I'm sorry", because I was asleep before we even reached the bay. And that's saying something, because dragoons are anything but slow when they fly.
But even in my sleep I didn't find much rest: my dreams were haunted with visions of the Forest burning, all my friends lying about on the ground in pain. I even saw my parents, but that couldn't be right because my parents had passed from this world almost fifty years ago. Worst of all I saw Guraha, lying on the ground all bloody and broken. Hovering over it all were four dragoons, all of their features blurred and unrecognizable save for one. Demara flew above the scene, a look of cruel exhalation on her face, holding her long double tipped javelin loosely in one hand. Even in my dreams I yearned to reach out and tear her down from the sky. We'd never gotten along before; she'd always been jealous of the trust the ancestor had in me after the whole incident with the Virage Embryo and all that stuff. But now things had gone way too far. I mentally promised myself that if I didn't get to kill her for her betrayal and what she was about to do, no one would.
When I finally did come to I felt sandy eyed and tired. Some of my energy had returned, but I seriously doubted I'd be able to cast anymore than one fireball spell. The cold wind slapping my face did, however, wake me up. Opening my eyes, I peered down at the ground below. Evergreens blurred beneath us, the snow on their branches and the varying greens of their needles forming a dull kaleidoscope of color as we shot overhead. Next to me Dart was silent, his face grim as he concentrated on flying, eyes focused on one distant location. With a sick feeling in my stomach, I turned to see what he was staring at so intently.
It was hazy and indistinct at first, but we were closing in on it at an alarming rate, and it soon became obvious what I was looking at, no matter how much my heart tried to avoid it. From the midst of the trees arose a column of black smoke, drifting across the sky as it caught in the wind. That was all: just the smoke. It's funny how one small thing can imply so much.
As we drew nearer, flames became distinguishable beneath the heavy black smoke. They consumed buildings and trees alike, staining the dusk sky an ominous sooty red. As Dart flared his wings, preparing to land near the ruins of an old stone storehouse, I felt a lump form in my throat. Amid the wreckage lay a familiar form; clothes and silver hair stained with dark blood. Almost as soon as his feet touched the ground, Dart disengaged his spirit and let go of me, watching as I ran across the debris covered stone floor of the warehouse to where Guraha lay.
"Guraha!" I crouched next to him, my hand automatically going to his neck to test for his pulse. I guess I must have had cold hands or something, because the moment my fingers touched his skin he jerked violently and his eyes snapped open. "Hey, calm down! It's me!"
"Meru!" Breathing hard, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Reaching up to touch his forehead with one hand, he winced and pulled it away, fingers covered with blood. Now that he was sitting I could clearly see the long gash running along his forehead, partially hidden by his bandana. "Meru, we have to get to the Ancestor before those cultists do," he told me through gritted teeth. "I managed to get him to safety before they came, but I don't know how long it'll last." He started to struggle to his feet, but gasped and sunk back down as his left leg gave out on him. "We have to-"
"Quiet," I told him. "You're hurt. There's no way you're going to go back in there and fight." Still kneeling next to him, I turned to speak over my shoulder. "Dart! You have to." I trailed off as I realized that I was speaking to empty air. Dart must have left while my attention was focused on Guraha. Turning back to Guraha I helped him to his feet, ducking under his left arm so that the weight his left leg would usually bear was on me. "C'mon, we have to get you out of here."
"But the Ancestor."
"No buts. Dart and that bad tempered dragon of his'll take care of it." Starting forward, I tugged Guraha along after me. "Now let's get out of here before the roof collapses and kills us both."
"You're not going anywhere," A smug voice came from behind us.
I stiffened. I knew that voice all to well. "What do you want, Demara?" I asked acidly. "Haven't you done enough damage here already? You must be very proud. There's not many winglies out there who can say that they destroyed their own hometown." Carefully I turned to face her, placing myself between her and Guraha.
"I am, aren't I?" Demara said, speaking in an offhand way that ground on my nerves. "As for what I want, it's not all that much. I just want Guraha to tell me where he hid the Ancestor, that's all."
Behind me, Guraha spat on the ground. "You can go stick your head in a dragon's mouth, you traitorous bitch. I'm not telling you anything." He growled at Demara, glaring at her from over my head.
Demara's eyes hardened. "Fine then. I was going to say that if you told me I might let you and your wife live, but just for that I think I'll kill you on the spot. We can find the Ancestor on our own."
I laughed, my voice sounding harsh to my own ears. "That's if there're any of you guys left to search. Dart was in a pretty bad mood last time I saw him, and if Ragnarok has any say in the matter, most of your 'friends' will be pretty busy right about now just trying to stay alive. The Divine Dragon likes to kill things when he's annoyed I've noticed, and right now he's probably in a blinding rage."
Demara scowled. "We outnumber him. Three-to-one puts the odds in our favor."
"If I put faith in odds, I'd have been dead a very long time ago."
"I tire of you, Meru." Demara said, her tone deceptively calm. "You've always been an annoyance, but now I finally have the means to deal with you." Reaching into the folds of her loose top, she withdrew a familiar blue stone. "You always had this one advantage over me, Meru. How does it feel now, to be at the other end of the stick?" Holding the stone out at arm length, she smiled maliciously as it burst into light, the soft blue tones conflicting with the flames dancing behind her.
"So this is what it all comes down to," Guraha said softly, watching as the armor began to form over Demara's body. "I guess this is it."
I wanted to tell him that he was wrong, but in my heart I knew he was right. There was no way out. The old storehouse we were in was now completely surrounded by fire, the flames slowly blackening the smooth gray stones. The roof was crumbling, but that didn't matter: I doubted that either of us would have the strength to fly. And even if we did, Demara would just cut us down in mid air. "I guess so."
Demara's transformation completed, and she stood before us with her javelin leveled at my chest. Wings neatly folded at her back she gave one last venomous smile and began the intricate movements that would soon lead to a spell of devastating power. "I'd say that I'll miss you, but that would be a lie," she said, spinning slowly in a circle.
I felt Guraha's arm wrap around my waist. "We have to end this," he whispered. Taking my hand in his, he lifted it until it was pointing directly at the dancing wingly before us. Gathering his energy, he rested his head on my shoulder. "One last shot. Looks like it's up to Dart now."
Knowing full well what he meant, I nodded and began to draw in what little magical energy I had left, adding it to his. "Let's bring this house down."
Like I said, the building we were in was in poor condition, the roof near to falling in. In truth, the only thing holding it up was a single stone pillar situated in the center of the room. And even now it looked as though it were about to collapse, the weight of the heavy stone slabs forming the roof too much for it to bear. And so at the last moment before we released the spell, we adjusted our aim. Demara's yell of surprise was drowned out as the fireball collided with the pillar, knocking out the last support the roof had. Demara, unable to stop casting her spell, was just as trapped as we were. And as the slabs began to fall, I turned and buried my head into Guraha's chest, whispering one last thing to him before the slabs came crashing down.
"I love y-"
... I can't believe I just did that. **goes off to bang her head against the wall, muttering about sacrifices made for plot** Please don't throw too many pointy objects at me for that chapter. It was coming sooner or later, and as explained before, I hate having characters just fade away. Under most circumstances, if they're going to have to go, I like to let'em go with a bang
Ragnarok's POV:
"See anything yet?" Dart called to Meru. We rode on Tygris's back, scanning the rocky coast below him for any sign of the cultist army. After leaving the island that morning, we'd reached the coast of Tiberoa and flown steadily inland, following the trail of the cultist army. We'd been able to track them almost all the way to the barrens, but then had lost their trail as what little trace of footprints there had been disappeared as the ground changed from sand to rock.
"Not yet," Meru responded, performing a little spin in mid-air as she did so. She flew in ever increasing circles around Tygris and Rasqul, keeping watch for any gorges and canyons that the cultists could have disappeared into. "I've seen a couple possibilities, but they're all either too narrow or too shallow. They did a good job of hiding; if I didn't know better, I'd say that the earth just opened and swallowed them up."
Dart grunted, and then turned his eyes back to scanning the ground below. /What about you? Do you feel the dragoon stones around here anywhere?/
//I'm getting a few inklings, but nothing very specific. I'd say that we aren't too far off though// I paused, testing the area once again with my mind. //I'd say try to your left a little more//
Dart repeated my message to Tygris, then took a firmer handhold as the dragon banked sharply in the indicated direction, letting the air spill from under his wings as he dropped into a shallow dive. Pulling out of it about twenty feet above the wall of the nearest gorge he flew along at a leisurely pace, enjoying the feel of the hot sun on his back. //Lazy idiot// I muttered to myself.
/What was that?/
//Nothing. Just reflecting on your mount's behavior. Would you mind telling him to wake up a bit?// I was about to add 'and a slap upside the head' as well when I felt something off to the southeast. I brought my mind to bear on it, but no sooner had I found it then it disappeared again. Not that it mattered: the damage had already been done. //Got them//
/Where?/
//In a gorge to the south. Demara's been trying to shield them, but she slipped up a minute ago. They're all there: Gold, White-silver, Blue Sea, and Jade//
/No Red-eye?/
//There doesn't seem to be. I guess they haven't been able to find it yet//
Dart called out directions, and a moment later both dragons had landed. Meru hovered off south, disappearing and reappearing as she flew in and out of the rock formations. //Where's she going?//
/Scouting things out, I'd expect. Don't worry, she'll be back soon/ Taking off his jacket, Dart found some shade and sat down to take a break from the burning sun. The two dragons flopped down on the rocky ground, relishing the sun. Rasqul in particular seemed to enjoy the heat, but he was a fire dragon after all. Eleven thousand years or so ago this could have been home to his breed. Even now, in a world that had changed vastly for us dragons, the sight of him lying on the craggy earth with his rust colored scales blending almost perfectly with the jagged stone still seemed perfectly natural. It both angered and saddened me: for all those years both humans and dragons were ruled over by the winglies. Only by combining our powers were we able to free Endiness from their tyranny. And yet in the end it was the weaker of us two, the humans, who rose to take power over the continent. The dragons were forced to leave Endiness for the lands to the east, a continent untouched by either the hands of humans or winglies. And while all this happened I had been sealed away in my own lair, unable to prevent it. For some reason the very thought of it all made me want to maim something.
/Let it be, Ragnarok/ Dart's voice swam through my mind. /What has happened has happened and there's nothing you can do about it/
//I know. I'd still like to kill something though//
/Save it for the cultists. I don't know how happy they'll be to oblige, but you can still take it out on them/
//I can live with that//
/I doubt they can/
//Too bad for them. Is Meru coming back yet?//
Dart glanced off in the direction that she'd left in. /Not yet, but she shouldn't be too much longer/ Closing his eyes, he pulled his bandana down to cover them and leaned back against the rock. After a moment or so he started to doze, the heat of the wasteland beginning to take its toll. The only sound was the warm southern wind as it sighed through the twisted rock formations, occasionally accompanied by the lonely sound of a solitary hawk riding the thermals somewhere far above us.
It was another ten minutes or so before Meru arrived back, breathless and shaking from excitement. "Found them!" She announced triumphantly. "They're all holed up in one end of a canyon a little ways away from here. You should see 'em. They're all packed in there tighter than apples in a barrel. I doubt anyone would have enough room to so much as sneeze."
Dart pushed his bandana back up onto his forehead. "Must be a small canyon," he remarked as he sat up. "Who's in charge? Could you tell?"
Meru shrugged. "I dunno, but probably those hypocrites with the dragoon stones. I think they're hoping that we'll miss them and keep on going north." She gave a wicked little laugh. "As if that's going to happen."
/Well? We have a good portion of the Tiberoian chapter of the cult right here. This is too good an opportunity to miss/ Dart got to his feet and pulled his jacket back on. Shuddering loose sand from their scales, the two dragons followed suit. Watching the pair as they prepared to take off, I had a sudden brainwave. //Dart, let me talk to those two for a moment. I just had a thought//
Wordlessly, Dart moved to one side and let me take over. When I was positive that I was in complete control, I called "Wait!"
Tygris paused, halfway through takeoff, and swung his head around to look at me with a startled expression on his face. "What?" he asked. Beside him Rasqul settled back down to earth with his wings kicking up a small dust storm and dwarfing us all in his shadow.
"When we get to the gorge, I want you two to hold back for a little bit and let us go ahead. When we're ready, I want Rasqul to circle around to the very back of the gorge. Tygris, stay on their left side: I want both of you out of sight. When the front line has almost reached us, I want the two of you to strike from the back and the side. They don't know that we have dragons, so they won't be expecting you."
"But you told us before we left that these cultists are fanatics," Rasqul rumbled. "Fanatics don't tend to run from a fight."
I nodded. "I don't expect them to. But they will hesitate." I glanced over at Meru. "What do the walls look like?"
"What?" She asked, clearly confused by the question.
"The walls of the gorge. What do they look like?" I snapped. "How high, and what do they look like?"
Startled by my response, Meru forgot to put the edge in her voice she usually used when speaking to me. "I dunno. Quite high, but like I said the gorge is narrow. The walls are all rocky and sort of curved inwards and there's a lot of overhangs."
Turning back to Rasqul, I finished outlining my plan. "When they are attacked from the front, back, and sides, the cultists will be forced together at one side of the gorge. One clean shot from the cannon ought to bring the whole side of the gorge down on them. They can't fight with a couple hundred tons of rock on top of them."
Rasqul thought it over for a moment, then broke into a grin. Well, it was a grin to me. To a human it would appear as though he were preparing to rip off my head. "A well conceived plan, divine one. And the best part is, it may actually work."
Dart's POV:
The gorge was more or less as Meru had described it, a narrow winding channel carved into the solid rock with an old dried up riverbed twisting along the bottom of it. The concave walls offered partial protection from the boiling sun, and the temperature at the bottom of the canyon was infinitely more comfortable than the heat on the sun baked land above. Here and there were piles of broken rock where chunks of the wall had already broken away already, adding to the clutter of the old worn boulders of the riverbed. Meru led me down into the gorge, to a spot she claimed was 'just around the corner' from the cultists. When I paused to listen I could hear the distorted echoes of murmured conversations, the words sounding senseless and intelligible to my ears. I ran one hand through my sweat- streaked hair, brushing a few errant strands out of my eyes. "About how far away will they be once we come around this bend?"
"A hundred meters, maybe less." Meru gave her hammer a few swings, warming up her arm muscles. "We'll still have time to prepare though. All those old boulders in the rivine are going to slow them down some." Shouldering her weapon she struck a pose, the way a dancer would before executing a difficult move that was the key to a routine. "Well then. Why don't you put on your wings, and let's get this show on the road!"
/At least someone's optimistic about this/ I muttered quietly to Ragnarok.
//Who's saying she's the only one? You haven't let me kill anything in almost a week// He told me accusingly.
/Do you really need to destroy things so much?/ I asked, my thoughts sounding surprisingly wistful in my mind.
//It's all instinct, Dart. I couldn't help myself even if I wanted to: that's probably the reason I ended up trapped in this damned stone. And anyway, you want this cult out of the way as much as I do//
/Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm happy about doing this/
//You're inconsistent, Dart. Sometimes you want to kill things as much as I do//
/Then it's probably a side effect of your character. You've been inside my head too long, Ark. I think you're starting to rub off on me/
//That's good to hear//
/Shut up/ I told him irritably as I activated my stone. /Keep your mannerisms to yourself. I was quite happy with the way I was before you came along and started messing with my head/
//Whatever you say// Ragnarok said passively. //Let's just get on with it//
The armor finished forming with a burst of light that clearly lit up the shadows of the overhang. Seeing Meru already hurrying ahead, I flared my wings and took off after her. The bend in the gorge was much longer than I thought it would be, so I was unprepared when we at last rounded the corner and found ourselves facing a rather startled army of cultists across a couple hundred feet of broken ravine. We stared at each other for a moment or two before, with a startled cry, the fanatics raised their weapons and charged forward in a stumbling, disorganized mob.
It was over so fast that the cultists probably never knew exactly what had hit them. Just as the front runners of the mob had almost reached us, there came a startled cry from the back ranks as Rasqul's fire poured down upon them from the sky above. Beside me Meru had dropped her hammer and was letting off the fireballs that were the trademark of the wingly race into the hoard as fast as she could create them. Pulling energy into the shoulder of my cannon I added my own spell to the fray, watching as the pellets of light showered the front line with death. Unable to move backwards or forwards, the cultist ranks collapsed inward, losing what small semblance of order they had managed to obtain. At that exact moment Tygris hit their left side, forcing them hard against the right side of the gorge. All this happened within a matter of seconds. With a wrench of pity I raised the cannon, aiming for a spot halfway up to the lip of the canyon wall, feeling the power building up within the gun like a swollen river held captive by a dam. But even through all this, I couldn't help but wonder: Where were their dragoons?
//Now!// Ragnarok's voice cracked through my mind like a whip.
The dam broke. The blast of energy the surged out of the mouth of the cannon lanced forwards, stabbing through the rock of the rivine and disintegrating a portion of the wall entirely. For a moment nothing happened, and then there was a huge groan that seemed to come from the earth its self as the rock face began to break apart. First stones, then boulders fell, until finally the whole side of the gorge collapsed with a sound that could have easily drowned out thunder. Kicking off hard against the ground, I forced myself into the air just as the dust cloud caused by the catastrophe began to fill the gorge.
Above the mess, I took a moment to make sure everyone was safe before letting my breath out. Meru was doubled over in the air about fifty feet away panting heavily with the sun catching in the silver-blue light of her wings. Both Rasqul and Tygris were settled on the lip of the gorge, watching disinterestedly as the dust cloud swirled and billowed beneath them. We'd all made it out in time. /Happy?/
//Good enough, I suppose// Ragnarok said dubiously. //But couldn't you have-// He broke off suddenly; I could feel his mind probing the wreckage below us. When he spoke again, it was in a yell. //Damnit! They made it out!//
For a moment there was nothing besides the sound of the still crumbling cliff, still groaning and crashing beneath the veil of swirling dust. And then a sound caught my attention, so faint it was a wonder I even noticed it over the rumbling of falling stone. But hear it I did. Surprisingly calm, I turned to face the north, realizing that I should have expected this all along. I hadn't seen the cultist dragoons during the attack because they had never even been directly involved in the fight. All the fight had been was a distraction, a way to delay us so that their dragoons could get a head start on us as we all raced to reach the Forest before they did. Even now I could see them, four bursts of light streaking off towards the northwest at incredible speed. Just before they reached the edge of my vision, they winked out of sight, probably teleported away by Demara. They'd probably reappear somewhere near the coast of Northern Tiberoa, then make the flight across Illisa Bay to Millie Seseau and the Forest. Wings slowly beating the air, I flew wearily down to land beside Tygris.
"What do you think you're doing?" Meru demanded, landing hard beside me. "We have to catch them!"
"It's useless, Meru. They're already crossing the bay by now." I hung my head. "They've outsmarted us. There's no way we can catch up to them now."
Meru exhaled sharply, and for a moment I thought she was going to slap me. She probably would have too, if she could reach. "It doesn't matter. We still have to try!" She yelled at me, then paused to take a breath. When she looked at me again her face was calm, but I could still see anger burning behind her eyes. "The Forest is where I was born Dart. You should know better than anyone should what it's like to lose your hometown. Let me ask you something: If the same thing were happening to Seles, would you give up this easily? Or would you still try and catch them?"
I suddenly felt ashamed of myself. Meru was right of course: if this were Seles, I wouldn't even consider not trying to save it. /Ragnarok?/
//I hate to admit it, but she's right. If those cultists can get the locations of the cygnets from Blano then we're going to be hard pressed to save them. We can't let that happen// Typical. He was looking at things on a practical level rather than an emotional level. But either way, they were both right. Raising my head again, I looked over at Meru. "How good are you at teleporting?"
"Not too great, but I can jump us to Doneau from here." She looked critically at the two dragons. "Not them though. They're too heavy."
"That'll have to be good enough, I guess." Turning to face Tygris, I pointed west. "Start flying that way. Sooner or later you'll come to the Death Frontier. The winglies from Ulara are expecting you, so someone will come out to fetch you once they realize you're there. Stay with the cygnet, and get used to guarding it. If we're lucky, you'll be doing that for the rest of your life." Not waiting for a response, I faced Rasqul. "You go north. Once you hit snow and mountains, start looking for the Mountain of Mortal dragon. It's north of a big evergreen forest, and is volcanically active, so it's sort of hard to miss. Same drill as with Tygris: find where Guraha left the cygnet and guard it with your life. I'll be by from time to time to check on you ."
Wordlessly Meru pulled herself up into the crook of my arm. Taking a firm hold onto the armor, she took a small breath and concentrated, her silver brows furrowing with the effort. There was a rushing sound and the now familiar pang of pain in the back of my mind, and then the world around me dissolved into a seething globe of electric green. The world remained like this for about a minute or so, then flickered back into its normal appearance. The pain in my mind disappeared, and it was replaced abruptly by the falling sensation in my stomach. Wisps of cloud flashed past as we passed them or went right through them, falling towards the rocky ground below at a tremendous speed.
//Dart, use the wings if you don't mind// Ragnarok said calmly.
/Quiet, you/ I muttered, stretching my wings to catch the air, and then beginning to beat them again once the rate of our fall had slowed enough. /How was I supposed to know she'd drop us out again in mid-air?/ I glanced down at Meru, who was lying limply across my armored arm. It must have taken most of her energy to move us this far. "You alright?"
"Yeah," she responded, although she didn't lift her face from the place she'd planted it into the armor. "I just need to rest a bit. We should almost be at the coast, so just keep going north. If we're fast, maybe we can catch them before they teleport again."
I didn't think that we could, but I wasn't about to tell her that. Grimly I set my sights on the northern horizon, noting as I did so Illisa Bay glinting in the distance. Gathering my energy, I prepared myself for the last leg of our flight, across the bay and into Millie Seseau.
I could only hope that we wouldn't be too late.
Meru's POV:
Teleporting is very tiring for me, even if I have a lot of rest before hand. So you can guess how tired I was teleporting Dart and I right after a fight that had consisted mostly of chucking fireballs at people on my part. I honestly didn't mean to drop us off in mid-air like that, but I didn't have enough energy to take us the rest of the way to the coast. And to tell the truth, I didn't really have too much time to think of a way to say "I'm sorry", because I was asleep before we even reached the bay. And that's saying something, because dragoons are anything but slow when they fly.
But even in my sleep I didn't find much rest: my dreams were haunted with visions of the Forest burning, all my friends lying about on the ground in pain. I even saw my parents, but that couldn't be right because my parents had passed from this world almost fifty years ago. Worst of all I saw Guraha, lying on the ground all bloody and broken. Hovering over it all were four dragoons, all of their features blurred and unrecognizable save for one. Demara flew above the scene, a look of cruel exhalation on her face, holding her long double tipped javelin loosely in one hand. Even in my dreams I yearned to reach out and tear her down from the sky. We'd never gotten along before; she'd always been jealous of the trust the ancestor had in me after the whole incident with the Virage Embryo and all that stuff. But now things had gone way too far. I mentally promised myself that if I didn't get to kill her for her betrayal and what she was about to do, no one would.
When I finally did come to I felt sandy eyed and tired. Some of my energy had returned, but I seriously doubted I'd be able to cast anymore than one fireball spell. The cold wind slapping my face did, however, wake me up. Opening my eyes, I peered down at the ground below. Evergreens blurred beneath us, the snow on their branches and the varying greens of their needles forming a dull kaleidoscope of color as we shot overhead. Next to me Dart was silent, his face grim as he concentrated on flying, eyes focused on one distant location. With a sick feeling in my stomach, I turned to see what he was staring at so intently.
It was hazy and indistinct at first, but we were closing in on it at an alarming rate, and it soon became obvious what I was looking at, no matter how much my heart tried to avoid it. From the midst of the trees arose a column of black smoke, drifting across the sky as it caught in the wind. That was all: just the smoke. It's funny how one small thing can imply so much.
As we drew nearer, flames became distinguishable beneath the heavy black smoke. They consumed buildings and trees alike, staining the dusk sky an ominous sooty red. As Dart flared his wings, preparing to land near the ruins of an old stone storehouse, I felt a lump form in my throat. Amid the wreckage lay a familiar form; clothes and silver hair stained with dark blood. Almost as soon as his feet touched the ground, Dart disengaged his spirit and let go of me, watching as I ran across the debris covered stone floor of the warehouse to where Guraha lay.
"Guraha!" I crouched next to him, my hand automatically going to his neck to test for his pulse. I guess I must have had cold hands or something, because the moment my fingers touched his skin he jerked violently and his eyes snapped open. "Hey, calm down! It's me!"
"Meru!" Breathing hard, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. Reaching up to touch his forehead with one hand, he winced and pulled it away, fingers covered with blood. Now that he was sitting I could clearly see the long gash running along his forehead, partially hidden by his bandana. "Meru, we have to get to the Ancestor before those cultists do," he told me through gritted teeth. "I managed to get him to safety before they came, but I don't know how long it'll last." He started to struggle to his feet, but gasped and sunk back down as his left leg gave out on him. "We have to-"
"Quiet," I told him. "You're hurt. There's no way you're going to go back in there and fight." Still kneeling next to him, I turned to speak over my shoulder. "Dart! You have to." I trailed off as I realized that I was speaking to empty air. Dart must have left while my attention was focused on Guraha. Turning back to Guraha I helped him to his feet, ducking under his left arm so that the weight his left leg would usually bear was on me. "C'mon, we have to get you out of here."
"But the Ancestor."
"No buts. Dart and that bad tempered dragon of his'll take care of it." Starting forward, I tugged Guraha along after me. "Now let's get out of here before the roof collapses and kills us both."
"You're not going anywhere," A smug voice came from behind us.
I stiffened. I knew that voice all to well. "What do you want, Demara?" I asked acidly. "Haven't you done enough damage here already? You must be very proud. There's not many winglies out there who can say that they destroyed their own hometown." Carefully I turned to face her, placing myself between her and Guraha.
"I am, aren't I?" Demara said, speaking in an offhand way that ground on my nerves. "As for what I want, it's not all that much. I just want Guraha to tell me where he hid the Ancestor, that's all."
Behind me, Guraha spat on the ground. "You can go stick your head in a dragon's mouth, you traitorous bitch. I'm not telling you anything." He growled at Demara, glaring at her from over my head.
Demara's eyes hardened. "Fine then. I was going to say that if you told me I might let you and your wife live, but just for that I think I'll kill you on the spot. We can find the Ancestor on our own."
I laughed, my voice sounding harsh to my own ears. "That's if there're any of you guys left to search. Dart was in a pretty bad mood last time I saw him, and if Ragnarok has any say in the matter, most of your 'friends' will be pretty busy right about now just trying to stay alive. The Divine Dragon likes to kill things when he's annoyed I've noticed, and right now he's probably in a blinding rage."
Demara scowled. "We outnumber him. Three-to-one puts the odds in our favor."
"If I put faith in odds, I'd have been dead a very long time ago."
"I tire of you, Meru." Demara said, her tone deceptively calm. "You've always been an annoyance, but now I finally have the means to deal with you." Reaching into the folds of her loose top, she withdrew a familiar blue stone. "You always had this one advantage over me, Meru. How does it feel now, to be at the other end of the stick?" Holding the stone out at arm length, she smiled maliciously as it burst into light, the soft blue tones conflicting with the flames dancing behind her.
"So this is what it all comes down to," Guraha said softly, watching as the armor began to form over Demara's body. "I guess this is it."
I wanted to tell him that he was wrong, but in my heart I knew he was right. There was no way out. The old storehouse we were in was now completely surrounded by fire, the flames slowly blackening the smooth gray stones. The roof was crumbling, but that didn't matter: I doubted that either of us would have the strength to fly. And even if we did, Demara would just cut us down in mid air. "I guess so."
Demara's transformation completed, and she stood before us with her javelin leveled at my chest. Wings neatly folded at her back she gave one last venomous smile and began the intricate movements that would soon lead to a spell of devastating power. "I'd say that I'll miss you, but that would be a lie," she said, spinning slowly in a circle.
I felt Guraha's arm wrap around my waist. "We have to end this," he whispered. Taking my hand in his, he lifted it until it was pointing directly at the dancing wingly before us. Gathering his energy, he rested his head on my shoulder. "One last shot. Looks like it's up to Dart now."
Knowing full well what he meant, I nodded and began to draw in what little magical energy I had left, adding it to his. "Let's bring this house down."
Like I said, the building we were in was in poor condition, the roof near to falling in. In truth, the only thing holding it up was a single stone pillar situated in the center of the room. And even now it looked as though it were about to collapse, the weight of the heavy stone slabs forming the roof too much for it to bear. And so at the last moment before we released the spell, we adjusted our aim. Demara's yell of surprise was drowned out as the fireball collided with the pillar, knocking out the last support the roof had. Demara, unable to stop casting her spell, was just as trapped as we were. And as the slabs began to fall, I turned and buried my head into Guraha's chest, whispering one last thing to him before the slabs came crashing down.
"I love y-"
... I can't believe I just did that. **goes off to bang her head against the wall, muttering about sacrifices made for plot** Please don't throw too many pointy objects at me for that chapter. It was coming sooner or later, and as explained before, I hate having characters just fade away. Under most circumstances, if they're going to have to go, I like to let'em go with a bang