Warning: This chapter contains violence against Ezran which may be uncomfortable for some readers.
The looming atmosphere around the castle pressed hard as the sun began to rise higher and higher into the horizon. The area around the castle was quiet. There was no breeze ruffling its way through the trees, no guards out doing their daily routines and no visitors entering or exiting the castle.
Inside the castle, however, things were different. Castle staff was scrambling, looking for the king that had gone missing, trying to find clues on his location. Inside Rayla's room, a still panicked Callum was trying to give Rayla the information on what had happened. "Hang on, Hang on Callum, what do you mean?" Rayla said as surprise and shock filled her face.
"I mean what I said! he's missing Rayla!" Callum nearly yelled back causing Rayla to flinch. Tears were beginning to pool in Callum's eyes again. "The castle staff woke me up saying that they had found his bedroom completely empty. They can't find him anywhere around the castle Rayla. I… I don't know what happened to him."
Rayla breathed deeply. "Alright Callum, calm down ok? Just breathe, we're going to figure this out. Are you sure he didn't just go into the tunnels? You know he always loves to hide in there."
Callum shook his head, breathing deeply, calming down from his initial emotional state. "No, that's- that's the first place we looked… And also, we found Bait on Ezran's bed. He was clearly shaken and distressed. Ezran would've taken Bait with him if he ran somewhere, or, at the very least, Bait would not be behaving like this. Unfortunatley, none of us can speak animal so we can't ask Bait what happened or what he saw. So...uh... we just put him under Iris' care for now."
Rayla didn't want to admit it but a large concern was growing within her as well. She had no explanation for how Ezran would just disappear without a trace like that and she became more and more nervous as she began to think of the possibilities of what could have happened. She shook herself out of it though, she had to stay strong and focused. For Callum.
"Ok… Yeah, that's bad…" Rayla said in a worried tone. This prompted a large intake of air from Callum. "Listen Callum. It's ok… we'll find him, alright? There's a chance it's not as bad as we think it is." Rayla tried to make eye contact with him with a reassuring smile to comfort the distressed brother. The distressed brother who only had Ezran left for immediate family.
"Listen," Callum said. "We're all meeting in the king's chambers to hopefully look for more clues on what happened. Just… meet me there in 10 minutes alright?" Callum said with a hint of sadness in his voice as he walked out of the door.
"5 minutes," Rayla replied in a determined tone as Callum left the room. If Ezran really was in trouble she didn't want him being in that situation any longer than he needed to be. She changed from her pajamas to her assassin garb with haste and quickly grabbed her two swords, closing them and safely stowing them on her person. With that, she left the room, running at full speed to the king's chambers.
As she ran, she noticed the castle staff around her, all on high alert. Teams were searching the castle for any sign of where Ezran might have disappeared to. People and guards were running past her as they tried to get from location to location, desperate to find a clue of the missing king. The castle's pandemonium was a lot less organized than it had been on the day of the festivities. Commands were being shouted, bouncing off the walls of the castle. The receivers of the commands fired back, filling the castle walls with a very unsettling noise.
As she ran outside into the open courtyard on her way to King Ezran's chambers, she noticed that the castle gates were closed, completely locked down as several guards were stationed around them. It seemed that nobody was being allowed in or out for the time being.
She began to sweat, her heart racing, did the heat of the sun always feel this oppressive? She couldn't think of that now. She rocketed up the tower and nearly knocked the doors to Ezran's chambers off their hinges as she barged into the room.
Callum, Amaya, Gren, Opeli, Soren, a couple of the other guards, and Corvus who had just entered the room were all there. Gren was there to interpret the conversation for Amaya like he always did but it was really just a formality at this point considering how good Amaya's lip reading was.
The door to the balcony was wide open, the curtains barely moving from the still air outside. Callum was sitting on Ezran's bed, head down, completely still. Rayla went over him and sat next to him on the bed, placing a hand on his shoulder showing him a warm smile. Callum only twitched a bit and let out a small, shaky breath in response.
Corvus spoke up, "I guess we know how he got out without anybody noticing," He said, staring at the balcony window. He paused for a moment before resuming "If he didn't go into the tunnels then he must have gone through here. Or..." Corvus paused again, worry building in his face. "Taken through here. Judging from how the covers of his bed look, it was probably the latter that happened to him."
The group all looked at the sheets on Ezran's bed. The sheets were oddly rotated and leaning off the edge, about to fall off. An orientation that they would not be in if someone had simply got up and walked out of bed.
Callum once again buried his face in his hands as Soren looked down, a sad expression on his face. "I failed him, I'm supposed to protect the king but I didn't notice any of this happening last night… I was standing outside of his room and I still didn't notice anything. I failed him as crownguard..."
Everybody glanced towards Soren's direction with wide eyed expressions before Opeli cleared her throat. "Before we point fingers, I think it would be best to figure out what actually happened to Ezran. I think what Soren said here raises a good point. If he was taken, why didn't they hear anything from Ezran's room?"
Some people in the room, including Callum, began to become tense at the idea that not a single sound was made from Ezran that night. At least not one that they had heard. Corvus, in response, spoke up. "For the record, I don't believe he was killed. At least not in this room. Unless his murderers were amazing cleaners and managed to clean the whole crime scene up perfectly without alerting anyone, we would've found something suggesting that he was killed here."
Corvus looked at the open balcony again and then said, "It is, however, the most likely scenario that he was taken outside of the castle. What was done to him there, I don't know yet." Corvus said with a hint of melancholy and worry in his voice as Callum sharply inhaled again through his covered face and Rayla looked at him with sympathy. Amaya just looked at the balcony as if she was about to kill someone before Corvus spoke again. "I think the best course of action right now would be to launch a search party and figure out where outside of the castle he was taken, I'll help the best I can."
Opeli was the next one to speak. "I think we should inform the public of what has happened. They need to know what became of their king. They could assist in finding him." Opeli then looked at Callum with a sympathetic expression. He still had his head down and had said nothing the entire time he was in the room. "Callum, would you be comfortable giving a public address in Ezran's absence? I can give the speech for you if you don't think you can do it."
Callum finally came to life and brought his head out of his hands and looked at Opeli, the red in his eyes very visible. "Y-yeah, I-I think I can do that."
Rayla rubbed Callum's shoulder, looking at him with a friendly and comforting smile. "We will be with you every step of the way Callum," she said.
The two then embraced, Rayla held Callum tightly as tears began to flow down his eyes and his voice choked. It seemed his emotions were finally being let loose. "I don't...I don't know what to do… I… Rayla? What if he's dead? What if they took him out of the castle and killed him? I just… I just can't lose him Rayla." He said in between choky breaths.
"Hey, come on sad prince," Rayla said reassuringly in response. "We don't know anything yet ok? It's best not to think of that for now. We'll keep looking for him and cross that bridge when we get there. Remember, we don't know anything until we find him." Rayla honestly didn't know whether she was reassuring Callum or herself at this point.
Amaya, seeing her nephew's pain, quickly joined the embrace while the rest looked on in sympathy. A moment of silence passed where nothing except for the pressuring atmosphere of the room and the sound of Callum's silent weeps were present.
Opeli then spoke. "We probably should inform Xadia. Seeing as they are now our allies, they could probably provide us with resources and help with the search."
Rayla began to think for a moment as something flashed in her memory. "Xadia… Xadia! That's it!" She said with excitement as everybody looked at her questioningly. "Zym! Zym and Ez are connected, remember? He'll know where Ez is!"
Callum looked up at Rayla, hope once again filling his eyes. Everyone else began to smile. It was true, Zym would have been able to see exactly where Ezran went. Chances are he was already mobilizing his own forces to go after Ezran should he have been taken forcefully.
Opeli chimed in. "Alright, We will send a shadowhawk to King Azymondias immediately asking for help." Opeli said.
"If it's possible, would I be able to write it?" Callum asked weakly.
Opeli smiled. "Of course Prince Callum."
Rayla took Callum in another tight embrace. "He's going to be ok Callum."
"Yeah," Callum said in response "I just hope he can hold on long enough for us to find him."
Rayla smiled. "He will, Ez is strong, he'll make it through this."
Callum had just finished writing the letter to Zym asking for help in tracking down Ezran. After reading the letter over and over, he finally got up from his seat, sealed the letter with his own seal, and tied it to one of the shadowhawk arrows. Xadia had exported plenty of these arrows to Katolis after peace was established and they served as a really useful method of communication as they were much faster than the standard crow.
Callum walked down to the courtyard, making his way to the crow master. He couldn't send off these shadowhawks himself. He couldn't fire a bow after all. The crow lord and crow master however, had been trained in sending off these hawks to their necessary recipients. As he walked along the courtyard, he saw the search teams for Ezran mobilizing and beginning to walk out of the gate, leaving the castle.
He sighed, the weight of the day hanging over him, he had only been awake for so long and already he felt like he had run a marathon. He just really hoped Ezran was ok, he didn't know what he would do without him. The brother who always got excited about the small things like jelly tarts, the brother who he had almost lost on the night of the king's assassination, and the brother that he had traveled with to bring peace to the two halves of the continent. His chest ached when he thought of his childlike, innocent smile looking at him.
He made his way into the crow lord's room. Callum was surrounded by several different mailing crows in cages that hung from the ceiling. Each crow was cawing or cleaning themselves or just standing still, unmoving. It was not an uncommon atmosphere. It was one that Callum had grown very used to. However, on this particular day, it felt completely different. He looked towards the front of the room where the crow master stood at his desk. Focused, tending to supply letters and sheets of paper. He did not seem to notice Callum as he approached. Callum walked up to the desk that the crow master was tending and cleared his throat to get his attention.
The crow master briefly glanced up and then jumped back when he noticed who it was that was standing right in front of him. With a very wide-eyed expression, the crow master began to speak. "Oh! M-My apologies Prince Callum, I-I didn't hear you come in." He chuckled nervously to himself and then straightened his expression as he addressed Callum. "The crow lord is still out, What can I do for you?"
Callum, in a formal tone and a slightly melancholic expression on his face said, "I need you to send this shadowhawk to King Azymondias. Something has happened in the castle."
The crow master looked down at the arrow that Callum was holding, its tip shaped like the head of a hawk. A note with Callum's seal was neatly bound to the shaft. He raised his eyebrow and picked up the arrow. "Uh… Oh no.. has something really bad happened?"
Callum could see the crow master's concern as the thoughts went through his mind. He could see that he was slightly bewildered by this request seeing as Katolis rarely ever sent shadowhawks to Zym on top of the fact that they were never sent by Callum before. Callum looked down. In a tone of voice that was still sad and soft-spoken, he began to speak. "Yeah, this message needs to get to King Azymondias as quickly as possible. I will hold a public address about it soon. Just make sure that this gets to him."
The crow master thought for a moment and then nodded. "Don't worry, I'll send it now." He grabbed the one bow from behind the counter that was only used for the strict purpose of firing off the hawks and made his way to leave the room. Callum followed him outside to the courtyard where the crow master took the hawk-shaped arrow and drew it back on the string as he yelled Zym's name in Ancient Draconic. As the arrow was fired, a plume of smoke formed around it. The arrow then transformed into a glistening hawk that flew off into the horizon.
The crow master then turned to Callum and bowed. "I wish you good luck with whatever is going on." He turned and walked back to his office. Callum stood there for a moment longer, staring at the horizon where the hawk had been fired. He breathed deeply to himself and began to walk back to his quarters. Zym was going to receive the message now and he was going to get Xadia involved if they weren't already. They would be able to track down Ezran to his exact location. Everything was going to be resolved, he just hoped it wasn't too late.
Ezran slowly pried open his eyes and the environment around him faded in. It was blurry. He couldn't see much of anything except for the colors of green and brown as they surrounded him. feeling groggy, and slipping in and out of reality, he began to wonder if he was in some dream or hallucination. His eyes shut once again despite his attempts to keep them open as he fell into a void of unconsciousness.
His eyes pried open again. The world around him was still blurry and he still couldn't make much out except for the colors he had seen earlier and the vague shapes of what appeared to be forest and foliage. His head felt heavy, like at any moment it was just going to fall off of his torso. He struggled to regain control of his head as sudden nausea took him over. The world around him was spinning and moving in different directions, he felt the glare of the sun above him as it invaded one of his eyes, blinding it.
The world around him was slowly coming more and more into focus. He slowly turned his head to try to get a better picture of his surroundings, ignoring the flare of nausea that happened whenever he tried to move it. It was almost as if his vision was lagging behind where he was actually looking. As his vision became clearer, he began to get a better idea of where he was. He was definitely in a forest, that much was certain. He became more certain of this fact once the other senses began to rise up from the void of unconsciousness and activate. He felt the grass below him pressing into him, he smelt the smells of the forest all around him. The trees, the grass and the flowers. Each sent was recognized as they entered his nose. He heard the wind, gently rustling through the trees, slowly swaying the treetops. He also heard the muffled tones of people talking in front of him but he couldn't make out what they were saying yet.
How did he get here? The last thing he had remembered was falling asleep in his bed to finally recover from the drowsiness that the signing of the document had given him. Ezran's mind throbbed as he tried to pick up more details from the night before, why was it all so hazy? He became more and more convinced that this was all some weird dream as he thought of all of this. Then again, it seemed too real to be a dream. It had that sense of reality that dreams don't have, but people don't usually notice is absent until they stop dreaming. That sense of reality was there this time though. Perhaps the dream was just really vivid? However, as the world around him began to stabilize he doubted that more and more.
The vision around him had fully sharpened now and his senses had completely returned, he was finally becoming fully awake and aware. He tried to get up and start figuring out how he had gotten here. While his consciousness was fully awake, his memory was still hazy, and he struggled to remember many details. He began to remember that he had woken up in the night at one point, but for what? His head was still throbbing. As he tried to stand up he immediately noticed something. He couldn't stand. It seemed that every time that he wanted to stand up something was immediately pulling him back down.
Confused at what was happening, Ezran looked around and alarm filled his body as he began to realize the reason behind his inability to stand. A thick rope was constraining him to the tree that he had woken up on. His hands, similarly, were tied together in front of him. His breathing increased as every other part of his body and mind flashed into alertness. Adrenaline rocketed through every inch of his body. He felt chills and goosebumps as his heart rate accelerated and felt as if he had just run a sprint. He really wanted this to be a dream now. The feeling of reality seeping around him however, confirmed that him being in some sort of dream was little more than a fantasy.
Ezran was so filled up on adrenaline and in a panicked state that he didn't even realize the figure that had now spotted that he was awake. Coming towards him.
"Well, Well, Well, Look who's awake." The voice ripped him from his struggles as Ezran jumped back into what was happening around him. Looking directly ahead, Ezran saw that someone was standing right in front of him, mere inches from himself. He could fully make out the details of the person, well, more so the details of the armor the person was wearing because that was the only part of him that was visible right now.
The figure wore golden metal armor, glistening in the sunlight. The entire body was coated in this metal, complete with boots and a helmet. The helmet had a visor that seemed to be able to be moved up to expose the face or down to cover it, making the helmet look almost like those helmets that belonged to the knights Ezran had always heard of in stories.
Even under all that armor, the voice sounded oddly familiar. It wore an accent that he had heard before. However, Ezran didn't remember where he had heard it yet.
Ezran struggled to produce a response, he wanted to say something, ask the person in front of him what was happening, why he was here, but all that managed to come out were several odd noises and stutters buried deep in his throat. The figure standing in front of him merely snickered at his expense as Ezran continued to struggle. He tried to break through the ropes but they never gave way. Ezran was stuck here and he wasn't going anywhere.
"I wouldn't try getting out of those." The figure ahead of him got down on one knee so that he was almost eye level with Ezran. "They are bound pretty tightly so I'd suggest saving your energy," he said with a tone that dripped with malice. "Plus, where do you think you're gonna go if you do somehow manage to break through? Wouldn't be too smart to try to escape with all of us watching." Ezran couldn't see it, but he knew that the person was smiling under that helmet. Ezran noticed something about what the person had said to him. all of us? Looking behind the figure in front of him, he spotted five other people, looking at him, all wearing the same gold, metal armor.
Ezran tried to contact Zym. He tried to connect with him and ask him for help. But as he tried, nothing came in response. What? He thought in a panic. Ezran couldn't reach him, he felt pressure in his head, almost like his connection had been blocked off somehow. Every time he tried to communicate with the dragon, a brick wall stood in front of the connection, blocking it. No… no, no, no. Ezran couldn't fathom how this was happening. Right when Ezran needed him, Zym was gone. He couldn't reach him, no matter how hard he tried. A sudden wave of hopelessness overtook him. Zym would've been the only direct way out of this, but now Ezran couldn't contact him and he didn't know why. Nothing made sense anymore.
Ezran did the only thing that he could think to do at this moment. It was probably the only thing he could manage to do right now anyway, and that was to scream. He didn't know how hopeless it was or what his captors would do to him, but he needed to try, on the off chance that someone was listening.
Nobody heard him however, and his efforts were met with a blow of pain to the side of the head. His head began throbbing once again as he heard the person in front of him begin talking again. "That was stupid." He said with a slightly mocking tone.
Ezran felt a stinging pain that started on his chest, and then spread throughout him. A hot pain, as if a burning flame was spreading over his body. He whimpered through the pain as tears began to collect in his eyes. He noticed that the figure in front of him was now holding something that looked to be a spear, against Ezran's chest. The burning sensation throughout his entire body continued as the figure in front of him spoke again. "Allow me to give you some information you may find quite helpful," the figure said. "I want nothing less than to kill you right now." The person pushed the spear harder against Ezran's chest sending the pain flaring up again to emphasize his point. "However, as much as I want to send this spear all the way through your chest, I'm under orders to keep you alive." The person then paused before adding, "For now." Ezran, once again, felt the smile growing behind the man's armor. "However, if you keep testing my patience, we might find out just where my limit is in listening to rules." There was another pause. This pause felt like an eternity as the entirety of Ezran's chest felt like it was being melted from the inside. "Am I understood?" Ezran, through his tears, nodded in agreement and the spear was finally removed and the figure in front of him began to walk away.
Ezran took long deep breaths as the pain began to die down. He looked at the spear that had just been on his chest that the figure was still holding. It seemed to be constructed out of a similar material that he had seen on the sunforge blade in the town near the Cursed Caldera way back when he was still bringing the egg of Zym to his mother along with Callum and Rayla. It seemed to have a soft aura around it, looking almost like a faint flame had encompassed the whole thing.
Thinking of the memories with Callum and Rayla triggered something within him. He began to make short exhales as a silent cry began. The tears in his eyes were beginning to overflow as they rolled down his cheek. He tasted the saltiness of the tears that had found their way into his mouth. No, He thought to himself. Stop crying. You're the king of Katolis, you're supposed to be strong. STOP CRYING. The words repeated in his mind over and over as he yelled at himself internally. STOP CRYING! YOU'RE MAKING YOURSELF LOOK WEAK!. Ezran wanted to stop crying, he really did, but it had become impossible now. The dam was already broken and the water was flowing through.
His emotions boiled over and overtook him as his silent cries accelerated. He just wanted to go home, he just wanted to see his friends again. He needed a shoulder to cry on, he needed someone who wouldn't care if he made himself look weak, someone who he could open up to, someone like Callum or Rayla. But they weren't here, and Ezran didn't know if he would ever see them again now. They had acted as support for him for so long, but now he was entirely alone. The thought of it hit him harder than his current situation. What if he was never going to be found? What if he died in captivity and they never found his body? How was a king supposed to stay strong in a situation like this? You're a failure Ezran. You will never live up to the king your father was. You couldn't even stay strong when things got difficult. The voice in his head continued pressing. He tried desperately to shut it out but nothing was working. He wanted to scream, to make the voices in his head stop but he had learned from experience that this wasn't a good idea.
His crying had become more and more audible and reached the attention of his captors. Through his tears, he vaguely heard a female voice saying, "Shut that kid up."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the person who had spoken to him earlier, walking towards him. Ezran could barely muster out a "No!" before he felt a strong pain hammering his left cheek. His head jolted to the right due to the strong impact. Immediately after the blow, he began to taste something metallic in his mouth. Spitting it out revealed a red crimson liquid that hit the grass in front of him. Ezran did not have much time to react to what had just happened before a hand grabbed his jaw and yanked it, forcing Ezran to look straight at the man in front of him. It was then that he noticed the gloved hand that was holding his jaw had four fingers. Ezran hopelessly struggled to fight against the person in front of him as a piece of white cloth was bound around his mouth muffling any sounds that tried to escape. Without saying another word, the man in front of Ezran then stood up and simply walked away.
Ezran looked around his surroundings some more and found the castle to the left of him, standing in the distance. One more tear fell down his face as he took a look at the home he may never see from the inside again. The castle that he had lived in for all his life would now become a distant memory. Ezran had no idea what these people were going to do to him or where he was going to go but all he could do now was sit and wait for the future to inevitably come and meet him.
About forty minutes passed before Ezran was able to get the next clue on what was about to happen to him. He had almost fallen asleep until the leader of his captors shook him, almost violently. "Wake up, we're leaving." The captor then grabbed at the cloth that was bound around his mouth. "I'll remove this if you behave." He said.
Ezran nodded sadly.
The captor yanked it out without much care to be gentle. He then proceeded to untie the ropes while making sure to remind him that if he used the opportunity to run, he would pay dearly. The other five captors were not paying any attention to this and instead, were all standing around seemingly getting ready to depart.
Ezran didn't know where he was going now but he assumed it wouldn't be too long until he found out. Ezran was shoved to his right. A very clear sign that told him to start walking. Directly away from the castle.
As Ezran and his captors tread deeper and deeper into the forest he took one last look at the castle as it finally disappeared behind the trees never to be seen again. The sounds of the forest surrounded him as he walked. On any other day, this would've relaxed him, maybe he would've even tried listening to what the animals around him were saying. Not today though. He couldn't even ask the animals around him for help as he had no telepathic connection with them like he did with Zym. He didn't even know what the animals around him would be able to do for him in a situation like this.
Ezran had been walking through the forest for a while when he finally spotted a large clearing up ahead which his captors seemed to intend to stop at. As he approached the gap in the trees he noticed the reason they were stopping and inhaled sharply. Before him, in the clearing stood a massive red Sun Dragon, a sizable amount bigger than Pyrrah.
As Ezran entered the clearing, the dragon gave Ezran a death glare with its almost glowing yellow eyes and snarled at him causing him to hesitate a little bit as he moved forward. This hesitation did not last long however as he was pushed forward with great force by one of his captors.
"Here's what's going to happen, Ezran," Said the captor who had talked to him earlier. "We're going to get on this dragon, and he's going to fly us somewhere more permanent." He paused for a moment before saying, "It's worth noting that this dragon hasn't eaten yet today, so be careful about trying anything funny." He said while a horrible laugh emanated from him.
The voice's familiarity finally clicked in Ezran's head, he knew exactly where he had this voice before. A chill went through Ezran's spine as he connected the dots.
"Pyrrhos?" Ezran said while breathing fearfully.
The captor turned his head towards Ezran, saying nothing for a moment as if he hadn't expected this sort of response from him. He then slowly moved up his visor. While it was the face that Ezran had been expecting to see, the confirmation and the horrible smile that Pyrrhos was wearing sent another shot of adrenaline through Ezran's body.
"Thanks for the tour Ezran! I really enjoyed it!" He said followed by more mocking laughter as he moved the visor back to cover his face and shoved Ezran forward towards the dragon that had lowered itself to allow its passengers and prisoner to climb on.
As Ezran climbed onto the dragon, it hissed at him, and seemed to constantly be just short of a loud roar. Ezran assumed that this dragon was not in the mood to talk and he dreaded what would happen if he got too close to its mouth. The whole situation caused involuntary shivers to radiate throughout his body. Ezran had never been properly scared of a dragon he was meeting before, he wasn't used to this.
Ezran's heart dropped as the dragon finally stood up and spread its large wings. With a strong flap, Ezran and his captors were up in the air flying further and further away from the castle. Ezran felt the tears build up in his body again as he looked at the land below him zooming by. There were so many things that he never got to do, so many things he never got to say.
No, you idiot, you're not crying again.
It was hard, but Ezran managed to swallow it down. He was the King of Katolis, and he would remain strong during this.
He had to.
Callum sat on his bed. Rayla, along with Corvus, Soren Amaya, and Gren had left with a search party to go assist in the search for Ezran. The silent atmosphere of the room oppressed him. It was getting well into the afternoon and still, Callum had no update from the search parties. Every minute that passed was a minute that Ezran was in danger if he wasn't already… No, he couldn't think of that now. It was like Rayla had said, they didn't know anything yet. Still, worry grew inside of him with every minute that passed.
He should be out there, this was his brother who was in danger and he was sitting here, hauled up in the castle, meekly hoping for updates on the situation. Unfortunately, he wasn't a member of any of the search parties and was expected to stay in the castle and handle the government side of things. Precisely what he wasn't good at. Opeli had reassured Callum before that he was doing everything he could and that none of this was on him. He had already given the order to send out a notifier to the neighboring towns about the public address that would be held later today. Regardless of what happened. The Kingdom of Katolis needed to know what happened to their king, it could also help search efforts as more people became aware of his disappearance.
Despite all of this, Callum still felt like he was just sitting and watching the minutes pass by. He hadn't felt this useless since he had destroyed his primal stone and thought that he had lost the ability to use magic for good.
Finally, about an hour later, he heard a knock on the door to his room. Opeli was on the other side. Callum looked for some hint of what she was about to say in her face but her face didn't give away any obvious clues so he was just going to have to deal with what came out without any mental preparation.
"They found something," Opeli said. This caused Callum to rocket into a stand position, looking like he was about to go airborne.
"What? What did they find?!" Callum said with desperation in his voice. He needed to hear some news, some lead that his brother may be ok.
Opeli told Callum to follow her out of the door which Callum immediately complied with. They slowly walked through the castle and out into the bright afternoon sun in the courtyard where he saw a search party dispersing. In the middle of everything stood Rayla, Corvus, Soren, Amaya, and Gren.
Callum immediately went up and embraced Rayla who then gently returned the hug.
"So.. what did you find?" asked Callum with fearful curiosity as the hug broke.
Corvus was the first one to speak before Rayla could even start talking and said, "Surveying around the castle, we found clear signs of a track leading into the forest, disturbed soil as if someone had been there before. Following it led us East for a while. There was one location that seemed more disturbed than usual, as if somebody had stopped there for some time and walked around." Corvus paused for a moment before continuing. "The track after this continues to head East for a while before seemingly ending up in a clearing." Corvus had a sad expression on his face as he continued. "In the middle of the clearing was a larger patch of disturbed earth and that's where it ends. We looked around for a while but found nothing else."
Callum had a hurt expression on his face, it felt like the world was beginning to crumble around him. With a shaking voice, he said "T-that's all you could find?"
"Callum-" Said Rayla trying to comfort him but Callum immediately sat down on the courtyard floor taking in deep breaths of air.
"We- We don't even know if those were related to Ezran… It's just all so…" Callum trailed off as he couldn't find the word for what he was trying to describe.
Everyone else looked at him with sympathy. Rayla got down on one knee to get eye level with him and gave him a reassuring smile. "Relax. This isn't the only search we're going to do, plus you already sent that letter to Zym right? Things are going to turn out ok. Let's just take a moment to calm down and get everything together." Rayla said followed by her hugging Callum tightly, something which Callum proceeded to weakly return.
They stayed in the courtyard for some time discussing their next steps in the search, using the knowledge that they had gained so far to hopefully make a formulated plan. It seemed that basic tracking wouldn't work anymore so the talk of setting up a whole search perimeter and scanning every nook and cranny of where Ezran could possibly be came into discussion. This was a much longer process but it was maybe necessary.
Somewhere in the middle of their discussion, their talks were cut off as Corvus spotted something in the sky. Approaching the castle was a blue sky dragon. Something was peeking out of the side of his mouth. Corvus shouted out to the others that King Azymondias was here and they all watched as he made a landing right in front of them.
Zym looked exhausted and emotionally drained. His tired eyes gazed at the people in front of him. Callum now saw more clearly what Zym had in his mouth as he slowly and gently placed it down on the floor. It was a letter that bore Callum's seal. Callum's shadowhawk.
Zym looked at the gang with an expression of deep sadness as he began to speak. "I assume I know what this is about?" He said gesturing to the arrow lying on the floor. "I caught it on my way here."
Callum was the first one to respond. "Y-yeah, It's about Ezran."
Zym nodded sadly.
Callum then continued. "We thought you could help us find him, he's been missing since this morning and we thought you might know where he is."
Zym glanced at Callum with a hint of confusion on his face before saying, "Did you get the shadowhawk I sent you before I left? It tells you that I don't."
Callum's breath hitched in his throat. No. It felt like every shred of hope of ever finding Ezran evaporated immediately. His body suddenly felt weak and wobbly as his emotions began to overtake him. He tried to calm himself down, but his heart rate accelerated and his breathing quickened. He was shivering as he began hyperventilating. Rayla had seen this before.
"Callum!" Yelled Rayla as she worked to steady him. Zym looked at what was happening with a fearful and worried expression on his face.
Rayla wrapped Callum tightly into a hug as she began to speak. "Callum it's ok, just breathe." Callum's breathing began to slow down as Rayla continued. "Breathe Callum, it's ok, we can still figure this out but you just need to breathe." It took some more comforting and reassuring before Callum's emotional state was finally stable again. With a long deep breath, he was finally able to get back on topic. "I'm sorry guys I… I just thought… this would be the answer." He said sadly. "We..uh… didn't receive that shadowhawk Zym, but thank you for telling us."
Zym looked confused for a short period but then returned to normal. The group silently agreed that finding Ezran took priority over the missing shadowhawk. A small moment passed by before Callum began to speak again. "D- do you have any idea what happened to him Zym? We're trying to get everything we can."
Zym sighed, he closed his eyes as if recalling something that he didn't exactly want to bring to the forefront of his memory.
"I saw the start of it," Zym finally said. "I was asleep when something suddenly woke me up. I got a feeling that something was wrong but as I looked around the spire I couldn't exactly figure out what it was." Zym paused for a moment, took a shaky breath, and then continued. "That's when I figured it out, I realized that it was something happening with Ezran. I was able to see a band of intruders in Ezran's room, pinning him down and preventing him from screaming. They looked like they had some sort of sunfire armor on." He took one more shaky breath before he finished. "That's when they took out a needle of sorts and jammed it into Ezran's leg, injecting something into him. The intruders knocked him out and then I lost contact with him."
A long pause went by, nobody daring to say anything before Zym added something in a choked-up voice as if he was about to cry. "A-and now I can't get contact back. I don't know what it is, I know he's not dead. I can feel the connection there but it's almost like it's… blocked somehow… I don't know, I've never seen this before."
Zym then calmed himself down and finished, "After that I… became an emotional wreck. My mother tried to calm me down... not with much success at first but she eventually managed. We talked for quite a while on what to do. We eventually decided for me to fly over here to hopefully formulate a plan. That's when I sent out the shadowhawk notifying you that I was coming, the one you didn't seem to receive."
Callum was holding his breath. His worst fears were confirmed. Any hint of hope that Ezran might not have been forcibly taken away was now ripped from him.
Corvus then spoke, "Do you know just what it was that they injected into him? It may be possible that it's the thing that's blocking your connection."
Zym nodded, "I've definitely considered this as well and it seems like the most likely explanation. However I don't know what the substance is."
Opeli cleared her throat. "Perhaps we should continue this discussion inside? We could try to formulate a better course of action there."
Everybody slowly agreed and went to move in to the castle. Callum was slowly lagging behind everyone else. Rayla, on occasion, glanced back at him to make sure he was doing ok.
He wasn't.
He doubted that he would be ok for a while but at least he was no longer collapsing from panic.
The familiar walk to the meeting room carried a much heavier atmosphere than the day of the signing of the document. There was no small talk, no smiling, no chuckling. Nobody said a single word the entire way.
Reaching the entrance of the meeting room, they were silently ushered inside as the doors closed behind them. Despite there only being one person missing, it had an empty feeling, as if somebody had just walked into a normally crowded ballroom to find nobody inside.
As everybody took their positions, there was a long moment of silence before conversation finally began.
"So… what do we do now?" Zym started.
"I mean… I guess we look over everything that we know so far," Callum said.
"I would like to bring something up," Corvus started. "You mentioned that the intruders into Ezran's room seemed to be wearing some sort of sunfire armor is that correct?" He said while looking at Zym. Zym nodded which led Corvus to continue. "This leads me to believe that Ezran's captors may be Xadian as currently there are no humans that I know of that wear that type of armor."
Zym considered something to himself for a moment and his expression twisted into one of slight anger "Yes… I considered this as well."
Rayla then spoke next "What reason would people from Xadia have right now to kidnap the king?
"I don't know." Zym nearly snapped back with a tone of increasing anger in his voice. He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to at first but the evidence was right in front of him, some of his own subjects had been responsible for the kidnapping of his best friend. A fire began to ignite inside of him as he continued to think it over.
Corvus then began to speak again, "If they had some sort of sunfire armor on, do you feel that they may be headed for the city of Lux Aurea? I've heard about it before and it seems to be where most of that type of equipment comes from."
Zym sighed, made an expression as if he was thinking it over very carefully and then shook his head. "No, they would have to be idiots to head there, they would get caught immediately in such a public space."
"King Azymondias, if I may. Judging from previous instances and disturbances in Xadia, do you believe that Sol Regem may have had something to do with this?" Opeli offered.
The anger on Zym's face faded as he considered it. Sol Regem had been the primary one in Xadia causing trouble, and Ezran's kidnappers were definitely wearing a sort of sunfire armor. However, Zym hadn't heard of any incident from Sol Regem since he was banned from the border which, admittedly, wasn't that long ago but it was a low rate of incidents compared to what was going on previously. The last that Zym had heard of Sol Regem was that he was being cooperative with investigations. Then again, Sol Regem did carry an unsettling calm tone the last time they spoke… and there was always the fact that just because somebody had gone quiet doesn't mean that they were done...
"I-I'm not sure… It's true that he had been responsible for most of the incidents after peace was restored but this? He did cause a lot of death a long time ago but this is so much bigger than anything that he's done recently. I… I don't know. I'll try to see if I can get an investigation on this going for him though." Zym said.
Corvus then spoke with the intent of moving back to the topic at hand of finding Ezran. "Whatever their intent is or who was involved, we know one thing is clear. If Ezran's captors are in fact Xadian, that means we know where they will be heading. Towards Xadia, even if we don't know where exactly in Xadia they are heading towards. This also seems to align with the track we found when we were out searching earlier, although I still don't know if it's connected."
Zym eyed Corvus, the anger in his face transforming into confusion, "What track? Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"The opportunity didn't present itself," Corvus respondedand. "And as I said, we still don't know if the track we found and the king's kidnapping are related. The track we found heads East before stopping at a clearing. Looking around we found no additional tracks anywhere." Corvus replied.
Soren was the next one to speak up, "Wait. If we are sure Ezran's kidnappers are from Xadia, can we be sure that they didn't get help from a dragon? It would explain why the tracks suddenly disappeared in a clearing, maybe they flew the rest of the way?"
Everybody stayed silent for a moment to ponder this and consider the possibilities until Corvus' voice broke the silence. "Of course, that's only if the tracks are related."
Callum began to speak again. "So… it's probably safe to assume they're heading for Xadia then? I...is there anything we can do with that information?"
Zym sighed, "I can probably give out an order to have people stationed at the border. Try to screen the people coming through so we can hopefully intercept them there."
"And what if they get to Xadia on a dragon or some other flying creature? What do we do in that case? Dragons can just fly over the border." Callum said.
Zym took a minute to ponder this and then finally came out with an idea. "I guess we could form a team to search the Xadian side of the border in the case that they do make it over. I could also try and make a public announcement in Xadia to try to get anybody I can to help search for him."
Rayla chimed in, "Callum was already going to make a public announcement here, maybe that could aid in search efforts as well? Get both sides searching."
Everybody nodded their heads in agreement.
"Zym. Would you like to...help me with that?" Callum offered. "It could ease the crowd a little bit knowing that Xadia is going to help in this."
Zym had a blank stare for a moment but then sighed and said "Yeah, yeah I guess I could."
"Perhaps we should alert the other human kingdoms as well, try to get as many people looking as we can." Opeli offered.
Everyone seemed to agree with that. Having people alerted on the entire western half of the border would significantly increase their chances and would allow them to find Ezran on the very small chance that they weren't headed for Xadia.
"Good, now that that's settled, the only question that seems to remain is who goes to Xadia to look for Ezran?," Rayla said.
Zym considered something for a moment and then continued to speak. "Well… Rayla, you've been a great trustworthy friend of mine for a while now and I know you want Ezran found just as much as I do. Would you like to lead the team?"
Rayla blinked with surprise. Out of everything she had expected, this was not one of them. It was likely that she would ask to come along and be made a member of the team anyway but to be so immediately considered for the leadership position by Zym was something that was completely out of the blue for her. However, the opportunity to lead a rescue team for one of her best friends is something she couldn't turn down. Rayla's lips finally curled into a determined smile as she said, "I'm in."
Callum immediately stood up. "I'll come along too."
Opeli looked at Callum with a sympathetic expression and then began to speak, "With all due respect Callum, you're needed here. You're the next in line to rule in Ezran's absence and the kingdom might not be too happy to have both of you gone."
"But-" Callum stuttered.
He looked at Rayla with a worried expression on his face but Rayla simply sighed and said, "It's probably for the best Callum." Besides the fact that Callum was needed in the castle, Rayla also didn't want Callum getting into any danger.
"But Rayla you can't go by yourself! You'll just get killed! I don't want to lose two important people in my life!" Callum yelled. "Also that's my brother Rayla! I want to make sure he's ok!"
Rayla gently kissed him on the cheek before saying, "He will be… and who said I was going alone?" Her face turned back up into a determined smile again. "I think you missed the word team in there Callum."
Opeli then was the next to speak, "There is a lot you can do to help on this side of things to help Callum. Trust me, it's better this way."
Callum made a motion like he was going to object and continue to fight against this. He really didn't want Rayla going off on a dangerous rescue mission without him. He would also once again feel useless if he wasn't there helping his brother directly. The looks of everybody else in the room made it clear that he didn't have a chance of winning however. At least the fact that there would be other people going along with her brought him some level of comfort.
"Alright…" Callum conceded and slumped back down.
"Now then," Zym said, "Are there any volunteers in this room who would like to join in on the team?"
Soren immediately stood up. A sad and determined expression on his face. "I've already failed the king once. I'm not going to do it again. I'm coming along."
This was immediately followed by Amaya who stood up and signed something with an angry expression on her face with Gren interpreting for her. "I would like to have a little chat with the people who kidnapped my nephew." Gren interpreted.
Then, Gren spoke for himself. He smiled while saying, "And I guess that means I'm coming along too."
Corvus then also stood up to volunteer. "It is my duty to serve the king and make sure that no matter what, he is safe. I believe my skills will help us find him more effectively." Corvus said with determination.
Rayla nodded and Zym spoke again. "Well, looks like we've got a team. Now the only question is how do we get everyone to Xadia? I can carry some of you but it may be difficult with all five of you. I could try to send for an extra dragon to come for transport but I don't know how long that might take."
"Some of us could follow along on horseback, if we gallop we may be able to keep a decent pace." Soren offered.
Zym considered this and then nodded. "A good suggestion. Now we just have to figure out what would be quicker, sending for an additional dragon via shadowhawk and waiting here until it arrives, or having some people travel on horseback."
It was a difficult question to answer. Opting for some people to ride on horseback meant that they could leave the moment they were ready. However, it also meant that they would be significantly slower and it could take quite some time to reach Xadia. Having a second dragon transport the remaining team ensured that the time it took to get from the castle to Xadia would be quicker but they would have to wait for the request for a dragon to reach Xadia, a dragon to be picked and then have it flown over to the human kingdoms before they could get going.
Doing the math, it was eventually decided that sending for an additional dragon would still be quite a bit faster than having some of the team ride on horseback.
"Opeli?" Zym asked as they had finished their discussion on this topic.
"Yes King Azymondias?" Opeli responded
"Would you be able to get a shadowhawk sent to my mother on behalf of me? Inform her about our decision so she can send an additional dragon over here?" Zym said and then quickly followed up, "Also would you be able to tell her about our decision to screen people coming through the border and the nationwide search in Xadia so she can start on those things in my absence?"
Opeli bowed, "Right away your highness. I'll also inform the other kingdoms about our situation." after which she promptly left the room.
About one hour after the meeting discussing the course of action that the nations of Katolis and Xadia would take had concluded it was almost time for Callum and Zym to speak to the public of Katolis about what had happened. He sat in his room, nervously waiting for the minutes to tick down. He already had a general idea of what he was going to say to the crowd yet his nerves were still hyperactive. Still, he understood that this was a necessary step in finding his brother and was one of the things that he could do even if he couldn't get involved directly.
After a couple more minutes of waiting, a knock finally was heard on his door. Opening it he found Opeli on the other side with Zym standing behind her.
"The public that we were able to inform are all here," Opeli said, "They are ready when you guys are."
Callum slowly stepped out of his room, closed the door behind him and breathed deeply, calming his nerves before he finally said, "I'm ready."
The three were led down the halls towards the large balcony where these kinds of public addresses were usually given. Finally, as they reached the entrance to the balcony, they could already see the large crowd that had gathered in anticipation of the speech.
Callum's nerves flared up again as he worked to contain them. He slowly stepped onto the large stone balcony with Zym walking up right next to him. The crowd quieted down as Callum became visible, waiting for what he had to say.
Callum took a moment to collect his thoughts and then began to speak. "Hello everyone." He said sadly. "You're probably wondering why I am here standing in front of you today and not King Ezran...well... that's what I wanted to inform you about today."
The crowd tensed up in anticipation of what Callum might say. Mild whispers and rumors were heard dispersing through the entire audience.
Callum once again calmed his nerves before continuing. "Unfortunately, it was revealed that my brother, King Ezran had been abducted. The identities of these kidnappers are still not confirmed, nor are their motivations."
Callum waited as some people in the crowd gasped. The collective whispers began to increase in amount dramatically. Callum waited patiently until the crowd had quieted themselves and then began to speak again. "We have reason to believe that Ezran's captors may be Xadian in nature however, and we are using this information to help track him down. A rescue team has already been formed whose primary objective will be to look for Ezran in Xadia. King Azymondias has also sent out the order to temporarily increase security at the border between Xadia and Katolis to prevent Ezran's captors from crossing over should they be traveling on foot. Along with this, he has also given the order for a nationwide search in Xadia where anybody living in Xadia will be alerted to this issue and be instructed to keep their eyes out. I am going to start a similar search here in Katolis. "
The crowd was silent as they waited for Callum to continue. "Effective immediately, there will be a nationwide search for King Ezran in Katolis. Everybody will be instructed to keep their eyes out for any sign of the king. If someone is to find any indication as to where he might be, it is to be reported immediately. An alert has also already been sent to the other human kingdoms on this situation. I hope that they will take the same precautions that we are taking."
Some time went by where the crowd murmured to themselves before Zym cleared his throat and began to speak. "I want to be very clear," Zym stated. "Katolis will have Xadia's full support in this endeavor. These people who abducted Ezran are criminals and they will be treated as such by Xadia, Xadian or not."
He then paused for a moment before finishing with, "The alliance will not be threatened by the common criminal. King Ezran will be found and his captors will be punished. These criminals will have nowhere to hide." Zym said in a determined tone.
The sound of clapping and cheering erupted from the crowd in response to this. Callum, relieved, slowly walked back into the castle with Zym behind him. As he entered the castle again he was embraced by Rayla who had now been waiting for him inside."That was great you two." She said.
Callum finally let out a small chuckle. The first one he had managed to create all day. "Yeah, thanks for the help Zym. I think your confirmation that Xadia was still on our side really helped."
Zym simply nodded. A neutral expression on his face.
A short while had passed and the gang had just settled down after the speech when a guard came in through the door completely to everyone's surprise.
"Apologies for the unannounced visit." The guard said. "But, King Azymondias, A- uh... well this is a really long name but she shortened it to a...Nyx? Is waiting in the courtyard to see you."
Zym's face became filled with frustration and anger and Rayla's bore much the same look while Callum's face just simply went into a small frown.
"What is she doing here?" Zym hissed.
The guard looked perplexed and then sighed. "I'm guessing you two aren't on the best of terms? Should I send her away or-"
"No," Zym replied with annoyance seeping through his voice. "Let's find out what she wants."
Zym, Rayla, and Callum, upon entering the courtyard, sure enough, saw the familiar figure of the snarky, winged Skywing elf that had almost left them in the midnight desert two years earlier.
"Hello!" Nyx said with a smile on her face that already gave off the indication that she wasn't taking this whole thing seriously. "First off, I just want to say. My, my! How do you dragons manage to do this long flight over from Xadia?! I mean on top of asking for directions since it's my first time here, I also had to take several breaks because you know I got tired and all that so that kind of added to my trip time. I have no idea how you pull all the way through" She paused for a moment and observed the unimpressed look on the faces of the people that she was talking to. "Anyways, great speech! You really sold it to those people!"
Zym rolled his eyes. Then, with frustrating bubbling in his voice he said, "Get on with it, what are you doing here?"
"Well, I couldn't help but notice you were coming here to Katolis to figure out what happened to the king and so I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to, you know, help?" She said while looking at Zym with what seemed like a fake innocent expression.
"What?" Zym said in an angry tone.
"Yeah, Yeah!" Nyx said, "I also noticed from the amazing speech you guys did earlier that you were dispatching some sort of rescue team already. If it's not too late maybe, I could, you know, join that?" She asked with that same completely innocent-looking smile on her face. Rayla narrowed her eyes in response.
"Why the hell do you care?" Zym hissed
"Oh come on Zymy don't be like that-"
"Don't call me that." Zym growled.
Nyx cleared her throat before continuing. "I just feel like this would be the perfect opportunity to show that I'm sorry for what happened back in the midnight desert and I thought I could make it up to you!" Nyx said.
"You mean when you tried to kidnap me and almost left my friends stranded in there? You want to make it up to me for that? How the hell am I supposed to believe that you won't just do the same thing and kidnap Ezran as soon as you find him? You haven't exactly established yourself as the trustworthy type." Zym asserted.
"Yeah well… Here's the thing Zym. I wasn't exactly kidnapping you back then. I was still going to bring you back to your mother you kno-"
"An act that Callum and Rayla were more than capable of," Zym said, cutting Nyx off. "Listen, do you think you're going to just join up with Rayla and the others by just coming here and trying to butt in on this whole thing? As I said before, I have zero trust in you. You had a chance to make us trust you before and you squashed it."
"Yeah well, you know, this could be a great opportunity for new beginnings and all. I'll get to show you the side of me that isn't what you saw back in the desert." Nyx said. "Also, it's not like I've got nothing to bring to the table. I'm good with my boomerangs and I'm a Skywing elf, a winged one at that. I can be a great tool for surveillance, giving you guys details about your surroundings and all that."
Zym just continued to glare at her in response while Rayla tightened her own glare even more. Even Callum was starting to gain an annoyed expression on his face at this point. After a while Rayla turned to Zym and Callum and said "Hey, listen, can I talk with you guys in private for a moment?"
They nodded and the two retreated towards the entrance of the castle with Nyx simply waiting behind them, still with a smile on her face.
"So what do you suppose we do about this?" Zym said in a hushed tone.
"I'm not sure. I doubt she's just here to help through the goodness of her heart. I'm pretty sure she's just here to gain a better standing with you Zym." Rayla replied
"Oh believe me I'm well aware…" Zym replied with a sigh. "Of all the things I was expecting today..."
Callum then finally spoke up, letting some of the frustration leave him as he reviewed what she had said. "I mean, she did offer some skills to the table that might be quite useful." Callum offered, "Whether she is doing this just out of kindness or not, it would be an extra member of the team that may help in finding my brother." He said. "She may have stranded us last time, but it would be harder to do that this time with 5 people other than her if you all take precautions… plus if she was trying to increase her standing with you Zym, then stranding the team and not going along with the mission would be a very awful way to do it."
Zym sighed. "At the end of the day, it's your decision Rayla, you're the team leader after all. You decide who's on or off."
Rayla considered long and hard and then finally conceded with a heavy sigh. She saw the usefulness of what Nyx could bring to the team despite the risk of betrayal. "Fine," she said sharply.
The gang finally walked up to Nyx and then it was Zym who spoke first. "After some consideration, Rayla has decided on whether or not to let you into the team," Zym said and then gestured to Rayla, signaling her to speak.
Rayla sighed and said, "I will let you on, but let me warn you, I'm going to be watching you the entire time and I will tell the rest of the team to do so as well."
Zym then followed up with "And believe me Nyx, if Rayla reports back to me about anything you might have done during the mission, then there will be some serious consequences. Is that understood?"
Nyx actually gulped for a moment but then smiled and nodded.
"Good," Zym said. "Now that that's settled, one thing is still bothering me. How exactly did you know I was coming here? I didn't exactly make a national announcement about it." Zym said suspiciously.
Nyx chuckled nervously as sweat began to trickle down her face. "Well...uh... you see… you might not like this but uh…"
Nyx slowly reached and pulled out something safely stowed away. It was a letter which bore King Azymondias' seal. That seal had been broken open.
Zym began to growl as soon as he saw it. "Is that the shadowhawk I sent to Katolis this morning?" He hissed as everyone else's eyes narrowed.
Nyx gave an innocent smile. "Old habits die hard, sorry."
Ezran had been flying for many hours. He wasn't able to fall asleep due to the situation he was in and drowsiness was beginning to seep its way into his body. The sun had already set and Ezran was unable to see much of the ground through the blackness of the night.
Ezran still didn't know where they were going. His captors had said almost nothing during the entire flight. The only thing he knew was that they had crossed into Xadia at some point while there was still daylight. But now the nighttime, combined with their high altitude, began to chill his body. He attempted to warm himself up through friction but it wasn't helping much. Ezran shivered, his skin was getting ice cold. Ezran wasn't sure if he wanted to land soon just to get out of the cold air or stay in the sky where his captors were likely not to hurt him for the time being.
It was a couple more minutes until Ezran felt a pit in his stomach, that almost nauseating feeling where it felt like the stomach was moving up towards the sky. Ezran knew this feeling from the creatures he had flown on before, they were descending. Ezran had a brief moment of relief as the warmer air began to slowly return.
Finally, after some moments of descending, the Dragon landed in a clearing surrounded by forest. In the clearing was what looked to be a campsite with small torches lighting up the general area. The light that these torches produced was faint however and only stretched to the edge of the tree line of the forest. Looking at the campsite, Ezran noticed more people, wearing the exact same armor as his captors. Ezran was thrown out of his observation as he received a shove to get off the Dragon and heard Pyrrhos' voice for the first time since that afternoon.
"This is our stop, get off." He commanded.
Ezran complied and slowly made his way off the large Dragon. He couldn't stabilize himself and fell to the ground with a thump, landing right into the dirt. His captors snickered at his fall.
Ezran slowly dragged himself out of the dirt. He felt miserable, his entire body was stained with dirt and he was in the middle to nowhere without any knowledge of what was going to happen to him. His only company was people that seemed more than capable and ready to do him harm. Ezran tried for a moment to wipe all the dirt off of him but it was a hopeless endeavor.
Ezran was shoved forward as he was ushered towards the campsite. His six captors split up, surrounding him as he walked. Two on each side and one in the front and back. The other people at the camp craned their heads towards the scene as Ezran walked by them but soon went back to what they were doing as if they had lost interest.
Despite what was happening to him, an odd sense of calm washed over Ezran. He didn't know why, it was as if his ability to feel fear had at least temporarily disappeared. Maybe it was because he had been in this situation for basically the whole day already, or maybe it was because he hadn't been roughed up for a while.
His captors guided him towards a completely inconspicuous-looking tent. However, after they opened the tent, he noticed that it wasn't really a tent at all. On the floor inside of the tent lay a door that looked a lot like a cellar entrance made of thick wooden planks that were bolted together with black metal. The door creaked as one of the captors opened it, revealing a staircase down into a dimly lit complex. Stone lined every inch of the walls off into the distance.
Upon entering this complex, Ezran was led through a series of passageways getting further and further away from the entrance and further and further away from the outside. Finally, they had reached a large, thick wooden door that was leaning open. Ezran, seeing into the door, knew immediately that this was his destination. His nerves began to reactivate as he was pulled back into a state of fear. The room was claustrophobic, lined with the same stone that had lined the walls of the complex. There was no light source and no window to the outside. The only thing in the room lay at the far end. Shackles, both for the arms and legs. The shackles for the arms were attached via a chain to the wall while the shackles for the legs were attached to the floor via a chain as well.
Ezran was once again struggling to keep his emotions under control, he didn't know why seeing this room had once again put him into a state of distress but it did. It felt like his heart was about to break from his chest as his breathing increased. His captors however didn't seem to notice, either that or more likely, they just didn't care.
Ezran was shoved forward into the room and was instructed to sit against the wall. The sound of clicks emanated around him as the shackles were closed and locked.
"Now sit tight," Pyrrhos said in a mocking tone. "The person in charge is going to want to have a word with you soon." Pyrrhos began cackling as he and the other captors left the room and the door was shut behind them.
Ezran heard the turning of the door key followed by a click signifying that the door to his cell had been locked. Now he was completely alone, alone in a dark room, unable to see much around him. The cold, tight metal shackles chilled his skin. There was no sound to accompany him except for the occasional drip of water from a source he couldn't pinpoint.
Drip,
Drip,
Drip,
It was almost rhythmic, the last sign of the natural world. In addition to the drowsiness, he felt a flare of hunger begin in his body. He realized that he hadn't eaten today at all. He felt it was unlikely that he was going to eat anything anytime soon. "The person in charge" was going to "have a word with him" soon. After that, he would probably die, or perhaps that would happen even during that meeting. He tried and tried again to make peace with it but his emotions didn't seem to want to cooperate with him.
Drip,
Drip,
Drip,
Despite his drowsiness, he did not go to sleep. He wanted to extend the possible last moments of life as much as possible, he doubted that the anticipation of what was going to happen would allow him to sleep anyway.
Drip,
Drip,
Drip,
Goodbye Callum, he thought to himself. Goodbye Rayla, Goodbye Everyone. The urge to cry was once again creeping up his throat, he suppressed it. He had to stay strong, like his dad. It was the only thing he could still do. He felt the difficulty of keeping the tears down increase with every
Drip,
Drip,
Drip,
Yet still, he forced himself together. At least I can still be the strong king you want me to be.
It was early the next morning when Callum was pulled out of his doze by a rapid knocking at his door. He had barely slept last night, only managing to get a couple of hours of on and off dozing. Looking out his window, he saw that the sun was just peeking over the horizon. The knocks continued on his door as he groaned in a tired voice. "Alright, Alright, give me a moment."
He quickly put on his standard clothes and gently opened the door. Outside stood Opeli along with Rayla and the rest of her rescue team and Zym.
Opeli quickly bowed before speaking, "The second dragon that Zubeia had sent has just arrived. I thought you might want to be there to see everyone off."
Callum nodded slowly, he still didn't like the fact that he wasn't coming along with them but it was completely useless to try to persuade them now so he, in a low voice, just said, "Yeah-Yeah, I'll do that."
Rayla smiled at him in an attempt to lighten his mood as he got out of the door. It didn't work. Callum was too far gone in his own thoughts at the moment for anything to be able to break through.
They once again trod silently through the castle corridors, towards the courtyard. No sound was audible besides the noises of the muffled footsteps on the carpet. In the courtyard, they finally saw the second dragon that would be helping to transport the rescue team to Xadia. It was a dragon that had been seen before by some members of the team.
"Pyrrah?" Zym asked in a surprised voice as they got closer.
The large Sun Dragon made a gentle breathing sound in response and gestured downwards with her head. There was a letter, neatly rolled up, attached to her neck. It bore the seal of Queen Zubeia. Pyrrah slowly shifted downwards to allow Opeli to take the letter from her. Breaking open the seal, she began to read its contents out loud to everyone.
"Dear Azymondias,
I have received the letter from minister Opeli about your request. I have gone through with the plan that you guys have agreed upon and announced a nationwide search in Xadia for King Ezran. I have also sent officers to the border to intercept Ezran's abductors should they come through on land.
Upon sending out the request for an additional dragon to aid your rescue team in reaching Xadia promptly, Pyrrah here was the first one to volunteer. She has made her reasoning for this quite clear. The act of burning down that human town close to the border still weighs heavily upon her.
She wants to move past what she did and hopes that assisting in Ezran's rescue, even if by just helping transport the rescue team to Xadia, will help redeem her for her past transgressions.
As for you Azymondias, I look forward to your safe arrival back home and I hope that you are feeling better than when you left home. It's very important to me that I see your smile again.
Love,
Your Mother,
- Zubeia"
Callum watched as Pyrrah's look became one filled with genuine emotion while the letter was being read. Unlike the hard look that he had usually seen Pyrrah give, this one was full of sympathy and well-meaning.
Zym took a deep breath before speaking. He had a genuine and thankful smile on his face. "Thank you Pyrrah." He said.
It was now time for the rescue team to part ways. The rescue team bid farewell to Callum with Rayla and Amaya's goodbyes being the most heartfelt and emotional. Amaya had almost crushed Callum in one of her hugs before telling him to stay safe and Rayla shared a very tearful goodbye with Callum where they embraced each other for a solid moment. After the embrace, Callum spoke up and said "Rayla, please stay safe ok? I don't want to lose you too."
Rayla gave a warm, caring smile in response. "I will. Before you know it, I'll be back here with Ezran safe and sound. Ok?" She said. Callum gave a weak nod in response.
The two shared one last heartfelt kiss before separating.
Rayla, Amaya and Gren climbed onto Zym while Soren, Corvus, and Nyx climbed onto Pyrrah.
"Before we go," Zym said. "You still haven't exactly told me where you want us to drop you off in Xadia."
Rayla pondered this for a moment. If she was being honest, she hadn't thought about it until now. A bit of thinking went by before Rayla finally reached a decision. "the Silvergrove," She said.
Rayla had been unghosted from the Silvergrove quite soon after Zym was returned to his mother and the Silvergrove realized the mistake they made.
"It will be a good starting point, my uncle Ethari is a blacksmith there, he can give us some equipment we may need. Even if he can't, there are Moonstriders that will help us increase our speed in Xadia and hopefully find Ezran faster."
Zym nodded. He grew a serious, determined look on his face and looked at Pyrrah as if to say, ready?
Pyrrah, in response, got into a position to be ready to push off into the ground. Followed by Zym getting into a very similar position. Zym spread his wings, and then he took off, ascending quickly into the sky. Pyrrah began to closely follow behind as the castle of Katolis quickly became lost in the distance behind them.
Rayla spent most of the flight thinking to herself. There had been a couple of times where Amaya had started a conversation with her. Conversations with Gren interpreting of course. For all other times however, she was either in her own head or looking towards Pyrrah and the other three members of the rescue team.
Soren did not seem to be doing well at all. He looked as green as Rayla did when she was on boats. He seemed to get into a fear frenzy whenever they hit any minor bump of turbulence. Occasionally, he leaned over the side of Pyrrah as if he was about to vomit right off of her. Nyx was constantly laughing at these antics while Corvus just seemed confused and Pyrrah became more and more annoyed.
Rayla smiled faintly to herself. At least she wasn't the one having travel sickness this time. Zym was mostly silent during the whole flight, he seemed entirely focused on getting to Xadia as soon as possible so the team could start their mission.
While crossing the breach, Rayla could just make out the figures of the increased border security that Zym had called for, getting ready to screen anybody who came through.
Rayla tried to use this to start a conversation with Zym. "Hey look, there are your border officers Zym." She said in an interested tone.
Zym only gave a small "mmhmm" in response however.
Attempt failed.
The stoney ground below them that was near the border eventually became conquered with dense vegetation and greenery some hours into their flight. Rayla noticed the familiar landmarks that she knew flash by, landmarks like the giant tree that Callum and Rayla had ridden down two years ago. She could also make out the location of the adoraburr field, although she couldn't exactly see it well through the canopy.
Finally, Zym began to engage in a descent. Going through the canopy of the forest, the two Dragons landed almost right next to the Silvergrove. Specifically near the log where Callum and Rayla had performed the dance to get in.
Oh boy, getting these guys to do this dance is going to be fun. She thought to herself.
"We're here," Zym announced in a serious tone as the whole search party got off the backs of the two dragons.
Nyx seemed to be trying to impress everyone way too much by doing stunts with her wings while getting off of Pyrrah. Soren on the other hand quickly found the nearest tree and with wobbly knees leaned against it as several guttural and retching sounds emanated from him.
Zym addressed the whole team for the last time. "I'm going to be returning to the storm spire now. Remember, your top priority is finding and rescuing Ezran. Leave the apprehension of his captors to a different team if possible. It may not be a good idea to have them with you when Ezran is also with you anyway. Good luck you guys, I hope you find him soon should he and his captors have managed to cross the breach." Zym said.
The rescue team nodded. Even Soren, who was just starting to recover from the air sickness gave a slight weak nod as he slowly turned around to face the Dragons.
Zym spread his wings and disappeared above the canopy. Pyrrah nodded at the rescue team and then proceeded to lift off out of the canopy as well, heading in a different direction then Zym did. The team was then finally left with nothing but themselves and the sounds of the highly active magical jungle around them.
"So, what now?" Corvus asked.
Rayla sighed. "Follow me." She said in a slightly annoyed voice.
One very embarrassing and annoying sequence of trying to get everyone to dance to unlock the Silvergrove later, the illusion hiding the village finally gave way. The environment around them darkened and took on a more ethereal look as several buildings appeared in front of them.
Slowly walking into the Silvergrove, Rayla was greeted one by one by all of the inhabitants that they passed as a hero. Some of them took interested notice of the guests that she had with her but none of them took it too far.
Finally reaching Ethari's workshop, the group climbed up the staircase leading to the main entrance. Rayla, once she had reached the top, gently knocked on the door and was greeted with the image of an Ethari whose smile grew on his face the moment he saw who was standing there.
Taking Rayla into a loving embrace, his voice was full of joy. "Welcome home Rayla," he said before finally letting a Rayla that seemed just as happy to see Ethari go. It was then when Ethari noticed everyone behind her. "Who are they?"
"Well…" Rayla started, "Ethari, there's been a little bit of a situation in Katolis." Rayla said.
"Oh yeah," Ethari remembered, "The Queen of the Dragons sent out information about that to everyone, the king got abducted correct?"
Rayla nodded, "I don't know if Queen Zubeia told you about this but Azymondias put a team together for his rescue to look for him here in Xadia." She paused for a moment before saying, "Well, I got put in charge of that team and so, this is that team."
"Oh, Rayla." Said Ethari with a smile on his face while bringing her into another embrace. "I'm so proud of you."
"Not that this mushy stuff isn't really cute, because it is, and I am all for it," Nyx said. "But uh, could we get on with why we came here?"
Soren gave a small chuckle at that while Corvus just rolled his eyes. Gren and Amaya looked mostly indifferent, Amaya had not seen this interaction with Nyx take place and Gren hadn't interpreted it for her.
Rayla gave Nyx a slightly hateful glance before continuing. "Right," she said. "Listen Ethari, I came here because you're the best blacksmith I know… also because you're the only blacksmith I know." she said, slightly embarrassed. "I was wondering if you'd have some stuff that would be able to help us."
Ethari gave Rayla a determined smile. "Why don't you come in." He said, motioning the group to follow him inside.
Once the group was all inside he shut the door behind them.
"Alright, first of all, Rayla. Let's get you suited up." Ethari began to walk out of the room before saying "Wait here." He then returned a couple of moments later holding a suit of armor that looked almost identical to the one Rayla already had. "Now, that old armor you have Rayla is quite outdated. I've been pretty busy these last two years and my armor technology has come a long way."
Ethari gestured to the suit of armor in his hand and said, "This may not look that much different but it's about 40 percent lighter and about twice as strong." He hammered his hand onto the chest plate to demonstrate. The chest plate made a loud clunk as Ethari's fist made contact with the armor. "Nothing's getting through that." He said while shaking off his hand.
Ethari handed the suit of armor to Rayla who inspected it closely. Despite looking very similar to her original suit of armor she did notice one key difference. "The gloves are new," She said with an interested smile on her face.
Included with the armor set were a set of black gloves with a rough texture and green, sown in stripes running along with each finger and then converging into a shape that outlined the palm and the back of the hand.
"Ah yes," Ethari said. "The gloves will help you improve your grip, greatly assisting you with handling your weapons in a critical situation. They also provide some additional armor for your hands." Ethari then glanced to the rest of the team and put on a sad frown. "Unfortunately they don't come in five-fingered variants, you will have to excuse me, I wasn't anticipating human customers." He then looked at Nyx for a moment and then said "But I could supply some for you if you'd like them."
Nyx shook her head and with a smile said, "Nah, I'm good, thanks."
Ethari shrugged. "Your loss." He then paused for a moment before saying, "Why don't you go to your old room and get changed Rayla, I'll show the rest of these people the things that I might be able to do for them."
Rayla nodded and walked towards her old room and shut the door behind her.
Ethari glanced at the three armored human soldiers and formed a brief hum as he thought to himself. "Fortunately, tools are a bit easier to craft for me than gloves so I could create you guys some new armor and weapons if you want it. Or at the very least I can modify your current ones."
Amaya began signing, a smile on her face. Gren interpreted for her. "I'll stick with my current weapon selection thanks, but I am interested in seeing what you can do with the armor." This was followed by both Gren and Soren also agreeing to get better armor.
Ethari smiled. "Follow me," he said.
He led the two to the room he used to craft everything he created. With his expertise and some magic, working with tools was practically second nature to him.
"Would you mind taking off the armor for a second?" he asked.
The three complied and he looked at the suits of armor very closely once they were on the table in front of him. "I could modify these, it would take less time as I know you guys are in a hurry and it would have roughly the same effect as giving you some new armor." he said
The three nodded which Ethari took as a sign to get to work. One by one he went through the armors, removing many pieces of the metal from the interior effectively thinning the entire armor. "dead weight" he called it.
"Excuse me," said Soren, "But how exactly is this supposed to help us."
Ethari looked at Soren with a face that very clearly read seriously? Before he spoke. "Well, I'm not done yet obviously."
He walked over to several drawers and cabinets that he had in the back of the room and took out several black plates. "This here is the same material that most of the armor I make for assasins is made out of." He paused for a moment. "Extremely light and durable." he said.
He walked back over to the three suits of armor and then began attaching the black plates to the inside of the armor where he had removed the metal earlier. Once he was satisfied with his work he looked back at the group of the three humans and with an exhale said, "There, why don't you try this on for size."
The three put on their armor once again and were astonished at how light they had suddenly become, it felt like they were wearing almost nothing on top of their clothes.
"Just a thin layer of this and your armor is not only lighter but also stronger than it was before." He said with a satisfied smile.
He ushered the three out of the room and back into the main entrance where Rayla was standing, fiddling with her new gloves. She had her old suit of armor over her arm and handed it to Ethari.
"And?" Ethari said.
"New armor feels great, thanks Ethari!" Rayla replied with a confident smile.
Ethari smiled back and then looked at the two remaining teammates who hadn't received an upgrade yet. "Alright, now we just need to take care of you two. Would you please follow me?" Ethari said looking at both Nyx and Corvus.
Nyx and Corvus followed Ethari into the room where he had just modified the armor of the three human soldiers. "Now," Ethari said looking at Corvus, "Your weapon of choice is... that chain?" He said which Corvus nodded to. Ethari chuckled, "Creative, could you demonstrate it for a moment?" Ethari said with interest.
Corvus obliged and swung the chain around a couple of times, after which he threw it at a nearby weapons rack. The chain wrapped around one of the supports of the rack and a loud crash was heard as many different swords fell to the ground. "Oh, my apologies," Corvus said.
Ethari chuckled, "No worries." He then paused for a moment before saying, "Although it seems like quite a bit of exhausting work to have to throw that chain around. It could put you at a disadvantage. If you want, I could make a sort of launcher for you that will take care of that part."
Corvus looked surprised for a moment but then nodded his head.
"Excellent!" Ethari said as he gathered the materials and began to melt them down to begin to forge the weapon.
"Uhh, is this going to take a while?" Corvus asked.
"Oh no, not long at all." Ethari replied. "With a bit of help from magic I should have this wrapped up for you pretty soon but while we are waiting for this to melt..." He looked at Nyx. "Why don't we look at what you might need? What is your weapon of choice?"
Nyx pulled out her boomerangs that she carried on her person at most times and showed them to Ethari. "I'd be generally impressed if you can make these better than they already are," Nyx said smugly.
"Boomerangs huh? I must say, some of you use some rather unconventional weapon choices." He said and then quickly followed up, "Could you demonstrate their usage real quick, I may already see what I can improve on them but I just want to make sure."
Nyx then proceeded to throw the boomerangs towards the far wall. The boomerangs became stuck as they collided with the wall.
"Hmmm.." Ethari said, "I could make these quite a bit more aerodynamic for you if you wish, they would be able to travel quite a bit further."
Nyx smirked and placed the boomerangs in front of Ethari who immediately went to work on both the boomerangs and Corvus's launcher. He managed to get the two weapons into a workflow by working on the boomerang and switching jobs when the launcher needed tending.
For the boomerangs, all that really needed to be done was to file the shape into something more aerodynamic but he also went the extra mile and thinned the metal, not only making them potentially sharper but also quite a bit lighter.
Since the boomerangs were the easier task, Ethari was able to finish them before he finished the launcher for the chain and asked Nyx to do a little bit of target practice on Ethari's already damaged wall. Ethari sat on the table, arms crossed, a satisfied smile on his face as he watched Nyx throw the boomerangs one by one. They had a definite increase in speed to them and seemed to go quite a bit deeper into the wall than they did before.
Nyx grinned a snarky grin at Ethari. "Well, Well, looks like you were able to make these better after all. Color me impressed." Ethari simply waved her off but smiled, clearly appeased with the compliment. "I wouldn't call myself an expert blacksmith if I didn't know how to improve these tools."
It took quite some more time for Corvus's launcher to finally be completed, it was a complicated process, to get the metal molded into the right shape and to get all the mechanics working. However, eventually he got it all together. The finished launcher was a small, light, shiny tool that almost looked like a mini cannon with two triggers at the bottom.
"Now, the top trigger is for firing, the bottom trigger is for recalling," Ethari said as he was showing Corvus how to operate the launcher. "The launcher is designed so that when you shoot it off properly you can achieve the same things you could with the chain." He quickly looked around and then glanced towards the empty, knocked over weapons rack. After standing the rack back up he signaled Corvus to go to go ahead and try it out.
It took a few attempts but Corvus eventually managed to get the chain to wrap around the poles of the weapons rack using the launcher. It made a loud boom every time it fired off. Using the bottom trigger to recall, he was able to recall the chain at much quicker speeds and at a greater force than could be done by hand. He smiled while Ethari returned his self-satisfied smile that he used several times already today as he looked at his work.
The two rejoined with the rest of the group in the main room. Ethari then realized something "Would you like me to sharpen your swords?" Ethari offered to the whole group.
Those who had swords nodded their heads. Ethari took the swords back into the crafting room and one by one, pressed each sword against a swiftly rotating stone. He blew off the dust from each, now glowing with heat, blade as he finished. Finally, he quickly dipped them in water to cool.
"Is there anything else you need?" Ethari asked politely as he was handing the swords back to their owners.
"In terms of equipment, I don't think so, but I was wondering if you could get us some Moonstriders, they'd help us move quite a bit faster," Rayla said.
Ethari nodded and ushered them outside. The group was instructed to wait by Lotus pool until Ethari returned. With that, he walked off into the village.
Ethari came back a while later with three Moonstriders.
"Two on each," he said. "That should work out." He then looked at the other members of the team, "Do you guys know how to ride Moonstriders?"
Soren, Gren, Corvus, and Amaya all looked nervous for a moment before Ethari chuckled and said, "Don't worry, it's similar to riding a horse, you'll get used to it quickly."
Rayla gently rubbed the nose of each Moonstrider, learning to get familiar with them before finally nodding her head as she ushered her teammates to pick a Moonstrider and climb on.
Amaya and Gren were paired up on one while Nyx and Soren were paired upon another which paired Rayla up with Corvus on the lead Moonstrider.
Just before the team was about to leave, Ethari called out. "Oh, and Rayla." He said. "Wasn't going to mention this to you earlier but you seem a lot happier doing this over what you were doing before." He grinned a friendly grin. "You might have found your true calling."
Rayla smiled back. He was right. Of course, she wasn't happy that Ezran was kidnapped and brought who knows where, she would much rather not have to go on this mission in the first place. However, she did prefer this type of mission over an assasination. Once again, Rayla was going after Ezran, but this time, not to end his life but to save it. There would be no hesitation this time, her mind and her heart both agreed that this was the right thing to do and she would accomplish it to the best of her ability.
With that, she, on her Moonstrider, galloped forward followed by the rest of her team on the other two Moonstriders. It was only a short moment before they disappeared out of view from The Silvergrove.
Night crept in around the storm spire. The entire land around the spire was shrouded in darkness and the air was completely still. The crickets could be heard singing their song as the moon climbed higher and higher into the sky.
Zym and his mother were both asleep while the members of the Dragonguard were standing by, ready to defend the two dragons at a moment's notice.
A noise emanated from outside the spire, it wasn't much but it sent the Dragonguard into high alert. They slowly crept towards the entrance of the spire as they tried to locate the source of the noise. It had stopped, the air outside was still completely still. The members of the Dragonguard continued to stand on alert, looking towards the entrance of the spire, looking for something that could be a threat. However, in the night, they found only darkness.
Suddenly, a golden spear was sent flying through the entrance of the storm spire, hitting one of the members of the Dragonguard in the shoulder as he yelled in pain. The other members yelled out "We're under attack!" As several armored figures ran into the spire, all wearing shining, golden armor.
Zym and Zubeia snapped to alertness, forcefully ripped from the realm of unconsciousness.
"Wha-?" Zym said as he tried to make sense of the environment around him.
"Azymondias, get behind me!" Zubeia yelled.
The knights in gold began tearing through the members of the Dragonguard that were attempting to hold them back. Zubeia attempted to help by firing shots of lightning at the attacking knights. However, more just kept coming in. Zubeia's attacks were finally cut short when a loud roar erupted from the entrance of the Storm Spire and a yellow Sun Dragon aggressively barged in.
Sol Regem.
Zubeia tried to shoot him down but her attempts failed. Sol Regem found her location through the sounds that her attacks were creating and crashed into her, swiping his claws at her, cutting open various portions of her body.
Zym, as a last-ditch effort, tried to get Sol Regem off of Zubeia by firing off a few attacks of his own but he was stopped by the intense burning sensation of a hot spear piercing his skin.
He hissed in pain as the spear exited his body and he tried to fight off the golden armored knights around him. The last members of the Dragonguard, in their attempt to help, were overwhelmed by the numbers of these knights that had entered the spire and were finally torn through completely.
Zubeia tried hopelessly to fight off the Sun Dragon that was clawing and biting into her body, pulling off chunks of flesh as her crimson blood spilled over the plants of the storm spire.
"Mom!" Zym yelled, tears forming in his eyes as he tried again to fight off the enraged Sun Dragon.
A broken voice emanated from Zubeia as she tried hard to squeeze out words. "Azymondias… RUN!"
Finally, Zubeia stopped fighting back, in fact, she stopped moving completely. She fell to the spire floor, completely mangled and lifeless.
Zym didn't even register properly what had happened, his surroundings now seemed like a blur to him. However, enough had registered in him to evoke a choke in his throat as tears started spilling out of his eyes.
Sol Regem turned his attention away from the Queen of the Dragons after realizing that the body had fallen away and towards the sound of Zym who was still trying to fight back the horde of golden armored knights.
Zym, noticing Sol Regem's shift in attention, gasped as a large stream of fire was shot in his direction. He desperately tried to maneuver out of the way of the blast but his failure to do so was marked by a massive, burning sting in his left wing. Zym quickly fell to the ground, the burning pain in his left wing still in full force. Zym swore he heard one of the attackers in the background of the fight yell, "He's still alive!" He tried to evade the attackers by attempting to spread his wings to fly away. However, every time he tried to move his left wing, he was shot by an even greater burning pain that radiated throughout his body. He briefly glanced at his left wing while he was able to and was horrified by what he saw, or more, the remains of what he saw. He wasn't able to get a good look though as he immediately felt another spear pierce his skin and get yanked out violently.
His mother's last words kept racing through his mind Azymondias... RUN!
He had to get out of here, no matter what it took. Zym, after fighting off the attacker that had inserted the spear into his body, made a beeline as best he could for the entrance of the spire. He felt himself take several indirect hits from weapons as he tried to fight off the people that were closest to him.
All he had to do was keep running.
He was stepping through pools of blood, blood that he didn't know the owners off. He passed the lifeless corpses of the members of the Dragonguard who had hopelessly attempted to fight off the attackers, their eyes misty, their bodies unmoving.
Finally, Sol Regem, with some directional help from his accomplices and the sound of Zym's footsteps, lunged towards him, attempting to bite. Luckily, Sol Regem was still biting blind and Zym managed to get out of the majority of the bite. Sol Regem still hit in the tail however, which caused him to yell in pain. Sol Regem dropped Zym for a second attempt to target him. Zym was sent rolling from the velocity of Sol Regem's lunge, he couldn't stop himself, the world around him became a dizzying mess.
He rolled until he eventually found that there was no longer ground under him to roll on. Zym had rolled off the edge of the spire.
He felt the wind rushing past him as gravity began to take over, falling down further and further towards the bottom of the spire. He eventually managed to steady himself and tried desperately to fly out of this fall but he still couldn't move his left wing.
Seeing the ground quickly approaching and hearing nothing but the wind screaming past him, Zym tried one more last-ditch attempt to stop his imminent death. He targeted, as best he could, the wall of the spire and opened his right wing as far as it would go, trying to get as much air to push against him as he could. He then began to flap the wing as hard as possible. He couldn't fly on this, but if he could just slow his fall speed, maybe he would survive this.
Everything around Zym was a blur except for the ground getting closer and closer to him.
Flap,
Flap,
Flap,
Zym was betting everything he had on his right wing's ability to keep this fall survivable, it was his last chance.
Flap,
Flap,
Flap,
Please work, he thought to himself, Please work.
Flap,
Flap,
Flap,
The thought of his mother entered his head as more tears began to form in his eyes. I'm sorry Mom, I'm sorry. I was a terrible king, I was a terrible son, I didn't listen to you all those times. Please forgive me.
Flap,
Flap,
Flap,
Impact.
Zym's body hit the wall of the spire as the slope became more and more horizontal and began to transition from mountain to ground.
He took in a sharp inhale of air as he impacted, for some reason, it felt like he couldn't feel much of any pain at all anymore.
Zym was hurtling down the wall of the storm spire at blazing speeds, kicking up dust around him which got into his eyes and blinded his way down. He became disoriented from his visionless rolling. He finally seemed to be rolling completely horizontally a little while later as he began to slow down.
After what had felt like forever, Zym finally came to stop. He opened his eyes. After finally managing to get the dust out of them. He could see he was facing the sky through the dust that was still clouding around him. The moon hung over him, almost tauntingly.
At the top of the spire, he saw the outline of a large Archdragon, Sol Regem, with his wings spread, looking into the distance before he heard a loud roar sourcing from the same dragon.
Zym knew what had happened. Dragons had challenged dragon king's multiple times in the past for their title. Sol Regem had challenged Zym, and Zym lost.
The second coming of the Dark Days had now begun.
