A/N: Remember how I said this update would be faster? I lied. :3 Though, if it makes you guys feel any better, I've spent these past months thinking over my plot, themes and characters and I believe the story will be far more focused and enjoyable because of it. I'm also well into the next chapter, so that (probably) won't take too long.
Warm sunlight flowed into the mid sized room though several small windows, fighting though a darkness that seemed to radiate from the walls themselves, before finally falling upon the rooms only feature. A tall wooden shrine, depicting a short, mildly fat dragon with a massive grin plastered to his face. All around him bowed much smaller lizards, offering food and wine to their incredibly happy overlord.
In front of the shrine bowed several real dragons, eyes closed and lips moving in silent prayer. At first the congregation seemed to be a normal prayer group, but with a second glance one would notice every dragon in attendance was a child, the eldest being no more than sixteen. Amongst the crowd was Atash. He too worshiped Athkin the Deimult's god of joy.
After some time a small door at the back of the room flew open. Several praying dragons gave the intruder annoyed glares, before returning to their devotions, but the invading ice dragoness didn't seem to care, "Atash!" She almost shouted, "I'm bored and Lila's stuck in class!"
"Shut up, Suishou!" The fire dragon snapped, "I'm praying! I'll be out soon!"
"But you prayed yesterday!" Suishou complained with more than a hint of satire in her voice.
Atash let out an exasperated sigh, "Just give me a minute!"
"Fine." Suishou reluctantly closed the door, allowing the group to return to their prayers.
"A friend of yours, Atash?" A nearby worshiper asked.
Friend might be a bit too strong a word. The fire dragon almost said, but decided instead on a simple, "Yeah." before returning to his prayer.
Atash had almost finished his prayer when the door flew open a second time, "Your minute's up!" Suishou exclaimed, marching into the room, once again ignoring the miffed glares. She reached Atash in a matter of seconds, grabbed him by the tail and started back towards the door.
"Wait! I'm not done yet!" The fire dragon protested, but was promptly ignored. "Uh... Athkin, may your joy forever gui-!" He was cut off when the door slammed shut. The remaining dragons stared at the entryway for a moment, some amused, others annoyed by the interruption, before one by one, returning to their devotions.
Lila walked out into the warm, sun bathed day in search of Atash and Suisho. Classes were over and she wanted nothing more than to spend the evening simply chatting with her friends. The matter of Fire-Claw and the letter had left her for the time being, though that wouldn't last long.
It only took her a moment to find Atash and Suishou, who were sitting under a tree playing a game of chess. As per usual, Atash was winning. By a lot. Lila wondered for a moment why Suisho even tried anymore. But alas, there she was fighting away, despite it all.
The purple dragoness plopped herself down next to the board, "Hey, guys."
"Hi." Attash muttered absentmindedly, carefully planning his next move.
"You winning?" Lila asked dryly.
Lila got her answer when Attash wrapped his tail around a rook and moved the piece across the board, "Check and mate."
Suishou swatted the board in annoyance, "You suck."
"Hey, you're the one who wanted to play in the first place." Atash retorted.
Suishou rolled her eyes, turning to face the new arrival as she did so, "So, how was class."
"It was good."
"Terrla doin' alright? She seems to have a pretty busy schedule this year."
"Yeah. I think she's doing fine. A little busy, but that's not abnormal." Lila paused, "Oh yeah, I'm going to have less free time next week. I'm helping her plan history lessons for the younger ones."
Suishou started to say something, but Atash cut her off, "Speaking of Terrla," he said, a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth, "I have an idea."
The dragoness' gave him a confused look.
"Lila, you're on till on great terms with her, right?"
"Of corse."
"So if you were to come to her with an odd question, like say, "Does Kaze know the CEO?" she'd answer?"
A grin spread across Lila's maw, "I think that might just work."
Tremor pushed the open the door to his family's apartment. "We're home!"
When there was no answer he glanced at his sister, who simply shrugged, "Maybe they're out?"
The two moved into the dark entryway. For some reason all the lights in the apartment were off. The lights were never off. Ever since they had installed electric lighting the duo's father had insisted on keeping the lights on as often as possible. He claimed it discouraged would be robbers from breaking in. The fact that the light was off worried Breeze more than anything else.
Breeze lead the way into the eerie dark, fumbling for a light switch.
"Ugh, why does it smell so bad?" Tremor complained.
Tasting the air, the golden dragoness realised her brother was right. An unimaginable stench emanated from the dark room ahead of them. A stench that swallowed any pleasant thoughts that two may have had.
A moment passed, though for the dragons fighting through the dark it felt like an eternity. Suddenly Tremor let out a shrill yelp. Normally his sister would have made a snarky comment about how high his voice went, but the last few moments had been so unnerving that she didn't have it in her to tease her brother.
"What's wrong?" She hissed, feeling as if any loud noise would cause the darkness to envelop them.
"I slipped on something." Came the reply, "It's... sticky."
Breeze wondered for a fleeting moment what it was, but banished the question from her mind. She'd find out soon enough. Just so long as she could find that blasted light switch.
"Ahah." She mouthed quietly as the light flickered on, but her moment of triumph was quickly shattered by the awful sight ahead of her. Tremor was standing, horrified, in a pool of sticky red liquid, in which rested a severed head. Their fathers head.