Ta-da! Guess who? Here we are, and finally we have the first-ever Albaz/Ecclesia chapter!
You know the drill, and thanks again to Just A Lad from discord and A_Strange_Twist_of_Fate from AO3 for helping me!
"Did you find anything?"
The girl waited for a few moments before the boy's voice answered her from outside the house. "No food here either! What about you?"
She looked at the broken suit of armor leaning on the wall and shook her head. "Just more weapons!"
She couldn't see him at the moment, but she knew he was growling. "Mercourier's not back yet, so we've gotta keep looking."
Ecclesia sighed as she gazed in dismay at the ruins around her. Things had been going so well, and now they had to end up in this...desolation. A half-shattered pyramid, toppled spires, broken pillars, wrecked shells of houses all around. She even saw fragments of murals, now blackened or chipped away to the point of being unrecognizable. The rest was just rubble and stone. Vines covered some structures, but they all looked sick, withering or just plain wrong. This place made Golgonda look tame - for all its inhospitability, the great sand sea was both beautiful and calming at times.
A skittering noise reached her ear and she tightened her hold on the hammer. They had already been attacked by one of those fire monsters and although she sent it flying, she really didn't want to meet any of its relatives.
She bit her lip and looked around. The remains of what were once most likely towers and temples were scattered all around her and into the cloudy horizon. Broken statues of dragons and strange four-legged creatures loomed in both open ground and shadowy corners of every smooth black road. What was this place? Why did it feel so…dead?
Hearing footsteps approaching, she turned and saw her companion trudging up to her, carefully moving around the scattered rubble. At her pleading look, he shook his head. "Nothing but metal and stone," he then shot a glare at the direction from which he came. "I don't know why we came back here, it doesn't look like any food could survive."
"I thought that maybe we could find some pickles. Back in Dogmatika we had cellars of pickles and dried beef for emergencies."
The ashen-haired boy took a whiff of the air and immediately cringed. "If there is, I can't smell it over this…whatever is in the air." He idly bit his lip and tugged on the hem of his coat. "Hope Mercourier gets back soon. I really don't like this place. There are lots of dead dragons around."
Ecclesia nodded in agreement. "I know Albaz, I know."
They stood there for a few more minutes, idly looking around and sticking together when Albaz's pointed ears twitched. He swerved his head to her left and she followed his gaze. When she saw the flash of blue in the distance, she couldn't help but smile.
"I told you he wouldn't get lost."
"I know that, he didn't get lost the other times. I'm just worried that something like that fire-snake thing will ambush and eat him."
Fluttering above their heads was a little bird, made of bronze and machinery. The bird circled twice before settling on Albaz's shoulder and letting out a mechanical chirp. The white-haired boy grinned and gently rubbed its head with a gloved finger. "Did you find anything bud?"
Mercourier's gem-blue eyes flashed and with a flutter of its bronze wings took off again, away from the ruins. Albaz and Ecclesia shared only a brief glance before bolting after the bird, kicking up gravel. Wordlessly, they followed it toward the expansive black forest that was outstretched before them. When they had first arrived, they were reluctant to enter, not knowing what they might encounter, but now it seemed like Mercourier had found something worthy of attention.
The inky-black leaves passed by them as they ran. Ecclesia idly glanced at them and wondered if she'd touch them, would her hands get sticky? They looked all nasty and slimy, not like regular trees.
They soon topped before what looked like a wrecked tower. It wasn't much different from the ones in the city, to be honest, save for the fact that it looked far more intact. Glancing behind her, the girl noticed that they had gone rather deep into the forest. And judging by the ground, there weren't any of those strange bursts of air. Those looked nasty too.
"Oh…another tower. No food?" asked Albaz. The bird shook its head and the boy sighed. "Okay…at least it's away from there. I didn't like sleeping there."
"Me too." She then noticed something poking out of his coat. "Did you find something?"
He blinked with his one open eye. "Hmm? Oh yeah." From his belt, he pulled out a sword with an ornate pommel. The steel had a strange look to it, like rippling water, something shared by other bits of metals she had seen in the ruins. "Found it lying next to a skeleton. It looks cool and it's really sharp." He gave it a few swings. "It cut a rock like it was nothing."
"Really?" She stepped towards him and gave it a closer look. "Is it a magic sword?"
Albaz glanced at the blade for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know."
It didn't look like any magic sword she'd seen…if it was one. "Do you wanna see what's up there?" she asked, pointing to the top of the tower.
"Sure!" He grabbed Ecclesia's arm and pulled her along into the tower. The insides were far neater than she'd expected - the walls and rooms were mostly in one piece, and the stairs looked intact and safe. They climbed up all the way to the top, whereupon they exited onto a balcony.
From it, the view of the forest was spread before them, a sea of black and purple leaves. Behind it the shapes of the ruins they had traversed hours before cast ominous shadows against the dark clouds, like sleeping behemoths. The girl squeezed Albaz's hand as he hissed at the sky - and she knew why he did so.
Above the ruins loomed a gigantic, diamond-shaped hole, casting a dark purple glow above the ruins. Ecclesia held back a gulp; seeing one of those things had never bode well for them - especially this one.
"...I still don't get why can't I fly through it."
"...I wish I knew too."
She felt his hand tighten over hers. "Every time I tried to fly through, it just blasted me back."
"I had to stop you after the tenth try."
"I tried the next day, but nothing changed." He looked down and dismay colored his features. "Am I doing something wrong? Maybe I'm not trying hard enough?"
"Albaz," propping the hammer against the balcony, she held his clenched hand with both of her own and stared in his eyes. "You did nothing wrong, none of us did; no one could have seen that hole open in the middle of our path."
She bit her lip as her voice began to hitch. "I know…it hurts. I just saw Fleur again after so long and we had to leave…now I don't know where she is or even where Kitt and our friends are…" she took a deep breath and her voice regained a measure of steadiness. "But we have to keep trying. Maybe there's something on this island that can help us. And you're back in your human form, so that means something. We will see our friends again, I promise."
Slowly, Albaz nodded, not once trying to escape from his friend's hold. Ecclesia had often told him about her sister/mother figure when they were wandering the Great Sand Sea. What did it feel like, to have someone that cared that much about you raise you for ten years? A hint of a smile appeared on his face. "...thank you."
The girl smiled at him in return. Unfortunately, their little moment was interrupted by a huffing sound coming from Ecclesia's hammer. They turned and saw two yellow eyes peeking from the skull atop the hammer glaring at something in the forest.
"Rockey? What's wrong?"
The living machine let out a puff of ash that floated from the top of the skull and into the air. The two looked in the same direction and saw one of the nearby black trees rustling. Then, out of the darkness of the woods crawled a serpentine creature that glowed red like flames and slithered across the ground. It raised its dragon-like head and let out a loud hiss, sounding like sizzling meat.
"Oh, those things. They look weird for dragons. Some of them tried to attack you, right?" Albaz asked.
Ecclesia nodded. "Mm-hm. They're hot to be around and I don't wanna be bitten by those teeth, even though they aren't that strong." A small chorus of hisses emanated from the woods. "He must have friends."
"...I don't think they'll leave us alone."
The girl frowned and grabbed her hammer. "No, they won't. Let's make sure they don't get close to the tower." Albaz grunted in affirmation and the two leaped from the tower, right towards the fire-serpent. The poor creature barely managed to flinch back in surprise when Ecclesia's hammer slammed into it and sent it flying.
With another throng of hisses, four more fire-serpents lunged from behind the trees and straight at the duo. Albaz drew his new sword and with nary a word, his hand and the blade were alight in white fire. He swung his sword at one of the lunging beasts and bisected it in an arc of fire. Its friend hissed in rage and lunged again, only to meet the same fate.
The boy turned to see if his friend needed help and saw the other two serpents getting smashed into the ground by her hammer. He saw one trying to get up from its little crater weakly, but another smash to the head crushed it into a pulp.
The girl barely looked winded and she lightly grimaced at the sight of the remains. "Are there any more?"
Albaz sniffed the air. "No, not nearby." He idly looked down at the sword, which was no longer engulfed in flames. "What now?"
As if to answer his question, low gurgling came from both his and his friend's directions. Ecclesia ducked her head in order to hide her growing blush, and Albaz scratched his head. "...looks like we should eat."
From the satchel around her waist, the blonde pulled out a square of white bread and split it in two, handing one half to her friend. They walked over to the tower, sat down on the ground cross-legged, and began to eat.
"We're running out of food," muttered the girl between bites. "We have to find more."
"We could try cooking those,"replied Albaz, gesturing at the remains of the fire-serpents.
While the idea seemed appealing - especially since meat was involved - Ecclesia had some doubts. "I don't know…there's something weird about these things." Her nose wrinkled. "They smell rotten, really rotten. Meat shouldn't smell like that, especially after we just killed it." I don't know if they're safe to eat."
The boy hummed as he idly kept chewing on his bread. "...I could transform again. Maybe there's something in this place I can hunt and bring back here."
Ecclesia looked at him with concern. "Are you sure? We don't know what else is out there."
"You said it yourself; we're running out of food."
As if to further emphasize that fact, a low growl emanated from Ecclesia's stomach. Fighting down her blush, she nonetheless conceded the point - the rations would run out soon, and they would have to find another way to feed themselves. Whatever plants around them did not look appetizing at all, even if they could bear fruit, so it would have to be hunting.
"Just…don't go too far."
Albaz nodded and took a few steps away from her and the tower. He closed his eye and exhaled sharply, the sound cutting through the air like a knife. Then, the gems on his chest and head flashed a brilliant white and orange. The air filled with heat and in a burst of fire and lightning, where once there was a boy, now stood a dragon, with scales of steel and wings of flame. With a mighty roar, the dragon flapped its wings and took to the skies, leaving Ecclesia staring at him, a strange mixture of emotions in her eyes. "Be safe."
A few hours passed (or maybe less - what little sun that pierced through the clouds did nothing to indicate the time) and Ecclesia did nothing but idly wander around the tower or rest. The former saint kept checking the horizon for any sign of Albaz's shining scales even though she knew that she should have more faith in Albaz's capabilities. An amnesiac he may be, but fighting was in his blood. Also, if the fire-serpents were anything to go by, then there really wasn't anything that could harm him - especially as a dragon.
Finally, she saw it: a gleam in the sky, growing brighter and brighter until it landed right next to the tower. Rushing over to him, she saw that in his jaws he held several large fish, some of which were sizzled.
"...maybe we should go hunting only when we actually need food. We don't have any way of keeping any of these fresh."
The dragon dropped the fish and let out a low grumble. With a smile, Ecclesia reached out and gently patted him on the snout. "It's okay, at least we have food."
And thus a sort of routine was formed. Each day, the two children would wake up in the tower and exercise for a bit. Albaz would then transform and fly off somewhere to hunt some food for the day, which would mainly consist of more fish, some fire-serpents, and the occasional strange-looking…creature which none of them were able to identify. But it was edible, so that's what mattered. Then they would continue to explore the strange place - which they had learned thanks to his hunting trips was some sort of large island with others near it - on foot or by Ecclesia riding on Albaz's back, and finally, they would return to the tower and sleep.
The islands were very similar to the one they were on, and alternated between varying degrees of better or worse, the latter more than the former. As for why didn't they move on to another island or just to a better looking place - it all came down to the presence of the Hole.
"It might open up for you again, then we could return home."
Looking back on it later, it was a flimsy excuse at best…but it's what they wanted to believe. So they didn't want to leave its line of sight.
A bit of good news was that they stumbled into a clean hot spring with a lake of freshwater tucked in between the mountains of a nearby isle, so that solved the issue of a water supply. Ecclesia was thankful that her clothing was made to withstand wear and tear, so she didn't have to wash them, same with Albaz's.
Something else that they noticed while flying over the water was the occasional ship filled with sailors. Ecclesia was tempted to go down and talk to them, but Albaz never got too close. When she asked about it, he said he heard them speak strangely and looked frightened. At worst, they would end up attacked, and he didn't want to risk her.
For a month or so, that was what happened. Until one day, when Ecclesia was fiddling with some trinkets she had found in the ruins while Mercourier perched on her shoulder, Albaz came flying down and quickly transformed back into his human form.
"There's a dragon out there."
She blinked. "A dragon?"
He nodded. "Yeah, a red one. I heard it roaring a lot so I flew in for a closer look, but then it turned around and saw me. It started to chase me so I lost it before it could catch up."
The blonde girl rubbed her chin. A live dragon…they had seen the remains and statues of dragons all around them, but never a live one. "If it chased you, we must be in its territory. I have been to a nest before, but Fleur once told me they can get really aggressive if their territory is attacked."
"So why didn't it follow me?"
"Maybe its territory isn't here, but nearby? Still, as long as you avoid it, you should be safe." She looked down at his landing site. "No fish?"
The boy bashfully rubbed his arm. "I…kinda dropped them when I spotted that dragon."
Ecclesia let out a small giggle. "That's alright; we'll stick to fire-serpents for today. I saw a small group of them just outside the woods."
Over the next few days however, Albaz would keep seeing the dragon over the waters beyond the mountains. Every time it would spot him, it would roar and give chase and he would fly and lose it. The foreign dragon would never venture into the island proper, or even past the cloudline.
The question as to why it acted so aggressively was answered when the dragon boy caught a glimpse of something unusual…on the dragon.
"Humans? Riding the dragon?"
"Mmm-hmm. A man and a woman, I think. I didn't stop to find out exactly."
Albaz's statement caused Ecclesia to hum in concern. Humans riding dragons…she did it with Albaz, but she had heard of some other 'heretical' tribes that used dragons in such manners. Back in Dogmatika, they were considered 'pure' beings - unless they came from Holes - and riding one would be considered sacrilegious. Not that she cared anymore, but that provided some context for the situation.
"I think they're chasing you. I don't know why they aren't entering the island, but they've found you and…" she stepped closer and grabbed the boy's shoulders. "I don't think that we should be taking any more risks. Who knows what they want?"
"...maybe we can ask?" Ecclesia was about to protest but Albaz quickly cut her off. "I'm not saying to just fly out there and ask, I'm saying that we should do it somewhere nearby, on our terms. Maybe they can help us like Kitt did."
Although the girl didn't believe that the same camaraderie Kitt had shown them would suddenly appear here as well, she slowly began to nod and agree. Watching the Hole and looking around the island was getting tiring and…she missed having other people to talk to. She wouldn't trade Albaz for the world, but still.
"What do you have in mind?"
He gave her a small, fanged smile. "I bait them."
For two more days, Albaz flew out again, but this time, he didn't return to the tower, but rather to a small clearing next to the mountains where they could take them with ease should anything unpleasant occur. The first day he returned alone, but the day after another roar echoed throughout the island and from her hiding spot, Ecclesia spotted a red dragon bursting out of a narrow pass in the mountains. True enough, she could make out the forms of two humans sitting on top of it.
The dragon landed a short distance away from her and one of the humans, an older man with long, silver hair disembarked from the saddle after saying something she didn't understand to the woman holding the reins. He slowly started to approach Albaz in his dragon form, and when he came close to her little hiding spot, she leaped from behind the bush and landed right in front of him, pointing her hammer right at his stumped face.
"Who are you?"
…maybe that was not a great first impression.
So what do you think? Next time, the full meeting!
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