The next few months went by in a blur. By day, the chromatic hatchling was Victor: a half orc guard in Stormwind. By night, he was Chroma: an unstable hatchling trying to practice his abilities within The Emerald Dream to varying degrees of success. He had gained relative mastery of his green dragonflight powers, and his swordsmanship had certainly improved, but he still has had great difficulty managing his other powers.
Currently, he was sitting in the Stormwind library reading a book on the old kingdom of Ahn'Qiraj. He had found that the place could be found in Silithus which was a large part of the continent of Kalimdor. Rather unfortunately, that area was occupied by the Horde nearby. Victor remarked on how difficult it would be to get around them remembering how stubborn they were when they briefly occupied a section of Stranglethorn to the south of them to "stop a blood god" as they put it. It had turned out to be true, but being deployed there and seeing all the bows and spells pointed at them wasn't a good impression.
"There you are! You always end up here!" Marcus Longfellow approached where he was reading, "Honestly I don't understand your obsession with this place, it's too stuffy."
The half orc smiled as he got out of his seat. His sunset purple and yellow hair had not changed as when they tried getting a mage to change it, after almost 30 minutes he gave in and left. His tusks were slightly bigger, and he was a bit taller, his height breaching above Marcus's head now as he could now see above some crowds.
"C'mon Victor, we don't wanna be late for patrol," Marcus said, "You remember what Captain O'Neal did the last time you were a tad late? He had you taking the whole damn pile of mud with you that he flipped you into."
"I never took you as much of a stickler Marcus." Victor said slyly, "Though I guess you don't want to see what happens if you get demoted beyond Stormwind?"
Marcus gave a fake shudder and laughed, "Well it won't be a beachside vacation. We may be sent to Alterac Valley and freeze to death. As O'Neal always says, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. He still is kinda an ass though…"
The duo donned their sets of armor and set out near the castle to stand guard near the grand flight of stairs that led to the entrance. Several other guards stood there with them, forming a line of silver and blue.
"I don't understand what your obsession with being deployed off continent is." Marcus said, "There isn't too much out there, and what is there wants to kill you."
"I thought we had already finished this conversation." Victor explained, "I want to see more, and I want to help people. I mean isn't that what you wanted with the Defias Brotherhood? Defeat them, help your family?"
Longfellow sighed in defeat as he had gotten tired of arguing, "Fine fine, not exactly like I'm your roadblock here. Captain O'Neal would keep beating that ambition out of you until you can finally win a bout."
Victor sighed along with him as the pain of O'Neal's strikes came back to him. In order to be promoted normally and be deployed off continent, Captain O'Neal had created a trial in which they had to disarm him in one on one combat. He had appealed for a transfer to Silithus almost ten times over the course of his time in Stormwind, and it never went well. He could almost feel the welt on the back of his head from the times O'Neal had sent him stumbling. His swordsmanship was already good, but paled in comparison to the Captain.
Both of them continued talking as the day wore on. A golden and purple sunset and the ringing of the clocktower heralded the end of their shift. They took a moment to stop in the market section to grab some food. Victor had grown particularly fond of cheeses, especially brie; albeit Marcus made fun of him because of how bad his breath smelled afterward and the one time a mouse was found popping out of a wedge he had bought one time.
Returning to the barracks the two tucked into their bunks for the night.
"Hey Victor?" Marcus asked the bunk above him. "If you want I can help you practice your sword fighting tomorrow. I don't think throwing yourself at the Captain repeatedly is working."
He smiled as he went to sleep, "I think I'll take you up on that offer…"
Snapping awake to the scene of The Emerald Dream, a grove full of green dragons opened up to the chromatic whelp's view. He flexed his claws and spread his wings as he returned to his draconic form. He saw as Revira's figure came into view as she landed in front of him.
"Chroma! You're finally back, I've got something to show you!" she motioned with her wing to follow her.
They flew to an isolated treetop away from the grove, and as Revira landed she began weaving her talons as she focused.
"I've been practicing my dreamweaving, and I think I can lock on to the general area of Silithus based on your description." She proudly stated.
"Really?!" Chroma leaned forward with interest, "Are you absolutely sure? Last time we ended up stranded in the middle of an island, and were almost eaten by a pack of mana sabers!"
"I think I can get it this time!" Revira protested, "Besides you're one to talk about 'control'. Remember that time you almost spewed lava on the class when trying to present your dream breath?"
"That was almost a month ago!" The chromatic hatchling huffed, "I couldn't get that image of Karikus out of my head. Not on how he laughed at you."
"And I said I was fine! Thanks for caring." She continued the spell until Chroma had noticed something and grabbed her claw.
He saw a small cut that looked like it came from a claw. It had, for the most part, healed up, but as Chroma looked around he could see other faded areas across Revira that could be closed injuries. He clasped his claw around hers as a green energy wrapped around and closed the wound.
"What happened?" Chroma asked, anger building, "Who did this?"
"It was just an accident from dreamweaving!" Revira said hurriedly, "We have more to focus on right now don't we?"
The earth beneath the tree the hatchlings were perched on gave a slight shake. Chroma gave a hard stare before taking a deep breath, and nodding at her statement. He could tell Revira wasn't telling the truth, but he was hoping she would eventually.
The area around the two began to shift. The world bent and morphed as their vision blurred and then slowly settled once more. Around the new area they were transported was a lush oasis. Pockets of massive jungles trickled around a vast desert before the hatchlings' vision, backlit by the starry sky of The Dream in its soft green hue.
Looking around the new terrain Chroma gripped his skull as suddenly a blistering pain came into his head. It felt like his mind was being squeezed by an unknown pressure as he cried out in pain. Thankfully after a moment, the flash of pain passed.
Revira rushed over in concern next to him, "Are you okay?!" she cried out.
"Y- yeah…" the chromatic hatchling shook his head and blinked hard. "This place definitely gives off immense dark energy." he tried jokingly to give a snide smirk, "Not a great first impression, I'm disappointed."
Revira gave a scoff to mask her smile, "Right, and I'm sure all the stories of dark powers and cursed lands gave such a high expectation." she said sarcastically.
She extended her wings and rose above the oasis to survey the area around, Chroma following suit. Extending one of her talons, she motioned towards a direction.
"I feel a major rift in The Dream from that direction. If there is anywhere that could be a major source of corruption then that is it." Rivera said.
The duo flew for a few minutes, worry increasing in both of them. After all, what they were heading towards was enough to raise the concern of whole flights of dragons. Hopefully they could find any sign that could clue them in on Revira's mother and then leave as soon as possible.
They soon happened upon what they were looking for. It was another oasis patch, but much larger and twisted. The ground around the oasis was split and carved out as if separated from everything else. Runic obelisks surrounded the perimeter emitting sealing magic.
The hatchlings descended, landing in front of the cursed oasis. Revira closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and took the first step towards the area.
"Don't worry mother, I'm…" her words were halted midway as her small body was flung backward as she touched an invisible field around the area. "AAAAAGH!"
Chroma rushed over to her side, and slowly lifted her up as her body shook. Then he turned back looking into the oasis, careful not to touch the barrier that surrounded it. The entire jungle the more he looked at it, seeped with some form of corruption. Crimson red lined within the bark of trees, the tips of grass bled red, and some form of fungus looked to run throughout the entire jungle. A slight headache returned as he continued to stare onward into the place.
Revira approached from behind eyes glaring at the sight before her.
"It feels like there is a void in The Dream here." she drew a hard breath, "Something in there feels… hungry; as if it wants to swallow everything whole."
The emerald hatchling's face tightened with a new resolve.
"I'm going to check out one of the obelisks around her." she declared. "Look out for anything else, and meet up with me if you find anything."
As Revira flew off, Chroma continued to stare off. He began blinking hard as it felt like the entire oasis was taking his attention. Taking steps around the barrier, he could feel every step he took with a weird lucidity to it. Every single grain of sand shifted between his talons, as that feeling extended deeper and deeper. Caverns echoing below, magma and plates shifting beneath the earth as he felt something else. A presence he swore was watching him.
He tried to take another step, but felt a jolt as his muscle refused to move. The hatchling thought he could feel himself sinking within the sand, melting at the new pressure he felt. The skull splitting headache returned once again. It kept building and building as drums began to beat within his head.
Then it stopped: The pain, the feeling in his body, everything. Chroma opened his eyes to only see darkness. An abyssal void before him, a feeling of floating not dissimilar to his own egg. Complete and utter silence was all that was left.
"Your friends will betray you." a voice whispered, piercing from the darkness.
"What?!" Chroma shouted into the darkness, unable to even see anything. "Who's there? What are you!?"
He couldn't see anything, but he felt it. Thousands upon thousands of eyes boring into his soul. Watching him, appraising him, waiting to see what he could bring. The hatchling floundered in the darkness, everything was spinning, he began to feel nauseous.
"You. Will. Die." The voice echoed forth once more.
Chroma felt a twitch, his claw was finally moving again! He tried focusing on that, a desperate attempt to move once more as he tried to open his eyes. The fire in his belly, the tingle down his spine, anything that would snap him out of it. Running through his mind: Waking up to see Marcus, sleeping to find Revira, flipped around by Captain O'Neal, all twisting through his mind. The voice repeated one last message to him over and over that he tried to ignore.
"The nightmare has just begun." It whispered with full certainty.
The hatchling's eyes finally snapped open as he looked around with uncertainty. He wondered what all that was, but that could come later. His wings flapped as he took off towards an obelisk to find Revira.
She was next to one of them shifting her claws over the runes on it. Her talons shifted with the magic of The Emerald Dream as she was scanning the tall monolithic stone. Closing her claw she turned to Chroma when she saw his descent.
"Chroma!" she said excitedly. "These obelisks are what anchors the barrier from within The Dream, it's not just physical. However, I think I can get us a way to get through a small opening."
"What?! Revira no!" Chroma rebutted. "This place is too much for us, we shouldn't even be here in the first place. If your mother can barely get out for a moment, what chance could we have?!"
"I can do this!" she shouted with crazed confidence. "Others couldn't, but I AM The Dream, I'm made from it! It's telling me that I just have to try to open it, and I can become real! Is that not the reason we are here?"
Chroma paused for a moment as he heard those words. A voice was speaking to her as well? Perhaps it was the same one he had heard. Looking into her eyes, they were not the same clear blue pools, but were beginning to bleed with a crimson red color.
Not hesitating, Chroma began to approach her attempting to grab her claws to stop her. Revira jerked backwards, the crazed look still on her face.
"What are you doing?! She yelled while clutching her head. "I- I was almost done… I almost had…"
"This doesn't feel right, I know you can feel that!" Chroma said, trying to break through to her. "The voice is trying to eat away at you, just focus on me!"
"I…" Revira began to blink rapidly, the red slowly filtering out of her eyes as they returned. "I just wanted my mother…"
"We will get her, I promise." Chroma gripped his claw in hers. "Please…"
Wearily, Revira finally took a breath and took a step back from the barrier. Chroma breathed a sigh of relief as she tried to calm down.
"Let's go." The emerald hatchling croaked out.
The two hatchlings took off, trying to get as far away as possible from that cursed oasis before attempting to transport themselves back to the grove. Revira was silent as they arrived back, retreating to a remote section to gather her thoughts. Chroma could only watch her leave as he began to wake up again. At the very least, everything he saw over in Silithus strengthened his resolve to get stronger; he would need to be far stronger than he could have imagined to even understand what he was facing.
Deep in the cursed land, skittering could be heard about. The ground beneath the prison began to rumble, and shake within the dream. In the waking world of Azeroth, from within the gates of Ahn'Qiraj, the skittering grew and grew. Peeking from small parts of the enclosed area, some massive bug-like creatures began to poke out of pockets around the place.
A voice, cold and dead, whispered once more from its dark depths.
"My dreaming ends… your nightmare…begins."