She closed her eyes, hugging herself as she sat in the wagon with Alafaya, and Branix. Teizen stood beside the door, annoyed that Flame had forced her to be the one to guard the absolute-non-combatants.
Everyone else, even Taenseva, stood outside the wagon, guarding it with their blades drawn.
They’d tried contacting Eliax three times to ask for assistance or at least help with evacuation, but the girl wasn’t answering Kinthek’s strange device.
Filfinde hugged herself tighter, the scent she associated with light day increasing to unprecedented amounts. “I didn’t even know they could come up here…” she whispered, “outside of light day no one’s ever seen them attack anyone.”
Branix was staring sightlessly at the ground, probably annoyed that he didn’t know how to fight and as such was stuck here with the girls, just… waiting for something to happen. Outside, the earth began to shake.
The scent of aremolot increased.
The sword in his hands shook as the earth in front of him parted. Flame hadn’t had jitters like that in years, ever since he’d sold his soul to truly become something more than what he had been before.
He completely dropped his sword as the creature rose out of the ground. A creature that was far too familiar to him. Aremolot were practically dragons, even if they hated one another, and to Flame in that moment his terror at being faced with something he’d once known so well was worse than the anger and violence his broken soul tried to throw at him.
Destroy her, the aremolot, destroy the one who brings you this fear.
Flame didn’t glance down at his sword, aremolot were fast enough to kill you in the time it took to look up. Instead, he threw himself at it, a wild snarl erupting from his throat. When he landed on the creature, he was covered in red scales, his teeth were sharper, his tail more elegant, his fury more prominent.
He spread his wings and fought, clawing and biting at the creature that was his sworn enemy. The aremolot seemed amused at his treatment, “A tiny dragon? Hardly even bigger than the mortals.” She swiped at him, meeting his snarl with her own, her long worm-like tail flicking with amusement.
Flame barely even flinched at the words. He’d been mocked for his size every day of his life before leaving that behind. She didn’t seem to understand though.
He was used to fighting people bigger than him.
Flame pivoted in the air as he heard a scream from below. A second aremolot erupted from the ground. Squalls, he was used to them being solitary creatures, he should have realized that that wasn’t always the case.
Flame focused on the female though, dodging her swipe. He heard another scream from below. He glanced down just long enough to see Talfaxin die. He’d only been two bites for the relatively young aremolot.
It continued to rampage as Flame just tried to keep the first one at bay. He thought he saw Taenseva fall, he wasn’t sure about the others, he couldn’t keep watching, he had to kill. To fight, to destroy.
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His broken soul sang for their blood.
I woke in the evening, Arendi far above me in the sky. I’d long since given up actually making that clone I kept promising myself, besides, that would just lead to more boredom for me. Falling asleep instead of meditation wasn’t the best way to spend the day, but at least I no longer felt like there was a hoard of dragons scraping my mind bare with really big sticks.
I shook my head, sitting up and gazing at Arendi with a frown. I could hardly remember ever seeing it this clear before. Was it light day? I counted the days, but it had barely been a few weeks since the last one.
I tilted my head at the sky, frowning, it might be best to go find the caravan then if that was the case.
I shook my head at the universe and took out the tracking stone, searching for the other half with my mind. It usually only took a few seconds, but five minutes later, I stood there, frowning at it and furrowing my brow. The other half was still out there, the crystal seemed sure. But it was just as sure that that half was destroyed or blocked or something.
I scratched my head, and then put the crystal away, deciding that it must have somehow gotten destroyed. No matter, I’d just have to give him a new one after I followed their path from where I’d met them last.
I sighed and teleported, pausing on the empty road and looking to the north.
I pushed myself into the sky.
-
Aremolot.
The realization hit me just as fast as the carnage did. Two monsters stood beside the wagons, gleefully beating up the bedraggled defenders. A small red dragon danced between them, trying to act as a distraction, but by this point they seemed to have decided he was just a nuisance.
My interest at seeing the real Flame was vastly overshadowed as I pushed for greater speed, feeling the air itself seem to harden in front of my face. My eyes dried out, my hands began to shake though I couldn’t tell if it was from fear or the effects of speed.
I hit the larger aremolot straight on like an arrow, feeling my exoskeleton tremble at the treatment. It held though as the space and air warped around me, the world itself seemed to slow down at my speed.
It caught up with me soon enough though, as I raised a hand, cutting the smaller aremolot to shreds with dimensional ripples. The larger one stopped in its tracks, staring at her companion with shock.
Shock. And anger, violence. Revenge. They had emotions.
Sparks, was that why they were here? For revenge against that first one I’d killed?
I fell to the ground, and even though I was so close to the larger one, I did the same to it, cutting its bulky frame to pieces that fell apart almost immediately.
The battlefield slowed to a stop, the survivors watching me with incredulous eyes. I searched around the area, my mouth opening into a snarl as I realized there was only one person watching me. Flame, still in his dragon form.
I rushed forward when I saw Kinthek…
No.
He couldn’t be dead, he was supposed to live twice as long as everyone else, he was supposed to stay alive. Sparks of the universe as it casts shadow upon the bound ones… he was… he was supposed to live.
I stopped beside him, taking in his pained gaze, his chest that hardly even moved.
No.
No, I wouldn’t let him die.
I found myself at my base less than a moment later, shoving as many potions and healing artifacts as I could find into my bag, running around like a madwoman and searching for something—anything—that might help.
When I returned, he was already gone.
I dropped the bag to the ground, and found myself on my knees. Flame had left already, gone who knows where. I was alone, surrounded by four corpses. Taenseva, Ashevian, Talfaxin, Kinthek.
I felt tears stream down my face, and I felt as if some part of me rose up with comfort in her heart. I didn’t even fight it as I fell back to the edges of my own mind, someone else taking control.
It was too fast, too much, all at once.
I just needed…
To feel something.