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As Drah’kar landed next to Aeden, the fields all around them, until then covered in both ash and smoke started to clear.267Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡepVJAgfWZG
Faith was all but lost in Aeden’s eyes as he glanced upon the ravaged battlefield all around him. Burned bodies lying everywhere he looked. But a sign of hope rose from the darkness as he turned toward the ravaged entrance.
Most of his spell casters showed up from the rising smoke clouds, many alive and just barely harmed, walking toward the city with victory at their feet.
“Milord!” He heard a familiar voice calling out his name.
As he turned around again, he found himself looking at possibly what could have been a hundred of his enchanters walking and running toward him, between them, Captain Isaac.
He sighed relieved.
“Milord! We have secured the high ground temple and the city’s walls. There are no mercenaries left alive, and we’re ready to breach the high garden at your command.” Isaac shouted as he stopped in front of Drah’kar and Aeden, the others of the White Guard joining in shortly, one by one.
“Stay here, and look for any civilians left alive. Secure the area, and prepare for reconstruction.” He told them as he raised his gaze at the dragon standing behind him. “I’ll need you now…old friend.” He told Drah’kar.
The dragon snorted softly, slowly lowering his massive head toward the ground allowing Aeden to climb on its back.
Large gray scales grew all around the creature’s back, offering both a strong grip for the one to ride and a terrifying look for anyone who would dare face it. Drah’kar’s skin was almost white, and his eyes were pure blue, offering him a magnificent mixture of grandeur and wonder.
“Let’s deal with the masters…” Aeden told Drah’kar as the dragon flapped his wings twice, before taking to the sky.
The remaining forces of the White Guard immediately began searching the city for any survivors, while the spell casters aligned themselves in a large pentagrammic circle inside the city. Preparing for the “recarnum” spell which would build the city back to its original state before the incendiary devastation that was brought by the wild magical embers set loose.
As the dragon neared the large temple sitting upon the mountain inside the great city, Aeden saw a couple of men exiting the building, looking toward the sky.
He didn’t have to say the words; as his inner voice spoke, the dragon’s connection with its rider immediately complied, following Aeden’s orders. He landed softly in front of the four treacherous masters flapping its large wings.
Drah’kar roared fiercely, fluttering the master’s clothes in a strong gust of wind released by his breath.
They covered their foreheads trying to grasp the calamity of the situation they had managed to get themselves into.
None of them saw this moment coming, and most importantly, they didn’t add Aeden, nor a dragon to the equation when their treachery plan had been elaborated. Few people from the East knew of any dragon’s existence. Many believed them to have been extinct a long time ago.
Those who still believed in the magnificent creatures hadn’t seen one in person, but their fate in something so great and powerful kept them clinging to the idea.
After closely glaring at them, Drah’kar pummeled his wings into the rocky floor lowering his head again for Aeden to get off.
As his feet touched the ground, the dragon took a step back while turning toward the peak of the cliff and took off leaving the masters and Aeden alone.
Aeden could see the fear in their eyes, but at the same time, there was something else. Anger? Confusion? Greed? A mixture of benevolent feelings. None of which brought any satisfaction to him at that very moment.
“I greet you, ‘wise’ Masters of Valheen.” He greeted them stopping a few feet away from the four.
One of them gutted himself up enough to open his mouth and speak.
“How dare you step into our city like this?!” He spoke with a high pitch in his voice, trying to sound superior and in charge of the situation.
“Did you ever think about that one old, simple saying?” Aeden asked them, looking intently at the one who put up the question first. “Bad decisions, have consequences, and also,” Aeden paused. “A lie is better told when no one’s listening.”
“What?” The man spoke again looking more confused than before. “I don’t know who you are, or why you came, but I will not have this.”
“Have what, exactly?” Aeden asked him, raising his eyebrows in surprise. “The Hand of Lord Velaryon stepping foot in your city?”
“Lord Vela-“ one of the others tried to speak but he choked on his own words, trying to pronounce Kol’s name.
With a swift move of his hand, Aeden sliced through the air with two of his fingers, dropping the first man in front of him on his knees. As blood gushed out of his throat choking him in front of the others.
“I have not come here to negotiate.” Aeden continued while the other three - the ones who decided not to ask the question - looked at their former ally as he was dying, drowning in his own blood. “I had that thought in mind at first, but after what you have done, to both my people and yours, I cannot even foresee a possible way of negotiation.”
“Lord….?” One of the three left tried to speak up, not knowing Aeden’s name.
“Black.” He told him.
“Lord Black.” The older man said as he fell to his knees. “I beg you, milord, spare me, it was all their plan, not mine, I swear it by the Gods!”
Aeden looked at him with a vicious gaze in his eyes.
You would say anything to save your skin, old bastard…He thought. But what, if you’re telling the truth?
“What about you two? How do you answer to this man’s accusations?”
“You’d be a fool to believe someone like him!” The large bearded one spoke up, raising his voice. Probably both in fear and with no choices left to save his skin.
“I never put my trust in people like you, so I’d say I am not a fool,” Aeden told him as he stepped closer. His feet stopping right in front of the blood puddle in which the first master drowned just a few seconds ago giving his last breath.
“I swear it, milord,” the older man started speaking again. “I did not plan for this!”
“No, but you’re here, now. What does that say about you?”
“I…they! They put me up to this!” He shouted as he was now on his knees begging forgiveness.
Aeden drew the invisible line in the air once more, slitting the bearded man’s throat in a second.
“Now there are only two of you left. Who’s gonna tell the biggest lie? Who’s gonna blame who now?”
They both swallowed dry not knowing what to say.
“No…” Aeden told them as he made his way to the edge of the pawed opening. “It won’t be me, who's gonna decide who lives and who dies. Who is telling the truth and who is not.” He told them while gazing down upon the city, watching as his White Guard began the reconstruction spell, glancing over the unexpected number of civilians still alive. Now free, from the tyranny and greed of the masters. “He will.” He finished, when a powerful roar echoed through the entire area, Drah’kar showing up from below flapping his large white wings in midair as it stood just a few feet away from the edge, behind Aeden.
The two men cowered back on their knees as their gazes met the dragon’s.
Drah’kar slowly flew onto the ledge, stepping foot on it as he landed pummeling the ground once more, gaining stability.
“You earned your fate, former masters of Valheen. May your gods, be with you when your hour is nigh, and don’t forget. The North never forgives.” He told them disappearing into thin air as he stepped down from the ledge.
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**
The winter winds were blowing stronger and stronger with each passing day. The White Guard and Lord Commander Black were gone for almost five days now.
As Lord of the North, Kol had obligations and a duty to fulfill, one of which was to rule. But in order to rule, he had to assess his kingdom’s situation and the dangers which lurked around its borders.
Shortly after Aeden left, he opened the letter which came in that very morning. It was a letter from the Lord Commander of the Watcher’s Fortress. It wasn’t a blunt nor very detailed message. It was somewhat ambiguous by the words, but Kol knew better.
It read:
My Lord,
Two of my scouts were sent into the wilderness beyond the walls to scout the areas along Mistfire Forest, and they haven’t returned. By my own decision, I have sent men to search for them, but they have encountered something we have never seen before. I am not going to talk about the issue at hand by describing what even my eyes could not believe.
I urge you, My Lord, to take a visit to the Fortress and see with your own eyes. I fear, you would not believe what I would tell you in person, without witnessing what my men have.
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Lord Commander,
Hale Greywatch
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Lord Commander Greywatch was not the kind of a man to send such messages, and especially not cryptic ones. Kol couldn’t figure out what was going on, or what had happened beyond the walls, but he was more than sure that something serious went down. By leaving the citadel, he would have left his people without anyone to rule in his absence.
Aeden had to be here to take his place for the time being, but he wasn’t.
The decision was at hand, but he couldn’t choose. And in his mind, there was only one option. Wait for Aeden to return, then, and only then he would ride for the Eversnowing Plains, toward the Watcher’s Fortress.
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6 days before . . .
Mistfire Forests
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By the time Jensen and Mormon got on the road, the fierce blizzard was already one step ahead of them. It came out of nowhere, which baffled both their minds. The clouds were gray and the weather had been unusually cold in the morning, but there were no signs of any incoming blizzard anytime soon.
But it happened.
As the strong cold winds struck down first, the snow shortly followed, and with snow, came the darkness which shortly covered the entire land.
They were now walking in the middle of a snow storm, trying to cross a plain in the middle of the large mountains, heading back South toward the Fortress.
None of them were actually sure if they were walking in the right direction as the wind and cold might have already made them deviate from the course.
But as the winds blew from every direction Jensen heard a sound coming from afar.
He urged Mormon to stop grabbing his friend’s arm swiftly, holding him back.
“What?” Mormon shouted through the storm.
“Stop!” Jensen told him as he took a step further trying to whisper in Mormon’s ears. “Something’s moving ahead of us.”
“What?” Mormon asked again this time lowering his voice. They both turned up front, trying to make out anything in the violent blizzard, but their eyes couldn’t see a thing. The dark brought by the storm and the snow blowing in their faces were the prime factor which managed to spark fear into their hearts.
Jensen could have sworn he had seen something moving in the blizzard, but as they were both starring in the distance, his fears came true.
A figure, some sort of an animal appeared in their way. It was skinny, but it had an unusually large body. It was devouring something on the ground, and it didn’t seem to be bothered by the cold, or the storm.
“What the bloody hell is that….?” Mormon whispered swallowing dry, an icy chill running down his back, his skin becoming chilled and shivery.
“I think…I think that’s a dire wolf.” Jensen replied as he touched his sword’s sheath.
But as they stood there, watching the supposed dire wolf devour its prey, the creature turned.
“Does a dire wolf have glowing red eyes…?” Mormon asked Jensen as they both took a step back.
“Run,” Jensen told his friend tapping his back. “RUN!” He shouted as they both started running the way they came, but as soon as they did the creature disappeared in the storm.
They didn’t bother looking back, as they kept running having no clue in which direction. The storm seemed to be worsening by the time they slowed down, trying to catch their remaining breath, as the winds got stronger and the snow under their feet grew larger.
They managed to go the wrong way, and stumble into the larger snow.
“What the bloody hell… was… that… thing?” Mormon asked Jensen as he stopped putting his hands on his knees breathing in heavily.
“I don’t kn-“. At that moment, the dire wolf appeared out of nowhere lunging at Jensen’s arm, violently growling in a muffled almost sick sound as it started pulling.
Jensen started screaming in pain right away, but he didn’t fall off his feet. He looked the unearthly creature in its eyes, but all he could see was a cold and lifeless animated body. With flesh tearing off from it, its fur no longer present around its mouth and one of its eyes.
“GET IT OFF! GET IF FUCKING OFF!” He shouted at Mormon, shortly realizing his flesh was tearing away from his arm under the dire wolve's teeth.
“BLOODY HELL!” Mormon yelled as he drew his sword, the fire enchantment around the blade lighting up like a living flare. But as he drew the sword, the wolf let go of Jensen’s arm jumping up front, at an abnormally large distance, disappearing in the blizzard once again.
“By the gods! My arm Mormon! Fucking shite!” Jensen cried out in pain as his blood was now dripping onto the snow below their feet, his flesh all torn down through his clothes.
“Where the fuck did it go?!” Mormon shouted as he aligned his back with Jensen’s.
“Fucking kill it Mormon!” Jensen shouted back as he drew his sword with his other hand, trying to stand as firm as possible, his eyes drifting in every direction he could possibly look.
Their breaths, fast and uncontrolled, with their hearts beating faster than ever, they just stood there in the middle of the crazy storm, trying to listen.
They could hear the storm, but in the middle of that, they could also hear the lifeless, almost choked sounds the dire wolf made; the problem was, it seemed to have been coming from every direction.
“Bloody wind, I cannot make up from where it’s coming from!” Mormon told his friend. “Jensen?!”
“I cannot feel my arm Mormon, I cannot feel my fucking arm!”
And at that moment, the creature appeared again, running toward them from their right, growling and making indescribable sounds.
“Come at me you fucking shite!” Mormon shouted toward it as he readied his sword.
The creature lunged at them, but thankfully for his friend, Mormon managed to hit it with the fire enchanted sword, right on its neck.
The wolf growled as he took a few steps away from them, but it didn’t seem to be in any kind of pain. His fur was burning off around the cut the sword made, but his frozen fresh didn’t seem to have any kind of injuries. No blood was flowing out of the open wound.
“What the bloody hell are… you?” Mormon said as he readied his sword again.
The wolf then opened its mouth and instead of releasing a howl, it screeched. An ear piercing screech, echoing throughout the entire plain, forcing both Mormon and Jensen to cover their ears. It was something none of them have ever heard in their lives, and as the dire wolf screeched, they could see what they were actually trying to fight off.
The creature before them was no longer alive. The flesh inside its mouth was no longer present, only its cranial bones and its teeth. They could see down its pitch black throat, but nothing was moving in there. No glands, no meat, nothing. It was like an empty husk, animated by something, still alive, even though it shouldn’t have been.
And in the moment it stopped screeching, it lunged at them both with ferocity, trying to bite off everything it could touch.
It came in contact with Mormon’s sword, as it managed to trample down the man into the snow, aiming to bite off Mormon’s face. With an open skeletal mouth, it didn’t seem to be affected by the fact that its face was literally burning off, up until it reached its eyes sockets, where the fire immediately stopped.
“Jensen! Help me!” Mormon cried out as he was now literally staring death in the face. The creature muffled and growled as it tried to chew through the flaming sword.
Jensen gripped his sword as he took it out, but his enchantments were already far too torn off to be of any use. It was now just an ordinary sword like any other, but it was his only defense against the undead freak lunging to devour his friend.
“Fucking abomination! DIE!” Jensen shouted as he ran toward the wolf striking its back with the sword. The blade cut through the skin and whatever flesh was left, forcing the creature to back off and refocus its attention at Jensen. “Oh… fuck!” He shouted as the wolf now lunged back at him, grabbing the sword with its teeth, growling monstrously as it pushed Jensen down into the deep snow. “Goddammit! Mormon!” He shouted as his only left defense was now his sword, and his only usable arm which was swiftly giving in under the tremendous pressure the unliving creature was putting on it.
“Just DIE already!!” Mormon shouted furiously as he showed up from behind stabbing the wolf in the neck with his flaming sword.
At that moment it released some sort of a crying pain backing off slowly, crippled by Mormon’s attack. It must have been some sort of a structural bone because it was no longer able to hold itself up on all four legs, his inferior ones collapsing under the weight.
“Fucking stab it in the head Mormon!” Jensen shouted.
Mormon didn’t wait any second longer as he gained speed walking toward the monster. His heart stood in place once more when the wolf released another screech, this time though, a weaker one. But he ignored it. He raised his sword and with a swift strike, he lunged it into the creature’s head piercing it through fully, setting it on fire at the same time.
The wolf collapsed in the snow, with its remaining fur still burning off from around its neck, but it wasn’t moving anymore.
Mormon grabbed Jensen and helped him up and they both sighed in relief watching as the reddish glow slowly started to disappear from the creature’s eyes…
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