|
I apologize for taking so long. I have a reason, but I'm not going to tell you.
__________________________________
THE MORNING BEFORE THE RITUAL
__________________________________
Waking up to bright sunlight made Alex somewhat miserable. Since he had not been having envisionments anymore (for whatever reason), he had instead been enjoying his dreams for once. They wouldn't thrust him out of them anymore, waking him up at unnecessarily early times, and for the first time in many years, he was getting some good sleep.
They were good dreams. Dreams of when Gia was still alive. Dreams of being taught by Lord Saradomin. Dreams of adventuring across the land, above the clouds and through underground caverns, sailing vast seas and striding endless deserts. He didn't want them to end. So despite the warmth and uplifting nature of the light, Alex still found reason to despise it.
Regardless, he still preferred it to waking up to bright sunlight which rumbled the ground with a loud blast of noise and faded out in an instant.
Which is what he just did.
Spear materialized in hand, he leapt through the window and was presented with an incredible pillar of flame stretched in front of him. Nearly every building around was covered in it. A loud banging of a gong was coming from the castle, but it was silenced immediately which an explosion of flame jetting out through every hole of its mighty walls.
What the heck was happening? Was it that figure? He broke through the barrier and was now seeking out revenge. To take down all the heroes in one swoop as they recovered. Dirty, but an effective tactic. He landed and dashed towards the castle, keeping his eyes focused for a target in the midst of all the flame. Because of the castle's explosion, he knew there had to be something inside.
Suddenly, to his shock, the town was coming to life. Civilians dashing out of their burning houses, trying to put their clothes out. White Knights charging out for combat. Guards lighting the sky up with flaming arrows (not that there was much choice). It wasn't just him that slept through it. In fact, by what it appeared, he was one of the first to awaken. But the town was so full of fire, he would've believed he had slept through at least an hour of battle. What was going on?
Another burst of flame from the castle, and Alex approached the moat. He was at the southwestern side, and the castle's only entrance was north. A minor inconvenience. With a powerful stride and a leap, Alex sailed over the moat, planted both feet on the ground at the other end, and sprang upwards. His enogan armor, being a material based off an ethereal power, was not properly affected by gravity (Alex literally had to keep himself pulled down to Earth), so scaling the tower was easy enough.
Alex tore open the trapdoor and leapt down, not bothering with the ladder (it was on fire, anyways). The sight was devastating. Tapestries engulfed in flame, weapon racks and torch chains dripping molten metal, piles of armor covered in ash strewn about without any traces of bodies left inside. Even the stone walls themselves were burning. And the atmosphere; Alex found himself fighting to stay conscious from the intense heat. Not daring to stand still for too long, he dashed through the castle, seeking out the one who caused this devastation.
He heard banging on a door as he passed by. The lock itself had melted, effectively sealing the door in place.
"Get away from the door!" Alex yelled. Taking a running start, he spun into a powerful heel kick right at the lock.
*BWOOM!*
But rather than cave in, the door swung open, and an explosion of flame burst out, launching Alex into the wall behind him. The world around him blurred, and through faltering vision, he could just barely see white knight squires mindlessly stagger out of the room before literally disintegrating into ash.
He peeled himself off the wall, shook it off, and continued his run. He had to keep moving. Save as many as he could, and hopefully take down something. But as he went through the castle, he encountered nothing. It was almost too strange; he was expecting to run into a demon or something at any moment, but there was nothing. He would hear an explosion above him, but once he made it to the floor, no sign of an assailant.
His trek through the castle lasted ten minutes, and only a cluster of knights survived thanks to him. Unfortunately, it got much too hot for him, and he wound up ramming himself through a nearby wall and into the northern moat to recover. The city was an absolute disaster. If a building wasn't on fire, it was already reduced to ash and stone fragment.
He pulled himself out of the moat and stood at the ready, keeping his eyes open. Where were the other heroes? Where was the enemy? There was no sign of enemy troops, nor catapults, nor flaming arrows. There were terrified people frantically running around, but no signs of actual battle anywhere. The sky was clear, except for a series of bright, colourful lights darting here and there. Spells. But who was casting them? And why were they so wily and random-
*THOCK!*
Alex did not see it coming. From behind, a bright, glowing claw smashed its way through his chest in a powerful, spike-assisted punch. Looking down in surprise, he saw the claw clearly. Two long, curved, spiked bones protruded from the top of the knuckles of both wicked fingers, which clenched together over the thumb so tightly he almost felt them cracking under the strain. He felt the radiant heat pulsing from the thick skin; hot enough to melt adamantite.
But not nearly hot enough for enogan. He felt the force behind the blow, and was fortunate he didn't keep his star in his chest this time or else he would've been taken out in a single blow.
He wasn't in time to avoid the punch, but he had plenty of time to react. Forcing energy into his chest, he contracted the hole the claw made around it in one quick squeeze, and with a burst of lava-like blood, severed the claw completely off. No longer bound, he spun around with his spear in tow and swung as hard as he could against the strange creature the claw once belonged to. For an instant, Alex found himself gazing at a strange, orange bird-faced creature with a large dome-like expansion on its head and limbs thinner than twigs. Having just lost one of said limbs, Alex was surprised it was not showing any signs of pain.
He swung with the intent of decapitation (literally), but the creature suddenly phased out and away from him. And suddenly, it was everywhere, popping up out of thin air and all over the place, creating a bright, flickering army all around him.
…wait, this was not an army. It was still just the one creature; it was just moving really fast. Dashing back and forth, Alex saw its light flickering here and there, but no real solid shape to compliment it. How clever. One would think that its bright glowing color made it an obvious target, but with its unparalleled speed accompanied along with a strobing light effect, it created an illusion impossible to follow. Attempting to do so would hurt his eyes and mess up his focus, and even if he could, there was no hitting a target moving at such speeds.
*FWOOOOSH!*
It suddenly stopped, shining brightly, and two lines of what appeared to be liquid flame shot out of its arms. They zipped around Alex like snakes, threatening any attempts to dodge. Alex whipped his spear in front and fired a blast of lightning, but the creature had phased again. It was now running in circles around Alex, and with each lap, the lines of flame also wrapped tightly around Alex. But before they could ensnare him, Alex severed his own upper half of the body and leapt above the line, which yanked away the empty space in between. With the line gone now, Alex's upper body landed on and reconnected with his lower half, and he fired another shot of lightning. But the creature was still moving, and despite lightning being an instant strike, there was just no way to tell exactly where it was.
Up until it struck, anyways.
*BWOOOM!*
The creature knew what it was doing. It zipped in behind Alex and hit him with a wave of heat, throwing him into the air. It felt like his back was suddenly turned to lava, and he spun himself around in mid-air to disperse the heat. Curving his body back around, he held his spear forward and fired another blast of lightning. This time, he hit, but the creature took the blow to the shoulder on purpose, shrugging it right off in a show of intimidation.
Once his feet touched ground, he dashed at it, hoping to go on the aggressive this time. It let out a loud shriek and darted right at him, and he was barely able to take a second step when it was right in his face, glaring all three of its eyes into his own. Fortunately for Alex, the shock of such a maneuver forced his body to react instinctively, and he… thrust his knee into its ribcage while stepping forward. OK, not something he would've usually done, but it worked.
Moving with the force, it backflipped backwards several times and came to a sudden stop on both feet with both arms raised. Bellowing a loud, high-pitched screech, it crouched down and slammed its spiked hand onto the ground, yanking up a series of different-sized boulders which floating right in front once freed from the limestone road. Then it straightened up so rapidly that it sprang off the ground and twirled in the air, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. The boulders followed suit, twirling along with it, and they accelerated so quickly that it was only a few seconds before they suddenly burst to flame.
Then it hurled them. Into the ground around it. Alex didn't even have to dodge. What was it doing? Just hurled them all around the battlefield without even aiming for Alex. Was it too dizzy from all that spinning that it couldn't coordinate? Or…
Willing himself to remain calm, Alex clasped both hands together and summoned forth a magical barrier that covered him in a bright white film. Not a second after he put it up, the rocks detonated, covering the entire battlefield in a frenzy of earth-shattering explosions. The barrier took the force of the explosions, but Alex didn't even get a chance to unclasp his hands when he was suddenly rammed in the side by the creature and smashed into the side of a flaming building.
It gave way, throwing him into the flaming inferno within. Quickly recovering from the blow, Alex twisted his body and bounded off the ground into the already-smashed window on the other end, not wasting any of his momentum.
Landing in a roll, he rightened up in a low crouch to bear witness to Falador square. Nearly all the buildings around him were flaming in some way. A strange, powerful flame that made stone glow red and crumble to the touch like molten metal. Loud, glass-shattering explosions made random buildings here and there burst open and disintegrate into piles of ash and dust. The sky was completely obscured in black, smoky cloud, lighting up the entire city in a bright orange flame light reflected from below. Even the central fountain, to his surprise and dismay, was spewing lava instead of water. The streets were empty; either everybody evacuated the city or perished in the blaze. Not even the guards stayed behind to try controlling the fire.
He paused, the desire for vengeance welling up inside him. Never in his life had he seen disaster like this; not even during the God Wars.
A screech brought him back. The ochre-colored bird thing was back, crouching feral-like on the building he just shot through. It darted towards him, but he was able to stand and twirl around just in the nick of time and bring his spear around for an attack. The creature already moving forward, it would have to defend.
He went for a side-slash, aiming at its lower body in hopes to take out a leg. That should slow it enough to strike. But then, as though by instinct, he felt his body instead decide on an overhead smash instead, flipping the spear up and over in mid-swing. Not daring to self-correct in the heat of battle, he followed through the attack. The creature had lifted its incomplete arm to defend itself, but it was straight vertical, covering its lower body. Alex's attack passed clean through.
*WHAAAANG!*
The tip of his spear smashed against its cap and forced the creature down to all fours. Despite being fast, it was considerably weak when it came to physical strength.
He was surprised. Sure, his full body weight (what he could create, anyways) was enough to bring it down into the ground, but that wasn't all. Why did that work? How was he able to predict its movements? It was as though… wait, they were familiar! He had seen them before! …but where?
He didn't get the time to think. Sensing his shock, the creature suddenly leaned back and pulled Alex forward. He staggered back into reality just in time to take a spiky uppercut to the visor. Of course, it more splattered than smashed against his jaw, but the heat force from its flaming fist was enough to heave him airborne once again.
The creature phased again, this time appearing in the air above him, beating its thin, triangular wings at speeds so fast that they would've been rendered invisible had they not glowed. It stretched both arms forward and brought fiery justice down at Alex. A double blast of streamed flame, and he had no way to dodge it.
*FWOOOOOOOOSH!*
The force of it pinned him to the ground and started working away at his armor. To avoid exposing his star, he forced his armor together as hard as possible, but the heat just kept on intensifying. Slowly, painfully, he felt himself melting from the non-stop blast. Through the heavy blasting of the flame, he heard the monster screech with laughter.
*BBRRRYYYYZZZZ!*
A screech that Alex never thought he would be glad to hear. The creature stopped its torrent and leapt back to avoid getting torn to shreds by the loud, spiky Hingaerd, and Hunt landed between them with such force that the ground cracked at his feet.
"Rise, warrior!" he growled at Alex, who immediately tip-upped back into a fighting stance. Like the revenants, he would've contested that Hunt not participate in the battle from the possibility of it losing control. But this was a surprise attack by creatures that were anything but revenants, and the fiery chaos they had bestowed upon the city was enough to get everyone's attention away from their fight. Hunt could go all out if he wanted, and nobody would know (or care).
And then Nomad appeared! …no, I'm kidding; he didn't.
A powerful rumbling made Alex stagger. A building to his left exploded, and suddenly a jet of green light rocketed out and back into the sky. Then he understood. They weren't spells; they were of the very creature he was attacking. Aside from the one he was fighting, there looked to be two others. Green and orange. But once was plenty enough for them to handle, and it was coming at them again.
Hunt charged forth; his armor shining in the wicked firelight. In mid-run, their opponent conjured up two great fireballs, which exploded into existence in its hands, and hurled them at the heroes. Not breaking stride, Hunt thrust his free hand forward, and the fireballs were suddenly yanked from existence by a series of flash holes, popping into existence to suck up the flames and vanish with them. In a heartbeat, the bird-like creature darted right past Hunt and straight at Alex, who discharged a powerful field of electricity around him.
Without missing a beat, it weaved around him and hurled flames from behind at lightning-rapid speeds. Alex shifted his arm into a shield and took the first one, but it carried enough force to blast him several yards backwards. Not expecting him to actually try to defend, the other fireballs exploded harmlessly in the area Alex was in not two seconds ago.
Alex landed on his back, skidding across the cracked pavement for a ways before kicking his feet downwards and back-flipping upright in mid-flight. He reverted his shield back into his arm, and his spear transformed into the spiky mace he used once against the strange figure he would up summoning White Dragons against. He knew he wouldn't be able to hit the creature with this attack, but if he could limit its movements, it would be ideal. Swinging the mace over his head, he littered the battlefield with a frenzy of floating, electrical orbs.
Hunt once again dashed at the creature, twirling his weapon in an ear-splitting ravaging of screeches. The creature screamed back at him, but its volume couldn't match that of Hunt's vicious, spiked bone-shredder of a weapon. It moved back and forth, but suddenly took a hit from one of the orbs and stumbled in stunned surprise. Hunt thrust a hand forth, and its head was suddenly covered in a large, dark mass. Alex prayed this attack would work. Come on… come on…
*SHA-BOOOOOM!*
Even Hunt had to leap back. A massive explosion rocked the globe, erupting the ground all around him in flaming dust. The entirety of Falador square was reduced into one big glowing crater. In the midst of the explosion, the creature stood with its chest thrust into the air, laughing hysterically. Hunt's suction technique was dispelled, either from the blast of Hunt's loss of concentration, and Alex's electrical orbs had all but dissipated.
Covered in flame, it darted at them again with renewed speed and vigour, slamming a flaming arc at Hunt, who leapt sideways to dodge. It was no longer applying any dancing movements or taunting them with its speed. It was much more direct.
After all that, they finally managed to make it fight seriously.
Hunt whipped his Hingaerd around and twirled it to make the bird thing keep its distance. An orb of clear, disturbed air surrounded Hunt, piercing through the ashen environment. Strangely enough, it wasn't the Hingaerd the creature was keeping its distance from. It was the loud noise it was making. But Alex didn't blame it; the sound was incredibly deafening, and it robbed his opponent of one of his senses in mid-battle.
Hunt bought him the time he needed to charge up his spear. It glowed with a powerful blue light which wavered through the air as it moved around. Summoning up even more energy into his legs, Alex also got into a much more serious mode. With one incredible bound, he hurled himself at the ochre-colored monster and unleashed bright, sky-lighting justice upon it in the form of a large, house-engulfing beam of crackling energy.
It hit, but not to the extent Alex hoped. The creature started spinning again and threw up a cone-shaped barrier of flame, blasting the beam away in all different directions. Hunt leapt at the barrier and slammed his weapon onto it, but it suddenly flickered out, and Alex withdrew his attack to stop from hitting Hunt.
The creature was on the move again, dashing right at Alex this time. It shot at him almost completely horizontally, driving its fist at him in a speed-driven pound. Alex stamped into the ground, sending solid enogan spikes out of his boots down into the cracking pavement. Grabbing his spear with both hands, he thrust it in front, vertically rather than his usual horizontal guard (again, his body told him it was the thing to do), and he held against the blow. It slammed its fist right into his spear, and he felt a wave of intense heat and a powerful force jarring his arms, but he still held his ground.
The creature continued to push, attempting to overpower Alex with one arm. A metallic screeching brought it to spin around and erupt a heavy flame out of its outstretched handless arm in the other direction into the held-up guard by Hunt, holding him back at bay. It was now standing with both its opponents trying to overpower it from both ends.
Then Alex saw it. Its right arm was slightly thicker than the right. The creature was imbalanced; having used its right arm more, it was more developed. Removing it would greatly weaken the creature, and for the moment, it was actually the more openly exposed area because of its missing left hand. Warriors had to balance their arm usage, either with two-handed weapons or a sword and shield; to develop a proper sword arm with their right, and to be able to defend this sword arm with their left.
"Duck and go for the right shoulder blade!" Alex hissed at Hunt.
"DON'T tell me how to fight!" Hunt hissed back.
You're right, Alex thought, that would just be spoiling you.
Abandoning the idea of collaboration, Alex and Hunt pushed forth, but the creature suddenly darted sideways and away from them both. Out of its mouth, it spewed what looked to be droplets of white liquid metal. From what he's experienced so far, anything that came out of this thing's mouth was bad.
And he was right.
*PRAPPA-RAPPA-RAPPA*
The sound was that of a holiday firecracker roll; loud, rapid raps that made Alex's head ring. The explosions were that of exploding dwarven hand cannons; gigantic, with bits of flaming metal jetting everywhere like grapeshot. Then the fragments of recent explosions exploded themselves into many more, smaller bits. A rather effective anti-infantry attack, despite the random frenzy that ensued
Alex threw up his barrier again. There was just much too many for proper means. Hunt, on the other hand, was back on the aggressive, spinning his weapon with such ferocious speeds that his bubble of clean air even tore through the metal droplets.
The bird-like creature struck again, holding up its severed hand. A fountain of bright, lava-like blood covered it and expanded it into a spiked club, which was swung with due force against Hunt. Not one to dodge such a primitively basic attack, he took the blow with one of his own arms.
And suddenly, to his surprise, Hunt actually ducked around and brought his Hingaerd into an overhead swing onto the creature's right shoulder.
*BBZZZZHAAA*
The shoulder was shredded into ribbons, and its arm came clean off. The creature yelped and swung its club at Hunt's head. Hunt couldn't duck in time.
*PWING!*
Alex's heart made a leap. That wasn't a good sound.
The golden mask embedded itself into the stone wall of the crumbling building behind them and slowly melted from the heat. Hunt's cover was off. The creature reared its fist back, ready for a second strike. But once it laid eyes on Hunt's exposed face...
"HYOOOH!" the creature shrieked, losing all composure and pointing at Hunt in shock.
"Yes! Me!" Hunt roared, tossing his Hingaerd away with his left hand. His other hand suddenly extended into a blast of blue smoke, and the spiky, multi-colored conundrum of a sword that Alex once fought against appeared. The gloves were off, and the Unknown was about to go full force against these creatures.
But the look on its bulging eyes was of genuine fear. For a moment, it stumbled and fell backwards, frantically trying to get as much distance as possible. Upon getting back onto its feet, it reared its head back, let out a shriek, and rocketed into the air. All three creatures suddenly converged on each other, turned tail, and darted to the south, vanishing in a strip of light.
Disappointed that he was unable to actually use the blade, Hunt dematerialized it and immediately stormed towards Alex, who dispelled his barrier.
"We're doing the last one NOW!" he growled.
Alex flinched. Hunt's disguise was off, and the creatures they fought seemed to recognize him. But his duty was to the Star and the safety of the city. Argh, but he couldn't let them see Hunt's true face, and those creatures were no doubt going to return with reinforcements to fight Hunt. If not that, there were definitely going to report it to their higher power, and then word will spread. And as much as he felt that Hunt would deserve what was coming to him, he simply out of moral conscience couldn't do that to the monster.
He made his decision immediately. As much as he wanted to save Falador, he had to get the Unknown off their planet as soon as possible. After all, it was supposed to be a secret that it was actually there. His secret. And should things get complicated with the Unknown… well, he was simply an enemy far worse than whatever these creatures were, capable of sucking entire planets into a blackened abyss. Best get rid of him as fast as possible.
Guys, forgive me, he thought, but this is for your own good.
Alex dashed to Hunt, who leapt up and onto his back with his face covered by his robe (what remained). Without breaking stride, he morphed into his more aerodynamic form, and in one quick bound, lifted off and shot southwest of Falador, leaving the burning mass behind them. Even the great pillar of smoke and flame that was once the White Knight castle vanished in the duration of a minute.
_____________________________
OVER THE OCEAN TO THE FAR WEST
_____________________________
The cloud of steam faded, and the Unknown went limp and fell into the water. His blue glowing outline had vanished, leaving him a dark, unreflective black mass. Alex pondered whether or not he should scoop it out of the water, but before he was able to summon the confidence to do so, it rose back out of the water like a strung puppet.
"You all right?" Alex found himself instinctively asking.
"…what do you care?" the Unknown grumbled.
Alex held back laughter.
"You're right; I don't." Alex replied, "I just thought it polite to ask."
Floating in the air by itself, the Unknown straightened up, but it was not without effort. It literally had nothing left. No power. No remorse. No task.
"I guess this means you're done." Alex said, looking over its handiwork. Despite not actually feeling it being broken, he almost felt relieved at seeing the planet once again whole and complete.
"I am…" it muttered.
And there it was. The time for Alex to finally say farewell to the very creature that threatened absolutely everything he cared about. His friends. His brethren. His home. His Lord. His planet. Himself. How did one say farewell to something like that? "Goodbye and good riddance" only sounded proper in his head. Knowing the Unknown, if he did say something like that, he's get a scratch or something from its crazy blade, and he knew first hand on what kind of pain it was capable of dishing out.
Besides, it would be beneficial to leave it off on a positive note. On the off-chance 0.00...01% on the likelihood metre they meet again, it won't "immediately" want to kill him. Perhaps there will be just a touch of mercy, and a death only slightly unbearably painful and agonizing. The Unknown or not, he was saying goodbye to somebody he spent time with, and it just wasn't in him to not be grateful for the minor positives that came out of the experience.
So Alex finally broke the unnerving silence.
"Thank you for upholding your end of the deal and replacing what you took." Alex said, clasping both hands together in a bow. The Unknown's eyes squinted.
"After all I've put you through, you still uphold your manners and show respect?"
Alex simply nodded.
The Unknown regained a partial glow; enough to materialize its sword in hand and use it to "draw" a round hole of black, fiery light. Upon completion of the circle, a vortex spawned forth and began to pull material in. In the midst of the portal, Alex saw a frenzy of intense lightning jolting in-between black, shapeless clouds. Even the sky turned dark and a harsh wind began to blow.
"Allezyamos, you had best count your blessings while they last." it warned, "Long ago, the realm of reality was governed and gloriously populated by us, the Race of Guardians. Not the mortals. We created the mortals as a form of entertainment, and allowed them to coexist peacefully alongside us.
But the mortals rebelled against us, our ancestors betrayed us, and we were cast from the very realm which we created for ourselves, leaving us on the verge of extinction. It is not out of pity or remorse that I upheld my deal and returned your planet to normal. I did it to fill you with false hope for your future, because it simply didn't matter."
The Unknown floated menacingly towards Alex, and he propelled his wings forward, pushing himself away from it. What little light seen emitting from its hide in the morning sun was flickering violently, as though it was about to spring off in all directions.
"We WILL have our revenge for this humiliation." he roared, "The mortal race will pay for disgracing my own, and if you were wise, you would heed this warning and let yourself die before it happens."
Alex said nothing. For a moment, he almost found himself appreciating the answers and talks he had with the Unknown. At one point, he even found himself teaching it one of the reasons the mortals saw life in such a positive outlook. For a mere moment, he felt that the Unknown had a lick of redemption on itself after all.
But not anymore. The Unknown always has been, and always will be one of the worst enemies the universe will ever encounter. It will not stop until it meets its ambitions down to the very last swing of the sword.
It turned and strode, on air, towards the portal. As it approached, its highlight regained its former glow.
"Pray that we will never meet again." it growled.
"Always do." Alex said. That was the closest to "goodbye" he was ever going to get from the monster.
Without any further hesitation, it dove into the sparking dimensional hole and vanished in a flash of sparkling light. Relieved of such a heavy weight, Alex let himself momentarily pass out in the cold, refreshing ocean water.
_____________________________
BACK AT THE SWC
_____________________________
With the Unknown gone, Alex felt almost relieved to return back to his beloved chapel. Every waking moment, he was almost unnerved that it would place a curse or marker in his house for its own vengeful reasons. He knew that the Unknown told him that he wasn't going to keep vengeance against him, and that the Unknown hated lying enough to give his words warrant, but Alex couldn't help but think that the Unknown would've rather told a lie than let a lesser being have dominance over a Guardian.
No sooner did he touch down and morph back into human form was he suddenly tackled from the front by a blur of white darting out of the second-storey chapel window. Which was open, of course. The little guy wasn't much for licking (thank Sartranomin), but when it came to tail-wagging pounces, Alex could not help but feel relief that he wasn't getting any bigger. At least, not to his knowledge.
"Hey, Nuli! How'd it go?" he greeted, recovering the wind knocked out of him and scratching behind both ears with a gauntlet.
Nuli opened his mouth wide and pointed with a fore-claw to the newest member of his molars. It stood out as being slightly whiter then the rest. Nothing a good stretch of time won't fix.
"Ah, you got yours too!" Alex said, "Well done!"
Nuli then tilted his head with a perplexed look.
"Yeah, I got one myself." Alex said, smiling, "Although it's not quite what you think."
Nuli jumped off and sat down obediently, as though about to receive a treat. Alex sat up and stretched out his arm, exposing a clear, cyanic aquamarine gem. Pointing to the interior, Nuli noticed a small, out-of-place speck, refracting the light in an odd way.
"I daresay it probably didn't hurt as much as yours, though." Alex said, grinning sheepishly.
Nuli shuddered slightly in response. The memory was still fresh in his mind, and he wasn't about to try out his new tooth anytime soon.
"So, what was the problem that you helped fix?" Alex asked, retracting the gem back into his body.
Nuli then launched into an entire pantomime demonstration, switching personalities and energies to depict different characters. Werewolves. A kidnapped queen. Panicking fairies. A bribed adventurer. Himself doing some thinking. Sending off bait. Luring the werewolves into a trap. Destroying the werewolves for such a hateful crime against an entire race. Saving the queen and the bait. Celebration. A rather painful reward.
Alex watched and deciphered it as fluidly as he could. What would the werewolves have wanted with the fairies? No, not the werewolves; they were probably just pawns for Lord Draken or whoever was in charge nowadays. By the sounds (or in this case, sights) of things, perhaps they wanted to take control of the fairy ring network to send their troops all throughout Gielinor in one big surprise assault, scattering the three kingdoms' defences to the point where a full-on assault from Morytania would encounter the least resistance. Having multiple werewolves capable of travelling onto a newly cobbled fairy ring with one staff … well, that's vital information by itself. Imagine if a vampyre or several got their hands on such a relic.
"How exactly did you destroy them?" Alex asked, crossing his arms.
Nuli then flinched, rearing back slightly with his tail between his legs.
"It's all right, you did the right thing." Alex assured him, "I would've done it too. Otherwise, they would've killed you or reported their findings to Draken, and that would've seriously harmed the fairy race."
Nuli hesitantly accepted the forgiveness, and drew a wavy circle in the ground.
"Water …" Alex interpreted, nodding.
Nuli added some protruding wavy lines.
"Swamp. Mort Myre swamp."
Nuli pounded a fist twice in the centre.
"You threw them into the swamp water."
He then unleashed a blast of lightning breath right in the middle, leaving the markings in a splatter of blackened rock.
"Ah! You boiled them to death, huh?" Alex said, "As gruesome as it sounds, I'm actually quite impressed you thought of that. Like a hunter, one shot taking all 6 of them out without having to resort to combat."
Nuli didn't know what to think about that statement. But he did mindlessly tap his claw twice and hold one up.
"Sorry, 7. I do hope you prayed for them."
Nuli clasped both frontal claws together, squatted down on his rear, and closed his eyes with a nod.
"Good. Remember to always pray for every kill you make, so they may rest eternally and not haunt the land." Alex instructed, bending down to Nuli. It did sound sort of cheesy, but he didn't want Nuli to know the real truth behind revenant souls. Heck, he himself didn't want to know.
The White Dragon nodded confidently. He was following Alex's instruction to the letter, praying even for kills he makes while hunting for meat. He did remember he got some attention once from a band of travellers who watched him take down a rabbit. He pinned it to the ground with his body, bowed his head in prayer while gently pressing its head down as it squirmed, and with one smooth, swift motion, rapped its skull in with a fist. Every time he remembered their transfixed faces after having watched an otherwise wild dragon kill its pray as humanely and saintly as possible, he couldn't help but laugh. Even after grabbing the fresh kill in his mouth and flying away, they remained unmoved past the point where he was out of sight. That by itself made himself guaranteed to do it in hopes that another bunch of witnesses watch the unexplainable and react in such an amusing fashion.
But that was it, wasn't it? He was a hunter. His father forbid him to practice combat, but it was his mother in him that made him a natural hunter. He not only chased; he constructed traps of all kinds, taking interest in the physics incorporated by the devices the humans used through observation (and in some cases, personal experience). He had intermingled with what they deemed "Master Hunters", learning several tricks of the trade, and it was a collaboration of these devices that he constructed which won the fairy race back their queen.
Suddenly, Alex stopped and straightened up slightly. He was gazing just behind Nuli, who after a brief, silent chuckle, turned to look as well. All he saw, however, was the ocean, rippling off the rocky coastline. Nothing out of the ordinary. There were no flashes of light, or boats on the horizon, or even a hint of rogue sea-life breaking the surface of the water in an inspiring attempt to show the world it existed. Just clear sky and still water. Lovely shade of blue, though.
"Excuse me for a moment." Alex said, nodding quickly before jumping up and running off to the basement.
Again! This is the fourth time this had happened. Alex "notices" something in the distance, and then suddenly just takes off for the basement for half an hour. The other three times, he figured he just saw the time and had to tend to the fungi inside the cavern or something. But this time, the sun was entirely in the opposite direction, and he was looking directly at the water. Nuli wasn't going to let anything distract him this time.
It was time to find out once and for all the reason behind this strange behaviour.
Nuli bounded right after Alex, jumping through the trapdoor before he had a chance to close it. Alex wordlessly allowed Nuli to come with him, and they both hurried down the slippery, rocky stairs. Nuli was relieved. He knew Alex liked to keep secrets, and the fact that he was allowed to participate meant it wasn't something supposed to be done privately.
They emerged in the cavern, and Alex dashed right for the pond. He stopped at the edge, peered down, and slowly lowered himself in until he was fully submerged. Nuli stopped, confused at the action, before approaching. The water was too rippled to see anything underneath, but after a moment, he then saw Alex sitting down under the water, and there was something red in the water with him. It was small; smaller than he was, and it flowed and rippled slightly with the water. A smooth, almost featureless dome-like shape, with three- … no, two string-like protrusions, about as thick as his own claw nail. Was it a plant?
… tentacles. They were tentacles. This was an actual living creature that Alex was interacting with. One of its tentacles wrapped around Alex's hand, and Alex had his eyes closed. What were they doing? Meditating together? Taking a deep breath, he poked his head into the water for a clearer look. The red, jelly-fish like squid creature suddenly raced around, reacting to his intrusion, but Alex held up his other hand to calm it down, nodded his head slightly. It quickly calmed down, pointed its cap towards Alex, and then to Nuli. With each movement, there was a reaction. They were both clearly speaking to each other, but neither of them made a sound. Strange.
The creature then suddenly shot a tentacle at Nuli, wrapping it around his neck and pulling him down. Nuli squirmed, and Alex reacted with wide eyes and a shaking head. The creature, taking an immediate hint, released Nuli, who wasted no time pulling himself out and away from the water, taking quick relieved breaths. His heart was racing, and his legs shook uncontrollably.
The water rippled, and Alex's head appeared above the surface.
"Are you all right?" he asked; his voice filled with concern. Nuli nodded in response, stemming his breathing and "unwidening" his eyes.
"Sorry about that. She didn't realize you were an air-breather." Alex apologized, "She makes quick assumptions sometimes."
Nuli tilted his head.
"This is Koyl." Alex said, "It- … well, it- it's neither boy nor girl, as they're asexual, but I call it a "she" because it gives off the vibe. "She" is an Oocon; an underwater race whose directly-injected blood is a universal cure. She cannot leave the surface of the water, or she'll shrivel up. I haven't invited you down here because I figured you wouldn't be able to communicate with her. Plus, she only visits with updates and stories. I could just tell you if you were interested."
Nuli squinted slightly with a slight smile. Alex shrugged.
"… well, if you wanna try," Alex returned the look, "Then hold your breath and come on in."
Nuli looked at the pool, rubbing his neck with one claw with the bitter reminder that he indeed could not breathe underwater. Then his eyes suddenly widened, and he turned tail and bounded up the stairs. Alex simply smiled. He'll be back, no doubt, with a solution. Nuli wasn't one to let things stay unresolved.
He returned to the water and rejoined the conversation with Koyl.
"Sorry about that." he thought in his mind, gently gripping the squid-like creature's tentacle, "That's my new friend, Nuli. Gia had left me his son to raise in his place."
"You had told me that White Dragons were really big." he heard the strange, somewhat monotonic voice in the back of his head, "But this one was not even bigger than I am."
"He is still very young." Alex replied, "He will get big with time. At least, I hope he will."
Koyl slowly approached Alex's head in sympathy. He had spoken with only a smidgen of hope, if any at all. Even in his final letter, Gia wrote about how he had his doubts that Nuli will get any bigger than he was now, as his growth in size had stemmed itself at around 7 months. Even now, Alex had been raising Nuli for 5 months, and even he had barely noticed any change in Nuli's size. Such was the consequence of breeding a hundred thousand year-old dragon with its more evolved and developed modern counterpart. He would've liked Nuli to grow big, like Gia was, because having Gia's muscle around had proved to be invaluable. Nevertheless, Nuli still displayed his own strength several times, being able to do his own smithing-work while smaller than even a dwarf.
No matter the result, Alex would be proud of Nuli for being what he was. That, he believed with hope.
Plus, Nuli was a shoulder-dragon, and as silly as it sounded, he kind of always wanted a companion like that. Some sort of avian creature who made its home on his right shoulder-blade.
"Anyways, you said you had a surprise for me." Alex said.
"Yes!" Koyl said, zipping around the water slightly, "Guess what!"
Alex figured he already knew, what with the excitement she spoke with, but it would be much more fun for Koyl if he appeared to remain clueless and surprised.
"What?" he asked, trying to seem as eager as possible.
"Aw, come on! Guess!" Koyl taunted, dancing around joyously.
Alex could not hide his smile.
"You … defeated a Gabonat all by yourself?" Alex asked.
Koyl was laughing now. She released herself and rocketed around the space in front of him so sporadically she actually collided with the rocky walls twice. She had a sort of childish humour about her, despite her being a fully grown, respectable Oocon with a definable role and purpose.
"No, try again!" she said, reconnecting.
"You … got yourself a pet shark?"
More laughing. She was enjoying this game very much, and Alex suddenly found himself laughing as well, thinking up silly guesses and projecting them through his mind. Did she evolve, sprout wings, and fly above the surface? Did she spar with a swordfish? Did she slice through a fishing trawler's big net to free all the fish it had captured? (Turned out she had, twice, but that wasn't the surprise).
"Give up?" she asked eagerly.
Alex's smile went smug. Yeah, he gave up.
"We found wyverns!" Koyl exclaimed with glee.
Alex was going to pretend to be surprised, but now that he actually heard the report and that his assumption really was fact, it suddenly became legitimate.
"You're kidding!" he half-shouted (he actually did, underwater).
"I am not! We found them! A bunch of them, too!" she bounced around victoriously.
"That's fantastic!" Alex congratulated her.
"It is! Macan told me to let you know, and he is negotiating with them to accept Mirral, and then he is going to go-"
*SPLOOSH!*
Both of them jumped. Nuli had returned and plunged into the water. The first thing Alex noticed, however, was that Nuli had built a strange mouthpiece hooked around his jaw that ended off in a long, rubber hose that went up through the surface of the water. The way it kept itself in one direction meant that Nuli had hooked the other end somewhere, so that the other end wouldn't get pulled in with him. In that short amount of time, the young White Dragon had created an underwater breathing apparatus. Once again, Alex couldn't help but feel proud for the little one, reaching out with a gauntlet and scratching him behind the horns.
"He looks funny now." Koyl remarked.
"He made himself a device to let him breathe air through a tube so he could last for a long period of time underwater." Alex said, "He's a brilliant one."
Koyl's head bobbed up and down. She agreed.
"Koyl is telling me that my brother Macanyale found an island of wyverns." Alex said proudly to Nuli, "You remember how I told you about Mirral? The wyvern who grows that bitter plant you tried once and hated?"
Nuli nodded. Koyl nudged him on the side of the head.
"Now that we found more of them, Mirral doesn't have to be alone anymore." he continued, "Isn't that great?"
Koyl nudged again.
"Everything all right, Koyl?"
"It is not an island." her voice resonated in his head, "I did not say we found them on an island."
Now Alex was confused. Not an island? Then did they find an underwater group or something? Or perhaps a bunch trapped inside a large air pocket? Or an underground cavern with a spring streaming through?
"It is not an island." Koyl repeated.
"It is a continent."
Alex blinked. Nuli then nudged Alex, hoping for a translation update. He didn't get one.
"A continent?"
"Yeah. A giant mass of land." Koyl replied, "At first, we thought we had gone in a complete circle around the world and wound up in the northern lands. But then Macan went looking around, and nothing he found was familiar."
Alex tilted his head. Macan had remained in isolation for a long time, having not surfaced for very long to really get to know the continent of Gielinor. Perhaps he was simply mistaken?
"And there are a lot of wyverns on that land mass. And other strange creatures. Even the fish are unique. Their skin is all crusty. I don't like touching it."
Alex pondered it. Crusty fish … could they have travelled into the alternate-dimension ScapeRune somehow? The land of opposites, completely perpendicular to the world they knew and loved today? Probably, but he doubted it.
Nuli was now tugging at Alex's helmet plume, itching for a translation. After a month of experimentation, Nuli found that doing so was the most effective method of getting Alex's attention.
"Sorry, Nuli." Alex apologized quickly, "Koyl said the wyverns they found are on a continent, not an island. A continent unfamiliar to our own."
Nuli shared the look of confusion. He also stopped tugging, as he now understood where Alex's mind was.
"How long will Macan be staying there?" Alex asked.
"Macan likes to prioritize." Koyl replied, "He will negotiate with the wyverns, and then he will either bring some back or take Mirral there. Either way, he will be coming back in the near future, and you might get to see him again."
Alex smiled. It would be nice to see the hypothetical-thinking emotionless crystalline dragon, who speaks in the longest, most complicated vocabulary imaginable. At the cost of a headache, Macan usually had his own insights to offer, and unlike his more violent, negative sister, Macan usually liked to take a more positive and logical approach, eliminating any and all possibilities of misinterpretation. Not the best conversationalist, of course, but he was nevertheless fun to be with.
"Thanks for the update." Alex said, "And as much as I'd like to chat, I'm afraid I have to go now. There's an event happening today that I do not want to miss."
Koyl said nothing for several moments, but one could only interpret her sudden loss of energy and drooping tentacles as sadness.
"Another time then, OK?" she finally replied, perking back up.
"Promise." Alex nodded, "Oh, and please tell Macan that I await his victorious return."
Her energy was back. Passionately taking the mission, she released Alex and zipped off into the small opening. Nuli watched with wide-eyed interest, wondering just how it moved so fast through the water. Without missing a beat, Alex pulled himself out of the water, and Nuli quickly followed.
"You know what day it is, right?" he asked.
The White Dragon nodded, eyes wide with bewilderment.
"Then dry yourself off quickly and bundle up," Alex advised, "Because it's going to be awfully cold where we're going."
_____________________________
RITUAL OF THE MAHJARRAT
_____________________________
Alex stood, perched atop one of Zemorgeal's flag-shafts overlooking the battlefield. Perched on his shoulders was Nuli; his torso and wings covered in a self-sewn black bear fur.
"Dragonkin…" he muttered, "…Zaros, you sneaky little… you made us think that you really were risking it all."
The dragonkin took off toward the east, blazing rage-infused flame along the way. Several flashes of dark light, and the mahjarrat had all vanished, leaving nothing but what appeared to be three humans left to huddle around the stone. It was fortunate for them that neither one appeared to dare to touch it.
"You saw the dragonkin?" Alex asked Nuli without turning his head, "Those are the same creatures your father and his race were bred to combat. They were both incredible warriors in the past, fighting at levels not even demons could match."
He felt Nuli's claws dig into his shoulder for the fifth time.
"I promised Gia that I wouldn't let you follow the same path." Alex replied, "So don't you worry. You leave the fighting of them to us and instead focus on your studies."
Nuli relaxed, his attention now diverted to the humans.
Alex watched carefully. That one human… exceptionally powerful and witty, almost as though controlled by some higher power. Nevertheless, an adventurer like the rest of them. It was mere talent, nothing more. The one in White… that was a Temple Knight. One of their leaders, it appeared. What was his name again? Sir Kit? … no. Ah, never mind.
That third human, though. A guthixian druid, by the suggestion of the robes. And he didn't doubt he was perhaps versed in the rule of balance. But still, something about him seemed off. The Temple Knight had summoned him forth to help deal with the stone. But why him? Surely there were several others who would've liked to deal with this conundrum. The Guthixian Edict, for example.
His attention focused as he saw them gather around the stone. They were going to do something. Knowing the humans, they were going to teleport it away to an inaccessible area so that nobody may use its power. Typical humans; just hide the source and never speak of it again, and the problem just goes away by itself. Ain't gonna work, you guys. The dragonkin will just get angrier.
What's this? He was calling something… math… port… underground…
Alex's eyes widened. A "math-based random teleport"? He had not seen one of those scams since the dawning of the first age, where the first humans discovered teleportation by the runes provided by Guthix. They found unspeakable treasures on the planet, but were afraid that others may try to take them, so they would teleport them to a hidden location. Of course, some darker folk got wind of an idea to modify a teleport and make the treasurer think that it was a much more secure teleportation than anything they could conjure alone. Unfortunately, the numbers were just for show; it was always the instigator that teleported the item wherever they wanted. It was how a teleport worked after all; an anchor point had to be defined and marked by a set coordinate. If they worked by randomness, then there would be a whole lot more "teleportation accidents" out there.
He watched with focused curiosity. Yup, just like he thought, it was the druid instigating the teleport. Those poor, clueless humans. He was no Guthixian. In fact, Alex wouldn't have been surprised if that druid was another mahjarrat, or mind-controlled. Only question now was whose druid it really was. Zamorak, Zaros, or a mahjarrat's.
The stone vanished, and the humans did too. Nothing remained but the ashen-charred sweep of ice surrounding the altar. Alex looked at Nuli. The little dragon didn't know what to think.
"Don't worry, Nuli." he assured, "This story's far from over. Now come; let's get out of this cold."
With a graceful leap, he bounded off the flag-shaft and down the fortress walls.
They never touched the ground.
_________________
|
