20/6/337

Audra

“Today is 15/1/310, a week ago I realized how truly weak we all are. How insignificant we are compared to the creatures out there. My emotions being numbed out is the only thing allowing me to write this, and even then I still feel chills just thinking of this.”

Audra grew interested as she read this part of the journal. Vasuki slept across from her, his blanket thrown haphazardly over him. She leaned back and resumed reading.

“I was with Zate and Groundhog in the desert, Zate and I could keep the heat off of ourselves and Groundhog likes the sand, fucking weirdo. We were tracking a man who had hired a man who hired a man who hired another man to kill the king. We tracked him all the way to the South-East a bit past the city of Tamwern. The heat quickly started to get unbearable, even for Groundhog who was accustomed to the outrageous heat. That’s when we saw it, this giant spiral of wind and sand, stretching to the sky above. It was large enough that it should have been visible from Tamwern, yet it was quiet and had practically snuck up on us. Groundhog told us to wait where we were as he went into the spiral. He lasted all of 3 seconds maybe? Before he ran back out, complaining that he couldn’t breathe from the heat. His skin was red from the heat, as if someone had put him against a hot pan. He stuttered over his words but one was clear enough. He told us we needed to run, but couldn’t say why. He was stuttering too much over his words when the wind stopped. It didn’t slow down, it just stopped. The red and black dragon within that storm was massive, I was the height from the bottom of it’s foot to it’s fucking ankle! She spoke in so many voices right into our fucking heads. There was so many overlaying voices but one spoke louder than the others. It told us to leave, and that the man we were hunting had died within her storm.

I scoured through the castle library until I found a book about dragons, that was Surrir. The Ancient Fire Dragon had made the storm that we were next to and she didn’t want visitors. I’m not going to challenge her request.”

Audra felt chills climb up her spine, the dragon she and Vasuki had encountered was big but not like that. She wondered if it was an exaggeration. She looked outside at the forest beyond the cave entrance, then over at Vasuki. Vasuki was fast asleep, his head leaned back against the wall of the cave. The nashatalian language book lay open in his lap.

Audra dug in the bag next to her, depositing Cabana’s Journal and pulling out her pocket mirror. Clicking it open she was met with a smirking reflection.

“So Surrir isn’t too talkative these days? That’s unusual for her.” Her reflection spoke.

“You know Surrir?” Audra asked. Her reflection rolled her eyes.

“Get in here, we need to talk.” Audra felt her body begin to go limp and her eyelids shut.

When Audra’s eyes opened she was back at the Lake within her soul, her Reflection leaned back against the dark tree, it seemed to be growing leaves.

“Yes I know Surrir, the Empress of the Sun. I know Ssirm, the Eternal Winter Storm. Nuul The Infinite One and I have fought the lesser known Ancient Dragon; Auwls The Great Maw, she was a bitch.” She said.

“There are four Ancient Dragons?” Audra asked. She nodded.

“No one knows where Auwls went, the other three went insane and hid themselves away from humanity, changing the environment around them into hellish extremes where nothing can survive, that was what Nuul said they were doing before he ran off.” She said.

There was a silence between them, Audra slowly walked towards her reflection.

“Who are you?”

“I am Kalano’s chosen warrior, handcrafted to fight against the demons in the first War of Dominion. I was to lead the charge and I died in that position.”

“I’m not asking what you did, I’m asking who you are.” Audra claimed.

“My name...you were close to saying it once.” She looked down. “You won’t find me or The Descended’s name in the history books. I want to tell you, but I can’t. I’m scared it will undo a lot of the progress you’ve already made towards Ascending.” Audra sighed in frustration.

“I don’t want to Ascend.”

“That’s not your choice to make. The Storm is coming and there is bound to be another Descended to lead them.

“What do you mean ‘Descended?” Audra asked. Her reflection’s face grew cold, a hint of anger nested within her eyes. She waved her hand, memories of a life Audra wasn’t living filled her mind.

Her reflection ran through the forest, she could hear Varulv on her back. She collected water from a stream and surrounded herself with a ring as sharp as any sword could hope to be. She turned on her heel and dug her golden saber deep into one of the demons, slashed a second, then a third all in quick fluid movements, their skin sizzling as the blade connected. A fourth had went around her and tried to find an opening only for the water to cut through it’s arm. She felt the disturbance, quickly turned and beheaded the beast. Then she felt it. Heat. Unbelievable heat. The water that surrounded her evaporated within seconds. She jumped back as a spire of earth pierced a tree trunk. She put her shield up as another spire struck from the earth. She felt herself skid through the dirt. She felt power she couldn’t describe, something clearly not from this world, surrounded her, the heat vanishing but the feeling of absolute power still tingled her hair. A single rocky hand appeared from behind a tree, pushing it out of the way like one would with a branch. It broke and splintered as it fell to the ground.

The Descended was nothing like any demon Audra had ever seen before. It was a humanoid creature covered in obsidian, cracks ran along his body revealing a magma-like substance underneath. It’s eyes were glowing crimson orbs inside of two holes within the hard rock. Two large black horns extruded from it’s forehead, a crack swirling around the body of the horn to the tip, magma seeping from within it. The rock where it’s mouth should be pulled apart with a loud crack.

“You’ve become quite annoying, warrior.” It’s teeth was just jagged rock in front of a dark abyss of a mouth.

The vision began to fade as a large, jagged obsidian spire rose from the ground and into his hand. Audra blinked and was staring at an empty cave, she felt tired. Words echoed through her head.

“The man you are going to meet, shares the name of the monster I have just shown you. Noelem. Son of Runahera...I pray he isn’t the same…” Audra gulped as she slowly came to a stand, leaving her weight off of her right ankle. She slowly pressed more weight on it until it ached, she could walk with a limp perfectly fine but she was much better than last night.

Walking out into the forest, Audra let out a long yawn as she leaned on the entrance of the cave. Light glistened through the tree tops, water and dew still freshly lay on the greenery within the forest. The mixture of light and droplets of water created a glistening wonder to behold upon the grass and leaves. She found herself scratching at the scales on her right arm, her eyes went wide.

“Oh hell no!” She gathered the water that had so beautifully been glistening into a floating figure, she slid the water down her arm, froze it then pulled the ice out. “Son of a bitch.” A few scales mites had found their way under her scales, she could only assume how Vasuki was doing with his arm.

“Audra!” Vasuki yelled.

“Speak of the devil.” She thought. Vasuki appeared over the hill and smiled when he saw her.

“I found some people that’d gladly give us a ride to Daemerall. You need help?” He asked.

“I would appreciate it.”

Vasuki helped Audra into the back of the wagon. The driver of the wagon was a tall man with two cat ears poking from his head, he had a black ponytail and a mean scar running along his face, possibly was a knight if not now then in the past. The woman was a human with long flowing hair as dark as her skin. The wagon was full of boxes that smelled of vegetables, cured meats, and other types of food goods. She was sure the one labeled clothes had clothes in it though.

“So what’s your names?” The man’s voice was deep. The horses let out a breath of complaint and started to make their way down the road.

“I’m Audra, I'm from Kiaveen.”

“And I’m Vasuki, we just came from Nevenal, we’re thankful for you letting us hitch a ride.” The man waved it off.

“It’s no big deal, we’re heading to Daemerall and it looks like you two have went through hell recently. I’m Sen and this is my wife Tei.” Sen claimed. Tei gave a sad smile.

“I’m sorry what you’re homes have went through. We heard about the fires in Kiaveen, I’m glad most of it was saved. We just left Nevenal the other day. The weather there was hellish, but most of it is still standing.” She said her voice was quiet but she seemed like an open person. Audra looked at Vasuki and saw that he was physically relieved from the news.

“Thank you for letting us know that Nevenal was okay.” Vasuki said breathing a sigh of relief.

“What business you have in Daemerall?” Sen asked.

“We’re meeting up with someone, his name is Noelem. You heard of him?” Audra asked. Tei looked at her suspiciously.

“Yeah we have, but you two don’t seem to be the type for him.” She said. Audra leaned forward.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s a recluse. No one talks to him unless they have business with him. He lives in a secluded spot of the city, and he does a bit of dirty work for the town when no one else is capable.” Tei mentioned.

“I saw him bitch slap a Chimera and knocked it out!” Sen laughed, Audra felt a shiver climb up the back of her very being, her Ascender was getting more worried. “He seems like an alright guy, just really quiet.”

“You tell that Chimera story every time someone brings him up! We both know it’s not true!” Tei complained.

Audra put on a playful face and laughed about the absurdity of someone handling a beast, the height of two men and the length of the wagon they were riding in, minus the tail, in such a way. After what she saw from her Ascender she knew it was a possibility if this Noelem was the same.

Vasuki’s face was unmoved, Audra gave him a knowing look. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but held his tongue back. His eyes told Audra everything she needed to know. What he knew of Noelem, he had heard from Cabana. Vasuki caught eye contact with her, he gave her a quick nod as if to say “She told me that story too.”

“No one could smack a Chimera around and you know that just as well as I do, Sen!” Tei yelled, all the while Sen was chuckling to himself.

“Maybe a Royal Knight?” Audra offered. “There’s plenty of those around, he may have been one.”

“That’s a good point, I’m sure Amethyst could wrestle one of them! Why wouldn’t he be able to do that too?” Sen asked.

“Just focus on the damn road!” Tei ordered.

Audra smiled and looked out the back of the wagon, the green dragon that had chased them earlier was flying away in the distance, she was thankful it was finally leaving them alone. She felt a small chill reach out to her, she looked over at Vasuki and gave her a warm smile.

“We’ll be there soon, we’ll be okay.” He said.

“Don’t jinx it this time.” She suggested.

“Dick.” Vasuki chuckled.

“Bitch.”