The smoke had been darkening the horizon for hours. They had been walking without pause since leaving Ellyrie behind, determined to reach the city Anastasia had pointed them towards.

Timae stopped dead in her tracks and narrowed her eyes, her tail and ears disappearing. "Company, my lord."

"Finally." Parsae put her left hand into her pocket. "I have been needing to resupply."

"Unless they strike first there wont be a fight." Demadara had her right hand on the Eye and relaxed her posture as the power surged through her body. "Or they are inconsequential."

Soon after Demadara could see them as well, dark figures coming into view. Sixty or eighty, some lumbering and massive, some the size of humans, some even shorter. All of them were ready for war.

The sophistication of weapons and armour was widely varied, some of them donning full suits of armour while others had little more than gauntlets and a helmet. A few carried no weapons at all, bearing large banners instead. A red eye on yellow ground.

The ground trembled as they approached, and Demadara rested her eyes on what appeared to be their leader.

Towering even over their tallest warriors, the beast was three, perhaps four times the size of Demadara, and many times wider than her. It´s entire body was covered in rough, rock-like scales, the only protection it deemed necessary. In it´s left hand it carried a giant two-headed axe, the weapon alone longer than she was tall.

It looked down on them with it´s single, red eye, it´s features, part human, part reptile.

Demadara gave Timae one last look, which Timae returned before stepping between Demadara and the beast. "Calm skies and peaceful earth." She bowed, lowering her head.

"The same to you." The beast´s voice was strangely calm and soft for a being of it´s looks and size. "I am Ren of clan One-eye, in bann of clan Sky-Spear. What clan do you hail?"

Timae rose her head back up. "I am Timae of clan Dragon."

Ren stared at her for a moment of silence. Then they began to laugh, their warriors joining in shortly after. Timae clenched her hands and waited it out.

"Clan Dragon? It has been long that I've heard something so arrogant." Amusement swung in his voice. "Who leads your clan, I would love to see the madman choosing such a name. No matter."

Ren put the head of their axe on the ground, leaning onto it. "You don't happen to have seen a rowing band of monsters on your way?"

"No, you're the only ones we have run into so far." Timae was not able to hide her anger in her voice, though all it earned them was another round of laughter.

"Oh no, I mean actual monsters. Patchwork beasts, warriors of Clan Manticore." As Ren spoke, Parsae went white, she took a step forward but Demadara held her back.

Ren gave the two a short look before again turning to Timae. "If you see them, run. Or just give up, they wont stop once they catch your scent. But not much longer, isn't that right?" It rose it´s voice and their warriors answered with a loud roar. "Their days in the east are numbered, they can run westward with the other gluttons. Where are you headed then, Timae, childe of dragon?" Once more, the giant creature laughed.

"Jina was our destination, but given the clouds I assume we will not find it any longer?" Timae spoke through her teeth.

The joy faded from Ren´s face. "Unless you're fond of ruins or eating corpses like a glutton, you'll find nothing up there. Manticore has let any pretensions fall now that the biitch is driven into a corner." Ren pulled it´s axe up and rested it across it´s shoulder. "To torch a free city. She has gone mad. And we have no time to lose."

Ren turned left and gave Timae one last look. "Peaceful earth and calm skies."

Once more the ground began to quake as the clan was set in motion. They watched them for a few moments before continuing their path forward.

"So." Demadara crossed her arms. "Timae, just what did you write me up as?"

Timae let out a laugh and returned to Demadara´s side. "This deep within the Landsea nobody would trust a person not within a clan, and as mine has been wiped out, and is condemned for our." She ran her tongue across her lips. "Hunger, I thought it best to simply make one up, my lord."

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"And so you chose a name that will make me a laughingstock?" Demadara scoffed.

"Far from it, my lord. It is the only one worthy of your being." Timae folded her hands and looked up to the darkening sky. "It was the dragons who ruled the landseas long ago, beings of unending strength, majesty, pride and hunger, for food and riches both."

"And now they don't."

Timae nodded at Demadara´s words. "Yes. Their hunger became so great that they demanded everything from their subjects, and when even this was insufficient the dragons made war upon each other. The last one alive faced not a herd of sheep, but impoverished and desperate folk who had nothing left to lose. Ever since have the landseas known only anarchy of rulers proclaiming themselves, and those who devour others branded as gluttons and cast out."

Their eyes met and Timae´s smile widened. "What better way to found your rule than by evoking what once was?"

Demadara leaned her head to the side. Dragon. She liked the sound of it. "Fine then. You can tell me more about these beasts later. Right now." She took a deep breath. "We have other things to take care of."

They had reached the outskirts of Jina, and Ren had not been exaggarating. The city was a blood-soaked ruin. The smoke they had seen was no longer rising up from the buildings, but the large pyres. Hundreds, thousands of corpses had been piled up and set ablaze.

"They are carried to the skies to not burden the earth." Timae rested a hand on her chest and sighed. "What a waste."

Not a single building was intact. Walls had been demolished, doors torn out, the attackers had been thorough. And on every wall, at every corner they found the same emblem. The head of a lion, sprouting the horns of a bull in front of two large wings. Parsae could not take her eyes off of the symbol whenever they walked past it.

"So much for a peaceful evening." Demadara sighed and kicked the nearest wall. Thunder rolled over them, in the distance they could make out black clouds. She sighed. "And it only gets better."

They found a building that at least had a still functioning roof and settled down. Thunder was soon joined by strikes of lightning illuminating the darkening skies, rain following both, a strong hail that just would not let up.

While Demadara was leaning into Timae for warmth, Parsae sat on the other side of the room, staring out onto the empty street. "We need to find her." She finally spoke as she took the codex from her belt and started skimming through the pages.

"Find who?" Demadara rose her head and looked over Parsae.

"Manticore." Parsae´s right hand was trembling. "That I'd hear that damn name after two hundred years." Her face was bright red. "I would rather turn her insides out than ask her for help, but when it comes to primal transformation there is hardly a better expert."

"From what it sounds like she is losing." Demadara scoffed and rested her head on Timae´s shoulder, feeling her tails wrap around her waist. "I'm not tying myself to a sinking ship."

"All the better though, no? If she is weak then she has all the more reason to help us. Better than have her in a position of strength." Parsae shook her head. "No, if she does not beg us for help I am not going to face that harlot."

Timae began to snicker. "I've never quite seen you this livid. A scorned lover perhaps?"

"Keep your mouth shut, furball." Parsae hissed back. "It is none of the sort! It is far, far beyond any personal differences, sure she is a despicable, bloodthirsty repulsive butcher whose very memory makes a mockery of the term scholar, but no. She is a traitor."

The brilliant light of thunder illuminated Parsae´s pale features. "She was Aeterna´s second advisor after me. Such proximity to our imperator, such a high duty and purpose, and what did she do? Create monsters, abominations that made a mockery of humanity!" Her nails dug into the palms of her hand deep enough for blood to trickle out. "And when she was convicted, she ran! To think she still lives out here. It makes me sick."

"You don't serve the empire anymore, Parsae." Demadara had her eyes closed. "You serve me now. And I don't care what she did or didn't do. Can she do it?" She laid her hand on the Eye. "Make me and it one?"

"If there's a living being on this world that can, it would have to be her. It sounds like she has kept up her experiments at any rate." Parsae stopped turning the pages of her codex and ran her finger across the page. "We can just use her and cast her aside when she has served her purpose, serves her right."

Demadara dismissed her words with a wave. "I decide that." She pulled her hand away from the eye. With their connection severed, her exhaustion caught up. Her body fully collapsed against Timae, who held her up and gently ran her fingers through Demadara´s hair.

"That is quite the dare you have put up, furball." Parsae spoke quietly, as to not wake Demadara. "Clan Dragon?" She closed her codex. "Even I've heard of these monsters. That legacy will hardly make us many allies."

"Oh but we do not need allies, do we?" Timae´s ear flicked forward. "If you know even a fragment of what the dragons were, then you know how well it fits my lord." Her voice was a soft purr. "No name, no matter how diplomatic, will be able to bury her strength of will. So it is best for all to know from the beginning, no?"

Her fangs shone in the twilight. "Alliances, equals, what is all of that except one huge farce. The weak bend to the strong, or are crushed. They thought they could ignore the truth by casting us who know it out. It changes not the world. And my lord will remind them by putting her claws at their throats."

She leaned down and pressed her lips on Demadara´s forehead. Parsae watched on, her lips a single line. The words were different, but she had heard their meaning before. Thunder rolled right over them.

To Parsae it sounded like laughter.