Talika
Ripe and unhurried crackling of flames devouring what remained of a weathered dwelling drowned the creeping silence of a moonless night. It appears that not even stars wished to witness the atrocity committed in this land and hid behind a layer of dark, pregnant clouds. Clouds that, by the look of it, held a brewing storm. A storm waiting to wash away all that remained after the purifying fire had its say.
With its original function long forsaken, the burning building collapsed under the unsated tooth of devouring flames. It burned well, perhaps too well. Hurried even. How grave must be the sins of those involved that even the flames showed little wanting to remain here and burned with unnatural haste.
To leave. To find oneself anywhere but here. Talika prayed but no such blessing was meant for her and hers. They had to stay. Stay and watch. Make sure.
Along with the tarnished wood, the blaze consumed a heap of corpses, purifying the desecrated ground. How many were there this time? Twenty? Fifty? A hundred? Thousands? They had no way to tell the exact number. Some they found were no more but a limb or a puddle of gore. Those were the majority. The few living ones they found and killed, were long ago robbed of any reason and will to live. Left alone they would soon perish.
Her knees buckled beneath her as an iron fist of disgust clenched her gut, squeezing out blood and bile at the memory of what they saw as they arrived. Death, blood and madness.
It was wrong. So wrong. All of it.
Stench of burning flesh bested her, triggering another wave of convulsions.
“You don’t need to be here. “
Northon’s voice cut their silence like a lonely thunder announcing the arrival of a storm. His mind raced no less than her own. Little tremors of his sword arm a tell-tale sign of his worry.
“No. This fate is as much yours as it is mine. I must witness it until the end.”
She steeled herself as she watched the pyre consume the dead. Their eternal screams reflected in the screeching of the burning frame. The price of letting even one of those damned live was too high. Never again would they make such a trivial mistake. Even though her party had little if nothing to do with the bloodbath that took place in these forsaken grounds, they cleansed those remaining few and purified the island then stood and watched as the evil burned.
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*It is done. Nobody could survive this much. They’re all dead. Let us be gone from this wretched place. Now, before it awakes. *
Noreil, the eldest of them all, urged again and again while her fear pressed a heavy burden onto their minds.
“No. Not until but ashes remain.”
Talika spoke. Her shaking voice reflected their worry. They all remembered what transpired that single time they had not made sure. They still felt the price they paid. The taste of death still fresh on their lips.
*Then be it! *
Assuming her true form, the ancient dragoness inhaled, inflating her lungs and mixing mana with air she roared, blasting the burning pyre with her dragon’s flame and fanning the blaze with her majestic wings. In a heartbeat, her sacred dragon’s breath vaporized the entire pyre, going as far as melting the ground.
No! Talika’s gift screamed at her. Screamed as if they were about to die. All but for naught. It was too late to stop her lover. Too late to save their lives. The gaze was upon them. The eyes of death heavy upon her back.
As if through mud, the seer turned and looked. Looked towards the iron cage, towards the unnatural eyes of the silver-haired creature staring at her. Annoyed.
Even though its face bore no emotion to speak off, the seer knew how annoyed the creature felt. They disturbed its rest and brought its wrath upon themselves and now it will claim their lives.
One. Two. Three. Four… Yet the death did not befall her even after five horrifying heartbeats when the weight of that bloody gaze rested upon her. Sixth. Seven. Eight. Nine.
When her heart was about to stop after the ninth heartbeat, the gore covered, silver-haired beast closed her eyes and turned her back to them, huddling deeper into the cloak Northon covered her with when they found her, alone among the sea of gore. It looked unusually happy nuzzling its face into the stained fabric, disregarding everything around it.
“Are. You. Out. Of. Your. Mind.”
The emperor seethed through his teeth, but his words fell on deaf ears. Perhaps she was? Whatever the dragoness sensed, she lifted off into the night and ran while unimaginable fear locked her mind. A dragon’s fear. Their strongest warrior bolted away with her tail between her legs.
At once all their eyes fell on Talika. All of them questioning. They just witnessed something that should be impossible. The fearless dragon abandoning her lovers. How?! But all Talika could do was just shake her head and gaze at the sleeping creature. It slept without a care in the world. It slept covered in gore of thousands of victims. It slept as if it was the most prudent thing to do.
They found her standing still, naked and knee deep in the blood of the damned, unfazed by their magic. She attacked as they approached and… stopped. As abruptly as it attacked, the creature stopped and sniffed around the emperor’s neck. The she licked him, her dirty face leaving a trail of viscera on Northon’s skin.
“Warm”
It said and slung itself into the emperor’s arms only to faint and crush the man under the enormous weight of her body. As if her body was made not of flesh but of stone.
Wrapped in the emperor’s cloak, they put the creature inside an iron cage where it slept.
“What is that thing?”
Northon whispered beside her as he sheathed his sword. There was no longer a pyre for him to guard, nor would his strength mean anything against this creature. Had the creature not submit itself to him, their corpses would join those they burned.
“I do not know. Truly, I do not know.”
No matter what her eyes saw, her gift kept telling her there was nothing in that cage.