Erneaterrncira Starborn

Darkness, my old and faithful friend once again consumed my world. What a nostalgic feeling. Sinking within that cozy darkness. I have been here before. The border. The only place where life and death coexist, divided by a veil of crystalline moonlight. One more step and I shall cross it. One more step and all my suffering will end. One more step and my loneliness will end.

“Well pumpkin, I don’t think you’re selfish enough to do it while there are people still counting on you. The pumpkin I love never been much of a quitter.”

Tears streaked out of my eyes. The voice I thought I would never hear again broke a dam holding years of pain inside me. I cried, not daring to seek out its source.

“Now, now pumpkin. Don’t cry. It’s inappropriate for a dragon. Who would take you seriously with that monster of a snot dangling off your nose? Hmm?”

The apparition standing just behind the veil mocked me. Yet, my soul throbbed, longing to become once more one with its long-lost half.

“…Neid. Is that really you Neid?”

“Difficult question pumpkin. You never were much into ghosts so, who knows? Maybe I’m me or maybe I’m not. Who knows.”

“I am so sorry, my love. I am so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. If I knew, how would they react I would never…”

“Pumpkin, enough. What’s done is gone. No need stabbing an old wound.”

I dared to raise my eyes to meet the smiling face I missed so much.

“Neid…”

I tossed myself at the man that stole my heart. In that moment all I wished for was to hide in his warm arms. To inhale the musk of his body. To listen to his beating heart.

Yet it was not meant to be. A thin golden thread tied around my right wrist stopped me from crossing over. It anchored me where I was.

“Pumpkin, don’t.”

Neid’s voice stopped me before I could rip the thread apart.

“It’s not your time, pumpkin. Won’t be for a while. That’s okay though. I can wait. I always knew it would take you a while. Our lifespans wouldn’t really match up regardless of how much magic you pumped into my body every night. Eventually, I was meant to go while you my love still have quite a journey ahead of you so take as much time as you need. I can wait as long as you want but,”

Neid pointed towards the far away darkness where the golden thread vanished from view.

“There are others who can’t wait for you much longer so, best you go my pumpkin while you still have time.”

The veil shimmered while the thread grew thinner with each passing moment. When it stopped me from crossing over, it was about a noodle thick. Now? Hardly a hair width remained.

“That’s my girl.”

Nied smiled. Oh, how I love those smiling eyes of his and that playful smirk on his handsome mug. He already sensed my choice before I resolved myself to it.

“One more thing before you go, pumpkin. Tell Shelia that papa loves her. Always will. I love you both. My treasures.”

With my voice refusing to obey my mind, I gave him a nod and turned around.

Not daring to look behind, I walked where the thread guided me into darkness.

And I walked.

I walked along the thinning thread.

And then I ran.

I ran.

I ran as hard I as could towards the other end of that golden line.

I ran towards the familiar melody filling my soul.

I ran until the darkness became bright.

And then I woke.

Scents of storm and burned ground tickled my nostrils while air filled my lungs. I gasped and coughed, then swallowed large gulps of air as if I’ve been holding my breath for much too long. Cold, so cold. I have never been so cold before. My body shivering in the wind.

What in seven hells has that dolt done with this place while I was gone?

And done something stupid he had. Gods, how?!

My mind froze when I opened my eyes.

How?! How is this possible?

Where I expected to see an orb of mana, nothing but stormy sky welcomed my eyes. Myriads of sounds assaulted my ears. Sounds so foreign to the endless plane where my soul once trapped stayed. Yet I was no longer a soul. An eager heart once again throbbed inside my chest.

Across me, laid in the sand a woman through whose eyes I used to gaze at the outside world. Now I saw her, face to face, as she laid, squeezing my hand in her palm. Her lips moved by a silent melody. Her eyes open but unseeing. The cursed, perverted body I knew so well.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

“Dolt?”

My own voice came as a surprise to us both. Young, almost childlike. It caused the woman to stop her singing and twist her lips into a forced smile before bloody cough turned her face into a mask of pain.

“Galen, what have you done?!”

Yet no answer came from his lips, his torn body wheezing beside me. His shallow breaths sounded forced and pained. I tried to move but my own body refused to yield to my will.

“…found… her…”

He spoke and several memories flashed through my mind. People. Places. A bridge. A farm in the distance. A silhouette waving at me across a field.

“…go…”

He whispered, his grip over my hand fading. His last breath escaped in a peaceful sigh. Along with that sigh, the idiot dolt pushed all his remaining mana into my trembling form.

“No. Not like this. Do not dare to leave me here!”

Fear and frustration escaped me in a pointless scream as I fought with my immobile limbs.

“No! I do not allow it! You hear me dolt?! You cannot die here! I forbid you! You damn cheater! That was not how it supposed to be!”

With tears welling up in my eyes, I did the only thing I could.

“Arise.”

Living flames spilled out of my mouth as I pushed all the power I had into the words of magic and sent it to the stupid dolt’s heart.

And then I died.

Or so I thought when my dragon heart stopped as my entire mana left my body. Then something unimaginable happened. Slightly below my dragon heart, another pulse awoke. A second heart. One that continued beating in a stable manner even though my flesh held not an ounce of magic.

And then the dolt gasped and coughed, his body sucking air in, his bloodied flesh trying to stitch itself together. His spelt insides began to slither back inside.

“Hmm, from this angle it sure looks beyond disgusting.”

Odd female voice appeared out of nowhere just above me, but I had no power to confront whoever that might be.

“Fear not you sniffling lizard. I am here to help. I promised. Didn’t I?”

“…who?”

“We met a while ago. On a ship? Remember?”

“…Dorothy?”

“Sure. We can go with that. Now, if you excuse me, I’ve got a lot of sewing to do. This sad dolt of yours needs a ton of stitches.”

Dressed in that strange, dark bodysuit and hidden behind a mask, the woman stepped over me and knelt beside my dolt. With her bare hands she began shoving all the bloody bits back inside where they belonged. With his body sufficiently filled, she dumped an entire bottle of strange clear liquid into his open wound.

“…what…”

“Hush, not now. We’ll talk when I’m done.”

With a curved needle and a silver thread in one hand, Dorothy grabbed the edges of his thorn flesh and began stitching. From where my head rested, I could not see much else but her moving arms.

“Let’s say this should do it.”

Dorothy spoke after what appeared to be several endless hours. She procured out of thin air another bottle of that strange liquid and splashed it all over the now closed wound. Then, moved by invisible hands, Galen's body lifted a foot or two off the ground and hanged there as if placed on a stretcher. She used that moment to tie a length of white cloth around his midsection.

“Alright, now we can get the hell out of here. This dead place ain’t good for either of you.”

“…dead?”

My voice worked with great difficulty.

“Yup. Dead-dead. Fried. Devoid of mana, burned out. It’ll be years before nature unfucks what that spell did here.”

She grabbed my limp form and tossed it over her shoulder. It made me notice how tall she was or rather how small I was.

“Off we go.”

Dorothy declared then, zigzagging between horribly burned and disfigured corpses, promptly left the epicenter of whatever cursed ritual the damn dolt commenced.

“…sacrifices?”

“What? Oh, those. Nah. Dryad dolls. She made quite a mess of herself too. It will take a while before her core recovers enough to summon more of those.”

She cast a glance at the sleeping dolt floating behind us.

“A year or two, I guess.”

A red spot was growing on the white cloth she used to bandage his midsection.

“Perhaps, three years. Ah, who knows with those two.”

Dorothy shrugged her arms and continued walking.

“…why… alive…”

“Well, if you’re asking how that happened then that’s a talk for you to have with the sleeping beauty. Now if you want to know why you’re still ticking instead of kicking the proverbial bucket, then, you’re a freak. Tada! Mystery solved!”

I felt a sudden urge to smack her in the head but, alas, my body refused. Instead, I resigned myself to letting out a disappointed sigh.

“Alright, alright. It is a lot more complicated than that. I don’t really understand it myself but, I think the closest explanation would be, Bone from my bones, flesh of my own, blood of mine. Or something like that. That spell took from your precious dolt and made the body you now use but since your dolt wasn’t really designed to handle stuff like that and since your growth wasn’t that normal either, it turned out quite a bit more gruesome than nature intended. Hence the bloody mess. Also, there’s the issue of splitting your soul apart. Make note I said soul, not souls. Like, one and a half soul was spread between two bodies. So, you know, expect some issues. Oh, and before you jump to any weird conclusions, no, you are not his child. It’s more akin to you two being twins. Part of him split off and has become you.”

She paused for a moment as if trying to remember something.

“Oh, right. This way.”

And off we went again, squeezing between bushes and trees. Following a path already known to her.

“…why…help.”

I asked when it became clear she considered the previous topic closed. I felt her head turn towards me before she answered.

“It’s complicated. Anyway, instead of worrying about it, try to sleep if you can. It’ll be at least several hours before we leave this dead zone. Conserve your strength.”

Again, the silence returned. soon after and quite against my will, her swaying step and warmth of her body put me to sleep.

I am ashamed to say, I slept like a child and I would slept more if not for the hunger that woke me. Hunger and mana rushing through my veins. To my great surprise, I found myself inside a cave without a roof, wrapped in a woolen blanket while shadows cast by crackling flame danced around us.

“Got bored of sleeping, hm? Hungry?”

Dorothy welcomed me from beside the crackling fire. Her face as always hidden behind a mask.

Not wishing to wait for me to make up my mind, my stomach grumbled out an answer to her inquiry.

“I’ll take that as yes.”

“What do you gain by helping us?”

“That is my thing to know and mine only.”

She answered me in the exact same way she did so many moons before then helped me sit up and put a steaming bowl in my lap.

“You’ll do best to stick with the porridge for a day or two before munching on something more adventurous. I’ve left you some supplies and clothing. These should last you about three moons. More if you supplement them with the fish from the pond outside. Do not attempt to leave this island before those run out. Just… don’t.”

“Why?”

“So sad things won’t happen? Your dolt is nowhere near ready to travel. Magic wounds heal horribly slow and adding more magic to the mix at this point will only worsen his condition. The potions I gave him will take care of the worst damage and keep him sedated for a week at most. After that Make sure he drinks a lot, doesn’t move around and eats at least a bowl of porridge a day. Ideally, keep the bandage dry and clean. Oh and don’t worry about any unwanted company. There’s nothing else on this island.”

“Thank you.”

I think Dorothy or whoever she was under that mask smiled.

“No. It is I who should thank you. Now, eat you damn porridge while it is warm because it gets disgusting when it’s cold.”

She stayed with us for one more entire day but otherwise said very little else then vanished while I licked my bowl clean.