When Divine Light Ignites The Starlight

Moss Tempest is a place of high forests and dipping mountains stretching out for miles in all directions. Trees of all colours, along with some with gold and silver leaves litter the landscape, and long stretches of lakes can be seen. It’s summer, glowing birds can be seen flying through the fresh air. They believe this place was made many centuries ago after they called peace, but it’s that’s not so clear, as so much of history has been lost.

For its beauty you do have to be careful here since huge spiders roam these forests, beings are as colourful as the trees to blend into their leaves. There are also huge plants with teeth that will eat you, and you have to be careful of moss hydra who prey on the spiders. The rest of the animals and creatures here are not as bad but it always helps to air on the side of caution, Mogwai also live here in vast burrows and nests and they will steal your things.

Though it's clear Bastian and Keira know this area and are well prepared, though I want to know way more about them as they seem like really close friends. Elysande breathed in as she looked at both of them. “You know you should get a helmet for your armour.” Keira turned eyeing her as she spoke in a sarcastic tone. “Yeah and maybe I can buy a winged horse, or a warthog, or a raptor to…”

She eyed the other woman. “You know I’m not made of money, it’s why I have to take rich people like you to places.” Bastian didn’t think as he turned to his friend. “Seriously, stop being so rude, she's our guest.” He eyed her as she gave him an annoyed look. “You really did get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” He turned to the other woman who was taking it in her stride. “I apologise on her behalf, trust me she’s not normally this rude or moody.”

He paused grinning widely. “She can be really fun on a good day.” Elysande smiled as she walked along with them. “It's fine I’ve heard worse insults after all Rein Strand thinks we don’t deserve to exist, that we ruin the natural order of magic, even though in the last five hundred years we’ve had one short war compared to their five.” Bastian moved to her side as Keira listened quietly. “So is the capital bad then?”

Elysande breathed in deeply. “Well I’ve been to all eight regions on my travels though they were small stop offs like this one. They weren’t very polite there, not to me at least, that was mostly the guards though as well as the Mages and the Paladins. The shopkeepers and tavern owners were very polite towards me.” Bastian put a rock in his mouth nibbling slightly before putting it away. “Keira was born there, she said the same thing.”

Elysande eyed the dark red haired woman. “That’s most unfortunate, even if it is a very beautiful place with all those crystal towers.” Keira breathed in deeply. “I wasn’t anyone important. I grew up in a bakery along with my brothers and sister.” Bastian eyed his friend. “Oh I love bread I beg to differ, just wish you’d cook it once in a while.” Keira eyed him. If only he knew that she was the worst baker ever, her brother and sister were far better than her.

She just used to anger her parents by causing chaos with her magic use; it’s why the guild had been interested in her to start with as she was great at blowing things up, much to her parent’s anger. She eyed him, feeling a smile form. “You would hate my bread. I always burnt it.” Elysande eyed the other woman. “Well I love bread, yours can’t be that bad.” Keira turned to Elysande. “Trust me, it was not the best. I don't have a gift for it and I couldn’t bake anything right, my parents told me that a lot.”

Bastian eyed her. “Well I got eight siblings and my parents were never that blunt. I mean they must have liked something you made.” Keira shook her. “I think my parents were happy when I left as they wouldn’t have to fix the things I broke due to having no baking skills.” Elysande took in a deep inward breath. Finally she had broken the ice with the other warrior, though Bastian clearly wanted to help. “Parents can be very foolish.”

Bastian moved ahead pointing with a clawed finger. “So we just have to go over that mountain.” Keira moved forward pointing. “Just don’t go to the right or the left at all.” Elysande raised an eyebrow. “Why?” Bastian moved his tail pointing. “To the right in that lake sleeps a moss hydra, she’s old and likes to eat people.” He pointed the other way. “Spiders nest.” Keira tapped her boot on the ground. “Also Mogwai nests, watch your footing or you’ll fall into one.”

Bastian eyed her. “Like you do?” Keira turned sharply. “It was one time!” Bastian shrugged as he looked at her. “Look I’m just surprised they didn’t strip you naked like they do everyone else and steal your stuff… those things act weird around you.” Keira moved, adjusting her weapons. Why did he always have to bring that story up? She hated that she fell in that nest of furry weird things, though they had not attacked her and had let her leave unharmed. “I just got lucky that they were all sleeping!”

Bastian raised a clawed hand tapping her chest plate. “No, I know Mogwai; they left you alone, it's weird.” Keira rolled her eyes. “Seriously we are not having this conversation again. Plus we need to move, set up camp before the light fades. It's dangerous here at night.” Bastian watched Keira move ahead pulling out her weapons. Elysande leaned down, speaking quietly. “You were joking about the Mogwai I presume.” Bastian smirked. “Oh no. They like her… it's weird.”

8

I have a lot of nightmares; they are so common now they always happen after taking the potions. I have bad dreams about the night I became this monster. It's why I can’t sleep. The others are fast asleep. What Bastian said about the Mogwai was true: they do leave me alone for some reason. Weird furry big long pointy eared things that are as tall as your knee in height.

They have thick fur all over, a long bushy tail as well as big yellow eyes, whiskers and small snout-like faces with black noses and a mouth full of razor teeth. They have three clawed fingers on their hands and feet and they run around in groups, they steal things, bite and scratch you leaving really nasty wounds, they're mean things. Yet all my life they’ve never touched me, not even as a child at the bakery, yes they stole cooked goods as they are very opportunistic and will have any food you eat, meat, vegetables, sweets…

They can’t talk though and are considered more wildlife than an intelligent race. They are in every region here, fur and eyes can also be different colours. You can see them running around at night as their eyes are reflective meowing and chattering.

Keira breathed in, eyeing the others who were fast asleep from what she could tell including Elysande though she wasn’t that sure if vampires slept or just imitated being asleep. Truth be told she had only been that short with her as she had been in pain all day, her potions just had not settled in her system. She had no idea why but it was constant stomach pain and she didn’t feel well. She was just trying to hide it from the others.

Plus all the Mages and Paladins had battered into her as trainee was that Trius Amaya was an evil place, that the Mages and warped Paladins did dark magic, murdered and ate people or put dark spells on them. There were no undead on the council of Mages, which made up all seven regions but not Trius Amaya, though despite this everyone still traded with that region.

That had always seemed odd to her them constantly buying their goods yet insulting them openly. She turned over, slightly looking at the night’s sky, with its many stars which were flowing with bright colours of greens red and blues… as the magic pull here was great. Despite taking the potions, she could always feel it like an ever presence and it was stronger after she’d become the abomination. It was probably why blood moons were so bad and she lost control, but one of them was a long way off.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

She breathed in. She hated feeling this way all the time . She hated hiding and she wanted her life to be normal again. The truth was she didn’t just become a miner to mash out stone, she wanted to learn all the types of stones in the hope one could cure her. She had scraped through the mine's whole library reading all the scrolls trying to find one that was about two stones connecting together but she had found nothing.

Maybe she was going to die in this miserable state and never be free, but the truth was despite her feelings she needed to be kinder to their guest. Bastian was right. If Magnus found out she wasn’t being civil he would pull her pay, as he was a bastard. She tried to ignore the chest pain as she turned on her side in the red and blue material tent as sleep finally started to come but it was more from mental exhaustion.

The truth was she knew nothing of vampires, she knew nothing of the region, it was just a bunch of shitty hear say. People sometimes spoke badly of rat people but Bastian was her best friend, plus these were the same assholes who had wanted to take her apart when they’d found out she’d merged with the stone. She still had so many questions about that day and not a single answer, so maybe the question she didn’t want to ask herself was how much was lie and truth.

She breathed in deeply, closing her eyes as sleep finally overtook her, though she didn’t catch the glowing yellow eyes watching her near the dying camp fire with their black slits, before they blinked and vanished into the night. Nor did she notice that the vampire woman was awake, though she had woken up more because they were being watched only to see the Mogwai run away into the night and vanishing, taking some fallen scraps of food with it from the cooking.

8

Bastian opened his eyes, jawing as he stretched seeing that Keira and Elysande were both still sleeping soundly. Not that he knew much about vampires but he knew they had a second form and they sometimes used it to sleep. It was normally much bigger than their normal form, with white skin and wings on the arms and claws while the face was still similar. It was stronger though but not much more than the average werewolf as he’d met both on his travels and all had been nice to him.

He moved his head up, sniffing the air. Today felt strange in a way he had not smelt in a long time, it normally meant magic off some kind was afoot. It had also gone so quiet, no birds, nothing. All you could hear was the wind through the trees under the very early morning sun. He stood up as his whiskers twitched even more, he moved his tail using it to poke Keira, then Elysande who had been sleeping on either side of him. “Hey you need to both get up!”

Keira bolted awake grabbing her sword out of habit looking around. “What’s happening!?” Elysande woke up half groggy looking at him. “What is it?” Bastian moved towards the ledge of the hill that they had set up camp on pointing down. “Something moving! It's so powerful! I can feel it in my whiskers.” He watched as they both moved to the hillside, catching sight of the trees moving only for the vibrations to hit as whatever it was moved closer, only for the trees to start bending back and even twisting.

Bastian breathed in, seeing the tree move further back, creating what looked like a road as tree folk with glowing staffs appeared. There were eight of them and they were clearly leading something huge and acting as guards. The huge being they were guarding suddenly came into view, as it was taller than the tallest trees and it raised its huge neck revealing its whole body made of trees of every type. Even its wings were made of trees. Its orange eyes glowed as it carried on its slow walk.

He breathed in. His heart beating faster seeing the shock from the others, and it was no wonder. This was an elder dragon. But not just any elder dragon, this was one of the life givers, the ancient Eleshaain, one of the oldest of the elders whose role was to spread life in all seven regions, though she never went to Trius Amaya. He watched as she opened her huge wings, her tail rising as seeds and flowers showed out from her body filling the air as she carried on walking on her huge four legs.

She was beautiful, and they were all so privileged to witness her, and despite her huge size she was rare to see. She carried on moving, as her guards led her forward, her huge head whose horns were made of tree as birds nested on her neck and body and flew along with her, as she walked slowly past them. Everyone knew she had a mate as her child was Ormarr, the Dragon whose skin was made of every crystal and stone, but he was still very young but no one knew who his other parent was.

Dragons could change gender at will, so it was so difficult to know as they could switch back and forth, and dragons weren’t limited; they could mate with any kind of dragon. Their magic was supreme, even the greatest Mages answered to the dragons. They were the power and driving forces of the world: fire dragon’s, ice dragon’s, even storm dragons, everyone played a role. They all brought balance to the world; as long as he could live no one could out live these wonders.

It was said that they had once taught all the races magic, and blessed them with it but the great war of the Empire had killed the first great elders who had bestowed that. Except one, Eleshaain, she was from that line as nothing could destroy her since she was the embodiment of life. All those dragons that had died have had children, and those children who were adult size now ruled in their place now.

He watched as the huge dragon vanished into the far distance, lowering her head, tail and wings though leaving thousands of seeds flowers moving through the air. The trees also pulled back into their normal position though some had already started to grow fruit while others were flowering. Elysande breathed in deeply. “Eleshaain…she’s so beautiful.” Bastian turned to her. “I know. Do you know how lucky we all are to see her? You’re lucky if you see her once in your lifetime, and the rumour is that it brings you great fortune of some kind.”

Keira looked at the forest below, the dragon was beautiful, but she couldn’t see how it was lucky, then she never got to the point in her study at the guide on dragons. Bastian knew a lot about them as his people had one they iodized. “Which is the dragon your Seers worship?” Bastian turned to her. “The black night dragon Torrim. Her powers are most powerful at night, as she keeps the balance of the night in all eight regions.”

He paused. “Her brother Choryrth, he controls the sunlight.” Keira looked down slightly, the more she spoke to Bastian and their guest the more she found herself feeling that she wasn’t well travelled in this world. She’d never seen an elder dragon till now. The only thing she’d seen off their world in reality was when she had been on the run in the beginning for two very long seasons, alone, mostly travelling from place to place in Moss Tempest, taking odd jobs.

At least until she had run into Bastian four seasons ago but she had never seen the other regions outside of her place of birth, and she lived far away in Moss Tempest as it was easy to just slide into the region’s life as it was mostly peaceful, with so few conflicts, and people there were not looking for trouble as a whole. It was a region of mining trade, with a very peaceful Elf Mage in charge, though he was not part of the seven Mage council, they just did their bidding.

All the Mages who led regions with the different races and glasses of Lords answered to those Mages. When there had been an empire there had been Kings and Queens, but they had all died in the battle of the races eons ago. Little history remained in, whether bad or good as a lot of history had been lost in that period. They had barely spoken about it in her time there, and always seemed to want to move on and say that things were better now.

She felt a hand on her shoulder snapping her out of her thoughts. She turned looking at Bastian who spoke. “We should pack up the camp. It's another day’s walk to the tavern in Dawn Star, and we’ll all need to get our rest there tonight, for when we go into the bright burn tunnels.” Keira took a deep breath. “You’re right, it’s a long walk.” Elysande stood up fully. “Let me help you both as we can move faster.”

Keira watched as she got to work… She was such a strange guest. Guests normally didn’t help, they just sat there while they did everything, and she was really unsure how to feel about it. The pain was still there, today felt like a better day at least for her. Though she still wished she could sleep at night, and that the nightmares would leave her alone if only for one night, and that on blood moons she wouldn’t wake up bathed in blood next to some half eaten dead animal wanting to throw up….

End of part 4

Silvermoonlight