8 years ago.
This was Ember's favorite game.
She started Counting down. 60, 59, 58
They were playing hide and seek, and it was her turn to be the seeker. The rules were you couldn’t go outside of the plaza area, the one with the big fountain. It was empty right now which is why they decided to play hide and seek there.
She was the best seeker! She wanted to be a Ranger, Just like Mom. Tracking down bad dragons and beating them up if they didn’t want to submit to justice. She slinked around trying to find clues. Ash always left his fluff everywhere so he was easy to track, but he had been getting better at hiding it.
40 seconds left, She could still hear Ash's talons scampering around. It wasn’t against the rules to use your ears.
When they were 2 years old Ember sometimes cheated, but that was because Ash always got nice things, he always got hugs from Mom when they got to see her, and extra food that he never ate. It was only fair that she got to peek a little, but Ash caught her once… He was really sad.
He wasn’t even angry and stopped talking to her. She still didn’t know exactly why but she promised not to do it ever again and that made him happy again.
30 seconds left.
She heard a splash… Huh… Ash always hated water, and begged for it to be warmed up before he even so much as drank it, and Ember had NEVER seen him take a bath. Why would he try to hide in the fountain?
20 seconds left. The splashing stopped… Ember felt worried… She didn't hear Ash’s claws either.. Did he fly out? She would have heard more splashing when she did.
Her heart started to pound. Was Ash ok? She wanted badly to check but she only had 15 seconds left.
15 agonizing seconds.
14…13…12…
Something was wrong. She felt it.
She didn’t care. If Ash was upset by her cheating again, it was his fault for setting up such a cruel trick.
She threw her talons off her eyes and sprinted for the fountain. She slipped when trying to hop on the lip of the fountain , and had to flap her wings a bunch to stop herself from falling in. The top was slippery.
Ember shrieked as she peered into the fountain.
Ash was in the fountain and he wasn’t moving…
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“No… No that's not possible. I can’t be dead!”
“Oh…” Pitch whispered, with a hint of cynical humor, “I suppose you have an alternative explanation for where you are then?”
“This… This is a dream, I can’t be dead, I… I can’t leave Ember! She wouldn’t be able to…
I have to be there for her!”
Panic flooded Ash’s words, his eyes felt like they would sting with tears… but nothing flowed.
“Ah… a dream… Then surely you must be able to wake up then… Go ahead… amuse me for a while, I haven’t had good entertainment for a very long time.” The skeletal dragon mocked.
Ash tried all the classic storybook solutions he could think of but nothing worked. Biting himself, nose diving into the ground after flying. Things that were supposed to wake you up, but nothing worked. He didn’t even feel pain… just the cold.
“Are you quite finished then? You are dead… and I would prefer you to admit it sooner rather than later.” Despite Ash trying to fly away from Pitch… It didn’t feel like he got anywhere. When he landed, he was just as close to Pitch when he had first woken up.
“You!...” discontent edged Ash’s voice. “How do you know this?! Who are you? How do I get back to Ember?!
The ebony mask of the dead dragon conveyed no reaction to Ash’s aggression.
“I already told you my name…, but if you insist on knowing more… We are not enemies.”
Ash hesitated. The calm demeanor of the skeleton unnerved him. “If we are friends then you will tell me where I am” His tail whipped and slapped the water. It made no splash or sound.
“I know nothing… but I've had a lot of time to guess.” The skeleton slowly turned its head Looking at the stars, its neck creaking like old wood.
“I believe this is an in-between place. A road for those who are coming and going from the mortal coil, in your case, the going.”
The way that the skeletal dragon talked felt… wrong… it wasn’t only that she spoke in an agonizingly slow, icy whisper, the dialect she was using… it felt ancient…
“You have some options…” The skeleton turned its head leaning back towards him now. “You can either pass through the pillar of light to whatever lies beyond, or you can stay and chat with me… I could surely use the company.”
“I need to go back… I can’t leave Ember behind… I promised I would be there for her. I love her… I… I can't leave her alone.!” Ash choked on his words. He couldn’t confront the possibility. She needed him now more than ever. He couldn’t abandon her.
The Skeletal dragon stood up on all 4 legs. It rose unsteadily, body groaning under a weight that seemed to defy its size. It leaned closer. Whispering conspiratorially
”Good… then you are the person I’ve been waiting for… I think we can help each other”
Her sudden enthusiasm unsettled Ash… He felt like he was in one of the old stories he translated… Tales of fools that opened a nest of monsters or unleashed an ancient curse, but he knew better. He wouldn’t let himself be fooled by something too good to be true.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“What exactly do you have to gain from this, and how can I trust you?” He asked, trying to act like that one lawyer he saw when he was randomly selected to participate in a jury.
“Ah, I see… You don’t care as much as I thought for your sister, very well then… Oblivion is right there” It indicated the pillar and looked like it was settling itself back down, expression unreadable, but her tone was judgmental.
“Ah ha! I never told you Ember was my sister… She could be my wife, or my best friend. Something is off about you, and I don’t trust it, how did you know Ember was my sister?”
Pitch remained silent for a moment…
“We share the same eyes… I am the same as you, being one of a pair from the same egg and inheriting flamelessness…
We are different from the other souls who walked the ground of Pyrrhia, being weaker in life, but stronger than death. We can resist the pull of the pillar unlike all others, and, if given preparation, can deny death itself.”
Ash’s heart sank… He knew what this dragon was…
“You are the Litch… you are the monster that stole the souls of dragons!”
Pitch recoiled and hissed. “Do not call me that slur used against us, used by the hateful and distrusting. I have committed no evil in my life. I am a victim!... the same as you, I want to help you!”
Ash reflexively shrank at Pitch’s aggression. Tail coiling around his side and wings raised protectively.
Pitch resumed her posture, but standing more firmly and uprightly.
“What would it take for you to trust me… I thought I had waited long enough so that the lies of the past would have died, but apparently not…”
Uncertainty clouded Ash’s mind…
“How did you die? What happened?”
“I…” The skeleton sagged slightly… “I suppose it's only natural that you ask the most painful question. My brother was accused of a horrible crime he didn’t commit. I… attempted to save him but he was lynched before I could clear his name…I couldn’t save him. I promised him I would live for the both of us.” Grief still clung to her words despite millenia, her husk shaking from it.
“Of course I was next, they blamed me for whatever they could… miscarriages, cracked eggs, unsolved murder, I was executed multiple times” A slight edge of dark humor touched her words.
“But no matter what they did I always came back. I tried to do good in the world. I thought I could outlast their hate, and prove them wrong. But they tolerated nothing. Eventually, they managed to convince an animus that I was a blight worthy of them sacrificing their soul for.
They entrapped my body so that walls of spirit prevented me from returning, trapping me within this purgatory, but they couldn’t force me to cross into eternity, so I have waited here for someone… waiting for you, I suppose.”
“I… I’m sorry, I didn’t know” Ash felt awful for her. He couldn’t imagine being here alone for thousands of years. It was awful for even the short amount of time he had been here. The cold was unbearable.
“No… I must apologize to you” The skeleton was more active now, moving less stiffly and gesturing using her head, tail and wings. “Having millennia with nothing to do but sulk has made me forget how to speak with other dragons.”
“So… how do I go back… what needs to be done?”
The skeleton lifted itself up. Showing off its core. “I contain enough energy to help us push back into mortality… help us dive and slip through the barrier. Your soul will know where to find your body.”
“I need to know exactly how you died. If I provide you with too much, the results could be dangerous for those who are next to your corpse”
“What do you mean dangerous?” Ash asked… worried for his sister’s safety.
The skeleton looked thoughtful then spoke, “Resurrection can be rather explosive with an excess of energy”
Ash felt his scales crawl… but he had to get back to Ember and this Litch certainly knew what they were doing if they said they died themselves multiple times.
“I was caught in a thunderstorm while flying over the ocean… I couldn’t keep myself awake and got hit by an ocean wave”
“Oh… dear that is quite possibly the worst option. That will exhaust most of the entropy I have in reserve…”
“What does that mean?” Ash asked.
“It means that if you die again before you fulfill your end of the deal that will be it. For both of us… but I suppose most dragons don’t even get second chances anyways” Pitch remarked.
“Now then,” The embers in Pitch’s chest began to glow a brilliant blue, all the cracks in her skeleton shining the same light as her eyes.
“Ready to return to the land of the living?”
It’s ribcage cracked open, exposing its luminous core indicated for Ash to touch it.
“Take my fire and use it to descend. Your soul will know where to go”
Ash nodded, then hesitated.
“Will it hurt?”
The skeleton leered down at him.
“It will be worth it” She said ominously.
Ash reached out and tried to touch the glow at its center.
As his talon passed through it. He felt searing fire shoot up his arm and spread quickly throughout his entire body.
He tried to pull his hand back but it was locked in place. He tried to scream in pain but his voice wouldn’t respond.
Was this what it felt like to be burned? The warmth that he usually thrived in seared throughout every fiber of his being. All with Pitch looking expressionlessly down at him.
As more and more fire poured into him. He felt the water shift underneath him… growing less solid until it suddenly gave way as he was pulled back through.
The last thing he remembered seeing was Pitch following him as he tumbled through the dark water…