I followed closely behind Cryhn, my single eye working double time to track the elf through the crowd while also making sure I wasn’t about to smack into Cryhn.

Fyrlia, being quicker than myself, shot forward with a burst of speed and landed in front of the elf with a thud. In less than a second he had turned, racing back the way he came, but I landed in front of him next, effectively trapping him in the alley he had run into.

Cryhn made a slow descent, landing next to me and watching the terrified elf quiver in fear for a moment.

Lifting his foreleg to display his clasp, Cryhn asked, “What do you know of the dark elves? And don’t try to lie, I know you know something.”

“U-uh, well, I, um…”

He's a stumbling mess, I thought to myself amusedly.

Cryhn, though, wasn’t so amused.

“Speak!” He demanded, his tail twitching slightly as if irked while his eyes scanned our surroundings

He’s worried someone will report us, I realized. I should have thought of that sooner.

The elf, while still stuttering a bit, managed to mostly pull himself together. “W-what do you want to know?”

“Where they live currently. I’m a friend, I just haven’t seen them in nearly forty years; I’m sure they’ve relocated since then.”

The elf nodded slightly. “They should still be in Rugonth. They set up in the dead center of the forest.” He shuddered slightly. “I hated that place, I’d of rather continued moving every year instead of staying there for five.”

Cyan frowned. “Moving every year? Why?”

“The high el-“

Whatever he had been about to say was abruptly cut off by a deep, resonant sound in the distance.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The forlorn noise echoed through the city, leaving silence in its wake. For a moment, it was as if the world had been frozen in time. Everyone — whether they were elf, dragon, dwarf, man, or Elygran — stopped what they were doing and turned slowly, disbelievingly, toward the source.

Atop the ramparts, a massive war horn inlaid with gold patternings was erected, and the only thing moving in every direction was the human that frantically blew into it, warning Estryai’s occupants of danger. The City of Peace was under attack; the impossible had happened.

As soon as the echoes from the war horn faded, everybody leaped into motion. Screams erupted through the air as hysteria began to take over the crowd; everyone running to and fro without a care for anyone but themselves.

We quickly took flight, gazing in the direction of the entrance of Estryai to see if we could spot the origin of the disturbance.

Dragons wreaked havoc on the city gate, tearing apart the guards and burning the buildings within their reach. One of the dragons, a Ryzinthin, circled above the attack, directing the dragons below in their invasion.

He must be the leader.

As if he sensed me watching him, he turned, his purple eyes instantly meeting my red one. Without any hesitation, the midnight black dragon roared, giving a command to his accomplices. In an instant, they had disengaged from the guards and were flying straight toward us.

“Rylar, run!” Cryhn shouted, “They’re here for you! Run! Fyrlia and I will hold them off.”

While I wanted to stay and help, I knew doing so would place them in even greater peril. The quicker I got away, the quicker they could disengage from the fight and escape themselves. Without another thought I raced through the sky, arcing through the air like a comet and feeling the dark elemental dragon’s eyes boring into my back. Even when I had to of been over a league away, I swore I heard his roar of rage chasing after me, trying to catch up to me when his physical body couldn’t.

~~~

My chest heaved from the exertion, my wings trembling from exhaustion. I hadn’t stopped flying since I’d fled from the battle, and now I felt even more tired than I had training with Cryhn.

Currently, I was on the route to Rogunth, and if the rapidly increasing fog was anything to go by, I was getting extremely close.

While I had never been to Rogunth before, I had learned about it in Instruction. Home to a monument built in honor of Zythin as well as many ancient legends, Rogunth was thought to be a cursed, haunted forest. The trees were gnarled and bent, and the canopy thick enough to blot out even the brightest sunlight on the ground. It was said that no matter what time of day it was or what season it was, the forest was always shrouded in fog.

Beyond the forest, though, a great mountain towers over everything for leagues. It stretches from coast to coast, a distance that would take over two weeks of flying to achieve. What was beyond the formidable land mass, no one could say, as anyone who ventured beyond it never came back to tell the story. The large mountain range — similar to the forest below it — was the origin of many myths and legends.

Some said it was constructed by the gods to protect us from great, terrible beasts that lay on the other side. Others say it was a god, Zythin to be exact, entombed in stone forever for the horrible acts he has allowed to happen throughout history. The most disbelievable one — in my mind, at least — was the story of a dragoness who had grown to that size. When her lover died she was heartbroken and with no will to live she had lay down and never risen again, and earth and stone eventually encased her body in a tomb. To grow to such a size would have meant she was immortal, and while it was true dragons didn’t entirely know how old we could grow to be — most die of natural causes or are hunted to death before their hundredth year, with the oldest recorded dragon being barely over 500 years old — I believed there was no way we were immortal and just didn’t know.

I shook myself out of my thoughts as the faint outline of crooked trees appeared through the fog.

Soon, sister, soon we will meet.