Instead of an adult dragon, however, the other beast was a smaller, juvenile dragon. Soon, reality hit Narati, and instead of being proud, the Fa’ar became horrified.
“Oh, no. No, no, no, this can’t be happening,” he said, just as everyone became stunned by the young dragon’s appearance. “Why? Why, of all things….”
The dragon looked similar to the one they just killed, albeit with several differences. It had no scales, but it still had wings. They were undamaged, though it was clear that the wings were torn. Like the adult dragon, shackles were screwed into it. In fact, it looked even worse than its parents as it could barely even stand.
It weakly walked towards the bigger dragon, clearly its parent, and nuzzled her body while letting out a rather weak squeaking sound. The juvenile dragon was around the same size as Karkas, who was the biggest of the group. Yet, unlike the stocky Croc, the dragon was nothing but bones underneath its skin. The dragon was also dying.
“H-hey,” said Narati, who started to feel the guilt of killing the other dragon. “We’re—"
The dragon noticed him and hissed at him. Something prevented it from roaring, or even retaliating. It was scared by Narati’s weapon, drenched in the blood of its mother and was certainly full of her scent. It backed away.
“It’s scared. Of you,” said Karkas, who understood what expression the dragon made.
“I didn’t…I never wished to….”
The dragon finally let out a weak roar as he turned around and opened its wings. It tried to fly but it did not have the strength to. It tried to lift off the ground several times, using the avenue as a runway, until it finally succeeded. It left the despondent group while letting out roars. It flew towards the desert.
“It won’t survive the desert with that kind of body!” exclaimed Narati. “We need to—”
“We can’t help it anymore,” said Aranis. “It chose to die by its own terms rather than by us.”
“No. I didn’t know….”
“No one knew, Nara,” said Raine, sympathizing with Narati’s anguish. “We were fighting the dragon to survive and we did. There’s…nothing we can do to help it. Even if we could…it’s already dead. If it stays…we have no choice but to end its suffering.”
Narati looked at his hands, then his weapon. For the first time in his life, he felt guilty. In slavery, the Fa’ar never felt guilty, as he knew it was never his fault. If he started to feel guilty, then that means he had lost. It may have almost cost him his sanity, so he was eternally grateful for Raine and Jacques for giving him a chance, which he delivered. He understood the pain of losing parents right in front of his eyes. He never thought he would one day become the instigator. The Fa’ar, who always thought that his life was hell before he met his friends, now realized the burden of survival.
While before, he had no qualms in killing bandits who were hopeless to begin with, after the dragon, he felt immense guilt, but also sadness. He took the dragon away from its mother, yet at the same time it was dying. It feared Narati and refused to get help. It wished to die in its own term, though the Fa’ar knew it did not want to die alone.
Narati would not be able to accept this as easily.
While Raine comforted Narati, Aranis, who was wondering why a dragon made a nest in a town and gave it a cursed reputation, decided to explore the tunnel where both dragons came out from. She told the others of her intentions, while also asking if Narati would be alright. The Fa’ar stood, telling Aranis that he needed the distraction so he would not feel too depressed. The elf understood him and simply told him to stay close.
Both Aranis and Karkas provided the magical source of light, giving them decent illumination for at least ten feet around them. The tunnel did not stretch too long from the entrance. Soon, they came across the dragon’s nest, along with many bones. Some of the bones, as Sakiri noticed, were animals, but some were from sapient races. The dragons clearly preyed on anything they could find. With the town being notorious for an alleged curse and the state of the dragons, it was clear that they could not hunt and only waited for unwitting prey to come to the town.
After checking around the area, the five continued down the damaged gate. There was a vast room behind the gate, clearly intended to be the receiving area of some sorts. It was big enough to prevent their source of light from illuminating the area, and big enough to have a second floor, accessed through an elevator. It had no power, however.
“There must be a power room somewhere down here,” commented Raine. “Narati, can you see anything?”
Narati, with his murine eyes, which could see in the dark, nodded and started looking around for anything that could indicate a ‘power room’.
“Try to find a lightning bolt symbol,” said Aranis.
When he knew what to find, Narati was quick to find it. He found a door with the lightning bolt.
“Over there,” said Narati, pointing at a room underneath the stairs. The others followed the Fa’ar as he walked towards the room. Cautiously, he opened the door, hoping that nothing’s waiting for him on the other side. To his relief, it was nothing but several tall, metallic cabinets, with gauges and handles that were clearly switches. The light shining on them revealed an off-green color, along with a similarly colored room. The room was musty, clearly due to being abandoned for a very long time and sealed from use. Nothing lived down there, not even spiders.
Narati went too work immediately. He managed to find the instructions to power up the generator. Fortunately, the generator ran on crystallized mana, which he found was inside a glass tube cylinder behind a console table. All he needed to do was to flick the big switch in front of him to start the generator.
But before he started, he looked at Aranis and said, “Is that crystal contaminated with Aether?”
Aranis put her hand on the glass and closed her eyes. After a while, she said, “It is as pure as it always is. Someone turned off the power. The crystal might last for a while.”
“That’s all I need to know.”
Narati, with a little effort, moved the handle switch up. Humming noises filled the room after sparks flew out of some of the cables. The light above their heads slowly illuminated the room, along with the room behind them.
It was a garage, with the gate they entered being the entrance. What immediately caught their attention, however, was the dried-up blood on the concrete floor. Something was dragged into another room, also with damaged gates, prompting them to enter. Narati also noticed a rail in the trough that led towards the gate and wondered what it was for. He found his answer once they went through what looked like a pressurized door that they needed to open by turning a wheel counterclockwise.
The gate leading to the area was also damaged, evidently by the dragon they killed. The glass cage, the centerpiece of the area, had scratched and dried blood on it. A platform beside it had restraints installed on it. Clearly, the platform was intended for the dragon and its young. The glass cage itself was broken, clearly due to the dragon breaking free.
“God,” said Raine upon examining the state of the cage. “Nobody bothered to clean the cage. Now, I understand why the dragon end up like it is.”
“Still doesn’t explain the unnecessary screws,” said Aranis.
“We’ll find out more when we get the whole place up. Nara, can you find the power room for this area?”
Narati walked in the darkness to find the door leading to the power room. He found it and found himself in a mostly identical room, though there was a rather obvious difference. There was no crystal inside the cylinder tube and the handle switch was in the on position. The whole place lost power once the crystal was depleted.
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Thankfully, it did not take long to find a replacement cylinder, all with crystals much bigger than the one in the garage. They were clearly not used, and the containment tube kept most of potential power inside the tube. When Narati asked Aranis whether they were viable or not, she checked them and confirmed it. The cells kept the mana from leaking out. All they needed was to switch the depleted power source with the new one.
A simple instruction with pictures was enough to help Narati on how to change what the instruction called power cells. Before he continued, Narati ensured the switch was off. Then, he unlocked the latch on both sides of the cylinder and took out the depleted cell. Next, he took one with the crystal and put it in the space previously occupied by the depleted cell. After locking the latch, he ensured that it was tight, then turned on the power switch. Just as before, there was a constant hum coming from generators in the room while the lights switched on throughout the underground facility.
Narati smiled to himself, proud that he could operate ancient machineries just by reading the manual. He walked out of the now-illuminated power room, ready to find another to turn on.
“Hey, guys,” said Narati. “Ready to…go?”
His friends, however, did not wait for him. They were already checking on the rooms, with Raine being the closest to the power room. He seemed absorbed with reading something on the desk in front of him. Narati, curious, approached the human-Felinar. Raine noticed the Fa’ar.
“Thanks for the light, bud,” said Raine.
“So…is there something interesting to read?”
“Mostly research notes.” He then looked around. “This facility was a laboratory of some kind. We might be able to find…ah, there it is.”
On the shelf above the desk, Raine found a hardcover book titled “Timelines”. It was as well-preserved as the rest of the facility, though the brittle papers showed evidence of wear.
“So, this facility was established in the year 500 of the Third Age. They repurposed an incomplete haven as their facility, using parts of the incomplete underground system as a laboratory. They aim to find a way to heal the world after the war. Apparently, the area around this town is a barren wasteland.”
“Like the desert?”
“Worse. It’s a barren wasteland with enough Aether in the air to permanently ruin anyone’s body. This was the reason why the facility’s underground. And it’s a sanctuary for magical creatures.”
“Like those dragons?”
“More than just dragons. I’m not even sure if these things exist anymore. Faeries, barghests, treants? Unicorns?”
“They once existed,” said Aranis, who overheard Raine’s bewilderment. “But with the world damaged by the Aether, they all went extinct after two hundred years, or so it seems.”
“Wait,” said Narati. “If this is a sanctuary, why those dragons…why were they torturing those dragons?”
“The war was not over when the facility was established,” said Aranis, who had been reading a journal she found in the director’s office nearby, which also happened to be the director’s living space. “And it went on for 50 more years before the Coalition of the Free Races decisively defeated the Nuremnians. The facility continued after the victory but over time, their aim started to change.”
“Let me guess. They gave up preserving the magical creatures and did horrible experiments to them?”
“Indeed. Yet, we cannot completely blame the scientists and mages working in this facility. The Nuremnians were far from being annihilated and pockets of resistance were still a major concern. Then, one day, the facility was captured by Nuremnian sympathizers. The director managed to evacuate the facility, including the magical creatures. However, the dragons were too dangerous to move as apparently, they were in the facility to be healed from their condition. The dragons were already scaleless due to being affected by the Aether. The exposure also reduced them into feral beasts. He had no choice but to let them loose in the facility as he believed they were capable of dealing with the enemies.”
“Evidently, that’s not the case.”
“The journal stopped there, though I think the Nuremnian subdued the dragon and tortured them, either for study or for entertainment. The dragons managed to break free and massacred the whole facility. For the next 500 years, people came and met the same fate or managed to escape the ‘Curse of the Unblessed Town’.”
“That’s a rather dramatic name,” commented Raine.
“The town never had a name. I believe that, without a name, the town will never prosper. We elves believe so, as do many other cultures. The fate of this facility proved that, as do the fate of many that came after.”
“Does that mean this town’s off-limits?” asked Narati. “Are we supposed to leave it as it is?”
“No,” said Aranis, shaking her head. “It’s time we lift the curse and turn this place into a proper home. You won’t find a better place. While this facility is an unfortunate stain of the past, it can still become a place with a purpose. Besides, it’s easier than making everything from the ground up.”
“You’re right,” said Raine. “Though we need to clean things up first. Then we need to make sure we have space to farm and sustain ourselves. Also, we need people to live with. It can be quite lonely having only five of us in here, don’t you think?”
“One at a time, Raine,” said Aranis. “Let’s start cleaning the place up first, shall we?”
“Yeah.”
Raine then called Karkas and Sakiri to relay the plan to them, Narati looked at Aranis and said, “All of us? Including me?”
“Why should they exclude you? You are Raine’s friend, are you not?”
“Yes, but…I’ve never been given this much freedom. I mean, establishing a town? I know a thing or two about building construction, sure, but…would anyone want a Fa’ar as their neighbor? A founder? They’d denounce the town as soon as they know!”
“I thought you were onboard from the start. Why hesitate now?”
“It’s just…to be honest, I never thought we’d actually find one so quickly. It’s like it’s too easy. Where’s the catch? The dragon’s one, but even that’s not quite what I expected. In fact, I…I don’t feel honored. How can I? I killed the parent of a child, and that child chose to…chose to…”
“Narati,” said Aranis, putting both of her hands on his rodent face. “Enough. Every one of us has a hand in the outcome. I am the one who took its life. It is an unfortunate fact…but that’s life. You may be the receiving end, but at the same time, you may be the one delivering it. You can be the suffering hero, yet also, the villain. And don’t assume everything’s difficult. You may be able to prepare for it, but it will eat on you…turning you paranoid. You will be expecting the worst, even though you don’t have to. You won’t be able to sleep soundly. Is that the kind of life you want?”
“I….”
“She’s right, you know,” said Raine. “You’ve been through a lot for a kid. Let that go and you’ll learn to appreciate the freedom you gained. And, if you need to talk about it, I’m all ears.”
Narati was going to say something to express his gratefulness when Karkas exclaimed, “Hey! I found something!”
“What is it?”
“An egg. Unhatched. Come have a look.”
The three of them walked towards where Karkas was. Sakiri was somewhere nearby, checking on an overgrown habitat. Karkas was inside another room that looked like the rest of the facility. The floor was grated and served to cover some pipes. There was enough room for the repair crew to climb down through a hatch and fix whatever’s broken down there. Some of the pipes and cables fed into the centerpiece of the room: a cylindrical glass cabinet with straws and a heat lamp. There was a nearby console with several gauges. They were labeled with functions such as temperature and humidity, and status of the organism inside.
“It’s warm, like a hatching chamber,” said Karkas, touching the glass. “That’s too big to be a Croc’s or a Lizan’s egg.”
“It could be a dinosaur’s egg,” said Raine. “Maybe they found a way to grow one, like one of those ancient texts?”
“Getting an intact genetic material is nigh impossible unless an insect in a resin is involved. Even so, Aether makes that chance even slimmer,” said Aranis. “And before you ask, yes. I am aware of the ancient text you are talking about. I am sorry to say that it is fictional.”
“Damn it,” said Raine, clearly disappointed.
“It’s also powered independently from the rest of the facility,” said Narati upon examining the chamber. He opened a loose panel underneath the chamber. “It has its own power cell, and it’s rigged so another power cell will replace the one that’s depleted. It’s…on its last cell. We came here just at the right time.”
“I doubt the egg is going to die just because it’s not kept warm for a while. That egg…I believe it’s a dragon egg.”
“What?!” exclaimed Raine.
“It is at the right size,” said Karkas. “And if this is that scaleless dragon’s egg, then no wonder it made its nest inside the tunnel.”
“Even when it cannot get into this facility, it is still protecting its young,” said Sakiri.
“Yes.” Aranis turned towards Narati. “A job that’s up to us now.”
Narati put his hand on the chamber. The warmth within made him realize that he got his chance in putting things right, even though he did not need to. The Fa’ar was aware of his kind’s penchant for destruction. The Fa’ars were called the Dark Race of Nuremnia, after all.
It was his chance to feel better for himself. The egg’s existence and survival felt like a miracle on its own.
“Guess this town is not as cursed as it is, huh?” said Narati with a chuckle.
“Where there’s life, there’s hope,” said Raine with a pat on Narati’s shoulder. “Think you’re up to it, kiddo?”
“Yeah,” said Narati with a nod. “Let’s keep the egg in here for now. It’s the best place for it until we find a way to move it out of this dreadful place. We got a lot of things to do.”
“Right on, kid,” said Raine. “Right on.”
Narati used one of the spare power cells to replace the depleted ones, then prepared to join his friends in exiting the facility. Before he left, however, Narati took one last glance towards the dragon egg.
“I’ll be back,” said the Fa’ar. “So, sit tight, ya?”
With a smile, and knowing that it was not all bad at all, Narati walked with his friends into the sunlight, ready to make some change.