Aedin felt himself rush quickly toward the ground, expecting the impact to be the last thing he would meet before losing consciousness. A powerful wave of exhaustion overcame him, and every part of his muscle revolted in agony. His body no longer responded to his commands, and he was sure that he’d lost enough blood to fill the Illasi. Despite this, a calm washed over him as a few last thoughts formed. They were partly of death, of drifting into the unknown, but they were mostly of his brothers.
They are safe, he thought as the feeling of falling continued. Eloric was just next to him, and he saw Aeris come through the treeline. He smiled. He was fast enough, in the end, to save them. They’d live good lives. He worried momentarily that Aeris and Eloric would struggle, as memories of their faces filled his mind, but he knew they’d figure out a path forward without him. They were smart, strong, and more prepared than he gave them credit for. Suddenly he found himself wishing he had told them so at some point.
As for himself, he had lost too much blood, took too many hits, to believe that he had any real chance of surviving. Death probably wasn’t so bad, he thought. After all, if any of the Somnari tales were true, he’d be seeing his dad shortly enough, and he had plenty that he wanted to share with him about the years he had missed. Plus, they were alive.
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But the grip of death never came, nor did the hard ground he had expected. Instead, his fall was broken by a different sensation, like he was drifting, weightless just below the surface of a lake. When he opened his eyes, everything around him was pitch black, except for two blurry figures standing just a few feet in front of him.
It took him a second to focus his vision, but when he did, Aedin could not understand what he saw. To his right was a creature covered in thick, black scales that radiated small hues of purple as it shifted side to side. It stood on two hind legs and braced the remainder of its weight on wings that were attached to a thin layer of malleable skin. He had seen drawings of similar specimens before in books from his childhood, but nothing in those depictions ever really captured how truly terrifying it could be in person.
The scaled beast held his attention for some time, but when he remembered to check his left, he was greeted by an even more unusual scene, one that not even drawings had ever come close to depicting. It was about the size of a Vael’Strix, but bore no resemblance other than that size. It was covered entirely in deep, majestically red feathers, with a long yellow beak and wide talons. Its eyes glowed an iron-hot orange, and it was hard to tell from this distance, but he could have sworn that he saw an ember billowing beneath some of the long bushels of feathers on its tail.
The two creatures stood perfectly still, and the tension ripped at Aedin’s curiosity. As he moved to take a step forward, he saw the two behemoths brace themselves, and a breath later, the figures were gone. When he woke, his mother, Taris, Breka, Eloric, and Aeris were all standing over him.