Found in the Sands
Drozakrahth
I searched this forest for 10 days…. He held no scent it seemed. Each time I landed, I saved some random city, town, or village, and soon everyone had come to the conclusion that I was some kind of savior…. I now flew over the sandy dunes though…. The silence was unnatural.
In reality, I didn’t want the contagion to spread… but I left the rest to my drakes. I had a hunch that this was all a grand diversion… because the infection popped up increasingly farther north, a direction he’d already gone.
He did not know that regardless of his nonscent, I wasn’t stupid.
I took my time searching the sand…. I even met up with Nox. I told him he didn’t Have to come, but of Course he did anyway. He flew as a beam of light, while I was my full size… The few mortals or drakes I saw were alive and well. They even cheered for me.
That one was new… I wasn’t used to being a hero…
“Nox, I smell a little undeath, but it’s muddled by the scent of sand,” I shouted, knowing he could hear me. I had to send a light-o-gram to let him know, but I got one back.
“He’s using that to throw you off. You have to be going the right way.” He said firmly.
It was only a minute before he was at my side, and we searched together…. We Had to find him before we reached the capital city of Hellion’s…. So many mortals used his oasis as refuge…
But I could see the army now… in the shimmering sand, they marched… some were living… Most were dead…
“Shit.” Said Nox.
“….. how many do you suppose that is” I asked.
“Enough to sack the city…. It’s only 30 miles from here. We’ll have to be careful about his culling…” Nox mumbled.
“Oh Gods Damnit,” I growled.
With an army this large, he had to be here….And sure enough…. On a rotted black horse, he rode. I almost felt sorry for the beast…I really did. They held tattered sheets as banners, dyed red with blood. Harbon was head to toe in rusted armor, since he leaked and oozed putrid liquid. His spiked knees and elbows jabbed into the undead steed, but I don’t think it minded…. It was dead, but not allowed to rest. I could see its ribs and joints, held together only by the ligaments and its soul.
“Death to ALL Dragons!”
“We are saved by the might of the Man King!”
“Surrender to his grace, or Die and become One of Us!”
“The Rise of Man has Come!”
That was the battle cry of the undead… the living seemed to be dragged along in rags. They were not allowed anything more than armor I assume to protect them from me.
I became my full height and dived.
The shockwave of my landing was muffled by the sand, but his undead and heavily rotted men fell apart. All who didn’t were at least displaced, and Nox began killing with a whip of light… it was the true weapon he was meant to wield… not the sword that killed me… wherever it was, likely where my original body lay.
“It’s so hard to find good help… but at least some good will come of my trap.” He smiled.
“Whatever you have planned, is a waste of time,” I said in common, which surprised him.
“By order of the Realm Keepers, you are to be purged.” Growled Nox. The swarm seemed unending, as some popped up out of the sand… but with him down there, my flames would burn him… The only reason I didn’t try anyway, was because I didn’t know if he could gain power from elf’s blood.
“Move aside scaled fiend.” Harbon sneered.
“If I am the villain, why do your own people run from Your maw?” I asked. “How come the only ones following you are already dead?”
“Because I need the living ones to do this. [Binding]” He said the last part in old…. Very old elvish… I hadn’t heard that in a Long time…
But I heard the screams as living humans died in mass… and I was bound. It would take a great effort to undo something like this.
…. And now I knew how a mortal could make magic… by killing his comrades.
Nox stood was busy, but I didn’t want his help to be honest… I would breathe fire if my mouth was not lashed…. Hundreds of thousands of hands lay on the magic ropes that held my arms and legs belted to my body… it was as if they held me down so he could enact whatever plan he had.
“Not so grand now, are you? What did they call you? High King?” Said Harbon smugly. “My people… they suffer with my reign, but nothing is more so than what You dragons do. They are toys and food… they are starved and fearful.”
[What a Joke. I KNOW you see the reform. How many Willingly came to you?] I growled in draconic. He understood me, but chose to yell instead.
“Shut up with that Beast Speech LIZARD!” He roared. “I SAVE THEM!”
[You rob them of their will… their freedom… their very lives. Yes, in the past we were evil…. But Who is the one doing evil upon his people Now? They have money and land… livestock and respect…. There is at least One mortal council in every drake court… What can the undead do when this is over?] I asked.
He was silent for a long time., but he drew his sword.
“By the order of Solis… Man Will Reign…” He said, claiming a falsehood.
…I Could kill him…. It was only a matter of how much glass I was willing to make… But my trump card as my mother says would likely cause a chain reaction of destroying the world…
The living screams became undead rasps and clanks…This was Worse than what I did in my first reign. I was Greedy, Gluttonous, and Insatiable, but at least I let them Die….
They rose, holding swords of dragon steel that could not harm me. Those that did not hold me down were trying to slash me. He needed me to bleed…. Nox currently was trying to break out of the sea of hands that held him, but he didn’t seem panicked…
“Any last words?” He asked. He was so close to my eye… Scales protected me… but I assume he could slash through my third eyelid…. Fuck.
I lifted my head up with all my might, high in the air, but that did not stop him from climbing my neck by teleportation.
“Really?” Said Nox… I don’t think I’d ever been more happy to see him gloat…. “I Wondered if you could get out of that… and I see a mortal getting his undead greasy mitts on you. Shameful. I’m telling everyone I saved you.” He snickered. “Dos.” He said the last syllable to Armogeddos… the only spell that could become a beam that could melt straight through the realm… I didn’t know that was possible.
He exploded off my neck, and I lost a scale, but shed no blood…. Magic of lightning came from his snapped finger.
“Yes… you Can use just parts of the spell, but it isn’t easy… I suggest you breathe fire on the rest. [unbind.] Do it!” Nox yelled. He held onto the undead man, who tried to be released. “Do It NOW!” He screamed, being stabbed in the side by a spiked armored elbow.
His arms fell off, and his helmet slipped off his face… it was a grizzly sight I would not forget…
“Grahh!” I screamed, adding magic to my flames… There had to be at least twenty thousand people…and Nox.
“RAH!” I made my flames so hot they turned into a white beam…. I’d never done that before…
I did not stop until none lived….. I could not risk the living this time… and before me was a smooth molten lake of glass…. And Nox was not there…
He was a pain in the ass at times… but he held him in place…
“Gods… please forgive me…. I have killed one of your most precious mortal gems…. Another sin upon my soul… another murder-” I was cut off.
“Oh shut up….. I let go after you flamed him, but I fear if I escaped… so did he.” Said Nox.
He was so Heavily burned….
“Oh, my dear friend. Mass Heal.” I said waving my claws over him, shielding him from the intense heat of the lava below and the sun above… he went into shock, but with the mass heal he would not die… There’s no telling what Solis would do to me if I killed his prized creation…
I remember when they made us… of the two, he was the only one the Light called ‘son’…
“You look more worried than me.” He wheezed Very weakly. “He manually crossed this border by foot with the border permission spell in place.… but I fear he has continued south… the dragons cull the undead in the north… my elves will aid you in the south brother.”
Nox sat up, and coughed blood. He was careful to turn it to ash before he passed out. I carried him in my claws, and flew as fast as I could. He meant to go to my palace… To my cursed mate and half-mortal mother…
He might not be able to turn them, but a sword is flesh’s weakness…