Chapter 21: A Sacrificial Deal

Chapter 21: A Sacrificial Deal
Davyn:

Just the sheer weight of those words, placed us in a knowledge euphoria staring at one another with goofy grins. This was beyond anything our eighty-one years of life could remotely come close too, but here we were standing in the black veil of our subconscious contemplating the fact they saw Stonehedge being constructed.

“What was it like, I mean…standing on something so magical?” The inner nerd surfaced as Birgir and Mikkel perked amused grins, nodding at my words with their own burst of wonder.

“Magical, it was our earth house or “outhouse” as they were called before restroom, bathroom, loo, you get the idea.” Volos chuckled darkly with his brothers as our goofy grins faltered into frowns, springing back into dark laughter as our lungs expelled every molecule of oxygen in gut wrenching laughter.

“Then why was it moved?” Birgir gasped out as our eyes blurred with hot, salty tears.

“Wouldn’t you move your “shitter” if it started smelling like a massive mountain of rotten, putrid bile. We might be walking, flying lizards but we do have some form of decency. Jeez, talk about “cavemen”.” Ejder laughed darkly as his green orbs flashed a wild hue of blackish-silver, rolling them in mockery.

The last molecule of oxygen burned from my lungs as the laughter grew in intensity.

“P-Please… make it stop!” Mikkel cried out in pain as he rolled along the silky ground, gasping for breath as Birgir gripped his thighs with his head hung lowly into a painful display of hilarity.

“Hey, we can’t help some “idiots” thought it was built by aliens or extraterrestrial species. They even carbon dated the ground, which makes it even more amusing because the land is “fertile”.” Druk roared in laughter with his brothers as the last word rolled from his tongue, setting this whole conversation in “stone”. Oh, God! Stone….Ha-ha.

“If you “boys” are done with the inside jokes, you might want to come back to the “Land of the Living.” Onyx laughed brightly as the dragons pulled back, leaving us in laughing heaps of flesh on the ground, while Desmond and Hilo stood back in amusement.

“Apparently, we missed a DAMN good laugh.” Desmond held his hand out to Hilo with a perked brow, while Hilo nodded his head like two old butlers standing in a hallway having a “Grand Ol’ Time”.

“Whoo! That was a good one.” Mikkel slapped his thigh, jumping up to his feet as Birgir and myself sat on the floor, looking at Onyx with those bright golden starburst eyes.

“It took us a minute, but we found the “Phoenix Archive”.” Desmond proudly stated, tapping the massive light brown leather “mountain” of a book with a special cast-iron clasp and skeleton keyhole. Closer examination of the humongous book displayed fine hand sculpting of the leather stained in reds, oranges, and vivid hues of blues and purples of a majestic bird with peacock styled feathers sprouting from its head.

“Don’t let the artwork fool you.” Hilo looked up with a stern gaze as Ella retrieved a large skeleton key, framed in a glass case with red velvet laid delicately along the bottom.

“What, they aren’t flaming birds?” Mikkel deadpanned with a tilted smirk as Desmond slid the hand sculpted key into the hole, hearing the faint click and metallic scrap as the clasp snapped open with a thunderous clank against the oak tabletop.

“I wouldn’t call them “birds” more like feathery humans.” Hilo laughed sharply as they flipped through the musty pages, stopping on a colorful mural in the center with four flaming humans and feathery flames extended out from their backs in a circle around another creature emitting a bright light.

“The Four Bringers of Life” or “Phoenix’s” was said to have guarded the precious existence of the supernatural, along with their counterparts, “The Four Bringers of Death” or “Unicorns”.” Ella looked up from the book as her bright amber eyes glowed a certain “curiosity” with Desmond and Hilo standing on either side of her.

“Okay, our dragons filled us in. The “Phoenix’s” were our “Angels”, and the “Unicorns” were the “Demon’s”. So, what does that page have to do with this?” Pointing to the book then to the page lying next to the opened book with a perked brow.

“This hasn’t happened yet, but this did. The start of the “First Supernatural Realm”.” Desmond sat down with a graceful leg swoop, placing his laced fingers over his knee as his crimson eyes glowed softly with a schoolboy’s excitement.

“But this is only “half” of the original.” Hilo shifted the pages in a large chunk, exposing two torn edges as Desmond winked playfully to our confused expressions.

“Wait! I’ve seen something similar.” Zek spoke in a spooked tone as his deep blues swirled wildly with a bright flash, stepping back in thought as he paced slowly along the paper speckled wall.

A pin could drop, and it would sound like a bomb exploding at how quiet the council chambers became staring at Zek silently conversing. Zek stopped abruptly, snapping his fingers as he turned to us with a pale face in realization.

“No, it can’t be.” Zek whispered out as we stood patiently waiting for him to explain.

“I’ll slap it out of him.” Druk growled lowly in anticipation as Birgir and Mikkel side glanced me with evil grins.

“Zek?” Onyx spoke softly as his eyes snapped to her with a gentle head bow, walking over to the book with the page laid down along the jagged edge.

“Remember I said Kano spent a lot of his time in the underground library, well, I’m fairly sure that the other half of this drawing was among the many scrolls and books he had scattered about trying to learn more about you. I think he overlooked it because it was only half of the original, but Mara took a liking to it.” Zek looked up from the colorful drawing of two Phoenix’s circling around a bright light with bright golds and purples, casting soft watercolor like rainbows against the flaming bodies of the Phoenix’s.

“What do you mean “She took a liking to it”?” Birgir asked in a timbered growl as his body trembled in place, feeling the swirling energy engulf our link as Onyx slid her arms around his chest, whispering softly as his eyes squeezed closed.

“This depicts the same scenario as the one that already took place, so who is in this drawing?” Zek flipped back to the previous drawing comparing the two halves of the same depiction, but the ball of light was different.

“Oh, God!” Onyx snapped back from Birgir as she darted towards the chambers doors.

“Onyx?” We shouted in shock as she spun quickly on her heel, pulling the door open with one hand.

“It’s Jun and Dirk. Mara is going to use them to take over the Realms.” She spun around quickly, disappearing in a cloud of mist as we stared at one another with confused expressions.

“Wait! You need to understand something, if Mara managed to find the “Phoenix’s” then she found the “Unicorns” and that is scary trouble. They don’t just hand over their feathers and dust for nothing. She made a deal with them.” Desmond stood up from his chair as we all listened to his words, but our dragons were stirring causing us to lose focus.

“What kind of deal?” Zek looked over his shoulder at Desmond as Ziggy paced wildly behind our huddled group with sweat beads glistening softly against his forehead.

“A Sacrificial Deal”.” Ziggy stopped mid-step as his blue eyes glowed fiercely with a swirling rage that took our dragons by surprise.

“Oh, HELL NO!” We shouted in disbelief, grabbing one another as we misted away into chaos.

JR was directing women and children into a bunker styled building as loud screeching echoed wildly through the humid air, dodging exploding stone and wood as the female cyborg rocketed from the east cell block. Her leathery wings snapped angerly as Onyx shot out from behind, shifting mid-glide into Shehad, disappearing into the heavy cloud cover as their roaring growls sounded monstrously through the heavens.

“Meet us at Mirror Castle.” Onyx laughed darkly in our links as our dragons stomped and roared to be let loose, halting them briefly as Sabrina tumbled from the mansions double hickory doors with a glowing rage in her once dull emerald eyes.

“Sabrina, where do you think you’re going?” Viv darted out the doors, signing rapidly as Sabrina looked at her with a perked brow.

“To KILL that Bitch!” Her hands were sharp like katana’s slicing through paper as Viv stepped back with her fists on her hips and the classic “tilted leg lean”.

“Language young lady.” Viv laughed out loud as she looked over her shoulder, exposing the scar that she kept hidden behind her brownish-silver hair.

“You got room for a few more.” Viv laughed brightly as she nodded to Sabrina to follow, shaking out her limbs like a little earthquake swept over her body.

“You think Zek will allow it?” Mikkel asked coyly as he leaned down to eye Sabrina with a questioning brow.

“Yes. She deserves this as much as everyone else.” Zek appeared with Ziggy carrying duffels with spare cloths, slinged over their shoulders.

“Okay.” We laughed out darkly as Zek leaned down, scooping Sabrina into his chest as his leathery wings sprouted from his shoulders with a heavy shake as they stretched and retracted against his back.

“Let’s go.” Birgir snarled wildly as we launched into the humid skies, snapping out our wings as the winds carried us high into the heavens.