I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Frozen Army

"It seems I've lost." Harmony sighed while looking at the image of her defeated avatar, her mind full of regret before she had to look away as the dragon started eating it.

"It was a good battle though, and your avatar did well." Echo said politely, and Harmony brushed the image of her avatar away with a sigh.

"Yes, well, I suppose that she wasn't really following my path anyway." Harmony stated before standing and turning to leave the room. "Then again, I suppose that none of our avatars are."

"And that leaves just the two of us, for this stage anyway." Clargen chuckled softly to himself. "I suppose it's fitting that this ends with a battle between darkness and the light. Though which side is good and evil is still to be determined."

"Left alone, even the light can become corrupted without some darkness to keep it pure." Echo commented as she looked in disgust at Clargen's griffon.

"Agreed, but it was her choice and I can do nothing about it." Clargen stated sadly.

"And I wonder just which choices my own avatar will make." Echo pondered. "Ergen... I just can't wait to see what the future holds for you."

*     *     *     *     *

'If you fail me this time, then don't bother coming back.' Those words still echoed in Sera's mind as she sat in her tent. Outside, the blizzard raged over the mountains while she and her men were forced seek shelter from the storm, though she secretly thought that it was a fool's errand to begin with. Princess Sheera's escort had been found slaughtered a few days ago, and a mage in one of the nearby settlements had reported it to the castle immediately. Therefore, Sera had been given the orders to rescue Sheera from the frost trolls so that she could continue her engagement to King Emric. Though, why the man even wanted another wife, Sera didn't know as he already had five. However, it wasn't her duty to question him. Her one and only duty was to make sure that her assignment was a success, though with the appearance of this sudden blizzard, Sheera's chances were growing smaller and smaller. And that thought caused Sera to think about her other orders...

'If she's been defiled, then kill her in a manner so that the frost trolls would be blamed. The elf king won't give me another of his daughters otherwise.' King Emric had ordered, and Sera clenched her fists at the words. The poor girl was already having to follow through with an arranged marriage, and then being taken by frost trolls... Could Sera really take her life after she'd been through such an experience? Shaking her head, Sera attempted to get any thoughts about the girl's well-being out of her mind. She was there for one reason and one reason only, and that was to follow her king's orders. No matter how morally wrong those orders were...

Emric Arthur had been the king of the human kingdom for over three hundred years, having taken the crown after the last king had died from an assassination. There had been a demon king threatening to wipe out all of humanity at that time, and Emric had become their hero, the man who rose above the demons and slew the demon king in order to save humanity. And after he'd been crowned as king, the humans of Ligan saw nothing but peace and prosperity as they recovered from the demon's invasion. However, over the years, Emric must have changed as Sera saw no possible way that this man had once been a hero. Heroes were symbols of hope and humility, after all. And there were neither of those qualities were inside of their current king, whom Sera guessed must have changed over time. Though, the fact of the matter that he was her king, and nothing would change that.

Success or banishment. Sera sighed as she reminded herself for perhaps the thousandth time that her life revolved around her mission. And who exactly knew what the princess was experiencing while she and her forces were stuck in the middle of a blizzard? Such a storm wouldn't be a problem for the frost trolls as these mountains were their natural territory, and everyone moment that she was sitting still, Sera felt as if her only chance at living a normal life were slipping by her. However, her moment of silent thinking was interrupted as her tent suddenly filled with freezing air as the front of it opened to reveal Nigel, her second in command.

"Ma'am." Nigel saluted breathlessly as soon as he entered the tent, and she returned the gesture quickly so that he could relax.

"How are the supply wagons?" Sera asked in concern, knowing that her two-hundred troops wouldn't last long without food and unfrozen water.

"With their wheels encased in ice, I'm afraid." Nigel answered,mand Sera closed her eyes and silently cursed under her breath as she just seemed to be encountering one problem after another. Even though they'd put their spare tents over the wagons so that they would be shielded from the weather, it still appeared to not be enough as Ligan's northern weather hit them with everything it had.

"Tell the men to keep the wagons cleared of snow and we'll break them out of the ice when this blizzard lets up." Sera ordered, and the man seemed to hesitate for a moment as he stood inside of her tent. "Anything else Lieutenant?"

"Uh... no ma'am', I was just-" The lieutenant's voice suddenly went quiet as both of them heard something over the howling wind outside. It seemed distant, but still clearly recognizable as the wind carried some unknown creature's roar along with it. It seemed like a roar of challenge to Sera, one that most likely marked it as the dominant creature in these mountains. And whatever it was, from just the sound of it, Sera wanted to avoid it if at all possible.

"What do we know about the monsters in this area?" Sera asked as soon as the roar was finished.

"Bears, mountain lions and poisonous snakes populate the forest below us." The lieutenant answered needlessly. "As for the mountains themselves, the frost trolls populate the majority of the land but their patrols were too effective for our scouts to actually enter very far into this area."

"Then we're completely blind." Sera sighed.

"Well..."

"What is it?" Sera asked impatiently.

"A few of the men were saying that they were from villages around the base of the mountains, and there seemed to be some kind of legend that they all had in common." Nigel explained hesitantly. "Well, it's nothing but superstition really... I apologize, Commander. I've wasted your time."

"No, please explain it." Sera gestured for the man to continue, thinking that even folk tales were better then going into the mountains while completely unprepared for anything.

"Well... they said that there's recently been abnormal howls coming from the mountains for the past month or so. Ghostly howls that sound almost like screams." Nigel explained. "And those reports have also come along with a large amount of missing livestock from all of the villages, though thankfully there were no casualties from the villagers. However, those that have seen it from each of the villages said that they saw a massive wolf of some kind."

"Are you talking about a fenrir?" Sera asked, and her apparently superstitious second in command visible gulped.

"Those creatures are extinct, Nigel. King Emric saw to that himself just before his coronation as the king." Sera said in a grim tone. "Besides, what we heard just now was no overgrown wolf."

"Of course, your right, Commander." Nigel replied somewhat disbelievingly, making Sera sigh as he didn't seem to believe her words at all. "Just keep the men ready to move. We march as soon as this storm lets up."

"Yes ma'am'." Nigel replied immediately before turning and leaving the tent, going back out into the cold weather so that he could give her orders to the others. And while their conversation had seemed foolish as Sera knew that all of the fenrir had been hunted and killed, it had still made Sera think about the legends. Fenrir or not, something in these mountains had been eating their livestock, apparently something large. And as Sera laid down on her hammock in an attempt to get some rest, her mind was full of just what could have possibly made those sounds that she'd heard earlier. They sounded almost familiar, but no matter how hard she tried to remember, she just couldn't place where she'd heard that roar before.