A Flawed Alliance

Chapter 13- Daer Necropis

The plains were completely out of view behind and suddenly the next world before me opened up and surrounded me.

Just like how I learned, Daer Necropis was a place I would never want to visit. For good reason. Everything was black with no light filtering from any sort of cloud. Shades of black were nonexistent, only flat colors of death and yet shadows lurked in every corner, still prominent even in the pits of emptiness. Flowers sprouting blood poked from the ashy ground, the blood leaking profusely to the ground and coalescing into red bulbous seeds that popped in intervals of several minutes.

A clicking sound reverberated around, a monotonous tone echoing across the vast lands of Daer Necropis, interrupting any silence that blanketed the land. It was from the birds but it wasn't as well, they were bony creatures with thin skin flying, their bones scraping against one another in squeaking fashion.

Daer Necropis, as much as it seemed distant and eerie, it was rather familiar. It was tainted not with childish imagination, but more with consequences of reality. Humans had done this. Had created this in the wake of their accomplishments.

I didn't have much time to register where everyone was when I heard a low shout.

Logan was not far from where I was standing, hastily trying to dodge large talons that were raining down, grappling madly for some kind of holding. I tilted my head upward to see a gigantic, blackened willow tree filled to the brim with tiny bats. In the middle of the nest was a small man, his face just as tiny as the bats but his ears twice as large as his head, twitching madly.

I almost screamed before the bats, in unison, fluttered out and zipped straight to us. A bat went straight toward Logan, latching on to his bicep and not letting go even after several violent shakes.

I never felt so much fear in my life since Aaron and at first, I was stunned into paralysis, not letting Logan out of my gaze. Then, I moved, my brain working hard to follow my actions. I hastily tried to fumble for soot off the ground with my hands.

Next thing I knew, I was falling over on the ground. The soot left my hand and barely reached the bats who all just shook their heads to disperse it away from them. The bats, with full power, grabbed me and barreled into me.

Everything tipped upside down, the blood rushing all at once to my brain. I tried curling upward for some relief, but the bats did not comply. I finally heard myself scream as wings and talons raked across my face. Pressure began to build in my head.

Through the fuzz of the willow leaves and wings, I saw a bright light flash. Nix was off the ground in an instant, leaping up to latch his beak onto the bats that were holding me. Blood spurted from the wound Nix made and sprayed across my face.

There were no screams, no yells from the bats. The bats quickly released me and I fell with a thump and what sounded like a crack. I couldn't have broken any bones. When I looked at where my feet were, I saw a severed bat. Nix had thrown one of the bats at the willow tree's trunk with so much force that some of the bones in it had cracked.

I couldn't rest long before I heard a shriek. Nix was digging his beak into the ground trying to get rid of the stale taste of blood in his mouth. Some of the flesh from the dead bat had stripped away, leaving a gaping hole in the body. And with that hole, the flesh had detached and stuck itself onto Nix's beak. He roared and finally the flesh slipped to the ground next to the fallen bat. The red glazed my eyes just like the bat on the ground.

I threw myself away with a short cry and ran over to Nix, stroking him rapidly to soothe the panic in him. My own head was screaming to lie down and rest. Nix and I collapsed on the ground, but he soon broke away, digging his face into the ground. My legs stayed crouched and began to shake as I tried to pull myself up again.