Creatures Of Sonaria: Sands Of Time

Part 15: Return

      "So we aren't going to talk about how in Sonaria you two went from spiked lizards to even more spiky lizards?" Armolten said, coming to stand next to them, inspecting the height for a second before inspecting them. 

       "NO!" Arche and Dune said in Unison. Armotlen gave them a stunned look. 

       Dune shook her head and raised one claw. "Later, we will, but not now. We're all trying to stop the end of the world right now."

       Armolten nodded. "Right. Yes, totally our top priority right now." She said, backing up. "We need to look for a way down, we won't survive that jump." 

       She was right, they were way too high up to survive jumping. Dune looked around for a way down. She edged past Arche and went left, looking for any slope downwards. She saw a hill that descended, but it looked very steep. One wrong step and they'd all probably roll and die. 

      But... it was the only chance they had. She didn't see another way down.

       "We'll try going down this way," Dune called, getting Arche's and Armolten's attention. "One at a time, though. We can't mess each other up." Dune didn't wait to decide who was going down first. She stepped carefully on the slippery moss-covered rocks. One step at a time, she slowly learned how to use her new pair of legs. They were useful for propping her up like crutches. She kind of hoped Arche was watching her movements. 

        The sun was starting to set below the trees of the redwood forest, which was just barely visible from the mountain covering most of the view. Dune's attention was quickly switched to the pair of aereis at the top of the hot springs. Somehow, her vision was much clearer than before. She could make out three, totally fresh corpses of a hemokai, a hikorshi, and a khemador. All laid out in a line. She could also see the color of the new aereis. Male, by the longer hind leg protrusion. The main body was a bright yellow with dark blue wings. The tertiary patters were a glowing bright yellow. They were a glimmer. 

       The glimmer aereis was drawing a circle around the three bodies with a green substance. Their eyes were scrunched up. Maybe whatever they're spreading smelled. 

       Dune took another step and slipped. She skidded down the rocks for a few seconds before something bit her tail. She had to force herself not to scream while she positioned herself again where she wouldn't slip. Dune looked behind and saw that Arche had leaped forward past Armolten with her tail tip in his jaws. 

       "Let go," Dune whisper-yelled. Arche released her, and they all continued downwards. It took a few minutes, but they all made it down. The downside is, they were all the way down at the bottom of the hot springs. Now they had to run up the smooth rocky hills, but at least that would be easier. 

       Except, something was happening. They couldn't see the two aereis, but there was definitely a green glow at the top. And above it, a glowing green orb was rising into the air, higher and higher...

       "Son of an kendyll!" Dune shouted, completely ditching her friends and running to the source. It was happening. The summoning had begun. Was it too late though? Was it irreversible? 

       She could hear Arche telling her to wait, but she didn't answer back. There was no time to wait! Sar'Hingaro was being summoned! 

        Dune made it up the hill, and a foul smell filled her nose and lungs. She saw Sane looking at the neon green orb in the sky while the other aereis was chanting something in a strange tongue. 

      "STOP!" Dune shouted, and the two fliers turned towards her. The yellow aereis stopped their chant, and the green orb stopped ascending into the sky. It didn't shrink. It just floated there. Dune could see that the corpses were the source of the portal increasing in size.