Shadows Reborn (2nd Book)

Chapter 3: A Petty Entanglement

"How?" The dragon all but roared. His head was so close to Althalos's own that their breaths mingled in with one another, and smoke pouring out of the dragon's nostrils elicited a wrinkling nose from Althalos's face, marred by the stench.

"He simply said the words, and the abominations were gone," Althalos replied. He looked at the sky, seeing the sun's light poking through the cloak of black that once completely covered the whole of Magnus within.

"How could..."

"This is no time for such trivialities," Althalos interrupted him. "I am to hunt for food. You wake the others up."

Miasmador growled at him. "Emotions cannot be so easily displaced, even by a god as powerful as Merec."

"He is my god, and he has granted me this. There is no doubt that he has destroyed those abnormalities within me."

Another growl emanated out of Miasmador's throat. "This is abnormality! Not this.. abomination he has made out of you!"

Althalos felt the strangest urge... a feeling... an itch.. to... strike Miasmador? Was that longing he felt? Lust? It certainly felt like it. He felt a slight tug in his own arm, as if trying to pull his sword out. The pull he felt, it was unnatural.

Anger perhaps.

Althalos sucked in his breath as the other slowly woke up because of Miasmador's loud voice, though he expressed no regret in it should he have known of it.

"What is happening?" Fendrel asked him in a groggy manner, still tinged by the touch of sleep.

"Nothing," Althalos responded. "I am going to hunt, and you're to wake Katelyn and the others. You are going to Kollsekr I presume?"

Miasmador growled once more, this time louder and it was followed by a snap of his jaws. "Hear me well youngling, the warmth of your soul cannot be so easily forced out."

"What does he mean by that?" Katelyn asked, yawning widely after her sentence, stretching her arms and body.

"It is nothing," Althalos told her as he looked at Astarte. "May I borrow your bow and arrows?"

Hours later, two deer carcasses were being roasted by a fire, one for them and one for the dragon. Katelyn, Fendrel, Alianor, and Justin had gone to Kollsekr early so as to get their bearings once more, as well as spread the lie they've concocted. A lie Althalos didn't know, nor did he particularly care anyway.

"So," Miasmador began as Althalso tore into a deer carcass, his lust for food, in this case hunger, overpowering his usual dull self. "How did Merec "evict" your emotions?" He asked Althalos, putting emphasis on the word "evict".

Astarte's ears pricked up the moment Miasmador finished his inquiry, and though she was keeping watch, her focus was aimed at the dragon and the Shadow Master's conversation. Seere didn't seem to think of it, and continued watchinng and observing their surroundings, following Katelyn's last command, which was,"Keep watch in case any one would be stupid enough to spy on us."

Althalos waited until he'd swallowed, then simply reiterated what he'd said earlier on. "He simply said the words, then I was complete."

"What words?" Miasmador asked, constructing a mask of innocence and curiosity.

"Ytaseafz xy kezhdopyk," Althalos fluently said.

Miasmador growled. "I do not know their tongue!"

"Emotions be displaced, from what I can gather." Words came from Althalos's throat.

"Emotions be displaced," Miasmador repeated, making a "hmm" noise in the back of his throat. "There's got to be some more?"

"He had whispered more," Althalos told the dragon through periodic bites of his cooked meat,"but I had not heard it."