Dawn's Light

Chapter 54

Celia blinked as she gazed around the dark hazy expanse that surrounded her. "Where am I?" Her echoing words offered no answer.

Celia tried to walk around the space, but she soon discovered that she could not tell whether she was able to successfully traverse the space. Though she felt as if she stood on the ground, when she attempted to walk, Celia did not sense any movement other than her legs moving back and forth. She felt as if she was suspended in some strange form of limbo.

"Hello?" Celia called as fear shivered down her spine. She spun around but found that there was nothing behind her. "There's—nothing—there," she exhaled in relief, then attempted to calm her nerves.

Her ragged breath briefly caught in her throat as the rumblings of laughter ominously reverberated through space. However, nothing was there and the laughter had moved behind her once more. She wiped around once again, then froze as she spotted red eyes far above her in the mist.

The deep chuckle crescendoed as a massive shape strangely darker than the opaque mist formed out of the mist with its eyes focused on Celia. For several moments, neither moved.

Suddenly, the blood-eyed eyes raised high into the air as another rumbled of laughter echoed from all directions. Celia craned her neck upwards to its limit in an attempt to watch the ominous eyes. The mist around the eyes swirled for a brief moment, then slowly solidified onto a draconic head with a shiny scaled hide with scales darker than lightless moonless nights.

A long serpentine neck emerged behind the head, which was followed by the rest of the massive muscular monster. The guardian monster of Urre loomed over her with its scaled bat-like wings spread to their full extent.

A single one of its sharp talons was as long as Celia was tall, and its massive jaws could eat even Verbena in a single bite. A row of short, rounded spikes just as dark as the rest of its body lined the creature's entire length from between its small pointed ears, down its back, and almost all the way to the tip of his tail. Their edges appeared to be as sharp as an ax, but Celia did not want to test the observation herself.

Celia stumbled back as she attempted to see the full extent of the creature, but she lost her sense of scale. The black draconic being made even the large dragon Valiant puny by comparison.

Through the being's design lacked in outstanding features, its massive size and cripplingly powerful aura made up for where it lacked in visually-induced intimidation. This massive draconian beast could do anything it wanted

As one of the corners of the beast's mouth moved into a smirk that flashed a small window to the being's multitude of sharp white teeth, Celia finally managed to move. However, all her muscles could manage was a stumbling step back. The twitchy movement failed to do anything.

"Oh, you really are pathetic!" The masculine beast threw his head back in amused laughter. "I don't really have to worry about you at all, despite the fact he touched you!" The beast released a boom of laughter.

"Look at you! Weak! Inexperienced! Gullible!" He circled Celia as if studying her as if she was on display. After a brief moment, the scaled dragon snorted with a chuckle. "Lihania really knows how to pick them! But there's always the possibility it was on mere accident!" He laughs again as he laid down and settled his wings, though his blade-like claws remained fully extended.

"Out of all the ones he has given hope too, you are the one closest to use it to its fullest." The massive creature grinned as another deep chuckle rose from his throat. "They must really be desperate to break my reign over this land if they send such a pathetic person. There is no reason for me to even begin to perceive you as a potential threat." The beast laughed at Celia.

"Who—" Celia managed to speak in a wavering tone, "who are you?"

"Oh, she finds her voice!" The dragon laughed, then draconically grinned down to the minuscule-by-comparison human. "Since you won't remember any of this, and I could use a nice gloating session, I see no harm in telling you."

The creature flashed its multitude of sharp white teeth in a grin. "I, am Darkon, the embodiment of the realm of darkness, Darhania, master, and ruler of the ancient empire of Roahla."

"You're.... you are the spirit dragon, " Celia stuttered slightly. "And the thing that tries to keep us out of Urre."

"Astute observation." The powerful being chuckled darkly and it lowered its head closer to Celia's face. She could feel and smell every sour breath the dragon made. "But that does not mean you have any form of merit. I mean look at you!"

Darkon released a puff of dark smoke at Celia, which caused the human to panic and quickly check to make sure she was not on fire. "Spineless." He grinned as a snicker escaped his throat. "Your overzealous Roahlan false dragon even had to convince you to start this journey!"

Darkon laughed as Celia flinched. "You may have been smart by entering the city without your dragins, but it was idiotic of you to waltz straight onto my doorstep. Well, guess what, you may have always been in my territory, but now," the being paused before his deep melodic voice dropped even deeper, "now you are in my territory."

Celia shivered slightly and once again found it difficult to voice anything more complex than a simple whimper. She stood frozen in the dark embodiment's aura, unable to muster much of anything.

Darkon grinned as he suddenly dissolved into mist, only to quickly reform with his head to Celia's left and the rest of his body behind her.

Celia shivered as she got an up-close reminder of just how big and sharp the embodiment's teeth were. His massive jaws were full of cone-shaped teeth nearly the height of the human female herself.

The black spirit dragon burst into a roar of laughter as he retreated his head away from Celia. "Even with my opposite's protection, you're spineless! A worm has more of a spine than you!" He slowly circled Celia again.

Celia did not know what a worm was, but she felt the full brunt of the insult. "I... I came this far," she managed.

"On luck," the dragon of darkness retorted, then slyly grinned, "and your good luck ran out a long time ago."

Celia gathered every remaining ounce of courage she had, then spoke her mind. "It wasn't luck."

"Keep telling yourself that, kid." Darkon huffed and rolled his eyes, then scowled in agitation."Baron is calling me," the monster snorted in disgust, "like you, he's light-touched. I kept a firm grip of control over the royalty until idiotic Rook lustfully married a light-touched woman." The dragon growled in frustration. "She was stunningly beautiful, but was a pathway to disrupting my control." He angrily stomped and a plume of the dark mist that made up the space that surrounded Celia.

Celia's dream died to darkness and forgetfulness.