Dune was looking around the chaos in Aire's new oasis. The peros, the anies, even Igiris's old followers. Roars, squeaks, and screeches all meaning the same thing: fear. She looked at Aire, who was feeling overwhelmed already. Dune moved over to her and tugged her wing. "Tell them to be quiet and try to explain what you'll do."
Aire nodded and spread her wings. "SILENCE!" She roared, and within seconds, everyone was quiet. They all stared at her and waited for her speech.
"Gher may be gone into hiding, but if he ever does come back, I trust all of you to work together and kill him."
An ardor warden in the back came through the crowd to face Aire with a bow. Dune had never seen an ardor warden before. She was nearly all pink in different shades, except for her heart patterns, which were a dark brown. "Ruler Aire," she said. "Many of us are worried about..."
"Ezel, there's no such thing as the portal of Daimona!" a red and white sochuri said from the back. "It's just a stupid story the hemokais made up to make them feel special."
"It is not a story, Hexen!" Ezel shouted back at him. "The hemokais said there was a dangerous species on the other side of the portal, and now Gher is going to try and unleash it!"
"It's true," Diala said. The ani was almost shook with fear. "The hemokais are speaking the truth. The creature on the other side of the portal is there, waiting to be free so it can end us all and the world we live in. Us ani have lived long enough to witness the creature itself. If Gher unleashes it, nothing will be able to stop it."
Now everyone was panicking. Dune felt Aire's emotions like they were a morinus's mane. Dune tapped Aire's shoulder and nodded her head up at Igiris's old cave. "We should speak to Diala," she said. Aire nodded and went to confront Diala, who was standing in the middle of the chaos and trying not to look guilty about the trouble she had caused.
"Diala, would you please speak to me in Igiris- I mean, my cave, please?" Aire said.
Diala nodded. Aire went to fly up to the cave. "Dune, please escort her up while I take the time to think about this," Aire called down. Before Dune could reply, Aire was already too high up for her to hear.
Dune looked down at Diala and gestured her head to get moving. They both walked through the panicking crowd, listening to the roars and shrieks of fear. The sun had began to rise behind them, making Dune's scales look like opals, but more yellow than white.
Walking up the hill was a bit more difficult for Diala than for Dune. Climbing sandstone was easier with curved claws, but Diala looked more like a flailing khiku trying to climb a pillar, so she wrapped her tail around Diala, carful not to prick her with her barb, and carried her up the hill. Diala crawled out of her tail to climb onto her back, sitting in between her glowing spines and holding on.
Climbing up the sandstone wall was a bit harder, but not impossible. Dune's claws dug into the small crevasses of rock and pulled herself up. It didn't help that the weight of Diala was dragging her down. Once they were up, they finally made it outside Aire's cave. Dune peaked in to see Aire pacing around in circles, looking at her own talonprints.
Dune cleared her throat, and Aire stopped pacing to look at her. "Dune! Diala! Uh, please. Come in," Aire said, clearing away the talonprints with her tail. Dune came in and grabbed the clingy ani off her back and set her down in front of Aire. She looked around nervously, her black eyes seeming like empty holes with no emotions, but her brows furrowed to seem almost scared of what was going to happen to her.
"Diala," Aire started. "Can you tell us more about the creature? And is it really impossible to kill?" Dune wondered that as well. Whatever this thing is, would they be able to kill it? If so, how?
Diala rubbed her shoulder and looked at the wall. "Ok, so I over exaggerated that part. It can be defeated, but even Igiris didn't stand a chance."
"But what is 'It' called?" Dune said, joining the conversation.
"Sar'Hingaro," she said, shivering at the name. Even Dune felt like there were cantapodies crawling over her scales. She looked over at Aire, and she was either not scared at all, or doing a really good job of hiding it.
Dune felt like they were being watched, and looked outside the cave. She didn't see anyone, but she thought she heard muttering and claws scraping the sandstone, almost as if they were trying to stay hidden.
"Can you describe what Sar'Hingaro is and anything about it that we should know? Maybe about the Daimona dimension?"
"Sure," Diala said, shifting around to sit comfortably. "Sar'Hingaro was a three headed wyvern-like creature, well armored too. He used to be just another creature in Sonaria, until his hunger for power grew drastically. He would wipe out many creatures as tiers one and two. But when his power grew, he started to kill tier threes, and fours, and when he began to easily kill tier fives, that's when us anies had to do something."
"We lured the Sar'Hingaro to the hot springs across this land, where there was no desert or oasis. We opened the portal to Daimona, and because of us, the hemokai species came to Sonaria, while the vaccuum of the portal sucked Sar'Hingaro into the new world. We only got a glimpse of the dimension. A wasteland of death, skeletons everywhere, and what seemed to be khemadores and yeba'idies roaming around. We think the khemadores joined the hemokais in escape while the yeba'idies stayed in their land of death."
"It seemed like a terrible place to live, but we had no choice. Once Sar'Hingaro was locked in the dimension of Daimona, fled into our own dimension inside a crystal not so far away from where the portal once was." Diala shuddered and looked down at her paws. "I told Igiris about this, and he told Gher to never open the portal because Igiris knew he didn't stand a chance."
Aire gave Dune an uneasy look, as if she knew her new role in Skeleton's Mesa wasn't going to last long. Dune was scared now. If Igiris didn't want to fight Sar'Hingaro because he was scared... then we'd all be nothing but oblivion.
"I need to think," Aire said. "Diala, you are dismissed." She got up and left the cave, her soft feline tail waving left and right. Now Dune and Aire were alone in the same place. Aire scooted closer to Dune and rested her head on her shoulder. Dune's heartbeat took off like a kemoti's wings, but she also knew that Aire was stressed, and so she stomped down her feelings for her.
Dune wrapped her tail around Aire's and placed one of her claws on her talons. "Do you need to talk too?" Dune said, looking down at her friend. She had only been ruler of oasis for one hour, and she's already tired.
Aire nodded without moving her head off of Dune. "I just feel so unprepared for this, and it's my fault Gher escaped. He was right there within reach of me. I could have put him to sleep and ripped his throat out, but instead, I let him escape. Now he may or may not be looking for a way to unleash one of the most powerful creatures in Sonaria! It's all my fault..."
"Hey, we can still fix this. We can find Gher and kill him and that'll be that," Dune said, trying to be reassuring.
"But I have a whole oasis to rule, plus two tribes of different species to lead as well as my own kids. I can't leave the oasis. They need me, and I need you." Aire lifted her head to look at her. "I can't get through this on my own, Dune. You're my best friend, I need someone to talk to."
"You got Pea, and then Cedar," Dune said. "Why not talk to them?" Dune hated the fact that she just suggested two other creatures to spend her time with. She felt a bit jealous at the thought of Aire hanging out with Pea, who Dune really despised. And Cedar was a murderer! She killed Igiris's two daughters, what if she killed Aire's two kids?
Aire looked out of the cave to see Spruce and Caprea flying around with Obel and Nyme. Maybe Cedar's kids will protect them from their own mother, she thought. But Aire was her best friend, and she had to protect her, like her mother's last words were.
Aire nodded and slid off of Dune's shoulder to lay down and rest. "Yeah, I guess," Aire mumbled. "But please, Dune. I want you to protect me from this."
"I promise, I will." Dune said.
"Thank you," Aire said before drifting off to sleep. Dune slowly lifted her claws off of her talons so she could leave the cave.
Dune walked out and looked at the sky. Vaumoras and astrothies and sochuries were flying around, most likely in search of Gher. She looked down to see some scavenging taurolystrises, ikorans, and doragonixes feasting off of Igiris's dead body. All of this, Aire needed to protect. And Dune had to protect her, but how?
Finding Gher, Dune thought. If I can find Gher and kill him before he opens the portal, then I'll save Aire and her followers and her kids, and everyone will be safe and I'll be a hero.
She decided. Dune was going to roam Sonaria until she found Gher, then she was going to kill him and bring back his body. But she didn't have any time to waste.