"Let me down, let me down! I don't want to die!" Gher had to listen to this on the way to Tio's cave. It was toleratable through the volcanic eruption, but now that it was over, all he could hear were the cries of a baby kehmador. And he wanted to maul it dead.
The cold of the Uncharted lands was warmer after the eruption. But that doesn't mean the wind wasn't trying to throw him off his flight path. Gher was determined though. Determined to release hell upon Sonaria for accepting a pero ghibli as the oasis's new great leader. They'd all see they were wrong. It should have been him. Gher, the ruler of oasis! Every creature bowing down to him. All the vin'rous wanting to have the offspring of a ruler.
And soon, that was going to happen. Maybe...
"If a certain kehmador would shut up already!" Gher shouted out loud, startling the baby into keeping quiet. Now there was the peaceful silence of the winter wind. ahead, Gher could see the cave entrance, but no sign of Tio's glowing glimmer patterns. Probably still hiding in the cave. He scoffed.
He looked down at the snowy banks and hills. Something caught his eye. A dark-shaped figure standing there and looking up at him. But that sight only lasted a second before the figure vanished behind some snow. Gher brushed the worry away and dove down to the cave entrance.
Gher dropped the kehmador and landed behind it before it could run off elsewhere. He prodded the baby in the back with his wing. "Forward or die," he hissed. The baby kehmador nodded and proceeded slowly inside. Halfway in, Tio was there, waiting for them. As so was the hemokai.
Tio nodded as a welcome. "I didn't expect you to find a kehmador that fast," he said. "They're usually being hunted to extinction because of their stink."
"Well, I got one, so now onto a hikorshi," Gher said, turning, but Tio stopped him before he could take another step.
"Wait, you can't go out yet. I don't think it's safe," Tio said. Gher saw his eyes dart to look behind him.
Gher hissed and flicked his antenna like strands on his head. "The eruption is over, lissie-brain. There's literally nothing but the aftermath."
Tio looked down at his glowing claws. The hemokai stepped forward to comfort him, which was sick to watch. Gher nearly made a massive gash down the middle of her head. The baby kehmador joined in.
The hemokai looked up at Gher with ruby red eyes. "Tio thinks his mate has come back, but she isn't the same. He said something about her being... corrupted."
"So? What's that have to do with a stupid mate coming back?" Gher said, rolling his eyes.
"Because if she's corrupted, she might not remember me as who I was before, but as another victim to kill," Tio said. He stood up and turned to walk deeper into the cave. "Come, I'll show you." Tio waved his tail, and both the Hemokai and kehmador walked with him. Gher hesitated to just leave him and find the last creature, but he just went.
The four different species walked down the dark cave, following the golden yellow lights of Tio's patterns. The cave seemed to be a lot more worn down from the eruption. The walls seemed to have broken down, and stones had fallen down to the cave floor.
Luckily, when they reached Tio's cave, none of the cave holes he made were ruined, nor were his research stone tablets. Tio walked up to one of the stone holes and pulled out a tablet wrapped in fern leaf. He set it on the ground next to the herb pile.
"Can I have some food? Your mean friend wouldn't let me eat," said the kehmador with a whiney voice.
Tio nodded. "Help yourself," he said, removing the large fern leaf that wrapped around the tablet. Gher stepped forward to look at the tablet. There was only one drawing showing the head of an aeries with a broken horn, blackened halo, and a gaping mouth with large teeth and tongue.
Gher knew aeries weren't supposed to have mouths. That was a common trait. But this image said otherwise.
"When an aeries horn is broken," Tio read aloud, "Their sanity dies away, and the urge to kill is much, much stronger. Their memories will be intact, and their motivation to kill is there. A corrupted aeries also grows a mouth and their eyes become completely black with white pupils."
"Mhm..." Gher hummed. "So what's that gotta do with your mate?"
Tio growled. "If you were paying attention, you'd put two and two together. Ghyreal, my mate, might be corrupted and coming to kill me. If she sees you, she might kill you too."
"Was Ghyreal a dark brown aeries with tan and sand-colored wings and patterns?" Gher asked, remembering the figure he saw outside the cave. Now that he thought about it, he remembered seeing an aeries looking up at me with blackened eyes.
"How do you know-" Before Tio could finish asking him, the sound of wingbeats entered the cave. Everyone looked up except for the kehmador, who was going down on a pink melon.
An aeries, the same one Gher saw, entered through the opposite side of the cave. She hovered above the four creatures. Gher looked over at Tio. Tio's eyes seemed to be filled with two emotions at once. Fear and sorrow.
Ghyreal dove down. Everyone flinched, thinking she was going to attack, but she merely landed softly in front of Tio, only inches from his snout. Tio's eyes widened and his ears lowered. "G-Ghyreal! I haven't seen you in three y-years!" He stammered. "D-Do you still remember me...?"
A smile formed on her face, widening and teeth showing. Large, bloodied, rotting smelling teeth. Gher had to admit, he already liked her.
"Of course, I remember you, darlin'," Ghyreal said. "But my name isn't Ghyreal anymore."
Tio tilted his head. "W-What is your name now?" he asked, relaxing a bit.
"It's Sane," she replied simply. "Yes, I know. Ironic right? You're probably thinking I'm the least sane creature in Sonaria, and you're right! But there are no rules in naming. I go by whatever I want, and everyone will address me as such."
Gher had to press down the smile that wanted to form on his face. He couldn't even tell if he was in love with her, or had a mass amount of respect for her. Sane's head turned toward him, and Gher puffed up his chest and stood in the best posture he could muster.
Sane darted her eyes back to Tio without turning her head away from Tio. "I see your old friend came back," She observed.
"Yes, he's come to summon a powerful creature and bring upon a terrible fate to all creatures in Sonaria." Tio shuddered and waved one wing at the hemokai and kehmador. "Bry and that kehmador are two-thirds of the needed ingredients we need to open the portal to Daimona."
A chuckle came from Sane. "Still obsessed with Daimona, huh? I thought you gave up on trying to summon Sar'Hingaro."
"I did, but then Gher came along and we'd both get what we want from the summoning. I'll get access to Daimona, and he'll get a powerful, possible ally to kill the new leader of Skeleton's Mesa."
"I heard about the new leader," Sane said. "She was the creature that Igiris wanted dead most. A pero ghibli, is she not? Part of the pero ancestry?"
Gher nodded, ignoring Sane and focusing on what Tio had said. "What do you mean, possible ally, Tio?"
Tio squinted at Gher. "What I mean is, the Sar Hingaro might not help you kill Aire under your orders. They'll probably just kill her under their own intentions. And most likely, you next."
"What do you mean, me next?" Gher hissed.
"Well, you're a bossy, dictating qurugosk that only thinks about himself. I'd kill you right now if I wasn't a pacifist." Tio shot back.
The two fliers began snarling and hissing at each other, fanning their wings out at each other. Bry and the kehmador hid behind the herb pile, while sane took some cherries and ate them while watching them battle silently.
Sane finally got bored and took two gourds from the pile and threw them at both their heads, not missing either of them. Gher and Tio shot their heads at Sane's still and bored face. "You two, I'm going to help you release Sar'Hingaro," she said.
Tio and Gher looked at each other. Tio shrugged, and Gher just grumbled and smiled. "Why do you want to help us?" Gher asked. "What are your intentions?"
"I want to challenge this Sar'Hingaro to a fight after it kills Aire," Sane said proudly. "I've killed type of tier five that exists to date, and I plan on killing Sar'Hingaro to add to my list. It'll be a battle worth fighting, even costing my life."
Gher smiled and spread a wing out to drape over Sane, and lifted one of his talons up for a handshake. "So, if we open the portal, Tio gets his research, I get my rightful land, and you get a legendary fight," Gher explained. "Do we all have a deal?"
Sane didn't hesitate to place her paw in Gher's sharp talons. "You have a deal with me," She agreed. "Tio?"
Tio looked at the agreement, then at the hostages. He looked up and walked over to place his glowing paw in the handshake. "With me, too." And with that, they agreed. Bry and the baby kehmador looked worried and scared. Just as Gher wanted.
Gher grinned a sharp-toothed smile, but at that moment, he remembered a barrier in their plan. "Sane," Gher said, turning his attention to her. "How do you feel about being hired as an assassin?"
"Oh heck yeah!" Sane said, pulling away from the shake and running in place, jumping up and down. "Who do I have to kill, are they strong? What species are they? What's their tier?"
"A knarliki and a valkurse," Gher said. "The knarliki is female and all sandy colored and is friends with Aire. The valkurse is flame-colored and traveling with her. They're looking for me so they can kill me, but that won't happen. So you'll find them and kill them, and I'll find a hikorshi and we'll be set for the summoning. Got it?"
Sane nodded. "Got it." She turned to exit, but she stopped in her tracks and looked back at Tio. "Oh, and Tio, I still love you as my mate. Just because I'm corrupted, doesn't mean I kill everything within a three foot radius. I still got emotions, so you should change this." She slid the stone tablet on corrupted aeries at Tio's feet.
Tio flustered and picked the tablet up, pressing it up against his mane. He nodded, "Y-Yes, I'll change it right away," he said. Sane smiled and lifted into the sky. Gher didn't waste a second to follow her out the cave.
Gher was getting what he wanted, and he'd kill whoever would get in their way. Not a single creature was going to stop him.