After the whole eruption of Molten-Build, the valley that spread was nothing but smolder and ash. The meteors had landed firmly in the ground, looking like rocky lumps nestled in between all the grass and weeds. Glowing, phosphorescent mushrooms grew from the edges of some of them. The sun's rays peeked from the direction of the redwoods. And past that, where Aire is, Dune worried.
Dune and Armolten knew they had to go through the wasteland, but they decided to rest by the sandy shore of the water near Molten-Build to map out where they should check next. Dune drew a very rough and inaccurate map of the continent, but it was the closest she could get. Maybe it'd be more accurate if I could fly.
"So," Armolten started, "We're here, at this end of the Ocean's Mating lands," she pointed her sharp hoove at the area between the Murky lands and Molten build. "We'd have checked the swamp if we hadn't been chased by ravenous, hungry little nymphasuchases. Is it worth going back in and scanning more of the swamp?"
She shook her head. "No," Dune said. "There's no big caves, or none at all, that Gher would be able to hide in during the eruption. He would have never survived." Dune used her tail to make a cross over the swamp. "I think we should try the redwoods next. There are caves there he might take refuge in, but only a few."
"If he's not there then, where else would Gher be?" Armolten pointed out. "He's not at the swamp, you said you checked everywhere in the plains, even the caves in the mountains, where else would he hide?"
The two creatures studied the map. Dune stared at the far south of the map, where it was most likely not drawn right. The Uncharted Icelands, where snow and terrible weather would kill any creature with no body fat or fur to keep them warm.
Because nobody ever goes there, there's probably a chance Gher might be hiding there. But where would he hide if it's all snow? Even a flier built for strong winds would never survive the freezing, blistering cold pounding against his wings.
Dune pointed a claw at the Icelands. "There might be a small chance Gher would be here," she said. She looked up to Armolten. Maybe with her fire, Dune and Armolten could travel easier without fur.
Armolten, however, didn't seem too enthusiastic about the idea. She was too silent, the only sound she made was the flickering of her flaming mane. A few silent moments pass before she spoke, "I've been there, and I know there's a large cave," she stared blankly.
"There is?" Dune asked, lifting her head up to look at the ice-capped mountains. It would take all day to cross the plains to get to the base of the mountains, and probably longer to progress upwards.
"Yeah, I went there, when I was a juvenile. I wanted to see what was really up there, and I did. Nothing at all other than a large, gaping cave mouth that seemed intimidating. But I wasn't scared to go in, but something kept me from going in, and chased me away."
Dune was silent. Knowing Armolten's fierce, angry, determined self, she couldn't believe something managed to scare her away. "Do you remember what it was?" She asked, wanting to know what they were dealing with.
"No," Armolten said, shaking her head. "There was a blizzard happening, but I remember glowing, yellow lights and being sprayed with golden star rays. I was blinded, but I tried running back down the mountain. All I remember is feeling cold and I couldn't move, but I woke up at the base of the mountain, where the snow and grass meet. Something had carried me back, but I don't know what."
She sat there with her barbed tail over her feet, absorbing the information. Golden star rays... yellow lights... mysterious hero...
Dune said, "I think an aeries is up there. A glimmer one, maybe."
"But then what saved me?" Armolten asked. "I feel like that aeries would have killed me."
"I'm not sure, but I think we should go to that cave first before redwoods," Dune said, standing up and cat-stretching, raising her barbed tail in the air. "But first, we should eat. I don't remember the last time I ate!"
Armolten stood up and shook the sand off her legs. "I'll go kill something," she said, walking off into the plains. Dune shouted an 'Okay' before laying down in the sand, letting the small grains cover her. She rolled onto her back, her glowing back spines folding against her back. Dune looked up at the clear, cloudless sky. Above her, something was circling around her. It was either a small creature or a large one that was really high up. Dune didn't see it as a threat until it started getting closer... and closer... and then it started to dive down.
Right toward Dune.
Dune only had seconds to react, quickly flipping over and jumping to her feet. She leaped out of the way before the mysterious flying creature landed roughly, sending clouds of sand and grass in the air, blinding Dune. She tried to wipe the sand away from her brow, but she was suddenly attacked, claws sinking into her scales, large teeth latching onto the back of her neck, and trying to be thrown to the side. Dune let out a loud hiss, trying to shake her attacker off.
Fighting back, Dune swung her tail above her, trying to prick whoever was on her. It wasn't working. The creature's wings flung out next to her face, and Dune took this advantage by snapping and latching her jaws into the creature's wings. An echoing roar and the creature jumped forward off of her back. Dune used as much strength as she could to heave the flier into the lake. She managed, and the flier was thrown into the water with a splash. Dune focused on the ripples while she flung some sand onto her bleeding wounds.
A brown, furred creature surfaced, swimming to shore and coughing up water. Its wings out to its sides, one of them being the one she had managed to bite on. Now Dune could see what species had attacked. An aeries, but... not quite. The aeries was brown with pale, sandy-colored wings and mane. Its entire body was much like an aeries, which would have fooled her from afar.
But up close, this aeries had pure black eyes with white pupils, three eyes, like normal aeries. Her horn wasn't glowing though, and it was broken. But the thing that scared Dune the most, the thing that would scare any creature deep down...
She had a mouth.
Her mouth, when closed, looked like a large scar that had stretched through her horn to each side of her face. But when opened, like now as she spat water, it was a mouth filled with teeth as large and as sharp as a gyro's toe claw. Everyone knew that aeries didn't have mouths, so it was very disturbing to see.
The brown aeries looked up at Dune with blood trickling down her snout. She parted her jaws and licked the blood off her soft fur. Gross, Dune thought.
"You know how to fight," the aeries said, her tail brushing the wet grass under her. "But I'm afraid I know more about killing worms like you."
"Who are you?" Dune demanded, sinking her claws into the dirt. Her tail lashed angrily. She wasn't going to die halfway through her journey before the end of Sonaria. "Why are you attacking me?"
The aeries tilted her head. "Sane," she replied. "I was hired to kill an interfering knalriki and a valkurse, but I saw the valkurse leave. Which is good for me, because with her out of the way, it'll be much easier to kill you."
Dune hissed, "You're working for Gher, aren't you?"
Sane smiled and lifted her maned neck. "Yes, very clever of you to put the pieces together. I assume you know his plans as well?" She looked over at the half-ruined map drawing in the sand and back at Dune. "And where we're possibly... hiding?"
"Yes," Dune growled, bristling her glowing spines. "Gher wants to release Sar'Hingaro and kill my friend."
"Oh?" Sane said, ripping grass up from the roots and scattering the blades like grains of sand. "And does your 'friend' happen to be the so-called savior of the oasis, slayer of the most powerful kingdom?"
Dune replied, "Yes, and she's going to stay ruler. She is my friend, and I'm going to protect her from any coming harm."
Sane shook her head and laughed. "Oh you sweet, naive thing," she said. "If she was really your friend, wouldn't she had sent a search party for you once you were missing? Wouldn't she have done something to find you? Or are you just a pawn to her? Just another creature."
"NO!" Dune shouted, lunging at Sane. But Sane was quicker and jumped to her left. Dune landed on her feet and spun around, but Sane was one step ahead, already leaping for her neck. She bit through Dune's scales, blood splattering all over her face and horns. The two tier 3's were snarling and sinking their claws into each other's hides. Red and gold blood stained the grass and sand.
Eventually, Sane managed to dig her claws deep enough into her shoulder that her legs had given out in the light of the battle. Dune fell to the grass with Sane right on her back, her paws pressed into her neck. Dune couldn't get up. Sane's weight had won her over.
Sane craned her neck down to hover above Sane's head, where a crack had formed in the midst of the battle. Blood trickled down her forehead, and Sane licked it up. Dune shivered and squirmed. She knew she was teasing her before her neck was torn clean open. What kind of an assassin plays with their victims?
"Well, lizard, you'll make a great meal," Sane taunted. "Too bad nobody was here to help you. You never had anyone."
Dune heard a hissing sound, and a bright gold hue showed from above her. Star breath! Dune panicked, squirming and wriggling under Sane. If she could throw her off balance...
"Stop moving, you finicky- AGH!" Sane's weight had flown off of Dune, and she got up, coughing and staggering to stand straight. Dune looked around the plain to see where Sane had gone and spotted brown fur clashing with teal scales...
Arche! Dune had never been happier to see those dark teal stripes and blue-green scales. Arche was hissing and swinging his tail, throwing his claws at Sane's head and back. Sane tried to get on top of Arche, but he flexed his back spikes upwards, prodding at Sane. That left Dune questioning her methods.
Sane ducked under Arche's attempt to swipe at her eyes, and she leaped forward to latch her jaws onto his arm. Arche shrieked and bit onto one of her head wings. Sane let out a growl through her teeth and bit down harder. Now the two were scuffling in the tall grass until one of them unclenched their jaws. Dune wanted to go over there and fight, but her shoulder felt wrong, and it bled severely.
Dune turned her head to the north, seeing a bright blue glow charging at them. Armolten was running with an ikoran body in her jaws. But when Dune looked back to the fight, Arche's head had been pinned to the ground under both of Sane's paws, with the rest of his body trying to pull out. Dune tried limping forward, but Armolten had been sprinting faster than a khiku, lept over one of the meteors, and blasted a fiery blue fire at Sane.
She just barely missed, burning some of the furs of her mane off and leaving a black, flaming mark that still smoldered. Sane shrieked, leaping off of Arche and running for the water, She ducked her head in and out once the pain was washed away. Armolten was blocking Sane's path toward Dune. Arche got up, rushing to help Dune stand.
"Arche, you... you came back?" Dune asked, voice raspy and dry. Arche didn't reply. Instead, he entwined his tail around her's and muttered something like 'not now.' Dune nodded and put her weight on Arche's side and watched Armolten hiss angrily at Sane.
Armolten's mane and tail flared and crackled angrily. She parted her jaws to let smoke rise up, curling around her horns and evaporating in the air. Sane flapped her wings and liften into the air, trying to fly above and attack Dune and Arche, but the fiery blue valkurse shot more fire at Sane, burning her underbelly.
Sane screamed, swerved back for the water, and dove in. Everyone sat in silence, watching the water ripple with blood. Sane's head surfaced for air, and she flapped her wings, flying out of the water to hover over the lake. Her fur (or what was left of it) was sodden and wet, dripping blood stained water. Her entire underbelly and right side of her mane had been burned away. She turned her head to narrow her eyes down at the three creatures. "You're not going to win once you get to the cave, you rukigs!" Sane snarled. "You'll all die anyways. If I don't kill you, Sar'Hingaro will!"
She pointed a paw at Dune. "And just because he came to save your tail, doesn't mean Aire cares about you at all. You're just another creature at her feet. Remember that." Sane flicked her tail and flew off over the plains, high out of reach of Armolten's fire.
Dune sighed and fell to the ground, her hurt shoulder limp. Arche steadied her, and Armolten picked up her kill and brought it to Dune.
"Eat this," She said, tearing a leg off of the ikoran.
"Thanks," Dune thanked, using her good arm to push the leg towards her mouth and began tearing the meat off.
Arche studied Dune's shoulder, carefully tracing a claw around the bone. Dune winced. "It's not broken, but I think it's dislocated. It's an easy fix, a verdent warden taught me a trick. It'll hurt a lot though."
"Do it," Dune ordered. "I need to- to save Aire." Sane's words were still cluttering up her mind. If Aire did care about her, would she have sent a search party? Or does she want as many creatures protecting oasis as she can get? She wanted to keep telling herself she was being cared for, but...
Arche placed his hands on the top of her shoulder. His brows lowered nervously. He then pushed harshly on her shoulder, and a loud 'pop' could be heard. Dune roared and bit down on a nearby rock. Arche stepped back and curled his neck up. "Sorry, sorry! Don't put too much pressure on it, or it'll be sore for a while."
Dune stood up, using her fixed leg to stand. It hurt, but she could stand straight again. Now that she was fixed, she looked at Arche, who was figdety and nervous. Dune said, "Why did you come back? I thought you hated me?"
"No, no, I never hated you!" Arche protested. "I was just a bit jealous of the kendyll and lost my cool. But I remembered what was more important, so I told myself 'save the world first, sort out complicated feelings later', so here I am, ready to kill a vin'rou." Dune smiled and would have cried if knalrikies had tear glands. She walked forward and wrapped her arms around Arche, who just stiffened up before wrapping his arms around her as well.
She ended the hug and placed her talons on each his shoulders. "Thanks for coming back, Arche. I really needed you."
Arche smiled. "Hey, I still want to live in a world where you're still alive, so we should probably be finding that evil wyvern. Do you know where he is?"
"Yep, and we're going there right now, whether we die or not."