"The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes."
-Xamdú
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The sun was setting. As it slid across the horizon, it lit the sky with such beautiful colors. Karos was quick to forget about the putrid stench of the creatures still lingering on him. Those things only ever existed in Olidus' old, fabled tales of the Gods and creatures that once roamed this land before them. However, they were much more real than he could have ever imagined them to be. He continued to sit his leg in the freezing snow being sure to not gain some kind of infection from those vile things. They tore at his side causing some scratches and bruising, but nothing he was not used to.
"Karos," Analia murmured as she came and sat by him.
"You look terrible."
"Thank you for noticing," Karos said cutting his eyes away from her. She was an impudent woman and it made no sense why he was friends with someone like her.
"You will never marry."
She laughed.
"As you never will either. Tell me, what point is there to wed knowing that they do not want you for love, but the male children you can provide for them? They find love and lust within other men, very few want that with a woman. You know this, so do not try to spite me because of your misdirected anger."
"... Forgive me," Karos muttered.
"What are friendships to you, hm? Something to just throw away because things are not working to your favor?"
"Analia, believe me, I never meant to leave him. All he ever is is angry with me. It has been like that since the very beginning. Friendship is not what we have; it is simply needs and wants."
Karos rose muscling down the pain shooting through his body.
"Do not look so ill on him, Karos."
"He is a dragon. Did they not burn down your home, ravagee your land, kill your people, your parents?" He looked at Analia as her hands balled into fists.
"They made me what I am today."
"And are you proud of that?" She pursed her lips before looking away from him. "Are you proud of who and what you are today?"
Karos scoffed at her silence.
"Do not tell me he is different because he is not."
He walked away from her wanting to be with his own thoughts. As his eyes took in the trees covered in layers of snow, as well as the ground, he could not help but think of summer and all its warmth and beauty. How the highlands would be filled with fields of tall grass and sunny skies This season was nothing but deadening, no matter how much he looked upon the stars and prayed to them for mercy.
Ylon was less than a sun away. He would be home soon.
Without noticing, he bumped into someone. By the heat radiating at the contact, he knew who it was in an instance. It was the first time, in days, where they were in the same space for Fariel's fear of Ake doing something out of character, but Karos was without worry. Ake could do what he will. After all, he was nothing more than a beast. Something he best learn to remember.
He pushed passed him, but not before Ake grabbed his arm and turned him around. The aura coming from Ake was registering anger, but his eyes said something quite like an apology of some sort. Karos would not have it.
"All you are is but a beast masquerading around in human skin. How long are you going to be at this perverse game of yours?" Karos snatched his arm back. His back hit a tree with Ake's arm at his throat easing more pressure on his hold until he was gasping for air.
"Stop this!" Fariel yelled but Ake continued to press Karos against a tree speaking faster and faster as the seconds passed. He let go of Karos' throat as Fariel said some soft words.
More Eunarian words spilled out Ake's mouth as he lunged for him again.
"This is no time to quarreling Ake, Karos!"
"No, I will not have it. Look at how he looks at me," Karos spat. "This." He pointed to his chest where the gem laid. "This is what you want is it not?" His voice grew louder. "Then take it! Take it and be gone."
"Karos you do not mean that," Fariel said with some cautiousness.
"It has been days now, and all he does is threaten me, nearly choking the life from me each time. No, no, no Fariel. I will not travel with someone who despises me."
"He has despised you from the very beginning. Why does such feelings hold meaning now?" Fariel was quick to close his eyes at the slip of words.
Karos scoffed before shaking his head. "And the truth comes out now, now does it?" He posed the question more to Ake who had nothing but anger brimming in his irises. " I have had enough of you," he growled.
"And do you believe I had wanted any of this? Did you ever think I would come to think any more of you than the vile thing you call yourself, human." Ake spat.
"Vile? Vile?" Karos exclaimed. "Did you not rip the heads clear off of my comrades bodies? Did you not kill hundreds—no thousands of my people on that battlefield? I forwent the judgment of you in fear of my bias, but my bias held firm. You are a beast."
"As you killed hundreds of mine who had done you no wrong! Do not paint me in the same light as your murderous kind."
"You merely saved me for this cursed gem!" Ake's eyes faltered for a moment before Karos scoffed.
"Do not feign innocent now. This is all you wanted of me."
"Yes, and what of it?" Ake's eyes met Karos with a burning stare then. "Did you think I wanted to save you all those times and, instead, leave you to your bad decisions and mistakes? Did you think we could have been anything more than strangers? Do not make me laugh." Ake looked Karos up and down before cutting his eyes away from him.
"Is that it? Is that truly it?" Karos nodded his head before walking away. "I am going home. As soon as I am done there, I will go wherever you so please. The sooner this gem is removed, the better." He went on and spat out blood massing from the cut on his lip reopened by Ake.
Karos noticed Fariel's wide eyes on the both of them, but he paid him no mind. He was angry. No, he was more than angry. Never did he think words from him could burn so deep. All he is is fire burning everything that he touched, he thought.
He stopped in his tracks and heard Ake stopping in his as well. It dawned on the both of them. The conversation they had.
"What a scene! What a scene!" Fariel clasped his hands together. "Your anger can transcend language barriers, how funny that is! Truly, you make quite the pair." His eyes went to Karos before lingering on Ake's. "You are both angry with one another, but do not say words you do not mean out of spite."
Ake continued to walk away setting Karos into motion next. Yet, Fariel went and pulled on Karos' arm and grabbed Ake's next. "We are getting close to Ylon. Do not go and separate. All I smell is smoke and fire."
"It is a coastal village. How do you think they cook their meals?"
"I know, Karos. How long have we been friends?"
"It is hard to say, considering how I did not know of who you truly were until just a couple days ago," Karos hissed before tugging his arm away from him and walked away.
Karos took note of the way the snow would melt under Ake's feet. It was a steady reminder of how different they were, no matter how human Ake looked. He was a dragon that wanted no place nor ties to this land. Friendship was nothing more than a vulgar idea to have to begin with.
Time went by in silence. As they neared the village, all Karos could smell was fire and smoke. The smoke lifted to the skies which caused his heart to fall and panic to rise to his chest. He rushed up on the tip of the hill and saw the entire village licked in flames, trees burning like beacons of the night.
A cry tore through Karos' ears causing him break out into a run, but Fariel grabbed his arm.
"No, Karos."
The screams and wails began to multiply making him become irrational and upset.
"There are people down there, alive! They need our help!" Fariel continued to shake his head as Karos' eyes filled with angry tears. "My mother lives her! My mother is here!" He snatched his arm back and started down the hill.
Ake yanked him back.
"Karos," Analia soothed.
"No-no-no-no, I cannot just wait and sit here while my mother is down there. My mother!" He twisted his grip away from Ake but recaptured his arm just as quick. Karos gaze turned into a glower as he met with Ake's apathetic ones.
He unsheathed his sword slicing the side of Ake's cheek. A pool of silver blood leaked from his face. Ake dragged his thumb across the cut before looking at the blood.
"Karos put that away!"
Fariel put a hand up.
Before Fariel could get close to him, Ake went and pushed him to the ground ignoring the cut he took to his side. Karos nicked him at his side. Ake twisted his wrist causing him to drop the sword with a cry of pain.
"Ake, Karos!" Analia shouted.
Karos pushed Ake off of him with his knees and rolled them around until he was on top. He tried to secure Ake's arms dragging one of his hands above his head. As he reached for the other, Ake's fist connected with Karos face so hard it sent him into a small daze. His leg went around Karos' flipping them back over. It sent them over the hill causing Fariel and Analia to gasp.
Karos' back hit the tree. Ake fell into the small pool water. As Karos rose, he saw how the gash on Ake's cheek and side had not healed as he had always seen it. He looked up at Karos with a glower that he had seen at the cave, nothing but hate.
"Ake, forgi—"
Ake pushed him down into the water just before the tree beside him caught fire. The fire seeped through Ake's back causing him to clench his nails further into Karos' skin trying to muscle down the pain.
A screech sounded nearby, above, to the skies. Ake's gaze was already set on it, the flying torch of light.
"Karos, Ylana. Hatul."
Ake helped him out the water and pressed him down on the ground with his hand. "Hatul." There was a sense of worry and impatience about Ake then.
Another shrill, screech echoed into their ears causing Karos' eyes to widen. He saw its wings, its body covered in flames as it dived lower and lower. Its talons, the color of gold, and feathers made of fire. The screams of the people grew louder causing Karos to shake his head.
It could not be.
His back pressed up against a nearby tree with wide eyes. It could not possibly be true.
"The gods shall send their messengers of light to bring death and destruction upon the land." He remembered Olidus saying to him as a small child. "And then shall the land be bathed in a sea of flames and blood."
It was not the dragons as the people of Ganash perceived the inscription to be of. He watched as Ake peeled off his shirt and saw the wound had healed in an instance. The wounds on Ake's face and sides inflicted by him had not.
Fariel and Analia's voices sounded distant and far away as his daze grew stronger. The earth rumbled and shook the same way before those hellish creatures came. Its tremor sent a wave of fear down his spine as heard their cries. More of the earth broke apart, splitting into plates and large cracks.
Karos was quick to sit up and grab onto the tree. As the dust cleared, he had lost track of Ake through all the screaming, the burning, the rumbles. At first, he thought he heard the sounds of bones popping and growing. A loud, deafening roar came next.
The smell of death was fresh in the air and he knew then, the town would burn and it would not be the last.
"You see, Karos, not all fire burns the same. Some give way to life, others burn, consuming, eating away at the world," Fariel said as he grew close. "If you survive today, maybe you shall learn the difference too," he added as he walked toward the burning town.
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[A/N]
Hope this answered some questions and caused new ones to emerge~ :3