The sun was almost finished setting and thunderous clouds were making the sky look as if it were already night. Lightening cracked and so did the sound of whips. The wind howled and moaned around the mountain, as did the prisoners that were chained and shackled, walking in a line up to the top, where the prison was. This was Kriton. Land of the prison kept beasts. It bordered Azdark and Oiya on the same continent. It was a grey and desolate land aside from the prisons that checkered the country. It was a very mountainous and frequently had storms. If there was any color chances were that it was a poisonous object. There were constantly new arrivals to the prisons.
Heavy set woman, with big arms and long strong legs, carried whips as they marched with the new criminals up the mountain. They shoved the prisoners around, yelling at them to move faster. Whips were also used as a threatening device. One cracked and a girl howled in pain. She was so hurt that she stumbled over her foot and various mountain rocks. She stopped and slumped on the ground trying to regain her strength. This angered a guard even more.
“Get up you senseless brat!” The guard whipped her again, and the girl let out a scream. It blended into the screams of the thunder. The girl was probably ten and her muddied hair clumped around her tiny face.
The next prisoner behind the girl cringed. She shook her side framing bangs out of her face. The rain was causing her sleek, black hair to stick to her face in a way that was beginning to annoy her. She had pointed elfin ears, and sharp teeth, similar in style to a shark. The rest of her hair was pulled into a neat but lazy ponytail. She wore a full body, black and midnight blue rouge suit. There were brown, leather shoulder guards and a leather belt with pouches. Upon arriving at Kriton you are not stripped of your wears until you entered the prison. Because the shackles held your ankles and wrists it was assumed that you wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway. The girl smirked at this. If only they knew who I was. She thought. All the while the guard was beating and yelling at the child, had she lost her mind?
“Stop it! Now!” The girl behind the battered child yelled.
Everyone looked at the elfish girl. The guard snarled in disgust and turned toward her.
“Who do you think you are?” She bellowed, spit flying out of her strong jaw.
“I believe I’m Nina. How do you do?” The girl now identified as Nina tried as much as she could to muster a mocking curtsey in the torturous chains.
The guard looked surprised in an annoyed way, her brown hair was matting in the rain and clumping around her strong, meaty square head. “Shut your mouth and step back. You have no jurisdiction over this matter.”
“No. Not until you tell me why you’re beating that girl.”
Now the guard was just plain shocked. “Because, she’s holding up my line.”
“All she did was fall. And it’s not even like she fell because of something she did. She fell because you whipped her. Now you’re still whipping her just because she can’t get up. She can’t get up because you’re whipping her. Do you see the circle you’re making here? So wouldn’t that mean you’re holding up the line?” Nina said smugly.
At this point the guard was pissed. Who was this girl to think she could talk to her so?
“And at any rate,” Nina continued on, “Why do you guards think you’re so amazing anyway? Why do you like torturing your own kind? The only reason you have this job is because Tempra raised you like cattle to become the Manish looking warts you are today.”
Everyone in line that could hear this so called Nina let out a gasp. Thunder cackled and laughed in the background. Did this girl call a woman a Man?! One of the lowest Sarkatan insults, not even Tempran’s would call someone such a foul name. It was a sin under the Sarkatan name, a horrendous act. Most Sarkatan’s haven’t even seen a man in real life before. They only heard of them in stories and legends of the past.
“Can’t you see this girl is around ten years old?” Nina continued, “Why do you think she’s here? It can’t possibly be for murder. She most likely worked in Tempra and was caught stealing food. She was being punished for trying to survive.” Nina looked disapprovingly at the stocky guard. Nina couldn’t even believe herself; normally she wouldn’t meddle in those types of affairs. Why am I sticking up for this girl? She has nothing to do with me.
The guard began to grow tired of this girls preaching. “If you don’t quit your talking right now then I will have to stop it for you.”
“Oh you and that whip? As if you could even hit me.” Nina remarked smugly. She did not take well to threats made to her.
The grisly lady snarled and gripped her whip handle tighter, “I can and I will.”
“Try me.”
The guard yanked the whip backward and brought it forth with a mighty force. Most of the girls in line gasped again. This gutsy girl had been asking for the punishment; no one was willing to save her (like anyone could save her). The other prisoners kept listening for a yelp or a howl of pain, but it never came. The whip cracked but no one cried out. They opened the eyes they had so tightly shut. Nina had the whip clutched in her shackled hands. And everyone was stunned. Who exactly was this girl?
“Wha… What?” The guardess uttered.
It wasn’t as if no one could ever clutch the whip as it came down on them; it’s just that no one had ever dared to because of the fatal repercussions.
Nina smirked, her sharp pointy teeth glistening, “I told you that you couldn’t whip me so easily.”
Nina thought for a moment, it’s best that I use a spell. I can get out of here much quicker that way. How could I even be as foolish as to have stepped into this child’s business anyway? She opened her eyes and tried to formulate a spell using Magic but nothing came to mind. She tried again. Nothing. What is going on? She thought and then looked around. That’s when she saw it. There was a purple crystal marble at the tip of the whip; the leather was braided around it. In fact, there were multiple marbles braided in down the whip, down the whole length! Nina’s mouth was a firm straight line as she looked up at the smug guard.
“Weren’t expecting those were ya?” The guard chirped.
Nina gritted her teeth. The purple stones were Block Shards. They were a Tempran made concoction of quartz, and Sprucinium. Sprucinium was a purple liquid metal that was radioactive and fatal. However, mixed with most other things the harm can be lessened. With quartz it only hurt your head, doing mild damage to the brain. It can make you drowsy, sick, and idle. It also affected, or “blocked” hence the name, the part of the brain used to Focus a spell. Urgh! I shouldn’t have judged them so blindly! Nina ranted. I can’t think… What should I do?
“I’ll tell you what you can do.” A voice hissed calmly into her ear.
“Erok?” Nina whispered lightly. She was still looking at the guard, who was daring her to even think about moving.
Erok was her miniature dragon. He had the body of a serpent and could shrink and grow to certain extents on his own whim. His scales were midnight black, and his underbelly scales were mustard orange. Nina had completely forgotten that Erok had been in her hair the whole time. Now his head was perched ever so stealthily on the top of her ear cartilage. Nina clenched her jaw. You had better have a good plan Erok. Nina thought, one way they used to communicate.
Has the wise one run short on brilliant plans? Erok snickered into her head. Nina fumed silently. All the guards were waiting on Nina’s next move. A sad decision really. Why have the upper hand and not do anything with it? Why trap a mouse in a corner and wait for him to leave?
These guards are stupider than I had originally calculated. Why did you not think before you spoke? Erok chastised.
Why are you not thinking before you speak? Nina snapped.
He chuckled, ‘tis true. My chastises will fall on deaf ears with the likes of you. Of course you wouldn’t think before you speak. Luckily I have Small of Herbs left.
Eat it and then bite me so that I can repel the Block Shards effects. Nina urged. She could see that the guards were starting to realize that they should do something instead of standing there like nitwits.
Erok laughed again, crawling into Nina’s hair once more. He shuffled around for just a second until he emerged, chewing on some leaves before swallowing. It only took a few seconds for it to be in his system, his saliva, and he crawled down Nina’s neck. He bit down into the curve of her neck and shoulder, and there the saliva entered her system, clearing her mind once more. Nina smirked, suddenly feeling renewed. She concentrated and used her refreshed brain stimulus to pump her adrenaline. She then turned and looked at the guard cockily,
“Idiots, you waited too long.” She said getting ready for an attack.
But suddenly her eyes rolled back into her head. The guards were shaken, what to do? Erok slivered out of her hair and used his tiny legs to bound off of her, off the side of the steep, jagged cliff. He fell; down into the grey fogginess of the mountain. Nina stood there motionless, her head tilted slightly up. The lashing wind of the storm whipped her hair about. Her mouth parted slightly as if she were about to say something, but with her eyes rolled back no one was quite sure what to expect.
The one guard snatched her whip from Nina’s lifeless standing body, “Kill her!” She hollered at the approaching guards, “Kill the witch dead!”
The female brutes ran to Nina, but a burst of energy sent them hurling back and braking her shackles. Their backs hit the mountain wall and they slid down in shock. White energy radiated from Nina, enveloping her. The hair on her head was floating lightly, and she looked so peaceful and serene. Her eyes rolled forward, her pupils were a shade of white, and you could barely tell they had rolled forward at all. They glowed brightly, lighting up the girls whole face.
“You will all be forgiven in The End.” She said calmly. Everyone stared at this spectacle.
One of the guards hollered, “She is a Crone! We have arrested a Crone!! Edon! Triston! Forgive me!” and then fainted. This caused terrible commotion in the line. Everyone tried to start breaking their shackles and escaping, to no avail.
“Don’t worry children of Edon. You will be forgiven. You will be forgiven at your demise. Everything must end. Embrace The End. Embrace it.” Nina said as she stepped back slowly, one foot after the other.
She dropped off the edge.
A woman screamed as well as others. People were yelling prayers to Edon, Triston and Sarkata to forgive them of their sins and to forgive Tempra. Were they going to die? The guards ignored the ignorant cries for help to the gods.
“Shut up you stupid women!” one guard yelled, “She was not The Crone! She was just merely a witch fooling you into her game of tricks!”
They inched to the cliffs edge, very carefully, to see if the girl had died on any of the sharp rocks that jutted out of the mountain. They would have to send someone to clean her up; it was nearing night so they needed to find her body soon.
Suddenly a giant serpentine dragon emerged from the fog of the mountain. He spiraled up into the sky and came back down. Large spurts of fire breathed from his mouth. He rounded back down and flew in front of the guards near the cliff’s edge. He was so long that only as his head had stopped to look directly upon the people of the edge, his body was still going up and coming back down. The setting sun’s rays bounded off of the jet scales of the dragon. His hard face and golden eyes stared at the bewildered Sarkatans before him.
“You have been let off easily.” He said to the guards aloud, though strangely his mouth did not move. “She could have easily wiped you out. But instead, at that moment of her intense strength, Edon and Triston intercepted and decided to relay a message.”
The dragon continued to stare at them. No one dared move, not even to shoot arrows at the mystical creature. Shooting a dragon would upset the gods, and not to mention that their scales were impenetrable anyway. The holy creature had also just told them that the gods themselves had given them a message of forgiveness through this prisoner- Crone.
The dragon’s blank peer was disturbing to say the least. The woman, Nina, was on his back, unconscious from the rape of her mind by the gods. Everyone watched him in awe. To see a Crone, and know that she is one, in your lifetime meant that something extraordinary was going to happen. And that wasn’t the least of it either; dragons are lucky creatures as well.
He continued, “Be thankful that the gods have mercy, for Nina does not.” And with that he flew away.
Erok had been flying for hours. He was heading to Tempra. That was where Nina said she wanted to go. The gods wanted her there to complete The Task. He knew not of what this task was but he was content as long as he could stay by her side. She was still sleeping. When she woke up she would be furious to learn that the gods had, again, taken control of her without permission. Nina was a fighter; she would have loved to beat all of the women there. Unfortunately the gods took that opportunity to overwhelm her body and recite a message. He looked around the environment he was flying in. It had recently become night and it would at least be a few more hours until they arrived at their destination. The stars twinkled in the cloudless sky, like pearls in the sea. He was tired and thirsty. They hadn’t eaten in several days. He was absolutely thrilled that they were going to take refuge in Tempra, As prejudiced as they may be, if Nina can feign a trade then we may be comfortable for a while… I have grown tired of living in the woods. Hopefully we can get a job in the palace… He thought to himself. Nina moved on his back.
“… Erok?” he heard her whisper.
“Yes Nina?” He replied.
“What happened?”
He chewed his lip, “You relayed a message from the Gods.” He replied, preparing for her rage. It never came. Something told him that she was getting near tired of being outraged at the ailments the Gods caused her. Instead of producing a big fit as usual, she sighed deeply and whispered to herself.
“Hm?” Erok asked her, arching his eyebrow.
“Nothing.” She replied.
Nina looked up and observed her surroundings. She was on Erok and they were riding in the air. She looked over to the side. It was land filled with cities and lights and music. The music was so loud that even though Erok and Nina were very high in the sky, they could still hear it. They were obviously above Tempra. Only Tempra was privileged enough to party and eat all night long just to wake up the next day and do the same thing. The buildings and architecture supported the fact that they were in Tempra as well. Very nice wooden and stone buildings stuffed the land. Very little forests were left on the continent. Speaking of forests… Nina thought. The Royal Palace was one of the only places there was one. A large forest surrounded the entire castle. Nina looked forward, and saw what she had hoped to see. The Palace, in all its shining glory loomed over the entire city. It was made out of pink granite bricks and had a garden-like essence. She had seen the Palace up close only once in her life and that was when she went to the Late Queen Aldra’s acceptance speech. Now, here I am again. She thought.
“We’re arriving at the castle Erok.” Nina said indifferently, “We need to go into the forest right outside of the castle walls.”
“What? Why? Don’t you think that’s a little too close…?”
“No. That’s exactly where we need to be. I know what I’m doing.”
Tempra was lax in security although they had the best of all the continents and countries. They had the means to be lax because they were the only country with technology and therefore made it virtually impossible for any other land to start a war against them. So with that being the case, security on intrusion was low.
Erok hushed. I wonder why she wants to land so close to the castle, we could get into a lot of trouble being so near without palace permission. He flew on. After a while they hovered over the orchard that was to the left of the castle. They flew passed the grand tower. The Queen and Mimi were quartered there.
“Land here.” She commanded.
Erok followed her order and started to head into the wooded orange orchard. A waft of fruity fumes began to evade their nostrils as Erok flew into the trees. Soon he got closer and closer to the ground, finally landing. His belly slid on the ground as his little legs tried to slow the landing as much as they could. When they got to a complete halt Nina hopped off of his back. She looked around at the fruit trees, though she would not openly admit it, she just wanted to run around and eat every palace crop in sight. But being the stealthy one she was, she only picked about six; three for her and three for Erok. She sat down and started peeling the fruits.
“You will go back in my hair,” She said not looking back at Erok, “And stay there until I tell you it’s safe to come out.”
Erok silently watched her, and nodded his head.
She pocketed the peels, “Also, just go along with anything I do.”
He nodded again.
Nina turned and looked at him, “Everything is almost over the gods said. But I think that even when I’m gone there’ll be much to do still.”
Erok felt a pang, “Don’t say that Nina… The gods won’t kill you until they feel like you’ve done everything.” He said.
“I’m almost done. They told me everything is almost over now Erok.” She ripped the orange skin harshly, squashing it a little in the process. She took a deep breath and tried to continue calmly, “I know this. Trust me. I’ll just hurry up and do these last few Tasks and then…”
“Well they can’t let you go until you’ve found a replacement Crone!” Erok tried, “Just prolong that-“
“How long do you think that I can prolong a Task before gods find out? Answer me that Erok.”
Erok looked away. He knew that pushing the subject even more would only make her more upset. But he just didn’t want her to go. Who would I have left? He wondered.
She sucked her teeth and sighed again, “I don’t want to go either.” She finished quietly.
Erok looked at her. She was right, there was nothing she could do except complete the Tasks and be done with it.
“Now eat up,” She said, “Tomorrow will be a long day.”
She threw the oranges at Erok and proceeded to eat her own.