Chapter 21: Stricken and Stranded
Pennar couldn't make sense of what was around him. He felt equally hot and cold, both shivering and sweating. He was hardly conscious most of the time, and when he was, he found it too painful to move.
Sometimes, he was more aware of those around him than others. Now was on of these times. Dremasul was in whatever shelter had been built around him, keeping a safe distance. He could make out the lanturns that followed the wildclaw far better than he could the wildclaw himself.
The lanterns struck Pennar as odd. Had they always shone so bright? And sometimes he swore he could hear faint voices from them, but that had to be the fever. He had learned by now he couldn't trust his senses in this state. The hallucinations and nightmares that plagued him day and night were nasty.
"D...sul..." He attempted to croak. "Wha... going... happen...... me..."
There was silence for a long time.
"I don't know." Came the quiet reply. Pennar had never heard a voice so bleak.
"The lanterns...." He rasped. "What.... are..... they...."
"They are just lanterns." Dremasul said, a little too quickly.
"I'm a.... dead dra... on....." Pennar pleaded. "no need.... to lie........"
Another pause.
"They are my sons." Dremasul explained. "The souls of my two sons. My first clutch fell very very ill soon after they hatched. My daughter made it, but my sons..." His voice broke from emotion. "A necromancer trapped them in these lanterns, and threatened to destroy them if I didn't do what he wanted. I could handle him hurting my soul, but my poor, innocent sons..." He shook his head. "I did so much to save them. Too much. Pennar, I killed so many innocent dragons, and stole their souls instead of setting them free."
There was another long silence.
"I'm free from Id now. He's been defeated, and all the souls he's collected have been set free, but my sons, they chose not to leave my side. They are still just children, too young to go on their own." Dremasul cast the lanterns a sorrowful glance. "I can't hear them all the time, but they are there. They remind me of what I've done to get them there, and what I must never do again. I have sworn that from now on, my penance must be to protect souls, and see them to safety once the time comes for them to leave their bodies."
When they.....ie.... you mean" Pennar asked.
"Yes, when they die." Dremasul said softly.
"When I.... Can you..."
"Of course." Dremasul vowed. There was no sugar-coating his words. He knew of no survivors from the Wyrmwound Plague.
"..on't let..." Pennar struggled to get his last words out, he was feeling his consciousness slipping again. " ...Palla... et into...... .....rouble....."
"I'll keep her safe too."
"It's so stupid! Why won't Dremasul let us in there?" Palla snorted angrily and dug her talons into the fleshy earth.
"Do you want to get what he has? Do you want to die?" Pyrite shot back, getting irritated at her constant complaining about her brother.
"No, but I don't want him to die either!" Palla insisted.
Pyrite didn't say anything. He just turned away so the other wildclaw couldn't read his expression.
"Who are you anyways. Who is Pyrite?" Palla asked, trying to calm herself down.
"You seriously don't know?" Pyrite scoffed. "I'm the leader of the Darktouched Chimeras, the most vicious gang around these parts! I'm a master thief and a dangerous opponent."
"So you've seen a lot of this sort of thing then?"
"Of course!" Pyrite sounded indignant.
"If you're a gang leader, why are you with Dremasul." Palla asked.
"He needed my help." Pyrite lied. "I'm doing a job for him. We got a bit sidetracked by you, but we'll be on our way soon."
"Can I come with you? I'd love to learn how to be more tough, to prove myself to others." Palla began to get excited. "Let me join the Darktouched Chimeras!"
"To do so, you need to pass a series of brutal tests." Pyrite stuck his nose in the air and looked down as Palla smugly. "And once you join, you must leave everything behind. Even your name, and your brother."
Something within Palla hardened. "Soon I won't have a brother anymore. And if I do, surely someone tough enough to survive the Wyrmwound Plague is tough enough to be a Darktouched Chimera."
Next update, Pennar's fate will be revealed, influenced by your votes. For those who still haven't voted,
here's the link again.
The next thing I have to say contains potential spoilers, so read at your own risk.
Confession time. Palla and Pyrite are ready to breed, and have been for the past week or so. This relationship is the most slow-burn thing I've ever written and at this rate it's going to be months before the next generation of my alphabet legacy challenge is born, but I'm too stubborn to do anything but wait for the timing to be right. This arc will be coming to a close somewhat soon though, at least in favour of a new arc, then we'll probably return to these two before jumping into an arc about their children probably. But then again, this arc has already been moving more slowly than I was expecting, so we'll see.
