Pith, as
The Ancient
Kat, as
The Young
Eclipse, as
The Friend
Ahmaladeus, as
The Progenitor
Scorn, as
The Traitor
Delta Ivildran, as
The Loved
A deep quiet had fallen upon the underground facility, scorch marks and rent metal lined the hallways, dim light from runes etched onto the ceiling illuminated drying blood splatter. Just hours ago the access tunnel to Gernsabella's hatchery had been a war zone as several dragons of an unknown affiliation stormed through. A soft staccato of hurried claws clacked down the tunnel from the direction of the entrance. Kat had hurried from the outpost she was stationed at, a special request she had made to be closer to Delta, No, Ivildran. The Ridgeback had been so ignored in more recent times, all of the clan's newest members had hatched elsewhere and the hatchery was usually vacant. Kat had just wandered in one day and found him skulking about patrolling for intruders. If she hadn't been muttering to herself and shouted mid sentence the word to make him stand down he might have killed her. Instead he just stood and starred before going back to patrolling the site. She just watched him for awhile, followed him around for a bit, then started trying to talk to him. He ignored her at first, occasionally gave an answer after a hour or two, and eventually answered with full sentences. The Wildclaw had never been told about the hatchery, about anything that happened in it, about the only dragon left to guard it. She made trips into its depths when she could. Feeling similar, in a way, to Ivildran's situation. She was kept away from the clan, her habit of messing things up for everyone else considered too much of a hassle for her to be around. She always felt isolated and ignored, but Delta, no no no, Ivildran, was willing to let her stick around, even seemed to enjoy her company. She had spent months trying to learn his real name, Ahmaladeus had ingrained it in him to go by the designated experiment title Delta. She had to pry the information from him about why he never left the hatchery and why he was always down there. Eventually she made the request to be moved closer to the hatchery which was granted on grounds that it would move her further away from general operations. She spent what time she could in the hatchery getting to know Ivildran, getting away from the unhappy faces at the outpost.
The Wildclaw hurried along, she hadn't been down the hallways in a few months at Ivildran's request. He wouldn't tell her why, but asked that she understand it was for her own safety. Her mind raced as she did, hoping Del.. Ivildran was alright. She wasn't sure who had arrived before her, the damage done to the hallways wasn't something Delta would have caused. Probably the execution squadron had been dispatched, Kat felt a tingle climb up from her tail tip thinking that Marrow might be around. She was scared of the dragons that were more unstable than the accelerant in her pistols, part of why she almost didn't mind being kept at a distance. She kept her pace up until she came across a section of hall where the runes had been destroyed causing it to be pitch black. She knew how the hall bent and where she was, but she hesitated, the thought that something like Marrow was lurking in the dark worried her. She shook off her worry as she reached up to her goggles and slid them down over her eyes, one of her claws fumbling to find a switch on the top. Steel, the engineer from the shifting expanse, had made them, apparently they used a few pieces of technology originally used in Ivildran. They were useful, meant to be used for fighting in the pitch black of the Shadow flight's domain. The switch made a sharp click and the hallway flashed into a monochrome of green revealing long furrows dug into the floor. They went for quite a way even disappeared around the corner. Kat took it slow, not wanting to alert anything that might be in her path. She edged her head around the corner and let out a piercing screech as she shuffled to the far wall going for her weapons. The weapons flashed with a concussive blast, their payload impacting the Mirror with its outstretched claws down the hall. Kat stood and starred as her heart slowed down, starred at the corpse she had just shot. Taking time to look down the hall she realized that there wasn't anything living in the hall besides herself. The mirror before her wasn't lunging at her, no, they had been drug around the corner all the while trying to gain purchase with their claws. She could see bone showing through in places, large chunks of flesh were missing everywhere, and one set of eyes had been gouged out. Behind the mirror and against the opposite wall were two Fae skeletons, tattered cloth of once fine mage robes hung off of them. Kat swallowed hard as she got herself moving forward again. She kept her mind off the similar sights by reloading her weapons, cleaning out the burnt paper from the top cylinder of the three, carefully plucking a slime coated ball from a pouch and placing it back in along with a package of the alchemical substance. She noticed eight other bodies, none of them larger than a mirror, but she made certain not to look too closely. Her guns slid closed with a sharp click and she placed them into the straps inside her coat once more. Just down the hall was the opening into the hatchery chambers where Ivildran would hopefully be only weary from battle. She could hear someone talking from within, an unfamiliar voice, she tensed and wrapped her claws around her gun as she stepped forward towards the voice and the dim light of the Hatchery.
Ahmaladeus paced back and forth keeping one set of her eyes locked on Scorn, the abyss trooper starred back from within a ring of runes emblazoned on the ground around him. The hatchery was a mess, incubation pools were broken, rancid fluids spilled onto the floor, cables for various equipment lay about, some of them sparking with harnessed lightning. The room was dimmer than normal, the runes used for illumination having been damaged in the fight that occurred. The body of a Ridgeback lay to one side covered in deep lacerations, several other corpses were strewn about in various states, some baring the marks of elemental damage caused by magic. Another Ridgeback, clad in various golden armor pieces sat in one corner, his breathing ragged and head hung low to the ground.
"Scorn," Ahmaladeus barked. "why did you let them escape?" She was unusually tense and outwardly angry. The clan matriarch was normally calm even during the odd raid, but this was different. The fact that she wasn't trying to hide her rage meant something major had happened.
"The beast wouldn't listen." Scorn replied through gritted teeth. "Nothing harder to understand than that."
"Don't try and play me for a fool," Ahmaladeus stopped and locked all four of her eyes on the caged Skydancer. "I made those seals flawlessly. The shade obeys your every whim, more so than the rest of your brood. Are you trying to say that my design is somehow flawed?"
"I'm saying that perhaps your machinations are too grand." Scorn sneered. The matriarch's eyes flashed pink as arcane energy crackled up from the runes causing the skydancer to roar in pain. He held firm straining against some invisible force before collapsing to the floor being forced to look up without being able to lift his head.
"You, YOU.." Ahmaladeus nearly roared before suddenly regaining her composure. "..poor, simple child." She cooed walking up to stand over the Skydancer's head. "You have no idea what you've done. You could hardly be expected to understand what your queen does for you."Scorn growled weekly in response baring his teeth.
"Don't you dare pity me, don't pretend to pity the monster you made." He responded struggling to move, but coming nowhere close. The mirror standing over him laughed before lowering her head next to his.
"I don't pity you," she whispered. "I expect better from you. I expect my soldiers to appreciate the gifts I have given them, and to willingly utilize them at my behest." Her head tilted away as she looked down on him, not from height, but from a position of authority.
"Those that don't follow my will are to be destroyed. So, I will forgive you this time, but I will not be denied the fruits of my research." She chuckled as she drew herself to full height and turned away from him.
"Go ahead, torture me, you can't do anything worse to me than the nightmares the abomination inside me inflicts. You'll never know what has become of your precious project." Scorn just watched her keep strutting away from him, an ire building up in his eyes. "Well, what say you?" He called out just before another pulse of energy welled up around him pushing him harder against the ground.
"Hush, child, I have my ways." Ahmaladeus replied in her normal, calculated tone. "We only have to wait now." Scorn just growled in contempt, unable to do anything else.
Kat had clung to the shadows, listening in as the clan's leader had an exchange with a Skydancer she didn't know. Though, it sounded like he was one of their clan, she knew about experiments on clan members after talking with Ivildran. Though she didn't understand anything about the shade, only vague legends about something of the same name. Well, it was at least clear that something had been stolen, was it an egg? That would make sense, this was the hatchery, and Ivildran had told her to stay away. She wasn't getting anywhere lurking like she was, so she figured she would just walk up and ask. The Wildclaw padded out of the tunnel and into the light, and just as she was about to call out her presence her foot caught on a cable. Down she went in a flurry of limbs as she tried to catch herself she only managed to get wrapped up in the cable that tripped her. She ended up flat on her back, one wing pinned to her side, a hind leg tied to her tail, and her forelimbs tied together. The noise she made didn't go unnoticed.
"Now what? Did you leave one alive, Scorn?" Ahmaladeus had the barest hint of irritation in her voice.
"N-n-no, it's just me, Kat." The Wildclaw called out as she rolled over trying to get untangled.
"I saw bursts of light on the horizon, all the way at the outpost. I came to investigate." She managed to get a claw free, enough so to help her start untying herself. When she eventually looked up from the twisted wire she came face to face with the clan matriarch.
"Great, you really are here." The mirror sighed. "More children with gifts they barely understand."
"Ahmaladeus..." She said a bit dumbfounded.
"Address me properly or not at all." Ahmaladeus snapped, not wanting to deal with the current intrusion.
"S-s-sorry, my queen," Kat squeaked. "I-I-I meant no disrespect. I, uh, reporting for orders?" The two watched each other for awhile, Kat unsure if she had permission to untangle herself and Ahmaladeus measuring if the wildclaw before her was capable enough.
"Get yourself untangled, perhaps you can be of use." Gernsabella's matriarch admitted, turning away from the heap of a dragon on the ground. Kat nodded and started working at the restraints again, the entire process taking her quite some time. When she finally stood up again Ahmaladeus had taken a perch on one of the rock formations jutting from the ground. She was starring down at the Skydancer pinned to the floor while several ethereal fairies worked at the feathers on her wings. In all cases she seemed far more relaxed than she had been earlier, but Kat still cautiously approached from her side.
"You said you had orders for me?" She asked, earning the attention of one of the matriarch's eyes. "My, Queen." She added realizing the attention wasn't the good kind, and sure enough the eye swiveled back towards the skydancer on the ground.
"Orders is such a strong word here." Ahmaladeus said in a soft, low voice. "I would call it more of a request, a very simple one." She paused to look down at the wild claw. "Tell me why you're really here."
Kat stepped back stealing a glance over at Ivildran. "I saw flashes of light, like I said, my queen." Ahmaladeus looked over at the Ridgeback, now laying against the wall, his breathing still labored.
"You know about Delta, odd, I never remember you being told where the nesting grounds are. Unless.." The matriarch trailed off looking back to Kat. "Your request to move to the outpost was to be closer to here?" Kat just nodded, not sure if she needed to justify herself, or say anything. "Strange, and what is here that is so important to you?" Ahmaladeus inquired shifting all but one of her eyes towards Scorn.
"Well, the big guy over there, actually." Kat said looking towards the Ridgeback, she was worried about him, but knew better than to run off while talking to the Matriarch. "My queen!" She hurriedly added realizing she hadn't been formal yet.
"I can't fathom why Delta would be important to you, but such as it is, dismissed." The matriarch waved a fore claw in a motion for Kat to leave, but the Wildclaw just shuffled in place a bit.
"Uh, my queen?" She asked timidly. "Ivil... I mean, Delta, doesn't look like he's doing well. Did he get hurt during whatever happened here?"
"Inncolent," Ahmaladeus huffed, but answered having nothing better to be doing at the time. "He's dying because he failed his given task."
"Why, how is that useful?" Kat responded abruptly.
"Proof of concept, child. Having soldier's who are completely devoted to me makes my life easier." Her full attention diverted to the Skydancer still pinned before her. "Makes things such as betrayals completely unheard of, might even improve the manners of my subordinates." The last part was directed at Kat who promptly tensed realizing she hadn't addressed the matriarch in the proper way.
"My queen, surely there's something you could do for him!" Kat blurted out, at least remembering to begin with a proper address.
"Child, it is amusing you care so much about him that you test my patience so." Ahmaladeus said in an even tone. "If you really want to help him, then sit, and most importantly be quiet. Perhaps you can show me that you aren't completely useless tonight." Kat went to express her thanks, but withheld her voice, she knew she was already close to complete dismissal from the clan.
A few hours passed, Kat stayed next to Ivildran, though she couldn't get him to react to her presence. She spent some time whispering to him, but he just sat there. She couldn't tell if he was in pain, it sounded like it, but there wasn't much she could do. She was curled up next to him, patching the wounds she could with what supplies she had when two more dragons came soaring down from the ceiling. One was difficult to see save for their white hood, the other one was clad in earthen hued robes, an overwhelming smell of freshly turned soil followed them in. Kat pulled her weapons, not sure of what was going on, but she didn't fire giving the lack of reaction from Ahmaladeus. The Matriarch barely moved, shifting her head in the direction of the new comers before turning back towards Scorn.
"Eclipse, Pith, you two have kept me waiting." The mirror stood up from her spot and hopped down to the ground below.
"Sorry, my queen," The dark colored skydancer started with a bow, wooden beads clattering around his neck. "Pith became distracted on the way here."
"Ahhh, yes, by a young traveler as it turns out." The nocturne wheezed, his voice dry, emphasized by the dust that drifted on his breath. "He was scouring all of the regions for new ways of cooking common ingredients." Pith abruptly stopped when he noticed Ahmaladeus shooting him a look. "Right, the details of frying Pangolin in the shell can wait. I assume the corpses around here contain something you want?" The Nocture moved along, using a wing to support the weight on his one side. A forelimb was mostly missing, a stump of cracked earth all that remained of it.
"Why, yes, they do." She announced looking triumphantly down at Scorn. "The location of where my project went. Study as many as you need, I just need to know where they were going to return to." The pinned Skydancer barred his teeth, but said nothing. Pith hobbled over to the nearest body and placed his intact fore claw on it. His eyes faded over, much like his probable age had suddenly caught up to him. He stood still as he muttered about the memories he was seeing. Kat had since stuffed her pistols back into her coat and gone back to what aid she could give her Ridgeback friend. She only had supplies meant for a dragon her size, but she was trying what she could. She didn't notice that the new Skydancer had made his way over to her.
"Would you like some help?" He asked, causing Kat to jump a little. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." Eclipse stepped back trying to give the wild claw space.
"Oh, I do, actually, if you can." She said looking over to the skydancer, as he approached cautiously this time. He kept his hood almost completely over his muzzle as he maneuvered around her to look at the wounds she was tending to. A practiced claw reached up to adjust the bandages that had been put in place and then tie them off. Shortly after the Skydancer placed a claw over another wound, a gentle light radiating from underneath it.
"I'm afraid I can't do all that much. I can tend to the wounds I can see, but... this guy is unique." Eclipse spoke slowly, focused on his healing spell.
"I know," Kat started "Ahmaladeus, I mean, our queen, made it clear he was dying."
"I'm sure she thinks it's a waste of supplies too." Eclipse stated shifting his efforts to another gash.
"She actually told me I might be able to save him." Kat was doing her best to stay out of the way, she was no healer and barely able to patch her own wounds.
"I would be careful," The Skydancer warned. "but I will not stop you from saving your friend."
"Thanks, I'm Kat, by the way." She said looking over to the Skydancer, and for a brief moment she caught his eye color. His kind heart made sense, now that she could see his golden eyes. He shifted suddenly when he noticed she was looking over at him.
"Eclipse." He said. "I'm a scout for the clan, and you, I don't think I've seen you, Kat, it's a pleasure."
"Well, yeah," Kat replied a bit disheartened. "pretty much everyone else in the clan thought I was a nuisance. I was always assigned to remote places, kept out of sight so I wouldn't embarrass the queen."
"I understand," Eclipse assured her. "I was considered a bad omen among my flight, the dark coloration of my scales made some nervous. I was always kept at a distance, and not much changed when Ahmaladeus made arrangements with my clan. Though now I generally don't want to be around the clan, not that many of them want to be around each other as is. Though, I've made plenty of friends on my own journeys, perhaps you just need to travel."
"That sounds like a..." Kat was going to agree, but was cut short by Ahmaladeus.
"Eclipse, Kat, your presence is required." The matriarch called out. They both finished what they were currently doing and hurried over. Pith was scratching something in the stone with his good claw.
"What is it, what do I need to do, m-my queen?" Kat asked trying to maintain a proper calm.
"Here," Pith coughed. "Their memories were of a few different clans, but all of them remembered darkness and flame. The tactics of the abyss, but one knew something else. A mirror pulled into the darkness, the organizer, brought these survivors together. Not from hatred, but from a warning, the words of the feathered demon. A greater evil than he, a black shelled egg, an amalgamate of souls. Grown here, so the demon whispered. They came for it, but not to destroy it, they seek to unleash it." Pith was scratching out some kind of map, landmarks that he could remember from the dead around him.
"Those FOOLS!" Scorn roared out. "They were meant to stop that beast from being born!"
"I see," Ahmaladeus cooed. "you were jealous of your new siblings, weren't you."
"No..." Scorn growled. "I refuse to let you create such a monster unhindered. Even the gods burry their quarrels should something like that walk the lands."
"How precious," Ahmaladeus chuckled. "you still care. That doesn't matter, however, you don't get to decide. Besides it's those protective feelings that will see this through. Isn't that right, Kat?" The matriarch was taking delight in Scorn's building rage. He had tried to ruin her experiments, to stop her variant of an emperor from being born. Now some fool was trying use it against them, not that they would be able to control it. The strange twist was going to be who she sent to retrieve the egg that contained her precious test subject. The Wildclaw that she had almost banished from her clan, driven by the need to save that miserable hatchery guard. Sometimes it was intriguing to see how attachment could affect the performance of one of her soldiers.
"Here, this is all I can tell you." Pith spoke with a rasp. "I know the general direction, and the landmarks they were going to use for a rally point. They were going to meet others from their group and go elsewhere, but that I do not know."
"Hold up," Eclipse interjected. "I know some of these places, I think. My queen, let me go with Kat, I know the area, we might be able to catch them before they meet their fellows." Ahmaladeus considered the request for a few moments before responding.
"Eclipse and Kat, you will be in charge of retrieving my project. You are to return the black egg unharmed and in viable condition, otherwise." She paused looking to Kat. "You will be unable to save Delta."
"Absolutely, my queen!" Kat shouted before starting toward the exit.
"Kat, up this way, it will be faster!" Eclipse called out taking wing, intending to use the tunnel the intruders had made to gain entry. The Wildclaw tripped and went tumbling trying to halt and turn. She promptly picked herself up and took wing hurriedly following her newest friend. Once the two were gone Ahmaladeus sighed, she would have to have Belladona watch their progress closely, just in case. Pith had begun sifting through the memories of the other dragons he already hadn't, his eyes already glazed over in a trance.
"So," the matriarch said with a predatory grin " where shall we begin with your punishment, Scorn?"
Topside the two winged through the sky, rushing towards Dragonhome. That's where the survivors had intended to meet. If they were fast enough they might be able to catch the thief before the rest of their patchwork clan got involved. If not, the hunts would begin and time was not on their side.
"Hey, Eclipse?" Kat called out over the wind rushing past them. "Thanks for helping." Eclipse looked over to her, his hood blown back by the air flow.
"Helping is what I do." He replied. "I hope that we won't need to ask, but I might know some others that will help us track down the ones we're looking for. I just don't want to get them involved in this, if we can help it."
"I understand..." the wildclaw called back a bit defeated.
"Kat, we'll save him." Eclipse assured pulling in closer. "I promise."
"R-r-right, we got this..."
