Jaydias

River Muck

Familiar

Scraped off of the underside of a dock, this river muck appears to be moving...

2400

The old Fae sat between rubble, staring up at the stars. His cloak covered him from the stares of curious creatures that emerged from the shadows around him. They carefully made their way through the metal chunks that littered the ground behind the dragon. Jaydias sighed, startling the creature that had crept close to him and caused it to escape beneath a large metal bar that was mostly rusted. He looked at his paws that held a small shimmering screwdriver he used to work with and thought back to the time before it happened.

A young green and red Fae stood in front of a large tower that was sizzling with electricity. His large arcane pink eyes stared in awe as lightning shot from one pipe to another. "You're the new worker?" a loud voice bellowed from his right, over the noise that the machines and electricity caused. "Yes, Sir! My name is Jaydias!" he yelled back. The large Guardian chuckled and led him into the towering building.

"We don't get Faes often, and when we do they usually don't last long..." he told the young dragon as they walked through a large door, labelled 'Staff Only' and he motioned Jaydias to sit down on a large chair. "You'll get your worker's ID in a second, once Amelia gets here. My name is Alex by the way, if you need my help with anything you can find me in building D32." the Guardian said as he left the Fae alone in the quiet room.

He sat there for what felt like hours before the door slammed open and a black and white Mirror walked inside. She jumped slightly when she saw the smaller dragon on the chair, but quickly regained her composure. "Ah, you must be Jaydias then? I'm Amelia, the nurse here... I also show the new kids around!" she said and picked up a metallic wing cuff with the numbers '45422244' engraved on it.

The young Fae slowly backed away when he saw the sharp instrument she had in her other paw. "This is going to sting a little, but I promise it'll be over in a second!" the Mirror said smiling. Jaydias squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed thickly as Amelia put the sharp edges on his wing and snapped the engraved wing cuffs around the bone in his left wing.

The old Fae winced at the memory and looked over his shoulder to see the slightly rusted metal cuff that held his old worker's ID. A small movement cought his attention and he turned his head to look. It was a small roan mouse chewing on a small nut. The tiny creature seemed oblivious to the destruction and death around it.

"Hey, Jay! Come here for a second..." a small grey and blue Spiral said while looking into a microscope. "Give me one second, Lil!" he answered. Lilian was his lab partner, she had been interested in a new strange substance she had found while patrolling the reactor in the core of building C13, while Jaydias had to cover her workload as well. "I... I don't think we really have that second..." she said, her voice held a worry that he wasn't used to, coming from the usually optimistic and childish female.

He left his desk and walked over to see what she had found. "I'm not sure what it is, but..." she trailed off and gestured for Jaydias to look into the microscope. The glowing cyan substance was spreading and had started to dissolve the petri dish into a thick black liquid. He gasped and shot away from the microscope.

"Lilian! You found that on the reactor, we need to tell the boss about this!" he yelled at his friend. She nodded and scooped up the substance with a thick sheet of metal so she wouldn't risk touching it. They ran through the building and stopped in front of a large metal door. Jaydias' small paws hammered against the cold metal and within seconds a tall Ridgeback opened the door. "What do you two want?" he asked with a stern voice and Jaydias was sure that they had interrupted a meeting of sorts, as he could hear several voices from within the large office.

"Lilian found a dangerous acid on one of the reactors and we think it might be dissolving the metal and it could cause the reactor to leak and explode!" the adult Fae explained to the large dragon in front of him. "It can wait until after this meeting, the reactor has been fine for thirty years! It'll be fine." he said sternly before closing the door on the two scientists.

A sudden scream startled Jaydias. He turned around to his Spiral friend in shock and saw that she had dropped the metal sheet and was holding her paw in pain. "Lil? Are you alright?" he asked, unsure if what had happened to her. "Does it look like I'm alright?!" she groaned and slowly released her paw to look at the wound. Thick bright blue acid was eating away on her flesh and a strange black liquid dripped from the edges of the wound. Jaydias looked down at the thick metal sheet, which had been completely dissolved by now. "We need to get you to Amelia!" the Fae said and dragged the shocked Spiral with him.

Once they reached the white door he pounded against it with all his might, which wasn't too much considering he was a Fae. The now elderly Mirror opened the door with a puzzled look until she saw the dazed Spiral and the paw she was holding. Amelia ushered them into her office and examined the paw that was being eaten away by the colorful substance. "I... I don't really know what to do with this if I'm being honest. I have never seen anything like this!" she said, panic clear in her voice. The black and white Mirror searched around her desks for a few seconds before returning to the young Spiral. Amelia tried removing the acid from the grey paw, but only succeeded partly. There was still a small amount of the blue liquid on Lilian's paw, but not enough to keep dissolving her paw. She then wrapped the wound in badages.

"Where did you even find that?" Amelia asked while the two were sitting on the balcony that was connected to the medicine room, waiting for Lilian to wake up. "Lil found it when she was patrolling the reactors and brought it back to the lab... We tried to tell the boss about it, but he wouldn't listen to us and said that it's not a threat to us. Then he slammed the door on us and Lil is screaming in pain next to me holding her paw! I don't know what's happening... Do you think she'll be alright?" he whispered back and Amelia sighed.

"I'm not sure, but probably... Her paw won't heal back though so she will be unable to keep working here." she answered truthfully. He nodded. "You love her, don't you?" she chuckled slightly and nudged Jaydias with her wing. His head shot up and he opened his mouth to protest, but stopped when he saw the knowing look on the Mirror's face. "Yes, I do..." he said, head hanging down in defeat. "You two should leave... This isn't a place for love! Go and find a nice place to stay in wind territory. Get a different job and forget about this hellhole." she told him sternly before leaving him to his thoughts and walking into the building to check on the Spiral.

A tear slipped from the Fae's eye and he shook his head. He should have listened to the Mirror and left with Lilian before it happened. Jaydias took off his glasses and wiped the tear off of the small lens.

"Hey..." he said. Lilan smiled up at him with tired eyes. "Hi." she answered. "Are you feeling better now?" he asked quietly and the Spiral nodded. "Yeah, my paw feels really numb, but it doesn't hurt anymore." she told him. "That's good to hear!" Amelia said as she entered the room to get a few bandages for a dragon who had cut himself on one of the machines. "Did you check the reactor, Jay?" the tired Spiral asked the Fae. "I was waiting for you to get better and-" he started, but was cut off by Lilian. "We don't have time, Jay! Go and check the reactor, it might start leaking any second..." she scolded him and he reluctantly left the Spiral he loved.

Jaydias wandered through the long corridors of building C13 and something felt off to him. It was way too quiet. There was no sizzling of electricity, no hammering of machines and no talking between workers. As he got closer to the core, the feeling of uneasiness grew. For several minutes he simply stared at the tall black door in front of him before he gathered the courage to open it.

The sight in front of him made him freeze.

The reactor was half engulfed in the glowing acid and red lights were flashing around the room. He panicked and flew over to the emergency off lever to shut off the reactor before it could explode, but he was too late. The guarding metal sheet was mostly dissolved and before he could even put a paw on the lever a deafening bang echoed through the room. For a second there was nothing. Complete silence. And then everything went white for Jaydias, as he felt himself be thrown through the air before hitting the ground hard.

Jaydias sighed and stood up. His old bones cracking as he stretched. He turned to look at the landscape in front of him. Rubble and debris now decorated the ground that used to house enormous electrical towers with powerful generators.

When he awoke he felt only pain. The Fae curled up into a ball and cried silently. It felt like his body was on fire. After hours of lying on the cold ground he slowly opened his eyes. Upon seeing the destruction around him he gasped and shot up. The sudden movement caused him to wince in pain and when he looked to his wings he froze completely. The acid had eaten away most of his wings and scales on his body.

"Lilian!" he suddenly exclaimed. He became frantic, his pain completely forgotten as he scuffled around the destroyed area, desperate to find the dragon he loved.

First, he found Alex. The old Guardian was half buried beneath a burning desk. Then he saw his boss. The Ridgeback's mouth open in either panic or anger, but knowing him Jaydias assumed the latter. He began to lose hope, as he found more and more corpses.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he found a small black and white Mirror, mostly hidden beneath a large metal bar. He hurried over and grabbed the icy metal. Pain shot through his body as he lifted the bar off of the Mirror. Both Amelia and Lilian were curled together beneath the metal. It looked like Amelia had tried to shelter the smaller dragon with her body, but it didn't help much. Jaydias turned away, wiping tears from his eyes. He sat there for several hours, the moon had started to rise and the flames around him died down. There was no noise. There was nothing.

He turned again and started walking towards a small hill. He used to stare out of the lab window with Lilian and watch the sun set over the clear water. Jaydias sighed once more as he picked up three small flowers that managed to grow between the debris and dropped them onto small mounds of dirt. All three mounds were decorated with crosses. One was carefully whittled to look like a waterlily. The second one was made to look like a tree, the twigs that represented the crown had been woven to shield the mound from rain and snow. The third one was made of metal and looked fairly rough. Jaydias smiled slightly at his handywork.

The sun began to set and the old Fae turned to look at the colors the water reflected. He laid down and curled his hole covered wings around him. "Goodnight, guys..." he whispered before drifting off to sleep.


by KyuuBird <3