Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend (80 page)

She watched as three vines shot forward directly for her, when suddenly there was a shrill cry from behind followed by a heavy thud on the ground. DiNiya watched as the vines fell limp almost at her feet, which had come to a stop when they felt the impact rattle beneath them. Not hesitating, she spun around and saw the DraGon pinned to the ground, the base of her skull in the jaws of an AcaroVora, the EeNarin descendent of acrocanthosaurus, and more commonly known as the Ridgebacks for the elongated vertebrae of their spine. It was a welcome sight and one that could not have come a moment sooner.

LemaRes struggled in the powerful predator’s jaws but was unable to break out of the DyVorian’s superior strength. Then, right as DiNiya would have predicted, her flame pulsed, but it was quickly matched by that of the AcaroVora, whose green flame began to overtake hers. With an impressive display of physical prowess, he swung his head around and sent the DraGon crashing through several yards of forest.

DiNiya felt the ground beneath her shudder but did not take her eyes off the scene even for a moment. The Ridgeback stood his ground, waiting for what he knew would no doubt be an inevitable retaliation. Seconds later, a stream of fire came rocketing towards him. The Ridgeback spread his legs, dug his claws into the ground, and unleashed a spiraling torrent of his own, which collided with the DraGon’s. There was a deafening blast as two immense powers collided and pushed against each other in an effort to overwhelm their opponent.

At first it was unclear to DiNiya who had the upper hand, but soon she saw the green flame gain ground and begin to overtake the blue. With a mighty surge from the Ridgeback, the blue flame was quickly consumed within his. LemaRes screamed as she was struck center-mass by the green stream of fire and sent crashing back yet again through a hundred yards of forest.

Readjusting his stance, the Ridgeback reared back and arched his head up, letting out a triumphant roar as green fire swirled around him and whipped up a powerful wind.

Shielding her eyes, DiNiya approached the large predator cautiously, unclear as to whether she had truly been saved or had just traded one danger for another. She was well aware that she was in wild territory, meaning the Ridgeback here did not have to adhere to laws set by the unified tribes about preying upon each other. Out here it was perfectly acceptable to adhere to the ancient ways of indiscriminant predation.
Was this an act of valor or territoriality
?

AcaroVora were species that predated most of the modern-day predators in EeNara, having evolved several millions of years prior to those such as the TarBoranx, but were still younger than others like the StyNovora and BorMax. DiNiya knew that this particular species was known for its abrasive nature, which often resulted in them biting first and asking questions later or sometimes not at all.

“Umm…excuse me,” she said in a tiny voice. The Ridgeback arched his head back and glanced down at her with his left eye. “Thank you for saving me. That is to say…well, I realize that may not have been your intention, being that this is probably your territory and so you were probably just defending it from what you figured was an intrusion from another large predator like yourself, but…well…thank you all the same.”

The Ridgeback turned his whole body so he was facing her and looked down inquisitively at the little SaVarian. DiNiya felt the now all-too-familiar sense of dread in the pit of her gut return, as she feared that the powerful predator was eyeing her with a little too much interest.

“You’re KaNarin, aren’t you?” he finally said, crouching down slightly.

“Ye…yes, that’s right! You recognized me…how?”

“Your attire, of course. It’s indicative of the SaVarians of your mountain tribe. The question is, what are you doing so far from home, with…what was that thing, anyway? I suppose I forgot to ask before I killed it,” he said, turning back to look in the direction his enemy had been dispatched.

“Well, this may sound strange, but it was a DraGon,” she said in a manner that implied she no longer cared how that sounded.

“A DraGon, eh? Hmm, I always heard they were all dead, extinct.”

“By the looks of it, that one is, at least.”

He turned back to her, now bringing his head down to her level. “That still doesn’t answer the question of what you’re doing out here, or who you even are.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, blushing slightly. “You saved my life and I haven’t even introduced myself. I am DiNiya of the KaNar Tribe, but you already figured out that last part.”

“I am RemoKy of no tribe. Pleasure to meet you, DiNiya…wait a moment. Your eyes…they’re red.”

Looking uneasy, DiNiya glanced away and responded offhandedly. “That they are…”

“But then…does that mean you are of the red fl—”

“I apologize, but could I impose on you and ask if you could escort me back to KaNar? I was taken captive several days after my tribe was attacked by a horde of DraGons!”

“You mean there are more of them?”

“Yes. We managed to kill a number of them in the battle, but we are unsure as to how many there were to begin with.”

“Hmm, I wonder if this has anything to do with what has been driving many of the herds east.”

“What do you mean?”

“Something in the far west has been disrupting the ecology and forcing it this way. We’ve been trying to figure it out for a while now here in these parts, but because the tribes and solitary predators are not part of a settlement, they refuse to talk with any of us. They won’t even let us come near them without going on the defensive.”

“We saw the same thing in KaNar. It started with a few mysterious deaths but grew worse over time. By the time we realized we were up against something really serious…it was too late.”

RemoKy looked at her for a moment. He was still unsure as to what to make by all this. True, he had saved her, but it had been purely by chance. He had smelled a foreign predator in his territory and instinctively came to defend it.  He had not expected to find an ancient war-era monster or a young SaVarian so far from home. At 387 years of age, he had grown accustomed to a life of routine, one where things flowed according to a basic daily pattern. Get up, eat, patrol the forest, eat again, patrol some more, get together with old acquaintances here and there, eat some more, and then finally start to unwind as the day drew to a close. This day, however, defied his personal routine to such an offensive degree that his mind was still struggling to catch up. With a heavy sigh, he finally said, “I can lead you to the end of my territory, but you will have to go alone beyond that, or seek help from another.”

DiNiya felt her heart sink a little but knew why he was so reluctant to take her back all the way. “I understand. I promise you no harm will come to you by my tribe. VayRonx is our alpha and he is an honorable leader.”

“True as that may be, those of us who live in accordance with the old ways must always err on the side of caution. I’m sorry. It’s nothing personal. Now, shall we?”

RemoKy lowered his head so she could climb on but was suddenly startled by a loud rustling off to his left. Whipping his head around, he caught a glimpse of a thick vine shooting out of the forest, just as it drove itself through his chest.

“RemoKy!” DiNiya cried as he fell on his side, coughing up blood. It was then she heard something that struck her with an almost crippling sense of panic—the furious cry of a DraGon, LemaRes. With the sun now gone, the forest seemed alive with dark foreboding shadows, any one of them potentially being the form of her enemy shrouded in darkness. With no flame to enhance her vision in the dark, there was no way to tell. She stepped back several feet before bumping into the fallen mass that was RemoKy. She quickly turned to look at him again and saw that he was struggling to raise his head. “Can you get to your feet?” she asked, placing a hand on his face.

“Not too sure I can even stay alive,” he said. “The vine…it’s punctured my lungs…I’m bleeding out internally.”

“No,” she said through gritted teeth. “You don’t deserve this! You saved my life! It’s my fault this happened to you…if only I wouldn’t have made her land!”

“Enough,” RemoKy said in a commanding, yet pain-laden voice. “I am a warrior, and I alone made the choice to fight. I am ready to die if need be.” Suddenly he fired two blasts of fire from his nostrils, which exploded thirty yards off to his left. Rising into the air from the explosion was LemaRes. DiNiya turned back to RemoKy, who was rising to his feet, saying, “Doesn’t mean I’m in any hurry to.” With that, he looked at his advisory before his flame pulsed and the vine buried in his chest was burned to nothing. “Looks like I’ll just have to take you apart.”

“I’d love to see you try, DyVorian,” LemaRes said, giving her wings a powerful flap.

“You will. In fact…I think I’ll start by ripping off those wings of yours.”

“Fool, the accuracy of that last attack was no coincidence! You’re bleeding to death even as we speak. You don’t have long, and the more you fight, the sooner the inevitable will come to pass. Face it, you’re already dead!”

RemoKy seemed unfazed by hearing what he had already surmised for himself. “Right you may be, DraGon, but who says I’m the only one who has to die tonight? Besides, even if I die before I kill you, this world is filled with far more of those like myself than it is of those like you. No matter where you go, you’re in a world not of your own, surrounded by enemies closing in.” RemoKy laughed. “Face it, DraGon, if you manage to make it out of this fight alive, you’ll just be living on borrowed time. Die here and now, and you’ll be sparing yourself a far worse fate.”

“Are you finished?” LemaRes asked, crossing her arms.

“Never,” replied the Ridgeback, an exchange that DiNiya took as having a larger meaning.

“Well, I’m done indulging your little delusions of grandeur, so if you don’t mind, I’m just going to wrap this up and take back what is mine.” Two roots erupted from the ground on either side of RemoKy, driving themselves into his sides and raising him into the air. “Perhaps you can get a better look at the big picture from up there. Seems to me your kind has been crawling around in the dirt for so long that you’ve lost perspective on just where it is you fit in it. But don’t worry, I’ll be happy to remind you.”

“Nothing that bleeds has the right to lord over anything else,” RemoKy said, straining his head to look down and locking eyes with LemaRes. “Never forget that, DraGon.”

LemaRes glared back at him.
Even in death this creature still speaks without any sense of fear, or shame. He actually believes his demise is a noble one, and serves to protect something worth keeping alive. I hate him…I hate all of them!
She could feel the warmth of blood flowing slowly from the wounds on her body, and was suddenly enraged by her own mortality. “May the Holy Mother damn your flame for all eternity!”

DiNiya watched, powerless, as the roots flung his body high into the air, raining blood down on her, before coiling around one another to form a single thick vine, and with a sickening crack, smashed into him, sending him sailing into the distance and out of sight.

She stood motionless, when suddenly she felt her legs give out from underneath her. Collapsing to her knees, she stared blankly at the ground, blood dripping from her face, staining the forest floor. She was pulled from her trance by heavy footfalls that quickly approached. She reared back weakly, and took in the towering form of LemaRes, who stood above her with a look in her eye that seemed devoid of compassion, remorse, or any feeling of connection from one living thing to another. Without saying a word, she reached down and grabbed DiNiya, then with a flap of her wings and pulse of her flame, she pushed off the ground and into the air, penetrating through the canopy to the cool, dry night air, whereupon she opened her wings to their full spread. She gave one final look at DiNiya, who did not even bother to look back, but rather just hung limply in her hand. All will to resist was now gone.

With a nod, LemaRes exploded into blue fury and dashed across the sky to where the sun falls.

The night on the river had been a difficult one for Rex and the others. All were supposed to take shifts keeping watch while the others slept, but they had all been so restless that they had only been able to grab the occasional hour of actual sleep here and there. Rex was feeling especially nervous, constantly keeping one eye on the sky, half-expecting the entire DraGon horde to suddenly swoop down on them. At one point he managed to fall asleep for twenty minutes, and had a terrible nightmare where his feet were chained to the floor and he was forced to watch DiNiya being pulled limb from limb by the DraGon who took her. When he tried to unleash his flame, it did not come, and soon all he could see was the limbless torso of DiNiya, whose agonizing scream filled his head to the point where he felt as if he would come apart right then and there. He must have been stirring in his sleep or making some sort of noise, for he awoke to see AnaSaya sitting over him while gently stroking the side of his face. He blinked and stared back at her before slowly sitting up and rubbing his eyes. A faint glow in the sky behind them indicated that dawn was near. “Sorry,” he said, cracking his neck.

“For what?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“For waking you.”

“I’m the one who woke you, silly,” she replied with a smile. “Besides, I haven’t been able to sleep really, so it’s fine.”

“A lot of scary things out here in the real world,” he said, adjusting himself so he could sit up straighter. “Maybe it’s better to hide away from them with the more familiar things in our heads.”

AnaSaya leaned forward and placed her forehead against his, looking directly into his eyes. “From what I can sense…you’re more afraid of what’s in there than you are of anything out here.”

A flash of an immense form silhouetted against a wall of red fire flashed in his mind before he pulled back and turned away. “You would be, too, if you had lurking in your head what I have in mine.”

“What makes you think I don’t?” she said, scooting closer to him and brushing a strand of fur out of his face. Rex looked up at her and furrowed his brow. Leaning in close, AnaSaya whispered something softly into his ear that sent chills down his spine. “You’re not the only one who has someone whispering to them from the dark places in their head.” Rex gave a look of both curiosity and surprise. “Most of the time you don’t hear them at all, but sometimes, when you feel like you’re far away from everyone around you…you can hear a voice…it’s distant but it sees you, all that you are, what makes you happy, sad, angry, and most of all, what scares you. It’s your best friend and worst enemy at the same time.”

Rex stared at AnaSaya with a newfound sense of wonder. “And here I thought you were just socially awkward.”

“Well, you would know, wouldn’t you, Rex?” she said, locking him with a look that almost felt like hands around his neck before finally freeing him with a smile. “Then again, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. After all, what’s so special about being normal, anyway? Nature shows that it’s the abnormalities that often have the most profound effect on the world.”

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it. But then again, that particular way can only come from an optimistic way of thinking. I’m not so lucky as you, where I can just forget or ignore everything I see in life. I feel every scar.” He looked down at his knees. “I’m tired of hurting.”

“My mother always said pain is how we measure ourselves in life. That it’s not how much pain we can take and not die, but what we do with it once we have it—and believe me, she’s as far from an optimist as you can get, so it must be true, right?” she laughed.

Rex found himself chuckling despite his desire to stay stoically bitter. Looking at her, he said, “Thank you, AnaSaya.”

With a smile she simply replied, “You’re welcome, Rex,” before leaning back in and adding, “You’re not alone; please remember that.” She kissed him on the cheek and stood up, walking over to the bow of the ship where ShinGaru was sitting. There, she stood facing the west with her long sandy blond fur swaying gently in the early-morning breeze.

Rex glanced over and saw LyCora staring at him with deep blue eyes that locked him in an unwavering stare before rolling over with her back to him. Slowly, he rose to his feet, stretched, and walked over to EeNox, who was sitting at the back of the ship where he was communed with it, all the while staring silently at its wake.

“What’s on your mind?” Rex asked, sitting down next to him.

“Just wondering if we made the right choice, after all,” EeNox replied without looking at him.

“A bit late to be having doubts.”

“Should we have stayed in KaNar and waited for my father and VayRonx to come up with a plan? I mean we really didn’t give them a chance, did we?”

Rex sighed. “You heard the DraGon: Come, just the five of us, or she’s dead. What choice did we really have?”

“I know, I know,” EeNox said, leaning back and looking at Rex for the first time. “But then again…they were just so against it. I guess it just makes me wonder if they had figured something out that we didn’t. We’re still young and inexperienced, after all.”

“Maybe they did, or maybe they would have spent the entire time trying to figure a better plan only to come to the same conclusion we did. The point is, whether it was the right call or not, they would have never let us go alone, and you know it.”

EeNox looked at his friend for a moment, into his haunting red eyes that seemed never short of fury. Still, he looked up to Rex, for he was what EeNox always dreamed he could be: angry. A strange thing to think, perhaps, but not without reason. All his life he had felt that his voice was the weakest amongst those around him. Longing for purpose and drive never brought him the passion to get furiously angry about something he had always wanted. He envied people like Rex because as angry as they were,
and Rex sure is angry
, they know what it means to cherish something so much that they can tap into a power that strips them of any aversion to action to do what is necessary when the situation calls for it. In truth, it was Rex that gave him the idea to steal the boat, because he half-expected him to think of it, or something equally daring. For the first time in his life, he felt a sense of determination to prove himself to someone else, to show that he could be someone others looked to, seeing dependability and strength.
Then again, Rex would probably just roll his eyes, punch me in the arm, and tell me to quit whining if I told him any of this,
he thought with a smile. “Hey, Rex?” he said, breaking the silence. “Do you think DiNiya will be all right?”

Rex thought about the question for a moment. He knew what EeNox wanted to hear, that they would get her back alive, safe, and in one piece, and that everything would turn out all right in the end. He had not been lying when he told AnaSaya that he basically had an allergy to optimism, but in this case, the idea of losing the first person he had ever felt close to since his father was more than he could bear. That and the idea of the monsters that murdered his father and slaughtered many of the people he had come to know and even love here, infuriated him to such a degree that he threw the intelligent answer aside in favor of the one that made his blood boil with determination. “Oh, we’re going to get her back. Even if I have to rip all their fucking hearts out with my teeth and pry her from their cold dead claws, we
will
get her back!”

“Damn straight,” EeNox exclaimed, leaping to his feet. “Let’s kill every last one of them and burn their bodies to smoldering ash!”

“Would you two please shut up?” LyCora said. “I’m trying to sleep.”

“Sleep when you’re dead,” said Rex, walking past her on the floor where she was wrapped in her cloak to stand at the bow of the ship alongside AnaSaya and ShinGaru. “We’ve got a fight ahead of us, and losing is not an option.”

“Since when did you go all alpha?” she asked sarcastically, rising to her feet and rubbing the back of her neck.

“Since I woke up and realized I was tired of feeling sorry for myself, when good people have died and others still might.” AnaSaya smiled approvingly. Now Rex turned and faced everyone. “Listen, I’m not going to stand here and pretend that I’m not afraid. Truth is I’ve never been more scared in my life, but one has nothing to do with the other. I’ve decided that courage isn’t what you do in the absence of fear but what you do in spite of it. So I’m going to press on and get back my friend!”

“Well, you know I’m with you,” EeNox said, smiling and crossing his arms. “Now as for some of—”

“Oh, you two get over yourselves already,” LyCora scolded. “Obviously we’re in this together or we wouldn’t all be here!”

“She’s right,” added ShinGaru. “We all made the choice to come, no matter the danger.”

Rex narrowed his gaze as his crimson eyes gleamed in the dawn light. “Then from here on out there’s no turning back, no talk of giving up. We see this through to the end or die trying.”

They floated down the river for another hour before steering towards one of the sandbanks on the left. There they grabbed their bags, dismounted, and proceeded on foot through the forest. Rex instantly noticed the surrounding environment was different than what he had become accustomed to in the mountains. The trees were smaller and the air felt heavier and slightly humid.

“Where are we exactly?” he asked.

“About a hundred or so kilometers west of KaNar,” EeNox answered.

“Wow, have we really come that far already?” AnaSaya asked, sounding surprised.

“The river has a strong current,” EeNox explained. “That’s the main reason why I wanted to make the first leg of the trip on it. Combine that with the communion with the boat, and it was the fastest way to put some distance between us and those who are no doubt already looking for us.”

“They will be searching by air, you know,” LyCora said, pulling back her hood.

EeNox nodded. “Which is why we’ll stick to forests as much as possible. CyTorians have a hard time spotting anything under a dense canopy.”

“Effective as that might be,” said ShinGaru. “We’ll still have to go into some towns for supplies, putting us at risk of being caught.”

“He’s right,” said LyCora. “I’m willing to bet they’ve already dispatched several search parties to cover all the settlements between KaNar and the tower.”

“We’ll just have to be careful, then,” EeNox replied, shrugging.

“Be
careful?
” LyCora asked with an exaggerated expression. “That’s your plan to get us through this? ‘Be careful’?”

“Hey, I don’t hear you coming up with anything better!”

“Why should I? With words like those to inspire, there’s really no need for any of us to, fearless leader!”

“I never said I was your leader!”

“No, you just took it upon yourself to hatch this stupid plan that you couldn’t have given more than three minutes of thought to before dragging us on what’s probably going to turn out to be a suicide run!”

“That’s enough,” Rex exclaimed in a quick but intense burst of red. Both EeNox and LyCora stopped arguing and stared at him like children being scolded by a parent. “LyCora! No longer than fifteen minutes ago you were ready for this, so stop complaining!” LyCora turned her head with a look of utter annoyance. Rex then refocused his attention on EeNox, who looked noticeably nervous. “EeNox, I know this isn’t the easiest situation for anyone, but you’re going to have to think on your feet and not just leave things to chance when there’s a wrinkle in your plan.”

EeNox sighed and nodded. “You’re right.”

“Now you two need to cut the bullshit and start working together. DiNiya’s life is at stake, and I’m not going to let whatever it is you two have against each other get in the way of getting her back.” Giving the whole group a look over, he took the lead with the other four filing in behind. He hated the role of leader, but hated leaving the tough calls to others. He had never trusted people enough to give them all his faith, something he knew in time he would have to change—but not today, not now. Not when something so important was at stake.

Super-charging their bodies with their flames, they tore through the forest at great speed for over two hours, stopping only for fifteen minutes once to take a drink of water and gather their strength. It was not much, but it would have to do, for Rex was not allowing for anything more.

From the outside, it would almost have appeared that he had taken on a somewhat tyrannical role within the group dynamic; however, the others saw it differently. For they had come to see a caring, protective side hidden under the brutish, cynical exterior that he wore as armor. They knew that he was there for them, and so they remained there for him. Plus, it was nice to have what they saw as a focus to the group, a conduit to channel their drive, fear, and determination through, for Rex was able to take it all remarkably in stride. Without any of them realizing it, Rex had become both their compass and shield.

They continued through the lowland forest, staying clear of any areas with an open canopy. Rex and EeNox led the way, with ShinGaru and AnaSaya monitoring the sides. LyCora brought up the rear, covering what was, more often than not, their most vulnerable side. EeNox had been going over the different flora and fauna native to this region of the Northern Continent upon Rex’s request, when suddenly they all smelled something that made them stop dead in their tracks. It was a thick and pungent odor, lingering heavily in the air. Yet, it was also, in some strange way, sweet and enticing: a feeling that struck them as both odd and unnerving for they knew immediately what it was.

“Blood,” said Rex, raising his nose to the air and drinking in the smell. “Lots of it.”

“Yeah, but from where?” EeNox said, glancing all around the surrounding forest for someone injured, or carrion.

“Don’t know, but it has to be close given how strong it is.”

They continued on for another thirty minutes with still no sign of its source. A strange thing to be sure, for the smell had only grown stronger with each passing minute.

“Okay, obviously we’re getting closer to whoever all this blood is coming from,” said EeNox.