Ch8-6: Champion of the Blue Planet
Nodd watched the battle rage around him, peeking from his hiding place within the crates near the Baron Castle wall. Everything he could see was going to shambles. For reasons completely unknown, more than half of the soldiers had turned on their own comrades and joined the Daear side of the fight. The air stank of unnatural illness. Death. Decay.It was all too much for a young Kit to deal with.
I’ve heard the tales of the terrible battles the humans wage on themselves… but I never thought that something like that could really happen here!
Though he had tried to put up a fight of his own, Nodd had quickly found his illusionary magics to be of no use against the enemy. Neither Daear, their nasty pets, nor the sickened humans paid an illusion any mind. In fact, Nodd could sense the hint of twisted illusionary magics around the elf-creatures as well. Not to mention their mind-boggling shielding against weapons of all kinds.
All the better reason to just lay low and not get involved. A dead Kit is not a good thing.
Hiding had seemed like a good course of action. That was until, naturally, the humans bungled it all up. Two of the battling soldiers began to duke it out right next to Nodd’s crate pile. Uncomfortably close. It was all the Kit could do to cover his nose from the stench of bitter human sweat and illness. In dismay, Nodd watched as a powerful swing of a sword sent the Baronian defender flying back. Right into the pile of crates, scattering boxes and uncovering his hiding place.
Nodd didn’t know if the defender was dead or alive. All that he knew was that the hollow, sick eyes of the attacker turned on him. And focused with a deadly intensity.
Nodd gave a yowl as the blade whistled down, just barely missing taking his whiskers. Scrabbling on all fours, the Kit made a frantic break across the dented battlefield. He dodged between legs, under the clash of spear and sword and around-about the shouts of startled fighting men.
Must find safe place! Must find safe place!
As he was making a final dodge around a particularly tight group of fighting Daear, Nodd felt something strange tickle the back of his mind. Not that he was ever a particularly mind-sensitive creature on the normal basis. But whatever it was that he was feeling was just that intense.
A blinding light erupted from outside the wall of Castle Baron. At first, Nodd wondered if someone had called down the sun. Or maybe a few meteors. He had always wanted to see Ben cast Meteo… though the Master Wizard had always denied him the chance.
As the wave of light grew ever brighter, he was forced to shade his eyes. It became quickly apparent that it was not a rain of meteors at all. Instead, it was some sort of creature. Something huge. Bright. Whitely-radiant. Wings spread wide over what seemed to be the entire city. How something could be that vast, the Kit didn’t know. But it was bearing down on them at an amazingly scary speed.
Then something funny began to happen. Wherever the fringe of light touched, a deep black steam began to rise. It was accompanied by a pungent smell. And a nasty, guttural animal cry. All at once, Nodd realized that something was happening to the Daear. Something they didn’t seem too happy about.
The creatures began to writhe as the light burned into their putrid flesh. Black smoke hissed and burst through their bodies with a force so great that it left holes in their rust-mottled armor. It was as if everything that was tainted was being drawn from their forms. Except… there was not much left of them to draw away except for the taint.
Nodd promptly covered his nose.
The sick, attacking Baronian men wavered in their tracks. Staring with upraised eyes as darkness was drawn from them, too. But unlike the Daear, they were merely touched by the infection… still living creatures that could be healed. That’s exactly what the light did, casting healing fingers over the men. Men who dropped their blades and fell to their knees in anguish and in the greatness of it all.
Something had come to save them. And it sure looked a lot like…
“A Dragon?!” Captain Highwind’s voice rang from the top of one of the walls.
Somehow, what seemed so large before had condensed now. The great white wings folding as the shimmering form of a White Dragon landed there in the Baron Courtyard. Gentle teal eyes cast a gaze over the people who trembled at its feet. But the eyes were not so gentle when they fell upon one lone figure that somehow withstood the light.
“Pren Daear…” the huge voice rumbled, lips curling back to provide a firsthand look at the creature’s huge fangs.
The Daear leader responded with a look of similar distaste. She spat only one word, “Dreigiau…”
“What have you done? These people… were your own kin!”
“That is none of your concern. Return to your void. Your kind does not belong here among the Earthians of the Blue Planet!” she brandished her spear in a menacing motion, bearing the point towards the beast’s chest. “I will not allow the Arweinydd to devour one more Living World.”
“Do you think that’s what this is about?” the Dragon snorted, shaking out his long white mane in disdain. “I am not here to devour anything. You seem to be doing that well enough by yourself.”
With an animalistic snarl, the one called Pren charged the beast, raising her spear between both of her hands. While Nodd thought it was completely insane for any normal, intelligent person to rush a full grown Dragon, it became more and more apparent that this woman was anything but normal. Her speed was astounding, and though the Kit generally prided himself on his fine hunter instinct, he was lost in the attempt to follow her motion as she sped across the ground to meet head on in battle.
The air had grown still as the humans froze to watch the fray unfold in the confines of the castle courtyard. A streak of sickly blue-black light traced from ground to wall to the Dragon’s back, the only signature that Pren left as she leapt. The burst of energy plastered Nodd’s ears back against his skull. All he could do was dodge, searching for a safe place away from the two great battling forces.
A sharp crack was followed by an earthshaking roar. The Dragon whipped around, white engaging with dark blue. The nearby wall folded and collapsed outwards, men shouting and running for cover in every direction.
“You cannot win here, Dreigiau!” Pren’s voice rang victorious as she reappeared atop the pile of rubble. “This world rejects your very presence. And I… I am empowered by it!”
The Dragon snapped, bearing gleaming fangs. Lines of dark energy crossed his hide, marking where the dark spear had struck and torn at his body. The white energy was already converging, however, sealing up the darkness and washing it away as if it was nothing more than a streak of dirt in the rain.
“You know very little about what you are up against, Lady Daear,” Dreigiau replied. The way his lips curved, Nodd could have sworn the Dragon was smiling.
Irritation was plainly written across Pren’s face. “You are our captor no more!”
“I was never your captor,” he replied quickly. “I did what I did to preserve your people. You are the one that has led them into their undoing.”
“I will lead them to our victory!” she hissed, once again leaping towards the beast, this time slashing at its face. “We will take our rightful place in this world! The humans shall not continue to run us into obscurity and destroy our world bit by bit!”
Dreigiau reeled back, dodging the Daear’s speed deftly. The massive tail whipped down from no where, striking like a crack of thunder. “Can’t you realize that is what you are doing! In your desire for vengeance, you’ve twisted your own people — calling on the power of an imbalanced world, you have become monsters yourselves!”
“Then it is a sacrifice that we shall make!” Pren rolled out of the stream of stone that fell from every side. As she turned, haunted, furious eyes glared back over her shoulder. Eyes filled with hate and feverish desire. “You cannot understand the real plight of Earthians. Don’t even begin to pretend that you can!”
“Maybe not,” he replied. “But I know the mark of Chaos when I see it.”
“This world will see you cast out, Dreigiau! And I will be the one to do its will!” Pren lifted both of her hands over her head, a motion of summoning. Calling out to the power of the Blue Planet.
Nodd had no idea what the two were going on about. It sounded all very important and troublesome. And more than enough to keep his interest riveted. That’s when he first saw something strange was happening to the woman. A pattern of light shifted under her skin – tiny blue dots that were first almost imperceptible, but had begun to expand and grow.
Caught up in the middle of her concentration, Pren did not seem to see it. Not until one of the lights ruptured through her shoulder. She gave a keening howl, arm falling limp by her side. Losing her grip on her spear, she dropped the weapon down into the cracked rubble at her feet.
“Dreigiau! What sort of trickery is this!” Her cry of pain grew in intensity as her body buckled. Her hand clutched at the burst of light along her shoulder, fighting to contain it as it began to spread, eating away at flesh and armor. As if unable to withstand, she crumpled to the ground.
The Dragon, however, appeared to be lost for an answer. His teal eyes reflected the growing light as it began to devour the Daear’s form. Her scream echoed, unnatural and haunting as the light burst upwards into a pillar of brilliant blue energy. Power drawn from the heart of the planet itself. Finally, it vanished into the underside of the deepening clouds, scattering reflections across the land.
Silence fell as sparkles misted away into the sky. All eyes were cast upwards as the clouds churned, cast back by the force of the energy from below. When the light faded, Pren was gone.
“It would seem as if you are no longer the Champion that the Blue Planet desired,” the white Dragon murmured. There was almost a sad hint to the depths of his voice as he peered at the spot where the Daear had fallen. “You were right. This world will purge itself of what is wicked, destructive and does not belong.”
A low rumble of thunder drew out of the distance, the sky darkening with threat of unnatural rain. Luminous white wings stretched upwards, brilliant against the blotted black clouds. The Dragon lifted his head. For a moment, he considered the scattered men across the castle courtyard. Then he lifted himself into the sky with a downbeat of wings.
“…And I am one of these things…”
Nodd didn’t know if the humans could hear the last low rumble as the Dragon pushed off. But something about it seemed deeply sad.
As the creature became nothing more than a speck of white in the sky, the humans began to stir, blinking as if waking from a deep sleep. There was an uneasy talk of confusion and disarray, as if none of the men knew where they were and how they had gotten there. The clatter of armor and weapons jangled throughout the city as the rain began to fall. The way that they talked, it was as if the humans could hardly remember seeing the Dreigiau at all.
Dragon mind tricks…
Lucky for Nodd, such things did not work on his kind. And the kit vowed to himself to remember.