Dargonfire: Age of Legend

by LJ Davies

  Only now she didn't stare out over the fiery horizon; she looked right at me with a set of magnificent golden eyes.

  "I know what you just saw," her regal voice echoed, far more majestic than this frozen reality.

  None of my dreams ever go like this. I've been here a hundred times and never has someone other than Mordrakk talked to me. Nevertheless, I shook off my shock and tentatively opened my muzzle.

  "What is this place?" I asked, hoping she could offer information Mordrakk would never give away.

  She peered at me, as if my question hadn't quite been what she'd expected.

  "This is an incarnation of your mind, a dreamscape drawn from aspects of your subconsciousness, all fused into one. Your mind contains the lost memories of far older, greater things," she explained, and the idea of just how much of my mind was hidden terrified me.

  If Nakir and even Mordrakk are right, millions of drakaran and the Ethereals themselves endure in me.

  "Who are you?" I asked.

  This time she regarded me as if that were a far more fitting question.

  "I’m Seraphine Goldfire, first descendent of Teeana and Balthazar, pleased to make your acquaintance," she introduced herself with a graceful bow.

  Her pale-white scales shimmered like golden stars, as did her arcane armour as it shifted in a similar way to my own.

  "I know that name is not new to you," she suggested, and I finally found my voice.

  "Not new, just not very well understood," I clarified, and she nodded, smile fading.

  "So you know of the legends?" she asked, speaking more as if it were a matter of fact than a question.

  I shifted to keep my eyes focused on her face as she glanced back out over the flaming horizon.

  "It has been a long time since I've seen the incarnation you have just witnessed," she admitted, glancing back sharply, causing me to jump.

  My mind offered brief images of what I'd just seen. The destruction of the once tranquil reality was almost crippling. Yet she peered at me with a hint of curiosity as those thoughts burned through my head.

  "Tell me, what do you think you saw?" she instructed, and I reluctantly answered.

  "I saw what's going to happen if I let Mordrakk win."

  She considered that for a moment, slowly shaking her head.

  "Maybe so, but one can never truly see the future, not even a god. Yes, you may manipulate and try to change it, but nothing is ever truly set," she elaborated.

  "So that wasn't the future?" I asked hopefully, and in the back of my mind, I could hear Mordrakk's intimidating growl.

  Seraphine shook her head once more before explaining.

  "No, it was an image of what you fear will come to pass, coupled with the memories of past calamities that reside deep inside your mind," she explained, gesturing a forepaw about the barren wasteland.

  I felt words formulate in my closed muzzle, dance about my tongue and then die as a perplexing look crossed my face.

  What is she saying? Is my mind somehow connected to hers, as it is so many others? The idea made me squirm more than I'd like. No, that's impossible. Apollo said she disappeared long before the Darkness attacked the Golden City; she couldn't have been there when the Ethereals created me.

  My confusion was all too evident, and she took a step toward me before continuing.

  "The place in which you stand, the tree you made contact within the waking world – it is a portal to a magical network, established in an age long since forgotten, a network that contains a great deal of this world’s past."

  Her words allowed a small part of my mind to fit some pieces together, and others soon followed as I began to realise what she was saying.

  "So what I saw, that was your memory?" I asked, and she nodded.

  "One of mine fused with one of your own and influenced by countless others. If it had been pure, you would have seen it through my own eyes, just as I did, three millennia ago," she confirmed.

  "What happened?" I asked, and a solemn look took hold of her expression.

  "This world fell into ruin and tyranny because of my mistakes. It was besieged by an enemy in an ancient time. Now such things threaten to repeat themselves with a great evil born anew," she explained.

  I had a strange feeling about all the other evils that could lie out there among the stars, but for now, I had to focus on the ones I knew.

  "I have waited far too long for this," she continued, looking back toward me.

  My head perked up, and at that moment, I recalled exactly what had led me here – the Cartographer's bird!

  "Waited too long for what?" I responded immediately.

  "To meet you myself," she replied promptly.

  "Wait, since when have you wanted to meet me? I hadn't even heard of you three seasons ago," I answered with a tone of frustration.

  She appeared a little shameful and apologetic.

  "Ever since you first arrived in the city, I have known of you. The Elders, my heralds, made it quite clear who they thought you were," she admitted, and the final pieces of my mind’s puzzle fell into place.

  She's the one with whom the Elders have been in league with all this time! I'd thought they'd their own plans or had somehow been reporting to Nakir, but not this.

  "That doesn't make any sense; why not just speak to me like the Ethereals did?" I asked, but she shook her head.

  "Even in their disembodied state, their power exceeds my own, though their supremacy has faded too much for them to aid you," she explained.

  "I wouldn't call it ‘aid’," I grumbled, and it didn't look like she disagreed. "That still doesn't explain what's been going on all this time, though."

  "There is a power within Dardien of which very few know. Not even the current ruler is aware of its existence, as each of his predecessors were," she advised, and an image of Aries flashed through my mind as I asked.

  "What power?"

  "One that can save the world as it did long ago, but you must go back and claim your destiny if it is to be so," she continued.

  "And what destiny is that? So far, one is to save the world and the other is to destroy it," I grumbled.

  "Neither is for me to say, and yet I think you know what it is you must go back for," she answered, and another wave of realisation blossomed within my mind:

  The amulet.

  "You know he will destroy everything if he gets it back, right?" I stated simply.

  "Only if you allow it," she advised, but that wasn't nearly enough to sway me.

  "No, all of this stupid sentiment isn't going to stop him. What am I supposed to do?" I demanded.

  "You must trust that there is a way, even if you do not yet see it," she answered.

  "That's not enough, there has to be something more. If you have been here for all this time and said nothing, you must know there is a way," I proposed, and she finally sighed.

  "You know how much the truth can hurt," she reminded me, and at that, I knew she was withholding something.

  "What is it?" I demanded, tired of the never-ending guessing games.

  "Upon the twilight of ages, you must come to me, Guardian. That will be the time for truth. Until then, do not stray away from the path you know is right."

  "No, tell me what's really going on!" I pressed, but even as I did so, the world began to fall apart and her image faded until darkness took hold and I was drawn back into consciousness.

  *

  My senses flashed back to me as a cold wetness flared across my face. The water stung my eyes as they shot open and my paws flailed wildly. Coughing, I looked up to see the blurred silhouette of a brown and green figure standing over me and I instinctively lashed out. The blurred form darted back with a slight laugh.

  "So the Guardian still lives?" a wild, old voice cackled as I finally finished spluttering and rolled onto my front.

  "You!" I hissed spitefully as I saw the Cartographer, one of his personalities lost in a fit of laughter.

  "What in the creators�
�� name have you been doing?" I demanded angrily.

  His laughter finally stopped, and wiping a teary eye with a wing, he suddenly lashed out at me with his staff. I ducked instinctively as it whooshed over my head, but missed his sweeping tail, which swiped my legs out from under me.

  "Don’t break the sanctity of such a place with your angered words!" he scolded, as if I were some disobedient hatchling.

  "Then again, it is good to see your reflexes are unhindered," his more reasonable tone added as I picked myself up.

  "What in the creators’ name are you going on about?" I asked, prepared for another surprise assault.

  He smirked, before jabbing at me with his staff. Only for me to swipe it aside.

  He's totally bonkers! I inwardly moaned as he persisted jabbing, until I gave up.

  "You! We are talking about you! What you just did was no idle endeavour! Connecting to such a vast magical entity would kill most mortals!" he explained, pointing to the tree.

  I looked back to see it was still dead, while his phoenix sat nonchalantly on one of its branches.

  "I can't be killed," I told him abruptly, but he gave me a questioning look before moving on toward the willow.

  "This is an ancient earth shrine of the great Kashiyan Paragon, a deep magic that runs through the whole world. Many say it is older than dragonkind itself and contains the collective memories of their legacy," he explained, regarding the tree as if it were made of blissful gold.

  "You wanted me to see that, she wanted me to see," I told him, knowing he knew what I was talking about.

  "Of course, the mistress of Gold Flame has long awaited the time you'd be ready. We meant for it to be sooner, but Aries and your disappearance made that somewhat difficult," he scolded, sending another stab of guilt through me.

  Not that I care much for ruining his or the Elders’ plan after all the trouble they've caused me.

  "So, what is this grand plan of yours?" I asked, fighting the urge to demand he tell me everything.

  He stopped at the edge of the pool, moving his staff toward the phoenix and ushering the bird onto its tip with a wave of his wing.

  "So, the great mistress told you there is hope?" he asked, looking down at the water.

  "She mentioned a plan, not hope, something about a power hidden in the city, something that can stop the Darkness," I answered, moving up beside him. "Although I'd have been better off knowing this before you sent me to Taldran. Why not just use it to remove Aries and defeat the orkin before any of this?"

  "If only things were so simple," he admitted, looking at me as if I should just accept it. "We assume you were told of what you saw?" he asked, and I explained all that Seraphine had said to me.

  "That was the eve of the Age of Tyranny, right before Lady Seraphine turned herself and her drakaran legion into the first mortal dragons in an attempt to save this world from the wrath of the Infernal Blade," he explained with the utmost respect, much to Mordrakk’s disdain.

  "An age of darkness followed, the world and its inhabitants served under the cruel reign of demonic overlords…" His voice trailed off as he looked mournfully at the tree.

  So this isn't the first time darkness has won out over this world? Oh, doesn't that fill me with confidence!? My thoughts deadpanned.

  "Such an age was many millennia ago," he added. "Long before even our time. It ended when the rest of the star dragons finally found their mortal descendants and liberated their legacy. After that, they carefully took steps to ensure that this world would never be threatened again by such a great evil."

  "Evidently, that didn't work," I replied curtly, expecting him to be insulted, and yet he looked ashamed.

  "It wasn't long after that day, that the Great Master fell to the Outsider; not even the ancestors could have foreseen the treachery of their greatest lord," he declared, his words cold and empty.

  "Why me? Why did she want me?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

  "Because you need to understand that in the face of utter destruction, the hardest decisions must be made; you must know that, as only she did."

  I paused for a moment, before a new wave of realisation hit me.

  "What do you expect me to do? Let the world burn like she did?"

  He shifted back at my words, far from the proud old dragon that had scolded me for shouting only moments ago.

  "I'm not afraid of him," I continued. "The only way I know I can stop him for sure, without killing everyone else, is staying away. I proved that, and... I... I should never have come back." The confession slashed at my conscience like a knife, and I backed away from him.

  "This is what you were after all along, you and the Elders. You just wanted another star dragon to make all the decisions you were too afraid to make! Or should I say Goldfire was too afraid to make again!" I accused him angrily. "I'm not going to be her instrument any more than I am the creators’ or Mordrakk's, and I will not be responsible for anything like she showed me!" I finished, turning away from him toward the exit.

  "Many heroes have come before you with the same fear," he muttered, and I paused. "We have seen a great many like you, watched them grow old and die. All had to decide between what was right and what was necessary," he added.

  "I'm not a hero," I replied forcefully while Mordrakk formed in front of me, his shadowy form blocking the pathway.

  "Just leave me alone," I growled.

  He didn't say a word but simply looked up into the dull moonlight. Confusion gripped me for a moment until my eyes followed his. Through the mass of tangled roots and icicles, snow shifted and fell while the dull thud of wing beats disturbed the leaves as I saw them in the gloom.

  Manticores!

  Chapter 8

  Battle of Shadow's Gate

  I have to warn the others! That was the only thought racing through my mind as I glanced back to the pool, to see the old dragon had vanished, leaving only his bird to fly up and out of the cave.

  What! So much for being helpful!

  Right now I’d little care for him, and I bolted up the pathway as fast as my paws would carry me. I emerged into the cold night minutes later, to find it utterly silent. The previously eerie wind was still, but that unsettling feeling of a hundred looming eyes still lingered.

  No, I know I saw something skulking around up here. I glanced about frantically, before determining which direction the others had taken.

  I ran, yet quickly became disorientated in the thick vegetation and chilling mist. A maze of snowy bushes and monstrous tree trunks soon surrounded me, and I cursed myself for wandering off.

  I should never have left, why did I follow that stupid bird!?

  A disturbance in the undergrowth behind me caught my attention, and I tensed, coiling back before something came rushing at me. I'd little time to react when, with a roar and beat of its tattered wings, the manticore revealed itself, immediately slamming me down and pressing me to the floor, coiling its barbed stinger, ready to strike.

  The anger I'd directed at my own incompetence flared, and I kicked up, spreading my wings. The blades of my claws and the edges of the leathery membranes flashed to life as my talons struck the creature’s underbelly, just as its stinger shot down, narrowly missing my neck. With a howl, it leapt back, and I spun, catching its forelimbs with my wing blades. The searing weapons crippled it in a flash, before I forced my tail blade up through its neck, slicing its throat and dislodging the very angry orkin rider.

  Yanking my tail free as the mount staggered, I could do nothing to avoid the blunt end of the rider's hammer. My armour hardened against the impact, but I fell to the ground with a head-spinning thud as the rider swung again. That was when several small blades struck his neck, ending in a gargled breath as he toppled from the saddle.

  "Blaze!" Neera shouted.

  I focused on her voice and the blurred shape of her bounding over the corpses.

  "Where in the name of the great egg did you go?" she demanded.

  "It doesn't m
atter, we need to get back and warn the others," I retorted.

  "That's if those things don't get there first!" Boltock interrupted as he appeared behind her.

  I opened my muzzle to respond, but another savage roar drew our attention to three more manticores bearing down on us. Two erupted from the snowy undergrowth, Boltock darting aside to avoid their claws. Neera spun to face them, while I jumped to my paws as one charged me. Coiling back, fire surged in my chest, but the beast’s rider had different ideas, the stone-fused creature released a black arrow at me.

  I was immediately thankful for my helmet’s protection as it pinged off, though it gave me little time to avoid his mount’s sweeping claws. Yet again I found myself muzzle-first in the frosty mud, pinned down as its barbed tail loomed.

  I could see Neera and Boltock struggling to take down the second creature as the third prowled around the edge of the fray. Then another, sudden movement shifted in the mist. At first, it resembled some kind of long black serpent, and I thought it was Mordrakk or an ebon dragon. The orkin targeting me was completely oblivious until the mysterious entity gave a dry groan.

  With one swift lunge, a spiked tree branch impaled the rider, piercing through his chest as another wrapped around him and tore him from his saddle. Stunned for a second, I was reminded that I still had a very angry animal to deal with, when the manticore's stinger came down toward me, lodging in the ground as I rolled.

  What in the creators' name is going on, are the trees really alive?

  At that thought, the undergrowth erupted and several tree-like figures jumped out from the mist, landing on the manticore’s back. Their cries sounded like a hundred birds and insects had all combined into one terrifying cacophony as the manticore roared and thrashed. I seized the chance and darted around the floundering beast, as its new attackers sank sets of bark-encrusted claws deep into its putrid hide. Another pair of the strange tree creatures assaulted the second manticore, writhing roots dragging its rider into the undergrowth.