WATD-03. The World According To Dragons 3, page 16
part #3 of World According To Dragons Series
Ariosto took a quick look around, the sand dunes surrounding them large enough that they resembled hills. “We should be fine here for the night. And this is certainly it. I can sense the power.”
Twillo closed his eyes. Sure enough, the platform glowed with dragonessence.
“We can use the pocket shelter,” Katashi said.
“No, that won’t work here,” Ariosto told him. “One of these dunes could collapse and fill it with sand.”
“You really think that would happen?”
“Why do you think there aren’t many pocket shelters left in our world?” the warrior monk asked the kitsune. “They do have a tendency to get abandoned often due to the fault of their owners. Now, it’s best if we sleep out here tonight and take turns standing guard. I don’t mind going first.”
“I can go first,” Anneli said.
“No, let me. I have a mudra for this sort of work,” Ariosto told her. “And if you are one of the ones who is going to explore this ziggurat tomorrow, you will want to rest. In fact, anyone exploring should rest.”
“It’s probably best if I stay here,” Vradon said as he turned to Twillo. “I was thinking about it in the sky. I will only get in the way down there.”
“No, you should come,” Twillo told him. “You can read the old Sagic script.”
“The dragons can too—”
“But they can’t read it in the dark. Katashi or Anneli can stay here with Ariosto.”
“I’ll stay,” Katashi said. “You all might want Ramide.”
“They may want me,” Nalig told him from the perch she’d managed to make on top of one of the dunes. Not only were the dunes casting shadows onto them, the dragons were doing so as well, blocking much of the stars and the moonlight.
Ramide yawned.
“Always the sleepy one,” Seondzus said. “Sleep over there, Big Boy. We don’t want you to roll over and crush everyone.”
“As you wish,” he said, his voice low and guttural. Ramide moved on, and as he did bits of sand scattered down to the platform.
“We can certainly stand guard,” Adventus told Ariosto. “You don’t have to. None of you have to.”
“I will do so alongside you all. In fact, I think I will join you.” Ariosto floated up to one of the dunes so he could be closer to the white dragon. “I would like to speak of the past.”
“Much of our memories are gone,” Adventus said.
“That may be true, but there has to be something.” Ariosto looked down at the others. “Rest. Tomorrow, we open the ziggurat, discover its secrets, and move on to the Harvest Mountains.”
Twillo awakened to find Ariosto crouched over him. “Have you ever seen sand wraiths?” he asked in a whisper.
“I have not,” Twillo told him. “But I’ve heard of them.”
“There’s a group moving not far from here. Destroying them will provide all of you a chance to recharge your dragonessence before you venture into the ziggurat.”
Twillo sat up to find Anneli and Princess Embla huddled around the campfire, the pair using coals to boil water. Vradon was still sleeping, the monk with his back turned to the others. This left Katashi, who was seated in meditation at the top of one of the dunes. Twillo wondered briefly if he had been inspired by Ariosto.
“We’re going to recharge, and we need to figure out how to crack open this ziggurat.” Twillo approached the campfire, one that Ariosto had crafted from a particular type of dried cactus and some of the debris he’d found in the area.
“Aware,” Anneli told him. “We’ve been up for an hour.”
“I can’t believe I slept so hard.” Twillo took a cup of the hot water from Princess Embla. There were some roots and a cactus flower in it, which gave the water an earthy taste that had a hint of mint. It was refreshing.
He looked over to the dragons.
“How challenging would you like this to be?” Ariosto asked as Twillo continued to sip the hot water.
“I think the challenge is here,” he said as he motioned to the platform.
“Yes, I’ve been examining it. Come.”
“You really didn’t sleep?” Twillo asked the warrior monk as they approached the platform with ancient runes scrawled across its surface.
“No, but I’ll be fine. I’ve seen these sorts of runes before. It isn’t a very hard puzzle to solve. It was designed for water harvesters, which is why Vradon couldn’t figure it out. One rune must be activated by the wind, another by water, and the final by stone. Easy enough.”
“That’s it? That’s hardly a puzzle.”
“Correct.”
“Will we have to get the water harvesters again?”
“No, we will be able to do it ourselves,” Ariosto said. “In fact, if you want to do it before we head out to deal with the sand wraiths, just to prove it is possible, we could certainly do so. You look like you’re still waking up.”
Twillo cleared his throat. “I slept better than I thought I would in the desert. I have no problem admitting that. But I’m awake.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve heard about a good desert slumber. There’s something about the high desert that lulls someone to sleep. Since most people don’t travel through it, they don’t know about it. It is peaceful in its own way,” Ariosto said, a hint of fondness in his eyes. He looked down at the three runes and rubbed his hands together. “Let’s begin.”
The warrior approached the rune on the left and swirled a bit of wind over it. The rune glowed with dragonessence. The spark that started in the center of the rune pressed outward and formed a complete circle around the runic script. It twisted to the left, Twillo hearing a locking mechanism on the other side.
“The first one was a success. Let’s move on to the next. Grab a few of those rocks,” Ariosto said as he motioned to some pebbles near the base of the platform. Twillo picked them up and returned. “Toss them at that rune there.”
Twillo tossed the rocks onto the rune on the far right. Doing so produced the same glow in the center that eventually spread outward, the entire circular stone twisting counterclockwise.
“And the final one.” Ariosto unscrewed a canteen he kept on his belt. Water curled out of it, forming a hook in the air. He flicked a bit of this at the rune in the center of the platform. “I would step back if I were you.”
Twillo stepped off the platform just as it started to shake.
It rose several feet into the air and pressed backward, the disturbance waking Vradon. The monk turned, and was sitting up just as the platform settled.
“By Livia,” Vradon said as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “You did it!”
There was now a set of stone stairs leading down under the ground. A cold draft, one that smelled of wet earth, reached Twillo’s nostrils. Katashi slipped down the sand dune and joined them.
“It looks deep,” he said, his fox ears folding back.
“Are you sure you want us to deal with the sand wraiths first?” Twillo asked Ariosto.
“It is probably for the best. We definitely don’t want them bothering us, or perhaps joining the four of you below. There are still four of you going, correct?”
Twillo exchanged glances with Anneli and Princess Embla. “That’s right.”
“Yes, it’s for the best. Let’s deal with the sand wraiths.” Ariosto floated into the air, Twillo, Anneli, and Princess Embla soon joining him.
They came up over a ledge, and lowered onto it. The dunes moved beyond, yet there was something unnatural about the way they shifted. It almost looked like the wind had twisted into a point where several of the dunes rose and formed into cloaked beings, ones with long arms and sharp claws made of sand and stone.
It was faint, yet Twillo saw that they glowed with dragonessence.
“How are we supposed to fight those things?” Anneli asked as the sand wraiths swirled below their feet.
“Therein lies the problem. With some effort, you can destroy them with dragonessence. But unless you can wield water or stone, it is hard to actually kill them. Galecallers can swirl them around as much as they’d like, but they can’t really make them disappear.”
“I can’t really use dragonessence in that way,” Anneli said.
“That’s fine. The two of you can,” Ariosto told Twillo and the Princess. “Try your best, and if they become too overwhelming, I will see what I can do.”
“We really should have brought the dragons,” Princess Embla said.
Ariosto grinned at her. “That would have been too easy.”
Twillo went through his cards. He put Firebreath, Ripple Tide, and Core Eruption on deck. He summoned his dragonaura using the mudra he had recently learned, drew his sword, exchanged glances with Embla, and floated down to the sand wraiths. They noticed his presence immediately.
The nearest sand wraith swelled forward like a wave intent on crushing Twillo. Even though he didn’t know how this would play out, Twillo hit it with Firebreath. The sand wraith was quickly consumed in burning dragonessence. It whipped about, Twillo forced to jump backward to avoid its imminent collapse. Another wraith rushed toward him and he struck it with a bolt of power from his sword.
Princess Embla joined him and fired spheres of energy at another one of the sand wraiths.
Twillo thought that they were getting the upper hand, but then he felt a shift in the ground beneath his feet.
A sand wraith sucked him under, where it would have smothered Twillo had it not been for his Core Eruption power. Even as he was choked, the sand squeezing his neck and trying to pry itself into Twillo’s eyes and mouth, Twillo was able to charge up a chunk of the grains and explode it.
This had an effect that he wasn’t expecting. Twillo was fired out the back, and did a complete flip before landing on his stomach. “By Livia,” he said as he got to his feet, just in time to avoid a slash from one of the larger wraiths. Twillo took off in the opposite direction, where he hoped to circle back around.
One of the wraiths struck him across the back with what felt like a lasso of sand. The pain was instant and vicious, like a thousand miniature daggers made of glass embedding themselves in his skin. For a moment, he thought that it had ripped through his clothing, when he circled back around, Twillo wincing at the pain, he didn’t feel any tear. Nor did he notice any blood.
Not yet, anyway.
He performed the mudra for Scaled Lash, Twillo able to dig into the sand wraith as it tried again. His attack didn’t completely kill the desert monster, but it did cut it in half. What happened next reminded Twillo of the ash warriors that he had once fought. The sand that was left reformed into a smaller wraith, one that was almost comically sized.
Any comedy from the visual was quickly squashed once the smaller sand wraith zipped forward, Twillo barely making it into the air in time. It lunged for him; he dived to avoid it. He used Dragonflight to send himself up and over the smaller opponent. Twillo landed, but did so with his sword cutting straight down the middle of a sand wraith that was giving Princess Embla trouble.
There were only a few left now.
Pulling his hand back, Twillo fired a flash of dragonessence at the smaller sand wraith as it turned toward him.
It moved so quickly that it seemed like the surface of the sand itself was bubbling. Twillo was sucked back under. Yet again, he was able to fight his way out of the sand, this time using his dragonaura to launch himself to safety. It was maddening, the way the sand made him feel claustrophobic, the way it managed to get beneath his clothing and send pinpricks up and down his spine.
He managed to fight it back and cast Ripple Tide, Twillo able to take down another one of the wraiths. He turned to Embla.
The princess lunged for the small sand wraith and stabbed it in the back, killing the final one of the group.
Out of breath, Twillo huffed for a moment as he looked back up to Ariosto and Anneli.
“This is another thing that water harvesters do,” Ariosto told them as he motioned his hand over the sand. “What you see here can become something much nastier over time.”
“Much nastier?” Twillo asked.
“Creatures like this feed on stray dragonessence, of which there is more than you would expect here in the deserts of Southfall. If they grow too strong, they can become something known as a rock daemon. I pray you never encounter one of these rock daemons. They are giant rock beasts that can grow to the size of mountains and can crush entire villages. This is another thing that harvesters try to stop in their travels across the kingdom.”
“I’d like not to fight one of them, if given a choice.” Twillo checked himself to see if he had actually been cut. He only saw small little bits of blood, nothing too serious. Even so, Twillo was glad the fight was over.
“Agreed. That doesn’t sound like a fun time at all,” Anneli said.
“No, it is not. And this is why many don’t reach their Rite of Fulfillment, which is reserved for those who complete seven years of service. But they know that going in. It is a sacrifice that they have made for hundreds of years.” Ariosto smoothed his hands over his gray robes. “Now, the dragonessence. Absorb as much as you can and top off your reserves.”
Twillo could see it now, dragonessence just hovering in the air similar to the way that it existed at vortexes outside of stave churches. He raised his hand and instantly felt the power swell into him. Once he was done, Twillo checked his stats and saw that his levels were topped off. He still hadn’t ranked up yet, which was something that was starting to bother him.
He needed to get stronger.
.Chapter Fourteen.
Portal to Nowhere
By the time they arrived back at the campsite, Vradon was wide awake, the monk pacing in front of the entrance of the ziggurat. Before greeting him, Twillo approached Adventus and Seondzus.
“It’s time,” he told them, and with those words the dragons returned to the wristlets, Seondzus’ voice now in his head.
“Did you have fun hunting sand wraiths?”
“I’m just glad I’m not a water harvester,” Twillo said as he turned to Vradon. “Are you ready?”
“You are truly serious about me coming with you?”
“Just in case we need someone to read something, yes, I’m dead serious.” He placed his arm around the monk’s shoulders and turned him to the entrance of the ziggurat. “It’ll be fun. Trust me.”
“Fun, you say?” Vradon ground his teeth for a moment. “I don’t know if we have the same definition of fun, Jhaeros.”
After bidding farewell to Ariosto and Katashi, Twillo turned to the bag of supplies he normally carried with him. He checked to make sure he had certain items and soon joined Anneli, Princess Embla, and Vradon at the cellar-like opening of the ziggurat.
“Back before lunch,” Twillo said as he strolled past them, right down the steps.
“Aren’t you confident?” Anneli told him. This brought a chuckle from Princess Embla, and a little nervous chatter from Vradon as they started down the stairs.
“No, I’m just ready to move on to the next one. I do enjoy exploring these kinds of places, even if they are a bit dangerous. But I don’t like doing so on such a tight timeline. Generally, before the Artifance, I’ve had nearly a year to look for relics and other rare things across the Four Kingdoms. A year.”
“I know what a year is,” Anneli said as she caught up to him. The two hadn’t spoken as much as of late, firstly due to the separation of their groups and then Princess Embla, who was usually either hanging out with Twillo or Anneli, but not both of them together.
Twillo grinned at Anneli as they continued down the stairs, the light dimming. It became pitch black, all of them able to see just fine because of their elven bloodlines.
“How much further do you think it goes?” Vradon asked from the back.
“If I knew that, I would have told you at the top. Don’t worry,” Twillo told him. “We will reach the bottom at some point, and we will go from there. But do stay alert.”
“You should take your own advice,” Anneli told him.
“You’re not wrong.” Twillo slowed his pace and took in his surroundings. He noticed that the temperature had plummeted. It wasn’t quite cold yet, but it would be soon. The stairs stopped just before an enormous doorway, one that was twice Twillo’s height. It was open, and there seemed to be several passages on the other side.
“Wait,” Vradon said as he approached the stone. “There’s some text here.”
“What does it say?” Princess Embla asked as she came up beside him.
“A loose translation. Listen, no, harken my call. Enter not this gate… in gall. I can’t read that part. But this part says a test of soul and mind, riddles twined. Beyond what I, no, eyes, perceive. Beyond what eyes perceive, the truth you shall receive. Seek the key in each domain. Fail to do so, die in vain. Leave now or take your stance, Livia and good fortune guide your chance.”
“That was a loose translation?” Anneli asked. “That was incredible.”
“I would be lying if I said I hadn’t come across similar texts before,” Vradon said modestly.
“What do you think, bird monger?” she asked Twillo.
“Something is deceptive beyond, and it is some sort of test. What does gall mean?”
“Impudent behavior would be one translation,” Princess Embla said.
“Thanks, Emmy.”
“Beyond what eyes perceive, the truth you shall receive,” Adventus said, repeating the phrase in Twillo’s head. “And there is a key in each domain.”
“Yes, a key in each domain.” Twillo paused for a moment. “Makes sense. I’m going to assume that the challenge here is to be deceptive in nature. In each of them, however many there may be, we have to find a key. What is the key? I think I’d be going out on a limb here if I said I didn’t think that the key term was literal.”
“It could be literal. But it could also be the answer to a puzzle,” Princess Embla said.
Beside her, Vradon wrung his hands. “I don’t like this. I really don’t like this.”
“I can’t imagine why anyone would go head first into the unknown, but that’s what you do professionally, right?” Anneli flicked Twillo’s arm with a finger.
