Almost an hour later, feeling rested and ready to go,
I took off again.
I reached the cave embedded in the face of the
mountain at sunset.
~ * ~
Arriving at Neopia Central just in time to see a bright green speck heading
for the Terror Mountain Range, Crystal shaded her eyes as she looked skyward.
Syll and Julynea were practising what they called 'dagger-throwing' - 'flying
disasters' would be more like it -- some yards away from her. One of Julynea's
misaimed throws landed a few inches away from their owner's left leg. "Lynn!"
Sylmarien hissed. "You'd better apologise quick!"
Julynea retrieved her dagger from its resting
spot and turned to face her owner. "Crystal? I'm sorry," she said, turning a
large-eyed, pleading face up to her owner.
"Hmm? For what?" Crystal answered, her eyes
still fixed on the clouds above. Julynea glared at Syll. "She didn't even notice
it! You made me apologise for nothing."
"I know," her sister answered.
~ * ~
Alighting at the ledge on the front of the cave, I went in. The cave was large
and cosy and would probably have been very comfy in ordinary times. This, however,
was most definitely not ordinary times. I entered slowly and almost tripped
over something lying on the floor. Looking down to see what it was, I crouched
down to take a closer look.
It was an ancient Eyrie longsword, its golden
blade etched with runes that I didn't know the meaning of. The stone grasped
in the carved Eyrie claw on the hilt shone a dark emerald green in the fading
light. I'd seen enough longswords in the Battle Magic shop to recognize a special
one when I saw it. The ones in the shop had emanated a peculiar feel to them
that spoke of power. This one, however, was literally singing with the energies
it held. Even a totally inexperienced pet would have recognized this particular
sword as special, and I was far from inexperienced.
This had to be the ancient sword Kanara,
that had been forged by an Eyrie King so long ago. Said to destroy anyone who
touched it except the one who forged it and his decedents, it was instant death
for those who were not of his line. But if my father had wielded it, then surely
I could too? There was only one way to find out. I dropped my bag of food to
the floor, reached down and gripped the sword handle tightly, then lifted it
up to stare at the blade of living fire.
Pain shot through my head, as I held the ancient
sword. I glimpsed it flickering in the darkness, dark green flames, dancing
in emerald waves across the slender golden blade and bathing the rocky cave
walls in shimmering green light.
Then, abruptly, it was over. The sword had accepted
me as a descendant of the ancient Eyrie Kings. And I knew it was mine to do
with as I so chose, for good or for evil.
Then, a single sound shattered the silent solitude
of the cave.
"Charge!!!!"
~ * ~
The old grey Eyrie had been in the cave when the CryztalFury arrived. His
mindless minions, hooded and cloaked in black, had hidden in dark corners of
the large cave. He had watched soundlessly as his hated enemy had picked up
the sword he had longed to bring to his cave, but had been unable to touch.
As the glowing, fire-winged Eyrie exulted in the strength of its new-found power,
he sent a mental message to his minions. Then, more to show that Eyrie his own
power and announce that its doom was near than to tell anybody anything, he
drew himself up.
"Charge!!! he roared, and his hidden minions
streamed out of hidden places and attacked the hated pet. Chakosta smiled to
himself. His plan was going perfectly.
~ * ~
"I don't trust this fruit," Crystal declared flatly. They sat in a small clearing
in the jungle, finishing off a heated debate about whether or not to eat the
small cherry-like fruit that marked the trees that grew all around them. Sylmarien
shrugged resignedly. "We'll just have to stick to bread and cheese then, oh-mighty-owner."
Lynn was out exploring the surroundings, and Syll was preparing something resembling
tea. Suddenly, Lynn came crashing back through the trees. "I just saw Cryz!"
Crystal's head jerked in her direction. "Where?"
"In the jungle! There were these big guys wearing
masks and black robes and a grey-coloured Eyrie with tattoos on his face and
they were carrying Cryz in a cage, I think he was unconscious or something.
I stayed long enough to see them go past, and then I ran…" She said all this
in one breath and stood there panting.
"Anything else?"
"Well, yeah." She paused. "Crystal, those big
black guys walk funny."
"Like how?"
"Like… like kinda like robots, they don't walk,
they march. And their arms and legs are awfully stiff. They gave me the creeps
for some reason."
Crystal rose to her feet. "We're going after
them."
~ * ~
I woke up as the cage door was opened. I shook my head, my thoughts foggy.
Slowly, the memories came back. Stiff, robotically moving creatures in dark
robes had surrounded me and I had fought wildly and desperately. But I could
not bring myself to destroy any of those attacking me - me, whose duels had
always ended at someone being knocked unconscious. But these fellows just wouldn't
go down! Though hit more times than any pet should have been able to endure,
even 100 HP ones, they just kept on coming. Then someone had slipped up behind
me and hit me on the head someplace. I winced as I felt the swelling with my
tied forepaws, my eyes roving about the place I was in. A heavy weight rested
on my back, between my wings. I tried to grope backwards and identify the item,
and my paws encountered the smooth golden handle of my Eyrie Longsword. Kanara,
that was it's name. My captors must have somehow put it in the scabbard.
I raised my head to survey my captors. They
surrounded my cage, standing silently about me as their leader, still robed
and hooded in black, came in front of me, moving like an animated wooden puppet.
He turned to face me at a silent command and took off his hood and mask. I braced
myself for a hideous nightmare, but was pleasantly surprised. His fur, white
with blue flames, and dark grey mane might even have been considered handsome.
But his eyes sent a chill down my back. A deep, ruby red, so dark as to be almost
brown, they seemed blank, not responding. Like someone who was an unwilling
slave to the will of another.
Another hooded figure approached. This one,
for some reason, did not move like a robot, like its other companions. It leaned
close to me.
"Welcome, CryztalFury FrostTalon, to the realm
of the DarkWhite Eyries."
His cackling laughter was the last thing I heard
as I fell back into dark oblivion.
Leader of the Lost
Crystal stood aghast at the enormous gaping hole in the ground. It had once
been covered by bushes which had now been dragged aside. They had seen CryztalFury
taken in, and heard the wicked cackling laughter echoing up from below. Syll
summed it up. "Well? Do we go in or do we not?" Julynea looked undecided. Crystal
had already made her decision. She would follow CryztalFury's trail no matter
what. But she had to convince her other pets to follow, too. It'd do no good
to go trotting down by herself and leave them up here. She would need help.
"We must go in! Cryz could be dying down there! If you two aren't coming,"
she announced determinedly, "I'm going alone."
Syll and Julynea glanced doubtfully at each
other and nodded as one, following their owner into the depths of the earth.
"I tell you one thing," Julynea muttered darkly
to Syll, "If we survive this, I'm gonna throttle that Eyrie."
~ * ~
I woke to find myself in a dark cave, tied to a chair. A grey haze seemed
to linger in my mind, and I shook my head, trying futilely to get rid of it.
"So you're finally awake." The voice seemed
to come from just in front of me, and I lifted my head slowly, unable to distinguish
anything except a dark shape just in front of me.
"Wh-who are you?"
"My name is Tallan."
I shook my head again, my vision finally clearing,
and my eyes focused on the Eyrie sitting in front of me.
He wasn't like any Eyrie I'd ever seen before.
He had blue flames and white fur like the Eyrie I'd seen outside, but what struck
me was that the flames on his fur were moving. Just like mine, except
his were blue. As far as I knew, I was the only Eyrie in Neopia with flames
like these. His eyes were ruby red and very much alive. He noticed my stare
and nodded his head. "Yes, they really are moving. I was related to the Ancient
Eyrie Kings, albeit only a distant cousin, but enough to inherit their distinctive
trademark."
I recalled rather dimly the words of the book;
'And the flames on their fur moved with the wind.'
"You aren't wooden. Are you the one who spoke
to me?"
He appeared to understand my rather vague question.
"Wooden? I suppose that's an adequate way to say taken over; used; controlled."
He laughed, but there was no joy in the laughter. It was bitter, and tinged
with sorrow and anger. "But if one spoke to you, it must have been Chakosta.
You have most certainly not been conscious enough to hear any words I have spoken
to you until now."
"Chakosta?"
"You don't know who he is?"
I shook my head mutely.
"Good. You wouldn't want to." He turned away
from me. "I'll get you some water."
"No, wait -- Tallan! Don't go away!"
"Go away? Where do you think I can go? I'm as
much a prisoner here as you are."
For the first time I noticed the locks and heavy
iron bolt on the large door. "A prisoner? But you're not tied up."
"Of course. You don't think they'd spoon-feed
me, do you? I can't get out of here, and I couldn't do anything even if I could."
He poured himself a cup of clear liquid. "Something to drink?"
I shook my head. He sipped his drink slowly
as I looked around. Both the Kanara and my old Fire Sword had been taken away,
and I felt peculiarly vulnerable without them. The cell seemed to be a natural
cave, it's walls and floor rocky and uneven. There was a stone shelf at one
end, where a few meager plates and cups and a thick, leather-bound book rested.
A pitcher of liquid sat at one side of the shelf, from which he had poured his
drink. Aside from the shelf, the only other furnishings in the cave were a small,
lumpy-looking mattress and a couple chairs.
I focused my eyes back on the white-feathered
Eyrie, my brain finally starting to clear. "Why don't you tell me the whole
story? All that's important."
He gave me a long, steady stare, then sighed.
"Oh well, it's one way to pass the time, I suppose."
He sat himself down in front of me, drinking
from a large, clumsily made clay cup.
"My full name is Tallan SunHorizon, and I am
the seventh in descent from my ancestor Renladon, the younger brother of Rentadon
the Golden, greatest of all Eyrie Kings," he began. I noticed that his voice
had become richer, more sonorous. As if this was not a story he had just made
up, but was a story that had been among his people for a very long time, merely
tweaked here and there in places to fit the time he was living in.
"Now, in the fifteenth year of King Rentadon's
reign, about 1000 plus years before Neopia, the Eyrie caves in Terror Mountain
grew too crowded for his people to live in comfort, and the King sent a large
party of scouts out to look for new land for his people. The scouts reported
a lovely new land down near the south of Neopia, which you know now as Mystery
Island. Fully half the population of the Eyrie Caves set out to to this new
land, which was then still deserted. They were commanded by Rentadon's younger
brother, Renladon, and advised by the old magician-advisor Chakosta. But a violent
blizzard hit them just south of Terror Mountain and they were forced to seek
shelter in these caves you see here. But the blizzard caused a rockslide that
buried the way out of the caves, and they were forced to stay there forever,
unable to get help from the outside and trapped inside the caves. Fortunately,
they found a small cave buried deep inside that contained a large vein of something
-- I don't know what rock it was, it could be diamond for all I know, but it
refracted enough sunlight down into the cave that they could plant crops and
escape starvation. In time, our fire coats became as you see us now, white and
blue, and our once dark eyes became red as rubies. We adjusted to life here
and lived happily."
"This is a story from a book, isn't it?"
"You are observant. It's called 'Legends of the
Old-Time', written by one of the DarkWhite Eyrie Kings with too much time on
his paws." He smiled wryly. "It's the only book they let me read, so I pretty
much memorized it." He made a gesture toward the shelf on which the book rested,
then cleared his throat. "This is where it gets personal," he told me. "Anyway,"
he continued in a conversational tone, "we dug out the passage leading to the
outside world in my great-grandfather's time, but even if we'd wanted to go
back out, our eyes, now extremely sensitive to the light, wouldn't permit it.
Our foragers went out once in a while to gather fruit and meat, but they went
at night and with masks on to shield their eyes. None of us wanted to return
to the outside world, so exposed to the wind and weather, and we stayed here,
our existence unknown to all others.
But the old advisor-magician Chakosta slowly
became crazy - or mad. He became obsessed with the idea that we had been sent
away from the other Ancients as a punishment and that the Eyrie King was responsible
for our being trapped underground. His body aged very slowly, but his mind became
obsessed with the idea of revenge against those who had 'doomed' us. We knew
nothing of his malady until my father died and I assumed the position as leader.
It was largely an honorary position, since there was really nothing to do. The
people just went about their own business, raising food and settling their own
affairs. The leader was not really consulted except on very serious matters.
I was well liked among the people, and it was
generally known that I was in love with a young Eyriess named Cella DragonChild.
Cella was beautiful, brilliant and quick-witted, all that an Eyrie could ever
ask for. And she loved only me."
His voice was wistful, and I could see a dark,
terrible injury in his eyes -- a hurt so deep he would never be totally free
of it.
"Chakosta, by then fully mad, kidnapped Cella
on the day we were to be united. He made a bargain -- give myself over to him
and he'd let her go. I did as instructed, but she was never freed. Instead,
she simply disappeared. I believe he had her destroyed. If she was, she was
but the first of the casualties among those who opposed him.
Chakosta tried to take over my mind and make
me serve him, but I resisted. His original plan was to use me to bring my people
under his power and use them to revenge himself on the Ancient Eyries for our
supposed 'exile' nearly 1000 years ago. But failing that, he used the love of
my people for me to bring them under his mind-power. He delivered an ultimatum
-- unless they submitted to him, I would be destroyed. What could they do? They
submitted on the condition that if ever I was harmed, they would be freed. It's
the only weakness in the spell he used to take over their minds. All except
me are under his domination now. It's been that way for over 10 years."
He paused and took another drink from his cup.
"Chakosta has been hunting your family for a
long time, ever since he gained control of my people. The virtual extinction
of most of the Ancients did not satisfy him, because you and your family still
lived. Your mother was captured and brought here almost five months ago. I still
remember the look on her face as they brought her in - so like my dear Cella,
only with greenish-red fur. She was taken shortly after that to the room just
down the hall. I never saw her again." He sipped his drink, his ruby eyes filled
with pain.
I nodded slowly. So much I had not understood
before was now clear. So that was what had happened to the mother I had never
known. Most probably what was going to happen to me.
"Soooo…what's he going to do to me?"
The reply, expected or not, still chilled my
blood.
"He's going to destroy you, very, very soon."
Tallan's ruby eyes locked onto mine as he leaned close. "He's been waiting too
long for this to delay it any longer."
No sooner had he said that then the door of
the chamber was flung open. Two robotic guards marched in and untied me, jerking
me up roughly by the mane. My new-found friend looked at me sadly. When he spoke
again, it was in a strangely formal tone.
"Goodbye, last of the Ancients. I doubt you
will live to see the the rising of the new sun. Know that you have died bravely,
a fitting death for one of your heritage."
To be continued…
Note from the author: What do you think? Too gaudy, grossly overdramatic?
Does the plot have holes in it you could throw a Kadoatie through? Neomail me
at frostcrystal! Just don't be too rude. J
P.S. If you want to use names I've made up (like Cella_DragonChild or Chakosta)
for your pets name/Neopian Times story, you're free to do so, but could you
please Neomail me and tell me first? Cooperation is much appreciated.
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