Ex Astris – The East Wall – Beets The Beetle – 28/06/2022
Jul 5, 2022 8:14:43 GMT
Riah, Velania Kalugina, and 2 more like this
Post by Beets The Beetle (Feenix) on Jul 5, 2022 8:14:43 GMT
-Content Warning-Slight gore and sad vibes-
The sun is slowly beginning to rise, and a light morning mist hangs in the air.
Beads of wet, like little shiny jewels settle on Qirlira’s scales, some running down, cutting through the dirt and blood streaked across her still body, as if the morning itself is mourning her.
My whole body shivers as I lay nestled against her cold head. But it is not the cold I feel…No…It is the empty weight left inside me.
"Why did it have to end like this?"
————
The whole fort had been alive with activity all day and late into the night, like an ant hill with a new queen…or in Coll’s..Not-Coll’s case…King..No…Bar keep.
Gramps had told me stories about wars and great mighty battles…But I never thought I’d find myself right in the buggin’middle of one.
Night was beginning to fall properly, the sky jet black and the darkness pressing, but for the flicker of torches scattered across the forts walls and turrets. Yet just as I was applying the last of my war paint, a great gust just picked up, peeling back the the thick clouds, to reveal a small but strong crescent moon that had been hidden from view.
It shone down on the eastern side of the fort, it’s light picking out everything in silver. The attempt of a… ‘moat’. The long spiked..pit? Sure, they ‘could’ of been nasty trip hazards for our Yanki’ friends…If they weren’t flying in on flittin’dragons and a buggin’enormous flying city!!
Before I had much chance to think further on the others…‘interesting' defences though, I felt a cool tingle in the fresh moonstone paint across my skin, and a then shout came from the tower beside me. Another blast of wind blew back my fringe as a great buggin’ripplin’swirl appeared in the air beyond the fort, and out of it flew the beautiful sight of Qirlira the Bright, followed by…the biggest…most utterly gorgeous dragon I’d ever buggin’seen! She’d brought..her Mama!
————
“But why can’t I fight out here with you?!” I…-thinking back it does flittin’sound it now..-I whined to Qirlira, both she and mama still glowing softly in blue despite the smothering of the moon back behind the wall of thick black clouds.
“If it is bad as you foretold to me in our last meeting dear...” Qir said, as she finished flexing her limbs, each movement gleaming with a ripple of a thousand shiny stars from her scales, “…then it best you stay clear lest you get caught up by accident during in the heat of the battle. Protect the wall, and your friends, should one of their number manage to slip past us!” I wanted argue more, but then felt the gaze of two enormous eyes on me and turned to come face to flittin’face with her mama, Zanathir the Shining Radiance. My wings froze, grass smooshing against my toes as I landed as she lowered her enormous head towards me. “Do as she says young one.” Her voice both warm and rich as fresh honey, and yet somehow as powerful feeling as a mama bear’s mightiest roar. I wasn’t gonna buggin’say no to her.
“There will be use of your skills on battlefield yet this night. I predict this will not be a battle easily won.”
————
Midnight came…and so did the rain…and the dragons…So many dragons…
Jeanna had pulled our group together after coming out to meet our dragon friends a few hours before. Our Mission…Bring down the yanki’dragons. All of’em! Should even one manage to slip past it could mean a buggin’disaster for the poor folks left defending inside. I felt the healed scars from my own dragon encounter pang with pain, the sudden hot gush of my blood, hear the blazing snarls above me, see the white burning light as my world was consumed by fire…
The others in my group shared my worries in their own faces.
Moon beard bow-boy Gerhard, still dressed in his simple coat’n’suit attire, his ‘moon-bow’-Call-resting on his shoulder.
Amble, his long fingers flickin'through a thick chunky book as he muttered hurriedly under his breath, the glowing form of a dome slowing emerging out of the air behind him, his fluffy pup Stiffy puffing out great pants of steam into the night at his side.
Florian, his face streaked with war paint, silent and still, as if already forming plans for the battle ahead in his mind.
Dwirihan, hands tight on her quarterstaff as she takes in Jenna’s each and every word.
And Velania. I hadn’t seen her since her date with Coll. She was…Well..Just as beautiful as back then. Her long white hair tied back in ponytail falling been her armoured shoulders, a white dress and cloak flowing over her golden skin. She looked sad..but also determined. She knew how much this place had meant to Coll, how much it meant to all of us.
A flash of lightning again, and the sky is filled with hundreds, maybe even thousands of flapping crimson dragons…I grab hold of my fear before it can spread. Force it back deep down inside as I felt something…The ‘Beast’ awaken inside me, sniffing the air hungrily before my vision sharpens, a surge of black gooey tendrils pouring from my open eyes and mouth to form razor sharp claws and long twitching mandibles as a horrible piercing screeching roar erupts from my mouth, in time with a blazing bolt of lightning! “HUNGER!”
The battle came in blurring waves, blinding rain and rage smearing the scenes of the fighting together. Gert arrows pinging off the thick armour of the Yanki-dragon riders. Qir sending a scorching white hot ray across the battlefield, Zana pouncing to rip and tear into an enormous yanki-dragon. The near misses of the stingers of the yanki-dragon forces against their glowing doubles. Velania cutting one dragon outta the sky with the whirring glow of a magic sword, golden feathery wings spread wide. Blasts of magic emerging from the darkened dome of the tiny hut where Amble/Stiffy, Dwir and Flor stood their ground. A young dragon wyrmling breaking free of the front line and landing awfully close to Gert. The surge of my wings as I dove down to meet it…The rich…delicious taste of it’s blood filling my mouth as.. my jaws..bit deep into it’s flesh.
During the battle at times I thought I was imaging impossible things. The sound of wing beats, so strong’n’loud they made the very air tremble. A blast of flame, so huge it could’ve destroyed my old village twice over. Only later did I see the signs that this nightmare dragon had left behind, hear the fear in the voices of people that had merely caught sight of it.
I came to my senses at times during the battle too. The glowing blasts of Qir’s and Zana’s moon bright breathes ripping through the smotherin’droning darkness that surrounded me.
I remember the deep slashes of a gith yanki captain’s sword in my gut as they suddenly emerged from the dark, like a big nightmare monster. Remember their taunting laughs as I tried to swing that impossibly flittin’heavy moon-sword.“NO! Bite!! TEAR!”, said that monster voice in my head, and I watched both of Qir’s own slash attacks miss her prey before she let her own rage take over. Sinking her jaws deep into that dragon’s neck, sending spurts of blood spraying across her scales.“FEAST!”, I remember hearing, as I dropped my sword, the laugh of the yanki captain turning to gurgling gasps as I locked my beetle jaws around her throat. Saw the huge wide eyes, heard the screams of fear from her young lacky as I turned my blood splattered jaws and launched myself at them, eager remove the desperate fluttering life from their own body.
Sometime after I felt a calming wave cut through the wild blood-drive that had overtaken me, as the stinging cuts on my gut closed up. I felt the chilling surge of bile rise in my throat as I took in the tattered remains of the yanki-solider I had been..feasting on..before I wretched.
As I looked back up, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, lighting the dragon battleground ahead. Qir face to face with a huge nightmarish red dragon above her, a cowardly githy sneaking up from behind, blade drawn. I forced down that sickening hunger that had overwhelmed me before, and summoned my beetle claws instead, before hurtling towards the back of that yanki-coward.
Everything after that happened so flittin’fast…That roar from the nightmare dragon. So piercing and terrifying it almost froze my heart in place. The cry of Gert on the slope as he was almost fully consumed in dragon fire. The screams of Vel before she was ripped struggling from the sky. A cry of “NO!” from Qir. Our eyes connecting as she whips around me to blast the nightmare dragon full in the face with one of her moonbeams, it’s body in mid-lunge towards me. A sudden blast of wind and rain pushing us back, as the evil dragon was swallowed into an instant, swirlin’storm cloud.
Qirlira took the chance to glance back at me…her eyes almost twinklin’ to see I was okay. Before she was g-grabbed..by the throat by the nightmare dragon..and pulled into the storm.
I screamed. Not the beast-backed battle cry from before. But of absolute horror…Lightning crashed and flashed above us, silhouetting the fighting two dragons inside that white orb as if it were puppet show. Qir on top. The dragon on top. Qir fighting back. The dragon holding strong. Waves of roaring and snarling, like a war of words pulsing from the the orb before…With a final horrible crack of thunder…
Qirlira fell.
And so did my control…
Continued in Qirliria's Lament
The sun is slowly beginning to rise, and a light morning mist hangs in the air.
Beads of wet, like little shiny jewels settle on Qirlira’s scales, some running down, cutting through the dirt and blood streaked across her still body, as if the morning itself is mourning her.
My whole body shivers as I lay nestled against her cold head. But it is not the cold I feel…No…It is the empty weight left inside me.
"Why did it have to end like this?"
————
The whole fort had been alive with activity all day and late into the night, like an ant hill with a new queen…or in Coll’s..Not-Coll’s case…King..No…Bar keep.
Gramps had told me stories about wars and great mighty battles…But I never thought I’d find myself right in the buggin’middle of one.
Night was beginning to fall properly, the sky jet black and the darkness pressing, but for the flicker of torches scattered across the forts walls and turrets. Yet just as I was applying the last of my war paint, a great gust just picked up, peeling back the the thick clouds, to reveal a small but strong crescent moon that had been hidden from view.
It shone down on the eastern side of the fort, it’s light picking out everything in silver. The attempt of a… ‘moat’. The long spiked..pit? Sure, they ‘could’ of been nasty trip hazards for our Yanki’ friends…If they weren’t flying in on flittin’dragons and a buggin’enormous flying city!!
Before I had much chance to think further on the others…‘interesting' defences though, I felt a cool tingle in the fresh moonstone paint across my skin, and a then shout came from the tower beside me. Another blast of wind blew back my fringe as a great buggin’ripplin’swirl appeared in the air beyond the fort, and out of it flew the beautiful sight of Qirlira the Bright, followed by…the biggest…most utterly gorgeous dragon I’d ever buggin’seen! She’d brought..her Mama!
————
“But why can’t I fight out here with you?!” I…-thinking back it does flittin’sound it now..-I whined to Qirlira, both she and mama still glowing softly in blue despite the smothering of the moon back behind the wall of thick black clouds.
“If it is bad as you foretold to me in our last meeting dear...” Qir said, as she finished flexing her limbs, each movement gleaming with a ripple of a thousand shiny stars from her scales, “…then it best you stay clear lest you get caught up by accident during in the heat of the battle. Protect the wall, and your friends, should one of their number manage to slip past us!” I wanted argue more, but then felt the gaze of two enormous eyes on me and turned to come face to flittin’face with her mama, Zanathir the Shining Radiance. My wings froze, grass smooshing against my toes as I landed as she lowered her enormous head towards me. “Do as she says young one.” Her voice both warm and rich as fresh honey, and yet somehow as powerful feeling as a mama bear’s mightiest roar. I wasn’t gonna buggin’say no to her.
“There will be use of your skills on battlefield yet this night. I predict this will not be a battle easily won.”
————
Midnight came…and so did the rain…and the dragons…So many dragons…
Jeanna had pulled our group together after coming out to meet our dragon friends a few hours before. Our Mission…Bring down the yanki’dragons. All of’em! Should even one manage to slip past it could mean a buggin’disaster for the poor folks left defending inside. I felt the healed scars from my own dragon encounter pang with pain, the sudden hot gush of my blood, hear the blazing snarls above me, see the white burning light as my world was consumed by fire…
The others in my group shared my worries in their own faces.
Moon beard bow-boy Gerhard, still dressed in his simple coat’n’suit attire, his ‘moon-bow’-Call-resting on his shoulder.
Amble, his long fingers flickin'through a thick chunky book as he muttered hurriedly under his breath, the glowing form of a dome slowing emerging out of the air behind him, his fluffy pup Stiffy puffing out great pants of steam into the night at his side.
Florian, his face streaked with war paint, silent and still, as if already forming plans for the battle ahead in his mind.
Dwirihan, hands tight on her quarterstaff as she takes in Jenna’s each and every word.
And Velania. I hadn’t seen her since her date with Coll. She was…Well..Just as beautiful as back then. Her long white hair tied back in ponytail falling been her armoured shoulders, a white dress and cloak flowing over her golden skin. She looked sad..but also determined. She knew how much this place had meant to Coll, how much it meant to all of us.
A flash of lightning again, and the sky is filled with hundreds, maybe even thousands of flapping crimson dragons…I grab hold of my fear before it can spread. Force it back deep down inside as I felt something…The ‘Beast’ awaken inside me, sniffing the air hungrily before my vision sharpens, a surge of black gooey tendrils pouring from my open eyes and mouth to form razor sharp claws and long twitching mandibles as a horrible piercing screeching roar erupts from my mouth, in time with a blazing bolt of lightning! “HUNGER!”
The battle came in blurring waves, blinding rain and rage smearing the scenes of the fighting together. Gert arrows pinging off the thick armour of the Yanki-dragon riders. Qir sending a scorching white hot ray across the battlefield, Zana pouncing to rip and tear into an enormous yanki-dragon. The near misses of the stingers of the yanki-dragon forces against their glowing doubles. Velania cutting one dragon outta the sky with the whirring glow of a magic sword, golden feathery wings spread wide. Blasts of magic emerging from the darkened dome of the tiny hut where Amble/Stiffy, Dwir and Flor stood their ground. A young dragon wyrmling breaking free of the front line and landing awfully close to Gert. The surge of my wings as I dove down to meet it…The rich…delicious taste of it’s blood filling my mouth as.. my jaws..bit deep into it’s flesh.
During the battle at times I thought I was imaging impossible things. The sound of wing beats, so strong’n’loud they made the very air tremble. A blast of flame, so huge it could’ve destroyed my old village twice over. Only later did I see the signs that this nightmare dragon had left behind, hear the fear in the voices of people that had merely caught sight of it.
I came to my senses at times during the battle too. The glowing blasts of Qir’s and Zana’s moon bright breathes ripping through the smotherin’droning darkness that surrounded me.
I remember the deep slashes of a gith yanki captain’s sword in my gut as they suddenly emerged from the dark, like a big nightmare monster. Remember their taunting laughs as I tried to swing that impossibly flittin’heavy moon-sword.“NO! Bite!! TEAR!”, said that monster voice in my head, and I watched both of Qir’s own slash attacks miss her prey before she let her own rage take over. Sinking her jaws deep into that dragon’s neck, sending spurts of blood spraying across her scales.“FEAST!”, I remember hearing, as I dropped my sword, the laugh of the yanki captain turning to gurgling gasps as I locked my beetle jaws around her throat. Saw the huge wide eyes, heard the screams of fear from her young lacky as I turned my blood splattered jaws and launched myself at them, eager remove the desperate fluttering life from their own body.
Sometime after I felt a calming wave cut through the wild blood-drive that had overtaken me, as the stinging cuts on my gut closed up. I felt the chilling surge of bile rise in my throat as I took in the tattered remains of the yanki-solider I had been..feasting on..before I wretched.
As I looked back up, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, lighting the dragon battleground ahead. Qir face to face with a huge nightmarish red dragon above her, a cowardly githy sneaking up from behind, blade drawn. I forced down that sickening hunger that had overwhelmed me before, and summoned my beetle claws instead, before hurtling towards the back of that yanki-coward.
Everything after that happened so flittin’fast…That roar from the nightmare dragon. So piercing and terrifying it almost froze my heart in place. The cry of Gert on the slope as he was almost fully consumed in dragon fire. The screams of Vel before she was ripped struggling from the sky. A cry of “NO!” from Qir. Our eyes connecting as she whips around me to blast the nightmare dragon full in the face with one of her moonbeams, it’s body in mid-lunge towards me. A sudden blast of wind and rain pushing us back, as the evil dragon was swallowed into an instant, swirlin’storm cloud.
Qirlira took the chance to glance back at me…her eyes almost twinklin’ to see I was okay. Before she was g-grabbed..by the throat by the nightmare dragon..and pulled into the storm.
I screamed. Not the beast-backed battle cry from before. But of absolute horror…Lightning crashed and flashed above us, silhouetting the fighting two dragons inside that white orb as if it were puppet show. Qir on top. The dragon on top. Qir fighting back. The dragon holding strong. Waves of roaring and snarling, like a war of words pulsing from the the orb before…With a final horrible crack of thunder…
Qirlira fell.
And so did my control…
Continued in Qirliria's Lament