Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend (99 page)

“Silence!” LemaRes roared.

“You tried to kill us all, and now you want me to pity you!”

“I said be quiet!”

“Like you suffered some great loss!”

“I’m warning you! Shut up!”

“You murdered so many people I loved. People who didn’t deserve to die!” She could feel the fire in her blood raging beyond where it had ever done so before. “You speak of coming from a dead world, but it was your kind that killed it in the first place, and that’s exactly what you’ll do to this one!”

“I swear to the Nova Queen I will rip that impudent tongue right out of your head if you don’t shut your filthy little fucking mouth!”

“You deserve to lose
everything
,” DiNiya pushed, faint red wisps of flame now rising off of her. “Deserve to watch your precious love die by choking on his own blood in front of you!”

LemaRes erupted in flame just as there was a second, brilliant explosion of red canceling it out. She was sent reeling backwards. With a quick surge of power, she managed to stop herself in midair. DiNiya was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

“So, DiNiya,” came a cunning voice. “Is that how it happened?”

DiNiya froze while LemaRes gazed up, wide-eyed. Hovering twenty meters above them was DayKar, arms crossed, armor gleaming in the moonlight, with a look of cold resolution.

“Is that how you killed that boy?”

Rex and the others were now staring intently at LyCora. She knew she could no longer hide what she and EeNox had been keeping a closely guarded secret from Rex. “DiNiya and I…well…we were inseparable,” she said with a slight laugh. “My mother would bring me to KaNar all the time back then. I always looked forward to it more than anything because I knew I would get to see my best friend. She and her shy brother who would always follow us from behind, thinking I didn’t realize he had eyes for me.”

“Wait,” EeNox said. “How long did you know?”

“Since always,” she said, giving him a gentle nip on the neck. “The two of us would always go off on what we called ‘our adventures,’ pretending that the depths of KaNar’s inner forest was an unexplored world, and that we were the bold explorers who were venturing into it first.”

Rex listened with both a sense of curiosity and familiarity. For the two of them sounded not all that dissimilar from him, with their desire to discover something that no one alive had yet touched, experienced—to be the first at something, to be special. He was also warmed to hear something that seemed normal by his standards for once, when it came to the lives of people in this world.

“We wanted so much to be like all the brave explorers in the stories we heard growing up from the moment we came into this world, grand tales where ordinary people could become the stuff of legend and be remembered for all time. Seems so silly now when I look back on it, but it still makes me happy.”

“So what went wrong?” Rex asked. “What pulled you two apart?”

LyCora looked terribly uneasy now, and she glanced over to EeNox for any form of support.  The TarBoranx could no longer meet her gaze, however, opting to look at the ground instead. With a trembling sigh, LyCora continued. “One day, during the harvest season, my mother and I came for a visit. As usual, I was excited to see DiNiya. I ran upstairs as fast as I could, but when I got to her room I saw she was with someone else. Someone I didn’t know. A boy.”

“GoroTy, formerly of the capital,” EeNox said somberly. “His parents had been close friends with ours before my mother died. I remember when I heard the news about his…killed in a convoy crossing in wild country by Ridgebacks. Apparently they had accidentally crushed a clutch of eggs with the wagons when they took a shortcut through the forest, and right into their nesting grounds.”

“That’s terrible,” AnaSaya said. “Their parents must have been so grief-stricken!”

“I guess they were. They killed everyone, but GoroTy managed to get away. He would have quickly been hunted down and killed, too, had a CyTorian not been passing overhead and seen him staggering in a field. In any case, he was brought to KaNar, where father recognized him immediately. It took him a while to speak again. Everyone tried, but in the end it was DiNiya who broke through to him. After that they became inseparable. It’s kind of funny, actually…that was the first time I think I started feeling like an overprotective brother. Anyway, they quickly became close friends. She knew what it was like to lose a parent…”

“I’ll never forget what I felt when I looked into his eyes,” DiNiya said. “So full of loss…the kind you feel when someone you were so connected to is suddenly gone…taken from you. I had seen it in my own eyes every time I looked in the mirror, but his…well, his seemed so much deeper: on the surface. I guess it’s because I never really knew my mother. GoroTy, on the other hand, could remember everything about her, and his father. What they looked like, sounded like, even their scent. I realized that the pain I had felt during my short time alive paled in comparison to the one he was experiencing. So I decided I would be his friend, and spend the rest of my life trying to fill the void left by those he lost.”

“I’ll admit I was a little put off at first,” LyCora said. “I mean…she was supposed to be my best friend, but then I learned what happened to him and I realized that I should be trying to make him feel a part of something, like DiNiya was. So I decided to be his friend, too. We would take him adventuring with us. He was really quiet at first, sometimes even scared, but we were always there to see him through it. Eventually he became more emboldened, taking the lead and coming up with new destinations for us to go questing for. We were a band of adventurers. We were…friends.”

“A year passed, and we had grown close as family,” DiNiya said, looking up to the sky. “Father had even adopted him, which meant he was my brother. I know EeNox was a little jealous at first, but he quickly warmed up to him. I think he really enjoyed having another boy around the house.”

“He slept in my room,” EeNox said, breaking his silence again. “Or I guess I should say ‘our room,’ since we shared it. I remember staying up late and trying to think of ways to sneak into the hot springs during mating season when all the women were down there enjoying each other’s company.” He found himself smiling at the fond memory.

LyCora looked stunned. “I had no idea he was that type of boy!”

“Is there really any other?”

“One day we were deep in the outer forest,” DiNiya went on, “and we were attacked by a rogue Ridgeback. Apparently it had been the mother of the clutch that GoroTy’s convoy had accidentally destroyed. Still, she had been in her final egg-laying season, and all her other children had been killed some years before in various territorial disputes with other wild tribes. The loss of her last chance of ever being a mother again had crushed her…driven her mad with sorrow and a desire for vengeance. Killing GoroTy’s parents and everyone they had been with on that day had not been enough for her, and she had continuously sought out the boy who got away.”

“It had taken her a while,” said LyCora. “But she eventually learned that he had been taken in by the KaNar.” She now spoke as if every word weighed heavy like stones in her heart. She had not spoken of that terrible day in years, but now she was forcing herself back to a time and place she would have rather forgotten. A time when she had experienced a fear so visceral that even now she felt herself trembling as she had done on that day. “The Ridgeback sprang from behind the trees.”

“She cried a vengeful wail,” said DiNiya. “So full of pain and sorrow.”

“But nightmarish at the same time.”

“We barely had any time to react.”

“She bared her teeth and lunged at us.”

“…And so did I…”

“Everything happened so fast…I didn’t even see DiNiya move between us and the Ridgeback,” LyCora said as her voice got caught in her throat.

“It’s strange,” DiNiya recalled. “I can’t even remember moving. One moment I was standing with the two of them, and suddenly I was there in front of a row of teeth coming down at me. What happened next was…well…” She froze for a moment, eyes wide as if seeing something no one else could. “The single freest moment of my life.” Tears ran down her face.

“There was this crack like thunder,” LyCora continued. “Then this…blinding red light that felt like…I don’t know what. You could feel it all around you, almost like a presence—so massive and powerful.”

“I could feel something rising up out of me. Like I was stepping out of myself.”

“I dropped to the ground and shut my eyes. I heard a terrible sound, like someone screaming, then…nothing: nothing at all. It was like all the life had just been pulled from the world. Even the forest felt still.”

“I opened my eyes and saw nothing but devastation,” DiNiya said in a now shaky, manic voice. “The entire forest around me was burnt…cinders falling from the sky like leaves.”

“That’s when I first noticed them.”

“I saw the Ridgeback lying just in front of me. She was moving slightly, but I could tell she was in a terrible state. I raced up to her and saw that her entire face and most of the rest of her body was badly burned. Her eyes…gone.” She put her hands over her mouth with a look of horror. “She…she…she screamed as soon as I touched her!”

“The Ridgeback’s eyes had been scorched right out of her head and she was thrashing about in blind agony,” LyCora said, feeling sick to her stomach. “But that was not the full extent of it…”

“I could only watch as she writhed in pain…pain that I had inflicted on her! I didn’t mean to, I swear it! I swear it!”

The two DraGons watched DiNiya as she stood trembling with a look of wide-eyed horror.

Meanwhile, kilometers away, Rex and the others regarded LyCora with both shock and worry for they had never seen her look so shaken.

“I think we both heard it at the same time,” she went on. “It was barely there at first, but then we clearly heard his voice.”

“It was barely over a whisper,” DiNiya said, steadying her voice while her body continued to shake. “But I heard it…I heard him. I turned around and saw GoroTy. He was lying on the ground a few meters behind me. Not moving. I ran to him and…and…” She dropped to her knees. “He was…he was…oh no, GoroTy!” DiNiya screamed, her eyes now sparking red.

“His entire body was scorched beyond recognition, yet…he was still alive. Alive while his body was…” LyCora bared her teeth and stomped her foot. “He was completely burned! You couldn’t even make out who he was anymore! Just a mass of burnt dead flesh that was crying out for his mother!”

“‘MOTHER! MOTHER!’ He just kept screaming until he choked on his own blood!” DiNiya could feel her own throat tightening, like some unseen hand was closing in around it. She reached up and clasped it, gasping for air. “I just wanted to protect him…to protect all of them. I never meant to hurt either of them. I just wanted to keep them safe, but instead I killed them both! Me! With my flame! My terrible flame! I never wanted to feel like that again. Never wanted to cause such pain ever again. And so, I buried that part of myself…forever.”

“I watched the fire in her eyes die that day,” LyCora said, remembering the sight of the girl she grew up knowing transform into a stranger right before her. “My best friend was now the thing that haunted my nightmares. I couldn’t even look at her…so I ran. Ran as hard and fast as I could until I was back in my mother’s arms. I never looked back once. As far as I was concerned, three people died that day in the forest.”

“You always were smarter than you realize, DiNiya,” DayKar spoke in a low yet almost amused tone. “You caught a mere glimpse of your true self and locked it away. The monster.”

DiNiya began to tremble violently, so much so that the DraGons stepped back.

“What’s wrong with her?” LemaRes asked.

“Ahh,” DayKar gleamed, eyes wide with expectation. “Could it finally be?”

“Be what? Damn it, DayKar, tell me what’s happening!”

Above, VoRon watched in silence as an uneasy feeling crept its way down his spine.
Was this truly wise after all?
he wondered, doubt now taking hold of him in the presence of an all too familiar power reawakening.

DiNiya began arching her body upward violently and let out a ragged scream. Her veins swelled as blood pumped through them, while the fur on her body stood on end. Inside she could feel something coming to life, or rather, awakening. Suddenly streaks of red fire began rippling all around her, infrequently at first, but they quickly multiplied. With another furious cry, DiNiya erupted in red flame.

DayKar watched the small figure of DiNiya standing in what looked like a shroud, elegant crimson fury gliding off her elegant form. “Magnificent,” he whispered.

Slowly LemaRes turned towards him. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it? This was your plan all along?”

“No, my love,” DayKar replied, unleashing a nefarious grin. “This is but the half of it.” With that, he suddenly fired a blast at DiNiya that struck her with such force that her flame vanished and sent her body crumpling to the floor. Wasting no time, DayKar dropped down and grabbed her firmly in one hand. Then holding her up, he gently carried her over to the altar.

LemaRes watched as DiNiya’s body came in contact with the altar and was immediately ensnared by chains that came out of slots in the ground around her.

DiNiya slowly opened her eyes, her head now spinning, and saw DayKar staring down at her. Instinctively she tried to move, but found that her body was being restrained by something. “You see, LemaRes,” DayKar said without taking his eyes off the girl. “This poor pathetic creature was only part one of my grand plan. Now that it’s in place, it’s time for the second and final half to come into play.” He lifted DiNiya’s head with a claw. “And believe me, this is the part where things really get set into motion.”