Dragon Frost (9 page)

"This place is an exact replica of a canyon on Earth. He was just a human soldier at the time. When I found him, he was half-dead on this very field. It is true that the Chimera Mother carved this canyon in her fury against her own children. After that, however, the plumas carved it into something of my memory of Earth. I feel as if both this place and the original Cirrus is connected in some way."

"Is Hino behind this?"

"I don't know if Hino is playing a direct part in this," Sybl replied. "Either way, I don't want to assault Earth until I uncover who is behind this in the definite. Keep a close eye on Xirel, Nafury. All the Awls are connected to one another. If there is something amiss, you may be able to spot it in time from him."

"Alright."

"Is Xirel going to be okay?" Ubi asked in concern.

"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure he is," Sybl assured Ubi. "But I need your help as well. I can't affect the physical realm right now because there is no leaving Aragmoth's inner Threads alone until he has fully healed."

Ubi nodded. "Maybe my power can help, even if it only messes up their shifts."

"I'm sure it will," Sybl encouraged her. "Nafury," she said and then looked at him again, "please look after her for me. As long as there is a living Fay on Aster, and a human one for that matter, Hino's power is limited."

"You know I will. I just hope we can find out what happened to Cirrus, lest our enemies have him. If I find him and he turns out to be controlled like Simera, I don't know what I will do."

"If there is a way to cut the puppeteers strings, then Cirrus may lead you to the answer on how it can be done. I will search for him and the answers we need as well."

Nafury nodded and then rubbed his side as it felt like someone kicked him.

Sybl smiled. "Wake up now, as Xirel is about to have a fit with how lazy you are both being."

I will miss you, sister.
Nafury thought as her image vanished on his waking. He had been woken up from being kicked in the side. He let the haze fade from his eyes for a moment, before looking to his shoulder that Ubi had fallen asleep on. He dared to look up at Xirel at that.

"So it wasn't just a dread feeling triggered by the past I was feeling," Xirel said.

"You saw her too?" Nafury asked as his surroundings came into focus.

"A little. With how your thoughts have suddenly included a great deal of my well-being, I can only guess what she said to you. I have felt something wrong since before I left to Earth, but I wasn't sure what it was."

"Then you're staying here with Loki. Me and Ubi can handle the dragons."

"No, you will need an Awl to ground any other dragons that try to swarm you. Even with the power of a Fay, more than a few dragons will prove too much to handle," Xirel replied.

"I don't want you to get hurt," Ubi pleaded as she woke up and caught Xirel's hand in her own. "Please stay with the ship."

Xirel looked at Ubi for a moment, then turned away and closed his eyes. "Do you remember the day they took you from me? When I was still a Sentry?"

"Yes," Ubi replied. She lowered her eyes to the floor from the weight of the sad memory.

"I was strong enough to break free of Hino's control then and come to Aster, where I was able to live free. I fought at your mother's side the Sentry who had joined sides with Daath and defeated them. I made it to Earth and found you again, and there were no Sentry who were powerful enough to get in my way of that. Even Simera could only wound me. Whatever Hino has conjured up against us now, I will not underestimate it. Nor will I let either of you face it alone."

"But my mother said it's dangerous!" Ubi pleaded. "You said it yourself--that she was always right!"

Xirel set his other hand on the side of her face. "You worry too much for me. I can hold my own. Simera was a challenge, but they don't come stronger than him." He looked at Nafury. "Perhaps your shift will be of great use, after all. I seriously doubt there is anything that can control Alexia aside from you."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I feel sorry for the idiot who tries just that," Nafury said as he went up onto the deck. He looked out across the water to the Torian Beach, as the ship dropped anchor. There was a single, dark blue dragon lying casually in the sand, watching them with orange eyes. Derel. "That one has gotten bigger in the last ten years," he said when Xirel and Ubi caught up to him. "With some luck, he's still the passive type." Nafury pulled the Threads of the air around him, and pulled Ubi onto his back. He lifted them off of the deck and then shifted. Making more distance from the fragile ship in a swift downburst from his wings, he flew towards the beach. 

Xirel wasn't going to be left behind as he shifted and jumped the rail of the ship, landing on instead of
in
the water. He took to a run and followed them.

"He can walk on water?" Nafury said in disbelief after glancing back.

"That's so cool." On sensing Nafury's disdain, Ubi started to pet him, hoping to mend some of his ego.

FIFTEEN

Nafury hovered over the blue dragon that lay on the beach for several minutes. The smaller dragon didn't seem the least bit interested in the ship that remained some ways out. Instead, he kept his orange eyes fixated on Nafury.

Derel was Tynar and Trista's son, as well as Cecil's younger brother. He was more adventurous than many of the other young dragons, and he was also one of the more intelligent ones. There was no way to tell whether the dragon would attack them like Simera had.
 

Nafury looked back at Xirel as the chimera Awl turned his eyes from the sky to the waves. If Derel decided to attack them, his first move would likely be a tsunami with his command over water. He didn't know if Xirel would be able to do anything with the Thread against that kind of force.

"My brother made it clear that he wants nothing more to do with you," Derel said when Nafury landed in front of him. "You have some nerve bring that treacherous Alexia over here as well."

"Ubi would like to see her mother's grave," Nafury replied, hoping to avoid having to try and explain anything.

Derel looked at the Fay who stayed on Nafury's back. "Yes, we all know about the Outcast Fay. She is dangerous and should not have been brought to Aster."

"Is that what Simera has told you?" Nafury asked.

"Simera? Simera was dead before I was born," Derel replied.

Nafury let out a silent breath of relief. News of Simera's more recent death hadn't spread to here, yet. "So who else is going on about how dangerous she is, then?"

Derel looked at Ubi as if for the answer. "Her story is in the Texts."

"Let me guess, these books have suddenly appeared? How peculiar. Look, I would like to discuss your schooling all day, but I have other things to attend to. My niece and I are going to visit my sister's grave, right now. I trust there won't be any problems with the merchants?"

Derel looked at Xirel who had turned his gaze from the skies to give him a cold stare. "I won't bother them, but I make no promises with what the others will do. Derel was on his feet now, making his way backwards before he took to the air. Nafury did the same some moments later.

"It's so pretty," Ubi said as she looked at the crystal-like castle rise in the distance. From its center, a pinkish-purple glow rose into the atmosphere and spread across it. "It looks like from a fairy tale."

Nafury laughed. "We will get a closer look later on. Let's go do what I said we would, first." He turned his wings in the direction of the Bedlam Waterway.

Ubi looked back to where they left Xirel.
 

The Awl nodded in her direction and thought to her,
'I will hold the beach until you get back. Be safe.'

After a twenty minute flight, they reached the Bedlam Waterway. Nafury floated down through the mists to a ledge and gave a quick look for danger. Satisfied, he unshifted and lowered Ubi down from his back. They headed inside the small cave that was near the waterfall that fed the river. Some ways inside, they found Sybl's and Cirrus' gravestones. Just to the side stood Serena's as well. A small, intricately carved shrine had been built within the cavern that hadn't been there last time he was here.

"Who did this?" Ubi asked, looking all around before going over to her mother's grave. Fresh, pink flowers from the Casus Beli Canyon lay on Sybl's marker.

"It's not much, but it was something to do with my past time," a voice said from behind a pillar. A dragoon with short, blue hair and orange, blind eyes stepped out. He didn't have Derel's better looks, but Cecil was always known more for his brains. "What are you doing here, Nafury?" Cecil asked.

"Is it so wrong to see if my former kind are doing well?" Nafury replied.

"We've been just fine with your Apocalypse attempt out of the way. And I see you found yourself another Fay."

Ubi started to quickly lose patience with the arrogant dragoon. Nafury could feel her willing herself to not make Cecil's blue dragon shift eat him.

"Do you intend to kill this one as well?" Cecil asked in an attempt to spite him.

Nafury lost his cool, and launched himself at Cecil. But the dragoon was ready for his hit, and caught the punch aimed for his face. "You already know that was out of my control."

"Yet what is done is done and you were the one to kill her. I suppose it was inevitable, as you always were a monster. Funny how we've gone from sparring with each other as children to fighting in adulthood. You never did grow up," Cecil mocked.

The next strike didn't come from Nafury. A rush of estus energy surged from Ubi's hands and threw Cecil across the shrine. The dragoon hit the cave wall with a vengeance, sending rocks and dirt falling to the ground around him.

"You are the monster for speaking like that!" Ubi shouted as she looked down at Cecil, her eyes a flashing a bright blue. "My mother has forgiven him. I have forgiven him. You are the only child here who refuses to grow up! The world is more than just dragons and pretty flowers!"

Cecil wiped away some of the blood from the back of his head and slowly got to his feet. "And that would definitely be Sybl's temper. I might have had more faith in you if you looked like your mother and inherited your father's demeanour."

Nafury caught Ubi's arms before she could claw Cecil apart. "Easy there, he's not worth it." He had to use all of his and Alexia's strength to hold Ubi back, as she was incredibly strong when angry. "Ubi, calm down. This is what he wants--an excuse to get rid of us."

Ubi calmed down somewhat and Nafury let go of her. "I won't be able to sleep at night with the thought of this animal near my mother's grave." She looked around for Cecil's shift, but it was hiding well.

"We also came here to warn you of Earth's latest threat coming for Aster," Nafury said to Cecil.

"Hino is neutralized. Sybl's death saw to that," Cecil replied. "And the Sentry can't survive on Aster as long as the Soph and Atrum's Aurs are up. If any humans venture to Aster, then they won't get far. So exactly what are we defending against?"

"Sybl thinks this is something else. Something even more dangerous," Nafury replied. "Anything and anyone who can link back to the Sentry, descendants of Solar, the Awls, and even the chimera may become a threat."

"And just when did you speak with her? She's in the realm of death."

"Let's just say I found out what happens when two Dreamwalkers Dream the same thing. Look, Cecil, I hate you. I think I have always hated you as much as you have me, but don't be blinded stupid by that fact. From what I gathered all these years is that my sister has never been wrong. Bring up Toria's defences and do what the position you've taken up for yourself requires of you."

"Why doesn't the whole planet just attack us?" Cecil replied, talking mostly to himself. "What exactly has the power to control that kind of a force?"

"I'm still looking for it. But I have seen that it exists. Xirel was almost overtaken with it. Then I had to kill Simera shortly after he followed the Awl leader back to Aster, at the Sanctus," Nafury replied.

Cecil's pale eyes turned skeptical. "I won't believe that. Even with Alexia as your shift, Simera was unbeatable."

Nafury unsheathed his blade and threw it at the dragoon's feet. It wasn't his blade that he had in his sheathe, but Simera's. He figured that Alexia must have taken it from the dragoon's body after killing him. "Believe that then, or don't. I don't care. I'm leaving now. This isn't my home anymore--it never really was." He turned and started to leave then, and Ubi followed behind.