Nidian entered the black smith's hut, the air hot and hazy, red embers flitted through the smoky environment, sticking to the stone walls, subtly burning out. Nidian coughed a bit as his lungs protested of the foul air. A burly, charcoal, covered man with a large hammer stood across the room prepping some iron. Sizzling sparks shot outwards from his forge as the metal rods entered.

  "E-Excuse me sir?" Nidian called out.

  The man looked over, silver strands of his thick, soot-laden hair swinging over as his bright hazel eyes met Nidian's. "You Neiraan's friend yeah?" he shouted out across the large forge, his hand coming to a rest at his side. Nidian shifted nervously and cleared his throat,

  Nidian's gut sank, "Maybe? Who wants to know?" He hesitantly replied.

  The man stared blankly for a minute, pondering on Nidian's answer. The kid fit the description given perfectly. "I'm his uncle, he said I needed to find you as soon as I could." He said gruffly.

  "H-he did?" Nidian took a few steps closer. "I didn't know he had relatives in the city."

  The smith exhaled and rubbed his hands on his smock, bringing his still blackened hands to a shelf, pulling free that damned journal. He held it out to Nidian, "I know better than to ask questions, all he said is it was of dire importance and you would help him out. Frankly it's illegal for me to even take this thing into my possession temporarily. But my nephew preached my ear off about how much it meant to him. I suggest you take it, he said you'd know what to do with it."

  Nidian timidly reached for it, taking the surprisingly heavy set of papers in his hand. He didn't dare to take his eyes off the smith. He didn't want to so much as glance at the book. His suspicion bled from his eyes enough to make the smith speak up more.

  "Relax, I'm no tattle tale, just don't get you or I into trouble kid." He nodded and scrunched his face as he sniffled. He walked back to his workspace leaving Nidian to slowly gaze down upon the book. Maybe Neiraan was onto something after all. Why else was he chased out of town. He had gone so far as entrusting another citizen of Hoharo with the forbidden parcel. He felt like he was stuck in a dream. He silently slipped out of the hut and squinted in the bright clear atmosphere outside of the smith's darkened dwelling.

  "Well that was about all I needed today I suppose." he sighed to himself with a worried smile. "Getting dragged into some crazy Maverick drama.."

  Nidian walked back towards the entrance of town humming quietly to himself to calm his nerves. He gazed up toward the castle. He didn't know if he was ready to go throw it in the open to the Kordan officials that he was engaged in such activities, even if it carried concern, it didn't mean he'd avoid punishment. Maybe it was best to take it home and think it over for a night. He just hoped Neiraan was ok. The chase had looked serious. But it was far from the first time he had run away from people he pissed off.

  The streets had cleared slightly giving him a less noisy and more peaceful stroll through the district. The wind slowly picked up and began throwing gusts of howling air through the street, considering it was a clear day it was unusual save for early spring when they had a few wind storms. The new weather forced him to begin pushing against the strong gale, squinting as pollen and loose sediments became airborne; rushing into his face aggressively.

  He grunted as his body twisted to the side slightly to shield his face from the wind whilst allowing him to see where he was going. It was odd for such powerful currents to come from the South, typically the hefty torrents came from the West. He saw Saudafi closing some of the wooden flaps to his stall to block the gusts from blowing his grain about. Nidian hurried towards the wooden structure for some temporary shelter when he stopped dead in his tracks a moment, the wind had gone from a steady wind to an unsettling rhythmic pulse. A chilling back and forth sway between strong and subtle, the likes of a heartbeat in pattern. His heart sank at the odd phenomenon, this was no normal draft oscillating with the grace of nature, it felt hostile, condemning even. Nidian was grabbed from behind and flipped one hundred and eighty degrees to see Saudafi staring at him,

  "Why in Navi's grace are you staring into space in the middle of this outrageous wind boy, your ears are gonna get frost nipped!" He protested as he tugged at Nidian, trying to pull him towards the shack.

  Nidian's eyes widened at the old man and passively let him drag his body along. taking heavy steps while the odd feeling consumed his thoughts, it wasn't any help when Saudafi mentioned the frost nip, it only made him realize it had gotten much colder. Not just cause of the wind, the air itself had chilled. Saudafi turned around to try and talk some sense into Nidian but only let his wrinkled jaw line stretch thin as his jaw dropped, his crinkly eye lids bundled tightly in the most upper part of his eyes possible. Shock overtaking his face instantly. the streets filled quickly with people of the same shock. Nidian's heart pounded in his chest as his ribs seemingly constricted it seeing their faces, he hesitantly turned as the sun vanished beneath a blackened sky. Shadows that could only seem to be the size of mountains tainted the bright colors of the meadow laden roads. Nidian's eyes followed his fellow men's as they shot wide open, glued to the sky, reflections of the shadows moving about in his glossed eyes, tears of fear welling up causing the reflections to distort and shake. These shadows were moving as if they were alive. And before he could think any further screams broke out and panic stirred moments before the black was obscured by the hellish bright gradients of orange and red. Hell rained from the sky as torrents of flame crashed into the streets as if a tsunami crashed into a shoreline city. Multiple onlookers vanished into the flames as Nidian's eyes throbbed from the unbearable brightness, his skin instantly stinging from head to toe, pins and needles stabbing into him as scalds quickly dotted his body. He screamed out in pain as Saudafi pulled him inside. Nidian continued grunting in pain and gritted his teeth as outside the door to the stall was nothing but a blaze. Smoke quickly began filling the hut, making everything more of a haze than it already was. Saudafi had been burned badly as well, only slightly better off than Nidian. He met eyes with Nidian with panic in his eyes but a glimmer of will to keep moving and stay calm during the chaos. He slowly picked Nidian up as the blaze began eating at the wood of the market structure.

  "Nidian we have to go! can you walk?" He shouted through the loud crackling and breathing of the rapidly growing flame.

  Screams were nearly drowned out by the raging fire but not quite enough to where Nidian could not hear them. Nidian slowly stood with Saudafi's help and screamed at the top of his burning lungs, "Saudafi what the hell is going on? What is happening!?"

  Saudafi shook his head, unable to answer and began helping Nidian walk towards the back door to the stall. Once the managed to break through the collapsing hut's burning door they both coughed and swatted at the tremendous amount of smoke around them. Nidian hyperventilated as his blurred vision observed the black and red ruins of their burning city. Had the gods unleashed the fires of the underworld for some unredeemable act they had performed? Nidian, finally getting the slightest slippery foothold on reality began walking on his own, still shoulder over shoulder with Saudafi. They made a hasty run for the edge of town where Nidian lived. Their run could only be defined as a sloppy and lethargic jog, haphazardly stepping every which way in their general heading. A man came running towards them through the smoke screaming for his family, calling out their names in panic. Maybe not even fifteen feet from Nidian and they seemed to not have a sight of them through the hot ashes. Nidian was about to call out to him when a massive beast with tar black scales swooped down from the skies, jaws the size of a hut stretched open for the brief moment it took to snap the man up before sweeping past Nidian and back into the sky. The large lizard like monstrosity leaving behind a tornado like wind in its wake that mercilessly knocked Nidian and Saudafi against a burning house. Nidian grunted in pain as he hit the splintered wood, his head ringing as it impacted a support log. He quickly looked over at Saudafi as his nerves came out from shock to functioning state. Saudafi had been bruised badly on the back of his head and was bleeding from the lip. Nidian noticed a small pool of blood reflecting the conflagration, the crimson trailing to a sharp piece of wood that had impaled Saudafi through his leg as they impacted the ground.

  "No no no, Saudafi talk to me, talk to me please! Get up!" Nidian yelled with tears in his eyes, quick quivering breaths as he pulled Saudafi over his shoulder. "Don't die, please don't die, you can't die." He continued repeating in panic as he limped over towards an irrigation canal.

  The stream lead to the forest which would be their safest bet that Nidian could think of, he didn't even have the time to think of the giant monster that they had just seen,. This was not just some unnatural occurrence, it seemed like dragons had come straight out of a legend into reality. Saudafi groaned and on the edge of the water he pushed himself free of Nidian and stood weakly,

  "Nidian my boy I am not going to make it, it's bleeding too badly and I am only slowing you down. You need to go without me, I can't let you die here with me."

  Nidian shook his head angrily and firmly held Saudafi, "No, You're all I have left...I can't go without you, I'd rather die with you than live alone." He whimpered as he hugged the old man.

  "Nidian I love you as if you were my own child, I want as much as you do to make it out of this together but I know that isn't going to happen..." He teared up as he held Nidian close to him, slowly losing his ability to stand.

  Nidian just tightly held to him as the distant screams and raging fires continued. Their brief moment of what they wish they could call comfort ended as another massive entity landed in front of them atop a house. Deep blue scales tainted with blood stains and ash, its bright glowing eyes manifested through the black air, most of its body shrouded in the dark. It cackled and cracked a large fang filled grin,

  "Stragglers" it hissed with delight. It cocked its head to the side with its twisted grin, blood and tattered in its teeth. The foul smell of death and decay pummeled Nidian and Saudafi's sense of smell. They both looked at the monster with unfathomable terror. A look of which seemed to appease the creature. It slowly slinked over the burning building, crushing it as it moved, swarms of embers shot outward and flew freely into the abysmal sky. It cackled once more as it opened its jaws, grotesque amounts of saliva dripped about all over the ground as it came down with alarming speed towards the two. Nidian buried his face into his elderly guardian and closed his eyes tightly only to open them widely in shock as the old man threw his to the side into the raging waters of the canal. Only inches away as the Jaws clamped halfway onto his dear friend, hot blood half blinding Nidian as he choked on a pint of it trying to scream, the monster roughly ripped upwards tearing the full length of the man's spine from his lower body, the flesh and tendons popping and ripping free with ease for the beast as the legs limply fell to the ground, spilling whatever entrails were left over onto the dirt. This was the last sight Nidian saw before plunging into the water. The pollution from the ash and bloodied soils had turned the water all but dark as night. He struggled to stay afloat in the angry waves, but quickly succumbed to the raging image in his head if his friend being torn in half mercilessly, beating the sanity from his mind. His screams came out as tearful gargles as the water and blood refused to let him cry out. His attempts faded to whimpers as his vision blurred further until without warning he lost consciousness.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.