Previous Chapters Next
Close
Preface1,298 words
Prologue1,890 words
Ir - Irral Tafiaf2,722 words
Jiil - Wer Dnilok2,072 words
Fogah - Lleisgar di wer Niceroth3,991 words
Vrrar - Opsola Tairais (Luh Ir)3,126 words
Jlatak - Jiilral Tafiaf2,954 words
Jiko - Irral Sutrinus3,114 words

Jiil - Wer Dnilok

Jiil

Wer Dnilok

“The Paladin”

I was struggling to walk. The wound at my side causing me excruciating pain. Every step caused me to groan, neither Whooves nor Lazarus seemed to take an interest. They kept walking forward, weaving through the dense treeline and seemingly caught up with a conversation of their own. They ignored me, I started to limp in my steps as I felt my hand start to slip from my wound. I could feel myself weakening. Everything around me became surreal, vivid. My hearing diminished to the sound of my heartbeats. I was alone, falling behind the duo as they kept moving onward. My head lowered, my neck feeling too weak to keep it up.

Was I even real? Was any of this real?

These two questions came to the forefront of my mind. Before me were two entities I had firmly believed existed only in fantasy. One was a character from a cartoon show, the other from the core of my thoughts and imagination. I knew the first only in the sense of how I saw him on television, of the stories written by fans and interpretations by many others. It was easy for me to believe that seeing Doctor Whooves was a manifestation of my dreams, but the pain at my side and the experience I was enduring told me otherwise. I felt the claws at the end of my toes scrape against the ground, every step taxing my strength. Perhaps I was not dreaming.

Then the second of these entities brought its attention to my belief. If I was truly not dreaming, then how could a manifestation of a species from my own mind be present here? I knew Lazarus like the back of my hand, like a father would know his son. Every thought, every action that had dictated his life was known to me. Then again, perhaps this dragon, however similar in design to my own thoughts, was not the Lazarus I had created but rather something completely different. Yet still, none of this, however relevant, explained why he exists here. Therefore, this was either a dream or I was dead.

I felt myself stumble forward, falling to my knees as my head slipped back and gazed towards the heavens. My vision was blurry. I could make out the tree tops above me, through which a bright orb of light shined. I felt warmth course through my cold frame. My jaw slipped open slightly, I feeling my breathing becoming slow and ragged. I felt myself wobble slowly from side to side on my knees. My eyes closed half-way as I admired the light. It felt welcoming, beckoning me to close my eyes fully and allow its brilliance to spirit me away. I couldn’t resist.

Maybe I was dead, and Heavens light was shining down on me to take me home? Yea, that seemed about right. It was the only explanation. I released one last, long breath from my body. My eyes closed fully, I feeling myself tilt forward.

My last thought was of not being ready to go.

* * *

I heard the sound of my heater in the corner of my room. My eyes opened, taking a sharp breath in as I rolled onto my back. I was in my bed, back in my room. My comforter was over me, providing me with further warmth. The room was dark. It was just a dream, all just a dream. I closed my eyes briefly, taking in a breath as I stretched and yawned. I rolled onto my other side, my arm outstretching for my phone. Fingers around it, I brought it to me as I opened my eyes again. My breathing steady as I read the time as two in the morning. It was Sunday, my only day off.

I replaced the phone back on my nightstand, ignoring the dim red light of my heater in the far corner as I tucked myself back under the covers. It was all just a dream. I felt myself start to drift off again, feeling relaxed and comfortable in the knowledge of my returning sanity. I felt goose bumps on my body; a cold chill erupting across my form suddenly. Alarms went off in the back of my mind. That instinctive feeling of being watched sending my stomach into a churn. Reaction took hold, I rolling quickly to grasp my knife on my nightstand. I barely felt the handle before my body froze in place. Fear gripped me as I realized I couldn’t move.

“Calm yourself,” an ethereal voice spoke from behind me, “I am not here to hurt you.”

My body was released from its temporary paralysis. I felt myself sweating. That voice was entirely too familiar. Slowly, my arm lowered from reaching for my knife, my body turning so I could view the source of the speech. I then jumped two feet in the air from my bed and landed against the wall of my room. I was trying to grip the wall, the blood disappearing from my extremities as my face and body became white. I shouted the only thing that properly relayed what I saw.

“WHAT. THE. FUCK.”

On the other side of my room stood two beings that, once again, defied all understanding of reality. One of these beings illuminated my room with a dark blue light. My body was trembling as I was on the verge of tears, my mind having a field day trying to decipher the logic in what my eyes were seeing. I felt incredibly dizzy, I realized then that I was on the verge of passing out. I tried to stand, only to stumble forward, falling flat on my face. I brought myself up again with my arms, feeling a sudden weight to my backside. Through the blue hue of light, I made out that my arms were not those of a human. They were eerily familiar to the reptilian skin of the body I had in my dream. My eyes squinted, gazing up at the two once more.

“You’re not real,” I said calmly to Princess Luna. I then pointed a claw to the second entity. “And you, you’re supposed to be in my mind. What are you doing here? Get back in my mind!”

“No,” Melkos stated defiantly.

I then burst out in a fit of insane laughter, feeling my grip on sanity finally releasing as I fell forward on my face again.

***

“Are you sure this was a good idea?” Luna asked, looking to Melkos.

“It did seem like it at the time,” Melkos replied, red eyes squinting as he looked down at the laughing Kobold on the floor. He blinked, the light from my eyes briefly cutting off before glowing again. Slowly, he looked to his side at the Lunar Diarch. “I do believe we broke him.”

Calmly Luna raised an eyebrow, before shaking her head and rolling her eyes simultaneously. “I do not think that the word ‘we’ applies here, Unchanos.”

The Dark Master sighed, his breath emitting as chilled vapor from his skeletal jaws. He raised his hand, the mist of darkness surrounding his form coalescing at the end of his open palm into an orb. With a swift, downward motion of his hand he brought the illusion surrounding them to an end. In its place was a clearing of bare dirt and grass. He gazed briefly to either side of the clearing, then turned his attention down to the limp body of the Kobold a few feet ahead of him.

“He should be safe here,” Melkos said as he turned to leave. “We should go before the Queen realizes our presence.”

Luna hesitated. “Who will find him?”

Melkos turned his head slightly, looking to the Princess. “I do not know.”

The alicorn gave a bewildered look to the dark entity, quickly looking from the Kobold to him. With another brief moment of hesitation, she snorted before flaring her wings wide and quickly galloping forward. Once she had enough lift, she beat her wings against the calm morning air before taking off and angling past the treeline.

Melkos Unchanos took one last look to the Kobold before his form began to dissipate into a cloud of mist. His head turned towards the left, watching as a form emerged from the darkness of the woods. His eyes then fell on the Kobold again.

“Save us,” he whispered silently.

Then he was gone.

***

“Wake up.”

I grunted, feeling myself being pushed by someone on my shoulder. I opened my eyes, groaning as the daylight bore into my vision and blinded me momentarily. I shielded my face with my hand, sighing heavily as I rolled onto my back. A sharp pain tore through my senses as I yelped and quickly found myself on my feet holding onto my tail. “Fuck,” I rubbed my claw down to the base and back before hissing, “forgot about that.”

“What are you, creature?”

I blinked. My head turned to my fore to see the one responsible for waking me. I nearly did a double take. Kneeling in front of me was a man adorned in a full set of light armor. His face partially hidden behind a norman helmet, simple in design and black in coloration. The color scheme extended to the remainder of his outfit, from his chainmail to his leather gauntlets and greaves. On his chest and extending down was a long tunic with a flag adorning the center. A short sword was also sheathed to his belt. After a moment of my quiet examination, the man tilted his head slightly towards me. “Do you understand me, lizard?” He asked, his words coming out slower than before.

“Yes,” I replied. I noticed a momentary expression of shock on the man's face before he responded. “Good,” he said, extending his arm towards me. “Do you require assistance to your feet?”

I responded by grasping the mans arm by the wrist, he quickly lifting me to my feet as I released my hold. He dusted off his knees, which I quickly noted had leather protecting them as well, before giving me a robust smile. “It is quite refreshing stumbling upon something that speaks neither in hisses nor growls,” the armored man said as he looked off somewhere behind me, eyes growing distant. He quickly shook his head, gazing back at me. “Anyway, what is your name creature?”

“Travis,” I replied. “And yours?”

“Lord Emperor Havok Agamemnon,” he responded, standing proudly. “On another quest of adventure and intrigue, slaying beasts and crusading for my Dark Lord and Master.”

I squinted my eyes at him, “What did you say your name was again?”

Havok looked somewhat irritated. “Lord Empero-” he began, I cutting him off with a quick wave of my clawed hand. “No I know that,” I said, “I meant your name, not title.”

“Oh!” He resumed his proud stance, “Havok Agamemnon! Have you heard of me, even in this foul place?”

“You can say that,” I replied. A cold chill shot down my spine, sending me into a brief shiver. Havok didn’t notice, nodding with a silent “humm” of satisfaction.

“Then surely you know of Melkos Unchanos,” Havok said with a warm smile.

My eye twitched. “Yes, I do.”

“Excellent!” He said, nodding again. “You are one less lizard I need to slay! Come, let us not tarry any further. Do you know how to fight?”

He was straight-forward, just like I imagined him to be originally. Though this stereotypical “heroic knight” attitude was not. I held back my expression and onto whatever shattered sanity I had left by nodding. Havok gave a hard pat to my shoulder, causing me to cringe slightly from the pain. “Excellent again!” He said, then motioned ahead of him.

I turned to look, my attitude of life suddenly diminishing to zero. “Fuck,” I groaned. A few yards ahead of us were two very large, very angry changelings with very red eyes. They seemed to be foaming at the mouths. I observed that their stares were trained intently on Havok.

“Fuck?” Havok asked, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. “Not quite, my new reptilian friend.” He then quickly drew his sword, “Fight!”

Havok then lowered his sword slightly, leaning to whisper, “You did mean fucking as fighting, right? Because I do not believe you are a female...”

I faceclawed.

1,619 views