Age of Dragons Online

Chapter 17: A Journey Begins

           Chapter 17

           A Journey Begins

           "What a nice day it is today!"  Aledro exclaimed as they walked through an open field, the emerald grass swaying in the wind and the birds happily singing.

           "Yeah, it's a nice change from constantly fighting for my life," Nadran replied, in part jokingly, but also being serious.

           "Very true, very true."  There was a short silence before Aledro next spoke.  "So, she actually is coming with us," he noted while casting a glance behind them toward Lunalia, who was following a few steps behind them.  When they departed, they had told Lunalia she didn’t have to come with them if she didn’t want to.

           Lunalia then said "Someone has to be around to kill you when you prove you're working for Volzan."

           Nadran couldn't help but chuckle at this strange sentence.  That's not something you hear every day, he thought humorously.

           "Are you laughing at me?"  Lunalia exclaimed in indignation.  "I'm threatening you!  You don't laugh at something like that!"  She took a breath and a thought seemed to cross her mind.  "You don't think I'd do it, do you?  You don't think I'd be able to kill you.  I can and will!"  As she said this, she suddenly lost her balance and fell into an undignified heap on the ground.

           Nadran and Aledro tried to conceal their laughter by pretending to cough, but they failed, which in turn caused them to laugh even harder at their failed attempt.

           Lunalia looked quite upset now, and she shouted "You know what?  I'm going to kill you now after all!"

           Nadran muttered to Aledro "We better run.  She's not in a very good mood right now."  With that, they ran away into a forest nearby.  Lunalia gave chase, shouting at them to stop so she could kill them quicker.

           Aledro turned to Nadran as they ran.  "You shouldn't have provoked her," he said, his serious tone spoiled by the small smile on his face and the teasing light in his eyes.

           "MY fault?  You were laughing too!"

           As they ran, Aledro looked back nervously, and said "She does know we were just messing with her... right?"

           "I think she's being a little too serious," Nadran said in reply.  "Let's not find out."

           They unexpectedly came to an abrupt stop a few seconds later as they reached the, and Lunalia have out a triumphant shout as she caught up to them and raised her arm in preparation to attack before she, too, stopped short to gape at the scene that lay before them, trying to understand what had happened.

           After staring for a few seconds, Nadran realized that it had once been a small village, not unlike the one he had first visited when he had become trapped in the dangerous world of Nogard.  That village had been burned to the ground by Volzan's minions, but even that seemed less intense than this destruction.  What had originally been a village now more resembled the impact site of a large meteor shower.  The ground was pockmarked by dozens of craters, which ranged in diameter from a few feet to the largest, which was almost as large as a football field.  Most of the buildings had been blown into small pieces no larger than marbles.  They were scattered outward from the craters in a radial pattern, with the largest crater having the least disturbed pattern, indicating it was likely the final impact.  The building fragments glowed with an orange light as the heat faded from them, giving the larger ones the appearance of a large collection of glowing marbles.  The worst part, though, was not the broken buildings.