Illuminating the Dark Prince

Remnants of Humanity

Ashes softly fluttered down from the dark deathly skies like a sorrowful snowfall, twirling and whirling in the whispering winds. I sat upon Sagacor's back as his large hooves eerily clip-clopped along the deserted and disintegrative obsidian street. Each stone along our path was sinisterly jagged and sharp, yet fit perfectly together to form the dismal and ruinous road. Ebon grass and coiling thorns sprouted up from within the many cracks and crevices, slowly helping to further erode the ancient stonework. While timeworn and fractured tenverian skeletons laid lifelessly strewn about the area.

My wide sapphire eyes felt as though they were stuck in awestruck amazement as I took in the sight of the gloomy mephistophelian ruins. It seemed as though this ancient kingdom was literally crumbling beneath the crushing weight of the oppressive atmosphere looming here. I gripped my shadowy cloak, holding it a bit closer to my chest while peering up and around at the huge vestigial stone buildings which stretched their crumbling cathedralic towers and malign minarets up to the blackened skies. 

They were almost chateau-like in a way, yet far more sinister-looking with their many sharply pointed gothic spires and intricately woven iron bar-sealed windows. A thin layer of pale ashes lightly dusted the collapsing ebon roofs and disintegrating stonework, making it appear as if snow had fallen over the dark and melancholic land. I gazed up as we passed beneath one of the mighty spiked archways stretching over the streets, connecting the grand yet forlorn structures as though they were reaching out to one another in somber silence.

Ghostly lamentations faintly whispered upon the gentle breeze, swirling through the air in a long-forgotten language as though trying to serenade the hollow remains of the dead. Lofty, black, willow-like trees seemed to sway with sadness, their pendulous branches forever cursed to weep for this quiescent world. They mournfully caressed the long dark grass and withered purple bellflowers upon the ground below them, while other various dark trees stretched their sickly webs of gnarled branches up to the sky. Even the flowers held no cheerfulness, shivering in dolor as the ashes gently landed upon them, one tiny speck at a time.

"You seem amazed, yes?" Valarendrik's deep voice pulled me from my landscape viewing, causing me to glance over as he walked beside Sagacor. 

A few wispy strands of raven hair were twirling out from beneath his dark hood, dancing with the flecks of ashes sullenly swirling all around us. He lovingly smiled at me as though I were the light of his life, with immense tenderness and adoration in his eerie crimson eyes.

My hand grasped the horn of Sagacor's saddle as I leaned towards him a bit. "How could I not be? This place is freaking incredible! It looks like a bunch of dark ghoulish elves built some grandiose city that later got ransacked by a dragon or something!" I excitedly exclaimed while gesturing all around, my voice echoing through the abandoned street. "I've never seen anything like it!"

"There you go, talking about those elf creatures again." Valarendrik shook his head in amusement with a chuckle. Apparently, the idea of elves was rather funny to him, making him laugh every time I mentioned them. "I'm glad you find this place worthy of admiration. It's one of the most well preserved of the ancient kingdoms."

All three of the guys were now softly chuckling, with Oliver and Jayden both glancing back at us. "Elves." Jayden softly mused while swiping a loose curl from his forehead. "Damn, too bad we didn't end up in a world where those little elves make cookies in a tree, instead of this lousy ass place." He jokingly reminisced to Oliver with a joyous laugh.

"Oh yeah, I remember those. A few friends and I used to throw the round strippy ones around like mini frisbees and try to catch them in our mouths." Oliver shook his head while nostalgically gazing down with a small smile.