(Book 2) Legends of the new world: Silent death

Chapter fifteen: freedom at last

Shade slowly woke from his unconscious slumber. He looked around at his surroundings, and found himself in the very bottom of the ravine that he and Queen emerald had fallen into. Shade also noticed how Queen emerald had seemingly disappeared. Shade assumed that a predator found Queen emerald in a weakened state, and finished her off. Shade righted himself, and looked for a way out of the ravine. Shade looked at the ravine walls, and realized that the ravine walls had no other ledges, aside from the one he had landed on. "There's no way i could fire my webbing at the walls. They would easily slip off." Shade said to himself. Shade, losing all hope that he would escape, sat down in defeat. Suddenly, the smell of blood caught Shades attention. Shade turned to the source of the smell, and discovered a heavily wounded gypceros, with the wings on its webbing shredded, and its crest missing. Shade took the opportunity to jump down from the ledge, and restrain the gypceros with his webbing. Before the gypceros knew what was happening, he found himself paralyzed by an unknown attacker. The gypceros saw Shade slowly advancing upon him, causing him to desperately struggle to to escape. It was to late for the rubbery wyvern however, as Shade proceeded to behead him with his remaining forearm. Shade then used his remaining forearm to skin the headless corpse. A large amount of blood was spilt from the process, but Shade could tolerate it. After skinning the gypceros corpse, he placed the hide on his back, effectively donning a new cloak. Shade, now having a new cloak, he began to feast upon the brutally mutilated gypceros corpse. However, as Shade was sucking the vital fluids from the corpse with his fangs, he heard a strange noise. Shade turned around to see something treading through the foggy abyss of the ravine. Shade looked harder at the creature that was approaching him, and widened his eyes. A huge machine was treading towards him, emitting a creaking sound as the rusted metal moved. Shade slowly began to back away as the machine advanced upon him. Shade suddenly saw the machine stop. The machines head reared backwards, and had stopped in a regal position, along with its scorpion-like tail curling into its back. Shade looked at the glowing, gold spot on the center of the machines chest, and saw something emerge from it. Shade looked on in amazement as a golden mantis-like creature crawled out of the machine. Shade recognized this creature as an ahtal-ka. Ahtal-ka's were notorious in the old world for raiding human fortresses for materials to build their mobile nests. Shade watched as the ahtal-ka approached him. "Hey, are you alright?" She said, looking at the stump that used to be one of Shades forearms. "Well, for the moment yes. What are you doing down here?" Shade said. "Oh, I was just looking for scrap metal left by humans." The ahtal-ka said, pointing one of her forearms at the large machine behind her. Shade felt relief, seeing as how the ahtal-ka seemed to be friendly. "If I may ask, why are you all the way down here, with one of your forearms missing?" The ahtal-ka said. "Well, it's a long story." Shade said. Shade then proceeded to explain his backstory, the battle against Queen emerald, and how he ended up in the bottom of the ravine. The ahtal-ka immediately felt sympathetic for Shade. "Good lord.... that must have been a nightmare for you." The ahtal-ka said. "It was." Shade replied. "Well, you might as well join me." The ahtal-ka said, turning to return to the parked machine. Shade was confused as to why this ahtal-ka was being so friendly to him. "Why do you care what happens to me?" Shade said. "Well, us insects have to stick together, don't we?" The ahtal-ka said. Shade nodded his head, not willing to lose the opportunity to find Namielle, his friend. "By the way, what is your name?" Shade said. "It's Nebu." The ahtal-ka said. Shade nodded as he crawled onto the back of Nebu's machine. "By the way, may I ask you for a favor?" Shade said. "Yes, what is it?" Nebu said. "When we find our way out of this ravine, can you help me find my friends?" Shade asked. "I can't promise you that we will find them, but it's worth a shot." Nebu said. Shade latched his remaining forearm onto the wheel protruding from the back of Nebu's nest. Nebu crawled back into the center of the machine, causing it to begin moving. The machine began treading forward, across the bottom of the ravine. Shade breathed a sigh of relief. He had finally escaped Queen emeralds cycle of abuse. He had made multiple friends, three of which had helped him see the light. Shade was no longer anyone's monster. Shade was no longer the cold blooded killer he was molded to be. For the first time in his life, Shade was finally free.

Velkhana was preoccupied with the young Xeno'jiiva hatchling, keeping an eye on him. Namielle and Valomyr sat near Velkhana, curiously watching the child playing in the snow. "You seem to have taken quite a liking to him." Valomyr said. "Well, I can't just abandon the child. It has no mother after all." Velkhana said. "That is, until you decided to adopt the kid." Namielle said. Velkhana continued to watch over her child-in-arms, like an eagle looking at its potential prey. "Have you named the boy?" Valomyr said. Velkhana turned to look at Valomyr. "How about Safi?" Velkhana said. "Good enough." Valomyr said. "I was wondering, Xeno'jiivas can absorb the bio energy of other monsters can't they?" Namielle said. Both Velkhana and Valomyr nodded. "So that blue light that "Safi" was inhaling from Queen emerald could have been her bio energy, hence why both she, and Shade fell of that cliff." Namielle said. Both elder dragons nodded. "No wonder why Queen emerald was so bloodthirsty when we confiscated Safi from her clutches." Valomyr said. Namielle suddenly noticed a blizzard rolling in. "I believe we should head back to your den Velkhana." Namielle said. "Yes, I suppose so." Velkhana said, letting Safi climb onto her back. The three elder dragons took to the sky, their new goal being to protect Safi from anything Alatreon threw at them.

Alatreon looked at the female valstrax in front of him. "So this valstrax knows Velkhana?" Alatreon said. "Yes, and not in a good way." Terragar said, trying to scratch at the scales attached to his wing-arms. Alatreon looked at Terragar, and back to the female valstrax. "What is your name, pray tell?" Alatreon said. "Valka. My name is Valka." The female valstrax said, adjusting her wings. Alatreon knew that the wings of a valstrax were not used like the wings of a regular elder dragon. While the wings of a valstrax could not be flapped, they instead produced pure dragon energy, causing them to fly at ridiculous speeds. "Tell me everything you know about Velkhana, we could use elder dragons like you, Valka." Alatreon said. Valka began to speak of the many reasons why she disposed Velkhana, ranging from how she only cared about how beautiful she was, to how egotistical she was. Alatreon smiled in satisfaction. "Thank you Valka, that will be all. I look forward to your service towards me." Alatreon said. Valka gave a big smile, and flew out of Alatreon's cave. Alatreon sighed and lie down. "Terragar, you are free to do as you please." Alatreon said. Terragar nodded, and flew out of the cave, leaving a trail of scales that were infested with the frenzy virus. Alatreon fell asleep dreaming of the many bright futures his conquest would bring, starting with the death of Velkhana.