The Inconvenient Alliance

Chapter 15

Drake's POV:
I'm in a village wandering around, it seems I've been here once before though something seems off. I look over and in the distance, I see, Armen? "Armen!?" I call out, I try to run to him, he glances my way, and just before I can reach him the earth below him crumbles away and he slips into the void, and I also find myself falling into the infinite blackness, the original landscape had completely changed. I reach out to him, and he reaches back but our hands are just out of reach, he looks up at me silently, almost pleading for some help, and as he falls further his eyes dull down like when he was possessed. "No, not again, I'm here armen, let him go!" I wanted to call to armen and yell at "him" at the same time, the words still slipped out even though I tried to push down the pain, the frustration, the anger, I felt so many feelings at once. I see fire below now, I desperately reach for him, to pull him up out of the darkness, but before I can grab his hand, he is enveloped by the flames, I can no longer see him. "No, Armen!" I yelled, I still found myself falling towards the flames as well, but I felt something lightly hit my side, and I hear a distant voice from above, that pulled me up from the void, the world changed around me once more. I found myself shaking a bit and opened my eyes, I jolt upright quickly and look around, realizing I'm in the caverns and it was just another nightmare. These nightmares have happened before since I lost armen at the magic library but each time they seem to be becoming slightly worse. I see Grayson by my side, "Hey, Drake? Are you ok? You seemed to be having another nightmare about Armen." I deeply sigh, taking a moment before responding as I'm still coming out of the dream-like state, wiping some small tears from my eyes that had formed without Grayson noticing and try to compose myself the best I can without sounding like a complete wreck inside, "yeah, I think so, sometimes I just feel like I failed him, I couldn't save him." He still notices my saddened expression as I'm still thinking about the nightmare and he responds, "It wasn't your fault, some things happen but you tried everything you could and you never gave up on him." I look up at him, and ask, "you really think so?" He puts his hand on my shoulder and looks at me sincerely, "yeah, I do, you tried your best, and you never gave up on him, you still don't give up on him." From that, my mood lightens up some, hearing this from him, one of my only good friends, and I respond. "Yeah, I guess you're right, part of me believes he's still out there somewhere, and I worry "he" may still have him." He thinks about this for a moment before responding, he seems to be unsure if Armen is still out there or if "he" even still has him, but he still supports me being my friend, "If he is still out there somewhere, I would try to help you again to get him back, I know he means a lot to you." I nod, a slight smile forming at the edges of my lips and he removes his hand from my shoulder and glances back, I look over his shoulder and see the scout, remembering he's still here, and then Grayson looks back at me, "We need to finish up here and head out before reinforcements come" He reminds me then continues, "can you pack up the rest of our things while I try to get answers out of this scout?" "Yeah sure." I would reply and stand up, beginning to quickly pack up my sleeping bag into my backpack, and I pick up the two lanterns after putting away the dampener cloths as well. I mostly stay in the background as Grayson deals with the scout but he soon calls me over, "Hey Drake?" "yeah?" I respond and he asks, "could you help me over here? He's being very stubborn; I can't get any answers out of him, maybe you could show him some of your fire magic." He winks to me out of view of the scout as I walk over, and I return a slight smile getting where he's going. The scout struggles some more and kicks with his feet to scoot further back once he sees me, he seems to be afraid of me, and he yells at us, or more specifically directed towards me in terror, "What the hell is that creature!?" I frown slightly, my ender ear going down, I don't like being called a creature. At least Grayson quickly takes this opportunity to get some answers out of him, "you don't want to find out, now I'll ask again, how long were you all following us?" He asks the scout and he hesitates, glancing between me and Grayson now shakily, mostly me, but he finally answers Grayson's question, "Since the woods, we were following you two since you were the woods. We didn't attack then even though we should have and continued to follow as one of my group members became intrigued about the diamond once overhearing you mention something about it, I suppose you can thank him for that and his clumsiness." Once again I'm reminded of the room, the bright light that came out of the diamond and the scout that was disintegrated, a part of me feels bad that happened to him even if this scout may not care. I think I share Grayson's surprise as well that we never noticed them out in the woods with us, and he continues, "How did you know we were out there?" The scout continues to respond, "we saw you out there, we were assigned a mission by the emperor for once, I'm sure you already know what that mission was." He finishes the sentence, "to catch me and the dragon egg?" He sighs but admits it, "yeah, along with your freak friend over here." He shoots me another nervous glance, Grayson slightly glares at him for calling me a freak but otherwise, he seems to be trying to stay calm and continues to question him, "How far will the empire go to retrieve the dragon egg I took so many years ago?" He hesitates again, his lips coming together in a hard straight line, I'm a bit impatient and I don't like him calling me names. I hand Grayson the lanterns and shoot a small streak of flame near the scout's shoulder that vanishes as soon as it came, the scout leans away from it and shuffles back quickly, as well as he can anyway, and he stutters, "I-I don't know, I doubt the empire will stop though, you have a high bounty on your head and will pay for all you have done! You have betrayed the empire, the emperor himself years ago, though I may not have completed my mission, I will know I served the emperor well unlike you, and I hope that your faces will not be the last thing I see." Grayson looks over at me, not having any more questions, "Do you have anything you want to ask him." He asks and I shake my head, "No, and we probably shouldn't take him with us either." I add in and he agrees with me, "Yeah, we should find someplace to leave him in the caverns" He hands the lanterns back to me again and crouches down beside the scout, he quickly puts the gag back on him and begins to drag him out of the alcove. He tries to stand up to get away but he manages to knock him over and drag him out despite the struggle he's putting up this time. As we are going out, we notice the puzzle door to the room with the diamond is sealed and reset again, and I let out a quiet sigh of relief, I'm glad he didn't decide to haunt us during the night as he usually does, I guess the scouts showing up distracted him from that lucky for us. Grayson drags the scout over to one of the larger stalagmites off to the side and ties him up to it, then as we begin to walk away, heading to the exit of the caverns, we hear him get the cloth out of his mouth and shout one last curse at us, "When I get out of here, I will hunt you two down and find that dragon egg, for the glory of the empire! You will remember the name of Kalis to be your downfall!" I keep walking next to Grayson, I'd hate to leave him in these dark, creepy caverns knowing "he's" around here, though I also don't exactly like the empire, or this scout due to some things he did and said previously, I also know we can't bring him with us. We will be ready though if he does manage to escape and does come after us, as ready as we can be anyway.

Credits for the original art go to its respective owner(s).
I did a slight edit as well, hope you all like it.