What Is Done

Chapter 27 - Something Rotten Comes This Way

The only thing I remember from waking up from the house in the town where all the dead were dead and buried, was that we woke up to hearing a strident crack! Essaerae and I sat up in bed quickly, looking at each other in confusion from what we'd just heard as if either of us were the culprit.

"What was that?" I asked myself, ambling to the window. I peered out to see nothing but the blue sky and the same dreary town outside. This was why I preferred my bed chamber to be soundproof.

Essaerae joined me at the window. She saw the window had latches to open it and attempted to pry it open for a better view. "It's rusted shut."

A knock came at the door and Sellion ran in a second later, asking, "Did you hear that loud noise?" He didn't bother to check if we had been doing something together.

Essaerae and I nodded in unison. 

"I say we found out what it is," I said. Sellion agreed and left us to change into our everyday clothes. We did the same thing as we did the night before to change, turning around and closing our eyes so the other could have some privacy. As I prepared to dress, I pulled out my medallion from my folded clothing that I set at the end of my bed. It was odd. "It is...glowing..."

Essaerae paused on getting dressed herself. She had gotten her magenta, turquoise sleeved dress on, but neglected her shoes when she heard me. The medallion wasn't glowing as brilliantly as it had been in Dirkk. I held it up by the chain to show her, looking at it in awe.

"There must be a relic nearby," Essaerae subtly mentioned. "We should find it." 

My spirit had lifted almost instantly, ignoring the events from the previous night. Strange how I didn't notice it. Even now, it wasn't terribly bright. My robes must've concealed what little light it was making.

"It was not glowing last night." I glossed over the fact, believing it to be a glitch in the matrix. Perhaps the relic of Averis and Azriel is much closer now. Perhaps we just didn't notice it before. 

We finished dressing as fast as possible and as we exited the room, Sellion was waiting for us on the landing of the stairs. He pointed out that the medallion was softly glowing underneath my shirt. I told him we knew. 

"Then I take it, we're going on a quest to find this relic?" he asked. 

I spoke candidly. "Indeed."

The three of us left the house we spent the night in, unable to thank the people who'd owned it. We returned to the barn where we left the horses and packed our clothes back into the saddlebags, ready to continue on. Once we were down loading out steeds, we led the horses outside. It was a relatively sunny day.

My medallion became brighter as we stepped outside. I stepped into different directions to see where it had actually been coming from. We ended up following it to the south.

Crack!

We stopped again when we heard another stone hit a wall. This time, we saw a large rock fly by us and hit the wall of the building next to us. The rock fell to the ground, split in two. We all slowly turned to the east where we could see easily down the street, a pile of boulders and something digging in them.

The creature that had the basic shape of a dragon swung its tail around as it moved. Its tail was barbed and it only had hind legs, its arms connected to its wings like a bat. The creature was even able to speak like a dragon, mumbling something to itself. The sounds it made, screeches and chitters, gave off the impression it was angry.

"What is that?" I quietly asked Sellion, quietly enough for the thing not to notice.

Sellion stared at the creature for a long moment before finalizing what it actually was. He kept his eyes on it as the animal flung a boulder at a wall with its tail and proceeded to laugh sinisterly.