A Tale of Two Knights

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The sky stood vibrant as the world around Ludo turned dark. It had been days since he last slept. He took one last look at Faron, with half shut eyes and drowsily fell into a deep dream. The world around him vanished as images from the past weeks encircled his mind, Sully being taken away by Yadaran, the Tarragons, Gandel. He was suddenly thrusted into a dark room, cold air swept him, making him shiver inside his armor.

Suddenly, multiple candles lit, although not enough to see everything in the room, it gave room to see stone stairs which led to a massive throne, one which seemed to be made of dragon's teeth, stacked together, some large enough to crush your head in one bite. Others smaller than your pinky finger.

Ludo suddenly heard a figure speak, with a deep rough voice. His voice resonated not in the room, in fact, Ludo didn't even know if the figure spoke out through sound. Ludo felt the voice in his mind, speaking to him, as if his own thoughts became tainted.

Ludo's mind became increasingly more insane as the figure kept talking to him. Nothing made sense. There was no figure in the room, not even on the throne. How was anything speaking to him?

His breaths became shallow as he struggled to keep calm, the voice in his head spoke of that which were unheard of. All of a sudden, the figure stopped speaking. All noise suddenly became silent as his mind cleared and his insanity began to lose.

In the dream, everything started smelling smoky, for what reason he couldn't explain. Throughout the memories Ludo was less focused on what was happening and what the air smelled like. His eyes began watering and he was suddenly pulled out of the dream, brutally awakened with the smell of burning flesh and the echoes of a thousand screams.

His eyes opened and the first thing he saw was fire, surrounding the arch tree that he and Faron were sleeping under. He jerked Faron and ran out of the tree. Faron woke immediately and jumped out of the tree, right as it fell over, the singular tree causing what seemed to have the loudest sound ever.

Taking a look around his surrounding Ludo saw what he couldn't imagine in his nightmares. Hundreds of lifeless bodies, all burned to ashes, right in front of his eyes to witness.

Ludo looked up into the sky and saw Maegara and Zolag on Seola, smiling devilishly at him. Rambor was on the ground, smoke coming out of his maw.

Ludo realized that he had failed. The only reason he had come to the skylands was because Sully wanted to save the lives of the elves. Hundreds of elves starved and beaten for months on end, hoping for salvation. And all of the work was for nothing. They had killed everyone with one puff of smoke. He saw children, mothers with their babies, all lifeless. All the elves which he instructed to run away lifeless in his sight. His eyes became bloodshot red with the anger of his own failure and his emotions became uncontrollable as he screamed out into the world in agony.

He grabbed his sword from his sheath, and violently slashed himself with it, using the spaces in between his gauntlets to shed blood. The blade was drenched in his blood, which shined into the sun like gold.

With a yell of a thousand men, he charged toward Rambor with every single ounce of strength he could muster, charging up all the mana he had saved until this point to get revenge for his own failure.

The tarragon looked Ludo directly in the eyes and produced a violent screech that blundered at his eardrums, a sound so haunting that it would have threatened an army of immortals, and would have given nightmares to the strongest mentally.

The ground beneath ludo thundered as his sword dragged through the dirt, cutting into the hearth and stabbing open through elder tree roots.

The tarragon prepared to unleash hell from its maw, smoke coming out of its nose. The dragon opened its maw and spewed nightmarish flames that would never die, the black flames fully engulfing Ludo entirely.

Immediately, Rambor bellowed screeches of pain as Ludo stabbed its jaws with his sword, breaking open hard membranes inside the mouth. Striking the teeth did nothing; dragon's teeth were one of the most durable materials in the world. Each slash through the tongue felt satisfying as revenge for each death done by the beast.

The tarragon, now in deep pain from the sword, lept into the air and began to breathe fire again, however, Ludo was nowhere to be seen.

Faron watched the scene as he stood up from sleeping. He was in shock from the impossibility that Ludo would ever attempt to attack a bloodlusted tarragon.

Out of the corner of his eye Faron saw the dwarf, Thramor, stumbling out of the flames. He was injured, burnt badly, but could still maneuver and fight like normal.

Thramor held a small ax in one hand the other hand nursing his burnt shoulder. He calmly walked through the field, stepping over dead bodies that lay on the ground.

Suddenly, the tarragon screeched as Ludo managed to get on top of the tarragons head, struggling to balance with all the movement. Faron looked at Thramor and as if both had the same brain, ran toward Rambor as fast as possible, knowing that this may be the last chance to get out of the cursed sky island.

Rambor, with his injured wings, struggled to fly, and flapped around as hard as possible, trying to get momentum to fly. Thramor and Faron leaped off the edge of the islet and managed to grab the tarragons feet, almost getting clawed in the face.

The tarragon continuously struggled, flapping like crazy like a chicken knowing it was about to be slaughtered. Ludo, because of the momentum, lost balance and struggled to stand up again. The tarragon lost energy and fell backward, the massive beast going into the sky as a last ditch attempt for survival. What seemed to be infinite amounts of air slapped against Ludo's face, absolutely terrifying speed and momentum as the dragon lurched off the edge and flapped around.

The tarragon eventually fell onto the main skyland island, the massive body creating a massive wind that seemed like a tornado; however the beast did not move an inch even one minute after the landing. Faron and Thramor both found safety in the tarragons talons, albeit with a mild concussion.

Ludovicus finally stood up on the tarragon, showing that his sword was inside the tarragons frontal lobe, killing it instantly. Ludo, determined as he was, pulled on the sword in an attempt to get it back, broke it in half, as sharp shards flew out, the force threw Ludo onto his back.

Faron and Thramor both observed their surroundings. They had finally gotten out of the caringol islet, and onto the main sky island.