Moonlight Lands: Fallen echoes

Chapter 8

"The kingdom should be a short while off, i sugest we go along the western woods..." Said Ryker. "Why western? Couldn't we just go north and pass in the sewers?" Asked Natrium. "No, they are guarded, we need to go in the western woods, its the only way to get in" Snapped Ryker. "Okay, okay guys, we won't get anywhere fighting over directions, Ryker knows the kingdom than any of us, perhaps he's right" Said Ekrill. "Right..." muttered Natrium.

The trees in the western Undaterra woods have lush green leaves that are absolutely filled with true singer dragons and perhaps a few false ones, also called alarm dragons. The ground is green in ferns, a trait shared with the Eraklion kingdom forests, a bit sout-east from Undaterra. Ekrill, Ryker and Natrium walked along the dense undergrowth. Sudenly, Natrium stopped. "Natrium, the main city is this way" Said Ryker. "It's not that... something is near..." Said Natrium. "Probably just a beast of some sort" Said Ekrill.  He was soon proved wrong as an arrow came shooting towards him, he had just the time to sheild his face with his arms to avoid whath whould have been a fatal blow.  He fell down in a sitting position in pain, holding his arm that had a large, bleeding wound.  Just as an other arrow was shot, Natrium bolted forwards, swiftly catching the arrow in mid-air. She made it look easy, but it wasn't. "Don't shoot Croakrilioans!"She snapped. There was a pause, then three draklies with what looked like armor on the back on their tail and where wearing dark blue cloaks stepped out of the bushes.

"Prove that you aren't working for Acerbus!" Hissed the shortes and presumably youngnest Croakrilioan.  "We came here to bring the cursed king back, as indicated in the message Uberime sent you. Besides, a Drakly would never serve Acerbus after what they did to the kingdom" Hiised Natrium. Ekrill wondered by what she ment by what they did to the kingdom, but he wasn't able to think properly due to the scorching pain of his wound. " Our apologies, we weren't expecting you for another week or so, based on the Oracle's calculations. We will bring you to our temporary camp, where two Icarians guards will be able to sneak you in the kingdom" Said the oldest of the crocodile-like daklies. "Anarila and Carbon-Wing right?" Asked Ryker. The drakly nodded slowly.

When they arrived to the Croakrilioan camp, the Eastern Ranger's healers tended to Ekrill's wounds, wraping it in bandages afted butting some kind of leaf jiuce on it. Ekrill turned as he noticed two draklie carrying what looked like a stretcher, on it was what looked like a Croakrilioan, a dead one by the looks of it.  A larger Croakrilioan rushed to the scene, the large croakrilioan wore a bark blue cloak with lighter blue markings, based on what he seen with the Northern Rangers, this must be their leader. "We found him burnt to death at the border of the wood..." Started one of the Draklies carrying the body. "Blood burn?" Asked the leader. "No, The area all around him was burth, it was Dragon fire, and a large dragon by the looks." Said the other Drakly. The Leader turned to his left and yelled someting, in no time Natrium came along. "This dragon fire was caused by a Northern large dragon breed, must have been following your group, can you identify the breed by the fire?" Aske the leader. Natrium examined the body. "Green Andromeda Dragon, probably full grown by the fact that it managed to burn an entire area." Declared Natrium. "How can you tell? We whould like to identify this breed if the next dragon fire is caused by it" Sugested the Leader. Natrium pointed somewhere in the chest area of the body. "The burnt flesh has a green hue, the ashes will be a dark green and the fire of the Green Andromeda dragon is emerald green." Said Natrium. The leader nodded and turned to the two draklies carrying the body. "Bring him to his friends and family, let them burry him. Watch the skies too now, we never know when the Andromeda may stike again."

"Ekrill, wake up!" Ekrill woke up to Natrium nugging him. "what is it?" He asks sleepily. "We are leaving soon, we want to avoid the risk of being seen by Undaterra guards or citizen" She replied. As he got up, Ekrill noticed Natrium was missing her tail. "What hapenned to...?" He started. "Its harder to pas unoticed when you have a tail, tust me"She cut him off. In less than five minutes they where all on horse or hippogriff. (not counting Natrium of course) One of the two guards that guided them was a female pheonix Icarian, she had beatiful featers and looked almost weak, but Ryker pointed out that she killed many Acerbus soldiers before. The other one was a golden eagle Icarian. His head looked exacly like that of a golden eagle and had eagle talons instead of feet and hands. The pheonix Icarian, named Anarila rodo on a pure white unicorn with golden horn and hooves. The othe Icarian, Carbon-Wing, Rode on a black and white horse. Ekrill looked at Ryker. "Do you think the Green Andromeda Dragon would attack the city. Ryker shook him head and Anrila responded. " Even a large dragon isn't stupid enought to attack the main city of any kingdom alone." She said. " True, true." Said Ekrill. He looked at his bandages, the healer had told him he could remove it when he didn't feel anymore pain. To his suprised, when he removed it, the wound was a fully formed scar. "It's healed completely!" He exclaimed. "It's soul leaf juice, the best medicine known to draklies, it can stop bleeding, infection and fully heals wounds." Said Natrium. "You might want to keep quiet for a while,  there is alot of echoes in the tunnels underground." Said Carbon-Wing. "Leave your mounts here" Snapped Anarila, jumping off her unicorn.  The others did the same and ordered their mount to stay there. Dusk hesistated on leaving Ekril, but Ekrill managed to convince the Hippogriff.

The Undaterra tunnels are barely used anymore,  they're a bunch of mazes and many intruders trying to break into the city got lost and died. Thankfully, Ryker and the two guards knew the tunnels like the back of their hand. They moved in the tunnels for nearly 15 minutes. When  looking to his right once, Ekrill thought he saw some kind of blue fire, he imeadiatly thought of a whisp, and was rather glad to see that one was around, perhaps it was the same that guided them out of the marsh? They continues their route anyways. Soone after they came to a ladder that led upwards. Carbon-wing signaled them to stay where they where while him an Anarila went up. There was what sounded like a converstation about tunnel patrols with another guard. Then silence. Soon after, Anarila signaled to them that they can come out.  The moon was just begening to set on the horizon an there was no guards around, the one Anarila and Carbon talked too had left. "Come quick before the citizen start to wake up, the oracle's house is just two houses away.!" Said Carbon. Ther rushed to the house, trying to make the less noise possible.

The oracle is an old-ish Raven Icarian, said to predict things that will hapen in the future. "You guys wheren't sceduled until next week!" He exclaimed. "Welll... looks like your calculations where wrong for once" Said Ryker. The old Icarian smilled. "You're still the same, even whitout your peacok feathers Ryker!"Said the Oracle. "Speaking of wich,  do you know a way to reverse the spell?" Asked Ekrill. "I don't but a great wizard knows, one lives near here, in a old house near the Lontor Marshes. He is not dead..." Said the Oracle "We where at that house earlier guys!" exclaimed Natrium.   "And you must go back there!" Said the Oracle. "Leave now, before the kingdom wakes up!"   The group didn't need to be told twice, Natrium, Ekrill, Ryker, Carbon and Anarila quickly rushed out and got back into the tunnels.

__a while after .-.___

The sun was already hight enought in the sky when they finally arrived at the house, there had been no unfortunate events, no dragons or anything, altough the group had the strange feeling of being watched. Ekrill got off his mount first and knocked at the door. "Oh come on, i don't think a great wizard whould answer the door when all the Acerbus knights are trying to kill him" Hissed Carbon before knocking off the door. "Bad tempered much?" Ekrill rolled his eyes and entered the house behind Carbon. The rest of the group entered after them. Anarila looked around. "Anyone home?" She asks. A crack coming from above made them all look up to the wood planks criss-crossing about a meter under the ceiling. Sitting on one of the planks was what looked like a young man, perhaps Ekrill's age. He had a dark blue cloak(a bit lighter than the Croakrilioan cloaks) with golden markings. The cloaked man jumped off the ceiling infront of them. "Why did you break into my house?" he ask, no visible emotions in his voice, he may had an emotion on his face, but it was hiden by his hood. "Loonking for a great wizard" Snapped Natrium. The man paused. "He died last week..." He said.  "You're lying!" hissed Carbon. The man seemed to be about to say someting, but he sudenly started backing off, visibly statled by something.  From behind the group came swords, held closly to their necks, ready to cut their troaths. This is wath had startled the cloaked man. But soon after a blade apeared throught the man's belly, a sword blade. The blade dispeared again and the man fell to the ground, twisting in pain and bleding to death, a black and red Acerbus iacrian stepped out of the shadow behind the man, cleaning the blood off his sword. The beak of the Icarian was shatered to pieces and based on the dry blood, the accident hapened rather recently.  "Whats one down..." Started the Icarian, but Ekrill didn't remember anymore but a pain on the back of his head. One of the Acerbus guard had knocked him out.