Kingdoms of Ohm: The Dark Inferno #2

The Graveyard

For a moment.

I groaned, nostrils trembling as they puffed out a little cloud of steam. I couldn't know if I was dead again. I forgot the feeling. Was it the lack of pain? The heaviness of my skull? The scent of blood? My mind couldn't say; even if death wasn't foreign to me, I despised it all the same, right down to the bare bone. My eyelids slightly parted, drawing in a ray of twinkling orange light settling up above me. Atop a ridge, from what it looked like. I couldn't make out its shape from below, but I knew it wasn't natural. The faint stench of smoke gave it away, along with the addled voices that sided it.

"Damn you! I said not to kill him!"

"My duty comes first when lives are on the line."

"What life? Yours?!"

"A 'Thank You' would be nice right about now, Rubeus. I saved you and your grimy little child from the jaws of a tyrant. You're welcome."

The old man nearly stammered."I will report you for this."

"I answer only to New Havensburg, not Cerrabethia."

"Whomever you serve does not matter. Cerrabethia ranks higher, and they will make quick work stripping you of your metal on their behalf."

"Because of knightly valor? By all means-"

"He was the last of his kind, and you took him out! We could have..." the wizard's voice trailed off, before a sigh followed. "You stole a century worth of information with a sword. I would hope that you rot, Trygon, but even I know that is too good for you."

Trygon scoffed. "Fine. Thank me later. At least now we have a corpse to salvage."

"Which is but the only good thing you've done today," scowled Rubeus. A pause followed, then a shuffle. The sound of a rock hitting the ground followed, startling me for a second, but I failed to move.

"It's too far down," came the boy, Felix's voice. "A spell will do us no good."

"How did you and your steed traverse the giant's chasm? With magic and mischief?"

"Stairs."

"Oh."

"Again, you speak with your sword and not your head."

"Enough of this hate on my behalf. Let us hike down. I would very much like that sword back."

"You don't deserve it-"

"The deed was done. Now, move on."

"We'll try. Felix, guard the upper entrance. The two of us will descend."

"Yes, master."

The light vanished. And with it came silence.

My body began to glow in response. The bioluminescence of my scales was weak compared to the time prior to my death, flickering like a dying flame in the darkness. I didn't mind. It was bright enough to see certain things, and prove to myself that I was not dead.

Yet.

I sucked in a deep breath, tasting blood on my tongue. There was a pain growing in my chest from where the sword struck, and every inhale and exhale seemed to encourage it along. Another shudder crossed me, I felt it rattle through my wings like a tremor. I knew of dragons that died from fatal blows equal to mine. A sword sticking out of their hearthstone, their cold, lifeless eyes rolling over the gleaming pride of his or her killer. Yes, humans find this fantasy pleasurable, and drug it into the minds of their youth whether through books or in art. I hated them for that.