Dragon in the Void

2. Touching the soil

Aboard The Ship

"What do you mean?!?" Strope stares at the soldier, unable to accept that Kaiuun is dead. "You know that he had power, there's no possible way that he could have died. I bet he went to the planet somehow."

"Sir, those private pods you two were sleeping in had a .001% chance of disappearing like this. It was in the fine print."

"Your point?"

"Nobody's ever returned."

"Nobody had a crew with a spaceship to look for them. How many of the crew know about this?"

"Just myself, Jerome, and Welsley."

"Keep it that way. We're going to continue to planet X119R191, and scour the planet. If that pod has a working beacon, we'll be sure to track it down." Strope pauses, thinking for a moment. "Besides, I've been wanting to search a planet for a while now. We'll need to create an efficient method to comb planets. Bring me the other two, and I'll talk with them myself. Thanks for bringing this to my attention Jamie."

The soldier stares at Strope, stunned. "I'm surprised you remember my name."

"I know the name of everyone on this ship. I've always been blessed with a video-graphic memory."

"A w-what sir?"

A smirk crawls onto Strope's face,with a twinkle in his eye. "I remember everything and can play it back in my head like in a holographic video. Basically an upgrade of photographic memory."

"That's impressive sir! Can you-"

Strope laughs at his enthusiasm, "I appreciate your lust for knowledge, that's why you're here. but that will need to wait for a while. Please fetch me Jerome and Welsley."

"Yes sir! I'll go get the other two right now."

As Jamie turns to leave he can hear the captain muttering to himself, almost whimpering. Praying that the captain doesn't break, he sets out to find the others, and hopefully soon.

On planet X119R191

Reflecting on what has transpired, Marsen comes to a realization. Preparations require you to understand the past and present to the best of your ability, and to try to understand what the present can tell you about the future. Once fully prepared, you can actually determine the near future by reading the current position of the stars, basically embodying a version of Laplace's demon. "It is indeed time for the box to be opened." Marsen takes a good look at the box, pondering who will receive the box. It is made of hematite, with a thorny bramble carved in an entangled pattern around the box. The carving is an ancient spell locking the box shut, allowing only the one the prophecy speaks of to open it.

Waiting just outside the room is Roakk, doing some meditation of his own. As Marsen exits the room, he sees his pupil about to fall asleep. Roakk is pulled out of his trance by Marsen pounding him in the head.

"Time to go."

Rubbing his head, Roakk follows Marsen. They walk down a path overgrown from little use, leading to the shrine of the heavens. Along the way animals can be heard scurrying away, and their scent of fresh meat fills the air. To avoid getting distracted and needing to meditate again, the two wear a mask that covers their face. Being made from some of the finest cloth in the village, it's comfortable enough that it doesn't irritate, and the custom fit ensures that it won't move around too much. As they approach the shrine Marsen kneels down and closes his eyes, offering a prayer to the gods. Roakk decides to take this time to inspect the dais, wondering how a dragon without defensive measures could be more powerful than any other dragon he knows. On the front face of the dais is a carving depicting scenes that should happen in the future, including a small and barely distinguishable figure without wings, beads of sapphire in place of the eyes. Behind the figure is a dragon that seems to be flying. On the back of the dais the figure seems to be leading an attack on Acrosia, the most feared evil ever known. Acrosia is carved using obsidian for the body, and a large ruby for his eye. Behind Acrosia is an ocean of shadow. Roakk could swear it was moving, but after rubbing his eyes,no movement can be spotted. "Must've been seeing things."

After looking at the dais Roakk kneels next to Marsen and sends a prayer of his own. As the last light of the day fades into nothingness Marsen opens his eyes and looks to the heavens, gasping as he sees a large metallic egg sitting on the dais. Roakk opens his eyes and sees the egg as well taking note of its cylindrical shape. As if it was waiting for both of them to be paying attention a small portion on the side falls to the side, allowing a figure to step out. As the being approaches them, they both become hit with a wave of nausea and pass out. The last thing Roakk remembers seeing is blue eyed fear on a face framed by pure silver hair.

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Sorry for having the chapter end so short, I had planned for additional detail to portray, but thought of a different way to use it, and ran out of time. I promise to make the next chapter extra long. I appreciate the style advice, but I think that I'm going to keep the style the way it currently is. Otherwise I won't be able to tell the story as well. Also, starting next chapter the only perspectives will be of Strope and Kaiuun.

Word count: 855

Total word count: 2470