Varian of the Northern Isles

Cliffs of the Falling Sky

BOOM!!!!
"VARIAN?! Was that you?!" I shouted. We had left the inn five hours ago and had stopped for a small break.
"Y-yes. Uh...I'm fin- *cough* ugh... Err I'm fine." Varian grumbled wiping iridescent powder off his apron. I muffled a snicker. He was covers from head to toe and well... He sparked.
"What did you even do?" I asked, playfully wiping some of the dust off his shoulder.
"Well, I was trying to create a less dangerous form of those exploding capsules. I was hoping to make something that would make a loud noise and bright light, but wouldn't hurt the people around the explosion.  
      "So kinda like a firework?" I asked," but with less fire I guess."
     " yeah, sort of," Varian turned away and went back to his notes. I heard him begin to mumble to his self and smiled to myself. So what if he was a little cute.

Varian's POV
     "Concentrate Varian," I whispered under my breath," stop getting distracted."  I shook the extra glitter from my hair and sat back down at the riverbank and began to assemble another capsule. I tried to focus but my gaze slowly drifted to Hypatia. She was sitting calmly under a tree, slowly twirling the dagger between her fingers. Hypatia had said it was a gift for Helen, and I hopped that her sister would enjoy it. I was trying to use up all of my material and compact it into a more portable size since we would be shedding most of my equipment when we got to the mountain range. The horse would sadly have to go too. My work took up most of the time we rested and soon we were off again.
  Four hours later, we arrived at a small town at the boarder of the greatest mountain range I'd ever seen. Steep cliffs caught the swiftly waining daylight and distant pines dotted the slops until the stone broke out to reach the crisp air. The mountains stood like soldiers guarding a castle and I figured that in some ways, they truly filled that role. We passed through the town, all of our hoods pulled low, but there was no sound except for the faint clop of our horse. A shutter ran down my spine and I scouted closer to Hypatia who looked just as wary as I did. We carefully dismantled our supplies and Hypatia took off the saddle on our horse.
     "I'm sorry I never got around to naming you," she said, lightly patting the horse on its neck. It only whined slightly and made no move to leave.
     "You can't come with us," Hypatia said, trying to mask the slight waver in her voice," these cliffs are no place for a horse." The horse only seemed slightly confused and trotted a short distance away before turning around to look expectantly at us. Terrin shook his head and we turned away. I saw Hypatia's breath cloud in the cold air and she wiped away her tears before they even left her eyes. We turned a corner, heading to the town's exit when we all collectively stopped. In front of us were piles upon piles of bones. Blood, long since spilled, stained the ground, and horrid claw marks gouged deep into the sides of buildings. I winced, closing my eyes. Hypatia walked over to the bodies slowly scanning them. I could see her mind working, piecing together the situation. Some bones were perfectly placed as if their person had laid down, peaceful, and death had simply whisked their spirit away, while other were scattered, limbs torn and thrown from bodies, skulls hanging at odd angles, and even more puzzling, the strange marks of a creature I couldn't begin to describe. Hypatia turned to us, opal and moon stone blade glinting faintly, "Do you all think it's odd how no signs of this exist outside of this one road?"
     Now that she mentioned it, the rest of the village was spotless, empty but clean. This was the only area that showed evidence of violence. The questions hung in the air, but what could we do? Something was out there. It lurked in these mountains and it had slunk down to this village and decimated the entire population. Hypatia took a deep breath, her head held steady, and she did not shake as she faced us. There was a pride in her that had been relit and some instinctual part of me knew, this was not just a nice girl, this was more than the rumors of the demons that lived in the north, this was a Queen.
     "I am Hypatia, Sister of Helen, the twin Queen of the Northern Isles, and I will claim our throne." She turned her ice blue gaze on Terrin.
     "Terrin, my spy and friend, do you follow me?"
     "Yes, My Queen." Terrin bowed low, a smile on his lips.
     "Varian," I felt my heart still, " my alchemist and friend, do you follow me?"
     "Yes, My Queen," I said, copying Terrin's movements. Hypatia let us rise and we followed our Queen into the looming mountains.

Hypatia's POV
I was back. The Queen that roared within me was back and she would not back down. I would not back down. I turned to face the mountain, the pile of bones, and the sun setting in the distance. I would meet back up with Helen, and we would shake the stars to their fiery cores. I lead the way, passing silently over the bones, and past the creaking gates and into the Cliffs of the Falling sky.