Curse of the Stars Book 1

Chapter 6

Chapter VI

But there was no town to be found anywhere nearby. Instead, Stygian found yet more ruins and rubble tainting the ground with their ominous graves. There stood a sort of temple, a cathedral of sorts, which reached above the treetops and all the surrounding buildings. Its stained glass windows were shattered and lay glinting as venomous shards all along the ground; mixing in with the blades of grass. Colourful drops of water that held the sun's glare trapped within their eyes.

Stygian sidestepped the cruel yet beautiful fragments and cocked her oval head up at the blot of dark empty space that once contained them. A void of darkness encompassed the rims and shifted from within the building like deep water. Half broken pieces of it still clung to the sides, as if warding the darkness into its containment. Laces of colour wove through each piece, as if these pieces once made a picture, a story that could no longer be seen.

Stygian cast a longing look at her wings, wishing evermore to simply fly through the window. But they only looked worse day by day, hour by hour. The soreness thrashed through them and mixed with her blood as if it would always live there with her. As if it would be the death of her.

Other buildings lay cast aside idly away from the temple. The temple itself was carved with markings, many of them engraving the rocks into a story of its own. The surrounding buildings all had similar carvings, but weren't as magnificent or as abundant. Carvings of dragons, knights in shining armour pinpointing swords and daggers; each with carvings of their own on the hilt or engraved within the blades. Fallen dragons, with their heads decapitated. Hanging in decorations on poles, on walls, slain men, soldiers, on the outskirts of war. And crosses, lots of crosses, dotting fields. Stygian wondered what they meant. She tried to make sense of the images that lay before her but to no avail. She knew very little of Man, aside from what her Mother had told her about them. And who knew where her Mother had gotten all that information?

Stygian suddenly wondered if her mother could read. Was that how she knew so much about Man and his world? And his stories?

It had been many cold, fragmented nights since the last time Stygian had glimpsed her mother. The last time she had seen her fresh, soft face was right before Stygian had stumbled into the Wishing Dragon. But as soon as she had she had run away. She had run away without telling anyone, too ashamed to bring the truth to the table. Too afraid of the truth that awaited her; that the curse could not be reversed.

Too afraid of knowing what she already knew.

~*~*~*~

"Of course it wasn't long before the dragons that the First created from butterflies abused their power." Her mother explained one cloudy night. "Give anyone freedom and they're bound to try anything once, even if just for curiosity's sake. They exchanged the truth for a lie."

"What do you mean?" Hyaline had asked, confusion creasing her snout. "What happened?"

Leviathan happened. The dragon the First had slain was given a second chance out of mercy, and for the prophecy and purposes of the First. When Leviathan was destroyed, a black mamba rested in his place, for the First brought him low. Cursed to slither and taste the dust for 66,666 years Leviathan was sent free to wander the earth, looking for wandering souls to devour in his revenge against the One who had granted him life. His first prey were the First's beloved humans.

"Why humans? What's so special about them?" Hyaline had jumped to her feet. "They are so tiny and helpless!"

"It is often the weak that humble the strong, only through His power. For his glory is shown to be the greatest through weakness." Her mother explained.