Exodus(Journal Of Baobab Of Pantala)

Exodus-Journal 5:Entry 3:The Decay

6,244 A.S. Early Winter
All I saw was death and destruction. That of which could only be caused by the Great Wall of Fire I had heard so few speak of as if speaking of it would make it happen again.
   The land was sparse and ashen black as rivers of the earth's blood rolled past, cutting neatly across the surface of the earth. The sky smelled of ash and sulfur and was as hazy gray, so much so that the sun barely filtered through the dark grey clouds heavy with ash and water.
   It was so horrible that I quickly longed to be back in the lush, beautiful, lively forest of Du Weldenvarden where there was no smell of death clinging to the air as it did here.
"Do you wish to turn back?" Lycaena asked me, startled by the awfulness as much as I was.
   "No," I responded, barely able to forget about the horribleness here and remember my true purpose for being here. "We must keep going on if we are to have any hope of finding the Evertree and stopping this Wyrm."
   "Very well. On into the Old Lands we go." Lycaena responded back and headed on into the dark lands that laid before us.

Hours past until I saw the first sigh of any life.
A large island with cascading waterfalls splashing down its sides seemed to be the only land in miles capable of supporting life.
A large, well built castle loomed on the island. The castle was covered in ash but seemed intact as did the island. It was like the Devastation had completely passed over this island. As if protected by some sort of magic.
I smacked myself in the head. Of course it was protected by magic. If she remembered correctly this was the former base of Pyrrhian-Pantalan Dragon Riders, Skulblaka Skul or Dragon Scale in the elven tongue.
   I remember something about the island being named Dragon Scale because of the way the sun shined on the waterfalls made the rocks look like shimmering dragon scales or something like that.
It was something like that. I never really did pay attention to what Eva—Eva taught my mother and Fiercedawn—taught me, which frustrated Eva immensely.
   Lycaena settled down on the island, resting her tired wings as her neck drooped down with exhaustion.
   "Are you okay?" I asked her, immediately rushing to her side, as I used magic to relieve her aching muscles.
   "I'm fine. So stop wasting your energy on me and be ready to use it to defend us from whatever dangers may be lurking about here." Lycaena growled, her upper lip curling up to reveal her sharp, white teeth as she snarled at something near them.
   I quickly snatched my sword from Lycaena's saddle and prepared to pull it from its sheath in order to defend myself and Lycaena if I had to.
   "Who's there?" I called. "Show yourself or else be a coward that refuses to show yourself."
   Rustling alerted me that whatever was nearby was approaching.
   I slowly started to slide the sword from its sheath, ready to kill if need be.
   The soft tat of footsteps on stone made me pivot around to face a beautiful looking girl in her teens with a frightened look on her face. She seemed so frightened that she looked like she was about to start crying.
   I lowered my sword back into its sheath as the girl still looked scared.
   Her hair was a deep, rich brown color like that of the earth and her eyes such bright green that it looked as if they had been crafted from gems.
   I held out a tentative hand out to the girl, trying to assure her that I meant no harm.
   The teen edged back, a fearful look still on her beautiful light brown face.
   "I mean you no harm," I told her softly, gently setting my sword on the ground, trying not to make too much noise in fear of startling a wild animal. "I'm Viserra. What's your name?" I asked her, taking a small, slow step forward.
The girl took a step back in fear. She looked so afraid. I just wanted to help her overcome her fear and be brave like I was.
"I won't hurt you and neither will Lycaena." I patted Lycaena's snout to tell her to stop growling and looking so intimidating. Lycaena hesitated before doing so.
This seemed to relax the girl a little, but she still remained fearful.
"I promise I won't hurt you. I just want to help you."
"You—you are...Shur'tugal." She said in a very strange accent as if she weren't used to speaking the common tongue.
"Yes, I am." I responded back to her.
"Young Shur'tugal." She said, as if talking to herself. "Not around when Fire burned and killed everything and everyone."
"You were there forty-four years ago!" I exclaimed with surprise, frightening the girl. "That's impossible you can't be more than sixteen. Unless you're an elf."
"She doesn't quite look like an elf, half, or descent of an elf. Maybe she's just a little on the crazy side and thinks the Devastation happened when she was alive." Lycaena said, watching the young girl with great interest.
"Maybe," I responded, still looking at the girl.
"What did you mean when said 'Fire'? Were you their when the Devastation happened? The Great Wall of Fire?" I queried her, wanting to know what she was talking about.
The girl looked at me with an uneasy look in her eyes like she was afraid to talk in front of me.
"It's okay. I won't tell anyone what you tell me. It will be our little secret." I told her, offering her a smile.
The girl cocked her head at me, before she starting to twist a strand of hair around her finger over and over again.
"Fire...eat. Fire...burn. Fire—kill." She whispered.
"But the fire is gone now. It's beautiful here." I said, motioning to the island. It was far more hospitable than the other spare patches of land that couldn't sustain more than a few people for a couple of weeks.
"Fire...killed them all." The girl muttered, her gaze becoming glassy.
"Killed who?" I asked, edging closer.
The girl looked up at me with a blank look in her eyes. Then she disappeared in a flash rushing off to the towering mountains above the castle.
"Wait!" I hollered after her, chasing her up the mountain.
The girl didn't stop. She scaled the base of the mountain with ease, heading for the top.
I jumped onto Lycaena's back, and pursued the girl from atop Lycaena.
The girl didn't stop even when a dragon far faster than her chased her up the mountain.
The girl didn't seem to be disappointed that she was being followed. In fact she seemed to like that Lycaena and I were following her, as if she wanted us to.
"Lycaena, wait! What if she's leading us into a trap?"
Well then what do you want to do? We can keep following her up the mountain or we can wait till she gets bored and comes back down."
I thought hard about this next decision. If I made the wrong choice we could end up in big trouble. But either way it was going to end in me and Lycaena falling into whatever trap the girl had set or was planning for us.
"Let's follow her but be careful. We don't know what lays up ahead for us."
Lycaena obliged, and continued up the mountain carefully.
I saw no sign of the girl as we traveled up the mountain which meant she either was a fast climber or had hid from us while we were talking.
Then we finally reached the top. And on the top waiting for us was the girl.
"How did she get up here so fast?! There's no way any human or dwarf would have been able to make it up here so fast without faltering."
"It's hard to say but let's circle around for a few minutes and see what she does." Lycaena said, flying around the circumference of the mountain top.
The girl watched calmly as we did this, no fear shinning in her eyes as we did this.
When Lycaena and I were satisfied that nothing bad was going to happen, Lycaena landed on the mountain, faraway from the mysterious girl.
I slipped down Lycaena's side, and slowly approached the girl with Lycaena trailing beside me.
The girl watched us calmly with her green eyes that now seemed to resemble green garnets. Her hair and skin also seemed brighter. Her skin shone like light bronze in the sunlight. And her hair now looked to be made of pure dark copper. She seemed fairer in every way imaginable, more ethereal than even an elf and they were known as the Fair Folk for a very good reason because of their enchanting beauty. But this girl seemed even more beautiful than the elves.
"Who are you?" I asked her, watching her carefully.
The girl just smiled, and tilted her head to the side.
I felt the earth quake beneath me, and suddenly I was enveloped in cave of darkness.
I could heard Lycaena roaring with anger through the stone prison I was trapped in.
Raising my hands I muttered a spell to break the rock walls but nothing happened. I tried again. Same result. I kept trying till I heard a giggle from behind me.
I whirled around, summoning a bright ball of light to my hand.
There was the girl, laughing gently as if my struggle to free myself was all too amusing to resist watching.
   "I was nice to you and this is how you repay." I snarled at her, irritated that I had been so blind to believe that this girl wasn't dangerous.
   The girl's humorous expression disappeared, and she walked over to me slowly.
   I took a few steps, not wanting to figure out the hard way what others things she could do.
   "Stay back." I warned her, reaching for my sword before remembering that I had left it at the bottom of the mountain.
   Lycaena was so going to kill when she realized how stupid I was for doing that.
   "I said stay back!" I yelled, finding myself back against the wall.
   The girl closed in, leaving no space for me to slip past. Only a few inches separated us. I was so close to her that I could smell the sweet sent of earth on her like she had been digging or something.
   The girl just tilted her head at me, looking at me like I was some mysterious creature.
   She slowly picked up a strand of my hair and watched it slip through her fingers.
   My heart thudded rapidly in my chest.
   Then the girl did something totally unexpected.
   She planted her lips against mine, kissing me as if I were a lover.
   Her slips were as sweet as honey and her soft hair gently brushed against my face.
   I knew this was wrong. Elves believed in the opposite sex being attracted to each other. Not...this.
   I quickly pushed past her, confused and full of a million muddled emotions all screaming at the same time, disorienting me where I stood.
   The girl turned around with a sincere look on her beautiful face.
   "I'm sorry. That was completely uncalled for."
   "Yes, it was." I growled back, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.
   "I couldn't resist though. You seemed so upset and unhappy. I just wanted to help." She began. "But now I can feel that I left you with a million confusing questions."
   "Yes, you did. For one, I know you're not human, elf, or dwarf. So what are you?" I demanded, pitting a fierce look on my face.
   That smile returned back to her face.
   "I'll tell you after I do this." She said cryptically, and then snapped her fingers, extigushing the light in my hand.
   "What the—?" I began, utterly bewildered at what this girl was.
   A soft hand touched my arm, making me whirl around to face her but I couldn't see her silhouette in the darkness.
   Someone swept my hair over my shoulder, making me look for her again.
   Finally I felt the girl grab my shoulders and turn me around, kissing me once again.
   I was shocked to find myself not holding back or resisting. Instead, I fully embraced her sign of affection, leaving no space between us as I kissed her back just a deeply.
   Then she pulled away with a heavy breath, and whispered into my ear, her breath against my skin sending shivers down my spine.
   I only smiled, and then embraced her once more.

6,245 A.S. Mid Spring
I laid in the bed, staying still as Ila braided my hair.
   "How old are you again?" I asked her.
   Ila was an earth nymph. The last of her kind after the the Wall of Fire wiped out all life. Ila's mountain had only survived because of a spell over the island that had protected the whole island from being destroyed, however the magic protecting the island was weakening. It was only a matter of time before it wore away.
Ila stopped braiding my hair, and leaned over to whisper in my ear.
"Old. Now stop asking questions, and let me finish braiding your hair." Ila told me, picking my hair up once again.
   I stayed quite as Ila finished braiding my hair into a simple plait.
   "There," she said after awhile, "all finished." She brushed her hand against my cheek, and gently kissed me on the lips.
   I knew that the elves would never approve of such a relationship but I didn't care. The moment Ila kissed me was the moment I knew I wanted to be with her forever and never leave her side.
   When the kiss broke, I asked her, "Are you going to take me to the Evertree now? You promise when we first met."
Ila sighed before looking at me with her green eyes.
Ila could change forms between her more realistic looking form and her more nymph form that made her look so ethereal that she didn't even deserve to belong in a place so horrible like this. Ila looked more like a goddess when in her nymph form, and such a goddess should never have to contend with such accommodations such as the ones in this world.
"I will take you there but you must promise me that you will not mess with the Life Giver." Ila used Life Giver instead of Evertree. It was said that the Evertree or Life Giver created everything in the world even magical creatures such as Ila. That the world was full of magic everywhere before the Great Wall of Fire destroyed it all leaving Ila and possibly very few other survivors alive.
"I promise." I said, hating that I had to lie to her. I had to figure out how to kill the Wyrm even if it meant breaking a promise to Ila.
"Good." She said, kissing me again. "Now go to sleep. We leave at first light." With that said, she laid down next to me, and fell asleep.
I reluctantly laid to her too, hating the knot forming in my stomach from the lie I made to her.
   From this point on I will never lie to Ila again. I thought to myself, not realizing that I would break only one more promise with Ila. A broken promise that would haunt me for the rest of my days.

In the morning, I saddled up Lycaena, and Ila and I left the old Rider Base, the only place safe from the decaying world of death and fire, at least for now.
The world of ash and fire flew by as Ila guided us where she remembered the old Evertree was.
I kept wondering what we would find at the Evertree. Would it still be alive and standing? Would it look like the world around us? Or would it stand out in this world of death?
Then I saw a something bright in the distance. There were veins of silver arching up into the sky.
"Is that the Evertree?" I asked Ila.
"It is. The Life Giver."
   As Lycaena approached the tree, I saw how big it really was. The tree had to be at least a two hundred feet tall and twice that in width.
   Glowing silver with pure gold leaves and stark white fruit, the Evertree was by far the most magnificent tree in the whole world. Even grander than the Meona Tree in Du Weldenvarden.
   Lycaena landed upon the blacken crater that the Evertree stood in, making it look like a sliver of light in a pool of darkness.
   "I can feel the life radiating from tree right under the soil. It truly is the Life Giver." Lycaena told me.
   I nodded to what she said.
   "It's truly amazing. I can feel the power radiating from the tree from just right here."
   "It is miraculous that the Life Giver even survived the Great Fire, but she did not escape unscathed. Come, I'll show you." Ila said in a despaired voice, and led the way down the crater towards the tree.
   As we approached the tree, I saw a large black scorch marked along a quarter of the base of the tree.
   The sight sadden me.
   How could something like this happen to something so beautiful.
   "The injury of the Life Giver saddens you too. The tragedy of what happened to her almost too much to bear."
   "It is."
   Then I felt a rising pain traveling to the base of my skull. Then it hit, causing me extraordinary agony.
   I cried out, and fell to my knees.
   Lycaena roared in the background as our shared pain traveled between the bond that connected us.
   Visions and voices flared in my mind, and then I passed out from the pain.

P.S. This is my first attempt at making a bisexual couple. Ila and Viserra are bisexual not lesbian.
I imagine Ila talking in a Russian sort of accent or something like that. Something European.