(Book 1) Legends of the new world: The snow empress and the horned king

Chapter two: through fear comes respect

As Velkhana waded through the snow, which went up to her shoulders, she heard nergigante roaring in the distance. Velkhanas survival instincts kicked in at that moment and caused her to start sprinting. After approximately five minutes of sprinting in fear, Velkhana suddenly had an idea. Velkhana sank into the snow, completely covered by it. After a minute passed, she heard nergigante's footsteps approaching her. "You can't hide from me Velkhana, I will find you sooner or later. No elder dragon has managed to escape or defeat me, you will be no different than the others." Nergigante snarled. "Don't let him find me, please don't let him find me", Velkhana thought to herself, panic consuming her thoughts. After what seemed like an hour passed, she heard nergigante's footsteps move farther away from her. Velkhana peaked out of the snow to check if nergigante had really fallen for the trick she had pulled. After looking around for a short while, she confirmed that nergigante had left the area, presumably thinking she went somewhere else. Velkhana breached the surface of the snow, and continued in the opposite direction of where nergigante had gone. After a few hours had passed, Velkhana began to feel hunger. Velkhana went searching for prey, and came across a small group of popo grazing what little plant life they could find. Velkhana silently crept within the shadows of the trees, waiting for one of the idiotic herbivores to stray from the group. As one began to move closer to her, she seized her chance and lept forward pinning the mammal down and snapping its neck. However, as she prepared to feast upon the lifeless popo, she felt something hit the back of her head. She quickly turned to face her attacker. To her surprise, it was not nergigante, it was a legiana. "What the- What on earth are you doing?" Velkhana said, a hint of authority in her voice. The legiana proceeded to swoop past her, grab the popo's corpse, and yell at the top of its lungs, "SUCKS TO BE YOU DOSENT IT!". Velkhana froze at the mere audacity of this simple creature to insult her, an elder dragon of all creatures. But before she could reply, the legiana cackled and proceeded to fly off with what was supposed to be Velkhanas long-awaited feast. This caused her to snap. After being chased by the eater of elders for a long time, all Velkhana wanted was to have something to eat to calm her down. This legiana insulting her was the last straw. With an enraged roar, Velkhana roared and chased after the annoying legiana, contempt of making it suffer.

Nergigante had lost track of Velkhana's location, and was frustrated for letting this happen. As nergigante pouted, he happened to notice a particularly rancid smell coming from a nearby cave. Nergigante could tell it was a rotting corpse, and went to investigate. However, when nergigante entered the cave, the rancid smell continued down a tunnel with a greenish gas that stung nergigante's eyes. The further nergigante ventured into the tunnel, the worse the smell got, until he found the tunnels exit and gagged at what he saw. The tunnel had led to the bottom of a pit known by many hunters as "the rotting vale". Dead corpses of hundreds of monsters were everywhere, as far as the eye could see. But as nergigante ventured deeper into the vale, he found out just what that smell was. The smell has been coming from a pile of both fresh and rotting meat, along with some intestines strewn out in the pile of filth. Nergigante almost wanted to claw his eyes out right then and there, the sight of such a hideous image scarring his mind. Nergigante had consumed other elder dragons and had seen their internal organs yes, but the amount of mangled corpses and the smell of the effluvium was unbearable to nergigante. However, as nergigante calmed himself, he noticed that the pile of meat and guts had begun to move, as if something was rising from it. Nergigante saw the most hideous abomination of a monster rise from the meat pile. The monster looked like an elder dragon, but was draped in a cloak of rotting meat, which also acted as the webbing on its wings and a hood for its barracuda shaped head. It's beady black eyes stared at nergigante, before freeing itself from the pile of meat and entrails. It slowly turned its head to face nergigante. "How pleasant, we don't often get visitors from the living world", the monster said, it's mouth gurgling with vile. "Wh- who in the sapphire star are you?" Nergigante asked, disgust coating his voice. "The living refer to me as "val-hazak", but you may call me Val." The monster replied. Nergigante tilted his head in confusion. "Now to get to the point, I hear that you have a problem with a certain elder dragon, do you not?" Val said snootily. "How do you know her name?" Nergigante asked with suspicion. "The keeper of the rotten vale has his secrets old boy, secrets that are mine and mine alone to know.", Val said in a manner that got under nergigante's skin. "Now here's what I can do for you", Val said, wrapping a decaying Wing Around nergigante's shoulder, "if you can help bring me some elder dragon corpses that you usually eat, or "splitting the pot", as I like to call it, I will help you take down this "Velkhana" that you obsess over. Do we have a deal?" Val said tilting his head. Nergigante thought about the offer. "Val-hazak is a liar from what I was told. but for the sake of this land, what choice do I have?", nergigante thought to himself. After some more thinking, nergigante made his decision. "Deal." Nergigante said firmly. "Ah yes, you will not regret this decision my friend", Val said. Nergigante sighed to himself. He needed to find and stop Velkhana before she could unknowingly cause havoc to the ecosystem.