《Wings of Fire: Whistling Skies》 Chapter 1 He was warm. Warm under his blankets, warm under his sheets and his head was warm against the pillows. Life, life was great. He had a mother that cared for him, he was successful in school and was great at football. He was told that he was going to have a great future according to his teacher and he believed that. He opened his dry eyes to be greeted by blinding light coming from his window, the smell of breakfast that had recently been made made its way up into his room, making him feel hungry. He put on his socks to walk down the stairs, being greeted by a plate and a note. You wouldn''t wake up, so I put your breakfast on this plate. Love you! - MomThe note read. On the plate there were biscuits and eggs. Next to the plate was a fork and a knife but he cut away with only the fork. When satisfied, he put his plate away to grab his shoes and walk out the door. It was bright outside, no clouds were showing in the sky and it was very warm. Walking through the streets, he passed by the bakery where the smell of fresh bread wafted out of the vents tempting him to go inside.Maybe next time.He thought as he got out of range. He walked by a field filled with kids playing football, kicking the ball to one another in the hopes of making a goal. A drummer sat on the side making quiet taps against the surface. The drummer unexpectedly lifted his hand up and crashed it against the drum resulting in aboom! He sat up quickly in a cold sweat, realizing where he actually was. His heart was beating fast and his breathing was shaky. He never really did wake up in that warm bed, did he? He didn''t get to eat those eggs or read that note, because he wasn''t even home. He wasn''t on some soft mattress, he was on some cold and unwelcoming mud. His eyes now truly felt tired as he finally came up to speed and his situation. He was sitting inside of a shoddily built bunker to protect him from artillery fire but if it was directly hit, they would all die. He was with other soldiers in here, all trying to sleep but failing. He rubbed his eyes, they were wet. He must have been crying while remembering his home. He missed it so much and how nice it was there. He saw a pistol. He remembered the way his friends would joke around about who was the best at anything. He felt the grip. He remembered when his mom would comfort him with trips to the bakery or cook his favorite meal when he was sad. He tasted metal in his mouth. He also remembered when they had enough money to go on that trip. He felt his finger on the trigger. He didn''t think he was going to remember anymore. *** Adan Baumer, Cerviun soldier All this marching was driving him crazy, this stupid,stupidmarching. The hours felt like days to poor Adan Baumer, a regular soldier with a regular rank. His boot sank into the mud beneath him, he groaned. Stupid mud, stupid marching.He thought as he struggled to get his boot out of the mud.This isn''t how I imagined the military. He jogged to catch up with the line, but nobody would care if he didn''t. They hated him. "We have three more miles! If any of you poor saps have any complaints, throw them away and keep your mouth shut!" Their commander yelled, Adan just nodded. When they had gone through another mile of the march, Adan felt pain in his feet. But he just had to keep marching along. Just a little longer. I can just make it three more miles.His feet were on fire, causing him to groan with every step he took. He looked up to see one of his comrades shaking his head at him. I should have done more PT,he thought. Left. Right. Left. Right. Adan''s legs felt like lead. Left. Right. Left. Right. His gear was getting heavier and heavier. Left. Right. Left. Right. Adan was about to collapse. Left. Right. Left. Right. What could be no more than one hour felt like 2 days when they finally arrived. "Congratulations fellas, you''ve made it to where you will be staying." Commander Karsk shouted at them, making sure everybody could hear. "You should all get some rest. Await further orders."This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Adan sighed with relief, and he plopped down. He grabbed his bag and pulled out his rations of beef and corn, in a can of course. "Adan! You''re going on guard duty tonight. Silently take out any Veruckians or Grasen, do not use your rifle, got that?" For fuck''s sake.He grabbed his gear and headed off to his post. *** When night arrived, he was already standing outside of the camp, looking around tiredly for any threats. He scanned the same bush for the umpteenth time, muttering to himself with complaint. He heard some leaves and sticks cracking and he whipped around. "Hey, it''s just me. I''m taking your spot." Adan said a little thank you, his comrade only replied by rolling his eyes. He settled down onto the hard dirt, hoping he could get some sleep. He closed his eyes, thinking of the next day that was to come. *** G?rvan Schleef, Republic of Gr?sen G?rvan walked through the forest, quietly. He was with his hunting friends, searching for the perfect animal to hunt. He had a weird feeling about today, he didn''t exactly know what it was for but it was there. It felt like he knew something big was going to happen, but after thinking about it, he narrowed it down to paranoia. "Hey G?rvan, remember that time you got fucked up by a bucks antlers? That shit was hilarious. But seriously, you don''t need to be so jumpy," one of his hunting companions stated from his left. He admitted that one particular section of his life had been funny, nearly dying. However, he always had one question, what if he had died? What if he went to sleep and never woke up, just stayed asleep, forever? It scared him, it got him nervous even though it happened years ago. "Hey man, are you good? You seem a little uhhh, out of your head." Said Merkel, his hunting companion, and good friend. "Oh yeah, heh, it was pretty funny. But I do think the loss of blood has made my brain a little strange. I occasionally slur my words, or if I stand up too fast my vision goes dark." "Yeah, that''s not normal. Hopefully you don''t get attacked again, you psycho." Merkel replied. "Oh, come on, I''m not that psychotic. Just a bit not oaky in the head." G?rvan said while being a little loopy and tired. They walked hundreds of feet in silence, G?rvan''s paranoia attacking his brain and making him feel funny. Perhaps he didn''t have enough coffee, or caffeinated drinks. "You just said ''oaky'', maybe you should be taken to a Psych ward." G?rvan just ignored that as he stopped to dig through his bag, finding an energy bar to eat. It wasn''t enough to satiate his hunger of course, but it would have to do for the couple more hours they were out here. It tasted funky and stale, making him wrinkle his nose as he ate it. He didn''t exactly like these bars, but he still ate them, like he was addicted. The texture was powdery and artificial, not the worst he''s had, but it was still bad. He also decided to inspect his rifle while eating, brushing his hand over the wood and metal components. He made sure to turn the safety on so he or Merkel didn''t lose anything of theirs. He did need to fingers to hunt after all. Merkel began discussing all of the different things they could shoot. Boar, Elk, Bucks, Bears, and any other legal animals. He personally liked bears the most, probably due to the fact that it always gives him an adrenaline rush whenever he hunts them. There was rusting and growling not too far from them. Merkel and G?rvan stood up with their rifles and looked towards the noise. They lowered to a crouch when they felt they were near, this slowed them down. But they could always stand back up if they needed to run. At first G?rvan didn''t see anything, but then he spotted some blue and green, then red and tan. He thought it was only stories, stories where humanity fell in a far away place that they had to flee. Stories where creatures bloodlust caused their near extinction. However, what he was looking at wasn''t a story. It looked real, real enough that his doubts of them existing completely vanished. So that must mean the stories are true. That the human genocide was true. That there is a far away land in the middle of the ocean. G?rvan knew what he had to do, to save them all again. So they could see how it feels to be hunted. He took aim, and put his finger on the trigger. *** "So, you managed to find a storybook creature, kill it, and you want us to come look at it? I''m sorry sir, but this sounds ludicrous." The man behind the desk stated with a chuckle, showing his skepticism. "No, its true! I swear, I left my friend, G?rvan, to stay with it while we got the game master to look at it, and this could mean there are more of them, maybe the stories are true." Merkel replied with frustration as he knew what he saw was real. "Just get the game master over there, and then I''ll be done. Ok?" The man behind the desk, who he had been talking to for 5 minutes, seemed to be very amused by his antics. He probably thought he was crazy, maybe he was, but this was the realest thing he had seen in his life. He had touched the creatures, felt the scales, looked at the different colors, it was too real to have been imagined. However, the man behind the desk didn''t believe him, and the chances of him actually getting the game master were low. He thought of different ways to get people to come look. Fake an injury and get "help"? No, he and G?rvan weren''t good enough at acting to pull that off. Pull it into town with a big automobile, or what people started referring to as "Trucks". Based off of looks though, the creatures seemed to be around 3-5 tons, too big for these "Trucks" to drag. Maybe a simple picture could be it, but he wanted people toseethe creatures, to look at their scales, feel the rough skin, believe him. He needed the game master. The man behind the desk took the tooth pick out of his mouth, and spoke, "I''ll tell you what, we send some guys over there to look. If they see them too, we''ll take them to the capital and have the lab coats examine them. Alright? I think that''s a might fine plan." "Thank you sir, I''ll see you there." Merkel thanked the man, "Oh, I wont be going. It''ll be some other fella''s. I just sit here." Lucky bastard, I wish I could do that,Merkel thought as he walked out of the hunting office. It was quite cool inside and out, the streets were filled with many pedestrians. The ones that were in there with him were giving weird looks, probably thinking he''s crazy. He is not crazy. He got onto the train to go to the next stop, then he''ll wait for the "fella''s" to arrive. Finally, he''d take them to the creatures and G?rvan to see. They''ll believe him, then he won''t be so crazy anymore. He watched as the train started chugging along, watching it exit the station. "Coffee?" Offered a service member, "Yes, black please." He replied. He was grateful for the coffee. He was proving a point, so it tasted even better. *** In the east near the borders of Gr?sen, the Cerviun army is preparing. They are near the invasion, near their major plan. In Pyrrhia, they are wondering why exploration group 13 hasn''t returned, maybe they should go that way to check on them. And G?rvan, G?rvan is wondering why in the world is there a dragon on Corvus? *** Yall, I suck ass at writing so give some constructive criticism to help me improve. Anyways, thank you for reading this shitty ass chapter. Chapter 2 There was a knock on the other side of the door, the sound of knuckles hitting would banging across the room. "Come in," General Peter told the one knocking, "and be quick." A tall, slender man walked into the room carrying documents and papers. Peter beckoned for him to sit, and he did so. He was noticeably nervous, his hand clenched, beads of sweat gathering on his forehead. "Well, tell me the reason you''re here," The General stated bluntly. "We- Well sir, uhm. I have brought some news, but I can''t really say its good news." He replied while rubbing his hands together. "One of our trains has, well, uhm, derailed." He said with a shaky voice. "We don''t know how yet." "That is incredibly unfortunate, depending on what they were transporting." "Weapons and ammunition sir, and possibly some food for the soldiers. We are working on covering it up and saying it was only grain." His voice had gotten quieter while speaking. "How about this, we find whoever made the rails and give them a ''talking to'', then we can chat later," Peter said with a hint of malice in his voice. "Y-Yes sir, I can do that." "Good, now I think you should go back to your job, don''t you think?" He replied. "Yes, General. I will see you later," he stopped at the door, "I shall see you later." *** He shut the General''s door behind him and let out a breath he had been holding, that was way too stressful for his liking. The General was just terrifying to be around, he made him feel unsafe and uncomfortable. He walked into a nearby coffeehouse, as he was pretty hungry. He ordered his food, a sandwich along with some coffee. He needed energy to drive the long distance that was his nightmare called a job. Even after ordering, he studied the menu even more. Looking over their food items like sandwiches, salads, and even something new supposedly called a "Grilled Cheese." He looked out the window and looked at the busyness of everything. Bikers on the sidewalks, pedestrians walking in and out of stores, restaurants and the theater. He sighed and close his eyes. He was in his own world long enough to not even notice the plate and cup right in front of him. He grabbed the op and bottom piece of bread and shoved it into his mouth. His gaze returned to the outside. Hope there isn''t a draft, he thought, people would be unhappy. Its all glory and honor as long as its not them at the front. Of course, they don''t know yet. Only few know, including me. Probably because I have to ship the munitions and everything. He stopped chewing to think, If I plan carefully, I could escape. But its a long ways to any nation not in our little pact. I know damn well they think I''m expendable, just canon fodder. I can''t deal with this shit. He pushed his seat out and stood up, then walked to the door and opened it. Due to the restaurant being dim inside, opening the door caused a flash of light in his vision and blinded him. After the flashbang he walked into the street once again. However, he went to his car instead of walking into nearby stores. When he was inside he reached for the knob that turned his radio on. A voice came over, "Our top news: A train carrying grain has been derailed on its way to the city of Traum. The cause of the derailment is unknown, but one of the bigger theories is failure to build the railway properly. One of the crewmen was injured while the other appears to have gone AWOL. Could this be a purposeful sabotage? Nobody knows. This has been our top news." He sat there for a minute just letting his car run. Could it have been sabotage? Are there others trying to delay the plans and escape? The higher ups will definitely believe it was sabotage. I do believe the rail company is partly at fault, but he must have done something while the other person was looking away. He put his foot on the petal and started driving. It is reasonable, but we were told what would happen if we defect. I remember "The Room" and what they showed us in it. He turned around a corner and just remembered the footage of being dismembered, skinned, even medieval methods like stretching your limbs until they were pulled from your sockets. He admitted he was stupid to plan an escape, but now whoever was in that train is in much much worse danger than he is. The higher ups didn''t know what he was planning, but they sure as hell knew what the man in the train did and they were going to find him. That train derailed near the Bulgan Forrest, its going to be hard to find him but its also going to be hard for him to make it out. It goes on for miles and miles, who knows what could happen? He doesn''t have food, I think, he probably doesn''t have anything to hunt unless he stole some ammunition and a rifle from the cargo. Its summer though, so he won''t freeze, but the nights still get cold. I shouldn''t be worrying about him right now, I need to think about what I should do. Once I disappear they''ll know. They''re going to send everything after me so this information doesn''t get out. Its a risk, however, it could be worth it. Warning Gr?sen or Veruckt could save many and stop a greedy conquest before it even comes. Actually that wouldn''t stop it, they''d just start sooner. What am I thinking? I do have something to help me escape though, he looked back at what appeared to just be a regular suitcase, but hidden inside was a gun. That could help if I needed to defend myself.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. He turned right out of the city limits and onto an open road and sped up. Leaving the city behind him he turned on the radio again, but for music. There was a lot of static as the radio was fairly new, one of the greatest inventions in his opinion. Allowing him to listen to news, radio shows and music. The road became quite bumpy after he left the city, it was unpaved and covered in dirt. Many little rock could be a danger to the wheels but he still drove on, watching the scenery pass by him. I forgot to unload the pistol, shit. He needed a good place to stop, somewhere where he could be unseen by others passing by. Where to st- he was cut off as a big creature stepped out in front of his car and he swerved, his car hit the creatures leg. He rolled, there was so much shaking, he cant stop it how can he stop th- BANG! He felt pain in his abdomen, he looked down at the blood gushing from his belly. My pistol went off, it went off because it shook so much. Oh no, no.. He climbed out of his beaten up car and onto the road. His movements were jumpy and janky, making it hard to walk. His sight was blurry, there was glass stabbed into so many parts of his body to the point he wouldn''t be able to get them out. He saw the creature again, red scales, huge wings and smoke coming from its snout. I- I think I''m going to rest here. No time for hallucinations. And he blacked out. *** He looked at the scavenger knowing what he had just done. He had gotten it killed. After crawling out of the weird beaten up metal thing it just layed down and died. This wouldn''t have happened if he didn''t walk out of the trees. He had noticed the metal box going down this pathway towards him. Inside he noticed there was a scavenger so he walked out to greet it. However, this metal box didn''t stop and it hit his leg quite hard. It felt like dozens of heavy boulders had crashed onto it all at once. He couldn''t even walk on it anymore, the pain was just too much. "Did you just get a scavenger killed?!" Hurricane the seawing yelled to his left. "I didn''t know that would happen! I just saw it in that box thing and walked in front! I don''t know what I was thinking!" "Well, now we have a dead body!" Hurricane yelled back. "What are we going to do? Burn it? Bury it? Find other scavengers? They''re going to know!" Thunder just looked at him. He''s right, he thought they''re going to know. "Well, how do we know it''s dead? It could still be alive." Thunder said. Hurricane scoffed, "Won''t it just go find other scavengers once it realizes ''Oh wait, these are dragons and they kill us.'' Yea, smart thinking there. That is way too much blood to be alive." He pointed to the red pool. "Why don''t we just see huh? It''s not like I blasted fire on him." "Fine, do whatever you want. But now I have to be near the dragon who just killed a creature we''re not supposed to kill." Thunder walked over to the body and placed a talon on it, "Please be alive..." but the body chest didn''t rise or fall. There was no air coming from it''s nose or mouth. Oh moons, I really did just get it killed. He then looked towards the metal box. What was that thing? There was nothing pulling it, and yet, it moved. There were no hills going down so it couldn''t have gained any momentum from those. It did have wheels on the bottom, but nothing to move them. He also noticed there was a quiet noise coming from inside of it. He walked over to investigate and listened. [W?hrend das Milit?r nach Deserteuren sucht, feiern Cerviuns im ganzen Land das j?hrliche Fr¨¹hlingsfest. Treffen Sie Cerviuns auf den Stra?en und genie?en Sie unseren charakteristischen Wein, unser Bier und viele andere alkoholische Getr?nke. Wir bieten auch verschiedene Fleischsorten an, darunter Rind, Wurst, H¨¹hnchen und Steak. Warten Sie nicht, gehen Sie raus und feiern Sie mit! Aber vergessen Sie dabei nicht, den armen Menschen von Grasen Wohlstand zu w¨¹nschen, w?hrend sie unter Tyrannei leben.] Wha- What was that!? It sounds so similar, yet different to dragon. It didn''t even sound clear, and there is nothing around to make that noise. He looked back at the dead body. It was still unbreathing. He started digging a hole in some soft dirt by the side of the path. He could at least bury it to show he was sorry. "So you''re burying it," Thunder looked at Hurricane. "Now let''s go. We don''t want to be seen here." Thunder nodded and finished his burial. He started walking through the forest. He couldn''t fly or else that would attract scavengers near the area. There was still fresh blood in that area. 1234 He counted his steps. 1234 It helped pass the time. 1234 Wait, that metal box is still there. Are scavengers used to those things? If they are, that is a definite sign of something happening. He looked back at his leg it crashed into, it was throbbing with pain and it was hard to walk. He continued on. Should we go back? Is it worth it to go back? Oh moons, we shouldn''t have left it. Hurricane! We left that metal box thing, we have to go back! Thunder shouted at him. Hurricane looked at him angrily. "Really?! Come on! Go get it then! Don''t just stand there!" Thunder scrambled back towards the path and metal box. Ignoring the pain in his foot, he started running. It hurt a lot of course, but not enough to stop him. Please let there be no scavengers, or dragons. He arrived at the site once again, but there were scavengers. They were wearing a shiny, green, turtle shell looking thing. [Was zur H?lle war das? Was ist das?] They were making the same noises from the box. They must be connected. [Oh, was zum Teufel? Sieht aus wie ein Drache, aber die gibt es nicht, oder? Erschie? ihn!] The other scavenger nodded and pulled a long stick from its back, What is that stick going to do? Well, the stick in question made a loud crack noise, and then there was even more pain in his leg. It felt so sharp, and so small, but it was so painful There were more sharp cracks until his knees buckled under him, blood pooling from tiny holes in his legs. [Fesselt ihn! Seid vorsichtig, ich erschie?e ihn, wenn er irgendetwas versucht!] *** "G?rvan! The mighty dragon killer! Tell us, how did you find such a creature!" Asked the drunken Merkel on his left, his breath reeked of alcohol. "You were there! Why are you asking?" G?rvan asked the drunken man. "I just want you to tell the rest of us!" Merkel said. "Oh, fine! Let''s get on with it then!" G?rvan stated, "I was walking through the woods with this drunken buffoon named Merkel, on a regular hunting trip. We were hoping to get lucky with some deer, or some bear. But some rustling from the bushes and we see those scaly creatures." He continued on, "Of course, the first thing me and Merkel did was pull our rifles out. We aimed for their heads, we didn''t want to risk too much. But even then, it took a couple shots because Merkel can''t hit anything." G?rvan threw at his friend. "Am not!" Merkel said with his voice slurred. G?rvan sighed, "Anyways, one of them got into the air and we shot as much as we could. That damn thing got away, but now we have those dragons. I gave them to the scientists." G?rvan didn''t say anything else, only his thoughts making noise. I wonder if there are more... Chapter 3 Eugh, my head... What happened? Where am I? Thunder thought as he could no longer feel soft dirt under his talons anymore. He was laying on something smooth, yet rigid and hard. His legs felt like they were on fire, Right, those magic booms and whatever. Ugh, I have such a massive headache. He could hear what sounded like distant shouting, but in something he couldn''t understand. [Steht auf!] Was all Thunder needed to hear to remember the rest. The scavenger, the metal box, and probably my capture? Unless I died? He opened his eyes, he was in some room. The floor was made out of a material he didn''t know about, the walls looked the same, and there was some glass allowing him to see out. Looking out the window still disoriented, he saw more scavengers running about. Great, he thought, just what I need. To be captured by scavengers. [Erich! Holen Sie sich den Drachen!] [Jawohl, Sir!] Through the glass a scavenger appeared, it was wearing some white fabric on its top half, then black fabric on the bottom. It pressed some buttons then seemed to stop itself. [Heinrich! Sollten wir uns nicht ein paar Schlaftabletten oder Darts besorgen? Der Drache ist ziemlich gro?!] [Oh ja! Mach das!] The scavenger then shouted in another direction, [Du! Besorge mir eine Elefantenpistole mit Darts!] [Wozu?] [Oh, ich wei? nicht. Vielleicht der verdammte Drache!] [Na sch?n, du Arschloch!] The scavenger at the glass appeared to be sighing but it was heavily muffled, it picked some thing attached to an object on the ground, it then proceeded to push something miniscule down with its paws. [Kannst du ihm glauben? So ein Idiot!] Was a much clearer noise that seemed to be coming from inside the room. [Erschreckt dich das, Drache? Hast du Angst vor einem kleinen Lautsprecher? Keine Sorge, du gew?hnst dich daran. Und an unsere anderen Spielsachen.] Three moons, three moons! I''m in such a bad nightmare aren''t I? I need to wake up or something! What''s even happening [Sie scheinen in Panik zu sein. Wie auch immer, wo ist die verdammte Waffe!] [Hier.] [Danke.] I have to get out of here, but how? What are they going to do to me if I make an attempt? Some more tiny circles were hit by the scavenger and some high pitched, annoying noise began blaring from inside the room. The scavengers'' noises once again came into the room as some large door thing began opening on its own. The scavenger came into the room carrying one of those boom sticks, but much larger and more menacing. He was too panicked to do anything, this was never supposed to happen. He was cornered, he had nowhere to run, and he was petrified. [Dieser Pfeil wird dich treffen und du wirst einschlafen. Ganz einfach. Gute Nacht, Drache.] There was no large boom, just a little thwip and a poke. He began to feel woozy, his sight was spinning around and he was queasy. Oh why again, what in the mo- *** He had no sleep that night. Adan had to sleep on some hard ground with no padding, no pillows or blankets. There was also the fact that it rained, and his tent had a hole in it. He really got lucky getting replaced before. "Assholes in tent 8, you''re up for building Tranrams!" Holy shit, we cannot catch a fucking break for one damn second, can we? While he didn''t want to do it, he had to as it was his assigned job. Refusal was seen as "treason of the 5th degree" which was very minor, but he''d still get punished. "Come on jackasses!" Adan finally got up along with whoever else was within tent 8. It was extremely difficult as his legs still felt like they had been skinned, and kicked a million times. It hurt like hell, and the project itself was going to be hell. "You, the one that looks underfed, grab those nails and hammer when you need to." "Yes, sir!" While picking up the nails, one poked him and a drop of blood appeared. The nail that poked him was rusty, and brown. Water probably seeped through the paper box when it rained. This could mean tetanus. Another problem added to the shit pile. His comrades who were working with him already had the base laid out, he was just the unlucky hammer man. Adan found a neat little groove of wood, placed a nail, and started hammering the first nail of the Tranram.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. A Tranram was basically cover for their artillery units, something that makes stray bullets from who knows where harder to hit them. Of course, there have been no recorded cases of anybody even getting in range to hurt them, it was just a precaution. A problem however, was the fact that they''re mainly made out of wood. Occasionally, when the artillery fires it causes the wood base to crack and splinter, and wood chips sometimes shoot into the legs of the team. Adan was just the average infantryman, so he didn''t have to deal with splinter legs. But he was going to the frontline so his chance of death was much, much higher than the artillery teams. Damn it! Adan thought as the nail just split the wood in front of him. His comrades cursed him even though this wood was weak. He reluctantly, even with all of the glares, stood up and jogged to the wood pile and grabbed one that appeared the same size. "Hurry up jackass!" Yelled a man who goes by the name ''Brown''. "Oh, shut the fuck up!" Adan shouted back. "We''re here for the same bullshit! So I don''t want to hear you dumbass statements!" Brown just muttered and got back to placing wood, occasionally glancing back at Adan. This wood held up together much better and didn''t split, relieving him. He repeated the process multiple times. Just hammer nails into wood, move on, and repeat. His wrist and arms began to feel tired with each hit. Definitely not as bad as PT at least. He finished and sat down. He looked at the shoddily built structure, and sighed. He didn''t want to be here. He wanted to be back with his mom. Not out here with the same people that hated and despised him. He began hearing wheels on dirt. He turned his head towards the noise to find that artillery had already arrived. Damn, they''re fast. His thoughts whispered. Something else he noticed were soldiers jumping out of trucks. So, I have to walk over 50 miles, but these people get picked up in trucks and driven here? What else do they need? A pacifier? A stuffed bear to help their nightmares? Pathetic! Infantry units and the way the country transports them is confusing to him. They make one big group walk forever, but then they allow a cushy ride for the lucky bastards. There was nothing he could do about that. The artillery units began moving the big gun to the tranram. He didn''t know the name of said unit or the name of the artillery cannon. But if things went to shit, he sure as hell knew they''d be there. Just the size alone could crack that would. It probably won''t hold, but honestly who the hell cares? He didn''t anyway, he was just the person who ran at the enemy and hoped for the best. *** "I am getting impatient, you have to start soon!" Yelled the Emperor of Celeste, "Or I may have to do it myself!" "You have no control over me or my army, if you want to begin then fine! Do that with yours, I am not ready yet!" Responded the Khiran of Arkiel. "Well then get ready! We have been planning for months at this point!" "If I may interject, my artillery pieces are in place at 2 borders. I could fire them soon." "Finally, someone of competence!" "I need you to do the same for me." "That can be arranged." *** There has not been a message from either expedition group. Losing and not hearing from one was stressful, but no messages from 2 was worrying, considering that his brother was in one of them. The queen''s and the dragon kingdoms realized that if there could be a second continent after only believing in one, there could be a third. Volunteers were quite easy considering that dragons have a huge ego and think they can do everything. His brother Hurricane was one of those dragons which didn''t surprise him. He wasn''t worried about him getting thrown into the ocean due to his ability to breathe underwater, he was worried that he would be lost forever and die out there, or even go insane. It had been one year since the whole Pantala thing went down and that dragons finally figured out scavengers were intelligent. Not so shockingly, a lot of the dragons showed no sympathy or fake sympathy. They will say they''re sorry but in reality they''re going to completely toss it to the side and go onto other things. Dragons actually feeling bad for what they''ve done are a minority, a lot have the mentality of ''I didn''t eat them so I shouldn''t feel bad'' which is insane to him. In Sponge''s own mind he did indeed feel bad. For him it was hard not to as they were intelligent creatures that had been slaughtered for thousands of years. Growing up he had only ever seen what had been in the scrolls and that had shaped his thinking. But when he actually got to see a scavenger den for the first time after the discovery, he realized that the dragons documenting this were just being ignorant. Scrolls and teachings made him think that they were just hobbled up sticks or they stayed in caves but no, they had masonry, developed paths, shops, blacksmiths and more. What makes it worse was the only thing they got as an apology was that dragons would stop hunting them and even that was being broken. It completely made sense that anytime a peaceful dragon went to a den to show that they were peaceful they got stabbed. His brother didn''t exactly share the same opinions, he really didn''t care. Now that 1 year had flown by and his ego brought him to the mission. Sponge was deep in thought when his mother, Seaweed, swam into the room holding a small scroll. [Hey, what''s that?] Sponge flashed at his mother. [A note from Hurricane, it''s relieving to know he didn''t die.] [Thank the moons, what does it say?] [I haven''t read it yet, that''s why I came here.] [Well then, read it.] He told his mother. [Well, my group has made it to a big chunk of land. We have not explored it fully nor do we know the size. It is possible that this is a continent, or just an island. We are yet to see any dragons, however, we have seen a scavenger but there is a problem. One of my idiot companions got the thing killed and went into a panic. We walked away from it until he realized he forgot to bury it. It has been over a day since he left and he is yet to return. The rest of the group has no clue what happened as we returned to the scene after one day. He is missing, but I do not care for him. Something peculiar though was that the scavenger was in some metal box that had wheels. Nothing was pulling it but it was moving. The box is gone now, probably taken by other scavengers. I speculate that he is dead, probably rotting in a ditch somewhere. If he just took care of the body very first without leaving he would be fine. I shall write to you more at a later time.] Well, that was... something. So he was safe, which is good, but he appears to be even more arrogant and supposedly his companion has already killed a scavenger. How great. Sponge once again turned his attention to his mother, [Do we like, tell the queen that they have found something? And quite possibly pissed off some scavengers?] He asked wonderingly. [I-I don''t know. We should tell them that one member of their group is missing, or dead. We also may have to add about the scavenger incident, we would have to be quick to show that it was an accident.] Was the reply he received. [Yea, it would be a bad idea to not let them know.] His mother nodded and swam out of the room, leaving Sponge in his watery bed to think. Think about what was just read. How in the moons above did they already manage to kill the one thing that they promised not to kill or hunt a year ago? Sure, it may have been an accident, but it could''ve been avoided. Oh Hurricane, his thoughts whispered, why are you so arrogant? Chapter 4 The order could come any day now, the waiting killed him. To say Adan was bored at camp was a heavy understatement. The whole day was just filled with either building offensive guns, or defensive positions. The only downtime was filled with him sitting next to smokers-their breath smelt bad by the way, and waiting for tomorrow. Then once tomorrow actually came by some poor hours of sleep he was just exhausted. There was also no way to clean their uniforms or bathe, so everything around him smelt like a sewer. There was dirt and grime stuck to the green fabric and under his nails. Oh how he hated the feeling of dirt in his nails. The way it rubbed against the skin under the nail, how there always seemed to be more the next minute. There was also the fact that his commander was a complete asshole. He did not do one thing to contribute to their projects. Instead, he just made people hold a plank that was "slow". If Adan got his thinking about ranks correct, the commander had to help in making positions. This was one of the only things the other soldiers in his platoon actually agreed with him on, besides that they were also assholes to him. He began thinking about what the orders could quite possibly be. He knew the general idea, but the question was how would it be done? He was deep in thought when a loud takoom! Banged out and made his ears ring. Oh shit! He thought, It might actually be starting holy shit! He began running to where he knew the artillery pieces were. He ran into a guy on the way who responded by cursing his name. He turned just to see the big piece of machinery dispose of a shell and smoke was pouring out of the barrel. "So you''re the guy''s that got the order? They didn''t tell any of us infantry?" Adan asked the artillery team, "I guess so, probably a communication issue. Now, plug your ears, these things are fucking loud." He responded as another shell was fired. "They should maybe tell us next time! Damn it!" "Not my problem!" "Hayden! Get back over here to load this thing!" Called out the man''s comrade, "Alright! You can wait for that barrel to not be so damn hot you dick head!" Adan was amused by them. They didn''t know where he originated from which was a bonus as they would be nice to him and they were funny. He could tell that the insults were just jokes and that these two were friends, good friends. "Baumer! Get in the transport trucks! We''re leaving!" Yelled his commander. "We''re leaving now? Shouldn''t we wait for the artillery to fire?" He asked. "Those things can hit targets miles away, you''ll be fine!" Adan, while scared, followed the orders and leapt into the truck. The night made it practically black inside and the smell of soldiers was there. There were two little tap-taps! On the side, the truck started rolling. Adan thought one last thing in the truck. Mom, I swear I am going to be back. I won''t die or let you down. *** Thunder was still missing, so that was probably bad. Hurricane sat in the darkness with the 3 other dragons that were still here. You had Tumbleweed the Sandwing, which was a generic name. There was also Aardvark the Rainwing and Icecap the Icewing. They weren''t bad to him or annoying. Thunder was annoying, but not them. They did have a little worry for Thunder though, which was understandable but he didn''t think the same as them. "Where do you think those scavengers took him?" Asked Aardvark, "How did they even capture him?" Icecap was next to talk, "Who knows? They probably have some weird dragon taking contraption." Tumbleweed interjected, "How do we know it really was scavengers? Hurricane wasn''t actually there to see him disappear." "Listen, count how many dragons you''ve seen besides us. Give me a number. That''s right, none. Now count how many scavengers we''ve seen. Oh right, dozens." Hurricane snapped. "I swear on the moons it was scavengers." For some reason, this gave reason for Aardvark to stifle a laugh. He had no idea how anything he said in that sentence was funny. "What? What is funny?" He asked. She quieted enough to answer, "You kind of grinded into him!" "Yeah, I still fail to understand how that''s funny."This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. In the middle of their squabble Icecap once again interrupted to speak. "What would they even do with him? Dragons have rarely been killed by scavengers, even more rarely to be captured." Icecap sighed, "Who knows what they had to be able to do that." Everyone was quiet. The only noise produced was from their breathing. "They did have that weird box thing," Hurricane said, "I don''t know what it does or how it works. But it was rolling at an abnormal speed for land, and it was making quite a loud noise. When it hit Thunder I heard a loud bang, then a scavenger came out and just died." "Well, what if it was like, one of their huts?" Asked Tumbleweed. "Seriously? A hut? Do you think huts can move? He replied. "If you put it like that then n-" "It was metal, it seemed alive, unnaturally so. A scavenger was in it, controlling it somehow. I can''t explain what that loud bang was, but it made my ears ring." He groaned, "Everything here is insane." "You have that right! These fruits are tiny!" Aardvark replied to them. "You''re that worried about fruit right now? Seriously?" "I have to eat, don''t I?" "I guess you''re right." Aardvark was right though, those fruits were freakishly tiny. Small apples would be the size of a scavenger head, but these ones were smaller. A lot could fit in his talon if he picked them, multiple dozens. He would continue the conversation if it wasn''t interrupted by distant booms. They reminded him of the one from the metal box, but these sounded distant. "Anybody want to go check that out?" He asked. Everybody nodded and stood up to follow. "Alright, let''s go." The forest was dark as they walked through it, the only light coming from the torch that Tumbleweed made. As they walked the booming didn''t cease or falter. It was a consistent sound that kept going. Even after minutes of walking it never stopped. It never got louder either. It stayed the same volume even when he thought he got closer. "What do you even think it is? It sounds similar to what you described Hurricane." Tumbleweed asked. "That''s because it is," He answered. "I just don''t know if it''s the same booming, or if it came from the same thing. But it''s happening a lot more." Aardvark came from behind, "What are those lights? They''re moving!" She said. "I... don''t know. Probably just another weird scavenger invention. Moons, this place is weirder everyday." Hurricane said. The booms were coming from that direction. "Should we... go to where they''re going?" *** Destroyed. Everything was destroyed. He layed in the rubble that was once his home. Every single part of him was hurting. His clothes felt like they were sticking to his skin and there was a putrid smell coming from around. His legs were covered in bricks and wood, only leaving his torso outside of the rubble. He grunted in pain as he tried to move. Something about his legs wasn''t right in the already huge amount of things that weren''t right. He painfully lifted himself out of the destroyed home, his whole body burning as he did so. Then he looked at his legs. Oh, his fucking legs. There was a piece of metal at least a foot long lodged right through his left thigh. Blood coated the leg, the warm, red substance dripping from his body as he laid there stunned. And then there was the city. His city, Giro, was mostly rubble at this point. The only structure standing were the corners of walls that once stood there. There were fires burning, lighting up the night and burning corpses. He stood up putting more weight on his right leg, and limped through what were once streets. Something fell and made a clink sound as it hit the ground. He picked it up. A name tag. On the tag read the name Ternan. Right, my name tag. That''s what it is. I''m Ternan. He thought as he remembered right before Giro was turned into hell. What even happened? My body is so hot, my clothes are burned and fused into my skin. There are bodies I can''t even recognize. Ternan walked past a body that nearly made him throw up. Most of the face was burned away, leaving one empty eye socket showing along with the majority of the jaw. The body''s entire right arm was just gone. There wasn''t even bone sticking out from where it should be. The one eye it had left was staring up at the dark sky. It showed no emotions or indication of pain. The world felt slow to Ternan. The cries of pain, the falling of buildings, all of the noise blended together into a daze. There was another person standing a few feet away. Their pupils were completely wide. He tried choking out some words to the person but only silence followed. Ternan looked around some more to see another dead body impaled through the stomach. Someone moved to his left. "Please.. Help." Cried the person as she crawled to him. He tried helping her up until he realized those were the last words she''d ever speak. His fear was in overload. The person standing from earlier came up to him, "W-We have to find survivors. Oh man what the hell..." Ternan nodded, "Yeah, there has to be, right? If we survived surely others could''ve." He limped after the stranger. The stranger''s arm looked broken and there were multiple cuts along his body. He passed by a cloth with a red cross and yellow background. Their country''s flag. It was covered in dirt and torn everywhere, the cloth laid on the battered ground instead of waving in the air as it should be. Papers were everywhere too, ranging from enlistment to regular paperwork. Ternan and the stranger picked up survivors. Most were heavily injured. They found a man who worked at a bank who saw some lights coming their direction before his building fell. The man from the bank had a son, Ternan wanted to tell him that he''d be alright but he didn''t even believe that. Some buildings were well kept and safe from destruction. The people that came out of them went to work helping the group. Tourniquets were made for broken limbs but that was really all they could do. Most medical supplies were gone along with the hospital. The leg with the bar through it was beginning to give out on him. It was more painful than ever and there was so much blood. He couldn''t exactly take it out either as that would allow even more blood to gush out. Every step he took he could feel the thing collide with his bone and muscle causing more pain. The only thing he could hope for was that it would go numb. Who the hell would do this? We''re just a civilian population! He thought angrily at the world. Why would this happen? So many people are dead and for what reason? How did they even die? He couldn''t even think properly! He walked up onto a hill that was facing a forest looking out at the destruction. There was still a portion that wasn''t badly damaged but the part of the city facing east was obliterated. The east side. Why would it mostly be the east? If the east is what''s been destroyed, does that mean it was... He stopped his thoughts as he saw some vehicles driving into the town. There were flags on them, not the yellow and red of Gr?sen. They were red and black which could only mean one thing. Cervius. Chapter 5 To say the war department was in chaos was the understatement of the century. Last night, Giro came under heavy artillery bombardment. The majority of the east facing city was destroyed leaving many of the west facing civilians to flee. That was how they knew it had happened. Gr?sen never really was on good terms with Cervius, or the majority of the east, but they never knew that they would do this without any escalatory action from either side. The war department being in complete shambles ordered the department of propaganda to immediately take action and make more enlistment papers. Their particular favorite had the words "Han Kalinshed!" printed onto them. Han kalinshed was a part of the old Gr?se language, meaning "For Liberty!" When translated. William had already seen the effects beginning to take place. Enlistment offices were filled with volunteers on a scale they had never seen before. William couldn''t even begin to count the amount of new grey uniforms being mass produced and handed out. He saw two people who he learned loved to hunt with each other and waited from the earliest hours to get a chance. He returned to what he was doing, which was basically just racing down the halls and hoping to find the right place to go. "Not now!" He shouted at someone who asked "Coffee?" He felt the black carpet sink under his boots and the diamond patterns on the walls blur passed him. He really wasn''t running, those diamonds were just really damn small. He stopped to open a door and walk into a room. Inside was a bumbling mess known as "coworkers" wondering what they could do to resolve their predicament. Their leader, Korv, was sitting at the wooden table with his right hand to his forehead. He lifted his hand off of his face and looked at him. "Good," he said, sounding very stressed and frustrated, "we finally have everybody." William pulled out a chair and took his seat. Korv was somewhat of a legend inside of the war department. He was convincing with his words and he knew how to get things done. Korv had gotten to take the lead as "Head of External Relations" in a very quick amount of time. He showed great ways to compromise and stay on the best terms with other nations, but Cervius was an exception. "Now," he chuckled, "can somebody tell me WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!?" He yelled immediately after. Oh yeah, he could also be sort of a nutjob. "I know we weren''t on the best of terms, but they attacked us damn it! Not only that, they took us completely by surprise, they bombed some of our railroads and they have taken Giro! Our biggest producer of coal!" A women from his left opened her mouth, "We know this escalatory act-" "ESCALATORY?! YOU CALL THAT ''ESCALATORY?!'' THEY NEARLY DESTROYED AN ENTIRE CITY! THAT''S NOT FUCKING ESCALATORY! IT''S AN ATTACK!" He yelled, cutting her off. Korv slammed his fists against the table, far beyond enraged. He was sweating and was steaming red. Now that William thought about it, he had no clue why he ever thought he was likable. "Sir, maybe we could work something out?" Said a man to his right. Korv just looked at him blankly, then said a singular sentence. "I hired a team of dumbasses." William began thinking of what to say while Korve rambled on. "We can''t work things out with them, there is no hope in that. They have our most important producer of coal, they slaughtered our civilians and it looks like they''re moving artillery into Giro!" William thought of options, moving troops to secure the border was a no-brainer of course. They could strike back, shoot some artillery across the border. They could also send some of their army to take Giro back. There was a crash! And William looked up to see a chair on the floor, and an angry Korv kicking at it. William, now nervous, decided to speak up. "How about we send our army to take Giro back? Maybe bombard their position to weaken them, then we strike?" Korv stopped kicking the poor, beaten up chair and just looked at the ground. He appeared to be biting his cheek now. "Well, we should''ve thought of that earlier. Any other amazing ideas from the one functional person here?" Korv asked. "We should also send our army to other parts of our border to strengthen it, or even invade them back. They strike us, we strike back, you know?" "Good. Good ideas. I like you, you know how to think." Korv replied. William wasn''t sure if we wanted to be liked by Korv. "How do you like your coffee? Get this man some coffee! He''s earned it!" Apparently Korv could switch his mood really fast. "Just whatever has sugar I guess." He answered. "Good! Now, our meeting is declared over. I do not want to see any of you here in 30 seconds! Ready? Go! Leave! Scram!" Well, that was his que to leave. *** If he had the chance, he would use a spoon to saw his leg off. It felt like the power of 1000 suns was beating an inch away from it. He got away from Giro in the nick of time and was now in the forest. Some hours ago, he painfully managed to take the rod out of his leg, use it as a part of a tourniquet and keep moving. His leg didn''t feel broken, he just needed to stop the bleeding.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. The night was incredibly cold with the added bonus of no light coming from any of the moons. The trees and their canopy added to the darkness, leaving him almost blind. Sometimes, when walking, he could still hear the occasional artillery blast. There was nothing he could do to stop thinking of what had happened. He had lost his home, his friends, his life and his mental state. He could still hear the first impacts, they haunted him. He didn''t remember much after that considering he was knocked unconscious by the strikes. He was also incredibly hungry. He couldn''t scavenge any food from anywhere in the city before he left. Hunting would be completely useless as his leg was crippled badly enough to slow him only to a walk. He was also afraid that animals could smell the blood pressing through his cloth. The cold night was making the red liquid unbearably frigid and cold. He decided to just eat some bark off of the trees and then find some berries. He examined a brown trunk looking for any loose husk. He was successful, with some difficulty he tore a big chunk of it off. He broke it into smaller, more manageable pieces before putting one into his mouth. It tasted awful. There was grime covering it and it was hard and tough. It wasn''t even crunchy either, nor was it flexible. He wrinkled his nose at the solid matter but kept on chewing it. It kept his mouth moist and gave himself something else to focus on besides the pain in his legs. Now was the perfect time to sleep. The plan was simple-put cover himself in leaves to try and conceal himself from predators. Well, mainly any Cerviun''s that might wander into the woods. First problem, he was going to have to get the majority by picking them off of bushes. The ground bare little to no leaves for him. Fuck. So, he went and gathered leaves from bushes and low hanging branches. It was the longest and most tedious job he had ever done, but it was worth it in the end, he had constructed a small place to hide. He laid down inside his little leaf pile. The ground was cold, hard and unwelcoming but it would have to do. He thought of the day''s events with deep sadness and anger. Rightfully, he was pissed off at Cervius. He felt something, like he wanted to hurt them in a way never felt before. He wanted to do to them what they had done to him. He wanted them to suffer. His thoughts disappeared and so did his vision as he fell into the darkness of sleep. *** Crack! Crunch! Ternan sat up as quickly as possible, completely forgetting to be careful and quiet. He rubbed his dry eyes with his dirty hands and crouch-walked to the noise. Well, he tried to anyway. His leg didn''t exactly like being in a crouched position and he was forced to stand taller than he would like. He walked through the forest being careful to avoid any twigs and sticks that could snap and give him away. His heart skipped a beat when something sharp stabbed his arm. It was just a branch. He was getting closer to the crunching. The noise seemed to come in a slow rhythm, much slower than how a normal person would walk. Why the hell do they sound so heavy? He thought, there is no way even a bear could make that noise! Now he could see something moving, multiple somethings for that matter. He saw blue, then tan, then some form of bluish-white and then multiple colors on one creature. Wh-what the hell?! They were dragons. While the 8 nations had many differences, they all had the same stories of dragons. It was said that some thousands of years ago, they lived in another land. Then, the dragons that lived there banded together and pushed them off of it. Of course, everybody pointed this out as a myth and a fairytale story instead of a factual, historical event. It could also just be a lack of blood just causing hallucinations. Ah, shit! His head screamed as his leg began to flare with pain. He clawed at it with his nails which was probably the worst idea possible when it just made the pain worse. His leg began to shake and his body began to tremble. He fell forward, making quite the noise from the bushes. The "dragons" that were walking stopped to turn and look at him. Their eyes were strangely human-like, unsettlingly like humans actually. They were also not as large as described or what he thought them to be. He thought they were going to be these massive school sized creatures. But in reality, they looked to only be around nine to thirteen feet tall. They were also told there was ever just one type of dragon, but here, right in front of him stood 4 different types. They were giving him curious looks, one looked like it was feeling more cautionary. The cautioned dragon was the blue one he noticed, it had gills and what appeared to be webbed talons. Can it breathe underwater? Ternan thought. Strange. There were also stories of trying to travel and find more land, that the sailors on the wooden ships never made it back, going west or east. The multi-colored dragon began to somehow change to a yellow color that hurt his eyes. That was the one that seemed the most excited. Well, it looked like an excited creature if they even had emotions. The blue-white and tan dragons just looked surprised but also non-caring at the same time. Oh yeah, he also needed to confirm that he wasn''t having a hallucination. He painfully stood up, grunting and nearly collapsing as he did. This prompted a reaction from the rainbow one that he could just say was ''concerned.'' He looked up to see a scaly face a couple inches away from him. He jumped and gave out a little scream, not expecting that. He breathed out a sigh and looked at it straight faced. He finally lifted up a shaking hand and placed it on the face. It was physical, it was cold and it was very real. He backed away not expecting to feel anything. He wasn''t hallucinating then, these dragons were very real and dangerous if the stories were true. They didn''t exactly look like they wanted to kill him though, nor did they even look malicious. In fact, the tan one looked like it just had a hard time staying still like some children at schools. Ternan had no problem staying still simply because his leg was going numb, also the fact that he was also curious about them. Part of him told him to run, but he was so invested with them he didn''t. They were supposed to be mythical and yet, they stood in front of him. Breathing the same air, seeing the same sights and being just as real as him. They were also growling, but not in a wild animal way that sounded deranged and unintelligent. They responded to each other and he could sometimes hear them growl in the same way, like a word. Do they have a language? *** Right in front of him was a scavenger. It had lighter skin like the one in the metal box and it looked tired, like on the verge of collapse tired. It wore some dark cloth on its top and even darker cloth on the bottom. It was also wearing some strange stick thing on one of its legs with extra cloth wrapped around it. He needed to be cautious though, the last scavengers made Thunder disappear and he didn''t want the same to happen. The scavenger mainly seemed confused, like it hadn''t seen a dragon before. Actually, it probably hasn''t considering they''ve seen a huge lack of dragons too. Aardvark was vibrating with excitement, becoming a yellow rainbow that spelled death to eyesight. "Hey," he whispered, "you''re going to make my eyes melt!" Hurricane complained. She looked slightly offended, "Sorry that I get excited for seeing something new!" she whispered back. "Just tone it down a little, ok?" "Ok, fine." Looking closer again, he noticed that the cloth on the leg was red and smelled of blood. A lot of blood. The scavenger put its head down, and placed its hands on the ground. It began to lift itself up with some apparent difficulty, making pained groans. "Aww, is it okay?" Asked a concerned Aardvark. Hurricane leaned down to check, but when the scavenger looked up to see the dragon''s face so close, it jumped a little and gave out a scream that was eerily deep. They stared at each other for a good moment before it... touched his snout? It backed away right after like it was in a tiny panic. This was the strangest experience of the entire journey. It also seemed incredibly curious of them, too. If my note got to the queens, how could they explain any of this? Weird scavengers, even weirder activities... What is going on in this place? Chapter 6 Ternan was now officially traveling with the pack of dragons. Well, a more realistic statement would technically be getting kidnapped by dragons, but this he didn''t exactly mind. They proved to be nice when he was offered some piece of roasted creature. He didn''t know what it was except the fact that it was food. He wanted some sort of journal or paper to document the dragons and their travels, but that was kind of lost in the bombardment. The blue dragon seemed to keep an eye on him the most. He assumed he was supposed to be a guard or maybe he was just nervous around Ternan, he didn''t know. The rainbow overly-energetic dragon always seemed to growl in what he could call a baby voice when she was around him. Of course, it''s growls and all of the other dragons'' growls were always low, but it seemed to be more high pitched when growling at Ternan. The tan and white dragon just seemed to tolerate him. They acted like they didn''t care that he was there, except sometimes he caught them looking at him. The white dragon was freakishly cold. He noticed this whenever it got near him. There was always cold air coming off of it like it was made of ice. Its claws also looked much, much sharper than the others, which is why he tried avoiding him in sleep. Funnily enough, the tan dragon seemed to project more heat than normal. It was the only dragon he''d seen breathe any fire. Which was weird, he thought that they would all be able to do that. It also looked like it had some barb on its tail, like a scorpion. Another thing to avoid. The nights were cold if he wasn''t near the fire that the tan dragon made. Sometimes he''d wake up and find himself much closer to it than before, the heat feeling dangerously hot. Which would prompt Ternan to sleep further away from the fire. Sometimes, and he meant sometimes the tan dragon would droop a big wing over him, sharing some warmth. He always thanked it for it, but he knew it couldn''t understand him. Ternan had deciphered that the dragons were intelligent. They knew how to make a controlled fire, they knew that he needed cooked meat and their growls sounded like speaking. The growling was something he caught on to. He noticed that whenever they were "speaking" with each other, they addressed them with a word. Ternan thought that these may be their names considering how often they were said and that one dragon would respond if that growl was made. He noticed the way they had tones, too. He could tell when a growl was happy or frustrated, he even noticed some laughing noise. Hell, he even noticed the blue dragon actually writing! He caught a glimpse of the paper one day and saw an assortment of symbols that ranged from a claw to a flame. The paper itself wasn''t a book, it was a scroll that was unrolled to a great length. When the blue dragon was done writing, he would use a claw to slice that part of the paper off and stuff it in a pouch he was carrying. He saw the dragon use spacing and the symbols were arranged in various lengths, further proving his point about intelligence. One thing he didn''t like, though, was the way he got carried like a child. Yes, it was needed to stay caught up with them because his leg was still in horrible condition, but it still felt aggravating and undignified. Those were just his thoughts though, and he couldn''t really do anything to stop them so he just had to deal with it. *** G?rvan was officially now in the Gr?sen army. He was training, anyway. He had heard about the attack on Giro and he felt like he now had a duty to fight. He wanted to help his nation push out the invaders and retake what was rightfully theirs. The line to enlist was incredibly long, having a wide variety of ages from the youngest you could legally join to fellows in their mid thirties. Merkel, sadly, didn''t join. But G?rvan had already made new friends in bootcamp. There was Barry who was kind of short. He was always the main victim for short jokes among the group but he also found them funny, and even laughed sometimes. There was also a man named Gurt. He was more of the one to make jokes, mostly targeted at Barry. Something most citizens learned early in life is that the people of Gr?sen rarely actually named their children after something. It was mainly what sounded nice to the parents, like how G?rvan was named. It didn''t have a meaning, it just sounded good to the people who brought him into life. Bootcamp was a tough place to be. If you didn''t do something exactly as the drill sergeants wanted, you were sure to be punished with extra PT and especially running. The drill sergeants had earned the name ''ear crackers'' because when they screamed at you, it felt like your eardrums cracked. Bootcamp wasn''t that terrible besides that. He had the choice to be in the navy, army, or the newest branch called the air corp. Somewhat 5 years ago, a man figured out how to build a flying machine and everywhere around the world, the nations jumped at the opportunity to get a new branch of military. They were pretty fast, too. They would fly from somewhere between 90-110 miles per hour, shattering the speed of their cars. The main purpose of them was to scout out an area and be in a less dangerous position when doing so.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. They have never actually been used yet, but Cervius has given them the perfect reason to. Speaking of flying, the house of sciences has forbidden the mentioning of dragons to the public. He technically already did in that bar, but he was pretty sure everybody else was either too drunk to actually remember anything or they all thought he was crazy. Only he and Merkel knew. And technically the entire science division and the president. G?rvan now had an official resentment of dragons. He hated them. Just the fact that he found them was bad, but put the stories along with it and it was terrible. Since dragons existed, that means that they did try to wipe humanity off of the face of the earth. They wanted to rid humans and eat them, and he couldn''t even think of why they would. He did the right thing by shooting those oversized lizards, he was protecting Gr?sen and the rest of Corvus by doing so. Well, he wouldn''t mind if they ate a couple Cerviun''s but his point still stood. He didn''t want Corvus to become the next place they try to get rid of humans. A rather interesting (and less horrifying) part about the existence of dragons was that this could mean that they actually did live in another land, far away across the ocean. From where, though, was the mystery. "Alright you shit asses! Get up!" Yelled an ear cracker. Time for more training, I guess. He thought, reluctantly standing up. *** The dirt and gravel rumbled beneath the machinery he was currently riding in. He, out of many, was doing something of great importance. Fighting back the invaders. In a farewell speech he was told that they would come home to praise and rewards, which isn''t why he joined but that was a bonus. Kurt joined far before the invasion even began. It was his childhood dream to become a soldier, to earn the respect of his elders and family. He was within a group of 15 others packed into the vehicle, moving towards their destination. He didn''t know them well, except the fact that he was going to be fighting with them. The grey uniforms were blended together in the darkness of the vehicle, a dark fabric covering the back of the rumbling machine, casting a dark shadow on the inside. He didn''t know what was going to happen, he was thinking fighting would be an honor and some glorious thing, but his stomach was tied in a knot. He was thinking now that he could actually die. He was thinking about this when suddenly a crack! Rang out and he and everybody else was thrown around like they were spinning. The spinning stopped and someone kicked the door open and ran out. "Go! Get out and go!" Kurt was confused but jumped out anyway. The truck had curved off of the path and was on the side of the road. In less than a mile, he saw Giro. The other trucks following in line stopped and let their troops out. Everything was silent. Everybody was still, nobody moved. He didn''t realize how fast he was breathing until he got control of himself. Someone quickly, but carefully, walked to the door of the driver''s side. The comrade opened the door, only to be greeted by a limp body and a slumped head. The driver had been shot. When his comrade began backing away, there was another crack! And his head snapped back violently and his body was thrown to the ground. He froze, then a hand grabbed his shoulder and a voice shouted "Get your ass to cover!" Adrenaline took over, he sprinted towards the nearest tree and got behind it. Where, where, where!? His panicked thoughts shouted in his mind. With his back against the brown bark, he looked at his fellow soldiers. They were behind cover. Nobody had any idea who shot them or where it came from. Somebody decided to peak their head above a rock and another crack! Was heard. He wasn''t hit, but the shot hit his rock from the east. Nobody even tried to see where their hidden foe was, they just began firing in the general direction. The air was filled with rifle fire, making his ears ring. The loud bangs and cracks became quieter as the ringing took over. Kurt joined in the rifle fire and shot his own gun. The kick-back not being as strong as his adrenaline gave him more strength. When their clips ran out of ammo, everything was silent. Only his ringing ears were audible to him. Nobody spoke, nobody moved. And nobody returned fire. I-Is he dead? Did we kill him? Or is he just moving positions? His heart was pounding, the beating if it battling the ringing for the superior noise. He looked at the black helmets scattered around on everyone''s heads, nobody else had fallen to their foe. Not yet. They all moved out from their cover and moved towards where their shots traveled after they reloaded. They found their victim with their brown uniform covered in blood. The man himself was covered in holes, each of them leaking blood into the dirt, pouring his life out in front of him. Kurt shivered at the sight. In the corner of his eye, he saw mortar teams scrambling to get the tubes and mortars out of their vehicles. They were working fast to assemble the metal things and prepare. The heavier artillery pieces that had to be dragged behind trucks were just now arriving. They had to drive slower so an accident didn''t happen with the machinery. They were lucky. Kurt wasn''t sure how he was feeling. He just watched somebody die in front of him. It happened so easily too. One shot was all it took, and the man died. That could happen to him if he was unlucky enough to be picked. The mortar teams were ready to begin, but they waited for the bigger artillery teams to set up. Artillery took much longer to set up than the mortars, needing multiple people to handle the main components. Kurt sat down on the ground trying to process the events. He knew that they had to get into Giro today. Waiting wasn''t an option, they couldn''t hesitate. He closed his eyes. ¡ª "Hey! Get your ass up! We''re going now!" His eyes shot open and he stood up like his life depended on it. Night had almost fallen, multiple artillery units were standing and ready to fire. He had fallen asleep. "Oh. Uhh, yes, sir! I will umm do that. Right now." The man muttered something along the lines of "Follow everybody else." and he obeyed orders. After walking for around ten minutes, he heard loud shots and booms coming from behind him. Bright tracer rounds lit up the night sky as they traveled at an alarming speed towards the city. Several more shots followed in quick succession, streaking towards the coal town. He knew what was going to happen to the already broken civilians, but it had to be done. Right? *** Hurricane and the others could hear the booms again. This time, the light that came from the booms, well, technically before since light traveled faster, was traveling in a different direction than before. They were closer than before they started walking towards the original ones. The scavenger heard these and... got behind a tree? His breathing quickened and he was visibly shaking. Aardvark walked up to and spoke to him like he was a baby dragonet. "What''s wrong little scavenger? Are you scared of the lights? Is the noise frightening? It''s okay, you''ll be okay." Whenever she did that it didn''t really sit well with Hurricane. Sure, he was more cautious around scavengers now, but whenever he spoke to him he never, never spoke like it was a newly hatched dragon. The scavenger seemed to be an adult, if he was it, he wouldn''t put up with it. "We should keep going, we need to find out what those are." Hurricane said. "Do we?" Questioned Aardvark. "I mean, he seems pretty scared of them." She said. "I''m sure he''ll be fine." Hurricane replied. Hurricane grabbed the scavenger which was still shaking. He had a look on its face like it had seen something terrible, like if a dragonet got dragged away by sharks. What in the.. He thought. Nevermind, we should go. He got the group to start following him, towards the booming and lights. The scavenger noticed this and for the first time, he heard him speak. [Nein! Nein! Bitte nein! Ehh Krieg!] Hurricane stared at the creature. He didn''t make the same noises or speak the same things as the scavengers on Pyrrhia. It wasn''t squeaky or high pitched. It was eerily similar to the deep growls of the dragon language. Is it saying no? Why? He thought. [Artillerie Feuer! An Giro. Eine stadt!] He shouted at him more. It had never acted like this before, which was a little worrying and planted seeds of doubt into his brain. Why does he not want us to go over there?