Wyvernlands
“Open the gates, Cyvessa’s returned!” A hybrid atop the gates shouted.
The portcullis groaned and creaked, sliding up slowly. A pair of hybrids continued to reel back the ropes until it was fully open. Cyvessa walked through, rubbing at the dark circles under her eyelids. Once leaving the shaded tunnel, she faced groups of her kind, cheering for her return. Many had semi-scaly skin and a general array of colors. They were a far cry from Cyvessa’s blue twisting horns and gleaming runes. The cheering of the hybrids wasn’t deafening to her—instead, she found it rather quiet in her head, their cheers being reduced to muffled noise as she walked through.
“Is she okay?” One asked.
“I'm unable to tell. She remains so stoic all the time.” Another added.
“At least she’s come back. I heard it was a nasty fight beyond the walls. The thal’kin care for nothing if it’s not conquering our lands.” One more added.
Cyvessa navigated through the passages, walking past stalls filled with fresh fruit and food.
“Don’t you want anything, Cyvessa? You look like you could use a nice hot meal!” A stall owner said.
“No, thank you. Save it for the children and citizens. They need it more than I do.” She replied.
Among the busied passages, and above the dark walls, was a gray sky-reaching tower of brick with a pointed spire, looming over the town. Cyvessa neared the entrance of two giant, decaying double doors. Coated all over the doors were runes. They were closer together, harder to read, and embedded in the doors like scars. Standing close to the wall of runes felt like lamenting heat instead of an otherworldly light.
“O’veishkar!” She shouted at the doors.
The runes responded to her words, each one turning blue and scattering across the doors with light, then slowly creaking open. She entered the tower. Lining the walls were bookshelves, and the wooden floorboards had cracks in them. The interior walls were aged, with thick grime coating between the cracks. A large table was in the center of the room with a plethora of chairs. Cyvessa sat, removing her longsword from her hip, placing it on the table. She reached her hands up, undoing her bun. Her dark hair and sky-blue strands flowed down her back. Cyvessa rubbed her eyelids, then flipped her hair back. A sigh left before she put her head down on the table, her body still.
The double doors were pried open once again.
“Cyvessa!” A hybrid shouted.
She didn’t respond, but raised her head to look at the hybrid.
“Yes?” She said.
“E’iru, he smelled the blood and has woken!” The hybrid said.
“What!” Her eyes snapped open, and she stood.
“He’s furious! You must go now!” They added.
Cyvessa grabbed her sword and rushed out of the tower with the other hybrid. E’iru blitzed over with massive wings that were hundreds of meters long, ferocious eyes of red, dark-padded scales, and roaring grumbles that reverberated through the skies.
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E’iru’s jaw cracked open wide, unleashing a violent scream, sending winds of chaos throughout the lands to announce its bloodlust. Tremors erupted, the ash-colored grass swaying in the wind, and the slowly rotting corpses of fallen hybrids being covered up by their brethren. E’iru began its descent to the battlefield, landing with a monumental thump on the grounds, blasting winds in its arrival. His red-slitted eyes raked over the hybrids trying to recover the corpses, but his presence made breathing feel wrong.
E’iru looked towards the sky, then unleashed a deafening roar. The hybrids covered their ears, backing away from him. Scorching hot flames charged from within its body before it blasted a beam of inferno down at the hybrids.
“No, E’iru, these are your kin! Tzhal’kin A ei’thal!” Cyvessa stood in front with her palm out, creating a blockage of ice to defend against the blast.
E’iru snarled, but even that sounded like a roar in itself.
“Go back to town. I will handle this.” She said to the hybrids.
The hybrids ran in flocks towards the town, but E’iru crouched, leaping into the air and spreading his wings, shooting down flames from above. The hybrids yelled, watching the flames rush down on them.
“Calm yourself, E’iru!” She caught up to the flock, swiftly throwing a hand up, creating a sloping wall of ice.
The ice was quickly melting against the raging inferno. Cyvessa dragged a nail against the back of her palm, drawing blood.
“Great mother of the star, I offer you my blood to protect my kin’s lives!” Cyvessa chanted.
A translucent barrier of mana formed around the flock of hybrids.
“Stay together, and don’t worry about E’iru, you’re all protected!” She shouted.
E’iru used one of his front legs to swat at her. His swipe was backed by the winds, a ferocious pressure launching towards her. Cyvessa leaped over his swipe, creating a javelin of ice and launching it towards E’iru’s other leg. The javelin shattered against his dark-padded scales, then exploded into a quick, spreading flash freeze. E’iru’s right leg was covered in ice.
Cyvessa landed from the jump, hand in the grass, while deeply exhaling. She was close enough to be eye-to-eye with E’iru.
“I know, E’iru! You’re upset, I’m upset, Enne’s upset! But you can’t rampage through their nations. I know how much of our blood has been shed in these lands, but we can’t prove them right! We can’t let them say they were right about us all along! We are great beings, and we are above what the thal’kin think of us!” She said.
E’iru grumbled in response. She felt his answer deep in her soul.
Cyvessa grins, her eyes softening.
“I miss her too, E’iru.” She reached out her hand.
E’iru lowered its head, sniffing her. He whined, then turned away, chuffing, sitting in a loaf like a cat would. Cyvessa let out a long sigh, flipping her hair back and sitting in the grass with him, gently running both hands along his lower chin. She felt the infernal air blowing out from his nostrils, its slitted eyes slowly shutting.
For minutes, she sat with E’iru until his breathing slowed, and then eventually he fell back into deep slumber.