Time passes. Night falls. Strange sounds come from the rocks as worms wriggle their way from their hiding holes, sensing the free meal. They move forward to the irlgaunt, sucking at the spilled flesh. Cleaning away what has happened as the desert is so good at doing. They eat everything, in time. Bone, metal, armor, clothes, acid... nothing is left. Like nothing ever transpired... a clean, sterile slate.
Atriox... you feel no pain. No aches in your body. There's almost a light, bright and distant at the edges of your vision. Shimmering colors dance, but faintly. So faintly. You want to sleep. To close your eyes... but they are already closed.
A gentle, deep, resonant voice pricks your mind. It says your name. Is that your name? It says it again.
"Atriox..."
It vibrates low in your body, in your soul, the first sensation you feel. That you ever felt.
It says your name again.
The pulsing colors grow. Beautifully. Calmly. Gently like the voice. Disembodied as it is, it is the most comforting thing you've ever felt. It overwhelms you, floods every scale and nerve with peace.
"One of my faithful..." Its breath is like a sigh. Somber and rich as the changing seasons. As life and death.
You feel your muscles twitch and move, though you float in this unknown space. Your mouth can suddenly part, as pleasing as it must have felt with the first breath you took from your hatchling egg.
Atriox baths in the multitude of feelings and thoughts going through him right now. He asks himself if he's dead or not and if so where is he ?
After the being says finishes talking to him Atriox is suddenly flooded with realization......the bright colors, the powerful presence, they make Atriox remember the stories he heard as a kid from his father and tutors
Tears roll down his cheeks as he trys to speak
"It's impossible.......Io......is that you.......Allfather ?"
You don't hear a response in your ears as much as you feel a burning in your chest, something bright and warm like the sun. A confirmation of your question. A resounding yes.
"Without darkness... there is no light." The words make your body vibrate as they speak. The light around you grows brighter.
But you feel, in the pit of your stomach... a knot. Looking down you see a glowing orb of darkness, like a dark stone. Lusterless. Absorbing the light. Around it is a red haze of vampiric energy... separate from it, but encircling it.
"Without trials..." Sounds and smells of war permeate your vision like ghosts. The smell of your home burning. The screams of your people. Your tears disturb the vision like stones thrown in water, erasing them. "...There can be no peace."
"Without sense of pain..." it whispers, "there is no sense of pleasure."
Your nerves begin to react, spreading through your body like needles. All the pain from your battle, your fall, your expended energy. The memories come back with every ounce of pain growing. It's almost too much to bear, but the light pulses and and it eases just slightly.
Atriox gasps from the experience and bows his head
" I am unworthy to be in your presence, to hear your words Allfather.........ask anything of me.....I am your servant. Now and always."
All the lights and colors swirl around you.... It is almost blinding. You can barely perceive it from behind your eyelids, but it begins to make up the faint shape of a great dragon's head.
"Live..." The voice begins to fade. "Live... and..."
You watch its mouth move as the pain overtakes you, but you can't make out the last two words... its too far now. It dissipates. You're sinking down below the colors, below the light. Down...
Down...
Down........
.....
Voices, singing, begin to break through the fog. You find it extremely difficult to move your body. Everything aches. All is darkness and flickering fire beyond your eyelids.
Peering out is painful. You see dark sky above you, splattered with stars in almost every inch of inky blackness. It reminds you of the light from your dream....
Shadows shoot across you, across the ground, cast from the bright, crackling fire.They flicker like dancing imps against the rocks and wagons surrounding you. Dangerous, excited, elated. You watch the creatures, difficult to make out against the bright light. Their song rings in your ears like chimes in the wind.
Twenty gnolls stood together gathered in a field.
A mighty fighter saw us there and dropped his magic shield!
A brilliant long sword in each hand, Plate mail shiny bright,
He confronted all the gnolls thinking slaughter, not a fight.
They all bark loudly as they continue in their rough, wild song.
This fighter is an impressive sight, some gnolls think to flee,
But the chief, in commanding tone, barks, "Gnolls, follow me!”
And so our score of gnolls charge towards our fearsome foe,
The fighter calculates his odds, and waits our blood to sow.
The fighter is certain of success, 'neath blade they all shall die.
But in an instant we are upon him, he goes down beneath the tide!
And thus the melee continues on until the fighter fell.
His mail still shining brightly, his swords still sharp as hell.
The dust did clear, all were well, a few nursed knicks and scrapes.
And in the end, we had a feast, With the fighter on our plates!
They cackle and gicker, laughing and cajoling with one another. They tumble and spin and dance again, the sing going on and on. It makes you dizzy.
Atriox groans and try's to sit up but barely even manages to lift his head before passing back out
****
You wake sometime later, a strange liquid being poured into your mouth. It soothes your burning throat. You didn't realize how thirsty you were until that moment, but the nourishment it gives you feels lacking... your body aches and craves fresh blood as it always tends to.
Your eyes focus and you see a furry faced creature quite like a feral dog staring down at you. Tan and speckled with dark spots, it grins a wide, toothy smile. Gold rings pierce its ears in several places and accent its golden eyes.
"You wake!" His voice is gravely but friendly.
"It wake! It wake!" Voices echo around you, hysterically laughing and bouncing about. Growling and yelping can be heard as a few other scrawnier ones tumble about, rough housing and biting one another.
Atriox groans at all the noise and trys to sit up so he can see whats going on
You find yourself surrounded by a small pack of wolf-like beasts, apparently called gnolls. Dressed in rather light and airy garb for comfort in the desert, they are rowdy and obnoxious as much as they are fierce looking.
The one who was watching over you steps back, eyeing you as you sit up. "You feeling better now? Mostly dead you were."
He sits, scratching the side of his face and under his chin with a clawed hand. "Saw the flame on the mountain. By time we got to you it was night, sure you not survive much longer otherwise. You had very little treasure in your pockets."
You find this statement odd and can't help but look yourself over. Your clothes have all been removed, replaced with clean, fresh linen. The coarse material isn't so much an issue except for the fact that none of your items are on your person.
You spot a few gnolls near a cart gawking at a basket full of things. One picks up what you instantly recognize as the map Etny gave you. The other picks up the scorched platinum from Tak.
Atriox trys to focus on the creature who is talking to him
"Well I don't feel dead. So I suppose that is a plus..........Say who are you if you don't mind me asking and may I have my things back ?"
"Irok," he says, thumping his chest. "Irok Claynose."
"You not dead 'cause we got these out." He picks up a bowl beside you full of sharp brittle rock, covered in bile, acid and your own blood.
You realize there are quite a few little tools scattered about, as well as your old bloody clothes.
"As for things.... Hmmmm...." he glances at the others, snickering and guffawing at one another.
One with a black muzzle has your bag on his head like the crown of a king, acting puffed up and proud. The other, a gnoll with a pale cream muzzle, howls with laughter and punches him in the stomach.
Atriox decides to ignore his belongings.....for now
He looks at the one he's talking to
"Irok did you say ? Well you and your people have my thanks. Indeed I was sure as I fell that was the end."
He chuckles quite like the others. "We thought so too, honestly. Saw the fire from a distance."
You realize they likely meant to scavenge you, but chose otherwise. "Irlgaunts.. horrid things.... Rocks digest you from the inside." He motions to the shards.
"And that fall... You must have had wings to survive, friend."
Atriox chuckles at that
"Something like that I suppose. Well whatever your intentions you have my thanks. So where do we go from here ? You seem freinds but what are your intentions if I may ask ?"
"Well..."
"Can we eat him now dad?!"
The two gnolls playing with your gear gicker excitedly. Irok rolls his eyes.
"That.... Was the original plan. To be completely honest." He shrugs and laughs.
"It's better to not pretend otherwise. But..." he tilts his head, the rings in his ears clinking together. "My daughter and brother thought you might be of some use to us... We have a problem."
Atriox turns his head to the side curiously
"I appreciate your honesty. We're both survivors I think. What is this problem exactly?"
He nods. "We came across a treasure... Near the base of the cliffs."
He points off in the distance, and you see they've brought you a few miles from where you fell.
"At least... Pieces." He scratches his cheek again, pulling out a few pieces of gold to show you. They are tarnished and sand blasted, but definitely ancient.
"We scavenge and sell in towns when need be. These help. But, if we try to go further in..."
"BOOM!"
The dad jumps as one of his sons lands next to you both, laughing his head off at startling him. His brother keels over laughing, falling from the wagon into the sand.
"Yes, well..." he kicks the boy with his foot and he just rolls away, laughing. "It's guarded apparently. My daughter and brother thought perhaps a dragonborn would help. So I did my best to assist."
There's a small cloud of sand spraying up in the distance and the two brothers yip and hop up in excitement. They rush off, transitioning between running on two feet to sprinting on all fours.
In moments you see two other gnolls making their way to meet you. They cojole with the boys for a moment and continue on, slowing back down to two feet as they near you.
"Pa, it's done." A leaner more mature looking female tosses a tarp at your feet, wrapped around a bundle of severed spiderlike legs--remains of the irlgaunt.
She smirks showing cruel teeth, her gold eyes flashing between you both. You see she sports gold rings around her arms and neck, a silvery back... And she has your glaive slung around her.... Broken and shorter than it used to be. It seems to fit her size though, all of the gnolls being quite a bit smaller than you.
Beside her is a bulkier gnoll, mostly black with streaks of gray. His crippled right hand rests on the hilt of a sword at his side, his left sporting dark claws both natural and metal alike.
"You are awake." The older fellow snorts. "Good, good."
Atriox looks at them all
"Your all very interesting if I might say so. I've never been to the desert so I'm lacking in knowledge of the area."
He looks at the newly arrived female and smiles
"I see your putting my glaive to good use. It appears to be somewhere shorter than I remember."
She snickers, pulling it down and swinging it around. "Seems like a fine size to me." Her tail wags a little in pride. The uncle clears his throat.
"We appreciate you taking down the irlgaunt... it's been plaguing that area recently and to be honest, we couldn't take it on ourselves. Its death came as a pleasant surprise."
The female sits by the wagon, stretching. "Now we just need to take on the beastly dragon, and we can see what it's guarding." She looks excited to go, glancing at Atriox. The two brothers have taken to sword fighting with the spider-like legs in the background.
Atrioxs scratches his chin
"Hmmmm dragon you say ? Well there's definitely treasure. I wonder if perhaps it's the same that I came looking for with my map."
"Map?" They say the word together, all looking at you.
The uncle goes over to the wagon. He finds the parchment discarded on the ground where the brothers dropped it. "Ah... How interesting."
He studies it as he walks back. "This is an old trail... Not anywhere close to where we found you, but..."
"Well even if it is, we found it first..." The female grumbles, picking her teeth with her claws. She is small but definitely looks dangerous in her own right.
Atriox laughs loudly
"Indeed you did though you had the advantage of knowing the area plus I was busy fighting a monster on my own. But before we get to hostilities lets be introduced first shall we ? I'm Prince Atriox of Arkhosia."
They all stare at you for a moment, before looking at each other and breaking out into a course of cackling laughter.
"Ahaha...! Well as you know I'm Irok Claynose. King, I suppose, of the Silvertail Pack." He smiles wide, wiping a tear from his eye. His boys fall over in a fit of giggles.
"This is my brother, Rark Deadclaw. Um... Duke." The more stern looking fellow nods with a snaggletoothed smirk.
The female pipes up. "I'm Kiz Bloodfoot... Those idiots are Gyzz and Gazz, my younger brothers."
"Princes!" The boys salute like play soldiers, but you can tell they're muscular, fast, and trained hunters. She groans and sinks against the cart.
Irok laughs. "My mate, Lurth, is foraging off with our youngest, Tut. Eight of us in all."
Atriox looks confused as to whats so funny
"I'm sorry please forgive my.......ignorance, but what's so funny ? And I figured you were the cheif"
Atriox gestures to the leader as he rises to stretch his sore body
"Life." He raises his paws, shrugging. "Life itself is funny. And then we die." The others laugh in a strange mirthful way.
"Also," he pauses, scratching his ear, "You are funny."
The uncle snorts. "Why would a prince be out on his own? Alone? Rock climbing, treasure hunting, sailing and splunking..."
Irok chuckles deeply and without guile. "You sound more like a pirate than a prince."
"As much as anyone is a prince or pauper..." The female shrugs, sharpening your old glaive.
The boys come over, playing with your horns and tail. "And lords we know are vile and vicious! No one likes them!"
"Shush, pups." Their dad waves his paw at them. "Yes, we are not pleased with rulers here, but you live longer with your traps shut than yammering on like that."
Atriox grunts and playfully growls to get the kids of him. He shoots some steam out of his nostrils at one
"Well ol cheif you have some good points except I'm not alone. I fought the monster alone to give my troops time to get away as they probably would have just died trying to fight that monster."
Atriox stretches his arms upward and then bends downward testing his mobility
"I am a Prince. But not like the kind your used to. I have an army to back it up and once we retake my castle it'll be done."
You feel a twinge in your gut where your wounds are still tender, but overall your body just feels sore and stiff as a board. A night in even a half-decent bed sounds heavenly.
The others look around at one another, no longer laughing. "I see," Irok looks thoughtful. "I assume your castle is not here? You said Arkoshia... Across the sea, correct?"
The female, Kiz, shrugs. "Prince or not, we just need you to come with us. We saved you, you repay us. That's fair is it not?"
The uncle pets her on the head, making her grumble. "We cannot face these... dragons, or whatever they are, on our own. We have tried. Perhaps we can come to some.... agreement. If there is indeed a treasure inside."
Kiz gickers. "Like not kill him?" Rark pushes her head down, growling at her. "No. We might be barbaric but we're not orcs."
"Thoughts?" Irok tilts his head, looking at you curiously.
Atriox thinks on it
"Fine I'll help you with the "dragons". As your daughter so......bluntly ....put it I owe you. After that we will see about an agreement."
Atriox winces as he turns a wrong way. He looks at them carefully
"I have a specific......diet...and I need healing and strength for whats to come. Do any of you have.......blood to offer ? Or is there something I can hunt ?"
Uncle Rark stiffens at that. "Are you a vampire?"
Atriox looks at the uncle carefully before flashing his red eyes by way of reply
"Dammit." He sighs, pulling out his sword and approaching with intent to kill.
"I really thought this would work out. Maybe the dragons will still like your head."
The others startle at this, scrambling back in surprise.
He stops in front of you, sword extended to your neck.
His smile grows.
Then he laughs loudly.
"Hahahaha.... Your face!! Priceless..."
The others laugh. He swings his sword around in a flourish. Obciously his humor is drier and darker than the others.
"As long as you don't eat us I have no qualm." Rark's smile remains but you easily see his eyes are cold steel. He is definitely serious.
He then slices his right arm open, blood squirting out. He nonchalantly walks over to the cart, licks his sword clean, and plops bis arm atop a makeshift hammered pot.
"Can't feel it." He smiles, squeezing it and making it squirt out like a hose at the boys. They roll on the sand laughing.
Atriox looks at him with an intense stare as his eyes grow red
"That was a dangerous game you played. Very dangerous."
"Life is funny like that." He repeats after his brother. He carries over the dish and hands it to you.
The blood is hot and gamey, and just a little sandy.
Atriox almost doesn’t want to but he knows he must do it anyway so he just simply says
“Bottoms up”
And then proceeds to chug the blood
"That's the spirit," he chuckles and claps you hard on the back. It almost makes you choke.
"You're quite a unique fellow, Prince Atriox..." Irok strokes his chin. The dawn starts creeping over the horizon like a watchful eye and he glances at it.
"Well... If that invigorates well enough, we could go into town... Sell off some of this scrap, get you some gear. Go after dragons." He smirks. "What say you?"
Atriox feels the blood sink in and invigorate him. Once the feeling passes he looks at them with a raised eyebrow
“What are you calling junk ?”
"Not junk," he chuckles. "Scrap." The chief walks over to the cart with a grunt, holding up your mashed armor plating.
"We've also scavenged several raids east of here. Orcs leave as much as they take." He knocks around other metallic items in the back half heartedly.
Atriox grunts
“Fine buts first I want my property back. The coin, the rings, my bag.”
Atriox holds out an expectant hand
Irok shrugs. "Fine with me. Boys?"
The two groan and whine, dragging over the items and dumping them near you. "I gueeeeeeess...." the dark nosed one grudgingly drops the platinum back in your hand.
Looking through your gear you find it all there, though a bit more worn and dirty than before.
Atriox grunts In amusement as he wasn’t really asking but he’s glad he has everything back
“Well then shall we be off ?”
They all yip in agreement. Repacking your bag, you follow their little wagon and cart off to the south. Along the way some of them begin singing other strange songs, always with a sort of morbid twist.
After an hour or so you crest a road and see a shimmering blue light in the distance. Kiz, helping pull the cart, motions at it as you walk nearby.
"The City of Whistling Glass. There used to be Thri-Keen tunnels there, insect beasts. Legend has it a blue dragon electrified their lair for offending her." She smirks, shrugging.
"When she dragged out the remains, it looked like limbs of a great glass tree. The town now sits in its "shade"... my mother and brother are likely there already working. And my grandpa..." She chuckles. You realize Irok didn't mention his name yet.
Atriox chuckles
“This place just gets more and more intriguing. How do you like living here Kiz ?”
"Living here... Strange concept." She sniffs the air, likely picking up the smells of the cooking carts further ahead.
"We roam. Always have, always will. Our pack is our home... We've been many places in the Komodori already. Friendly areas are harder and harder to find, which is... unfortunate."
Atriox nods his head looking around and thinking
“What little I do know of it sounds very......chaotic to say the least. I’m very close to someone from here but she doesn’t talk much about it.”
"Oh?" Kiz raises an eyebrow. "It is a strange place... It changes. The sands move as much as we do."
She grunts, adjusting the cart behind her. "Is this friend of yours a gnoll like us?"
Atriox smiles and shakes his head
“Unfortunately no. She doesn’t have near a good enough sense of humor to be one of you. You are the first of your kind I’ve ever met. My friend is an orc.”
Kiz almost trips but catches herself again. She looks at you like you're crazy.
"I see... It's interesting here with the orcs. The clans have been at war for centuries." Her silvery tail swishes back and forth as she thinks. "Now with the mages, which doesn't change much. Small towns don't typically have a chance with raids. Orcs here are fierce and unforgiving."
Atriox just simply looks ahead and says
“So is life. We must all find our way amidst the chaos.”
The gnoll smirks at you. "That's sensible thinking coming from someone so highly born. Chaos breeds courage as they say."
You hear a strange sound in the air which only becomes more noticeable as you come closer. As the desert breeze reaches the glass trunk, it makes a dull, magical whistle. Its both melodic and haunting, and makes your soul ache.
Townspeople hang strange orb lanterns all over the branches, wherever reflected light from the sun shines in. Each lantern seems to be holding the light inside small batteries.
Atriox try’s to focus on answering her
“I may have been born high......but I lost everything when I was just a cub. I have survived because of my own strength and hard work. I understand you and your kin more than you think. Only recently have I achieved the means to even think about ascending again.....”
Atriox trails off as he looks around
Kiz looks thoughtful at those words. You approach works and she is more... quiet than usual.
Around the base of the tree you find stalls of various colors and shapes, including an area where street performers practice. A gnoll with light speckled hide and rather filled-in physique dances merrily about.
Playing small, clicking instruments that jangle with bracelets on her wrists and ankles, she is more than enveloped in a song. A small pup circles nearby, bearing puppy eyes at passers by who drop coin into a small bucket.
Atriox grunts and points
“I assume that is your mother and youngest brother then ?”
Kiz grins. "It is. And there's grandfather Zan" He sits nearby looking old and grizzled with gray all through his fur. Partially deaf and blind, he jangles a jar full of bones in one hand.
"He works as a seer in the town. Some believe, some don't. It comes down to who is willing to pay."
Atriox watches the mom dance a little bit and looks at the grandfather
“Curiouser and curiouser. But it’s a smart way to make some money I suppose. So now what ?”
"The show starts." She snickers.
As the carts come in and park next to mother, the brothers leap in among the bits and bobs, popping back out in ridiculous outfits and armor scrap. One looks a mismash of orcish war gear, splattered with paint or blood. The other, in some strange mage attire; perhaps something akin to the assistants aboard the Mage Guard's ship when they visited Dragonshore.
They begin to act out a silly mock battle; quite the performers it's easy to see. It's incredibly over the top, but brings the crowds around roaring with laughter. This town is definitely one of the more neutral ones, or at least, the normal citizens don't care for the war much at all.
Kiz just shrugs, twirling your glaive about. She snickers, patting the handle. "I take after my mother. This will come in handy." Pointing toward the others she says, "Go with my pa and uncle, they will find you what you need. They know the right places to go."
Irok smiles a toothy grin and gestures for you to follow him. He carries a large bundle on his back, as does Rark.
It feels surreal traveling with these small gnolls through the middle of this bustling market, hearing languages you've never heard before, smells and sounds you've never experienced, beneath the arms of a brilliant glass tree... Colors flash all across the ground in ribbons of light reminding you of your dream.
You follow them for some time, stopping at places along the way. Most stalls are just rugs on the ground, tarps pinned up above them to protect from the bright lights. Irok and Rark sell off scrap metal. The only parts of your armor that were really salvageable were few, but did include the skull bones of Tyranus.
Irok handles most of the talking, a strange form of common you're not familiar with. Rark sells off the large irlgaunt legs and carapace, along with several pints of liquid acid from it. It looks like they salvaged everything that the worms did not eat.
After a bit, Irok approaches you with a bundle of red fabric. He's grinning ear to ear.
"Atriox," he gestures for you to bend down. "Armor here is hard to come by. At least like what you had... but, no need you getting burned out in the sun."
He loops the fabric around your neck and over your shoulders, some type of desert tunic. It's a brilliant, rich crimson red made of very fine material. A lighter piece hangs over your head and down your back like a hood, trimmed with gold thread.
"Irlgaunts aren't common... and worth a good coin." Rark grunts. He thrusts a weapon into your hand, a large, steel blade that widens and curves at the end. Down the flat edge are decorative rings of brass that match the handle and crossguard; it's a beautiful piece, and deadly sharp.
"Fair is fair. You killed it. You get the coin's worth out of it." He gives you a look as if reminding you of the strange altercation earlier about your vampirism. Then he smirks.
Atriox grunts handling his new weapon with care testing the balance
“Time and time again you and your family keep surprising me. Your all decent folk and I appreciate that. After this is done we’ll see where fate leaves us all.”
Atriox steps back and gives his sword a few practice swings
"Surprises are what we're good at." Irok nudges his older brother who just rolls his eyes.
You're almost certain Rark got you a sword because that's what he was familiar with. But the sword feels fantastic in your hands. It's interesting wielding such a different kind of weapon; your glaive served you for quite a long time.
You head back over to the others, spotting Kiz expertly spinning your weapon around her in almost dangerous ways. She moves so quickly it's hard to follow sometimes. The brothers take bows from their cart, quite a sum of money earned from their ridiculous behavior.
As you walk by the seer Zan he reaches out and pulls at your new cloth, urging you to slow your pace. Looking up at you with rather dull, blind eyes he smiles.
"Care for a look into the future?" His voice is raspy but calming. Irok shakes his head and continues onward to the others, paying him no mind.
Atriox looks at him before nodding in respect
“Hello old one. And why would I do that when the future is constantly in motion ? Anything you tell me could easily change. No offense against your abilities meant.”
His smile grows, many teeth missing. "All too true, my young prince... Too true indeed."
As you continue on, Irok chuckles waiting for you. He obviously overheard. "Good response... Exactly how I feel. Course not so eloquently worded..."
Atriox chuckles
“He seems......I want to say kind enough.......but using the word kind doesn’t seem....right ?”
Atriox chuckles some more
“Now then I’m ready to do this whenever you and you’re family are. I sadly cannot be gone to long lest my people leave without me truly thinking me dead.”
Atriox flourishes his sword in a spin to make his point with a wide smile
****
(speaking of which............good place for a scene skip!)
The small ship arrives back in Freetown harbor, roughly bumping the dock on approach. An axebeak jumps free and clear, followed by the quiet scuttling of kobold claws. They all look silent and shell shocked... Except for Tak, who'd spent the journey drinking half his weight in spiked apple cider.
Sheila's ecstatic approach with her men stops short as she sees their faces. Looking around and taking everything in, she quiets and removes her hat. She approaches Darr.
"Tell me what happened."
****
Tak makes his way aboard the Annabel and heads straight for Atriox's room; almost as if he hoped beyond hope everything was a horrid dream and his brother was resting there. But only Kora answered the door, red eyed and sour. The small drunken kobold almost wished for death at that point, and despite her deadly glare sank to the floor like an offering. Her expression changed in an instant.
****
Vele looked up from her book the second she heard the sound of his claws on the stairs, nervously excited for Tak's return. But seeing her comrade drunken and miserable made her leap up to steady him. "Wh-what? Tak, what's wrong!?"
Sinking to her feet, he breaks down in sobs of crocodile tears. He retells the entirety of their journey. The argument. The scene after he returned to the plateau. She listens in stunned silence.
"W-we spent all night trying to get down to the desert floor. T-trying to recover..." He can't seem to finish the sentence. "But so little was left. We couldn't even find him, all the... the scavengers... the insects..."
"...Atriox put you in charge." Tak swallows, shame and guilt shackling him. Vele's eyes widen in distress. "Atriox wanted you to instruct us... He trusted you more than any."
****
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