Evangeline’s panic wafted over us all as unintelligible words drifted slowly from between her parted lips. I wanted to hear them or at least comprehend what she was trying to say… but the understanding that I sought so desperately never came. Instead, my mind betrayed me and drifted into the mist. I didn’t know what it found there but when it finally returned it was only because Tallis, in a flash of orange, had leapt from Eva’s back and onto the hardened ground at her hooves. His protective flames licked across the swells and into the thick fog, but they did not penetrate the thick wall. Instead they seemed to drown within them, masked by the ominous dread that swept in with the gusting wind. As I tried to formulate everything happening around me, the thudding increased, sending Eva into evident shock. She shook and trembled like a small child might in the cold which, oddly enough, touched my heart even in the midst of such fear and strife.
I could barely measure the time it took Evangeline to recognize my voice amongst the discord, but when she finally responded to my warning, her soft footsteps led her willingly into my waiting arms. Her warmth against my shoulder was the only reminder that the horror befalling us was actually real in spite of my need to blot it out or call it mere fantasy. My skin twitched beneath her touch as our tensions flared between us, shifting and exchanging power and depth until the gales finally parted the fog in order to reveal the mass carnage all around. Even though the giant branch that had come crashing down under the weight of the horde of peculiar, cannibalistic, serpents had brought an abrupt end to the awful scenario, I was still reeling.
Tallis, true to his character, tried to set the limb aflame and I took the moment to glance around and take in the queer scenery. Crushed corpses littered the frozen ground and their remnants, though a relief, made my stomach turn involuntarily. They did not stink of death as I imagined they ought, despite the fact that somewhere deep within I knew that it would be days before the acrid stench of passing drifting through the surrounding area. There were many breeds of serpent here, some colored in deep, sunless black and others in various shades of forest wood. But they had burned themselves into my mind’s eye and I was uncertain when I would find myself relieved of the memory. I daresay I hoped it would be soon.
Eva’s radiating warmth grazed the surface of my attention and I turned slowly to gaze at her with hesitant eyes. A grimace rested heavily upon my black lips and there was little I could do to contain it as I spoke to her in soft tones. “Are you alright?” Shortly after giving her a reassuring look, I glanced to Tallis as the little dragon stood waiting, and diligently so, at our feet; perhaps he was expecting more of the monstrous serpents to fall from above our heads. I wanted to tell them that everything was okay now, that we would not have to worry… But I knew it would be a lie and I did not consider myself a liar. |
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