Chapter 3: Revelations

I woke up late in the morning, just to find myself laying in the grass next to Kuno. We had fallen asleep while watching the stars together. It had been a wonderful night, but the sun was already bathing the whole grassland with intense light, and we hadn't warned anyone that we would be absent. I sat up and began shaking Kuno.
"Wake up, darling" I whispered
"We have to get back to town before my parents go crazy!" He just rolled away from me while pronouncing something I could not word out, and stuck his tongue out.
"Kuno!" I said in a louder voice. He frowned his face, so I stood up and walked up to him. He opened his eyes and looked at me
"What's up?"
"The sky. Now get up, seriously!" He reached out his right hand, and when I gave him mine, he pulled himself up and kissed me. I pushed him away and said
"Kuno! We've got no time for this! Seriously we have to leave or that will have been the last kiss you'll ever give me!"
"So you like 'em?" He smiled
"Huh?"
"My smooch-smoochies?" And he knew perfectly that I couldn't deny it... He knew that if I said I didn't, I was lying or being sarcastic
"Well you know, all my childhood I spent my time looking for the perfect sexy kisser, and I found him... but then I dated you instead of him" I laughed
"Oh, Ashy!" He glomped me, and we ended up laying on the grass, with him above me. We were staring at each other's eyes... Oh how I loved his red eyes... My own silver ones could never compare to his...
"You know you are the one I was looking for, the only one for me" I said.

Before making our way back to town, however, we remembered Skip, so instead we went back into the forest to look for the cave, and found it with ease. After all, we hadn't gone very far away from it. We made our way in, and immediately noticed something wasn't right... There was a huge creature in one of the corners... specifically the corner we had left Skip on... Both scared, Kuno and I silently stepped outside and ran back to the trees, to a place we could still see the cave from. My heart was beating faster every time, and I could not imagine what had happened to the little fox.
"Did you see the tail? Was it a lizard?" Kuno asked
"I don't know!"
"I think it was!... What are we going to do?" What could a lizard be doing in peaceful lands like these? Did they not have enough trouble fighting the Trinity Wars? Could they have possibly won, and we never heard because we were out of town? And what could have been of Skip? The tension in me kept rising
"I don't know!" I screamed, and Kuno covered my mouth
"Let's not panic, we are neutral in the war, they have no right to harm us... I'll go look inside for Skip, or clues he might have left of where he can be now. He's smart, Ashen! He most likely sneaked out before the lizard even saw him... So you... can just wait here" A tear ran down my face as I watched him run away from me, heading towards the cave.
"Kuno!" I whispered as loud as I could. How could he risk himself like that? Nobody could ever stand a chance against a lizard... I ran after him.

He went in the cave, and I waited outside, watching closely. His steps were doubtful, but silent enough. He searched all the corners, except for the one the scaled monster was on. He signaled me, to tell me he didn't find anything, and I waved him to come back. He took two steps towards the exit, but then he turned to look at the beast, and then at me, then at it, then at me. I shook my head, and waved my hands again for him to come, but he shook his head and began walking towards it. Another tear escaped my eyes, and I tried my best not to make a sound. "Please Kuno, just come back" I thought to myself, hoping my thoughts would fly and reach his mind, but they didn't. Kuno got as close to the beast as he could, and contrary to what I expected, he pointed at the ground it was on, while he nodded his head with a fearful smile. I just stood motionless, watching him reaching out for what I suppose was Skip. I couldn't see Skip... I could barely see Kuno stretching his hands above the monster's tail. And suddenly, in a moment of dismay, he fell on the tail. The lizard quickly raised its head, looking at Kuno, and they both got up in an instant. It was not just a lizard, it was a dragon! It's scales were a blue so light, they probably looked white under the sun, and it was around 13ft, just more than two times as tall as Kuno
"Who are you?" The dragon screamed, and I noticed it was female. She roared, and easily tackled Kuno, sending him flying to the other side of the cave.
"Kuno!" I screamed, and rushed inside the cave. I noticed Skip was barely sitting up, quite surprised too. Mindlessly, I grabbed him and ran outside of the cave and into the woods, as fast as I could. I heard the dragon roar behind me, and my feelings were already punishing me for leaving Kuno behind. It didn't take long before I noticed she was chasing after me though.
"What the heck are you doing?" Asked Skip, with an anger tone in his voice.
"Shut up!"
"Stop! Before she kills us both on accident! I know her!" He screamed, and before I could say anything else, I found myself rolling on the dirt. When I finally stopped, I was no longer holding Skip; I was the one being held, on the ground, by the dragon, who was looking at me, threatening with her enraged eyes, massive claws and teeth. She then looked at Skip, who was laying face up a few meters to my right, groaning.
"Skip, are you alright?" She asked him, and when she did, I felt extreme anger towards both of them.
"Yeah... I'm fine... Let go off her, she's a friend of mine, darn it!" She then looked at me, now with her mouth resembling an O and her eyes clearly embarrassed; and freed me instantly.
"I'm sorry" is all she said, but I felt too physically hurt to complain. For a minute, I just laid there groaning, while the dragon sat and helped Skip recover, but then I remembered Kuno.
"Kuno! What did you do to him?"
"Oh... Nothing too bad, because I noticed you running away with Skip before I could do something worse"
"What's your problem?!" I screamed, but didn't wait for an answer and went running as fast as the pain allowed me back to the cave.

I rushed inside and almost tripped with a bunch of piled rocks. My legs were shaking. I found Kuno lying against a wall, his legs covered with blood.
"Kuno!"
"Ashen!" He looked at me and his eyes got watery. Just as me, he couldn't believe we were both still alive. I quickly took his shirt off and tied it on the top of his right leg, which was the one that was bleeding the most. It had three seemingly deep and wide cuts, with a red so deep, it made his eyes look dark. This made me hate the dragon even more. He screamed in pain so loud, I felt the pain myself
"Oh baby, I'm so glad you're alive!"
"Tell me about it" And in a matter of seconds, we were already kissing each other. We both wanted it, especially after such a horrible situation. After a couple smoochies though, he stopped and pointed at the exit, which was behind me. I looked and the dragon was coming in, with Skip sitting on her nose. The anger, the jealousy, it all combined, and if I had gotten the chance, I probably would've killed her right there. And well, I wasn't at all happy at Skip either. How could he not be showing any resentment to what had just happened to us? Was this all a game? I wanted to grab him and strangle him, perhaps throw him against something, but the dragon would've easily stopped me. This all may sound pathetic now, but it's what I really wished for, at that moment. Practice a bit of empathy; you would've wanted the same...

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"I’m asking seriously! What are you guys doing tonight?"
"I'm not telling you"
"Why?" I moaned
"I already told you! It's none of your business, and you're better off not knowing anyway"
"So I guess I'm not good enough to know..." Pyro and Onyx stopped and looked at me, laughing at what I had just said, and then Pyro said
"You know? That might just be the reason... Seriously Mythal, you've got to stop stalking people, especially us. It's annoying... Plus, you should have other things to do, future elder mage" After that, they walked past the school's gates, and I saw them following their path home, blurring away from my vision, not looking back at me once.

I had been in love with Pyro ever since he joined the school. I used to stare at him, and whenever he stared back, I'd look away. Sometimes I'd find him staring at me too, but when he looked away, he never did it nervously, unlike me... His eyes would slowly close and reopen, looking now at something else. It made me feel unimportant, and I'd lose the hope of him being in love with me too. As for my own story, there are many things that might not be worth mentioning here, but in my world, they'd amaze just about everyone. I was the offspring of a couple with lots of magic involvement; that is, my parents were mages too, and great ones. They were the ones to inspire me to enter the Memoria School of the Art of Magic; my school. Ever since I started, I showed great potential, and at the age of 6, I was assigned to be personally taught by the Elders of Magic, so that one day I could become one of them myself, and be recognized as one of the greatest magicians in our land. But as much as I amazed people with my abilities, I was never the type with a huge social circle. For a while I wished I could be known for being a great person with many friends, not just an amazing mage, so I wondered just why I couldn't do it. Was it my physical aspect? Or perhaps people considered me weird... So for a while, I lived off stalking other people; I lived off their lives and stories, almost feeling the excitement myself upon listening to their adventures. Then one day, Pyro appeared in my life, and I knew I was meant to be with him... or at least I thought so... but now you can cap the holes in the story.

As the sun went down, I made my way to the gatekeeper, determined to find Pyro and figure out what he was up to. At first, the gatekeeper did not want to let me leave the school, but I managed to convince him the elders had sent me, and since no one questions the elders, he was happy to comply. Following the path to the town, I made my way to his house, and arrived in perfect timing to watch him leaving with Onyx. I followed them silently, since I wasn't bound to let them know I was there. The sun had already gone to sleep, and the moon was watching over us, but thankfully, we were still in town, so the small crowd of people made my mission easier. As I followed them, I thought of the adventures I already knew from other people, and wished the moment could turn into a similar one. It was perhaps the reason I was being so stubborn and following them despite their request of me not doing so.

They kept walking, further away every time from the town's center, until they reached the woods. There were absolutely no people around now, and I knew if they looked back even once, it'd mess everything up, so I practiced extreme silence with my steps, my voice, and even my breathing. If only I had already learned the cloaking spell, I could've been a ghost.
"So... about Mythal, why don't you date her, man? Everyone knows she's dying for you!"
"Oh... She's very pretty, but..."
"She's too weird?"
"No, no... She's not weird; she just doesn't know herself yet..."
"So...?"
"I just don't want to end up hurting her... I prefer playing the mean guy and get her to hate me than to build a tower with her and then watch it fall... Both sides end up feeling miserable... Usually... And that's not what I want for her... She'd blame herself"
"Is that also the reason why you don't date anyone?"
"I don't date anyone because I don't like anyone else..."
"Do you like her?"
"Yes" And for a while, they were both silent, and we all kept walking. I'm not sure about what I was feeling at that moment. I know I was extremely happy to know he liked me too, but I was also sad that he did not want anything with me... he just wanted to protect me from the hate and sorrow that could birth towards each other by something lost. I wanted to tell him right there that I was willing to take the chances, because I believed it could work out, but I couldn't, I still had to wait and see what was going on. And even after, how would I tell him if I was not supposed to be there?

We reached a small creek, next to a small circular ruin, with pillars on its edges and a small table on the middle. Soon afterwards, they got to work. Onyx took various objects out of his backpack, a totem among one of them. "Who gave them permission to use that?" I thought.

Totems were magic objects granted by the gods with aura. At a loss of words, aura gave considerable power to certain spells. There were various types of totems, and each worked with different spells. Unfortunately, because of the simple nature of totems, they could be used for many purposes, good and evil alike; therefore, totems weren't available to just anyone. They were usually handed down by elder mages for special occasions, but even then, every mage from every school had the obligation to learn how to channel a spell through a totem, "Just in case", so all anyone had to do to accomplish something bad was to steal a totem. How hard was that? I could just hope it was impossible.

They did everything without speaking a single word, it was obvious they had it all planned out. I remained behind the trees unnoticed, watching every action they performed closely. Onyx approached the table and placed the totem on it, while Pyro lit a large amount of candles and placed them near the pillars. They weren't regular candles, however. The light they emitted was as bright as the sun, and the fire itself looked white. As I waited, I prepared myself for worst-case scenarios. I had absolutely no idea what they were doing yet, but if it could've turned out to be something bad, I had to be ready to stop them.

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We all sat around the campfire Luna had just lit, as we watched the sun disappear. My leg still hurt badly, but holding Ashen's hand helped me forget. Skip had explained everything to us, in hopes that we would simply cheer up and love them both. It didn't happen. At least I wasn't as angry anymore, but I still didn't believe their reasons justified what Luna had done to us. Thankfully, Luna had been very kind for the rest of that day. I guess she did feel embarrassed. We left the place soon afterwards, when the stars had already joined the moon in the sky, and finally headed home. I was thinking of a way of convincing Ashen’s parents that we had actually been in town all that time, and that nothing seriously bad had happened. Although with all my injuries and a dragon accompanying us, I could hardly think of an excuse.
“So what are you guys doing tomorrow?” asked Skip
“I’m still thinking of what Ashen and I are going to do to survive tonight”
“Well, don’t get me involved in that”
“Serves you right, doesn’t it?” said Ashen, after Luna, in a rather insulting tone. I could notice Ashen was still enraged about what happened. I held her tight as we kept walking, and she pressed her face against my shoulder.

Suddenly, we both got hit by something and fell on the ground. We all turned around, and found three creatures we had never seen before. At least I didn’t know what they were, but they had a scary appearance. The three of them were cloaked, with a humanoid appearance that seemed to be deformed. The only thing you could notice inside their hoods was their shining colored eyes. We were all too scared to do anything, and they just stood there, staring at us. Then, one of them began shaking, and its arms grew longer. Shortly after, it seized Ashen and pressed her against itself, to stop her from escaping. The three creatures started to flee, and we all gave chase. Luna quickly passed me, and I grabbed her tail so that I wouldn’t fall behind. The creatures were too fast for us, even for Luna, but we didn’t give up. They were heading North out of town, to the grasslands.

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“This is it Onyx, it’s time to see if our efforts were worth it”
“I just hope we’re doing the right thing” They both approached the table, positioning themselves in opposite sides. Onyx was the first one to act; he performed a spell, formally known as Knil’Shrae, on Pyro, which allowed Pyro to use Onyx’s energy, to combine both Onyx’s and his own energy and cast a stronger spell, as long as Onyx didn’t break the connection. Pyro then proceeded to cast what seemed to be a shielding spell, and began channeling it through the totem. He was interrupted though, when a portal opened right next to them. This portal had an oval shape, its gateway reflected everything perfectly like a mirror, and it had a blue flame as a frame. Moments later, a black dragon emerged from the portal and knocked down both Pyro and Onyx. It removed the totem from the table, looked at the young boys and said
“Welly welly well, so good I got here in time, huh? Just what were you guys trying to do?”
”What else? Protect our homeland from filthy creatures like yourself”
“Oh, kids these days are so full of senseless hope” The dragon then cast a dark spell on the totem, placed it back on the table, and roared to the sky. A deformed cloaked creature came out from the forest and began channeling another dark spell through the totem.

Pyro and Onyx found the valor to stand up, and the dragon spoke to them
“How ironic, isn’t it? In your attempts to protect this town, you gave us the last thing we needed to destroy this whole world”
“What good is it for you destroyed?”
”Well, perhaps I didn’t pick the best words, and I know you’d enjoy staying here to find out what happens next, but unfortunately, both of your stories end here” The dragon threw himself towards the pair, but fortunately, I was quick enough to cast a stunning spell (Kebra), which dropped the dragon to the ground before he could harm them. Everyone looked at me. The dragon quickly got back on his fours, faced me and said
“Mythal! How nice of you to join us! I knew you weren’t going to miss the party”
”How do you know my name?!”
”Oh, that really is irrelevant right now, what matters is that you come with me”
“Do I even know you? And why would I do that? You attacked my friends, and you’re attempting to destroy my hometown!” I kept my guard up, but my mind couldn’t figure out what was going on. How did that dragon know me and why did he suddenly want to take me with him?
“All that won’t matter once you join us” I looked at Pyro and Onyx, and then at the dragon. They were all looking back at me too, waiting for me to act. I was obviously not going to comply with the dragon, but I had no idea what his reaction could be, so I said
“Well I’m sorry, but that’s not going to happen” and performed an offensive spell. He was thrown back by the spell and crashed against some trees. It took him a bit longer to get back up this time, but he still did so and faced me again
“Whatever, I guess you’ll enjoy watching your people suffer. We will definitely meet again soon, anyway” The dragon took flight and disappeared into the clouds. Shortly after, the creature left too, having completed the channeling of the spell.

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We all rushed to the totem and tried to remove it to cancel the spell, but we were far too late. The ground started shaking, and we had already given up on everything. Mythal tried many things on the totem, but nothing worked. She was so frustrated that she couldn’t stop it, and it probably didn’t help that she didn’t even know what was going on. Her anger made her start hitting the totem. I stopped her and hugged her, my face full of tears. I said
“It’s ok, Mythal. It was our mistake this time”
”I love you”
“I love you too” For a minute, we didn’t care about anything else. Everything around us was literally collapsing, but we didn’t feel anything apart from our love. For so long had I kept her away from me, and in the darkest of times, we finally came together. And as much as I wanted to be with her, I knew it was not meant to happen, and it was going to be impossible soon. I had to make one of the toughest choices in my life
“Mythal… I love you so much… I pray to the gods for us to have the chance to be together in our next life… Forgive me” I had to let her go. I pressed my forehead on hers, as well as both my hands
“Memoria!” I yelled, and in an instant, I was inside her memories. I went through her whole life in a matter of seconds, but before losing the opportunity, I did what I had to do; I erased every single memory she had of me. The day she saw me, the day I saw her, first time we talked, when she truly fell in love with me, when we danced… up to today. As I did so, I could listen to her screaming in pain, and as much as it hurt me too, it had to be done. When I finished, she fell unconscious. I protected her with the same shielding spell we were going to use to protect the town, except that without the totem, the shield only protected her. I looked around, and Onyx was gone. “Hopefully you can save yourself, bud”. I knelt down to touch Mythal one last time, and whispered to her
“Goodbye…”

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We were already out of town, still chasing the creatures. We had noticed the ground was shaking, but didn’t stop for anything. A particularly strong bump made me lose Luna’s tail. I slid on the ground because of the speed and hit my head with a rock. I was unable to stand back up. Luna kept going, and as I saw her vanish from my sight, a loud low noise caught my attention. It was coming from the town. When I turned to look at it, I noticed a dark sphere slowly growing in the forest, ultimately reaching the city and consuming it. It kept growing, but didn’t reach the grassland, fortunately, and stopped for a few minutes, in which I did nothing but to watch in shock. Finally, it simply disappeared, and to my surprise, the city was almost intact. No more than a few buildings destroyed. Then, a visually beautiful thing occurred. Small glows of light began floating out of the city. They were thousands, and they all left a small trail behind them. All of them disappeared into the sky one by one, and as they did, I felt the back of my head was wet. I touched it and it hurt, and when I looked at my hand, it was full of blood. As I watched the last one disappear into the sky, I lost myself, and fell into the dark places of the dreamworld.