Out of the Ashes [Open]

[Jade]

((This story takes place before Jade's endeavor with the Urgals in Du Weldenvarden, just the night before actually. All are welcome to join the post, but you will be interacting with his dream and characters of his past when these events took place. Consider this a bit of background for you.))

Jade doused the fire. He had just finished his meal he prepared and ate tastelessly. It had been the same routine for about three months now that he had begun traveling. He was headed for Du Weldenvarden to make a home there, from what stories he heard, it was a place practically untouched by humans, shrouded with beautiful and plentiful with game. It was the perfect place to have a shelter, surrounded by peace, safe in serenity. But tonight was different, for it was a full moon, and he knew what happened when the moon obtained it's full form. He laid down under the base of his tree for the night, his little shelter hiding him from the storm. It was a little moss hut held up by four sticks he had carried with him everywhere specifically for this purpose. He had made a little fire pit to cook his meals with, and a sack he carried everything else in, which he slept in now. He closed his eyes as it began to rain. It always rained when the moon was full, at least for him, because it always meant he was going to have that dream. Throughout the night he tossed and turn, restlessly. It wasn't until about midnight when the moon was at it's height did it capture him and consume his consciousness in sleep, pulling him away from his body. That's when his talent came in. Every night this happened, he unconsciously created extremely strong mental barriers around his consciousness without even knowing it, so that only these horrors were known to him. Not many others like Jade could do this, but it was the only way he ever felt safe. And he rarely felt safe.

His dream was a flashback, back where it all began. It was always this dream, because this is how he was cursed.

Jade was eight years old, it was his birthday in fact. He shot up out of bed with the goofiest grin on his face just as mother and father walked up the staircase and told him there was a surprise downstairs. At the time Jade had lived with his parents who had adopted him when they found him in a small barn at the top of a hill near a small town at the base of The Spine. They found him huddled in a corner inside the barn weeping when he was only four years old, and took him to their home in the town in a little cottage. Since then they raised him up, teaching him about the world around him, often telling stories of great kings and lords, elves and dwarves, and occasionally, the Dragon Riders. Jade loved the stories about them the most. He ran downstairs and lit up when he saw the small, humble cake on their dinner table waiting for him with a single candle. He didn't know he was thirteen at the time, but he didn't care, every birthday was special to him.

He blew out the candle and gave his parents a big hug. His father had "pulled a small pouch out of his ear," and said it was his present. Five gold coins to buy whatever he wanted at the caravan that came through town every year. The caravan that came through had the neatest things, swords, slingshots, toy soldiers, trinkets from other great cities, robes, spices and jewels, it was his favorite day of the year. He smiled excitedly and quickly enjoyed his cake with his parents, before hastily getting dressed and running to the lavatory to brush his teeth. He looked at himself in the mirror when he was done. He had the complexion of a regular, male teenager. Brown, fair hair, freckles, golden eyes, and the biggest smile. He was only 5'11, but that was tall for his age, and he didn't care. He looked himself over before ecstatically running out into the streets, making his way through the crowd. This was one of his best birthdays yet.

[Silver]

Stiarna was awakened by her dad when they arrived to the town; it wasn’t her first time here, since they visited the same town almost every year at the same time. She jumped off her dad’s horse, she was now used to sleeping while riding one, as the caravan settled some meters away from the town, The sun was barely showing its golden rays on the horizon, it was way too early even for any rooster to sing yet. The caravan usually arrived to the towns at that time, so when the habitants started to get out of their respective houses the caravan would be ready for their arrival.
Stiarna immediately helped her dad to put the tent and all the stuff they had in specific spots and order, both by rarity and price, as well as their kind. Stiarna knew perfectly where to put everything; experience earned after all those years of working with her father. It took them almost three hours to set everything in place, and when thy finished the sun was already shinning and some habitants of the town were already awake. Her father started to check if there was anything left while Stiarna stayed just outside the tent, which was fully open to allow customers to see inside.
The tent was of a nice crimson red, a little dull thanks to the use, with some golden ornaments. Inside you could find from weapons and armor to toys and ornaments, and even some medicinal herbs collected by her and some jewelry was shown. Stiarna knew exactly what was what and where it was obtained, so she could get in charge of the merchandise if his father had to go somewhere. Her favorite collection was the weaponry one, where you could find from simple wooden bows and iron swords that were really common around the empire, to some ornamented and fine ones, bows that had designs craved in it and some even gems that looked fragile at first, but were as strong and precise as no other, and swords light as a feather, but deadly and resistant as no other sword. Her father told him that those weren’t even done by humans, that they were work from elves and dwarfs, but she wasn’t really sure if believe him or not.
Stiarna sighed and looked around with a smile while the people of the town started to arrive. They first went with the merchants that sold food, as always before starting to wander around the tents. With the help of her father she immediately started to sell stuff to the them, she wasn’t as good as her father with words to convince the rest of the people of buying or trading, but she knew perfectly about everything in the tent, even better than her own father, so every time he got stuck or forgot some information of an specific artifact she always helped him.

[Jade]

Immediately Jade could spot the big crimson tent just outside of the city and went straight for it. His parents stayed behind to take care of his chores because it was his special day. He walked through the big flaps he had many times before and stood in awe of the mysteries that beheld it. The atmosphere was lively, full of people bustling about, loud in conversations whether it was debating on an item, or making a transaction, everyone was in a good mood here. He went down the various isles, glancing at the various herbs and apothecaries that always caught his eye. The beautiful plants and strange vegetation were always a sight to him, because of the stories they took with them. Some came from distant lands, others were older than the rise of the Riders, some even came in various colors and scents. But he was saving up for something, because it wasn't enough last year he had waited all this time to find it. He turned a corner and right on that same plaque it was before, was the bow he had wanted so dearly.

It was standing up in its case, fairly higher than him as he stood. It was a bit large for him, but he knew he would grow into it. The recurve bow was perfectly shaped, made of the very fibers of a white birch tree, wrapped with a beautiful leather handle that would fit perfectly around his grip, the string itself tight and strung to perfection. On the tips of the bow as the wood curved up were black ebony tips that acted as sharp points if one ever needed to defend himself up close, which collaborated nicely with the quiver mounted next to it full of a dozen ebony arrows, except with white tips. It was a thing of beauty, and he absolutely had to have it. Jade walked up to the case and held his ten gold pieces eagerly, waiting for someone to come by and help him claim his prize.

[Silver]

Stiarna was selling some herbs and already prepared potions to an old woman, who she recognized immediately as the town’s healer thanks to her knowledge about plants and potions, though she had to explain what some of the herbs were and their functions, since they were from far away and she wasn’t surprised when the healer told her that she never had seen them before. When she finished to give everything to the healer she received a book of potions and information about plants that the healer wrote. She looked at it, even though she knew most of the functions of the plants there were plenty of new potions and some details that could be useful for the future. She was one of the few merchants that was willing to accept something else apart of money for her merchandise. She immediately accepted the book as the full payment.

When the healer left she smiled, since she discovered her talent with herbs and learned all she could from them her father allowed her to sell them, both as in their natural forms and as potions, and keep all the money that she won with them. She put the book on her personal chest to read it later when she saw a boy around her age near one of her dad’s finest bows and saw the gold coins shinning in his hand. It was odd that her father ignored someone who wanted to buy anything, specially if they had gold. She searched for him and found him showing a huge collection of rare and beautiful ornaments and jewelry to a large group of women, some with their husbands. She sighed, knowing that he would be stuck there for a long while the women fought over the items, and once she was sure that nobody in the tent was interested for now in the herbs, she walked towards him with a smile.

“Hey” She said at him “Interested in the bow?” She asked politely, just as her father taught her. She then recognized the boy vaguely, she could remember him from the last year, when he asked to her father if he could buy the bow, but unluckily he only had half of the needed gold, and her father was an expert to win any kind of bargaining, so he had to walk away empty-handed.

[Jade]

It was almost unbearable. Luckily a voice caught his attention as he turned to the same pretty girl that always ran the caravan with her father. Jade remembered her. When she asked him the question he blinked dumbly, before shaking his head and snapping back into focus. "Y-yes, please. I saved up from last year, so this should be enough. Today's my birthday, and I've had my eye on that bow for a long time now..." Jade eagerly offers his ten gold pieces to the girl in his hand. He had always fancied the girl, but never really realized it himself because he was so young, he was raised thinking girls were gross. But not this one, this one had been nice to him. So he stood there and smiled brightly, giddy that it had finally all paid off. Jade couldn't wait to go and try it out at his barn where he was found, his own personal training place, a sanctuary of a sort. 

[Silver]

Stiarna chuckled lightly when the boy looked at her; he looked like if his head was somewhere else. When he finally talked she smiled at him “Well happy birthday, I actually remember you from last year, you really liked this bow, no?” She grabbed the coins and, before making certain that they were real, she counted them and nodded “Good, now you have all the gold needed” She put the gold coins on her pocket for now, she would give them to her father when he had time to receive them “I’m really happy you saved the gold, after this town we are going straight to Dras-Leona, where someone else placed his eyes on this bow too last year, a soldier of the empire, but he neither had enough gold at the moment, though he told us that he would have it next time. Obviously we didn’t separated it from the rest of the merchandise for him like he told us to do, that wouldn’t be good for business, or at least that is what dad says” She grabbed the bow, along with the beautiful quiver that came along with the bow that had 50 arrows.

“I was scared, nobody had the money to buy it before you and I didn’t wanted to give it to one of those soldiers. I don’t have anything against them in general, but they never treat their weapons very well, even the best iron sword is lucky if it lasts more than a year in their hands without getting broken, I wouldn’t even like to think what could have happened to this bow if you didn’t had the money to buy it right now” She gave the bow, quiver and arrows at him, smiling “Take good care of it and it will take good care of you” She said at him.

[Jade]

Jade took the bow and arrows like he was the happiest boy in the world he held the beauty next to him vertically, showing it was just as tall as him. "Thank you so much! You don't know how much this means to me! I've always wanted my own bow and I have practicing with a little one I made myself, but this is perfect! I will take better care of this than any soldier ever could." He throws the quiver over his shoulder, slouching slightly from the weight. "Hey, want to come try it out with me? I have a cool barn on the hill nearby we can go to..." He says as he hurried out of the tent. Hair blew in the breeze as he made his way through the crowd towards his house, beckoning you as he went. But the farther in he went, the unthinkable happened. Someone screamed in the crowd as thunder shook the ground, and everyone scattered. Jade was knocked down by a stranger and his bow went toppling to the ground next to him. Smoke filled the sky.

[Aelodil]

Nelfarion chuckled, causing slight tremors in the village. Those who noticed it ignored it.. until a huge flaming monstrosity stood next to the village, and let out a welcoming roar. He throttled with laughter and ravaged the village. It had only a few villagers who were actually veterans of war, and they armed up and shot arrows at him. A few brave or foolish men took swords out and attempted to stab him. He batted them with his paw, breaking their ribs and smashing their lungs and slamming them into the tree, instantly killing them. The soldiers stopped their paying and bargaining and charged him. Laughing at their foolishness, Nelfarion slammed the ground in front of him, causing a rather large fissure and instantly the men either were crushed under his paw, or fell to their deaths. He continued on into the village, snapping up random men as they ran to their houses.

As he moved around, Nelfarion spotted Jade. The boy held a bow, with a quiver of arrows and he stood there, staring at Nelfarion as if he was death himself. Nelfarion attempted to scare him by murdering the people around him, however the boy stood stock-still, jaw set a he stared at Nelfarion with acceptance of his fate. Nelfarion laughed and rested his brow upon the boy's forehead and marked him. Nelfarion's mark wasn't like any other dragon's blessing. The mark he had placed upon the child would grant him access to a portion of Nelfarion's power in dire situations.

A man yelled and threw a pike at Nelfarion, cursing him and taunting him. Unbeknownst to Nelfarion, this man was Jade's father. Roaring, Nelfarion slammed his paw into his body, crushing ribs and slamming him into a pole that used to support their house. As the man slammed into it, his body made a sickening 'CRUSH' sound as bones came out of his arm awkwardly. The woman who followed must have been his wife, and Nelfarion quickly swallowed her body and most of the ground underneath her in one gulp. Turning, Nelfarion gloated with laughter and called out to all present,"Yes, tremble beneath my rage. At last, the whole of Alagaesia will burn under the shadow of my wings" his terrible voice rumbling with rage.

[Silver]

Ooc: I know its short, sorry

Stiarna chuckled with the excitement of the boy when he grabbed his new bow, when he talked about testing it with her she nodded immediately “Sure, lead the way” She said, following him while he talked. Suddenly she felt the trembling and smelled the smoke too as the people started to freak out and run, she immediately ran back to her father’s tent and looked at a chest that her dad had apart where he kept his most valuable stuff, valuable enough to not want to sell it, at least not at a normal price. She took out a sword and a couple of daggers from the chest, immediately running towards where Jade was, just in time to see a huge dragon marking his forehead. She immediately grabbed Jade’s bow, which she found on the ground while running, and landed it at him immediately, so he could defend himself somehow.

[Jade]

Jade struggled to get back up as he was trampled by the feet of the crowd. Chaos surrounded him as people ran and screamed in fear as a dark shape loomed over the entire town, blocking out the sun. When people began to clear the ground shook greatly as the beast landed, hell itself had arrived. He struggled to get to his feet when he got a good look at the creature before him. Towering over all the souls below, was a gargantuan dragon, the size of the mountains themselves as lava escape from every crack and crevice it could on its body. It's mithril scales the only things appearing to hold it together as it roared, knocking Jade over again as the deafening thunder shook the buildings and foundations of everything he once knew. He covered his ears and cringed as the world around him seemed to fall apart in slow motion, unable to understand what was going on around him. He look out and saw the girl running toward him, at least she was alive. He got to his feet and reached out just as she threw his bow at him and caught it, and arrow knocked shortly soon after.

But he did not pull the string, did not aim, there was no point. There was only One way out here, death. Death is what surrounded him in the horrific scene before him as lives ended as quickly as they had begun. Fire raged absolutely everywhere. The buildings were aflame, along with their inhabitants running, screaming in the streets as they were reduced to ashes. Smoke blanketed the sky above, no light to be seen, all the light he saw was from death and flame. Foundations crumbled, children, women, fathers, friends, all burned. Nelfarion merely stamped on the ground and a large fissure opened up in the ground. He watched in silent terror as the people he had known growing up, the only family he ever had, fell into hell to be extinguished of all life. Jade's eyes were red from the fire, watery. But he did not cry, because there was no hope. He couldn't even be scared, he had already lost everything before, and it was happening again.

The fissure in the ground creeped forward, consuming the town and village, before it suddenly stopped at his feet. The young boy looked up as a mighty claw impaled the ground in front of him. Nelfarion towered over him like a God, wings spread over the entirety of the sky itself as he looked down on Jade with grim amusement. Jade did not run, did not cry, did not aim his bow, or tremble in fear, he submitted. He stared into the demons eyes with mixed emotions, pain, grief, anger, awe, he knew he was about to die, whether by the jaw of this beast or the fire, this was his end.

But the unthinkable happened. Nelfarion lowered himself to Jades level, and stared him in the eyes with rage, but also grim amusement. He chuckled causing the fissure to creep closer slightly, and ever so lightly touched Jades brow. It felt like the sun had taken a hammer and impaled his skull. Jade was instantly ripped from his trance and he clutched his head as the mark embedded itself onto his skin. It BURNED. He fell back writhing in pain as the mark began to shape him, burn him. From where the mark set above the left brow, began to turn that half of his face black as the flesh singed from the contact. It crawled all the way down his left arm and torso until half of him resembled charcoal. Tears streamed down his face as he recoiled in pain. Shortly after, he had truly lost everything.

Jade watched in utter silence as the monster merely swiped at his father that had tried to safe him as he flew into the support beam that once was his home, instantly killing him as he was impaled into the wood, bone and gore splattering the streets. He reached out an arm at his father as his life was taken from him in shock. He immediately stopped crying then. His mother was racing towards him, but before she could get within arms reached, disappeared into the maw of the creature, leaving an empty crater mere meters away from where he lay. Nelfarions voice boomed over everything in the valley. Jade had stopped trembling, the damage to his body done, and got to his feet as the monster continued his rampage. He painfully through the bow over his left arm, and held it as it scorched him, and limped through what remained of the streets to escape.

[Silver]

Stiarna looked at Jade after he returned his new weapon at him, his face full of despair and sadness. She took a quick glance at the town, the town that she knew as a cheerful town, always full of life and beauty, a town that she really liked to visit year after year, was now burning, the habitants dying and terror spreading as an uncontrollable illness around the town in only matter of seconds, causing chaos everywhere. It was hard to believe that everything could change so fast, it had been only a couple of minutes before when she had been selling merchandise, joking with the habitants of the town and giving at the boy his new bow, what apparently was the happiest moment of his life. She was thinking in that when the massive claw of the dragon slammed the ground, making a huge tremor shake the ground, what made her fall. When she managed to get up again she saw a large fissure that ended just in front of Jade’s feet.

Her heart skipped a beat when the dragon looked at Jade and lowered his head towards him, marking him in his forehead. When he fell to the ground again and started to writhe in pain she immediately looked around, searching for a way to get closer to him without being noticed or killed by the huge dragon. Once she found the safest route she started to run towards him, sword in hand and daggers on her belt, she knew perfectly that she wouldn’t be able to fight the dragon only with that, especially one with that size, but she didn’t wanted to die without a fight if she really had to die that day. She could hear her own father, who tried to stay as calm as possible, screaming to the people of the caravan and the town that still were alive, trying to make guide them away from the dragon, so they could hide and survive the attacks. But she decided to not hide, not for now at least, she had to help the ones that were still alive and closer to the dragon……….she had to help Jade.

She took a quick glance at the dragon, looking how he killed brutally the one she recognized as the father of Jade, and felt like if she had a lump in her throat, it was an horrible sighting and she couldn’t feel anything but sadness and pity for Jade, both feeling increasing when his mother was swallowed by the huge creature. She continued running towards Jade as he got up and tried to escape from the dragon as well, she took a really quick glance at the backpack she always carried with her, it was full of things like medicinal herbs, a couple of scrolls and pencils. It wasn’t much, just the essential that she could need in a travel. It took her some minutes to reach the place where Jade was and almost paralyzed when she saw the terrible burn that went from where the dragon marked him on his forehead to his torso and left arm. She gently grabbed him by the healthy arm “Come, my father is leading the survivors out of here” She said at him, scared out of her mind because of everything, but still trying to sound as calm as possible. She looked at him, hoping to be able to help him once everything was over.

[Aelodil]

Nelfarion watched as the woman grabbed Jade's arm and ran. He let them get away. Soon.. soon enough he would have his vengeance upon this very land. He continued to ravage the village, even as the buildings crumbled to the ground and the foundation of the earth under it was crushed. What used to be a beautiful sight of a village and farms, was now all ashes and blood. Not much remained for people to bury. Jade's mother was taking a swim in Nelfarion's stomach and his father's body was so crushed and so horrifying to look at, no one dared try to carry him. The rest of the bodies were either stripped of all flesh, their bones crushed under the huge dragon's feet or no longer skin or bone or muscle, just ashes."Run you lesser beings. In time, all will burn and perish. I will attack village by village, city by city, until every snuff of civilization is demolished." he said, laughing maniacally.

Though he allowed the majority of the village to run, Nelfarion would occasionally put up an inferno wall, burning easily up to ten of them in one breath. Other times, he would swing his paw, sending them flying into the mountains, their bodies lost."And out of the ashes will rise a new race. One superior to you puny humans. And I will be their sire. I will stir them to victory and glory." rumbled Nelfarion, laughing maniacally more-so than ever. None of these men could or would fight him."Remember my name little peasants as you sound the alarm. I am Nelfarion, the Destroyer." he rumbled in their minds in irony.