Fire Light

Chapter 3. Calling.

Roger's face turned pale in the warm glow of the fire place, Alec cocked his head to the side and began to worry. "Roger what's the matter?... Is the stone black magic or something?" He questioned him, Roger snapped out of his daze and stared with large eyes at the young dragon.

"A-Alec... Your stone... No it can't be, there's just no way." He leered at the stone, could it really be? A Holy Stone from the old stories? He shook his head side to side. Though the flame inside the stone, the perfect little flame that burned on nothing, it just hovered inside the stone as if it was hollow. But the sound the stone made when tapped clearly suggested that there was no hollowed out core, but the fire flared and burned as if wind itself was gently giving it life and lighting his palm and giving a wonderful, pleasant warmth. Roger looked around him and then hid the stone back in Alec's pouch.

"Alec... Tomorrow we need to... Go to the old church far north of here. We need to find out if this stone is what I think it is. If this is a Holy Stone then we may have to take the chance. But you'll have to keep hidden alright?" Roger told him, his voice sounded very unsure. If they were caught then both of them would be killed, but the priests there have known Roger since birth and he prayed that they'd accept Alec and be able to aid them. But to aid a Mythical creature was a sure way to have one's head found atop a pole in the middle of a village.

"A Holy Stone?... Mother told me the old stories from books she used to carry around after I had hatched until we lost them one day..." Alec said as he lowered his belly to the ground to lie down and let out a soft sigh as a puff of smoke escaped his nostrils, Roger looked at the dragon, even after an hour or so in the company of one he still couldn't break the shock of seeing a such grand creature.

"We'll leave very early, before dawn so it'll be harder for you to be seen. This part of the woods house many a outlaw and thief. I've learned to fend for myself against them but still. If one happens to see you then for sure they'd send for the knights and-" Roger was interrupted by a loud growl, Alec was staring out the window, his eyes gleamed anger, pain, and hate. The mere mention of the knights sent a horrible memory through his mind. Roger then thought of something, "Alec are you able to fly? And spout flames?" He asked, the dragon looked at him and gave a disheartened sigh. "No not yet... I'm not old enough... Mother would have taught me in just a few months to fly though... Sorry." He had caught onto what Roger meant, if he could fly they could have used to cover of darkness to speedily make their way to the church, and the flames could have been incase they ran into someone that posed a threat.

Roger lowered his eyes as his idea was struck down, but another thought came, age. "I don't mean to pry but how old are you, Alec?

"Six years, but the winter solstice will mark my seventh year. You?" He asked Roger as the boy sat on his bed.

"Fifteen years, birthday was a few days ago, the priests actually took care of me for a while till I could manage on my own." He replied as he fell back against his bed, thinking everything over. Alec stared at the human, then his pouch that held the stone. "Why did you help me, Roger?" He asked him, his mother had told him that humans and about King Nuka. How so many of their kind were killed by them, and then seeing his mother dead by them.

"I don't know... Something inside me just made me I guess. How come you didn't eat me?" He chuckled. The young dragon began to rumble again in a chuckling laugh, "Well you helped me... And you smelled really bad!" Alec grinned showing his many sharp gleaming teeth before suddenly a pillow his him between the eyes right on his forehead. "Hey! I took a bath last week! And if you haven't noticed it's getting colder, cold air does not feel pleasant against bare skin!" He retorted after he threw the pillow, Alec stared at the pillow and growled. He picked up the cotton pillow with his jaws and with a swing of his head he tossed it back. Roger ducked and the pillow hit the wall behind his head.

After sharing a mirth of laughter together Roger pulled off his brown vest, the vest tied together with a long string that looped through several holes and tied off at the top,the mid-section had three large slender cream colored claws that hooked through tiny loops to keep a tight hold, he then took off his cream colored under shirt and laid them on the table to dry, his baggy pants were the last to go before he climbed into bed.

"... Why did you lay your skin on the table like that?" Alec asked as he laid his head over his forearm much like a dog would. Dragon's shed their scales then leave them where they fall, why would this human save it? "What? Oh that's not my skin, those are clothes. Human's wear them for all sorts of reasons, to stay dry, warm, covered... And protect out flesh, you can see our skin isn't as tough as your scales." He explained and showed Alec by pinching on his arm and tugging on the skin, the soft tissue pulled proving it was indeed weaker than his scales. The dragon blinked and snorted, "You humans are weird."

~~

Inside a dark room lit only by a single dark purple flame of a candle, it was a steady flame, no sign of a flicker as if no air flowed in the room, or from the one creature inside the room. The being stared into the flame as if something was amiss, his black fathomless eyes glaring into it as if to smother it. His long black robe cut through the piercing silence like a bird taking to wing as he lifted his hand over the flame. Still it was unmoving as that hand closed around the dark fire and lifting it to his face before opening his palm.

The light hovered over his hand as if waiting for his master to command it as it revealed his face, proving that the man was not in any way human. His eyes showed nothing but black darkness, no white, iris, or pupil and glowed with an unworldly light. His skin tight as a young man's in his prime, but his eye sockets were sunken deep into his skull showing the many years that have worn by. His black lips formed into a thin frown against his pale -almost gray with a dead blue hue- skin. His lips curled back into a snarl exposing his many yellowing teeth before he drew in a husky breath.

"Askiria moethborta." His voice of many echoed in the lonely room as suddenly the flame in his palm enlarged into a roaring fire that extended over his entire palm as it crackled and popped in no less than a second from the necromancer's voice. Another split second and the fire began to thin into a longer body like a snake dancing before the tip of the flame began to move to one side, stretching itself from the necromancer's palm before arching into a half circle, then a full circle. Yet no light lit the room but for where the man stood.

The black flaming window peered into the dark abyss before it's master raised his other hand to the dead center of the loop. "Niaki aborsora." he hissed, the blackness inside the hoop suddenly began to ripple like water from his hand with bright beams of light before settling once more. Then glowing a dim light before the sound of a heavy downpour filled the silent room, a few bursts a blinding light covered the land inside the flame as the forest appeared out of the dark. A man stood in full view, a knight.

"Master Abaddon... We killed the beast days ago as you asked, as well as the offspring. The mother was killed by blade, the infant though was lost in the water. W-"

"Lost? Were you sure it no longer held breath before in went under?" He hissed with a voice that sounded of many dark beings as his face turned to an ugly scowl that frightened the man to his core. The knight's eyes shifted away as he swapped his weight onto his other leg as to ease the horrid feeling in his gut. "Fools you are! That fledgling may not have been aquatic like it's kin but none the less a dragon! Water is another element it owns as is fire. I told you to cut out it's heart and you failed me." Abaddon growled deathly at the man, who flinched at his outburst. "M-Master please! The infant is as good as dead! I myself struck the demon with arrows! The river was tainted with it's blood!"

"Not good enough, what fun is a broken toy?... Althoes behorta." As those words were spoken the man's face fell to panic and sweltering fear before the man's pupils burst filling his vivid green eyes with the black cloud. The man fell to the ground in screaming agony as blood dripped between his fingers and to the ground, his blood flowed against him now. Boiling blood melting flesh, bone melting bone, muscles splitting and tearing as the black magic bade them to.

The knight's agonizing screams became spluttered while his own blood coursed into his lungs filling them fully and the dark ooze spilled from his mouth as he fell to his side. "Fail me no more. Too many times you've proven your uselessness. Burn in the eternal abyss!" He cackled as the knight was on the ground, dead. The other two men behind him, lesser in ranking by the tell of their armor, shook in terror from their fallen captain, pleading with the necromancer for mercy. Abaddon looked at them and smiled wickedly.

"Return to your taverns, little children. The loss of one knight is nothing, as is two or three is nothing all the same... But you two may serve me better." The window that showed the necromancer's face floating before them vanished as if never there, no fading or rippling away, just blinking out of existence before them with no trace. The two squires then saddled onto their steeds and fled in the heavy rain for as many leagues as their fear would carry, and to see the necromancer was to know the true fear of darkness.

~~

Roger had awoken and after placing a few supplies into his bag and slapping his dagger into it's sheath before onto his belt. Now he had to wake up the dragon that slept in the middle of the room. He smirked as Alec began to twitch his clawed fingers and tail. He felt a little guilty for having to wake up the dragon from what looked like a blissful slumber. He tried roughly slapping Alec's muzzle like he would a horse and the dragon sniffed and growled, still dreaming.

Roger then grabbed Alec's short horns and pulled hard, rolling back on his heels to aid in lifting the large head. Alec woke and slapped Roger with his tail causing him to fall on his rear. "You didn't have to grab me like that! I'm awake!" he growled before stretching and slowly got up, he hated having to wake so early as well as having his horns pulled on. Opening the door the cold crept in quickly causing shivers down Alec's back, he saw the rain was not as hard as it was before and now had become a simple light shower. "Let me get Balkor my horse and we should be there by sun-up. Balkor was my dad's so we can make quicker time to the church." Roger said as he pulled over his hood and walked out the door, Alec nodded and fallowed him to the back of the cobblestone hut where a stable sat under a fine large sweet gum tree.

"Could you wait here? Balkor has never seen a dragon and probably kick me in shock." He chuckled as he opened the gate. A few moments later a large black stallion fit for the greatest of knights saddled up with Roger on it's back, the size between Alec and the steed was only Alec had far more bulk, but shoulder to shoulder they were the same, save the wings of course.

Balkor reared up and whinnied in a panic at Alec, nearly throwing off his rider, Alec lowered his head and strangely hummed, Balkor then calmed down very quickly as Alec came up and nudged the horses neck with his muzzle to pet it. "What did you do?" Roger asked after he caught his breath from hanging onto the thrashing animal.

"I told it I was not going to harm it. What else?" He mused as Roger kicked Balkor's sides and lead Alec. The rain would give them cover from the two full moons that would have been out, Roger found this a good omen. But the drenching shower and cold winds swept through his clothing making his teeth chatter and using one hand pulled his cloak around his shoulders tighter. He wondered what in the world he was doing, what drove him to do this? He prayed once he was at the church he could speak with the man who helped raise him after his mother and father had passed, Father Orion. The man was kind to Roger and was a close friend of his father and had taken Roger under his wing. Now Roger hoped that he would help him and Alec.

Many hours had passed as they made their way to the old church and the storm had passed fully, and with the timid light of dawn beginning to show on the eastern horizon Roger knew that more of the woods outlaws and bandits would be prowling in the low light hoping to come across a lone spice trader's cart as they make their way to the village to offer goods and such. Roger kept away from the roads and trails but the feeling of dread still haunted him. Spotting a small brook Roger stopped his horse to rest it and to stretch his legs.

"We're almost there. Just another half hour and we should be at the door." He said while he looked around him, the forest was beginning to look brighter, not as haunting with the quiet sounds of the night-time animals. Song birds began to come about and sing sweet tunes, a squirrel darted from tree to tree preparing for the long sleep of winter. Alec drank with the horse loudly before his head shot up, ears twitching. "Roger! Someone's coming!" he whispered a growl, Roger shoved him behind a group of large boulders hoping it would hide him.

"Hello there! A fine lad you must be to rise a early as this. I've taken great care in raising you, Roger." The deep reassuring voice of a kind man rung through the forest and Roger immediately lost his panic and instead great joy. "Father Orion!" Roger spun on his heel in the wet leaves and nearly slipped before running up to Orion. Clothed in the garb of an aged preacher Orion laughed and embraced the lad.

"And now my boy, what is it you are doing out here after such a storm? Bandits would welcome the chance to raid a young boy who got stuck in the mud." He asked with humor flowing out of his voice, his wise old face peered down on Roger, the young lad turned and paused before answering, "Well... I was heading to the church to find you. Father Orion... I.."

"And who's your fine friend? I can see his tail there." Orion was pointing to where Alec had hidden himself, but his tail was peeking out from behind the rock, clearly forgotten. Roger then fell into another panic as he knew he and Alec were caught.

But instead of fear or anger the man showed compassion and smiled warmly, "It's alright young beast. I know of your kind, your safe with me. Your name please child." At the man's words Roger's jaw went slack and his eyes full of disbelief. Alec peeked his head out from the rock like an innocent child who had been caught spying. "... A-Alec..S-sir.." Alec sputtered out, this human, even Roger showed fear at first sight, but this man known as Orion looked as if was looking at a blessed man... A look of hope?

"Alec... Fine name that is. Now Roger, how in the world did you find this dragon and why? I'm a man of patience so please do tell."