Silence was the only thing keeping him alive. He had escaped into the valley hours ago and moonrise had came and went. The loud buzzing of the valley had saved him several times already. His pursuers missing him by only a few yards, when he was sure that the beastkin could’ve heard his heartbeat. Sometimes he thought he heard the soft cries of an infant. Erak wondered if he was going insane. He kept walking.
Drooping eyelids and dragging feet were going to kill him, one wrong step, one wrong breath.. An owl flew about him, and it dove, catching some unfortunate rodent in its claws. Stars twinkled brightly, tantalizingly, laughing at him from their perch in the heavens. To keep his mind awake he tried to count the phases of the moons.
What was that- A howl? A snicker? The drawing of a bowstring? The cry of a child? A bat flew past his ears, he took a wild step back and his foot fell half an inch from a hole that would’ve surely twisted his ankle and into a soft bed of moss. His silver skin shimmered in the moonlight like the spider webs, he was going to die. He felt cold. He gazed up at the sky, trying to find hope in the moons’ cold faces, the twin fathers of his race stared at him with disappointment from the skies, did they regret their affair with the dragon mother now, seeing how far their spawn had fallen. Would he be safer in the day? Or at night? Even hunters had to sleep eventually. Even the hunted had to close their eyes.
Something moved, the forest sounds were loud in his ears, was it a deer? An enemy? A friend? It didn’t matter, he turned away, drifting from the deep rut formed by the monsoon to the deep forest, the forest was beautiful at night- Was he alone? No, his enemies were near, he could hear them behind the buzzing.
He needed to sleep, to rest. How long had it been since the wolf attacked? He’d lost too much blood. There was a soft rustling sound to his right, the forest grew silent, but the buzzing didn’t stop. he shivered and crouched down, hoping he would be hidden by the uncertain light. ((MANA)) was thick in the air, he forced his heart to stop racing and relaxed. Fireflies danced in the trees.
WARNING! YOU ARE SEVERELY-
He swiped the box away without even reading it. There was another sound. he turned his head, and the world seemed like it was in slow motion. A cloaked figure pounced from the undergrowth. A flash of light danced in the attacker’s hand, the defender sprang to his feet, but the attacker was faster, and wasn’t injured. The attacker knocked the defender to the ground. Rolling with the attack, the defender kicked himself free and stood unsteadily on his feet, he turned to run.
The attacker tackled the defender into a tree. Pinning him against it with a knife to his neck.
There was a brief moment where the two stared at each other. Two bright blue eyes of the exact same shade were reflected in the other. The moonlight seemed to glow a little stronger, as if specifically to illuminate their shadowed faces. There was a brief moment before Aren dropped the knife, where the twins were surprised to find themselves staring at a stranger.
Aren moved to engulf Erak in a hug. Erak flinched and pressed himself further against the tree. Aren paused.
“I’m surprised to see you this far out.” Aren said, clearing his throat and backing away.
“You would be, wouldn’t you?” Erak said, breathing heavily.
“…What’s that even supposed to mean?” Aren said, crossing his arms, “How are you mad at me already? I haven’t even seen you in over a year.”
“Would you like me to start with the most recent offense and work my way back from there?” Erak said, with a withering glare, “We apparently have some catching up to do.”
Aren gave his brother a dazzling smile. “That would do nicely, actually.”
Erak snarled at him. Aren looked at him, perplexed.
“Your friends tried to kill me.” Erak said,
“Oh.” Aren said, “Fair point. I am sorry about that., Although, I would’ve warned them if you sent me word of your approach.”
“You didn’t leave me any way to contact you.” Erak said, rolling his eyes.
“I did commit treason; wouldn’t have been the best look for you. Are we good now?” Aren asked, uncrossing his arms hopefully.
“Goodness eternal no. Why are you acting like this? How are you so nonchalant?” Erak said, frustration evident in his voice.
“Why are you acting like this? I have no idea what’s wrong, just tell me what I did to make you mad at me and I’ll do my best to fix it.” Aren said, taking another step away from Erak.
“Fix it? You can’t fix this, You- You really have no idea don’t you?” Erak said, he began to pace, even though his back stung with the half-forgotten wounds, and his legs burned.
“Erak you’re bleeding. If you can’t heal it, Thea knows some lesser healing and I’m sure- “
“Stop. Talking. Erann’d.” Erak said, burying his face in his hands and standing still.
Aren stopped, he slowly walked toward his brother. He put a hand gently on his shoulder, careful to avoid any wounds. “Tell me.”
Erak let out a shaky breath. “You have led to the end of our line Erann. You have killed everyone that came before us, and are the reason that no more will come after the lastborn. You have killed me. You have killed our father. You have killed yourself. Eriath is no longer our mother, and Herel is no longer our kingdom. Our name has been wiped from history. Every sin that our family has committed has led up to yours, and we have been bred from a tragic seed. I am not your brother. I do not exist.”
Aren did not react other than remove his hand from Erak’s shoulder. He was still for a long time, his eyes looking somewhere far away. He closed his eyes and looked toward the sky, then he turned back to Erak. “Herel is a wicked place. Its why I chose to leave it.”
Erak laughed sharply. “That’s all you have to say? You sent our entire bloodline to its death and Herel is a wicked place?”
“There is nothing else I can say.” Aren sighed,
Erak sighed as well. “I suppose not.”
“Lets go back to my camp, Thea can heal you, and we can sort out our familial issues later. We are a day’s journey ahead of the army, and while I doubt that they would take kindly to your sudden appearance, they wouldn’t take unkindly to it either.” Aren said,
“What are you talking about?” Erak asked,
“I know that they attacked you,” Aren said appeasingly, lifting a hand “But they aren’t bad people, and I recently was given a… promotion of sorts that would ensure protection from the Highmothers for both of us.”
“I’m not just going to defect Erann! just because my country decided to kill me doesn’t mean that I’m against the entire RNL, nor does it mean that I’m not the side of the Council.” Erak said,
Aren looked at him somberly. “Erak. I love you, and I respect your decision. I don’t know why you decided to climb the Inth but I’m glad that you did. I’m glad that you are alive and that you fled the pronouncement. I’m glad that you’re my twin, and I wouldn’t trade you for any of our other brothers.”
Erak sidestepped the tree to give himself freedom to move. “And?” He added, resignation in his voice.
“And I am not going to leave you to be hunted down by Nuthian, and whomever else the Highmothers have sent after our kin.” Aren said,
“And?” Erak said, readying blue fire behind his back, the momentary respite in the giving him time to inhale enough of the ((MANA)) rich air to manage some magic.
“And if I have to imprison you to protect you, I’m sure that I can manage it.” Aren said,
“You know.” Erak said, as he crafted the fire into a sharp point, “It’s funny, when people first meet us they always assume you’re the troublemaker, Although, you did commit treason.”
“They always assume you’re older too.” Aren said, smiling faintly.
“Yes, but they’re right about that.” Erak said, smiling back sadly.
“You aren’t going to come with me.” Aren sighed.
“I can’t.” Erak said,
“I know.” Aren said, then he lunged forward.
Aren tackled Erak to the floor, Erak stabbed the small blade of fire into Aren’s thigh. It was too small to cause any serious damage. Aren still shouted in pain, his hand instinctively went to his leg, giving Erak the opening to kick Aren off him and jump to his feet. Erak began to run. The exhaustion from his previous escapades threatening to pull him to the ground. There was no chance he would be able to make it through the forest, so instead he slid into one of the deep empty ruts, and began to run downhill, to wherever the water had gone.
“Hey!” Aren shouted after him, and there was a blinding flash of light from behind him.
A Beacon. Erak tried to force a little more speed out of his broken body. He was gasping for breath as he ran, you weren’t supposed to breathe through your mouth, but he could barely seem to breath at all. The air was almost thicker here. A ((MANA)) concentration much higher than what should be in a place like this. The trees where tall, and even in the night clearly a deep green, the rains left very little damage here.
He heard footsteps behind him. Along with ragged breathing. Aren. His footsteps were almost drowned out by the buzzing- For some reason, even though he was running for his life, that dang song kept running through his mind. An orb of light soared past his head and he heard Aren shout wordlessly, he was getting closer. It was a feeling deep in his bones. He was getting closer.
The path bended and Erak turned the corner to find three giant ants. They didn’t look quite like normal ants, other than their giantness. They were clearly Dungeon monsters. He had come looking for a Dungeon hadn’t he? He had found the Inth’s loudest valley. All that was left was for him to seek refuge.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
The ants were more afraid of Erak than he was of them. He felt his muscles begin to seize again but he kept running. The ants scattered out of the way. Before turning around and running in the same direction Erak was. Seemingly from Erak. They were running too something. They were running home.
The ants quickly over took him, Aren was gaining as well, but it wasn’t long before the trees broke into clearing. The ((MANA)) in the air only growing thicker. He saw the ants skittering around a pit in the ground. The Dungeon. Erak had almost made it to the pit when Aren tackled him, and they rolled inside.
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Empress was suddenly greeted by the feeling that Something was different… but she couldn’t place what. Doktor let out confused pheromones. So, she must have felt it too, the other ((SAFE_ROOM)) ants looked around wildly. Gatherer crashed through the doors leading to the ((SAFE_ROOM)), she was signaling frantically and incoherently.
Empress didn’t wait for her to calm herself enough for an explanation, it was clear enough, something was wrong. She appeared in the entrance hall. Seven gatherers had circled around something, while one gatherer limped away toward Doktor , Empress pinged them to disburse and they scattered, leaving a clear view of what had gotten them so interested.
Two bipeds were on the floor, they were both slivery and had silver on top of their heads, although, one of them had much longer silver and was injured. They were fighting, which Empress thought was strange, but what was stranger was that her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged them as drones. Which couldn’t be right, because then they wouldn’t be fighting. They would be too busy preparing to start a new colony to be fighting, in her ((DOMAIN)) no less, but her ((UNDERSTANDING)) hadn’t been wrong yet. So, she just assumed that bipeds were strange.
The injured one was losing the fight, the other one seemed stronger. Huh, Empress was surprised by how much she didn’t care, if they didn’t attack her ants. But then again, why would she? Still, it was interesting enough to watch, she floated closer, the bipeds were speaking in a language that she couldn’t understand, despite her ((UNDERSTANDING)) constantly going off in the background.
The stronger stood up, the injured one did not, he had red hemolymph dripping from his nose and from several slashes on his back. Empress pinged Guard, she didn’t want this to be messy. The injured one pulled himself up into a sitting position and began to speak again. She still didn’t understand him, but that wasn’t what she was paying attention to, instead, behind his back there was a flickering of silvery light, the light morphed and changed, it turned from symbols to numbers, to words. The message was only one word long.
Help
Empress blinked, this had suddenly gotten a lot more interesting, she pinged Guard again, this time to hurry. The stronger one was shouting now, his hands were shaking, and he seemed afraid? Of what? Or maybe it was an emotion she couldn’t ((UNDERSTAND)) the injured one stood up shakily, the stronger one advanced, and the injured one seemed to figure out at the same time Empress did, that help wasn’t going to arrive in time. He broke out into a weak stumbling run, but he fell before he could make it very far. Guard was in the spawner room now, but the injured didn’t get back up. He looked in the general direction of her ((GAZE)) but it was clear that he couldn’t see her. Empress was thinking wildly, this biped could communicate with her, at least to some extent, and was willing to, this was a chance to figure out more about the outside world, a chance to find out what was past her forcefield.
she needed someone to get there fast, the stronger one was nearing the other, Gatherer couldn’t fight, Runner couldn’t make it. She blinked, now that was an idea, there was no time to doubt herself, she pinged the mosquitos. The young swarm instantly began to zip through the corridors, their small bodies and wings making them quickly overtake Guard, the swarm soon came into view, a thick black cloud, buzzing like mad, they filled the hallway, although on the way they had condensed into a much smaller form, the two bipeds stared, Empress pinged the swarm and pinned them on the stronger one. They rushed forward, somehow one mass but distinctly individual, Empress felt her ((MANA)) begin to rise as they attacked the Biped.
He was coughing, and waving his arms, and then he started to back away, he began to run for the entrance, everything forgotten but the swarm. Guard and her legionnaires burst into the entrance hall, in what must’ve been a well-practiced maneuver, the two smallest majors began to drag the injured one out of the room while the rest charged, with Guard at the front. Empress pinged the Swarm to withdraw and they floated back, behind the guards, but still blocking the entrance to further into her ((DOMAIN)). The Biped was coughing and several mosquitos floated sluggishly out of his mouth, then found a place to perch on the walls.
The Biped stared at the guards for a moment, but the obsidian ants lowered their huge heads and opened their mandibles, ready to attack. The Biped struggled to climb over the small cliff, but he managed it and stumbled out of the Dungeon.
VICTORIOUS ENCOUNTER, +50 MANA
Swiping away the box and pinging Gatherer to halt all expeditions until further notice, Empress then pinged Guard and the Swarm to return to their posts. She hadn’t had the mosquito spawner for very long, but if that was the affect they could have on a threat… The group started to disburse and Empress floated over to the ((SAFE_ROOM)). The ((SAFE_ROOM))-ants were all scuttling around the injured biped, he groaned and the trio backed away.
Empress tried to reach out to the biped the same way she did with her colonists, but she was met with a cold emptiness. She bobbed up and down contemplatively. The biped carefully shifted into a sitting position, he looked around the room, and at the trio of ants.
He looked pale, or less shiny and tears began to form in his eyes, then he blinked them away, all while keeping a calm expression, he glanced at the blood on his hands and began to speak. ((MANA)) flowed out of him and into the air, dancing with his words, the bright blue strands stretching out to form tributaries. Charged with mystical energy that no one understood or wanted to understand, then it shifted, it weaved into a new pattern, a new line of ((CODE)) then it filtered into his back. Ge visibly relaxed, and his eyes cleared slightly, Empress looked on transfixed, her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged softly, a spell… he ran his hand through the black sand, then he smoothed it out, he hesitated for a moment before drawing in the sand.
I am hurt, I cannot heal myself.
Empress tilted her ((GAZE)), He wiped away the words, his face passive and unreadable, and began again
I thank you for your help, I am sorry that I have nothing to offer you in return but knowledge and stories.
Blinking, Empress turned to Doktor , the ant scuttled forward. Her soft steps kicking up a few grains of sand as she approached. Erak looked at the ant, a hint of confusion showing through his neutral expression. Doktor began to circle the biped slowly, inspecting, she let out a burst of pheromones, and the other two ((SAFEROOM))-ants approached. He lifted an arm, as if to protect himself, but Doktor tilted her head to the side, and lowered her mandibles, she let out a soft buzzing sound that seemed to calm him somewhat. She approached again, this time the biped let her. She crouched over his leg, and carefully peeled back some of the damaged clothing covering it.
Angry red gashes were revealed. They weren’t deep and Doktor began to apply the thick white salve. The drones stone face quickly vanished, replaced by disgust. Doktor waited a moment, and the bipeds face changed again as the paste hardened. He nodded to her, and took off his shirt. Tossing the shirt, which was more of a shredded rag, to the side. Wounds along with black scars filled his back. Six claw marks scrapped deep into his flesh, interrupting the picture painted by the rest of his scars. Doktor clacked her mandibles, then she looked up at Empress.
Empress glowed dimly. Doktor practically cooed at the biped. He bended over, and allowed Doktor to apply the paste. Runner trotted into the room with a piece of fruit in her mandibles, her stride hesitated when she saw the biped, but she hastily walked forward and plopped it into his lap, she waved an antenna to her sister and left the ((SAFE_ROOM)) as quickly as possible without breaking into a run.
The biped looked exhausted, but he grabbed the fruit and inspected it for a moment, he scooted over to the pond with a grunt and rinsed the sand off, he shook the water from the fruit and bit into its red flesh, the inside was white and it made an audible crunching sound. Huh. The biped devoured the fruit, but he left its ((CORE)) intact, he tossed it to one of the ((SAFEROOM))-ants who deftly caught the ((CORE)) and swallowed it.
The man wiped the juice from his chin and yawned, he looked around. The Dungeon was dark, he was sure it would be pitch black if he didn’t have night vision. He was able to make out what looked to be a fire pit, and some torches on the walls, his ((MANA POOL)) was bottoming out, even with the slight boost from the apple. He summoned fire and the torches on the walls sputtered to life, casting the room in a blue glow, his eyes quickly adjusted, the fire pit was empty, but he saw some logs strewn about the room. He tried to stand up, but the ((SAFE_ROOM)) ants protested. So he sat. He raised an arm, silver text appeared, then sputtered.
A pained look came across his face, but he quickly hid it. Then he sighed. And began to write in the sand.
I am Erak Eithidien, my mother is Eriath, I am a Luna Elf formally of the kingdom Herel. This world is named Mazre, this continent is named Litone, and you are in a mountain range named the Inth peaks.
Her ((UNDERSTANDING)) pinged rapidly, each new word defining itself instantly, Empress hummed in excitement. Erak smoothed away his words, he waited before responding as if he didn’t know what to say next.
I am a ((READER)), a biped trained over a long period to communicate with Dungeons. I came here searching for Dungeons but was attacked.
There is a war in Litone, between many peoples, so it is dangerous to travel.
I apologize for leading him to your domain it was an act of desperation, please forgive me.
If he returns, please do not hurt him.
I am a part of a guild for ((READERS)), in years past, Dungeons were not given proper rights, despite being fully sapient beings, and citizens of various kingdoms. The ((READERS)) guild hopes to prevent this. I cannot hear you, but I can sense you in a way, through the ((MANA WAVES))
He erased his words and started again,
The Inth mountains are perilous at the best of times, and I am being hunted, may I stay here until they have gone? I will do my best to assist you in anything that you need and answer any questions you may have.
Empress nodded, but Erak did not seem to react. “Yes?” she tried aloud, but he did not react, she tilted her ((GAZE)), strange, she thought about how she communicated with her ants. They spoke through pheromones, she spoke with words, but they both spoke with emotions, she unfocused her ((GAZE)) and tried to think of the idea of agreement.
After a blink, Erak seemed to deflate, all his muscles relaxed, and he suddenly looked very different, he gave a weak nod of thanks and carefully laid down on the sand. Like the ants did, he burrowed slightly to make an indent, then he closed his eyes and his breaths became slow and regular. His hair was gently strewn on the sand, and the platinum blond made the dark grey sand look black as charcoal, he looked peaceful as he slept, but a shadow rested permanently on his face, he pulled his arms to his chest, holding his hands over his heart as if it pained him, his legs were slightly bent, but not held to his chest, the blue firelight reflected off his shimmering sliver skin.
Empress looked at him for a moment, she wondered at how quickly he could change, he went from afraid and running, to polite and businesslike, now he seemed almost melancholic. Her ants didn’t change like that, neither did the mosquitos. She wondered if she changed, the thought scared her. she watched him sleep for a long time, and Empress decided that she was going to protect this strange creature.
As she headed toward Builder, she passed through the spawner room, The Nameless One gave her an acknowledging clack. She could see the growing glow of the moss from the spawner room and she made a mental note to check up on Gardener. She floated through the hallway connecting the storeroom to the flooded hallway. Ants lined the walls and floor, most of them were runners, but occasionally you would see a builder, or a guard on patrol. A runner zoomed past on the left wall, dashing right through her ((GAZE)). Empress froze, then she shivered, the ant continued without noticing, she waited for another blink, and then she entered the storeroom.
Stocker was sleeping in a small ditch unaware of the bustle of construction, the room was still in shambles, but she would deal with that later. Empress turned to where the builder ants were hard at work on the hallway above the flooded hallway. The Swarm buzzed softly and settled on the walls and on the floating pieces of driftwood, the builders were second-guessing every step, trying not to smush the nearly invisible mosquitos as they carried out chunks of earth to the runner’s waiting below, this precarious dance occasionally resulted in builders falling into the swampy water.
Builder navigated her crew until she had crawled on the roof and scuttled from her position in the newest part of the tunnel into the storeroom to look at Empress, she expressed discontent.
“She doesn’t think these conditions seem ideal.” She replied slowly, watching as another builder plummeted into the flooded hallway.
Builder began to pace back and forth angrily; the hallway was taking twice as long as it should.
Empress reached out to her with her mind, trying to calm her, but all she was met with was frustration, recoiling slightly she spoke, “She’ll see what she can do.”
Builder stormed off hissing at a mosquito as she passed, the offending insect flew up and landed on a crowded piece of driftwood.
Empress pinged the Swarm, and instantly an uncountable amount of tiny flying bugs shot up into the air. They congregated in the storeroom, buzzing loudly, their wings working the air in the Storeroom up into a soft breeze. Stocker didn’t stir from her sleep. Not knowing quite what to do next, Empress hesitated, where could she put them? They would be in the hallways, maybe the ((SAFE_ROOM)) ceiling? could she make some kind of enclave? She glanced at her ((MANA POOL)) she probably could, but it was too dangerous to send out expeditions right now, she couldn’t recover ((MANA)) easily and she wasn’t sure if she was stable enough with people looking for Erak.
Something clicked, a way to solve both her problems. Empress ((COMMANDED)) the Swarm to go to the entrance hallway. The Swarm zipped through the Dungeon, dislodging more than one ant on its way. She pinged Gatherer, maybe a little too late, the swarm arriving before Gatherer could warn her teams. The gatherers were all lazing around or sleeping, the ones who were awake dashed out of the way of the Swarm while the sleeping ones flailed in shock as they were awoken by mosquitos landing on top of them.
Gatherer stood at the top of the small cliff, which was about the height of Erak, she expressed confusion.
“Can you send the Swarm on expeditions?” Empress hummed,
Gatherer nodded, but she seemed disappointed, and a little scared.
“Your teams will go back out once we are sure that you can’t be followed.” Empress promised, sensing Gatherer’s fear, she added, “Besides, they can’t gather materials, it’s mostly to get them out of the way.”
Leaving the Swarm with Gatherer, Empress wasn’t sure what else to do everything was in order, she floated toward the moss hallway. She was glad that she had the leader ants, without them she could never be able to expand. But it did leave her without much to do sometimes. She wondered how much they understood when she talked to them.
Entering the moss hallway, Empress bobbed up and down as she looked at the well-manicured paths and well, gardens of thick glowing moss. She looked around for the Gardeners, but, even though she sensed them, she couldn’t see them. Empress floated around the hallway, toward where she sensed the gardeners, they didn’t seem to be physically there. Which was impossible. She scanned the hallway, in one patch the moss seemed to be less thick, and she looked closer, inside of a small divot were three very mossy ants, curled up in sleep. Empress made a nearly silent “Oh.” sound and slowly floated away as if her ((GAZE)) would make some kind of sound if she moved too quickly
Slipping into the ((SANCTUM)) Empress flicked through her ((MENU)) absentmindedly, she already knew what she would find, other than a few minor stat changes, it was the same, it was strange when she was younger, she couldn’t get away from her ((MENU)) but now? She opened her ((SKILLS)) tab,
MENU
STATUS SKILLS HELP ROOMS REPUTATION OVERVIEW
MANA MANIPULATION LV 1 RANK 1
You can, to some extent, control mana around and inside you, has many uses.
MANA INFUSION LV 1 RANK 1
You can, to some extent, infuse mana into objects and beings, has many uses.
TOGGLE GAZE LV 1 RANK 1: You can adjust the amount of light you perceive with your primary sensory ‘organ’ to some extent. RARE
UNDERSTANDING LV 2 RANK 1: You gain a certain amount of knowledge and comprehension when you encounter a being or concept for the first time. RARE
UNPREDICTABLE LV 1 RANK 1: Due to not being a match for your species’ compatible alignments, you have gained the ability to adjust the alignments of your colonists
She sighed and closed the box. Empress flicked off her ((GAZE)) and relaxed, she felt the ((MANA)) in her ((DOMAIN)), each of her ants was like a little splotch of light. The mosquitos were like glowing pinpricks, they had already begun to form another swarm, although it would take them a while to become a nuisance.
The moss shined as much with ((MANA)) as it did light, and the Biped, no, Erak was positively shining. Empress could feel fragments of Erak seeping into the ground, being absorbed, and turning into pure ((MANA)). She softly shook her ((GAZE)), and pushed it back toward him. She didn’t know how much he could stand to lose, almost as an afterthought, she pushed some of her ((MANA)) toward him too. Empress couldn’t sleep, but she grew still, in an almost trancelike state that conserved ((MANA)) and allowed her to process her experiences. She was still aware of her wider self, but her mind was confined to her ((CORE)), and the rest of her ((DOMAIN)) was a soft, lucid dream, that she guided along without much thought.
