Journey Chapter 39

“I don’t know, the wyvern that carried me was named something else. How about you Crimson?” Nightfall asked

“No, the wyvern that took me was named Viper.” Crimson said, Forest took a moment to look around himself. The nesting ledge was only a small part of the wyvern’s home, with several catacombs of different sizes

“Well, it doesn’t really matter. I think we should run for it!” Nightfall said.

“We are stuck in a trench with no walkway exit. We’re trapped in a den of wyverns.” Crimson said.

“I don’t know, they seem very polite and friendly to us. I think we should wait before we make any decisions.” Forest said.

“Wait, Nightfall. Why are you against being here? You seemed to know what this place had and its residents. Why do you want to run for it now?” Forest continued,

“I was hoping it was still under benevolent dictatorship by Ashmaster the Kind or his successor. But I guess our information on the Wyvern’s government here is old news and hasn’t been properly updated.” Nightfall said whispering,

“Is that really the only reason why you want to run?” Crimson asked.

“No it’s not the only reason, but it is a pretty good reason for us. Under the benevolent dictatorship that was held, their leaders were mainly going to be Fire Wyverns. But with the government they have, a Lightning Wyvern was elevated to a chief status because of his great leadership and kindness towards others. But here they are also known for their generational history and knowing things most other creatures forgot about. Including that troodons have a secret order here on Scorched Earth. They dislike our knowledge-hoarding nature and they consider us a cult. Which is true, but that’s beside the point. If they know I’m here, they might tell the entire Ark about it and this will cause a bloody mess if the Order here decides to contain it.” Nightfall said.

“How do you know this?” Crimson asked.

“Because we spy on these types of colony creatures. It lets us know what they know and if they are willing to share it with the Arks. Lightning wyverns here on Scorched Earth are truly the main concern for colony creatures.” Nightfall explained.

“So you know about Rock Drake culture and history too by your species spying?” Forest asked getting further off topic.

“Actually, No. Your culture and your species in general are something we’ve never really known about due to your agoraphobic and germaphobic nature. We know that your species is closely related to wyverns but that’s really it.” Nightfall said.

“How come you know so little?” Forest asked.

“Because we only know three places where Rock Drakes exist today, there are several other sites where there’s evidence of Rock Drakes living there. But it’s all Archaeological, with nesting sites existing, and items that were in caves near nests are presumed to be owned by Rock Drakes. But we still haven’t found the original site for the beginning existence of Rick Drakes. However, the troodons are beginning to wonder if Fjordur is the ancestral homeland for Rock Drakes. But it doesn’t help that your species are very reclusive and prefer to stay near their nests. Plus the radiation is highly dangerous to us.” Nightfall explained.

Forest was surprised by this. He didn’t realize that even the most informed creatures of the entire world couldn’t explain or didn’t know more about his group or his species than he did. All he knew was what his parents told him and his sisters about their family and how their species was related to wyverns. Even though he didn’t know what a wyvern was at the time, he always wondered what they would look like and asked if his parents had met any. But his parents had never met one from what they told him.

“Forest, are you okay?” Nightfall asked,

“What? Oh, yeah. I’m okay, just thinking that’s all.” Forest said.

“Well, I think we need to go. I do not want to be vaporized by Kiminari for being a Troodon.” Nightfall said.

“Vaporized?” Forest asked as he looked back at Nightfall.

“Yeah, they shoot a lethal amount of lightning out of their mouths!!! I don’t wanna be here for that if they aren’t welcoming to Troodons.” Nightfall said as he looked around for a way down from the nest. Forest shook his head at Nightfall was being so paranoid. Forest looked back into the cavern they were in. He saw several openings further down the cavern. It seemed to have several chambers connected to this one nest. Forest took a moment, contemplating whether he should be snooping around another’s nest. However, his curiosity got the best of him as he went down the cavern to peek inside the chambers.

He looked down the first one to see a small nest inside the chamber. There were rocks lined up across one of the chamber walls with other smaller branches and crystals on each of the other walls. With one small exception. The wall with crystals running along it had a centerpiece of something strange. It was a weird flat tablet-like object, grey in coloration with a hint of cyan. It had a strange texture to it when looking at it. Forest was almost drawn to it for some strange reason. Then he started feeling something tickle his back in his bag. He took his bag off and opened it to see the rune vibrate and glow rhythmically. Stranger yet was the strange object almost did the same, with a hint of cyan glowing from this object. Forest thought it was very strange for both to be glowing at the same time. Then Forest realized that they were doing it because they were close to each other. But Forest didn’t understand why… why did they both react to each other like this? He set the rune down in his bag, then he grabbed this unusual object. It almost hummed with its own power. But this power was different from the rune’s. It was one that touched the core of his very existence. Forest marveled at this strange item for a moment.

“Well if they aren’t you might wanna hide. There’s a wyvern coming this way.” Crimson said from the original nest area, Forest heard Nightfall let out a pteranodon squawk. Forest eyes went wide as he suddenly scurried out of the chamber and ran back to the main nest. Worried about what the wyvern might do to them if it caught him snooping. He just got out in time to see Nightfall dive into the nest and bury himself in the nest’s materials. From where he stood, he could also see the wyvern flying towards the nest area. It was young from how big it looked to the others, same age as them maybe: although he couldn’t say that with the present company he had. The wyvern was flying excitedly towards the nest until it saw him and Crimson in the nest area. It slowed down in mid-air to a stop and stared at them for a moment, before flying down towards them, landing in the nest next to Forest. It was a dark red with yellow and black stripes and patterning. Its colors made her look like the wyvern that carried him here, but it looked more like Viper in appearance.

“Uh, hello there.” The wyvern asked,

“Hello!! My name is Forest and this is Crimson.” Forest said gesturing to Crimson, Crimson simply nodded her head in confirmation. The wyvern looked at them both confused.

“Can I ask something?” She asked almost confused, like something was the matter.

“Uh, sure!” Forest said,

“Why are you here? Like here in our nest? Don’t you guys get dropped off at Kaminari’s nest? Why were you brought to ours?” She said,

“We don’t know, we were just brought here by several wyverns. The one leading them was named Viper.” Forest said. The wyvern's facial expression seemed to calm down.

“She told me to go home, she didn’t tell me why though. She said she had to go see Kiminari. I assumed that it was because there were new arrivals. But I didn’t think she meant I would be with them.” She said, she looked at both of them for a while.

“Who are you?” Crimson asked bluntly.

“What?”

“What gives you the right to ask why we are here when we don’t even know who you are?”

“If someone randomly shows up in your home without prior knowledge of them coming, would you ask why they are in your home?… My name is Coral, my mother is Commander Viper.” She said, Crimson didn’t apologize, she merely snorted at what Coral said.

“We were told to hang out with you and that you might be able to answer a few of our questions.” Forest said,

“I will answer whatever questions you want, but I have one more question. Why are you here, at the Scar I mean? Why come to this… hellish place?” Coral asked. Forest was surprised to hear her call her home hellish. I mean, Forest agreed, it was hellish compared to what he was so used to. But still, he didn’t expect to have her call her own home that.

“We need to find a way out of this place. We met a Fasolasuchus named Methuselah who said—” “Methuselah!!! He’s back!!!” The wyvern asked excitedly, interrupting Forest.

“We aren’t sure if he’s here. We just know that he took us here thinking they might know a way off for us.”

“Oh, but why do you want to leave? I haven’t really left The Scar much. But when I have gone out on remote trips with my father. The world here is so beautiful. So why would you want to leave?” Coral asked. Crimson rolled her eyes at this.

“Because we aren’t from here. We’re from… another place. We came from somewhere called Fjordur.”

“Fjordur? Like the one in the legend?”

“Huh?”

“There’s a legend of three creatures of Fjordur, the three were said to be the slayers of a tyrannical wyvern, one who ruled the land with an iron talon. They destroyed him and were heroes to the entire land. Have you ever heard of it?! I mean since you lived there, it should be more prevalent, right?” Coral asked excitedly, Forest looked at Crimson. Who already had a confused and gobsmacked expression.

“Five.” A muffled voice said,

“Huh?” Coral said, Nightfall then appeared from the with a small explosion of sticks and bones. Coral jumped back, flapping her wings in response to him jumping out of nowhere. Nightfall gripped the ground as he held his ground against the wind her wings made. A branch flew back into his head. He squawked in pain.

“What’s the big deal!!”

“You’re telling me what’s wrong when you appear literally out of my mother’s nest like a deathworm?!” Coral said to him in an astonished tone. She looked at the ground and saw the sticks and bones and gasped. She started to pick up these pieces of the nest in her talons and tried to rearrange them back in the nest. Crimson and Forest looked at her oddly while Nightfall brushed himself off from being inside the nest.

“He’s with us, he’s just paranoid.” Crimson told her,

“That’s besides the point, the fact is, that there are five who took on the wyvern. And Jethezzar wasn’t a tyrannical wyvern was he? We honestly don’t know what his GAH-” Nightfall said before getting Crimson’s tail down his throat.

“Wait, there’s more. We only know of the ones who were… foretold—” Coral said before pausing. “What did you say you were?” She continued as she stared at Forest.

“Huh?” Forest asked,

“What are you? Species? Creature that you are.”

“Oh, we-well, I’m a Rock Drake.” Forest said, Coral sort of chuckled and shook her head.

“No, you're not.” She said,

“What? Yes, I am.”

“No, you are not! Rock Drakes are huge dragons with large wings that are covered in sand, stone and dirt. They’re known to spew magma from their gullets and have myths of making the mountains here. They went extinct though and their remnants were buried in the dunes.” Coral said. They all looked dumbfounded.

“Who told you that?” Nightfall asked. Coral looked at him.

“Well, not really anyone in particular, but many of the wyverns have said these things about Rock Drakes, and these stories have been told over and over by Fire and Poison Wyverns.” Coral said. Crimson smirked and nudged Forest.

“Well hey, guess we got the broken one. This one doesn’t even have wings, just silly feathers on his legs and forearms.” She said in a joking manner. Forest ignored the joke.

“Well, that’s something… but that isn’t a Rock Drake.”

“I think the word Drake should signify that the Dracornid does not have wings.”

“Oh, so then why do they call you Rock Drakes?” Coral asked. Forest was about to speak when.

“Because they’re Drakes, and they live under rocks?” Nightfall said. Coral turned back and looked at Forest.

“Is that it?” Coral asked. Forest kinda looked surprised. “Can you even fly?” Coral asked. Forest was shocked, and kinda upset about this.

“Of course I can fly.” Forest said trying to play it off, Crimson smirked while Nightfall looked at him confused.

“You can?” Crimson asked smirking, “I thought Rock Drakes can only glide, not true power flight?” Nightfall added to the conversation.

“It’s still flight, not just the best kind. And we have other stuff too. We have colony nests, and-and camouflage, and… feathers.” Forest said before stopping, he started feeling like he was making a fool of himself and he needed to stop. Coral looked Forest with an excited expression.

“Wait, you live in colony nests like us? Cool!! Then you might know someone or even know the Rock Drake from the legend!?” Coral said excitedly. Forest smiled awkwardly, knowing very well the ‘legendary rock drake’ was him.

“Well, I do know him!” Forest said, with a smile on his face. Coral got all the more excited.

“It’s a him!! That’s really cool!! He must be this huge drake if he defeated a flying wyvern. What’s he like?” Coral asked. Forest didn’t know what to say from there. So he went to something his parents told him as a hatchling, the best thing to do when you don’t know what to do is blurt the truth out.

“Well, he’s me.”

The Riddles of The phoenixes

The Lost world

Chapter four: Roomates

Later a servant showed Cedric to his room. “You’ll have a few roommates.” The servant said. Cedric grinned. “Really?” He asked excitedly. She nodded. He opened the door of his room and shut it behind him, thanking the servant. Two boys were in there. One was a boy with dark skin, black shortish long hair, and dark green eyes, and was wearing a white T-shirt and dark blue jeans and had earbuds in and one sitting on one of the top bunks. The other boy had chestnut brown hair and blue eyes and was wearing narrow horn rimmed black glasses, a blue T-shirt and khaki shorts. Cedric’s eyes lit up with delight as he spotted the chestnut haired boy. “OLIVER!!!” He cried and tightly hugged his best friend. Oliver Swan, the son of Elizabeth and Eric who were friends with his father. Finally he released Oliver. Oliver was rather skinny and not as strong as Cedric, so he wheezed a bit after Cedric’s bear hug. “Nice to see you, buddy.” Oliver said shyly, pushing up his glasses. “I had no idea you would be here. I thought you hated school.” Oliver said. Cedric grinned. “I do. It was either this or get grounded for a year.” Cedric replied. Oliver grimaced. “Oof, harsh. That’s Kannon.” He motioned to the boy on top the bunk. Cedric looked up at him. Kannon waved but said nothing. “He’s a mute.” Oliver said. “Then how did you know his name was, Kannon?” Cedric asked. “I understand sign language. In fact I know a lot of languages, Spanish, French, Morse code-” Cedric interrupted him, holding his hand up. “I don’t need to know that. No offense, but there’s a reason why I don’t pay attention in class.” Oliver laughed. Cedric did not. “Wait….you’re serious?” Oliver asked. Cedric grinned and set his suitcase down on a empty bunk. “It’s so hot in here.” Cedric said, walking over to the window. The window was jammed. Cedric looked around, spotted a large heavy book on his bed, grabbed it and casually shattered the window by slamming the book into it. The book fell from the window and landed with a thud on top of something. A person hit the ground unconscious below. Cedric stuck his head out the window and called, “Sorry!”

He shrugged and turned around to see Oliver and Kannon staring at him, mouths agape. “What? I’m sure he’s fine.” Kannon blinked and yanked his earbuds out. “That was the guide to the school. We each got a copy and we’re supposed to study it.” Oliver exclaimed. Cedric shrugged recklessly. Kannon made a few strange motions with his hands. “Kannon asked, how are you going to study?” Oliver said. Cedric shrugged again. “I guess I’ll just wing it.” He replied. Oliver blinked rapidly and Kannon raised his eyebrows in a incredulous expression. Cedric grinned and stuck his head out the window, letting the breeze hit his face.

Rowan walked into her room. The only person in the room was a teenage girl with short, curled honey blonde hair, milky white, unsunburnt, skin and blue colored eyes. She was standing in the middle of the room, watching as a servant unloaded the rest of her possessions. Finally the servant was done and left in a hurry. The girl turned and faced Rowan. “Oh hi! I’m Princess Elayne of the Red phoenixes. And who are you? Are you my servant?” She asked, with a haughty tilt of her head. Rowan blinked. “ I’m Rowan. I think we’re roommates and I’M definitely not your servant. ” Rowan said.

Elayne pursed her lips. “OK….but could you be my servant?” Elayne asked. Rowan scowled at her. “NO!!” She cried. Elayne raised her hands in surrender. “Fine. Whatever…” Rowan unpacked her suitcase and then sat on top of the top bunk, listening to Elayne’s chatter. “So what do you think I should wear tomorrow? A dress or jeans and a blouse?” Elayne asked. Rowan shrugged and felt her elegant hair bun to make sure it was still neat.

Elayne continued talking to herself. “Wearing a dress would be a little too proper for the first day, don’t you think? Now what about the white or the lilac blouse? Huh?” Rowan ignored her and sat back on the bunk and read through a book labeled “The Arks”. “Are you IGNORING ME?!” Elayne asked, dramatically. Rowan didn’t answer. Elayne scowled and tossed her hair. “Fine! Be that way!” Rowan ignored the drama queen. Eventually they went to bed, Rowan slept on the top bunk. It took a while for Elayne to fall asleep(She was ranting about how soft the pillows and mattresses were compared to these “hard blocks of stone beds” at the school)but when she finally did, Rowan sat up for a few more hours, reading. Finally she laid the book aside and laid down. She fell asleep a few seconds later.

-SunnyFox57

Deja-vu

Part 1

Here I start, born anew, as if I was never here, as if I had never been, as if- my very existence- was not at all.

I begin on a world unlike anything else, I was cold, and exhausted, it was not like my first world, but…different.

My implant, was not like the other, it read different, i- I looked different, my skin was no longer fair, but dark, my hair, was no longer of brightest wheat, it was black as night, and my eyes, they're were a copper, almost…brown.

Like the frozen earth below my very feet.

The raspy calls of the parasaurs sounded as I walked, feet numb on the frozen ground below, the only warmth, was from the sun above.

-SB8960

Deja-vu

Part 2

I walk on for miles, cold, shivering, my only warm supplied by the rapidly sinking sun, and what little garments I have to clothe my otherwise bare body.

For the first time in a long time…I felt- lost.

I stared about in growing desperation, with each step, my body weakened, what little morale i had, had died long ago.

I cross over the gray beaches toward the far lands, a wooded patch far ahead, and after a long bout of trekking, I reached it.

A long stretch of wood, parasaurs, dilophosaurs, and dodos, all creatures I had become familiar with, dotting the wooded land.

As I gazed around, my eye caught a beast of metal hide, glowing with a mechanical light, it was a parasaur…but not.

Despite my frail body, and weakened state, I threw all caution to the wind, and charged toward the beast, it only stared in a confused trance, before I met it, with my fists, the sharp pain of flesh meeting metal stung, and bruised, but as it ran, I felt a surge of hope, and so I charged after, heart alight with the hope of tomorrow.

-SB8960

Thes are the Minions of steinbjorn

Idk what these ar just wanted to comment