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The sensation of stepping through the gate was like being plunged into freezing cold water. Dusk felt himself clench his eyes shut, gasping instinctually at the shock. But instead of a mouthful of freezing water like he expected, he inhaled hot, moist air that smelled like a mix of dirt, decaying leaves, and deep forest. Opening his eyes he found himself under a dense canopy of trees and completely surrounded by greenery. Vines trailed over everything, climbing from the forest floor to the canopy where it reached from branch to branch. Many of them bore delicious-looking purple fruit while others had bright white flowers with yellow centers. Even amongst the medley of scents, Dusk thought he could pick up the hints of the floral sweetness.
He turned about, taking in the scene. The area in which they stood mostly consisted of tan stone. It looked as if it had been cleared away some time ago but was being slowly encroached upon by ferns, lush plant life, and had been mostly covered in moss. Just a few inches behind him was an enormous cave opening draped so heavily in vines that it could have been mistaken for a cliff. Something within the foliage caught a glint of sunlight and Dusk squinted. Looking closer he saw the entire mouth of the cave was dotted with peridot crystals, all of them clustering against the stone like some strange lichen spreading over the surface. He knew what must lie inside.
“Don’t dawdle so long next time,” Lex said, stepping up next to him. “Both of us thought you were going to miss the gate!”
“Sorry,” Dusk replied, tearing his gaze away from the cavern, the last traces of the gate having already disappeared. “I was worried about Tara.”
“Believe me, she can take care of herself.”
“I’ll be quicker next time.” He turned his attention up to Lyra who was standing over them. “Where are we, Lyra?”
“We’re two days' flight from the northern coast, deep within the mountain jungles of Rhykandria. This is the southern continent.” She looked down at the two of them. “You won’t find any humans here. There are still a few Rhyka tribes who call the jungles home, but not many anymore. Mostly it's just beasts larger than any you’ve ever seen and poisonous plants and animals, so keep a sharp eye. This place is much more dangerous than it appears.”
Dusk immediately looked around in their small clearing at the mouth of the cave. There were a few bugs skittering over the moss, but nothing more. A few feet to his left his eye caught a flash of yellow. He looked up and saw a small golden colored frog with black eyes resting on a large leaf. It was so small, but incredibly beautiful and glossy in the sunlight. A tiny part of him wanted to walk over and pick it up.
Lyra was following his gaze. “The frogs included,” she warned. “Even those will kill you and ten other men your size just by touching them.”
Dusk immediately took a step backward, suddenly worried it might take a flying leap and try to do him in right there. After all the things they’d been through, it would have been quite a blow to his pride to be killed by a frog, not that he’d have long to stew over it.
“Alright,” Lex sang nervously. “Let’s get the fuck out of here as fast as we can, huh?”
“First we need some of the crystals,” Lyra replied, gesturing towards the cave with her head with a sigh. “Haldura is inside.”
Dusk noticed a hint of sadness in her voice at the mention of the name. “Lead the way,” he said.
Lyra nodded and stepped forward, pulling the curtain of vines to the side with her claws so that Dusk and Lex could pass through. Inside the cavern was cast in a dim light, but once Lyra stepped inside the curtain fell behind her and plunged the cavern into darkness. Within a few seconds their eyes began to adjust and Dusk could see the pale green glow coming from the clusters of crystals that oozed out of the cavern walls and ceiling. An equally dim, but larger source of green light shone further in front of them from behind a small wall of stone. Stepping around Dusk’s eyes fell upon another dragon skeleton. Unlike the others, this one was curled up on themself in a sleeping position, its snout and tail close enough to touch. They weren’t overly large, but long and sleek. Even in their petrified state Dusk could tell they had once been very beautiful. Their face was angular and sharp with two helixed horns flaring backwards from the skull. In a way they reminded him of Fayard’s horn, but much larger, with deeper grooves, and more deadly. Dusk glanced around, looking for some hint as to how the dragon had died, but he saw none.
“Haldura,” Lyra whispered, reaching down to touch them. “It’s been a long time.”
Both Lex and Dusk were silent. Dusk could see the hurt in Lyra’s face as she pulled back and looked down at the remains of the dragon in front of her. There was more there than just friendship. Lyra looked at Haldura the same way she did when he mentioned Tephyss.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said, laying a hand on Lyra’s side.
“I already knew they were gone. Just like all the others. It’s just... hard to see them again.”
The crystal looked like it had perfectly preserved them. “Were you two involved?” Dusk didn’t know any other way to put it.
“Haldura was one of my mates, yes. Tephyss was the other.” Lyra looked back towards the mouth of the cave, a faraway look in her eyes. “We had so many great adventures together all that time ago, you should have seen us. The world was still new and evil seemed like a myth used to get children to stay in their beds at night. But as time went on the world began to change and we each found our calling. Tephyss loved the humans and stayed in Alamond while Haldura adored the jungle and made it her home.” Lyra turned back to Dusk. “And since fire was always a great comfort to me, I took the volcano. We were spread across the entire world, but somehow it was always easy to find each other.”
“I wish I could say something to make it easier.”
“There’s nothing to say, only next steps to take,” Lyra replied, shaking her head. “Time marches on and so must we.” She turned back to Dusk and Lex, looking between them both. “I know it seems indecent, but this is where we’ll get the supply for your magic to defeat Nedarya.”
“I don’t want to desecrate their body,” Dusk began.
Lyra nodded. “I know and that’s what makes you different from so many others in this world. But we don’t have much choice if we hope to win and I know Haldura would understand our needs.”
Lyra lifted her claw and wrapped it around one of the horns. She looked down, clenched her eyes shut, and pushed. There was a slight cracking as Lyra put her weight against the stone. Finally, with a resounding snap, the top half of the horn broke off in her claws. Lyra opened her eyes, a single tear running down one of her cheeks. She handed the glowing green stone to Dusk who quickly tucked it into his bag.
“Maybe we should get out of here,” Lex said, breaking the tense silence.
“You’re right,” Lyra agreed. “I’ll have time to visit them another day. We need to find your friend. There’s no time to waste.”
As they walked away Dusk lingered for a moment, looking down at Haldura’s body, still beautiful and serene with half a horn missing. The stone was heavy in his bag as he shifted it back to his shoulders.
“Thank you,” he whispered and turned away to follow.
For a moment he thought he heard a soft whisper in the back of his mind.
“Keep her safe.”
Back outside the cavern the pair climbed back up to Lyra’s spine once more and took a seat, the leather finally starting to soften from repeated use.
“Where do we go now?” Dusk asked, leaning across Lyra’s neck.
“You have the stone,” she said. “You tell me.”
“Oh, right.”
Dusk pulled the bag around so that it was sitting in front of him. He threw open the flap and reached inside, grasping the horn with his left hand. Closing his eyes he reached out for the thread of magic he’d been missing since Nedarya had ripped the eye from his chest. There was a rush of adrenaline as he found it and the runes flared up in his mind once more, this time green and soft like the glow of Haldura’s crystals. Carefully he began to craft a spell to find Cyrilo’s location and lead them in the right direction. He formed the sigils, made sure to specify energy usage, and finally let it go into the surrounding air.
For a moment he was worried nothing had happened and the magic had failed, but with a small jolt through his body he felt something new appear. It was a tiny green tether, like a thread, pulling at his naval and leading him intuitively to the northwest. He let his connection with Lyra widen, sharing the information with her.
“I can see it,” she said, digging her claws into the moss. “Let’s go.”
Lyra reared back and broke her way through the jungle, ramming anything that got in her way. The plants were fleshy and snapped away in a flurry of motion and noise. Dusk was growing concerned that she might hurt herself when the jungle suddenly fell away and they were plummeting off a large cliff. The feeling once again caught him by surprise as his stomach jumped to his throat. When he finally opened his eyes he realized they were much higher up than it had seemed. Flaring her wings out Lyra caught the wind and soared high into the sky. She circled wide, catching the drafts to lift her far above the mountains before setting off in the correct direction.
The world below was laid out like a map and Dusk stared in wonder. The jungle stretched across the mountains and down the eastern side to a dense forest below dotted by wide rivers and large lakes that broke up the impenetrable canopy. On the western side however, the forest rushed down to the base of the mountains before slowly turning brown and dying away at the edge of a vast desert. Where rivers flowed there were still trees and lush greenery, but beyond that was nothing but golden sand as far as the eye could see. Even so high in the sky Dusk could already feel the air grow dry and smell the dusty heat rising up from below. The southern continent looked to be one of extreme climates and for the first time Dusk felt a surge of thankfulness for his homeland of Ditania. Continuing to share the magic through his connection with Lyra, Dusk turned his attention to the world around him, soaking it all in for the first and possibly the last time.