The Frozen Flame -III- The Marble District

Story by X. Archaego on SoFurry

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#3 of The Frozen Flame


"I won't let you have what's here, mage!" The shout rang across through the trees, from the other side of the small clearing that the marble pillars made. All three of the dragons, Jerrin, Dante, and Silmilon, turned to see where the words had come from, only to find thin air. There wasn't a figure standing across the clearing, nor was there even a glimmer of movement within the treeline. Dante's paws held tight to his metal staff, while Sil quickly got used to having a sword in his hand, holding it up with a shaky posture. Jerrin just stood there, clad in his black, ruby-adorned armor, cape flicking some with the breeze from the ruins.

"I think this would constitute a problem..." Dante gulped a bit as he looked about, then took a bold step forward next to the dragonlord, tail flicking out behind him. The moonlight shone through a part in the trees, glimmering off of the silver armor he wore, both on his chest and over his legs. He wasn't cocky enough to have his guards wear nothing to protect their lower halves when there was an obvious danger here. But the three stood there for a long moment, looking about for what they knew was there.

A minute passed. Sil gulped and looked over his shoulder for a moment. "Why did you want me here? I can't use a sword...we can't hit what we can't see!"

"Quit with the panic, kid." Dante huffed, glancing about, twirling his staff between his hands as he looked about. "But he does have a point." Jerrin just grumbled, his wings ruffling underneath his cape as he looked about, taking another step forward onto the stone tiles that were covered in moss and other assorted plants, turning the former white marble into a greenish mass. The clouds over the forest parted some, letting a few beams of moonlight down through the leaves and onto the marble tiles.

"Jerrin. Get out of here. You've done enough." A voice, almost mistaken for a wisp of wind going through the branches of the forest, whispered out to the three dragons. "The Avian Kingdom is already on its way. I suggest you and your guards get out of here before Sulian arrives. I'll handle this..nuisance.."

Sil looked up, blinking some, then over to Dante, who had the same puzzled expression on his face. Both dragons looked to Jerrin, who turned and looked over his shoulders for a moment with a bit of a shrug. In the next moment a sharp whizz sliced between the dragons, leaving a glittering trail of sparkles in the moonlight that trailed down towards the ground. All three looked at the falling glitter, then back to each other.

"Well, you heard the creepy voice. RUN!" Dante shouted out before he turned quickly on his heels, rushing back down the forest trail they came to. The moonlight glimmered from his silver armor, only to be cloaked from sight as Jerrin made his way down the trail as well, cape billowing out with the wind. Silmilion stood there for a long moment, enough to see another silver streak rushing towards him.

The slice of air, the silver glitter falling to the ground, accompanying a loud clang and a huff from the side were all that rang through the forest. Sil looked up to see a form, draped in a white cloak decorated in black stripes like a tiger, standing on the center of one of the mossy tiles calmly. "You heard the man. Run." The voice was another soft whisper in the night sky before the sapphire drake nodded, running after his two superiors down the forest trail to the caravan where they came from.

The clouds above fully parted, shedding their light down upon the ruins of the marble city that had been swallowed up by the forest for hundreds of years. Standing in the center was the tiger-printed cloak, hood pulled up over the form fully, only back enough to let two violet eyes shine out towards another figure perched on one of the crumbled pillars, clad in black and hunter green to keep him from view.

"You are not wanted here, Ancient." The deep, rumbling growl came out in a snarl as the assassin leapt up, landing in perfect stance only a few tiles from the silent man, crimson eyes glaring out from behind a mask of pitch black.

"We are never wanted. But yet, we come..."

"And you go at the point of a blade. My orders are to guard the Marble District with my life."

The figure waved one silken-gloved hand in front of him, rolling his eyes. "Guard it with your life in the name of the lord of magic, yadda yadda." A slight sigh came from the shadowed figure as the hood was pulled back, revealing a long violet mane, tied up in a braid along his back. The two violet orbs were connected to the face of a dragon, dark as night, with faint white stripes along his scales. The tiger stripes continued along the dragon's arms, which now were crossed in front of his body, clad in a simple black silk vest, shirt, and pants. All well-tailored and regal, save for the fact they were only a single color. "If you only knew what kind of serious mistake you idiots were making..."

Crimson eyes turned upwards to the dragon, giving another growl, a paw slashing forward into the air, claws trailing silver in the moonlight. Each one was tipped with a silver metallic point, connected onto the glove the warrior wore, a trademark weapon of a single sect of fighters. A sect that nobody dared speak of, from the Dragon Kingdoms to the Avian and Cetacean ones...

Wolvers.

"What the hell was that back there?!" Sil shouted, jumping over a fallen log before getting back onto the path, wings folded tight against his back as the three drakes emerged out of the forest to a few shouts from the caravan guards, pointing towards the treeline. Dante skidded to a stop, his boots leaving a mark in the grass as he stopped, Jerrin almost running into the amethyst dragon as he managed to stop as well from the sprint.

"Don't wanna know kid. Trust me." Dante leaned forward, gasping for air as he put a paw onto the ground, clutching it. "Where the 'ell did that thing come from.."

Sil stopped next to Dante, panting for breath as Jerrin made his way back to the guards, wings ruffling. "We found the marble city...not the bronze one. That sage must have been off." He grumbled, turning back to the two guards that went with him, then back to the others assembled around the caravans. "Not by much though. Ko was there." Silmilon blinked, then looked to Dante with a confused stare in his eyes.

Jerrin looked over his shoulder, giving a nod to the amethyst captain of the guard before Dante patted a spot next to him as he sunk down onto the grassy ground. "Wolvers, kid. Trained fighters, kinda like us, just not workin for us. They're known to attack any of the kingdoms, though mostly the Avian and Cetacean ones. Everyone thinks they're after power more then anything else.." Sil took it all in, blinking. He'd never been beyond the dragon kingdom. No reason to, given that Jerrin controlled one of the largest empires on the continent. He had heard of the other kingdoms, mostly the neighboring Avian one, but only in passing.

"Who do they work for..?" The only think the young drake could think to ask, falling back onto the grass with an audible thud. Jerrin turned, giving a smirk some.

"Asks all the right questions." The dragonlord took a few steps forward, stretching his wings back out again. "We think they work for one of the lords of the north." Jerrin turned back to look into the forest, staying quiet for a moment to listen to the silence. Not a single sound came from the depths of the forest, where the marble ruins lie. "And as for who that was...an old friend."

"Ko...Byak-Ko..." Sil looked up to Jerrin, then back into the forest.

Both Dante and the dragonlord stopped, blinking as they looked down to Sil. Dante shrugged it off as a tale told around a mug of ale - Jerrin kept looking at his newest guard, giving a slight hrm to himself. "I knew there was a reason Ko wanted him about..."

Deep inside the forest another clang echoed out, of steel upon marble this time, as the wolver made a leap towards the dragon, only to get sidestepped in mid-lunge. "I told you, these ruins aren't for the likes of your kind." The striped dragon simply shook his head, flinging one arm out to the side, talons tracing through the air slowly, drawing a glittering white symbol out of flowing wisps of energy while the wolf warrior spun around with his landing. Another lunge came forwards, along with the sweep of the weaving paw towards the incoming wolf. All the wolver could do was bark a laugh when he saw nothing happening from it.

All he could do was groan in pain when one of the marble tiles flung up from below and impacted him square in the chest. Not only did it knock him up a few feet, it sent him sprawling back onto the broken marble floor with a growl, steel claws clanging on the stone. "Laugh at that." The wolf stuttered some, then leapt back up onto his feet. A growl came, then another leap up onto one of the pillars nearby, putting himself into the level of the trees.

"We should have killed your kind when we had the chance!" A growl, and a lunging streak of silver as the wolver leapt from the pillar, clawed gloves out towards the cloaked form, silver points gleaming in the moonlight. The dragon simply stood there for a long moment, watching. Waiting. In the blink of an eye the claws tore through the cloak with a rending shred, then clinked almost musically onto the marble tiles of the ruins. With a growl those claws were moved up, clean and glimmering without a drop of blood.

It didn't take the hunter long to realize what happened before another tile slammed full force into his back, the shadowed figure atop the pillar he was just at, arm stretched out to his side, tracing out the intricate designs of his magical weaves. "And this is why you haven't killed us." He grumbled out, flicking his talons through the air beside him to trace another design. The wolver leapt up onto a crumbled wall, right for the cloaked magister.

That was, until one of the fallen pillars had rose up to act as a barricade, the camouflaged wolf slamming into it full force, rebounding back onto his back with a groan of pain. A snicker came from the mage as the hand went back under his cloak, crossing with his other arm and a smirk. The Wolver leaned up, clutching his chest, but still managing to jump up onto one of the pillars alongside the ruins.

"You haven't heard the last of me, Ancient." A snarl came out before the black-clad figure leapt up into one of the tree branches, vanishing from sight with a cloud passing over the full moon overhead. A trail of white glitter rained down upon the branch from where the warrior was, soon fading into the darkness of the forest, leaving the tiger-cloaked dragon alone again.

A slight grumble came out of his muzzle as his gloved hand grabbed up at his hood again, pulling it over his head with a bit of a huff. "I never hear the last of you gnats." He spun about, making his way over to one of the intact marble archways, resting his hand onto the intricately carved surface of the pillar with a bit of a sigh. There was enough nostalgia in that pillar to make him forget about the sound of flapping wings coming closer to the marble ruin, until those wings were accompanied with two avian forms, feathered wings stretched out, settling behind him.

"Byak-Ko. You're still alive.."

"Su-Zaku. You're still fashionably late as ever. You just missed a Wolver."

The red-feathered avian blinked, taking a step forward with a slight grumble. "A Wolver in the Marble District?" One hand gripped at the hilt of a long, thin blade at his side, sheathed for the moment."

"Relax, Zaku. He left. He obviously didn't find the fact I kept having him run into stone funny."

The avian raised a brow, ruffling his wings before his arms crossed back behind his chest, the silk robe he wore ruffling some, loose enough to show the steelcloth armor underneath. Light, and intricately crafted. A hallmark of the upper echelons of the Avian Kingdom. The black silk over it decorated with finely-woven red designs, oriental, but all centering around the kingdom's obvious insignia: A single, pointed feather. With a slight rush of breeze past the ruins the half dozen long ribbons along the robe swayed gracefully, a hallmark to the superior swordsmanship of the Hawk Knights that Zaku kept for his defense, and his own tutelage.

"Run into stone. Something tells me you ran it into him for the wolf."

All Ko could do was smirk some, leaning his head down under the hood before the cloak shuffled some, the back falling a few more inches inward before a gloved hand stretched back out, talons gone, replaced by the silk ends of the covering cloth gauntlet. "What do you expect. After five thousand years, you pick up a few things."

"Like Jerrin and his crew, eh?" The red bird huffed some, wings spreading out again. "Last I saw they were back on their way to their own kingdom."

The hooded form just nodded, turning a bit. "Good. I'll need to speak with him about this. It's good enough we found the Marble District...but the columns aren't bronze..."

The Frozen Flame - Chap II

Yup, Chapter 2 is finally out! Thanks to some inspiration from some friends of mine. Hopefully this'll get the same rave reviews as the first. And don't be afraid to leave comments, either on the boards or email! Support just makes me write more...

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The Frozen Flame - Chap I

"Mmm..yess. More, pet.." The sapphire-scaled form twirled in the middle of the room, a ribbon of silk flowing as it did. One end of the ribbons were attached to each wrist, while the other ends were attached to the silver chain that the light-blue...

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