Kingdoms of Ohm: The Lonely Dragon #1 ✓

A Final Promise

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"He's... gone."

Nayre closed her eyes, letting all her tears fall freely down her face. Her whimpers were hoarse and broken, and as she laid upon my body, caressing every lifeless scale. The others around us fell quiet, too shocked to even utter a word.

Calisto hopped toward my body, nuzzling my snout to try and rouse me. He pressed against my face twice over, hoping for a voice or a whisper from my maw. But nothing he did changed anything, other than offer him the truth: I was long gone. His eyes grew red with tears and he sobbed, stepping into his mother who cradled him into her embrace.

"B-But... he can't die..."

Vicaya, having now recovered from her wound, narrowed her glowing eyes, and, through a snarl, spun to the other dragon guards and snapped.

"Where's those other assassins?!"

"They fled north, your majesty," a royal guard by the name of Aeonian muttered. "Toward the Griffin kingdom near the valley. Two of our guards are pursuing as we speak. Should we-"

"You tell your liege to bring those Scorn back to Az'hark before sundown," she snarled, her eyes blazing with a cold fire. "I don't care if they're alive, dead, or headless with its tail up it's rear, I will burn them to hell for the crime they have committed here!"

The guard blinked once, too horrified to even speak, and flapped out of the cave as fast as possible. She looked to the crowding region of storm dragons, now finding a new target to let loose her pained roars to Az'hark's walls.

"Everybody out!" Her voice rocked the halls. "Go back to your caverns, and your families! Nobody leaves or enters Az'hark without me or Xikori's permission. Ez'kal!"

The scarred messenger flinched, then spun around to meet the queen's glowing eyes, "Y-Your majesty-"

"Are your wings fair?"

"Y-Yes?"

"Take two guards with you and fly to the Wastelands near the geyser fields," she hissed quickly. "Demand for the Scorn queen as soon as you arrive."

"What?" Xikori gasped, whirling to her. "Vicaya you can't-"

"I will!" she snapped at her mate. "I am done waiting. And acting as if nothing is wrong. We've lost six in the span of a week!"

"We risk Az'hark's safety by pushing our anger upon the Scorn!"

"We risk everything by doing nothing!" she spat back. "I will not let their kin prosper over our dead without a dragon voice to be heard. Now, Ez'kal-" she whirled back to him. "Do you understand my orders?"

Ez'kal blinked. "D-Do you have a scroll that I could-"

"Last I checked you don't need one. There's a brain between your ears and a voice in your throat," Vicaya growled, angrily. "You're not a librarian, you're a messenger for Kantar's sake, so act like one!"

"But-"

"Go!"

Ez'kal flinched, dipping his head to Vicaya, then stumbled away. Once he scurried from the scene, all had fallen quiet. 

All except for one.

Vicaya huffed and snorted up smoke from her snout for a couple minutes longer, before noticing Nayre still weeping over her mate. She shared a miserable look to Xikori's cold eyes, the two royals reminiscing over a fate that had happened in their past. Approaching her side, Vicaya wrapped a fleshed wing around Nayre's metallic armor and bowed her heads softly to the body before them.

"He's in Kantar's claws now, little one," Vicaya muttered to Nayre. The widowed dragoness sniveled, shakily lifting a bloody paw from my flesh and exhaled slowly.

"This isn't right..." she croaked. "It has only been a month. We just s-started... and we... I..."

"I know..." Xikori whispered, stepping forth. "I carry the same pain, little one."

Nayre looked to the ceiling briefly, huffing for a breath and closed her eyes. "This is what I feared. T-This... this is..." she bit her fangs together, and squeezed. As warm tears flooded her visage, Xikori rounded my body, closing my greyed eyes to shed from her view.

"If you... will it, Nayre," he whispered. "I shall gather the kingdom tonight so they may pay their respects-"

"Xikori-"

"No I..." Nayre swallowed hard, then nodded through her tears. "I think he'd like that. They need to know what happened... we all do. But I wish to bury him afterward... by myself."

"Bury?" the queen frowned. "Not burned?"

"There's a little place near the mountain..." she whispered, nuzzling my head slowly to gather the last faint scent. "Near a small waterfall with the perfect view of Az'hark. We would... play under the moon, and nuzzle each other beneath the stars. We... declared each other mates there. It only seems right that I bring him back one last time. We promised each other to do so tonight..."

"Do as you wish..." Vicaya whispered, giving the dragoness a lick upon her metallic shoulder. She dipped her head, gracefully accepting the gesture, then sighed, looking back down upon my body. The royals took a moment to lick the soft, cold flesh of the dead, then trailed away from Nayre's side, leaving her alone by my body. She rounded the bloody puddle around me, moving to the side where my head laid, and rested her own against my neck, embracing me once more.

A few moments passed.

A minute.

After two, the dragoness began to sob again. And her sob turned into a wail that shook the very mountain she called home.

And after three, Nayre realized that I would never stand again. That I would never embrace her, lick her, joke with her, nuzzle her, or enjoy our lives together. That I was gone... forever. Silent. Still. Dead. She whimpered, letting her tears soak my scales.

"V-Vaanku..."

She stroked her wing over my body, trembling by the coldness of my flesh, and pulled away slowly.

"I-It should've been me..."

She licked my scales and sniveled, shedding another tear and sighed. Tears wouldn't solve anything anymore. All she could do was pay her respects. All that was left was to move on.

"I won't forget..." she promised, burying her head into my scales. "Not now, not ever. I'll r-raise our h-hatchlings right. I'll tell t-them your s-stories... our stories..."

She lowered her jaws to my back, nibbling away a piece of a scale to keep for herself, and tucked it into her wing as a safeguard. She gave me one last nuzzle and sighed.

"I love you, Vaanku. And I always will... Until the very end of time."

Her head lifted slightly, noticing the bodily frame of the deceased female Scorn, still impaled by the rocks near the wall. It swayed limply on the sharpest end, dull and lifeless, and yet it looked alive to her. She swore she could see it smiling at her, glistening with a darkness she knew nothing of.

It scared her.

No... it threatened her.

Nayre's eyes flashed. A darkened growl began to rise from her underbelly, a pained one of sorts. She pushed away a final tear from her wetted cheek, trembling as she stood up and faced the corpse ahead. Deep down the dragoness knew what she had to do. She knew what she had to say. From her maw came a promise, a dedication to the stars and moons above, just for the one she loved so dearly.

A promise she knew she had to finish.

A promise... to the dead.

"And I will make them pay."