“Ugh, where am I?” Rex asked, his grogginess taking a while to wear off. “You’re in my home of course,” said the woman’s voice. “I really need to stop waking up in strange places” Rex replied, trying his best to take in his surroundings, his vision still taking a while to clear. “I wouldn’t think waking up in a stranger’s home constantly suits royalty,” said the voice with a slightly amused tone. “You seem way too calm to be an enemy, either that or my enemies have finally taken to making me feel better before trying to kill me,” Rex said in a sarcastic tone. “If we wanted you dead, you would have been dead days ago” the woman replied in a stern tone, clearly not amused by Rex’s words. “Hang on, days ago? How long have I been out?” Rex said, a little shocked by the remark, trying his best to sit up, his head pounding when he did. “You had best try and get some rest before doing that, Ipes nearly had you,” the woman’s voice said, putting a hand gently on his chest. Not having th
“If Nessa had been here she could have told us…” Rex began to say, his mind racing. “She would have done what she was told and eaten her food” Al’ik insisted, her voice becoming stern, “I am not usually in the habit of repeating myself.” “Um Rex, I think you had better do what she says, she doesn’t seem like the kind of woman you want to cross,” Lacey said, turning Rex’s head back to his plate. “Smart woman, she will make a good match for you broken one” came Azulthaël’s voice from past the light of the campfire. “Again with the ‘broken one’ shit, I have a name Gizzard” Rex retorted with a scowl. “Rex, please eat” Lizz and Minet begged. “Fine, look, I’m eating now,” Rex said in an exasperated tone, picking up a piece of the fruit and placing it into his mouth with a scowl, quickly changing tune, “Holy shit, it IS good.” “Like I have been saying, now I am going to go and prepare for our chat, you need energy, so please eat the whole thing,” Al’ik said, her tone changing back and
“So, you run the risk of killing us both, but you can still maybe pull it off without that happening?” Rex asked, worried about the whole procedure now, he thought it would be a long shot to have it removed and thought it would be painful, he had not thought of dying if it went wrong though. “Yes, there is a slim chance to undo what has been done to you, like I said, your people have twisted our magic from helping people to being harmful, I for one, am not used to having to untwine weave magic not intended to heal, so it poses a danger to anyone involved,” Azulthael said, interlocking his fingers. “After all these years, you still fear death” Al’ik chuckled quietly. “I do not fear death itself, I fear the loss of my race,” Azulthaël said with a scowl, darting his eyes over the Al’ik when she spoke. “Can you not breed with other races?” Lizz asked, opening a little book from her pocket, and taking notes. “No, our bloodline can not mix with any other races, over the years we have tr
After a few hours of talking and enjoying themselves, Rex and his companions felt the familiar feeling of weariness washing over them, “I think it’s time I get some sleep, I get the feeling it’s going to be a long day tomorrow.” “Long, and successful day,” Lacey said with a smile. Once everyone agreed on what Lacey said, they all stood and bid Rex goodnight, before making their way over to the tent and closing the door, the lantern that illuminated the inside was soon snuffed out. ‘Hmpf, I don’t know where I’m supposed to sleep’ Rex thought, ‘Maybe back in there?’ turning his head to face the cave entrance. Standing up from the campfire, Rex decided he would just sleep on the table he was on before, quietly making his way into the cave, not wanting to disturb Al’ik or Azulthaël had they fallen asleep, finding the bed he awoke on earlier, he was surprised, ‘The bed has been moved, damn, the blanket is gone too, guess I’m roughing it tonight,’ after a few seconds of not being able to
‘Wow it has been a long time since I have seen you’ Rex said, dashing around to Fafnir’s head and placing his hand on his snout with a smile. ‘Yes youngling, it has felt forever, I have lost track of time while being imprisoned in here after the necklace malfunctioned, how long has it been?’ Fafnir replied, smiling weakly back. ‘Only a few months since I was cursed’ Rex replied, ‘But it has felt like forever.’ ‘That’s good, you feel and smell different, stronger perhaps’ Fafnir replied, breathing in a deep breath through his nose, taking in Rex’s scent. ‘I’ve learned how to cope without magic in ways, I have sort of kept a few things from you though, like my speed, strength, and hearing, my night vision comes and goes, usually when I need it most, I don’t have it’ Rex said with a shrug, getting a deep chuckle from Fafnir. ‘It will take some time to heal from this ordeal, your body is already on the mend and I can feel our bond growing stronger by the minute, should not be long unt
Once Rex had his heading, he dashed back out across the dunes, once Fafnir had approved of his heading, he had chosen a certain star to follow to keep his bearings, only having a short time with the relief from the sun he did not want to become stuck once more in the heat. ‘This place is shit’ Rex cursed, seeing more sand every time he reached the peak of the next dune. ‘Kadota used to be an oasis of water and life’ Fafnir said. ‘So what happened to it?’ Rex asked, glad to have something to keep his mind from becoming annoyed with the endless running. ‘This used to be where my palace resided, once I departed from this existence to the spirit realm, my magic that kept this place teeming with life deteriorated to what you see now, once you take the seat of emperor, I will bring you to where the true centre of power was in Dracoterrum,’ Fafnir replied, Rex could sense the sadness in his words when he spoke about it. ‘That’s IF I pass the dreaming, speaking of which, how will that eve
After taking a second to glare at Rex once more, the scorpion charged head-on, its pincers opened, ready to clamp down on Rex, it closed the distance quickly and in the time it took Rex to blink, it was towering over him once more. ‘You need to slow it down for your cowardly plan to succeed’ Fafnir growled while Rex was dodging around the scorpion’s attempts to grab him, ‘Think Rex, what does it need to follow you?’ ‘Ok ok, yep take out a leg or two and that should give me time to get away’ Rex agreed, sliding under the belly of the scorpion once it lunged at him again, gripping onto one of its middle support legs, while it thrashed around, attempting to trample him. ‘What are you?’ Fafnir started to ask as Rex took a deep breath in and gritted his teeth, applying pressure to the leg joint, after straining for a few seconds, he was able to snap the leg, the cracking sound echoing loudly, the beast howled, stumbling for a moment, blue blood gushing out, ‘You are barbaric, you could h
“So I just had a look, it is the same male from the nest, it must have somehow followed us here, we need a game plan to either kill it or draw it away,” Rex said, appearing next to the group, his brow furled. “I think it has come after you Rex,” Azulthaël said after a second, “You did invade its nest, and injure it.” “It gave me no choice” Rex replied defensively, “I wanted to sneak in, get you, sneak out without fighting.” “Well, it seems it is giving us the same option,” Al’ik said, watching the crack lengthen as the ward took another hit. “We barely fought it off before, Fafnir and I are still not anywhere near recovered enough to fight it alone,” Rex said after taking a deep breath in and exhaling. ‘Ask her to use some of the energy of the corificus stone, it will give us enough power to fully heal and have some spare for us to fight’ Fafnir said. “Fafnir asked if we can use some of the energy of the corificus stone, he said if we took half of what remains in it, we can fully