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Author: Emeldaline
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

The crimson disk of the sun almost disappeared behind the treetops, plunging the forest into dark gray, almost impenetrable tones of twilight. Nearby, a river murmured in a swift stream, and along its banks the song of awakening night dwellers sounded louder and louder, forcing them to shudder from sometimes too loud and unexpected sounds. But these were peaceful sounds - the buzzing of insects, the cries of birds, the rustle of fallen leaves under the paws of animals, not the ones that strained ears tried to catch. And yet, the heavy, uneven footsteps and wheezes escaping from throats unable to recreate other sounds came as a surprise every time. The staggering, dragging figures appeared in clots of darkness between the tree trunks and purposefully walked towards the small group of travelers advancing along the river. Having approached a few steps, they froze in uncertainty, stomped on the spot,

The children involuntarily shivered and moved closer to Vic. The behavior of the dead, a
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  • Wanderers Of the Night   55

    Vic did not dare to get out from under the trees. If he could somehow endure the burning of the sun's rays, although this seemed more and more unlikely, it would not have been possible to cook food with his eyes closed anyway. Therefore, the entire parking lot moved under the trees, Kim dragged branches for the fire, but the girls had to move the carcass of the fallow deer. The sisters, without fear or disgust, grabbed the dead animal by the legs and dragged it to the forest. Vic took the prey from them and, having settled in the densest shade, began to skin the doe. It turned out that because of the spikes on the fingers, it was not very convenient to hold the knife, it was more convenient to pick up the skin with these same spikes, which not only easily pierced, but also tore apart no worse than claws. The girls stood nearby and watched with interest the transformation of the animal into meat that can be eaten. Kim pretended to be busy with the fire and diligently turned away.

  • Wanderers Of the Night   56

    Vic was aware of what was happening with all his being. It was strange. Waves of magic touched the skin in a disturbing stream and rushed through space with a ringing rumble. He looked at the children, the girls were shrouded in an almost invisible haze, making the outline of their bodies indistinct and pale - ghostly. A vortex of energy raged around Kim, he was wrapped in a cocoon of intertwining currents of magic. They slid through the teenager and concentrated in the stick he squeezed. The wood seemed to be on fire, the energy tore it apart and fell like ashes back into the ground, only a part of it was transformed and lined up in a low corridor stretching through the forest. Vic himself didn't know what he was waiting for, his muscles tensed in tension, as if if the young magician broke loose and did something wrong, he could still save the children. But the force raging very close by spoke about the opposite - nothing would remain, neither the forest, nor the people. Only ashe

  • Wanderers Of the Night   57

    High above the trees there was a piercing cry, the Vistolet froze, through the dense crowns he saw that a large bird was circling in the sky. Kim jumped to his feet, cocked his head, trying to see through the foliage."It's a magical bird," he said confidently.- Why do you think so?- Feel. Vic didn't even try to feel, he just knew that it was true, the strangest thing was that it didn't surprise him at all. A black shadow swept over the river, huge wings flapped, and a large bird of prey landed on the shore. Kim quickly ran back to the trees, then came to his senses, grabbed the sisters by the arms and dragged them behind the nearest trunks. Vic remained where he was, the bird carefully examining him with its silver eyes."Hello, Yarsi," he waved his hand. The bird bowed its head slightly, nodded, and confidently approached.- What feathers! – an enthusiastic whisper of the girls flew from somewhere over his shoulder. - I always wanted a bird, let me pet it! A fuss and an in

  • Wanderers Of the Night   58

    The two guards stationed at the entrance to the inner chambers stretched out in a panic, pressed their weapons to their sides and tried to put on a frozen expression. He involuntarily forced himself to slow down, the king should not run up the stairs at such a speed, jumping over several steps. Although he is not quite a king yet, even for a prince this is unacceptable. Episodes from childhood, instructions and lessons of Giton, and my mother's, too, woke up in my memory more and more often. If she saw the habits and behavior of her youngest son now, she would be horrified. Not a trace was left of her science, all palace etiquette was arbitrarily pushed very far aside. No, Yarsi tried to restrain himself, he remembered perfectly how to behave with courtiers, with servants and with ambassadors from other kingdoms. But sometimes he suddenly got tired of it and he could not help himself, turning from a courteous young man into a mocking person, not considering the desires of others, wi

  • Wanderers Of the Night   59

    The Vistolet gave the children a careful look, and to begin with walked around the unconscious merchants, taking bags of food and purses with money from them. His conscience did not torment him at all, there was an idea that this would lead to trouble, but given that they saw who exactly dealt with them, this already seemed insignificant. Persecution is still unavoidable. Of course, if they decide on it. In any case, he was not going to kill anyone, these are ordinary people who are faced with an unknown and terrible phenomenon and are trying to protect themselves and their loved ones. Vic even froze, involuntarily noting that he thinks quite humanly, there was neither the cruelty of demons, nor the cold indifference of werewolves, nor the thoughtless thirst for the blood of the dead. He looked back at the children who were eating their late lunch, his lips parted in a smile of their own accord. He involuntarily lowered his head, imagining how that smile looked on his face. Somewher

  • Wanderers Of the Night   60

    They must have fallen asleep as soon as their bodies touched the ground. Vic carefully laid the girls down on the grass, shook the half-dead Kim off his back, and quickly took out a cloak and capes from the bag. He spread the cloak under a thick bush, put Lana and Mila on it, and covered it with a cape. The second went to Kim, the teenager still tried to start collecting branches for the fire, but the Vistolet forced him to sit next to his sisters and asked him to put up a shield. The magician constantly yawned, so he lost his way several times while reciting the spell, but, in the end, a reliable magic dome appeared over the children. Vic involuntarily stepped back, he felt the power of the dome with every cell of his body, Kim clearly overdid it. But consciously or not - that was another question. Yes, the children accepted him, but he strongly doubted that they were not at all afraid of him. At least Kim. He himself said that Vic continues to change, but in what direction, he har

  • Wanderers Of the Night   61

    Leaf greeted the two riders with a roar of voices. Frightened residents almost threw themselves under the hooves of horses, trying to tell about the events that had taken place. Yarsi silently looked at the faces twisted with fear, at the trembling hands, nevertheless squeezing a simple weapon. Someone was holding a club, someone was holding a wide knife, and some had pitchforks or scythes. Although the villagers were frightened, no one was going to leave their houses. The headman was met at the entrance to the outskirts, it was clear that the old man was waiting for them. He gave the heir to the throne a piercing look and bowed his head. Unlike the others, he did not rush towards the riders. Perhaps he was the only one who immediately realized that the sent messenger could not ride to the capital in such a short period of time, could not have time to tell anything. Yes, and the guests did not appear from the side of the main road, but arrived directly through the fields, without ta

  • Wanderers Of the Night   62

    Jenevra glanced warily out the window and crept up, watching the guests approaching her house. Maybe she did not have a particularly outstanding magical power, but she had more knowledge than some who imagined themselves to be great magicians. And her knowledge was not drawn from books, not from teachers, but was collected bit by bit by experience. Everything she could tell about was seen with her own eyes and felt on her own body. But she had no listeners and she had no one to talk to, although there were many people around. But is her knowledge for mere mortals? Who are they to share their experience with them? Yes, and they did not want to listen to her, they did not take seriously the grouchy grandmother, who found fault with every trifle. And how not to find fault if people are so careless? They do not think that when Trouble comes, simple weapons will not help, they do not understand that magic will also be useless. They do not see how inevitably the last days approach. Bu

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  • Wanderers Of the Night   Epilogue

    The soft, very smooth movement turned into a jerky wave of the hand, the silver of the blade sparkled in the setting sun and sank into the insides of the half-decayed body. The corpse swayed, a bloody-fiery reflection flashed in the empty eye sockets and immediately went out - it hid in the depths of the skull. Hidden. The dead man stared straight in front of him for several long moments with blind holes in his eyes, and then began to sag, kneel down, scrape the ground with his knuckles and hiss menacingly. He did not want to leave, there is too much energy here to stay.Vic smiled crookedly, the creature was found to be tenacious, already three necromancers, after meeting with this walking monster, lay in the nearest forest and pretended to be dead. Until the time - until it's their turn. It could be assumed that this dead man was once a sorcerer, even such rumors circulated. Didn't really listen.He stepped back abruptly, knuckles ripping through the air, aiming at his legs. The Vis

  • Wanderers Of the Night   96

    Radolyub fell to his knees, rested his forehead on the ground and could not stop himself in order not to laugh. His whole body shook with hysterical laughter, tears flowed from his eyes, his fingers scraped the ground, raked in dust. Mida looked at him blankly. A large crowd of the dead had gathered around their dome. The walking corpses snapped their jaws furiously, hissed furiously and fought against an invisible barrier. The only free place where one could look and not stumble upon their faces distorted by death was the sky.“We beat ourselves,” the mage said with difficulty through spasms of laughter. – They beat… But he was a man, Mida. Understand? Human in essence. King of Reeta, dragon and human.He turned with difficulty and looked at the sorceress.- You do not care?"We did what we had to do," the woman said coldly.- So, what is next? Your pride, your hatred, your arrogance - how will they help you now? We ruined our world, Mida!She closed her eyes, slowly sank down next t

  • Wanderers Of the Night   95

    The horse wheezed, shreds of foam flew from the bit. Elena looked ahead with despair, she had long been separated from the rest of the horsemen, but this did not make her feel any better. I wanted to find wings like Vic's and fly up into the sky and cover the distance to Keront in a few moments.This was not necessary, the city flashed as a blurry streak on the horizon, and right in the middle of the road a monstrous action unfolded: a black streak flashed in the air, strangely resembling a giant blade that hung vertically behind ... Yarsi. The blade turned, resounded in breadth, and now, instead of a blade, an oval funnel was spinning above the ground.Elena realized that she had already seen this, once a green-eyed demon, who called himself Brother Yarsi, had gone into a similar portal, and then King Bortan created something similar and also left this world. So doesn't this portal mean that Yarsi must now leave?The girl gritted her teeth and hit the horse with her heels, forcing th

  • Wanderers Of the Night   94

    In the approaching twilight of the evening, the city seemed strangely lonely - the walls had lost their colors and were filled with gray tones, the crimson reflections of the sunset fell on the roofs, making them ominously bloody.Radolyub kept looking back, glancing at Carival. Like saying goodbye.Their little band was trotting towards the Valley of the Wind. He took only five magicians with him - young and very capable, from those who took the coming of dragons very close to their hearts. They hardly had to explain anything, everyone was ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of destroying the monsters.Radolyub with hidden trembling peered into their faces, they will serve only to divert attention, but the main blow will have to be dealt to him. Or will it be Giton? Or maybe Mida?The woman and eight magicians from Bitra joined them at the crossroads with Tinasa, they slipped out of the hills like shadows, silently nodded and did not utter a word. Radolyub carefully ran his ey

  • Wanderers Of the Night   93

    His own movements reminded him of the attempts of a seriously ill person to get on his feet, his body almost did not obey, but Kim, with desperate persistence, forced himself to move, crawl, flounder in place. Yes, anything to get out of this lingering pool of weakness. The vague gaze now and then stumbled upon the motionless figures of the sisters, their pale faces, disheveled hair and barely rising chests. It was terribly unusual to see restless, cheerful girls like that ... A feeling of guilt before them firmly settled in his mind - he used them and could not protect them.He put his hand on the ground and got down on one knee. A cloud of ash shot up around, hung in the air and reluctantly fell. Kim almost did not notice how Vic flew away, suddenly the Wistolet was simply gone - he disappeared, disappeared among the endless whirlwinds of what was happening. And left them here. Next to the dragon.The guy ran his hand over his face, smeared soot on his cheeks, shook his head, trying

  • Wanderers Of the Night   92

    “My son, a flame lives in you…. My heir!”What is the heir? The indifferent look of almost colorless eyes continued to live in my memory. Inhuman eyes! Too cold and almost dead.You only came to life when you met your mother, and then you killed her....His head was torn from an endless stream of images. Shadows, color pictures, some fragmentary memories suddenly decided to merge into a single round dance and fall on the mind. Right now, right at the moment when clear thinking was needed.Perhaps this is how they start to go crazy?I saw double, jumped from the distant cloudless sky to the deformed wasteland of the Valley, then to the forest, to the endless line of the dead, continuing to advance from Tinasa and again to the strip of mountains framing the black, ash-like earth, split by faults.A wide road ran along the edge of the Valley, dust was raised by the hooves of horses. A long file of horsemen trotted out from behind the hills, all in battle armor, well-armed, all but three

  • Wanderers Of the Night   91

    They sat on the ground, trembling. The girls quickly came to their senses and even smiled sadly. Mila ran her finger along the wing, nodded thoughtfully and quite like an adult.- Now you are very beautiful, Vic ...Sarsha's hand carefully lay on her head, stroking her hair with a barely noticeable movement. A moment... Vic slowly pulled away and gathered his wings behind him, nodded to Yarsi, then turned to Erto. He stared at him with wide eyes, his fingers gripping the hilt of his drawn sword so tightly that they turned white. Vic chuckled wryly and drew the thorn across his throat in a very unambiguous manner. Erto stepped back, clattering his weapon back into its scabbard.“I don’t know what kind of creature you are, but now I’m not going to find out,” he said in a hollow voice."Vic is my friend and that's enough," Yarsi said calmly. So, what else do you know about dragons? What's next?Erto raised his head to the sky. In the pale blue, a black shadow slowly glided, rising higher

  • Wanderers Of the Night   90

    With each step, a thick cloud of ash rose into the air. The smallest black particles resembled homogeneous weightless dust and were torn off from the slightest movement. Ordinary ash is not like that. And there is no such thing as fog. And the frost crystals remaining after it should not dig into the ground with spikes and harden with ugly thorns.The earth was dying, underfoot, instead of soil, a lifeless stone rang. The ash was not just an outer cover, it became a death shroud for this forest...The border of living trees moved a huge distance, edging the black, cracked wasteland. The disfigured land stretched all the way to the hills, from behind which a string of walking corpses continued to crawl out. The swaying figures, paying no attention to anything, stepped into the ashes and indifferently wandered forward.Yarsi was forced to move away from the main scene of action in order to remain under the crowns of trees. The gigantic skeleton of the dragon turned back to the dead. Sno

  • Wanderers Of the Night   89

    Inside the body, something irritatingly crunched and shifted quite palpably so that Vic could hardly restrain himself from screaming. A recently seen picture immediately arose before my eyes - new bone outgrowths come out of the dragon's skeleton and begin to crawl, intertwine, strengthen the backbone. But what happens to his own body?The Vistolet moved cautiously, sat up with difficulty, hoping very much that he would not begin to turn into something new right now. The skin of the back kept the feeling of icy cold, which stuck into the flesh with needles and continued to twitch with pain. He tried to look around, all he could see was a shoulder covered with countless red dots."Dragon's breath," Yarsi said, a mocking smile on his lips. “Your skin is strong, Vic, don’t worry. You were almost unharmed. Can you create such a protective zone again?- Wh-what? The voice sounded hoarse, he coughed.- Do not sleep, Vic, now there is no time to delve into yourself. Accept everything new at

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