A dead silence reigned over the moor of Moon Valley as I walked through the wet, yellowed grass, which almost seemed black because of the looming shadows of the night.

What was I doing out here at this ungodly hour?

I looked around worriedly, and noticed to my horror that the tents and huts, that we'd started building with all of the guilds, were gone, leaving an open plain with withered autumn trees at the edge of the clearing, the smell of rain fresh in the air.

Where the hell was everyone...

"Hello? Anyone there??"

My exclamation was answered by a cold breeze, driven out from the surrounding forest which reminded me much of the one in Eastborne. I threw my head back in my neck to the sky, which was unusually dark; I couldn't spot a single star, and even the two crescents of the moons of Ecra had vanished.

"Aros? Kindle? This isn't funny! Show yourselves!"

A shiver ran down my spine as I took a deep breath, rubbing my bare arms and shoulders in an attempt to warm myself up; why did I go outside in a tank top in the first place? Now that I thought about it, where did I even come from to begin with? Everything was gone!

A strange, clicking sound echoed from the bushes behind me and startled me up from my thoughts, causing me to hold my breath frantically, my heart beating in my throat, but as quickly as it came, it died out again. As I mentally prepared to turn around, my fight or flight response shrieked to run away from this place as fast as possible and not look back.

Even though I didn't know where the noise was coming from, the little hairs on my arms stood up in sheer terror for unknown danger as I slowly swiveled my head toward the source.

Nothing.

I wasn't sure if I should've felt relieved or scared as I let my eyes linger over the shadowed vegetation. As I rolled back my shoulders in an attempt to relax them, I let out a small sigh and took a deep breath, but my effort was immediately negated as a dreadful stench of rotting, dead flesh that was carried by the cold breeze filled my nostrils, numbing my last bit of instinct, causing me to be fully staggered as I closed my eyes shut and opened them again, trying to calm my hounded nerves. In pure panic, I started shouting again.

"GUYS?? ANYONE?? HELLO?"

As I turned back around, my eyes were met with a pair of black, rotting eyes, which were bordered by dark purple circles and dark, bulging veins, gross strands of greasy blonde hair framing a pale, awfully familiar face.

The corpse snapped its jaw at me and shrieked, mindlessly slashing its weapon in an attempt to strike me, causing me to jump back, screaming in fear as I tried to evade the blade. As I hurriedly stumbled backwards to get away, I tripped, and hit the muddy, wet ground with a loud thud before all the air was pressed out of my lungs as I was toppled by the monstrous, rotting carcass.

I cried in pain as Rellian clawed his fingernails into my wrists as he pushed my arms to the ground above my head, my heart breaking as I saw him like this. The weapon he used...it was the knife that Rexus had given to me. This couldn't be happening. This was impossible.

"Rellian! It's me! IT'S ME!! STOP!!"

My voice cracked, its tone molded in fear, but my words didn't seem to reach my old friend, who was trapped inside this rotting body, and I let out a terrified cry as he growled, a black mixture of blood, slime and saliva dripping from his chin onto my chest, his matted, dirty braids almost touching my face because of how close he was.

Before I could react, an all-wrecking pain ran through my body as the boy jerked his head down and sank his teeth into the sensitive spot in my neck, my crimson blood immediately splashing up and mixing with his dark, rancid ichor.

This unforeseen attack elicited a blood-curdling yelp from me, my mental, physical, and emotional forces completely drained since, tucked away somewhere deep inside of the monster, it was my old friend who was mauling me like this. I tried to kick him off, but size always wins, and my hounded movements only seemed to tighten Rellian's grip on my arms and neck, as rotting teeth ripped open my throat, my vision clouding quickly as an overwhelming affliction numbed me.

In my last weak, dying kicks, I felt my leg hitting something fuzzy and soft.

I sat up with a jolt, screaming in terror as I pried open my eyes, tears and sweat running down my face as I kicked off my blanket, which was the reason I woke up in the first place. I quickly shut my eyes tight again as I sat up, rubbing them and bringing my knees to my chest as I sobbed onto my bedspread.

Hands grabbed my knees in a somewhat harsh way, and I yelped through my tears, and I could only imagine the corpse of a crazed Rellian latching onto me as I yelled at whoever it was to get away from me.

"Nena, Nena, it's me! It was just a bad dream, I'm here, I'm here..."

Strong arms wrapped themselves around my upper body as Aros' British accent filled my head, causing me to instantly calm down a bit. I clasped onto his cotton sweater as he held me, rubbing small circles with his thumbs on my back as I hiccuped irregularly on his shoulder.

"Jeez, you gave me quite a scare for a moment, Zig...", the leader mumbled as I tardily lifted up my chin after my crying had slowly extinguished, my blue eyes meeting his emerald-green irises as he maffled under his breath.

I once again let my chin rest on his shoulder, and peeked around the room over the collar of his soft cardigan; The other beds were already empty, leaving us by ourselves in the tent that was used by Aros, Kindle, Rexus, and me. I shifted my attention to the leader again when he started speaking once more:

"We postponed picking out a new dragon breeder for a bit..."

This was definitely not a good moment to bring up anything that had to do with Rellian, and I softly pushed Aros' embrace away, looking at him with a somewhat disappointed expression as I got up on my feet. The leader looked at me, confusion written on his face as I pulled a shirt over my head in a vexed manner. I desperately needed some alone time to think, without anyone interrupting me.

"I'm going for a ride with Eimid."

After quickly tying the laces of my shoes, I hung my leather saddlebag around my shoulder and prepared to walk toward the exit of the tent. However, I was stopped once again by the blonde:

"Is it okay if I come along? You don't look quite okay..."

I turned around, trying to sound as cheerful as I could:

"No thank you, Eimid will look after me, I'll be fine."

And with that, I shoved aside the camouflaging tent canvas and strode out, ignoring a cheerful Kindle as he offered me breakfast.

...

Eimid's stumpy, bony wings caressed the cloud blankets as we glided on the breeze, watching the landscape below go from a tundra to a blur of dark green color swatches. We had been flying for a little while now, each lost in our own little thoughts, but still glad to have each other around.

People always say that dragons are not like other mythological creatures: exceedingly clever, devious, and menacing. In the last few weeks here in Ecra, I had almost only found that the creatures met the first and last option: you don't want them as an enemy, but if you have one as a companion you should consider yourself lucky. It was quite funny: I now had more experience than all of the fantasy writers combined, for I had a real dragon.

My friend's grunts brought me back into the moment: the creature seemed annoyed, shaking his head and strong front claws as we flied on.

"Wanna take a break?"

By the second, we were losing altitude as Eimid committed to landing, clearly pleased that I had recognized his body language. We landed on a wide expansive field dotted with plants that looked like purple fountain grass; the autumnal plant made me instantly nostalgic for my home.I dismounted, laughing loudly as the dragon dropped to his side and began to roll around happily, like an itching horse after riding lessons.

"There there now..."

I crouched down and scratched the dragon across its abdominal plates; purring filled my ears, and I let out a giggle when Eimid let his tongue hang out of his beak.

A gap in the bushes, about ten metres behind Eimid, caught my attention, and slowly I stood up, still scratching my companion's head.

"Hang on bud, I want to check this out for a sec..."

I hobbled to the hole in the bushes, leaving Eimid in the tall grass as I gently wiped strands of hair out of my eyes. Behind the thorny bushes, at the base of the hill, large boulders had been hauled away, leaving a large, gaping hole in the flank of the slope, well hidden by the foliage of the surrounding vegetation.

A confused frown formed on my face as I took a closer look; the hole led to a deep tunnel, which was slightly slanting downward. I was startled to hear a questioning hum behind me, and I answered the wind dragon's questioning look by shrugging my shoulders;

"I don't really know what this is either, bud.... I think I'm going to take a closer look..."

I turned to Eimid and reached into the bag that was hanging at the dragon's side and fished out a makeshift torch.

"I do need a little bit of a fire right now.", I laughed, and my friend carefully barfed out a cyan-blue flame, which immediately seized the spread-out beeswax on the piece of withered wood.

"jesus take the wheel..."

The dragon tilted its head confusedly once more, and I waved it away laughing; too little time to explain earthly expressions.

The first step into the dark was the most arduous: with one hand I held the torch, the other I held against the muddy wall as I cautiously continued walking.

I was startled when the muddy ceiling shook, sand falling down as the streak of light from the entrance disappeared behind me; fleetingly, I turned around, only to chuckle back in relief as I watched Eimid make unsuccessful attempts to enter the tunnel as well.

"You'll have to wait for me buddy, you're too big! I'll be back! I just want to check if this leads to anything."

I turned around one last time, and headed into the darkness, my trail lit only by the bright blue, nonetheless dim flame, my hand pressed on the wall right next to me all the while, as I rounded corners, walked steeply down from above and straight back up again, through something that seemed to be an endless tunnel. Sometimes, it felt like the walls were closing in on me, making me feel as if I were a prey being hunted.

'I don't trust this one bit...'

The thought had not yet formed itself decently or I set foot in a much wider corridor after a sharp turn; curiosity took hold of me again as I saw dim sunlight streaming in at the end of it.

My pace quickened with my increasing enthusiasm, and before I knew it, I was standing in a small cave; sunlight was pouring in through a gap in the ceiling, and a small stream was flowing through the center of the hollow; tunnels had been dug out of the several uneven walls, presumably leading to other places in Ecra: an underground tunnel complex. The walls were covered in strange-looking, slimy, withered vines, which ran all across the ceiling too.

My footsteps echoed through the 'room' as I slowly stumbled towards the stream, letting my eyes scan over every nook and cranny. My footsteps made creepy echoing sounds on the hard pavement, and occasionally, I believed I heard distant sounds: murmurs, animal locomotion.

At first, I thought there was nothing bizarre about the cave. But then, I saw the water. That's when I knew something was very very wrong: the stench of it was disgusting, and it hit me like a punch in the gut: this was what it had smelled like in my nightmare, just before I had to face Rellian.

black-brownish ooze seeped forth into the small indentation leading from a central, wider tunnel, of which I could see only the first few meters; behind it, there laid only darkness.

I scrunched up my nose as I stood back up from my crouched position; what the hell was this stuff? Did Aros know about this? Did the guilds know about this??

My thinking was interrupted when I heard a strange, oh-so-familiar clicking sound, coming from the widest corridor through which the dirty substance crept on.

I rigidified in place, and slowly, extremely slowly, took a step backward, my heart almost jumping out of my chest.

The first thing I saw were the long, pale, spider-leg-like fingers curling around the top of the tunnel's passageway; the tapping of the pointy nails on the hard bedrock was the source of the blood-curdling sound. A deformed head appeared into view; it had been twisted into an unnatural, superhuman curvature, the once human-like jaw completely twisted and cracked open into the face of a full-blown Vortexia.

The monstrosity turned its head three hundred and sixty degrees around at a grimly slow pace, black slime running from its mouth and eyes, dripping slowly onto the floor, into the dirty water.

plink

plink

plink

plink

plink

My fight or flight finally kicked in, and thankfully my body decided on the second option: as fast as my legs could carry me I turned around and sprinted back into the tunnel I came from, abandoning the burning torch, leaving me doomed to have to continue in the dark while the clicking sound followed me at a breakneck pace, accompanied by chilling panting from the hideous, blind monster.

Adrenaline pulsed through my body as I slipped behind the sharp corners, barely staying on my feet as I ran for my life; to my horror, I felt the hot breath of the monster right behind me, its shrieks filling my ears as I tried my best to not fall head-first on the floor, which luckily was fading from concrete in the deeper parts of the tunnel to earth, signalling that I was almost outside. I pumped my legs as quickly as my legs would allow, and started screaming Eimid's name as the tiny bit of light from the entrance appeared into view.

'Shit, Shit, SHIT!!'

I clenched my teeth together as I forced myself to run even faster, snapping jaws right on my tail, frustrated, inhumane sounds coming from the monster that once was an Ecrian.

"EIMID!!"

I cried in pain and in relief as I saw my dragon waiting for me right outside the tunnel, clearly knowing something went wrong, ready to leave.

Without hesitation, I used all the strength I had left in me to jump into the saddle;

"GO, GO, GO! DO NOT LOOK BACK!! GO!! IT'S COMING!!"