It was an hour later, and Azul had finally calmed down. She had stopped screaming and was just staring off into space. Fennyr wished with all his heart that he could say something to make her fell better. But he knew from experience no words could patch a grieving heart. Pyria tried to console her, but Azul didn't even notice. Fennyr softly lead Pyria away from the lamenting dragoness.

"No," Pyria protested quickly. "She needs me."

Fennyr felt his heart sink. "She needs time. There's nothing you can do right now. And we need to talk about what to do next." He whispered. Pyria looked at him, blue eyes pleading, but then gave up and allowed him to tow her away.

The group stood in a semicircle, awaiting instruction. Dulkrn was the only one sitting, his expression so triumphant that Fennyr wanted to tear it off his snout. But his blood felt replaced by fire as soon as the thought crossed his mind and he had bite his lip to keep from howling in pain.

I must look strong. He thought. For my friends. For Pyria. For Azul.

"Let's look around." Fennyr took charge. "Salvage whatever you find, food or supplies or anything. Auhek will be our guide again. We need to get to the nearest town as fast as possible." Without another word, they seperated. And on each of their journey in the ruined town, each encountered their own private horrors.

Sulak stopped and stared at horror at a collapsed library, books turned to ash inside. The majestic doors that had once let in many a hungry soul seeking knowledge were fallen, stripped of the gold leaf that once covered.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sulak saw Gra'li in front of the rubble of a church. Her eyes filled with tears and her talons quivered with anger and she beheld the destruction within. Every page of the hymn books ripped out and burned. Like the rest of the buildings, every piece of gold or silver was stolen or ripped out of the walls, Proface messages were seared on the walls and every Averyon, the sun and cross representing the love of Amilaki, were smashed and torn. Quickly, Sulak rushed to comfort Gra'li, but she shrugged off his help.

"I'm fine." She whispered.

"You're a horrible liar." Sulak smiled weakly.

Without looking at him, she started to walk away. "I need some time alone. I don't want you to see me like this." Sulak started to follow, but he stopped. His multicolored eyes were heartbroken, but he tried his best not to show it. 

Otner sighed in despair at a ransacked concert hall. Horns were cruely bent and lyres were snapped. Music was shredded and torn with the beautiful lyrics scribbled over with charcoal.

Pyria stopped at the ruins of a hatchling nursery. Although the roof was in danger of caving in and hatching scrolls littered the ground with the ash, she thanked Amilaki that there were no corpses among them. On the floor of the nursery, there was a doll carved out of wood and gored by claw marks that seemed too deep to be dragon’s claws. Silently, Pyria knelt to the ground and picked up the wooden figure, a tear running down her rhinestone cheek.

The sun was high above the well when they regrouped.

“Any luck?” Ahek questioned. The others shook their heads, too horror-struck to speak.

“I found a map.” Dulkrn spoke up. “But that’s all.” He looked around at the ruined landscape and chuckled. “What fools. They should’ve hid their valuables instead of flaunting it off like it was nothing. They were asking for it.”

“Show some damned respect.” Grali moved to attack, but Sulak gripped her forearm.

“Why? They should’ve protected themselves more.” Dulkrn taunted.

“Like you protected the others?” The golden dragoness retorted. “You’re nothing but a coward, Dulkrn. Never forget that.”

He scowled for a instant, then grinned. “Is that a threat? Oh, Fennyr, I do believe I’m being threatened.” Fennyr’s body moved between Grali and Dulkrn, his mind furiously trying to rebel. When Fennyr moved, Sulak quietly towed his golden friend away where the two of them had an argument in barely contained whispers. Inwards, Fennyr hated that he was forced to serve his worst enemy. He hated that the others were so afraid of him. He hated himself for making the blood oath in the first place.

Auhek took the map from Dulkrn’s claw. Unrolling it, he quickly read the symbols on the deerhide. “There’s another town not far from here; Anni’heilm. A couple days at most, but we can make it.”

“Alright then,” Dulkrn smirked. “Shall we, my dear?” He bowed mockingly to Azul who was still sitting on the ground speechless. Without even looking at him, she began to walk. Her eyes were emeralds without their luster. It was if in an instant, her childlike joy was replaced by the eyes of an old dragoness, who had seen too much death and experienced too much pain.

Without another word, the journey began again.

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Hey, guys! I just wanted to say thank you for helping me get to 20 chapters! I'd never would've made it without your guys support! Again, thank you so much, and here's to 20 more! 😄😁😁