Private Tales Read between the lines

[Talus]

Talus caught her before she could step too far, drawing her in and kissing her on the lips. "I love you."

He told her softly, Vorak looking away for a moment to give the two Lovers a second sort of alone.

"Good luck." The Dreadlord said softly, squeezing her gently before letting her finally slip from his grasp and walk through the massive doorway leading into the Forge.

Beyond she would find a massive cavern that stretched for miles upon miles. A huge staircase lead down to what appeared to be a platform, atop it, in the very center stood a massive empty forge. A huge chimney seemed to reach up from the forge and up to the Cavern ceiling above, falling away from view.

At the end of the platform was a massive brass bell easily thrice the size of Zana herself.

 

[Zana]

A blush burned across her high cheekbones as he pulled her into a kiss. Her eyes closed with a small frown as she returned the kiss passionately. When he whispered those words she merely smiled and sent the wave of emotions back down the bond. Then slowly she stepped away, her hands sliding down his arms to hold his hands which she gave one last squeeze before she dropped them, threw a wave to Voruk and stepped through into the beyond.

It felt like any other mission she had been on. When she was on her own an innate sense of peace filled her as she wandered through the cavern and down the winding steps. She tried to imagine Talus striding down here in his armour and ringing the bell, confident and bold. It made her lips twist into a crooked smile. Zana in contrast took her time, lifting her dress slightly as she walked so as not to trip. As she approached the bottom she took off her sword and cast it entirely to the side.

This wouldn't be fixed with weapons nor toiling bells. She took a breath and thought back to the text.

Dragons were wise beyond years with a love of all things beautiful it was why they coveted gold and precious stones so much. But they also liked the more unusual, a sad story, the tear of a loved one.

A song.

Zana didn't ring the bell but she did duck underneath it and run her fingers along the rim to create a beautiful sounding hum that set the pitch for her song. The tone resonated out across the cavern and sluck town the tunnels she assumed the dragons dwelled within. For a moment she let it resonate before she closed her eyes and launched into her song.

"I am humble
For tonight I understand
Your royal blood was never meant to decorate this sand
You suffered great injustice
So have thousands before you
I offer an apology, and one long overdue
I am sorry
Please, Hear my song

I know I sing the truth
Although we were bred to fight
I reach for kindness in your heart tonight
And if you can forgive, and if you can forgive
I promise you my heart and soul

I am frightened
But I'll use my final breath
To tell you that I'm sorry
Let us end this dance of death
Centuries of agony
That to your heart we sent
Here are now with my amends
The senseless killing ends
I am sorry
So sorry.

Please, hear my song
I know I sing the truth
Although we were bred to fight
I reach for kindness in your heart tonight
And if you can forgive, and if you can forgive
Together, we can be strong once more.

So here I stand...
Here I stand, begging you..."

Zana would never be one to brag about her voice, it was something she had only ever amused herself with. But it carried hauntingly across the cavern, back up the stairs and further down the tunnels...

 

[Talus]

The song seemed to reverberate, echo outward through the cavern and beyond. Talus and Vorak stood quietly in the doorway, listening as Zana sang. Vorak glanced to Talus, tears in his eyes as he quietly sniffed and wiped at his face.

Talus smiled at his friend, reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder.

For a time, nothing at all happened. Five minutes passed, then ten, then fifteen. It would almost seem as though nothing were coming, as if Zana's song had gone unanswered. Then, just as she was about to turn back and leave, the sound of wings beating through the air began to echo.

The sound cascaded over and over again, slowly stroking through the air and resounding in it's own echo. From within the darkness, something was born. It seemed small at first, yet as it drew closer and closer it became clear just how immense it really was.

A dragon, it's wings larger than the span of an Anirian Galleon, it's body stretching for double the length of a Training field. It's scales were black, spotted with shades of red. Great Horns rose from it's skull, and bleak yellow eyes dotted it's face.

The great beast swooped through the air, it's wings beating a single time as it landed upon the end of the platform.

It seemed that very earth shook as claws dug into ancient marble.

"That sound. That song. What wondrous music you make. Yet you are do not belong here."
​

The Dragons voice seemed to boom out from it's chest, resounding and echoing through the cavern as though it was everywhere and nowhere at once.

 

[Zana]

Zana had never seen such a magnificent creature up close before. She had once seen a dragon far off in the distance but it had not been bothered with little ants and had swooped onwards and off into the sky. Now the stuff of myth and legend came to land at the other end of the platform. The wind from its wings almost threatened to knock her off her feet but she stood firm, only turning her face slightly away when grit hit her cheeks. Once it was settled she held her breath, heat hammering in her chest like a sledgehammer, but it did not instantly try to engulf her in flame. Instead it spoke.

A voice so old it made her bones ache and it filled her ears like a symphony of drums. She curtsied low.

"Your words are kind," she stood and then clasped her hands in front of her face. "I am not of dwarfish blood, no, but I do belong here. I have come to be the bridge, to see if it would be possible to end this conflict between two people who once created such wondrous things it would make a fire giant cry."

Zana took a breath and met the dragon's gaze with the full force of her own.

"I come to ask you to start the fires of this old forge once more."

 

[Talus]

The Dragon laughed.

It was a bone shattering thing, the sound of a dragon laughing. It seemed to reverberate and thunder within the cavern like a thousand drums being struck a thousand times. The echo of it was enough to sunder stone, and in the distance stalagmites fell.

"YOU COME TO ASK FOR THAT?! FOR THEM?!"​

The Dragon's maw opened, and within it Zana would see flame.

"TRAITORS TO THE TREATY! BREAKERS OF THE OATHS! YOU WOULD STAND WITH THEM?​

Anger and rage were palpable, searing from the Dragon's breath as it's head suddenly swooped low. Before she could take a step the Dragon's fiery maw was but a few feet from Zana. Dark Golden eyes locked on her.

"I should burn you where you stand."​

 

[Zana]

The voice made her ears ring but she didn't move, didn't so much as flinch, even when its jaw came swooping down towards her as if it might take a bite or set her alight. His breath rolled over her skin causing beads of sweat to appear and she felt like it would blister from the sheer heat of him so close. She fought against the primal instinct to run in the face of danger and looked him calmly in the eyes.

"Today is not the day I die," Zana's voice held conviction. The vision she had seen of her death had not changed since she was 13. "Neither is it the day you die," a smile curved her lips very briefly but then her face softened.

"I do not come on their behalf. I am not a Dwarf. I came on behalf of humanity, Great One. We miss the art you wove together. The dwarfs lament and you still linger here when you could have left so long ago. So I came here to beseech you on the worlds behalf. How can I mend the bond that was broken by a foolish greedy king?"

 

[Talus]

The Dragon's head slowly turned, it's jaws slowly shutting as flames burst from the side of it's lips. A great eye slowly shifted towards her, gazing at her, inspecting, watching.

"Humanity?"​

It seemed to linger in the air resounding within the walls.

"I remember Humanity. I remember a man."​

The Dragon slowly pulled itself back, laughter once again echoing from the great beasts chest. It rang quieter this time, not shattering the walls of the cavern as it did before. It's head slowly turned, glancing at the doorway. It's nose twitched, and then slowly it returned once again to regard Zana.

"Six hundred years. Six centuries. Lifetimes for your kind, but a wink for me and mine. We still remember the pain. The anguish of the fallen ax. How can we forgive that pain? How can we fuel their forges when it was they who struck them from this world?"​

The Dragon seemed to pause.

"Your memory is short, little human. Mine is long. There is no mending what once was, no bringing back what might have been. But I will offer you a bargain."​

 

[Zana]

Zana considered his words with great care. She couldn't say that she blamed him; she thought of the pain she had felt at Talus even being hurt and tried to imagine forgiving the person who took him from the world. It was incomprehensible to her mind. The idea of living with the pain for that amount of time too took all of her imagination to muster.

She thought about the futures that sat at her finger tips. Could she show him like she had been able to show Talus? Now that they were connected would her magic even stretch that far? It was a thought she kept close at hand as she curtsied low again once more, almost sitting on the floor with how low she dropped then rose.

"I would listen to your bargain, Great One."

 

[Talus]

"I will light your forge a single time."​

The Dragon spoke more quietly this time, as though it itself were hesitant. It was clear that it did not exactly favor this bargain, that perhaps it was even doing her a favor for the song that she had sung.

"A flame that will last five days."​

Enough to forge the armor and more from what Vorak had told Zana.

"And in return you shall see that none return here. No the Dwarves. Not the race of man. No one."​

 

[Zana]

Zana raised her eyes to meet his golden gaze and then frowned a little. It was a beyond kind offer for just a song and she did not want this meeting between them to turn into something bitter down the lines. As he had said, his memory was long. What was to say that in a century he would resent the decision he had made here today.

"I will seal it, but..." her eyes roved around the room and landed on the bell that had been used as a device to summon them like pets. She wandered over to it and laid her hands upon it. For a moment nothing happened and then slowly it began to fold in on itself, twist, contort, until finally two smooth circlets were created. One for a human, one for a dragon. She let the dragon circlet sit between them and fitted the human one onto her upper arm.

"If you change your mind, if you want to heal the wound, you have merely to think of the future I spoke of in that song and I will see it and know you wish to talk. I cannot walk away from here feeling like I am entombing you."

 

[Talus]

The Dragon watched quietly, calmly. It listened to her words and it's eyes fixed on her as she slowly began to destroy the bell. A rumble ran through it's chest, though it said nothing until she finished her words.

"There is no tomb that can hold us."​

It was the last words she would hear from him. A breath filled the great Dragon's lungs, and then burst forth as it jumped back and off the ledge.

Fire washed over the over the platform, white hot flames that rushed out from the Dragon's maw. It permeated the entirety of the marble, bursting even over Zana and yet somehow not scorching her to cinders. The flame wrapped itself around the forge, and then drew itself in.

She would see a spark, and then a great rush as the flame was suddenly sucked into the forge itself.

By the time the fires ended she would hear the steady beat of wings as the dragon flew away. The circlet that she had crafted was gone from besides her.

 

[Zana]

Zana bit off a curse as she threw her arm over her face to shield her eyes from the light and the heat of the flame as it rolled across the room. She had raised the purple shield as well but much like with Talus' magic it had cut through it like a hot knife through butter. The Dreadlord had, for a split second, expected not to walk out of the room. But at the flames hit her they kissed her skin like a the rays of the sun on a summers day. It buffeted her and tore a little at her dress, singing it in small places, the thonging which had tied her hair disintegrated, but she was otherwise unharmed.

She slowly lowered her arm and watched with wide eyes as the fire rushed up and into the forge. It was a magnificent sight to see but she tore her eyes away from it to watch the dragon as he flew back down into the tunnels. Despite his words, there was a warmth in her own heart knowing he had taken it.

There was a little hope.

Quietly she picked up her sword and walked back out of the forge. More than a little sooty and with half the skirts of her dress burnt off, hair cascading down her back, she emerged from the entrance to the forge.

"Please stand back," was her only greeting to the two men who stood waiting for her before she turned sharply on her heel to face the doorway again. She raised her hands and closed her eyes as at first a purple net knitted its way across the doorway and then slowly the rocks around the entrance began to cave inwards until not a hint of the light beyond could be seen.

"The fire will burn for five days," her lips lifted in a crooked smile. "What?" she asked, blinking at the pairs expression.

 

[Talus]

Vorak began to laugh.

It was the same sort of laughter that echoed from him back in the feasting hall when he'd told the joke. It was loud, uproarious, and seemed to echo through the halls of the mine cart so much that it would reach all the way back to Karak.

Talus only smiled at her like a fool, taking half a step forward and wrapping his arms around her in a tight embrace. His lips gently grazed over her skin. "You're amazing."

He whispered in her ear as his arms clung to her.

It would have been a lie to say that he hadn't been afraid for her life. Vorak had needed to hold him back when the Dragon had threatened to burn her, and in his panic Talus had nearly used his magic to break free.

"I love you so much." He told her with another kiss. "You're never leaving my side again."

Talus could still feel his heart thunder in his chest.

 

[Zana]

Zana couldn't help the giddy grin she gave Voruk in response to his laugh but before she could say anything Talus had gathered her into a bone crushing hug. Now the mission was over the emotions through the bond crashed through her. For a moment she froze and then her arms came around him to reassure him she was fine. Her face tilted into his chest and she breathed him in, one hand staying wound about his waist and the other running up his back to lay across his shoulders.

"I'm okay," she whispered back then tilted her face up to his for him to claim her lips in a desperate kiss. She let him take what he needed to soothe the hammering of his chest and reassure himself there was nothing wrong with her. "I love you too," she finally managed to say when he did at last let her go. Her hand came up to touch his cheek briefly, to smooth away the last lines of worry.

"I could use a drink," she rubbed the back of her neck with a laugh.

 

[Talus]

"I can imagine Lass!"​

Vorak called to her as Talus turned about, his hand enveloping Zana's as he simply refused to let her go.

"Thror will have mixed feelings about this, but I suspect the good will outweigh the bad. He did always like a good ending."​

They had of course, heard every word the Dragon had said. It had been a voice that one couldn't really miss, particularly given how close they had been standing to the open doorway.

Eventually the trio made their way back to the cart. The trip up was not quite the joyride that the venture down had been. Instead of taking just a few minutes it took nearly an hour for them to return to the same tunnel they had left Karak in.

Yet as they returned the roar of the crowd drowned out even their thoughts. The moment the Cart turned the bend it was like the entire city of Karak was cheering for Zana. Most of them had likely lost coin, but the elation rose so far above that it seemed no one cared.

 

[Zana]

"It is for the best," Zana felt it in her gut. They needed more time to heal but... her fingers traced the circlet about her bicep that she would now never remove. There was hope for a future. She didn't say much else for the trip up apart from to fill in her side to the conversation, and she also explained the bands which they would not have been able to hear about. As they got closer a mar between her brows formed at the noise, it wasn't until they were nearly there that she realised what it was. The confidence she had held facing the literal maws of death vanished in an instant under social pressure.

She half slid down in the cart so Talus could obscure her from view, her cheeks red.

"I'm going to be force fed a lot of ale aren't I?"

 

[Talus]

"Probably." He said with a smile, about to open his mouth to say something else when the crowd suddenly rushed forward towards the cart.

Within half a second, if she would allow it, Zana would find herself lifted out of the Cart and onto the shoulders of multiple dwarves. Talus did not make a move to stop them, only let out a loud cheer himself as he stepped out of the Cart with Vorak.

Kara itself was a light with life like it had not been in centuries. Yelling, cheering, drinking. Most of them were yelling of Zana's success, of times passed, and of a new age for Karak itself.

Thror came up to the cart, clasping a hand on Talus' arm as he asked for what had happened. The story was quickly told, and a small rueful smile spread over the old King's lips as he nodded his head.

"Aye, its for the best."​

He agreed, then turned to follow after the procession which was now carrying Zana towards the palace. Vorak moved to follow, but Talus caught his arm. He leaned in and whispered something to the Smith.

A smile spread across the dwarfs face, and he nodded and quickly headed off in another direction as Talus went after Zana.

 

[Zana]

Zana squeaked as she was lifted from the cart and sat on the shoulders of two dwarves. As they began walking she cast desperate eyes back towards Talus with a mouthed plea for help. There was already two mugs in her hands and she was pretty sure the only reason there were not more was because she simply couldn't hold anymore. There was very little in the way of excuses she could offer as to not drinking and by the time they were at the palace she found herself three mugs down and more being pressed into her hands.

The bond was already beginning to turn into a slurry mess on Zana's end.

She had wanted to find her original chair but there was no such luck as she was deposited in the middle of the large dancing area that seemed to have been created in their absence. Tables and chairs had been pushed back to make room and she caught sight of Talus as she waved from where she had collapsed into a chair after a dance had ended, mug between her hands. She gave a drunken wave.

 

[Talus]

Talus walked up to her with a smile. "It seems my love that the people of Karak have claimed you."

There was a smile on his face and a mug in his hand. He hadn't managed to walk more than a dozen paces without having a drink thrust into his hand, and every time he'd finished the damn thing another one had suddenly appeared

He squatted down in front of her, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"There's talk of building a statue." Talus had difficulty with Dwarven humor sometimes, but he was almost positive that they'd been serious when he'd heard the suggestion.

Briefly he looked at her a bit more closely, inspecting cherry cheeks and woozy eyes. "Can you even understand me?"

Talus asked with a smirk.

 

[Zana]

Zana pinched both his cheeks in answer to his question and gave him a woozy smile.

"You're so cute when you're worried, have I told you that?" she hiccuped again and nearly spilt her latest ale all over him. The crackle of purple energy hopping over every droplet and returning it back to the mug was the only thing that seemed to save them both from a drenching. The Dreadlord slid her arms about his neck, mug hovering in the air, and then buried her face in the crook of his neck. "You were gonna try n slay the mean dragon for fretnin to eat me weren't yew?" the words got more jumbled as they trailed off and then suddenly her whole body began to shake with laughter.

"Don't tell anyone but the Ginger Dwarf still sleeps with a stuffed rabbit toy," her words were muffled from where her face was pressed into him but he might have still been able to make out the words around all the laughter.

 

[Talus]

Talus smirked at her. "I won't tell anyone."

The Dreadlord said with a small smile as he let his hand run through her hair for a moment. She was very clearly drunk. He couldn't help but keep the smirk off his face. His lips brushed against her cheek as she buried herself in his neck.

"No you haven't." Talus would have fought an entire brood of Dragons if it meant saving her. He'd been prepared to even then. "I don't think you do nearly enough."

He teased with another kiss. "But I think maybe we should get some food in you."

Or at least a little less ale.

 

[Zana]

"Bogir says eatin' is cheatin'" Zana wasn't entirely sure which one had been Bogir in the sea of people who had been her escort to the palace. They had all looked pretty much the same from her elevated position and muddled brain. Even so she leaned back, arms still looped loosely around his neck before she leaned forward and claimed his lips in a kiss, her hand coming up to brace against the side of his neck and cheek, fingers stroking over his jawline.

"Dance with me," she asked in a breathy whisper when she finally let him go and got unsteadily to her feet, hands sliding down his arms to his hands in an attempt to tug him towards the dance floor even though he was effectively boxing her into the chair. She nearly tripped trying to step over him.

 

[Talus]

Talus quickly moving and then tightened his grip on Zana, making sure that she didn't fall over onto her face and break something. "Okay okay."

He told her with a smirk.

"One dance." If she could even manage it. She seemed about ready to fall over just from walking. "But I'm leading!"

Talus roared with a laugh even as Zana continued to determinedly drag him out onto the dance floor. The dwarves surrounding them quickly parted, cheering, whooping, and then clearing a space for the two lovers as the music began to pick up in a quick tempo.

 

[Zana]

She might have been drunk but even that wouldn't hinder her ability to dance. Considering her state there was no doubt more than a few people expecting this to be a case of her clinging to him whilst trying not to pass out but the beat was like a fire in her veins. The song from earlier had woken something deeper and now the music and the dance called it forth. If he was going to lead he was going to have to keep up.

On the right beat Zana lifted her leg with absolutely no shame to frame his side and hip. The fabric actually tore a little from the movement and she threw him a wicked look before the steps began. It was an incredibly fast dance that required careful steps and for their bodies to be pressed together close at every opportunity. A sensual swaying of hips, of spins and dips.

It was frankly a miracle she didn't throw up.

 

[Talus]

Talus moved fast, feet placed almost against hers as they stepped in a careful dance.

She had no idea how she managed it will drunk, hell, he had no idea how either of them would have managed it sober. Yet as they flowed through the steps and the tempo of the music grew faster and faster Talus found himself enraptured.

He lost himself utterly in her arms, the way she swayed against them, the twerk of her hips and the twirl of her body in his arms. The two of them did not so much as move, but flowed through the hall. People cleared the way for them, parting, cheering and letting out loud whistles.

It all finished with a flourish, Talus dipping Zana low as they fell into the final step.