Private Tales The Spying Stars

[Nadya]

Home didn't feel the same anymore, not without him in her life. How one argument made her do the worst thing she could have ever done in their friendship and lose the only person that knew her better than herself... Nadya could not bear to stay in Thanasis any longer. She had waited until after Jensen had married the Princess before she put in her leave request. She didn't really give her superiors time to deliberate, not when her excuse was to search for Storm Dragons so that the near extinct dragon line could perhaps survive beyond her own bonded dragon.

For such a request, they granted her request.

Ravaryn was far, far away from Thanasis, almost the entire continent, but recent events had her almost regretting sticking around the dessert city. It was protected by tall defensive walls, but did nothing against the blaring sun and it's insufferable heat.

Only some weeks ago she had helped aid the city in driving away a Carrion diseased vulture of a monstrous size. It had come from the Valley of Decay, and many of the locals had warned her against venturing inside. It wasn't a place of newcomers, they had warned, but Nadya's leads were dwindling to cold, dead ends. What if the Valley of Decay held something more tangible than decades old reports of a Storm Dragon called Araluen having flown over Ravaryn?

"You got that look again."

Nadya looked up from her table, having staring at her tankard with a deep scowl. "Oh? And what look is that?"

Dazren grinned at her. He was a handsome thing, probably pretty enough to make her forget home for a few hours, but Nadya's drive to search for a Storm Dragon outweighed even her own needs. "You're gonna go to the Valley, aren't you? Despite what them Guards say?"

She leveled him with a bored look. "You think I am going to listen to them? One of them cried when Kalyss breathed on him. What I am stuck on is going in alone, as in someone other than a dragon." She piped in quickly as Dazren's mouth opened to interrupt. "I spent a six weeks flying alone with him, I am going to need a conversation in the Common Tongue for my own sanity, please."

"Then you are best asking around the others. The travelers, the hunters. Anyone willing to do some work for some handsome coin."

Nadya made a face. She was unused to working with those who were not in the close knit unit she oversaw back home. "I guess..."

 

[Lothar]

Malakath was an unforgiving place.

The fact of that truth had become more than apparent in the dozen treks he and the others had taken out into the land. He was not sure how many Dreadlord's they had lost now, about a dozen by his estimation, and most of them had been for little or nothing.

Their ranks were beginning to grow thin now, and as they did the scouting parties did the same. Instead of whole squads, the Colony now only sent out two of them at a time. Different teams had different directions and orders.

Lothar for his lot had been paired with Talia. A Dreadlord a few years ahead of him, but agreeable enough.

Originally they had used Talia's magic to fly across the expansive lands of Malakath, but as the days had worn on flight proved to be more dangerous than it was worth. The Wyvern's and Carrion birds native to this land almost always seeking to bring them down.

Thus they had begun to walk.

Around them the desert landscape folded out into seeming eternity. Stretching as far as the eye could see. Every morning Talia took to the skies for just a brief time, scouting their path for the day.

As she came down on this morning, a smile bloomed on her face. "There's a city in the distance, or at least I think it's a city. A few hundred miles I'd say."

"Oh good. Just a short walk across the desert then." Lothar said sarcastically, briefly wondering where Kaia was and if she'd ever crossed this desert.

"Aye, though there's some kind of ridgeline between them and us." Talia continued. "I think we can go through a valley in it. Should be simple enough."

The Dreadlord said, never realizing that their new path was the very place Nadya had been warned against.

 

[Nadya]

The Valley was all treacherous, just as all in Ravaryn had warned her.

Even the two companions she had hired to help guide her through were now torn in half behind her, the beast that killed them now dead before Nadya and her bloodied sword made from Storm Dragon scales.

"Well," she growled with frustration, "this was definitely a shit idea." And she was glad no one was around to tell the Wing Leader 'I told you so.'

Nadya knew those back in the pub had made bets on the likelihood of her surviving. One was bold enough to bet the dragon would die and not make it back with her to Ravaryn... although she did not entertain his poor bet by informing him about the fact a bonded dragon dying would only kill the human.

She kicked the oversized bug, glad there were not more waiting to launch against her.

Kalyss roared, flapping his wings once. She turned to look at him looking ready to leave, and she gritted her teeth. "Yes, I know a dragon would be found in the skies..." But what if... It had been hard to identify dragon bone from the air, but what her companions had confused for a dragon's skeleton was in fact a sand serpent's carcass, and a Decaying Beetle that had pincers that cut through body. With a final thought of frustration and anger, emotions that were much too easy to reach these days, she stalked across to her dragon and began to mount up onto the saddle. "Araluen was your sister. Is there no Storm Dragon way to... I don't know, communicate?"

 

[Lothar]

The sounds of battle had not been hard to follow.

One of the eyes he'd taken from the dead had been from Uri. An Initate who had been brought on the expedition for...well, punishment. The boy simply hadn't been wanted back home, truth be told, but he'd tried his best. Not that his best had been good enough for Malakath.

His loss, however, was Lothar's gain. As grim as that truth was. Uri's magic was sensory in nature, allowing one to sense vibrations in the air. When Nadya's fight had erupted, following it's trace had not been difficult. Even less so when the Dragon roared.

"Is this one of your girlfriends?" Talia asked from the rockface besides him. Lothar's cheeks turning crimson for a brief moment.

"She isn't- Kaia...fuck off." The Dreadlord said with a scowl. Shifting slightly and shaking his head as he peered down from where rockface. Eyes flickering over the Dragon below. His lips pressing thin as he judged the great beast and the woman upon it.

The Dragon did not look like Tempest, not at all, but from Kaia he had learned that Thanasis had many different types of dragons.

Perhaps this was one. "Stay down."

Lothar ordered his companion, and then took a breath. Slowly he stood up, and then in perfect Thanasian called out.

"HEY!" He shouted down into the valley below, the perch they had found only a dozen or so meters up above the ground. "Are you Thanasian?"

He asked. "I don't mean any harm, just looking to talk!"

 

[Nadya]

She barely heard the shouts over the powerful beat of Kalyss' wings, but the large dragon had better senses than his bonded human. He recognised the language, associated it with Nadya and their home, and steered them both towards the shouts. She had not been wearing her flight goggles, not when the sweat made it impossible for it to sit comfortably on her face, but she could make out the male figure.

Nadya could understand through Kalyss this was certainly odd to hear the Thanasian language so far from home, and it almost made her homesick.

The large and dark dragon swooped above and came to land a distance behind the male and the other. Dust and debris brushed into the air not so gently, and as it began to settle did Nadya's riding boots land on the dried earth.

"I am a Wing Leader of the Thanasian Thunder." She had strapped her dragon scaled scabbard at her hip, silver bolts dancing across it as if it were alive but merely was the same effect of the dragon that brooded behind her.

He did not look like anyone she would know, but she was more curious how he was here, speaking Thanasian, and without a dragon to have carried him all this way.

"Are you Thanasian?" She countered.

 

[Lothar]

Ah fuck.

He'd hoped the Dragon and it's rider would stay down there, but that was the trouble with Dragons; they could move rather fast. The moment Nadya and Kalyss began to ascend, Lothar grabbed Talia by the shoulder and motioned for her to remain calm.

The Other Dreadlord scowled, pulling two small blades from her bandolier but keeping them behind the small of her back. Quickly thereafter she stepped behind Lothar, knowing full well of the two he would be more capable if this turned sour. "No, I am not."

He called out, still speaking her tongue with only the slightest hint of an accent. A hand gently shifting to loosen one of the bandages crawling up his arms.

"But a short few months ago I met one of your...kin?" He was not sure if that was the right word in their tongue. He did not mean family, after all, but simply someone from the same city. "Kaia Thesius."

Lothar called out the name, hoping this woman would at least recognize it. "She told me of your home, and I spent some time with her in the wylds."

Doubtless this woman did not want to hear the full story, but it was all he could think to establish some modicum of trust.

"We are explorers." It was not exactly a lie. "Simply seeking new peoples in these lands."

 

[Nadya]

Nadya furrowed her brows deeply.

He knew the Thesius girl? Had seen the wylds... and his Thanasian was put on with great effort despite the foreign inflections she could hear.

She assessed him once more, even his companion that held a weapon received a shrug. Deciding they were not threats, Nadya took a few steps forward and held her hands up in a show of peace. "Long way from the wylds to here. What brings you both to the Valley of Decay?"

Somewhere in the Valley, a beastly roar filled it, but the rider did not pay attention to it. Her own dragon did not stir, and that was her only indicator a threat was not so soon upon them.

The two of them were already slowing her down in her search, but her curiosity had gotten the better of her. "You both do not look well equipped to be here. You should turn back and head east where you can eventually find the city Ravaryn."

 

[Lothar]

A little bit of tension left him as the girl stepped forward, though he could feel behind him that Talia did not do the same. "We had no idea we were in the Valley of Decay."

Lothar admitted readily.

"Nor do we actually know what the that is." Unlike many of his fellow Dreadlords, he'd never much minded admitting his ignorance. More often than not the best way to learn was by asking questions. Here in Malakath especially, that tactic had served him well. "Like I said we-"

Before he could answer fully, a roar echoed through the valley. The tension filled him in an instant, his head shooting towards where the sound had likely come from. Gaze only falling back to Nadya when she continued to speak. "We're better equipped than you might think."

He answered her, though did not elaborate.

"I thank you for the directions." It was, after all, why they were here. "But might I ask what it is you're doing here?"

Lothar frowned, glancing her up and down. "We are far from your home, and the Valley of Decay doesn't exactly sound...friendly."

Talia glanced at him, whispering in the common tongue. "What are you flirting with her too? Just ask her for directions already."

He shushed her, offering only a glance of annoyance.

 

[Nadya]

Nadya stared at him for a moment, looking reserved and guarded. Even if she were back home, she knew there was no reason to smile anymore. The joy and carefree nature had left her the moment she decided to leave on this fool's errand.

"Searching for a rare dragon." She said. It couldn't hurt to tell, especially if by chance these other humans knew what she was speaking of. "They used to be the protectors of the sky, but now... there are three left. Kalyss was the remaining male." Nadya jerked her chin towards her large dragon, who trilled in response to her.

But his words were true. The Valley of Decay was not a place of peace, but a killing ground for beasts and those that devoured the beasts.

An answering cry went up, one that promised bloodshed and a meal, and the first roar they heard moments before sounded again.

This time, Nadya whipped around as the Storm Dragon did, vigilant on what was going to happen.

It was Nadya that made a call.

"You both might want to climb on or try your chances with whatever is happening down there." She was already moving towards her dragon, climbing his foreleg before scaling his side to where her saddle waited for her. Nadya would let down a rope ladder for them to use if that was what they chose.

 

[Lothar]

Talia glanced in the direction of the sound, frowning as she looked at Lothar with no small amount of concern. "She's looking for Dragons, ones like hers."

The other Dreadlord seemed to shift uncomfortably, clearly more concerned with whatever was making the noise than the Dragon Handler before them.

"We should help." Incredulity flickered over the other woman's face.

"What?!" She said, Lothar grabbing her shoulder and shoving her forward. "Why the fuck would we?"

Already walking towards the Dragon, the Dreadlord pushed Talia to take to the air. "Because, Thanasis is an opportunity, and this woman might help us get an even better picture of the-"

Just as he was speaking, the earth nearby seemed to suddenly explode. A massive worm the size of a building crashing out from the earth. Lothar scowled, and Talia immediately stepped up and into the air. Rushing to the sky and leaving her companion behind as he sprinted towards the dragon.

Though still feeling uneasy about the great beasts, Lothar didn't have the time for hesitation. Rushing towards Kalyss and clambering up the rope ladder Nadya had thrown down.

"My friend doesn't need the help!" Lothar shouted as the worm came rampaging towards them.

 

[Nadya]

Nadya swore, nearly falling out from her seat upon her dragon as she witnessed the girl taking to the skies without a creature with wings.

She swore again loudly, hearing the other stranger now climbing up. Nadya leaned down to lend them a hand and pulled him towards the space behind her. "Whatever you do, do not loosen your grip, otherwise your friend may not be fast enough to catch you if you fall."

Kalyss had turned swiftly, letting out a monstrous flame to slow the worm as his wings gave a mighty beat. The muscles of which moved beneath them as the dragon took to the skies.

The worm had not been what had been screeching and roaring moments before.

A skeletal avian creature was scaling a cliff face, chasing after a six legged creature that Nadya had no clue how to describe other than it was yellow and slimy looking.

"Tell your friend to follow." Nadya called out, her head turned to the side so that she could be heard.

 

[Lothar]

As he reached to take Nadya's arm, she would catch the slip of one of the bandages drawing up his arm. The cotton falling away just enough to reveal the barest glimpse of an eye. It's iris a deep yellow, pupil shifting to look at the Thanasia before the Dreadlord shifted and moved behind the Dragon Rider.

Seconds later, Lothar's swears echoed Nadya's. His eyes flickering first over the Worm, then the odd Skeletal Avian and the creature it chased. "What the fuck is it with this place."

The Dreadlord whispered to himself in Anirian, his head shaking as he held on tight.

"Talia!" His shout echoed through the din of the air, loud enough for his companion to hear. Hand flexing to call her to follow. A brief nod was all the answer he received, the other Dreadlord turning to run in the air after Kalyss. "What exactly is this place?"

Lothar asked in Thanasian. "It seems there are even more monster than..."

He frowned, thinking of all the beasts he'd already encountered in Malakath. "Usual."

 

[Nadya]

She wanted to ask if he were a monster.

The strangeness on his arm had been so quick, she did not register it until it played on her mind now. Nadya pushed the thought aside, focusing on their surroundings as Kalyss navigated.

"All foul and beastly things come from here. It's also a breeding ground for disease that can kill mostly anything living. If the beasts won't kill you, then the native flora will." Not too long ago, Nadya had to work at defeating a parasite ridden avian that came to Ravaryn for the large cut of meat dragged from the outskirts of the Valley and in through the city gates.

"Even in the air, we are vulnerable." But Kalyss was a god of the sky. The clouds were at his beck and call. He'd ensure nothing could come after them.

The great Storm Dragon slowed, watching the earth for movement before deeming it not safe still and continued his flight. "Kalyss can sense disturbances. Maybe more of those worms."

 

[Lothar]

That seems like this entire continent. Lothar mulled the answer in his mind, keeping his thoughts to himself.

He had found from Kaia that the people of Thanasis held the same amount of pride for their lands as Anirian's did. There was no telling if that extended to the whole of this continent, but he wasn't about to chance insulting the woman whose Dragon he was riding.

At least he didn't have to worry about whatever plagues could be found here, though as Nadya spoke his gaze flickered over towards Talia. The other Dreadlord quickly moving to keep up.

"You search for Dragons." He recalled. "Do you suspect whatever calls the monsters to this place called them?"

It was a reasonable guess, at least to a man who did not know any better. Tempest had been the first Dragon he had met in this land, Kalyss only the second. "If there is something that sings to these creatures here, I may have a method of finding it."

He offered, though hesitated for a moment before continuing. "But we'll have to land."