 wolven [Profile] 2013/2/6 - 12:38:10
Chapter 9
The Artefact.
As the duo ventured farther into the ruins, Cane became slowly aware of something. Aside from himself, Yeersha and the Ra’zac, not forgetting the corpse-elves as he called them, there was something darker… more sinister drawing them in.
Oriel had informed him that the Ra’zac were working for someone, presumably a shade… whatever they were, and that they were looking for something even he- a dragon rider knew not what.
“Why are the Ra’zac even here?” Cane asked himself as he continued to run, being cautiously aware of the magma behind them, though when he turned around for a breather, there was no sign of it or their pursuers. In fact, the temperature had dropped drastically, and compared to the furnace they were in but minutes ago, this felt positively cold in comparison, but liveable.
“Oooh, Cane… look over there!” Yeersha said, having opted to walk on her own feet for a while. She pointed at markings on the walls, which they could now plainly see given the staggering darkness.
The markings were similar to the mural, but they seemed crude in some way, as though they had been carved into the stone by some unrefined hands. They were badly engraved, but impressive nonetheless. One of the depictions appeared to be a dragon, as elegant as Glaedr, minus the skills and crafts of the more contemporary artists. Another depicted a two-legged creature with rounded ears, others with slightly pointed ears, but still rounded and had angular faces with striking appearances. One showed a round eared creature next to a huge creature not dissimilar but with ram-horns on its head and appeared to be wielding a club or some other tool. Another showed creatures with pointed ears but seemed considerably smaller than the others.
“Dragons, Men, Elves, Urgals, Dwarves…” Yeersha said, studying them. Cane cared not for what they were, but was anxious to move on. “These are all the races of Alagäesia.” She exclaimed, looking at the pictures.
The duo moved on to the next set of pictures, which seemed more familiar to Cane but were similarly depicted. One depicted a snow elf, with curved back ears and a bluish paste had been used to colour the skin. Another depicted an Imp, small, and perched like a vulture. Another depicted a set of two different black creatures, one set looked like birds, the others had the makings of elves, but their eyes were black.
“Dark elves?” Cane gasped, as he looked at the engravings closer. He realised then, that these must have been the earliest historical evidence of their existence, and he paid heed to the pictures as they moved along, finally stopping at a massive slab of black. It was also engraved, but it was impossible to decipher. Two rubies dotted two points of the slab. A shriek shattered his confidence, for it came from neither Cane nor Yeersha.
“They survived?” Yeersha gasped, panic spreading through her like wildfire.
“Oriel did say they were persistent feathery...” he stopped himself from cursing, remembering Yeersha was still a child. “Ugh… we need to get through here. This can’t be a dead end!”
He hammered with his fist against the slab, but nothing happened, though a great many splinters entered his hand. He cursed and pried a few of them off.
“Uh... Cane, what are those?”
Yeersha pointed to the two rubies which adorned the slab, and from one angle, it appeared as though they were loose. Cane reached up and touched one, but it sank away from him into the slab. The other did the same as he touched it.
The Ra’zac’s cries were drawing nearer, so Cane pushed the rubies in further, until he heard a distinct click. Somehow, it was as though a breath of fresh air washed over him, making him shiver at it, and he heard a voice in the wind. It spoke a language he did not know, and the slab cracked into two down the middle. The two slabs then began to slide into their respective sides of the tunnel, and another room was revealed.
Cane and Yeersha entered the room, hand in hand and gazed with wonder at their surroundings. There was a warm light throughout the room, and it was roughly circular in shape. The walls had distinctive markings on them, which seemed to shimmer and here and there was a brief sparkle of some light of a random colour. Soon enough, Cane realised that the walls were some form of glass, and behind them was the molten rock which not long ago ha threatened them. There was a raised platform in the room, which had a kind of bridge leading to a giant sculpture, again of the same demonic creature he saw in the mural. It was glaring, with eyes of ruby, at a pedestal which stood adjacent to it, in the centre of the platform.
“What is this place?” Cane wondered aloud, and felt the warmth of the lava behind its barrier.
“Cane, look at that.” Yeersha bounded up onto the platform and raced towards the pedestal, for there was something large and black, mounted on top of it. Cane climbed up for a better look.
On top of the pedestal was a large egg-shaped rock, which was even darker than he thought the night sky could ever be. It seemed to radiate an unknown aura to him, but it seemed somehow friendly. Though smooth, the rock was incredibly gnarled looking, as parts of it seemed to bulge out, and there were two grey blotches on the rock, as well as a ridge down one end of it, which seemed oddly like a spine.
Cane gazed in wonder at the rock, as did Yeersha, and more than anything, he felt drawn to it, as though he was supposed to have it, for a reason he could not identify. It seemed magical anyhow, for he knew not of anything that could produce a rock so smooth, except for a meteor perhaps. Gently, Cane reached out and felt the rock. Something about it made him feel queasy, despite it’s unrivalled smoothness. In fact it seemed fragile, like the cocoon of a butterfly, or some other insect. He ran his fingers down the spine, and the rock seemed to shiver, as the warmth in the room seemed to drop for a moment.
“There it issss…!”
Cane’s head whipped up, to see their pursuers standing in the entrance of the room. The Ra’zac had been burned, boiled and scratched, but they still retained that demonic air about them.
“That’sss quite closssse enough I think.” The smaller Ra’zac hissed, spitting its venom over the ground, and the room’s temperature dropped suddenly.
Cane drew his dagger on instinct, before looking at the rock again, with an odd sadness upon him.
“We’ll be taking that. For leading ussss to thisss artifact… you have our thankssss.” The taller said, sheathing its weapon.
“I should not be so quick to sheath if I were you. I have some questions for you two first.” Cane said, feeling a presence begin to hack at his mind.
The Ra’zac hissed at this, and they glared at him with their black, pupil-less eyes. They waited, so Cane took it as an incentive to speak.
“What exactly is it you are doing here?”
“We… have been sssearching for thisss.”
“Then what is this?” Cane asked, indicating with his dagger towards the rock.
“It… it iss an historical artifact.”
“I’ll let that slide for now. Who are you working for?” Cane asked, boldly.
The Ra’zac grew silent, and then one began to click saying.
“It isss not for usss to sssay. He forbidssss usss to ssspeak hisss name.”
“What is he?” Yeersha asked. The Ra’zac sputtered in rage. Cane pointed his dagger at them.
“He isss… the darknesss behind the light, he who blotsss out the sssun. He who was ssslain… and now isss risen.”
“I prefer not to speak in riddles.” Cane said, his eyes narrowing. The Ra’zac drew their weaponry.
“Enough. Give usss the artifact now and we may let you live!”
Cane spoke, but the words that came were not his own, and his body felt like a puppet on strings. His vision changed to an odd shade of purple, and he could see different colours of smoke rising from where all the parties were. Yeersha’s gave off green, the rock a strange mix which was unidentifiable, whilst the Ra’zac’s were dark red.
“I have had enough of this. You betray, you murder, you eat the flesh of children, and you desecrate this temple with your presence…” Cane raised his arm, as a sign of banishment, and fury. “…Now BEGONE you foul demons, and never return to the world above!”
The Ra’zac cawed in a battle cry and lunged.
Cane barked a word, which vanished from his memory instantly and he felt himself being drained of something within him.
The glass cracked, and the lava poured in at the correct moment, enveloping the Ra’zac behind a wall of flame. The Demon statue crumbled into dust, and a tunnel was revealed. Like the strings of a puppet being cut, Cane fell limp. His vision returned to him and he picked himself up and grabbed Yeersha and the rock and began running through the tunnel as fast as his legs would carry them all.
***
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wolven [Profile] 2013/2/6 - 12:40:8
I know i got me an account on Writerscafe and all, but i still kinda feel like posting here as i have not gotten many of the chapters posted there yet. Plus i wanted to draw this.
C&C would be greatly appreciated.
frost_star [Profile] 2013/2/6 - 14:34:47
wow wolven this is so cool. So many things to look at in one image! it's hard to focus on.
dreyacira [Profile] 2013/2/6 - 20:41:50
I like how you've managed to draw so many characters in one scene, it's something I've always had trouble with and you managed it so nicely. I don't mean to be rude, but it would be really nice if you could do what Tayu suggested and put the writing on your other website and link it back here. It's just a pain to scroll down through it every time, since this is an oekaki website and I'm mostly interested in the pictures.
wolven [Profile] 2013/2/7 - 5:39:38
Its just taking longer than i first anticipated adding all the chapters to the site. So I apologise for all the pain i have caused by posting these half-chapters over the last few months, and i honestly did not intend to cause any harm for doing so. My next Picture will just have a link to the chapter.
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