The White Mountains, North of the Great-Wood
Cassius woke early that morning, his body brimming with anticipation. Today he would begin the journey to the Bastion, and hopefully, the sword that plagued his dreams. Cassius ate a quick meal, and waiting for Chuck to wake; then they would begin the trek.
Cassius leaned against a tree, staring up at the White Mountains; Chuck's snort caught his attention, and he turned his head. The bear had finally woken up and was busy doing his business; Cassius sighed and began walking up the rocky pathway. They had just exited the scope of the evergreens, and were now under the fall sun. Chuck came bounding up beside him, his huge body, shaking the earth as he ran; his tongue hung stupidly from his mouth and slobber flew everywhere. "Damnit Chuck!" Cassius cursed as he wiped a big globe of slobber from his face. Chuck snorted and licked Cassius's face with his huge tongue.
After several hours of climbing the large mountain, Cassius began talking to Chuck. "We've been together for almost a week now buddy, so I hope you don't mind me asking. What kind of bear are you?" Chuck turned his head and looked at Cassius with droopy eyes, an image of the wolves from the previous night. The image was focused on the Alpha of the pack. Cassius gripped his head in surprise, apparently Chuck could communicate with him by images, that was new. "You're an Alpha?" He asked quizzically, Cassius knew that bears never ran in packs on Earth. The bear nodded, but sent another image. This one had a giant crimson bear standing on a rock, towering over thousands of other beasts; they all bowed in submission to the bear.
Cassius thought for a moment, "Is that a beast horde?" Chuck nodded his giant head up and down. "So I'm assuming you're the 'Leader' of a beast horde?" Chuck, again, nodded his head. Cassius smiled and scratched behind Chuck's ear, resulting in a face lick from the giant bear. After that, they walked in peaceful silence. Cassius was pleased to know that, not only was his pet bear extremely intelligent, but also able to communicate with him.
The further they climbed, the more treacherous the path became. Several times, on the first day, Cassius placed his feet on loose rocks, and nearly fell; luckily, with his agility and strength, he was able to catch himself. It continued on like this well into the second day, Chuck on the other hand, padded along without a care in the world. Cassius admired this about his friend, and wished to be more like him. Chuck, would disappear regularly to find food; of course, he would bring Cassius bits back. Cassius had finally convinced Chuck to let him cook the meat on a fire, Chuck thoroughly enjoyed this, and forced Cassius to cook him some as well.
On the night of the second day, they had finally stopped to make camp on a plateau of sorts. Chuck, as always, passed out comfortably. Cassius wasn't tired, so he decided to do some exploring. He made a torch and began walking around the strange piece of rock they'd settled on. At first he was disappointed, there was nothing of interest on the tall stone walls; after several minutes of fruitless searching, he was ready to give up. Just as he turned to walk back, he noticed something flash in the torches light. With his curiosity peaked, he cautiously approached the far wall. On the ground a shard of, slightly rusted metal, shone. Cassius reaches down and cleared away the dirt and rocks from the metal; to his surprise, he uncovered what appeared to be an ancient spearhead. The shaft had long ago decayed, but the metal was somehow still in decent condition. The runes in his body flared brightly, causing much smaller and less strong, runes on the spearhead to shine. Cassius smiled and stood to leave, when something else got his attention. A bag, very similar to his, most likely magical in nature; was buried under a debris. He pushed the rocks away and grabbed the bag, he then retreated over to his camp. He settled down against Chuck, and opened the bag; with the torch light, he was able to make out several distinct objects. The first was some sort of token, a journal, a beautiful ring, and finally a compass.
One at a time he pulled the items out and examined them. First was the compass, strange runes lined the metal on it's back. It pointed unflinching north, like it was tuned in that direction. Cassius shrugged and placed into to the side. Next, he took out the token and placed it to the side. It was unremarkable. The ring was more interesting, it was blue and lined with gold script. He carefully placed it back in the bag and resolved to find it's purpose one day. Lastly, he pulled out the journal. It was made from rich leather and untouched from the ravages of time.
He slowly opened the journal and was surprised when he discovered he could read the print, "This journal is property of Darian Fleetfoot, Head Cleric of the Crimson Order." Cassius flipped the page, "I record this as I flee the disaster at the Bastion. It has been over three centuries since our Lord sacrificed himself to end the war. The Dragon's too are gone, our only compatriots. These are hard times, but luckily, before our Lord's death; he left me with a prophecy of sorts. I record it now in this enchanted journal in hopes of saving it from destruction. 'Rise Champion, heed the call. The time has come for the ancients to return. You are the catalyst of power; the Crimson God...
The stage has been set; the pieces in play. The game of Gods has resumed, but this time: there are no rules...'" Cassius shivered at the ominous prophecy, but the next line sent fear through his body, "Song of the Godstone".
The Godstone. Crimson God. Irian. Crimson runes. It all made sense, that day when he touched that beautiful Crimson Stone. His mind ran a hundred miles an hour, connecting all the dots. He was meant to find the stone, and the sword was that of Irian's. Did that mean, he was Irian? Terrible pain shot through his body, and an image of a dragon pommelled sword flashed through his eyes. The runes on his body flashed brightly, and his vision changed to black.
****
Cassius eyes shot open and he looked around widely. He gripped the sword tightly in his fist, causing his knuckles to turn white. "What happened last night?" He asked aloud, but the only answer he received was an annoyed grunt from Chuck. Cassius desperately tried to remember the previous night, but every time his mind would go blank. After several minutes he determined it was worth it, he grabbed the bag with his belongings and didn't notice the journal that sat at the bottom of it, nor the other items.
After a quick meal, they sat off again. After a few hours, snow began to fall. Cascading down onto the ground softly, drawing a smiled from Cassius. A snowflake landed on Chuck's nose, causing him to sneeze. Cassius chuckled and they trudged on. The landscape was truly astounding, they could see out over the Great-Wood and the surroundings lands. The peaks of the mountain were covered in fresh, white snow; as they were all year round, which gave them the name White Mountains. The higher they climbed, the more they could see. Eventually they reached the end of the path, but it turned to ancient stone stairs instead.
The stairs were steep and went up the face of the mountain. Chuck had a harder time with stairs then Cassius, his oversized body didn't quite fit on them. After several near catastrophes, Chuck began walking off to the side; not on the stairs. At this point they had spent a week on the mountain face, and were getting low on dried meat. Chuck also had a hard time finding food on the rocky mountain. He would sometimes get lucky and find some berries, or a bird. This only decreased as they climbed higher, the true size of the mountain was hard to comprehend. It never seemed to start growing, and Cassius had a hard time judging their progress. He guessed they were over half way to the peak, where the Bastion supposedly resided.
On the journey, Cassius had rediscovered the journal almost nightly. The same events as the first time would take place. He'd reach the conclusion, and his runes would light brightly. Yet, it was almost as if he wasn't prepared to learn this truth without his sword. So he every morning he woke with a strange headache and without the ability to recall his previous evening. He asked Chuck about it one day, but the big bear simply grunted and jogged off to take care of 'business'.
By the middle of the second week, Cassius's face was covered in the true beginnings of a great beard. The hair was thick and well manicured, despite being on a mountain. Cassius regularly joked with Chuck about their eventual return to civilization, "I will look like Sasquatch and you, his mount." That made Cassius pause to think, "Wait, is there Sasquatch in Telon?" Chuck simply snorted and licked Cassius's face. He sighed and pressed onward.
Three weeks on the mountain and Cassius began to feel anxious, "Do you think we are too late?" He asked Chuck, who shook his head and snorted. An image of Cassius holding the dragon sword above his head in a roar cry, appeared in his mind. "Creative." Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was almost out of time. Luck was with them, because by the beginning of the fourth week and the last of their rationed food; they finally reached what appeared to be an ancient gate. The gate was connected to massive walls that scaled the top of the mountain. The metal bars had long rusted off and the formerly towering stone walls, had crumbled. Cassius easily stepped through the hole, but Chuck struggled. His massive body was unable to fit through, so he back up and charged through the gate. It crashed to the ground in a heap of rust and snow.
Together they walked deep into the Bastion grounds, in the distance they could see a fortress that towered over the everything else. It's spite made the tallest evergreens in the Great-Wood seem small. Chuck even thought so, because his snort seemed more nervous then normal. The inner wall surrounding the 'Palace' of it could even be called that, was twice the size of the outer wall. Everything seemed dead, the place was lifeless and no creature dared disturb this air. Even Chuck was hesitant to perform his normal antics. Cassius patted his head reassuringly and swallowed his fear. The closer they got to the second gate, the more nervous they became. Chuck began to whimper as they stood before the gate, something off about this place. Cassius couldn't put his finger on it, but something was definitely wrong. He drew his sword and they walked right through the open gates.
The landscape changed drastically on the other side. The stone walls of the ancient palace were scorched black from what appeared to be fire. Many of the towers and parts of the main building had crumbled. Cassius warily drew his sword and looked at Chuck, "What do you think boy?" An image of Chuck cowered on the ground with his eyes hidden under his paws, would have been hysterical if it wasn't for the feeling of being stalked. Cassius stepped closer to Chuck and they made their way up to the steps leading to the Palace.
Before they could enter through the doorway, the ground under them shook. Decrepit stone crumbled to the ground and Chuck whimpered pathetically. From the grey sky an unimaginably big shadow soared towards them. As it burst through the clouds, a horrifying roar came from it's mouth. "Motherfucker." Cassius whispered as he stared at the biggest creature he had ever seen, a giant black dragon.
****
The God of Chaos looked down from the mountain as his giant servant, a lesser dragon, soared at Cassius. His eyes were full of joy, if he could kill the young Dragon God now, before he claimed his power; his brother would be so proud of him. A pleased smiled danced upon his lips, beady black eyes staring down at the chaos that was about to ensue. He knew the young man stood no chance against such a creature, if he had claimed his power. The Lesser Dragon would be like a flee on a beast, annoying, but trivial.
Lesser Dragons were Bal-Tuhn's attempt at replicating Irian's children. They weren't sentient like Dragons, but they were much more cruel. They lived to inflict harm upon their enemies, and savored slow deaths. Thankfully, with his immense power, the God didn't have to worry about the Lesser Dragon turning against him. He was confident that Cassius would die, but he couldn't help that he felt nervous. The ginormous, crimson bear that accompanied Cassius was no normal beast. It was a God-Beast, capable of going toe-to-toe with even a Dragon, but luckily it was barely more then a child. If it was allowed to mature, it would be truly terrible; for now, it was simply an obstacle. He chuckled evilly as the Dragon roared and sped towards the shocked, young God.