Well. What an event right? I mean I assume it was over. I could feel myself growing less weak and I was just about ready to wake up. I don't know what I was going to wake up to. I mean I witnessed my grandmother's death and the death of a few others who's names I may or may not know. I can't recall much else.
Oh, oh, oh... Yeah... Apparently I had my awakening and that didn't seem to go as I expected. Well, maybe it was all a hallucination, a consequence of the awakening. Very terrible hallucination, but at least that was a better possibility than what I saw. Hope. Yes that's it. I hope it was all just an illusion, hallucination, nightmare, anything but reality.
I groaned and coughed as I felt something heavy enter my airways that wasn't exactly air. My eyes flickered open and I could see a lot of grey but nothing was in focus and an intense blur. Soon I wished it had stayed that way, as what came into focus was an atrocity.
Everything that could be consumed by fire was singed, smoldering, burnt to a charred remnant or ash, or it was still on fire. Ash covered so much and rained down silently like snow falling in an empty field.
The ash covered everything so much that it took me a few moments to realize that the mounds I was seeing wasn't piles of ash but rather bodies. Corpses of so many people including my grandmother and some recognizable people.
The scene had brought sorrowful tears in my eyes and they ran down my ash covered face. I immediately tried to stand. I had to find my mom, my grandfather, the captain, Sehaela. Anyone. Someone had to still be alive.
'Oh gods... What have I done? How could I have done this?' These were the thoughts running through my mind as I drunkenly stumbled around, blinded by the ash and my tears. Wiping them only caused an ash based mud to accumulate along the corner of my eyes.
"Hello!!!" I called out,"Hello is anyone out there?"
My cries carried a heavy sense of despair. Everything looked destroyed. There was no sign of any life.
"Hello! It's Zionai Mourn-shard! Heir to Lord Zetrion!" I called out once more hoping that perhaps announcing myself would cause anyone in fear to possibly come out.
"Zi- ahuff-ahuff Zion-Ahuff... Ove-ahuff... Here" a weak frail feminine voice coughed from behind a smoldering pillar.
I quickly staggered weakly to the source of the voice with elation. Finally, someone alive...
When I got to the pillar, I found a soot and ash covered kid, who, only due to her right boot and left thigh being nearly uncovered, I recognized as Sehaela.
"Sehaela! Oh gods! Are you okay!? Oh gods... I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do this! Oh gods... I'm a mons..." I started to blubber before I was interrupted by Sehaela who'd gotten enough energy to speak loud enough.
"Hey, calm down... You didn't do this. Something and some people attacked us." She said weakly.
"Wait... Something? Elaborate..."
"It was massive. It was like this giant lizard with wings made completely of this green fire and it blew white fire."
"Sounds like a dragon..." I pondered loudly.
"A what?"
"Nothing... So what about survivors? My mom?" I stated desperately as I looked up and around.
"Zionai..." She wimpered softly.
I looked down at her, and I could see it in her eyes. I didn't want to see it. Oh how I wish it wasn't true. The truth was going to be painful. The moment she voiced it, I knew it would hurt beyond imagining. I looked away. I couldn't look at her.
"What happened?" I whispered as hot tears flowed down my cheeks only they weren't tears. It was small drops of liquid fire that didn't burn my face.
"It was quick. She jumped off your grandmother when your grandfather was consumed by countless waves of fire simultaneously. She started firing off lightning bolts at the fiery beast screaming in anger. She held her own and pushed the beast back some, but... A fiery spear hit her in the leg. And... And... The beast consumed her in a wave of fire... I'm so sorry Zionai..." She recalled as she cried rivers of tears.
I grew angrier each second that ticked by as she told the story of the only two remaining members of my family dying at the hands of some unknown enemy. Fire started to boil from my hands, but I was instantly relieved to hear a voice call out.
"Long Live the Mourn-shards..."
I immediately recognized the voice. It was weak but it was Captain Dalragon. The flames had fully extinguished from my hands and I reached down and picked up Sehaela and we took off towards the voice.
"Long Live the Mourn-shards..." The voice called out again.
We turned perfectly towards the voice, and ran full sprint, avoiding the aftermath as much as we could. I noticed along the way though that there truly was nothing left. My home was gone.
"Long Live..." Captain Dalragon started to call again as we approached him. He looked up with pure elation written all over his face.
"Zionai... Sehaela..." he said, happily but definitely now weaker.
I looked down at him and that's when I noticed it. He had a greatsword jutting out of his side, pinning him to a piece of stone rubble. He was fatally wounded and had been calling out not for help. He was calling out to make those words his last. He wanted to die with full devotion and loyalty to the nobility he had loved and served his entire life.
"Captain... You're..."
"Ever the observer... yes... it won't be long now..."
"You'll be leaving us as the only survivors... Please fight it! Admitting defeat is defeat in itself! Remember? please... there's no one left..." I said as I dropped to my knees at his side. I took his hand in mine.
"Ahuff... You... will have to go without me... I won't be able... to walk away from this... It's ok... Hand me my sword please... I will die with honor..."
Sehaela quickly grabbed his blade and softly placed the handle in his other hand.
"But what are we going to do Captain... I... I need orders." I stated as if I was his soldier. He deserved to give some final commands.
"Go...ahuff... go to your... father's estate... you'll find refuge there... I've sent Bruhom ahead of you... ahuff-huff-huff..." He ordered before he coughed extremely hard and blood began to trickle down his lips and onto his chin.
"Yes, Captain. We will. Rest well..." I whimpered as my lava tears fell onto my cheeks only to be absorbed by my chin.
"Long... Live... The... Mourn-shards... Long... Live... The...the...the..." He started to chant once more but his head finally slumped and I felt his grip on my hand slack completely.
"The Mourn-shards..." I finished for him in a whisper before crying silently.
"Long Live The Mourn-shards..." I whispered once more as the sounds of disaster returned, falling ash, soft cries, and the dying coals of the remains of the Mourn-shard estate.
"Long. Live. The. Mourn-shards!" I yelled into the night air as flames flared from my eyes.