/Verin
"Just how long is it going to take?" - Resam looked at my struggles. Dealing with technology that was more than a century old.
"Give me some time. One must keep patience." - I fiddled with mechanisms.
Loud roar of the dragon shook the earth, sending shivers. Huge armoured dragon landed in the resistance camp. Forces of protectors have come together here to be ready for when the King's men will attack.
Elvish man, the same who gave lift to David, stepped off from the dragon's back, holding onto armour that covered the beast. He looked around, eyes seeking for someone. Dragon grunted, which got a slight tap on the nose from the man. Elf gave another look to the surrounding soldiers, then his eyes met with Resams' gaze, making him walk towards this old man.
"This barrier mechanism needs some elvish touch." - He spoke, as he pushed me aside, then switched some gears on this old thing. The moment he said something in Elvish, producing the last click with a switch - gears went in motion working perfectly - releasing a protective magical barrier that covered camp for miles around.
"Thank you, Herion." - I bowed to him. Elf nodded.
"I'm here to deliver some goods from Goddess. This letter is for you." - Herion pulled out an envelope and handed it to me. - "She said it'll help in your cause."
Sun was up, heating the earth, shining upon both - the army of King and the army of Resistance. Both sides of Three Saint Sages Mountains host warriors; young and old, magical and human creatures, about to fight one another for causes only they know.
/Niko
Choking on the air, as it was leaving lungs, unable to have a bit of a breather, I was turning blue in skin, for I got stuck in some trap room that sucked the life out of me.
"You bloody fool! Get yourself out!" - Hikaru choked me.
"I can't... I don't understand..." - slipped in my mind as the world began spinning, sight hazed and darkened, I was about to let my spirit go.
Hikaru pressed harder with his hands.
"So that's how it'll be. You shall learn it the hard way then."
World slipped through my fingers with my last breath. Eyes closed, heart gave a few last beats before stopping.
"When will you snap out of it, you clutz?" - Hikaru softly touched my cheek, as I lay on the floor, turning stone cold. - "I learned your secret from so very long ago. I remember the library. I remember you." - He pressed his lips against mine, closed his eyes. Hands reached out to hug the dead body, as he lay down next to me. - "You must remember, my love, for all it's worth. You don't belong here."
///
Emergency wing of the hospital, doctors rush towards the doors. New patients arrived with multiple injuries - just out of a car crash.
"Barely breathing! Hook them to life support. These two need operating!"
Nurses whisper as they check up on the girl and boy in the life support system room. Patients are here for more than a week now.
"They said it was one mess of a crash. Poor kids. They're brother and sister, right?" - Nurse looked up at her co-worker.
"Yeah, relatives. Poor kids, having their parents die during operation. Such a tragedy." - Another nurse said as she changed the liquid system.
"Still, they are both in such a critical condition. Coma is nothing of a simple sort."
Few days later the boy was pronounced dead. Heart failure. Then suddenly taken away.
Girl was alone. With no relatives to claim her, she was left on her bed, with tubes hanging out of her, unable to breathe by herself, just waiting for life to end.
///
The war was rampant for months. Taking lives of men and beasts, protectors and warriors that belong to the King and to the Resistance.
The king's army took over the area that spreads across Three Saint Sages mountains, town Krea, then all the land that leads to river Emmea.
The spirits summoned by the Mother Tree lasted for a month, before once again - turning to rust and blood.
Resistance is now keeping their camp near mountain Sekka, the bastion under protection of Goddess of Rivers, as they count their losses, mourn the dead and pray for the end of this mess.
"How about a few bottles of dear old Raven Town booze? I really need some good liquor now!" - Cat smiled, as he put his blades away.
"Not a bad idea." - Hare replied.
"Oi!" - Cat shouted to Herion. - "Give us a lift with your dragon, will you?"
Elf rolled his eyes, turning back to look at these two weirdos that he viewed as quite skilled assassins. Then remembering that they don't take "no" for an answer, Herion waved his hand for them to hop on a dragon.
"To the Raven Town! Let's get wasted!" - Laughed Cat.
Tavern with a name that sounds like a joke - "Bulls Balls", hosting three men of odd sort, having bottles and bottles of liquor piled next to them.
Cat, downing bottle after bottle, Hare just finishing his 4th glass, Herion being gentleman with his drinks - as he empties his third casket.
"I miss her so much!" - Cat cried out, his voice soar.
"Heard it." - Hare took a deep breath.
"She was a good warrior. Sadly, not good enough." - Herion coldly replied to man's sorrow.
"Doppel was a good fighter. Lasting week during that massacre, with battle not stopping even for an hour - that's a lot. She kept on fighting, taking down many strong opponents." - Cat raised his bottle of liquor. - "Cheers to her memory!"
"Cheers!" - both Hare and Herion toasted on this.
Hare turned to Herion.
"Mate, I'm eager to know - how do you drink in the Sky Castle, if you don't get hammered after a casket of Raven Town liquor? What alcohol do you brew there?"
"Best one!" - Herion said proudly. - "Distilled liquor using dragon semen!"
"Forget what I asked." - Hare placed the palm of his hand on his forehead.
///
Erick passed the meeting hall.
Here he once met with all the last species of this parallel. There were sylphs, undines, salamanders and golems.
They received the representatives of the Fifth realm. With Hikaru, The Mad King, hosting this whole charade.
They were close once - Ary, Hikaru and Erick, but it faded in time somewhere along the way. They had their disagreements, lust, battles, sex. They tried it all to work for them. But only sex worked.
"I suppose you'll stay here for now." - Yuki was walking next to Erick. - "When should we plan on going back?"
"Not sure, but due to information we got from Elyon we don't have much."
"She got a lot out of that dungeon, when we went there. So many sacred scrolls and artefacts." - Yuki snapped fingers. - "Hurts to admit she saved those sacred items from destruction that swallowed the dungeon fully. Still can't wrap my head around those things. It all just suddenly went berserk."
Erick was walking slowly, as he enjoyed his momentum.
"Elyon got us out just before it all went into depths of some hell, swallowed whole. I can't even start guessing what triggered this sort of situation. Darkness swallowed the ruins - leaving a crater behind. And there were no sights of Niko ever since." - Erick stopped, looking out to the garden. Roses bloomed red.
Something right now felt so strange. Erick had his senses heightened, with nerves being on the edge for some unknown reason. He felt something was off, but couldn't still figure out what it was.
Ary kept his watch over the Guille Rose Castle, where inhabitants spent their time seeking mercy of faith. Ary sensed unknown disturbance, but he too - was not sure what could have caused it.
All he felt, as he sat in his room - is that time is running out. Yet he doesn't know why or how, he just feels that events are about to get way worse.
/Niko
Deep breathing, eyes so hard to open up. Feels like time itself slept for eternity. Soft. Warm. Someone was breathing next to me, someone held me tight. I dreamed of so many things at once. So many lives.
"Finally you're awake, you clutz." - Hikaru kissed my lips. His warmth and caring softness.
"I was getting worried, you know. With all the crazy braking loose around us, I knew that this was the only way. Now you must remember." - His voice was fading.
///
"Doctor! We're losing the patient! The Conditions are unstable!"
A company man with assistants barged into the room.
"This patient is in our care now. Here's the papers." - Tall man in his forties handed doctor documents stating that the patient belongs to this unknown group of medical aces, where the patient shall be taken for special treatment.
Doctor had nothing to say - he nodded, as his priority patient was taken away.
Beeping of technology, scientists in white coats, with lab masks on, gather around to collect the new arrived test subject.
"Finally! We finally have a younger specimen! And a female at that! I think we'll get it working this time! I can feel it! - Wrinkles on this old man's face raise, revealing his smiling eyes, as he fiddled with a new lab experiment.
Tubes attached, wires connected, specimen in the organic stasis tube. Chemicals are injected in the organism every half an hour for the brain activity to become higher, times and times higher than a normal human. They observed the reactions of the body to the chemicals, the vitamin structure enhanced her, so she can stay preserved in that tube for longer, with just her brains being the most important part of this experimentation.
There was another test subject next to the newly arrived one.
Male, also a recent acquisition, young. His performance was fantastic, but the lab needed a female specimen to see if such measures of the test could be replicated on different bodies.
"Sir, I have finished the analysis. These results are phenomenal! With such activity there sure will be a way for the military to become greater."
"Oh madam, I longed for this day." - Wrinkles smiled again, as he touched the tube with the young woman in it. - "This experiment excites me in more ways than one. Oh it does! It does!"
It took a few months…
Muffled sounds of guns firing. People shouting, running. Gun blasts again and again.
"So you wanted to betray me, you old rat?" - Tall man was dead serious, as he spoke to his ex-subordinate.
"You won't have it! They shall make better use of my research! You coward!"
Gun fires. Blood oozes out of the old wrinkly head.
/Niko
"Wake up, darn it! I'm restless!" - Hikaru takes me by the shirt and pulls up to his face.
"Mnn... Why shouting so early in the morning?" - I let out, groggy.
"You dimwit! Get up!" - Hikaru pushes me back on the bed and puts his whole body weight on me. How can such a man have so much weight to just… Argh!
"Ok, ok! I'm up! I'm getting up! Gosh, Hikaru, you're heavy." - I sit on the edge of a bed.
"Heavy? Not that you had something against it last night." - Hikaru smirks, as he meets the death stare from me. - "You wish to tell me you did not enjoy finally having some ple.."
"STOP!" - I covered his mouth with my hand, feeling my cheeks get beet red. - "I got it, I got it. No need to remind me… About how good it was."
Hikaru pulls me in, hugging me tight.
"But you still need to recover some of the "erased data" from that dimwit brain of yours." - Hikaru bites on my ear.
"Oh you're a pest…" - I push him off and go to the bathroom.
"The biggest pest is yet to come, but right now I'm famished." - He lets out.
///
Laboratory is empty, dead bodies trashed. Both specimens are still attached to wires, tubes, with reserve energy support running to keep them alive.
Computer screen has lines running horizontally, as a bullet got it to crack. On screen, along with lines running there is a research object's maintained "diary", with a small screen capturing visuals of the object's dreams.
"Help me..." - is written in the diary, on repeat, on and on, for years and years that passed.
Just after one mistake of a crack…
There is a bleeding body on the floor, supported by exoskeleton, as one container had crashed.
Another specimen is still inside the cryogenic container.
The Visual screen provides an image of "dreaming subjects view right now".
Hikaru takes a glance:
"Having a peek, are you?"
To be continued. . .