Cyil trembled in fright as he hid in the foliage on Riselus's shell. Riselus noted how this was the first time Cyil had tried to hide in a bush ever since the beginning of their journey to become gem keepers. Riselus sighed quietly as his mind drifted back to that time. Cyil and Aavern's innocent energy, Qassot's clumsy, childish demeanor, and Dracoa's constant state of irritation. It was a far cry from the creatures he knew today. His species lived a very long time, and spent most of their lifespan finding places to settle down. Only around a tenth of his kind ventured out to mingle with the other species of the forest. One of them had woken him up from his sleep one day and invited him out to explore, introducing him to the friendly Oacinhragn, the curious yet flighty Dringoch, and the brutish dragons living in the valley. Riselus's emotionless face shifted slightly into a barely distinguishable smile as he remembered how entertaining the interactions between the vastly different species were.
Angry squawking interrupted his reverie. The smile disappeared off of Riselus's face, replaced quickly with a frown. He opened his eyes. All around him, the corpses of various black creatures were strewn haphazardly. Some had their heads smashed in by rocks, others had been impaled by rock spikes, and still others had holes punched into their black bodies by tiny fast-moving rocks. One creature had managed to escape the slaughter and was now angrily flying at Riselus. Riselus sighed as his face returned to its original stoic expression. A rock ripped itself out of the ground and slammed into the creature's head, killing it instantly. Riselus closed his eyes and went back to reminiscing.
Cyil almost immediately interrupted Riselus's thoughts.
"Are they gone?" he asked timidly.
Riselus could only let out a long, exasperated breath. Oacinhragn were flighty by nature, so even though Cyil could have defeated the creatures easily with his fire gem, he couldn't do much if the creatures suddenly appeared out of the fog and started screeching.
"You're normally so fearless," Riselus mumbled under his breath.
"Is that affection I hear?" Cyil asked in a teasing tone, crawling across Riselus's shell to his head and dropping down to look at Riselus's face.
"No."
Cyil dropped his face closer, covering the upper portion of his vision with his flat, fuzzy face.
Riselus closed his eyes and sighed. He understood why Dracoa liked to smack Cyil around.
"You're no fun," Cyil mumbled dejectedly. He jumped off Riselus's shell and began poking at the corpses littering the sandy desert.
Of course now you're no longer scared. Your kind doesn't make any sense, Riselus thought with a slight smile.
Cyil's stomach growled loudly. For a small creature, the sound was surprisingly resonant.
"Do you have any food?" Cyil asked.
"No."
Riselus was hungry too. Based on the darkening and brightening of the sky, about a day and a half had passed since they arrived in this foggy desert.
Cyil sighed. "I would've fought if I wasn't so hungry," he grumped. Riselus rolled his eyes. If he could fight this well on an empty stomach, Cyil should be able to as well.
Cyil went back to poking the corpses when Riselus didn't respond.
"Hey," Cyil asked, looking at the mangled bodies littering the sand, "did you have to be so violent?"
Riselus remained silent.
"You really tore these guys apart. Hey, why aren't they bleeding?"
Riselus closed his eyes and tried to get back to his thoughts.
"These things look an awful lot like those dark armies that we fought back on Falnear."
Riselus opened his eyes again and looked around at the bodies littering the ground. The black creatures came in various shapes and sizes, most of which Riselus didn't recognize. The one thing they had in common was their aggressive, mindless demeanor, their black color, and a tendency to move in one large tidal wave. A few of the creatures were especially large and stood out from the rest, with a dull silvery gray color and a size that rivaled Riselus's. They had been particularly difficult to destroy, as evidenced by the numerous massive stone spikes and curved structures impaling each corpse and holding it in place.
"I agree."
"Where do you think the others landed?" Cyil asked, already losing interest in the black creatures and glancing around at the fog-covered sandy expanse which they had arrived on. "This place seems pretty big."
Riselus, on the other hand, was wondering why the creatures were there in the first place. They had never figured out where the dark armies on Falnear had come from, despite their best efforts. Seeing them again in this unfamiliar, foggy land was strange.
"Where are we?" Cyil asked. "We found each other pretty quickly, but do you think Aavern and Qassot are okay?"
"You missed Dracoa."
Cyil waved his wings indifferently. "She'll be fine on her own. She's a wyvern."
Riselus rolled his eyes inwardly. You're just mad because she keeps hitting you, he thought to himself.
"Then again, Qassot and Aavern will be fine on their own," Cyil continued, "since Qassot's got those unfair swords and Aavern's got that unfair gem."
Riselus ignored the small fuzzball's jealousy and closed his eyes again.
Cyil suddenly made another squeak of surprise and hid behind Riselus's leg. Riselus slowly opened his eyes.
"Something just moved," Cyil shuddered.
Riselus scoffed at the frightened creature, but stiffened when he heard a light crunch of feet on sand. Riselus quietly shifted the nearby rocks to jut out of the ground in a series of rings, a field of dangerous spires that were poised to follow Riselus's command and pierce the assailant at any moment. The footsteps didn't stop. Riselus carefully trained his ears on the noise, hearing the footsteps carefully weave around the rock spikes in the desert. The footsteps stopped one ring away from Riselus. A dim blue light suddenly shone through the mist, gently pulsing off of a pair of beautifully crafted daggers.
Cyil shivered as he peeked out from behind Riselus's leg.
Riselus sighed.
"Another wizard," he muttered. Axel had appeared in a similar way back on Falnear. He relaxed slightly, deciding not to attack. He had attacked Axel when he first saw him before, and he turned out to be an ally.
"You really did a number on these li'l guys," the wizard said, nudging a dead black creature with his foot. "What'd they ever do to you?"
Riselus stiffened and narrowed his eyes.
"Are you on their side?"
"The name's Kyle," the wizard said, bowing with a flourish and a skillful toss of his daggers, catching them before they hit the ground. "You can say that I've got a friendly relationship with these things, but-"
Cyil suddenly darted out from his hiding place and threw a fireball he had been incubating in his fur at the wizard.
"GET AWAY!"
The bright white fireball soared through the air and slammed into the rock spike nearest the wizard, shattering it and erupting into a massive flaming explosion. Riselus calmly created a wall of rock to shield him and Cyil from the shockwave, which cleared the air of fog, shattered every rock spike in the vicinity, and turned the sand below it to molten glass in an instant.
Cyil carefully drew another white fireball out of his fur.
"Those things definitely appeared on Falnear," Cyil hissed. "He's probably an ally of Azor's."
Riselus nodded in agreement. The same dark creatures that littered the ground had caused their home, Qade Valley, to go into a lockdown as they escaped to Ysk Mountain to hide from the rampaging armies. It was probably part of Azor's plan to increase the gem keepers' sense of urgency and purpose to gather the gems.
"That was pretty violent," a cheery voice said from behind them. Cyil snapped around. Kyle was sitting on the sand behind them with a relaxed smirk. "You didn't let me finish talking. I was trying to-"
Cyil immediately threw the other fireball he had at the wizard's face, prompting Riselus to immediately shield the apprehensive fuzzball from the blast of his own attack with a wall of rock that abruptly jutted out of the ground.
"Whoa, calm down," the wizard said. "I'm not an enemy."
Completely unscathed, he was now standing behind them again, surrounded by dust. Riselus squinted at the dust cloud. Now that the fog had cleared due to the force of Cyil's fireballs, he could clearly see traces of movement.
"You're fast," Riselus hissed.
Cyil threw another fireball at Kyle. This time, Riselus was able to catch a brief glimpse of Kyle immediately accelerating and darting out of range of the blast before it hit.
Cyil grunted in anger and set himself on fire.
"BE BURNED TO ASHES!" he shouted, shining with bright fire and blasting everything in the vicinity with a massive explosion of flames.