Chapter 112

Nayali

Inaction

Chills ran down her spine as she watched the man craft an unknown concocter in a matter of minutes. Something that had supposedly been impossible. Dragons were by all accounts too evolved or different from known beings to create poultices for, and yet he had. While her companion and friend as still unconscious, Nayali could feel the unknown mixture taking effect almost immediately. First the application on the external wounds caused some of the mental tension flowing to the brain of her bonded to ease.

Yet nothing could have prepared her for the moment he reached his hand inside the mouth of the creature. It wasn’t until he looked back at her and gave her a reassuring nod that Nayali realized she had made a sound. He stopped with his hand inches away from the dragon’s mouth, then he proceeded to stick his hands back into the maw, to apply the poultice once more.

Nayali was left confused as to what to do. On the one hand she wanted to go after him, to follow him. But on the other hand she was bonded with the dragon. Worse she was shepherd to the dragon, which meant she had to look after the creature. While nothing directly would happen if she were to walk away from her bonded, she would still feel the residual feedback from their bond. She would feel the strain mentally that she had abandoned her charge during a time of need. While she was certain no one would dare attack her bonded in the heart of her domain, she still needed to be there for her, for Florijma, when she awoke.

Thus her heart trembled a bit when the man who was so powerful now moved on. He moved to the center of his old village, if she strained her eyes she could see him. But she didn’t need to use her eyes to see him, not when he was in her domain. Instead, she could feel where he was always. She could even feel the use of mental energy.

Mental energy was odd, as it felt more ethereal than anything. If she had to describe the three energies of the world, Mana would be like the elements. Within mana sparked the ability to recreate every element needed for life on the surface of the planet. Qi would be the corner stone of life, the spark that could push a body beyond. While Mental energy was the most profound of the three as it seemed to be the spark of creativity, the final element needed to give sentience to a living creature.

There were few known practitioners of mental magic, otherwise known as Psionics. So when Lykan used that very magic within her dominion it caused chills to run down her back and spine as her mind began to tingle with intangible sensations. Just feeling the magic made her mind come to life with thoughts and ideas. She had often felt the same level of inspiration while watching him craft runes for the Sidherthan Military. She remembered feeling inspired by the gentle energy he was able to move back then. How when she Meditated nearby, she could almost swear that her understanding of skills would reach new heights.

That was one thing she missed. When she was with Lykan her understanding of skills improved at exponential rates. Now that he was back, using the same abilities, she could not help but feel the same residual afterglow of understanding fill her.

She sat next to her unconscious friend in meditation. She pondered her future, her past, and most importantly the present. In her mind she saw a myriad of ways the future could unfold.

It was clear that Lykan had changed, he had grown so much more powerful. When they fought previously, all those years ago, their battle had been decided by the flip of a coin. Had it not been for Lykan’s sheer determination and willing to sacrifice his future for the immediate victory she would have won.

There were also a few things that became apparent after the battle. He purposefully kept himself injured so he could heal her, Nayali knew this. This realization of course took her time to fully grasp and understand. He had kept himself injured so he could bleed off the poison that had been in Nayali’s system. Poison that was slowly killing her, but she didn’t realize it. Only with the benefit of time and distance could she truly understand the sacrifice that Lykan had made on her behalf.

A sacrifice she met with betrayal. While she was not aware of what would truly happen, she deceived both Lykan and his love Octavia.

When Nayali had been at her lowest, her fellow sister Octavia had joined her mentally. In her mind she could feel the thoughts that Octavia had access to and mislead her fellow priestess of the great forest spirit. This caused Octavia to over react. It was selfish on Nayali’s part. She had wanted to drive a rift between the two, Octavia and Lykan. By clouding the thoughts she fed to Octavia, she caused Octavia to react violently.

The only problem was they didn’t know the full extent of how injured Lykan was, how damaged he was months after his battle with Nayali. He had been crippled magically, and then the process that Octavia performed on him caused him to be permanently disabled.

Nayali had heard from others about how much Lykan loved flying, of training in combat forms while in the air. That was part of why he stayed on at the Sidherthan Academy, to learn from Shai’jan, a legendary flying sword master who had defected from the Azani territories.

Then the moment happened. The moment when she, Lykan, and Aren a former soldier of Lykan’s who was apparently so much more cleared the great jungle basin of the corrupting pillars. A construct that she still didn’t know what they were for. All she knew was that the gods rewarded any who would cleanse such a place. The three of them had cleared seven and not just cleared them. They had dedicated all seven to the land, and the realm of the great forest spirit. Something that they were rewarded on each time. Yet, the final one caused problems. There was a burst of energy as the ground became fully consecrated to the great forest spirit. During this time everyone, and everything was knocked out for a period of seven days. Everyone that is, except for Lykan who was able to roam freely. He left them, left her there.

When she came to she was angered beyond belief. She felt abandoned and betrayed. It wasn’t until later on that she realized it couldn’t be helped. He might have gone for help. He might have left for so many reasons. She knew he felt resentment towards her at the end. Now that she has had time to sit back and reflect on her actions there were a few things she would like to do differently.

The fact that Lykan had returned to her life after seven years was a blessing. The fact that he could once again fly was amazing for sure, but something she felt would always happen. Lykan was driven in a way that she had never experienced in her life.

Nayali had known those who were filled by ruthless ambition, her brother was a prime example. When people had ruthless ambition they too would stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Yet Lykan was different, he had ambition and drive but they were always in measured beats. Passion was the word she would use to describe Lykan over her brother. While her brother had ambition, Lykan’s drive was more of passion. He had a relentless zeal to constantly push not only himself, but those around him to do better. That was the key difference between the two.

The fact that Lykan had enough passion to learn to not only fly, but still improve his combat abilities was not surprising. What was surprising was the way he seemed so worldly. The way he knew about different ways to treat dragons, something that she thought was unheard of. Even the legendary dragons of Piran suffered catastrophic injuries all the time. Yet none of the dragons who had been injured were able to be healed by poultices and the like. Their bodies were too advanced for many scientists to understand. They had organs and parts of their anatomy that were unable to be fully understood. This gave rise to many to believe that dragons were superior creatures to any other creature. The fact that they were so advanced spoke volumes about how much further evolved they were than others.

So for Lykan to seemingly come out of nowhere and be able to create and apply healing pastes onto her bonded was astonishing. Especially given the rate at which the pastes were already having an immediate effect on her bonded.

She looked away from the rapidly healing wounds of her bonded, to try to see Lykan. He was doing something. It took a moment to first understand what he was doing. He was taking large slabs of stone and moving them to the center of his childhood home. Then he was inscribing runes into the stones. It took Nayali a second to realize that Lykan wasn’t using his expert crafting tools that he had used while in the military. No, in this particular case the tool he used was nothing more than a sharpened stone. One that he seemed to have sharpened by banging it a few times against other stones.

Shaking her head, she watched as the crude tool seemed to do its purpose. With little more than a sharpened tip stone, Lykan was able to carve intricate runes that were then filled with mental energy. He worked on this for what had to be hours, a fact that was proven as the moon slowly descended two fist lengths overhead.

By this time her bonded had begun to stir. At first it was flicking its clawed paws and wings, letting out a little yelp as it raced forward. From their bond Nayali could tell that Florijma was dreaming of chasing down intruders, ones that smelled of salted meat. Yet despite the movement, there was also a slight twinge of fear in the mind of her bonded.

Whimper.

Her bonded after running forward for so long suddenly let out a pain filled whimper that spoke of trouble and fear. Realizing Florijma’s consciousness was close to awaking, Nayali went in be there for her bonded companion.

“Shh.” She said, as she gently placed her hand on the shoulder of her beast, petting it gently. The dragon was large for psychic dragon standards far larger than the standard dog size most psychic dragons were. Yet it was still too small to ride comfortably or effectively, especially with how big Florijma’s wings were. Fortunately for Nayali she didn’t need to have assistance with her own flight, as such there had never been a method or proposed means of way to let her fly on her dragon’s back.

“Huh, what happened?” Florijma’s mind whirred to life in a second. One second barely there, to full-on clarity, it was always amazing feeling the mind of her bonded come to life.

“Shh. You are safe now.” Nayali said, patting her bonded and trying to get him to calm down.

“The intruder? You survived?”

Shaking her head, Nayali couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the reaction. “Clearly. Now calm down.”

“Where is he, I still smell him.” Florijma shot back through their mental connection. With that thought Florijma began forcing herself to her feet. Shaky lizard legs trembled for a second, before she managed to gain her balance. Once she was up, she saw him the intruder defiling the sacred lands.

“Watch out, he is right there. Come on we can take him if we move together.” Florijma said.

Normally Nayali would be more than appreciative of such actions. But right now she couldn’t help but feel annoyance from the foolish actions. Annoyance that she was sure to send back over their bond.

“Stop that. He saved your life after you fell. Tell me, do you feel the broken bones you suffered?”

“Broken bones? I am too strong for such things as falling to break my bones.” Florijma shot back arrogantly.

Hearing such boisterous musings, Nayali just shook her head. From their bond it was clear that most of this was posturing, as Florijma was at once concerned by not having any known injuries from falling such a height. Then she could see the moment he licked the inside of her lip and found residual paste there.

“Did you make this? This is good.” Florijma said, as excitement flashed through their bond while she licked greedily at the residual paste.

Hearing that thought Nayali just shook her head. “No, after he knocked you unconscious you fell down and broke your leg and a rib or two. That man.” She said pointing to Lykan who was still busy carving runes onto a stone structure he created. “Set your bones, then created a paste that he applied to your wounds.”

“That monster?” Florijma asked.

Nayali was about to laugh, before she felt the emotions and senses that were permeating the bond. Florijma was scared, well and truly frightened of the being before them. To Florijma the being radiated power in droves and not just any power, but a deep power that seemed to have been ingrained in her very core to be weary of.

Now that she had access to Florijma’s senses, she could see a dense glowing red energy that pulsed wildly through Lykan’s body. The energy sent chills down Florijma’s spine. From their connections it was clear that something about the power in Lykan was wrong, that it spoke of unknown and deep dangers.

Feeling the power and seeing how much more powerful Lykan had become, Nayali’s mind went to dark places. What have you done Lykan? What demonic being have you made an infernal pact with for such power? Surely the gods will punish you for such an act?

Seeing the man before him, and the deep crimson energy flowing through his body, Nayali felt waves of emotions roll through her. The most prominent being regret.

“No.” She muttered to herself, her words barely more than a whisper. That was when she did something that only a priestess of the great forest spirit could do. She prayed.

“Great forest spirit. Heed my call. There is a usurper on your lands. Give me the strength so that I might smite them down.” Nayali said, in the past when she had made such a prayer to face an evolved dragon that wondered on her lands, she was filled with energy. Energy that was so powerful she easily slew the beast.

Yet this time, nothing happened. Not even a stray breeze passed by letting her know her words had been heard. Instead all she could do was look on at Lykan, or the infernal monster wearing Lykan’s skin construct something on her lands. The lands she was chosen to protect at all costs.

Realizing she was on her own and that she must do something she too rose to her feet. Her mind reeling as she prepared to once again fight the beast in Lykan’s skin. This time she would win, she had to.