Chapter Eight

Beasts and creatures of every type filled the landscape growling, barking, snarling and howling. Mixed with the feral creatures were a wide variety of bipedal things that resembled a human, but offered blaring differences. Long ears, larger eyes, limbs mixed with nature, things of dreams yet still pleasant to the eyes. Opposing them stood an uncountable numbers of humans, covered with the skins and skulls of those creatures.

She understood. Elidra understood completely no matter how she tried to turn her thoughts away. The history of Amadagu continued to unfold around her. The world was still so young in her visions. So entranced she didn’t notice how long she had been watching the visions or how profusely she sweated from the strain. Yet the Mothertree would not let her turn away or stop.

Although she had seen the boy, she was unprepared for the unchanging face of Amadagu she now knew in the here and now. He stood with the creatures, in fact, next to a beautiful woman, long of hair, black as the night. The woman was not human as her skin, barely covered, seemed to glow. There was fire in her eyes and Elidra knew this woman was also gifted as Amadagu was. In the massive crowd, more like Amadagu and the woman speckled the forces; each had fire flashing in their eyes.

Suddenly the woman yelled, her voice shrill in the air, was unrelenting. The air began to swirl and change, first unseen, then as a blistering wind forming before them. In response human forces challenged the air and started running forward. Elidra found she could not stop watching the woman and Amadagu. For his part, the man touched the earth and all began to shudder. A gapping maw split the opposing forces, fire from the maw and the wind above them tore through the humans without sympathy.

Out of thin air another woman appeared on the near side of the chasm, instantly killing thousands of creatures. The female combatant never actually touching the ground walked through the creatures, untouched, killing them with a mere touch of her hand. Earth surrounding her bubbled up like a festering rot of blackness and spoil. As she moved the surrounding death increased, her destination was painfully obvious.

Pointing at Amadagu the woman screamed something ungodly that caused several creatures and men alike to instantly die. Others fell to the ground clawing at their heads and ears. Amadagu stood facing her, unaffected.

From her fingers, claws inched out demonically. Any beauty she held was washed away as her real form, hideous and cruel, transformed before him. Still he was unmoving. Rearing back and slashing at him with her demonic claw, the woman’s hand stopped impossibly close to his face. Elidra wanted to turn away to not watch, yet was transfixed to the image.

Lifting his arms high and bellowing into the air the ground shook and grew before him, racing to the sky. Shrieking over and over the woman tried repeatedly to attack Amadagu to no avail. While he concentrated upwards to the sky, the mountains spreading and growing, Elidra gasped as she realized the transforming terrain around her was none other than the Dragonspine Mountains that split the land into two.

Catching her eye, the woman that was attacking Amadagu had turned against the woman who was originally at Amadagu’s side. As the demon woman approached, the other woman shimmered and took the form of a beautiful golden dragon. Recognition struck Elidra hard; Daelis, the first dragon. Horrified, Elidra knew the fate of the Dragon. She had heard the tale from Amadagu himself, whom she thought merely, retold the fable he heard. But he was there, actually upon the field when the land of man and beast was split.

Rhiya. The Goddess Rhiya. Elidra suddenly realized the demonic woman was the Goddess herself. A visage of hideous and cruel more frightening than any tale she had heard. Everything in Elidra wanted to turn away and not see what was to come. Hearing the fable was nothing as cruel as watching it unfold before her.

Rhiya grew in size, matching the massive body of Daelis. Daelis cried out as Rhiya dug her claws into the creature. As Daelis took flight, Rhiya only dug in further. Breaking his concentration, the two passed over Amadagu. In anguish Amadagu called out. The air crackled with is power as he worked to free Daelis from the demon goddess.

Spinning into a dive back toward the earth, Rhiya sprouted wings from her back ripping scales, flesh and blood from the dragon forcing the decent to slow. Spinning the dragon beneath her, Rhiya flew toward the new mountain peak and upon one of the crests where earth and rock pierced the clouds, Daelis was impaled.

In a horrifying cry, Amadagu changed into a massive wolf and began bounding up the mountain. From his location he missed it as Rhiya tore into the dragon’s throat and chest. With a horrible scream, the dragon’s ribs were ripped apart, exposing her heart. With complete viciousness the demon claw pierced the sinewy muscle of the heart over and over.

As Daelis lay lifeless, the demon goddess returned to the battle, most of her human warriors now on one side of the mountain, the creatures on the other. Standing in the middle of the festering pool of rot, she expanded its reach until all the creatures and any human with them, retreated in dismay and defeat. Rhiya had one, killing the first dragon.

At the top of Dragonspine, the man named Amadagu held the head of a beautiful slain woman with golden skin and sobbed. Finally as the body began to turn to dust, Amadagu gathered the still blood soaked soil into his cloak. Digging up and gathering all dirt that held any blood at all, he clutched it to his chest and began walking down the incredulous mountain and death device of his creation.

“No more, please.” Elidra found herself sobbing uncontrollably. “The pain is too much, I feel as if my own heart has been pierced, my own back broken. It’s too much. I feel his heart breaking.”

Elidra continued to sob as new visions filled her head. “Please Mother, no more. I am dieing, I feel my own body shutting down. I am begging you, no more.”

Saying nothing the images continued. Amadagu was there again, emptying the wet bloodied soil upon new ground. Surrounding a cleared space, snow was packed heavily several feet deep. This place Elidra also knew; the Pikes.

After the soil was spread, Amadagu spoke words Elidra couldn’t understand. Though still in pain she continued to watch the ceremony in the soil. Cutting his own arm, Amadagu spread his blood throughout the area. In his hands a glowing ember began to take form, illuminating the blood in the ground. With tremendous force he slammed his clenched fist holding the ember deep into the ground. Pulling out an empty hand, he collapsed, his tears falling into the bloodied ground against his face.

“Daelis!” Elidra suddenly exclaimed. It all became clear. “He captured your essence and... but how?” She looked up humbly at the Mothertree realizing the pain she felt wasn’t her own but Daelis’ in reliving her own death. “How does a dragon become a tree?”

Daelis’ voice chuckled in her mind. “Life is life my dear child. What form it takes is hardly important in the end. How my essence loves him and he me. Dragons choose for life, regardless of how that life exists.”

“He’s a dragon?” Elidra found herself full of questions as if she was a child again. With every history, she simply had more questions, more doubts and more confusion.

“No,” Daelis chuckled again and in her mind Elidra saw the dragon smile. “But he knew what I was as I he. Both of us are children of Xhuri. He was simply the first human to know of us and learn our culture and that of the land. Not even Ur, first of Xhuri’s children could do this. Amadagu was the first chosen and historian of Xhuri. He is a harbinger of sorts. Where he walks, the world changes, that is his burden and that is why he walks so loudly.”

“How can one live so long, it makes no sense, he is but human.” Elidra didn’t want to hear the answer she already knew. She always knew and wanted to fight the words, but they refused to stay silent. “How could you and he have created me? What life is there for me? I am your child aren’t I?”

“No.” The words struck her, sucking the air from her lungs. There was nothing more Elidra wanted to hear, but she knew there was no turning back as she merely scratched the surface of the past she was interwoven into. “You are his child, but you are not mine. Not in the way you want it to be. You are no dragon child. You are the druid’s however, through and through.”

Elidra burst into tears again as the truth flooded into her. She had kept it quiet all her life living in a dream. She wanted to scream out, not listen to the words the Mothertree told her, to scratch or bury the images back into the darkness she created. The truth too painful, too hurtful to be her life. Images slammed into her mind again as a scream escaped her lips.

Elidra knew she was the child of Amadagu and Ahryn. Amadagu the harbinger of Xhuri and Ahryn, the harbinger of Rhiya. She had memories of being a child and her mother brushing her hair, teaching her tales of Rhiya and the power of their kind. Terrible stories of the man that raped her and left her with her child. Even then Elidra knew the truth. Almost daily Amadagu would visit her masked as one person or another and tell her bedtime stories. Often she had to fight sleep waiting for him. More times than she could count, she would wait to find him there already telling his stories.

She knew her father’s pain for Daelis drove him to the brink of insanity for hundreds of years before Ahryn. His mad writings that formed from dreams and visions he couldn’t contain or control. For her mother he could only say he loved her. Never a story followed, just a simple; “know that I loved her”.

Memories of her mother’s zealous fever for her religion drove a wedge between mother and daughter, even at such a young age. Her final memory was of her mother brushing her hair again when she suddenly felt her finger pricked. Capturing the droplets of blood into a pestle, Elidra’s mother began speaking reverently calling out dark names Elidra didn’t understand. She felt something pull at her, draining her. Without air, Elidra fainted.

When she awoke, Amadagu was there, wrapping her up and telling her she must remain quiet. She was no longer safe and he would take her to safety. He was taking her to the safest place in the world where she would grow to be her own person without the cult influence of her mother.

Shamefully, Elidra never cried about it, until now.

****

Sounds of the night filled her ears as she woke. She had no idea how long she had been asleep or even when she did fall asleep. She recognized the arms around her and for the first time in many years, she squeezed him tight. She would always know the arms of her father.

Sniffling slights she felt a chill and pressed tighter to his arms. For almost an hour she sat there feeling like a child, happy to have him holding onto her. His heartbeat strong in her ears, almost in time with her own. The smell of life deep in his beard comforted her in ways she didn’t understand.

Amadagu was not a small man, his life hung heavily upon his frame. But there was life all through him. Comforting warmth she realized was rather similar to Vrok. A powerful calm honed by an eon of life and pain. His voice was deep and powerful as well as being matched by his knowing gaze behind the deepest of blue eyes. A druid through and through, but more than anything, her father. So much was unspoken between them. Things she felt she always needed to know but now after the assault of images she understood why he never reminded her. Her empathic ways threatened to consume her, it was the power he mother tried to harness. It was the power he saved her from.

The rich tone of his voice reverberated in his chest. “You will have a visitor soon. Your Emperor is quite worried about you.” Amadagu’s voice terribly calm yet masked in pain.

“I have lost all track of time.” Elidra commented softly. “I have no idea how long I have been here.”

“Just a day my blood.” He kissed the top of her head and began to get up. “Just a day.”

Standing she felt a bit lightheaded but amazingly refreshed. Stretching her arms to him, he embraced her again, placing his lips to her forehead. She wanted to find something to say. Something to let him know she understood. Nothing formed.

Commotion in the Pikes caught her attention. She felt her own will reach forward, only to be pushed back by her father’s. Saying nothing he shook his head at her. Instantly he was a large wolf beside her. Patiently both waited until Jade appeared, visually relieved to find Elidra.

“My Empress.” Jade took a knee, her eyes never leaving the wolf. “Emperor Vrok is in need of you. He has taken terribly ill.”

Elidra stood silent for a moment as Amadagu padded off. Words were lost in her mind, never making it to her lips. Taking a step forward she waved for Jade to stand up. Silently both began walking toward Tova.

“We don’t know what happened, he suddenly doubled over and began vomiting blood. Nothing has stopped his coughing and vomiting. All his food and drink have been tested, nothing has been found.”

Jade held much fear in her voice, yet Elidra already understood. She felt the ripples in the wind, Vrok was dieing. The only thing that kept cycling in her mind was ‘Blackroot’.

Amadagu sat beside the Mothertree, his eyes heavy with tears. “May Xhuri forgive me.” He said softly.

“Vrok isn’t the chosen is he?” Daelis asked him.

“No he isn’t. She is.” New tears fell down his cheeks, his hand reaching out and finding the Mothertree. “That place holds so much pain. Is it ever going to stop.”

“When you finally let it go my beloved, only then. Your echo screams everywhere. Where you have pain, your bloodline will have pain. Where you have joy, they too will have joy.” Her voice calm and soft in his mind.

“Xhuri curses me in this.” He said bitterly.

“No my beloved, you curse them.”