A Cracked Star

[Stella]

 

The next three days went by quickly, with nothing much to do besides train and relax with the wolf pack. They didn't have much info on the ruins we were going to, only that it opens at noon and stays closed until the next day. We had to head out early in the morning so we could make it in time. 

 

The ruins in question were found within a giant dome of vines. The vines were bigger in width than some of the largest trees in the area. Making our way to the entrance, we wait for the seal to open as the sun reaches the highest point.

 

"Did Taleah ever mention how large this place is?"

 

"No, and I'm regretting not asking about that now." I say. The area this place seems to cover is almost as large as the city I lived in with my family. 

 

"Young wolf, I will leave you here. Meet here tomorrow, if not I will come again the following day." Turgis says.

 

About to leave Arya takes control real quick to give him a hug. While gently petting him on the ears. 

 

"Q-quit it, young wolf what have I said about this?" He yells through the link while trying to escape. 

 

"Many time's but I need to get my daily fluffs in before we separate again." Arya says.

 

"Well stop it, otherwise I'll have Taleah take away your bed for a few days." He says, getting Arya to stop in her tracks. Letting go while grumbling about not getting her full dose of fluff in. "Sheesh, why don't you just mess with your own fur?"

 

"Because it's matted and uncomfortable, I haven’t had the time to properly take care of it with the right tools." She says with a smile beaming from her face. 

 

She just won't give up on fluffing his fur huh. Not that I blame her, somehow his fur is still extremely soft even though we have no materials to help with the state of our fur and hair. Not much we can do for hair when we only have water from the river to wash ourselves.

 

"Quit thinking about my fur and go, the seal is about to open." He grumbles while setting off. "I'll think about letting you mess with my fur later later" Mumbling the last part.

 

"You better keep your words!" She yells heading to the gate.

 

~~~~~

 

Swapping back, I start heading down the broken street, plants overgrown all throughout the place. This pathway might have been the main street for traffic as most of the buildings, while broken down or overgrown, look like storefronts. I take the time to use soul sense to look for any potential trouble, but nothing shows.

 

"I wonder what happened to this place, this city is huge." Arya say

 

I just shrug my shoulders in response. "I Just hope I can find a bow for me, I've been trying to make one but any string I've used has snapped." 

 

"And you think the ruins that have been decaying for who knows how long are going to have a bow?" 

 

"I mean, you never know? Magic." 

 

"Magic doesn't work like that!"

 

"And how do you know that?"

 

"IT JUST DOESN'T!"

 

"You don't know that" 

 

"AHHH! If you find a magic bow that is actually still usable in this city then I uhhh, I will. . ."

 

"Will what?" I said laughing.

 

"I'll let you hug my tail for a week while we sleep"

 

"Deal" I said with a smirk as I started looking through buildings for any potential bows.

 

"Oh no, I'm not letting you get out of this without having a potential reward for me"

 

"What do you have in mind then?" 

 

"If you lose then I get to dress you in clothes for a day at the next big city we get too." 

 

What.

 

"Do you even like doing those things?"

 

"Well, I don't know." Arya says getting quieter. "I saw Dawn doing those things before with her friends and thought it would be interesting." 

 

"We'll talk about it later, for now we should try to find this arcane focus Taleah wants us to get" 

 

"And your magic bow that you seem so sure you'll find" Arya scoffs, “Actually, why can’t you just make a bow out of magic? Or better yet, just throw the magic, it’s not hard to control it in the air to do that.”

 

"Shush you" Only to be met with her soft giggles.

 

~~~~~

 

We keep exploring the buildings around us for a few hours, slowly making our way into the ruins. Along the way we find some worn down murals in sections of the city. There seemed to be a lot of items that managed to preserve their state to be identified. From furniture to artwork drawn into the wall. 

 

The deeper we went into the city the more murals we found on walls. They seem to tell the story of a group of people working to protect others after some sort of catastrophe. That doesn’t make much sense, what are they protecting them from?

 

Following the murals lead us to a mountain, it doesn't take long to reach the top, once there we find a row of huge stone pillars out front. The pillars are adorned with markings going up and down at random. 

 

"What is this place?" Arya said.

 

"A temple is my best guess, but I don’t have any clue on the god they worshiped." I replied.

 

With all the imagery of wolves fighting together against a greater being, I started to think that it could have potentially been Amarok but I quickly threw that thought away. It doesn't give the same feeling of the stories around her. 

 

The leader depicted in the murals always seemed to be wielding a large two handed ax that is lit aflame. It always has the sun drawn along with it. I wonder if that was just a moral thing or not.

 

Walking towards the entrance of the temple I hear a system notification as I take my first few steps inside.

 

 

Den of Gheleon? The only time the system would show the name of a place is if it was of great importance to the world. But for a ruin to still have the name given, what history is it a part of?

 

As we walk through the temple, the halls show more murals than we’ve seen walking through the city. Either we missed them on the way or they were potentially destroyed, it seems as if it tells a bigger picture than we knew.

 

The leader depicted in the murals is shown fighting a creature whose body seems to cover a large portion of the wall. Whatever they're fighting, conventional weapons don't seem to work. Seemingly being weak to fire, a creature of death and darkness that turns people into puppets. 

 

Either through their weapons, clothing, or . . . their body, devouring everything around them without any filter of what is consumed. The corrupted, if I should call them anything, look as if they’re used to further the reach of their destruction.

 

I started to pale at the thought of an unknown creature taking control of me through my own body, the thought disgusted me.

 

"Any idea what creature it’s talking about?" Arya asks.

 

"No, and I’ve never heard of them before either." I reply before continuing to look further down the wall.

 

They continue for a while telling of societies falling and rebuilding countless times because of the fights. Different figures drawn varying from the common folk to those furthering their level of technology. 

 

Times of peace and without wars, people training, gathering strength as if anticipating another attack. At this point the murals seemingly stop abruptly, as any section of the wall past this point is destroyed, hiding the history they carried. 

 

Further inside we come into a circular room that is lit up from a hole in the ceiling. Looking around I see a bonfire in the center of the room with a red gem floating above it. 

 

Along the walls there are nine statues spaced evenly across, as I walk inside the room I find my sight stuck on two things. The red gem above the bonfire and a long cracked handle with chains wrapped around the top of the handle right beneath where the ax head is split from where it connects to the staff.

 

"Is that the weapon from the murals?" Arya asked as she floated away from me.

 

"Maybe, but it doesn’t seem useful anymore. Though, I'm surprised you didn't point out the floating gem over the bonfire." I say, my eyes never leaving the item in question. As I continue to stare at it I feel a weird sensation wash over me. 

 

"Oh I noticed it, I just chose to ignore it as it was the most suspicious thing in this room so far." Arya says, not noticing my current state.

 

Seemingly in a trance as I looked at the gem, I reached out to grab it. A feeling as if I needed to claim it for myself growing stronger.

 

"Stella, wait! We have no clue of what the stone is, I know you’re smart enough to realize this isn’t right!” Arya yells, snapping me out of whatever trance I was in. As I notice my current state I try to quickly let go of the stone before finding out I can’t let go of it.

 

"I can’t drop it!" Panicking, I try to throw it and wildly move my arm to get rid of it to no avail, the gem not wanting to leave my grasp. Eventually, I notice it entering my hand, like water finding a path through a broken wall. Almost immediately after that I feel a burning heat grow within me that quickly spreads throughout my body before I hear a notification pop up.

 

"Oh that's not good." 

 

*Rumble*

 

The temple starts to shake greatly shortly, almost throwing me to the ground. The statues start to break as the shaking continues. I start to hear a buzzing noise growing as the rumbling continues to shake the entire temple. The statue in the middle breaks apart as a swarm of black bugs start flying out from behind it.

 

"You need to move now! We can figure out what changed because of the stone later." Arya screamed as she floated in front of me like she’s trying to push me. "We‘ll be in danger if we don’t get a move on out of here. The place is already falling apart and I don’t want to find out what happens if that swarm catches us.”

 

"You think I don't know that?!" Saying so I sprint back the way we came. Trying to not trip and fall over any rocks that are falling from the walls and ceiling. 

 

Looking back, I can see the swarm of bugs right behind us about to slam into me. Bracing myself, I create a wall of ice in the temple entrance to block the swarm, it gives us a little bit of time to plan our next move. 

 

The swarm of bugs continue to slam into it, causing cracks to form all over the shield. Another hit or two and that is going to come down. 

 

"Gimme a few minutes, I’ll think of a way to get us to safety for now.” Arya says as I create a few more walls. This time out of rock as a way to seal the entrance.

 

"Alright but think of something fast, we don’t have all day!” Saying so, I start to run back down the temple path trying to make the buildings in the town my cover for now. 

 

As I continue to make my way down, I feel the ground beneath me start to shake again, even making cracks spread out from underneath me. Looking down I notice something isn’t right as the shaking continues to grow, almost knocking to the ground. 

 

Moving to get away too late as a swarm breaks out of the ground slamming into me knocking the breath I had out as I get launched.

 

“Stella!” I hear Arya yell out before I hit the ground, making me roll further before coming to a stop. 

 

I start to wheeze as I slowly pick myself up. “I, I’m fine, just didn’t expect them to come from the ground that’s all.” 

 

Looking over, the swarm seemed to have broken itself apart as it started to recollect itself. Seeing this I start to bring forth my mana to create a ball of fire before imagining it shooting out in a line. 

 

Putting more power in over control, the result being a radius larger than imaged as it shot forth leaving little room for the swarm to dodge as it is engulfed in the flames. As this happens it starts to loudly screech out before it rushes off into the distance. 

 

“Hah hah . . hah, I didn’t expect to use so much mana in that.” I say as I get up, feeling my chest throb as I move. 

 

Man this sucks, I guess that sets the tone for the day huh. 

 

“Are you okay?” I hear Arya ask from my side. 

 

“Could be better honestly, at least I know what to attack next time. For now let’s just get out of here for now before that swarm comes back.” I suggest before continuing down the path.

 

Finally getting the chance to relax I once again notice the burning feeling that has been building up since I first grabbed that gem. I just hope that whatever is happening isn’t harmful, I still can’t understand why I felt that urge to just grab it.

 

“So what was the whole deal with you just grabbing that stone back in the temple?” Arya asks. 

 

“Honestly, I don’t know. One minute I’m looking around that room and the next thing I feel is this endless desire to grab ahold of the gem. Like I had to make it mine no matter what.” I replied. 

 

~~~~~

 

Back in the town ruins we quickly look for a building to lie down in. My body is still burning from earlier, only growing stronger with time. Arya has been having headaches again as she keeps describing the feeling we’re experiencing as ‘having the flu’. Whatever that means, she won’t explain it to me outside of it being a sickness from Dawn’s world.

 

Each passing moment means I find myself growing more weak, I can’t help but think if that damn rock I grabbed was poison or something. As I find a position that’s comfortable up against a wall, I start to feel myself passing out as the heat becomes too much for me to deal with.

 

At some point Arya had gone back into our soul space, saying she was going to lay down as she was also feeling bad. As I feel my eyelids growing heavy, the notification from earlier that I head appears before I fully black out.