Mizark, Legend of the Athru » Places

         The abandoned city was eyrie. The only sign of live were the crows, fluttering about, making disturbing noises. Ephraim felt a shiver as the red moon illuminated the chapel on the hill. Looking around, he felt a presence of some other people. They were faintly familiar, but were not entirely there at the same time. Athru, he knew. Then, a small bell sound joined the noise of the bell chiming in the chapel. A person approached. He – or she – was cloaked and used a staff of sorts for support. Ephraim tried backing away from the scene, but felt himself unable to move away. The figure kept approaching, slowly but surely. A nearby crow seemed to be laughing now. Everything had a sense of ominous foreboding.

Ephraim woke and found himself lying on the shore of some unknown beach. He blinked and tried to sit up. A clammy hand was touching his arm. Still feeling groggy, he swatted it away. Then he realized what it was. He was fully awake now. The hand belonged to a dead person. Staring at the man lying next to him, memories rushed back into his mind. The arrest. The ship. The other Athru. That son of a bitch Carver. Then, there was an attack. A dragon? He remembered something about a dragon. Then, he had gotten free, courtesy of some of the other Athru. The ship had been on fire and he and the other Athru had scrambled towards the open air. Without much thought, he had jumped into the water. The cold had been horrible, but somehow he had managed to swim away from the ship. Then, nothing. How he had gotten to this shore, he did not know.

He slowly stood up and was thankful that his body was still working properly. He looked once more at the dead man. Was it one of the guards or another Athru? He could not tell. He sighed. ”Well, no matter who you were, it would not be right to just leave you here, wouldn’t it.” . Looking around him, Ephraim saw a nice spot near a couple of trees that would serve as a burial place. He picked up the body and walked towards the place. He started digging.

It was not so much that he wanted to give the man without a name a proper burial, as that it felt good to do something physical for a while. A normal person would not be able to this just after surviving a shipwreck, but Ephraim was hardly a normal person. Channelling the strength of the Rhino, he made quick work of digging a hole. He felt the beast respond in anger. Their joining had not been a pleasant one, being forced into it under the threat of dead. Ephraim cursed the king under his breath. First the forced joining, and now this. He severely regretted making that armour for the man. The Rhino was enraged now, fuelling Ephraim’s own anger. "Ow, shut up, beast!” he roared. It would not do. Both their anger reached a boiling point. It had never been this bad before. He stomped and a horn was forming on his forehead. Fearing he was to lose control completely, Eprhraim lunged forward. His horn struck one of the trees and the entire trunk splintered under the force. The tree tumbled sideways. Splinters flew everywhere. Only then was Ephraim able to subdue the Rhino.

Panting, he looked back at the body. “Well, sorry about that,” talking like he just spilled some water and not in fact destroyed an entire tree, “I will finish up your grave now. Then, I need to figure out a way to get out of here.”