Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 119: A Terrain Not To Be Spoken Of ()

It was already a little past sunset in the white dunes and the third flight patrol had returned to the Asvarian Beacon.

Kaideon sat at his desk, there was a grim expression on his face as he tried to sort through his thoughts but the sound of anxious movement just would not let him concentrate.

Kaideon was one who was sensitive to sound and equally, he was easily angered, and so he waited for just a breath’s worth of time, in an attempt to restrain himself...an attempt that was ultimately unsuccessful.

His beast rose to the surface within him and his eyes glowed brightly as rage coiled within his veins.

Bang!!!

The sound of Kaideon’s fist slamming down on his desk resounded through the quiet study, followed soon after by a noisy crash as the table crumbled beneath the force.

Splinters flying everywhere, leaving nothing but broken wood everywhere. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Garron paused in his step, he was the culprit who had been pacing anxiously about Kaideon’s study, irritating the Dune Lord.

"Your pacing is getting me dizzy, sit at a place." Rodvan spoke up in an annoyed tone.

One could not tell if he was interpreting Kaideon’s thoughts, or relaying his own thoughts but whatever it was, Garron got the hint and headed over to sit on a couch.

The three had moved to Kaideon’s study, a wide space with a large desk...a used to be large desk and rows of bookshelves, not nearly as much as the dune archives but enough that it appeared more like a library than a study.

The volumes Garron had taken out of the archives were left open on Kaideon’s desk and there was a grim atmosphere settled over not just the three but the rest of Kaideon’s subordinates, Coran and Orin were also present.

A few hours had passed since Rodvan and Garron perused through the ancient volumes in a bid to identify the plant they had recovered from the white dunes.

They had spent so long scouring through the archives, Kaideon would never let go of his suspicion so easily and even after so much time and effort was expended, they were not any less clueless than when they had begun the search.

Their efforts were not completely fruitless, Garron had discovered the exact terrain in which the plant Kaideon discovered grew,

The shadow swamps...a terrain far off from the Asvarian stronghold, an ancient ruin that once was a great empire, an empire the Asvarian beasts had conquered and set to flames, leaving nothing but ash and ruins behind.

A place were the sun no longer graced with it’s light, forever cursed with dark magic and encased in the shadows of darkness,

Where the horrendous shrieks of the souls of those thousands who were scorched in the dragon flames still sounded even till this day, a place forsaken and outlawed by the dragons,

Where their wings would never touch, left to be consumed and swallowed up in it’s own darkness...that was the shadow swamps, the original name of the empire long lost to time.

Though the dragons remembered, they would never speak of it.

All of these happened so many centuries ago, it was hard to imagine there still remained plant life growing there...or any life for that matter.

But it was without a doubt that the stem Kaideon had recovered was from a flower that was said to have grown in the shadow swamps.

Kaideon had ordered for repeated searches to be made, all the volumes that told of that ancient empire were pulled out and still yet, there was nothing that made it reasonable to Kaideon.

Now, it was a totally different question and that was how exactly did a plant that grew in the shadow swamps and nowhere else appear in the white dunes, a place so far from the ancient ruins of the shadow swamps?

And what exactly did it mean? What did it mean for the white dunes and the Asvarian Beacon the dune dragons guarded?

It was only now Kaideon understood that intense dark aura he sensed, so strong he had broken flight path for the first time in over five decades.

That stench in the air that he just could not ignore no matter how hard he tried.

"Never...never has there been a mystery unexplainable to us in the white dunes... whatever this is, we must find it and we must slay it." Coran said in a dark tone.

Coran had spent only a moment with his rider Elisa and was summoned urgently the next, he was in as bad of a mood as a dragon could get and the news he heard further displeased him.

"How do you slay what you do not even know?" Orin asked the obvious question and Coran pursed his lips in annoyance, he also had no idea.

Kaideon was the only one who sensed something off and now that he was proven to be right, they were not certain what was to be done next.

"We have no organized report, we have no idea what manner of beast passed by the white dunes, we have no idea how it got here...or how it escaped our sights... Our Liege will be displeased." Orin said with a heavy sigh.

"Still yet, we must make our report...Our Liege must know, that danger lurks the white dunes." Rodvan said, turning to Kaideon for his opinion.

Kaideon did not respond immediately, he thought over it for a moment...he was Kaideon, the revered dune lord, he was not the most powerful dragon lord but when the names of Asvar’s strongest were mentioned...his would appear right after the King’s guard.

Never in his centuries of ruling the dunes had he encountered such a puzzling situation, and now he was not even certain what he could say to his King.

There was something in the white dunes he could not identify or trace, there was no question on if it was dangerous or not, the large print left behind was enough to show it was a beast greater than a dragon’s size.

A beast that had no place traversing Kaideon’s territory... Kaideon’s hands clenched into fists.

The white dunes were his own territory, he was not born into the Lordship of the white dunes like other dragon lords were, he had earned his title with blood and battle.

His duty was one he would give his life a thousand times to fulfill... the protection of the white dunes was his life long mission and if danger befell the white dunes, he did not dare keep his life.

Since it had come to this, Kaideon would not let the enemy catch him off guard...he was dune lord, never defeated...never fallen, not once and not this time either.

"I recall it now!" Garron suddenly exclaimed, drawing all attention to himself.

Rodvan’s gaze narrowed in annoyance, they all eagerly awaited Kaideon’s decision and Garron’s loud exclamation had interrupted them.

"You had better have something reasonable to say or Creator help me..." Rodvan began to threaten but was cut off by Garron.

"The volumes of the shadow swamps, these are but temporary recordings of the previous dune lords! They have little to no information that can be useful to us and for good reason,"

"After the razing, the ruling dragon king declared there never again would be a mention of the existence of that empire... forever wiped from history, that was the final verdict!"

"All scribes were ordered to seal all volumes and records of the shadow swamp and deliver them to the royal archives of Dragon Keep... I sent the records off myself." Garron explained.

"And you are just recalling this?" Rodvan asked.

"You try keeping mental records from three centuries and tell me how that works for you." Garron snapped in annoyance.

"Focus Garron." Coran interrupted before the exchange could continue and Garron’s glare lingered on Rodvan for a moment longer before he continued.

"The original volumes... I have seen them once before, and they tell of all the beasts that walked the shadow swaps in it’s hay day." Garron continued.

Kaideon did not need to hear anymore, he lead one of the most powerful divisions in all of the Asvarian stronghold, he would not be intimidated by some unknown beast.

So long as he knew what it was, he could prepare towards it and Creator help whoever stood against the white dunes.

Kaideon rose to his feet and strode out, nodding towards Rodvan as he passed.

"Send word to the Dragon keep, the lords of the white dunes make flight for the keep. The first dune division take flight immediately." Rodvan conveyed Kaideon’s order.

"As the Dune lord commands!" Orin and Coran echoed, following after Kaideon who was already far ahead.

Kaideon however paused in his step, his hand moving up to his chest, he patted it and then turned, his eyes wide with panic.

"What is it? The pendant?" Rodvan who was right beside Kaideon asked and Kaideon nodded quickly.

Rodvan glanced around and caught sight of the small pendant in the ruins of the broken desk and he strode over to it, picking it up and returning to Kaideon’s side.

"It’s right here...in perfect condition." Rodvan assured, handing it over to Kaideon.

Kaideon nodded gratefully, accepting the pendant, he glanced down at it, his thumb grazing tenderly over the letters that spelled the name...Eira.