World of Warcraft - [Dawn of the Aspects 05] - Dawn of the Aspects- Part V

by Richard A Knaak (epub)

  Trying to concentrate on anything else, Kalec shifted his thoughts to Tyr. That the proto-dragons had left the keeper in order to eat was not entirely a surprise, but they needed to find other aid for Tyr as soon as possible. Kalec wondered where the other keepers were. Did they not sense Tyr’s urgent situation? The blue dragon had thought that they would have some kind of link with one another, something that would—

  A ragged hiss arose from Malygos’s right. Both Kalec and his host recognized the foul sound.

  How the two emaciated proto-dragons had snuck up on the party, neither Malygos nor Kalec knew. There was no time to consider that, either, for one of the undead lunged for Malygos, its yellowed teeth dripping with a sickening green fluid that surely boded ill if it even touched the living proto-dragon.

  Spinning to the side, Malygos brought his tail around. Like a whip, it caught the undead’s hind leg. Malygos pulled just as what passed for the brain of the monster registered the attack.

  The cadaverous proto-dragon fell onto its side. However, Malygos’s tail briefly became tangled with the fiend, leaving Kalec’s host vulnerable to the second undead.

  But a hard column of sand struck the creature, sending it flying. As it landed, a plume of flame draped over it. The dry flesh ignited.

  Despite that, the burning undead rose. So, too, did the first.

  Freeing his tail, Malygos swung in the opposite direction. This time, he knocked the first corpse toward the lake.

  While Kalec’s host had not done so with any other intention than to bowl his foe over, the sprawling undead landed just in front of Ysera. Adapting quickly, the smaller female used her tail to help the monster continue its slide—but in one particular direction.

  The struggling corpse plunged into the hole in the ice. It clawed the edges, seeking some hold.

  With the lightest tap of his hind paw, Neltharion made the ice shake. It was enough to put an end to what little hold the undead had.

  The shriveled proto-dragon vanished below. Through Malygos, Kalec caught a glimpse of the thing flowing away from the gap before sinking into the frozen depths.

  The other undead, entirely oblivious to the fire raging over its body, trudged toward Alexstrasza. Before she could exhale, Nozdormu unleashed another column of sand.

  The column hit squarely. Combined with the damage already inflicted by the flames, the sand shattered the creature, sending sizzling fragments all over the area. Some of those continued to move for several moments after landing, then gradually stilled.

  Moving out onto the ice, Malygos stared into the frozen lake. After a few seconds, he spotted the first undead. The creature once again moved toward the surface, still searching for a path out.

  Heading to the hole, Kalec’s host exhaled on the opening. It took little effort to freeze the already sluggish liquid. The proto-dragon stepped back. Even if the undead did reach the hole, it would find no exit now.

  Malygos returned to the others. Neltharion was in the process of prodding various bits of burnt cadaver in order to assure himself that nothing remained animated. Nozdormu had once more started on his fish, and Alexstrasza was staring at the distant mountains, her expression thoughtful. Only Ysera paid attention to Malygos as he returned.

  Kalec’s host eyed the remnants of the one creature. Something bothered him, but the proto-dragon did not know what. That stirred a similar concern in Kalec, who felt that he had also missed something earlier.

  The icy-blue male’s head snapped up. He whirled to where he had left Tyr.

  The body was gone. Only a few faint specks of blood decorated the impression Tyr’s form had made.

  Leaping past the others, Malygos searched in every direction. Yet no matter where he looked, there was no trace, not even the least of trails.

  “Gone,” Ysera murmured to him. “Gone.”

  “Where? How?”

  She shrugged.

  The others had finally taken notice of the situation. They joined in a quick search, Neltharion even darting over the frozen lake, but all to no avail.

  “Lost. Tyr lost,” Malygos snarled, angrier with himself than with anyone else. He considered Tyr his to protect.

  But while the proto-dragons continued what they obviously considered a fruitless hunt for the missing Tyr, Kalec, his only recourse to think, finally realized what had bothered him. When Malygos had turned toward the shore, fish in his mouth, his gaze had passed where Tyr had been set down.

  The only problem, Kalec now realized, was that Tyr had already vanished by then.

  Something had taken the keeper . . . something that Kalec could not help but think had done so with a purpose other than to eat. . . .

  TWO

  UNDER GALAKROND’S EYE

  “What now?” Neltharion asked. “What now?”

  Malygos gave it strong consideration, his mind darting over a number of choices with a clarity that impressed Kalec.

  However, it was Alexstrasza who answered first, firmly stating what Malygos had also concluded. “We must fight.”

  There were no protests, no refusals. Both Malygos and Kalec were pleased by how quickly the rest agreed with her suggestion, and Kalec began to remember the leadership role that Alexstrasza had assumed as one of the five Great Aspects. His host also appeared relieved that some of the responsibility for their chances had been taken up by another. Even Ysera did not argue with the decision, although judging from her expression, she appeared to have doubts about something. Kalec guessed it had to do with her own strength. While she was very determined, she showed signs of not having recovered nearly as much as her companions, despite the meal.

  His host vaguely noticed the same but said nothing. Meanwhile, the others awaited Malygos’s word on their course. His thoughts were still of import to them, he, after all, having been the one first picked for contact by Tyr. Malygos had been more than happy to turn to Tyr when the odd being had appeared. Tyr had looked so clever, so confident, and despite appearing smaller, he radiated a power far exceeding any individual proto-dragon’s.

  Tyr was nowhere to be found, though, and there was no sign of what had taken him or in which direction they had gone. To a creature such as a proto-dragon, the most logical conclusion was that a beast had taken the body and even now was feasting on Tyr.

  And that left facing Galakrond to the five, with Malygos obviously seen by the others as one of the party’s more clever planners.

  Kalec understood all that passed through the icy-blue male’s mind, but he had additional considerations. More than ever, he was certain that something with a more intelligent purpose had stolen Tyr away. Yet that availed Malygos and the rest of the proto-dragons nothing—

  Neltharion let out a warning hiss. The five immediately crouched low.

  Near the mountains, three figures slowly flew northeast. There was something in their movements that did not indicate the fluidity with which proto-dragons soared through the sky. Although they were fast, these flew with halting, almost haphazard motions.

  “Not-living,” Nozdormu muttered.

  The three forms vanished among the peaks. Malygos hissed. He had noticed something that even Kalec had not seen at first. “Fly too smart. Not like others. Search too good. Not-living do not think. They eat. Only eat.”

  Neltharion looked puzzled, but the other three understood what Malygos meant. So did Kalec. The animated corpses had acted with intelligence, something they entirely lacked.

  “Galakrond is their master,” Alexstrasza blurted. “They hunt what he hunts.”

  Malygos finished the thought. “And he hunts us. You said before. The not-living. They see us . . . Galakrond sees us.”

  It was probably not quite so clear-cut as that, but Kalec, too, had no doubt that if the undead located them, Galakrond would find out. The behemoth evidently did have control over his emaciated victims. Indeed, it was
surprising that, with two of them having just battled the defenders, Galakrond had not already appeared.

  Studying the land again, Malygos focused on the mountains. “We go there.”

  Their gazes followed the direction in which he pointed his snout. The undead had only passed beyond that region a minute before.

  “They search there,” Alexstrasza reminded Malygos.

  He shook his head. “No . . . they searched there before.”

  There was logic to Malygos’s thinking but not enough that Kalec would have readily agreed to such a course. However, Malygos’s comrades were more amenable, nodding and following as the icy-blue male took off. Kalec was pleased to see that Malygos at least kept low to the ground, the choice in altitude more likely to keep the proto-dragons from being easily seen.

  They reached the mountains quickly, but not quickly enough for Malygos or Kalec. Kalec’s host slipped in among the sharp peaks, seeking cover wherever possible and watching for undead that might have done the same at Galakrond’s direction.

  Turn here.

  Malygos did so instinctively before both he and Kalec wondered just who or what had told him to. It had not been a voice that his ears could hear, but his mind could.

  Confused, the proto-dragon pulled up short. Neltharion almost collided with him. The five hovered as Malygos all but spun in search of the speaker.

  But instead of finding that, he found Galakrond.

  His shadow covered the narrow pass through which they flew. The smaller proto-dragons instantly separated, heading to whatever overhang or other cover they could locate. It was not that any sought to abandon the others; they knew that their only chance was for them to scatter. There was not enough protection in any one direction for all five.

  The shadow spread everywhere. Yet it was nothing compared with the first glimpse of Galakrond’s immense body hovering over the area. The huge proto-dragon kept passing above without end, so great had he grown.

  Malygos waited for Galakrond to completely pass—only to see the misshapen leviathan pause. One huge hind paw, large enough to grab at least three of them whole, came crashing down on a peak. A landslide commenced, tons of rock spilling down where Malygos knew that Alexstrasza and Nozdormu had taken different hiding places.

  The deadly downpour continued. It had not been done out of intention; Galakrond was just that heavy. Another landslide rumbled in the distance, where, no doubt, his other hind paw had settled.

  With somewhat ponderous movements, Galakrond shifted position. That resulted in additional collapses but nothing that threatened as much as the previous. A smaller forepaw—smaller only in comparison with the hind paws—came into view. Galakrond was backing up, possibly to search in the very region where they hid.

  Worse, even without yet bringing his head back, Galakrond had already inspected the vicinity, the extra eyes eagerly darting here and there. Malygos pressed harder against the rocks, certain more than once that he was spotted. Yet Galakrond did not leap back and thrust his head down in order to devour him. Instead, the savage behemoth shifted around so that his forepaw became more evident, and then he moved forward again.

  The new landslides that action brought about were a small threat compared with not only the first but also what would have happened had Galakrond seen any of them. As the gargantuan proto-dragon’s tail finally vanished over one peak, Malygos exhaled in the relief that both he and Kalec felt.

  The mountains around them shook.

  Scarcely a breath later, Galakrond’s head thrust over the area. He did not look Malygos’s way but stared down in the vicinity where Malygos remembered Ysera heading. The icy-blue male could not see her, but he was certain that the very shadows at which Galakrond stared most attentively were the ones hiding Alexstrasza’s sister.

  The misshapen behemoth hissed. A hint of the foul mist he had earlier exhaled drifted from the massive jaws. Fortunately, it proved to be only an aftereffect of his breathing and not a focused assault. Still, Galakrond continued to try to see what lay in the shadows below. He did not glow anymore, a fact that worked to the smaller proto-dragons’ favor, as the glow would have been strong enough to illuminate most, if not all, of the shadowed region.

  Suddenly, Galakrond began coughing. Within seconds, the coughing grew so intense that Malygos wondered if perhaps they might be saved by Galakrond simply succumbing to whatever afflicted him. That was not to be, though, for after a few thunderous moments, the coughing subsided.

  But during that fit, Kalec observed minute changes in Galakrond. Some of the extra appendages and eyes shrank, and a few even shriveled to little more than mottled flesh. Even when the fit ended, those did not revert to how they had been before.

  Kalec feared that his host would miss what he now noticed, but soon discovered that he had underestimated Malygos. Suppressing a hiss, Malygos stored the knowledge away as he waited for Galakrond to depart.

  After another brief study of the area below, Galakrond finally moved on. However, Malygos did not move for several minutes afterward, nor could he see any of the others shifting position. After the sudden return, none of the five wanted to take the chance that Galakrond might come back.

  Finally risking himself, Malygos darted from his hiding place to where he had seen Alexstrasza disappear. The remnants of the landslide at her location at first concerned him greatly. However, as he neared, she thrust her snout out of the deeper shadows and sniffed the air before fully coming into sight.

  “The others?” she asked worriedly, her greatest concern without a doubt for her sister.

  Malygos could only shrug. They headed to where Nozdormu had last been seen and where even more rocks buried much of the area. Unlike Alexstrasza, though, Nozdormu sat perched atop the rubble, waiting expectantly for his comrades.

  “Hurt?” he asked both. When they shook their heads, he stretched his wings. The left one moved noticeably more slowly than the right. “Pain . . . but only pain.”

  Despite Nozdormu sounding unperturbed, Kalec could tell that Malygos and Alexstrasza were concerned. A minor injury could still slow Nozdormu at a critical time.

  For all of her worry over Nozdormu, Alexstrasza changed the subject to one dearer to her. “Ysera?”

  “Here.” The yellowish female alighted just behind her sister. “Safe.” To Kalec, Ysera sounded slightly annoyed, as if she did not want her sibling to be so fearful for her, despite the dangerous predicament through which they had come.

  They waited a moment more before Malygos cautiously asked what was probably on all their minds. “Neltharion?”

  None of the others offered news. Malygos hissed. Taking flight, he soared toward the charcoal-gray male’s last known location . . . only to pull back abruptly at what he found.

  The spot Neltharion had chosen had been hit by far more rubble than any of the other locations. Eyeing it, Malygos could not imagine any hope of survival. Kalec shared his doubt, despite managing to recall that Neltharion should survive—to eventually become Deathwing.

  Then a faint sound farther on attracted Malygos. Simultaneously, Alexstrasza and the others alighted next to Kalec’s host. They, too, heard the sound.

  Scrambling over the rocks, Malygos discovered that the overhang the charcoal-gray male had rushed to extended farther than first assumed. While that offered hope, the fact that part of the overhang had also collapsed under the weight of the avalanches did not. Neltharion might still be alive, but what condition was he in?

  The sound arose again, this time nearly under Malygos’s paws. He leapt back, concerned that his weight might be crushing his companion.

  Malygos planted his head against the rubble. He heard movement, followed by the intake of breath.

  “Here!” With his hind paws, he began excavating the pile. The others took up positions nearby, Alexstrasza helping to shovel away the rocks that Malygos pushed back. Nozdormu mo
ved to help Malygos with his task, only to have Ysera shove her way in front of him. She began digging with earnest. Nozdormu finally joined Alexstrasza in clearing away what had been dug up so that Malygos and Ysera could shovel more from where Neltharion had been buried.

  It grew silent below them. That made Malygos dig harder, but to his surprise, Ysera dug harder yet. She moved at a manic pace, and although Kalec’s host did not think about it, Kalec understood that she had to be thinking of those Talonixa had buried alive. Ysera did not want Neltharion suffering such a fate, even though a part of Kalec wished that the proto-dragons would leave Neltharion to perish. A future without Deathwing was something generations of creatures on Azeroth would have been very grateful for.

  But Malygos and the others worked diligently to rescue one who was their friend. Ysera let out a hiss and used her weaker forepaws to pull a rock away. That revealed part of a wing. It was immediately evident that Neltharion’s wings had been pinned around him, which explained his inability to assist in his own rescue. One thing that had saved him, though, was that the part of the overhang where his head lay had remained intact. Had it collapsed, Neltharion’s skull would have been crushed like an egg.

  The future Deathwing hacked as he tried to breathe in fresh air, the manner of his near death an irony not lost on Kalec, who knew that Neltharion would somehow become the Aspect of Earth. Still pinned, he had to wait as Malygos and Ysera uncovered the entire wing before he was able to move. Once the wing was free, Neltharion started stretching it, which also enabled him to use one of his forepaws. While weak compared with his hind paws, it was still capable of shoving away more of the rocks keeping him trapped.

  As they freed Neltharion, his injuries became more apparent. While, like Nozdormu, he had survived intact, severe bruises covered his body, and blood spattered him in several places. There were some rips in his wings, but a glance by Malygos revealed none that looked as if it would impair the charcoal-gray male’s flying.