The information was more than the prince could handle at this moment. The influx of knowledge swirling through his mind like a vortex that played on repeat, over and over again. He gave his father a quick embrace and left without saying a word.
As Archer walked up the circular stone steps back to his room, he felt remorse for the hatred he had given his father over the years. The resentment did not seem to subside, however; understanding flooded his chest. As much as he didn't want to understand his fathers reasoning, he did.
He was confused.
His self taught hate still swirled within him, but the mix with understanding made for an unsettling combination. He had knots that seemed piled in the bottom of his gut as he finally made it to his room. He was not the type of person to wear his emotions on his sleeve, but that night, he closed his eyes with tears blotting his checks and a new weight set on his shoulders. "Would I even be up to the task shouldsomething happen? I pray this does not come to pass in my time, I have no idea what I would do," he thought as he closed his eyes, praying that the horrors playing throughout his mind don't become reality. Finally, after what seemed like hours of tormenting himself with thoughts that didn't exist, his eyes finally got heavy, and sleep overtook him.
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Deep thought overtook Alirick as he basked in solitude. The ancient dragon had learned to welcome the darkness as it was all he knew for the last 800 years. Standing up, he flexed his muscles, causing the rippling of his muscles to spread his scales slightly. The vast, dark void seemed the shake as he stood to full height. With a deep, fiery breath, he focused his efforts to his remaining memories of the outside world as he felt a surge of stored power well up in his chest to the point of bursting. Years of slumbering in this void had given him more than enough time to ensure there would be no issues.
With a roar that echoed through the nothing, the cries of many other living things echoed through the void.
"It is time"
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The sounds of screams pierced through the air as violent shaking rattled Archer awake. Large chunks of stone had broken off the walls and ceiling of his room and rattled on the floor as the shaking continued, just adding more rubble to the already destroyed room. Archer flew out of his bed, trying to locate the source of the screams. Barely able to keep his footing, Archer caught the glimpse if of a silhouette out of the corner of his eye. In a instant, he rolled to the side without thinking. There was a loud crunch as the prince looked behind him and noticed another stone had fallen from the ceiling, shattering as it hit the ground. Regaining his bearing, he pressed forward to the half crumbled door, prying it open.
Castle servants were bustling down the staircase as fast as their legs could carry them. After ensuring that the source to the scream was not outside of his door, he turned back around and headed back into his destroyed room. Barely able to maintain his footing on his trek back, he managed to grab a hold of the bottom of his window to balance himself. Steadying himself, he looked outside in hopes of getting an idea as to what was going on.
The sight sent a cold chill down Archers spine. There was gaping hole within the Earth. The depth seemed endless and seemed to swallow you just from staring at it. The giant fissure ran from the far side of the marketplace to the middle of the castle courtyard. The nobles houses were no longer standing. Neither were the marketplace shops and stands. The fountain in the center was completely gone, as though the tear along the ground had swallowed it whole. The castle walls were either gone or a crumbled mess along either side of the opening. He could still see struggling to pull themselves up from the ridge of the crevice. There was no telling how many other people had fallen into the black abyss and many other laid dead or injured on the ground around it. Staring into the the void of this fissure was the most terrifying thing Archer had witnessed so far, it almost seemed to swallow the soul straight from you the longer you stared at it.
Then just as fast as the shaking and destruction had come, it also disappeared. The air fell silent, and all that could be heard was the occasional falling of rock among Archers breathing. He ran to his door again, making sure to dodge the boulder sized chunks of stone as he did. Upon pulling the door, it fell off the hinges. Tossing the heavy door aside, Archer proceeded down the stairs at a jog, being wary of any debris that still remained.
On his way down, he found one of the maids pinned to the ground, her leg trapped and unable to move. He dashed over to her and noticed that she was breathing, but it was extremally shallow. It appeared that she had already lost a lot of blood by the way the puddle continued to run from stair to stair. He lifted her head by her cheeks, looking into her barely open eyes.
"Ma'am! Stay with me! I'll get you out of here."
Archer reached under the blood soaked rock and tried to roll the boulder off. It didn't so much as budge. "SOMEONE HELP!!" Archer screamed, panic began to set in. He turned his head back to the maid, in a reassuring tone he said, "M'lady, I promise I'll get you out of this. Please stay with me."
She was in shambles. Blood covered the ground around the impact site. Her foot was dangled out from the other side, very clearly not facing the direction it should have been. Her sweaty, matted brown hair hung heavily over her ghostly, pale face as she tried to recognize who this stranger trying to talk to her was. She was barely clinging to life, unable to comprehend what was going on around her.
Just as Archer reached down again to try and roll the boulder off, a palace guard ran to his side. Without a word to each other, they squatted and began putting as much strength into their lift as they could. The blood rushed to the princes head but the boulder only budged a little. Just as they started making progress, the boulder slipped from the combination of dust and blood and fell back onto the woman's leg with the sickening sound of a wet crunch. A bone chilling scream erupted from the woman her head slumped to the side.
"AGAIN!" he yelled, panic setting in.
"Your highness." the knight interrupted, removing his fingers from the ladies neck. "She's dead."
Grief filled Archer and his mind went blank.
"No.. She isn't dead. Not yet. "
"No, no, no, no.." he began to continuously repeat the words through his mind
He placed is hands back under the rock. "Again."
"But sir.." the confused knight started, but was cut short.
"I SAID AGAIN!"
They both grabbed under the rock and after almost passing out from the task, finally managed to get it rolled off. It continued to roll down the stairs after it was finally removed.
"Ma'am!!" The lady didn't budge. Archer continued to call for the woman, hoping she would at least look at him through partially opened eyes as she did before. Her head continued to hang forward.
"No..no..no..no..no.." Archer kept thinking to himself.
Archer hoisted the lady up in his arms, being careful not to move the already crushed leg any more than what was necessary. Her head hung to the side, across his chest heavily and unnaturally. He ignored the warmth of the blood that ran down his forearms as he dashed down the rest of the stairwell till he got to the courtyard. Vaulting the boulder at the bottom of the stairs, he landed as smooth as possible to prevent jarring the maid.
"HELP!" he yelled, over and over again.
The cold air stung his throat with every breath he took in.
"HELP!"
Panic started to course through his body and his chest began to go numb as he started to trudge through the snow. Desperation gripped Archers veins as he firmly grasped the lady close to his body.
"HELP!"
When the prince stopped yelling to observe what was going on around him and why no one answered his cries, only then did he notice the rest of the horror. His cries for help weren't heard among the other dozens of people laying on the ground, yelling the exact same thing. Many of the others that weren't screaming from pain were misshaped or deformed in some way if they weren't already dead due to the impact from falling debris. He gently placed the limp woman down on the ground and learned her back against the wall. After realization set in, Archer took a deep breath and placed his finger to her cold neck.
Dead.
Archer dropped his head into the crease of his elbow and couldn't hold back the tears. His shoulders heaved as he began weeping for the loss. After a few moments, he tried to recollect his thoughts.
"What is happening?" Archer asked himself, picking up his hand and head in unison as dread wrenched his gut. He scared blankly into the woman's lifeless eyes once more, feeling guilty. He couldn't help but feel that he was the reason this woman died. His hand had slipped from under the rock. She was alive before then. He stared at the blood that had begun to freeze on his hands for what seemed like an eternity. Finally taking a breath, he reached up and closed the woman's eyelids. Grabbing a handful of the cold snow, he frantically rubbed it between his hands, trying to remove any of the blood he could.
Wiping his eyes, Archer stopped and took a look at everything else going on around him one more time. After finally letting the image set in, he stood up and staggered a few steps and set off in search for his father. "What can I do for them.. What do I do?" He kept running through his head, he didn't know what to do and was powerless to do anything. He broke into a run, trying to use the thuds of his footsteps to drown out the cries of the injured and block the sights of the dead as he continued forward.