The Beastly sun was drooping low in the tired afternoon sky, a wide stretch of misty corruption trailing before it like a sheet of clouds. Leor wiped the sweat from his forehead as he moved the rope off his sore left shoulder and began pulling with the other side. Alina was having a much better time than him, her Beastly body granted her the strength and endurance to complete such a task without much strain.
The duo moved across the plain in silence for a long stretch, nothing but the sound of the wind rushing across the tall grass to occupy their senses. Alina seemed to have something on her mind, he could tell by the way she kept glancing over at him. After a few more minutes of silence, she finally asked her question.
"Hey, Leor. Do you… think we can really make it out of this place?" She spoke in a soft tone, as if she almost didn't want to voice the question aloud.
Leor's brow rose in surprise at the question, it was the last thing he expected to hear out of Alina's mouth. She had always been so confident and self assured, after all. After his initial surprise faded, Leor took a moment to ponder. He gently rubbed his free hand across his chin, eventually shrugging his shoulders as he casually responded. "To be honest, I wouldn't know how to begin figuring out the odds of such a thing. I have faith that this place is survivable, but that is as far as my thoughts on the matter go."
Leor glanced over at Alina after giving his answer. He could see a hint of unease on her face, as if she was dissatisfied with his response. He let out a soft sigh as he turned his attention back to the trail ahead of him, but after thinking about the issue for a few more minutes he spoke again.
"Would you like to hear a secret?" He asked.
A look of curiosity replaced the unease on Alina's face as she gently nodded. Leor smiled sadly as he considered his next words carefully.
"Well. You know, for as long as I can remember, I've had a lingering feeling like I wasn't supposed to be alive, not really. Afterall, my original homeland fell to the defilement, and I'm only here today because I just happened to be in the right place, at the right time, to be carried off by a brother of the house of flame. Whisked away to the safety of the realm of light as the place where I belonged was consumed by evil. Anyone who ever carried my blood, dead or defiled." Alina glanced over at him with interest, just in time to see Leor's eyes drifting down sadly toward the ground before him as he spoke. "When I first opened my eyes in this awful realm, surrounded by corruption so thick that I could hardly see, my first terrifying instinct was that I had been sent back to face the end that I had cheated. That death itself had finally come around to claim the life that should have belonged to it. That feeling continued to eat away at me for the next few days, I was sure that I would die in this place, that my end was just the Will of the great light of creation itself." Leor glanced up at Alina beside him, hesitating for a moment before he forced himself to say what he wanted to, "That is, until I saw you standing there beside Drelk, in his mountain fortress. The moment I knew that you were really here in this cursed realm with me, the sense of impending doom in my chest melted away. I know that doesn't really answer your question, I guess I'm just trying to say that, for me, as long as we stick together I know I will be okay. You can do anything Alina. You're the initiate with the greatest potential of our generation. That's why as soon as I saw you here I knew that I hadn't been sent to die, because you're just too special for such a depressing ending."
After giving his long response, Leor pulled his eyes away from the ground as he forced himself to glance over at Alina. The look of unease had been cleared away from her features, replaced by the natural confidence that was much more common on her face. A subtle smile wrapped itself around her lips as she continued to walk, dragging the heavy carcass behind her.
"Ahem. Thank you, Leor." Alina cleared her throat into her free hand as she did her best to hide her embarrassment, stealing glances at him whenever she thought he wasn't looking. "For what it's worth, I don't think you are destined to die. And I'm an oracle, so that is high praise coming from me!" She let her gaze linger on him for a few seconds as she considered her next words, "Do you know why I chose you as one of my two companions for this final trial?"
Leor's brow furrowed as he returned her glance, slowly shrugging his shoulders as he spoke. "Isn't it just because we are childhood friends? That's what I always assumed anyway. Afterall, what other reason could a great talent from a noble family have to choose an orphan as a companion?"
Alina scoffed as she listened to his response, a clear look of disdain on her face. "Friendship? Do you think I am so sentimental, Leor? You should know better." Alina shook her head sternly as she spoke, "I would never make such an important decision so lightly. Let me ask you something, Leor. How many children raised by the sisters of the fallen were able to awaken a light natured Willpower this year?"
Leor wore a look of realization as he considered her question, slowly shaking his head as he answered. "Just me."
"Right, Just you. Why is that? There are hundreds of children that came of age this year, why were you the only one that was able to awaken a light natured Will?" She prodded him with her questions.
Leor furrowed his brow as he glanced at her, "You know I don't know the answer to that. No one knows exactly why some Will's awaken with a specific nature and some do not."
"Well, you might not, but I do know the answer." She responded.
Leor's brows raised in disbelief as he stared over at her, waiting for her to continue.
"It's because you have something special about you, Leor. You're not destined to die. You're destined to become a great hero of the realm of light." Alina gave him a light jab in the side when he started to smirk at her words. "Don't laugh. I've known this ever since we were children, maybe it was my budding prophetic ability guiding me, I'm not sure. Your light natured Will might be dismissed as a fluke all on its own, but once it's combined with the talent you awakened in this foul place, all guesswork goes out the window. You are destined for great things, Leor." She said with a tone that allowed for no disagreement on the matter.
Leor smiled as he reshouldered his rope, tugging on the corpse with renewed effort as a pleasant smile filled his expression. "Very well. I wouldn't dream of betting against an oracle. Maybe we are destined to achieve great things together. I could be convinced to believe such a thing." He said.
Their conversation slowly drew to a close, and the two companions continued the tiring work of returning home with their prize. Just as they had drawn within distant sight of the fortress doors, something unexpected occurred.
The first sign that something was wrong was the strange feeling that rose up Leor's back, as if the temperature around him had dropped a few degrees, but he didn't pay much attention to it at first. Then the weight of the defiled corpse he was dragging suddenly doubled.
Leor glanced up in confusion, only to find that Alina had dropped her portion of rope. She was staring off at the sun in the distant horizon with a look of dread on her face.
"What is it, what do you see Alina?" He asked, following her gaze toward the distant horizon, but he could find nothing out of place.
"I'm not sure, I just had a sudden feeling of fear. Something is wrong, we need to get back to the fortress right away." She spoke in an anxious tone. "Forget the Beast meat, we need to run!"
Leor's eyelids opened wide as he realized how serious she was taking the current strangeness, but he had long decided to place his trust in the young girl. He dropped his rope without asking any further questions, falling in line beside Alina as the two of them rushed toward the distant fortress doors.
It didn't take long before the two of them understood what had sparked Alina's sudden premonition of danger. Less than a minute after they had abandoned the Beast corpse, the two watched in shock as a great shadow began to cover the distant sun.
"I-It's an eclipse!" Alina shouted in realization. "We need to get inside, before darkness falls over the plains!"
Leor began to run with all the strength his human body could muster, sending a flood of Willpower into his legs as he did his best to keep pace with Alina. The young girl was slowing herself down to avoid leaving him behind, and he knew it. If she didn't have him to worry about, she could have covered twice the distance in the same span of time.
Leor grit his teeth, cursing his own weakness once again as his feet tore across the soft fertile soil that filled the ground this close to the mountain. As they closed in on the massive fortress doors, the two could hear the bells ringing frantically inside. Drelk was standing at the entrance with young Rynn at his side, cursing loudly as he called for everyone to quickly get inside.
The sudden solar eclipse had caught everyone off guard, and there would surely be some who were too far away to return in time. Drelk would be forced to lock the doors and leave them to survive on their own through the deadly mountain night.
Leor breathed a sigh of relief as he rushed through the herb covered fields, it appeared like they were going to make it. Only a small sliver of sunlight remained as the great solar body continued to eclipse the sun in the distant sky.
Bone stood in the doorway with a stern expression on his ape-like face, he nodded as he watched Leor and Alina pass through the entrance along with a few herb gathering females who had made it in time.
A moment later, the outside world was covered in deep darkness, and Bone turned his gaze towards Drelk, waiting for the order to close the doors.
The wizened old dark elf's hands began to tremble as he stared into the darkness. He clasped his palms together to stop the shaking as he looked around nervously. He waited another five breaths for anyone else to come inside, two additional hunters racing through the entrance at the last second before Drelk couldn't stand to delay another instance.
"Close the gates!" He shouted in a voice that sounded more like a terrified scream than an order.
The large bulls slammed their heavy bodies against the massive doors, snorting and straining as they pushed with all their might to quickly seal the entrance.
Leor watched anxiously as the heavy doors slowly creaked forward, bringing them closer and closer to safety. Finally, the heavy doors slammed shut, and an audible exhale of relief spread through the entire group of humans, elves, and Beast.
Leor watched the great bolt slowly begin to fall toward the lock, but as it was about to slide into place, a great boom like a terrible thunder shook the entire mountain, it was so loud that Leor could feel it in his chest. It was like a giant had struck a great gong right in front of him.
His eyes shot open wide in terror as he realized what was happening, and watched the great bolt flying off the doors. The bodies of the two sturdy bulls that had been pushing the bolt in place flew out across the room from the force of the attack, their large and muscular bodies crashing across the floor like ragdolls.
Another thunderous boom sent the doors swinging open once again. The terrible stench of defiled Willpower filled the mountain fortress the next instant. Leor felt like a great demon was bearing down on him as the defiled Willpower covered his body, it felt like there were slugs crawling all across his skin attempting to dig their way inside him. Leor began to claw his own fingernails into his arms in panic before he realized what he was doing and forced himself to stop.
He pulled his eyes away from his bleeding forearm and turned them back toward the great doors of the fortress entrance. Leor watched in silence as the entrance finally opened enough to display the terrible creatures outside.
All he could see at first were dozens of blazing red eyes. They looked similar to Rynn's, but with a far more sinister spirit behind them than the innocent young elf's. One of the set's ominous red eyes drifted forward, into the light of the fortress doorway, exposing the creature's body to view for the first time. Leor's entire body began to tremble as he beheld the monster before him.