When you dream of the void... (Magi)

Wolgroth winced bitterly at the burning pain that throbbed ceaselessly from her left leg, lower back, and right shoulder. Blood slowly oozed from the massive gash that the poachers had inflicted on her pelt. She had gotten careless and in a brief moment of inattention a massive group of poachers had amassed and attacked her. They had used everything at their disposal to try and bring down the massive tyrian: ropes, spears, harpoons, nets, wires, chains, arrows, magic… You name it they had blasted her with it. In her panic to evade the onslaught she had failed to defend her back, resulting in the massive wound that slowly drained her strength. She had stuffed herself into the narrow opening of a small cave she had come across while fleeing and was desperately hiding from her pursuers.

Slowly and shakily the dark tyrian did what she could to staunch the bleeding while trying to stay silent. Inwardly she cursed as she knew her situation was hopeless, even if she stayed silent and tucked away in this hole there was no way she didn’t leave a trail directly to her location. Between navigating the cramped space of the forest floor and the blood trail she no doubt left in her wake there was no question of if her pursuers would find her but rather when. She let out a shaky breath and tried to calm the torrent of emotions and fear that threatened to take the last of her reason. As she stared out of the cave opening into the dark forest around her she tried to forcefully slow her rapid panting and forcefully relax her tensed muscles. She couldn’t hear anything over the sound of her own rapid breathing and the blood roaring in her ears. The forest around her was eerily silent, not even the sound of birdsong or wind disturbed the silence around her. As the tyrian's breathing slowed and the roaring in her eyes began to die down, a horrible wave of exhaustion washed over her. She swore quietly as she fought to keep her eyes open but it was a futile battle, before she knew it the injured tyrian was passed out.

When Wolgroth regained her senses her eyelids felt heavier than lead. With considerable effort she pried them open but what she found in front of her wasn’t the dank cave entrance and foreboding forest she had closed them to. Instead in front of her there was void, or rather what felt like nothing. It felt as if she was weightlessly floating in water, her wings and tail felt like they were stuck, held in place by an invisible force. With considerable effort she managed to raise her head and there wasn’t much else to see after doing so. Her entire field of vision was blackness that was vaguely tinted with red. She squinted her eyes trying to get her dulled vision to focus, it felt like if she just tried hard enough she would be able to make something out in the void. She squinted her eyes, blinked repeatedly and tried tilting her head to see if anything helped her get a better look at her surroundings but nothing seemed to help. 

As Wolgroth struggled to make sense of where she was it felt like she could suddenly detect a presence. It was strange, extremely vague and didn’t feel like it was coming from any one direction. The presence didn’t seem to be expressing any sort of intent toward her, if anything it felt… distant and uninterested. More confused than ever, Wolgroth tried once more to focus on her surroundings and finally something seemed to change. The endless black and red void around her suddenly seemed slightly more distinct. The red deep within the void took on a more distinct shape and the tyrian was shocked to realize the red around her looked like clouds. Glittering within the clouds tiny specks of golden light shimmered brightly. The tyrian's eyes widened in awe as she took in the sight of what appeared to be space dust around her. Her mouth dropped open in awe as she admired the beautiful sights around her when she suddenly felt something above her. 

Turning her head to look up she was shocked to see a swirling disk of black with a golden edge. It swirled slowly and the air it gave off was otherworldly, it felt like something someone of her world would normally never be able to witness. As the mesmerized tyrian watched the disk rotate her sight slowly began to improve. Far off in the distance on either side of the disk were massive black spires so large they looked like mountains. Clasped firmly on the center of these spires were golden shackles that connected to some sort of golden structure that extended off into the distance. A structure so large she couldn’t even begin to grasp the true appearance it had. Slowly the tyrian managed to pry its eyes away from the glittering golden structures above her and she turned her gaze straight down. When she did so her eyes felt weird, as far as she could tell there was definitely something beneath her but when she tried to look directly at it her eyes felt like they were forcefully defocused.

She grunted in discomfort and shook her head trying to clear the bizarre feeling plaguing her. With determination she looked down once more and strained her eyes to make out what she was sprawled out upon. Slowly the black void beneath her began to take shape but what she saw barely made sense. It almost looked as if she was laying upon… giant strands… of hair? As she muttered the word hair it felt like something clicked into place and a sharp pain stabbed through her. She muffled a scream as it suddenly felt like her head was going to explode. The vague presence she had felt before suddenly felt overwhelming. It wasn’t angry with her, in fact it still felt indifferent to her presence but there was also a slight tinge of curiosity. What was this? Was someone there? Wolgroth desperately wanted to scream her questions but no words managed to leave her lips. A cacophony of sound suddenly assailed her mind, it was horrifically loud and sounded as if everything single sound the tyrian had ever heard in her life was being replayed all at once. The cacophony raised and lowered in pitch almost as if something was speaking but the poor tyrian could barely maintain her consciousness with the sheer overload of sensory input she was being bombarded with. 

Just as the assault was becoming too much for her, blessed silence rushed back in. The overwhelming presence was rapidly retreating from her too but she could still somehow sense its feelings, the disinterest from before was now interest and excitement? Before Wolgroth could understand what she had just experienced she suddenly jolted awake. She was back in the little cave in the forest but this time she wasn’t alone. Apparently while she was unconscious the poachers had caught up with her and they were in the process of binding her wings and tying her up so that she couldn’t escape. The pain of her previous wounds were gone and the lingering reverberation of the pain she had just experienced in her dream was slowly fading away. She stared in shock at her captors trying to make sense of what was going on. Had she somehow awoken as a mentalist while she was asleep?... No that couldn’t be right, she couldn’t detect any of these vile cretins thoughts or emotions, so then what was that dream she had? Just as she started to think about what the presence in her dream was she felt it once more. It was even fainter than before she had accidentally caught its attention in her dream but it was definitely there.

What was this? Just as she started to wonder if she had finally gone crazy she realized the presence was encouraging her to use her magic. The dark tyrian hesitated, her magic was useless. Why was she considering using it now of all times? She had awakened to her magic when she was very young but all it did was produce red smoke. It could be useful as a smoke screen but every time she used it she felt a lot of pain throughout her entire body. The poachers hadn’t realized she was awake yet but she was rapidly running out of time. She decided to trust this mystery presence and opened her mouth wide while activating her magic. Wolgroth expected for nothing more than the normally feeble puff of smoke to pitter out her mouth but much to her and her captors' shock, a thick column of red smoke blasted from her mouth and covered the entire area. The poachers yelled in alarm and scrambled to secure their quarry but in the confusion Wolgroth viciously twisted her body and snapped the bindings that were only partially secured. With an ear piercing roar the tyrian screamed at the poachers and lashed out at them.

The poachers went flying with each of her powerful blows as the tyrian lashed out violently. Human and reosean alike flew in every direction as Wolgroth fought back harder than she ever had before. As the last of the restraints was ripped off Wolgroth looked around wildly, unable to see through the thick haze of smoke she had created. Was this really her magic? It felt different than before and the color was different than before too. What was once a bright red was now deeper and darker like the color of non-oxygenated blood. As Wolgroth stared into the swirling mist she also realized some sort of energy crackled through the smoke. As the poachers tried desperately to fan off the haze the energy built up, bright red lightning shot across the clouds surface in an alarming fashion. Wolgroths instincts screamed at her to run as she realized the energy in the clouds was building rapidly. Frantically the tyrian launched herself straight up with powerful strokes of her wings. The smoke was not dissipated like normal smoke would at the strong gust, instead it barely moved and instead the energy in the clouds built up even more.

Just as Wolgroth broke through the trees and got above the ominous fog she had created a loud BOOM erupted from behind her. She glanced back and was shocked to see the smoke was gone and the thick foliage of the tree canopy had disappeared with it. The poachers were visible on the charred forest floor as the tyrian flew up and away. Some of them were unconscious and layed out on the blackened forest floor while others were staggering around trying to get their bearings. Wolgroth turned her eyes away from what she had just done and to the skies ahead. As she once more tried to calm herself down she realized that the usual pain she felt while using her magic was drastically reduced compared to before. For the most part the pain was mainly just a stinging sensation in the back of her throat. As nothing but the wind roared through her ears she let her mind wander as she flew as far from where she had been as possible. What was going on, what was up with her magic? Why was it so much stronger than before, did it have something to do with that bizarre dream she had before the poachers had caught up to her? And what was that entity she seemed to have accidentally encountered in that dream? Left with more questions than answers Wolgroth once more felt the presence from her dream as soon as she thought of the entity. The tyrian frowned in confusion before turning her wings toward Vitalus. She wasn’t sure why but she felt as if she’d be able to find the answers she sought if she went to the homeland of the tyrians.