The Order Prompt 2

The elder haedians eyes soften briefly upon hearing Wolgroths response, his rasping voice taking on a tinge of affection as he spoke, “Child.” he greeted the tyrian with a slight nod which Wolgroth merely snorted at. Just as quickly as his demeanor softened it returned to its hollow state as the haedian looked down at the defensive Reginald and the cowering Kernel. “And yet…” his voice trailed off before he continued once more with an unsettlingly excited tone. “What weight do words carry from untested mouths? Walk through the crucible, and only then shall we know the true extent of your devotion.” Reginalds eyes darted back and forth between the massive dark tyrian above him and the disturbing elder haedian. Crucible? *&%$ this was not going as he had planned. He wasn’t ready for a head on fight and if the tiny earthquake he felt reverberating from the pink chaser behind him was any indication Kernel was not prepared either. 

Wolgroths terse smile erupted into a predatory grin, her eyes glittering with a madness the dark runner had never seen before. Was she actually excited?! It had only been about a year since the last time he had seen Wolgroth and she wasn’t like this back then. What on earth could have happened to her for her to have become like this? Just as Reginald began to question whether he should have invited the obviously disturbed tyrian on this expedition he notices a similar twisted grin on the elderly haedian. A nauseating sensation suddenly gripped his gut as he could suddenly hear the sound of immensely heavy footfalls approaching from the left. The hiding haedians once more murmured excitedly as a massive haedian emerged from lord only knows where. This time instead of the indecipherable throng of voices from before all of the gathered haedians said the same thing repeatedly like some sort of chant. “Shira… Shira… Shira…” As the beast approached an even broader and more sadistic smile was stretched across its pale white and blood red face. Large twisted horns sprouted from its head like some sort of demented twisted deer antlers. The blood red horns only added to the monster of a haedians terrifying visage as it finally finished its approach.

Now that it was clearly standing before them Reginald and Kernel were shocked to realize this behemoth of a haedian was almost as large as Wolgroth. Wolgroth’s wingspan gave her the edge on sheer size; the haedian had her beat in muscle density, the two tyrians were nowhere near the same weight class. The dark tyrian didn’t appear intimidated in the slightest much to the twisted haedians obvious delight. The haedian spoke with a strangely beautiful yet cruel voice, "You have twenty minutes," she snarled, a glint of delight in her eyes as she turned from the surface dweller trio. The haedian shook the ground as she dominatingly prowled off toward the crucible. Most of the Order haedians followed after her, excited to bear witness to the great display they were surely about to behold. A few haedians stayed behind to keep an eye on the surface dwellers ensuring they couldn’t flee. Reginald let out a shaky breath he hadn’t realized he was holding before sharply turning to the massive empyrian who had more than likely just gotten them sentenced to death.

“What was that?! Why did you antagonize them?!” He sharply whispered at Wolgroth, wanting desperately to scream at her but not wanting their conversation to be overheard by the obvious eavesdroppers around them. “Do you have any idea what it means to make enemies of one of the haedian clans?! Can you even comprehend the consequences for the rest of reosean kind?!” Wolgroth merely rolled her eyes at the runners nagging and not so gently smacked him in the face with her tail, effectively shutting Reginald up without hurting him. “Stow it already grandpa. They’re not our enemies… yet.” Wolgroth smiled excitedly like a madman who had just gotten a brilliant idea. She turned her gleaming red eyes onto the now frightened male, her eyes glowed ominously against the deep red crystals that surrounded them somehow redder and more distinct against the washout of color. “They’ll only become our enemies if I lose.” Reginald stared at the massive tyrian dumbfounded as she stalked forward, excitedly following after Shira. There was no way she didn’t see that no matter if she won or lost he’d be in an incredibly precarious situation… And what even was this Oris that had sparked this whole issue. 

Before the runner could begrudgingly follow after his companion he paused and realized he had forgotten about Kernel completely. The pink chaser's uncharacteristic silence and compliance with commands had almost allowed the runner to forget he was even down here with them. When he looked back expecting to find the pink chaser still cowering behind him he was shocked to see the chaser standing in a daze. Kernel was staring off into the distance in the direction that Shira and Wolgroth had gone. His face was blank and he wasn’t trembling anymore… had he been so frightened that he had somehow looped all the way back around to being unfazed? “Uhhh… Kernel?” Reginald called out to him which seemed to rouse the chaser from his stupor. “Did you see that?” the chaser asked a slightly slurred and excited tone to his voice. The runner twitched his ears in confusion, not certain how to respond to the small pink male's bizarre behavior. “Did I see what?” he questioned back. Kernels head snapped to the dark runner so fast it actually startled Reginald for a moment before the chaser suddenly began to fervently speak. “See what?! What you ask?!! Why that absolute Goddess that just graced us with her presence that's what! Did you not see those gorgeous red eyes, those magnificent horns! The way her body simply exuded power and grace with her every step?!” 

Reginald cringed away from the chaser's sudden and incomprehensible raving and praise of the terrifying haedian they had just seen. Somehow it seemed the chaser had gotten a completely different impression of the beast they had just encountered and even more unlikely the usually sexist and obnoxious pink slime was spouting off endless praise. The chaser sighed dreamily as he leaned to the side, “She is magnificent…” Reginald glanced at the watching haedians and could easily see the confusion and disgust on some of their faces. Realizing if he let the chaser continue to blather they might end up getting jumped if the chaser said the wrong thing the runner quickly stepped forward and gently pushed the chaser toward the crucible. “Ookay haha. Come on casanova, why don’t you tell me all about it once we’re in the crucible.” Kernel smiled happily as he bounced forward from Reginalds prodding. “Yes absolutely! Come on, we need to hurry so that we can get the best seats to behold my goddess!” Reginald cringed as he forced a stiff smile as he followed the chaser who was practically skipping into the dark and foreboding coliseum-like structure in the heart of the Order’s city. The runner thought to himself about how they were more likely to get a first hand experience rather than just be spectators but he didn’t think it would end well if he tried to burst the pink idiots bubble. 

Upon entering the crucible they could see Wolgroth already standing off to the side of one end of the arena sharpening the large sword she carried. The rough sound of the whetstone scrapping against the orichalcum ore grated their ears as Reginald and Kernel approached. “Wolgroth.” Reginald directly confronted the massive tyrian. “Seriously, what is your plan?! Tell us what is going on, you can’t just drag us into a confrontation with the haedians- which need I remind you we are here to make Peace with!” Kernel bounced up adding on to Reginald's demands. “Yeah and who is Oris? Why is he such a big deal?” At the mention of Oris, Wolgroth’s eyes immediately locked onto the pink chaser who immediately cringed back under their intensity. The black tyrian set her sword aside and chuckled evilly as she reached into a small bag strapped to the side of her waist armor. She quickly fished out a small gray scroll that looked like it had been partially burned. The tyrian passed the scroll over to the two vayrons who looked between the object and its holder skeptically. “Read this.” the tyrian demanded as she went back to prepping her weapon and double checking her armor. 

Kernel unfurled the scroll and stared at its contents in confusion, he glanced up at the runner behind him and asked. “Uhhhh… Reginald can you read this?” the dark runner peered over his shoulder to try and see what was written on the scroll and frowned. Scrawled across the scroll was black markings that overlapped into an incomprehensible mess. The contents of the scroll looked like the scribblings of a madman and the few un-obscured symbols that they could make out from the mess were not in a language that the two vayrons knew. Reginald glared up at the dark tyrian, “What is this? How are we supposed to read this?” he questioned as his patience for the seemingly more and more insane tyrian dwindled down to its last strand. Wolgroth rolled her eyes and pointed at the scroll, “Just stare at it for a moment.” incredulously the two followed her command and while the two were staring at the scrawl Wolgroth activated a bit of her magic and touched the worn papyrus. The deep red of her magic flowed through the scroll like a wave and clung to the scribbles where it touched. The two vayrons stared in shock as the scribbles floated up off the scroll, changing from black masses into decipherable golden characters that shifted from the unknown language it was originally written in, into one they could both understand.

As the two watched the text unfurl before them, a stream of information flooded directly into their minds. Who Oris was suddenly became crystal clear to both of them as the magic Wolgroth supplied to the scroll slowly faded out. As the two regained their senses Reginald closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, “wonderful… we’re in the middle of a pagan cult who will likely murder us if we say we don’t follow Oris. No wonder we were commanded into the crucible.”  the dark runner mumbled to himself which earned a chuckle from the dark tyrian who had finished sharpening her blade and was double checking her handiwork. Kernel on the other hand simply passed the scroll back to the tyrian respectfully, earning him a confused and skeptical stare from the tyrian who was not used to the pink chaser behaving in any manner other than as a crass fool. The pink chaser spun around to face the opposite side of the arena and clasped his paws together, “Of course my Goddess would follow such a magnificent and powerful being such as Oris!” Wolgroth stared at the chaser incredulously as the chaser spouted nonsense while praising her soon to be opponent who wasn’t even in the crucible yet. 

Perhaps the pink chaser hoped that his love would overhear him praising her or the god she followed but either way his endless soliloquy of love was giving both his companions a migraine. Before either of them could tell the chaser to stow it the ground shook slightly as the trio felt something pounding towards them. They all looked up to the opposite side of the arena’s stands where Shira was suddenly visible sprinting down from the podium where she and the elder haedians they had seen before were perched. The stands were rapidly filling with the Order haedians and the elder haedians in the podium stepped forward to the edge of the platform to watch as their leader leaped down into her starting position. Kernel practically swooned as the massive haedian landed intimidatingly on the opposite side of the arena, sending a small shock wave out from the impact. Wolgroth sheathed her sword and smiled maliciously as she got into a fighting position. The look on her face and the exuberant madness dancing in her eyes made Reginald cringe as he looked back and forth between the tyrians in terror. 

Shira chuckled to herself before pointing a razor sharp claw to the two vayrons. “You two weaklings. Get out of my arena.” she commanded with a sharp jab toward the stands. Reginald froze when he was addressed and didn’t immediately grasp what the haedians said before realizing Shira was demanding a one on one fight with Wolgroth. Graciously taking the out he was given the runner roughly grabbed Kernel by his scruff as the oblivious chaser had taken a bowing position as if he were offering prayers to a god. Reginald yanked and forcibly dragged Kernel out of the way and up into the stands much to the chaser's chagrin. Now that the two vayrons were out of the way both tyrians stared at each other with bright horrifying smiles, the same madness shone brightly in both their eyes as the haedian and the empyrian got ready to fight.