Phydorian Legends

[*M i d n a*]

I wasn't going to post this story/series due to a few I have left unfinished in the past. But after seeing how this area seems to be dead, or close to it with inactivity, I decided to post it so that I can keep active here. This is a ZD-style story, with the characters being mostly chosen members that I think deserve to be in it. Loads of characters/Zders will appear as the story/series moves on; their appearances and roles will be determined at random by me. I will also provide a little map in case you wanna see where the realms are. For now, for the intro, you get Dragiria, a realm that lies to the East. And forgive the random story title, I couldn't think of anything else. Oh, these stories will be short, some just a few chapters, others perhaps longer.

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Edit- Map added. It's an old map and I had to make some additions, you can tell by the text. Anyway, that will do.

Phydorian Legends
Story 1: The Chosen One

Intro
Realm of Dragiria, Fall Time, Year 2150​

It was night time with a starry sky. Around a camp fire deep in the jungle sat five dragir, two males and three females. All were mercenaries belonging to the same guild called The Sweeping Blade.

"Right on," the voice of the leader was heard then. "Let's get our little gathering going. Myriad, you go first. What are your plans?"

Myriad, being a young dragir who had a short crop of white hair and was dressed in a silvery cuirass, glanced at his boss, the lad surely surprised that he had picked him first. Across from the young warrior the boss sat at ease, surely looking young at 75 years of age, but with more maturity and experience showing than the rest, who were not even past the forty year old mark. He had medium-length hair, with silver bangs falling to the side and a short ponytail at the back. Most of his outfit was dark, except for the mauve-colored breastplate that protected his torso. Unlike his four similars huddled around the fire, the boss had no dark scales showing on the lower edge of his cheeks, neither on the neck. That was a rarity among dragir, and it really made him appear like a normal human being had it not been for the dark, spiraling horns that rose up on his head. The boss and his colleagues were far from being human. They were dragir; the elite of the elite in the entire world. They were called elite for many reasons, mostly because of their longevity, their superb battle skills, and their vast magical knowledge.

"I dunno, boss," Myriad shrugged, then took a nervous sip of his cup of coffee. Inside he was thinking: I hope he doesn't deduct from my bonus for this.

"You don't know?" the boss asked. "Myriad, I gave you and the others a full week to think about it so that you might provide me with an honest answer tonight. I want to know what you all plan to do now that we've decided to go our own separate ways, and only in case I ever hear that you're in trouble so that I can come to your aid."

"Honestly I didn't give it too much thought, Eclipse. I'm so sorry," Myriad even lowered his head.

Eclipse was the boss's nickname. None of the others in the group knew his real name, and they all had wanted to know it ever since they had joined, but he had never told them.

"Hm, quiet as ever," Eclipse hid a smile from the dragir. "Even your own mind is when it comes to thinking about things."

One of the females who was sitting on the boss's right side and sharpening a blade couldn't help it but chuckle.

"I might just head back to my village," Myriad said lazily. "There is always something to do there, and I sure miss my wife and pup."

"I see, not a bad idea after all," Eclipse smiled. "Could do you well to take a break from all the hunting and fighting we've done these last two years."

"Aye, boss," Myriad settled down after hearing him say that. "But our land is full of monsters and beasts that I doubt I'll be getting any time off."

"Alright, what about you, Poppy?" Eclipse turned to regard whoever was next.

Poppy was a short dragiress with long, brownish hair that fell loosely on her back. She had emerald eyes behind the glasses she wore, and she sported a silver diadem on her forehead, mostly to keep the front hair back. Underneath her white robe she wore mesh armor despite being a cleric, but most wound-tenders like her wore it for extra protection.

Poppy had been eager to answer, so she did.

"I'm heading East as soon as the morrow comes, boss," she informed. "I've got friends over there that I yearn to see again, one in particular, the one I spoke to you about not a week ago."

At his place, the boss nodded at her understandingly.

"I'm sure you'll have a blast at her side," Eclipse said, then opted to have a sip of his own cup of coffee. With the light cold of the night, the drink felt good.

His brownish stare then fell upon the next victim.

"You're up next, Vatti," he urged. "Did you think about your plans?"

"I did," Vatti quickly replied and straightened up in her short stump. Vatti was just as tall as Poppy was, perhaps five feet even, yet she looked younger than her real age. She had blue eyes and silky, long dark hair, but unlike Poppy who always had it loose, Vatti held it in place in a neat, fat braid. Her dark stare was just as dark as her hair. Within the group, Vatti was the only archer, so she'd been a support unit with her bow and crossbows.

"Well?" Eclipse smiled at her.

"Like Myriad here, I'll be returning back to my home village. Ma and the rest will be so glad to see me. They'll be so happy to see that I'm still alive."

"A good road to follow," the boss said. "If I had a place to go to, I probably would be returning there too, seems like the favored choice. But alas," he closed his eyes momentarily. "I have no place like you all..." It was a lie, of course, since he did have a home. "The world is my place, I go where I want and I'm never disappointed."

"You could come with me, boss," Vatti suggested. "My Ma and the villagers would be so happy to meet you."

At that, Eclipse reopened his pair of lookers and stared at the archer.

"That's so nice of you, but I'm afraid I have my own plans, Vatz," Eclipse referred to the young dragiress by the nickname he'd usually called her. "But thank you, perhaps another time if we ever work together again."

Vatti smiled with a nod.

"And what plans would those be?" Myriad asked, surely wanting to know. "If we are allowed to know, that is."

"Ah, no way," Eclipse laughed, shaking his head. "First we hear what Zeruda here intends to do, then I will tell you about my plans."

Every eye turned to regard Zeruda, who appeared to be the second-most mature dragir of the group. Knowing all attention was on her, she rose her head up and stared at her kin one at a time. Zeruda's beautiful semblance was complimented by her pixie-style, reddish disheveled hair, with some small braids here and there, making her to really stand out amongst a crowd. She had been listening to every word spoken, but at the same time she had been sharpening her thin, curvy blade.

"I'll just continue out here doing what we've done all these months," she said, staring at her boss. "I won't be doing it all alone, of course, I plan to join a group now that you've decided to close down your guild, boss."

"So no break time for you, then?" Eclipse asked.

Zeruda shook her head and continued sharpening her blade, "I'm at home here," she said after a sigh and looked all around her, particularly at the tall trees all around their campsite. "Ridding our land of monsters and beasts is what I do best, and I will continue to do it till I die."

"Of course," Eclipse conceded. He knew her story: monsters killed my family so I will hunt them down relentlessly till I die.

There was a moment of silence, the only sounds being the cracking of the burning woods and the usual sounds emitted by the night time creatures. In the far distance wolf howls reached their ears, as well as roars and shrieks of horror, for most of the time, in that jungle-like realm some creature was being hunted and eaten by another.

"Your turn, boss," Myriad pressured with a grin.

Eclipse finished the last drop of his cup of coffee, nodded, and set it down on the ground right beside him. He then looked at the four dragir that had been part of his team up to that point and said, "My destiny lies West."

"West?" Poppy asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yes," Eclipse nodded.

"How far West?" Vatti shot from her place.

"Very far," Eclipse bit his lower lip.

"Wait," Myriad's face turned serious. "You don't mean to..."

"...go to the human lands," Zeruda finished the thought, seeming as perplexed as Myriad appeared to be.

"Actually, yes," the boss told them all. "Those are my plans, I'm afraid. That's really why I decided to call it quits here."

"But why?" Zeruda stood up, looking concerned. "Your success here is guaranteed. You're a monster killer, like me, your guild will thrive anywhere you go."

"I know that," Eclipse agreed, crossing his somewhat muscular arms. "But Pancracia has been on my mind lately. No, not lately, but the thought of going there was born a few years ago. As you all know, there is trouble with monsters as well, but really, I just want to go there and see the place, see the land the humans call home. I'm going mostly sightseeing. You all know how I love nature as much as I love hunting pesky monsters and beasts."

That was true. Eclipse loved seeing new places as much as he wanted to see the realm cleansed of monster troubles. Everywhere he had taken his guild, the dragir'd had plenty of time to see the land, to enjoy all that his homerealm offered. Though he had traveled a lot at his young age, it is safe to say the dragir had not even seen thirty percent of the realm. He'd been as far south as to where the war with their bitter rivals, the Jyy, waged on. He'd been to the east coast, where the most powerful Dragir Houses were in place. And he'd been to the west of the realm and the central and northern areas. He'd been to a handful of places, but Eclipse believed dearly that the time had come to move on and see other lands in Phydoria.

"Boss, think about it good," Myriad gave his opinion as he also stood up. "You know of the stories and rumors out there. Pancracians don't like us dragir being in their realm, even if we have the right to be there under the treaty the realm rulers signed five years ago."

"I know how the water flows there," Eclipse replied, rising to his feet. "I won't go there with my guard lowered, if you must know. I'll be careful of every step I take, careful of whom I meet. I'll be very cautious."

Seeing that the others had stood up, Poppy and Vatti did so as well, for the matter had really turned serious.

Silence reigned again for a while. All the other four dragir could do then was stare at one another in confusion, Zeruda even deemed her sword sharp enough and put it away.

"What?" Eclipse asked, seeming shocked at their reaction, but he really couldn't blame them since not too many dragir ventured alone into the human lands now a days, if they went, the majority of them went in groups of ten or more, that way any human or other lesser beings that called that land their home would think it twice about f**k**g with them. "Don't you all have faith in me? Don't you all have faith that I'll go and return unharmed?"

"Most of our kin that went there alone died in that land," Vatti said with a deep sad tone, her stare lowered as she imagined the worst happening to the kind dragir she had in front of her. "Most killed cowardly from the back, I heard."

"Yeah," Poppy whispered. "So why go looking for trouble, boss? You've got everything going for you here."

"I'm not going to go look for trouble," Eclipse cringed his eyes. "I know my limits. Believe me when I say I've been in far worse places."

"What places could be worse than cowardly Pancracia?" Myriad muttered, stunned to know that his boss had those crazy plans.

"The Bog, to begin with," Eclipse replied to that. "There are others, like the depths of hell."

"And you've been there to know this?" Zeruda asked warily.

Eclipse just glanced at her as if saying, "What do you know about me?"

The exotic looking dragiress read his stare as saying just that to her, but she found nothing with which to reply.

"Boss, this is madness," Vatti cried. "Are you sure of what you're doing?"

"Look, you've all thought about your roads," Eclipse said. "I have thought of mine. It's not any different than your own, it will take me somewhere."

"Most likely to your death," Myriad uttered.

Eclipse heard him but ignored the youngster knowing those were just his thoughts on the matter.

"I'll be coming home when I deem I've seen enough of Pancracia," Eclipse informed. "Perhaps even the rest of the world."

"So this is really good bye for a long while, boss?" Poppy asked, surely stricken. Not only had the boss's decision struck her inside, but the others were also sad and even disappointed to know what his plans were.

Eclipse just answered with a nod.

"Godspeed to you all," the boss smiled at them one at a time a few moments later. "And thank you for the service you rendered to my guild. I really appreciate that, you know? Not only did you help me and helped yourselves with your hard work, but you also helped a lot of our own kin. The places we visited and worked are a little safer now thanks to you, so really, big thanks to you all."

Most replied with, "You're welcome, boss.", except Zeruda, who just found the strength to nod and then sit down. It appeared to Eclipse then that she was the one who was most troubled with his decision.

"When you wake up tomorrow, I will be gone," Eclipse assured them after clearing his throat, making them all stare at him. "So I can't leave without giving you all these."

From a leather satchel that hung at his waist he extracted several pouches and tossed those at them. That was their bonus for the two years worked under his orders; the pouches were filled with gems the size of marbles but of assorted colors.

And as he had told them, the boss was surely gone from the campsite and their lives when the warriors woke up early the next morning.

*****​

 

[*M i d n a*]

*I added the map in the first post.

Chapter 1: The Discovery​

The signs of a fast-approaching winter hung with the cold wind that blew from the west that early morning. Eclipse could feel the chill penetrate the bones of his exposed arms as he stood close to the riverbank, his canteen already refilled with fresh water from the Seoco river. He knew that soon he'd need to purchase winter gear if he was going to stand a chance against it.

He'd been carefully on the move for three hours since he had left his old team behind. Luckily he had not run into any trouble or danger, perhaps because the dragir always moved using as much stealth as possible. So, he had really made some progress and was just a few hours away from reaching a village called Majestic.

Knowing that, his spirits were high. But soon after he got going again, he felt a tremendous sadness taking over. Perhaps it was due to the simple fact that in a matter a days he'd be leaving his homeland for a long time. Nothing guaranteed him that he'd return alive, Eclipse knew he was taking a huge risk by going to Pancracia all by his lonesome. But the guild leader had not had more options, and to ask his friends to accompany him into human territory hadn't seem right to him. It had felt to him as if he were gonna ask them to join him in a death march, and Eclipse had not been built that way: to put a fellow dragirian's life in danger. No, ever since the crazy idea had been born in his mind, he'd known he would have to do that alone and expose no one.

Dragiria was riddled with all sorts of danger, and half hour later, as Eclipse moved through a tree-infested zone, that danger presented before him.

The young warrior froze all of a sudden, as not too far in the distance his ears picked up a ruckus, mostly wild screams and the sound of wheels rolling along. Knowing what could be the case, Eclipse sought cover behind a tree, but he approached it with care knowing that also in the trees death could lie in wait with a deadly serpent, or another monster or beast that used trees to stalk their prey. His care paid off, for as soon as he had approached the base of the tree, indeed a wild serpent that had small wings on the side swooped down with intentions to kill. With reactions just as fast as a lightning bolt, Eclipse jumped off to the side in order to avoid getting bit, but as he did that, his right hand had also grasped the hilt of one of his twin blades. He brandished it and cut the threat in two pieces. The Itamanga, as the highly-poisonous flying critters were called, jerked wildly on the ground in its last moments of life, but Eclipse paid it no mind, rather his eyes were staring upward, in case there were more threats up there.

He found none, and that was a relief to the warrior. His attention went back to what he had heard in the distance. From there he could see nothing because of the heavy green foliage, so Eclipse knew he had to move closer if he was to see what the hell was going on.

With care, but also very agilely, he went from tree to tree, until he was able to make a startling discovery.

A large caravan of sorts was passing by the area. No, not just any caravan of sorts, Eclipse quickly understood this one was an orc caravan that was transporting hostages in caged wagons, prisoners perhaps from raided villages. The moment he realized orcs were involved, the dragir cringed his eyes viciously. Orcs were the very terror of villages, the creatures loved to raid them. And villages were not the only thing they went after, but also merchant caravans and anything else that was stupid enough to cross their path. Orcs were evil-minded carnivorous creatures, and most were tough, sturdy warriors.

Had these orcs raided Majestic Village? Eclipse knew it was possible since they appeared to be coming from that direction and going north.

From his hiding place, the guild master made out several of the caged beings. Dragir, Sephods, and even Harpies he saw, all yanking on the iron bars and screaming for help. There were prisoners of all ages, young and old.

"Shut the hell up, you smelly mongrels," an orc shouted angrily and put the end of his whip against one of the caged wagons, silencing a harpie. "You're out of luck, nobody is gonna hear your screams out here. No, save them when you're tossed in boiling water, Har, har, har."

But Eclipse had heard their screams. And he was there. Now decision time had come. He could just let this happen, let the caravan follow their intended road, which really, led to the deaths of all those trapped beings. For the orcs, once they reached their tribe encampment, would end up eating them in the days to come. This was nothing new, orc raids happened all over the realm, and with even the dragirian armada doing its best to keep it from happening, the orcs found their ways to be successful at it.

So, Eclipse could let it be. Or, he could help.

Using stealth to follow the caravan from the flank at a good distance away, Eclipse counted the orcs involved. The count quickly went from one to twenty two, all taller than the dragir by at least a foot, and all heavily armed with axes and swords, and even crossbows. Yes, orcs were tall, green- skinned muscular creatures for the most part, but also somewhat stupid and slow, and yet they posed a high threat even to the best of dragir warriors.

Closing his eyes and staying well hidden, Eclipse began to think about things. He realized helping those prisoners was not going to be easy. Hell, it was a death wish. But dragir were no cowardly creatures.

I'm no coward, despite what you told me, Father, before you banished me from the House, Eclipse thought as he made up his mind. No, I am a dragir, perhaps a little different than most, but still a dragir. By Koleiah I won't let this stand, even if it costs me my life. I only wish you could have been here this day, Father, so that you could see for your own self just how cowardly I am...

He opened his eyes again, his face serious and Eclipse feeling tremendous fury within. The dragir was ready for action. He quickly caught up to the caravan again, for as he had been thinking, it had left him behind. As he waited to make a move, he realized that he had to even the numbers a bit if he was to survive this day. Perhaps if he somehow got to the wagon that was transporting his fellow dragir and he freed them, then there might be some hope that some of them could be warriors and help him out.

That was the best plan he could come up with. Before attempting the impossible, Eclipse remembered about his team. If they had been there with him, things would have been so much easier. But they weren't, Eclipse was all alone this time.

"Koleiah, my beautiful, divine goddess," he whispered. "Guide me in this battle. If your servant is to fall, then I only request that it is you who comes to greet me in the afterlife."

And without any further hesitation, a sword and a...rare weapon he rarely used, appeared in his hands.

Moments later, the dragir made his unexpected appearance, rushing one of the orcs walking on the right flank. Eclipse just rammed into him, shoving him against one of the wagons with his force. The orc uttered a cry of surprise as it bounced off from the wagon to the ground. The rear wheel passed over the orc's outstretched arm, and how the creature roared in pain when that ulna bone cracked. Fast as a gazelle, Eclipse stabbed the foe with a mortal wound to the chest.

He'd known that his surprise attack would not last even a few seconds, the others would soon be upon him, so Eclipse, after quickly looking left and right, went to work on the huge lock that kept captive around five mature-looking dragir, all who were surely shocked at the turn of events.

"My kin, you have balls of steel!" one of the dragir said in his shock.

"Stand back!" Eclipse shouted as he aimed his magical fusil at the lock. A loud blast was heard, a blast of fire ensued from the fusil's double barrels, and the iron lock was split in two.

"Roarrrhhhh!" an orc was coming in fast from the front, another from the rear, for they had seen the action and were on the move to fix matters.

"Hurry, hurry," Eclipse called to his kin as they began to pour out of the cage. "You have to help me even the odds out here or we're all for the tomb!"

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