Kyle Aarons
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Adga blinked out spots in her eyes and gasped as her hand went up to her cheek. The deep scratches were gone. She shook her head to fully clear it, then glared at the squealing bull-headed harpy kid wrapped in bands of fire. She moved up and looked down. The squealing got worse. “Shut UP! You’re killing my ears!” She took a deep breath, and snarled, “The blazing bands don’t seem to be burning you and your squealing is mind-killing! Last warning!” The pitch only increased as she glared
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Adga moved up to the cracked open door. It was stuck on the stone floor. Beyond combat, cries of someone injured could be heard. There was no sign of blowing sand. She grabbed the door and yanked. It pulled over the high spot with a screech of protest before fully opening. In front of her, with its back to her, was a bizarre Dragonling. With wings on the sides, much larger bird-like legs and feet, and talons instead of dragonling claws. The appearance caused a momentary pause, because far m
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Taglon gave a head jerk over to Adga and pointed to the upper hall area. She shot him a raised eyebrow only to get a second head jerk and point. With a shrug, she looked over her shoulder. “Make sure you don’t overload yourselves. This is a quick scout, and we aren’t going far. I’ll be right back.” Adga moved up only to see a pulsating glow flickering further up. The clank of a metal weapon hitting the floor drew her even further toward the entrance. She finally found Taglon. The royal
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Adga watched as the Falconling rushed up to the main table and looked at the chairs. His head moved back and forth frantically. A few tears trickled out of his eyes as he touched the crest of the largest chair briefly, then returned his hand to the crest and stroked it. “There… There is no power within the throne. Our king is dead! Gordech ran his amulet and hand down the crests on a few other chairs and spoke titles and names, shedding more tears as he did so. He didn’t do more than glance
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Tez and Nuk once again stripped down to loincloths and moved up to the chairs. Both fingered their magical jewelry, but Tez spoke up. “The designs match those of the chairs and mine stuck into the carving. I think we need to wear them for this to work.” He paused and forced a grin. “Besides, the last thing either of us wants is to sit on these stupid chairs for nothing. So let’s just deal with the burns we got from the jewelry heating up.” Cuson let out a long breath. “What about putting on
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Adga heard muted conversations as she approached the lower bunkroom. All chatter stopped as she entered. Most of the captives looked up nervously. A few adjusted as much as the chains holding them close to those on either side allowed. Any she made eye contact with looked down or turned away from her gaze. The Halforc was awake again. He didn’t look good. His eyes were unfocused, and he rested his head on the wall. A fresh trickle of blood dribbled from the right nostril, down around his mo
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Adga stayed in what she guessed had once been a guards’ barracks room or servants’ quarters area until everything settled. Once both Tez and Nuk had been tended to, she looked around, “Looks like we are good. Any problems or breaks in the truce?” Taglon responded, “Nothing from them. I took a couple up to refill all our water and impaled a half dozen more Twintails. The well room is literally crawling with nasty critters. We cannot let anyone go up there alone. However, it gives us a food s
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Taglon turned and looked into the room. A, “By the gods! Fire!” erupted from him as he bolted in. Adga and Vendra followed. Adga glanced down in confusion as she saw Taglon smacking at a large pack, but didn’t have time to dwell on it since there were three others, all with smoldering spots lying in the middle of the room while a fifth was on one of the beds. The bed was already starting to smoke, but the two chained together slaves were frantically slapping at it. Tur entered the room
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Adga didn’t have time to dwell on the fate of the boys. She escorted the teen Healthman to a turn towards a sharply downward sloping passage which he said led to the dining room and let him go. She fully expected the three sick would not be brought out but decided letting the kid go was worth the risk. If they got away, she could live with it. On the other hand, if handed over, she would do her duty as a guard and turn them over and collect the offered bounties as expected. As she made her
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Adga hit the ground and stood. A fight raged in front of her. With the shaft above she could stand, but the corridor in front of her was too short. It was also littered with those Vyrax and his potions had taken down. She counted seven in total. Most appeared to be out. However, she delivered a few kicks to those who showed some signs of movement. Crouching and fighting were not easy, but it was something Burntmetal had made sure to work with her on. Long weapons were out of the question. F
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The streets of Scorpion Falls were full. Beings of all types scrambled to get supplies. Stores were packed. People were screaming, offering more for limited amounts of goods if they were given entry. Others secured water from wells. Many barricaded windows, doors, and even chimneys. One thing really stood out. Draft animals of all types were led toward the base of all the towers. There, Adga noted, massive stone slabs had been pulled out, away from the ten-meter-tall structures. The animals were
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Tez dug into his pack. He pulled out a piece of parchment, ink, and quill. As he jotted down a quick note, Adga glared at him, “What are you doing?” “Sending a letter to the others!” Tez snapped. Adga frowned, “Huh?” “If we shout, they probably won’t hear us over the roar of the falls, but the bandits might. If we climb down, we lose height advantage.” He secured the note to an arrow with a piece of twine and strung his bow. “We can hit them from up top. The others can ride over a
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Adga looked over everything they had taken off those they had eliminated in the Crags. It had been neatly laid out by Ven and Rin. Off to the side, Nuk tested his leg and nodded in satisfaction. Adga looked over to Tez and Vyrax, “How are you doing on the spell pages?” “Most are useful to one or both of us, but we’ll have four duplicates,” Vyrax responded as he pointed to one and gave Tez a hopeful look. Tez nodded and pointed to another, then to himself. The spells were secured,
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Adga stayed well in front of the others as she guided them up and through the natural archway out of the Crags. The trail down was narrow, steep, and treacherous. Off to the side, she saw ruts in the sand. “Wheel marks,” she muttered. She slowed and pointed to them. “Wagons came through real recently.” “Which way, Ad?” Vyrax asked as he moved closer. “They came out of the Crags. Can’t be more than a day old. With this wind, probably no more than a few sandglass turns.” Adga maneuvered
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It was clear by the way the guards moved to get those trying to get into the relative safety of the northern settlement out of the way, some by force, they had been informed Adga had a priority mission. It was also obvious the wall garrison had been reinforced. This made her glad she was heading out. She would have lost her three days off because of the need for all guards to be on hand during the impending storm. The red smoke from the torches was thick close to the wall. Many moving towar
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Adga dropped the last couple of meters, hit the sand, and stood. She knocked the sand off, then ran toward the guard building on the north side of the Gate Wall. She slowed as she saw a detachment of guards on Sand Skimmers angling in her direction. The lead skimmer had a small figure carrying the Shunral banner on it. The red-fringed black three-pointed flag whipped in the wind, making the crossed silver-colored morningstars behind a red shield with a black twin-headed winged snake on it easy t
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Adga fingered her rank pin, marking her as a full guardsman for probably the hundredth time since getting promoted only a week prior. She was at last an official Twin Spires guard; a dream come true. She was finally respected, at least as much as any Illorc ever was. In addition, she had passed her guild tests. This meant she also proudly wore a copper Warrior Adept pin. Under this, she had her primary Subfield of Outdoorsman. Her second Subfield guild pin, Ruinseeker, was kept on her collar und
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Adga adjusted her headwrap to combat the intense sun. She took a swig of water and looked to the west. At long last the two massive natural rock formations loomed in the distance. Twin Spires. Home. Only a few sandglass turns until she would collect her weekly pay as a senior guardsman apprentice and have a day off. The patrol out to Jade Gulch had been long and hot. The return trip had been hotter. The wind blew from the southwest. Sand lanced into her. Below, her mount, a ten-legged lizar
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Senior Guardsman Apprentice, Adga, is an Illorc and a commoner, neither of which would qualify her for service as a Guardsman of the Combined Desert Realm. Whatever god it is that determines the destiny of those such as Adga, seems to have taken a special interest in her. How else can you explain the Royal Sponsorship Pin of House Shunral, which she wears, and which was awarded by Lord Alagor Shunral himself? Things however, may be about to change for Adga and the Combined Desert Realm, as the world outside of the Realm is about to manifest itself.
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A look at the dystopian path in our near future
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I just killed my best friend. Yes, you heard me right, I just killed Dorian, my best friend. Only a few weeks ago, or is it months? I really don’t know. Hell, I don’t even know what day of the week it is. It doesn’t matter. Nothing does, not anymore. But yeah, anyway, I don’t know how any of this started. All I know is after Covid, after lockdowns, and not being able to see friends other than a few secret sleepovers arranged by my parents and a few close friends, life was back to
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Kandric, Seldnat, Pike, Lorthorn, Jamon, Zeltoss, Lacate, Vondum, Conth, Black Warrior Dragon Ornam, Alphar boy Cam'ris (with Blue Streak Shocker Lizard), Duke Axegrind, Hawkling Channeler, Kyltoss, Klorna, Morwar, Mokel, Princess Syrissia, Silver Warrior Dragon San'i-sar The spot where Pyrothermal fell started to churn. Shimmering tendrils of highly reflective particles launched outward from a small round spinning vortex of energy. Five struck Kandric. Four lanced into Seldnat. Three hit
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King Wyhrem, Prince Klandon, Count Salostar, Baron Greyhammer, Sardan, Sagell, Aster, Bayne, Benam, Quavis, Cresh, Dabaff, Gomriss, Pocet, Captain of the Guard, Molic, Olinday. With the latest Dragon Death, and how close it was, most in the old keep outside of Rolling Dale felt it. It stopped the group and caused them to head back out into the storm to look. However, they were delayed since Aster was once again overcome as a surge of power found him. In fact, Aster would have surely fallen h
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Within a couple of days it was clear the world everyone thought they knew had changed. The nightly attacks grew in number and severity, even as power and communications across much of the world was becoming so unreliable large areas were all but cut off from the rest of the world. Thanks to COSAM a few world powers were getting military communications back up while the Unified British Isles, Unified North America and Israel had paid considerable sums to get emergency networks stabilized. For a l
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While COSAM and in particular, Bryan Caldwell, worked to overcome everything from interference with radar to keeping power flowing from ocean wave generators, the newly recruited parents used the computer links provided by COSAM to start a wide variety of research angles. Even as the five boys slept, the adults stayed up and started putting pieces of a gigantic puzzle together. The problem was, none of them knew what the puzzle even looked like, so even finding related pieces of it was proving f
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