Fog of War

 

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"Oogh…"

Aiza coughs a mouthful of dust. A dull sound rings in her ears, and her body aches. She can feel the scrapes and bruises from the fall as she tries to get up. Ouch. She flexes her legs and wings, which wobble and shake. Legs? Check. Wings? Still attached. 

Phew. 

At least she's still in one piece… 

Finally, she painfully opens her eyes, and gasps.

The ship hangs precariously far above her. Its wedged in the gap of the ceiling in what appears to be a cavern. The belly of it is torn, unfortunately, exposing its wooden and metal skeleton. Lines of sand spill from its sides, raining from the ground above. She squints, making out the faint signs of light from above, beyond the ship. Looks like they fell far. She glances around. It's a large, dark cavern. The rock walls stand high, and she can barely see. Dunes of sand cover the floor, littered with debri from the ship. That and… A few bodies, one of which has fins, and a frock coat. Hold on, thats–!!!

"Pirate guy!" Aiza yells, slipping her way over to the leviathan. He's still unconscious, though battered from the fall. Most of his body is caked in sand; if there were wounds, inscrutable. She checks his breath, and feels a slow breath crawl over her pooves. She loosens her shoulders. "Good, you're alive…"

She then nervously runs to the next body, biting her lip and stumbling in the dark. 

Please be alright. Please!

It's dark, but she can make out the shape of a pouflon. It lies still, unmoving.

"Emilios?" She cautiously asks, touching them. He's ice cold, and oddly smooth… Like stone. What happened to his fur?

She struggles to turn the pouflon over to see his face. 

"Oh geez you're heavier than you look! What do you eat?!" 

Finally, she rolls him onto his back. 

Clunk!

She glances at his face, only to be met with an empty husk. It's hairless, and Its black eye sockets stare back. She screams.

"You're not Emilios!!"

Aiza lets go, and the stone corpse falls to its side. She backs off, heart beating fast, unsure if she touched a dead body or not. 

"What the hell? What is that?!"

 

…

Sand shuffling sounds.

"Ouch."

"Eeghh.."

Aiza whips her head to the left. Terryn and Emilios emerge from behind a dune, shaking sand from their fur. 

She bounds over, almost tripping from the slippery sand. "Guys! Are ya alright?" 

"We're alive. It seems." Terryn coughs, expelling a bit too much sand. Gold blood runs from his nose. "I'm glad I shot it in time."

A realization hits Aiza. Was that fire the  prince's magic from earlier? 

"That bright light was you?"

"Yes… I tried to soften the landing." He confirms, looking regretfully at the ship dangling above. "Though I couldn't save Aviks ship."

"Aviks! We need to save him!" Emilios wails, about to cry. Tears glob in his eyes.

"He's over there. He's fine."

Aiza points to the sleeping pirate. Emilios rushes over, shaking him.

"He's DEAAAAAAD!"

"Dude… he's–"

"IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MEEEEEE–"

"Emilios! Calm down ya dummy! He's breathing!"

The sobbing pouflon checks Aviks, and relief washes over him, before he starts to sob happily instead. He hugs his friend tightly, tears seemingly never ending.

"OH JOY, HE'S ALIIIIVE!!!" 

Aiza gives a queasy smile at the prince. "I-is he always like this?" 

He shrugs. "As far as I've known him…..for a day."

 

….

While Emilios sobs and tries to make Aviks comfortable, Aiza and Prince Terryn start investigating the cavern. Aiza points to the body she touched minutes ago, her face ghastly.

"Do you have any idea what the hell that thing is?" She asks, shuddering.

To her surprise, the prince becomes excited upon seeing the empty pouflon husk. He leaps and bounds to it and attempts to lift it. His voice is excitable.

"Yes! I know these things! They may help us in our search for the calamity." 

"Wha—? How? Aren't they just dead…. Things?"

"No, far from it. They're golems. I think I can turn them on. Help me get this one up."

"Goh-lems?...."

A faint memory comes back to Aiza. She remembers reading about a 'golem' in one of Seren's banned books. One from her archives named "Weapons of War". They were made of stone, and had carved bodies, and– ** !!!  Suddenly, an unseen force strips her thoughts. The memory twists into the darkness, and she loses it. Wait- What were golems? She could have sworn she read about it…

"Ugh… Again? What is going on?!" She mutters, holding her head. Just like before, when she recognized the prince's horns, something prevented her from recalling the knowledge. However, the word 'golem' sticks to her mind. 

Odd. Why does her memory slip every time it involves Terryn? She takes note of this. 

With hesitance, Aiza supports one side of the golem with Terryn. After a hefty push from them, they manage to sit the pouflon looking golem upright. Sand trickles off it, revealing more of its intricately carved body, down to its… vespire claws?! Aiza leans in close, inspecting it.

"Mysterious. It's some kinda hybrid…"

The prince shivers. A tinge of regrettable sadness flickers in his eyes as he looks at the golem. "Yes… It could be called that…."

After a moment of reflection, he motions Aiza to stand back. "I'm going to use a spell now."

After what Aiza's seen him do on the ship earlier, she shuffles quickly back several paces, clear out of his way. When she sits at a safe distance, Terryn readies himself. 

The dust in the air slows as golden energy coalesces at the tip of his horn. Like a shooting star suspended in air, the ball of light spurs with life, growing bigger and bigger to the size of a wheel. Then, he gently flicks it at the Golem. The body immediately absorbs the light, causing it to glow gold. The air becomes warm, radiating from the golem itself. Aiza could feel some sort of force rumble from inside the thing. Its parts begin to shake and move, clacking together with increasing velocity, stretching outwards as if filling with energy. Bright white fills its empty eye sockets, casting two enormous light rays, and light spills out from its every crevice. Then, the gold light travels from golem to the floor. A wave of pink and gold ripples out, and following it, a burst of magical energy blasts by all it touches. When the wave passes Aiza, the soreness from her bruises melts away, causing her to spring up. It passes over all the debri in the room, even Emilios and Aviks, who jolt from the wave's effect. It goes up to the walls before it fades, returning the cavern back to its cool shadows. 

The gold light also fades from the golem, and it's replaced with two blue glowing eyes. Blue runic light runs through cracks in its body, and a faint hum is heard from his chest. With lifelike motion, its head looks around.

Terryn staggers, but catches himself, and smiles at his work. "Welcome back to the land of the living." He says, wiping his bloody nose. 

"Amazing!" Aiza claps. Without thinking, she rushes to the golem. Somehow it didn't feel threatening. In fact, she was more interested in it being revived. She's never seen anything like it, and her investigator side takes over. Questions flood her brain and spill at the golem. "You're alive! How? Why? Were you asleep?" 

The golem backs off. Though it has no expression, it appears to be trying to find something or… someone. It finally opens its mouth, and a nervous, robotic voice comes out.

"Pr0fess0r…?" 

 

Suddenly, a loud assembly of hums start to emerge from the sands around them. The "debri" in the dunes rise, revealing the larger bodies beneath. Golems of varying sizes and limbs stand up, shaking off the blanket of grains. They look like unworldly monsters, bearing unholy combinations of hooves, claws, fangs and spikes. Though missing some limbs, they all adorn weapons on their tail ends or arms. The machines rise two by two, forming a circle around the three, until they are surrounded by towers of stone, marble, metal, platinum, and  steel. The sea of soulless red and pink eyes lock onto Aiza and Terryn… 

"Uh…Terryn? Are they nice?" Aiza nervously asks, backing away slowly.

The prince gulps. "I am unsure. If I knew what division they were from–"

"Are they going to k-k-kill us?!" Emilios blurts out.

The first revived golem glances around. Its brethren begin to trudge towards the group. They drag their metal weapons behind them, with the bladed tips facing towards the three, making creaking noises. The horde closes in, showing no signs of stopping. There's so many, and Aiza could feel powerful runic magic whirring inside each one of them. This could be bad.

She glances at Terryn. He is in no condition to fight. He's barely standing, and his nose still bleeds profusely from unleashing the spell that softened the ship's fall. He coughs, and he wavers like paper.

Aiza grits her teeth. If it were one golem, maybe her three spells would be enough. But this…. 

….

Perhaps she could make a portal with her newfound shadow powers! No wait– But that'd cause her to faint, and they'd still follow them into it....

Damn!

The golems draw closer. Rusty mechanical whirs fill her ear drums. Emilios' sobbing begins again, and she can hear him pray. Terryn is coughing again, and he drops to his knees. Aiza's teeth clench as she works her brain.

Come on…Think… Think! 

Her eyes open wide.

Wait– the first golem can speak. Could it… convince the others to stop?

She approaches the first golem, with sweat rolling off her brow. "Golem! Do you understand us?"

She raises her arms. "Please, if you do, we don't mean any harm. Call off your buddies! We just want to talk!"

The first golem tilts its head towards her slowly. Its blue spiritless eyes meet hers, and for a second, Aiza could see a spark in it. 

….But it says nothing. 

It raises its tail, which also has a spearlike head, aiming it towards Aiza…