A blue sky above, a field of green grass.
Flowers brushed against her legs as she leaned over to Tatshka, pointing out the rare butterfly floating past. Tatshka looked up from her work- a line of flowers she was weaving- watching gleeful eyes as it landed a short distance away from them. She caught sight of something upon her horns, and pointed it out to her. One had landed on her, crawling down to sit on her third eye gem before taking off again. They must like her, Tatshaka laughed. She was as pretty as the flowers around them.
She denied it. Tatshka made a final knot in her creation, and ever so carefully crowned her. And a beautiful flower deserves a flower crown.
A flower crown for the most beautiful draken she had ever known.
Her smile was as warm as the sun shining down upon them.
Tatshka stood suddenly, declaring that even though she was the most beautiful draken… she wasn’t as fast as she was. Before she could move, Tatshka tapped her shoulder and dashed off, giggling. She ran a good distance from her, calling out.
“Vortea!”
Vortea turned to face her- turned to see her smiling face.
A dark sky, a field littered with corpses.
Her claws shook as she stared around at the battlefield. Finley slashed down voidstructs and clashed with voidtouched. Finley fell to the ground, limbs voided, bodies… missing. Cries echoed around her. Tatshka stood in the middle of it all, eyes wide and looking frantically.
“Vortea! VORTEA! HELP!” The sea of fighters bumped her, and Vortea found herself unable to move through the crowd.
“VORTEA! Vortea!” Tatshka’s voice shifted, no longer her own. An unknown voice called to her as Vortea fell, losing sight of Tatshka in the sea of corpses. “Vortea! Vortea!”
Her eyes shot open and Vortea jolted awake, sitting straight up.
“Void… Catastrophe… ”
Vortea panted, hearing the voice echo in her head- heard it continue to echo in her head.
It wasn’t just the nightmare.
“The stone…”
Her heart dropped.
Leaping out of bed, Vortea dressed herself hurriedly. She flung open her door, bolting out of her room and house, taking flight for the museum. She made her way to the back quickly.
Glass littered the floor, and the podiums that held mirrors, a crystal sat empty. And worst of all, the podium in the very back room sat empty, crystalline shards scattered around it.
He had escaped.
He had escaped.
Vortea stepped out of the storeroom, looking down at the wisps of void floating where once guards had been. Innocent lives… They didn’t deserve what happened to them.
As much as she wanted to immediately rush after Hollow, she knew that there was nothing to be done. The sun had fully risen, and he had likely broken out before it had even peeked over the horizon. Changing focus, she rushed through the halls to where Tobias slept. Pounding on the door, she gave him just a moment before shoving her way into the room. The tan nyulop all but leapt from his bed, throwing his blankets aside as he looked at Vortea in half-asleep surprise.

 

The Council gathered quickly at her emergency call, assembling in the town hall in under an hour. Confused, yet serious faces turned toward her as she spoke.

 

A beat. Two beats. The mood of the room shifted from confusion to fear.