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Tormented Souls

Yet, it had been three days since Avila's arrival in that world, and not as the black dragoness thought, not anything to be concerned about. For the past days, no fights and even any kinds of breaching occurred, but from the look of the condition, Avila could say there was an attack attempt before she came.

After she took a bath at the lake, Avila could see the ruined wall section that she could deduce destroyed by a dragon crashing there. Feeling curious enough, Avila walked there and smelled blood, so it was the site of a recent battle.

"Whoops, little dragon, we gotta do our job," said a man carrying some wood planks with some other men behind him carrying objects intended for repairing. "We can only do this much, actually."

"What kind of dragon crashed to this patch of old wall?" asked Avila.

"Oh, while there was a skirmish attack from the Light, one of the Sentinels got shot and it landed here. The rider survived but I guess the dragon didn't. Its head was resting on this curve," he said while pointing to the bloody part. "It's really a big dragon, you see, and we asked some dragons to carry the body away."

"Oh...I'm sorry for it," said Avila while seeing the bloody part that had become a memorial. The dragon could be the one before her arrival, and to know that she came at the almost right time and the worst time.

"Anyway, dragon, we need to fix this before another skirmish. We don't want any to breach this open gaped wall. It's a hidden place."

She didn't want to argue, so she stepped aside and walked back to the lake, hoping to find any fish for her breakfast. But then, when she wanted to dive, a claw from a bigger dragon caught her tail and pulled her to the ground. This instantly made Avila surprised, but relented from attack when she saw it was Jekizira.

"What are you doing?"

"I...just want to hunt, trying to find some fish."

"We're not allowed to hunt around here, just taking a bath," said Jekizira without changing his tone. "I don't know anything, but the humans didn't want us to disturb the depth of the lake."

"This lake is bri...I mean, dark, to the bottom."

The black dragon smiled to him, and said, "You can tell me about your vision later, Avila. I know your eye problems. I think for you, it's very bright down there, but for us, it's not. The humans believed that the lake had many legends on why the lake was dark. Tarkas never told me about why we're only allowed to bath."

"Tarkas?"

"My rider. Tarkas Brunjheim."

"Oh..."

"Anyway, about those three days ago, I haven't had time to say sorry that we doubted you as a traitor," said Jekizira while flapping his open wings a little. "We've got issues lately, and of course we must take some actions."

I know how you feel," said Avila while putting her left paw on Jekizira's side. Rough scales made contact with her paw's claws and scales. "I always got treated like that back in my world, so it's only fair that I'm only a bad luck to every dragons..."

"Don't you just think you're one hell of a bad luck just because you're the 13th member! Think optimist, Avila. You don't look like an evil dragon to me, so cut it out."

"I think...you're right."

"Anyway, I'm here so we can go have a meal. Coraero and Avrisa got back from hunting, and here's your share."

Jekizira put down half of a wild boar to Avila. The boar had been cooked evenly by a dragon's fire, and of course because it was still freshly hunted, Avila knew the meat was still good. She suddenly heard her belly grumbled, meaning that she was very hungry, and she realized she started to drool from the smell of freshly roasted boar.

"Hey, what's up? I have my own share....though I guess it's bigger than yours. Is it okay?"

"N...no! It's really okay, Jekizira," said Avila while snapping out from her trance. "I'm a small dragon, and this portion is...quite big for me. Do boars around here this big?"

"I guess in your world it's small, right? Just try it."

While they were eating, Jekizira then asked, "Avila, about that world you came from.... Is it very dark and gloomy? I mean, Cynder once told me her own world was very lively and full of color, and she wished I could see that world. I mean, I'm not planning to defect, but the Light part wasn't my style. I mean, it's true it's full color, but their motives were far worse than our environment here. Is it?"

"Oh, uh...in truth, the place had more conflict that we've got here," said Avila. "But, it's not as gloomy as this place. I didn't want to brag about things, though. I only think my life isn't all that colorful." She watched the bright but gloomy sky. "My life is like this place. Demented, dark, distorted...all worst thing. I was suicidal if only not for my mate that saved my life and gave color to my world. Now, we're not even together, I don't know where he's gone to, and I lost my color again, both in my life and literally."

"I...I'm sorry for that," said Jekizira while lowering his head. "I think it's wrong to ask you about that...."

"No, that's fine. I really need any dragons to talk to, and since I'm here, can you tell me about the lake?"

"Oh, the lake, huh? Uhm...you need to ask Tarkas. I'm not very familiar to human's folklore. Do you want me to call him?"

"If he's busy, that's not really necessary."

"Someone called me? Oh, it's you Jek. What do you want?"

Tarkas was beside Jekizira, eating a big turkey leg. He was pretty high for a human, and judging from Avila's vision, his skin was so unusually white, as if he was sick (although in normal color, his skin color was normal white).

After talking a while, Tarkas then turned his head to Avila and said, "You want to know about this lake, don't you, Avila? The history of this lake is pretty scary, you know."

"Don't worry, I've heard and seen worse," said Avila. "Say, what's in the lake?"

Tarkas then sat on the black grass, then started, "The Dark Lake had a very bad history. I don't know the certain thing, but many years ago, this site where we're currently on was the place where there was a demonic ritual held by ancient civilization totally annihilated by the war. It was said that they worshipped a demonic entity called Yorloka, one of the five damned dragons serving the misery. I really couldn't say much, but it was said that the people sacrificed to Yorloka was left half-dead after being beaten up, and then the ritual leader would slowly cut away their body parts, before cutting out their hearts."

"Ohh...that's extreme," said Avila. "Say, what's next?"

"Many historians said that was called 'putting out of misery' from our language, though the method was more like a torture. Okay, so that tribe then presented the sacrificial heart to Yorloka that was said to be in the lake, and throw it into the lake, tainting it into black. The next method was then dumping the whole body to the lake, for the fish in the lake to eat them. The fish was Yorloka's incarnation, so hunting and killing those fish could provoke Yorloka's anger and gave the subject a painful misery they could ever imagine."

"Oh...so, that's why we're only allowed to bath here? Bath on a lake full of goddamn dirty blood from many hearts thrown here? That's made this place nasty, but continue, then."

"It's okay? Jek had started to get nausea."

"He doesn't have to hear if he doesn't want to, actually, seeing the story was pretty extreme."

"Okay...then...about why it's discontinued, they had been annihilated by those civilizations that hated demonic worship, so this place was ransacked and destroyed. There was genocide, where those people, men, women, and children, got their heads thrown into the lake after being impaled to a sharp pole. The civilization believed impaling and throwing those worshipping Yorloka could make Yorloka leave the world to its own world. Well, it didn't go well, as after two years, the place was full of misery that people started to drown themselves to the lake. Because of that, this place was off-limit to people not protected by demonic magic, and this place had become a place where those who believed said where the 'Tormented Souls' trapped in the lake, being Yorloka's sacrifice and the prisoner of their own misery."

"But...how many bodies were in there? If that's the real story, why didn't I see any bodies?"

"Hey, Avila, do you know how deep this lake can go? It is dark, and I can say the bottom is limitless."

"Then, can you tell me why we can bath here?"

"Yorloka is a demon dragon, so he still thought the dragons roaming on this realm are his friends."

"Oh...that's a pity, then. I thought if I can meet him, somehow I can tell him that it makes this place gloomy and I'll gonna crush his..."

"Wait...you're not serious, are you?"

"Believe me, I've meet worse demons than this one."

Tarkas went silent for a moment, before he sighed and left both Avila and Jekizira alone there. He then said, "I'm going to pop..."

"Don't throw up into the lake!"

"I know..."

"Oh, this is really a drag...."

Although Avila didn't want to, Jekizira had been at the limit on holding the puke, so Avila used her illusion fear power to give Jekizira a fear that made him gulped his own puke, feeling very uneasy on the illusion, and fainted. When Avila sighed, she was greeted by a shrill yet calm voice.

"That's one skill you had, mortal dragon," said the voice.

When Avila turned to the lake where the sound came from, she saw a black dragon standing on the lake's surface swishing its tail, while having many souls around it, seemingly tormented. The dragon had white horns curved like a goat's, and dark eyes. She also saw the dragon had sharp claws, clenching on some souls under it.

"What are you?"

"So, you can see me," said the rather scary dragon with the inversed pentagram symbol on its head. "I'm surprised, a mere mortal can see me, a demon...eh?"

Unknown to the demon, Avila had opened her wings and flew fast to him, and they collided. They collision was fast enough to even make the dragon fell to the water while Avila clawed him away. The demon started to bleed (okay, she's crazy), and she was in a pleasure she never had felt before. It's like it's her life, being sadistic and dark (she's totally crazy).

"Ouch, hey! You can't just fly to me like that! Moreover, how can you...stop! You're hurting me!"

When Avila stopped, they were standing over some soul platform. Somehow the souls also supported Avila so she appeared standing on the lake.

"You're one demonic dragon, you sadistic bitch! I almost die because of you!"

"I have a reason to do this, okay, Yorloka? Why the hell you make this lake so nasty?! I bathed in here, for ancestor's sake! You just tell your followers for not polluting this lake with black dirty blood so we dragons can have a peaceful clean bath!"

"Okay, okay! I get it! But it can't be undone, uh..."

"Avila."

"Okay, Avila. Look, that ritual of sacrifice happened almost 400 years ago, and it stopped just 20 years ago in this lake. Because of the blood the water's color had changed to my favor. Hey, can we...talk on the land? The...the souls are not going to hold both of us dragons."

After they reached land...

"Okay, as you know, I'm the demon that served the underworld ruler that controlled misery. I'm one from the five dragons like Sannourah, Yrelka, Norbosa, and Ploikla. Our masters hated humans so much because of their unnecessary wars. That's why, each of them gave curses to humans, bestowed upon us. Sannourah is the dragon of oblivion, Yrelka is the dragon of pain, Norbosa is the dragon of lust, and Ploikla is the dragon of vengeance, and myself as the dragon of misery. We controlled each power, and we're the bodyguard of each of our prisons."

"Prisons? You mean this lake is the prison? Of the tormented souls?"

"My prison, to be exact. You see, I gave misery to people, so to prevent us to continue, they must do sacrificial rite for each of us to prevent new problems. This lake is normally off-limit for humans, but for you dragons, since we're still brothers and sisters, we never made this place off-limit to your kinds."

"So, you mean the lake is also full of souls? Yuck! That's the worst and nastiest lake I've ever bathed into! You gotta give me a new bathing place or I'll gonna break each of your bones!"

"You can't do that! I'm a...ouch, ouch! Okay, okay! Stop! There's a smaller lake near this place! Happy?!"

"Yeah," said Avila while releasing the half-turned left front leg of the demon. "Thanks for that."

"You're scarier than Norbosa, you bitch! I never thought a mortal can see a demon and even mess with their body! You wanna feel my wrath?! C'mon, I'll give you..."

Yorloka stopped when he saw Avila's eyes, and suddenly nightmarish scenes flashed in front of him, making him uneasy and puked inside the lake. When he recovered, he saw Avila got dizzy and fell to the side, as if she was using the power too much.

"What...what was that?" murmured Avila. "That's not natural...why...why is that image again? Why?"

"Hey, Avila, what was that?"

"I...I don't know. It...it's like a nightmare. That scary image...that image..."

"Shit, something about that flashy image is not right," thought Yorloka. "Why am I, a demon, could get affected by such thing? Even this mortal dragon...something is not right with her, too. Why can she see me, touch me, and even try to kill me? She also seemed to see souls, too. She's...interesting."

Yorloka then helped Avila to stand on all fours again, then he left to the lake. Before he asked the souls to take him back to the netherworld, the black dragoness said, "Hey, Yorloka."

"Yes?"

"Don't pollute this lake more, okay? Let it be a better place for the fish to grow. They're your incarnation, right?"

Yorloka then smiled to Avila, feeling very light. "Yeah. You're one hell of a weird dragoness, Avila."

Then after that, the souls around him started to engulf the dragon's body, then he disappeared out of sight, leaving slight ripples on the silent lake. Avila turned back to where she stationed, opened her bat wings, and flew away.

Unknown to her, a figure was watching her from the distance...

"You're growing well," said the figure. "I'm going to enjoy this."