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The Mythical Creatures of the Black Forest

The next morning, she was being woken up by Cynder that had woken up first.

"Hey, sleeperhead, come on, now," said Cynder with a smile. "Let's go hunting."

"Hunting? Where?"

"So, Avila, have a nice dream?" said Coraero coming out from the view. The pitch black dragon was staring at Avila with his bright yellow eyes. "Nice job getting those supplies from Varkast."

"Yeah...but I sore my tail dragging that big box. I think I'll dislocate my tail joint if you didn't help. Thanks anyway."

"You should be grateful and about that behavior of yours, Cynder. See Avila? She's as good as a small dragoness out from the egg from the first time. Isn't that right, Avila?"

"W...well, I'm not really that innocent...," said Avila. Now, for every sake of the world, any dragon would tell her she's innocent? Maybe because they hadn't known about Avila's real exploit.

"Ah, you're really a shy dragoness, huh? Don't make things bad. If we make things bad in these times there won't be any chance to get it back. Get what I'm saying?"

"Yeah...I guess."

"C'mon, now, Avila, we wanna hunt or what?" said Cynder in displeasure. "Anyway, there are things I want to talk with Coraero. Wait us at the main dining hall, eh?"

After Avila was gone, Cynder turned her head to Coraero, saying, "You should stop trying to flirt with her. She had a mate and she's shy."

"But...it's natural for dragons to change partners if the previous one didn't fit, right? What if she really had...?"

"Cory...," interrupted Cynder. "She had a dark past, I knew it. Her aura of darkness was so strong that it even overwhelmed mine. We're both almost the same, being separated from the first love we had, and vowed not to betray that first love. There are still tons of other dragons for you to choose from and you're still so young."

"I know I know...I'm still 23, okay? Cheers you up?"

"Not really. I'm still 19 and you're more perverted than I am!"

Right after that she casted her fear illusion that made Coraero inside his own horrific dreams, stunned by them and even struck into fear. Cynder left him inside and walked to the place where Avila waited.

Once there, Avila was confused why Coraero didn't follow them. When she asked Cynder, the dragon said, "He's out for business. Jon summoned him."

"All of the sudden? He was somehow free before?"

"He...oh, just don't mind him! You think you're his mother or something?"

When Cynder turned around and gestured Avila to follow her, the black dragoness just rolled her yellow slit eyes and said, "Oh boy, maybe that male has issues."

They ventured along the vast tunnel system which grew darker by time (lighter in Avila's vision), requiring the new member to guide through.

"Why there isn't any torch here?" asked Avila while guiding Cynder.

"You're talking like you had normal vision, but that's all right. This place used to have a torch, but recent finding made us against using it for the rest of the section. That's why the light cut out after some steps from the start of this tunnel."

"What is here?"

"At first we thought it's weird, but the excavation team was slaughtered and only one survived. The dragons suspected a traitor among us because the bodies had dragon claw mark, but...one of us...now he's crazy, saw the real thing using a torch. And he said it was nasty and downright shit."

"What did he see?"

"He saw a hellish black dragon or some sort lurking on the ceilings with black shadows that made him mad. From then, we feared the dragons got the same effect so we trained our eyes in these parts to see in darkness without torchlight, or else we're doomed."

"Uh huh...right..."

"You seem pretty okay after I'm talking about some scary shit."

"Yeah...maybe because I've heard many scary things about this weird world."

The real truth, Cynder couldn't see what Avila could see, and of course the dragon had seen the thing that terrorized them. The black dragon was bathed with all kinds of black shadow that made the form of claws around it. It also had the same inversed pentagram on Yorloka's head, but its body was slender as it was a female dragon.

"Anyway, Yrelka, you look very much like Yorloka," said Avila talking to the dragoness beside her. "I still remember he once said you're the ruler of pain, but you look okay to me."

"I don't know if you know about our goddamn lore, but, we don't think dragons as enemies, but those humans were," replied Yrelka with normal voice. "That's why I always tried to terrorize those people. This tunnel also had flammable lining on the walls, so if you light anything closer to the wall you'll be burned to crisp."

"Yeah, but don't you think killing those men are a bit too extreme?"

"I'm not the one killing them, you know. I'm not as sadistic as my twin."

"You're a demon, after all."

"H...hey, Avila, stop talking to yourself like that, it's scary," said Cynder behind her. From Avila's night vision he could see Cynder was shivering.

"Pretend you don't hear anything, then." After that Avila turned to Yrelka. "I...I can't believe demons can have twins."

"You think we're some fucking old demons being made as the corruption of the holy beings and so on and so on? Look, dragoness, we're still beings, not souls, although in a manner different from your being. I'm tasked with controlling the aspect of pain like the other four demon dragons, and I was the fifth generation."

"It's so out of place from my belief."

"It's...okay, fine. You won't understand."

After a silence, Yrelka said, "I...I've never killed any living beings before. I only give pain to them. Because of this job, I haven't contacted my brother since and I was tasked as the guardian of the black forest and this place. The dragon that attacked the men had demonic power, but...it wasn't from the five of us. Also, he somehow knew my existence and almost killed me."

The black shadow dragon then showed her other side, and Avila gasped. Though it seemed okay on the side Avila saw, the other part of the demon's face was cut and Yrelka closed that side's eye. The cut was definitely a dragon's claw attack and she was surprised a demon could get a mark.

"That's look painful..."

"Thanks to my power, I felt no pain and it was inflicted to that dragon instead, though the damage was done. I just want to tell you this, Death dragon, with that black dragoness behind you. You two can't trust any dragons inside your club anymore, not anyone. You two are new members as I got this scar 4 years ago, so I won't suspect you two. Be careful...for the sake of you both."

Avila got silent. Somehow everything that she started to make friends of the past week became her worst enemies. Except Avila, the others became suspicious. But, although the demonic dragoness spoke with honesty, she was still a demon, and of course she couldn't believe the demon could hold to her word. Although at first Avila wanted to persuade Yrelka to vow for the truth, she couldn't have the heart to do it, seeing that the dragon was the first demon to be injured.

"Anyways, this is the farthest I can go," said Yrelka when Avila saw darkened void in front of her, meaning that it was the outdoors. "You can tell your friend about me. I'm not really a secretive type."

"Why don't you follow me, then? You seem pretty nice to talk to."

"I can't...just can't. I can't be seen. It can scare the hell out of your black friend."

"Why? I thought I was the only one..."

"No...you can see me because you had night vision," interrupted Yrelka. "The only thing I can conceal from normal dragon is my voice, as my voice can cause a pain in their ears."

"Oh, so that's why Cynder could only hear me talking," thought Avila, then she got embarrassed. "Shit, so I'm talking to myself like crazy the whole way?"

"Your name is Avila, right?" said Yrelka with a wide smile, then in an instant she was crawling on the ceiling like a spider. "It's nice to have a dragon to talk to."

"Yeah...see you later."

After three steps or so, Avila became blind as the result of the light, needing Cynder's assistance.

"Hey, the tunnel really is driving us crazy, huh?" said Cynder. "You're talking to yourself like you're one hell of a crazy dragon."

"I'm not, actually. It's just Yrelka."

"Yrelka...wait...the demon?! You mean it's the one lurking in the dark and making me think something was following me?! Oh, shit! I knew the place is haunted!"

"First of all, now I got a new friend, and second, Yrelka is a she, alright? You wanna go hunt or not?"

"O...okay. She won't gonna stalk me when I'm sleeping, right?"

"Why you're such a coward?"

Because Avila talked about Yrelka, Cynder was scared as hell and didn't want to get inside the forest. She was partially true to be scared, because the forest itself was dense and dark at the morning. The black color of the leaves, including some of the dead trees, made this place a little eerier than the tunnel, especially because of the weird fauna. Avila couldn't find anywhere to hunt.

Meanwhile, Cynder was too scared to go into the forest because of Avila's story about Yrelka. Somehow she wanted to say something before Avila left, but she forgot.

"What...uh, this place had some sort of a...what regulation? I had a very bad feeling on this place, but then...what's that?"

She heard some steps from a dragon. Thinking it was hostile (as the black forest was at the border of the dark and the light region), she readied her claws. But she couldn't find it, despite of the footsteps that somehow everywhere.

"This thing's fast," thought Cynder. "But...maybe just imagination."

Avila couldn't find a thing to hunt. Instead of hunting, she was admiring the silence of the forest and the tranquility. The place, although eerie, wasn't tainted by things.

"You seems to love the silence, don't you?" said Yrelka's voice.

Avila at first startled, but then she said, "You didn't scare poor Cynder, right? Maybe talking about you wasn't a good idea...about you stalking her sleep."

"I can stalk both of you while sleeping...but not without shadow," said Yrelka. She then made a gesture around, "This is my home, death dragon."

"You home seems...quiet."

"This is where my worshippers gave me victims of their sacrifice, so they could be eased from ailment and pain."

"Wait...how many places not got tainted?!! The Lake is tainted by your goddamn twin brother, and now you're tainting this place?!"

"Calm down, Avila! Geez, you're so sensitive on things. It's not like that, okay? Like I said earlier, I don't even want bloodshed, just pain. The sacrifice victim was said to be given to my domain of eternal pain because...yeah, the victim was always those who got their previous lives full of crimes. So, as to give those who worships me at the past the moment to be free of pain and ailment, I just transferred them to the immobilized victim, while trying to gag them as so not to make me annoyed. But, the pain didn't kill them, and of course this is the truce I made with another being living in this forest."

"Another being?"

"This being had unstable relationship with humans, but of course they didn't want to risk the humans, too. Constant forest cutting had slowly decreases they hunting grounds, and of course the risk of being exposed was imminent, as if they were exposed, they'll be extinct."

"So what actually you did for them?"

"As I'm also their leader, I make a deal as I was worshipped as a deity by some humans, I spread fear to them, and of course I helped these beings thrived by helping them increasing their population."

Avila was quick to jump to conclusion. Yrelka had done something that almost scared her. Knowing that it was really a dark ritual and to the fact that the kind dragoness facing her was a demon, she just gulped and kept silent.

"I guess it's getting on your nerves, huh? Wanna meet them? If I talk to them, they won't treat you as something hostile."

Avila complied with the demon and followed her. There was really no wildlife to hunt. Maybe it's not their time to get out for the day, or they were nocturnal. Anyway, the black dragoness started to feel dizzy and she suddenly shifted her vision from negative vision to normal black and white vision, and also she smell something foul before she realized a body of a giant unknown creature.

When they walked, Avila could clearly see the path was stained in blood, and surprisingly Yrelka wasn't very much comfortable either. The blood was pure white and the color was clearly visible since it was glowing. Something was happening to her by the time she slowly came to the unknown place.

"We're here. Can you see them?"

"Them? There's nothing but plain grass here...except...maybe those tree-houses aren't supposed to be there..."

Suddenly Avila yelped when she saw something came out from the hole of one of the wooden house. She was relieved it was a bat...but a giant bat? Judging from how frequent she encountered bats in the cave, that bat was indeed the blood-sucking bat. But...if that's the case, then the vampires could have started from the humanoid bat.

The bat landed in front of them. It had pointed ears and big black eyes staring them. Because of having front limbs modified for flight, it had only two fingers, possibly for clinging. Its legs were also digitigrades with sharp pointed claws used for grasping upside down like a bat did. Now, because it landed in front of Avila's view, the black dragoness could clearly see it was humanoid, standing upright like a normal human, wearing nothing but pants. Possibly they couldn't wear any upper garments because of their wings.

"Leader," said the humanoid bat while lowering its body.

"It's okay, Kanes'ak," said Yrelka while walking closer to the visible borderline. "I'm not even a bat."

The humanoid bat didn't reply, then he stared Avila with his black eyes. He then said, "A companion?"

"More or less. She's clear to get inside."

"As you wish, leader."

After the bat had gone, Avila followed Yrelka's gesture. The sunlight poured into the black scenery of the forest, creating blinding stream of black lights in Avila's eyes. But, the darkness of her surroundings made her able to see that despite of being very quiet, the screeching sound from the bats made the place like a cave.

"So? Fascinated?"

"On what?" replied Avila in confusion.

"On that vampire bat earlier. He's big, right? Kanes'ak was a big vampire Fuzandre and of course that size was because he was a half-breed with a fruit bat."

"Fuzandre?"

"Literally bat-people," said Yrelka short. "This is their domain. After you guys take up the cavern in the rocky mountain, they had to find refuge here."

"Oh...but, I didn't know about that...I'm still new..."

"I'm joking, alright? They're living in Black Forest for many generations, and they're in the brink of extinction because of deforestation and the likes of human beings. If you know bats, you know Fuzandres, except that they talk like humans."

"Ok...." Then another red-furred bat came there. This bat had a more fox-like face, and strangely it ate a pineapple. When it offered Avila, the odor of the strange fruit made Avila dizzy and she politely declined, not wanting to spark any unwanted infamy.

"Hos'kak," said Yrelka. "Feeding well?"

"Well, I'm glad this forest is okay with fruits and stuffs. What's this runt doing in our territory? I thought you supposed to take away any..."

"I know! She's just curious, that's all."

Hos'kak then left them both, while Yrelka gestured Avila to walk to a shelter and sat nicely there like a dragon. Then she said, "Humans exploited this forest for making homes and residences. The Fuzandres are always okay with the humans, as long as they never destroy any forest. The Black Forest is considered haunted and sacred by the humans, and, to talk about the so-called demonic rituals, this forest is my ritual."

"What did you do then? Ask your worshippers to cut people into pieces and throw them into the forest so you can feed on them?"

"Yuck! What the fuck are you talking about?! I said I hate killing people!"

"But maybe your worshippers..."

"No. Each of us demon dragons always had a kind of man who would heed our call and talked with us. Because the previous demon dragon you encountered was my twin...I bet that's his ritual."

"I forced him to clean the lake, though."

"Good for him. Let's continue. I asked them...to give an alive sacrificial human thrown into the forest. They knew to make it symbolic, they tortured the human to the point he or she was barely alive, tied them up, strip them from all garments, and throw them into the forest. I know I'm in sympathy with them, so I took them to the Fuzandres."

"Why the bat-people?"

"The bat people had an old transformation ritual once abandoned before I asked them any truce. The transformation ritual enabled them to turn to anything necessary, and of course some vampire Fuzandres had that kind of infection to change them."

"Oh...the vampires," thought Avila. "They started from Fuzandres, huh?"

"Well, being a human is hard, because they needed to find anything linked to human, like a human's blood. But, the opposite is way easier. You see that pedestal there?"

Avila could see the pedestal in ancient rocks grafted with carvings she couldn't decipher, but she was distracted by Yrelka, that said, "That pedestal...is where their ritual started. The ancient An-Erkh-sa ritual. Humans are tied into one of those poles, and each of them is being fed on a soup which had a mixture of bat's blood in it. The shaman then hypnotized them, and their fate fell to the vampire Fuzandre. Their transformation would take two ways. Those able to cling with their humanity would stay human, but would be thirsty with blood, thus the vampires. Then those giving up to animalistic property of the bat's blood would become Fuzandre. I gotta admit, though, all of them these past years became Fuzandres. After transformation, I'll take charge...making them vowed to themselves that they wouldn't get out from this place or take my wrath. Somehow, while they weren't convinced, I used this voice of mine to bleed their ears out as bats had more sensitive hearings...and of course this pain transfer ability."

"You sure love torture...but that doesn't mean you're more sadistic?"

"It's part of my job, okay? I didn't put my heart into it."

"Yeah...I get you...but then, I thought this ritual is banned in the whole Dark Realm?"

"It's banned, but it takes on another form as a Dark Penalty."

"Dark Penalty?"

Yrelka smirked to Avila after saying that, "Yeah, Dark Penalty. The convicted always got the same treatment like the ritual, as this was also considered a death penalty. The difference is, they still got some garments intact and they weren't tied. The humans then shot them repeatedly without hitting them while they, in a panic, swerved deep into the forest and stumbled upon this village. The rest are the Fuzandre's job."

"So, now your job is to stalk dragons and humans in the cave?"

"Since I've no job anymore, that's the only thing I can do so I'm not bored."

"Why don't you at once walk with me, have a nice chat, and bathe at the lake?"

"I know...but I...I still had no intention to talk to Yorloka."

Avila didn't know what made the demon dragoness to become very solemn when she was talking about the lake. Did she and Yorloka have a problem?

"You got a problem with your brother, Yrelka?" asked Avila. "I never had any siblings in my entire life, but...if this is a sibling rivalry I..."

"No, it's not." Yrelka then clearly dripped a tear from her eyes. "It's better if we don't push this matter. I...have kept you from your friend waiting out there. B...but, promise me...you'll keep the secret of this place no matter what."

"I...understand...." Seeing Yrelka being so sad was weird as she was a demon, but knowing that the tear was genuine, Avila got into sympathy with the demon dragon of pain, and she left her alone.

Following the path (which was somehow illuminated by the presence of her scent), she reached the opening almost immediately, with Cynder was sleeping, waiting for her to come out. Avila then only smiled and woke the smaller dragoness up.

"Uh...wha...? H...how long did I sleep?"

"Can't figure."

"Are you okay? You seem sad."

Remembering her promise to Yrelka, she just said, "Nothing, really. Walking in the forest made me...felt certain that I missed my home, and my mate."

"Oh...don't be like that," said Cynder using her front paw, putting it on Avila's left shoulder. "We all gain and lose things. C'mon, I'm hungry! I want to see for dinner."

While walking back, Avila, after saying that lie, clearly had made herself remembered all about Seraphor, her friends, and most of all, his world, color, and light. She missed them all from that lie. But...seeing Yrelka crying brought up sympathy in her, something that she had abandoned after grasping the four cursed elements. She felt guilty without knowing what happened between Yorloka and Yrelka, but couldn't do anything more as she walked back into the Sentinel Cave while the red sun set behind her.