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Nightmare Wonderland

It had been three days after Avila's Fuzandre discovery, and yet, while she now knew the way, she didn't find Yrelka in the dark caves. She waited inside the place for hours, hearing silence all around her, before giving up and walked back to her room.

Unknown to her, after the sensitive talk, the black dragoness holed up inside her small shelter provided by the Fuzandres, watching the night sky while dripped a tear. She was too depressed by the fact about that secret she didn't want to share with Avila.

"Leader...what's wrong?" asked Kanes'ak while eating a fruit. The fruit bat Fuzandre was the only companion aside from Avila who knew Yrelka's ailment.

"It...it's okay, Kanes'ak. There's something in my eyes, that's all."

"Oh? Since I can't really see you with my own eyes, I don't want to talk about it, leader."

"I'm sorry to bother you."

Kanes'ak then made a gesture, before leaving Yrelka in her pain. Yrelka seemed to be in a deep melancholy, and she watched the sky again, while she saw her own draconic face in a water basin beside her. The inversed pentagram reminded her on Yorloka, her twin.

"I guess...Avila is right," thought Yrelka. "I think I'll visit him."

Meanwhile, Avila was near the side of the lake, watching the black tainted lake in silence. Cynder left to the city to watch a human drama, which Avila wasn't interested in. The black dark dragoness also then thought about Yrelka, and her sorrow when she talked about the lake.

"Hey, you!" said a voice Avila knew. "What's crackin'?"

"Eh?"

"Oh, C'mon, you retard!" said Yorloka in a gruff tone. "You're one hell of an old-fashioned dragon, eh? How's your day?"

"Nothing weird, I suppose. Just...I'm idle and I somehow liked this place after I lost interest in another."

"Another?"

"Yeah...your sister's domain?"

Hearing that, Yorloka suddenly ran toward the shore and said, "My sister?! Where did you find her? Tell me!"

"She...in the forest? Why are you so agitated because of that?"

Yorloka then loosen up a bit, took a deep breath while ordering the souls behind him to stay put, while he joined Avila at the side. Without Yorloka, the soul became somewhat active, but maybe because they wanted to protect their precious master.

"Oh...It's a pity, then. I hate to admit this...but I can't trespass the forest or I'll lose my memory."

"I didn't get any of those," said Avila. "Maybe because she was protecting me."

"Yeah...you're damn right. Yrelka is a nice dragon...I mean, why does the master even consider her a curse bringer?" The last of the sentences slowly became silent, expressing Yorloka's melancholy, but then when he saw Avila he said, "Hey! I'm not going to turn into your fucking punching bag. This is not because of the lake, right?"

"No...I don't really want to bathe there with those souls around. I just want to ask you...what happened between you and Yrelka?"

Yorloka suddenly lessen his agitation, and then he slowly said, "Yrelka and I were twins. If you had seen her, you might saw the same pentagram on our foreheads. It's the family seal, given to us by our parents. We are, alongside Sannourah, once belonged to a community of Old World Black dragons. Both me and Yrelka are almost 500 years old by now, and I haven't seen or met her after we were both taken into different jobs. We're once the junior from the older Norbosa and Ploikla, and from the five of us, Sannourah was the youngest, only around 100 years old."

"Okay, scrap that. What happened to your family? She was very sad and cried when hearing about you."

"Well...the fact is, we were chosen as the successor of the previous dragons because of our abnormal supernatural powers. Yrelka had the power to inflict pain to anything when she was hurt or feel hurt. While me...I have this supernatural power...where like you, I can feel and interact with souls. Our master gave us additional powers. Last heard she got shadow-based power, and I got the power to manipulate souls. Cool, huh?

"Not for Yrelka, if you say being cool. She really hated her powers. What happened?"

"That year, a year after she was chosen as a curse bringer, Yrelka accidentally used her pain transfer to my dad, making him insane after knowing the pain we got. He wanted to kill both of us, and of course Yrelka used her fearsome shadows to kill our parents. Yrelka did it without her knowing, and I wanted to tell my master that the shadows were trying to take her. Yrelka then snapped when she realized that shit, and oh damn she's so heart-broken. She didn't want to be forgiven for that incident, and she ran away before my master could free her from the shadow clutch. That's the last time I've met Yrelka.

"I was concerned that the shadow was possessing her and doing genocide down in Old World. I tried to follow her destruction path, and...and she managed to control the demon in exchange of her concealing power."

"Oh...so that's the reason why she liked to stick in shadows."

"A demon that had been unconcealed was vulnerable as they would lose their standings with their worshippers, and they would die. Look at me. You're the only dragon able to see and hear me. How's Yrelka?"

"She's holed up in an abandoned tunnel leading to us dragons' hunting ground."

"So, she takes darkness as friend, huh? I felt really sorry for her, and I really want to help her sort out that problem, if I want to."

"I wish..."

"Hey, Avila, I've been thinking...."

"Yeah?"

"Something about isn't right these days. The first time I met you, your soul is still okay, but now, it's restless and each time you're near the lake, my servants became attracted to you. You're like you're the goddess of death."

"Me? I...I don't understand. Yrelka also recalled me as a 'death dragon', but what...what the hell is that?!"

Yorloka could see Avila was scared on something when she stared in utter terror toward the lake, but Yorloka didn't see anything.

"What the fuck, Avila? Why are you..."

When he put his left front paw on Avila's own paw, he suddenly saw the landscape changed and reshaped in front of him, becoming a land of nightmares. He then saw corpses suddenly floated on the lake surface, hands gripping on the air trying to find their grip, when one of them found Yorloka's leg. He was dragged by the hands, and it felt so real. Yorloka tried to summon his souls to help him, but then he realized his souls WERE those hands.

"What?! This is not fucking real! Avila, what are you doing!"

"W...we gotta get out of here!"

"What?! You too?!"

Now Yorloka was forced to cut them using his claws, and some of the hands were cut and left writhing on the shore. The lake became red blood, and the corpses suddenly burst out of the lake, and like a lifeless body, started to limp toward the land. Yorloka was clearly scared on the condition of the corpses, seeing them decaying and some had missing body parts.

"You...," said the foremost zombie. The body of the zombie had no left hand, and its head was rotten. "The dragon must join us...to hell..."

"Wait a sec...I AM a demon, and that's my goddamn place! Keep your distance of me!"

"Blood...blood..."

They chanted 'blood' many times and Yorloka felt a pain on his back legs when he saw some hooks emerged from the body and hooked him. The pain was very real for him, and he roared in pain. The hook started to drag Yorloka back to the lake, where the rest of the hands started to also drag Yorloka's back part...especially his long tail. Those zombies were really so lust in blood that their head became mutated. Yorloka had struggled to the land, and he even used his own claws to cut the hooks, but then, he was overwhelmed by the hands, which had started to drag his big dragon body in unison to the lake. The demon dragon couldn't do anything as he was exhausted, and as he saw his side, a draconic head smirked at him before opening its maws and monsters beyond Yorloka's imagination started to eat him while he watched. The horror was too much, until Yorloka roared again, but he couldn't do anything, and he blacked out.

Much, much later, he heard a girl voice, and he slowly tried to open his eyes, when he saw a zombie was on him and tried to eat him, before he gasped and the nightmare was replaced by the sight he swore was surprising.

He saw Yrelka over him.

"Oh...shit! What the hell happened to both of you! Hey, Avila! Wake up! Yorloka's okay!"

"Yrelka...what...what the hell was..."

"I don't know. You two just lay on the grass with your eyes opened as if you both were fucked up. Avila hadn't woken up yet."

"B...but, sister...when did you..."

"You need to help me, Yorloka. Use those souls!"

Yorloka knew the dark dragoness was hallucinating like he did. But then when Yrelka touched her, she suddenly fell roaring and Yorloka knew he was touching Avila the nightmare started to emerge. Avila herself was still in her stationary coma and the two dragons couldn't lay their claws on her.

"What's wrong with her...?" thought Yorloka. Then when he was thinking on how to take Avila back to where the cave was, he saw another dragon flying to their position, but of course he couldn't be seen by normal beings....

"Hey, you there!" said the small slender dragon. "What happened to both of them? Are they hurt?"

"What?! How did she saw me?" but then he snapped and said, "You fool! Don't get to close to Avila!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Just...don't.... She just...she just did this to Yrelka..."

"Wait a sec...Yrelka? You mean the demon Yrelka! Oh shit! She really is stalking every dragon's dream!"

"Are you okay, dragoness?"

"I...I'm fine."

"Okay, I'll try to take Avila with my soul servants. At least if you don't have any ways to...wait! What the fuck are you doing?!"

Too late. Cynder was touching Avila. But strangely, she didn't get the effect, but instead of that, she shot a powerful screeching voice that woke Yrelka and Avila up.

"W...what! Where were the shadows?! They...they disappear, oh thank my ancestors..."

"Damn, that was one hell of a fear power! This girl is powerful!"

"W...what are you, actually," said Yorloka, but Cynder said, "You two can fly back to my cave section and take a rest. I don't know what ailed you both, but Avila here got a shock she couldn't find out what happened."

"Shock?" said Yrelka. "Will she be okay?"

"I can't guarantee. She did this by herself."

The two siblings agreed that right now that dragon's life was going to fade without any help with her ailment, but they knew if they were seen, they would be hunted as they were demons, but they need to take the risk, though Yorloka was reluctant.

"I know this is not our business, Yorloka," said Yrelka. "But...this is for her other friends."

"We're demons, sister! If we're caught by their allies we'll be dead!"

"We'll risk that, then...." She hesitated a while, then opened her wings. Those wings weren't even used for any years, and because of that, had become torn. But, she tried to fly to no avail, until Yorloka knew her predicament, and used his servants to make them fly.

"We had never flown for almost 300 years, Yrelka. You think our wings could hold?"

"I...I know. Thanks."

"No thank you."

Reaching the Sentinel's Cave, Cynder tried to help Avila to wake up (she flew with her wind, strong enough to carry Avila), and when she woke up, they were relieved.

"Oh, thank ancestors you're safe!" said Yrelka in heartfelt wonder.

"I...did I just...see my death?"

"What?"