Karash woke up and instantly doubled over in pain. The adrenaline of panic and battle, and the sweet oblivion of sleep had masked the pain of his broken ribs and crushed tail. Without the bliss of dulled nerves, the pain broke on Karash’s consciousness like a great wave of pure pain, robbing him of any will to move and even his vision drifted in and out, dancing on the edge of unconsciousness.
Grunting, he reluctantly delved into his store of divine power in an attempt to heal his injuries. Thankfully, he had just rested and it was only a couple of broken bones. The bones knitted themselves back together and once they were set, Karash heaved a small sigh, utterly relieved at the absence of the terrible pain.

He stood up, and wavered slightly in the aftermath of the essence drain from healing his wounds. He shook his head and cleared the slight blurriness, and noticed that at some point in the night, Sserlia had edged around the fire and was gently slumbering just off his right side. He edged away, careful not to waken the rest of his group. Quietly, he padded away, and checked if the torc was indeed safe and unmoved in the night. With a sigh of relief, Karash found the torc to be unmoved from where he had placed it before.

As usual, the subtle rose gleam on the horizon had awakened him, and he reveled in the predawn chill, the air hanging crisp around his nostrils and sending a wonderful blast of cool air into his lungs with every breath. The steam from his breath mingled with the mist hovering about his head from his heated horns. Grimold was slumbering silently, in his sleep; the earth dragon had sunk several inches into the ground, nearly burying his nose. The satyr had fallen asleep leaning against Grimold’s side, the creature’s coarse facial hair drifted back and forth with every breath. Karash put a hand on the torc and felt as well as he could, the direction that the torc was pulling in. A slight tug on the edge of his mind, and he began slinking through the trees, winding his way like a snake in between the trees that were too close together. As he went, he noticed the slight noises of the forest swiftly diminishing until there was no sound but the brush of leaves and branches against his scales and the slight rustle of the breeze.

He grimaced slightly as a breeze carried the smell of rotted carrion through the forest. The trees began to thin in front of him and he slowed down as the forest began to get lighter around him. He poked his head out of the line of trees, hiding his bulk behind a copse of high bushes.

A slight snuffling caught his ears, and the rotted meat smell only got worse, telling him something was in the middle of the clearing. Even if he had the dulled senses of a human though, Karash could have figured out there was something in the clearing. The ground was torn up, trampled, soggy and frozen in a nearly complete circle, at the center of which stood what Karash could only assume was the dragon Phalanos. Not that the object in the center could easily be recognized as a dragon. Sharp, stark white ridges stood out of a large ball in the clearing, the ball looked larger than Karash was, but it was hollow like tumbleweed and scraps of fabric like substance waved limply in the wind. Both the noise and the smell were coming from the pile.

That must be what is left of Phalanos, Karash realized. Now the question is how to join the gem on that damnable torc to that pile of bones. Since it seemed that the bones weren’t going anywhere soon, Karash started to turn his way back to where the other three were waiting. His tail caught on a small tree as he made the turn and a loud crack echoed in the morning air as the tree split and fell over.

Karash winced, but really didn’t care, it was after all only a tree, and kept moving. A horrendous creaking behind him froze him in his tracks and sent his head whirling back over his wings to the barren clearing. The pile of bones was unfurling, forming itself into the shape of a dragon. Gaping holes glared through the creature’s frame since nothing but bone was left. The skeleton reared itself up on its hind legs and raised its framework wings.
Well, wing, Karash thought, since only one wing was intact. The other appendage seemed to be pulverized past the wing’s elbow joint. Both of the creature’s heads opened their skeletal jaws and despite the lack of vocal chords, let out an ear splitting double screech that sent angry shivers rattling down Karash’s spine. It began walking aimlessly back and forth, looking for what caused the noise, snuffling as it did, as if it were trying to smell something amiss.

As fast as he could while still being hemmed in by trees Karash spun about to face the skeletal specter of the water dragon. Despite the balmy forest air, jagged points of ice stood out in an angry frill about the dragon’s necks and the barest remnants of a seaweed mane draped over the necks.
“Um..hello?”
Karash’s voice drew the skeleton’s gaze as fast as a striking snake, and malevolent red fires lit in the four empty eye sockets and the skeleton leapt into motion, charging in a terrifying display of life perverted and a hatred of all things that still lived.

Karash leapt away, backing into the forest and dropping a couple of trees in the process, but he pushed through them and ran back through the forest back to the cave. The skeleton-Phalanos roared its strange double roar behind him, but Karash never bothered looking back, sure that it was right on his heels. Every instant he expected a furious blast of cold to rip into his spine or the pain of a twin set of jaws to clamp onto his body. As he ran, he began to feel foolish and embarrassed for running like a coward. He did admit to himself that he should have stood his ground and fought the thing but it was just so….unearthly, that it had taken him off guard and the thought of the malevolent red flames sent chills through his spine.

He burst through the treeline of the meager clearing, and found the other three already awake, and tensed. They relaxed visibly when they saw it was him coming through the trees.
“Oh thank the goddess” Sserlia gasped, “what was making that noise?”
Not pausing in his rush, Karash did pull up enough to grab up the torc and answer her, “Phalanos.”
“But, I thought he was dead!”
Karash spun back to where he came from, “Evidently not, I think he’s right behind me”
AT that, they all tensed up again, waiting to ambush the rampaging dragon. Several moments passed, and no skeleton presented itself for destruction, and Karash grew increasingly nervous. He kept looking around the edges of the clearing, looking for a flash of bone, a glimmer of ice, a glint of a malevolent red eye, something!

A far off roar brought them all down from being so tense, “Phalanos must still be back in the clearing,” Karash said, relieved.
“What clearing, and why didn’t you let us know before just wandering off upsetting wild dragons?”
“Because I wouldn’t want to upset a wild YOU,” Karash shot back, “And there is a clearing a while that way, That is where Phalanos is, at least, what is left of him.”
“What is LEFT of him? What do you mean?”
Karash shrugged, ”Exactly what I said, You were right when you said Phalanos is dead, but what is left of him is bone, and scraps of flesh. It’s angry, it’s big, and it’s waiting for us in the clearing.”

Sserlia paused for a second, “Oh, What do we do?”
Karash grimaced as the torc finally numbed his paw, his panic must have held its influence at bay, and began edging closer to the trees, expecting a bone white terror to come rampaging through. “Well we sure can’t just leave. We’ll have to figure out a way to put the soul back in the skeleton.”

Satisfied that nothing was coming from the trees, Karash leapt into the air and gained altitude until he could see the barren clearing. Sserlia, carrying the Satyr, followed him up, keeping slightly higher in caution. Grimold had not yet thrown himself into the air yet, though.

With a few deft flicks of his wings, Karash was spiraling slowly around the perimeter of the clearing. He didn’t see the great skeletal dragon though. His eyes arrowed as all they saw were clumps of rended sod and foliage to flinders.
“Where did it get to….”
A shriek from above sent Karash rolling onto his back to see a horrifying sight. From above, the remnants of Phalanos plummeted down at him, hurtling past Sserlia, whose mouth was open in a warning cry that Karash heard at the same time as the terrible double roar of the undead dragon. The great red eyes of Phalanos bored into Karash’s own, and he felt a terrible lethargy fall upon his limbs. Two jaws lined with fangs and seeping cool mist opened in anticipation as Phalanos closed the distance between them

Phalanos barreled into Karash, not halting at all from its dive, and drove the red dragon into the torn earth below. They slammed hard into the ground, hard enough to snap Karash’s head against the loam in a disorienting blow, and thankfully, Phalanos bounced away to land on its back just a few short meters away. A quick once over from on his back, Karash realized that the loam had mercifully taken most of the impact and none of his bones were broken. Although, Phalanos’ claws had cut shallow gouges into his flesh that burned horribly.

AS fast as he could, Karash surged back to his feet and threw the torc at the barely moving skeletal form, hoping to keep it at bay for a moment to catch his wits, not to mention that he wanted his arm unnumb for the fight. Like lightning, the skeleton rolled out of the way and surged to its feet, only to shy away from the torc, all four red eyes fixed on the gold and jewels of the torc.
It’s afraid of that damned necklace, Karash realized after a moment of sheer puzzlement, and he started to move to retrieve the torc.

Phalanos noticed the movement though and sprung into motion to pounce on Karash. Two sets of jaws clamped down on him, one clamping down on the hard collar of his clavicle, and the second head dug its fangs deep into Karash’s back leg. AT the undead dragon’s touch Karash’s limbs were shocked with bitter cold, the touch of almighty death itself, and he felt vitality and strength drain from his limbs. Looking back, he screeched in pain and saw that his skin was beginning to blacken around Phalanos’ jaws. He tried to beat the monster with his tail, but Phalanos merely wrapped its own skeletal tail around his own, immobilizing him.

The undead dragon squirmed, jerking its heads back and forth shooting agony into Karash and wiggling its tail, jabbing its vertebrae deep into the red dragon’s flesh. Karash howled in pain and bucked violently, trying to shake Phalanos free.
“Burn!” he yelled and trailed off as her blew a huge blast of flame onto the skeletal dragon attached to him. Fire washed over the stark white bones and Phalanos screeched in pain, and mercifully pulled away from Karash. He kept the stream of fire blowing as long as he could, and grinned in satisfaction as he watched bone blacken spilt and crackle in the face of his intense heat. Advancing step after step, Karash forced Phalanos back away from the torc until he couldn’t sustain the stream of fire anymore and it sputtered out with a fitful blast.

A terrified screech from above echoed as he blasted Phalanos with fire and Karash snapped his gaze to see Sserlia, still on the wing and safely out of distance, but a horrified stare was written on her face and she looked at him with such terror the Karash thought that in the blast of flame, Phalanos had slipped away and was now pouncing on him from behind. He snapped his jaws shut and whirled about.

Without the flames obscuring his sight anymore, Karash could see the damage he had caused the skeletal dragon and his heart sank. Even as he looked on, the blackened and cracked bones crackled, but didn’t break as Phalanos crouched for another pounce.
“Oh damn…” Karash muttered as Phalanos bounded forward, changing its bone and scraps of flesh into a swirling mass of ice and water. Both heads poised themselves to strike at Karash’s neck, and a disturbing cackling came from the two mouths before they were scattered in a shower of slush by a sweeping blow from Karash’s tail. The heads snapped back and Karash grinned at the surprise evident in the hateful glare. His sneer dropped instantly as the scattered water simply beaded on the ground and rolled back into the skeletal body, reforming the jaw seamlessly.

Roaring anew, The skeletal dragon crouched and pounced at Karash both mouths seeping bitterly cold mist. Growling, Karash pounced on the skeletal dragon meeting it’s charge with a fury of raking claws, jabbing horns and his whipping tail. He felt the ice give way under his bulk and water soaked his feet like so much icy blood. He grinned hungrily and tore into the icy dragon with abandon, hoping to scatter the beast enough to gain an upper hand.

Shock and horror pulled at him when, with rapid effect, his entire right side was hit with a horrifyingly cold blow and he could no longer feel the greater parts of those limbs. Even worse, his jaws crackled and froze in place, hoarfrost rimming his maw. With a cold crackling, Phalanos flowed back into shape below Karash and his breath was blasted away by a powerful kick that sent him up and over Phalanos to land hard on his back again, grunting a second time s the ice that had formed around his limbs and mouth shattered and the razor sharp ice bit into his skin.

Grimacing in pain, Karash twitched his neck weakly towards the icy beast. He tried to pick himself up off the ground but only his left side would answer his will. Grunting, he rolled himself over until he was lying flat. No matter what, he was determined to cause as much damage as possible before he died.

Hunkering down, Phalanos’ red eyes burned with victory and it’s claws kneaded the ground below it. It wiggled its hindquarters, that in itself would have made Karash laugh, had it not meant his death, and began a deep growl in the back of it’s non-existent throats.

Almost in slow motion, Phalanos pounced at Karash hauling its bulk into the air and catching small breezes with the wings sit shouldn’t have had. Each facet of the beast’s icy skeleton stood out in high relief from everything else. Karash could have sworn that he could count each and every tooth in the dragon’s two heads. Phalanos’ claws reached for Karash until they, and Phalanos’ entire body were washed away in a blinding blast of white and gray that followed a bitterly cold cone of air.

Sneaky little Sserlia.

Karash’s muscles slumped thankfully when he looked up and saw the dark blue form of Sserlia still high aloft, but blasting forth the saving tempest of ice and cold. With a snap of her jaws, she circled down to land next to Karash.
Placing a claw on his flank, she drew back as he instantly twitched from pain, “I was going to ask if you were alright, but I guess I just answered that question.”
Karash just grunted and looked to where the mist caused by Sserlia’s icy exhalation was dissipating rapidly to leave a large pinnacle of ice, with odd icy bones poking out here and there from inside.

Slumping, Karash let his vision blacken momentarily and nearly passed out, slowly though, he picked himself from the ground and limped sharply to where the torc had fallen. Quietly, Sserlia followed him, though the small figure on her back didn’t seem to wish to.
With a small trill, the satyr hopped from Sserlia’s back and bounced up to the massive block of ice. From the corner of his eye, Karash watched the satyr shiver as it neared the block, but once it looked enough at the mass of ice, the little thing looked around, like a hatchling making sure that it wouldn’t get caught doing something it wasn’t supposed to, and then licked the block.

He coughed back a would-be painful laugh as, predictably, the satyr’s tongue got stuck on the block of ice. Panicking, the satyr pulled back, and only succeeded in pulling its tongue further from its face. Whimpering, it tugged and pulled on the stuck member at once causing more pain than it had to and not really doing anything. Giving one mighty pull, the satyr slumped in a king of backwards sitting position and started a loud stuttering whine.

“Oh hush, “ Sserlia said whilst padding past, catching the satyr up with one paw and pulling its tongue free with a sucking pop.
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” the satyr clapped both hands over its wounded mouth and made a nonstop whimpering noise.

Snorting at the antics, Karash limped his way up to the block of ice and roughly put the torc on the first bit of Phalanos the stuck out from the block. Like a striking snake, the torc wrapped itself about the icy limb and began emitting a bright radiance from where it contacted the bone, and set up a low vibrating that Karash felt in the back of his throat.
“Get back!” Karash barked, then followed his own advice, lurching away from the block.

With a sudden swishing noise, the glow vanished and a spiderweb of cracks split themselves apart in a sudden crack of ice. All at once, the ice fell away and in the center of the blue tinged wreckage floated a very confused dragon spirit.
“W-What?” The spirit’s voice seemed to fade into and out of hearing, fluttering on the edge of a baritone voice. “You are most definitely Not the ones I last held company with, though this seems to be the same place” Both of the ethereal dragon’s heads swiveled back and forth, taking in its surroundings.

Sserlia looked dumfounded at Karash, who merely looked back, not having any answers.
“Phalanos?”
One head fixed Karash with a wavery look “Indeed. What hight you?”
Momentarily puzzled, Karash faltered.
“He hights Karash and I hight Sserlia, honorable elder.” Sserlia butted in, seeing Karash at a loss.
“Ah, perhaps not so much honorable as foolish, young one”
“Pray tell, what happened to you, we have found your essence imprisoned in a golden torc and you body left to roam here as a perversion of life.”
The spirit visibly slumped, wings drooping and necks falling dejectedly
“So it wasn’t so simple as death.” Sighing, The spirit of Phalanos rolled its eyes towards Karash. “It was actually one of your kin who has done this to me.

“This area used to be my humble land. Not far yonder you will find a small pristine lake, yellow sands, tall old oaks, and a wonderful assortment of tasty fish. There I had spent many many years, simply existing. But after a while, I felt a pull for companionship and befriended a passing red dragon. Spry little fellow, wit a s sharp as a razor and a tongue as fast as a striking snake. He had that torc, never took it off really, said it was his pride and joy. I didn’t pry much, if he wished to wear trinkets that was for him to decide and naught for me to pass judgement. A couple of months passed, he came and went, said he had a small cave to the north somewhere.

“One day I noticed that the torc had a diamond mounted below the big ruby in the middle. It hadn’t been there before, that’s how I noticed it, and I complimented him on it. Well he shut his mouth with quite a snap and he gave me an odd look, all the while turning just so to hide it from me, as if he thought I was going to steal it. I made a jest about it and laughed it away, never gave it another thought…

“Well I guess as it turned out, I should have been more careful. He fed me some reason that he wished to stay in my forest that night. ‘it’d be my pleasure’ I told him, and set him up in a nice little grove near my lake, so I could play at being a competent host. Well, late that night he attacked me as I was floating about on my lake. we fought and bit, tore and rolled until we ended up here. Then…. Well blackness….”

Phalanos’ eyes didn’t really look at anything for a while, merely stared off into blank air. His ethereal body twitched a couple of times, as if remembering some long ago hurt, but besides that he was motionless until he jerked back to reality with a shake of his heads
“Please, I’ve answered your questions, release me. To the mother or to the pits I care not, just let me go.”

Karash nodded and an unfelt wind plucked gently at Phalanos’ translucent body. Slowly, as mist clears from the morning in the face of the sun, Phalanos faded into empty air, leaving nothing behind.
“I hope he gets another chance,” Sserlia murmured from beside him, “He deserves it.”
“Mmm” Karash shuddered, his wounds catching up to him, was that all there was? A quick battle and then utter exhaustion? Grumbling in the back of his head, Karash didn’t bother finding a comfortable place, he just lay down where he was and let his eyes close, just for the moment he told himself, not even noticing that his head was laid flat out across a lump of ice.