Call of the Dragon

Chapter One: The Jungle

   "We're nearing the inner edge of the jungle. I'm seeing some concerning vines down there; bigger than they should be. Watch out for those." I turned around to lock eyes with the Pact Commander. He walked up beside me to survey the area with me.
   "Yes...We can't really land in a jungle, we'll have to send the charr choppers down instead. Seen any signs of dragon activity?" He spoke to me while still looking at the jungle far below.
   "I believe those vines are the corruption we seek, but I'm not sure. Never really faced Mordremoth before." He finally looked up at me.
   "Trahearne said the beasts' power may come in many different forms, it might be more than just vines. Be careful when we get down there, Rhys." I nodded at him and he did a slight bow and walked off.
   I turned back toward the edge of the airship that faced the great Maguuma jungle. It was huge and so green. Even the Grove wasn't this green. I could hear jungle life down there. Birds and wild cats, water flowing, and a strange humming too.
   A shiver went down my spine when I focused on the eerie humming. My mind went cold and I froze. "Rhys..." A voice spoke to me, but it wasn't outside. It was in my mind.
   "What was...that?" Nothing. It didn't answer me again. Isaac started walking over to me. He must have noticed me talking to myself.
   "You okay, Rhys?" He gazed over the edge of the airship and then turned back to me.
   "Uh, yeah...I just thought I heard something. It was nothing, Squad Commander." He nodded at me in a concerned way and turned around. He was immediately bombarded by my troop mates.
   The other troop members had been doing last-minute training, which I would have been there for, but I was on lookout duty. Sadly I had to miss out on a few of Isaac's wise words of war.
   Soul was right to pick him, he's a great commander. His official title is supposed to be Front Line Commander Isaac Blackvein, but that was too long for most things. Not that Squad Commander Isaac is much shorter though. Despite the lack of respect in doing it, most of us just call him Isaac.
   Because it's correct to do it, most of the troops, Pact, Vigil, Priory, Whispers, anyone, call Soul the Pact Commander. But I'm his best friend, so I get the special privilege of calling him Soul or Soulless. One of his brothers, Wynn, disapproves of this, the other, the cooler one, Zack, finds it cute for some reason.
    Despite having such a formal position, Soul isn't really that into being formal. He's a smart guy, and he knows to put up with it, but he's told me that being called by his name is refreshing after a day of being called nothing but Commander.
Isaac loved the attention he got as a squad commander. He loved the formality. He loved the endless training and sparring. He loved being in charge. He's always been power-hungry, and it seemed he was finally satisfied.
   I have to say that despite being rude to his brother, he's rather nice. Just like Soul said, he's a great commander. He's a little stubborn though. Alwyn is one of our healers, and he's not fully dedicated to being a healer, but he's saved Isaac, Cai, myself, even Ren and Soul, many times.
   Our other healer is Armin. Unlike most of us, he's human. He gets along with all of us, he's a good healer, and he's got a dangerous side. We've all learned not to mess with him too much. He can take a joke, but if you go too far, as Titan and Sol have sometimes, you get a beating.
Titan and Sol are the weirdest of our group. A charr and an Asuran, getting along, even being best friends. They are both engineers, they work on the airship for free, they even helped design and build the "mother ship", as Isaac calls it.
    Titan is one of our two support, he's also our only tank. Sol is our Holosmith. He used to be Inquest. His story is long, but we've all heard it by now. He still wears his Inquest tech suit, but he kills Inquest members whenever he gets the chance. He is proud to have been one, but he really hates them. They tried to kill him many times.
   Our second support is Light. She's a firstborn that never saw the dream. I learned how to be a Soulbeast from her and an old friend of Souls. Light was a Druid when Soul met her, but Soul changed her mind, saying that we needed power more than healing.
I decided I wanted to be a Soulbeast when Soul told me stories of his old friend. One day I did get to meet this friend Soul often spoke of, and Soul was right. This guy was strong, but I was able to use the training I got with him, I learned a lot from him. He's the reason I'm so strong now.
   Just then I was ripped out of my thoughts by a loud noise. It scared me, but when I turned around I found that it was just Titan blowing something up again. I was going to yell at him to be careful, but Cai was already on it.
   I glanced out at the jungle again, then I walked over to Soul, who was talking with Marshal Trahearne. "Hey, Rhys. I almost forgot to give you this, I found it in an old library in Rata Sum. I figured that I'm the master of Orr, you can be the one to learn all about the Maguuma." Trahearne handed me a thick book called The Secrets of the Maguuma: Volume Two.
   "Oh! Thanks, Trahearne!" I looked up from the book's cover to see Trahearne smiling at me. I turned to Soul to see him smiling too.
   "I'm glad you like it." Trahearne stepped forward to hug me. I accepted because it's not like firstborns give regular Sylvari like me much attention, plus Trahearne isn't really that kind of person.
   I walked over to Ren, who was sitting down and reading. I sat next to him and opened my new book. I wasn't too much of a reader, but I had to read this, it was too interesting to ignore right now.
    Then I heard a crash. It came from one of the other ships in our fleet. Ren and I stood up in unison. I turned around to see one of the ships to our right on fire. I ran inside our ship's interior to grab my weapons and put away my book, but I didn't have time.
I put down the book, but I was forced to run back outside without my weapons. Alwyn was the one pushing me. I was worried about our ship so I went with him.
    "Watch out! It's gonna take us down!" I turned around to see Squad Commander Isaac fending off a vine that had reached from the jungle floor all the way up to us. The vine ignored Isaac and tore into the deck of the airship.
    The vine shook the airship so violently that most of us fell on our backs. The vine continued to rip at the wood and break everything it touched. I did my best to stand up swiftly. Once I was up, I looked back at the vast jungle below.
   Vines. At least twenty of them speeding towards our airship, with far more going for the other airships in our fleet. When the first vines reached us they pierced our ship from all sides. They tore at the ship until it couldn't fly anymore.
    We started to fall, then the vines started pulling us in. People were jumping off the edge, some accepted death and laid on the deck, others tried to dislodge the vines, but got nowhere.
    I found my way to the Commander and Trahearne. I grabbed Souls' arm as I spoke. "There's no way out of this. We're being forced to go down. We will be separated for sure, be safe, and don't die. Soul, Trahearne, I'll see you again...Goodbye..." I let go of Souls arm and let myself fall down to the jungle floor.
    "Rhys!" I could hear Soul call for me, but I was already falling, there was no going back. I knew it was dramatic and stupid of me, but I'd wanted to jump off an airship since I saw one.
    I started crashing into tree branches. I could feel rips in my skin from thorns. I finally landed on the ground. I could hear the humming again, but this time it seemed closer and more intense.
   "You're finally close enough..." That same voice. I groaned as I stood up. I was so covered in cuts and scrapes that it hurt to move. I looked around and saw vines all around me. The humming got even louder. "I want to try something..."
   Two of the vines flew at me. One grabbed my right arm, the other grabbed my left leg. They held me above the ground. I struggled, but I knew it was helpless. A third vine, this one much larger and rounder, came up in front of me. It looked slimy.
   It slowly wrapped itself around me, creating a cocoon. I could feel the slime soaking into my skin. I began to feel sick. Then I lost consciousness.