Returning Home

Prologue

"Fireball buds for life"
Those were the last words she heard him say before Altair lit a fireball centered on her brother's necklace. Causing the nine coiled beads of magic to explode into nine more fireballs. The cold blue flames around  her flared up as she felt her mother's cool embrace around her through the amulet around her neck, it was weaker than before having already used two of the three charges protecting her from Lowl's attacks, but luckily it was enough, the blue flames stood strong as the 10 beads of fire exploded. She just caught the glimpse of Dathré as he dove behind a curve in the wall, his fast reflexes shielding him from the blow.
"Brother?" She found slipping from her mouth as the red flames danced out of existence, her blue flames dying back from her face so she could see.
The creature that was once the count lay dead, Count Lowl lay dead less than five feet from her, his now massive fungi ridden form quickly turning to ash. Her gaze quickly found her brothers robes, well parts of them. His torso gone, reduced to mere smoldering ashes and a few bones, his charred waist and legs were all that remained. Winter ran over and found his skull, blown off his remains by the force of the exploding fireballs, as Zataya turned away and looked at Lowl's body. She heard the soft pad of paws as Pat-hill, a pitch-black Catfolk, approached her and found Lowl's skull among the decaying fungi mass, the catfolk barred her teeth and growled in a low voice what Pat-hill, Urrrah, and herself had planned to tell Lowl's before they killed him.
"Your turn to get sacrificed nerd, we would have called you a dirtbag, but you would have said that's a useful part of the vacuum, like the nerd you are NERD."
Zataya did not fully understand what a vacuum was but Altair had informed her that it was a magical item that cleaned up dust and similar things off of floors if used correctly in combination with arcane crystals for power.
After the words had been said, Pat-hill then dropped his skull to the ground and allowed Zataya raised her Scimitar, it still glowing with the divine power embedded in it from her bond with Sarenrae and a spell that she has learned under her guidance, and brought it down onto the skull with all the strength she had left in her, shattering it in a single hit.
They had done it. They had stopped it.
Trying to ignore what was going on behind her she thought of Sirius, an Aasimair that Pat-hill and her woke up in an abandoned insane asylum with, after being sacrificed, they later found out. He had left them about two months ago to return to his church to report his findings and concerns.
'We did it Sirius...' she thought to herself, as she turned off her divine bond and released the spell on her sword causing its glow to fade. She left the amulet flame on for light.
Finally having to face Urrrah's corpse she turned around, sheathed her sword, and walked over to where Winter was cradling his skull. She placed her hand on a pile of ash that could have once been his arm.
"You idiot" she muttered in ignan, the language only her and her brother knew only between themselves out of the group, "you had to go out with a bang didn't you... Regardless... I think mom would be proud of you... You're our reckless little fireball after all..."
She stood allowing Dathrè and the others to gather around his body. She turned her attention to something faintly glowing about 10 feet away. A staff, still burning even after the rest of the flames burnt out, she walked over to the staff and carefully picked it up.
The staff was fairly light, flame burned on a shirt on the tip. The staff of the Eternal Flame, a staff her brother swore to protect from the wrong hands. She held the staff tightly in her hands and pulled it to her chest as it was one of the few things to survive the blast that was Urrrah's.
Then there was a loud crack and the building around them began to quiver. The mycelium that intertwined with the building was now pulverizing under the destruction of Lowl.
"Run!" Dathré shouts running out of the room and scooping up our guide, a member of a forgotten, but very powerful species currently trapped in the body of a very old human woman.
The city was crashing down around them. They didn't stop running. Zataya held the staff close to her. Two rocks crumbled from above as they were nearing the end of the city and crashed down onto Winter and Pat-hill. Rolling the rock off of Winter just enough for her to squirm out and assisting Dathré in getting Pat-hill out by attempting to break chunks of the much bigger rock.
Blasting of some of her limited healing magic. She quickly attempts to heal some of Winter and Pat-hill's injuries before they take off down the streets again.
Soon their feet are struggling through  sand instead of decaying mycelium. The outskirts of the crumbling city.
Getting out of the way of the collapsing buildings and up also all the way to the first of the many massive sand dunes that surrounded the forbidden city. They watched the city's crumble end and as soon as it did our guide insisted that she was going back into the city. She explained to us that her body was somewhere in the city. It was her people's goal to protect this city from the creature who was now deep in slumber again below the crumbled city.
With simple goodbyes and thank yous, she headed off back down the dune towards the city.
Zataya took off her backpack and flopped down into the sand, holding the still holding staff. Shouting up into the sky simply, in common "You dumbass!"
Winter curls into a ball on the dune and begins to cry, Urrrah's skull now wrapped in the remains of his robes in a bag. Pat-hill comforts her with a hug. After a moment Zataya sits up, remembers something and immediately begins to dig through her bag for a leaf in a jar, Azuroalmus, or Oz as she called him. During her search she asks Pat-hill, "Hey, do you think that we will find Sirius again? Like to tell him that we dealt with what happened?"
"I donno," Pat-hill says, looking up from comforting Winter.
Dathré shouts out to the dot down the dune that was now our guide, and asks her for one last favor. She doesn't respond and then poof, Dathre is gone, sprinting down the dune, now another dot down by the guide. Zataya finally finds Oz and he is thrashing wildly around in his jar. The normal, soft blue sheen on this magic leaf with a voice only she could hear was now very vibrant electric blue and quite bright.
"Whoa now, Oz, its okay, everything is okay, calm down"
In her mind she hears, 'you may want to...' and then a sneeze as Oz begins to grow and change, this shatters the jar in Zatayas hand, sticking glass into her palm as she instinctively throws the jar away from the party as a few drops of blood drip from her hand from the tiny explosion of glass. By the time the jar would have landed in the sand out 15 feet away, instead now sprawled out in the sand, there is a large blue dragon splayed out in the sand looking bewildered and quickly gets up and composes itself to a sitting position.
Which is when Dathré comes back out of a short ranged teleport, appearing beside Zataya as the dragon lets out a sneeze causing a small arch of lightning to skitter off into the sand.
Dathré, perceiving this as a threat, runs up to grab the dragon, but trips in the sand and falls prone. To which he speed rolls backwards and Zataya steps between him and the dragon. Pat-hill also shifts to between Winter and the dragon.
The dragon looks Zataya over before saying softly to not startle the others with it's loud voice, "Zataya?"
"Oz?" She says with a smile watching as the dragon stretches its limbs and takes a step towards her.
"Ahh it is good to be back..." Oz says stretching out its wings flapping them softly once or twice stirring up small clouds of sand. Dathré, still mildly panicked, stands beside Zataya defensively, everyone was hurt to some degree, there was no way they could afford to take on another fight, especially one with a dragon.
Zataya approached Oz and softly raised her hand towards it's snout. In which it pushed into her hand. Zataya smiled, as Oz turned, removing it's head from under her hand, and climbed up the rest of the sand dune the party was standing on. Oz looked over the dunes cascading into the horizon and beyond, then asked, "Have you ever heard of my city? Is it near here?"
Zataya looked back to the party once quietly saying with a face of final victory, "I told you I wasn't crazy, it did talk to me," before walking up beside Oz, "What is the name of your city?"
"The Alabaster City, I founded it many many years ago"
"No, I have not heard of it..." Zataya responded, still holding the staff of the Eternal flame close to her. "But, there are a lot of places I haven't heard of or explored."
The party decided it was time to head back to the city in which Altair was from to figure out what to do next and try to revive Urrrah.
Dathré popped up by now, getting over the sudden shock of poofing back basically on top of a dragon and walked over, with Urrah dead, Altair's spells exhausted, and camels long gone, they had not really much options but to walk away from the city which is when Dathré asked a question, a question Dathré asked often, already getting ready to take off, "Hey, wanna race?"
Oz smiled at Dathrè. "Sure,"a smile creeping onto its face, "I'll even give you a head start"
With that Dathré took off. Oz glanced at Zataya and smiled, in a few stronger wing beats Oz took off into the air and after Dathré who was going at full speed down the other side of the sand dune.
Zataya smiles as she watches Dathré get carefully scooped up by Oz's large talons and flown above the sand as Zataya repacked her back and fastened the Staff of the Eternal Flame to her back, keeping it between her back and the backpack.
When Oz and Dathré returned they headed off away from the city until we felt we were far enough away from the city and set up camp.
The next morning Altair took Winter and Pat-hill with his magic to his apartment in the city leaving Zataya and Oz in the desert for him to come back.
Altair came back and stumbled in the sand as he landed on the downside of the hill. Instead of the crest where he took off from.
"You alright Altair?" Zataya asks, stepping forward as the arcanist stabilizes himself on the sandy hillside.
"Yes I am fine" he says walking up to them and prepping the teleport again, this time to a place outside the city, in the forest where Oz could safely den up while trying to find his city.
Altair casts the spell again, whizzing Oz and Zataya out of the desert into the shaded comfort of the woods.
"You can go home Altair," Zataya says, "the city is that way right?" She says gesturing to the direction behind Altair.
"Yes it is, be safe okay? I don't want to have to explain to Winter what happened to you if you don't show up." Altair says while quickly writing down an address to meet up with the others once she got back.
With a brief exchange of nods, Altair casts one last teleport and vanishes.
Zataya's shoulders relax as Oz takes in the scene around them, the dragon moving it's large body carefully to not accidentally uproot a tree with his tail.
"Zataya," Oz says, turning it's gaze towards the physically and emotionally tattered paladin before it. "You are going to be alright. You and your friends will get your brother back. I am sure of it."
"Thanks you Oz.... I needed to hear that '' Zataya responds with a soft smile, grabbing the amulet around her brother created for her. "I better get walking, at least it will give me time to take in what has happened yesterday... You be safe and stay hidden now Azuroalmus."
"I will, now don’t get yourself hurt '' it responds lowering its head down onto hers briefly as to hug the, to the dragon, small creature that Zataya was.
They parted ways, Zataya walked through the forest alone, her mind wandering in thoughts while her senses were kept. She wouldn't be caught unprepared again, not after what happened the first time. She had no clue how far it was to the city so she just kept walking in as straight of a line as she could, keeping close track on things she had passed.
Eventually despite trying to keep her thoughts busy, her thoughts landed on Urrrah. Her younger brother towered above her, his 6 foot plus height compared to her 5'8.  His horns are still fairly short, his not yet reaching full maturity compared to hers. Hers curved down like those of a ram, curling around just enough to hide most of her ears. His fiery red skin clashed with her lightly tan human-like tone. She could play as a human much easier, especially before her horns and scales grew to their now charcoal hue.
Removing the Staff of the Eternal Flame from its secure position on her back, she watched it carefully as she stopped for a short break to remove the outer layer desert clothes she had on. Leaving on her dented and bloody armor and the slightly padded clothing underneath. She folded the desert clothes and put them into her bag. Zataya assessed the damage to her armor and made sure she was not bleeding anywhere she didn't already know of. Finding no wound serious enough to require immediate attention, she cleaned her blade, armor, and war hammer off as best she could in the grass.
"Thank you for your protection Sarenrae..." she whispered, touching the symbol engraved onto her armor and shield. A golden light pulsed from her hand on her armor and scattered across her body disappearing into her skin, healing some of her smaller wounds.
Zataya stood up, readjusted her armor so the dents would stop bothering her, and put her weapons away. Holding the staff of the Eternal flame in her hands, she restarted her walk back to the city.
Within a month, she would be setting out again on a longer journey. This time she was heading back to Caliphas. Her home.