Reunited in the Dark.

Chapter 9 - Deeper Knowledge.

*Three days later*

The days gradually grew colder and shorter as Saber's and the Dark Lord's journey continued. The sun rarely peeked out from behind the thick layer of grey clouds, while the wind and rain got icier. Every morning, a delicate layer of frost settled on the old leaves and spider webs.

To the Dark Lord's surprise, Saber quickly got over the fact that he ruthlessly murdered five soldiers. The colt simply shrugged and avoided talking about it whenever the Dark Lord brought them up. At least that was better than crying and screaming, the God thought.

Saber has also done extra dark magic lessons during those few days. The alicorn was of course no where near mastering the blast spell, but he was now able to perform it quite well. It mostly pleased the Dark Lord, but he also knew that Saber still had plenty to learn before they could even consider going into the more difficult stuff.

Over the course of their travel, Saber noticed that the forest seemed to have been fading away. The trees slowly became smaller and more sparse, whilst rocks and boulders doubled in their numbers. Saber curiously wondered about why this was happening, until he remembered what the Dark Lord told him.

"What's ahead of us? Is it the dragons?" Saber asked.

"Yes." Hissed the shadow.

Saber's heart skipped a beat. It was very likely that he was soon going to see those mighty beasts with his own eyes, rather than hearing stories or reading books about them. He wondered how large they were, how strong could their wings fly and how deadly were their claws. Most importantly though, firebreath.

The colt excitedly thought about how cool it would have been to just be able to breathe fire and swim in lava. He also wondered about whether dark magic was able to give him firebreath, like a dragon.

The Dark Lord heard the colts wild thoughts and chuckled, before starting to speak softly. "Dark magic can do many things, Saber. Sadly it cannot make you breathe fire, but it can allow you to set things alight from a distance, shoot fireballs, make fire traps and summom beasts made out of fire, amongst other things." He informed.

Saber listened to that curiously, imagining all those wild and powerful spells. It caused him to stop paying attention to where he was walking, and the colt tripped over a small edgy rock on the floor. The alicorn fell onto his front, causing his chin to get scratches here and there.

"Ow..." Saber mumbled, as he picked himself up. He rubbed his chin with his hoof and blushed from embarrassment.

The Dark Lord on the other hoof stopped and laughed. He looked at the frustrated colt on the floor. "Pay attention. You will need that with the dragons around." He pointed out.

Saber slowly nodded and then looked at the shadow. "But you said dark magic can summon beasts out of fire. Tell me about it!" Saber exclaimed, with an excited spark in his voice.

The Dark Lord looked at Saber for a moment, silently admiring the colt. It was the first time in a while that Saber actually sounded happy, which was a good sign to the God. He knew that the happier Saber was, the more likely he was going to cooperate.

"As you wish." The Dark Lord started, sounding quite smug. "Yes it is possible to summon a beast made entirely out of fire using dark magic, but it takes an extremely skilled pony to do it. The beast can be almost anything you desire it to be. A serpent, a tiger, a scorpion, and even a dragon." He informed, paying close attention to Saber's reaction.

The colts mouth fell open in awe as he listened to the shadow. Images of huge ferocious beasts made of pure flames occupied the foals mind, as he imagined them fighting and burning down forests.