EndaraMae

          Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.         Snap.         The leaves beneath her tall, brown riding boots crunched against the sidewalk with the occasional twig getting splintered in two with them.  She kicked at the piles that lines the sidewalk, pouting and miserable as the leaves flew into the air getting carried away by gusts of wind. Stupid kids at school, she thought furiously, gripping the straps of her backpack tighter. It had been a terrible day, and she doubted the rest of them would be any better.         Kids. Teenagers. Could be so cruel.         She felt tears well up in her eyes as the memories came flooding back. Kinome

          Syl'Onora stepped carefully around the body of his latest victim—his latest hunt, a small doe he'd killed quickly in the forest. It was far from a pleasure-kill, he intended to share the meat later, but for now she was proving to be quite educational.          He peeled the flesh back with a surgeon's care, staring at how the muscles were attached together and thinking of how that would relate to a humanoid, or another dragon.          Cracking the skull proved cumbersome, but he took his time for he was eager to see a brain intact. The mind, and climbing into it to plant headaches and pain, was what he was best at. If he

          Oval black eyes stared at the lump of metal in front of her, it was a dull gray color with brighter flecks throughout. In her mind she envisioned it as a piece of armor. Perhaps a helm, within which she would decorate light swirls or ancient texts. She couldn't decide which, and more frustrating—she didn't know how to begin.          Lifting the lump into a satchel, she slung it over a shoulder and opened her large, blue wings. There was a forge in the town over, and there she would convince the blacksmith to train her. Help her forge the metal lump into a dragon-helm. Surely they would be honored to help a dragon learn to a

          Kasidar yawned, content underneath the ground—lounging in a pile of dirt in one of his many tunnels. The earth beneath him was cool and relaxing while the summer sun aboveground was blistering and harsh. He heard Jeffrey nearby, a faint murmur of sound as he fretted over his tomato plants. Peter was of the same mind as Kasidar, relaxing in the shade and telling Jeffrey that he should do the same.         *He's right, you know,* Kasidar's chipper mind-voice called out to his bond, Jeffrey. *It's so hot out—let's take a nap.*         "If somebody doesn’t look after the garden we're not going to have one much long

          His feet rocketed down the red-dirt road lightning-quick, the soles flapping for they had started to come apart. His toned arms pumped at his side and through his light-brown hair a pleasant breeze blew. "Come on, Lilah!" he shouted at a girl his age behind him.         She had given up running and was enjoying the breeze on what was an extremely hot summer day in the red desert. Casually strolling behind him as he ran, Lilah tied her flaming red hair up in a bun and ignored his protests at her slowness.         In front of her he slowed to a walk and turned, crossing his arms while he panted heavily. "Come on, Lilah, really! Yo

         Nick reached out and jiggled the door handle. Twisting it this way and that and pushing, but it didn't budge. He turned behind him to regard a large Bishel, a dark Sunshine, hovering steadily with two sets of wings. "It's locked," he stated flatly.         *Move,* came the response in a strong, deep mental voice coursing through Nick's head with a steady, insistent pulse.         Nick flipped his hands up in instant defeat and took one long step away from the door to watch as a four-winged behemoth of a Bishel took one look at the door and then blew out a blast of golden fire onto the knob. He followed up with searing water, then

        “Something must be wrong,” she muttered for the umpteenth time and continued to pace the cave entrance. Pausing a moment, cerulean eyes gazed out at the forest engulfed in rain. Her breath frosting on the air. “It’s been weeks. He said he’d write every day.”        *He’s probably just busy, Lia. Stop worrying so much.* A telepathic voice--ever-playful, but concerned, drifted into her mind effortlessly. Their minds were seamless, so well connected-- so well bonded, the pair was. The voice came from a long, blue serpentine creature, a marine Bishel, lingering in a deep pool of water towards th

          She sat at a small table and stared out the window as the rain poured down to the earth below. Head cradled in a hand, the other gripped a helmet with a light attached. She wore shorts and a shirt with a vest attached. For perhaps the tenth or so time since she'd sat down a sigh escaped. He's gone again. The girl thought. He promised, though! And another sigh.         "He always lies," she said, and let her head fall to crossed arms on the table before her. "It isn't fair!"         A maid of the household knocked on the door. "I've brought you tea, dear. Cheer up, your father will be back before you know it."         "He promi

          It was hours until the sunrise and the bed sheets were soaked in sweat, candles the only light as midwives bustled around the room, worry written in the creased lines of their faces. The woman on their bed was their chief matriarch, and this was her first child. Their beloved queen was having a hard time and there was little they could do to ease her pain.          She tossed her head, burying it into her pillows. The head midwife scoffed at her, the only one brave enough to do so. "Come on, let's get this young royal babe into the world," she lightly smacked the queen's leg. "You're strong, come on."          Hours ticked by, t

          B'Elanna tightened the bolt with the wrench just a little more, twisting it as carefully as she could while her arm rotated as far as possible around the awkward console she was working on. Face pressed up against the casing that held various computer circuitry, she groaned and whispered, "Come on, come on," hissing the bolt into compliance, "just a little more."          Something was nagging her, though. In the back of her mind. Worry. Fretful worry kept tugging at her, and it was causing her grip to loosen and slip, and her concentration to waver.          In an instant the wrench slipped from the bolt, and her grip slipped f

          Sunlight drifted lazily through the biodome of colony seven. Within it, a small town, a docking port and space hub, and endless fields of flowers—sunflowers, mostly. In the middle of the fields of tall sunflowers, flying just above them, was a yellow figure all aglow.         After a few moments of twirling above the sunflowers she stopped to hover, and looked up—through the space-shields of the colony and to the stars that stretched endlessly above. *Rio!* she called, through miles of space. Her voice was filled with happiness, and through it her bond—in a little flighter those miles away on the outside of the c

          They stepped into this world from a portal that let out from a cement-brick building. One stepped, and one flew, a silver-crafted gorget with a bright blue jewel around the flier's neck. His mission had brought him here, and beside him stood his bond, a man of average height and white-skin. He had bright blue eyes, matching the jewel in the gorget, and white hair.         They emerged from the last world and into this one, stepping into the rain—into a giant city, a mesh of tall buildings and busy streets. The noise was the first thing to affect them, and the man's hands flew to his ears as blaring car horns and shouting peo

          A crisp spring breeze blew from the nearby rooftops the few scant remaining snowflakes lingering there from last night's fly-by winter storm. The earth was momentarily shielded from the sun by a few scattered clouds, but within moments they slipped by and sunlight streamed down onto the quiet neighborhood below.          In the distance, a mechanical whirring sound trilled throughout the streets. A whirr and a whoosh together, and then, back behind the alleys where the garbage bins were stored came the sound of a old, tired door creaking open.          From that blue door emerged a rather peculiar man with his hair all messed up

Note: Spoilers if you haven't already played and beaten the game.     All I want is nothing more     To hear you knocking at my door     Cause if I could see your face once more,     I could die a happy man, I'm sure.     When you said your last goodbye     I died a little bit inside.     I lay in tears in bed all night     Alone without you by my side.               -- "All I Want" Kodaline        They stood together before the great doors leading into the royal palace. Alistair on the steps, waiting to go back inside, but unable to will himself to. The celebrations had finally ebbed. The city was slowly rebuilding. Their journey