XI. Death is not always The End

On the second day of the trip, Ssaull took a detour to end up in what looked like an old forest full of dragon skeletons, some still decomposing corpses and pieces of metal scattered everywhere. When seeing the dead the dragon recites some words that Alexandra did not understand and then ending with a kiss to a flower that she would later throw at them, it seemed to be an act of respect for the deceased; she wasn't comfortable with being in a place that stank of death.

The carriage stops and the dragon comes down to walk a few steps forward and wait for the human to do the same, she takes a deep breath regretting the terrible stench of putrefaction around her, goes down so she can be next to Ssaull. Despite covering his nose, the stench was equally intense and he could not hold his breath for long, nor would he want to endure the said smell, but the blue dragon seemed calm, he even almost delighted in the face and changes of tone in the skin of the human.

"If you have finished playing chameleon, listen that the stench will not diminish even though you change the color of your face," he grabs her hand to give her a makeshift map "inside that forest, there is a strange device that hurts to dragons. This damage is one at an acoustic level and the further into the place, the more lethal that damage becomes for us no matter what type of dragon one is"

She opens the map and sees that she had a big circle in the center of what looked like a place.

"I guess that sound doesn't affect me, you're sending me there for something" she comments, looking at the map.}

"Exactly, you may not notice a strange sound, but there it is at least on a frequency that only dragons hear and suffer in such a case, ten miles ahead from here is where that sound begins to be felt." he points the way to the human "Eh seen how several dragons have died trying to find the treasures of this place and die; those who have not died are worse, they say they go crazy because despite moving away from the site they kept listening Sound."

"What is there for it to be well protected with such an enchantment?" she wondered aloud, rolling up the map to keep it on her side.

"It is not magic and much fewer enchantments."

"Then".

The dragon takes out of its bag what appeared to be a metal thing full of colorful cobwebs.

"According to humans this is called technology, at first glance this small piece of junk does not mean anything, but when combined well with other parts and circuits, this manages to be a real problem for us creatures ignorant of technological power."

"That sounded very poetic, but in case you forgot. I don't own a weapon."

With a smile, Ssaull hands the human girl his sword, daggers, some arrows, and a small crossbow. Everything that was stolen from her again was in her hands, she takes every object that she ever believed she would never see again.

"Being a traveling merchant has its advantages, I imagine that Captain Kuketzi did not feel comfortable with taking your things with the group, it would cause many unnecessary questions about your possible kidnapping or disappearance, and naturally she and hers would sell your things to win something extra "

"Did they sell them to you?" he asks to finish putting the sword sheath on his sword.

"No, but I stole them from those who bought it thanks to your help as meat to eat" the dragon laughs hoping it is funny for her too, but Alexandra did not seem to share the same sense of humor as her. "I doubt you'll find a threat as deadly as a dragon and the animals I've seen here tend to keep their distance from that sound too, especially wolves and foxes. Don't let your guard down there just as well, just make sure to disable the device. It is a lever that must be up, so when you find it you will see it below, you just have to lift it and goodbye noise of death that easy"

The dragon applauds thinking that everything would be what he believed, but when he saw the girl's face, he saw that she had a confused face, it seemed that he had spoken to her in a different language.

Alexandra takes a deep breath again, this time she did not mind the bad smell of the environment, now that she had her weapons and things, she felt safer to do whatever. She felt like a complete warrior whose lost courage had been returned to her with those weapons. Before going to do what he had Ssaull puts an amulet for good luck, he clarified that a warrior without an amulet is a sign of the walking dead, and although the amulet did not belong to Shairum, he hoped that it would serve the girl as well, this gesture elicited a smile from her and with a short thank she runs quickly to do what she had to. Performing search missions, fights or rescues was what a dragon warrior does, what she wanted to do since she was a child, this gave her some joy even though it was not an official mission of the kingdoms, at least it felt similar and she acquired Experience the adventure to enhance your abilities and skills as a warrior of Shairum.

After a while of running, the human notices around her different strange things made of metals, woods, and other elements that she still did not know at all, she did not know if it was the construction of dragons or some other species. She reviews the map to guide her where she should go, but she could not find meaning or relationship to the images on the makeshift map with her surroundings, confusing her rather than guiding her.

"This will be a cabin or a barracks, I don't understand," she turns the map upside down to see if she had it wrong, but this was useless. "I think I should go to what looks like a lighthouse, or is it a thin leafless tree?" she takes a few steps looking more at the area and examining her surroundings to see if something fits with the map.

I spent half an hour exploring the place, walking from one side to the other looking for the said lever; Alexandra saw how there were different remains of what were living beings, only that they did not look like dragons or wild animals, at least not as she went further into the place, the corpses seemed more humanoid, but with a structure alien to dragons.

Ssaull was waiting for the human to manage to deactivate the device, he had in hand a device that warned him if the said device was still active, this was not an impatient dragon, he could wait as long as necessary to fulfill his objectives, only that being in a place full of corpses and the smell of death, it caused him a certain unease; for skeleton culture, such a place meant that the force of death could once again claim a new life.

"Who's there?" Ssaull asked being alert looking in the direction of the sound, only that no one answered "I do not plan to repeat it twice"

He takes out some sharp boomerangs to keep a certain distance while he defended himself, I wait for an answer that never came, I just kept hearing those strange sounds. He didn't think twice and threw his weapon in that direction to hurt anyone who was there. He approaches the place to see why his boomerang had not returned, moving some bush leaves he sees how a dragon zombie got up with his boomerang stuck in his neck almost sliced, when the zombie noticed the presence of Ssaul, he wanted to pounce on him. The blue dragon was faster and launched another boomerang at the head killing the creature completely; It was there that he started to have a bad feeling, the zombies were like cockroaches, where there was one, a hundred more were nearby and he possibly sent an inexperienced human towards them.

Alexandra had finally arrived at a place that fit the horrible drawing, already glad to have found the place she prepares to walk more calmly to the place stepping on a rotting hand. When that hand of hers felt the weight of her feet, it clings to the ankle of the human alerting her, she cuts the hand with her sword and moves away from her to better see who it was that grabbed her ankle. She could not believe it, many corpses of dragons were beginning to rise or approach the area, Alexandra at first thought they were skeletal dragons, they had their bones exposed, but there were organs left and wounded from quite atrocious and lethal battles, even so, she imagined that it was some kind of ambush and that it was all a trick or deception to deconcentrate her; Taking her crossbow she shoots at the hearts of some of the dragons, Alexandra notices how they did not try to defend themselves or dodge the arrows, they only received them and did not flinch from them.

"Children of a lizard!" she walks away to keep her distance, "This area is supposed to be bad for dragons," she said thinking that she fell into a Ssaull trap or that something did not seem to fit here.

"Get down!!". A yell from Ssaull broke through.

"Uh?" she turns her head a little seeing how one of the rotten dragons was about to bite her, but a boomerang rips the creature's head off.

"When I say crouch, you must crouch !!" Ssaull appears picking up his boomerang and grouping with the human. She was about to criticize the dragon for the supposed lethal sonic barrier for dragons, but she does not say anything because she manages to see that his ears and nose were coming out children of blood

"Ssaull, you are injured!" she yelled.

"Never mind Alexandra, go quickly to the device and turn it off !"

He throws several boomerangs and with her tail, he removes the crossbow from her so that he could continue attacking the dragons at a distance without requiring a direct approach. The Ssaull's vision was starting to get bad from the blood that was starting to come out of his eyes. She did not want to leave the blue dragon alone against those monsters, but she does not give him a choice because he throws the human himself towards the place where the device was located, Alexandra quickly draws the sword again to recognize the lever that she should use. When she finds him, she runs desperately to help Ssaull so that he doesn't take any more damage from that lethal sound until a zombie surprises her by attacking her.

"Get down ... get down ..." she said with difficulty throwing the dragon away from her, with a sword in hand this time she aimed at the head decapitating the creature when she saw how the body stopped moving ".... Uff. ... so was the head .... aff ... "he said taking a moment to breathe, he raised the lever watching a large green light turns red. She didn't notice anything different, but she just hoped that her partner was already better. "Ssaull!"

The girl quickly runs off to see her partner find several dead dragons eating what appeared to be a blue dragon due to its bony tail and blue scales. She was about to cry for the death of her partner, it failed, it took her a long time and now Ssaull was the food of those monstrosities.

"It took you a long time," said Ssaull exhausted and with a face that reflected great pain, she was going to scream for having been scared "Shhhh, don't scream or they will find out," he says whispering.

She hugs him instinctively grateful that he was still alive.

"I thought you had died," she said really worried about that dragon.

"Yes well, I'm good at surviving. Ugh! Let's take advantage of them being distracted with my meat doll and let's find what I need" the dragon with difficulty moves awkwardly but at least he can still walk.

They move avoiding making noise or any contact with another dead person in the area, Alexandra had many questions about this place, the corpses and the beings that looked like him, however, I kept silent because it was not the time or place to ask questions. They found a cabin which had a lot of things that seemed to be human, the blue dragon took some black bags to start storing a lot of things, he handed one to Alexandra and told her what to take, so they lasted a long time collecting until they are satisfied, Ssaull before leaving with the human watches the path to see if it was safe to move.

For the good fortune of both, the way was clear and they could run without much risk. Along the way, Alexandra found something that caught her attention, a kind of large rectangular-shaped box and it had strange words for her, the only thing she recognized from that was the drawing of a dragon of oceanic race and she believed that it was a sign to take it away, she was curious to see what it was about. Despite the difficulty and almost dying again, they both managed to return to Ssaull's mobile tent, they breathed a great sigh of relief since it could be said that they were now safe and out of danger, typical of the life of a warrior.

In the kingdom of Shairum two female dragons, a flying one and an oceanic one, fought with their weapons and better fighting techniques in a one versus one duel, Magarai had not received single damage to his scaly person, instead, his adversary was injured. , exhausted and with little hope of winning, but for her honor, as captain, she would continue to fight until losing or winning, with what little energy she had she launches another desperate attack against the Greater Dragon of the oceanic.