Chapter Thirty Seven - Nine Months Later (Part 2)

Lying on the bed in the room was a body, bloody and smashed. Noah threw up in his mouth and had to turn before throwing up along the lobbies floor. There was an atrocious smell of death in the room, even after being with Aurelius while he ate his food; the smell did not compare.

The bodies outside had been aired through the time they had been decomposing so they didn't have such a strong smell, while this one had been trapped and locked into the room. Noah's stomach had dropped. He looked around the room and avoided looking at the body as best as he could. The swords that had been on the wall were either on the floor or missing. Blood was across the wooden floor, stained in. The bed had dried blood all over it.

He couldn't avoid it, his eyes slowly looked up at the body on the bed properly to find out if it was his master.

The body was wrapped in a brown cloak, a silver armour could be seen through the cloak; Two deep wounds were in the body's lower abdomen and another long slice across the bodies chest. Blood had long dried into the armour and cloak after pooling onto the bed.

Having to move closer as the body's face was covered by a hood and balaclava, Noah's stomach was crumbling on its itself as he tried to keep himself together.

Under the hood... was a random person. They had died with their eyes half-closed, Noah could see the white of their eyes. Learning from his father's teaching of letting the dead rest, he closed the eyes and made a small prayer for the passed.

The man had clearly been barricading himself from something or someone.

There was no sign of his Master anywhere, only the wreckage of this fight. Time had passed a lot faster than what Alaric had claimed would pass, there must have at least been a few months pass to have such anarchy happen.

He continued to look around the room after closing the man's eyes, the one thing that hadn't been moved out of place was the painting of a black dragon, the only difference was that it was squint on its hanger.

Going to grab and align it over the bed again, trying to respect the dragon which he had a feeling was of Leora.

The moment his hand touched the golden frame a memory started playing; Noah recognised his Master voice, berating Leora for being 'such a misfit'. Isan's voice came out of the frame to telling Qiun off for being a spoilsport to Hallan and Leora's fun, "Let them go hunt and try play pranks! Bloody Spoilsport!"

In the frame the black dragon stopped looking at the moon and roared at the person who painted the picture, blowing what looked like her salvia at them.

All of a sudden the memory ended and the picture went back to normal. Noah stood stunned at what he had just witnessed. Knowing that Isan had given his mother and himself a picture of his father when he passed he guessed that he had done the same for Quin when Leora passed.

Not only was Noah feeling sick, but he suddenly felt for his Master. After making a bond with Aurelius he could not imagine how his Master felt after losing her. He wished he could ask him about her more and try and understand him more but first, he would need to find him.

He went back through to the living room and searched through the chest to see if there was anything useful, only a few flasks that had been emptied were anything useful for his trip back to the capital.

Grabbing it he left the room and went outside to where the four dead bodies were. Knowing that his trip to the capital would take days at best, he closed all the eye of the dead if they weren't already and searched them for anything useful.

He found a small bag attached to one of their belts, taking both he buckled up making sure it was secure and placing the few flasks he could use into it. Comparing all the swords and taking two of them and attaching one to his belt and tying the other on to his back, recalling that Alaris had warned him a normal sword would only be able to take so much of his magic aura before breaking.

The only other useful thing was a cloak that he had found in the chest along with the flasks, he put that on so no one would be able to recognise him without getting closer.

Deciding before he hiked on this journey he would teleport back to Alaric and Aurelius and tell them what had happened as well that time wasn't passing like it was meant too, he discovered that the ring was no longer absorbing his magic aura and that it was just stone cold.

Suddenly worrying as he had no way to get back to them, Noah clenched on to the ring and tried again. The ring started to suck in aura but would only take in tiny amounts before heating up and burning his hand.

"Ahhh"

Waving his hand around and trying to cool it, he jogged over to the lake and placed his hand into the cold water. Letting it soak and cool. When he took it out there was a thin mark where the ring had burned into his hand.

Taking out the flasks and washing them before filling them up and sealing them he started his journey roughly back to the capital. He had to think hard to figure out where the capital would be located.

Having to think back months beforehand and how Hallan had flown from the capital suburbs to the Dragon Keep then to Quin's home was giving him a headache as he trekked through the forest that he had come close to know like the back of his hand.

As he journeyed through the forest he started noticing things out of place; there was barely any birds out on the top of the trees nor were there many rabbits out munching on grass. There were barely any sounds in the forest at all; even the wind seemed to have disappeared.

It was an eery feeling that crept into his heart, knowing that something was wrong. All he could do was keep his ears open and have a hand on the handle of the sword he had attached to his waist.

After hiking through the forest for close to an hour he started to be able to see a plains field through the trees which gave him hope. Slowly changing his pace from a walk to a jog he was quickly at the edge of the forest.

His mouth dropped as he looked into the horizon, there was a large funnel of smoke coming in from the west direction where he had guessed the capital had been. Looking around the opposite side to check his guess he saw that the Dragon Keep was in the North East.

Worrying that something was going on in the capital he started to jog in the direction of the firey grey smoke. Confused at what was going on in the time he had been away.