Fractured Dreams

Chase was standing at a familiar crossroad, this time the sky was shrouded in a crimson haze, and where his two childhood friends once stood... They stood no more.

Burning fields were all that surrounded the heir of the Phoenix, and distant screams echoed throughout the hazy air.

Chase took a step forward, then another, and then continued on as he walked through the ruins of Willowmere with a strange sense of resolve.

"Who greets me in the comfort of my own dreams this time?"

"Your intuition is sharp..."

A deep and elder voice said from what could have been a thousand different directions.

"So it is you who has created this dream?"

Chase asked, ignoring the gnawing dread threatening to eat him alive.

"Not necessarily, I simply entered your mind through the consciousness's gateway as it slept. Although I wouldn't say that you made this dream either..."

Chase shook his shoulders, and casually cracked the base of his neck.

"Then why are you here? And more importantly, who are you?"

His words hung in the air for a short moment.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you!"

His laughter boomed with an energetic power three times that of Leander or King Rider...

"Try me..."

The air grew thicker, and the air pressure changed to that of a very high up location, as Chase found it harder to breathe.

"Where is this?"

He asked the void, as the sky grew cold from a powerful storm.

'No... This is underground...'

"You would be correct, but would you be able to guess just how far underground we are at the moment?"

Chase finally let the scene play out before him, studying the world around him as it came to light.

Crimson valleys ran through with bone and blood, and lakes of fire and lava alike, as well as terribly deformed creatures of red floating through the mirage-like atmosphere.

"It can't be..."

"It is."

"Why am I here?"

The voice boomed with laughter once more.

"Why would the heir of the underworld not be in his rightful kingdom?"

"I am no heir!"

Chase yelled back at the voice, finally growing tired of the word.

'I almost prefer Stray...'

"As did your mother... You carry her looks, as you do her blood..."

"She is alive isn't she?"

Chase felt a strange obligation to ask that question, as it would only make sense. For some unknown reason he found a strange comfort in the unfamiliar voice that had taken control of his dream.

The voice made a melodic humming noise, as the crimson mist of the underworld cleared out, revealing a towering kingdom of ebony bricks.

"The palace..."

"You know what it is you have to search for correct?"

Chase looked around, gazing at the vast unknown world around him, feeling the dread of realization kick in.

"The door..."

"Aye..."

"I would aid you on this journey, and hope to eventually join your side when I can freely enter the world of the living, but as of now I only know of the exits, but have never once seen a true and natural entrance to this wretched place."

Chase knelt down, putting his hand in the sand-like crimson material that covered most of the ground of the underworld.

It was crumbled in his hand, but left countless tiny cuts on his pale skin.

"So after the war of Frostfang, I must search for the entrance to the underworld?"

"No."

"Huh?"

The voice finally became a tangible creature, but something completely unexpected as its giant figure came into Chase's vision.

Chase stumbled backward, falling on his bottom. 

Crawling backwards, he realized just how in over his head he truly was.

Crimson scales, crimson eyes, and an ivory mane of silk-like hair.

The beast bellowed a powerful roar that shook the colossal walls of the underworld.

"You!"

"Me?"

"You're a dragon!?"

Chase couldn't believe he was looking at the creature that had given his mother the chalice of the underworld, and he was sure of it, because why else would there be a dragon that had hell-related powers visiting his dreams.

"I suppose, but isn't that a bit... Hm... What is the word you humans call it... Racist?"

"No no no! I didn't mean it like that!"

Chase frantically continued to crawl away from the giant creature, until a piece of the sand-like dirt broke off behind him, and his right hand had nothing to grab onto.

Then with a silent curse, he plummeted toward the bottom of the abyss where a green river of unnaturally colored lava flowed viciously.

As he fell, he felt the powerful heat of the underworld's air blow past him at unbelievable speed.

'It's a dream, surely I can't die!'

He tried to reassure himself, as the familiar feeling of falling to his death consumed his body in terror.

Then just as he was about to plummet into the river of green lava, he felt powerful claws warp around his waste.

Opening his eyes, he watched in amazement as he soared over the entirety of the underworld.

The beast threw him into the air, causing a panicked yelp from the boy, as he landed on the back of the dragon.

Regaining what balance he had left, he gripped the white mane of fur lining the dragon's mane.

"What is your name?"

Chase yelled from atop the beast.

"I am Zephyr of The House of Nether!"

The voice boomed with laughter.

"And I have finally found you... Chase of House Tartarus..."

As they flew, the air grew thinner and sound traveled easier.

"What did you mean when you said no?"

The beast snorted a powerful exhale of flames, as he rolled in-between two large crimson mountains.

"Hm, you must not search out the underworld, as you will only find misfortune in doing so..."

"Then how do I find it?"

"You won't, when the time is right, this world will call for you."

"You mean I'm gonna die?!"

"Of course! We all die eventually..."

Zephyr laughed uncontrollably at the very serious question.

"You face a terrible battle in the near future... And you are the only one who can put a swift end to this war, as others lie beyond its wake..."

"I do not want to fight..."

Chase said, finally feeling free within the safety of his own dream.

"None of us truly do... At least those of us with pure hearts and honest intentions..."

"Then why do I have too?"

"I suppose you could hide in the dwarven mountains until the time of Orion returns in the vast future..."

"But... I also do not want to run and hide."

The dragon raised one of it's ivory eyebrows.

"You know, you lie in very rare company, carrying the banner of two great houses that have nearly ended in extinction..."

"What does that mean?"

The dream started to flicker in and out of existence. 

"You- car- th- Sacred- S-"

And Chase woke up with a start, feeling only the dim candle warmth at his bedside table...