Dragon Aster Trilogy

36: ASSEMBLY REQUIRED



Cirrus picked up Kenshe by the loose skin on the back of his neck and carried him the rest of the way. The phelan had next to frozen over and faster than the others despite being almost equal in their size. But they had made it, even as there wasn’t much left to look at. The town of Helios was buried in snow, halfway the height of the houses or more, utterly quiet and it looked deserted. It had the smell of a trap all over it.

“You sense where it is?” Tank asked as he looked ready to freeze solid at any moment.

Cirrus looked around at the Threads, before finding the Rift and walking over to it. Someone had opened it recently and went through, leaving no scent behind. He shook Kenshe a bit, trying to get him to come around. But he was too cold to move. He set him down and set his hand over him to offer what warmth he had. Then looked around with an added concern. “The snowstorm stopped.”

“You think Damek’s here?” Gwa asked.

“I saw him on Earth with Sybl earlier,” Cirrus answered.

The phelan with them immediately made a defensive circle around the town just in case.

“You should just open the Rift and go through after her,” Kenshe said.

“If I get killed on the other side, then everyone else will be trapped there. We have to get this Gate up and working.”

Kenshe sensed something and headed further into town, before finding an open window and shrinking to look inside. Almost as quickly as he had gone inside, he came right back out as if he had seen something he couldn’t stomach. “They’re all dead.”

“What?” Cirrus asked. The phelan weren’t stupid, they would have went somewhere warmer, or underground. He looked through Kenshe’s messed up thoughts, before seeing the family that he had. Flash-frozen. His black fur stood on end as that was Nafury’s power—and subsequently, now Damek’s.

“Uh, we have a problem,” Feryl said, emerging from the snow hole they had dug to the Rift. “The Gate is in pieces.”

“Can you put it back together?” Cirrus asked.

“Sure, if I have a few months.”

“Make it minutes,” Cirrus snapped back at Feryl. “I’ll take a look around from above.” He took to the air then. From higher up he could see what stood out on the white snow like a black ring of static all around them. None of the Eminor responded or gave any indication that they heard his or Moon’s psi. “By Aragmoth…”

“Cirrus! What do you see?” Kenshe called to him.

Cirrus couldn’t put a count to the True, as there were several hundred in the least. He landed with panic threatening to overtake him. If Damek got the festra from Sybl now, they would all die. Get that Gate open! Cirrus shouted by psi to them, as there was no saying when they would be torn to nothing.

They haphazardly finished assembling the Gate, and Gwa switched it on where it then filled with water. Gwa looked at the time on the panel, before matching it up with is own. “Oh this is bad. We got one hour before Earth’s sunrise—time to fly like devils.” He went through the Gate first.

Kenshe unsomned and unsheathed his sword, before stepping through the Gate to meet the opponents on the other side.

Cirrus looked at Tank and Feryl.

“Don’t worry about us. Just end this,” Feryl said. “Worst case scenario we can buy you some more time.”

Cirrus unsomned and went through the Gate. He grabbed the first human to aim their gun at him and whipped him across the ground.

Kenshe cut down one from behind and then turned and looked with him as Gwa made short work of their remaining attackers with fear amplifying his adrenaline.

“Is that all?” Gwa asked.

“He wants us to kill the humans,” Cirrus said, looking up to the rooftops of the buildings in the alley. “It angers the Sentry and sends them after us.”

Kenshe and Gwa stopped, taking notice to what he saw.

“Looks like they put out all the lights, too. Well, since we’re here, we might as well give them the full Aster experience,” Gwa said and somned to start climbing the building next to him, his talons breaking through bricks as he did. Kenshe followed him up, and Cirrus walked into the street.

Cirrus remembered the same buildings from Nafury’s memory of Earth that they stood amongst. He looked up again as he heard Gwa cry out.

“We aren’t alone!” the griffin hollered down.

Gwa’s cry got the attention of several people, and it was enough to create a mass panic at the sight of the griffin. Cirrus somned by instinct as several heavy machines were tossed about in the street by an invisible force. The trap was sprung, and the Sentry were coming for them.