“You brought no ssspouse, jussst a girlfriend. You indeed befriended Verhen, but you dare bring him into our houssse after he betrayed usss? Have you at leassst brought any piece of knowledge that can help us sssolve the current crisssisss?” Forrn asked.
“Verhen, I mean, Lith is no traitor. As you said, he’s a hero to Jiera.” Bodya replied. “I admit that I haven’t found any solution to our predicament, only new methods of government that humans can use in the future, but I always kept Grandpa updated.
“He and I worked as a bridge between the Awakened Councils, bringing here reinforcements that are currently helping us to deal with-”
“No, I sssaid that he wasss a hero.” Forrn spat acid on the floor, making the protective arrays sizzle. “That until he went from helping usss to helping himssself. Instead of sssharing his creation with usss, Verhen bartered them in exchange for hisss freedom, and now he’sss going to take our own!”
“Alssso, usss who? You haven’t taken part in a sssingle fight sssince your departure. And what reinforcementsss are you talking about? Elvesss that are going to sssteal our land? Monstersss? Like we didn’t have enough already.”
“I almossst forgot. You brought back the fu-arming undead! Getting rid of them wasss the only good thing the plague achieved and you ruined it.” In his anger, the patriarch missed how his words auto-corrected to family-friendly.
“You didn’t bring help, you dimwit, you’ve brought an invasssion army with you. Even if we win, victory will belong to the conquerorsss who are going to keep everything for themssselvesss.
“You have failed usss, Bodya. Plain and sssimple.” The patriarch lowered his voice and head, followed by everyone else.
Bodya felt like the members of his tribe were mourning his passing. Their body language was clear to him and he read sadness and disappointment, not hate.
“I don’t share your vision, patriarch.” He replied. “Did you really expect I could achieve so much by myself? How exactly? Becoming a Guardian takes more than two years.
“I did my best to push Garlen’s Council to help, but they have their own problems. *Our* undead invaded their land.” The young Nidhogg stressed that word. “Thrud Griffon killed dozens of their elders and she lived here, on Jiera, under our nose for centuries.
“We pretended to not know about her existence in order to use her as a weapon against Garlen and soften our enemies before we struck the first blow. We hoped she would be a speartip for our invasion forces and instead she crippled our saviours.
“I say that Jiera owes a debt to Garlen which is why I didn’t oppose any of their Council’s plans. On top of that, the thought that they might risk their lives for us without getting anything in return is preposterous.
“We always knew there would be a price to pay.”
“You may be right, but your price isss too sssteep.” Forrn nodded, resenting those words yet he had no argument to refute them. “I’m sssorry, but I can’t forgive you. You are banished from the clan until you decide what ssside you are on.”
“Banished?” Bodya looked at his grandfather but Vothal refused to meet his eyes. “What do you want me to do?”
“I already told you.” Forrn replied. “You need to pick a ssside and fight for it. You can work for Garlen or Jiera but not for both.”
“I am working for both!”
“No, playing both sides only serves yourssself.” The patriarch poked Bodya’s chest with a clawed finger. “I’m not asssking you much. If you want your place in the family back, all you have to do isss to cut contact with the invadersss and fight by our ssside.
“Being young and ssstupid is no crime. Persssevering, however, would be an unacceptable act of betrayal.”
“What about Tista?” Bodya’s voice trembled.
“Either you kick her out or ssshe disssownsss her family and joinsss oursss in marriage.” Forrn shrugged. “I don’t like Dragonsss but the potential of her bloodline is undeniable.
“With more Divine Beastsss in our ranksss, retaking Jiera wouldn’t be a dream anymore. Or at least, we might be able to protect what land we have left.”
“Is that what I am to you?” Tista’s embarrassment was gone and was now replaced by fire and fury. “A means to an end? Do you really think I would abandon my family for a bunch of jackasses I don’t know?”
“What you think and what you are going to do are of no concern to me, child.” The patriarch dismissed her with a wave of his hand. “I was sssimply presssenting to our wayward ssson hisss optionsss.
“Whether you decide to follow Bodya or not is of sssecondary importance. Only hisss choice matters.”
Tista turned toward her boyfriend, expecting to see Bodya as outraged as she was. Instead, he was deathly pale, clenching his hands and licking his lips while racking his brain for an answer.
“How long do I have to give you my reply?” He finally spoke, disappointing both sides.
“Until Jiera is colonized or our ssspecies goesss extinct.” Forrn hissed. “Until that moment, you can do however you want and ssstay wherever you want but here. Asss I’ve already sssaid, you are banissshed.”
“But-” A spark of Forrn’s mana and a Warping array cut Bodya short, moving him and the others in the middle of nowhere.
Before anyone could do or say anything, a disgusting smell hit their noses. The plains they had been Warped to were completely barren, with the soil of a reddish brown from the amount of blood spilled.
Bodya recognized the effects of the acid breath of the Nidhoggs as the cause for the complete lack of vegetation. Hundreds of liters had been spilled there, leaving only the white of a few sets of bones emerging from the ground.
“This is wrong.” He turned left and right as he slowly recognized the place from the few landmarks left after the conflict.
The molten chunk of a once-giant rock still bearing childish carvings, the dried bed of a river, and four hills close to each other that resembled the knuckles of a buried giant.
“This is where I grew up. There should be a forest here. A river full of fish.” He turned toward Tista with a feverish light in his eyes. “Narso and I spent more time here than at ho-”
Bodya froze as that name along with the pattern of the bones broke something inside of him. He shapeshifted into his real form digging through the ground with the desperation of a man sentenced to death.
He knew the answer yet he refused to believe it until reality slapped him in the face. There was only one set of bones. The skeleton they belonged to was simply very long and partially buried, giving the impression they belonged to more than one corpse.
Instead, it was just a single Nidhogg.
Its snout still bore countless teeth and claw marks. There wasn’t a shred of meat on the bones nor did a single scale survive the ravenous hunger of the monster tide. The corpse could have belonged to anyone if not for its unique pattern of horns.
