[center][img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/49/3d/69/493d69c811351f0625f1080f49191fec.jpg[/img] [color=f7941d]Location: Fort Wyvern, Protector's Peak, Khomeria[/color] Odvin, 7th of Gerna | 1200 AU[/center] --- The wind was howling and blowing with force, making the already frozen mountains even colder, even for the people who had lived here for long periods of their life. Armonia sighed as she looked through the window, four people were patrolling the walls of the fort. A recruit might ask what for since the only way to get here is via flying and they would be right, but wild wyverns would sometimes attempt to attack the fort, even more rare to come to these places were the occasional flock of flying vilespawn, though a short burst of flames would quickly chase them away. She took her cup of wine and started drinking, but her lips twisted slightly as she felt the cold wine on her lips. She had left it on the table only for a minute and it was already almost frozen. She wondered why they have to stay up here of all places. As a knightly order, the lowlands would be warmer and resupplying would be so much easier for them, sure it would be harder to defend, but they had wyverns to protect themselves with. Then the roars of a few wyverns were heard, they weren't a hostile ones, which meant that several of her men had finally come with the needed supplies to feed the people of the fort and their wyverns, though the latter could easily hunt the animals here or in the lowlands. Six wyverns had landed inside the courtyard, each carrying two crates filled with all different sorts of meat. That much food would probably last them and the wyverns about two weeks or so, then they would have to go resupply again and again. Armonia frowned, this wasn't a good life, eating, sleeping and fighting off the occasional wild wyvern or vilespawn off, it wasn't a life at all really. It was just surviving. She lazily rose from her seat and started walking towards the door before a shiver passed through her, bus she just dismissed it as the cold weather and simply exited towards the main room of the keep. It was a drab and mostly colorless room with only one painting resting above the fireplace, it was showing Vallius Shattershield on his wyvern. Next to him were many other wyvern knights atop their mounts charging at a large black mass formed of thousands of vilespawn, a bittersweet legend, but that was it, a legend and nothing more. The room consisted of several tables, chairs, a fireplace and several carpets that had lost their color a long time ago. A few men were in front of the fireplace attempting to warm themselves up at the small fire. These young men were still trainees, yet to accustom themselves to the cold biting wind, yet to have tamed their wyvern and partner. The more veteran members like her didn't bother to try an warm up, their bodies had already adjusted to resist the incredible cold. They all just nodded at her as a form of salute as she passed by. They had all learned that words and breaths should be conserved only when needed, not to waste them with useless salutes or empty compliments, that would only make the body lose precious warmth. She opened the door and could instantly see that the new people started to shiver, something to which she couldn't help but smile as she exited outside, she was like that ten years ago. About a dozen people had already started to carry the meat to the storage, after all, it was necessary for them in order to survive. But she wasn't going there in order to help them, no, she was going to the stables. These stables however didn't house horses, it housed wyverns of various colors and personalities, some shy, some daring, some were aggressive while some were defensive, one could be white, the other could be purple. As she opened the door to the stables, about twenty scaled heads perked up above the metal stalls to see who it was before lowering their heads and resting. She walked towards the last stall on the right, the stall to her wyvern, Agrios, and removed the locked and in turn opened the door and was greeted by Agrios. [center][img]http://pre07.deviantart.net/a414/th/pre/i/2013/233/2/3/ravine__that_is_not_a_wyvern__by_nebezial-d6j645g.jpg[/img][/center] The wyvern came out of the stall and lightly nudged her with his head and let a soft growl come from it's mouth. Armonia pet the wyvern on it's head, who closed it's eyes and seemed to be smiling, though a wyvern and a human were different, so it was hard to tell when it was smiling. But after a few moments Armonia said. "Follow me boy, we're going for a flight." She said in a calm tone, smiling at it and the beast seemed to be smiling in return. After the exchange, she walked towards the door and Agrios obediently followed her, it's eyes on her, even as they exited outside towards the cold. Their walk was, however, cut short as a large piercing screech was heard. Agrios and the other six wyverns in the courtyard raised their heads towards the sky and started to aggressively screech at the sky. Armonia looked up and saw a large black wyvern, most likely one of the few alpha's living in the mountains. The alpha released a short burst of flames towards them, though their scales easily protected them from the flames of other wyverns and they continued to screech at the alpha unaffected. Seeing that the flames had not worked, the alpha started to descend into the courtyard and landed right in the center of it. As soon as she stared into it's eyes, Marion knew something was wrong, it's eyes were pitch black, no pupils could be seen, yet it was clear that the creature could easily see them. The wyverns clearly noticed this as well and their alertness grew on the spot and went on the defensive. Then she realized what happened, the creature had bitten a vilespawn and it's blood and entered it's neck and while it wasn't enough to corrupt it, it enough to drive the creature to madness with the pain it caused. With a heavy heart, Armonia ordered. "Kill it, it will just suffer if we leave it like this!" Her wyvern looked at her briefly before walking towards the invading wyvern, who only stared at Agrios as it approached. As soon as he was in it's range, the hostile wyvern wanted to launch itself at Agrios, only to find itself pinned down by one of the other wyverns present there. With a quick bite to the neck, Armonia's wyvern had out the invader out of it's misery as it's red blood started to flow from it's neck onto the white snow. It was a real pity, but this was a first time something like this had happened, it had been theorized so many times, but it ever happened, yet before them stood their proof, the proof that even the mighty wyvern was weak to the corrupted blood. She knew that it was most likely because Azureal's Eye started to cover the sky had caused the vilespawn to be more aggressive, it wasn't anything new that a vilespawn would fight. But if they were getting more aggressive, what would it mean for them, how long before they would be attacked like it was shown in Vallius's painting, how long would it take for them to be overwhelmed? "Big guy, it seems like we'll go in Meraton..."