Event Private Stumbling Upon The News

Andrasta and Orsick's hike took them to the foot of Mount Raenac-Aezjtdaenr. The sheer scale of it was overwhelming, to think that this entire thing had been alive and able to fight. But it was hard to imagine a 'fight' with something that big. It was so huge, anything human-sized was like a flea. Like a bug to be swatted, and not even fast enough to dodge.

Andrasta turned to Orsick. "Did I ever tell you my plan for putting him down? Like, if I had to." She probably didn't - so she continued. "I was going to just... shoot my way up to the back of his head, and... you know."

She sighed. She still didn't know what she thought about Aez. On the one hand, he was misunderstood and his people were being systematically exterminated by the prince. On the other hand, he'd killed a lot of people - many of whom weren't even trying to fight him, from the sound of it. And then he was also Raenac's boyfriend. It almost felt wrong, having thought so much about killing him. It almost felt stupid, considering how huge he was.

She led Orsick past the threshold of the mountain's divine aura.

Andrasta smiled. "Yeah. I just got in a fight with the guy who could punch Aez so hard he'd stagger back. And who I didn't have a plan for fighting. I was fine though, I just had to sleep it off."

Not that she wanted to repeat anything like that any time soon. That hurt. And passing out like that was terrifying, though she would never admit that to Orsick.

They worked their way over to the 'front' of the mountain. Andrasta had heard there was something like a cave inside where you could see the dragon's head. It seemed like the best place for her to go pay her respects. For now, they walked along the edge of where one of Aezjtdaenr's massive stone wings dug into the ground. If Andrasta hadn't seen it herself, she would never believe something this massive could actually fly.

"It is kinda creepy here though," she agreed. "We're walking on a giant dead body, basically. Unless he can still talk to us. He could do telepathy stuff back when he was able to move and all that, but... I kinda hope he's not still alive in there."

Orsick gave her a lot to think about, that was for sure. She didn't really know a lot about all this magic life force stuff, but that wouldn't stop her from spending quite a bit of time turning it over in her head.

"Maybe that weird field around this place is his energy," she suggested. "Or something."

Their walk continued, and they reached the mouth of the cave. It was hard to miss the enormous dragon head pointed down at the ground. There was something much smaller attached to it, but Andrasta couldn't make out what it could be in this light. His tongue? A tear? Snot? Some kind of weird rock that was already there when Aezjtdaenr came over? She stood at the edge of the cave for a moment, taking it in.

"If anything ever turns me to stone forever," Andrasta said, "I hope I remember to strike a cool pose before it sets in."

Then, slowly, she walked deeper inwards.

Andrasta giggled at the idea of becoming a T-pose statue forever. "That'd suck though. Imagine attaching your legacy to this dumb joke people are gonna forget about in like half a century."

Andrasta took a moment to take in the sight of that enormous dragon-head. Aez looked so serene, so at peace in his last moments. She felt proud, for a moment - maybe he found peace because Raenac was going to be alright. Because Ycroma hadn't managed to kill her. Out of this whole stupid, fucked up mess, there was at least one decent thing that had been protected.

Then, Andrasta got closer. She got a better look at that little bit of stone at the bottom of his snout.

"No."

Andrasta started running towards it. Her stomach was turning. Her throat felt like it was on fire.

"No no no no no no n-"

Soon, she was just about a dozen meters from it or so, and she could recognize it clearly.

It was Raenac, looking just the same as when Andrasta met her. In her last moments before turning to stone forever, Raenac had embraced Aezjtdaenr as well as she could, arms outstretched against his giant snout. Her last act was an act of love for him.

Andrasta stopped and stared, wide-eyed.

Andrasta didn't answer immediately. Her mind grasped at air looking for an explanation that wouldn't be as painful. Maybe Aez made this little statue of her. Maybe she used magic to make a statue of herself. Maybe there was some weird time stuff going on?

But why would she look this real, if it was a sculpture? It was too real, too accurate to the exact outfit she had been wearing on the day. She'd only seen one other sculpture this accurate - the one Ycroma became.

It took a little while, but Andrasta finally answered: "I think this is Raenac. So, yes."

Then, she sat down. She was almost whispering: "We saved her. She shouldn't be here."

It didn't feel real.